Goal Tracking: Declutter and Cleaning

Oh my gosh, you're getting them, too??? I have NO idea why we're getting them! Can't be because of where WE live! LOL!

I just had breakfast with some friends who rent out apartments. They were telling me stories that made me feel much, much better about my laundry on the couch. None of us are as bad off as we could be!

I've been doing detail cleaning lately. I cleaned all 30 panes of glass in the French doors. Smells like something died in the kitchen so we pulled out a cabinet next to the stove and I cleaned underneath that and all the walls behind it. Almost puked. I don't think that has been cleaned since they put the floors in.

I've also been very good about using the food I have in the house and garden instead of going to the store to pick up ingredients for whatever random thing I feel like eating. This is kind of a big deal for me because I am something of a food hoarder. Not like TV show level, but I could probably live a year on the food I have in this house (plus the garden). A lot of it is random weird stuff, like pine tree jelly I bought in Quebec and never opened.

Not sure what else I have in mind for cleaning today once I finish putting away all the stuff I used to clean up behind the cabinet and under the stove.

I feel like every other day this week has been 'locate the source of the very disgusting odor.' I finally tracked down the smell in the kitchen. Today I have a smell in my backroom. It's like there's something dead in the walls that's moving, very frustrating!

I'm also frustrated with myself because I am once again hung up on the disposal aspect of decluttering. For about a month or two I've had a small pile of things to get rid of sitting in my dining room: some RAM from an old laptop, some iPad screen covers I never used, and my broken Kindle. I had this idea that I would sell them on eBay, but the work involved in listing and dealing with the hassle doesn't seem worth any of the money I might earn. Do I put them in the trash? Take it to Goodwill someday (I have reasons for not wanting to do this)? Ugh. I need to just put them in the trash.

I tried to put my exercise step in the trash bag - it didn't really fit, so that's going back to Goodwill (we have to pay per trash bag here). My two french presses I haven't used in several years -- why keep them? Why am I keeping this stuff???????? Who keeps a broken Kindle?

Don't feel too bad. We do this too. We'll gather a bunch of stuff near the front door so we'll remember to take it to Goodwill, & then it just sits there gathering dust instead. Finally we just said screw it & starting throwing stuff away, because then at least we were getting it out of the house.

Hvert that is some awesome cleaning work! I am not worthy!!

I hemmed and hung a new shower curtain liner today, and gathered up some garbage.

My neck is hurting me. I dont know if its from my new bite plate or from carrying heavy stuff but its making me a little nervous about doing any bending and lifting. I have a freezer pack on it right now.

Music junkie, I found that I would gather a bunch of stuff for Goodwill and then let it sit so long that I would paw through the box again and take out half the stuff before I loaded it in my car... and then do the same thing four months later when I finally moved it from my car to the donation bin. Tossing right into the trash, the night before trash day, is the way to go

I just want to stop that pattern. The amount of time I spend deciding whether or not to toss something is ridiculous. I've read that we only have a finite number of decisions we can make during the day - I don't want to waste them on this stuff.

Does anyone else complicate things to the point where you just don't do them? I have a set of dishes that I don't really want. I could sell the set for enough $$ that it's worth my while to take it to a consignment/antique shop... but whenever I think about doing that, I think about how I could find a bunch of other stuff to take there and just combine it all into one trip... which I never do, so I never make the trip at all.

I did put the kindle and the RAM in the trash and recycled some random junk under the couch. I put the step on the front porch but didn't do anything with the french presses. I also vacuumed one room (didn't I just do that?)... and did more dishes and more laundry.

Typing in the items I am struggling with actually helps because it reminds me how absurd this is.

Hankster, definite pass on cleaning if your neck is hurt. I hope it is feeling better by now!

Thanks hvert the ice did help. I think it was from carrying groceries and not the bite splint. I sldo took ibuprophen last night and it is much better today.

I sometimes wake with a weird/bad neckache and ibuprophen only works sometimes. I started studying the vagus nerve: Vagus Nerve | MD-Health.com Everything talks about the extremes, over or under-active and new therapies like stimulating it to help with depression but I bet it is like the thyroid and there are degrees of things that can go wrong. TMI coming!!! Last week I was taking my blood pressure for my quarterly doctor's appointment, I keep it for a couple weeks before, the blood pressure cuff on my arm sends it up to unuseful levels, it is so painful (can you spell "excruciating"?); anyway I had a couple of high, 168/101 readings, went to the bathroom and it dropped to the mid 130's/80s. Thank you vagus nerve getting older, slightly wonky. . .

Oh, clutter! My "junk" room (front bedroom) is slowly getting emptied out. It and my understair closet are my last holdouts -- if you don't count my work area. I did get the work area started (since my previous year-long course is finished and my intermediate ongoing one is not a mess problem and my next course doesn't start until August) but I really need to work on the pile of papers, bills, magazines, "stuff" today and tomorrow. Fortunately my researcher is on vacation all next week so no point in hoping for emails/titillation from her or sending her any.

Perna, I hope you made even more progress in your junk room! I've been working somewhat diligently on making progress on a renovation project I started ages ago. It's sooooo slow.

Nope My husband has had his business partner over, working here for the last couple days and there have been other disruptions in my "normal" scheduling so I am taking a mini-vacation from my "normal" scheduling.

Just found this Thread.....OK....I'm in desperate need of this. Right now my focus in on getting the flooring prepared so they can lay they linoleum in my master bedroom next week. The dogs were NOT NICE to the carpet this last winter & the 2 older dogs I lost the year before had already started to do a number on it. So I had to move most of the stuff out ( have to finish moving what wasn't moved when they came to rip out the carpet several weeks ago. The master bedroom was so horrible in just junk piled up like empty boxes & things piled on top of things & on top of the puppy pen I no longer used (which honestly is a bit heavy after having fractured my back a few years ago....I have more problems moving the more heavy things now.....older age stinks also).

But I felt so good cleaning out the one front bedroom & getting my bed moved in there & setting up a chest of drawers I never had done anything with......I actually hung up a couple of pictures in the room & it feels so cozy.....I'm NOT moving my bedroom back into the master bedroom, but making it my HUGE craft room now.....it gets sunrise on one side of the room & sunset on the other with recessed spot lights where the head of the bed would be....perfect for the craft table.....

But for the moment, my focus is the white vinegar/water wash on the spots that had soaked through the carpet & padding (not as bad as I thought it would be.....most of that is already taken care of. I just brought up the sander. For today's project......& to get the rest of the staples out........then comes the painting on of the KILZ oderless paint which I am going to put 2-3 coats on those seriously worst areas.......then they said to put baking soda all over the top of that before they put down the linoleum.....lol...I bought 8 pounds of baking soda.....I think that will be enough for a room of about 29 sq ft.

Add to the work however, I went to Lowe's yesterday to get the transitions for the doorways.....& ended up getting the unfinished wood because they didn't have the finished wood & the linoleum is wood grained. None of the laminate because if the dogs do have accidents, it goes down through the seams & then the funny pressed wood expands & one huge mess like my kitchen floor (one room at a time)

I have bags of papers around the house mostly for the recycle. One bag is for the junk mail......then there is the food boxes that get folded up....but they really end up being trash if it's not real cardboard. Living in the country & initially I couldn't afford having my own trash collected so I actually collect it for about 6 months then haul it in my truck to the dump.....which in it's own way....adds to the clutter even though the pile is in the garage.....it sometimes piles in the house before I get it out there.

