Tenner Week February 2023: Day 2

Today’s activity is to declutter your bedside table, for a calmer, tidier bedroom. Hopefully this shouldn’t take too long, unless you have a massive bedside table with lots of drawers, as most of these bits of furniture are usually small and simple.

By the way, if you have something like a standard chest of drawers next to your bed then just tidy the top of it rather than going through the whole thing otherwise it’ll just take too long. [If you have no bedside table at all then you might like to quickly declutter your sock drawer instead.]

Before you start, think about how you’d like this space to work for you. Do you need light, chargers, a place for books or a journal, a coaster or water bottle for drinks, an alarm, or perhaps some storage for skincare, your glasses or important medication? Do you want ornaments or a plant here?

Here’s the declutter:

• Get everything out of the drawer(s) and off the top, including lamps, books, and so on.
• Dust, wipe or polish the top of the table and clean out the drawer or drawers.
• Go through everything you’ve removed and divide it into these groups: throw away/recycle, donate, keep here, keep but move.
• Get the ‘throw away’ stuff straight into the bin, and the recycling into the recycling bin, ideally to your outdoor bins if possible so things aren’t hanging around.
• Put the ‘donate’ items to one side and make a plan to drop them off before the end of the week.
• Check the ‘keep here’ things and dust or wipe them if needed. Put them back so the most used items are within the easiest reach.
• Add useful storage pots, boxes or other containers if you already have them. If not, add anything you especially want to a shopping list.
• Go through the ‘keep but move’ pile and put things away properly in their new homes.
• Finally, is there anything important missing? This could be anything from a new lamp to a lip balm, or from an ornament to a phone charger. Add it to the shopping list, and pick it up after the challenge has finished.

It’s your chance to design a small part of your space and perhaps make falling asleep or waking up a little easier too.

What’s happening here

I managed to get through yesterday without spending any of my £10, and I’m hoping to do the same today if possible although I’m planning on getting out and running a few errands at lunchtime. Temptation is always lurking…

Yesterday’s declutter was to sort out the spice rack, and it was a bit of an eye opener. There were a couple of things in there that dated back to around about the dawn of time, and they had zero food value left in them. That’s a nice way of saying they might have been a health hazard, of course. It included a thai-style dried blend (buy the paste or don’t bother), some tikka spices (only available in a massive tub, went off), and mixed spice I’d bought for baking cakes with that turned out to be a savoury blend because it had so much coriander in it.

These have all gone into the council food waste bin because they’re beyond saving, and it wouldn’t have been right to put them up for a food donation or swap. I’ve recycled the jars and tin as well, seeing as they aren’t going to be refilled. Lesson learned: we like and use up herb blends in this house, but not so much with the ready mixed spices. If that happens again in future I’ll stick them on Olio or a local facebook group in case they’re good for someone else.

Last night we had burritos with leftover hot sauce and fresh coriander, and Beau had something in his that he’d frozen without a label or a date so I’m guessing it was some bits of turkey or chicken from December. Mystery meat. I did not partake, and went with a veggie option of black beans and sweetcorn.

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras or plain old pancake day, so I’m going to make up some batter right after work then leave it to sit for a while before getting cooking. A request has been put in for lemon and sugar, which is obviously the classic, but I think I’ll do a couple of cheese and spinach filled ones first before we go on to the sweet stuff. Might as well make a proper meal out of it, and hopefully that’ll save a lot of other faffing around because I don’t want to have to make a separate main course.

By the way, what’s your favourite pancake topping or filling? I like plenty of fruit in mine, so I’ll probably defrost some frozen berries and have a drizzle of honey on the top, but I still respect anyone who goes full on with the Nutella.

Happy Pancake Day! See you back here tomorrow.