Final thoughts on the decluttering challenge

Well, I didn't do very well with the November decluttering challenge. I certainly didn't manage to get rid of something every day. It seemed like a lot of effort and frankly, wasn't a high enough priority for me at the moment.

On the other hand, I did get rid of some things, and the challenge motivated me to do more than I would have done, so it wasn't a complete failure. Commenting on this challenge, Water Pegasus points out the importance of organising stuff as part of decluttering, which I can really relate to. During November I did quite a lot of tidying that didn't involve actually getting rid of anything, so I didn't include it in the challenge, but the effect was definitely less clutter.

At the same time, my resistance to throwing things away was reinforced by one stage of the heating project. I haven't yet written about the insulation, but to hold up floppy insulation we wedged short lengths of whatever we could get hold of between the joists. Whatever we could get hold of included strips of cardboard that had protected the heating boards when they were delivered, plastic conduit that had covered heating pipes running down the walls, bits of polystyrene packaging from various things, and offcuts of chipboard from the new boards. All of these things would usually count as rubbish, but I'd kept them, thinking they might be useful - and they were!

Whilst my hoarding instinct has been reinforced, I think organising things helps me put a limit on how much I keep. I find that whilst I think things, might be useful, there is a limit on what quantity of each thing I feel might be useful and/or how much space is appropriate to fill. When Louisa told me about her father-not-in-law stashing building materials at relatives' houses, I thought, When it goes beyond your own house, that's definitely too much. On a smaller scale, when I tackled the plastic bottles that were threatening to take over the kitchen, I put a new shelf in a cupboard and when that was full I threw the rest away. I could look at a shelf full of bottles and think, Surely that's enough for what I'm likely to need.

So, I'm still an unrepentant hoarder, but I'm learning how to put limits on my hoarding, and organisation is key to that. When the mess have taken over the house (or even just the garage) it can be a huge job to sort it out, but it's so rewarding. We built some shelves in the garage yesterday out of old floorboards and offcuts of chipboard. Whereas we used to have stuff all over the floor, we now have this:

This makes me very happy.

November decluttering challenge

The challenge is to get rid of one thing every day, not just as a way of getting rid of thirty things, but to build a new habit of looking at things and asking, Do I really need that? Getting rid of doesn't necessarily mean that the thing has to leave the house that day, but action must be taken towards that goal. We have some things in the probably valuable to somebody category, which means either selling them or freecycling. Selling is harder, but the money would come in handy. I'm planning to advertise these at the start of the month, then if they don't sell in two weeks, freecycle them. Other things will go straight to freecycle, and I have a shiny new freecycle account ready for action! Other destinations will be box for charity shop and bin though that last one may hurt.

So here we go then. I'll be updating this post throughout the month with details of what I'm getting rid of each day.

Nov 1st. Electric Hob

Rather smart halogen hob. I prefer gas.

This had to be the first one. It was installed in the kitchen of our last house when we moved in, and I quickly had it replaced with a gas hob. That was about four years ago and we've been meaning to sell it ever since. When I fetched it out of the store room I found it wasn't as clean as it might be, so I spent much of the morning polishing it, then Ian took a photo and posted an ad on Preloved.

Nov 2nd. Back issues of New Scientist

Terrible photo of heaps of magazines, but you get the idea.

I've subscribed to this magazine on and off for some years, and have always kept old issues thinking that I'll want to re-read them. I have to face up to the fact that I just don't, and these are clogging up the house. A friend mentioned something she'd read in New Scientist, I asked if she'd like my old copies, and she said yes. Easy!

Nov 3rd. Two bottles of squash

This squash has sweeteners in.

Neither of us like the taste of artificial sweeteners, to the point where we can't really stand drinks with them in. I also have a principled objection - I like my food honest. If it tastes like it's full of calories, it should deliver! Unfortunately these additives are so ubiquitous that we occasionally buy products with them in by mistake. These then sit at the back of the cupboard for ages while we attempt to palm them off on guests. When my friend came to collect the magazines, I remembered that she drinks squash with sweeteners, so gave these to her, which is a much better use for them.

