Friday Filing

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Posted on January 9, 2015

As promised, here is my Friday filing post. Not much has changed since last week. We get very little mail so there is not much to deal with.

The Range News is our local (free) newspaper which is delivered on Thursdays. I have read it this evening to make sure I am not missing out on any important local news and now it has been filed in the recycling bin.

Other than that, there is a new insurance schedule now that we have had the policy amended to account for our new car. It has not been filed in the filing cabinet as I need to contact the insurance company as I think the description of the car is incorrect which has resulted in a higher premium than it should be. I will make that phone call on Monday.

We are both in the process of reading the ReNew magazine about alternative technologies. I think this is published every quarter and we keep them in a magazine holder for reference after they have been read.

The hand-written sheet is a rough list of some of the things we want to achieve in the house and garden this year so that stays there as a reminder of our plans.

Previously, these few pieces of paper would have been scattered on the bench and really irritated me but I am finding that having them in the basket has reduced the annoyance factor to zero.

Do you have any tricks to keeping on top of the paper clutter and filing?

A Little Bit Every Day

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Posted on January 7, 2015

My method of keeping things organised to to do a little bit every day, or in my case every evening. At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, I work full-time hours and long days because of the distance that we commute but that is our choice.

Last night I did the bit of ironing that was waiting to be done, one load of washing and hung it out then put the next load in the machine. It was not a full load so when we arrived home this evening I pulled the top sheet off the bed and that made up the load. It is all washed now and in the basket.

It has been cool and damp here all day so the load that is on the line is not properly dry even though it is under the verandah. The next load of washing will be hung indoors overnight.

This is a portable rotary clothesline which I find invaluable in the wet weather.

This hanging rack is usually used to hang shirts waiting to be ironed as well as ones that I have done but tonight I will hang the freshly-washed shirts on here to dry.

I will put the dehumidifier on in the closed room overnight, the clothes will be pretty well dry in the morning. This eliminates the smell that clothes develop if they are damp for too long.

Once the washing is hung out I will finish stripping our bed and remake it with fresh linen. Then it will be time to crawl into bed.

I am working from home tomorrow and will make it a short day so that I can catch up on a few more jobs here.

By spending a bit of time each evening on household jobs, I can choose what I do on the weekends.

Do It With a Diary

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Posted on January 5, 2015

I have never been very good with using a diary but I am hoping that this year will be different.

When the question was asked on an online forum of what your New Year’s resolution would be, this was my answer:

“I am going to stop trying to squash so much into the available time and learn to allow some slack. Recently, I seem to be stressing about meeting deadlines/arriving by a certain time etc. My mental health deserves better.”

The fact that it was 4 days before Christmas may have had something to do with my response, however, it was something that I had considered several days earlier of my own accord.

Now I just have to work out how to put this into practice. One of the first things is to use a diary. This neat A5, day-to-a-page diary was part of a Secret Santa gift which I received so it is definitely going to be put to use.

If I write things down rather than trying to carry a whole load of information in my head it will relieve all of the things I am trying to remember as well as showing clearly what is actually doable in one day. It also means that all of those little jobs that I think of that I am going to do one day are now allocated to a time and day. I choose the time to fit my schedule and will then just do them. No more forgetting the little stuff and trying to squash too much into the available time.

A grand goal and I am really hoping that I can make serious progress on achieving it.

Tomorrow is my first day back at work and I have 2 jobs listed in my personal diary. Post a parcel and take the apparently faulty iPhone charging cable back to the Apple store as it was only bought in July last year.

How do you feel about New Year’s resolutions? Do you have any plans to do things differently this year?

Filing Friday (on Thursday)

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Posted on January 1, 2015

Welcome to 2015! A brand new year for you to make of it what you want.

I have been gradually decluttering for several years so there is generally only a few things here and there to leave the house. However, there are a couple of hotspots that just seem to invite clutter to hang around unless I am constantly vigilant.

In the lead-up to Christmas I was particularly busy at work so things got a bit neglected at home. Also, our car was badly damaged in a hailstorm at the end of November and was declared a write-off by the insurance company. So, as well as everything else we had to buy a new car, organise insurance, liaise with the towing company to collect the old car and so on. All of this resulted in paperwork, notes and phone messages on the desk. Everything was finalised on Wednesday – we have a new, insured car and the old one is gone so this morning I got up and decided that I had to sort out all of remaining paperwork.

I started with the desk, followed by the other hotspots which are the end of the kitchen bench and my dressing table. It then turned into a major clean-out of the filing cabinet and other folders so The Duke and I spent several hours working through it. Some papers had been carefully filed for up to 10 years without ever being looked at so we were really ruthless.

Apart from clearing the papers that were in the previously identified spots, I actually have nothing to show for our efforts except that the contents of the filing cabinet have been reduced from 3 drawers to 2. Everything was relatively neatly stored – it was just that much of it was no longer relevant.

