Isn’t it always the way? It seems like whenever I get geared up to do actually something the universe decides to throw other stuff in my way. Right now I am fighting against the weather* and my own back issues in regards to trying to get stuff moved to my pod.
*We are in thunderstorm season. They seem to happen around dusk, the only time of day when I am willing to go outside because it’s not as hot. I’m not going to go outside to a big metal box during a lightning storm.
It’s not like I’m addicted to YouTube, but with the cable being out all day … I cleaned my bedroom top to bottom. I sorted and arranged every drawer and shelf; put some clothes in the donate pile; got everything off the floor; and vacuumed many times since I’m not sure I’ve tackled the rug since before my dog arrived 18 months! ago. In my defense, it’s a small room with a big bed and not much floorspace. Besides, I carry him from the living room to his bed, which is on my bed.
On Saturday I’m hoping to tie a rope around my ankle and descend into the basement. I need to make room for my new exercise machine which is in pieces in the mudroom. Even the dog has to turn sideways to get past it.
I got a notice from the city about my pod. I can’t really understand the gobbledy-gook language, it’s either telling me I was supposed to post a “permit” thing or I can only have it 60 days. I think there was a paper I was supposed to post and I forgot, anyway hoping to talk to someone about it and get an extension. I tried to check for the rules online before I got it and I couldn’t find any info and the storage company supposedly checks for you.
Anyway, just in case I can’t keep it as long as I wanted I decided to go back to my original plan and clean out the garage and reorganize it first so I can use it for storage. I am not kidding when I say there was absolutely no room, it was packed. The boyfriend came over and helped me clear a walkway. I told him the rules are no asking me why I am keeping this or that or telling me how I should do things. He also has this obsession with sweeping that actually drives me nuts because he’ll stop and start sweeping the floor and I try to tell him that it’s just going to get more dirt on it while we’re working but he just keeps obsessively sweeping. I didn’t get much done because I think I was suffering from heat exhaustion but I got a path cleared so I can get to both ends of the garage. This actually worries me a little because my garage door doesn’t lock and the mess was at least an obstruction for burglars.
I have 3 large shelves made of heavy duty particle board that are sagging and falling apart that I plan to empty and get rid of and replace with heavy duty plastic shelves and plastic bins. I am trying to go through at least 3 of the boxes on the shelves every day and sort through stuff. Today I ended up purging (recycling) a box of magazines. I tossed a box of white lab coats because something had been living in there and chewed up at least one of them and it reeked. I decided it wasn’t worth trying to wash them, since the only use I’d have for them now is as a Halloween costume. I emptied another box and redistributed the stuff in it. The hardest thing right now is I don’t have another garbage pickup until Tuesday and my garbage can is full now.
So I am managing to actually throw some things away. I hate to give up on books and magazines but I am going to purge/recycle all the magazines and some of the books (mostly any badly damaged ones or things like outdated textbooks) that are on those shelves. So much stuff is available online these day, I just have to accept that I don’t need these. Everything else is going to go into protected bins to keep critters out.
With the recent death in the family my cleaning plans were put on hold again for a bit, but I hope to get restarted on Thursday (my second day off this week - I really need a day for rest and recovery.
Take it easy if you need to, Broomstick.
I am having a hard time fighting my ADD urges. I want to get organized so I can work on some art projects that have been kicking around my head but now that I have a little clean space and the weather is getting nicer I can’t stop thinking about new projects I want to work on. I really want to punch my brain in the frontal lobe and tell it to focus on the task at hand.
I didn’t get anything done yesterday because I had a full day at work on little sleep so when I got home I fell asleep for 3 hours and got up for a few hours and then went back to sleep. Right now I am just trying to get myself geared up to do something today.
I want to start cleaning up my backyard so that I can actually use it. The weather’s not so bad this week, my kids are in school during the day, I could totally start tackling the project this week. I’m just not sure where to start, and can’t seem to form a plan that makes sense.
I guess I need to just get out there and dig in.
The kitchen counter was completely clear two weeks ago, it really was. But then we started finishing the work in the bathroom, which is going slowly, and that empty space was a great place to put tools temporarily.
