GrumbleSmiles

You can never have too many glasses.      I don’t know who said that, but he must have lived in our house at one time, because we have enough of them for a royal wedding.

Where did they all come from ?    And.   Why have we still got them ?

We have glasses for everyday use in the kitchen cupboard.   Then there are glasses ‘for best’ in the lounge in two more cupboards.    A few are strategically located in the study next to the decanters on the desk in case my books drive me to drink.    Finally the last resting place of all the left over odds and sods of fractured glasses sets and prised possessions of a life of tippling are stored in Aunty Dorothy’s cupboard.    Aunty Dorothy’s cupboard is the cubby hole where things are put when there is nowhere else.   Venturing into it risks an Everest avalanche of clutter which will take the rest of the day to put back.

The last time we had more than two hundred around for dinner was longer than I can remember, so we must be able to shed some glasses.   Most definitely not into another shed!    Wouldn’t it be great to have an afternoon smashing them against a wall 😀😀😀😀 to celebrate the end of my de-cluttering ?      After all the Queen does it with bottles of champagne every time she launches a new ship.    And Greeks have a high time smashing plates in their restaurants.

There must be a better idea for dealing excess glasses  :-).     Any inspiring 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.

Today’s de-cluttering task is in the kitchen, with the one item of equipment that I claim responsibility for — the wine rack.    It has been specially made to fit at the end of the island work top.   It was carefully crafted in oak with a  top drawer above a rack 6 bottles wide by 8 bottles high.    It is used a lot and needs to be a paragon of kitchen efficiency.     So it is a shame that the drawer sticks when you try to close it.   It is also a pity that the 48 spaces in the rack never seem to be enough.     There is always  an overspill of extra bottles on the floor at the side of the rack, ideally placed for tripping over.

So today I am going to apply all of my kitchen ergonomic skills.   Not that I have any, but it sounds good 😀   With a few key questions :-

•  What do we use most frequently in the rack ? —- Mo’s white wine, followed by much lower quantities of my red wine.
• What else is in the rack ? —-  more  white and red wine that we rarely consume, so they rest there adding clutter-years to their vintage
• Anything else ? —- a bottle of Marsala that I bought once, years ago, to make Zabagleone and never did; bottles of tonic water for any frequent gin drinkers that drop by.
• And ?  —- no beer, because it’s a wine rack.   Even though I drink it quite often with meals.   Anyway it is  much more convenient to walk to the far end of the house every time.
• What spills over on the floor ? —- large and small bottles of sparkling water which we use more frequently than all the wine.    We are a very sober family really.     Honest.

So here is my ergonomically considered re-design :-

• tonics, etc, but definitely no Marsala.
• another row of beer.
• a row of beer.
• a row of red wine.
• a row of other white wine.
• a row of Mo’s white wine.
• a top row of sparkling water.
• More water.

You may have noticed by now that I haven’t done any de-cluttering in the form of disposing.    This time I am just re-organising 😀   Which is what you do when booze is involved.   It is far too valuable to throw away, so you buy yourself time until you can consume it.

There must be a better idea for dealing with how to store excess booze.    Any inspiring 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.

I am back to de-cluttering today.   This may get very technical, but I will try and explain it simply.

Every computer geek has an accumulation of wires and cables  and things.   It’s the modern equivalent of the box of paper clips, pins and elastic bands in the paperful office.    Now I am a computer geek I have  both.     ( See my earlier posts on how I graduated to become a computer whizz kid by clicking on ” Old Geek” in the Tag Cloud )

These computer gubbins are stuffed behind the computer —- and behind the printer —- and at the back of the TV screen (sorry monitor) —–and carefully scattered in a tangled ball of wires under the desk.   In many cases I don’t know what they are exactly, they were just left over after all my computer equipment was installed.   I don’t know how my computer works without them, it just does.   Sort of like a jigsaw with one piece left when you’ve  finished.    Confusing isn’t it and annoying.  But that’s just part of becoming a computer geek.

Now to the technical bit and I will explain slowly :-

• Scat cables or is it scart cables ? —- you needs lots of them with all different lengths and varieties of plugs on the end.   Think of them as string — they connect things together.   Try all of them until one fits and then that’s probably the right one — as long as it fits to some thing else.     Although sometimes you have to fit one scat cable to another scart cable first.
• Mice —- now generally it is not good to have mice in your office, but in these geeky times you have to have a few.    In the early days  I had a mouse with a long tail that connected it to the computer, so it didn’t get lost.   These days I have a wireless mouse that can hide under all the paperwork on my desk.   I suspect that’s why everyone wants a paperless office.    You are also supposed to have mouse mats, so the pesky little things can wipe their feet.   Next thing you know they will have to have batteries as well.
• You never want to run out of printer ink so always have some spare cartridges around. Not the gun type, the very expensive, unique to your printer, only bought in India type. Maybe it is the original Indian ink?  And don’t forget you will need colour cartridges too.   You will probably end up with lots of spares, because they never run out at the same time.   Also they are a bit like light bulbs, you often buy the wrong ones 😟
• Floppy discs, now there’s a thing, because they are not floppy any more and just to confuse you they have morphed into  C.D.’s and memory sticks.   So you will probably have lots of them by now.  The earliest ones may not fit into your computer and definitely don’t work on an iPad.    Don’t throw any of them away, because you don’t know who might find them and expose your inner secrets on Facebook or Instagram or twitter or something.    You have to be so careful with old computer stuff which is why your office gets cluttered up.
• In the olden days you used to get user manuals with each new piece of computer equipment and I have quite a few.   They are  printed in at least 10 different languages and very small print.    Either way it doesn’t matter, because they are completely incomprehensible.  These days the user guides are all on-line, which saves on clutter, but is difficult if you can’t connect up your computer in the first place.

Welcome to the world of computers :-).

It’s a world where things become obsolete more quickly than ever.  A year is a long time in the product life cycle of computer equipment.  So what on earth do we do with the old stuff?

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.

It was three and a half years ago when  I first wrote about clutter and socks featured in my post. ( You can look up the post by clicking on Oct 2013 in the Archive ).     I was not into de-cluttering at the time, but I did at least tidy my sock drawer as a result.

Now in full de-cluttering mode, I had reason to return to my sock drawers, because once again my bedside drawer was full to overflowing.     I now have two sock drawers, but no more feet.   So where do all the extra socks come from ?     I don’t recall getting excessive sock Christmas presents in the past three years.    Although I did get some bright red long woolen  socks one year from my brother-in-law Garry.     They are over the knees extra long and great for the garden on frosty winter days, but  I have only been able to wear them out in public at Leicester Tigers  matches at  Christmas when lots of supporters dress in silly clothes.    I must remember to buy him a pink bow tie with spots on next Christmas, I am sure he will love it.

Meanwhile, I can let go of my three pairs of light green socks that went so well with my purple velvet bell-bottom trousers.    Maybe it is time that I formally announce that my Hippy days are over.   I will not be such a style icon in future.

The other big conundrum is why do I end up with so many single socks ?     Is somebody with a sock fettish stealing them ?    Perhaps I should start a fashion in wearing odd socks, then I might become a style icon all over again.

There must be a better idea for dealing with how to de-clutter my sock drawer:-).   Any inspiring 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.