Older People are CLUTTER

Posted on April 9, 2017 by john graham

For weeks now I have been writing about clutter and in the meantime politicians have been assailed from all sides by concerns about the perilous situation of funding for social care for older people.  Then it occurred to me that politicians from all parties are having difficulties getting their heads round the problem of older people.  To them older people are clutter.

Here is a fictional conversation that might be heard in the Westminster corridors of power or in the pubs nearby, if only our political elite were honest enough to say what they really think.   As judged by their complete failure to address the ageing of our society.

  • Older people are cluttering up the NHS and costing us a fortune.   It is only the power of their vote that is stopping us younger politicians coming up with progressive policies to solve the country’s problems with the growing number of older people.
  • One idea would be to accelerate further restriction of health treatments for everyone over 75.  What is the point of treating them when they are going to die soon anyway?
  • We should also reintroduce Lord Falconer’s Bill on Assisted Dying. We have tried twice, perhaps this time it will be third time lucky.   Goodness knows old people need help to make the right decision.
  • Spain has been a useful deportation location for older people and criminals for the last thirty years.   But we should stop paying them ” Winter fuel allowance” , when everyone knows it is hot as hell out there.
  • What about sending thousands of  them en mass to India, just like the recent TV programme “The Real Marigold Hotel”.   What a clever idea of the Government to sponsor the making of that programme.  In fact they could turn it into a Russian style program and use the overseas aid budget for transportation for everyone over 75.   They might think they were going on holiday.
  • This could be a big style “Brexit exit”.    If lots of older people were helped to emigrate it could solve our nett immigration problem.   Who knows, they could just go over the border to an independent Scotland, where old peoples’ health and social care is free.
  • Another thought would be to ban all people over 75 from driving.   That would cut pollution, reduce car imports, speed up the remaining traffic and make better use of all the empty seats on subsidised buses.
  • We mustn’t forget to disenfranchise them before doing any of this so they can’t vote down these progressive policies.
  • Of course we will have to exempt all the members of the House of Lords from these ideas 🙂

Maybe I am being a bit cynical and very unkind to our politicians.    Perhaps they just don’t have a clue what to do ?

Posted in ELDERLY UK POLICY | Tagged | 2 Comments

Clutter Bears and Cleaning Materials

Posted on April 6, 2017 by john graham

Way back on Step 22 of John’s de-cluttering journey he thought he had de-cluttered the clutter of  cleaning materials.    How wrong can you be?

The clutter Bears have now taken over and are going to be much more thorough than John, who misses things all the time.  The bears have moved on to emptying the many boxes around the house and have discovered a whole hidden world of even more bottles and aerosols of every Cleaning complexion.    There is obviously a lot more to Cleaning these days than bears realised.

It is a pity that the manufacturers of cleaning materials don’t co-ordinate with bathroom box makers, then perhaps the bottles and boxes would fit inside the boxes😀   This is what the bears found just by searching around properly and reading the labels :-

  • Big Ted was looking for honey when he found “Fabreeze” —-it eliminates tough odours and children —- that’s what it says on the label.  Big Ted though that was very bad.
  • Patch found several large bottles of “Thin Bleach” —- the label says it kills all known germs and just about everything else — there are nineteen warnings on the bottle!   One says ” Avoid release into into the environment”  so I guess you have to shuttle it into space.      That is going to put our refuse disposal charges up a bit.
  • Pyjama Bear discovered 2 half-empty bottles of “Dettol”, —-multi-purpos, cleans just about everything  except children. “And even bears know children need lots of cleaning”.
  • Cuddley Bear dug out some “Flash”  —- it seems to do everything dettol does —-  but it it is harmful to aquatic life and children.   So she says “Better not to buy your grandchildren a goldfish for Christmas if you use Flash”.
  • Peter Rabbit burrowed in some cupboards  and found “Mr Muscle” —- seems to do the same as all the others just made by a different manufacturer —– same unreadable small print on the bottle.   He says “There are lots more with silly names”
  • Cillet Bang —– ditto but with more power?
  • Viakal —– ditto again.
  • Sqezy Pow!  —— it is only the name that is different.
  • Whitey Bear  stumbled across something called “Power Force”  —— just like the ones all the others had found, but ” kills more than 99.9% of common bacteria within 5 minutes according to DIN EN 1040″.   Whitey says “Who is Din En? He sounds like a Chinese doctor.   He is obviously not worried about fast acting germs that can kill you in less than 5 minutes or the 0.1% that get through anyway”.

All this research  and hunting down cleaning things was boring, so  the bears decided to have a Wild West shoot out, —- which was much more fun than John was having.    We think John is not having half as much fun cleaning his third toilet.

If Bears weren’t so cynical, they would probably think that there is just one type of cleaning product and the manufacturers just pour it into different bottles.

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

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Clutter Bears and Origami

Posted on April 4, 2017 by john graham

In our last Bear blog you may have noticed that Little Ted was not in the photograph.  Actually he doesn’t like cleaning toilets anymore than John does, but Little Ted thinks he knows rather more interesting Japanese tidying techniques than cleaver clogs John.

So he sneeked off while the other bears were still tidying and did something much more creative with the spare toilet rolls.  Not a lot of bears know that Little Ted is a zen master in the art of origami.  Oh and he had a bit of help from MO !

Little Ted says  “It only took me a few minutes and it was a lot of fun making this paper rose.   I wonder if John had as much fun cleaning the toilets?”

If you have a better idea of what to do with spare toilet rolls, we bears would like to hear from you.   You can also tell George Simons, because although the bears liked his crash pad idea, bears really prefer catching fish.

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

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Clutter Bears and Toilet Rolls

Posted on April 2, 2017 by john graham

This time John has a little help from his bear friends, because this de-cluttering is becoming unbearable.    We will continue to apply John’s Japanese management techniques and find a simple bear solution.    This should be interesting because we will use a quality improvement approach called Bear Kaizen.    We have deliberately picked a very small issue to see if John can learn to do it the bear way.

First Step :- the bear essentials

John says there are too many toilet rolls cluttering up bathrooms and toilets.  Although we bears think that you can have a lot of fun with excess toilet rolls.

Second Step :- gather the bear facts

  • In the main bathroom there is 1 toilet roll on the toilet roll holder, which, in a bear’s simple mind, should be the only place for toilet rolls, but there is also a bag of 7 more, half hidden under towels.
  • In the second bathroom there is 1 roll properly on the toilet roll holder, but also 3 on a pole for surplus rolls, 1 on a toilet brush and 3 more in a basket.  Even bears can’t use 8 toilet rolls at once, so we should be able to bear de-clutter 7.
  • In the downstairs loo — there is 1 on the holder and 3 more on another decorative pole display.     Bears are not totally convinced toilet rolls are decorative, maybe we should take up Origami classes and learn to fold toilet paper into flowers.
  • Mo buys toilet rolls in bulk “BOGOFF offers” because they are cheaper that way.  But they need to be bought 12 at a time, which means there are always a lot more than bears need.
  • When John occasionally buys them, he always buys the wrong type so they become surplus, that’s where some of the clutter comes from.  So it’s his fault really!
  • Bears never want to run out of toilet rolls.   Some of us bears remember those ripped up bits of newspaper in the outside loo on ice cold winter days! They were not very comfortable on your bear bum!
  • Excess toilet rolls means we end up with extra baskets and decorative displays of surplus toilet rolls bearly leaving enough space in the bathrooms and loo.  But at least bears can have fun playing with them.
  • On the good side, John gets a blog from the bog.

Third Step. :-  Bear Improvement Actions

  • There needs to be a bear operating procedure (BOP) to ensure all the toilet rolls are always full in each bathroom and toilet.    Excess toilet rolls will no longer be necessary in every location.
  • Weekly bog inspections should be carried out by John.    Almost finished rolls should be replaced with new rolls.     More frequent inspection may be necessary in times of trouble😩
  • Almost-finished rolls should be removed to the second bathroom and stored out of sight in the specifically designated basket for emergency toilet rolls, until they can be used in an emergency.
  • John will not eat prunes any more !
  • In case John forgets, it may be necessary to frame it and put it on the wall in each bathroom and loo.  Although we are not sure MO will like this idea!
  • Bear suggestion:- wee should  put  John in charge of bog roll re-supply since he seems to know all about toilet rolls.
  • And Little Ted says, “Every week he should clean all the toilets, since he is such a clever ass” 😀

Bear success measures are — “Will it be easier, safer, faster and fun?”.

  • Easier — YES    Less frequent shopping while excess rolls are used up.
  • Safer   — YES    17 less clutter rolls for bears to fall over.
  • Faster — YES    Only if bears don’t get the runs.
  • Fun     — YES    Bears 6  😈  John 0 😩

Patch has a good idea for excess toilet rolls.  He says “If I can wrap them all around me, I might be able to get on the tele like the Labrador puppy in the Andrex toilet roll adverts.”

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

 

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Clutter Bears Take Over

Posted on April 1, 2017 by john graham

George Simons started all this off with his great idea about a crash pad for teddy bears.   Then John suggested the crash pad might be in the garden shed, but we’re certainly not happy with that and before John decides that teddies are clutter, we think we had better help him out with this blog and the rest of his de-cluttering.   David also commented that he would like to know who we all are.  So let us introduce ourselves.

First of all the bear in the blue sweater on the left is Big Ted who thinks he’s the boss of all the bears around here and definitely more important than John who used to think he was the boss until we took over.  Next to him is Pyjama Ted who sleeps a lot and never gets out of his pyjamas, rather like John.  Next in line is Holly Bear because he arrived one Christmas Day and can be a prickly character like John when he’s de-cluttering.  After that is Patch who only thinks he’s a bear, except when he remembers he’s a mischievous dog, like Tilly the cockerpoo who’s a real dog who walks John in the mornings!  Sitting next to him is Whitey Bear who is pure as the driven snow and never ever does anything wrong, except when John’s not looking.  Now we come to Peter Rabbit, who’s obviously not a bear but doesn’t want to miss out on anything.  He’s the clever one because he’s quick and never gets caught.  Last in line is Little Ted who MO mentioned in her comments in the last blog. He’s wearing his very own special red sweater.  MO can tell you the story of the red sweater.

We are here to take over this blog about clutter 😈.    John is making heavy weather of it, he has been at it for months and you can bearly see any difference.    And worse than that he is getting on MO’s nerves going on about clutter all the time.   We love MO to bits, so we are not having him upsetting her.

Every bear knows clutter is fun.    Didn’t John say these Japanese management ideas he keeps banging on about should be easier, safer, faster and FUN.     

“Let’s start with toilet rolls” says Patch.  “I know lots of things to do with them.  Tomorrow we will show John how to get down to doing de-cluttering properly by teaching John”

The Bear essentials of de-cluttering😈

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering, although they have never mentioned any bear ideas in their book.

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Clutter Teddies

Posted on March 30, 2017 by john graham

Following on from my last post.   Seems like these little guys rather like Georges’ idea of a cushion crash pad, although they definitely don’t want it to be in the garden shed. That would be cruelty to animals !

Maybe I can get them to help with the rest of my de-cluttering ?

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 7 Comments

SCRAP Step 29 Clutter Census

Posted on March 30, 2017 by john graham

I have had an idea that might help me with my decluttering and it is one that I haven’t seen in Walt and George’s book.    I have always liked numbers. — facts and figures — and my management experience tells me you need the facts to measure improvement.   It sounds a bit crazy but here goes l will give it a try 😀

  • CHAIRS —-  We have 25 all around the house and only 2 bums !
  • CUSHIONS — 2 heads and 65 cushions ( not counting pillows ! )
  • CUPBOARDS. — 23 cupboards  stocked to the gunnels ( I knew we had too many gunnels )  excluding my walk-in wardrobe and the sheds in the garden.

