Release me

Lately Tom Jones has been coming to mind.  Maybe not in the way that you may be thinking.  I've never been a big fan.   However, I'm finding that the lyrics to 'Release Me... Oh please release me, let me go/For I don't love you anymore/To waste our lives would be a sin/Release me and let me love again' have been of great help to me in my quest to declutter.  In fact I may well have read this strategy in one of the many self-help books that are now cluttering my bookcase!

This is what I have been humming / singing to myself as I have to make a difficult decision on letting something go.  I have read all the decluttering books.  Have been schooled by the best.  However, the actual difficulty with me has been to actually let that item go.  To physically pick it up and put it somewhere to be re-homed. 

To be honest, I have found this musical therapy quite helpful.  A couple of times lately I've just had to close my eyes and purposefully hum and place item into bag or car.  I'm thinking in particular of last week when I took a golf buggy and clubs to the Salvos.  They have been in the garage for years and used to belong to my Dad.  I always thought I would take up golf, but I haven't and they have just been sitting there.  Memories of my Dad were strong. 

However - the golf clubs have moved on now and I didn't take a photo.  I do hope that someone who may not have been able to learn or play golf before will now be able to enjoy them.

Can I just add at this point - if you haven't guessed already - I'm an absolutely basket-case sentimental sook.  This is why I find it so hard to let go of things.  The practical things are easy, the sentimental ones are difficult.  Maybe more so because I have ended up with everything from my parents. So it's a never ending cycle and I have to be strong. 

I did manage to release that pile of face washers and tea towels back at the same time as the golf clubs!  success x 2.


cheers Wendy

Cheers Wendy

Chooks and Decluttering

Seeing it's the weekend and Duke is going back to work on Monday after a fairly long Christmas/New Year break, we (and I use the term 'we' lightly) have been getting a few things done around the yard.

We have had a lot of rain over the last 6 weeks or so, as has most of SE Queensland.  The grass has grown and lot on our small acreage and the mower has broken down.  Not a good combination.

However on the plus side of things, Duke has done a great job of decluttering the veggie garden in preparation for planting up for our winter vegies.

February is our hottest most humid most horrible month here (in my opinion anyway) and to me, the worst time to be gardening.  However, it's the best time to put in things like cabbage, lettuce, corn and generally things that can handle the hot weather and settle down to produce into the winter months.

So he got the old rotary hoe going and ploughed up our old veggie patch which was full of leftovers from the last season - old tomato plants, bean vines etc. and then covered it with several loads of mulch which had been sitting cooking away nicely for a few months.

Then the chook factory went into work!  Don't they love it - had a great time digging everything up and doing the work for us.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a before photo, but this is how the veggie patch looked back in May.  We mainly plant up the basics, things that through trial and error we find do well and grow easily.  Usually we manage a good crop of broccoli, tomatoes, pumpkin, beans, peas, lettuce, corn and sometimes cabbage.   

The chooks provide us with plenty of eggs, and although far from self sufficient, we certainly have enough to supplement the shopping.  We have always gardened organically and although some things have taken a while to get established, we are finally starting to 'get there'.

Here's a nice bunch of bananas just cut down today.  The joys of living in sub-tropical Qld!  I just wish we could skip the humidity.

Back into the housework tomorrow and into decluttering mode.  I am very pleased that I have been able to find a home for some furniture which we no longer use.  The items will go directly to a family whose home was totally submerged in the recent flooding - and they have no insurance.  That makes me feel good :)

 

Baby steps forward

Baby steps indeed in so many ways.  First steps into my blog about freeing up a very cluttered lifestyle and first major baby steps in re-housing some of the bigger 'stuff'.  Please forgive my clumsy attempts at photos - a bit basic indeed!  .... and what a giggle that the first photo I attach is a garbage bag :)

If you are visiting my blog - Hi!  I must say I'm a bit surprised because I when I decided to start a blog, the intent was just to record the 'stuff' that I was getting rid of.  However, I'm aware that many people bloghop and its a lot of fun... and I'm certainly one of the crowd.  I have often left comments on my favourites as WendyJW - so this is me.    It may well evolve into something bigger but I'm starting with just the basics of decluttering my house.  

Today it was very hot and humid.  The sort of day which really slows my brain down.  However I stepped up the speed of  all the fans in the house and walked around with a big garbage bag randomly putting things in.  It felt great.  

Taaadaa..... the end result - a large garbage bag pretty much full of things that I am happy to re-house.  I am also very happy to donate things to my favourite charity (Salvos) at the moment following the major flooding in Brisbane. 

This has been a great incentive in ditching things that I normally hesitate over.  I am particularly proud of finally giving up on the tapestry/cross stitch frame.  How many times have I looked at it and put it back thinking that I'd get around to it sometime!?!?  Give up already -it ain't going to happen!  That was a purchase sometime around 1990 from memory.  So - enough time for something to happen if it was going to happen.


Obviously I have donated heaps of bags like this in the past.  It is just that it's the first one for the year, and the first one for the year of the declutter.

However it wasn't just the excitement of one garbage bag today - the main event today was the Salvos truck came to take away two really big items - a large entertainment unit (which we paid quite a lot of $$ for only about 6 or so years ago).  Apparently these big units are now so obsolete that 2 other charities that I rang wouldn't even take it!  Now if someone could just come up with a great way to recycle these units they would make a fortune.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to  - so hopefully someone else will.

The other item was a big fridge/freezer which we replaced about 2 years ago.  It has just been sitting in the laundry taking up space, used occasionally as a 2nd.  I really hope someone is able to make use of it.

The nice guys from the Salvos loading in the fridge and entertainment unit. 

Well that's a start anyway - I don't think I'll keep a running tally of things - think I'll just plod along happy in the knowledge that things are getting moved out.  I may be putting some items on ebay soon too.  

Cheers Wendy