New! SDMB Slob Reform Club, January Resolution Edition

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
121

I hope it’s not too late to join in. I’m very impressed with the enthusiasm and progress everyone is making here, and hope I can benefit from it.

My problem (Ha! As if there were only one) is that I’m a lazy perfectionist with a streak of over-achiever-ness. If it can’t be perfect, I don’t bother. Plus we’re both packrats. And slobs. And very busy. With a little apartment. And three cats. And I’m a devout cheapskate.

While we’re at it – I’m also just ever so slightly whiny. :wink:

So . . .

Today, I swept & mopped the kitchen, cleaned out the dishwasher, wiped down counters & the stove. Then I made breakfast (mushroom omelets, fresh squeezed OJ & homemade cinnamon rolls. Did I mention the over-achiever part? ), cleaned out the dishwasher, wiped down counters & the stove, then lunch (The Habit-style chicken sandwiches) cleaned out the dishwasher, wiped down counters & the stove. While running 6 loads of laundry (folded, but not put away), vacuumed the living room, cleaned the cat boxes (downstairs was changed, upstairs just scooped), made the bed (Yay for clean sheets), Comet-ed the shower (I’m not thinking about caulk. I’m just not.) & both toilets, windexed the bathroom mirrors, dusted the TVs, gave the Old Cat his pills, vacuumed the living room again, ironed (but not put away) this weeks work wardrobe, and went to the grocery store.

Dear Og, I’m tired. I will make dinner and clean the damn kitchen yet again, but I REALLY don’t want to. There is still shit piled on every flat surface – except the kitchen counters and stove. The office has a path to the desk, there is no room in the drawers or closets to put away our clean clothes, and I will, yet again, transfer the giant pile of crap from the table to whichever almost empty space I can find, so that we can eat dinner before I clean that miserable kitchen again.

Somebody, please, lie to me. Tell me that 15 minutes a day, every day, will make this place habitable by civilized humans, and allow me to sleep in once a week. Please?

Tomorrow, I will make breakfast, clean the stupid kitchen, give the cat his pill, go to work, make dinner, give the cat his pill, clean the fucking kitchen, and put all the shoes (currently in a pile beside the back door) in the closet where they belong. That’s my goal for Monday – to put away shoes.

122

MadPansy, I’ve learned from bitter experience that just moving the piles from one surface to another is ultimately self-defeating; you have to find some way to really whittle them down. Your cleaning binge exhausted me just reading it! And it’ll probably exhaust you, too – it sounds like me for many years, going on a huge binge and trying to do it all at once, barely making a dent, and giving up.

Have you considered spending only 15 minutes a day on cleaning, and then maybe another 15 minutes on sorting/giving away/tossing? If you’ve got too much stuff and not enough space (like me), ultimately if you want a clean place, you’ll have to do that. Also, repeating tasks will not make your house cleaner – it’ll just wear you out faster and keep you from using that energy on something else! Good luck with it; moderation is my biggest enemy, so for me to only do a little bit every day is hard, but I’m finding I feel great satisfaction from it as I’m beginning to see that maybe I really can get this place into shape in the not too distant future. I hope you can, too! (And that’s not a lie!)

123

Yes… tackling the Mounds O’ Crap must be done. Dinner was cooked, eaten, cleaned up after, and the extra food packed away in the fridge. I have a nice clean kitchen countertop, but I still have to get rid of the stuff on the floor. That can wait until tomorrow, though.

124

That’s what I’m trying to talk myself into. I thought that, once the kids were gone, it would be easy. Yeah, not so much. They (and their stuff) moved out, I didn’t change. I just don’t have anyone else to clean the kitchen every night!

15 minutes (shoes. cat boxes. vacuum after cat pill), just 15 minutes, plus Supper & Kitchen – and that’s it. I can do this.

Right?

125

Well, I’m pretty happy with today. I did a lot of cooking and actually cleaned it up as well, and the living room is still nice-looking (on account of I had a visitor in the afternoon). It’s really nice to look around and see some clean areas!

So I’m all set to start my week tomorrow and try to stay on top of things. Also I am planning a serious curry feast tomorrow, whee! One goal for this week is to clean off the computer desk (yes, the spot right in front of me) which is piled in stuff. It’s a terrible clutter magnet.

126

MadPansy64, I think you and I are in the same boat, or at least the same kind of boat. :slight_smile:

Please think over the advice others have already given – if you try to continue the way you’ve started you’re going to exhaust yourself and then give up, and then you’ll feel like a failure. (Trust me: I’ve been through this. Several times, I’m a slow learner.)