Nov 8th. Books and shoes

I needed to go into town for food shopping so took the opportunity to take some things to charity shops while I was there. That heap of books is the result of a quick book audit. Some of these I've had since childhood and really don't know why I was keeping them, others are books bought more recently, read once and not likely to be read again. Ian contributed some too, making up a total of 35 books (one item or 35, depending on how you're counting). As for the shoes, this was prompted by going to a funeral recently and choosing my dark burgundy boots over my black shoes. If I don't need black shoes for a funeral, what else do I need them for? I used to wear them to work, but as I hardly ever wear them now, they're very uncomfortable when I do. I found a couple of other pair of rarely worn shoes, making up four pairs in various conditions (one item, four or eight, depending...)

Nov 9th. Satellite dishes and extractor fan

We've been meaning to take these off their respective walls since we moved over a year ago. Both are ugly, the extractor really shouldn't be over that type of cooker and we don't even have a telly! In the interests of getting rid of stuff, we finally got round to doing both jobs, and Ian took them to the tip. (Apart from the smaller dish, minus bracket, which I'm keeping for use as a garden sieve, though it's currently being used to dry acorns).

Nov 20th. Old papers and contents of a drawer

These four box files were full of papers relating to old jobs, specifically data from experiments conducted back in the day when I was actively involved in research. There are good reasons to keep old data - many journals require that data should be kept for at least five years after associated reports have been published, in case other scientists want to examine the details. Some of my papers fell into that category, but more than five years have by now elapsed, and in any case I'm no longer in contact with my colleagues, so they wouldn't be able to get hold of the data even if someone asked for it. Other papers were more difficult. These were results of experiments I'd conducted more recently (though still at least four years ago) but never written up and published. Throwing these away means accepting that I'm never going to write up those experiments. If I'm honest, I think some of them weren't very well designed anyway.

If paper's only printed on one side, I put it in the scrap paper drawer for re-use. For this lot, I was going to need a bigger drawer (actually, quite a lot ended up in the recycling bin, too). I chose a suitable drawer in the study, which happened to be filled with an assortment of odds and ends. I am now prepared to reveal to you the entire contents of that drawer, and the destination of each item.

Contents of a drawer, laid out and numbered for your perusal (click to enlarge)

1. Travel iron, in bag. This is quite useful, at least it used to be in our old life. I've used an iron just once since moving, though my skirt did get compliments from two complete strangers on that occasion, so I think it was worth it. Anyway, I'm not getting rid of the travel iron yet. Destination: In the cupboard with the other iron.
2. Hot brush. This was useful when I had a job which required respectable hair. I don't any more - this can go. Destination: Umm, could be saleable... maybe freecycle.
3. Ribbons used in our wedding ceremony (it was a handfasting). I can't get rid of these! On the other hand, what's the point of keeping a bit of ribbon? I'll probably use it for something at some point. Destination: Sewing drawer.
4. Press studs. Destination: Sewing basket.
5. Bangles from Bengal. A friend gave me these, but they're too small. Destination: Give them to someone who might be able to wear them.
6. Garden wire. Useful stuff, that. Destination: Greenhouse.
7. (Ian said rude things when he saw this picture and refused to let me demonstrate its use) Massage roller. I'd like to keep this, but unless I can persuade Ian to join in, it's not much use. Destination: Umm, I dunno.
8. Wire with in-line fuse holder, complete with fuse. This is a classic, "But it might be useful!" Deep breath now... Destination: Bin.
9. Occarina in soft pouch. I bought this at a country fair when I was about eight. I may even have played it a bit at some point. I really should get rid of it, but... I've just found the tune book that goes with it! Destination: Umm...
10. *Too much information alert* Mooncup. I had to change which type of pills I take several years ago, and haven't had periods since then, so I don't need this at the moment, but I'm hanging onto it in case I need it in the future. Destination: A drawer somewhere.
11. Hair brush. Useful as spare and future replacement when one wears out. Destination: Bathroom cupboard.
12. Pretty red cord. Destination: Sewing drawer (though it's just occurred to me that this could be ideal for knooking).
13. Cloth for cleaning glasses. Destination: I think I stuck this in a drawer.
14. Strap for mobile phone. It has one of those little clips for attaching it to a key ring. Those can be quite handy if you happen to need one. No, really. Destination: Some drawer somewhere.
15. Handle and base of shaver (no shaving head). This isn't even mine, so I get out of making a decision on this one.
16. I can't remember what came in this case, but it currently contains a couple of fabric flowers that I wore to my sister's wedding. I have since given away the dress that they went with. Destination: Bin. I'm keeping the case, though.
17. Scrunchy. I don't wear these, but I might. Destination: Dressing table drawer.
18. Toothbrush and tiny tube of toothpaste received on a long-haul flight. I can't remember where the flight was to, or even whether it was me doing the flying. However, a spare toothbrush and paste could be handy. Destination: Bathroom cupboard.
19. Zip-lock case from same flight. One side is transparent. Useful for taking pens and things into the National Library and other such places where they like to see what you're carrying. Destination: Some drawer or other.
20. Small plastic containers that once contained gloves for use with hair dye. I have one in my handbag with glucose sweets in it, but haven't managed to find any other uses for these. Destination: Bin.
21. Plastic pieces of goodness-knows-what. Destination: Bin.
22. American Express travellers cheques that I received in payment for taking part in some online study. I never got round to finding out how to put dollars in my bank account. This is ridiculous. Destination: Handbag.
23. Cover for my last-but-one mobile phone. I don't think I used it even when I had the phone. Destination: Bin.
24. Eye mask from aforementioned flight. Umm...
25. Brushes for cleaning electric shavers and suchlike. Destination: Bin.
26. Old receipt for petrol. Destination: Bin.
27. Keys from my last-but-one house. Many were cut because the old lady who used to live there had a habit of buying them in the garden. These aren't going straight in the bin because we're planning to weigh in some scrap metal at some point soon. Destination: In a bag with old nails.
28. Small purse, one of two, that came with a belt. I used the other one for keeping change for the car park in my car, until Ian cleared it out. Now if I could find that one it might be useful... Anyway, not throwing this away. Destination: Some drawer or other.
29. Scented wipes. I say scented... they reek. Still, wipes are often handy when camping. Destination: Sponge bag.
30. Old hanky that I used to practise some embroidery. This can resume its original function. Destination: Hanky box.
31. Strip of muslin. Very useful for straining jams and suchlike. Destination: Kitchen cupboard.
32. Reel of thread. Destination: Sewing basket.
33. Nasal spray, out of date. Destination: Bin.
34. Epilator. I don't use this because it gives me a rash (and hurts). We pinched its power supply for something else - electric keyboard, I think. Anyway, who'd want a second hand epilator? Destination: Bin.
35. Battery from aforementioned mobile phone. The trouble with batteries is they're not very convenient to dispose of. Plenty of shops take them, but it's remembering to pick them up before you go out. We have rather a lot of dead batteries... this one's going to join them.

Zero waste week update

In fulfilment of my pledge for Zero Waste Week, I had planned to hem the offcuts of my new dress to make hankies and find or make a couple of pouches for keeping clean and dirty ones in my handbag. But I didn't get round to it. There was much foraging to be done (which I'll tell you about shortly), and though that's a fairly lame excuse, it's all I've got.

I did make some progress, though. Commenting on my post, Eco Cat Lady advised that old T-shirts are easier because they don't need hemming. This was very useful information! I have a big heap of old T-shirts reserved for gardening, as they're not fit for wearing in public (actually, some of them probably are these days, as my standards have slipped somewhat). I fished one out from the bottom of the pile, set to with the scissors, and made myself a heap of washable tissues.

Next, I found a plastic box that used to have fruit in it, and a little plastic pouch in which underwear were sold. These became my new tissue box and dedicated bin/laundry bag for the used hankies.

Replacement for box of tissues and bin

The theme of this year's Zero Waste Week was Reducing waste away from home. Hmm. Replacing the tissue box is very much at home. Well, I did go out a few times, and I stuffed one of my new tissues into my pocket, so that when I needed to blow my nose, that was what I used. I didn't quite do what I intended, but I succeed in reducing waste and I can say that I have used no disposable tissues since making the pledge.

Challenging times

I have mixed feelings about the challenges that people post on their blogs. I quite like occasional ones, like Mumma Troll's eat for £1 a day challenge. These are a nice way of starting conversation and links between blogs, building little communities in blogland. On the other hand, I'm not so sure about the regular ones like documenting your plastic waste every week.

