Not quite a horder - decluttering
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Hi, Teka!
Sitting here sipping my last Optifast Shake of the night....vanilla, with Mango flavored Torani sugar-free syrup! (Sometimes it's hard to get all six products in every day, but we have to.)
Last week was good! Lost 3.4 pounds, guess that made up for GAINING two pounds the first week on a 960 calorie diet!!!
So far, down ten pounds from the first meeting a month ago. Only forty more to go!!!Hope the rest of your evening is more relaxing than your day went......
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Wow! Congrats, Blessings!
Baby steps, teka. Sounds like you have an attainable goal.
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meece, i went back, and got another bottle.. it says in the machine, its 4 h2o to 1 foslex; but i don't think it worked as well as the hoover heavy duty does.. so, i went back, cleaned with the hoover, then,went over, and spotted with the foslex. i think it worked better thatway, and will be less $$also. the hover, bissell, etc. does have soap.. so i always go back the next day with h2o; so spotting after wasn't so bad. i think my carpets' cleaner than its' been, in along time.. we drag dirt in, on our beige carpet, everytine we come in. so, its only the high traffic that gets so bad. i got new are runners down, now... we'll see how that does........3jays0
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Thanks, Meece!
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Teka - I agree with Meece!
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a "big" clean up has been started, yet again!!they're tenting my building for termites next week, so DH HAD to clean out the pantry tonight,,, tommorrow, we have to move all our plants we want to save, as they have to be 12" away, and MAYBE they'll live.. some of them are from my moms' garden, before she died.. so, they'll be far away, at another neighbors.. but some have to be potted, so onward, and upward we go!!!
at least, the universe (God) has made it clear to my DH to move his arse, and do what needs to be done.. so, thankful for any help getting him to participate in the cleanup!!!!
the ruggs look great, thanks for the tips, Meece......3jays
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Maybe Mr Meece will stay in motion now that he is started. Goodluck with the tenting.
My 15 poiund dog scared away the new cleaning girl today. His barking alone scared her away. She even opened the door and said he barked even more! She is coming back tomorrow, I will be here to manage the wild beasties!
Ginger
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What a bummer, Ginger. Silly pooch, doesn't he know how happy you'd be when you came home to a clean house?
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The cleaner is here now. I gave her $20.00 for her time and gasoline for yesterdays fiasco. I have the two dogs in the bedroom with me and after she is done upstairs I will take them into my sewing room with me. I am not sure if I like one cleaner for longer or three for an hour and fifteen minutes. It is good for it to get done more quickly and have the house back to myself. I will be happy if it is clean and liveable ore than anything else. I am not a neat nut so I need a cleaner more than others. It gets me to pick up obvious things things that get in her way and neaten up other areas that can get top heavy with papers or other horizontal surface clutter. My husband has never met a horizontal surface that he doesn't like. He sees it as a void that must be filled. If I was a real neat nut it would have been resolved by now but I am not stern enough in my scolding. lol
Laters Ginger
PS I rather admire neat nuts.
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glad you got the cleaning lady safe in the house today, Ginger lol...
i always think 3 is better, and quicker, if there's barking dogs.. but, if you LIKE this lady, maybe you can make it work....
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I'd like more-quicker.
When we married, DH asked if I minded if he kept his cleaning lady. Would I mind??? Then I saw how she cleaned. She never moved anything, and where our coffee make leaked, she just left the coffee on the counter. She used copius amounts of water in some areas and flooded the countertop where I had my favorite cookbook, never wiped the water rings off the bathroom counter and I could go on. I begged DH to get rid of her, but she was his mom's friend. I had to clean the house after she left. We aren't dirty people so when there was a ring from a drink on a glass top table, it was obvious. We moved 10 months later and used that as an excuse not to have her continue. We haven't had a cleaning lady since, and I am pretty happy with our house. I still have to clean it all myself, but I know it is clean.
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Ginger, I think our husbands may be clones. I don't know what it is about an empty horizontal surface that attracts paper like a magnet. I'm always amazed by how quickly he can trash a hotel room with brochures and newspapers.
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Wren - your post made me laugh. Whenever we stay in a hotel - or even our timeshare - I have to make the bed and straighten up the room before we leave for the day, so Housekeeping doesn't think we're a couple of slobs!!!0
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I am not sure about this cleaner yet. I think I get less cleaning from her. She came at 1:15 and left at 4:00 that is 2 hrs and 45 minutes for more money. The boss there said that their philosophy is that the stay until everything is clean. A young person has less patience and she left early I think.
My former cleaners were 3 women for 1 hr 15 minutes. That is 3 hrs and 45 minutes and they worked the whole time.
I think this girl is sweet and young. I am not agressive in this sort of situation and really want it just to be a no brainer.
I may need to go back to a service with more than one worker. I need Tabitha!
Ginger
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Finally got the Christmas stuff out of the den into bins and stored in the garage crawl space - YAY! Also started a bin of Christmas and other stuff for a yard sale sometime in the next few weeks. Having the house painted in July so that will be an opportunity to get rid of stuff. Then will get a service in to do much needed serious cleaning and then since I will have things put away I may or may not keep them.
