Tag Archives: Housekeeping – Maintenance

Happy Fish

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Today I finally got off my duff and cleaned the aquarium. All told it takes about 45 minutes from start to finish, so it isn’t that much to ask. The only thing my fish actually get excited about, though, is eating time, twice a day, when they bunch up in the right front corner of the aquarium and wriggle their little bodies, opening and closing their mouths rapidly. So it’s easy to walk by and ignore the fact that I should be cleaning out their digs and providing some different decorations to stimulate their imaginations.

Things look much better now. They’re exploring a bit, but no wriggles, gaping mouths, or other signs of real interest yet.

This doesn’t happen at our house, although we have two cats who would probably eat our fish given the chance. They seem to prefer birds.

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Today’s Continuing Project

When we built our home over 30 years ago, we used an entire room off the kitchen as our pantry. I’m lucky because we have a lot of space. It also causes some problems because I tend to stash way too much STUFF in here!

I went through our pantry when we switched to Nutrisystem almost a year ago. I cleaned a bunch of stuff out, gave away a bunch, packed other things away for much later….

Now we’re doing more flex meals, plus branching out. I need to reorganize the pantry so that things are easy to find, easy to get to, etc.

The side of the pantry in the picture above is the food side of the pantry.

On the back side is the pantry fridge, and then an L-shaped bunch of shelves that hold cleaning supplies, paper supplies, cooking pots, canning stuff – you name it.

I’m now working on getting things organized so that I can cook more without having to move a bunch of STUFF in order to get the pan I need, the ingredients I need….

I’m trying to do a bit each day. Today I’m giving it an extra push because it’s cold and rainy outside, we don’t need to go anywhere, and I want to accomplish more today than laundry and vacuuming. (Already done!)

I’m concentrating on the non-fo0d part of the pantry today. I’ll take pics if I make enough progress.

 

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My Day

Funny Life Quotes

The rest of my house needs work, but our kitchen and dining area is finally clean. I basically spent all day on them. It was one of those ‘one-thing-leads-to-another things, where there was no place to stop once I really got going. The only problem now is that I don’t want to mess it up by cooking anything!

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Today’s Project – Fridge One

We have a fridge like this one in our kitchen. I love it. It’s a side by side with an icemaker. The doors open wide and there is a lot of flexibility in how you set things up, what temperatures you want, etc. We got it about 10 years ago, so it doesn’t have a lot of the bells and whistles people have now, but it’s really good for us and I hope it lasts a good, long time.

The outside is a nice, glossy black that looks great when it’s spanking clean and gets to looking pretty sad with a gazillion finger prints on it, spills from something we took out of the fridge, water deposits of ‘something’ in the drain under where the ice comes out, etc.

Our problem is compounded because I have all kinds of ‘stuff’ on it.

 

 

I have all kinds of information regarding Nutrisystem – snacks, okay veggies, okay fruits, grocery list, etc. We also keep a record of propane tank readings monthly. We have timers, fridge magnets, reminders of coming appointments – you get the idea.

Today’s project was to clean the fridge – particularly the inside. It started with using up our supply of cut up celery and radishes ready to eat. I fixed that, and then was again aware that the fridge really needed some attention, and had been needing it for awhile. I’m fairly good about watching for expiration dates on things, but I tend to shove bags of lettuce, veggies of all kinds, cheeses, etc. into their places without cleaning the bin or drawer UNDER them much, and the stuff in the door is even worse.

I just finished the fridge in the kitchen. It looks and smells really good now. :0)

Tomorrow’s project will be the fridge in the pantry…

 

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Truths

Trees truths – I Stole This From Another Page via Kim Cummings

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I’m a “Stash-a-holic”

Believe it or not, this is a very nice double pull-out drawer inside one of my kitchen cabinets. The bottom holds cooking vessels of various kinds and stays in good order. This, however, is a horse of a completely different color, to coin a phrase.

Ziplock bags, sandwich bags, aluminum foil, etc. are stashed in here to the point it’s hard to get one thing out without other things coming with it.

So this drawer is today’s project.

 

Here it is from another angle. I would be embarrassed to show it to you – or admit that it’s MINE – except you KNOW I’m a slob and that I’m on a mission this year to go through areas one at a time, sometimes – in this case – one DRAWER at a time to declutter, give away, throw away and then reorganize our over 30-year-old home.

My husband, thankfully, is oblivious to my slobbiness, and I overlook his championship pack-rat skills, as well. While this makes for a happier marriage, it results in messes like this.

