Everything is Figureoutable

 Hello Lovelies! 

Every year on New Year's Day I like to do a little cutting and pasting to set intentions for the upcoming year. I obsessively hoard any free magazines I can pick up throughout the year and then use them to cut out letters, words and quotations that speak to me. Spiderman used to say that I would have been excellent at kidnapping because I had enough magazines to write dozens of ransom notes.

I saw a book at work with the title EVERYTHING IS FIGUREOUTABLE and I thought "That is what I want my motto to be this year." There are several things that are just really difficult and I don't know how to do them or who to ask to get help and they involve paperwork and filling out forms (UGH) and so the motto "I may not know, but I can figure it out" has already stopped my heart racing 

I thought it might be interesting to have a look over the course of a few blog posts at what I am hoping to achieve this year. Perhaps these are things you want to do as well. Perhaps we can help one another and be accountable to each other to help us live happier, healthier, less anxious lives in 2023.

Here is my Vision Board for the year.  I will pick a few things to talk about each time in no particular order. 

1. STOP AVOIDING ADMIN

As I said I have some outstanding (in the not done sense not the terrific sense) paperwork that must be completed. It took me ages to figure out how to fill out the forms to apply for my mother's Life Insurance claim and while I filled out the papers once and sent them in, something went wrong but I can't know for sure what went wrong without another phone call which I refuse to do because the last call cost be £85. They won't tell me exactly what was left out of the envelope, they just sent a reminder of everything that should have been included leaving me to play Sherlock Holmes and deduce where the problem was.  I have an idea what went wrong/what should have been sent but was not and so I am trying again. 

Admin is not my strong suit. Too many words on a page, being forced to write in ALL CAPS inside tiny prison cell boxes makes my heart race and stomach churn. Spiderman was much more calm than me when it came to filling out forms, but as he is no longer here on this earth, it falls to me to figure it out. By repeating the mantra YOU CAN DO THIS over and over I think I have figured out what to do.  But I have had the forms printed for a week and I just kept ignoring them on the table because I couldn't face filling them out again. Today is my day off and so I plan to devote several hours to reading every form aloud just to be sure I haven't forgotten anything.

Also, when I was trying to figure out how to deal with my mother's Life Insurance I discovered to my horror that I was meant to be filing US income tax for the last NINETEEN YEARS. I don't think I have to pay anything as I make below the threshold but I should have been filing. However, the IRS must know that lots of Expats don't know this because they have a whole page dedicated to Whoops! I didn't know, but now I do, what do I do now? But again, though I know about the website, I have been too afraid to look at what I have to do. American taxes aren't due until April 15th, so the plan is get the Life Insurance done this month and hopefully by next month I should have a cheque which can cover any potential slap-on-the-wrist late fees I may have incurred. Then by March I can look at filing my back US taxes. 

2. QUICK TIDY

   Peeps, I am drowning in clutter. I have always been a bit of a Messy Bessy, but since Spiderman shuffled off this mortal coil I find it harder to put things away. I am TIRED and often just drop things on the first available surface and collapse when I get home. However, this is what happens--it becomes like a terrifying game of The Floor Is Lava or a crazy obstacle course where I might break my neck if I fell down the stairs. This photo was taken on January 2nd and is the worst that it has ever been. Something needs to change.

One of my problems is procrastinating on things that seem insurmountable. The bigger they grow, the more I avoid dealing with them and the more I avoid dealing with them the bigger they grow. And I get looped in anxiety and I can't do anything but feel stressed about not dealing with it. (See above) I read about the "Pomodoro Method" which is basically set a timer and work your butt off until it goes ding. They suggest you buy one of those kitchen timers shaped like a tomato  that go TICK TICK TICK like a deathwatch beetle but I find that ticking like the axe swinging lower and lower in Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum so I just use my phone. I set the timer for 15 minutes, put on a Spotify playlist and work like the dickens until my friendly alarm sound calls out (my alarm is King George's song from Hamilton "Da da dat da, dat da da da da ya da") 

And you know what? It works. Even a 15 minute blitz helps to tackle clutter and if I start getting up early (I will be dealing with sleep and waking in my next post) then I can do 15 minutes in the morning and maybe 15 minutes in the evening. At night when I have been on my feet all day and am exhausted it is harder to do, but I discovered that I can do things like unload the clean dishes from the dish drain or sweep and mop the kitchen floor in the exact amount of time it takes to reheat a bowl of soup on the hob. 

