Spitting the Dummy

Decluttering Part Two

In a scene reminiscent of 'The Castle' Ian called out from the behind the classified section of last Saturday's paper, "ohhhh, wooden kung fu dummies with spring loaded arms".

Clearly he thought my life had been incomplete up until this point, and that I'd jump at the chance to get my hands on a pair of these 'must haves' for any happy home.

Resisting the urge to say "how much does he want for them" lest it be received as a serious continuation of the topic, I just muttered something about needing to unblock the sink and backed out of earshot.

Given that the man also came home with a fire stick and a plastic clock for Muslims with an alarm that shrieks an Islamic call to prayer (both free, lucky us) last week, I wasn't taking any chances with the dummies.

Strange collection habits aside, it's all working out well really - dare I say really well, and life will never be boring! (Coincidentally, or maybe not, I came across a "50 Ways to Unclutter Your Life" in another section of the same paper ..... straight to the pool room with that one.)

Next week I'll update on the new garden bed progress with pics of what we found when we started pulling the old render off the house. And I'll let you know if I had any luck with the four (count 'em..yes 4) coffee beans I've got soaking in a bowl of water at the moment. I put in about 8 trees three years ago and I'm going to have my first go at roasting my own beans. (By what I've read on forums, 8 trees should get me about 2 1/2 cups of brew a year, but you have to start somewhere!) Thought I'd experiment on a couple first .... now's the time to pick apparently. The DPI has a good info sheet on the whole thing. Wish me luck!

It always pays to have a spare...

I'm going to engrave that on Ian the Incorrigible's headstone (which may happen sooner rather than later) - the man has multiples of everything! When I told him this on the weekend, he just grinned and said "Chisel me another one while you're at it, and stash it at the other end in case I need it. Coz you never know ....." OK, I had to pay that one.

A friend just reminded me it's the first day of Spring today; the season we associate with decluttering, spring cleaning, new beginnings etc, and the irony of it isn't lost on me.

Last weekend Ian and I combined houses - well his squeezed its way into mine. Aussie troops were pulled out of Iraq in less time than it took to extract him from his little apartment in Maroochydore - similar to digging an oyster out of its shell.....a very thrifty oyster that likes to hoard things that 'might come in handy one day'.

As we started sorting through his stuff, making Use (ie 'going to Jo's house'), Store, and Give Away piles, I marvelled at the fact that I hadn't started dreaming of oncoming trains and tsunamis...

And as my little 86 m sq Renovators Delight started to fill up with blokey stuff; a stunning variety of packaged supermarket food, (prompting thoughts of separate food cupboards) car thingies, computer bits, spare computer bits (he fixes up old ones for people) .... I wondered if my path towards a leaner, simpler life was about to come unstuck.

At one point we seemed to have unmatched men's sports socks everywhere ..... draped over chairs and in neat little piles 'to be sorted'.... like families of dead otters, washed up on every high -tide line in the house - 30-something pairs, when I did a headcount. Could come in handy in the likely event that we become the uniform supplier to the Socceroos or something, I guess ....

Some of my friends, looking at the increasing, how shall we say, 'diversity' in my house; simply raised an eyebrow and asked, "How?" which could mean anything from, "How do you two have anything in common?" or "How can you handle such 'un-eco' stuff in your home" to "How are you going to bury all those otters?".... who knows.

But I guess that's the beauty of diversity - it forces you to tolerate, appreciate (and learn from) the differences. And while he's learning from me about a more natural way to live, I'm learning about compassion, non-judgement and a whole heap of other things from him...ok, I need a few more lessons on the second one.

For now, I'll pass on his meal-in-a-jar-wonders, and stick with my natural homemade sauces, and hopefully he'll give up buying them. (We had one the other night to try and use up some of his pantry stash ... four jars in reserve of course .... I'm sorry but food just doesn't get any 'deader-tasting' than that, does it?) And god luv 'im, he did give away all of his chemical cleaners before he moved up, so he's holding up his end of the deal.

My lesson is to learn to give up a wee bit of control .... just a bit. And failing that, night-courses in using a chisel and hammer.