jack

I got some generic moisturiser from Tesco and in the short term it helped a lot. If it doesn't solve the problem I'll see if I can get something more heavyweight.

Looking at my hands I'm a little shocked at how cracked they'd got. I'd mentally consigned this to the category of "little things to sort out when I have time, after all, other people have real problems, surely I shouldn't complain about some cracked skin". But it did look a bit like I beat up a brick wall in a boxing match :)

I still only have a partial understanding of what constitutes "moisturiser"/"aqueous"/"emollient" and which brands are fall under one general umbrella term, and which brands represent something qualitatively different.

Over the years, I've had to replace several bikes from theft or accident. Each time, anything left over I've thrown into the shed. By now, the shed contains a Frankenstienian monstrosity where:

* The frame comes from a bike which came off worst in a 50mph collision with the tarmac (fortunately, no vertebrates were harmed in this incident!)
* The back wheel is a hub-gear wheel scavenged off another bike which died in some way (I no longer remember how), but is no longer connected to anything
* The chain is broken
* The front wheel looks fine, but I'm not sure if it is the slightly-bent one or not.
* The saddle was cannibalised when the saddle on my new bike broke. In its place there remains a broken replacement which (probably) doesn't fit on the bike.
* The mud-guard supports and various other accoutrements were also cannibalised
* I've not tried the brakes

Obviously, this chimera is unridable. It's also in pieces. Most of it is going to the recycling centre in the morning (Yay, declutter!) I feel quite morbid, some of the bits having served me well over the years only to be rejected now. But that's as honorable an end as a broken bike can hope for :) Rest in peace, chimera.

My question is, is there anything worth salvaging? I don't really care about the money, but if anything is useful I'd rather it wasn't wasted. The forks are buckled, and I seem to recall replacing them wasn't practical so the frame is unusable, does that sound right? The wheels might be usable as front wheels, but I'm not sure -- is there any point keeping them in case? Or anyone might want them? Is there any use for the brake mountings, gear mountings, etc?

Arranged end of tenancy cleaning ✓

It was a little stressful planning for this, but it's arranged, they're happy to just clean everything, they gave me a breakdown, and say superficially cleaning the mold is a comparatively small extra.

It feels incredibly good that the cleaning problems with my flat are (hopefully) gone. It's amazing what you can order from the internet, and thanks to Uri David for getting them in before!

Having just transferred a lot of things to my new laptop (via dropbox and via my terabyte), I've been purging and sorting my firefox bookmarks.

There were several folders where I ended up dropping "things that looked interesting to look at later", but they were such a mess I never _did_. Now I have a bookmark folder sorted into categories (mostly by subject, but a few for "things I read day-to-day" and "stuff to blog about", etc, and also sorted by how I actually use them, eg. whether it's a "browse when I'm bored" category or "need in a hurry" category). And a couple of giant folders full of a lot of links I saved that are not really current any more.

I trawled through some of those to see what was in them, which was somewhat interesting :) Many I though I might well want to read when I was bored and triaged into more sensible folders. But I had many other observations as well:

* It would in many ways make more sense to delete the whole folder. That would make me feel more organised. But I couldn't do it. I'm too obsessive. But I noticed that with something like this there is a big difference between "deleting" and "archiving", so long as it's there somewhere I feel compelled to revisit it, at least occasionally.

* Much kudos to websites that have kept links from N years ago working. I know that doesn't _always_ matter, but it was very, very useful to me here. (I'd almost rather firefox automatically saved a copy of the webpage whenever you bookmarked something, just so you could see what it USED to be if it's later broken :))

* I am very embarrassed to admit I had stuff sitting around vaguely intending to look at it later for 5+ years. I really should do it, or delete it, and not let my brain fill up with trying to remember all the things it will maybe get to...

I'm sure, ages ago, I added many tasks to the Remember the Milk website. I didn't keep it up, neither with long-term stuff nor with repeating daily stuff, but I was going to go back and triage, and see if anything there (typically long term aspirational goals) ought to be transferred to my master spreadsheet in some form. But now, my apparent account is empty. So, on the good news, there's no tasks hanging around waiting to be done. But on the other hand, I wanted to look it over before deleting it.