3.FRAMILY

I do love a portmanteau word. Framily is made up of FRIENDS who are FAMILY. I am so blessed that I have such a good support network on this side of the pond. So many US friends were worried about me over these last few years lamenting that I had no FAMILY in the UK. But that is OK because I have FRAMILY. The Amazing Spiderman was my everything--my person that I did everything with. These days, I have different friends who do different things with me. I have friends who like the cinema or going to art classes or mooching around charity shops or going to plays or comic book conventions or museums. I used to do all of those things with Spiderman, but now I get to do them with lots of different people. Is it the same? No, not without him. But I still get to do them and it is very good. So this year I want to spend more time with my FRAMILY.

That's all for today. But in a day or two I will look at some other ways that I hope to be better in the new year. Maybe these are things you struggle with too. I hope it helps. 

2021 Vision

 Hello lovelies! Happy new year! 2020 was rollercoaster year, wasn't it? But it did allow me to see some things clearly:

1. I need routine. And it is hard to impose it on myself, but I must try harder especially as we are yet again in lockdown. 

2. I love my job. I mean I REALLY love my job. I miss it when I can't go to work. I am more productive and happier when I have been at work. I have a really good work-life balance and like to be having both halves of work and life. 

3. I am recharged by interacting with people. I knew this before, but I REALLY learned it over the big lockdown. The Amazing Spiderman is perfectly happy working from home as people drain him, but I was like a flat battery for months. I don't ever want to go out in big noisy groups in crowded spaces (not even before COVID) but I really thrive on some one on one conversations. I like meeting a friend for a hot chocolate in an independent café or going for a picnic in the park to save money. I also really enjoy interacting with customers. We have lots of regulars who pop in regularly (that is the definition of a regular, Spidergrrl!) that I look forward to seeing. Interacting with customers and being helpful is a huge part of my happiness. 

4. I have some control issues. Quite a lot of control issues, and this year has been out of control which has been really hard to cope with. This also ties in with routine because  with Spiderman working from home I could not keep to the routine I liked and found it very hard to take his suggestion to "please just do that some other time." 

5. I have trouble accepting help. I am often out helping people while my battery is on low (another issue I am continually working on) but find it harder to allow someone to help me. My dear old dad once said to me, "Why are you making things harder for yourself?" to which I replied "But it is so much easier to make things difficult!" by which I meant it is so much easier to do it myself that to ask for help. More on this in a bit. 

6. I am not good at sharing. I need my own computer. This was a serious issue during the big lockdown. I am a writer. Blogging takes up a lot of time and research and I am an author who needs to work on her own stories. This was a HUGE issue between myself and the Amazing Spiderman over the big lockdown. I was like Vesuvius waiting to erupt, always boiling and seething under the surface as we both needed to be on the computer at the same time but in the rock/paper/scissors of life--work trumps personal reasons. We have solved this by investing in a second laptop and it has CHANGED MY LIFE. I have written more in the last two months than in the whole rest of the year. 

7. I need more creative outlets. This too was a struggle during the big lockdown when I couldn't go to work.  I started to think about what made me happy and what I missed from my life in England when I worked in a school. There was lots of time for laying about ruminating on what I enjoy that I was not allowed to do while I waited (im)patiently for my turn on the computer. Once I determined what it was, I made damn sure to start doing it the moment I got back to work. More on this later. 

Having gained some extraordinary insight into myself in 2020, I wanted to reflect that in my Vision Board.

