21:13-15 Let’s get on with it, shall we?

We are back to my 21 day declutter challenge…. about time you will say.. and I do agree 😉 Every time I have found a bit of energy the last week or so, I have gone on very tiny declutter sprees around the house. As usual I have been piling the stuff in my guestroom, to be arranged and photoed at some future date.

Well today is as good a day as any, it’s time to get on with it!

DAY 13 – Outdoor storage room attached to house.. (not a garage because I don’t have one)

Since I don’t have a garage, everything goes into my tiny storage room. It’s the place I store my car tires, paint, bike, roller-blades, garden tools, plant tools, some outdoor furniture, all my electrical and hand tools and all the other nuts and bolts you need when you have a home and are essentially a “guy” when it comes to tools 😉

And like any other “garage”, my storage/shed gets full.. and I have to clear a little out, so I at least can get into the space without tripping over buckets (which I do a lot) 😉

Here’s the dirt on whats leaving this time!

2 tanks – for my old gas grill that I don’t have anymore – I gave these to a friend – sorry no picture
1 kitchen cabinet door (cut into three pieces – recycle plant swap house wouldn’t take it, and it only fit the bins in pieces)
2 foam boxes
1 battery drill (more or less broken, thankfully I have more 😉 )
10 tins of paint and paint related items
1 empty fertilizer bucket
8 pieces of steel from my old kitchen counter edge

= 25 items

Day 14 – Bathroom

I have never been one to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, as I’m pretty much a no frills person regarding products I use. The last couple of years I mostly blend my own oils, use makeup only once or twice a year, and don’t use much in the name of soaps, shampoos and conditioners. I’ve been downsizing my bathroom stuff quite a bit, but still there are things that linger (for some reason or another)…

28 items of stuff – not pictured
4 bottles with various lotions
1 small perfume bottle
2 tins of lip and hair balm
1 box of pure moist contact lens solution
1 lip balm
1 nail clipper
1 tube cleanser
1 tube moisturizer
1 box of makeup
3 random items

= 44 items

Day 15 – Kitchen

So here we re again with the kitchen! I don’t know what it is about kitchens, but items seem to accumulate, regardless of how often you declutter the space. I have no number for how many times I’ve gone through this place, and there are still more stuff that pops out of the woodwork! Strange that, lol

3 bottles
5 glass containers
1 knife
2 ~~pray~~ ops… spray bottles
Random stuff – count as 5

= 16 items

I think this concludes today’s post!

I’m trying to keep it short and sweet, and hopefully I’ll get the 21 days over and done with within the week 😉

But first before I go… gotta do the yearly tally!

Day 13, 14 and 15 = 85 items, which brings my grand total for 2017 to 792

🙂

The end of the cooktop nightmare… I hope!

For those of you who are jumping in right now… here is a quick recap, just for you.

A week ago, I managed to ruin my glass induction cooktop by starting to many large pots (making broth) at the same time.

Well that was not the worst of it. A couple of day after I got a new cooktop into the house, I manage to drop a heavy glass jar on it and and yep… it breaks into “a thousand” pieces (well not really a thousand.. but you get the drift). Now luckily as part of the deal, when I bought the new one, I got and extra coverage insurance with it.. that should cover this type of accidents….

Part 3 of the cooktop/broth cooking saga:

So I’ve got good news, great news and maybe some slightly less good news!

Lets do the good news first:

The day after my accident (yes, it was an accident.. I did not thrown that glass jar on my brand spanking new cooktop) I called the insurance company, and “Yes, off course. We will cover this. This happens more than you know. No problem. Just take it back to where you bought it, and they will either fix it or get you a new”.

Whoa, it that isn’t good news I don’t know what good news are. I felt so relieved (wouldn’t that have been a nightmare if the answer was no… after all, it was an expensive cooktop).

So B and I took off with the broken one, back to where we bought it in the first place.

Some info you need to know:

When I bought the cooktop, we were alternating between two models. We picked the one that was the most powerful of the two. When picking it, I had discussed with the seller that me keeping it, was contingent of us being able to use all my pots and pans on it (and yes.. every one of them works on inductions cooktop, as this was what I had before). If I couldn’t make them work I would probably be back to swap it for the other model (which was no problem as they have a 30 day return policy).

