SDMB Slob Reform Club - May Edition

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Oh man. I got the whole family of four packed for our camping trip tomorrow - first one of the year! I’m straightening the house and cleaning the kitchen now before bed. We’ll be out and off by 5:30 AM if I have my way! This will be the first time I’ve come home to a decently clean and orderly house after a camping trip! I can’t wait to find out how that feels. :smiley:

This attention to the house has really started to bleed over into other areas, I’m noticing. I made this great detailed packing list, and started sorting through last year’s equipment, repairing, replacing and packing things about a week ago, and a little bit each day so it wasn’t all overwhelming - and I just realized that those are lessons I’ve learned in our little SDMBSRC! I don’t remember the last time I went to bed before midnight the day before camping. Thanks!

22

Whynot, there is nothing better than coming home to a clean house after a trip. It really makes you appreciate being home, it’s easy to relax and get ready for your regular schedule.

23

Well, it looks like the office/library may need to be actually tackled instead of permanently “on the list”. The file cabinet, you know, the one with all the stuff on top of it and exactly six files in it? It doesn’t contain the plot plan. Dad needs the plot plan 'cause he’s helping me try to get the Historic Comission to let me build a garage.

May God have mercy on my soul.

24

That is it!

I just almost lost one of a pair of earrings that means the world to me. It’s one of those pairs of earrings that you never wear, because it’s too special, until one day you think, “That’s dumb.”

I wore them for the first time awhile ago, and then I set them down that night with my “whenever” earrings - not back in their special little box. As I was packing for my trip today, I noticed one earring had gone missing. After some panic ensued, I found it had been knocked into a plasic grocery bag, and then that had been crumpled up and knocked under the dresser. If I hadn’t been looking for that earring, I might have just thrown it away!

The earrings are back in their special box, and I am damn well going to figure out a way to get myself better organized, less messy and more inclined to just put my damn shit away. I am not going to stop wearing my earrings, because they are “too special.”

Anyway, I leave today for my trip, so few updates from me, unless you all want thesis updates, or mental adjustment updates, which isn’t much the point of the thread…

25

Good luck with that. I tackle my piles once a year or so - I think of it as “the paper chase” - and then am good about filing papers as soon as I get them for a week. Then they accrete to about monitor-high in 3 or 4 semi-distinct heaps before I paperchase again. I usually know where to look for any given piece of paper should I need it - I know which pile it’s in and at roughly what depth.

Once, mr.emilyforce, having heard me say, “Sometimes I wish I could pay someone to put these things away,” undertook to do exactly that. He photographed my piles, labelled each with a sticky note, and carefully placed each in its own box, unsorted. He was not expecting me to be utterly horrified. I couldn’t find anything after that until I put everything in the file cabinet and started over.

In my new house I will be good about filing papers ALL THE TIME. I will! You’ll see!

26

My solution to the earring scenario is one of these , bought off eBay for cheap (mirror broken on bottom half; I covered that part with copper foil). It works very well. Now the kittens can’t capture, carry off, and kill any of my jewelry.

Happy tripping!

27

I’ve done well today! General cleaning mostly, tidying and putting things away. Also I watched a Kim and Aggie episode on YouTube, which was rather inspiring.

WhyNot, you won’t see this until you’ve already gotten home, but you will be thrilled to come home to a lovely clean house. My favorite part is always clean sheets and towels–no matter how disorganized I am, I try to always do those two things so I can come home to them.

28

Update: inspired by you guys, I looked through my bookshelves and weeded out about 20 books. That’s a lot for me! I try not to buy a lot of books (though of course I have an awful lot and keep getting more) and most of what I read comes from the library. When I buy a book, it’s usually because I can’t get it easily from somewhere else, or because I think it’s important for me to have it. So there isn’t a whole lot to get rid of.

29

Coming home to a clean house: :smiley:
Coming home with the stomach flu, vomiting and diarrhea: :frowning:

30

Oh, yuck! But I bet the clean house made that a lot easier to bear!

I’m visiting a dear friend right now, and it’s clearing my head a bit. However, I just spent some time IMing with my husband about what kitchen items he’s taking. I’m a little concerned that he’s not going to notice a lot of stuff that’s “his”, and I’m going to be packing that stuff and my stuff when I get home. And I can’t decide if I mind that or not.

31

Yesterday, I went through 2/3 of the bathroom stuff and came up with 4 bags of trash, one bag of To-Goodwill, one box packed, one box yet-to-be-packed of spillable sorts of things, and one pile of “don’t pack this until you load the truck, cause ya never know” first aid and basics. Still have to deal with the bathroom shelves containing all our travel supplies and my textile project chemicals, but the bathroom is uncluttered and minimalist.

I also managed to let go of three pairs of formerly-favorite, utterly worn-out shoes, and got half my remaining shoes, all my cold-weather clothes, and all my dress clothes packed.

For some reason, I felt pretty blue after that! Maybe it was seeing how much is left to do… :frowning:

BlueKangaroo, I don’t know how helpful this is or whether you can do this in your area, but maybe if he leaves behind a lot that you don’t want, you could arrange for the Salvation Army to come get it? That way you’d just have to pile it, not pack it.

32

Bleah. I hope you feel better soon.

33

Emilyforce, I’ll certainly look into it, but I don’t know at the moment. The truth of the matter is my husband is a bit flakey, and we’re both so messy that I suspect he’s going to leave behind many things he really does want, but doesn’t realize he’s left behind. I don’t want to deprive him of his things - it’s his job, at this point, to get rid of his stuff. I just also don’t want to be in charge of making sure it gets taken care of, for a variety of reasons.

