Climbing the paper mountain

... is where I have been all weekend. Grandma - as my mother is known to my daughters - is still in her old house, but it looks as though she will be moving at the beginning of March. (Property transactions in England are a lengthy and uncertain business. All being well we should get a definite date this week.) The decluttering and packing marathon is now moving into high gear, and Little Cherub and I are spending weekends there in an attempt to avoid a major last minute panic.

This weekend we tackled a paper mountain. Everything from reams of college lecture notes - she has degrees in both theology and psychology and had kept the lot, plus notes from various other courses she has taken over the last fifty(!) years - to ancient sets of accounts, old book catalogues, minutes of meetings, old birthday cards, and important family papers. These were often mixed up in files otherwise full of junk, meaning that we had to go through everything. I filled the car boot with paper for recycling. I can't say the mountain is now a mole hill, but it is getting close.

Next task is the understairs cupboard on Thursday. I have no idea what is lurking in there. I just hope I stop aching before it is time to find out!