Now… it turns out that some of my pots did not work, especially my espresso brewing pot and my butter warmer/melting pot which had bottoms to small for the induction plate to detect them 😦

As a result.. B and I had concluded that choice number two would probably be a better solution… and we had just concluded this, when the accident happened. Oh noooo, now the big question was, would we still be able to swap the cooktop for our second choice?

And here comes the great news:

The answer was yes.. whoohoo!!! The seller graciously decided to let us swap… even though the other one was broken. So home we came with another brand spanking new cooktop. And this one works perfectly for all my pots. What a relief 🙂

Now.. the less than stellar news (and this is something I can live with, IF all goes according to plan)

Since the “old one” has to be sent in for repair as it’s an insurance issue, the shop could not mark it in their systems as a returned piece, yet. Which means that we have to wait for it to be repaired, returned to the shop and then they can do an official product swap (old in, new out)

Since this might take weeks.. they have given me the new one, as a “new sale”, by creating an invoice with a 30 day due date.

What does this mean for me? If all goes according to plan.. I have no problem, as they will just do a swap and the invoice goes away.

If all goes belly up.. it means I have an invoice that is due in 30 days that need to be paid… as I’m registered in the shop as having bought two cooktops.

Now… the seller did tell me he would postpone the due date, if it takes a long time for the repair to go through, so in theory there should be no problem…

From the sellers mouth, to Gods ears.. I hope that is true!

I will know in a few weeks time, and hopefully, this will be the last you guys hear about this 😉

My broth cooking nightmare!

I mentioned the other day I was cooking broth for future use. And as a result.. my cooktop blew up!

Part 2 of the cooktop/broth cooking saga:

So, we got this cooktop safely into the house. As usual (as happens when I get new stuff) I got a slightly more expensive cooktop that what the original repair would have been.

When I bought my last one, I got one that had gotten very good reviews and was somewhat expensive. It fitted nicely into the house, and worked brilliantly (until I just had to push the limit).

So this time around, I figured I would get a decent one, more or less in the same price bracket as what I paid for my old one (as I had been really happy with it).

When you buy new electric items these days, it’s quite common that they will try to sell you/offer you an extra coverage insurance to go with the product.

I never buy these extra coverage insurances (as we are really well protected with regular warranties here in Norway).. but this time around they offered it for free. The offer was, either 45 dollars off the purchase price, or a 5 year user insurance worth 90 dollars.

As the insurance will give you a new product if you for example drop something on the cooktop, and the glass break, I figured, why not! That might be a good idea, even though I have never had that happen to me before. So I said yes thank you, I’ll take the insurance, thinking, I would never ever need this…

Little did I know… it was an omen of things to come!

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.
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Yesterday… while moving a coconut oil jar across the cooktop… the jar and the top (which I was holding) decided to divorce each other and BANG the glass jar hit the cooktop and shards flew everywhere!

Oh, noooooo.. that sinking feeling looking down at a brand spanking new broken cooktop…

I think I give up…

This batch of broth is becoming awfully expensive (note to self.. next time just buy the darn thing in the shop).

A couple of you mentioned in your comments on my last post, that you would take the top breaking to be a sign to never cook again… well.. I’m inclined to agree with you…

So now what?

Well now, I have to wait until tomorrow, to call the insurance company and see what they have to say about it. In the meantime… I’m glad I haven’t tossed my old half working one, as it looks like I might just need it 😦

The saga continues…

Banging my head against the wall!

I have about half a dozen unfinished blog post that I can’t seem to get out. I write… have a brain fart…. and that ends that endeavor!

And it happens over and over…

And then there are all the little projects I want to do (and tell you all about) where I get all the stuff out.. take a picture for the blog post… have another brain fart, and here we go… again 😦

So you might say things are not going according to plan…

Take yesterday!

My intention was to spend the day making a large amount of broth for future use (first time ever doing a dedicated broth “run”), pay my bills, write on my blog and hang out with a friend watching the newest Star Trek movie 🙂

And guess what… another very sudden stop!

