I finally bought a bookshelf yesterday. Today I finally unboxed the books that I boxed in April. I then set up my a sewing table using a less than ideal table but one that I already own. My sewing machines do me no good sitting on the floor.
I freecycled a couple of things and listed a bigger ticket item on the local FB group.
Progress.
Zero energy. Zero motivation. Even the day-to-day cleaning (dusting, vacuuming, mopping etc) is falling behind. 
no, but I keep trying. I mean I see how it could work in theory.
I LOVE doing mindless cleaning, meaning no decisions or papers. so, no sorting or anything to do with money.
I am trying to use the enjoyment of vacuuming as a reward for balancing the checkbook.
so far, I keep doing mindless cleaning and the papers remain piled.
That’s certainly better than NOT cleaning the cat box, hoovering, folding laundry, changing sheets, and doing dishes!
Sometimes, just maintaining the current situation and preventing worse is a victory to celebrate.
Good job, everyone, even if you’re just doing maintenance cleaning.
I got out of work early and went to Lowe’s to buy the fridge that I pretty much decided on yesterday. They had so many sales it won’t be delivered until Friday, which works fine for me since it gives me more time to work on rearranging stuff to get the old fridge out and the new one in. But I didn’t get anything else done because after that I came home and fell asleep. I always have some insomnia but I thought that working myself hard physically would wear me out enough to fall asleep more easily but no, it has been worse in the past few days and since I worked early on the morning today I only had a few hours sleep.
Not sure if I posted about this or read about it here first but I read these articles on lifehacker and took them to heart. One talks about the 2-minute rule. If you think of something you need to do and you can do it in two minutes then do it. So I have been doing a lot of cleaning and chores in 2 minute chunks. I had a bit of dishes piled up so I told myself I would wash all the glass dishes in two minutes, go do something else for a while and then come back and wash all the silverware, then take a break again and come back and wash any miscellaneous items and plastic containers.
Another thing it talks about is forming better habits by changing what you believe about yourself. The approach is a little different than just pushing yourself toward a goal or results. Instead of saying “I must do the dishes”, you tell yourself “I’m a person who does the dishes.” When you do the dishes you reinforce your belief in yourself but if you don’t do the dishes it’s not a total fail like when you set the goal to do the dishes. You can still be the person who does the dishes, one failure doesn’t make you a failure. Anyway, the articles explain it better. I read them all in small chunks, reading the article and then clicking some links within the articles for more, including some articles on organizing.
Too bad we can’t swap. I’d love to balance your checkbook if you’d mop my kitchen. 
I do something kind of similar. When I find myself procrastinating about, say, putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher, I tell myself, “It takes ten minutes! Just put 3 songs on the iPhone and GO!” Ditto hoovering and cat box and so on.
Never did fold all of my laundry, but this week’s outfits are ironed, lined up, and ready to go. With accessories. 
As I am approaching the deadline for my notice from the city I am starting to panic. I may have to have the pod picked up and stored elsewhere, which wasn’t the plan when I loaded it up so I didn’t pack it with that intention and will have to go in and adjust some things. It would be nice if I could speak with someone at the codes office but apparently the entire office was out in the field during a severe thunderstorm. Yeah, right. I think I am going to try to take a couple days off this week for an impromptu vacation to get things settled with the pod and move stuff around in the house in prep for the new fridge.
Weblebrity Rob Cockerham of cockeyed.com timed himself doing common tasks. Here’s his page of The Actual Amount of Time It Takes.
He found it took 3 minutes 15 sec to unload the clean dishwasher.
Very handy! He accepts submissions, so go ahead and email him your times to add to his list!
My husband and I are moving, and I need to get rid of half the stuff we own. Our church has a sale for students, so we got rid of a lot of stuff in August. Three or four times a week we take tote bags full of books to the library. We had a friend take everything he wanted from the garage.
