Decluttering

I'm going onto my two kitchen drawers, next, because they are full of a load of old toot, really.
I need to do something a bit easier than that cupboard.

Great stuff! You're on a roll - make the most of it.

I would dearly love to de-clutter but I fear it would mean losing Mr. G, one of the world's greatest oh-it-might-come-in-handy clutterers.

Four pairs of shoes put onto vinted today, and three into the bin.
My friend, (who will be doing all the work, wrapping and posting them) and I will be splitting the money half each.

It'll be a tiny amount, but better for them to go to a new home.

With it being so cold I decided to go for it with my iced up freezer given that I’d bought the anti freeze stuff. Put all the food into freezer bags in the garage, unplugged it and sprayed it. Thawed out pretty quickly. Now just hoping that it works again. If it doesn’t I’ve got a lot of food to eat this weekend and a lot of banana bread to make! I was looking at mini chest freezers to buy in case this one didn’t work again and realised one would cost me more than the food that might get ruined. Smart meter has been fitted with no problem ( lad who fitted it was wonderful; I want to mention him in dispatches if I can). Man is coming to measure up for a bathroom blind on Monday so I don’t have to put cardboard all over the window when I have a shower. Another man is coming out to look at my broken garage door on Tuesday. Just hope that my freezer gets down to the correct temperature ( if only I could find the instruction manual!). I’m not looking at the smart meter thingy that tells me how much I’m paying but I’ve bought several energy saving things I need to fit and some thick curtains to put on one of the old wooden windows that aren’t very energy efficient. Also unplugging any plugs that aren’t being used cause I read that even if they’re switched off they use electricity. I’m getting my office sorted, too. I moved everything out when I had the window fitted and a lot of it is still scattered throughout the house. Arranged for the damaged burglar alarm to be replaced, too. I’m getting there ( still haven’t actually thrown anything away, though …)

Look, where are you getting all these men?
I only want one and I can't find one for love nor money.

I can't believe how well you're doing, seriously.
Declutterer of the week, I think you are.

Hurrah. Temperature in freezer is going down. It still works!

I gave up on the odd job man who can pretty much fix or build anything. I’d got too dependent on him and he just seems to want to do big jobs. To be fair he has fixed loads of things in my house and garden over the years. I’ve got Hillary’s to do the blind. Garage man was in one of those free local magazines that get pushed through the letterbox. Does anyone else have a huge collection of pencils and biros going back decades that just float round the house not getting used? Or get stressed about passwords.

I would find a good film and sit down to watch it with the bucket of biros and some scrap paper. Scribble with each pen and if it writes put it in a box to keep - if it doesn’t, put it in a ‘chuck it’ box or straight in the bin.

My charity collection didn’t happen 😡. I contacted them and they emailed a photo of the front door, so they’d been, but I was in the room next to the hallway all day, and the bell didn’t ring. It’s an old bell with a clanger, so it does ring loudly.

I got Mr Dog to take the bags to the charity shop.

I think I’m only achieving all this because the nasty BBC are only releasing one episode of Wolf Hall per week and I can’t binge watch it…

Doodledog I'm finding lots of delivery people don't ring the bell they just tap (if that) on the front door. We've taken to wedging a laminated paper that asks them to ring the bell in the letterbox when we know a delivery is expected. Amazon are worse, just put parcels on my front step, very visible from the road, and could be there for hours! Today I arrived home to one on the top step, which they'd photographed but told me it had been delivered to my "safe space" the back porch! I give up....

* that's so garbled! The laminated paper is wedged in the letterbox, it asks them to ring the bell (which is not in the letterbox)

Yes, I've had photos of parcels on the front step saying they are in the (non-existent) 'open front porch'. It's infuriating.

I am considering getting a locked parcel box. I don't know where I would put it just now, but want to get the front lawn 'done' which will include re-concreting around the bay window, so will look into getting one sunk into the concrete when I do. Meanwhile, I might dig out the laminator and copy your idea, thanks.

Why do they tap on the door instead of ringing? It happens to me too, and it's maddening. My bell can be heard in the next village, so I'm not listening out for taps on the door. I usually have music or radio/TV on anyway, which would drown out a tap.

It happens here, too.
They gallop to the nearest doorstep, any will do.
I had an etsy parcel due, which never arrived, but customer services wouldn't speak to me, as I was unable to give the correct address,to confirm it was me.
Alli could give was the one I have the silly notion is mine, based on the flimsy evidence that I've lived here for the past forty years. 🤔

have the silly notion is mine, based on the flimsy evidence that I've lived here for the past forty years

Google have unilaterally given our road and the adjacent buildings a new name, not the council or for any reason they will tell me - when I asked Google said ‘nothing wrong’. Therefore new courier drivers can’t find us. There will never be signs up for the new name as it is not official but it is on Google maps for our post code

It's as if the system is trying to drive us all to drink .

I do believe that if anyone could solve the problem of deliveries they would make a fortune. Many of us buy a lot online these days, but it is difficult to get a reliable delivery window, and even if things do arrive on time it is beyond the wit of some drivers to make their presence at our doorsteps known. My local FB page often has photos of random feet on doorsteps with forlorn requests for the owners of said feet to identify their address, to allow the rightful owner to trudge round to collect the parcel they have paid ££££ to have delivered to their own door.

My nextdoor neighbour knocked yesterday, to ask if I wanted two fans, or one of them.

I've only just managed to squeeze my one fan into Brian the cupboard.

I could have cried, but I had to say no, so she went and put both in the bin.

She only bought them at the tail end of the summer, and probably rightly reckoned nobody would be interested in them now.

Did a bit more tidying up in the garden. I’m so glad I paid those guys to work on the garden last week. Sometimes the amount of work is just so overwhelming I just want to curl up and go to sleep in the hope it might seem better when I wake up. Having a lot of work done in a short space of time has energised me. Going to put the curtains up tonight. And I can start restocking the freezer now it’s defrosted.

Further to deliveries....

I was tracking a parcel to be delivered by Amazon by 10pm. Put the trusty laminated paper hanging out of the letterbox, with polite request to ring the doorbell. Checked the tracking again which had updated and it said posted through letterbox. On investigation it had been pushed halfway through the letterbox, having had to slide over the laminated sheet, and the doorbell had remained silent........

How annoying, Rosie! Why do they do it?

My cleaner’s partner delivers for a well-known online company beginning with an A, and says that so many customers are horrible that some drivers take revenge against us all. That’s sad, but maybe understandable?

I try to be as reasonable as possible, but maybe expecting next day delivery for £70 a year is inherently unreasonable? I don’t know.

In the last ten minutes I had a delivery from EVRI. The delivery man as always rang the bell and banged loudly on the front door. As always he smiles and wishes me a good day as he takes a photograph.
Not only that, but the parcel was delivered four days earlier than predicted. Well done to EVRI.

Well, knock me down with a feather.
It's rare to hear of Evri getting things so right.

Miss A I think we're very fortunate in my area. The previous EVRI delivery driver was a lady. We were privileged to have her for several years. She too was polite, cheerful and reliable, and..... she rang the bell and banged the door.

It's good if you get the same person for a while.
They get to know a bit about the people behind the front doors.

We had a royal mail man for a long while... currently have a lovely one, too.

He delivers my parcel into my living room and hands it to me, if he can see I'm struggling.

Doodledog

How annoying, Rosie! Why do they do it?

My cleaner’s partner delivers for a well-known online company beginning with an A, and says that so many customers are horrible that some drivers take revenge against us all. That’s sad, but maybe understandable?

I try to be as reasonable as possible, but maybe expecting next day delivery for £70 a year is inherently unreasonable? I don’t know.

That's what we're asked to pay so we do. I do feel for the delivery drivers, they have a punishing schedule but how long does it take to press a doorbell?
Today I had a delivery by Hive, a new one to me. I was given a link to live track the delivery van. Just as well as it went from 'x stops to your delivery' to 'delivered'. On investigating, the parcel was on my front doorstep, no bell had been rung. I saw I'd had an email saying delivered and offering proof of delivery. There was a photo of my front door from the pavement, then another photo taken on my property showing the parcel on my front step. Seriously, would pressing a doorbell really have delayed the driver? The caption said 'delivered to front porch', the photo clearly shows I haven't got a front porch ........