I had two large casseroles all decked out with broth bones, ox tails and vegetables. I was all ready to go. Two large casseroles was on the inductions cooktop with full heat for a quick boil (before I put them back on a simmer) and I had just put on a small casserole to make some tea.. and BANG!

My cooktop blew up!

What?????

OK, so it didn’t physically blow up, but the fuse blew, and it did say bang.. and when I threw the fuse breaker back, sparks flew and killed the mains at the same time.

Oh no…

No worries… I pulled the plug on the cooktop, and activated the fuses again.. all back to normal… with one teeny weeny exception..

The cook-top no longer worked.

For real?

Yep!

I left it alone for a about half an hour (to let it cool down) just in case it would spring back to action.

And guess what, it did. Yaay! 🙂

But only half of it. Noooo! 😦

Turned out, the half I use the most, was dead as a door nail. All it did was give me all sorts of funky error messages that was not mentioned in the manual (go figure).

I had no other option but to call a repair man to find out what was wrong with the darn thing. A few minutes into the conversation he concluded what was wrong, and gave me an estimated repair cost.

Well guess what! I could literally buy a brand spanking new induction cooktop, for what he said the repair most likely would be.

My cooktop is 10 years old, and no way I’m spending half it’s cost on repair when I can get a new one for same price as the repair.

So guess what… after sorting out the two broth casseroles that was already warmed up before everything went pear-shaped, by putting one in the oven and the other one on the remaining working burners, B and I took off to look for a new hob.

Hours later, after reviewing several, we came home for a rest and a cup of coffee.. to see if we could narrow it down to one or two.

Revived from the coffee, we took of for town late last night, to a shop we hadn’t visited already, as it looked like they might have something just up my alley.

Did we find something?

Yes we did, I think.. maybe.. if I can make all my pots work on it… which I haven’t quite succeeded at yet. So tomorrow will show, if it’s a keeper or not (yes, I’m hard to please).

Stay tuned.. and I’ll keep you posted on where I end up on this.

And the broth?

Well that task is going quite well, thank you. It’s simmering nicely, on the stove as we speak, slowly being reduced into an amount that hopefully will fit my freezer 😉

21.16 – Another kitchen run!

We’re at day 16 of my 21 day declutter challenge.

I did another kitchen run the other day, and lo and behold, there were still stuff hanging around… stuff that have survived all my earlier cullings.

You would think that after having gone through the kitchen at least 10-12 times, that there wouldn’t be much left. But guess what… there was (and still is).

Am I completely done with the kitchen? Nah, probably not… but I am done…. for now 😉

And what did the kitchen run yield?

Yep, you guessed it… 16 pieces going out-the-door 🙂

7 dinner plates
1 glass serving plate
1 small vase
4 Voss water bottles – really cool bottles, so I have more 😉
2 glass bottles with popup top
1 old vinegar glass bottle
=
16

I’m being joined in this challenge by:
– Barb, at Decluttering The Stuff, joined for 14 days. Her total count? 146 (so far) 🙂
– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, been working on her desk on day 5.
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, had a wonderful weekend, and decluttered some stuff.
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, is on day 15, and are now at 558!!! I’m only at 232..
Hang on a minute! That’s past my goal of 231.. niiiiice!

21.11 – Random stuff!

We’re at day 11 of my 21 day declutter challenge.

Today I took a quick look around the kitchen area and found a few random items that needs to leave the house. Not much to write about the items either, so I’m just going to post the picture and let that, be that!

11 items around my kitchen are going out-the-door!

1 large knife
1 large wooden spoon
2 small wooden spoons
1 wine wedge box
1 fruit infuser box
1 leather wine opener cover
Champagne corks from my 50th celebration 🙂
1 plant nanny
1 small reusable carry/shopping bag
1 large reusable carry/shopping bag
=
11 items

I’m being joined in this challenge by:
– Barb, at Decluttering The Stuff, is on her day twelve.
– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, you gotta read her declutterathon and day two. And the conclusion… day three!
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, is feeling slightly overwhelmed, but is still deluttering.
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, already at day nine and ten, she is now at 362 items! Amazing!

Starting with a bang!

Who knew that my new year would start with my fridge/freezer going belly up?

I suppose it is understandable that this particular item would throw in the towel eventually, as it’s probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15-17 year old.

