In Isolation

The last time I went out was really early Tuesday morning - and that was to get supplies. But I've been home and haven't talked to anyone or near anyone... and this is good.

This has given me a good chance to organise my house and my garden. 

Today, I reorganised my greenhouse in the back yard for the third time - as I'm planting cherry tomato seeds and in a few days, I'll be potting up truss tomato seeds in there as well... I can't wait to see what happens. I'm hoping it all works out.
Well, if it does, I'll have some lovely tomatoes to eat in the coming months - and I'll share them as well with my neighbours.

I then organised my laundry liquids in the hallway to my kitchen where the shelving is... and managed to put everything in a nice spot there. 

Two plastic boxes in my home office are now filled with books I'm keeping from crowding up my bookcases too much. But there's a box by my front door which has to go out to the car for donation. Unfortunately, all my donations are going out into the back seat of my car until further notice, as no charity stores are taking anything for now - and they're closed anyway. 

Tomorrow, which is Friday, I'll be going through my wardrobe and sorting through all of my clothes to see what I'm keeping and what I'm donating. This is a good time to do this. And then, I'll organise my drawers again and vacuum the house, dusting everything as I go.

Yes, it'll be a busy day tomorrow - as busy as it was yesterday and today. So, how is your place going in this time of isolation? Are you cleaning out as much as I am? Or are you catching up on reading and other activities? 

Unwell Today

I'm not well today. Yep, I've come down with laryngitis for the third time in the past year; and it's all to do with stress - I'm not happy about it, but I think I'll have to work on how I deal with my stress levels. At least it's not coming out in seizures (which I have had to live with for a good part of my life). 

Anyway, today, it's raining, and this means I'll be vacuuming the house. Rainy days make good days to vacuum because the dust levels keep lower to the floor. 

I hope to get as much done as possible before I fall asleep in the mid-afternoon - as I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. 

Well, I'm hoping to get in and do a few other things before the day is out - and that's to keep myself a little busy. I'm spraying around Glen-20 (it's a spray which disinfects the air and items around the house) and I'll work on putting a few things in the car too for Monday, just to clear the house out. 

So, what are you up to this week? 

New And Old

I've been busily decluttering and recycling my items lately - and throwing out big time too!

This week has been a mammoth week. I didn't go to art group, but I did have a meltdown on Monday... which led to me having too much to do; and biting off too much for that day.

Thank goodness for my Mum. We help each other when it comes to decluttering. I phoned her and fell apart on her, saying I had half my office in my bedroom and there was no way I could sleep in my bedroom on Monday night - so she came over and helped me with culling my books.

We filled 3 boxes and 2 bags! Oh my god!

And after we dragged those to her car, I found that the next day or two, I filled another two bags with books I wasn't going to read ever! This was going good.

Thursday rolled around, and I needed to get out of the house. I dropped by a friend's house and gave her some books from my childhood that her grandson would love; and was pleased when she said he'd love them. We had coffee together; and her cat enjoyed a pat.

Then, last night, I rolled over in bed and kicked the little white bookcase and, that was it! I had to get it into the office! This morning, I was up at 8am and before breakfast, I had moved it into the office and the brown daggy, saggy one out! This forced my Dad to get himself here to help me put up a shelf so I could work to put books away and move on to the next part of my home office reno. He even helped me ditch the main bookcase up the back of the complex - as it wouldn't fit in the recycling bin. 

I then went to my folks' place and helped Mum sort through the books we had culled - to make sure there were no Bookcrossing books in the collection; as charity and second-hand book stores don't take those books. We did well and counted up 8 bags of books to take over to Browns Plains! Wow! What a great haul!

What a day! I'm so tired. But I'll give you a Weekend Challenge for this weekend.

This time, it's not for the home office or lounge room. I want you to go out into your garden and pick out any dead plants, empty pots you haven't used and mouldy potting mix sitting around doing nothing. Before you do touch anything, put on the gardening gloves and a mask and get your bin ready. Put all the plastic empty pots into the recycling. Throw out the mouldy potting mix into your general rubbish and anything dead goes into your compost. Clean up your garden area before Winter for you guys in the Northern Hemisphere and before bushfire and storm season really hits for the Southern Hemisphere. 

Cleaning Out A Little At A Time

I haven't been here for a few weeks, I know. And I must apologise for this. I have been working on the house, looking through things bit by bit and tossing out things in the bin, and putting things in my Donation Box by the door. 

The place is looking better by the week - I've just forgotten to tell you all about it.

Yesterday, I collected two large boxes from Bunnings and today I'm cleaning out the Home Library. Now, being a big reader, normally, I'd say don't touch it, but my collection is getting that way where I really need to look at what I'm going to read, what I have just look good, and what I'm definitely not going to read at all - and I have to be brutal about this too.

I'm going to try to sell some of the books on gumtree - seeing I look after them so well - and any Bookcrossing books I have are going to be given away in a Big Book Giveaway. Yep, this is going to be fun! 

