First a report back about yesterday's washing with conker liquid. An initial success! I chose washing that wasn't too dirty except one of Tom's shirts that was a bit grubby around the collar and washed it on a 30 degree wash which is what I would normally use for an only lightly dirty load. When the washing was going round and round in the machine there was not a bubble in sight and I was prepared for it not doing anything. However after only a 30 minute wash I was pleasantly surprised. The washing was fresh and clean. Although there was no scent, it smelt fresh and definitely soft. The grubby marks on the shirt collar had all gone. Youngest son and daughter were amazed and frankly won over. Today I am going to have a go with clothes a bit dirtier and see how I get on.
In my quest for a more ordered household I'm always reading about ways of decluttering. Always reading never really succeeding! I came across one website recently that made me realise how stuck in the past I am. They gave a list of things no one has in their house anymore. One of the things they said to get rid of was CD's as everything now can be listenend to digitally. I know this is true but Tom loves his collection of CDs and is always trawling jumble sales and Car Boot Sales for new additions and I am even further back with a large collection of LPs and singles I still have from the 70s and early 80s.I even have a collection, of dare I say it, music cassettes I listen to on a little 1970s cassette player (rescued from a skip!) with the cassettes stored in this lovely orange cassette case I bought at a jumble sale for 50p.
Another item was filing cabinets. It said scan all your precious documents and store them on the cloud and no more lists and wall calenders, just write them on your phone. Oh dear the one and only time I tried to copy what my eldest daughter always does and write a list on my phone I couldn't find it when I arrived at the shops and as for important documents in the cloud. I'm not even going to comment. The final item on the list was DVD's. Now I would have probably agreed with this until recently. At the beginning of the year we had a clear out of a lot of DVDs as we had subscribed to Netflix this time last year. Recently when I was going through our bank statement, I noticed the Netflix payment of £5.99 a month. "Do we really need this?" I asked everyone. Youngest son? "No never watch it." Youngest daughter? "Ocaasionally, but I'm not really bothered. Get rid of it if you want." "What about us?" I asked Tom "Oh yes we use it." He said "We watched all the episodes of Merlin earlier this year." "That was last year." I said. When I thought about it that is all we have watched. We really enjoyed it again but I could have bought all the series for about £20 secondhand on ebay instead of the £72 we have paid over the last year to Netflix. That's it, Netflix has gone.
So rather than decluttering to live in the 21st century I have decluttered any up to date bits. I'm probably just not in the modern world really. I suppose I could set up a little business as a vintage entertainer using my retro items to play music at weddings and vintage events, Yes there really is such a thing. Well it's a thought!
The sun is shining here though I'm not sure it will last. I hope you get a bit of brightness what ever you do today. xx
