Time to Celebrate

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It is one year ago today that I started writing this blog.  I am really pleased that I have managed to stick at it for a whole year.  It is due, in no small part, to my dear readers.

Your regular visits that keep that little stat counter ticking over, the thoughtful comments and the inherent knowledge that there is someone out there in cyberspace waiting to read the next installment of my ramblings are the things that inspire me to write another post.

The stat counter is about to hit its own milestone.  By this time tomorrow the will be 20,000 hits.

The WordPress platform has proved to be much more to my liking than Blogger which I used for my previous couple of short-lived blogging attempts.  I know that many bloggers of long-standing use Blogger but I am happier with WordPress.

Speaking of WordPress, they have just introduced statistics by country which is very interesting.  I knew I had some readers from the USA but have discovered that I have had visitors from no less than 36 countries!  WOW!  Please introduce yourself and where you are from.

Finally, although he has no idea idea who I am, I must also thank Bryan Allain for his book, “31 Days To Finding Your Blogging Mojo”.  This little volume which I downloaded to my Kindle helped me to understand why I was writing this and what I wanted to achieve.

I will continue to write and hope that you will continue to read and join me on my journey to a simpler, more sustainable and organised life which leaves space for the things I really love and value.

Until tomorrow.

Putting It Back

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Today was a fairly rare occurrence as we went shopping.  Not grocery shopping but to a couple of large stores.  My first goal was to buy some containers/dividers for the bathroom drawers.

We went Howards Storage World and I bought these.

2012-03-11 01They are acrylic and have small silicone feet on them to stop them sliding in the drawer.  This is how they look in the drawer.

2012-03-11 02I have  done the top two drawers like this, the third drawer is empty and the bottom drawer has the hairdryer in it.

Even though I have culled the contents of the bathroom cabinet a couple of times, most recently when I had to take everything out of the room for the renovations, there was still more to do.  I carefully evaluated every single item before I put it back into the cabinet.  There are still a couple of things that need to be used up and will not be replaced, however, it is almost to the point of having only those things that I actually need or use.

This is the top drawer.

2012-03-11 03The second drawer.

2012-03-11 04This is the cupboard.  I used to have 2 plastic boxes – one was first aid stuff and the other was extras of medications, sanitiser gel etc so I have now condensed them into one slightly larger box.  The bonus is that it is high enough that everything is able to stand up in it.

2012-03-11 05These are the baskets that I had previously used in the bathroom drawers.  They were slightly too big for the space so had got a bit squashed and one was cracked.

2012-03-11 06The broken one (not shown) went in the bin but I scrubbed the others and have now used them to contain some of the small items in the drawers in my sewing room.  They have replaced some cardboard boxes that were a bit the worse for wear after nearly 20 years!

All I have left to do is scrub the 2 plastic boxes from the bathroom cupboard.  One, which has an airtight seal will probably go back to being a food storage container.  That was its original purpose.  The other was previously used for storing toys when Belle and Missy were small so I may offer it to Belle if she needs it for a similar purpose.

47 & Falling

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After weeks of very humid weather we finally have some respite.  We have a hygrometer which sits on the bench between the kitchen and dining room and when I got up this morning it was 47% relative humidity – that is about half what it has been recently.  During the course of the day it fell even more to 33% at one stage.

This may not seem particularly exciting to those of you you are not living in humid, high rainfall areas but believe me, it is exciting when your lounge chairs look like this.

2012-10-03 01The back looked worse – if that is possible.

2012-10-03 02They have been getting worse over about a week or two but it was no point in cleaning them while the weather was so wet.  In fact The Duke could not work out how it go so wet the other night – the rain does not blow in – until I pointed out that both of the chairs were completely wet simply due to the humid conditions.

Today I cleaned both recliner chairs and the 2 seater sofa.  I have a small jar with about 100ml of olive oil and some lemon essential oil.  The lemon oil is because I like the aroma and also it is supposed to be a spider deterrent.  I am not sure how effective that is.  I added 5ml of clove oil to the mix and then with an old t-shirt wiped, rubbed and polished for a couple of hours until I had all of the leather cleaned, free of mould and gleaming.

Here are the ‘after’ photos.

2012-10-03 03And the back.

2012-10-03 04I also keep a spray bottle with 5ml of clove oil diluted in 500ml of water.  Using this and a clean cloth I also cleaned all of the kitchen cupboards and kickboards as well as quite a few of the door frames and skirting boards.  Keeping the mould at bay is a never-ending battle in this climate so I make the clove oil a regular part of my cleaning routine.

If you are interested in more information about reducing the humidity in your home as well as the use of clove oil you can type ‘mould’ into the search button on the right-hand side of the blog and you will find all of my other posts that deal with this issue.

Finally, if you are concerned about humidity in your home I would strongly recommend purchasing a hygrometer.  It is a real eye-opener to actually know what the humidity reading is.

Pinterest – Friend or Foe?

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I am probably way behind the times but about a month ago I took a look at the latest phenomenon sweeping the online world – Pinterest.  I became aware of it because of several threads about it on the forum of Simple Savings.  I had a browse and I just didn’t get what all the hype is about.  I discarded any ideas of Pinterest as an inane waste of time with no redeeming features.  I thought nothing more about it until I stumbled across 2 blogs in the last week.

Joshua Becker at Becoming Minimalist took a close, first-hand look and came up with this post about the pros and cons of Pinterest.

Yesterday, one of the ‘Freshly Pressed’ featured blogs on WordPress was from Never Contrary about the same subject.

