Organise All The Things
I have a week off, so naturally I’ve spent the past days working my ass off. It started Saturday with sorting out Mom’s shed. It was a bit messy on the shelves and floor. But the worst offender were the three cupboards on the wall. This is where my dad kept his tools and related things. However, he wasn’t very organised, and he hadn’t used any of it in years. In fact, the cabinets were taped shut and transferred over as is when my parents moved here four years ago. Now with Dad gone, it’s slowly time to start going through things. And the shed seemed the easiest to start.
I took out everything in the cabinets and sorted it. First into what could stay, what had be thrown out and what can be given away/sold. I found a ridiculous amount of drill bits. Not just boxed sets, but also many, many loose ones. I kept the three sets that were still complete, and sorted the singles in usable or not. Tossed all unusable, and half of the still usable ones for being all the same. I also found a second jig saw, hidden in a corner, and three complete sets of ratcheting wrenches (same contents)… So yeah, the doubles made it to the pile of to be sold/given away.
After sorting, all the tools and stuff turned out to easily fit in one cupboard. Leaving the other two free for new things. I put stuff related to bicycles and cars in there, as well as odds and ends. Leaving the shelves free for planting pots and Mom’s boxes of Christmas decorations, which we moved down from the storage room in the apartment itself.
Then Sunday I went over there again in the afternoon for project two: Mom’s wardrobe. We went through it all, and ended up with four large bags of clothes and other textiles to be donated. We ordered take out, and after finishing that we also tackled the night stand. The three drawers were filled with stuff. After sorting what to get rid off, I consolidated all the jewelry in fewer boxes. This saved so much space that she can now actually see what she has in the drawers.
Monday we took a break since we had a birthday to go to. My Aunt turned 88. You wouldn’t say, though, if you saw her running about. Sometimes literally. She still lives on her own in a house (not an apartment or something like that), does everything herself and regularly goes everywhere by public transport and walking. She used to babysit the neighbour’s kids. But they are now all high school aged so don’t really need that anymore. However, my aunt helps them (and their mother) with their paper route. For fun 😀
I did start organising and sorting through my own shed in the evening. Inspiration and such. I have three large, heavy, cabinets in there that keep stuff. One of them isn’t very practical, though. It has drawers in the bottom, an open space in the middle, and a small cupboard at the top. However, one of the drawers is missing, and the others are hard to open. And the cupboard is too small to hold many of the things that I need it to hold. So I cleared a path and heaved and heaved and heaved until I had dragged it all the way out and against the wall of the house. I removed the drawers and put in an old rug to turn it into a cat box. The top now holds little lanterns I can hang outside when sitting there and it’s getting darker. This was about all I could accomplish in an evening, so I pushed the rest of the crap back inside and locked up.
Today we did the storage room in the apartment. We started in the morning as I have a date with the opera tonight. I pulled everything out so Mom could vacuum and mop the floor. Then we repeated the precious process. Sorting things into trash, donate and keep. I then put all the stuff for keeps back so she can not only find everything again, but also can move around in there. Which is useful as the room also holds the washer and dryer.
We then planned to drive to the thrift store to donate all our stuff but we ran into one of Mom’s neighbours. She works in a charity shop where people who need it can come, a couple times a year, to pick out clothes. So we gave her all the bags of clothes and textiles and Dad’s shoes. This left a much more manageable pile for the thrift shop. We stopped at my place to pick up some things that I’d found Monday evening and dropped everything off. And I have some time left now to continue with the shed before I have to shower and leave.
To recap: my parents aren’t really good at having their picture taken 😀 Here’s Dad on his birthday, Thursday. It was a fun, low key celebration.
It was Mom birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday, Mom!
)
I lost track of time a bit, and am also short on time right now. So short this will be, as well.
Then on Sunday I went to the farm where we had a work day to get material for our re-enactment camp back in good shape. We fixed existing benches and tables, and also built new ones. In the picture we’re working on the new kitchen workbench. It was a good day to spend outside, and we got a lot done.
Yesterday I went to the Oosterpoort for my birthday present to myself. I saw, well, listened really, to the Sinfonia Rotterdam and the Laurens Cantorij performing the Requiem of Fauré.
As I had hoped, it was spectacularly beautiful. The accoustics in the Oosterpoort are very well suited to classical music.
hen Elfia happened. There, watching Margreet work her spinning wheel, I realised I really did want it. So Wednesday I went back to the thrift store and got lucky, it was still there. I got one of the sales associates to price it. She barely knew what it was, had to ask me if it was complete.
Today is Nienke’s birthday!
 
Sunday proved to be a day of moderate adventure and great fun 😀 Eva’s little boy had his birthday earlier this week, and Sunday they were celebrating.
We chatted, drank tea, ate tasty cake and gave presents. I’d bought a couple children’s books in Frisian and Gronings for him. Two for him directly, and one and a audio book first to Eva as he’s not old enough yet. Both parents and boy seemed to like it, so I call it a success 😀
I spent last weekend in Leeuwarden for Anne’s birthday party. I dragged a weekender bag filled with airbed, sleeping bag and some other necessities with me to work on Friday, which looked ridiculous. Then after work Ingrid picked me up and we drove to Leeuwarden.
We managed to arrive at Anne’s place exactly when she herself returned from the gym. We unloaded the car and got our stuff and the two presents inside. After a drink and some chat we gave her the presents, two Ikea lamps, exactly as she had wanted 🙂 I then built the lamps, while Ingrid helped Anne make dinner.
The next morning we had a relaxed start, and then went into town to get groceries for the birthday. I bought myself some Greek yoghurt as I had run out at home, and I also wanted to eat it for breakfast the next day. So I ended up with a bucket, and a set of portioned cups. I also bought some portioned nut mixes, bacon, and a gorgeously sturdy canvas shopping bag which actually fits the crate on my bike. I hovered over a tiny wooden four drawer storage thing, but thought better of it and left it. Go me 😀
Then we played two rounds of Who Am I. First round was famous Dutch people. I turned out to be Bert Visscher, as given to me by Ingrid, which I figured out pretty fast. We went clock wise with this round, which means I had to think of someone for Anne. I gave her the dude from the commercials who plays the AH store manager. It was tricky, but she did manage to figure it out eventually. The second round was a What Am I round where we were usable objects. This time around we went counter clock wise and I got garlic press from Anne. This was harder to figure out, but I did manage. I turned Ingrid into a record player, which she also guessed. Both rounds were won by Esther, but we did give a lot of hints the second round 😀
After this, it was after eleven, and as two guests left to go home, Anne and the others made ready to go out. I’m not a fan of going clubbing, so I elected to stay home. I was pretty beat, anyway, the continuous presence of other people for two days is rather draining. So while they got ready, I inflated the air bed (long live electric pumps) and readied my bed. I couldn’t take the sofa this night as Esther was staying over, too. When they were ready, I saw them off, wished them fun, and crawled in bed. I played with my phone some, and ended up going to sleep around one, one thirty-ish.