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Up at 6.30. I need a shower. The electrician is due at 8am to appraise the situation and produce an estimate. So no time for a walk today.
I have been so busy that I have lost sight of how untidy the place still looks indoors. Early on, in this seeming endless journey, it was easy to decide. What must be kept and what was merely "packaging."
Now I am faced with far more difficult decisions. Are Her countless "baubles and beads" worthy of going to the charity shops? Should I let them choose what to discard? Or should most of it go straight into the bin? Where do I set the bar for making such decisions? I really haven't a clue.
I have just found some pictures I took of the interior of the house before my wife died. I can hardly believe we lived like that for so long! Now there is far more floor space but it still looks bad. Simply because of all the boxes waiting to be sorted. My wife was a genius at hiding our stuff in plain sight. Usually with a throw over cloth or curtain. Now I have let the light in and it looks awful!
The unfinished walls and surfaces remain from two decades ago. Made worse by my removal of the wall boarding all around the kitchen. There were plenty of places where jobs went unfinished after a disagreement.
The electrician proved to be a highly intelligent, articulate, supremely professional and an extremely helpful young man. With perfect English. He was actually trying to save me money by avoiding unnecessary changes.
The old consumer unit can stay. It just needs a few more fuses fitted. To provide more circuits and more sockets in the kitchen. This will avoid the single, 10A fuse blowing. Leaving us me with no lights or power. Which happens whenever two appliances are used at the same time. 2022? Don't you believe it!
The electrician even volunteered to contact a sensible plumbing company to move the water heater downstairs. From hanging off the face of the chimney upstairs. Down to the airing cupboard and out of sight. They will [hopefully] both arrive next Wednesday 18th at 7.30am to carry out the work.
What a delight to work with a real and serious professional! The plumber could probably fix the new sink while he is here. Though I need to make the cut-outs in the working surface to the templates first.
I have now decided. I am going to put the fridge back in its alcove. It just stood out like a sore thumb behind the door. Now I have to really tidy up indoors! No more excuses! No more messing about in the garden. I have a week to clear it all away.
The airing cupboard is now empty and its contents at the charity shop. There must have been over 100 duvet covers. [Singles] Making up 6 x 100L bags. Plus another bag full of my wife's clothing from the airing cupboard. I also found a small cloth bag containing some of our son's baby clothes. I kept that and put it with her best glassware. I removed the hundreds of loose, shelving slats and placed them in a box on the airing cupboard floor. Just making life easier for the plumber.
While I was out I bought 20 removal boxes in two sizes. Then realised that bags are far more practical for the charity shop donations. So I bought another two rolls of clear, 100L bin bags.
The boxes can be used for home storage. Since they match and can be safely stacked. Without looking awful. My wife's collection, on the TV stage, is still in completely random containers. Which looks awful from my computer chair alongside. I finally bought a pedal bin for the kitchen. We had always used a bin bag in a bucket. The bags were too large for the bucket and the rubbish wasn't covered. Now it will be.
13.00 59F and light rain has started. Lunch time. The bedroom was still housing lots of bedding and curtains. I have three large tubs of towels alone. How many towels does one person need? One quarter of them. Even then, I was being generous with myself. I kept only those in perfect condition and in muted colours I liked.
I have gone through all the tubs of towels, curtains and bedding again. Seven more bags for the charity shop. Where I was told to go away!! They couldn't handle any more of my wife's belongings. I tried over the road but they only wanted clothes.
The third charity shop was happy to take it all and gave me a very polite thank you. The first I'd received in five weeks of donating over 80 bags and lots of other items!!
The elderly ladies at the Red Cross shop even wanted to carry the heavy bags inside. Despite my protests that they might injure themselves. I never had so much as a grunt from the workers at the biggest charity shop! I must have given them many hundreds of pounds worth. Even at discount, charity shop, retail prices. They were handy because they had a private parking yard for deliveries. Which saved a lot of legwork carrying heavy bags.
Once home again, the next priority was clearing the kitchen floor. First I thoroughly cleaned the floor under the fridge's former footprint. Then I moved the fridge back into its alcove. Whereupon I discovered a disaster! A bag of cream had somehow been crushed under a heavy box on the floor in the opposite corner. Some time ago too. Judging by the smell. It stank to high heaven!
I used umpteen cloths to wipe up the slippery white stuff. Then tried assorted cleaning fluids. When water and washing up liquid wouldn't make the smell go away Finally bleach seemed to kill the smell. Temporarily. It still smelt badly as soon as I returned to the kitchen. I went back to cleaning with the floor abrasive cleaner and more rags.
16.00 59F. Still raining lightly. Now I have to mop the entire kitchen floor. My first attempt with the cleaning fluid recommended by the nice lady in the supermarket. I have bought a microfibre, flat mop but no wide bucket to rinse the mop. I may have to "borrow" a plastic storage container. There are several which might suit the job. They weren't wide enough.
So I used a seed tray. Which wasn't remotely deep enough to allow proper rinsing. The filthy water splashed everywhere! The floor tiles cleaned up okay but the grouting is still filthy. My wife would use brown soap. Working down on her hands and knees for cleaning the grout. Once satisfied with the tiles I finally dried off the floor with a rag wrapped around the mop.
Then it was on to clearing the front hall. Three Ikea trolleys worth. Most of it [pots] went out into the greenhouse. Which still badly needs tidying. The rest is recycling yard fodder. The home, green [recycling] bin is already full. Both bins are to be emptied on Thursday. Which is unusual but very helpful timing.
18.00 59F. I can't believe the progress I am making today! Bedroom storage tubs, airing cupboard, kitchen and front hall all cleared. All in one day.
I already have a full trailer. Waiting to be delivered to the recycling yard tomorrow. [Wednesday.] I will probably fill a second trailer from the remaining garden detritus. Mostly old bits of wood and pallets under the Chestnut. Then I need to start on the boxes on the lounge floor. The grass also needs cutting. Today's rain will probably make it worse!
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