Operation Musical Chairs 2 - Christmas is over

Unexpected progress was made today, mum came to see me and we put Christmas away.

Well, mum did most of it - that is everything that needed standing up and reaching for stuff and dusting it (I wibble too much) and I sat on the floor and put the right things away in the right boxes.

Still Christmas on this side of the living room yesterday

What was really nice was when we put Christmas away last year (because of the January Cure last year), I went though the main 'glass baubles' collection and decided the ones I didn't really quite like were to be jettisoned, keeping only the right number of decorations for my Ikea wire spiral christmas tree. So this year, everything fitted perfectly in the space allotted to it!

I should probably admit here that I fully intended to Ebay the jettisoned christmas decorations last year, but didn't they're upstairs in the 'second bedroom' aka disaster dumping zone. However, Christmas happens every year so they can be sold this year, better late than never!

I perhaps should have taken the time to go through the non-glass decorations and weed out ones for jettisoning, but as they all fit in the main box just fine, there doesn't seem a lot of point!

Christmas and candles and a Cow ornament stashed away with room to spare

Which perhaps is one of the fundamental reasons WHY I have so much stuff, I need to stop thinking 'oh there's space for it' rather than 'do I actually like, need, use etc it'.  On the other hand, I've no Outbox space left right now, I need to do some Ebaying of what's already in there, so I've started a list of 'Places to sort out when there's room in the Outbox'. Seems a reasonable compromise to me, otherwise I'll end up deluged with stuff I intend to get rid of, but haven't and empty cupboards!

One strange thing, normally there's a Bamboo cube box that the plants sit on when Christmas isn't on that desk. But I can't for the life of me remember where I put it. Considering this is a 45m2 house, that's quite embarrassing! I'm sure it'll turn up!

However on the bright side, my house now has ONE clear flat surface, hurrah! (discounting the kitchen tops, they're kept clear by the carers). I'm ridiculously proud of it! It's not quite arranged as I think it should be, but that's for another day.

The only clear flat surface in the house right now

The January Cure encourages you to have fresh flowers. During the Cure a friend sent me an arrangement of 3 succulents in reindeer moss from Bloom & Wild (through the mail) I think they're supposed to last only as long as a flower arrangement, they had no roots.

But as these thrive on neglect, I decided to try propagating them: the actual 3 that arrived (rootless) as well as nipped off leaves. We stuck them in a mix of earth from the garden (that was soaked) and sand (cos I'm sure EVERYONE has a lidded bucket of sand just hanging around in their living room no? - it's for filling door stops back from when I had a biz selling hand crafted stuff, one product was door stops) with a bit of hormone rooting powder from the shed (which needed a bit of kung fu kicking to get it open, that's another one for the 'someone else will do' list) - I'm not sure it'll work, but it was fun trying and hopefully will extend the life of the main succulents even if the propagated bits die off.  I already had an assortment of empty plant pots in the garden - THIS is my issue with minimalism, if I got rid of stuff I don't need this minute, I wouldn't be able to be spontaneous and do some gardening RIGHT NOW. I'd have to stagger off (or get someone to go for me) to a shop and buy more stuff.

Succulent propagation attempt...

Now I look at the pics, I have actually removed the unused extra coasters and put them in the dining table drawer. The protective mats under the plants are sample of floor tiles I got when I moved here, and didn't go ahead with, but am keeping them cos I might in the next house, and they're useful right now.

Tidy Drawers!

Hours after mum left, I also tidied up the Desk drawers - all occasion greetings cards, printer and computer supplies and surplus christmas cards for next year. Possibly I ought to relocate those christmas cards into the Oak Chest under the desk - as this is where Christmas lives the rest of the year, and there's space, then I can use the drawer for something I use more often. Maybe the handmade cards that are currently lurking under the desk in a plastic tidy box would be sensible!

Another day though, I've run out of puff!