The Spare Bed

I have decided to gradually clear the spare bed during the next week or so. Believe it or not, I have already spent 2 days on it. It looks like...

Pile of papers in the passage

The pile of papers in the passage has now been filed.

I am not sure what to do next. To store things in the kitchen the way I would like, the kitchen needs some alterations. So do I continue (with things not stored well, and so always being a bit of a mess), or do I start sometning else. Everything else seems to be a big task. I am feeling overwhelmed.

I took some stuff to the Op shop, so there is less in the house.

The study is done!!!

The study is done.
The last pile has been filed.

When I have finished piles, there are still a few odd things that need tidying away - these are all gone.

My first room is done within 8 weeks!!!!!!

Another pile is sorted and away

The second last pile of papers in the study is GONE!!!!!

All the Piano

The last pile has disappeared from the piano - Slow Tidied into all the right places.

Now there are only three piles left in the study, plus some items that need a home. I am not sure where to put my stationery (which has been accumulating into a pile as I have tidied the study), the items that are too big for the filing cabinet (another pile), and the pictures that have not been hung (which may end up in the pile things to be disposed of).

It is now time to contemplate what I will do with this room.

All the study floor

I have completed the remainder of the study floor, so the study is just about there!!!

Getting things out of the house...

There is a problem of getting things out of the house - it is all very well to say that they are not going to be used, but actually removing them is also a problem. The lady next door has a new shed, just for the items she does not want. To me, total removal is required.

I guess this should count in the completion of a room, but it is easier to get rid of things if you just trash them, rather than finding alternate homes for them. Sometimes, finding alternate homes means accumulating the lot for the Op Shop people to collect in one collection.

So, what alternative homes are there?

• Op shop
• Give away (as presents or as give aways)
• Ebay and similar
• Leaving on the nature strip with a sign (free to a good home)
• Accumulating the lot and having a garage sale
• Women's refuge or similar

If you can think of more, please tell me.

The study floor

Well, finally I am beginning to see the floor of the study. I have cleared half the floor this morning, and I will be able to do the rest tomorrow. THE STUDY IS ALMOST DONE!!! Hooray!!

There is only seven days work to do, and I will have one room complete!!

I am progressing very well - the progress page says that I am well ahead BUT it is tempting to do 90% of a job rather than 100%. So I must FINISH one room every 8 weeks. I have been working on Slow Tidy for seven weeks, so I need to finish one room (if I am finishing one every eight weeks) on 31 October. This looks almost achievable, as the study should be finished this week (and what's a couple of days between friends?).

However, I notice in the progress sheet that I thought I had eight days work to do before the last six days when I have been concentrating solely on this room. I guess this is a problem with estimating how much there is to do when you begin a room.

To fix this problem, I won't update the progress for this room until it is complete. Then I will calculate how far out I was, and add that amount on to each room as a fudge factor, so my estimations are better.

The couch is free

The couch in the study now has nothing on it. The books that had been there for years are AWAY. The papers that were there are disposed of or filed. It is now celebrating its release...

What can hide in an ANZ bag?

I have an ANZ bag. It has been sitting on the couch in the study for years. So what can be in it? Little containers of UHT milk (I will not tell you when their use by date was), teabags, pens, pencils and a notebook. It is all now disposed of, and we have another shopping bag!

Who wants some keys?

Look at all the keys I found on the floor today!

THESE ARE ALL USELESS. They all belong to locks that I no longer have, or houses I no longer live in, or even locks that I replaced on houses I no longer live in. They are all going!!

We are on a roll...

The top of the piano has been cleared!! all the papers have been put away. I had a few xrays here, and have put them in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, which is just the right size to store them flat. I will make this a drawer for big flat stuff.

The filing cabinet is clean

I cleared the top of the filing cabinet today. There were a couple of bookends that have been used for the shelves in the kitchen, some rubbish, a pen holder, that has gone onto the computer desk, and some paper that has been filed - it is wonderful that it is clean!!

Hiatus

Well, it's been a bit over a week since I last put an entry in the blog. I have been sick, and then I went away for the weekend, and nothing has been done. However, I am still ahead of where i should be, as I have done more than one shelf or pile some days.

It is easy to feel guilty, but there is no need - as long as the habit is formed, and I continue after a break, rather than stopping.

Today I will tidy another pile of paper in the study.

Saucepan drawer

Some drawers are easy, and the saucepan drawer is one. Everything came out, I cleaned it, and many things went back in.

I don't know why I had too large sized saucepans (same size as one another) - so one is in the give away pile. The lid of the wok was in the saucepan drawer, whereas the wok was in a cupboard where I put it on 19 September. The draining racks have been put in the cake pan cupboard (6 October).

