The A-Z of how to ruin your back while streamlining your house

What have I been doing with my time instead of writing my blog? This time last year I was immobile with a slipped disc - and jobs around the house got left. But this January life was very different from January 2018. Jobs HAD to be done. There were cupboards we couldn't get in to as they were SOOO full. And we had to redecorate both at our house and mum's house - which has been empty five years and has had two sets of builders in... And we're tentatively planning to put our master bedroom and ensuite on AirBnB. And I mean tentative ...

During January and February this year I've been:- 

a)Moving furniture for friends and selling it from our garage - in the snow! 

b) clearing our mini-kitchen - it's an ensuite kitchen - attached to our bathroom - yep - odd! 

c) clearing all our wardrobes for future guests 

d) moving our personal belongings to our inbuilt lockable wardrobes

e) chucking 26 bags of rubbish -  to the dump

f) sorting another 8 bags ready for a car boot sale on Easter Day

g) clearing under our bed and moving furniture to decorate our bedroom

h) decorating our bedroom and painting small occasional pieces of furniture - it was beautiful and sunny in the garden in February - yes - February - ideal weather for paintng small tables and chairs outside 

During March I was:

i) sorting and chucking loads of stuff from our transit room - moving our chest of drawers into there - with Richard's help 

j) decorating our bedroom - 3 walls, doors and all the paintwork

k) sorting the guest bedroom on the top floor, sleeping up there whilst we had new ensuite bathroom done - chucking at least 3 more bags of rubbish

l) moving all our personal financial files upstairs - sorting them and labelling them to free up cupboards in our ensuite mini kitchen - we are planning to advertise our master bedroom and kitchen and ensuite on AirBnB - for one season only 

m) moving bedroom furniture - with Richard's help - and hoovering every day for 10 days while we had the ensuite bathroom done

n) travelling up to mum's over the last two weekends in March which made my back ache from the car seat

o) 6 days of decorating at mum's - getting very tired and sleeping on less supportive mattresses than I need BUT no moving of furniture

p) then when the back pain started, last Sunday night - the last day of March - the last day of three months of punishing my discs and trapped sciatic nerve - sweeping and mopping dust and debris in mum's conservatory - it was really left in a poor state after builders had been in - but that truly hurt my back - I thought I wouldn't be able to finish painting at mum's on Monday - April 1 - April Fool's Day - but managed it with 2 x co-codamol and ibuprofen

q) then clearing newspapers and dustsheets, loading our car in a rush to get to the farm shop we like enroute home

During April 

r) collecting a good-sized bathroom cabinet for all the medicines I've moved from our ensuite

s) clearing and cleaning stairs for our new cleaner - to see what needs doing when we start AirBnB - especially getting behind the radiator in the hall - that always hurts my back

t) moving surplus shoes, boots, scarves and winter gloves off the stairs 

u) trying not to do too much as my back started complaining but I had to get rollers, tins of paint and dust sheets to our shed and kitchen cupboards plus the old  fold-up chairs - used while decorating mum's furniture-free house - up to the garage - Richard did most of that while I was on the pain killers and soaking in a warm bath

v) I want to put bark on the flower beds today - to suppress weeds - will my back moan at me? 

w)and - later today - before the rains come -  continue planting up pots, tubs and window boxes - a splash of colour for the patio and the front garden 

x) will I manage to paint the new fence panels? perhaps - if it's a sunny, warm day - I often seem to be doing this on a Good Friday - Richard will help

y) moving remnants of the old fence to the car for the tip - Richard will HAVE to do that - I can't bend and lift wooden posts

z) anything else that hasn't been done yet - like sorting our downstairs loo and breakfast room - we need to get our house to look more like a home and not a place we've just moved into -
 and, finally, getting everything out of cupboards for the car boot sale over Easter weekend - hoping for dry, warmish weather 😏

Then we deserve a holiday - in a place with supportive mattresses and lots of warm weather or a sauna! 

And there we have it - the tale of how to ruin your back A-Z

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