This thread is an excellent idea , Smilelee, thank you!
Congratulations, Helian!
I first discovered the concept of decluttering for an easier life in a reader's Digest article way back in 1990. But I think I first discovered Flylady and especially the idea of routines and actually doing jobs regularly amtd on a particular day, not just "when I felt like it" when I read her book (2002?). From there I found the Flylady forum, and, like Laura, switched to sheforums when that one closed.
I'm 58, and I've been married to DH, who is 61, for nearly 35 years. I grew up in Bournemouth, which is right on the south coast of England, and which in the 1960s and 70s was idyllic , with its quaint "genteel" feel and its miles of sandy beaches. My best friend's house when I was about 10 was in easy walking distance of the beach. We used to turn right from her house, then right again to walk down the chine, and about 10 minutes or so later we arrived on the promenade.
It's all changed substantially since then, however, and unfortunately not for the better, so I don't go back any more.
I moved to Devon for university, and stayed! I met DH (who is a local lad!) and we married in 1990. DH currently works in IT for NHS England, but as our current government has recently decided to abolish NHS England and merge it with something else
, we don't
know how much longer he will be working there, but it will be at least a year, maybe two. If his team do end up losing their jobs, as they're all about the same age, they're planning to take redundancy and early retirement, so we'll be ok.
I've had a succession of jobs, but finally started my own cleaning business(!) in 2007. That jogged along nicely until the pandemic brought an end to it, so now I'm very happy being a housewife / homemaker and getting more involved in our church.
We have three rescue cats, Freddie, who will be 12 in July, we rescued as a five month old kitten from an abusive household, where the toddler there was squeezing poor Freddie like a tube of toothpaste and carrying him round by his neck.
Unsurprisingly, Freddie still doesn't like children! He doesn't like the vet either, which is somewhat unfortunate as he is currently receiving injections every 4 weeks for his arthritis (he has hip displasia), which are very successful at improving his mobility.
Jude will be 7 this year, and we adopted her from Blue Cross when she was about a year old. She's a very sweet natured timid cat, but can also be very strong minded!
Finally we adopted Matilda from Romania back in May 2023. She was rescued from the streets of Bucharest as a small kitten by a very kind lady who devotes herself to rescuing cats and dogs over there. She's very outgoing and friendly towards everyone, and was evidently very well socialised when she was in foster care.
She will be 4 years old in July.
My passion is my garden -it's definitely my "happy space". I grow mostly roses, which seems to like the clay soil.
My latest project is renovating a 1950s dolls house - originally it was to give me something productive and enjoyable to do while the winter weather meant it was too wet to get out in the garden much, but, like many projects, it seems to have grown!
.