Please read these links as I think they probably put their thoughts far more eloquently than I will but here are my thoughts on Pinterest:

It can be addictive – this is almost the first comment from anyone who has joined.
The concept feeds unrealistic aspirations and can easily promote jealousy and envy.
It is an insidious form of clutter.
There could be serious legal implications.
It promotes consumerism and the acquisition of stuff.
Like everywhere else on the internet the advertisers are tracking your every move.

I have not joined and do not envisage being sucked into this unrealistic, time-wasting world of pinning.  The blogs I have linked to have helped to crystallise my views.  I would rather be creating something of value in my own home than be living vicariously through random images on the internet.

Have you joined Pinterest?  What are your thoughts?

 

Consider This

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‘Enough for everybody forever’ – I read this in a newspaper article about an upcoming fair focusing on sustainability.  Along with, ‘Live simply so that others may simply live’ this really defines how we should be living our lives.

To put it bluntly, those of us who live in 1st world countries are being greedy bullies who are snatching way more than our fair share and denying the most vulnerable a chance.

That is without even beginning to think about those who are yet to come.  Will anything be left for them?

Family in ChadThis is a week’s worth of food for a family in a refugee camp in Chad (Africa).  Below is a sample of what a family in USA might eat.

Family in USAYou can check out a selection of photographic essays here on food for a week in households around the world.

That is only food.  Now take into account – shelter, access to clean water and sanitation.  While we continually strive for more, bigger and better there are many in the world who have next to nothing.

Surprise From the Freezer

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This morning I took a lidded Pyrex dish from the freezer which contained 2 serves of lasagne.  I left it on the kitchen bench to thaw.

When we were on our way home this evening The Duke asked what was for dinner so I assured him we were having lasagne.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was one of my creations which was actually pasta (2 different types), re-fried beans and a little shredded chicken topped with grated cheese.  Considering the pasta and cheese it is not entirely surprising that I mistook it for lasagne.

I use a random selection of containers for freezing meals, leftovers and produce and have never come up with a really effective method of labelling items for the freezer so I simply don’t do it.  This does lead to the occasional blunder but generally nothing that cannot be solved reasonably easily.

My funniest experience was the day I took a small container of frozen pumpkin soup to work for my lunch.  I also had a slice of home-made bread which I was going to toast and have with my soup.  The soup was still partly frozen at lunch-time so I loosened the lid and popped it in the microwave.  After a period of time I decided to check if it was warm enough.  I dipped my finger in to check and it was only warm.  Upon licking my finger I discovered that the pumpkin soup was mango puree!!  The toast was already cooked and I did not want to waste the ‘soup’ so lunch that day was warm mango puree and a slice of toast!

How do you keep track of what is in the freezer?

 

Bathroom Progress

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Two and a half weeks later the end is in sight.  The plumbing, door knobs, mirror and showerscreen are yet to be done.  There are 2 double towel rails plus a towel ring

2012-03-06 01Here is the wall showing the finished recess.

2012-03-06 02The floor of the shower showing the grate with tiled insert.  Also, you can see the spare toilet roll holder and the holder for the toilet brush.  I love them being on the wall which means they don’t need to be moved to mop the floor.

2012-03-06 03I will post some final photos when it is all finished – probably next week as we have to wait for the shower screen and mirror to be made to order.

We are very happy with the way the renovation has turned out.

Rhythm & Routines

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In the midst of the upheaval of flooding and other extreme weather events coupled with the uncertainty of some personal issues it is comforting to know that some things remain constant.

This evening we have followed our regular pattern of making and eating dinner, preparing lunches, doing the dishes and of course the ironing.  I know that ironing is one of the jobs that many of us love to hate but even that provides a stability and certainty in the turmoil of the moment.

What routines do you have that keep you grounded, regardless of what is happening within and beyond your life, and over which you have no control?

Thank you all for your lovely, thoughtful comments.  I have not responded to all of them yet but will endeavour to do so soon.

How Do You Clean?

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Do you clean all like things together or do it room by room?

From an efficiency point of view I suspect that it makes sense to do all of the sweeping or clean all of the light fittings.  On the other hand , I like knowing that I have completed one room.  An example is the bedroom – I may strip the bed then remove any cobwebs, wipe the windowsills, clean the lightshade, clean mirror, dust and polish furniture, vacuum the carpet, remake the bed with fresh linen – and it is all done.

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will be aware that the office is the unofficial dumping ground here and getting it the way I want it is a struggle.  Since the weather has been miserable today I have stayed indoors and continued to work on this area.

I am very pleased with my achievements so far.  Here is the desk.

2012-03-04 01Another view of the room.

2012-03-04 02Finally, the pile of stuff that I have yet to sort and find where it is going to live – either in this house or elsewhere.

2012-03-04 03Wish me luck!

Space When You Need It

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I have previously written about the benefits of living with less.  By having less stuff in our homes we immediately benefit by having less maintenance – less washing, less dusting, less cleaning and so on.

Doing less allows us more time and freedom to choose what we do with that time.  This can be time to volunteer, exercise or indulge a variety of passions.

Sometimes things that are completely out of your control happen that require time and attention from you at relatively short notice.  This has happened to me and I have been able to easily adjust my schedule to accommodate these changes.

It made me think how much more stressful these situations would be if my days were completely crammed with commitments and I had to struggle with finding the time for important things that require my attention.

Do you have spaces available and what would you do?

As an aside, I will try to maintain my blogging routine but please bear with me if there are some interruptions to the regular service.