Friday, January 01, 2010

Friday 1st January, decluttering and some garden jobs

Decluttering over the last few days..
Well here we are at the end of the first day of 2010, the sun is disappearing behind the hills to the west of us, Joe is watering the veggie garden and I thought I would make a start on the first blog post of the year.
Before I tell you of what we have achieved today I just want to tell you of a couple of decluttering and reorganising jobs I managed to get done with Joe's help. A challenge was set on the Down to Earth forum, click here(if you're not a member you will have to sign up to be able to read it) A couple of days ago Joe and I couldn't get motivated, Joe's not one for sitting around, so I compensate for him by sitting around for two! Anyway I had one of my bright ideas which Joe just loves to hear and follow through with, well for once he did and this is how it went. ;D
If you are a regular visitor you will know of the renovations going on here, it's been ongoing for a while now and we had intended to carry on with them over the Christmas break. Instead we've had a tidy up, the place in general is getting into a mess and sometimes I look at it all and it seems a bit beyond me, so I end up walking away from it and try to ignore it, in other words act like an ostrich, stick my head in the sand and hope it goes away on it's own. But it hasn't so we faced it head on and fought back.

Underneath the stairs on the ground floor there are 2 cupboards, a good size and very handy. And completely useless, they had no shelves so you couldn't really put much in them. Well that little problem had now been solved, Joe after some brow beating...oops I mean me asking him nicely.....finally(after 2 years of waiting, you can't rush these things apparently)I have shelves and very nice they are too, they were empty for about 5 minutes, here they are now.
Cupboard 1




Cupboard 2




And whilst we were in the mood the spare small bedroom which has been a bit of a dumping ground also got a tidy...



In the garden..
We've been tidying up out here too, the other day Joe was lacking any motivation, so I suggested we start clearing some of the driveway border, it looks such a mess as you drive in. Anyway 5 minutes later I heard the chainsaw going and a tree met it's fate. I wasn't quick enough to take a before pic, but you can see which tree it is or was in this photo, if you look to where the driveway forks it's the big conifer.

And there it was, gone!




The mulch will be used on the garden borders and the larger logs will dry off in the wood shed for the log burner in winter.

And finally to today.
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The Dovecote border






We shall bag up the stones and use them elswhere, I want to plant some Acers in this border and I prefer mulch, river stones can be a pain to keep weed free and that's with matting.

10 comments:

  1. Wow Sue you have been busy what a great start to the new year.

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  2. Isn't it interesting how a change in the number of the year suddenly makes you want to tidy up your life! I've been decluttering too - the linen cupboard got a going over (with a good pile to go to the local hospice shop) the spare room's been done, the pantry is on today's list and after that is the dreaded office (previously known as the place to put everything including the ironing board - the cat even stores rabbit carcasses in there)

    Wishing you a superb 2010 :-)

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  3. Hi Debbie it was a good start, the key now is to keep going!
    Wino I have to confess that a load of stuff has ended up in the loft, I'm not looking forward to sorting that. But then a lot wil be put in the new rooms IF they ever get finished!

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  4. Anonymous12:22 pm

    Wow!! Everything looks great!!

    Happy New Year!!

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  5. Thanks Melanie, still plenty to do, but I'm happy we've made a start. Happy New Year to you too.

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  6. Well done Sue, everything looks fantastic.

    Happy New Year to you and the family. I'm looking a renovating our kitchen but it is VERY expensive - even if Greg DIY.

    I enjoy reading your Blog.

    Rachael

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  7. Sue I have been more motivated by your thread. I have offered accommodation for family members of a neighbours mothers funeral which means the two spare bedrooms (our dumping grounds will now have to be done, by Wednesday! OM
    lol.

    What a difference with your understair storage. My DH also needs the seeds sown and then we wait for the idea to take root, and eventually (sometimes years) we get fruit!

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  8. We have a room to declutter tomorrow, we too have some visitors arriving early next week, we were going to put them in Michaels room but decided against it! Why do teenage boys pong so much?? And ours isn't even here at the mo either!

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  9. Good job, and very, very inspiring :-)

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  10. Thanks Denise, we did another room today!

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