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Saturday 19 January 2019

Who remembers

Or even knows the saying, "One on, one off and one in the wash"?
If you take notice of adverts you would have multiples of everything, certainly more than 3.
My Gran used to say that 3 was a minimum, I remember the list of requirements for boarding school was in 3,s, but  gran said that 4 was better as it allowed for "incidents". I never did find out what she meant by that!

When she started my bottom drawer off (do girls still do that?) There were 6 bath towels,  hand towels and flannels. Bed linen was 3 pairs of sheets with 4 pillow cases for each pair of sheets. There was a sort of rule of thumb that you changed the bed every week by putting the top sheet to the bottom and put a clean top sheet on, and the same with the pillows. 
Gran would have none of it, both sheets and all the pillow cases were changed every Monday. They were all white and when pegged out they looked like a fleet of ships. The gleaming white was courtesy of a good boil and then the final rinse had a blue bag in it.

All this is a fairly pointless ramble towards my pantry, fridge and freezer. They are all slowly being worked through and reduced. BUT there are certain things that I like to keep a good stock of.
Tinned tomatoes are top of the list, I use them in so many recipes.
Yesterday I pulled some meat from the freezer and batch cooked a ragu. Posh name for Spag Bol sauce. The meat had been in there for a while and I am wary of freezer burn. I now have 6 tubs stashed away, half are 2 servings the remainder are for 3. Yes they take up more space but they are in plastic boxes and are stacked in one corner, easy to find. They are full of veg and have a decent amount of green lentils hidden away. Francesca does not like pulses much but she will not know they are there. I tasted it and I could not recognise taste or texture.

I do keep a couple of tins of baked beans, mushy peas and chick peas but 2 is plenty. I like to use dried beans, soaked and then cooked in the slow cooker overnight for the majority of the time.  cool and freeze in 400 gram portions. 

I do keep a stock of bread flour, wrapped and frozen it keeps a long while. I have a tub of easy yeast so I can get a loaf on in minutes if needed.

Greek yogurt, butter and grated cheese are always in the freezer, just not in the quantities that they used to be.

I am trying to keep the reigns on how much I have in stock, there are only the 2 of us most of the time, I no longer have a houseful of boys to feed on a regular basis. When my son was alive there could be 8 hulking bottomless pits, aka teenage boys, to feed. It did not change much as they all got older, they just did not eat quite as much quite as fast.

I am also rolling this out through the house, or at least trying to. I only have 2 sets of sheets for my bed and 2 sets of sheet and duvet cover for Francesca,s bed. I do not  have a duvet on my bed, just sheets and my quilts.

We have been through our clothes and the CS will have a delivery from us next week.
I have done the kitchen and did part with a few duplicates, I possibly have more knives and pots and pans than average but use all of them. It is a frequent sight for the SO and I to be cooking different recipes, one at each end of the kitchen, so we have lots of kit to stop us fighting over who has first dibs on what.

I do believe that I have rambled off the path a bit. 

As far as crafting goes, so far this month I have knitted 500 grams of  Lakeland chunky yarn from stash. finished off the top of a king size quilt and made the back all from stash. I have also taken a 600 gram pack of  Pulse chunky yarn and the first 100 gram ball has been knitted up as part of a jumper, the pattern also came from stash. This will either be for me or for Francesca as part of her birthday gift, I have till October but will be in the midst of Christmas making by then.

My aim is to reduce the yarn and fabric by half before I even look at what is out there to buy. I did buy some fabric last Saturday, that is earmarked for Christmas makes and I will be buying some more wadding soon. There are a few quilts on my list for this year, James has a birthday coming up and he loves his quilts, I have 3 in my head with the fabric already decided upon.

Now I am off to get a pot of soup on the go and then I may be having another dip into the back catalogue of you tube videos from YarnNYarn. I love Angela,s rambling style, it is very laid back and totally normal. No layers of make up and fancy setting for her, just who she is, as she is and no "face".

                             TTFN                                       Pam


21 comments:

  1. You have put me to shame, I am still working on sorting through stacks of clothes that no longer fit and can't decide if to re-purpose the fabric or donate them to the charity shop.

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    1. There is always something that demands attention. I have my first cuppa of the day, then set a timer to 20 minutes and work at a task till it buzzes, it is amazing how much I can get through.

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  2. It feels good to have a clear out. I'm amazed at how much "stuff" I seem to acquire over time.

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    1. So much slips in and gets hidden, then when it surfaces you struggle to recognise it. At least I do.

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  3. blimey, you've been busy. I have yet to brave my kitchen cupboards, and as for the stash well....

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    1. Little by little, small bites and soon the whole cake is gone.

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  4. My mum changed all the bedding once a week and I do the same. I've never heard of moving the top sheet to the bottom - that must have been well before the days of fitted sheets.
    xx

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    1. Oh my word, that was in the days of unbleached cotton. It would be boiled, rinsed,mangled and hung out on a very sunny day to whiten before it ever went near a bed. There were no fitted sheets then, I am going back to the early 1950,s.