I hope I am not getting too obsessive about this !  Maybe I have got a clutter disorder after all ?  Still I won’t need to go to the doctor again.  We must have enough pills around the house.    Somewhere.  But WHERE ?

  • BOXES & CHESTS —  47 rarely ever opened goodness knows what secrets they hide ?  Hopefully they don’t contain 16 men but the bottle of rum might come in handy 😀   Contents
  • DRAWERS —-  54 usually full to the brim sometimes to sticking point.

OK that’s enough counting for now.   It just tells me there is a long way still to go !    Probably at this point I should go on to develop some Key Performance Indicators  and draw a few graphs.    

  • Cushions per room is an obvious one.   In fact why can’t we do with just a cushion each and move them around room to room?
  • Drawer utilisation percentage.  After which you have to throw things away!
  • Maximum wardrobe capacity indicator.   Traffic lights which tell you when you can buy more clothes would be helpful to Mo 😀

Although may that is going a bit too far   🤓

I wonder what my Doctor would think if I turned up at the surgery with a load of clutter graphs and asked him “What are the optimum number of cushions per bum ?”

Has anybody got any better ideas for our excessive collection of cushions?

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

 

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 5 Comments

SCRAP Step 28 Stamps

Posted on March 28, 2017 by john graham

I have been de-cluttering books in the study for the last 5 hours, that is covered in my earlier blogs.   But I found one nice surprise at the end. Just when I was getting hungry, exhausted and fed up.   I picked up an A4 size dog eared green and white album.  It sparked JOY immediately, although I haven’t seen it for years.     My old childhood stamp collection !

I collected stamps from an early age, maybe 6 or 7.    They were only British stamps to start with and only from letters we got in the post.   I used to steam them off with a boiling kettle and mount them in an exercise book.     We used to travel up to my grandparents in Gloucester and there I discovered a tiny little shop that only sold stamps.     That is what really got me started.    The man in the shop was really helpful and from then on we visited his shop every time we went to Gloucester.    Later still I joined the Bridgenorth Stamp Club and they sent me a book of stamps every month ” on approval “.  That is where most of my pocket money went.

Gradually my collection got too big, so I decided concentrate on British Commonwealth stamps and bought the album I rediscovered today.  That was over 50 years ago so I expect my stamps are worth a fortune by now 😀    I am probably a stamp millionaire !

What I really gained out of it was an encyclopaedic knowledge ideal for answering geography questions in TV quizzes.

Many years later when I was in London with some time to kill, I went to the Mecca of all stamp collectors — Stanley Gibbons stamp shop on the Strand.     What a disappointment, it was like walking into a bank managers office or at least a very expensive jewellers.    All my childhood innocence was shattered in a moment.   I collected stamps for fun and the joy of finding out about far away foreign lands.    It seems I should have been thinking about stamps as an investment.    There weren’t any stamps you could buy in Stanley Gibbons for thruppence or even one a six.      Nor was there  a white haired old man to inspire a little boy about the wonders of  countries many miles away.

Still I found my stamp album and it is worth a lot more than money to me.

A good de-cluttering experience !

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 3 Comments

Welsh Housing Report 4

Posted on March 26, 2017 by john graham

“Older people at Home in Wales”

This is the fourth of my series of comments on the report entitled “Our Housing Agenda:  Meeting the Aspirations of Older People in Wales”.  (You can see my earlier posts by clicking Welsh Housing in the TAG CLOUD).

As I’ve said in my earlier blogs, this is a very ambitious report with a lot of very good ideas.  If they could all be followed up at a significant scale they would certainly have the power to transform the lives of many older people in later life.

