Help!!

Subject: Re: Help!! Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:05 pm

I too think this site is as near perfection as a website can get, both visually and in content. It would be useful to see from what country/area members are from, especially if recommending books/shops etc. And I can't get enough of the lists and puttery treats! Incidentally, is 'puttering' the same as 'pottering' about? I have proudly done my supermarket shop today with my A4 sized shopping list (printed from your planner pages) for all to see! LOVE those planner pages - any more?? How about Xmas shopping/planning themed ones, with categories for stocking fillers/cracker fillings/main gifts for those of us already planning ahead....?? Or is that just an organisational step TOO far?!
Would also love more shopping links....

Subject: Re: Help!! Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:26 pm

I had this great idea for the planner sheets, but I haven´t actually tried it yet, but here it is: How about laminating some of the pages, for example the meal planner, the daily planner, the routine planners, then you could just write with a white board pen, whipe it off in the end of the day, and use it again next morning. Much more economical than printing new ones every day, and much more ecologically friendly! Yo could punch holes in the top, and hang it from a peg rail with some ribbons, and it looks nice as well!

Subject: Re: Help!! Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:18 am

Hi Malin - I thought of doing this too - brilliant idea! And any excuse to laminate stuff! I just love my laminating machine!!! I also thought it would be good to do this with some of the Xmas present planning pages, as ideas change sometimes as you go along or you see a better idea etc. Great paper saving idea.

I also LOVE your pretty display idea. I put my meal planner pages stood up in my vintage style recipe book holder, so I can refer to them each day in the kitchen, but whilst they are still in paper form, they tend to flop over, so laminating them would also mean they will stand up better and I can read them clearly!

I also laminate recipes I cut out of magazines, or that people have written out for me and file them according to meat, veg, desserts etc in binders (lovely gingham fabric covered ones or cream ones to match the kitchen!). It not only keeps them stiff enough to stand in said recipe book holder for hands free reading, but also makes them wipe clean from any cooking splashes etc.

Subject: Re: Help!! Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:36 pm

I´ve never thought of laminating recipes - great idea! But I never seem to use any of my cut out recipes, I pile them, and once in a while I sort through them. Every time I see something yummy in a magazine, I imagine myself cooking it, but it never happens. Maybe I should just save myself the trouble of sorting and throwing out, and leave them in the magazines to begin with?

I´m glad you liked my idea! Good ideas is what I do best, that and sorting and organizing, which is a good thing, since I´m such a horrible house cleaner - I hate vacuuming, and can put it off for a very, very long time. But as long as my home looks tidy otherwise, I can live with it.

Subject: Re: Help!! Mon Nov 12, 2007 2:13 pm

I know - I too tend to have more recipes than I could hope to cook! BUT, I now restrict myself to only tearing out recipes I really want to eat, and no matter how nice some seem, if I really don't invisage myself being able to knock it up easily on a week day, I bin it.

I too am one of life's natural organisers and sorters, and love actually creating change - hoovering and stuff is just so repetative and will always need doing again - boring!

I do have to do it though......

Subject: Re: Help!! Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:04 pm

I read in a book, that when you have the mind of an artist, you love to do things once (you rarely see an artist paint a picture twice!), so that´s why you have such a problem with things like housekeeping, because you have to do it over and over and over again. Thank goodness, that I´ve discovered Brocante Home and the vintage housekeeping way - it definately makes it more fun! And my house looks much better! Another huge inspiration when it comes to de-cluttering (even though I´m not a very cluttery person) is Karen Kingston´s book Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui - after reading it, I went serching for the little clutter I had left, and removed it. A very good feeling! I don´t know if it did any difference in my life, but anytime I get to de-clutter and organize, I´m happy!

Subject: Re: Help!! Mon Nov 12, 2007 6:35 pm

That's it Malin - I'm an artiste!!!!! That's what I'll tell everyone when the dust bunnies start peeking out from under the TV! It IS true that I hate doing the same thing more than once - I just love new and ever more creative challenges, and get bored quite easily. I also LOVE de-cluttering and honing things down to just what's either beautiful or useful (as William Morris himself dictated!).

Trouble is, constantly de-cluttering and finding things to chuck, and things to change around or make detracts from the real cleaning jobs that need doing....

Subject: Re: Help!! Tue Nov 13, 2007 7:15 am

I know - when it comes cleaning time, I usually start with some de-cluttering, and then I feel done, which leaves the floors as bad as they were when I got started. And having cats, that usually means lots of cat hair and litter scattered all over the floor. Thank goodness for brooms - I must sweep my bathroom and hallway at least five times every day!

Subject: Re: Help!! Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:18 am

We've got two 6 month old kittens, so my days always start with a sweep up of the utility room floor that is always covered in cat litter!

They have also discovered what fun the fallen Autumn leaves are outside, and think it generous of them to bring them indoors for me!

Pereversely, the more the floors need hoovering, the more I seem to have other things to do. I find my little hand held dust-buster is good for those quick spot hoover-up's that make things look a bit better!

Subject: Re: Help!! Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:55 am

I've just started using a hand-held vacuum and it makes life a lot easier!

I'm one of those who is cluttered by nature and by nurture (we famously once moved house when I was little and took with us fourteen years' of newspapers because my father hadn't got time to sort them through - we even had furniture built out of newspapers at one point!).