The first step was taking everything out of the drawer, cleaning and relining it.

 

This is one view of what came out of the drawer.

And here’s another. Hopefully, later in the day I can show you a much-improved supplies drawer – putting it all on the island insures that I won’t leave it until later. We can’t fix lunch unless I clean this up! :0)

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Two Project Day

 

THING ONE:

I told you recently that my husband got a new gadget that allows you to record all your DVDs on it and play them back whenever you want through the TV. There is access to it via Roku, and we enjoyed watching one of our collection last night.

I’ve been working on a project to go through all the DVDs in our collection (hundreds!) and SAVE the ones that are mine personally. (I don’t really trust the new gadget and would be happy to simply play my movies when I would like.) The others I’m looking up on Amazon to see if we can sell them. The ones that remain I’m bagging up to give to the local library for their next fund-raising project.

I’m trying to go through several stacks each day. Most of ours appear to be ‘ancient’ as far as selling on Amazon, so most of them are going to the library. I’m trying to finish this project so that we can make a donation the week after Thanksgiving.

 

 

THING TWO:

Yesterday I showed you Phase I of reorganizing my too-many-shoes. We built and installed a 7 foot long shelf along one closet wall. We put it up high enough that I can store shoes on the floor under the shelf, as well.

Today’s project is to try to get ruthless. One can only have so many combat type boots in a lifetime, for example. I love boots of all kinds, so this will be a difficult assignment, but I’m determined to get rid of a BUNCH of pairs of shoes. I have a leaf bag, a pad of paper and pen ready to go upstairs and get started.

Again, the goal is to have a good-sized donation ready to take to the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith by the week after Thanksgiving. I’ll try to take a pic of the finished shoe shelf by the end of the day.

Wish me luck!

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Bad News and Good News

MLive.com

The BAD news is that someone in South Carolina won the grand prize in the Mega Millions game last night.  :0(

The GOOD News is several-fold:

  • I have tickets for Power Ball that will be decided tonight!
  • My friend, Marsha, and I reconnected!
  • I just had a really good session of yoga, and my husband did some sit ups!
  • I finished cleaning off the table beside my chair in the living room and the ‘go-out’ table in the dining area.

I don’t have a ‘before’ pic of the table by the chair in the living room, but here it is cleaned off –

 

 

 

Here is the BEFORE pic of the go-out table between the dining area and the utility room with the door to the garage –

 

 

And here is the way it looks NOW

 

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Hard-Working Guys

deckerhomerepairs.com

The gutter cleaning guys called and said they were delayed, and that they would be here around 2 pm. They got here as promised, and started work.  I received an estimate from the owner for cutting the broken branch off the mimosa tree at the bottom of the driveway, so they’re going to do that, too.

I showed them the garage fridge which has bottles of cold water, as well as where a bathroom was before they started. I just went to check on them, because it is SUPER hot out there. They seem to be doing fine. They were at the back of the house, trying to realign and support the end of the gutter run that is drooping. They’re cleaning the gutters, too.

One surprise – on the front of the house, one end of the house already has ‘screens’ on the guttering! They’ve been up there some 30 years or so, and WE haven’t had any interest in climbing up a two-story ladder to check things if we aren’t having problems, so I was really surprised. So was my husband!

I don’t know if they’ll change the estimate because of part of the guttering already having screens or not, but I’m inclined to pay them the full amount. The heat index is 108 this afternoon. I made sure they had cold water. They’re taking breaks every once in a while, sitting in the car a/c. I still feel bad it’s SOOO hot while they’re trying to work for us.

jaxstorm.realverse.us

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Delighted and Appalled

Dyson Animal Ball Series

This is the later version of the Dyson vacuum I have. I’ve had it for several years now. Each time I use it, I’m delighted – and appalled – at all that I empty out of the cannister.

I KNOW I should probably vacuum every day, particularly since we have two shedding dogs and two shedding cats (the fish don’t shed, thank goodness). The truth is that almost everything takes precedence over house cleaning.

I’ve been noticing that our carpeted stairs were needing attention. Today was the day. I used the battery-powered portable Dyson that hangs in its charging center in the pantry. I can use the top, along with a couple of attachments, to clean the stairway. There was a bunch of matted hair in the stair creases (is there a name for this, other than crease?).

I first used the whisk broom, vigorously attacking the creases. It worked well. Dog and cat hair was flying off the stairs onto the foyer carpet.