  • There are 37 separate threads requiring action which are identified in the report. Not all of these are new ideas, but each one has merit.  They can also be inter-related and have greater potential power in combination, for instance, new housing should be a hub for wider community interaction and a base for outreach work into the community.  However, it is not realistically possible to pursue all these avenues with the same vigour.  The report acknowledges this by proposing that the actions are defined as either short term or medium term.
  • The “lead” for most threads is seen as the Welsh Government and whilst it is true that they have to create a platform for new initiatives, it is more likely that innovative projects will be conceived from more entrepreneurial sources. The private sector, voluntary organisations and the charity sector are more familiar with incubating and developing new innovations.
  • The overall vision of the report could lead to a substantial transformation of Older People’s housing and related services.   Such change is probably best addressed in small steps, so that a programme of “proving projects” would be a good place to start.
  • I would suggest this is best done with a three-pronged approach:-
    • Firstly, Government, Local Authorities and Health Authorities should create a platform for innovation.   They need to seed-fund the start-up of pilot projects and then clear barriers out of the way.   The point of using pilot projects initially is that they don’t challenge the status quo too much and they allow for the fact that not all projects will be successful.
    • Secondly, market research techniques should be used to determine the level of demand for services in local areas and in turn this should provide a database for potential innovation projects.   This could be done based around the issues identified in the report using focus group discussions and wider surveys in potential pilot areas.    Thereafter older people should participate in every stage of a project’s development and management.
    • Thirdly, there should be independent monitoring and evaluation to determine in what way and how many older people have benefitted from the projects.   The key performance criteria for the projects should be agreed at the outset with the sponsoring bodies.

Fulfilling the ambition of the report, would require a different and innovative style of approach.   It would be necessary to harness and test the most innovative ideas, by directly involving older people; linking them to the most positive talents and skills in National and Local Government, the Health Service and the Private and Voluntary Sectors.   Their work would need supporting with public and charitable funds and the results of their efforts would need to be validated by independent research.

Posted in RETIREMENT HOUSING | Tagged | 5 Comments

SCRAP Step 27- All Tied Up

Posted on March 21, 2017 by john graham

Back in October last year I started to write about de-cluttering and one of my first references was to my ties.  (Look up “Clutterhead” in the Archive for October 2010 to see the post ).     My attachment to my many ties was tied up in the memories they brought back.      As a result, I didn’t actually throw away any of my beloved ties, rather, I just tidied them up and put them on a shiny stainless steel rail back in my wardrobe.    Mind you they were now arranged in rainbow order, which at least made me feel like I had achieved something.

Unfortunately, the stainless steel hanging rail proved to be a little too slippery and many of my ties were regularly found in a tangled heap on the floor.   Alas, five months later and the rainbow order has become a spagetti soup sort of order and makes finding the right tie like a search for a needle in a haystack.

Now for a bit of mental arithmetic :-

  • I have about 90 ties in all;
  • These days I mainly wear them for special occasions — lunches or dinners in the winter —- and then weddings —- or funerals;
  • That amounts to about 10 ties have I worn in the last twelve months ;
  • At that rate I have enough ties to last me for the next 9 years even if I never wear the same tie again.

  • Or if I were to go mad and use them all in a year, I could gate crash loads of weddings and get myself into 90 wedding photographs with a different tie for each occasion.
  • Or I could pay my respects at 100’s of funerals.   Nobody knows everybody at a funeral and you only need one black tie.
  • Finally as a last hurragh, I could wear a tie to 90 different swanky restaurants and leave a signed tie as a tip for the waiter.     In the confusion, he might think I am famous and if I am quick leaving I might get away without paying .

My ties deserve a fitting end.

Has anybody got any better ideas ?

There will be a copy of Walt Hopkins and George Simons’ book — “Seven Ways to Lighten Your Life Before You Kick the Bucket” — for the best ideas on de-cluttering.

 

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 3 Comments