Of course once the tools were there, other things got stacked nearby - also temporarily. Sigh. I swear it will be cleared again. Soon. Ish.
Broomstick, Wile E, Sarabellum1976, Yllaria, everybody really: hang in there, y’all. This de-cluttering stuff is neither easy nor quick, is it. Can be emotionally difficult too.
I’m going to start setting myself a timer again. I’ve got a lot to do: several spots to clean in the bedroom, paper filing and de-cluttering in the dining room, and the basement to clean. It’s all so overwhelming that if I don’t start breaking it into bitty chunks, I’ll never find the energy to get it done. The only way I’ll make progress is if I give myself a set amount of time after supper every day to tackle it. Say 2 blocks of 15 minutes each.
I received some clear plastic storage bins I ordered today. They are the perfect size for books, not too heavy if filled and they are clear so I can see what’s in them, plus they have locking handles and fit just right on the heavy duty resin shelves I bought. I emptied 3 boxes of books into bins. I had some of the book boxes sealed really well all over with packing tape and I was pleasantly surprised that the books are still in good shape, only one dust jacket got eaten by silverfish and there were a couple paperbacks in one box that look a bit moldy. Those are going to recycling. I am probably going to throw some silverfish bait into the bins to kill any that could still be in there and maybe some baking soda to help with any musty odors. Eventually I will go throw and clean the books and decided whether to keep, donate or recycle.
That’s all I’m going to do in the garage today since I have to work later and don’t want to wear myself out or give myself an allergy attack. Just going to do a little puttering around in the house for the rest of the day.
Thankfully, garbage pickup was today so no more temptation to try to take those lab coats back out and I have an empty container so I can dump more stuff.
I’m a bit torn on one particular aspect of my backyard cleanup. I have about 8 pallets of brick leftover from when the house was built 8 years ago. They occupy about 50% of my back patio. I’ve always wanted to use them to build planters or a walkway, but I think I probably need to get real and get rid of them.
I have heard that Habitat for Humanity takes brick donations if they’re multiple matched pallets like mine, and I like to think of someone’s new bootstrap house with a nice facing of brick.
Gulp. I think I’m going to call them.
I remain amazed, as always at how clutter seems so daunting when standing at looking at it, but five minutes sitting on the floor making piles of “Know I want to Keep”, “Know I want to Trash”, and “TBD” turns it from an unmitigated disaster that I can’t even focus on to absolutely nothing and what was I getting myself in such a fret about. I’ve recently undertook a couple days’ worth of cleaning jag to re-ship-shape my apartment and it feels so good. Also, doing battle with the refrigerator was, quite honestly, scary, but holy cow does it feel roomier without 4 almost empty ketchup bottles and 3 mayo containers of uncertain age rattling around in it.
Didn’t get anything done on Wednesday because I had just come off a graveyard and slept all day and it was miserable and rainy all day anyway. Yesterday I did a little more work in the garage on my own, I pulled out one of the old particle board shelves and left it in the driveway to be broken down later. Then later I met the boyfriend for dinner and he came back with me and we emptied (putting more stuff in the POD) another of the old shelves and pulled it out. I cleaned the area the shelves were in and then we put up new resin shelves and proceeded to break down the old ones. I filled my garbage can as much as I could since pickup was today. It was dark by then and we both managed to step on nails so I said it was time to stop since we couldn’t see. Luckily neither of the nails broke the skin because getting tetanus shots is not on my list of todo’s. We stacked the rest of the broken up shelves against the wall.
Today it is supposed to rain all day so boyfriend went home early to avoid the rain and I will just have to work inside. I am going to work on putting stuff on my new shelves but only stuff in plastic storage bins. I want to empty all the nasty old boxes and only have clean stuff on the new shelves. I am expecting that the remaining particle board shelves will start to fall apart if they get wet which should make it easier to break them down and toss in the bin.
