Junk in the loft

At the weekend, we started on a task that we've been meaning to do for a while -- tidy the loft. Over the space of twelve years in this house, we've put things up there without thinking too hard (we may need them again at some point in the future, you never know...) and so the space has been getting fuller and fuller.

We did a first pass and removed quite a few things -- old baby clothes, cardboard boxes, broken lamps and lampshades, old rugs that had seen better days. But the funniest thing was that we brought down seven (yes, seven!) child car seats. These were for various ages -- full baby seat, toddler seats, booster cushions -- and were used in our two cars for our two children, but it still seemed like a ridiculous number. And, what's more, it's not the total number that we owned -- we got rid of one or two a few years ago!

Things are definitely looking clearer in the loft, but we still haven't finished the job -- we'll do a second pass next weekend. Hopefully we won't find any more car seats lurking up there, though!

Decorating

We spent the last couple of Sundays decorating the kids' rooms. This proved to be rather a different experience from that of a few years back. Now that the kids are teenagers, they are as (more?) capable of proficient decorating than we parents are. So, all four of us set to -- two with rollers and two with brushes -- and we were finished in a couple of hours. Amazing!

Of course, what took rather longer was sorting out all the junk in the kids' rooms. They did this themselves and it's incredible how much they have accumulated in a relatively short period of time. We had to do several trips to the charity shop to offload all the unwanted goods...

I've got my eye on redecorating the sitting room next, but somehow I doubt the kids will be so keen to help with a room that isn't all their own!