And yet, as I look around, it doesn’t seem like things are emptying. My big problem is with paper. I like to hold things; scanning and looking doesn’t do it. I have some papers from my grandfather in 1935 or so. They’re not important; it’s a ledger showing his expenses and income. But my dad’s name is in there getting some extra money for working for my grandfather. How do I toss that? Or drawings my daughter made in kindergarten? I was hard-hearted enough to toss some papers where she was practicing her printing. They had rows and rows of uppercase and lowercase letters, and I figured after 25 years I could get rid of them.
I know when I die she will have a big bonfire and get rid of 99% of what I’m packing. We are moving close to her so she can be there with a garbage can while I unpack and tell me to just toss it now. And I do want to make things easier for her, but it’s hard.
I would just like to report that I am able to walk from one end of my garage to the other with my arms outstretched. I can also get to my washing machine without tripping over something.
Unfortunately it looks like I will have to fill my garage back up with the contents of the pod, but I have a better idea of what I have and where it is and a plan to deal with it. I won’t make the mistake of stuffing it so full again that I can’t move around.
Just cleared more space by dumping out 3 boxes of magazines. I’m taking these up to the recycling place later. It makes me sad to see some defunct magazines, like Omni and some SciFi magazines in there but even if they aren’t eaten up by silverfish, there’s just too much dust for me to deal with keeping these. And I definitely don’t need computer magazines from 1995. I don’t feel as bad about getting rid of them if I take them to recycling.
The spouse went through a bunch of his magazines and set aside some for friends who want them and others for disposal. Yay!
Today we were more about getting something to deal with the raccoons that have moved into the building than cleaning. Then the power was out for two hours during utility work (they warned us about that yesterday) and our place is like a cave without electric lights and of course no vacuum cleaner, no water (we have a well and pump)… I decided to take a nap. Power is back on (obviously, since I’m on the internet) so I’m thinking maybe I can do some work on the house after dinner.
I am moving, again, and I swear by All That Is Holy
*this time I will be organized first and THEN pack! * instead of shoving piles of papers and stuff into boxes and telling myself I’ll deal with it later.
one of the guys who came to do moving estimates told me he has moved a box for the last 10 years that has nothing in it but mail he needs to sort and mostly shred, apparently.
we are one screwed up society, don’t you think?
I’d describe it as “flooded by paper” society.
I just keep trying to whittle away at stuff. At least I have STOPPED bringing most stuff into the home! This means the pile is slowly melting away and I have hopes that if/when I do bring it under control I won’t find myself back to a complete mess again.
Finally got a response from the city inspector, looks like I can fill out a form and get a 30 day extension. At least I can keep the pod a little longer and won’t have to kill myself trying to clean my garage to have a place for stuff. Since I can take a little more time I hope to completely clean the garage instead of just one side.
I found out that I have a garage snake, a small black racer, that’s fine by me. He can eat any bugs or rodents he finds and hopefully the geckos and lizards will be smart enough to stay off the floor.
I got my new fridge today and I plan to go buy some ice cream tomorrow.
Here I immediately thought this was a variation of a drain snake, being I supposed a tool that could reach otherwise inaccessible parts of your garage.
Took two dozen books to the local used book store today, most of them large hardcopies I’ll never read again. Did NOT come back with any new books! Or any new used books!
Yay, me!
Small pang of regret, but very tiny, they will go to good homes, and I have more space at home. Thinking of doing another closet purge now.
I have condensed this to 3x containers, with the box files inside the containers.
So I had to empty my storage pod and schedule it for pickup tomorrow because the city is threatening me with fines. I can’t believe they have this rule. I guess they feel it’s better to be overwhelmed in your house where people can’t see it than try to do something about it by having a nice storage unit in your driveway. I guess the only way people can have these in the city is if they have a big enough back yard to hide it back there. Since I don’t have that I have to work on stuff a little at a time. I will be looking into getting my storage shed repaired or replaced as my next step so it’s actually usuable for storage. I was actually going to do that sometime down the line but I guess I have to move that up the schedule.
I know I did get rid of some stuff but I feel like I am right back where I started. My garage is full again but I left a walkway so I can get in there and work. My living room is cluttered again but I got a couple rolling steel shelves to put things on so I can move them around as I work and organize. I am going to keep working but I liked having more elbow room to rearrange and organize.