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  5. Simple. If you buy a new item of clothing, just give one away. You never have to declutter. Of course this means only buying stuff that you actually need to replace. I live in a 1 bedroom retirement flat so have limited space anyway but I have always done it like this. I find it liberating not to have a lot of things. I know where everything is. Also it will take my son about 5 mins to clear after I've " gone". Lol.

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    1. I have mostly used the policy of 1 in, 1 out. last year I upped it to 2 out and that made a world of difference. I want to apply that to my crafting soon, I have almost knitted 1200 grams of chunky yarn this year and if and when I buy more it will only be enough for a project. Probably 600 grams and then only when I am ready to cast on and kit.

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  6. I have three sets of bedding-fitted sheet, four pillowslips, duvet cover. Changed weekly as I love fresh bedding. I wash them at 60C to ensure they are fresh. Towels and pants
    Ikewise.All clothes are laundered as needed at a lower temperatures to prolong their life. I have bought nothing in the sales for myself but replaced all our pillows at a good price. Old pillows washed and dried and off to the local animal charity. My mantra this year is to use it up or give it away. I have organised all my stash so that it’s accesible and I won’t end up buying something when I already have one somewhere in the house.

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    1. Sounds much like my routine, in last years heatwave I was changing the bed every 4 days though.

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  7. I don't keep my freezer and cupboards as well stocked now there's just the two of us. Things crept in over Christmas whilst Eleanor was at home so we're trying to use things up now before buying more. Good luck with reducing the stash, I keep saying that I'm on a yarn budget but it's just too tempting when you see something you like. Well, it is for me anyway.

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    1. So far I have resisted temptation, I want to get to Penarth to visit the yarn shop but that will wait till March. I should have knitted through enough by then to have room for something lovely.

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  8. With 9 children, my mum always put the used top sheet on the bottom, so each week she only had 1 sheet per bed to wash, we always had a wear and a spare, money and space was always tight. I now have 2 sets of bedding for each bed, it's enough, as for clothes, I am actively reducing the amount I have, last year I purchased very few new items and plan to do the same this year. I will not get rid of perfectly good clothes, but I will wear until is scruffy and then get rid of it. Since I own less clothes, I can now see everything I own and wear far more items instead of the limited choices I made before. In the kitchen we have stopped buying ready foods and have a store cupboard like my mum had, we keep less food in, but can make loads of different recipes.

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    1. I am only overflowing in one item and that is shoes. because I have such huge feet, size 9, I buy shoes when I see them in my size. Only in the sales though, I realised that I will not need to look for any for a couple of years now.

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    2. I went the whole of last year and did not buy any footwear

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  9. I had a good sort of my linen cupboard last year and I now have 4 sets of white sheets along with extra pillowcases (I change the sheets every 7 to 10 days but change my pillowcases every 3 or 4 days).
    I have 3 sets of towels for me in turquoise (2 bath towels & 3 hand towels) per set - plus I have extra hand towels in a coordinating pattern that I use when guests are over. I also have 1 set of white towels if a guest is staying - and lots & lots of facecloths.
    For kitchen linens I have one set in red and 1 in turquoise - each set is 5 tea towels, 3 kitchen hand towels, 2 drying mats & a set of oven mitts.
    The kitchen has had a good clear out so pots & pans and baking items are what I actually use.
    Clothing has also been sorted - I stick to a sort of uniform - black or navy neutrals with lots of white t-shirts, shirts & blouses. And yes, if I find a good deal or something that I really like then I buy multiples. I have enough undies & socks for a month. I don't have a lot of clothes overall but I find having a lot of undies & white tops means that I always have something to wear and I don't have to do laundry as often.
    As for the pantry - I keep lots of tinned fruit & tins of beans - all different kinds. I keep a few packages of instant potatoes & instant falafels and Wasa Crispbreads, along with peanut butter and jams. All of that along with lots of tinned salmon & tuna means that even if the power goes out I have something to eat.
    It's Minus 30C outside at the moment with a howling wind so it's nice to not have to go out as I have a well stocked pantry.
    I look on all these efforts as ways to actually make my life simpler in the long run.

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    1. Each of us has different needs and circumstances, I could eat well for several weeks from stocks. For many years I liked to start the winter with at least 3 months supplies, that was a remnant from my childhood. Shops were restricted both in size and variety of stock. Supermarkets had not appeared in the UK and we mostly lived off our land. Now, at the click of a button, we can access food from all over the world and have it delivered to the door in the space of a couple of days.

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  10. I have spent the last couple of days cleaning and straightening out my sewing/craft room. Decided that before I even think of purchasing more yarn or fabric I am going to use up as much as possible. I never thought one could have too much fabric or yarn, but now I am second guessing myself.

    God bless.

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  11. When I look through the stash I ask myself 2 questions, 1 Will I use it, 2 What for. If the first is a yes but there is no answer for the second it stays out for a week. If there is still no answer then I either send it to someone or swap it out. That is the only way that works for me.

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