Donations Upon Donations

I've been donating a lot lately; and man, that makes me feel good.

This past week, I donated that little black ladder which I just seem to be tripping over in the house and the charity store was so pleased to see it was almost new! When I told them it was an IKEA piece and almost not used, they were stunned. I then told them I was too heavy for it, and they understood.

I also donated a few bags of goodies and they were so happy to see I was back.

Now, I'm into the cleaning out stage of my house again, to find more things to donate - and this is the fun part of it all, isn't it?

You know... bagging it up, sorting through it all, and figuring out if you want it or not. And the things you don't want is donated after you clean it up and make sure it works properly. 

Now, this weekend challenge isn't hard, and I haven't done one in a while, so let's get to it! This Weekend, I'd like you to go to that cabinet of things you put things you 'mean to use', or have 'kept for good', and get in and use those things at least once. 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to get you to feel bad about this. What I'm trying to do is see if you want to keep using these items from that 'kept for good' arena of your house. If you feel that you can't keep these things? Well, it's time to hand them either to your children or to the charity store. Clean them up, wrap them up nicely and take them there. 
However, if you feel as though you can't part with them, don't force yourself to give them away. It's all up to you. Use them not just for good, use those items all the time - that is what they're there for. 

Archiving and Cleaning Out

Yesterday afternoon, once I got off the computer and the internet, I jumped into the cleaning up of the home office - which turned into something totally different. Sometimes cleaning up one space does this.

I assembled the two archive boxes and sorted through some of the paperwork and the filing cabinet next to my desk. There were things inside the cabinet which needed to be archived - like 'The Flame' magazine from Epilepsy Queensland from 2006. I know that's a long time ago, but there's articles in those issues which are important to me.

Then, I tried to find some letters from a doctor which were addressed to my Mum and I from two years ago just in case my neurologist retired. However, I have yet to find them. I went through one box I had sorted out, and the letters weren't in that one. So, it may be in one I've already put into the wardrobe. 

But then, I sorted through my hand-written notebooks. These are notes from books I've written, like 'Ravenstine Kingdom', 'Angie', Fry Nelson' and other book and story ideas as well. I have archived those into another box so I have them put away for the time I need them at some point in the future. 

Now, what I did after that was reorganise that shelf of notebooks, looking through them and making sure they were in order. There are still books there which I need to use which are for current projects. Then, I looked up on the wall and realised I needed to hang a description of some art. So, I worked on that for about half an hour; which worked out well, as I needed a break from sorting. 

By this time, it was around 2pm and it was stinking hot! So, I cleaned up the office as much as I could and put things away. A lot of had been done in the way of organising the archive boxes. I didn't think I'd have so much archiving in my life by my 40's, but interestingly enough, I do. I did one last thing. I put up the 'Home' hook set Mum gave me in the wardrobe in my room and hung up my Japanese house coat and a brunch coat on it; along with some umbrellas as well. This helped clean up some of the mess in my room.

Then, last night, after I watched a bit of television, I did more cleaning up - this time in my bedroom. I made up the bed (as I had washed the sheets yesterday) and then folded and put away the quilt and the big, blue blanket (in their respective places). The bathroom towels which had been folded earlier that day were put into the bathroom, and so I organised the rest of the towels and folded the rest of them - taking them into the bathroom too.
Then, the wash basket was picked up off the floor and put on to the glory box/hope chest, and I took the paintings I've done and no longer want into the hallway. I'm going to offer them to my family first before giving them away. 

Before I knew it, it was past 10pm and I was really tired. A lot had been done yesterday; more than I had done in any given weekend in the past two months. So, how was your weekend? Did you get much done? You can see I got a lot of organising and sorting done in my weekend.

Donation Day

Well, Thursday was donation day, and I not only got rid of a bag of books and a briefcase, but I also took over a whole lot of unwanted goodies to Vinnies for a friend of mine too.

Now, I'm onto the next lot of the cleaning out and cleaning up.

Yesterday, I hung up a set of hooks I scored off Mum in my wardrobe door so I can hang up my dressing gown or house coat on it; and I don't have to go looking for one in the middle of the night. It's so much easier for me. 

Today, I'm getting into the living room. What I'm doing is packing everything into bags and sorting through them. Now, I'm putting the things into a couple of bags to make the room appear tidier than it really is - it's an illusion - and then I'll be able to feel much better about it all. And as I go through each bag, I'll be able to empty them out in an orderly fashion. I know it sounds like double-handling, but I find it much easier for me to deal with my clutter. 

While I'm in the living room, I'll be packing away any laundry I've dumped in one of the chairs - yes, this a bad habit I've formed; and it's one I must break. 

So, today, there's going to be a lot of folding the putting away of clothes and throwing out of things in the living room. I also must look into getting a new seal for the vacuum cleaner; as it's making an awful noise. It shouldn't cost much, as I've had to get one for another vacuum before. How's your place going? 

Things Going On

Over the past few weeks, I've had a lot going on in my life; but the one big thing was a new window screen going into the office window and a dead air-conditioner being removed.

Yes, it's all be done and dusted and now there's better air flow throughout the house!

It's so nice to feel a nice breeze at night and during the day too.

Tomorrow, I'm getting into this office and sorting through more of the things which need to be looked into; so I can clean up the place more and be ready to move out of this townhouse once the time comes up. 

Today, I gave away a bag of books and a briefcase of my Dad's (and yes, he knew it was going, I asked if he wanted it anymore, and he said no). So, I cleaned it out and cleaned it up and took it to the Vinnies in my area and told them the code to it. Man, they were relieved to know what that was! I said that Dad couldn't be bothered putting a code in, so he left it as the basic numbers it came with. The lady there told me that they had a suitcase with a coded lock they were stuck with for about a week figuring out the code on it; not a lot of fun when nobody knows the code on those things.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm getting in and slowly cleaning out what I no longer need. It's now becoming a slower process of giving away things; and more of a putting things in archive boxes thing. 

So, how is your clean-out going? All good I hope. Keep up updated in what you've been up to.

Busy

I haven't had much time to myself lately to clean out the house or the office. So, the archive boxes I bought are still not established and I'm still in a messy office.

You see, my air-conditioner broke down last month and I had to get my Dad to get it out and put in a new screen. This took time; and once it's been in, my brother and his girlfriend went on a holiday and my folks took care of their dog. Well, I've been caring for the dog off and on over the past few weeks, so I haven't been able to do any cleaning out because we're not allowed to have any dogs here at the complex.

This isn't what I planned for the past few weeks, but it's been happening. 

What I planned was to have my office completely tidied up and cleaned out. But I guess the best laid plans don't always go the way we want, right? 

Archiving My Things

Well, it's time to get the archive boxes going again; and that means I'm storing things away again to make space for my office.

This will take a day or two to get myself organised. And this also means a few bags of rubbish will be included in the clean-up as well.

I'm going to be cleaning out the filing cabinet and putting away all my saved magazines of 'Good Reading' and 'Witchcraft' - well, the ones I don't wish to toss out - and anything else I'm hoping to file away properly.

This will clear up one plastic box too which I'll be using for some of my art gear downstairs. 

How do you archive your things?