However, if he doesn’t want it, I will find thrift stores or SA pick up, and not deal with packing it too insanely.

34

Window cleaner makes ants die a miserable, miserable death. They invaded my mailbox a few weeks ago < :mad: > and I destroyed them with off-brand Windex. They haven’t been back since. I win.

(What is this with master’s thesisisisisis and major emotional upheavals? I’m just about to start mine and my engagement broke up. Is this supposed to be motivation to get crackin’ on it?)

35

BEHOLD! My yard has been mowed. Now the outside of my house no longer looks like Redneck Central.

Plus, the inside is remaining fairly clean. I feel good about ME! :cool:

36

I’m glad, SpazCat.

I’ll be back home from my trip tomorrow, and then the real work begins. Packing, cleaning, getting rid of junk and thesising all at once. I got some done on the thesis here, but not much.

However, the trip was wonderful, relaxing and well worth it. I missed my friends dearly.

37

Okay, I guess it’s time to report back in, if only for myself.

I haven’t accomplished anything more on the thesis. I hope to get some hours in on that today.

I donated four good sized boxes of books to the Friends of the Library yesterday. It took a hand truck to do it, and I was only minorly traumatized. I kept more books than I thought I would, but I did reduce the amount I had by about half, so I am not disappointed with myself. I haven’t yet gone through my old Biology textbooks to see what to get rid of there. That’s oddly more emotional for me as I know I’ll probably never look through most of them again, but there’s the odd chance, as when I recently needed to pull out my Endocrinology book to answer a testosterone question from some friends. Furthermore, each of those books represents a class that got me to where I am now. And I have plans to keep going to PhD level, and I’d hate to lose all these reference books. And they look nice on the shelves of my professors. I know it’s justification, but it’s one box of books (plus those I have obtained in my advanced degree), and I haven’t gotten to it yet.

The bedroom is mostly packed. I think I’ll finish it tonight some time. I really want to finish it, because then I can close the door. It’s something my dad taught me when I was moving to DC (from a 3bdrm place). Pack up a room, then close the door, and you’ll not have to deal with that room again. I’ve never had that option since we moved out here - space was too much at a premium. But, now that my ex has gotten a lot of stuff out, and I’ve gotten rid of some stuff, it’s amazing how much more space there is.

I came home from my trip to yuckiness. Dead plants, rotten food in the fridge AND the pantry, and dried cat poop on the floor. The fridge is still messy, but the pantry is cleaned and mostly packed, and the cat poop is cleaned. I had a friend helping me yesterday, and my ex came by yesterday to get some more of his stuff, so that helped. Of course, that meant that yesterday had a lot of sorting to do, but we got it done. Tomorrow he comes by again to get some more of his stuff, and we’ll sort out things like kitchen utensils. So if anyone has advice on what sort of stuff a gal with terrible cooking skills and a teeny-tiny kitchen absolutely needs or absolutely should get rid of, I’d appreciate it. I am, however, signed up for cooking classes that start on 6 June, so hopefully the skills will improve. And the Kitchen-Aid stand mixer is mine and not negotiable.

My friend is coming over again tonight to help, and tells me we’re a lot farther along than I think we are. I hope so, but sometimes it seems very overwhelming. I think my ex and I have agreed to hire someone to come in and do the final clean up for us, so I need to look into that.

Oh, and I hope to get the linen closet sorted, at least, today too. It shouldn’t be terribly hard to pack either, so I may get it all done at once.

I have a metal trash can filled with old soil from my very impressive (at least to me) container garden last year. I have no idea what to do with that, other than see if my neighbor who has a container garden that intimidates mine would like it. I don’t know this person at all, just see their garden through the fence.

By the end of the month, I’ll be moved and hopefully have my thesis done. I just need to get cracking on both. I can’t believe how hard it is to just do that, though.

38

Wow, good for you! Just a little longer, right?

I was pretty good today and di quite a bit of maintenance. But I’m really tired now. I kicked my butt at the gym and now I’m crashing. :slight_smile:

39

Well, I didn’t get done what I wanted to get done yesterday, but through the magic of freecycle was able to get rid of a few things. Today is all about the thesis, I think, except when my ex comes over to work on the kitchen. I did get significant amounts of my closet packed into a wardrobe box, and my friend did take a good number of my boxes to his place (he’s storing smaller boxes for me at his place, to minimize the amount of time I’m paying movers for).

I think when I get “thesis block”, which happens way too often, I’ll try to work on my goals from yesterday. The linen closet really won’t be that bad, and the bedroom is more done today than it was yesterday, just by virtue of the wardrobe box! Furthermore, my friend surprised me by bringing a couple of suitcases he won’t be using anytime soon, so I can pack my clothing in that, and save boxes for other things. Plus, he can take the suitcases far more easily than boxes, so it’s pretty good.

The worst part of moving is the last few weeks and the first few weeks, I think. It’s worse right now because I no longer have a car, and there’s not a lot of food within walking distance. McDonalds = nasty.

40

{{{{BlueKangaroo}}}} Must’ve missed this thread when first put up. Glad you’re making progress, dear. We’ve been doing much packing, too. If you find you still have books that you’d like to go to a loving home, don’t forget the Gettysdope book/movie exchange-I was tickled to take home a handful from last year, as were other dopers. BiblioCat and I have a few boxes slated for that venue.

Good luck with finishing your move, moving on, and the thesis. :cool: