Spring Cleaning

There was a whiff of Spring in the air, and the weather looked warm.    Time to tackle the first seasonal deep clean of the chicken coops!

I used to do all the dismantling, cleaning, drying, disinfecting, re-mantling of all  the coops in the same day.   I wasn't sure I had enough energy for that,   so I worked out a plan to do it over two days.

Day one went well, better than I expected.

I emptied one of the Cubes (not the one the Girls use to lay in), and scrubbed and  jet washed everything, even the front.    We are in a shaded art of the garden, so everything gets covered in green stuff, and it takes some effort to remove.

I did the spare coop, if I hadn't done it at that point it wouldn't have got done.   Then I did the outside of the second Cube.      I was meant to stop at this point,  but I decided I'd do the poo trays and part of the inside, and I'd leave the nestbox until the following day.

I'd been scrubbing the roosting bars, poo trays, nestbox divider, and coop back, on the patio, and then jet washing them. The patio was striated where the algae had been partially blasted.    So, while I was waiting for the coop stuff to dry enough for me to disinfect with Poultry Shield,    I decided to jet wash (part of) the patio. 

I did one section at a time.  This gave me some satisfaction as I joined up the striations. It enabled me to see clearly what progress I was making,  and it meant I could stop at any time.  I did enough so that we could put the yet-to-be-emptied-at-that-point summerhouse contents out on it.

After I'd done the disinfecting,  and the re-mantling,  I was pooped and didn't finish the patio.

The next day it was cold, and then it rained, and then it rained and it was cold.

It took until Yesterday to get warm enough for me to finish the second coop, which required all the inside cleaning again at this point.  I didn't have the energy to finish the patio.    I did suddently remember that I had a patio head for the pressure washer,  so I got it out of the recently emptied MyShed, and it's sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to go out use it.   We've got a big swing seat thing on the patio, and I can't move it on my own. And the weather is now rubbish.

That's my excuse, any way.  

Shedding

Last week, before we had a go at emptying and reorganising the summerhouse, I decided to have a go at emptying MyShed.

 

DH and I have always had our own sheds, each called MyShed (or YourShed if we are talking about the other person's shed). 

 

MyShed was originally used to store the mountain of chicken parephernalia that we had when we had a flock of girls here,   and a breeding flock and pen of growers at the allotment.  We now have only one small flock here, and we have reduced what stuff we have.   MyShed has gradually acquired overspill from HisShed and other areas.

 

I had a go at clearing it a few months ago, and I did get rid of quite a bit of stuff.  I also couldn't bring myself to dispose of some bits.

 

Last week I was not in the best of moods, and I was looking at MyShed to see what I could remove to create space to take stuff from the summerhouse.  And that was it.

 

Before I knew what was happening,  I'd made a large pile of stuff to go to the tip.  It was full of stuff that I'd looked at previously and decided I wasn't ready to part with it.   I've discovered that being in a bad mood is almost as effective as being in pain, when it comes to decluttering.  That, and the weight of having cleared my parents smallholding and wanting to reduce the amount of carp that my Executors will have to deal with, of course.

 

I could have donated some bits,  but I was not  in the mood for faffing around so it all went to the tip. 

 

I did manage to  advertise - and sell - a large feed bin. The lady who bought it was lovely,  and it turned out she was going to be using it for chicken feed.   I gave her some of my chicken paraphernalia (I had a spare Chicken Guard auto opener, and some large drinkers, and some small feeders that I didn't want to throw away but couldn't face advertising),  and she seemed happy.

 

We immediately moved some stuff from the summerhouse into MyShed. Stuff which needs cover, but can withstand being in a shed.  It's still a bit of a dumping ground but it's a darned sigh emptier (at the moment) than uit has been for years.

 

DH was mildly spurred on by my pile of stuff,  and he decided to have a quick clear round before we did the tip trip.

  

 

 

Letting go

We are part way through a slow kitchen refit, and are thinking about doing an extension elsewhere in the house a bit later in the year which will have the knock on effect of enlarging our utility area.

 

As a result, we've been holding on to all our "spare" kitchen bits, as we don't yet know what we aer going to need for the utility. 

 

They have all been residing in what we used to call our Summerhouse.  It's been a storage area since my Dad died and my brother and I were emptying my parents house.  Then came the kitchen.  And next..
 

A walk in larder popped up for sale.   I've let two other walk in larders go because we haven't decided what to do in the Utility.   This one, I really really wanted to get.  It matches the one we already have.  It's not expensive.  If we don't use it, we can re-sell it.

Except we don't have anywhere to store it (even flat packed).

So, we decided to empty out the 2/3rds of the summerhouse which currently houses kitchen bits so we could review them.   Our patio was full of kitchen.  It took some time to get the stuff out and sorted,  and then more time to photograph the bits we agreed we would let go.   A few items are  by the gate ready to go to the tip.

Then we packed everything back in the summerhouse, with those "let go" items stored at the front so we can get them out easily.

I created numerous posts on various groups and selling/freebie sites (not Ebay, yet).  Many items I've decided to give away,  as I want them gone more than I want to recoup any money.  

I'm picking the larder up next week on my way back from visiting my Mum,  so I hope some of them find new homes before then (otherwise they will have to go to the tip, which is a shame).

 

One set of superb quality doors has gone today, which is a start (but obviously it's more help if the units go!).

I need to clear out the other 1/3rd of the summerhouse now as it's full of the "non-kitchen" bits and  access to the freezer is now awkward.    I planned  todo it today but the forecast is rain, so that won't be happening.