Wednesday, April 24, 2019

To-Do List: The Wash-up

As I said in January it was my intention with the current iteration of the To-Do List to let it run until the end of the Easter holidays. Since we're now at that point, it's time to round up where it got to and determine what's next. So...

Phase One

As noted, the accumulated documents were sorted and dealt with early in January. So that's done.

Likewise, the kitchen was cleared, as indeed was the sideboard. Additionally, I cleared out the last drawer in the utility room, thus bringing an end to the decluttering process from last year.

The accumulated RPG papers were scanned, filed electronically, and then shredded. This took a long time, but did finally conclude Phase One of the list.

Phase Two

The various books, clothes, and other assorted items were gradually disposed of to the charity shop. This took longer than I had hoped, but was eventually done.

However, the process of clearing the garage hasn't been quite so effective. I've managed to get rid of most things, but there is about one carload of general stuff to take, plus an old and broken washing machine to get rid of. Clearing that last carload shouldn't be a big issue - with luck, I'll get that done this weekend, but the washing machine is a slightly more difficult proposition. (One thing that was quite nice, though, is that we managed to donate both the dishwasher and the tumble drier to good homes. Which is nice - they were in good working order, so reuse is always better than recycling.)

Phase Three

Perhaps surprisingly, I was able to get through the digital declutter last week, finally completing that task yesterday. This was a big task, and is one I'm very pleased to be able to tick off the list.

Also during the holidays, LC dug out the concrete plug from the garden, which I then took to the recycling centre for disposal. So that's that task done also.

Finally, we repainted the dining room over the holiday. As we had hoped, we were able to get away with just a single coat of paint on the walls. The paint we used was an almost exact match, which helped with keeping the job manageable.

However, we did not get to redecorating the study, largely because we felt we simply had too much on over the holiday without adding another big task. Given that I had a bout with a virus that stole a few days from me, that turned out to be a good choice.

Likewise, I never got around to taking another look at LC's wardrobe. That's a task that should be fairly minor if I can find the appropriate supplies. On the other hand, if I have to make do with something that's not quite the same thing, it could be much more extensive.

Wash-up

In all there were twelve tasks listed for the January To-Do List (although three started in a 'done' state). By the end of the Easter holidays, we'd completed nine of these between us, leaving three incomplete. Particularly gratifying was getting the digital declutter done.

Next...

The current To Do List has actually worked quite well, so I'm going to leave it in place (rather than rebuilding it from scratch, as I did last time). In addition to the three unfinished tasks, I'm adding two more: I have a pinboard that wants mounted in the kitchen, and a set of IKEA shelves to put together for Funsize. That gives five tasks for the list. Though if I get to a point where everything but the study is done, I'll retire the list at that point, since the study is also one of my annual goals and so retaining it in both places would then be redundant.

#17: "Darien: Empire of Salt", by C.F. Iggulden
#18: "Forever and a Day", by Anthony Horowitz

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