Being a proper adult at 7am, and random bits of plastic!

Today I had a day off from work, so why was I awake at 6:45am checking my emails? That would be because of great excitement now I’m a ‘proper adult’ adult.... the new dishwasher was scheduled to arrive just after 7am. Yes. 7am on a Sunday 😩. So what preparation was needed for this new arrival? The last time I had a dishwasher installed was 7 years ago. That meant a few days of hiding things in kitchen cupboards. It meant days of hiding all sorts of things in other cupboards in the other rooms just in case the delivery guys looked inside another room. It meant a marathon cleaning session. Days of preparation to make sure a dishwasher could be seamlessly brought into my home and installed. Panic as the phone call to say they’re not far away meant a scramble on the bedroom floor to find clean (but crumpled) clothes, and where the hell was my bra? It meant searching through emails to find an order number. Once it had been installed it meant finding room somewhere in the junk drawer (that never properly closed anyway) for the manual and those weird bits of plastic that you have no idea what they do but obviously *must keep just in case they’re essential for it to work*. Then the warranty and installation instructions would be kept in the very interestingly random filing system that was my dining room table to deal with ‘later’. Obviously ‘deal with later’ is code for when visitors next come around shove in a cupboard somewhere.... I’ve tried to cope without a dishwasher, to see if it really was an essential appliance for me. It’s been a few months without one. Like most clutter magnets (even reformed ones like me!) I’m a tasked based person. This means that the temptation to leave washing up until there’s a decent amount to do at once, rather than just wash a single mug after use is still a battle I fight. I soon found that the evening ‘home reset’ where I tidy and clean before bed was taking longer than 5 minutes that it usually does. Occasionally I’d see the pots by the sink and think I will do it tomorrow... and then I’d be working a 12 hour day and the last thing I wanted to do was spend half an hour washing up. Then as there’s pots on the side cleaning the kitchen no longer takes a couple of wipes and less than a minute. It’s a slippery slope. I fought it and won most days, but I realised for the sake of a few hundred pounds it was a worthwhile investment to ease my daily fight of being a bit of a slob 😂 When you declutter your mindset gets very much changed, but you’re still YOU. You’re still messy. You can still be lazy! The reason why I’m so popular with my clients is that I feel their battles. I totally get where they come from, and how absolutely easy it is to lose a battle against your home. I still face those battles every day. The differences are I have less clutter, I have strategies I’ve learned which I pass on, and a house ‘reset’ now takes 5 minutes rather than days. I have a home I’m not embarrassed about when people come over. A home that’s clean (easily!). Decluttering doesn’t magically change who you are, but it does change some thought processes. It made me realise that I can still be lazy, and I really love my dishwasher! I no longer have to make myself wash a single mug to keep on top of the kitchen. Does it count as cheating? I’m not sure. Personally I think it’s just an aid for better time management so I can concentrate on other things. So how much preparation was needed for this mornings delivery? None. I made myself a cuppa when they rang to say they were 10 minutes away. The email in my decluttered inbox was flagged so I could track the delivery within a minute. I moved the dogs into the living room to stop the delivery driver having to deal with two excited yapping dogs. Clothes were in my folded in my drawers, easy to see so it took less than 2 seconds to decide what to wear. The house had a reset last night before bed. Kitchen surfaces had been wiped. No junk anywhere. The delivery guys just had to bring it in and install it. I had a two minute look at the manual which then went straight into recycling. When the old dishwasher developed a fault a quick google told me very quickly what the problem was, no need to check a manual - google is one huge manual. Warranty number was phoned up, reference given and that slip of paper was put in ‘home insurance’ file within a few minutes. Those random pieces of plastic? They’re in the bin. No need to keep them, no idea what two were, the other was for washing baking sheets apparently. Hmm. Who knew? It’s not going to get used so it’s in the recycling bin. I’m not planning on using it, and I doubt it’s going to get resold on (even if it does it’s not worth any more second hand because it has that attachment). Besides if I’m that desperate for one a quick search on eBay and it’ll be sorted. So why don’t I keep it and pop it on eBay? Life is too short! The effort involved versus the pay off is low. I’d much rather have my time thanks, and that’s precisely what decluttering has given me. Time. Hope you’re having a great Sunday! Much love, Heather x