There are three cook top converters - one converts the burner so it can support a wok, another allows you to put very small saucepans onto a burner, and the third seems to do nothing useful (so it's going). It's amazing what I have forgotten that I had - these are particularly useful from time to time!

How easy is it?

Another two shelves done. How?

These are both top shelves. I asked he who helps whether we still needed four tall jars that were in one, and they were turfed. All the contents of the other shelf are now in the first shelf. They are only used when we have a party, and always get dusty in between, as they were on an open shelf. Now a cupboard shelf only has party things on it, so they won't get dusty.

Don't know what I will put on the other shelf though!

The plastic bags

I decided I was up to tidying the plastic bag shelf today - the plastic bags are always going everywhere. Here are the contents of one small shelf.

And here are the contents after all the plastic bags have been put in their container - isn't it wonderful!

The Cake Pans

The cupboard above the cook top has a segregated shelf, and the only things I have been able to store there are my cake pans. Since I have been changing all baking to silicone, I guess these probably should all go, but i decided to keep about half - the nicer ones which I may occasionally use.

The plastic jug fits here, and not with the other jugs because the shelf is exactly the right size for it!

Who needs seven bud vases?

Certainly not me!

I don't even have flowers in the house. They always go moldy, and the water they are in starts to stink after a couple of days. And they drop petals, leaves and other bits everywhere!

So why would I have seven bud vases? Obviously, if I haven't developed a fondness for chopping off bits of plant and bringing them into the house by now, I never will.

So out they go, as part of slow tidy.

Today I am tidying a few shelves of another glass fronted cupboard. Again, the things we use most are not in the bottom shelf, so I am moving all the shelves around to fix the problem. In fact, the whole bottom shelf is extra crockery we use when we run out of our normal day-to-day crockery. So it is going to the second top shelf.

I am finding with the kitchen that all the cupboards have items stored in the wrong shelf, so several shelves need to be moved at once.

When we moved here, the kitchen cupboards all only had two shelves. One of the first things we did was to add another shelf to several of the cupboards.

Is Slow Tidy working?

Yes - it is amazing what a different just tidying (and keeping tidy) a small area makes. I started in the kitchen and family room, and I think that was a good place to start because:

• we both use it every day, so the difference was noticeable to both of us from the start
• it got "he who helps" on side, as parts of the area get tidier
• each day I can look at the bits that are better, and say to myself "what a difference!" so it encourages me to continue.
• it is the first place I look at in the morning and when I come home from work, and that is the time I can do a bit more.

Another Kitchen Cupboard

Yesterday I looked at the kitchen cupboard that holds some crockery. It used to have jugs at the top, then two rows of mugs, big plates next, then bowels at the bottom. Now, I'm short and cannot reach the jugs. We almost never use mugs (occasionally for soup), and we use the glass jugs in summer.

So, I re-arranged it - see below. The most usable mugs are in the bottom mug shelf.

We also have far too many mugs - there were mugs behind the bowls and mugs in another cupboard as well. I don't think I have ever bought mugs. There was a time when I was doing a course, and they gave you a mug - so I have a number of course mugs. When my parents had their 40th wedding anniversary at Bendigo Pottery, everyone got a commemoration mug.  I have mugs that were handed out at a couple of the places I have worked. And I have a couple of mugs that were given as a special reward - for instance, when I judged a competition at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School they gave me a mug. I have even received mugs as Christmas presents! So some mugs are special. And if I gave away too many we wouldn't have enough to allow for breakages, so I think it is OK to keep two shelves full - BUT NO MORE.

The excess mugs will go to work to be used by visitors.

To shred or not to shred

I have filed or thrown out two more piles of paper from my study, and found 7 CDs in the process. Two of them were of our Irises (and so were stored in the appropriate spot), but the others are of work I did some years ago. Most of the papers I am throwing out are receipts of various sorts, and altogether, they may provide material for identity fraud.


I think that people like me who have a lot to throw out are all in the same situation. It would be good to recycle all the paper, but bad if it leads to identity fraud, and the more you are getting rid of, the more likely someone is to be able to perform identity fraud.


However, all is not lost. There are diskette shredders, CD shredders as well as paper shredders. And shredded paper is much better as a garden mulch than unshredded paper - particularly if you combine it with other forms of mulch.

 So the answer for me is to shred!

And I thought it could all fit!

For years, I have used a box to store all my usable fabric scraps in my sewing room. The box has been overflowing for quite some time, so on Sunday I bought a laundry tidy to replace the box. See the difference!

No wonder it couldn't all fit into the box. He who helps says it is really good not having to walk over the fabric every time he goes into the sewing room.