Amber was in the office, but noticed me when she heard the sound of the whisk broom. She came running and saw furballs flying in the air. She snapped one out of the air and ate it. She thought it was a FINE game and smiled at me, wagging her tail. I kept her amused the whole time I did the first part of the stair cleaning. I have no clue how many furballs she ate…

I’ve now finished vacuuming with the hand-held Dyson and the crevice tool, plus the stairs tool, and then the foyer and living room with the Animal Dyson. It looks much better now.

I’m still delighted at the way the vacuums work. Dyson makes really good products. But, I have to tell you, when I empty the cannisters, I’m also appalled at all the dust, dirt, furballs, etc. that were on our carpet before I started. I know I’m a lousy housekeeper. I’ve told you I’m a slob. But this is powerful evidence that I speak the truth. Thank goodness I have good equipment when I finally bestir myself to use it!

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Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Garrett’s Moving & Storage

This isn’t my art room, but I guess it COULD be.  My husband came in last night, hoping to see a good amount of progress. However, this is one of those projects that looks worse until it’s completely finished.  He looked shocked, and then, trying to say something tactful, managed, “I guess it’s got to look like an explosion to show you’re doing something.” (He’s sill alive, so I guess it worked.)

I’ve centralized our quilts and comforters storage, pulling things from our bedroom, the guest room, and two cedar chests. I should finish the reorganization of my linen closet area in the hallway today. I’m reorganizing the art room closet, as well as the main room, so things that come out of there are going

  • into a donation bag
  • into the trash
  • onto a table in the main room until I make a place to put it

I also took everything out of a drawer in the drafting table. I was looking for a key for the cedar chest under an art room table. I didn’t find one, but when things go back in the drawer, it’ll be much nicer. :0)  It turned out that I didn’t NEED the key for the cedar chest! I pulled it out laboriously (the thing really seems to weigh a TON). I found that you push IN the area of the keyhole and lift up on the lid at the same time. Wallah! It was filled with ‘stuff’ of all types. UGH. It is now empty, pushed back under the art room table, with a FEW large things that need to be flat on top – at least for the moment.

The plans are to bring the bags of trash down to be put out tomorrow night, AND to bring down the donation bags that we’re planning to take to the Veterans Thrift Store Monday or Tuesday.  Those two things will clear the decks for more rearranging of the stuff remaining in the room….

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And the Clean-out of the Art Room Continues

Mairtown Kindergarten-Ephemeral Art

I love this photo.

Yesterday I told you that I thought I had maybe two more leaf bags of things to donate to the Veterans Thrift Store and then I could begin cleaning and organizing. I filled both bags and am still going – if not STRONG – still going.

Something nice is happening, though, as I go through things.

For awhile I was sad because I seemed to be shedding ‘who I was,’ as well as ‘stuff.’  It was hard for me to give anything away. I might need it for something….

Now I’m actually making some good decisions on what I really enjoy doing, and would like to continue doing. An example of this is painting glassware. I’m thinking of new things to do, new designs to try. We have a sand blaster in the shop and I’m looking forward to ‘frosting’ some designs I cut out, plus I find I really enjoy trying to etch the glass with my little dremel tool.  I would like to watch some YouTube videos of someone who knows what they’re doing and then see what I can do.

Once I decide that I no longer really need to do an art form, I find lots of supplies and tools to give away. I’m actually feeling freer – eager to get things organized so I can play again.  I’m hoping to gather the last of the donations from the art room finished by the end of the week, if not before, so I can then figure out where I want to put things. Meanwhile, I have several fun ideas rattling around in my head – giving me motivation to keep on keepin’ on!

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Art Room Clean Up Progress?

Well, I was planning to show you pics of a couple of tables I’ve managed to clean off in the art room. So far I’ve gathered two large bags of things I’ll donate, plus a nice big bag of trash to put out for the trash people tomorrow.

I brought my husband in to show him my progress last night right before we went to bed. I was thinking he would notice how clean two of the tables are. He looked around and said, “You’ve got a lot more work to do, don’t you.”

I’m not admitting defeat here. I’ll just keep going up there, deciding what I can get rid of, and keep on keepin’ on…

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Slogging Through the Art Room Clean Up Project

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I’m having to do really short sessions on cleaning my art room. I keep getting distracted when I find something interesting I didn’t remember I had and wanting to do something ‘artful’ with it, instead of continuing to go through things.

