Yesterday Andy made the comment that our house is currently very heavily used. This is true. There are a lot of people here, and a lot less time to maintain things.
I have severly lowered my standards on cleanliness. It turns out, slippers can mask how many crumbs exist in our dining room! Why sweep now when Sarah (our cleaner) can do it on Tuesday? I could be sweeping now, but I would rather write a blog post.
We also have the pram currently stored in the dining room, because double prams are really big. British houses are not.
I have the urge to get rid of many things. The big kids are prolific artists. Why is the bread on top of the bread bin? Can I throw away that pile of child drawings or will someone be sad?
We did have a grocery delivery today, which explains all the bread... but still. Chaos!
Also, I will tell you the story of that breadmaker. We make a lot of bread. We eat a lot of bread! About two months ago, our bread started coming out flat. I thought it was the breadmaker - it's almost 8 years old and used almost daily for the last 5 years. Andy wanted to try other things. I almost bought a breadmaker in December but decided to wait and let him work on it. Then breadmakers were out of stock untill February. Finally they were in stock and I bought a new one. I made a loaf of bread with a bag of whole wheat flour and it turned out great.
Andy then made a loaf in the old bread maker with that same bag of flour and it turned out great. Apparently, it was our old flour causing our bread not to rise.
I'm not sure why we didn't try new flour in the last two months. But now we own two bread-makers. One brand new and expensive. I don't want to sell it on and instantly lose money... which I know is a total sunk cost fallacy. I'm annoyed neither of us tried buying new flour, although we both think we tried that and that it didn't work. Anyways, our house does not have room for a second breadmaker.
Another thing I want to declutter is my iron and vitamin C supplement. I took this for a very short time while pregnant and it made me feel awful. Do I throw it away? I would love to give it to someone who wants an Iron and Vitamin C supplement, however I don't want to spend the time to join a freecycle group and message people and arrange collection etc. Perhaps I need to take a page from KC Davies and just throw it away? But it feels so... wasteful.
what can I do with half a bottle of expensive Conditioner for curly hair when I now wear straight hair? Or the unopened white pepper that came with a meal kit which I'll probably never use?
And as more things come in... I've emptied this box of baby 6-9 clothes:
I made a bag for the baby charity shop (because I just know I wont put the twins in some of these things - most were third hand for Isaac) and a bag to give away to friend with a baby boy. I put the rest in a drawer, which is slighty satisfying, but the drawer is already overfull:
But back to baby clothes - I want to give these to the baby bank, which is baby specific donations. But, I have to get to the baby bank, which is tricky. So it's more things in my house for now. It feels like I'm not emptying the house... I'm just moving things around in the house.
Also, I don't like tidying the big kids room. I decided to get the kids baskets for everything. Anything that doesn't live in a basket either goes to charity or has to have a different home. Here is their basket system:
Well now that I've managed this me time of writing a blog post (babies slept! Yay!) I think I might work on clearing off that counter. Maybe I'll wipe up the crumbs. Maybe.
I guess my general thought is that if I feel like I'm always tidying things up then I probably need fewer things, and yet I'm having trouble getting rid of things.
Also, someday I'll spend some time proofreading my posts again. I'm sure I could declutter half the words.
Today is not that day!
What should I do with my vitamin C? What else can I get rid of today?
Love your basket system! And even though it feels like you are just moving things around, you are making progress. The items that you need to donate WILL leave the house.
ReplyDeleteI think the vitamin C needs to go in the bin. I completely understand how wasteful it feels, but finding someone who will take it sounds like A Project.
I say take the new bread maker back! Do it now, before the 30 day window has passed! I had a few things that I was going to try to sell but they were still in the box and I had not opened/used them so I took them back, even though I had bought them a couple of years ago. Luckily Home Depot will still take them, and even without a receipt but you only get store credit. I was doubtful, but so glad I gave it a shot!
ReplyDeleteRe the vitamins, just throw them away. It is not worth your mental capacity at this point. Food is hard, as it can't be expired or opened really in order to donate it, but sometimes you just have to throw it away.
Unfortunately I opened the new breadmaker and made a loaf of bread with it. I can only return it for a repair or replacement. I'm going to hold onto it for now - I wish I had tried new flour in the old breadmaker first (although I swear I did.. but apparently not)
DeleteVitamins in the bin! Thanks!
I say throw the vitamins away! Finding the perfect person to take things is a whole process with lots of steps and I think if you have twin babies you have enough going on!
ReplyDeleteI feel you on the kids artwork.. I think my daughter creates like 10+ things a day.
Hi! I think you asked me about nesting with a third a while ago and I don't think I replied. I didn't do any sorting or furniture building, but I did do a lot of shopping and decluttering. I wanted everything to be organized. And well stocked. Every grocery delivery was like it might be my last. I couldn't really do freezer meal prep because I was in too much twin pregnancy discomfort, but we had crackers for years. Good luck with your third! Everyone told me 0-1 is hard, 1-2 is tricky, but you don't notice the third. I definitely notice the third and fourth haha!
DeleteOur transition from 1 to 2 was really hard so I'm a little terrified, but I've heard people say that about #3! Our first two were 21 months apart, so I'm excited to have a bit bigger gap (4.5 and almost 3 years).
DeleteI think nesting is probably my favorite part of pregnancy. I am purging and organizing like a madwoman right now!
Oh interesting! I found the transition from 0-1 harder than 1-2, but 1-2 was during covid so I have sort of erased most of this from my memory. Also, my first two were 22 months apart too! And then I had a newly 3 and newly 5 year old when the twins were born.
DeleteI definitely think this would be a lot easier with just one baby... but I'm not sure if I would think that if I had just one baby. Good luck! Enjoy the purging!
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ReplyDeleteI would just throw the vitamins away. Yes, it's a waste but out of your house and off your mind. I am riveted by posts that show pictures of people's households that are real not some pale wood Insta mom, so thank you. One day I will "graduate" and do a similar post. Not there yet- feeling a bit self-conscious. I'm a work in progress lol
ReplyDeleteVitamins in the bin now! And I'm glad you like posts of my messy house haha. I'll have to do more! Happy to share the midpoint / startpoint of my chaos.
DeleteOur duplex is small and we have very limited counter space (but we also don't have two toddlers and twin babies, so the clutter is probably less..) and I am also trying to get rid of stuff.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad your house looks like a house that is heavily used (like most homes, I imagine).
I am glad you decided to blog instead of sweep. That's the cleaner's job.