The desk is mostly cleared – there are just a few more things that I need to put away.

I just need to set-up the pedometers so we can actually use them rather than be lurking in the bottom of the filing cabinet!

This end of the kitchen bench is one of the most frustrating hotspots – the pile of papers never seems to go away completely. It may seem counter-intuitive to put a basket here to dump “stuff” in but my theory is that it will be contained rather than expanding and spreading its tentacles across the bench. I have also designated Friday evening as “Filing or Fling” so everything that is in the basket by Friday evening will be dealt with accordingly. In a perfect world the basket would be empty but I will be surprised if that happens. 🙂

So, beginning next Friday (not tomorrow) the blog post will be about the filing or keeping the paper clutter at bay.

I would love to hear of any systems you may have in place to help you manage the clutter hotspots and filing.

Done and Dusted

Harrowing Times

More Material

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Posted on November 11, 2014

Last weekend I spent a fair bit of time in the sewing room. I am working on a project that I cannot show you for another week so more details then.

I have also been cleaning up and sorting out material – yet again. Much of what I have is relatively small pieces so I have prepared some of them for future patchwork projects by cutting them into 5 inch squares. The remaining pieces are bundled according to colour so that I know where to look if I need a specific colour.

Today I was given a couple of bags of material. It is mostly substantial sized pieces which will be suitable for making entire garments so I am off to have a closer look at them and dream of some future creations.

A Gadget

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Posted on November 1, 2014

Tonight I want to share a small gadget that we have had for a couple of years. I don’t even know what you call it.

This small device plugs into a standard power point and then you can plug any appliance or powerboard into it. It comes with a remote control which you can use to turn the power on and off at the switch without actually having to manually reach the switch. We have two of these. One is in the lounge room and has a powerboard plugged into it. We have the television, DVD player and hard drive plugged in so that with a single press of the remote control everything is turned off at the power point. It is completely turned off – not on standby. Did you know that any appliance where there is an illuminated light glowing is only on standby and is continuing to draw power even when it is not in use?

The other device was in the office where we had the computer and associated peripherals plugged into a powerboard. Both devices are programmed to the one remote control.

We realised recently that we had not been utilising the remote control to turn these devices off as the computer has some serious issues when you turn it off and try to turn it back on again. The problem may be terminal but we have solved it for the time being by leaving it turned on at the power point. So we removed the remote control device so that we could continue to turn the television off when not in use. The question then arose as to where we could use the spare device. We routinely turn all of the appliances off when not in use so it seems superfluous.

Last weekend when we cleaned out the top of the cupboard in the office I found this powerboard but did not have a use for it so put it downstairs in the workshop.

This morning I worked out a way that I could put both of these items to good use. I have a long sewing table in the spare room, however, the power point is under the table which necessitates me clambering under the table every time I want to plug in the sewing machine or iron.

So, I plugged the gadget in and then the powerboard into it.

The powerboard sits on the tables where it is an easy matter to plug in the sewing machine, iron or anything else.

The individual power outlets on the board have their own switches so even if the main switch is turned on due to the remote control the individual outlets can remain turned off unless they are being used.

I am so glad that I came up with this solution as it is infinitely easier than crawling under the table to turn the power on and off.

Project 333 – Black & White

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Posted on October 30, 2014

From time to time I set myself mini challenges to force me to push the boundaries of my streamlined wardrobe. I decided that this week would be entirely monochromatic – a black and white theme.

The forecast for Monday was hot so I reached for this old faithful which I have owned for 4 years. There is so much to love about it – 100% cotton with a collar and cut away armholes AND made in Australia.

Tuesday was nearly as hot so another 100% cotton dress was a good option. This is the one I bought a month ago.

On Wednesday the temperature was more reasonable so I opted for black 3/4 pants with this blouse from the recycle boutique. I have worn it several times since I bought it a few weeks ago. It is destined to become a firm favourite.

Today I tried a previously untested combination. The black 3/4 pants got another airing but this time I teamed them with a black sleeveless fitted top and this blouse worn unbuttoned over it. The blouse is a very fine fabric and needs an appropriate coloured bra underneath it and as I only had a black bra clean I decided to be a little creative. While the outfit looked perfectly acceptable, it just did not feel right to me. I will keep the blouse to be worn as it was designed in future. I also think that I prefer this particular blouse teamed with my straight black skirt rather than trousers.

Tomorrow it is going to be quite warm so I plan to wear white 3/4 trousers and this shirt.

I have plenty of other black and white options but I will save them for another time. Here is a selection.

Organising Finances

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Posted on October 28, 2014

I have been at work all day so nothing much to report on the home front.

However, we are currently working on a long-term financial plan as opposed to the day-to-day budget. There is so much to consider – transition to retirement, salary sacrifice, superannuation options and so on. We have sought professional guidance but the final decision is ours and we have to be comfortable that we have a workable and sustainable plan.