What is a Vision Board, I hear you cry? Well, it is part woowoo, part arts and crafts. I like to really think on new year's day what I want to do in the upcoming year and who I want to be (striving always to be a better person). It is not about new year's resolutions--which are easily broken--but just some personal growth goals and a reminder of what makes me happy. By making a tangible reminder of what brings me joy, I can make sure to do it. I then hang it in a prominent place in my craft room and look at it every morning to remind me of what it is important. 

Want to see it? Of course you do.

So what am I doing this year? In no particular order:

1. Being vegan--this is the core of my values. Does it cause death and suffering? Then it is to be avoided. Does it bring life and kindness? Then it is to be celebrated. Compassion is so much better than cruelty. 

2. What am I doing in the world to make it better? Making sure to look for opportunities to make a difference in the world. This has been more important in lockdown....how can help others (making sure that what I choose to do energises me rather than depletes me--setting boundaries.) 

3. I am the chief cook in our house, but this was not always so. When we were first married and I was a full time student and then a full time teacher with a terrible work-life balance, Spiderman did all our cooking. When I wanted to become vegan I learned how to cook (and cook well!) Spiderman is a great cook. he is just much slower than me. I swear the man gets a ruler out when he chops potatoes as they are all identically sized! Since I am often tired from work, he has offered many times to share the burden of cooking. I do not take him up on it nearly as often as I should and then feel resentful as I am tired or my back hurts and it is me doing it. We had a long talk about this and I am going to work harder to relinquish some control in the kitchen. So in 2021, we will be taking turns more. We also will be cooking together more. I can do food prep MUCH faster while we chat about our days and then I can bugger off and do some yoga or have a nap while he does the cooking. Also, I want to make sure to do more advance food prep to make cooking for whoever's turn it is, easier. 

4. Keeping to a loose routine especially in times of lockdown. I don't have to do EVERYTHING in a day, but it would be nice to tick a few things off my enjoyment list (see below) every day. Also writing down a few things in my 2021 diary that I would like to accomplish (or need to be done--I cannot tell you the amount of times I have realised at midnight that something needed to be done for the morning.)  Better organisation and loose routine (especially in lockdown) but also for when I am working to use my time more wisely. 

5. Doing things that bring me joy--making crafts and creating art, reading (and discussing--this year Spiderman will be a judge for the Carnegie and Greenaway awards and so we will get upwards of a hundred books to read and talk about...I made us our own little book club symbol!), making films with my new stop motion animation app. These are all things I am doing for me...but there are several things I do at home that bring me joy that involve work. Sewing fancy dress costumes to wear at the Bookshop (after the big lockdown I have gone to work dressed as Hercule Poirot, the witch from Narnia and a Christmas elf) as well as storytelling. I realised how much I missed storytelling--the research of finding a story that feels right in my mouth, adapting it, memorising it, making costumes or props for it, performing it. Right now it is not possible to have children in the shop for an actual audience but we have gotten round this by having my faithful camera crew Spiderman film me telling tales. Which leads me neatly on to my next intention.

6. DIY. I used to be such a luddite--I only got my first smartphone in 2017 and I always feel like I am behind on technology but this year I taught myself to build a website because some friends with an animal sanctuary needed help. I also taught myself to use video editing software so that we could put up films of my storytelling on the the Goldstone Books YouTube Channel. I used to think that I was not smart enough to do "computer things" but it turns out I was wrong. So this year, with my new laptop that I don't have to share, I am finally working on a project that has been on hold since 2016--turning my epistolary novel into a graphic novel. Yes, I will be teaching myself how to illustrate online by using my my new tech skills to tell my story. Then we will publish my second book! Hoorah! 

7. Coming out of the big lockdown (but still in cautious mode) I was reminded who was in my tribe and who I enjoyed spending time with and who I hadn't missed at all. There are several people I let fade away because they drained me and several people I made an active effort to spent (socially distanced) time with because they energised me. Even now, in our third lockdown, I am making time to have phone calls and texts with people I care about (or send make and send a card if they are struggling) and that connection is keeping my going. 