I really liked my fridge/feezer (I spend a long time looking for the right one when I bought this) so I tried everything under the sun to find a solution to making it hang around a little longer.

It stopped turning itself off all together! The fridge was nice and cold inside, but the outside of the cabinet, was turning awfully hot. So I tried putting it on a timer, a timer that would turn it off for a while, and then on for a while, hoping this would help.

Unfortunately somewhere in the midst of that, I was stupid enough to turn the thermostat down a little from where it originally was, with the result of it no longer cooling properly. It didn’t help turning the thermostat back up, so I figured that it obviously had to be broken.

Next I did was get a new thermostat, make sense right? Well guess what, after having spend a back breaking evening changing the thermostat on the darn thing (we had to just about take the fridge/freezer completely apart to do the swap) it turns out that it did not help 😦

No other choice but to go out and get a new one! With all the new stuff out there, you would think this would be a great opportunity to get one with all the bells and whistles… and I guess I could, if it hadn’t been for one tiny little issue!

I have a height restriction. You see, I store my microwave on top + one of the sensor for my house alarm sit’s in the corner above the microwave. So I’m limited on how high the cabinet can be, not only for me to be able to reach into the micro (I’m tall but not that tall 😉 ) but also for the alarm sensor to detect people moving around.

I could of course reorganize my kitchen to try to fit the microwave somewhere else, but I’m not really willing to do so, as I only have three options for what to do with it. End up with next to no counter space (which it’s small enough as it is), put it on my dining room table (not a good look) or get rid of the microwave all together (ehhh.. don’t think so).

So off to the store we went, hunting for a cabinet no more than 180cm tall. Turns out fridge/freezers have grown a bit since last time I bought one. They had some lovely cabinets, with great interior layouts, but guess what, they were at the smallest 190cm and that just won’t work.

After a couple of hectic days looking, I’m now the “proud” owner of a new fridge/freezer. I didn’t really ever find the “perfect” cabinet, but I’ve found one I think might work! It wasn’t too expensive, it covers most of my needs and it’s the perfect height.

Should I by any chance find that I can’t get used to the layout (turns out I can’t change the interiour around like I’d like to) it’s quite fortunate that the store have a 30 day return policy 😉 I’m hoping it won’t come that that, as the only other cabinet I kinda like is waaay expensive, a tiny bit noisier, have quite a bit smaller freezer, but is slightly more energy efficient!!

For now at least, my new fridge/freezer it’s sitting in my kitchen and I’m hoping it will grow on me 😉

The old one? They took it with them when the new was delivered, and to date it’s my my biggest item out-the-door!

One fridge/freezer out, one fridge/freezer in! I suppose that is one way to start the new year 😉

Packing party – Kitchen! And results!

I knew I would run into trouble with my kitchen packing party, and I was right.. I sure ran into a bump in the road with this one. And I have to confess, I did not pack it up like I should.

I’ve decluttered my kitchen, so many times, that every time I opened a cabinet or drawer to empty it, I took one look and realised that there wasn’t really any reason to pack it, as I would just put all the stuff right back where it belonged… So I didn’t, pack it that is!

My bad!

But even though I did not follow my own rules on this one, I did however manage to shed a few things after all 🙂

And here it is, my kitchen shed;

4 measure cups
2 knives
1 mixing bowl
1 set of tiny glad bowls to store food in
1 metal water bottle
2 serving bowls
1 swiffer duster handle
4 cleaning cloths
2 dinner plates
1 trash bin
1 food scrap trash bin
2 cereal bowls
1 frying pan
Bunch of small river rock, sand and shells for decorations – count as 5
1 terracotta plant watering “tube”
2 ice cube trays
1 pair of chop sticks
1 thong to grab hot bowls
1 broken soup bowl – that obviously didn’t want to hang around it’s siblings any longer…
Bunch of decorate stuff for flower arrangements – 17 items

I can’t believe it, that actually turned into 51 items out-the-door, that’s kinda cool! (small happy dance going on here 😉 )

So what room is next?

