I went ahead and rented the small dumpster/junk box. It’s designed to fit through a standard door, so I don’t have to worry about the neighbors filling it with crap before I do. It will be delivered Friday afternoon, so I have a whole weekend to sort out the trash from the reusable items.
I was gone most of the day, so no progress here, except that I took several bags of donations to the charity truck (it’s only here Tues-Thurs). Yay! As a bonus, I can now use my laundry room again, since I was storing the bags there. Also, I made a big dinner and just washed nearly everything; there are two pots left waiting their turn, and the dishwasher is all loaded.
Got the pantry dry goods organized, but I’m not supposed to do anything strenuous until I download the kid, so I’ll put off reorganizing the kitchen shelves. The pantry does look tidier.
My clutter is pretty overwhelming, so I started in the “easiest” room in the apartment. The kitchen. 90 minutes and 4 bags of trash later, it’s sparkling and lovely.
My husband badly sprained his foot today, so he’s got to keep off it. Which means, a lot of the cleaning plans have to be dealt with later–since I’m starting school again tomorrow.
The upshot is, I discussed my concerns about our current state, and he never actually said I was right, but he has started discussing plans to help us get our shit together.
Tomorrow is laundry day (because there isn’t a piece of clean clothing in the house). There’s a full-service laundromat down the road. My husband is the laundry guy (he’s good about making sure things get folded and put away…), but since he’s mostly out of commission, I think I’ll just go down to that laundromat. I figure, whatever will get it all done is a good choice.
I just finished in our storeroom hellhole. Four trash bags and about six boxes and smaller packages to be sent out to people who snapped up the stuff that I posted on our local sales/recycle boards.
It feels so nice, but I know that there’s a lot more lurking in the cupboards that needs dealing with. Now I am going to strip and remake our bed and vaccum all the dust bunnies out from under it!
Okay, photo time.
Bed and Nightstand. The bed was made by me, not the cleaning ladies, so you can see my skill there. The nightstand looks good, though.
Closet. I think this is a lost cause.
Desk area. Lots of progress here, but still messy. I need a filing cabinet, but they are expensive and difficult to move on the bus.
Bookshelf and nightstand. Mostly clear! There’s still work to be done, but I’m happy with it for a week later.
Okay, and I insist that we must have some lurkers or something in this thread. Last week’s photos have 90+ views. I have puppy pictures on the same account with <10 views! Either that or, against all odds, people are more interested in other people’s messes than puppies.
Wow, that was nice!
As the cleaning ladies left, the one in charge complemented me on how clean my room was an how I made her job easier. It makes me very happy to hear that. I said it was still messy, and she very much disagreed.
I’m definitely more interested in other people’s messes than puppies.
I haven’t checked out yours yet, but seeing someone else’s mess (or progress made) is always a good motivator for me. I’m trying to get a good backlog of TLC’s Clean Sweep on the DVR for background during laundry/filing this weekend for that exact reason.
Have you looked at a plastic file box, or a wire mesh type on casters? Unless you have a lot of files that aren’t visible in the pic, you could probably make do with one of those, and they’re much more budget- and public transportation-friendly.
There’s another show on the Style network that comes on all the time called Clean House. It’s a little different than most of these shows, and the host Niecy is a bit annoying, but in general it’s pretty funny! And they clean the WHOLE house. I think the new shows come on Wednesday nights at 10/9 central.
One time they found a used condom on the floor! Eww!
Great suggestion, I’ll add it to the list.
I love that they clean the entire house. Can you tell how long it takes them in real time?
I love these shows as a motivator, but sometimes it’s kind of frustrating watching everyone zip around in fast-forward and then cut to the “after” shot. Not that I’d want to watch them vacuum for 18 hours, but it would be nice to know about.
Heh. Has the crazy insane nesting stage hit yet? The morning before I went into labor, I reorganized the entire storage room at work, cleaning the whole place with a bottle of Windex and about 3467 rags, and told the owner I’d be bringing in my “good” vacuum the next day.
“No, you won’t,” she said. “You’re going to be in the hospital delivering that baby tomorrow!”
She was right.
(But I still had time to shovel our sidewalks that afternoon. And our neighbor’s. They finally stopped me when I started de-icing their flowerboxes.)
I got a lot of nesting over with when I quit work a couple of months ago. Since I have instructions to lie around, I haven’t been doing anything energetic. I’ll know I’m about to go into labour when the urge to clean overcomes my urge to obey my nice midwife.
I have definitely thought about those, and am seriously considering one. The problem is that I’d also like to be able to move that printer nearer the desk, and hide those ugly cords. A two-drawer filing cabinet would fill that need nicely, even if the printer or cabinet was on the other side of the desk than it’s on now. I may end up moving the plant and putting the printer there, but I haven’t gotten that far yet. I like the little set up I have on top of the desk with the plants, the cat, the dragon, the wizard and the pitcher I got in Kenya. I’d prefer not to make it completely functional…
Darn, missed the edit window while checking e-mail.
However, while over there, I came across this article from NYT titled: Health Effects of Clutter. I found it an interesting read, and it’s only a page, so it’s short and easy.
Interesting article. The Clean Sweep organizer has a new book called “Does this Clutter Make my Butt Look Fat?”, which has some similar findings. It makes a lot of sense to me, not that cleaning your room will make the rest of your life fall magically into place, but that having a peaceful, well-organized living space can give you time and energy to focus on other areas of your life besides laundry and “Where are my keys?”
Oh, guys, you have GOT to read this “strip.” I immediately thought of this thread while laughing to myself about it.
I think it takes at least three days, maybe a week for the worst houses. They have an episode called “The Messiest House in the Country.” Talk about hoarding! I think that house took a couple of weeks. They are advertising for this year’s messiest house.
On that episode, the Clean House crew ended up having umpteen million totes in the basement instead of a cool new game room. Before they cleaned it, there were rat’s nests everywhere! Nobody would give up enough stuff. The daughters (who lived with Mom) said on air that they should have another garage sale. Mom was the worst hoarder, of course. She had tons of new clothes with the tags still on them. And she luurved her 1970’s decor.
I just got my phone line back! We’re having quite a storm up here, and most of my city doesn’t have power. I have power, but there was no phone and no Internet all day. Also my back fence is down! We’re quite lucky really; no trees down and no major damage.
We spent most of the day watching movies and doing crafts, and I fed and warmed the rest of my family. So, no major cleaning today, just survival. I probably should have used my time better and tidied up the living room.
I watched that episode. The mom was extremely passive-agressive, and she insisted that it was her kids’ fault. Of course it was. That’s why her bedroom was the worst room in the house, she wouldn’t get rid of anything, and she kept acting like they were putting her out by helping her.
That was the episode I watched before I went and cleaned out the kitchen.
We have a tendency to just wash the clothes that we absolutely need that week, and leave everything out on the floor. Today I gathered up my sister and every dirty piece of laundry in the house, and went down to the laundromat. It was a small thing, but it made a huge difference not having piles of dirty clothes all over the place–now we have piles of clean clothes, lol. But my husband is going to fold it all tomorrow (since he couldn’t help at the laundromat).