I try very hard and Brocante is a real help - thanks, Alison!!!

I envy you people who talk about loving de-cluttering - I love the result but the process is emotionally difficult even when it's not sentimental items; probably because I associate the process with past efforts to wade through painful memories - I'd be clearing the kitchen and find an old love-letter from my broken engagement years ago and stop and howl! Now I'm much more organised but still have an awful lot of half-sorted stuff, and haven't mastered the art of getting rid of the stuff that William Morris wouldn't have kept!!!

I have little 'oases' of calm Brocanteness in the clutter... but for example my sitting room has boxes and bags of books piled up on one side and my To Do list begins with "clear access to shelves" because I can see the piled-up books and I can see the shelves with space on them... but to get the books to the shelves I have to move a whole load of stuff piled up on the sofa that sits against the shelves and my arms aren't strong enough to do that, so... aargh!!!!

I'll get there - slowly but surely!

But oh I do sometimes wish the De-Cluttering Fairy would visit overnight... ;-)

laura

Subject: Re: Help!! Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:55 am

Ah, now Laura - I think my clutter-free-aholic-ness is as a result of my 'nurture' as a child, shaping my nature. My Father has a serious compulsion to surround himself with piles of all manner of things also - it is his nature, as he has tried several times to sort through and chuck but actually finds it distressing and depressing, and quickly reverts to type. In fact he sounds exactly like your Dad! He too has YEARS worth of papers, Radio Times, Which? magazines (a particular favourite bible of his - he makes lists of things to do or buy, that never come to fruition) piled all over his house, and bedroom, much to my poor Mother's distress. I think it was seeing her despair at living like it constantly that meant I have gone too far the other way in my on-going quest to be the antithesis of my parents!

The saddest thing is though, it seems everyone is feeling bad about being something they can't help. I have begun to understand my Dad's hoarding instincts more as my daughter seems to be becoming just like him - even with a mother like me! - so it is obviously just the way they are. It is unfortunate for my Mum though, who isn't like it but has to share the space! And who says it's bad? My daughter has described her piles of 'stuff' that seem to magically appear HOURS after a big tidy up by me as being "comforting" in some way. And who am I to argue with that? In the same way that I literally get a thrill at looking round at clean un-cluttered spaces - whatever floats our individual boats?!

I do feel a pang of regret though at being so willing to throw things away, especially when I read about you coming across an old love letter in your kitchen. I worry that I will leave nothing of myself and who I really was behind one day, or that my past will simply be a distant memory, remembered only in my imagination, and never stumbled across in rapt fascination by anyone else. These 'bits and bobs' could form the story of our lives, and what will my story be?? "She had incredibly clean kitchen cupboards"????

Embrace the way you are Laura! Our own quirks are what make us individual. The funniest thing is as well, though I think my parent's house would give Kim and Aggie heart failure, my daughter absolutely loves being there and would love us all to live there! Maybe perfectly clean surfaces and clutter free bookshelves don't a HOME make.

Subject: Re: Help!! Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:33 am

" I worry that I will leave nothing of myself and who I really was behind one day, or that my past will simply be a distant memory, remembered only in my imagination, and never stumbled across in rapt fascination by anyone else. These 'bits and bobs' could form the story of our lives, "

I just worry about being murdered someday - it would be so much work for any police officer to go through all my stuff to find any clues!!!

I don't feel comfortable in immaculately tidy houses, but I think there's a line... a middle ground where the room is under the control of the person who lives there but where the person's living-ness, if you see what I mean, comes across... now, how to find it?!?!

laura

Subject: Re: Help!! Wed Nov 14, 2007 12:39 pm

Ha ha! Goodness knows!

We always say, when my Mum or Dad try and tell us what might be worth something in amongst the chaos, "in case something happens to us", we wouldn't even bother TRYING to sort through - a bulldozer will do the trick!!! We say this in loving jest of course....!!

Subject: Re: Help!! Wed Nov 14, 2007 2:44 pm

Oh it has its funny side... but for example my hard drive crash in September means I've lost a PDF I need - but that's okay because I kept the CD-Rom that I was sent it on... but where??? It could be in one of three rooms, but most likely in my sitting-room/study... but there are these heaps and stacks and mounds and piles and teetering tottering towers of papers and files and folders and padded envelopes, mixed in with novels and coats and lengths of fabric and all sorts of things...!

If I'm lucky I'll find it by Christmas... if not, I'll probably have to spend over a hundred quid getting it again... which is frankly ridiculous. I really should be able to find something within a few hours, never mind days or weeks!

laura

Subject: Re: Help!! Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:49 pm

Yeah, but where would be the fun in that???!! Good luck in the hunt anyway - you never know what you might find along the way!

I have just been tackling a room at a time (one a day) for a well overdue 'scrub' (festive if you like, though a bit early to last until Xmas). I literally stripped everything out, all books off shelves, cleaned everything inside and out, washed down paintwork and windows etc, and then put everything back all neat and tidy and scrumptious. I even colour co-ordinated my husbands ties on their hanging things.... sad. I know that now it will be a breeze to keep on top of easily between now and Xmas. Just my daughter's room (?!) and all downstairs to go...

How about that - one room (or shelf, or pile) at a time?

Your home sounds like great fun though, especially for a budding Miss.Marple.... wouldn't life be dull if we were all 'perfect'?!