The plan which started with we will sort the hole in the floor of my husband's bedroom in January has expanded, and now has a prequel. My son's bedroom has a fitted wardrobe, at the back of which is a hatch into the eaves. There are random boards in there, on which my son has stored stuff.
If we clear that out, then get someone in to line and floor the space properly, we could replace everything that is in there, and then box up more of our son's stuff and store that too, thus clearing enough space in his room to replace his desk with my husband's better, larger desk.
Step 1 (today) - move the furniture around enough to give access to the fitted wardrobe!
Hi, I've been reading this thread for a while now without posting, but have decided to jump in.
My apartment is in an awful mess. I'm a dreadful housekeeper to begin with, and since April I've had a broken foot which made cleaning up very difficult.
So now I'm making a concerted effort to get it clean. I'm just not capable, mentally or physically, of doing sustained work in one day, but I have set myself the goal of doing a little needed work every day, So far I have held myself to it.
So today I worked in the entryway. I picked up trash, and took it out along with my recycling, and it looks much better now.
Wish me luck that I can keep this up till I have the place livable!
That's the way we've been doing it. (I'm dealing with a build-up of "stuff" from years of disability, only tackle-able now because they finally found pain control for me.) May it go well for you!
Oh yes @ChastMastr , it's healing nicely, the doctor says. But for two months I was on crutches, and since then using a cane, which makes using my hands for cleaning, difficult.
That's the way we've been doing it. (I'm dealing with a build-up of "stuff" from years of disability, only tackle-able now because they finally found pain control for me.) May it go well for you!
Yay! I don't know whether you posted before that they'd finally fond pain control for you, but this is the first time I read it and I'm so happy for you. Pain can suck the joy out of life.
I didn't have much to do to access the fitted wardrobe, but once I saw how much stuff is in there, I was disheartened. There are a lot of clothes. In particular, when he got trapped* staying with us in lockdown, we ordered more clothes for him online. But it looks as though he already had plenty here.
Of course, if everything here is a size too small, it should be easy to clear space by sending the clothes to the charity shop. But that will have to wait till his next visit home.
*By great good fortune, he had come home as he was cited for jury duty here. The jury trial was cancelled 3 hours before we went into lockdown and he was trapped at home with us.
That's the way we've been doing it. (I'm dealing with a build-up of "stuff" from years of disability, only tackle-able now because they finally found pain control for me.) May it go well for you!
Yay! I don't know whether you posted before that they'd finally fond pain control for you, but this is the first time I read it and I'm so happy for you. Pain can suck the joy out of life.
Thank you! Yes , it made an amazing difference in my life. Though just yesterday i had to go in and request a dosage increase, which I’m not happy about. Eventually we might have to find a new med… but i won’t borrow trouble now.
Very glad to read about pain control working and making a more normal life possible.
Yesterday I delved into two of the kitchen bottom drawers and sifted through those. I've added more things to the box to be taken to the recycling centre. Quite a bit of the stuff has been languishing in those drawers since we moved to this house in late 2018.. I figured if they had not been used between now and then they are surplus to requirements.
I found it a bit difficult to let go of my work lunchbag. I still remember finding it in a shop and how nifty it was to take all my bits and pieces to work. It was smart too being navy and white, I loved it. I think discarding it made me realise that I' am now really out of the workforce and perhaps feeling a bit on the scrapheap! I don't miss working (other than payday), but I recognise the important part it played in my life giving me an outlet other than being a carer for our son, and that is important to acknowledge too! I hope it will be handy for someone else who is in a similar stage of their life!
I have been continuing doing at least a little every day in working in my apartment. Today I was busy literally all day with other things, but I managed to do a little bit in the bathroom, cleaning around the tub.
It's amazing how the little stuff adds up over time.
I've been attempting to KEEP stuff clean, having finally gotten an area organized...