8. The lockdowns put such a strain on small businesses and several independent vegan businesses have had to close. I work for an independent bookshop and I am all too aware of the national chain right down the road who can sell at a bigger discount than we can. I tried last year to support more small businesses (especially ones that help us cut our waste) and this year I will try even harder. We just booked in an order with Cegin Mam Gu for a three course Greek meal that is vegan and GF and delivered to our door which I am very much  looking forward to since we can't go out for a meal. Which leads me to my next point.

9. Drink more tea. This ticks the box of supporting Tea Traders ( a great independent business in town run by two lovely blokes which sells loose tea) as well as keeping me hydrated. Fruit tea is good hot or cold and I am guaranteed to have less pain and be less cranky if I am drinking some delicious tea.  

10. The self care checklist. Even just 15 minutes a day makes all the difference in my physical and emotional wellbeing. Yoga and strength training for my body (I have let my ab work go this year and I feel it in my lower back), deep breathing and mindfulness (I tend towards hyperventilating and overthinking), more orgasms (they are truly the best pain relief and mood booster I know) and a 15 minute tidy every day instead of letting things pile up until it takes hours to put everything back where it belongs will save my sanity. 

11. Patience. About everything.  Enough said.  

What did you learn about yourself in 2020? What do you hope to do with your life in 2021? 

Progress not Perfection on my Zero Waste Journey--Small Swaps

Hello my eco-conscious friends. In my last post I talked about trying to buy more NAKED PRODUCE. That has definitely been working.

I also have swapped STOVETOP POPCORN for crisps to save on packaging. I've also been making my own granola as I like to do that sort of thing and can get  nearly everything needed to make it in paper or glass. This isn't necessarily a money savings, but it's no more to make than buying a box of our favourite cereal. It is quick and easy and tastes 100 times better than store bought stuff.

This week on What we Ate Wednesday I will write about Marmalade Granola. 

Mmmmm....Marmalade Granola.

But I digress.

I started to look at ways that we use disposable items in every day life that could be substituted for something with less packaging, no packaging or become reusable.

Some were less successful than others.

 Item one: 
Cotton wool (cotton balls to my American peeps)
I like to use cotton wool. I tried to make each one last by tearing it into thirds, but i was basically using a cotton ball a day. One-third in the morning to put on my homemade ROSEMARY VINEGAR deodorant (1/3 cup rosemary vinegar plus 1-2 TB witch hazel), one-third in the morning to apply diluted apple cider vinegar to my face, and repeat that same ACV actions before bed with the final third

That's 365 cotton balls a year. .

So what did I do?
1. I swapped my deodorant into a spray bottle that I already had. Would a glass bottle be better? Maybe. But I don't have a glass spray bottle. I am all about using what you already have. Plus, i know from recent trip to the US that everything in glass had to be decanted into plastic for travel. Glass + travel= a heavier bag with something breakable in it. Which equals a giant BAD IDEA.

Verdict:
Excellent. If i spray a few times, then rub into my pits and then spray some more and rub in, I avoid the dreaded drip. Also, I need to remember to spray first and then use my body oil, otherwise the spray bottle slips out of my hand.

2. I made some reusable face wipes that can be washed in a washing machine. I know you can buy stuff like this from Etsy, from people with better sewing machines that have sergers to make professional edges around their organic unbleached fabric, but i needed to make it cheap.

I hunted around charity shops til i found a 100% cotton flannel shirt for £2 and cut it into squares and zig-zagged the edges to stop them unravelling. I store them in a jar and then put the used ones in a mesh laundry bag that gets washed when we go to the launderette. Since we only go every three weeks to wash there (otherwise we wash in a bucket) I made enough to go a full three weeks.

Verdict: 
Excellent. I have really enjoyed them, they work well (as well as cotton wool) and wash and dry nicely. I did make sure they went in the tumble dryer at the launderette so they would remain soft. Flannel can get a bit scratchy if it is left to air dry. I had tried this previously with polar fleece and the liquid just seemed to bead up on top and roll off--fleece is supposed to repel water after all--but it just never worked for me and I went back to disposables. My only complaint (if it is indeed a complaint) is that I feel like a need a wee bit more product to saturate the flannel wipe than I did a cotton ball, but since my product is merely diluted apple cider vinegar, it's not a big deal. But having to use a wee bit more product because it is ABSORBED by the fabric is miles better than it being REPELLED by the fabric.

