Goal Tracking: Declutter and Cleaning

Okay nobodys allowed to use the kitchen till the inspector comes! Okay not really. But i finally got the floor and bottom cabinets scrubbed, on my knees, with a brush and ammonia! Its just that, getting back up from the floor is like bench-pressing a football player!

unaluna did closing the kitchen work?

eskielover Thanks. I know what you mean about just wondering where to start then not getting anything done. I do that sometimes too. Or worse discover I have to do 10 other things to do the one think I really wanted to get done.

I'm behind again. I got what I wished for and found someone in the medical practice that actually listened. She keeps ordering tests. Today she ordered an ultrasound so my appointment went from a few minutes to hours. I'm sure it is just a cyst but I guess it is better to check.

Meanwhile the old filing cabinet is still in the basement waiting on someone to carry it up. Dishes are waiting and so is the laundry. On a plus note the side garden is now cleared out. Now I have add the new soil and put the landscape fabric down and get it ready to plant. I think I will try veggies. My hands still hurt!

(((Htoun))) there were a couple of splotches on the kitchen floor today and i was like, what is this???!!! the corners and edges are still pure white tho

More yard work...a huge pile of overgrown privet removed from the boxwood shrubs is at the street! Probably a 5 foot wide by 20 foot long pile. Now to shape up those boxwoods!

We have had massive storms & winds here lately.....so no outdoor work until I drove home this morning from getting labs done for the health fair this weekend at the hospital. There was a broken branch hanging down right where I ride the lawn tractor. Got out my branch cutters & ended up making a huge pile taking out everything to give me head room for mowing.

The other day I got my filing boxes set next to my bed & just took boxes of papers in there & started filing. Wow, it's feeling good, but I have a couple more boxes left to go that I had moved into my bedroom & tons more boxes left in my computer room to go through.

Know the problem when I moved in here was that I really had no storage boxes for filing into & all my closets were taken down for painting & I bought the wire ones to put up but never got around to doing them because it's hard to do something like that alone especially in a large walk in closet.

It feels so good to have the trash gone so I'm not climbing over it in the kitchen. & outside my master bath where I have JoGI because he fights with Leo otherwise. All those doggie pads add up into bunches of trash after awhile.

I still have tons of recycling to take in. I have them organized into baskets that are easy to load into my truck & they are all separated. Get that out of my way & I will feel like another load off my shoulders.

Have still been looking for that dang phone...it's just not anywhere that's obvious. Spending time on Amazon rather than working in order to figure out what phone to buy to replace it since I couldn't get the one from Straight Talk unlocked. Spent over 2 hours on hold with Straight Talk customer service, standing at the Walmart customer service desk on HOLD. I was sure they went home & left me hanging. Now I'm just sure that they refuse to unlock their phones so you can take them to another service provider. Not getting my business after that experience even if I would have thought to.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on overload with all the work I have to do & no one to really help. I have to focus on just one small area at a time or I end up in a panic attack feel & end up frozen & get NOTHING done.

Htoun....I hope your tests turn out OK & that nothing serious is found & it's something they can easily fix. I sure do understand how things can take longer than we think initially & then it throws off our whole schedules for everything else.

Notz.....good job....that's a LOT OF WORK you got done....a lot of HARD work.

Unaluna....LOL, I understand that no one in the kitchen. Since I live alone, after I get it cleaned up, I tell myself that so I can enjoy the clean at least for a little while. Then I have to find microwave dishes to cook.

I hate my kitchen as it's continually being invaded by ants even when I don't have food out. Then I spray cleaning stuff on them & it drowns them right in their tracks but leaves a mess on my counter. I leave the ants to dry up or they smell horrible when I clean them up. I never realized how BAD ants SMELL until I squished one & wondered what the horrible smell was & where it came from.

I still have a messy island in my kitchen to clean off & worst of all, all the cupboards. A few years ago, I had mice get into my cupboards & drawers in my kitchen. I took a lot of things out of some of the areas, but left some in but haven't gone into the cupboards for years & when I look in, they are all covered with spider webs.....haunted cupboards. I have 2 main cupboards I use & have kept clean, but those were just too much work for my energy level.

I bought shelving that I put up along one of the kitchen walls that I can keep everything on & since everything is out in sight, it keeps the mice out & it's easier to keep everything clean.....but......