That's where most of my daily cleaning time goes, because I can't bear to see my triumphs fall back into the bad old ways. I must say, it helps having an adult son in the house now.
Has anyone used The Hero's Journal? I find it very useful... I need to use it more, actually. The foot thing has taken up a lot of my focus, and I'm easily distracted as it is.
I must here confess something that embarrasses me badly. Today, September 5, I took down my Christmas decorations and tree and put everything away. It is a big relief to me, and the living room looks so much bigger.
@NicoleMR I think we all have times in our lives when that happens, we've been slow dealing with the Christmas things at times too! For us, it seems to be the reverse though the last couple of years where the decorations have gone up on Christmas Eve and that was because we were expecting visitors, so thought we had better make an effort. When the kids were young I'd try to get them up mid-December to maximise the efforts.
We had heaps of decorations too as we would if needed decorate the hospital room when the kid was ill, it might be time to get rid of some of that stuff as it's no longer necessary.
Good news though, I did take one box of stuff to the recycling centre. I tried to get rid of some boxes of books but the recycling people said they were full up. I drove past the charity which runs book fairs, but they had set up tables in their car park and had also blocked off some of their parking. I was so cross I went home and didn't bother. The books can sit in the car and I'll get husband to take them when he's on holidays in a week's time.
A number of the neighbors have mini free libraries outside their homes. They purchase a book, read it, and after a while they put it out for others to read. One enterprising teenager, though, has started to pick up some of these books and sells them on Ebay.
There was a Little Free Library up the road from our house in Fredericton - very conveniently beside the letterboxes. It was taken away in the winter though, as it got in the way of snow-clearing. I think they're a lovely idea.
Hurrah, 3 boxes of books delivered to the book charity just after opening time! Unfortunately they gave me a bookmark with the dates of their next book fair (one in two weeks), I put it away without looking at it!
The NE Man is away for a week, and I am redding out my study. I am sorting paperwork in our dining room, and other "stuff" in the living room, so I have plenty of space to spread out. Yesterday was A Good Start, though mostly I was catching up with laundry etc.
My study is somewhere I need to sort but I struggle to manage more than half an hour of sorting as I get distracted. I have not kept up since my husband became ill in January last year so there is a backlog, though I am on top of anything essential and urgent.
We have a wonderful free book 'shop' recently reopened in one of the many empty shop units in town centre. Will accept donated books, and anyone can take home up to 3 books per day for free. Basically it's like a library where you don't have to return the books if you don't want to. And it's full of real gems, properly organised into sections...trouble is, when donating books there you're always liable to bring some others home....but at least it limits you to three at a time!
We have a wonderful free book 'shop' recently reopened in one of the many empty shop units in town centre. Will accept donated books, and anyone can take home up to 3 books per day for free. Basically it's like a library where you don't have to return the books if you don't want to. And it's full of real gems, properly organised into sections...trouble is, when donating books there you're always liable to bring some others home....but at least it limits you to three at a time!
I am still slowly working on clearing & cleaning my bedroom. Today's job was emptying what can best be described as a 'wendy house' sized chest of drawers, and moving the contents to various other drawers in other rooms, where similar items are already kept.
It was astonishing to see how many reels of sellotape (various sizes) and brown parcel tape we own. Also rubber bands of various sizes, paperclips, brass paper fasteners, pens, pencils permanent markers etc etc,
These are mostly stationery items moved with us from the many rooms in our old house, and unpacked into wherever we could fit them. It is good to have them all together, and to have another couple of drawers emptied out, small as they are.
All I have left to deal with from todays clear out is a box of about 9 pairs of glasses - and they will go back to the optician next week to await collection by the local Lions club for a charity.
Your clean up sounds very similar to my own @Roseofsharon. Stationery seems to breed any time it's left lie for a bit. I've just turned out the linen press this morning. The last box I put my hand on in the top of the cupboard had a whole lot of rolls of large sticky spots, they must have been price tags for a garage sale. I found a much cleaner box and put them back tidily. I added a lavender bag to keep the moths away.
Doilies, tablecloths and runners I folded into a large lidless box to stop the pile falling over in the cupboard, much better! I culled some towels which are a bit small for our tubby bodies, they are still good, so can go to the charity bin. A couple of old bbq tablecloths have been added to the "grotty jobs" drawer in the laundry. It's the sort of thing that can be put on the ground to be sat on, or can be used to put under something small that needs painting, just a handy thing to keep, but doesn't go with the good linen. At a pinch it could also serve as a mattress protector if desperate. Anyway, linen press looking much tidier and a bag of stuff for the charity shop ready to go!
Prior to having my sitting room decorated, I have a big decision to make.
Do I get rid of the ( separate ) hi-fi equipment with four speakers? I have already moved some of it ( cassette deck and mini-disc player) into the garage but still have radio and amplifier-a really good quality sound. Unfortunately the record deck has developed a horrible squeal, so I am thinking of getting rid of it all, and therefore also a large quantity of vinyl. Not sure where or how, but that is another matter. All this is house in a wooden unit, made-to-measure by my late husband. Hence a particularly difficult decision.
Or do I replace with an all-in-one modern kit? Or just use the internet?
Just use the internet. We got rid of our stack of radio/tape deck/turntable, kept the speakers, and attached them to a small silver box which apparently Does Everything. But in fact Mr F - who's the music listener in our house - uses Spotify.
Which does raise the question of what to do about the 100s of vinyls and 1000s of CDs.
Could the storage bit of Mr Puzzler's box/chest/thingy be used to store anything else (books, Christmas decorations, what-have-you) if you decide to go digital and ditch all the records, CDs and whatnot?
It has all in been in situ since we moved here eleven years ago, with all the complexities of cables etc. I know my son will not be keen on setting it all up again. But then he is also not keen on all the books I keep either. Five small bookcases in the sitting room need to be emptied and moved. That is my task before he comes to do the big stuff. Although it will be a slog, I think I will carry the books upstairs and house them temporarily in the shelves that line Mr Puzzler’s study. I can take my time to do this, when energy permits.
The unit will go in the garage for the time being.
Nice work @WormInTheGrass the size of motel rooms really seem to magnify any bit of stuff that is not returned to it's proper place immediately. Happy travels!
I guess Aotearoa/NZ would be too far for them to travel - pity about that.
Actually I'm doing really well on the cleaning front today. I think it's because the sun's shining and I have some wonderful multi- coloured cleaning rags. I colour code cleaning rags so I can wash and reuse them. I'm annoyed though because the small supermarket I use has discontinued cleaning vinegar which is useful for attacking limescale. I think it's made locally so I will chase it up because nothing else does the job as well.
I bought a small picture from a friend who was exhibiting in h.art, the Herefordshire Art Week - she brought it round for me yesterday.
I had already picked up a small frame from the Red Cross Shop (Ikea, never opened!) but I live in a rented flat, so I am not allowed to put up extra picture hooks. This led to a massive move around of all my pictures to fit it in - and while I was at it, I decided the table would be much better by the window, so I had to move the bookcase, and shunt the settee further to one side, and put the wine rack under the other table.... Three hours later, my flat looks quite different, and also tidier!
Cleaning & re-organising my bedroom continues slowly and intermittently. Today was the wardrobe.
Before breakfast this morning I emptied the contents on to my bed, then got Mr RoS to help pull the wardrobe out from the corner by the window, where it has stood unmoved since we moved in here (an unbelievable eight and a half years ago).
I got behind it and swept away the cobweb festooning its back & sides and the walls. Mr RoS then got on his knees and washed the skirting boards as kneeling is a problem for me.
He has not got very good spatial awareness, and on extracting himself from behind it somehow nudged the wardrobe which fell over - and lost both is doors
Once the wardrobe was back in position Mr RoS attempted to re-attach the doors. Fortunately the hinges were the lift-off variety, 3 to each door, so should have been a relatively easy fix. But...
Unfortunately the first door he tried to replace had somehow warped, possibly long before we owned it, and the middle hinge was not in alignment with the top & bottom ones.
Eventually the problem was discovered, the doors replaced, and the wardrobe refilled.
It will be a while before I tackle the next phase.
Phew! That sounds exhausting.
Now that I have a target for my next phase of decluttering after my summer break, it is already keeping me awake at night. I can’t stop my mind going over what I need to do, filling boxes, etc. - ridiculous.
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If we clear that out, then get someone in to line and floor the space properly, we could replace everything that is in there, and then box up more of our son's stuff and store that too, thus clearing enough space in his room to replace his desk with my husband's better, larger desk.
Step 1 (today) - move the furniture around enough to give access to the fitted wardrobe!
My apartment is in an awful mess. I'm a dreadful housekeeper to begin with, and since April I've had a broken foot which made cleaning up very difficult.
So now I'm making a concerted effort to get it clean. I'm just not capable, mentally or physically, of doing sustained work in one day, but I have set myself the goal of doing a little needed work every day, So far I have held myself to it.
So today I worked in the entryway. I picked up trash, and took it out along with my recycling, and it looks much better now.
Wish me luck that I can keep this up till I have the place livable!
Yay! I don't know whether you posted before that they'd finally fond pain control for you, but this is the first time I read it and I'm so happy for you. Pain can suck the joy out of life.
I didn't have much to do to access the fitted wardrobe, but once I saw how much stuff is in there, I was disheartened. There are a lot of clothes. In particular, when he got trapped* staying with us in lockdown, we ordered more clothes for him online. But it looks as though he already had plenty here.
Of course, if everything here is a size too small, it should be easy to clear space by sending the clothes to the charity shop. But that will have to wait till his next visit home.
*By great good fortune, he had come home as he was cited for jury duty here. The jury trial was cancelled 3 hours before we went into lockdown and he was trapped at home with us.
Thank you! Yes , it made an amazing difference in my life. Though just yesterday i had to go in and request a dosage increase, which I’m not happy about. Eventually we might have to find a new med… but i won’t borrow trouble now.
Yesterday I delved into two of the kitchen bottom drawers and sifted through those. I've added more things to the box to be taken to the recycling centre. Quite a bit of the stuff has been languishing in those drawers since we moved to this house in late 2018.. I figured if they had not been used between now and then they are surplus to requirements.
I found it a bit difficult to let go of my work lunchbag. I still remember finding it in a shop and how nifty it was to take all my bits and pieces to work. It was smart too being navy and white, I loved it. I think discarding it made me realise that I' am now really out of the workforce and perhaps feeling a bit on the scrapheap! I don't miss working (other than payday), but I recognise the important part it played in my life giving me an outlet other than being a carer for our son, and that is important to acknowledge too! I hope it will be handy for someone else who is in a similar stage of their life!
I've been attempting to KEEP stuff clean, having finally gotten an area organized...
That's where most of my daily cleaning time goes, because I can't bear to see my triumphs fall back into the bad old ways. I must say, it helps having an adult son in the house now.
https://theherosjournal.co/?srsltid=AfmBOoox4mQsuzfF59vCktD1G8W2BwDqnK1h69TpZj0YFl7zyT0vt1vF
Cool! Is that a custom?
We had heaps of decorations too as we would if needed decorate the hospital room when the kid was ill, it might be time to get rid of some of that stuff as it's no longer necessary.
Good news though, I did take one box of stuff to the recycling centre. I tried to get rid of some boxes of books but the recycling people said they were full up. I drove past the charity which runs book fairs, but they had set up tables in their car park and had also blocked off some of their parking. I was so cross I went home and didn't bother. The books can sit in the car and I'll get husband to take them when he's on holidays in a week's time.