This will mean I'll be making a right mess in the library and moving things around, and moving things out of here. I'm also going to look at replacing the large brown bookcase with a new one, which can hold all the books - as it's really saggy, and has been like that for a long time (and everyone notices it!). 

Well, how has your place been going? All good, please do comment below and tell us all what you're up to in your cleaning out. 

Morning Work

I've been busy in the past few weeks working on my garden and working through grief... which seems to pop its head up at the worst times. So, today, I woke up after sleeping in and thought it was high time I got in and did some of the smaller stuff around the house.

Two loads of laundry were done and hung out on the clothes horse - as we had the prediction of rain later today, and I don't want to be running out in the yard pulling it all in half wet. And then, I washed up everything, threw out food I no longer need in the fridge, in preparation for shopping tomorrow, and then put out the rubbish into the bin outside.

After that, I wrapped up some spoons, which match a set of mugs I'm giving away and put them in to the Donation Box. I then sorted out the rubbish in front of the entertainment unit. I pulled out all the shoes which need bringing upstairs into my room, found all the books which need bringing back into the library and then put away anything which was going to be put away into the entertainment unit while I had the space free there. 

Seeing I've gotten rid of all the plastic bags in my house, I searched out any last ones hanging around and put them into a blue recycled bag and hung that on the back of the side door to take shopping with me tomorrow. This will be taken to Coles to their recycling box outside the store where any plastic bags will be taken to a recycling center. 

I folded up my shopping bags and put them into their own little bag, put that away into the drawer by the side door, took the bag of books upstairs into my library, have all my shoes I'm not currently wearing in a pile to bring upstairs and put away and I've also got laundry to sort and fold and to put away as well... this will be done this afternoon, along with the making of my bed, vacuuming and dusting. 

The house has been overlooked lately because I'm either painting, gardening or just been lazy. But the kitchen has been looked into over the last week or two; and I'm happy to say that it's looking better. On Saturday, I washed the car and it's so much cleaner than it was last week. 

So, what have you been up to lately? Are you decluttering a little and cleaning up a little - like me? Or have you attacked a big section of your house? Keep us updated with how your decluttering is going. Until next time. 

Book Collection Clean-Out

I love books as much as the next person, but there does come a time when the good ol' book collection needs a clean out and the bookshelves need a dusting.

Now, last week, I helped out a friend at Sunnybank with her collection; and this time, it was my turn to ask for help from another friend of mine who's wonderful at helping me out with decluttering - but this time, we had to just sort through what I was and wasn't reading. 

No biggie right? 

Um... not really.

As I climbed the ladder to upper-most books, I found some that I hadn't seen in such a long time, I'd forgotten they were around! 

So, down they came from that top shelf and I sorted through them in to the 'Yes I'll keep', 'Not Sure' and 'Donate' piles. First though, I sorted out the series of books and figured out which ones I'd like to read - and which ones I won't be getting into... and found a series Mum asked me about by Robin Hobb; which I set aside for her. 

Once I had all the books down and I sorted them into those piles, I went to work looking at what knowing what I wanted at a glance, and what I didn't want immediately. I put the books I wished to read over the next year or so at the front of the shelf and ones I'll look at next time at the back - with the larger books on the bottom and the smaller ones towards the top - as they do when building a pyramid. 

Over the next three or four hours, we worked through not only my own collection, but the books I had acquired last Wednesday and found that I had grabbed books there I didn't need as well. I've put them off to one side to give away too. 

By the end of the afternoon, I had filled 3 boxes and was happy with the books I had parted with in them. I had also pulled a pile of books together for a sci-fi reading friend as well (as he knew I was going to sort out my collection; and is always on the lookout for new reading material, knowing that mine is some of the more interestingly out-there kind). 

So, how do you sort through your books? Or are you the more hi-tech kinda person and keep all your reading material on a Kindle or Kobo? Let us all know about your collection and how you keep it. 

Helping Out

As much as I love to declutter my little townhouse, I also enjoy helping others to declutter as well.

Last Wednesday, I did just that with a friend of mine at Sunnybank Hills when she put out a call for help on Facebook. She had a lot of books and her family and herself were on the verge of moving; and she had to get in and downsize them - much to her sadness.

I volunteered to help her out with the decluttering of them. 

After 2 hours and a good strong cup of coffee, we made a great lot of books into two piles of what she wanted to keep and what I happily took away for her.

Now, before you tell me that I'm cluttering up my home again - I'm not. This weekend was supposed to be me decluttering my library; however, it's not to be. It's been so humid and disgusting that I have had to chill out and wait it out until the weather becomes a little cooler for me to climb ladders and work on the book collection.

This weekend, I'm looking into working on the credenza. You see, I spotted a lovely buffet at Life Line, and thought it might look nice here at home. But the more I looked at the photo I took, the more work it looked liked it would take to get it ready to be here at home with me... so I decided to good clean out of the credenza would be a better option. 