Last time I got the idea for a new line of stationery, note cards, thank you notes and greeting cards. The idea is rattling around in my head, plus I’m dreaming about it, so I guess I’ll need to make time and space to at least get started on the idea soon, but I really need to get the art room ‘healed’ first.

So far, I HAVE cleaned off my drafting table. If you walked into the room, though, you wouldn’t be able to tell anything else had been done. This is the kind of project that looks worse before it even THINKS about getting better.

I’m going up there now to see what I can do….

I would appreciate your sending good wishes, persistence, and focus in my direction today…

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New Purging Project Starts Today – My Art Room

I converted our third bedroom to be my art room. I can create to my heart’s content (when I can make the time and have the energy).  I consider it a treasure trove of wonderful ‘stuff’ I can use if/when the creative bug grabs me. Between projects, though, I tend to just open the door quickly (the cats try to dash inside the minute the door is cracked) and stash whatever it is, thinking I’ll get to it later. This is the result of all that stashing.

I really have no excuse, other than being a slob. My biggest problem when I try to go through things and clean in there is that something grabs my interest and I want to sit down and play with it.  :0)

 

Under all this is a nice drafting table.

This used to be a dressing table when it was a bedroom. It is mostly set up (under all the ‘stuff’) as a jewelry making center and wrapping center. (I know – it’s hard to believe.)

 

This table is for alcohol ink creations, drawing, etc.

This is an area where I keep art supplies.

I have shelves on both sides of the drafting table.

The last time I cleaned this up, I was mainly straightening things. This time I’m going to concentrate on purging (donating things or throwing away), THEN cleaning, and THEN reorganizing.  This will definitely be a multi-day project.

We have the truck packed with a big donation from the pantry purge to the Veterans Thrift Store in Ft. Smith. When we get home, we’ll repack the truck with all the trash bags from the same project, hoping that the good trash people will take them all.  THEN I’ll start making more…

 

 

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Pantry Project is Finished!

Recently I showed you the NON-FOOD side of the pantry. Here is the FOOD side – mostly – except for the very top shelf.

 

Today I went through the top shelf mainly. We just bought replacement flood lights for an outside corner of the house. Today I found that we HAVE some…. I found a lot to put in the Veterans Thrift Store donation area, a lot to throw away, a lot that needed to go elsewhere. I then thoroughly cleaned the top shelf and then reorganized it. There are still two containers holding miscellaneous small light bulbs, but we won’t have to paw through them to find a regular replacement light bulb anymore.

 

I bought and used a lot of see-through plastic bins to help me organize things. We also have small ‘critters from time to time, and these will help us move things quickly to clean, plus The critters may decide to go elsewhere when they find it’s hard to get to anything edible now.

 

My husband made some special can shelves for us several years ago. We have these labeled, so we can quickly find the veggies or soup we want. We put new cans in the back of each partition, so the older ones keep moving to the front.

This is a picture of the non-food side of the pantry.  I can now just walk up and get the small appliance I need, rather than having to stand on my head to get one out of the cabinets in my island.

I’m pleased to have this much better organized than it was before. Even my husband noticed a big difference, though his main focus was on what I did with his ‘chip food group.’

The next thing I’ll need to do is list and pack up the things for the next donation to the Veterans Thrift Store. We’ll need to make this donation tomorrow or so.

 

 

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Pantry Project – Day 4

cutmild.blogspot.com

This is Day 4 of the Clean-Out-The-Pantry project, and I HOPE it will be the last. I’m hanging in there, but I have to admit I’m pretty bushed. I now have 7 large trash bags in the garage to go out Monday evening, and we haven’t started gathering the ‘regular’ trash for the week! We do have several things to give to Methodist Church’s food pantry when I get finished, and I’ve gathered several things for the next trip to the Veterans Thrift Store.

One thing that has helped is we got 6 large plastic see-through bins so I can put like things together, such as sugar substitutes, or low carb baking mixes, or different kinds of flour. I used 4 yesterday and we went back today – since we’re due for freezing rain all day today into tomorrow, and shopped for groceries, too – to get 2 more. I THINK that should finish it. It will certainly make cleaning easier in the future.

Other than my husband’s sacred ‘chips and crackers food group,’ we’re pretty much down to things we can/should eat now in the pantry. Things won’t be so jammed together and it’ll be easier to find things.

If I finish today, I’ll post pics.

I hope you’re having a wonderful day.

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Bookshelves Project Finished!

It took me two days, but the purging/cleaning/reorganizing of the guest room bookshelves and my bedroom bookshelf is finished!