What a brilliant idea!
A most excellent idea.
It was astonishing to see how many reels of sellotape (various sizes) and brown parcel tape we own. Also rubber bands of various sizes, paperclips, brass paper fasteners, pens, pencils permanent markers etc etc,
These are mostly stationery items moved with us from the many rooms in our old house, and unpacked into wherever we could fit them. It is good to have them all together, and to have another couple of drawers emptied out, small as they are.
All I have left to deal with from todays clear out is a box of about 9 pairs of glasses - and they will go back to the optician next week to await collection by the local Lions club for a charity.
Doilies, tablecloths and runners I folded into a large lidless box to stop the pile falling over in the cupboard, much better! I culled some towels which are a bit small for our tubby bodies, they are still good, so can go to the charity bin. A couple of old bbq tablecloths have been added to the "grotty jobs" drawer in the laundry. It's the sort of thing that can be put on the ground to be sat on, or can be used to put under something small that needs painting, just a handy thing to keep, but doesn't go with the good linen. At a pinch it could also serve as a mattress protector if desperate. Anyway, linen press looking much tidier and a bag of stuff for the charity shop ready to go!
Do I get rid of the ( separate ) hi-fi equipment with four speakers? I have already moved some of it ( cassette deck and mini-disc player) into the garage but still have radio and amplifier-a really good quality sound. Unfortunately the record deck has developed a horrible squeal, so I am thinking of getting rid of it all, and therefore also a large quantity of vinyl. Not sure where or how, but that is another matter. All this is house in a wooden unit, made-to-measure by my late husband. Hence a particularly difficult decision.
Or do I replace with an all-in-one modern kit? Or just use the internet?
Which does raise the question of what to do about the 100s of vinyls and 1000s of CDs.
The unit will go in the garage for the time being.
Progress is slow for a good reason - the weather has been lovely and I've been gardening.
I have until Thursday eve (when the NE Man returns) to sort the piles.
I'll fetch my own coat.
I read that as “I think you get ice cream for that”.
😂
Actually I'm doing really well on the cleaning front today. I think it's because the sun's shining and I have some wonderful multi- coloured cleaning rags. I colour code cleaning rags so I can wash and reuse them. I'm annoyed though because the small supermarket I use has discontinued cleaning vinegar which is useful for attacking limescale. I think it's made locally so I will chase it up because nothing else does the job as well.
I had already picked up a small frame from the Red Cross Shop (Ikea, never opened!) but I live in a rented flat, so I am not allowed to put up extra picture hooks. This led to a massive move around of all my pictures to fit it in - and while I was at it, I decided the table would be much better by the window, so I had to move the bookcase, and shunt the settee further to one side, and put the wine rack under the other table.... Three hours later, my flat looks quite different, and also tidier!
Before breakfast this morning I emptied the contents on to my bed, then got Mr RoS to help pull the wardrobe out from the corner by the window, where it has stood unmoved since we moved in here (an unbelievable eight and a half years ago).
I got behind it and swept away the cobweb festooning its back & sides and the walls. Mr RoS then got on his knees and washed the skirting boards as kneeling is a problem for me.
He has not got very good spatial awareness, and on extracting himself from behind it somehow nudged the wardrobe which fell over - and lost both is doors
Once the wardrobe was back in position Mr RoS attempted to re-attach the doors. Fortunately the hinges were the lift-off variety, 3 to each door, so should have been a relatively easy fix. But...
Unfortunately the first door he tried to replace had somehow warped, possibly long before we owned it, and the middle hinge was not in alignment with the top & bottom ones.
Eventually the problem was discovered, the doors replaced, and the wardrobe refilled.
It will be a while before I tackle the next phase.
Now that I have a target for my next phase of decluttering after my summer break, it is already keeping me awake at night. I can’t stop my mind going over what I need to do, filling boxes, etc. - ridiculous.