As I mentioned in my last post, doing the hallway would just be a joke (or a very easy pass) as my hallway is the size of a stamp, and the only thing in it, is the entrance door and a closet. And not to mention that this closet I have already gone through several times, and there is nothing left to get rid off. If I take a seriously good look, I might find a pair of shoes that could need new shoelaces, but other than that, only a few dust bunnies are to be had 🙂

Then there is the guest room. That’s a whole other ballgame! There is no doubt it needs to be done… but right now it looks like an overstuffed piñata, filled up with; boxes from other rooms that are not quite emptied yet, some of the stuff that is going out-the-door that I’m hoping I will find takers for, piles of out-the-door items I have not written about yet ++ It’s been literally treated as an overflow area during my packing party, and it’s a hot mess.

The guest room is NOT going to be fun, as I have a few big huge IKEA wardrobe cabinets, filled with stuff. Since I don’t have much storage rooms, I use these cabinets to store my Christmas decorations, photo collections, electrical stuff, towels, bed linen, guest pillows and covers, golf stuff, other smaller sports stuff, speakers, printer, cables… you get my drift, yes? It is where I store everything!!!

So this is how this is going to go!

This coming weekend, I will clear the room of all the “junk”, unpack the items that belong elsewhere, and prepare myself…

For the following weekend, which will be crunch time for the guest room 😉

Another kitchen run!

The first group of workers are done at my step-mums place (only the bathroom left to do), and there is a massive change from how it was before they started. Even though most of the major work is done, there are still a few tasks left, so I guess it’s my time to get to work 😉

We are trying to get the kitchen done, and Fridays work was the kitchen ventilator. As always, it took much longer than I thought. A quick couple of hours job turned into a few hours more! Hmmm, isn’t that always the way…?

Anyhow, it’s done (phew)! Now…did I manage to remember to take a before photo? Off course not… 😦 Could I at least take a photo of the discarded parts? Yes, off course! And the after photo? Absolutely 🙂

Today was the day to put the the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers back together. Remember I told you about taking them down to have them professionally painted? We picked them up before Christmas, but decided to wait until after the holidays to put them back up. Well, there is no more excuse, it is well after the holidays, and time 🙂

So here we are, one kitchen almost done…

Not very exciting… I know… but it is what I’ve been up to the last few days… 😉

December tally!

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the month already. As we all know, December is the month of Christmas. With all the preparation and celebration, that entails, it doesn’t really leave much time for any other activities.

Even so, I did manage to squeeze in some moments to spend on other tasks and to celebrate my blogs 1 year aniversary! Woohoo!

Since tomorrow is new years eve, I kinda figured I won’t be decluttering any significant stuff these last to days. So I decided to post Decembers tally early 😉

And here it is. DECEMBERS TALLY of things “out-the-door” = 108 items!

6 items – during My Christmas shed

2 shirts
1 cardigan
1 sweater
1 vest
1 painting

90 items – that I had been holding on for my neighbour to check first – In finally out of here

2 magazine holders
3 microwave items
1 ice cube tray
3 plastic boxes to store food in + a box of ziploc bags
1 serving tray
3 candle holders
1 pack of plastic spoons
1 pack of plastic straws (should be a hit with her kids)
2 wine openers
3 wine stoppers
1 huge sport drink reusable bottle
1 reusable lunch bag
1 small porcelain bowl
4 long stemmed wine glasses
1 tea box full of different teas
1 plastic box (the one with an X I’m keeping for now.. I have an idea and if it works I’ll post about it 🙂 )
1 cut board
1 decorative glass bowl
1 tiny shots glass
Bunch of rubber band (bracelets) – count as 1
7 watches (she took a couple for her kids)
18 Christmas decoration items
1 box of decorative tiny apples (Christmas stuff)
3 bean babies
1 head light
1 big storage box (all the stuff she took with her fit in the box – it’s that big 🙂 )
1 pair of running shoes (another friend took earlier)
2 medium size storage boxes (perfect for her kids toys)
1 pair of jeans
6 bras
7 pantyhose
3 pairs of socks
2 short sleeved bicycle tops
1 pair of shorts
1 pair of dress pants
1 t-shirt
1 sleep shorts

12 books – another books instalment in my reading a book program

So there you have it – 108 items out-the-door for the month of December!

So does this bring me to the goal I set at the start of this year? Stay tuned and find out 😉

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