This is the set of guest room bookshelves. The guest room is our son’s old bedroom – hence the really large built-in bookshelves, a desk, a walk-in-closet, etc. When it was no longer needed by our son, we hired a man to cut a doorway between the bedroom and the bathroom, allowing us to give our guests more privacy with a private bath they can access from the bedroom.

 

This is the set of built-in bookshelves on my side of the master bedroom.  I can now see what I have, reach everything, and it’s CLEAN.

I gathered enough books in this project that well have a nice-sized donation to take to the local library tomorrow for their semi-annual fundraising sale.

NEXT PROJECT:  the cleaning closet in the utility room. (Pics to follow)

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Tuesday’s Project

As with the file cabinets, I’m good about putting things IN, but not so good about taking things OUT. Our buffet has gotten to the point that we cannot get anything more IN.     TIME TO PURGE!  My husband hoards pill bottles. He’s not sure why. I’m going to solve this problem today. I love place mats, tablecloths, cloth napkins…..

 

Here you get an idea of what came out of the drawers of the buffet. Some I packed nicely in plastic, but most were just stacked and slid into the drawers. Then, when I changed place mats, I pulled out two of the four and put the ones I was not now using in the drawer, on top of the pile.

 

Time has passed and we’ve changed our daily pottery – a nice combination of aqua and brown.  I’m going to go through what we have with that in mind, trying to keep only the things that look good with the pottery, my china, or other things I have, donating the rest.

This is another project that has been a long time coming. I’ll feel better when I have things in more control, where I can remove something from a drawer without half of the contents trying to come out, and actually be able to put something back IN to the drawer with the other place mats, for example, where they belong.

Waste basket and donation bag are ready!

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CleanER Garage Counter Top

The last big area that needed bailing out around here at the moment is my counter top in the garage. The area is difficult because I have bulbs in peat moss overwintering, a whole huge basket filled with iris rhizomes waiting for early spring to be planted somewhere, stuff brought in from the front porch, else. It’s also the area where my husband has decided is the extra storage for pop, tea, wine, beer, water, etc.

At least now there is a clean area of counter top between stuff that needs to be up off the ground so the doggies can’t get them and part of the drinks area. And the counter top is actually shiny!

To the left of this picture is my elliptical trainer, now being used for at least 15 minutes daily. There is a fan attached to the wall in front of the trainer that I can turn on when it’s too warm in the garage. Now I’m wearing a vest at least part of the time because we’ve had a cool spell lately. It’s funny that this is the only place we could put the trainer. It has to be on concrete or hard flooring without rugs or carpet. We didn’t want it in the kitchen, pantry, dining area or utility room, so this was the only space left. It’s only a bit difficult when we’re having weather extremes.

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Final Project of the Day

I know. I can hear you saying to yourself – or out loud – “Why don’t you put things away so you don’t end up with piles of “stuff” everywhere? Haven’t we been through this before?”

It’s true. I have no excuse. I get busy and the current project takes precedence, so I end up with things falling on my head, demanding that I finally reorganize, throw away, etc.

This is the ‘before’ pic of my desk in the office.

I just finished cleaning things up, and there IS a piece of furniture under all that mess! I KNEW it! :0)

Now, after 4 projects today, I feel that I have earned a cup of coffee. I’ll put my feet up and either watch the football game with my husband, read my book, or completely veg out and take a nap.

I hope you’ve had a happy day!

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Project for the Day

Sassy Senior Lady via Doreen Adamson-Liber

If I haven’t admitted it before, now you know what a slob I am.

Despite my efforts here and there – I’ve never been a great housekeeper – things ‘accumulate’ and, then, I think, reproduce like rabbits, causing the jumble you see before you. My husband and i both contribute to it.  On any given day there are other priorities, so it gets lost in transit.

Well, today is the day THIS will be the focus.

I’ll take everything off and TRY to organize this so that it’s not a catchall. I’m planning to move some of my cookbooks here to get them off the other counter space in the kitchen.

I’ll report back to you later on my efforts.

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Plan B

beginwithyes

 

My husband helped me hook up the pressure washer this morning.

 

 

PLAN A: I was planning to use it on our brick planters which have hard water stains on them. I worked and worked and then finally conceded that the pressure washing wasn’t doing anything. I guess the next step is to get some muriatic acid or other hard water stain remover, gloves, old clothes and shoes, and goggles and see what I can do.

PLAN B: Since we had the pressure washer hooked up, I went ahead and cleaned the front porch, porch pad, and the sidewalk that runs from the front porch to the garage/driveway pad.