Also, I only used the sleeves and the upper back of the shirt to make 25 little pads, so when these wear out I have lots of shirt left to make some more.

Item 2:
Garlic
I like to make GARLIC PASTE once a month and freeze it in teaspoon portions. Previously, I had spooned it into plastic ice cube trays, frozen it then popped them all out and stored them by wrapping cubes in cling film and foil and then put in a plastic baggie. I did this on advice from something I found on google. I decided to see if i could just flash freeze in my big pyrex baking pan and then pop into a jar.

Verdict:
This seems to work really well. They don't stick to each other having been frozen separately and there is no disintegration issues that I used to get prying them out of the ice cube tray. Excellent.

Item 3:
Storing leftover cake
What's leftover cake? Seriously, I know other people who always take their cake out of the pan it baked in because they have baked layer cakes, but I never bake in layers. I always leave my cake in the pan it cooked in and serve directly from the pan. My way of dealing with it has been to throw some cling film over the top of the pan and call it a day. But obviously now I am avoiding cling film where I can. This is a genius hack, it actually makes sense if you aren't too concerned about presentation.

This is an amazing coffee and walnut cake I made that was inspired by a cake I ate at the Waverley recently. When i bake a cake it makes 8 rectangular slices. After we ate the first two, I transferred what was left into some airtight containers i already had.

Verdict:
Excellent. This is a bit of a DUH moment for me, as I can't believe I never thought of this before.

Item 4:
Snail towels
In years past we had virtually fazed out disposable PAPER PRODUCTS. Since we moved to Wales and have no washing machine I have had to give up my beloved CLOTH TOILET PAPER as there is no way to wash it. We do most of our washing by hand in a bucket and only pay to wash at the launderette every three weeks. I had been good about not using disposable paper towels if I could help it, but since the Bronte Snails came into our life, our usage of disposable paper had increased tremendously. Spiders are really clean and their waste is a dry, white powder. Snails poop A LOT and they poop EVERYWHERE.  And I didn't want to wipe up their poop with the same towels I dry dishes with.

I had thought about buying some designated snail poop towels, but couldn't justify the expense.Then I had an idea. This was another DUH moment for me. A lot of my kitchen tea towels are really old and worn. Why didn't we buy more kitchen towels and relegate old tea towels for snail poop? (I told you it was a DUH moment)

I bought us some really nice waffle weave tea towels from the market (6 for £5) and relegated 4 towels for the snails. I wrote on them in a permanent marker just so they wouldn't accidentally be used in the kitchen. I relegated a separate bucket for washing, so it's all good.

Verdict:
Excellent. We've been really happy with this system. the new waffle weave towels really dry dishes well and the snail ones clean up poop and slime, dry condensation and wipe out water dishes. Feel a bit daft i didn't think of it sooner. If you have pets, i would highly recommend getting some poop towels especially if you have a washing machine, but even if you don't like we don't--it is still doable.

On an separate note, after reading my post about my beloved cloth toilet paper (I really miss it!) I am going to try to figure out a way to start again. Probably only with urine, but at least it will be a start.

Item 5:
Kitchen scrubber
I roast vegetables in my oven several times a week and we don't have non stick pans (things like TEFLON can actually be really dangerous) so i often need a scrubby doodah (technical term) when doing the washing up. Steel wool has been our scrubby of choice. Supposedly it is recyclable, but i can never find a place to take it. But it also always seems to come in a plastic tray in a plastic bag. Another reason to try and find an alternative.

I looked into some of those wooden scrub brushes with natural bristles. First off, they were hella-expensive. Secondly, what exactly do they mean by natural bristles? The ones I found online turned out to be make from pig bristles. Um...no thanks,

I came up with (what I thought was) a genius idea. I bought a loofah sponge at Wilkos for £1. No packaging. Compostable. I sawed it up with my trusty hacksaw Hank. (yes, my hacksaw has a name. What of it?)