That’s why I’m setting myself such modest goals. There’s the daily maintenance stuff (meals, dishes, make bed, keep bathroom clean enough the health department won’t break down your door to arrest you, maybe a load of laundry) you pretty much have to do to survive, plus a single VERY LIMITED decluttering goal. Not “clean out the back bedroom”, not “throw out ten bags of trash.” I literally assigned myself ONE dresser drawer one day, and the two shelves in a closet another. Each one took only about 15 minutes, and that’s the point: I can (I think) make myself tackle decluttering for just 15 minutes, despite my packrat instincts to hold onto everything ‘just in case.’

Perhaps you could try that method for a day or two, and see if it helps you?

Also, one decluttering tip that works for me: I find it much easier to let go of stuff if it’s going to a good home instead of just throwing it out. Like I had boxes and boxes of yarn that I ‘inherited’ from my mother and kept, because who can throw out good yarn? And then I found “The Knitting Connection” in Boston, a group of knitters who make hundreds of caps and mittens and scarves and such and give them to children in homeless shelters. I’d hauled that damned yarn through three moves because I couldn’t let go of it, but instantly I was not just able, but HAPPY, to hand the entire lot away.

Good luck!

127

I will wash the dishes before work, and sort the socks.

Actually, my kitchen and livingroom are both unusually tidy. So’s the bedroom. It’s working!
Not really tidy, but much tidier. That’s improvement.

128

I’m too used to fast washers and dryers, to being able to do my laundry before I go to work and either fold it away (if I have to use a dryer) or leave it on the ropes. The ones in the current place take two hours for each load and there’s always some items that leave the dryer not-quite-dry, so I’d have to do them in the afternoon when I get home and the stuff that needs to finish drying would be spread around when I go to bed, which I hate. Silly, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not like I’m going to see it while the lights are out and I’m asleep.

Anyway, the slow machines mean washing gets done on Saturday mornings. I miss my fast washeeeeeeeeeer! The one I had to buy a couple years back and later gave to Mom gets through its longest program in 20’, similar for the one in my flat in Spain.

My apartment is very small. It’s considered a “1 room” and not a studio because there’s an actual wall between the living room/bedroom and the kitchen. The only right-height table was in the kitchen and I took it to the living room as soon as I moved, setting the computer there. Yesterday I moved the coffee table to the kitchen and shuffled furniture a bit so I have a big wide space in the middle of “the multi-room”, which to me always feels cleaner. I also put away the throw rug, I need to wash it so for now it’s folded and in a garbage-style bag.

Now I need to write to the building’s manager to see if it’s possible to store the bed I won’t use. If it’s not I’ll buy bedsheets and a comforter for it so it doesn’t look so bad. It’s IKEA furniture, personally I’d be happy to give what I don’t need to the goodwill place just down the block and buy replacements when I leave.

I need to buy a clothes hamper. Preferably one of those with a couple denim “bags”, so I can separate stuff as I put it in the hamper instead of having to do it right before washing.

129

Sunspace, there is a company called Rayen that makes tons of cleaning supplies. I’ve found their products in every country I’ve visited (ok, I don’t remember seeing them in the Czech Republic, but I may have and just wasn’t paying attention), but for some reason they sell different stuff in every place. If any of your local supermarket carries their stuff, you may want to ask about the long-handle dustbins. And if they don’t have them, you may still want to look at whatever Rayen sells locally. It’s amazing how creative someone can get about “mopping solutions”!

This shameless plug brought to you by a satisfied customer. I do not, nor have I ever, nor do I know anybody who does, work for Rayen. I just love their products.

130

We decided to clean the refrigerator by getting a new one. This means that you actually need to take the stuff out of the old one.

Brainiac4 says “did you know there was yogurt in here” “Sure” “Did you know its from 2005?”

New fridge and new dishwasher arrive today.

131

Just reading this is exhausting me. Can’t I just hire someone??

I need a nap.

132

pokes her head in on page 3

Is it too late to join this here club? I’d have been here earlier, but I was off shining my sink… :smiley:

I had a little problem last week: I had invited 25 people over here on Saturday, so “baby steps” and “small changes” were just not going to cut it! So I went into Frantic Cleaning Mode, and got the place nicely in shape. But entropy has already set in, and today is the first day of my baby steps approach to housekeeping.

Yesterday I went to the store and got Wipes of all sizes and scents. Wood wipes, glass wipes, bathroom wipes, general disinfecting wipes…I HATE the notion of all this disposable paper pulp, but I’m going under the assumption that making things as easy as possible for myself for the first few months will have more of an impact. I’m far more likely to pull a wipe out and “swish and swipe” my bathroom once or twice a day than to lug out the spray and the sponge and the towels and the windex and the paper towels. Once I ingrain the work habit, I’ll switch back to more environmentally friendly sprays and washable cloths, I promise!

I feel like such a bad, bad dirty hippie.