I don't know which is more likely -- that I imagined the whole thing, that my account expired and was purged, and then reactivated when I logged in, that I misremembered the account name but had set up a second account while I was investigating the website or something, or that I misremembered the whole website and I was actually thinking of a different one. Which seems most likely?

My flat is now completely emptied of (a) foam duck-like trucks and (b) fluorescent tubes that don't work and I can't spell.

It seems like there's N sorts of stuff:

- stuff you need to keep which is put away in its place (this is the best sort of stuff, in fact, when I say stuff, I mostly mean the other stuff)
- stuff which you need to keep, but doesn't have a place, or isn't in its place
- stuff which needs fixing
- stuff which you don't need to keep, but still have
- stuff which you don't know if you need to keep or not because it's a big pile of amorphous stuff and you don't know what's in it.

Basically, purge these in reverse order until the categories collapse as much as possible :)

Living room

1. I have purged over 9/10 of my "books I borrowed and had difficulty returning" pile:

- lots and lots to Rachel's lovely lovely new bookshelves
- half a dozen to my parents (we treat our collections fairly fluidly, but things they like and I didn't need to go back)
- several to their owners
- several to my main collection or to charity (because their owners didn't want them, or weren't who I remembered they were)

That leaves just:

- 3 DVDs for Minipoppy
- 1 DVD for Justin
- 1 book for my first girlfriend who I've slowly lost touch with
- 1 book I've not had that long and want to read

2. I have purged two small stacks of paperwork which have sat untouched since I moved in, trashing most of it, but sorting and filing some.

Entertaining contents include:

- Address of previous tenants
- Notes for proposed start-up business ideas we tossed around at university (that never went anywhere in the end)
- Maps and notes for the first roleplaying campaign I GM'd (sessions 9-12/16 of the ad hoc spoons campaign with sonicdrift and her housemate and alextiefling's brother :)

3. There are some stationary/electronics which I go through periodically but wants to be stored in a more convenient manner, and I unsurprisingly need more bookcases, but it is completely cleared out of piles of stuff that I don't know if I need or not

Things still need lots and lots of cleaning, but at least they're comparatively tidy

Kitchen

I have moved some kitchenware around, unpacked a box which had been sitting there since I moved in, rearranged the cupboards and surfaces a little. Again, things still need cleaning, but they've got a lot tidier.

The cupboards are still a bit mixed with stuff I own, and stuff which came with the flat, but it is completely cleared out of piles of stuff that I don't know if I need or not

(There's also a lot of stuff which needs fixing, here and elsewhere, but that's on a separate mental list.)

Spare room

I donated about eight big boxes of books and videos to Oxfam. I have half-a-dozen little boxes of books left, which I want to keep and would put on a bookcase if I had another one.

In fact, when I've purged my books, they're less out of control than I think. I have a fairly large number I like and want to keep, and up to a dozen I want to read, but the spectre of an unfinishable to-read pile (always a risk) has actually receded.

I sorted a box of paperwork and stuff from my last-but-one employer.

There remains a folder of stuff to return to poohsoc, but otherwise it's completely cleared out of piles of stuff that I don't know if I need or not

Bedroom

With Liv's marvellous help I sorted and threw out or donated several bin bags of clothes which were too old/worn/torn or didn't fit or I didn't like and didn't wear. I've also sorted most (but not all) of the paperwork found in the other rooms into my concertina file.

Things which remain cluttered:

- Several small boxes, half of one dresser and one large drawer which contain mixed stationary, geegaws and paperwork
- Concertina file needs a sort-through and reordering
- Some stuff which is in with the χmas ornaments
- A box of electronic bits-and-pieces, and some boxes-things-came-in, most of which I need, but some of which I need to throw out

Summary

In summary, I'm actually very pleased. I feel I exceeded a high watermark, in having less unsorted paperwork than I did when I first moved in :) There's still a lot of things that need lots of cleaning or sorting out or fixing or buying etc etc etc and my flat is still a mess, and my life will probably never be as well-organised as some people's, but I'm very very pleased at the reduction so far!!

In fact, there was never that much clutter, there was just enough I didn't know where to put it and never got started.