Then I could use it for scrubbing pot and pans.

Verdict:
Of all the things I have tried, this is my lowest rated one. It's not BAD, per se, it's just not as brilliant as I had hoped. My thought when I bought it was "this is so stiff and scrubby, it feels like steel wool but natural!" Those who use a loofah will see where I made my mistake. I had not realised it would get SOFTER when it got wet.

And when you do the washing up, things have a tendency to get wet.

It just doesn't quite have the scrubbing power of steel wool. I have tried soaking the dishes longer. I have tried adding some bicarbonate of soda for extra scrubbing power. Those things help...but it is still not quite what I had hoped. I will continue to use it until I come up with a better solution.

In my journey of Progress Not Perfection towards Zero Waste I will try to keep adding small swaps that a make a big difference.

What are your tips for small swaps?

Rosemary for Remembrance (and other things)

I have always loved the smell of rosemary--it's a clean and forest-y smell.

Clearly, people throughout history have also loved its stimulating smell, too.

Students in ancient Greece supposedly wore garlands of rosemary around their necks or braided into their hair to help improve their memory during exams.

It is one of the main ingredients in the (Queen of) Hungary Water--the first European alcohol based perfume from around the 14th century. It was made by distilling fresh rosemary in strong brandy with lavender, sage, mint, lemon and orange blossom.

  

Rosemary is mentioned in Hamlet by Ophelia--it's one of the flowers she carries in her grief and madness after her father's death. She says:

 There's rosemary. that's for remembrance. 

Pray you, love, remember. 

It is mentioned in one of my favourite songs, the English ballad Scarborough Fair.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Remember me to one who lives there.

She once was a true love of mine. 

A few months ago I was reading an interesting library book (whose name I sadly cannot recall) that was all about herbal medicine that has gradually been replaced by "modern" medicine, but was as effective or more effective that "modern" medicine. You think about how we went germ phobic in the extreme and filled everything we could from hand sanitiser to liquid soap to toothpaste with triclosan which is now known to be a hormone disrupter and the cause of antimicrobial resistance. You know all those super bug strains  that are resistant to antibiotics? That's from the overuse of stuff like triclosan, folks. 

 But the book talked about how French hospitals in WWII use rosemary as a disinfectant. 

I was intrigued. They burned it in sick chambers to purify the air as well as boiled it in water to make a cleaner to wipe down surfaces.

This really had me interested. 

I have always used vinegar for cleaning because vinegar is cheap (although not as cheap as in America) non-toxic and biodegradable, but also because it really does kill germs. It won't kill stuff like salmonella on your cutting board from raw meat juices--but since we don't eat meat that is not an issue for us. 

So i decided to infuse some rosemary into vinegar. If I had a rosemary plant I would have used fresh but instead I used some dried and it came out fine.  

I just took an old jar and put in about 30g dried rosemary and topped it up with vinegar. I put it under my kitchen sink and left it there for 2 weeks, shaking every day.

After 2 weeks the liquid was greenish brown and had a lovely resin-y fresh smell. 

Then I strained out the bits and put it back in the jar. Presto! Instant cleaner!

I put it in a spray bottle with a tablespoon of eco washing up liquid (we use Bio-D because it is not petroleum based) and it make a great cleaner.

I am also a huge fan of lemon myrtle essential oil which smells like a grove of sun warmed lemons and has more antiseptic/antiviral properties than tea tree oil (which smells like medicine). 

My personal thought is putting it in something can sometimes change the lovely smell and make it seem sour so i tend to drop a few drops on the surface to be cleaned and then spray with my rosemary spray and you get this lovely woodsy lemon hit and your home is really clean and disinfected. 

But then i thought about what *else* i could do with the rosemary vinegar. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of Rosemary for Remembrance! 

This is the way we wash our clothes

Everybody sing:

This is the way we wash our clothes,

Wash our clothes,

Wash our clothes.