We are having a sales tax free weekend on energy star appliances and I am debating getting my new fridge this weekend. I have actually been living with a small dorm fridge for over a year, I never have frozen foods. I have two broken fridges, one in the house and one in the garage. I was putting off buying a new fridge because I didn’t have the money and I didn’t have the space. I knew I could get one old fridge picked up when I got a new one but I didn’t even have room to move stuff around to bring a new one in. Now I have saved up the money to buy a fridge but I am still working on the space. I think I will go ahead and buy one and I can schedule it for delivery during the week giving me more time to rearrange things. A new fridge was one of my goals for my decluttering and I like the idea of reaching a goal so I now have the next couple days cut out for me.
Well, now that I’ve put that in writing I guess I need to get to work.
Well, I called Habitat for Humanity and they’re hauling away that pile of bricks as I type.
And I’m sitting here feeling guilty and terrible about letting go of them. It’s just ridiculous, I know it makes sense to get rid of them. I’m not being rational about it, even as I sit here watching them hauled away, I can tell that my blood pressure is elevated and I feel edgy and nauseated.
They’ve been sitting there nine years. NINE. YEARS.
All my fancy plans of brick planters and walkways are nothing more than wishful thinking - walkways are better when made out of pavestones or concrete blocks and not brittle housing bricks. Planters made of small, thin, housing bricks are likewise, not generally that great. And if I was going to do either, I probably would have done so in nine years.
It’s an eyesore.
It attracts wasps and mice.
My patio is not usable because half of it is covered in piles of unsightly bricks.
And the more rationally I try to look at it, I just feel worse because it doesn’t even make SENSE to be upset right now.
I could use a hug.
{{{hug}}}
I often feel the same way about getting rid of things I’m not using and likely will never use. You’re right, it’s not rational but it’s still the way you feel and it takes time to go away.
hugs Sara I know what you mean, I’ve been there but you did good and your donation will help someone else.
I’ve been cleaning out the garage and trashing stuff. It’s hard because no one is going to get to use that stuff but I also know that particle board shelves that are rotted on the bottom or a bunch of plastic containers that had been in a box that a rat was living in are of no use to anyone, including myself. I am recycling what plastic containers I can but I know there is no way I would ever trust them again as food containers so the rest get trashed. Mostly, I am mad at myself for putting them in the garage is an unsealed box and forgetting them.
But it actually felt good to get rid of the old shelves. My old washing machine had overflowed a couple times and all the bottoms of these shelves and a couple cabinets were rotted. I took a hatchet to them and took out all my hostilities bashing them apart. But I’ve also found stuff I’ve been looking for and those things are still in good shape and I am more motivated to keep going so I can bring those things in to the house and display them or use them for their intended purpose.
I am replacing the rotted shelves with new heavy duty plastic shelves. They hold more and won’t be damaged if my newer washing machine ever dies the same way as the last one, by flooding my garage several times.
I also had an old fridge in the garage that died a while ago, I thought I had cleaned it out but I opened it to check and I had missed a few things. It was not pretty. I pulled it out of the garage, emptied it and taped it closed. I will be calling monday for a pickup, along with an old air conditioner that was in the garage, too. I am hoping they will also take the broken up cabinets.
I am trying not to look at the rest of the mess I need to work on but look at what I have accomplised and when I do that I feel a whole lot better about everything,
I have all the paperwork out in the living room ready for a sift, a sort, and a blitz. 3x 42L containers and 8x box files. And a roll of bin bags.
I like the containers because they have covers, they stack, they’re transparent, and I can hang folders in them.
good for you, Sarabellum!! ((((((((hug)))))))))
I need to do cleanup today but I’m really not motivated. Feels like all I do in the damn house is clean the cat box, hoover, fold laundry, change the sheets, and do dishes.
Garumph.
Well, dishes are washing and counter washed off. Now to change the sheets. Then a little computer time. Then hoover. Computer. Then folding laundry. Computer. Ironing, then computer.
Does a reward in between chores help anyone else?
You know my cheat? When I need to clean but would rather watch TV? I give myself permission to watch whatever show is on - but I have to get up and clean during commercials. I can get a surprising amount done in little 3-4 minute segments.