Afternoon Clean-Out, Tidy-Up - Part 1

This afternoon, I got in and cleaned up a good part of my house soon after I grabbed the list I had written down off the post below and stuffed it into my pocket.  The first thing I did was clean the fish tank out.  I took out the castle, rocks and the fishies (put them into a separate large container with plenty of water and off to one side out of the way) and emptied the tank as low as I could get it, and then grabbed some paper towel and wiped down the glass on the inside!  So much crap came off that glass!  I knew it was dirty, but not this dirty!  Well!  Once it was finished and nice and clean, I put the wall for the fishies back up and put them back into the purified water and they were happily swimming around, it was time to do Little Miss Stevie's cage out. 

I changed over the paper, cleaned her perches and made sure she was happy with the window open and the radio going.  I also let her fly around a fair bit as she hasn't been out for a while... cute little thing!

Once I put the bin back in its place, I began putting all my art gear outside, paintbrushes in the kitchen and paint on the counter.  I grabbed the black box and put that in the middle of the back yard and gave it a once over with the broom - as it was coated with a thick layer of dust and dirt and old cobwebs - and I opened it up and found it was only half-filled with paintbrushes Mum gave me, an old painting from 2000, collage bits in containers I haven't used and corks I used to use for paintings (which I may yet use again) and my oil and chalk pastels in a plastic bag.  I also found two small sketch pads that were unopened and one that was half-used.  So, I sorted through it all and took out what I'd use, put back what was going to be storage for now and found that the box is going to be temporary until I get a cupboard for my gear.

Next thing I did was pull out the drop cloth of calico, beat it against the fence and then sweep out the area completely... I found two dead cockroaches and a lot of dirt.  So, once that was cleaned out and thrown out, I did a big toss-out of exactly what was needed and what wasn't.  I found I threw out a lot of things that had been broken or wrecked or was just too old to be used anymore.  And being brutal about this kind of thing is good when it comes to cleaning out... you have to do it or you'll never be able to move that clutter out.

After I had all that cleaned away and the overflowing bag of rubbish out in the wheelie bin, I looked at the kitchen sink and realised that I just had to wash up a little... so I did.  It felt good to tidy up two areas of my house.  However, I needed a pick-me-up and got in and made an ice coffee and cut up a hot cross bun with butter on it... yummo!  

By around 2:30pm, I had finished my afternoon tea and was ready for my next project.  I grabbed my camera and two phones and headed upstairs to the office.  It was time to tackle the amount of space I didn't have for my books.  I had to make space for them and begin moving them around so there was space.  I took before photos, turned the camera off and got into it.  

I wanted my old books to fit into the bookcase by themselves.  And so, I pulled out my gardening section and put them in. This meant I had to move the filing of magazines and newspapers to where I had others near the door of my home office.  I then wanted all my photo albums together - well most of them - and so I moved my photos from the UK to the saggy bookcase and found the large one didn't fit.  So, I simply swapped shelves where the journals were kept and put my UK photos with the NZ photos and I was happy... as they were both massive photo albums and the others were slightly smaller.  I looked on top and wanted to change how they were stacked and grabbed the ladder and began pulling them down.  Then, I bumped a small book on the bottom at the back and it slid behind the bookcase!  Bummer!  I had to remove the hat stand my handbags hung on, pull down all my books and put them onto the floor and then remove one of the large door stoppers and rock the whole bookcase forwards to get the book to slide and roll towards me - which fortunately it did!  Then I pushed the whole bookcase up against the wall, shoved the door stop under the foot of the bookcase to stop it from leaning forwards (as its dynamics are all wrong! Instead of leaning back when it's full, it leans forwards!  Who designed this stupid thing got it all wrong and is as bad at maths as I am!) and then sort through the books and find the bigger ones to put on the bottom of the top of the case and work up from there to smaller books.  This is so none of the books fall down the back... how good is that for an idea?

Once I got that done, I had to tidy up a little, throw out some other things, calendars that were way outa date and then take photos of the difference I made to the office since an hour or so before.  By this time, it was about 4:15pm and I was stuffed.  I wanted something to eat and it was beginning to get cold.  My office was beginning to look better too.  There's more space on the shelves and I'm looking forward to attacking these bookcases again soon to make them work better and better each time I organise them.

Well, it's very late and very quiet.  My back neighbours have left their back light again - how rude! - which is a signal that they've gone away.  Why people do this is silly when so many people stay home over Easter... well, we'll never know why they do silly things like this.  Until my next post, take care, keep safe and warm and remember, I'm always here.