133

My advice to MadPansy is to stop making messes on cleaning days - which means that when you are setting aside a day to clean - you avoid cooking. Cooking creates a mess that needs to be cleaned up - and it isn’t (in this day and age) necessary. It sounds like you expended a great deal of energy staying in one place - cooking, cleaning up from cooking, cooking again, cleaning up from cooking. Then you spent more energy doing laundry and cleaning. With a perfectionist tendancy - and especially if you enjoy cooking - you can spend a lot of energy there. Paper plates or paper towels and food that doesn’t create dishes.

Also, although you want to clean as you go with wiping counters and doing dishes - you don’t want to set yourself up to have to do something twice in the same day - like vaccuuming.

There are some cleaning tasks that require a mess in order to accomplish them - like cleaning out a bookcase or a drawer - the only way to really do it well (if its reached a state where you don’t have room to do it in place) is to take it all out and start over - tossing as you put it back in. Do those tasks in small peices - nothing worse than a half completed closet sort with clothes all over your bed.

134

I have a really good excuse for not joining the club this week…I’m going out of town tomorrow.
However, I have been reading the thread. I just love reading about cleaning and organizing stuff. :slight_smile:

For now, my best tip is: *Use * that annoying buzzer that signals when your dryer cycle is finished! If I didn’t have that pesky thing, I’d be able to procrastinate between every load and spend all day long doing three loads of laundry.

135

My goal for today is to scrub out at least one bathtub, maybe even both if I’m in the mood. My excuse for doing more than one tub this time is that since I’ve been going back to the gym, my muscles are a bit stiff and store, and all the reaching and bending involved in scrubbing out tubs will help loosen them up. Also, I prefer to just get bathrooms OVER with; there’s enough physical labor involved in cleaning tubs/scrubbing floors that I hate getting myself all sweaty and messy twice. If I do it more regularly, it shouldn’t involve as much work after this. Although I’m seriously thinking of getting one of those long-handled tub cleaning tools I’ve seen advertised on TV – after my knee surgery I won’t be able to kneel for a while, and so will probably need something to help me reach. If I depend on Papa T. to do it, it’ll end up like it is now, disgusting. He just Does Not Do bathrooms.

I lay in bed last night and looked around the bedroom – at the neat closet, with all the clothes nicely hung up (from being put away right after laundering instead of left in baskets to wrinkle), the shoes on the rack, all the stray books that normally inhabit the floor on my side of the bed put away – and realized that I could definitely get used to this. And the cat is THRILLED; she absolutely LOVES it when I make the bed with the quilt. She’s been sleeping nonstop on it since my first day making the bed. Next project when I get the house clean: Wash the cat hair off the quilt! :smiley:

136

I thought I was the only person who did that.

I thought you were gong to sat, “Next project: wash the cat.”

So I got all kinds of yummy luch food prepared last night… and then slept in. :smack:

Between making my smoothie for the morning, doing its dishes, and getting ready, I didn’t have time to grab the luch food and pack it. I had to catch the last bus to work. Oh well. Tomorrow. And I think I’ll pack the food slightly differently, already in lunch-size containers that I can simply grab.

137

Actually, that’s a good idea. I was thinking of doing that to get the first bulk of cleaning done, and I still may call one of those junk removal places to get rid of the Mound O’ Crap. But I’m doing so well by myself that I probably won’t call Molly Maids for general cleaning.

138

I found this description of the various types of people who are surrounded by clutter. I’m a little bit hoarder, a little bit deferrer, and a little bit sentimentalist (though the sentimentality is usually me feeling like I should treasure something instead of actually treasuring it).

It’s missing a category, though: The Guiltist. The person who can’t throw things away because of the starving children in (fill in country here). That’s so me.

139

Thanks, Nava! I googled the name, and found Grupo Rayen; I presume that is the place? If so, their Flash-only website (boo!) is next to unusable for finding contact or sales information by country. I was looking to see whether they have a Canadian distributor.

Our plasticware tends to be either well-known US brands, or nameless stuff made in China. But I’ll keep an eye out. That cleaning stuff to squirt on caulking looks like it might be useful.

140

OK, my goals for today are to do the usual Monday chores, which are changing sheets and doing 3 loads of laundry: towels, sheets, and whites. I have never let this habit slip, because fresh sheets and towels are something I really love. I’d change the towels three times a week if I didn’t think it was somehow decadent and wasteful, so I do it twice. You may all roll your eyes at me now. :rolleyes: Anyway, the tricky bit is to actually fold all these clean loads of laundry instead of leaving them in the basket for 4 days. I love a fully-stocked linen closet, but rarely achieve it.

I also need to sweep, and mop under the table, since the little one spilled milk last night and my scrubbing at the time doesn’t seem to have done the job; it’s still kind of sticky.

I have already put the clean dishes away (whee!), and will try to fill the dishwasher during the day. (My normal method, familiar to all I am sure, is to leave the clean dishes in there all day, let the dirty ones pile up on the counter, and then get depressed about the giant mess.)