Not keeping the house spotless has the negative aspect of those tiny wispy spiders that seem to grow in the floor boards.....I am always spraying or smacking them, & then the next day, there are 2.....& under my kitchen counters......I know they just grow there.....& then the tiny little spiders I know that move there from just hatching......it's a constant battle against the spiders & the ants who dang it found my pineapple upside down cake I had perched up on top of another box which was perched on top of a battery operated candle on the chest I have in my entry way. I know with more things just sitting around & bags of trash & empty boxes, it gives the spiders & bugs that many more places to hide & to breed their little ones that continue to haunt me.....but then again, I'm sure many come up from the basement which I really haven't even gotten to....but keep spraying with bug spray.

My house got out of control when I fractured my back about 3 years ago & couldn't lift more than 5 pounds for 6 months.....things piled up....& then they never got unpiled.....& piles would try to be put where the dogs couldn't get to them......so the house is a disaster....things piled on the boxes they need to be actually organized & moved into the storage area.

My tool box was left out in the dining room area for easy access to my tools...lol......well, I looked in the bottom of the tool box & found a pile of d-con that the mice moved over the winter...from the d-con tray into my tool box....guess they were saving it for a rainy day.....or they thought if I thought they were eating it, I wouldn't bother putting more out.......who knows......but that's what I get for not putting the tools back inside the tool box & keeping it closed.

There isn't a room in the house that doesn't need a huge level of cleaning & oraganizing......but I had to start with the master bedroom & am working on the nice room that I moved into as my bedroom.....slowly getting that to be liveable. Unfortunately when I moved in, I had decided to change all the closets over to those nice wire hanger set ups.....but I fired the painter (crook).....& never got around to getting the hangers put up.....so right now, all my cloths are hanging from those wreath hooks on all the upstairs doors of all the rooms..........

I could work on this house for the rest of my life & probably NOT get all the little things finished.....but at this point.....it's one room at a time & hope that all the spiders that are hanging out & breeding in the one room where I have basically thrown all the recycle & old papers that need to be filed.....don't decide to come crawling out from under the door......

It's a never ending project.....but starting with the master bedroom is the largest & best start I have made on this mess over the last few years.

Along with this, I have to keep the fields mowed & the lawn right in front of the house....so that it doesn't end up overgrown & that always means more ticks & more icky bugs that end up inside the house also when the dogs go out & bring them in.

Shoot, the other day, in my nice clean cozy bedroom, I have this little shelf thing hanging on the end of the chest of drawers....& had a roll of paper towels sitting on the top shelf....I look at the dark speck that was on the end of the paper towel roll & it was a tick. I nabbed it & took it to my little jar of alcohol that I use for killing ticks each year (keep track of how many I find each year that way).....but how in the world it got there as I hadn't even touched the roll of paper towels for several days......glad it didn't end up in my bed....but what a strange place to find it.

The joys of living in the country far outweigh any of the negatives......but it's always a challenge trying to handle it all alone when there isn't enough money to hire the work to be done & I have to do it ALL myself....sometimes I get so overwhelmed that NOTHING gets done rather than poking along little bit at a time. It really takes focus & kicking myself in the rear constantly to get anything accomplished.

Sometimes I don't even bother eating or just eat stuff I can throw in the microwave to avoid having dirty dishes.

Last fall, the hose to the kitchen sink faucet (the sprayer comes through the faucet, not next to it like some kitchen sink set ups) had been leaking for about 6 months & I had a bucket under the sink to catch the water.....but it got so bad that it was constantly overflowing before I even got many dished washed.....so I had about a month of dished piled up in the sink. After getting my master bath toilet unplugged with one of those professional augers (it just wouldn't unplug any other way so I went out & bought one as it's constantly a problem)......I had purchased the replacement parts for the kitchen but just hadn't gotten up the nerve, bravery, & ambition to make the repair until I couldn't postpone it any longer.

Yea to YouTube....I have found every fix I need on there....so with YouTube in hand & this cute little $2 tool that I bought because it was so cute.....I set about replacing the hose & the sprayer in the kitchen sink. It took me about 4 hours.....but it was fixed with NO LEAKS. I was so proud of myself. It took me several weeks to get all the dishes washed (rinsed off & put into the dish washer)......but getting that kitchen sink area cleaned was such an awesome feeling.