And with this heat, it is! 

So, what have you been doing this weekend to get yourself worked out for this year? I have two big decluttering projects to work on right now - the credenza and the book collection - and they'll keep me busy over the next few days. Please do leave a comment and let us all know how you're doing.

A Joint Effort!

Today, Mum and I made a joint effort and went out to The Really Good Bookstore at Browns Plains to hand in the books we didn't want anymore and put up our exchange rates!

It felt good to have over $150 worth I could use at the store; and yet, I left empty-handed until the next time I wanted to buy a good book there for that much (or use a little of it).

We both filled the boot of my car with books! Now that says something about how many books we were parting with. I had two bags and Mum had three. But we came home with only two (Mum had them on order) and I left with none. I'm so darned proud of myself that I didn't have a book in my hands when I left a bookstore! 

Anyway, I returned home with my recyclable bags all ready to use them again for more books to fill them. I can't wait! What a joint effort it was to give away books to a great place and still we got something in return. Do you have a place such as this? What is it like? Tell us all about it? 

Books

I love books - as I've said before - and I find parting with them is just plain awful! But when I really get in and look at my collection of 2,000+ books in my tiny home office, I do find that I might have doubled-up on some and collected others that I will never, ever read.

This is when it's time to do out the collection. 

I started off with Mt To Be Read next to the door. I found that pile so high it was looking like it was about to take a tumble if I put anymore books onto those piles!

So, I pulled down all the ornaments on the shelves first and then organised the books into categories and figured out what I'd like to read, what I'd donate and what I'll put away for another time.
You see, I have some great books to read, but I can't read them all in one year - or even two! - and so putting some to one side for a little while causes me to read the ones I've put up on the Mt TBR and make myself read those first. Then, I'll move onto the other ones that have been put away.

I know, it makes sense doesn't it?

Anyway, I ended up going through another pile of other books which contained a whole lot of books I thought I was going to read, but haven't gotten around to them. So, I bagged them up as well! 

I ended up getting around 50 books into two bags and finding that I really didn't need so many books to start with. Okay, I've got under 2,000 books now, but really, it's good to declutter the books I just won't read.... like all those vampire romance novels I've had for 3 years. If I'm not going to read them within the first 2 years, I'm simply not going to read them now, right? I also sorted through another 20 or so Bookcrossing books that I have to Wild Release around Brisbane and Logan City (Wild Releasing is where you leave a book for somebody to pick up and read. Then, they journal it and do the same; and the book begins to travel around the world. It's a great way to share a book). 

So, if you've got a big book collection, how have you stablised it? Or has it gotten bigger - as mine tends to do? And speaking of book collections getting bigger: Mum did give me about 20 books to add to my collection. I mean, how could I say no? Yes, silly me, I'm trying to get my clutter down; and I end up adding to it. 

Tackling My Home Office

Yesterday, I jumped off the computer, went to the kitchen and grabbed another bottle of cold water (after refilling the empty bottle from the water urn and replacing it) and came back upstairs into the cool air-conditioning.

I looked around this home office and realised I really needed to tackle this place ... and do it now! So, I did. 

I emptied out 4 bags of rubbish, receipts and things, sorted them into their respective piles and threw out what needed to be thrown out, what I needed to keep and what was to be looked at later; then I moved onto the next bag.

Then, I put away what I had to put away before I moved on. But seeing I had mess everywhere I found this hard to do. I still have a few Christmas decorations around and stuff I haven't put away from other times - like birthday cards. I also found some letters from friends and get well cards from 2015 and last year (when I was really sick).

So, I changed the jobs in the room. I looked at my Mt TBR and pulled down all the decorations from the shelves first, and put them somewhere so they didn't get broken. 
Then, I pulled all the books off the Mt TBR pile next to the door and put them into categories and figured out what I wanted to read and what needed to be put back on the big shelves, and what I really wouldn't be reading at all - aka: what I'll be giving away.

This turned out to be easier than I thought.

You see, books are my passion. I love the written word, and I find that I get really possessive and obsessive with it. Sometimes, I'll become so clingy with books, that my emotions will take over; and like I said in a previous post, I have to be in the right state of mind to get rid of books. 

Yesterday was that right state of mind. I pulled out my folding ladder/chair and pulled down almost all the books off my saggy brown bookcase (from Officeworks - it sagged when I put the first book on it - not my fault, it was how it was made) and sorted through about 50 books and then there were an additional 20 Bookcrossing books I'll have to Wild Release. 

This all took about 4 hours to get done. 

I still have a lot to do here; as this is just the very tip of the iceberg in here. There are still books to look through, papers to sort through, things to put away. But, I've started and that's the main thing. I'm so pleased with myself. So, have you started on a big clean-out and gotten further than you thought? Let us in on it in the comments below.