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OK Ladies, I have solved my problem completely----I'm moving hahaha---I'm moving into a 4 bedroom home with my dgtr and sil and my randson 7--we are so close, Since I tend to fall alot they think I should be with them--hahaha I'm decluttering cuz I'm only takin what I need and tossing the rest--Well they are.LOL So I wil be living in neatness in 10 days. OOOHHHHH what a change this is g oing to be, but I'm very adaptable to things (Yea right) but realy it's fine.
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Wow Camillegal you are a serious declutterer! Moving, I hope you love your new digs. With the Grands too, couldn't get any better.
Patoo you are an inspiration. I have been making some progress in my closet. It is amazing how quickly the years pass and things that seem wearable have really been hanging there for a long long time.
My husband makes multiple piles of papers. I contend if they were all in one pile until dealt with it would be better.
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Yesterday I chose to wear a pair of shoes I knew were uncomfortabe last time I wore them. Halfway through the day I raided the First aid kit for Bandaids. Byt the time I got home I cleaned them up, got their box out and set them aside to give away. I also pulled another pair of shoes I was keeping but not wearing. Why in the world do I keep things I can't wear? Well now I either have room for two more pair of shoes, or just more room!
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cleaning for this tenting is a BIG PIA: however, its forced us to really "look" at things, and lots and lots have gone.. should just have some closets ad bins to go thru when we're back in the house.. it really speeded up the process, but WAY upped the tension around here.. we'll be back, moving things back in next wed, but breaking our humps till monday!!!we also have to dig up, and pot bushes, if we want to keep them, and bring hanging baskets to a neighbors.. that'll take all of tommorrow, im afraid........3jays0
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I had no idea it was so complicated to get rid of termites. It is good to have motivation to declutter but this seems way over the top. I hope when all is said and done you have a good result and you plants all come back better than ever.
Hugs Ginger.
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That's good that you have a reason to start culling your items, 3jays, but tough when you are under the gun for time. Take it easy and do not wear yourself out.
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Ginger - we have two young women come at 10, and they usually leave at 11:30 or noon, depending on which rooms get "deep cleaning" on that rotation. They come every two weeks. Sometimes they bring a third person with them.
They do a nice job, but last time, I walked by the main bathroom and saw dark streaks coming down from under the rim of the toilet. That doesn't happen overnight, and we had paid for a BIG initial cleaning in December. Someone was not doing her job.
So I just pointed it out, and it was nice and sparkly after they left. (I left out the comments about how embarassing it was, how it must have building up for a long time, how I could just take tissue and wipe around the rim and black gunk came off....) I just said "Can you get these marks off?" and she went at it with the pumice stone.
The ladies leave a checklist of everything they've done before they leave. If we want special attention paid to something, we leave them a note on the counter.
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patoo - are you having the inside or the outside of your house painted? Hubby finally broke down and we had four rooms painted last fall. They look so nice! His excuse was always "Builder White is a color......"
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camillegal - do you have lots of stuff to get rid of before you move? You might want to consider a "Living Estate Sale". We did that when we sold my DHs former home, filled to the rafters with stuff he didn't bring to our new home after we got married. The company did ALL the work, got us a nice amount of money for our stuff, donated the rest to charity (and gave us receipts) and finally, cleaned the whole place out and left it empty. I think their commission was 30% or 40%. It was totally worth it.
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Meece - let's go shoe shopping!!!!
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3jaysmom - never went thru the termite tenting, but did have to scramble to pack up before the carpeting went in. I feel for ya!!!!!
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We had new carpeting installed throughout the house right before my BMX in December.
We had to box EVERYTHING up - and I do mean everything, and move all the furniture out.
When the carpeting was in, we moved only the necessary stuff back in, so I could focus on surgery and recovery.
I told DH I couldn't stand the thought of bringing all that crap back in the house!!!
So now it's all stacked in bankers boxes in the garage and in the Tuff Shed.
He says we can start going through the garage today.
HA! It's supposed to be 92 today!!! Uhhhhh.......maybe next weekend?
It would be nice to say if I haven't missed it, just toss it, but SO many boxes are labeled "MISCELLANEOUS" or "IMPORTANT PAPERS"....
Which means we go through EACH ONE separately....
If we were goal-setters, we'd say something like "One box each per day"......
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Ladies: I've been looking forward to joining you, reading from the beginning & finally got to page 40. Lots of good ideas. We had our annual neighborhood garage sale today. Since I was working for the neighborhood I was only able to put a few things with another neighbor. Still - just putting out things on top of cuboards, bookcases, tool bench, etc., I took in $70. Thanks for all your encouragement.
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Miscellaneous is a tricky category. It never ends and has been a big problem in my decluttering at our last three houses.
My DD has told me something that has helped me so much, so obvious, but perfect.
"Put like things with like."
I am just a mess with categories, making more and more subcategories, especially on my computer. The simple, like with like, gets things in the same general direction.
