We went and ordered the carpets last weekend. They will be fitted in three stages over three weekends, starting at the end of October. The gap between ordering and fitting is time we have given ourselves to sift/sort/streamline our belongings, so that the task of emptying rooms for the carpet-fitters will be a little less challenging. I'm glad we're doing it this way (quite gradually). It takes the pressure off and makes it feel less overwhelming. The fact that I'm not missing any of the stuff that's been discarded (so far), and am enjoying the spaces that have been opening up on shelves and in drawers, is making it easier to keep going.
The weekend before last we went through boxes of paperwork - bills, bank statements, and other "important stuff". The stack of "things to file" got filed, the utility bills dating back 10 years and the warranties for electrical goods we no longer possess got shredded and burned along with a whole pile of other out of date documents. Husband reorganised his "man-drawer", untangling a virtual snake's nest of cables and leads with acronyms for names (USB, HDMI, SCART) while I straightened out my sewing drawer. (What stereotypical gender roles we do seem to have - eat your hearts out Theresa and Philip May!) We got rid of the last remaining video-tapes, and had a trip down memory lane with an old mix-tape cassette from the 90s. This survived the cull because we still have a functioning cassette player in the house. You can't beat a bit of Bryan Adams or Alanis Morrisette every now and then.
Last weekend I dug a bit deeper and went through all my old folders from training courses I've been on, and threw away everything except essays, learning journals and a few of the more interesting articles I'd printed off. Then did the same with two big box-files of work-related paper-work, notes, and information accumulated in a former job role. All good stuff, but (let's face it) I haven't referenced it in years. I kept some bits and pieces, but decided that anything really relevant has long since been assimilated into working knowledge and practice and the rest I no longer need. We gave away several board games we haven't played in years and husband bit the bullet and sent a stack of old Xbox games to the charity shop.
Yesterday I went through several folders full of knitting patterns I cut out and saved from magazines in the 80s and 90s! This was quite hard because they had an almost archive-like quality - really captured the styles and shapes of a bygone era (albeit an era when crazy bright colours, boxy oversized shapes and shoulder-pads were all the rage). I did keep a few old favourites and a few "classic" examples, but rationalised that as I still have my knitting book collection (which spans the last thirty years or so - Patricia Roberts anyone?) and my treasured Rowan magazines I can always get a blast from the past from them if I need one. See, I'm getting good at this now!
Which is just as well, because soon I will have to tackle the really tough areas - craft materials and wardrobe - a.k.a. the 'Boss' levels (in old-school video-gaming parlance). "But it might come in handy/fit you again one day...But it cost a lot of money/you've only worn it once". Shudder. I have so much empathy for the people who feature in programmes like "Hoarders" when the voices in my own head start clamouring.
In other news, my knitting has ground to a halt in the past couple of weeks. Although most of my energy has gone into the de-cluttering, I think it's partly because I've lost confidence in the cotton jumper I started, and don't like the way that the fluctuations in tension where I've put it down and picked it up again are so obvious in the plain stocking stitch fabric.
Speaking of bugs, this is a photo I took of an enormous brown moth that came clattering around the lampshade one night last week and was briefly captured in a glass before being released into the darkness. I couldn't identify what type it was, but it was a magnificent beast with lustrous, velvety, tapestry wings.
The beauty of photography nowadays is that you can take as many photos as you like without them occupying anything more than virtual space in an imaginary cloud. My current preoccupations are collecting fallen leaves...
The XXSCat dog demands a fair bit of attention too.
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