The ants found a sealed container of brown sugar. They managed to get in through the rubber seal & I found the container FULL of ants. It was like they were drunk on the sugar because I picked up the container & they didn't even move. I sat it in a bowl of water & then stirred the brown sugar with a knife. The next morning they were all clustered together on the latch of the container. Sprayed them off into the water to drown them. What a mess.....oh well, it was just a small container of light brown sugar. I usually use dark brown. Dang ants come in from everywhere, not just around the windows. We are being overrun by them this year. Maybe because we didn't have all the snow this year & it wasn't as cold as other years. The ant pellets don't seem to work either. so they just keep invading my kitchen trying to find anything.

I also have a pesky mouse that won't leave. I followed a trail of ants to a bag of cookies that the mouse had chewed through the zip lock bag. Cookies I brought home that I couldn't eat from my volunteer work at the horse park. I threw the cookies into the woods.....so a few days later, I look at the little rug I have sitting at the front door because the door won't close with the runner & wanted something over the hard wood.....& the fringe was missing off the end of the rug & some strands were just laying there. Dang mouse ate my fringe after I took his cookies away. I hope it finds the mice pellets the other mice hid away in my tool box a few years ago when they took the pellets out of the container they came in & stored them away into my tool box. I chuckled about that after knowing how my rat used to store things for later eating. Had no idea that our house mice did the same thing. The pile looked a little smaller the other day & know that my dogs aren't free to run around down stairs & get into that. I am very careful NOW after one accident that happened with those pellets.

I hate it when a room is still a horrible mess & yet I can honestly say that it "looks better than it did"......I keep wondering if I will ever totally get everything cleaned up the way I really want it to be & truly ever look like a REAL house.

I keep praying for a tornado to take it out. Send the papers flying so I don't have to file them & let the neighbors wonder???? Then I can start over from the beginning & build my nice SMALL cabin for just one person & maybe one guest room & all the junk will be GONE & I can give Mother Nature the credit for cleaning house.

unaluna My grandfather always told me Zinzindorf did it. My DH tells me my cat did. My DS nods and pretends that he is paying attention. And my DGS is too young. So the I have decided to ignore the floor unless I stick to it then I clean and yell

notz sounds like you were very busy. It will look great once it's done.

eskielover Thanks for the good wishes. It really does throw off your day though. Not that it was bad I had my book and my coffee. Sort of like a time out I think you should skip the tornado they are so messy think of all the added cleaning!! Besides it might eat your photos.

We have had problems with ants off and on since we moved here. I bought the liquid Raid ant killer last year and it worked great. I put a old yogurt container over the drops (with cutouts for the ants) weighted down with a can so I didn't have to worry about the cat getting it. Considering how messy this place gets it is a wonder we don't have more of a problem with them specially as they let the baby wonder and eat. Very messy creature.

I managed to get someone to move the filing cabinet. It didn't get to the room it is going but it did make it to the second floor! So progress just very very slow progress but still progress. Oh and best yet I didn't have to lift it. Tomorrow I have to dedicate my life to laundry unless I'm babysitting.

The inspector general is coming monday or tuesday. I folded and put away two loads of laundry this morning, i have four more loads in right now. In my defense, the apartment washers are not huge. Mostly towels and undergotchies. Theyre bulky, as you can see!

Time to start working smarter, not harder.

t

unaluna inspector general? You in military housing? Really use to hate those inspections. They were really hard to pass when clearing the base. Was actually glad when the military stop supplying the frig and stove. My stove didn't have to look new when I moved. Oh and I didn't have to remember to burn off the windex. Once they are clean we would shine them with windex but when you got to the new place you had to remember to turn on the oven and burn it off. Really nasty smell but boy did it sparkle. In our first place the stove started on fire (yes fire) supply told me it had to be clean when they picked it up! I think the darn thing was older than me. They took it too the dump but it was very clean lol

Oh no, just the city apartment inspector. Last month his name was inspector gadget but he was a no-show at the last minute. I failed my inspection in december. I am pretty good now.

Good luck with the inspection, unaluna!! I gave up doing laundry after my first load yesterday. It's still in the dryer, so at least I'll have something to wear to work today!

eskie, I am totally with you on being annoyed when a room still looks awful but better than it did before. I feel like I will never catch up. I went through one of my bookshelves yesterday and tossed about 20 books so I could fit in some new acquisitions and not have stuff stacked up in a weird way.... but it feels sort of pointless since I know I will just jam it full again.

The library is really the solution for me because I read a lot, but I might decide to be interested in a subject for four months and then have no interest... but I can't part with the books I bought about it?? And I'm really starting to feel overwhelmed and pressured by the media I have hanging around the house, just reminders of things to do. I don't think I have enough time left in my life to read all my books.