Repairs on top of cleaning.....seems to be the story of my life. I wouldn't trade my living alone life for going back to what I had. I would rather have it take years to get myself organized at this point than go back to what I had.....but it's definitely teaching me patience........but I definitely get to the point where I can't live like this any longer & that is the kick in the rear that gets me into action....tripping over piles of papers & climbing over sacks & boxes......what a stupid way to live IMO......& it's NOT permanent because I hate living this way & refuse to just accept it & make it my norm.

LOL. When I first moved into the last house I lived in with H in Calif....it looked like a model home with all the Victorian furniture & I decorated everything & when working had a house keeper to help keep it clean after I picked up everything so that she could get to the furniture to clean each week....it kept things organized. The pissing contest started after I lost my career & H thought I was going to be his house keeper & he would just drop things where ever.....I quit touching EVERYTHING....& it went downhill from there in that home.......here I don't even have furniture which may be part of the problem....is that there is no place to put anything that needs organized.

Definitely going through & throwing everything that isn't necessary or has a use & all papers get thrown or recycled......amazing how much of that can end up being collected over time & how it piles up....

But ORGANIZATION is starting to happen.....& the motivation & energy is building up as I see it starting to happen.

OK....so much for my novel...LOL....typical eskie post......but I definitely have a lot of WIP to deal with......12 rooms & a basement to be exact along with the garage......it's a lot for one person....but a day at a time & maybe even 1 sq ft at a time......& this too will be accomplished.

(((Eskie))) i have a studio apartment, but it feels like those number square puzzles we had when we were kids, 4 by 4, 1 thru 15 with one empty space that you had to put in order. Only that empty space is stacked up too!

We will do this!

What gets me is my medication from the pharmacy.....I have a medication that I wouldn't want anyone to know my address as that would make it UNSAFE for me physically. My name & address is not only on several of the boxes, but on every piece of paper that's associated with the medication along with the name of the medication.......so I have to take a black marker & line it all out hoping to get every place it's on........If I had my act together, I would have the marker right there in the bathroom & every month I would mark that's month's prescription off but I didn't think about it for quite some time initially.....so I had a whole trash bag full of those boxes that I needed to use the marker on & find every place my name & address was written.....grrrrrr. Honestly don't know why the pharmacy needs to put name & address.....definitely a waste of MY TIME to have to do that....it felt like it took forever because I would get distracted & then have to remember to get back to what I was doing......which is actually my problem with decluttering & cleaning in the first place.....I get started & then remember something with a higher priority that needs done & then forget where I was when I get finished with the higher priority task if some other higher priority task doesn't hit me in the mean time.

Throw it all in one room & close the door.....then take out one square foot of stuff at a time when one gets around to opening the door. The only benefit to having a huge home that's too big for what I need.....but some rooms don't have doors to close off & are piled with empty boxes from things I've bought like a carpet cleaner.

I really like the plastic boxes for storage rather than the cardboard boxes because they are less likely to attract the silver fish also.

What I hate it when I organize one thing & when finished, it doesn't even put a dent into the messy look.

One room at a time! We should make posters! I am very bad at remembering that. I have a ridiculous number of renovation projects started -- took a fixture down in the living room last year to replace it with a ceiling fan. I bought the ceiling fan but never put it up or replaced the fixture!

I started to type in all my outstanding projects, but it just makes me feel depressed and tired, so forget it

I also hate it when I spend a lot of time doing something and can't tell the difference (like an hour washing and scraping a single stair to get linoleum glue off).

I did not do much decluttering or cleaning this week. I still have the stupid exercise stair on my porch because I haven't made it to Goodwill yet. I am actually not sure WHAT I did all week besides binge watch True Detective and another TV series. Really not what I want to be doing with my life!

Grrr, I was planning on painting the flooring with kilz today in preparation for the linoleum installation on Tuesday.....but...... (always a but......)

It rained last night......not big deal usually.....but.....that room was the only room I forgot to close the window in....& I have a room fan sitting in the window......it sucked in the rain & blew it across the room....& when I went into the room this afternoon, the flooring looked all damp....& it was all damp. I took box of baking soda & spread it all over the damp areas & aimed the stationary fan right on those areas.....& I am taking the window fan out, closing the window & sitting that on the floor to blow crosswise on the wet areas.

Dang....can't win for loosing. When you think you are almost there in one area....something hits you & says......"I don't think so....think again."

That's what happens when I have too many things I'm trying to do at one time.....always a distraction that messes things up that I think I already have taken care of.

No. 1 or No. 2? I have two cats and cheap, builder's grade nondescript beige carpet that does not match their more colorful food throw-up. I'm keeping the 3M Scotch brite sponge people in business, getting my daily exercise.

I put a little footstool in my bathroom to prop my foot up on when i dry off instead of the toilet lid. So i am being super proactive. I have an aunt who actually broke her ankle when her foot slipped on the edge (And went into the toilet yuck!). My dr told me years ago to not even put it on the closed lid. So i told my t today that i "moved furniture" this weekend its all in how you spin it!

Anyone get any cleaning/decluttering in lately? I STILL have my exercise step sitting on my porch instead of in a trash bag or a thrift shop.

Yesterday I tore apart the bathroom. I had taken a shelf unit out a few months ago and decided to put it back in. I washed all the shower curtains and cleaned the toilet and wiped the walls. I still need to scrub the floor in spots, but the clean shower curtains and extra storage space is nice.

I've also been trying to keep the habit of washing the dishes after we eat the meal. I'm not there yet, but getting closer.

Trying to decide what my plans are for today... maybe run some errands this morning, go for a walk, and make some bread. Not sure where the decluttering will come in!

Actually I have been getting some cleaning in! I'm pretty happy about it. I've been trying to force myself to spend just 10 minutes every day picking things up. It can be anything. Trash, laundry, books, whatever. Just 10 minutes & then I'm free to do whatever I usually do. It's been going well but it's only been a few days. My big project (remember, big is subjective) this week was to bleach the walls in my shower because, I'm ashamed to say, we had mold spots building up on us at the top near the ceiling. Our bathroom has very poor ventilation so this happens from time to time, but this was the worst I had ever let it get. So I finally tackled that & got it cleaned up. Of course, now my bathroom smells like bleach & gives me a headache when I shower, but at least the mold is gone.

Our garage is also a disaster, so my gf's project has been to slowly clean 1 or 2 boxes out at a time so we can go back to actually having a garage rather than a storage unit. She's doing well. It's very hard for her to let go of things, & she gets easily overwhelmed by the clutter, so I have to be really patient. I used to do everything for her, but I realized I wasn't helping her. She has to learn to deal with it herself or else she'll never get over the attachments she has to her stuff.

Anyway, that's me for now. Just going to keep plugging along 10 minutes at a time!

Per the grilled cheese thread, i was on a mortadella binge earlier this week, so i was MIA. I have recovered now, and today i paid the rent, washed the dishes, made ice cubes, filled my pillboxes for the next month, and ate healthily today. So pretty darn good!! Also watched an episode of Monk i dont think i ever saw before.

I'm trying to declutter one drawer at a time.

Can I come bring you my cheap exercise peddler I don't use?

Drive Medical Exercise Peddler - Walmart.com

I think both of you should bring your exercise equipment over to me!

Okay - put the dishes away and cooked up a bunch of rice and stir fry veggies. Now i have to wash dishes again, but at least i "did stuff" ie actually got out of bed! and now i have fresh healthy homemade stuff to eat. So i did stuff 2 days out of 4, and one of those days (yesterday) was a horrible family contact day. Last night i googled scapegoating and read some stuff and that helped a lot.