This morning, I have cleared a pile of paper from the computer desk...

It is now completely clear!

The diskette reader is working

Until today I had a drawer full of diskettes. No more!

I decided that I needed up to 70 diskettes for the future. I separated the diskettes into those which were original software diskettes, and those I used for the backup, and for other things.

One of the things about Slow Tidy is getting the equipment I need. One of those was a floppy disk reader. Unfortunately, the first one I bought didn't work. But the second one does, and I have reformatted 80 diskettes today that I will keep. There were about 10 duds, but that is to be expected when the diskettes haven't been used for 10 years.

The duds are being recycled, the original software diskettes will go to someone who can use them, and the remainder will go to work - free to a good home.

I have also cleaned out four shelves in my computer desk today, and removed other old computer gear. The diskettes now have a home, and I have a free drawer for something else.

Al together, a good day's work!

Friday...

So what have I achieved this week?

• two piles of paper sorted in the study - beginning to see the piano now!
• the mess on the couch has gone
• still maintaining no mess in the areas that have been slow tidied
• the pile of folders in the study has been reduced by half
• and of course, the kitchen drawers and cupboard I did last weekend!

It's probably about time I concentrated on one room, but there is progress, so does it matter?

The one big problem is where to put all the junk, and what I will do with it? Should I run a garage sale, or give it all to St Vincents, or what?

Printer Cartridges

Today I will take printer cartridges to work to dispose of them in one of the special cartridge disposal bins available.

Sorting out the cooking stuff

I have been doing slow tidy for two weeks, and already there is an improvement - the kitchen benches are now clear, the table is clear and the kitchen chairs are now clear. This has not happened for two weeks at a time since we arrived here, so it is a major breakthrough!

He who helps is off this weekend, so I can sort out the cooking stuff.

There are three drawers and a cupboard to look at. I know this is slow tidy, and I only need to do one shelf a day, but this stuff is a real problem. The plastic stuff is distributed throughout a cupboard and two drawers, the pyrex glassware that can be used for microwaving or baking is in any of two drawers and the cupboard. I can never find a mixing bowl. He who helps (who does all the washing up) keeps on putting things in the wrong place, and I can never find things when I am cooking!

In response to my complaints about not finding things, he took to leaving things on the bench, so the bench filled up! And because it wasn't empty, it used to have other things on it - like letters that had been opened, letters that were unopened, things that had not been put away...

So I have put everything from the two drawers and cupboard on the kitchen floor...

Big saucepans and casserole dishes 

More stuff

Silicone baking dishes

How could all of that fitted into the space!!! And I am not even doing the saucepan drawer yet! Or the place where I put my metal oven trays. How can I have so much? The big saucepans and casserole dishes need to go into the cupboard - these saucepans are too big for the drawers. Six of the casserole dishes are the same size - I can't use them all - EVER! I use the preserving pans (especially when I am making two soups at once), so they can be kept. 

The plastic containers that are incomplete are going into the recycling. Excess casserole dishes, microwave cookware and pyrex is going to the op shop. 

However, to keep it apart and not end up with the mix up I had before, I need to have four drawers (not three) as well as the cupboard. I moved all the stuff from a fourth drawer, somewhere else (that hasn't been slow tidied yet - hopefully there will be enough room!). I have put all the silicone bakeware together in one drawer, all the microwave dishes in another, all the plastic containers in a third, all the cooking utensils in a fourth, and the cupboard has all the big stuff and the casserole dishes. Everything fits nicely into the drawers and the cupboard, and they have all been cleaned - LOOK AT THIS...

Casserole Cupboard

Microwave cookware drawer

Silicone bakeware

Mixing bowls and other cooking utensils

Where we start...

We moved into our house more than a few years ago, and dumped everything in the allocated rooms ... You know - saucepans in the kitchen, papers in the study, beds in bedrooms - but nothing actually had a home, so it was NEVER TIDY.

Everything has been hidden away several times in the years that we have lived here, but nothing remained that way for long. I think it was because nothing had a home. Things would just stay out instead of going back into their place. The coffee table in the family has junk on it that has been there for years. Things wouldn't magically disappear back to where they lived - and I think that is because they don't live anywhere.

I have heard that if you do some routine for 20 days it will become a habit, so I have decided on SLOW TIDY...

• SLOW TIDY is taking a long time to clean a room - I have allowed eight weeks per room
• SLOW TIDY is doing a small thing each day - tidying one drawer in the kitchen or filing one pile of papers...
• SLOW TIDY is finding a home for each of the things that get tidied that day
• SLOW TIDY is KEEPING what has already been tidied that way
• SLOW TIDY is getting rid of things you never use... in a sustainable way