Not quite a horder - decluttering
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It is recommended that you keep bank statements for one year, and then seven years for the records and cancelled checks which are related to taxes.
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You might keep one month way back just to prove to your kids that things really cost a lot these days. I had a rent check for $60 (for a 2 bedroom apt).
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O. M. G. !!!!!!!!!
This afternoon I went out into the garage to get a pack of dividers for a binder I'm putting together. I have an old chest of drawers out there chock full of office supplies.
When I opened the drawer, this HUGE wad of shredded paper popped up at me. I stood there like a dummy, thinking "What the ..." and then it hit me "MOUSE NEST!!!!"
I ran back in the house and got DH, and he backed the car out of the garage so he could take all the drawers out.
Have you seen those videos of kitties playing with the roll of toilet paper? How they keep unraveling it til nothing is left?
Well, apparently this mouse found the roll of adding machine tape and started chewing/pulling on it. We found it in three different drawers.
The good news: no Mama mouse, no babies, and no birthing mess.
The bad news: lots of little mouse turds, and - fresh, wet, mouse pee on one of my notepads!!!!!
Needless to say, everything got tossed in the trash except for items that were in sealed packages, and things that could be wiped clean with Clorox wipes. I was wearing surgical gloves, but no mask, when I thought "Hantavirus!"
That's what sickened many tourists to Yosemite this summer. (We don't live that far from Yosemite.) But DH says these aren't deer mice, they're just field mice.
SO - bottom line - totally cleaning out the garage has become our newest priority.
UGH!!!
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My mom's house was infested on the first floor when we needed to clear it out for sale. You have my sympathy in cleaning up the mess.
Ooh, not good.
Ginger
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Down here in the oilfields the field mice and kangaroo rats have been known to be hantavirus carriers. That's an unfortunate way to declutter the dresser in your garage!
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We have deer mice in my area and they do carry Hanavirus. Two people have died from it locally that I know of, one was a young doctor not that long ago, so any signs of mice droppings makes me nervous. However, we always have mice. They get in no matter what I do. I bought a "Rat Zapper" from amazon and it has been very helpful in catching and killing the mice. I make my DH empty it outside as I don't want to see them. I am such a ninny ...
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We built our house in 2005, in a new development that used to be a peach orchard. In 2007, we finally landscaped our large back yard, and I had two bird feeders hanging from shepherd's hooks. The doves loved them.
One day I looked out to see what I thought was a large dove clinging to the edge of the feeder. I thought it looked strange, especially when I saw its long, skinny tail. It was a rat!!!!
That began The Year Of The Rat for us. I took down the feeders, and DH set up traps all along the back fence. Turns out, our developer had built our fences along the fenceline of the development behind us... leaving a nice long Rat Alley for them to travel in.
Every day DH went out to "check the traplines"...like some kind of frontier hunter. Unfortunately, there was usually a dead rat in at least one trap.
That year, we caught 22 rats!!!!!
And I'm talking BIG suckers! I've just read up on hantavirus, and while we'll be more cautious about how we clean the garage, I'm not too worried that we've been exposed. There have been no reported cases of hantavirus being spread by house/field mice around here....and almost every house around us has had them. We'll just be extra careful from now on. (Mask, gloves, Lysol.....)
And that dresser....maybe it's time to go bye-bye.
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Well, the carpet cleaners are coming Friday.
Now we get to de-clutter the surfaces of all the furniture that must be moved.
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Teka - it was 81 degrees here this weekend.
Don't be too envious; in the summer it can get up to 110 - 115.0 -
Blessings are you in Southern or Northern Ca?
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Blessings, we had 84 Suturday and yet we are supposed to be down to 60 on Friday.
We built our house in a new development in early 2006. The land used to be a cotton/alfalfa field. We were the first house completed in the developement and the mice loved it here, and in my pantry for a couple of years. Now that 90% of the lots are built I haven't had any signs of mice. We used "sticky boards" to catch the critters. It was fine because the whole thing can be thrown away.
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BUNKIE - We're smack dab in the middle: Central California.
Teka - I think the Adirondacks in the summer would be an awesome getaway!
Meece - Maybe your new neighbors had more attractive mouse food in their pantries, and the gang just moved on from your house!
As soon as DH said he had set out poison, all I could think of was the stink of deceased rodents in every nook and cranny of the garage. I made him go out and swap out the poison for actual traps. He da man, he doesn't mind disposing of the carcasses!
But now I'm thinking that the sticky boards would be more sanitary than reusing traps....
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I used the sticky boards in Haiti and had to have a friend go remove the board and attached mouse, he was still alive. My friend was supposed to knock him out but all he did was move him outside the back door. Another friend finally did him in for me. The critters were looking for food and would go into the oven. I was so lucky I just had mice later friends who lived in the same apartment had rats inside. Tough girls living in Haiti beat them with pots and pans.
The critters coming inside is one thing I do not miss from Haiti.
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Many of the poisons contain something which helps the carcass decompose without too much odor. I think it is D-con which desicates them which means no smell.
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I think traps are better. If a poisoned rodent exits the house, he may be food for an owl or other wildlife, and poison them as well.
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Ginger - o.k. A live mouse in a sticky trap would certainly pose a problem for me. I'd probably want to free it and take it to the vet to see if it was o.k.
And heaven forbid one that got stuck in a regular trap was still alive!!! I do remember one time a very large rat was still alive when it got stuck in the giant rat trap in the back yard....DH whacked it with a shovel. I, of course, stayed in the house...Meese - good to know. I've heard horror stories about decomposing critters inside the walls of the house.... yuck!
Wren - My friend in Wisconsin told me the same thing! She is an avid birder, so warned me about using poisons...
So far, since I scared the pee out of the mouse in the drawer, it's been quiet out in the garage. No sign of anything in the trap DH used. Of course, I am imagining mouse turds everywhere, and dreading the thought of opening all those boxes we have stored out there.
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I know the baits with Warfarin are more dangerous for secondary poisoning that the desicants.
We have no fourlegged pets so the bait wasn't an issure for us.
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A thought for future consideration of something we may not be aware of. Owls eat mice that may have taken a warfarin bait. The food chain causes issues for many animals not just pets. In one sad example a friend who works at a mission in Haiti had the missions young Rottwieler died from this exposure. They wrote and said they comforted her as she died in pain. The vet had to come from far away and didn't arrive in time to lessen her pain.
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I do get mice in the fall sometimes and have set the regular traps. I have a neighbor come get them and toss them out. I am afraid of poison because my mom used it once and a mouse died in the basement after eating it. He stunk for weeks. I feed the birds and squirrels in my yard. My neighbors cat also hangs out there.....looking for birds of course. I would hate to poison anything outside.
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Well, the carpet cleaners came yesterday, so everything got boxed up AGAIN and schlepped out to.....THE GARAGE!!!
I took a look at those bankers boxes with the openings at the handles, and thought why don't I just put a neon sign above there, saying "Welcome All Mice! Enter Here!" Argghhhh!
But today we'll put everything back in the house, and I told DH he has to open every single box and check for rodents before anything comes back in.
Too bad, really, I kind of like the look of the rooms almost completely bare!
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DH bought me a new car today and wants to put both cars in the garage.....
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Yay, Meece!!! What did you get?
DH got a new truck; fortunately even if our garage were completely empty, the truck would not fit, it's so long...
(***Sigh of relief*** at not having to clear out more crap....)
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On Sunday, we went to visit some new friends who have the same model home that we have - our exact floor plan. Her decor was not exactly to my taste, but I have to admit, it sure was free of clutter. I even swore to DH that their kitchen was bigger than ours! (It wasn't.)
They took their three car garage, and built a wall and a door that divided the third bay from the rest of the garage. So in the two-car part, their cars are nicely parked, and there is a neat, organized work bench along the front wall.
In the separated third bay, there are shelves full of tubs, neatly organized and labeled, with seasonal decorations, and other little-used items. I just shook my head, thinking of the tons of disorganized boxes just piled up in our garage.
Later, I told DH, THESE PEOPLE HAVE NO CRAP!!! How do they do it? It's just a mystery to me.
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Teka, when we lived in Illinois I watched for the return of the red wing blackbirds. Do you know that the males arrive before the femals and stake out their territory by fluffing up the red patches on their shoulders to intimidate the other males. We overlooked a fprest preserve so I had a very good view. I miis all my birds. We had a Bobcat here a couple days ago. Hah just not the same.
Ginger
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I got a little Scion. My car has over 202 k on it and when we go to visit the new baby that will add another 2 k, so we wanted a car that we can put miles on without worry. My car has had no issues at all, but still that's a lot of miles. It will become DHs daily commuter. That way when something 'sounds' funky, he'e the first to hear or feel it and it will get taken care of.
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Blessings - When my DD was in school I went over to a parent's house very similar in size age (built in 60's) to ours and I swear she had one thing on kitchen counter and maybe one thing on the mantle. A couple of side tables with lamps nothing else decorative in those 2 rooms. I think she said she hated clutter. Heck clutter it wasn't didn't even look homey. I wish I had needed to use the BR so I could have investigated further. I have the very non-functional clutter though bless his heart DH did vacuum the main LR, dining room, hallway walkway. Will have to clean carpet in area where baby goatie runs around when she is out. Goat formula (very similar to baby formula) on carpet as well as other unmentionables (though nothing stains).
Meece, I love Scions though never driven one. They came out after I bought my Equinox in 2007 which is paid off and beginning to get little "funkies" as you say (112,000 miles). I put 25,000 miles on it the 1st year and then again in 2011 & 2012. In 2010 I had a hospital job so not driving all day.
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When I raised goats I used a product called Uni milk. Ah those were the days. I loved giving those babies bottles. It helped with my transition from being a mother of human babies and toddlers to having independent children.
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I'm using a Land O Lakes product called "Doe's Match". Watching closesly for scours. Still taking her out to nurse mom the goat from you-know-where. Think these are the last babies here.
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I also bottle fed a couple of llama crias, but it is so much work to be a surrogate mom. We used to get the kids on the bottle because people who wanted a pet goat wanted to be able to bottle feed them.
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We are still experiencing warm days in the 70s and 80s. IF it goes out like a lion here, it may be because the lion in on fire!
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DH said he'd like to get rid of our old travel trailer. Unfortunately it has been a storage unit for us. I went in there today because DS is having a yard sale this weekend and I thought he could have some stuff to sell. Argh!!! DH has packed that thing up to the ceiling! I got the flatware, a toaster and an electric mixer out. I want some of the stuff, but it was crazy in there!
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I guess!
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