The Estate sale sounds wonderful and a living estate sale, even better. When my mom went into the nursing home and it became obvious she would not be able to come back home my husband and I began the task of emptying the house. It took us 6 months of weekend days. A living estate sale would have absolutely been a blessing on our lives at that point. Mom's house was in a part of the city where such a sale wouldn't have been possible but the idea of it is wonderful. A charity took two truckloads of things and rufused some more items. A metal reseller took two pickups worth of things, my dad had been in construction. Then we paid a junk hauler to take the rest and they even swept out the basement twice! We took way too much home, things I thought (hahaha) that my kids would want. The boys wanted only a few momentos and DD a little more but she was across country. So there I was with all this stuff. Depressing you know.
I had begged my mom to organize her papers so that I could understand what to do and what was where. She wouldn't do it with me and obviously did not do it alone. I don't know what the solution is to that or if there is one. I do not intend to leave my DD with such a mess. Now I need a plan so that I don't do just that!
Rambling here today instead of organizing. bad bad bad
Hugs to you all Ginger
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oh, ladies, WHAT A JOB111 this has turned into a,living hell.. no little at a time, this.. i keep going, just remembering, when we're all done.. everything will be out, and then we can commence on getting a whole lot donated at a time.. im not even INTERESTED in what ANYTHING is worth.. i just want order out of the chaos!!!
two big cabinets went to consignment yesterday, i was so happy.
i have a doll collection, and one a friend gave me yrs ago is over 1,00.00 . My DH bought at the consignment store, the perfect cabinet for her, takes up much less room...
i couldn't figure out why he was doing all this in the middle of this mess.. today, he came home with two dozen long stem roses.. i've been so freaked out getting done here, i forgot our 21st wedding anniversary!!he's such a good guy.. he said not to worry, it was the husbands normally forgettinglol
its also 3 yrs to the day of my bmx and im still ned... im a lucky, grateful gal tonight.. with a gorgeous cabinet, and a million roses .. I said it looked like someone died around here, and he covered my moth.. i wasn't thinking.. am not thinking these days...
am looking forward to 4 days of rest, then, again, we have to reverse the process... thanks for your encouragement. i think i'd lose what little mind i have left, if it wasn't for you guys!!!. have a blessed sunday!!!3jays
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Do you get to go to a hotel for a few days? Relax, chill out and such? I hope so for you.
WHat kind of dolls? I have four 8" Muffy dolls. I also have some of the original furniture sold back in the 1950's when I was a kid playing with htis sort of doll. I have some of the original clothing too and brochures. All thanks to Ebay. I was too old for Barbies, that was the next generation. I don't want my little collection to be any larger, this way I get to keep it and no one complains. I think my dolls cost about $2.99 new and a decade ago they were up around $200. but I was working then.
Laters
Ginger
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Since I live alone and have one son, who would be the one to go thru things when I am no longer able to take care of myself, this idea works best for me. I have a large recipe box and use index cards with the name, address, phone #, password, etc on them. If something is in my file cabinet, like Insurance papers, I note that on a card, in this case "Insurance". It is not a perfect system, but it gives a place to start looking for an item or papers needed when "I" forget... It all takes time, but in the long run, it saves time.
Edited for typo...
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Hi ladies: Back from a 10 day vacation to Nevada and Arizona which was awesome! Now I'm facing a mountain of clothes (what was I thinking!) that need to be put away. At least I don't have to do a ton of laundry because we stayed in a timeshare condo that had a washer and dryer. I love that option over a hotel room. It was a one bedroom, so if I got up early, I didn't have to tiptoe around in the dark...I could get up and make my coffee and read...just like home. It was located right in the center of all the action..a five minute drive from anything we wanted to do. We played golf, ate at fantastic healthy restaurants and didn't gain one pound...amazing! We like the Scottsdale and Sedona areas so much that we are going to make this an annual trip, and we already have the timeshare so our only cost is airfare and food. We made breakfast in every morning so that saved us a lot of money. Lunch was usually a salad, and our big meal was at dinner. In Nevada we stayed with my boyfriends cousin and his wife..the guys played in a golf tournament and the gals went for spa treatments...wonderful!! This golf tournament is an annual event which my BF looks forward to!
OK...no more excuses...time to unpack! Also, no food in the house, so shopping is in my future as soon as the rain dies down! We live on a golf course and when I looked out the doors, there were two golf carts sitting in the rain...I really felt sorry for those guys...it is coming down in buckets!
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Sounds like a wonderful vacation, Kaara. I like the timeshare type vacation, but ExDH got it. Actually I'd like it now, back then it was no different than being home. I was expected to clean and cook and maintain the household, while he vacationed. I like being able to bring home clean clothes because it makes unpacking much more pleasant.
Spent the weekend at a Garden Fest and a wedding, so didn't get much done around here. The heat was so bad it wiped out my strength. All the laundry got taken care of, that's a plus.
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The vacation is officially over...clothes put away...shopping done. Today I went for my second eye injection for my AMD and it was tolerable but not pleasant. I have a lot of burning after this one, or at least it seemed that way until I remembered that before the last one I took an anti anxiety med and slept most of the day, so that's why I didn't notice the burning so much:( Dr. said there was quite a bit of improvement so at least it's not in vain.
I'm going to try and nap this afternoon and when I wake up, maybe this burning will be better.
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