This is the way we wash our clothes

Early in the morning!

 Do you remember that song from your nursery days? It sure comes in handy these days.

 When we were flat hunting for our move to Wales, we were on a budget and nearly everything we looked at was small and expensive. Enter the amazing flat--affordable, large and spacious (though slightly wonky) but it had one drawback.

 A big drawback.

 There isn’t a washing machine.

 But Spidergrrl, why don’t you just save up and buy a washing machine?

 Ah. But there’s the bigger drawback.

 There aren’t any pipes for a washing machine. You need water pipes that hook the washing machine into the plumbing in order to wash….and there ain’t any.

 I’ll admit when I first found that out I wanted to cry. There is a launderette right across the street that we could use, but it is frightfully expensive.  But actually the solution is fairly simple.

 We wash by hand. Not everything. Just our smalls (underwear, socks) and maybe a tea towel or kitchen wipe up cloth or a shirt. But we do wash every day.

 Once every three weeks we go to the launderette and wash and dry towels, sheets and Spiderman’s heavy trousers  at the cost of £10. But every day we wash the previous day’s stuff.

 It is not as horrible as it sounds. The soaking takes the most time and the actual washing bit takes about 20-30 minutes depending on how much there is to be washed. Through trial and error (and with a bit of specialist equipment) we have it down to a science.

See the yellow bathtub?

1) First, after our morning baths we put the clothes on to soak in the red bucket. I fill the bucket about half full of hot water and add one capful of Bio-D eco liquid detergent and give it a bit of a swish to activate the bubbles. Leave to soak  until the late afternoon or evening. We tried using our beloved soapnuts for this--but they don’t like soaking for so long. They leave a weird musty smell in the water so we save the soapnuts for the trips to the launderette.

Always wear rubber gloves to protect your hands

2) When we are ready to wash I go at it with the my trusty potato masher. This is the first agitation cycle. Just pound up and down 50 times (or for one verse of the Blaydon Races) and watch the bubbles reactivate.

3) Empty the bucket into the tub and you will notice that the water is very grey.

This is because dirt had come off the clothes as well as the fact that our clothes are all dark. We gave up whites years ago--you had to do them in a separate load and they never looked clean enough without toxic bleach. So now all our smalls are dark.

4) Now comes the scrubbing bit. I use some gentle olive oil soap and 79p scrub brush and scrub the dirtiest areas of clothes--crotches, armpits, collars and soles of socks as well as any stains on tea towels (there are often red paprika or yellow turmeric spice stains on towels)

5) Put all the soapy clothes back in the red bucket and repeat step 2. Agitate again with the potato masher 50 times (or the second verse of the Blaydon Races) then drain into the tub.

6) Using special gadget number two: the industrial squeeze-y mop bucket. This is great for helping to wring the water out. Squeeze soapy water out and put clothes back in red bucket. This really does help with the final rinse cycles --if you squeeze soapy water out then you only need to rinse twice (not three times).

Can you see the keyhole tattooed on the back of my neck?

7) Put all the clothes back in the red bucket and cover with water again. Give it a good ole swish about with your hands to release any soap. You will see some bubbles at this point. Drain the bucket again and refill for the last time with clean warm water.

I store my vinegar in a squeeze-y ketchup bottle

8) I add a few squirts of orange vinegar (white vinegar that has had orange peel soaked in it for 2 weeks)  to the last rinse as a fabric softener and a rinse aid. It really does help get the last bit of soap out and the orange adds a more pleasant smell than plain white vinegar. The smell completely dissipates as it dries but the orange adds just a bit of sunshine to it.  Give it a good ole swish round.

9) Drain the bucket for the last time and use your industrial mop bucket to squeeze as much water as you can. I’ll be honest--I had hoped it would wring ‘em dry, but it doesn’t. But as the wringing is the worst part it does take a LOT of the worst bit out of it. In the beginning BB (Before Bucket) I had to wring everything 10-15 times and it would still be dripping and I’d have to blot it all with towels and then we had all these wet towels all over the place and it took bloody ages and I was cross and exhausted. Now, I wring as much as I can using the bucket, shifting stuff around and giving it another press can really get more water out, and then finish by hand wringing in the sink.

You don’t need to wring much--maybe five more squeezes--and no blotting with a towel unless it is a big heavy item like a t-shirt.

10) Then set up your clothes horse (drying rack) in the tub and hang stuff to dry. I leave it until bedtime and then we take it out of the tub and put it by the dehumidifier. In the morning I flip everything so it can dry evenly and by the next evening it is dry and ready to be put away.

 

That’s it! It really goes pretty quickly and we make sure never to overload the bucket--the more that stuff that has to overlap when drying, the more time it takes to dry.

How clean is our stuff? Very.

How dirty was our stuff to begin with? Probably not very.

 So it stands to reason it would come out rather clean. I can’t say this would work for a large family or someone with kids who got muddy, but for two fairly clean adults, it works a treat.

 I would also say that washing by hand cleans Spiderman’s shirts better than machine washing --the collars are no longer grubby. Like those old 70’s adverts for Wisk --(google this if you don't know what I mean)  a bit of scrubbing on the “ring around the collar” does wonders. 

 How hard is it to do? Not very. I’ve got into a routine and it is saving us mega money --imagine if we had to spend £10 EVERY weekend at the launderette.

 No thanks. That idea won’t wash with me.

Down in the Valleys

Here we are.

 In Wales.

 In the Valleys.

 In the green part of the world.

 We are here.

 It has been three weeks since we arrived and I have hardly had a moment to write for the blog. Have you missed me, oh best beloved? I have missed you. My life is so full of blessings and good things and happiness, but it has also been rather busy and hectic.

 We have just moved to another country after all.

 Let me just say, it has been a strange time of attachment and letting go. We found as we packed that there were lots of things we could let go of. Things we loved, but somehow it felt right to give them up. Our collection of 40+ hedgehog figurines were lovingly boxed up and sent to St Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital so they could sell them in their gift shop to raise money for animal welfare. Visit them here http://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/  to see all the good they do for animals. They even said some of our stuff might go in their hedgehog museum!!!  

We also gave up our rock and fossil collection. Really, if I am honest, it just collected dust. It was on top of a book shelf (one I had to stand on my tippy-toes to see) and so I rarely saw it (or dusted it) and we knew it could be better used elsewhere. We gave the rocks to my old school for their science cupboard and the fossils to one of my favourite students who used to drive me potty with his hyperactivity and his constant tapping and humming, but enchanted me with his deep thoughts and ability to take anything electrical apart and put it back together again. He also said funny things like “George the third is my favourite king of England because he went mad” but he couldn’t write the alphabet.

not actually our books, but it felt like that

 

We also weeded about a hundred books, which brought us down to about 573 books.

 

Yes that is brought it down to 573 books.

 

We still have a lot of books. 

 

We looked at things that we have loved, but were extremely fragile and decided they might not survive the move so we gave them away.

 

K-9 was adopted into to a very good home--the Doctor Who crazy daughter of a friend.

 We had a lovely wooden tree that we used to decorate with each season, changing the decorations with each solstice and equinox. It was so fragile that every move we had ever made within Hitchin we had asked a friend to drive it over so it wouldn’t get broken. That just wasn’t an option with this move. So we gave it away.

 

But don’t worry--I came up with a wonderful plan to have a similar but much more compact version that I will share with you soon! Plus some extra wonderful to ways to mark the seasonal changes. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

In the end we gave away dozens upon dozens of boxes to charity shops.

But there was still so much stuff.

 

So very much stuff.

 We like to think of ourselves as minimalists but clearly we are not. We may have a more minimalist lifestyle that most of our peers, but damn we have lots of stuff.

 

Lots of good stuff.

 

Art and books that feed our souls, but take up way too many boxes.

 

But we wouldn’t want to live without them.

 

We wouldn’t be us without them.

 

So I don’t mind.

 

Okay, peeps, that was the getting ready stage--stay tuned for the actual moving day!