I'm not quite sure why I feel uncomfortable about these regular challenges. Louisa touched on one aspect in her post on extreme frugal challenges, which was the competitive, one downmanship. There's also the regular commitment required. Of course, this can be a good thing, if it encourages the development of good habits. In the context of writing a blog, though, this is not something I want. Some people use weekly features to structure their blogs, and I often enjoy reading these, but for myself, I'd rather write about things as they occur to me; I don't want the blog to become a chore because I've set myself the task of writing about a particular thing each week.

There's also the nagging feeling that by signing up to someone else's programme of challenges, I'm letting them do my thinking for me. In general, I don't think it's a bad thing to find someone whose principles you agree with and follow their guidance on the day to day decisions in life. I'm aware that humans, as a species, do most things on auto-pilot and if we think we're making conscious, deliberate decisions about every aspect of our lives, we're kidding ourselves. On the other hand, I'm as vlunerable to the illusion of conscious control as the next person, and so I choose not to delegate my decisions to someone else.

All that said, I've been following Change the World Wednesday for a little while now. The idea of this blog is to have a little challenge each week that lots of people can sign up to, and spread the word about, with the aim of encouraging widespread behaviour change for greener living - a most laudible aim. Notwithstanding my reservations about signing up to things, I've tried the last couple of challenges.

The first challenge I tried was reducing shower times to five minutes. Ironically, since I stopped using shampoo, I tend to spend longer in the shower. Without the routine of shampoo - rinse - conditioner - rinse, I just stand under the water and my mind wanders, for 15 to 20 minutes sometimes. I've been thinking I need to do something about this, and the challenge was the nudge I needed. I found the timer function on my mobile phone, set it to five minutes and put it on a shelf in the bathroom as I stepped into the shower. When the timer pinged, I finished rinsing off the shower gel or whatever, and got out. Easy! I'll be sticking with that new habit.

The second challenge was to avoid using paper towels for a week, which confused me until I realised that this are what I call kitchen roll. I thought this one would be easy, as I hardly ever use them anyway, but then I remembered one thing that has me reaching for the big tissues without hesitation:

Cat sick, hiding on the hideous carpet. I'm so glad this wasn't a few inches further over, or I'd have stepped in it with bare feet.

I use washable cloths for cleaning up other things, but couldn't face the thought of cleaning out a cloth after using it for cat sick. I had a bit of a think - might there be an alternative to kitchen roll that I could use once and dump straight on the compost heap? How about big, soft leaves? I have comfrey...

As comfrey plants go, this one's quite small.

When the inevitable happened, I headed out into the garden and picked a few leaves. The first thing I discovered was that comfrey leaves don't hold together so well as paper towels - it's quite easy to put a finger through one. However, with two leaves together and a bit of care, that wasn't a problem. Once the bulk of the mess was gone, it was a bit more difficult to clean the remnants off the carpet, as the leaves started to disintegrate with scrubbing. If the puke in question had been wetter, I think I'd have had to give up and use... well, I could probably have coped with a cloth for that bit - it's a bit less icky by that stage.

So, could I give up kitchen roll for cleaning up cat sick? I'm not sure. The leaves are only available in summer, and this time it happened to be a nice, sunny morning and I wasn't in a hurry to do anything else. The leaves also weren't very good. I did manage to clean up the mess, but kitchen roll would have done it better. Still, the important part of that is that the leaves did work - the job was completed successfully. It's more faff and not as effective. Maybe I'll do it this way sometimes, but mostly I suspect I'll be back on the disposable paper, just for this.

How could she be guilty when she's so cute?

Ten things about me

Louisa at The Really Good Life has given me an award.

Thanks, Louisa :-)

This one involves telling you ten random things about myself and passing it on to ten some other bloggers. I won't tell you ten random things. I will tell you ten things, but they won't be random (see Thing 1).

I'll pass it on to three blogs who probably won't join in the game because they're not that sort of blog, but you, dear reader, get to share my appreciation of all the lovely pictures. The first is Page Created A Photo a Day - the clue's in the name. The second is Coffee Slut, who does include some words with her photos, but I mainly love this blog for the beautiful pictures. Finally, my blog reader gets clogged up with posts from So give me your hand and let's jump out the window, which is just full of beautiful images, and some words too.

So, ten things about me:

1. I get annoyed about misuse of the word “random.” I spent much of my working life teaching statistics and I know the definition of “random.” It does not mean, “haphazard,” “slightly odd,” or, as in this case, “carefully chosen.”
2. I have the worst sense of direction of almost anyone I know, but if you want to manoeuvre a large wardrobe up a twisted flight of stairs, I'm your woman. From this I conclude that spatial awareness is not a unitary ability, contrary to current psychological theories. I've never got round to doing the research to test this hypothesis, though.
3. I notice and care about things like the shocking transformation from “conclusion” to “hypothesis” in the last point. As I wrote that there was a little voice in my head shouting, “That's wrong! You can't say that!” I wrote it anyway, though, because I think the sentences look better like that.
4. I am a hoarder, which is probably not news to you. I can't stand throwing things away. Whenever I overcome this and force myself to accept the conventional wisdom that too much clutter is A Bad Thing, I always regret it when I need whatever-it-was just a few weeks after throwing it away.
5. Pop music is, and always has been, an alien world to me. At my current stage of life, this is not in the least bit troubling, but when I was a teenager it left me shut off from my peers. I lived in fear of the question, “What kind of music do you like?” because I had NO IDEA! I'll stop here before I start reliving the horrors of being a teenager.
6. I learnt hairdressing at the BBC. In my last job I was occasionally called on to do TV interviews. This was very exciting, but meant that I had to learn about hair and make-up, which I'd successfully avoided until then. I discovered that a blow-dry is not simply a means of drying hair, but the hairdresser spent hours using this method to get some life into my hair. In the Green Room at Shepherds Bush studios, I observed a BBC hairdresser get the same effect more quickly using a “hot brush” - a method I could manage myself. Since then, I have discovered that avoiding shampoo has much the same result.
7. I was married by twenty and divorced by thirty. I learnt that eternal love is not something you can promise someone. When Ian and I got married, we chose our wedding vows carefully, promising trust, respect and friendship for “as long as love shall last.”
8. My mother died when I was thirteen. I'll never know what my relationship with her would have been like as an adult, but knowing what her relationship was like with her mother, perhaps that's just as well. I get to remember her as a wonderful person and choose to ignore her faults and weaknesses.
9. I love folk dancing. One of the best things about living in Cambridgeshire was joining The Round, a folk dance club. As the excitement of our new life is wearing off, I'm starting to miss that. I hope I'll find a group to join in this part of the world.
10. Another good thing about living in Cambridgeshire was that I got to fulfil a childhood dream of ice-skating outdoors.

Liebster blogs

The lovely Gingerbread Lady has presented me with an award!

"Favourite blog" award

Isn't that nice? If you've come over here from there, welcome! Do have a look around :-) Oh, you already have, or you wouldn't have made it to this post. Well... thanks!

The idea is that I now pass it on to 3-5 of my favourite blogs, who have fewer than 100 followers. I'd like to send it straight back, because I really enjoy reading Gingerbread Lady's blog, but since getting the award she now has over 100 followers, so is no longer eligible.

So I'll just have to find a few more favourite blogs - oh the hardship!

First up is Susie at Useless Beauty. I did wonder whether to include Susie, as she was on Gingerbread Lady's list and also one of the other recipients chose her, so this'll be at least the third time she receives this award. On the other hand, I really do love her blog, so sod it! Useless Beauty is in! (I don't think this means you have to choose three times as many blogs to pass it on to, though, Susie ;) She writes about sewing, crochet and knitting quite a lot, but also life in general and can be very funny.

Next is Louisa at The Really Good Life. She may have more than 100 followers - she doesn't brag about it. Anyway, I like her practical gardening blog. She writes about other things too - cooking, making things, finding cheaper and less 'manufactured' ways of doing things - all sorts of things that I'm interested in, too.

Finally (and I think I'll stop at three - I'm mathematically minded enough to see how this could spiral out of control!), another good life blog I enjoy is Red's Colour it Green, which has the added bonus of a link to her main website, which is a repository of all kinds of useful information. She may also have more followers and keep quiet about it, but I'll take a chance - I like the blog.

I love reading other people's blogs - reading about people who are taking the same journey that we are; people who have travelled a lot further along that route and can offer the benefit of their experience; and people who are far more expert than me in some aspect and offer inspiration, as well as words of encouragement and comfort, as appropriate.