Htoun, I am the same way with the having to do 10 things just so I can do 1!!

Notz, congrats on your garden clean up! That's one huge brush pile

My project of the moment is restaining the back deck. I've scraped, sanded, and bleached. Now I need to get spackle and paint for my work tomorrow (assuming it's dry enough).

Taking a breather. I do have before pics from a couple of years ago, when there were barely rabbit trails to get thru here. You can practically fly a kite in here now!

Eta - yay! I passed inspection!! thank you for your support!

Woohoo!! That is terrific!

Enjoy your break sounds like you earned it and congrats again

hvert I have a problem with books too. I'm getting better I now save them to donate to the annual book sale. It's in April and they start collecting in the fall. It's a slow process to part with them but I find that every time I go through them I am to part with more. DH got me a e-reader and a friend introduced me to a place on line called BookBub. It has books on sale sends me an email everyday with books I maybe interested in. I only download the free ones but am careful to watch out for series. Last thing I need is a new author with a series. Between that and smashwords I get books and don't have to worry about my lack of shelf space.

Anyone with chronic pain and coping with decluttering and cleaning? I can decluttering but the cleaning severely aggravates my neck and back. I can't afford a cleaning service and I'm not sure what to do.

Thats part of why im so slow. Not so much chronic pain as morbidly obese so it hurts to move, so i move less, so i get bigger??! I sit to do a lot of tasks, and i take a lot of breaks, and a lot of ibuprophen. I hope im learning to pace myself - not work so hard one day that i am too sick the next two.

Also many cities will get you help.

Unaluna is right it's all about packing yourself. I just plod along and try not to over do or you pay for it for days. But even when I'm paying for over doing it in the yard I can still look through papers. It is slow progress. I figure it took years for this place to look like this so it may take years to make it better. Oh I am obese with thyroid and pain issues.

So it acured to me as I was wishing I didn't do a bunch of stuff yesterday that you might be looking for ways around aggravating your neck and back. So what part of cleaning hurts or is it all of it.

When my back and hips are bothering me I sit on the floor to get things picked up. Then I vacuum in sections and take breaks. Kitchen floor is done in patches. Sweeping usually is ok for me but gathering the dirt up can kill. Sometimes I sit for that too. Makes everything very slow but it gets there. Anyway let us know what is the most painful part of cleaning one of us may have a good work around.

Yay, unaluna, congrats on passing your inspection!

I'm trying to will myself to go paint my porch... but, htoun, that bookbub link is too addictive - I had no idea there was a website like that! I'm also trying to read more on the Kindle than physical books. I read a lot, but I also spend too much time picking out stuff I want to read in the future. I hear you about not wanting to find a new series.

I spent an hour doing the last of my prep work. Now I need to dig out my brush and roller tray and get busy...

I hear you. That is about the same thing I said to the friend that got me hook. I don't follow any of the authors cause I know me, I can loss hours in cyber space without having more to look at. At least they aren't physical copies. Oh and it is a cheap way to feed your book addiction.

Painting done!

See I only delayed you

I need to tackle the tile in the shower stall. Not sure what cleanser I'll use. I keep changing brands. There must be an easier way then scrubbing with a wire pad (those fibers poke my fingers). I've tried some foaming products but I need something stronger. If anyone has ideas I'd like to hear what others use. Thanks!

Denture brush(!) Nice good sized stiff bristles, bit of slant to the handle for a good angle for scrubbing. I got one first at the dollar store, later found one that had some rubber gripping to the handle (like toothbrushes have), that makes for a better grip. They're perfect size for grout. (And waaaay superior to regular toothbrush.)

For cleansers, I'm partial to Soft Scrub with bleach (the white kind, not the gel one). (Don't bother with dollar store Bab O knock off. It's total crap.)

Yeah, bit if a cleaning nut.
Those denture brushes are seriously great. You will now LOVE to do grout! Lol.

Oops, lol, what am I on about?! Maybe there is no grout(!) For fiberglass, shocking but true -- in many cases best results are to rub with a dry cotton terrycloth towel(!) On dry surface (NOT when shower is wet). If there is a big buildup, you may need to do a scrubdown with the softscrub (or even a baking soda slurry) first, then let dry before the dry towel buff. But you'd be surprised how effective just a dry towel can be for soapy buildup. (Also good on smooth tile and porcelain.

I was going to suggest a toothbrush for the grout, but now I want a denture brush!