I’m not finished with the pressure washer for the year, but I feel that I made significant progress with it today. I could become addicted to this thing. If other tools made SUCH a difference  and lasted for a reasonable period of time, I would be a MUCH better housekeeper…

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The Go-Out Table is Healed!

 

BEFORE

The table in the foreground is our dining area table. The table by the wall is the “go-out table.

 

As you can see, there is barely room for the stuff we need to take with us on our next errands.

 

The mess has spilled over onto one end of the dining area table…. :0(

 

AFTER

NOW  I have space to put my purse, the mail we’re taking, other paperwork, and the list of errands all on one end of the table.  I got all the ‘stuff’ off the dining area table, too. The danger of avalanche is past, PLUS I found several things I didn’t know we had! :0)

 

 

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Slow, Steady Progress

I’m trying to use each day to dig out from my almost-a-month of being essentially useless because of really bad back spasms and pain. Thankfully, I’m back to being ‘mean as a snake’ as my husband describes me, so progress is being made, albeit slowly – kind of like a government project…

Today I’m trying to accomplish two things:

THING ONE:  finish the clean up of our master bedroom and bath. I need to finish scrubbing our shower stall and our whirlpool tub and then I’ll declare that area ‘healed’ for now. (subprojects: cleaning out my bookshelf, going through my jewelry)

THING TWO:  We have what we call ‘the go-out table’ in the dining area that adjoins the utility room and garage. We put things we need to take with us on errands, (purse, errand list, associated paperwork) etc.  Since I haven’t been monitoring it, the ‘etc’ has exploded to the point we’re fearing avalanche.

I started by taking everything off the table and out of the associated cabinet. I actually DID have some avalanches as our dining table didn’t want to hold it all.

I’m resting for a bit because I found myself starting to ‘stash’ things, rather than either purging/putting away/donating/reorganizing. Time for Phase Two…

 

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Apt Description

Rebel Circus via Lisa Bearnes Richey

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Truism

Pinterest

I’ve already told you I’m a slob. I’m on a mission – albeit off and on, depending on my energy – to get rid of a bunch of STUFF in our house.

I’m tired of “piles” of things, and we have them everywhere. Now that we have a new puppy whom we are trying to get used to our home more and more, it’s really important that she not run into PILES of things that will get HER in trouble and make ME crazy.

We also have a good friend coming over this evening for a cookout. I’ll at LEAST need to get rid of the piles of stuff around my chair. It would be NICE of me to arrange that she can put a glass down beside her on the couch, plus HAVE a clear place to sit down, as well, wouldn’t it!

We have the food prep done for our evening. I’ve taken Amber out twice this morning, so I’ll use the lull in needing to meet her needs and clean up the living room, bathrooms, kitchen and dining area.

I can see that my home would be in much better shape if we had more new puppies and more guests! The good thing about going through the piles is discovering things I had misplaced or thought lost. It’s like a treasure hunt! The bad thing is that I tend to get distracted by the things I find, wanting to do something with them…

We dodged the severe weather from yesterday, and the cloudy skies seem to be clearing up for a nice evening. I really enjoyed sitting on the deck this morning after Amber and I had a long walk, enjoying the cool morning.

I hope that you are enjoying the nice long Memorial Day weekend with friends, good food, and fun.  If you get bored, you can think about me uncovering something wonderful in my living room!

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Vacuuming Olympics?

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If there were a vacuuming Olympics, I should win at least a bronze medal yesterday and today for stamina.  Yesterday I tackled the tile on the first floor: utility room, dining area, kitchen, pantry, and two half-baths.  I filled up the cannister on my Dyson battery-powered vacuum and had to recharge before I could finish.

Today I vacuumed the carpet in the living room, foyer, and office, moving everything in the areas at least once and going beside the baseboards with a whisk broom to loosen all the pet hair that has accumulated since we got our new puppy. With two cats and two dogs (the fish doesn’t shed, thank goodness) they bring it in and leave it everywhere faster than I can vacuum it up.

Since I’m a slob, I let things go while I tended my husband after his surgeries and tended the animals, leaving everything else to fend for itself.

I feel a little bit better about the first floor, at least. The energy drink I tried yesterday tasted okay. It was sugar-free and only 5 calories. I couldn’t feel any difference in my energy level. Maybe I need to drink a gallon of it…

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Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob

Shoot

Lipstick, Margaritas and Hairspray via Cathy Ruggiero

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Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob