2015 Declutter and Get Organized Thread

[busymom]

Debt, you may need to trim your life away from home a bit. DH has some congestion thing that's going around, & it's awful stuff. One of his coworkers missed nearly a week of work! DH is sicker than a dog too, but he's too stubborn to stay home.

I picked up some tulip bulbs this morning. And, some spackle to repair two small areas where the wall is damaged in DS's room. (No, he didn't do it. Someone else pulled something off of his wall, leaving some minor wallboard damage.) I've already repaired the damage. Once it's dry, I'll repaint those areas. (If anyone can find the paint in our stuffed basement!)

If the rain stays away today, I've got hyacinth AND tulip bulbs to plant.  If the ground isn't too soft from all of the rain we've received. 

[busymom]

Ok, all of my flower bulbs are planted.

I've got laundry started, & I'll see what else I can get done...

[WholeLottaNothin]

I've done dishes 3x today already. We need to stop eating so much

[Ombud]

All of a sudden I'm going to Break the Fast and only bringing wine. Already have 2 great bottles (Pinot Noir & Pinot Grecio) so I'm DONE!!

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Crazy-ish week last! Four late week nights for me. So, I've kept the house in decent condition, but I've not accomplished the deep cleaning of the bathrooms that was supposed to be done today. I've spent three hours in my classroom, and I have brought home work that will probably take another three hours. 

Tonight, we have a charity auction/dinner banquet to attend. Tomorrow afternoon, we have DD's senior pictures. 

I would like accomplish by Sunday bedtime: 
Cleaning master bathroom
menus for next week
grocery list for Monday
update YNAB
deposit two checks
finish classroom work
get a start on next week's cleaning zone
completely sweep house
check out book that I had on hold and is now available
charge my kindle
house paperwork
pay girls 
girls pay their bills
water the front flower box
water the pumpkins
45 minutes of yoga

[debthaven]

Taking it easy today because of the bronchitis. In the end we did not need to help our friends set up which was a relief.

Our boiler stopped working yesterday. DH was out. After texting photos to our plumber who was out of town, I managed to get it working again! He will check it out this week but at least it's working again. We use it for hot water as well as heat.

Today I spent about 30m reorganizing the lean-to because there was no room for DD's new electric bike. DH moved DS1's bike out, we cut down a few bamboos that were in the way, and I reorganized some of the Stuff on the ground. So our 4 bikes should all fit now.

I also reorganized the lean-to shelves: the top shelf is now completely free for DH and DD's bike stuff (locks, helmets, etc). I even managed to get DH to part with an old helmet and (yet another!) pair of old sneakers.

ETA: I just ordered a motion-detector light for the lean-to so that DH and DD can put their bikes away when they come home in the dark.

[debthaven]

Rukh, maybe it would be easier to tidy up completely after cooking / eating? It would be less to do the next day and you'd wake up to a clean kitchen. :-)  

Sounds like you needed to catch up on the sleep! 

I decided to make chili at the last minute.  

[busymom]

Would it help, @tbird, if you walked your dog with him wearing a halter or harness, instead of a collar?  When Bad Boy Puppy was younger, he pulled so hard on the leash that he was strangling himself.  The vet suggested that when my dog was misbehaving in front of him.

DS & I worked on Mom's house this afternoon, at least until my back said "no more". 

[Wisconsin Beth]

I did get the van vacuumed and the inside windows wiped.  Holy cow was it grubby.  Then I emptied the vaccum (it's a shop vac thing) and whacked on the filter to get it back to it's pale blue color.  My 5 year old 'helped' vac (and put a couple of whacks in on the filter) so it only took about 30 minutes longer than it would have had I done it alone but he wanted to help and hell if I'm discouraging that. 

Grillfest, we bailed on.  I picked up the kids and very carefully made sure no one mentioned it.  DS didn't care but at 8pm or so, during bedtime, DD suddenly asked about it.  And then started crying. 

Sunday, the kids started Religious Ed before Mass so DH and I dropped them off and ran to the store to get eggs and milk.  And a few other things.  We'd hit the farmer's market and the grocery store on Sat. and he prepped all his greens so he can make smoothies a bit faster in the mornings.  Or for his late night snack...

Anyway, we got a lot of stuff done this weekend but it doesn't really show in the house.  Esp. because the kids hauled a ton of stuff out of the house to play with outside and in bringing it back in, a lot of it in the living room. 

DD wants to swap bedrooms with DS.  Need to talk to him about that.  I don't much care who's in what room but if we're doing that, I think I should paint first. 

Anyway, today's tasks:
1. mow lawn
2. buy and plant bulbs?  It's an awesome suggestion and the weather's going to behave for the next few days here so if I'm going to do it, now the time.
3. Keep up with dishes and laundry - I hate to jinx myself but that's actually not going so badly. 
4.  Find a better place for all the clean blankets.  The kids are forbidden to take the clean ones out for playing but the ones I want to wash anyway they can use.
5. figure out dinner.  If I do mow the lawn and play in the dirt, it's gonna be frozen pizza! 

[debthaven]

Not that happy with school these days ... I still haven't heard about my Personnel classes. I'm working slightly more hours this year but I have only regular student classes, so more work / marking. :-( I know I shouldn't complain, the Personnel classes have always been considered a "bonus". But after having them for 4 years, it's hard not to consider them a "given". 

Speaking of marking, here we go! I got 16 papers yesterday, and I'll get 40 more tomorrow.  

Wed
- 16 papers

Keeping up with kitchen / laundry but not doing much else. 

ETA: The motion-sensor light for the lean-to arrived! I put it on the lean-to shelves. It works really well. :-)

[Wisconsin Beth]

Sept 21, 2015 7:09:52 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

Anyway, today's tasks:
1. mow lawn
2. buy and plant bulbs?  It's an awesome suggestion and the weather's going to behave for the next few days here so if I'm going to do it, now the time.
3. Keep up with dishes and laundry - I hate to jinx myself but that's actually not going so badly. 
4.  Find a better place for all the clean blankets.  The kids are forbidden to take the clean ones out for playing but the ones I want to wash anyway they can use.
5. figure out dinner.  If I do mow the lawn and play in the dirt, it's gonna be frozen pizza! 

I go to the dentist today.  Cleaning for sure.  I don't remember if I started work on my other issues today or not.  So I'm not expecting anything to get done tonight.

But the lawn still hasn't been mowed and I didn't do anything about bulbs either. 
dishes/laundry still ok.  Figuring out dinner's been ok too.
#4, finding a better place sort of happened.  I cleared off a chair last night and the clean blankets are draped over the back for now.  Plus I have a comfy spot to sit in the living room now too. 

[busymom]

It's going to be raining hard here today, so it's the perfect day to catch up on paperwork. AND, I need to organize all of the stuff I need to bring in to Mom's attorney for tomorrow. If I don't check in, it's because I'm buried in paperwork!

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

the week is going by in a blur here...just wanted to say hi. 

[snapdragon]

I have been a complete sloth lately.

I have a small donation pile started but I need to go into the attic and pull some things down to get rid of. I'm just being a wuss because I don't want to climb up and down the ladder multiple times. 
 
I must mail off a card for Mom as her birthday is Monday and I want her to get it on time. 

Everyone have a wonderful rest of the week!

[debthaven]

Snapdragon, being a sloth sometimes is good! 

I have 35 papers to mark. I usually mark on Fridays but another colleague and I are driving 1h away to have lunch with our colleague who has been off sick.

As always please feel free to ignore my marking lists!       

Marking 
Fri: 15 papers
Sat: 14 papers
Sun: 6 papers 

But we'll see, I have till next Thursday (when I get more). 

And I haven't dealt with Shitepile in weeks ...

[Wisconsin Beth]

The stuff I got done last night didn't do much for decluttering but did get me and the kids fed, homework done and both kids bathed.  Emptied dishwasher (ran a couple of days ago) this morning and got towels into the dryer, finally.

This weekend's tasks:
1. 'normal' stuff - laundry, grocery shopping and quick cleaning of the bathrooms and kitchen.
2. banking
3. hope for clear skies to watch the lunar eclipse Sat. night.
4. have kids make cards for MIL's b-day
5. talk to DH about MIL's gift and either go buy it or have him do it.
6. get card for DN#6's Confirmation on Sunday.  Gift is check so nothing to do there.
7. mow lawn?
8. try to get DD to gym for open swim/pool play.  DS got his turn last week but she didn't want to stop playing with her friends to go
9. watch Packers play football on Sunday. 
10. Still want to buy and plant bulbs for next year. 

[busymom]

DS has that congestion thing that's going around, so I'm keeping him home from school today. I've got a touch, but not nearly as bad as DS.

I got through my first appointment with Mom's attorney yesterday, & we'll be meeting again next week.  This is going to take awhile.  In the meantime, I've got plenty of paperwork to file.  And, I may put some more things up for sale on Facebook, but I'm not getting much of a response lately.  I probably should've pushed harder to post more items during the Summer.

[snapdragon]

Sept 25, 2015 2:30:04 GMT -5 debthaven said:

Snapdragon, being a sloth sometimes is good! 

I have 35 papers to mark. I usually mark on Fridays but another colleague and I are driving 1h away to have lunch with our colleague who has been off sick.

As always please feel free to ignore my marking lists!       

Marking 
Fri: 15 papers
Sat: 14 papers
Sun: 6 papers 

But we'll see, I have till next Thursday (when I get more). 

And I haven't dealt with Shitepile in weeks ...

Debt - could you and the college switch off on who is driving so maybe you could get some marking done on the way over or back from visiting? Unless you get motion sickness than ignore my suggestion completely. 

[snapdragon]

Sept 25, 2015 8:42:33 GMT -5 busymom said:

DS has that congestion thing that's going around, so I'm keeping him home from school today. I've got a touch, but not nearly as bad as DS.

I got through my first appointment with Mom's attorney yesterday, & we'll be meeting again next week.  This is going to take awhile.  In the meantime, I've got plenty of paperwork to file.  And, I may put some more things up for sale on Facebook, but I'm not getting much of a response lately.  I probably should've pushed harder to post more items during the Summer.

Try your best to keep healthy and I hope you son is better by Monday.

[debthaven]

Snap I don't even know if my colleague drives ... she doesn't have a car here, so frankly I wouldn't have felt comfortable letting her drive mine. Plus I dropped her at the airport, so she didn't come back with me. :-)

We had a really nice time with our friend. It looks like she will be back at work in Jan, at least part-time. I hope so!

I came home, took a nap, and now I'm marking. Fun Friday night LOL. 

ETA:
Marking
Fri: 15 papers
Sat: 14 papers
Sun: 6 papers

If I do the 14 papers on Sat I'll leave the 6 papers for next week. I'd rather print them at school. 

ETA: Chloe how is school going? Is it hard to go from Administration back to teaching? More work? Less work? I'm curious. :-)

[Chocolate Lover]

Checking in.  Not much decluttering going on at my house but I keep track even if I don't always post. Hugs and yays where appropriate

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Sept 25, 2015 13:43:35 GMT -5 debthaven said:

Snap I don't even know if my colleague drives ... she doesn't have a car here, so frankly I wouldn't have felt comfortable letting her drive mine. Plus I dropped her at the airport, so she didn't come back with me. :-)

We had a really nice time with our friend. It looks like she will be back at work in Jan, at least part-time. I hope so!

I came home, took a nap, and now I'm marking. Fun Friday night LOL. 

ETA:
Marking
Fri: 15 papers
Sat: 14 papers
Sun: 6 papers

If I do the 14 papers on Sat I'll leave the 6 papers for next week. I'd rather print them at school. 

ETA: Chloe how is school going? Is it hard to go from Administration back to teaching? More work? Less work? I'm curious. :-)

My life is so much less stressful. So much less work. It's really tricky though because today was pay day. My teacher check was $1000 less than my principal check. That is including the volleyball stipend, so teaching would probably be $1150 net less per month than my principal salary. I do like the work of being a principal too; I just was so unhappy with working for a superintendent who embraced mediocrity.

I've only been in a bad mood after work once so far, and that was a combination of volleyball and PMS. I will not continue coaching. I just don't have the passion for it to do a good enough job. I'm doing the bare minimum, and I feel guilty about that.

There are portions of the management of the school that I don't agree with, but they're not that big of a deal. I know the intentions of the admin are good, and I like them as people. 


It will be interesting come early spring to decide what I want to do next year.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

For this weekend, we have three events scheduled: DD#2 has dance company pictures on Saturday and Nutcracker auditions on Sunday. DD#1 has a cross country meet on Saturday. Other than that, the household goals are 

• seven loads of laundry 
• fold laundry
• put away laundry
• clean toilets
• mop floors
• clean master bedroom
• paint toenails
• clean purse
• clean work bag
• change out sunflowers
• balance Amex account
• pay bills
• look for Project Graduation documents
• cardio 45 min x 2
• grocery list 
• grocery shopping (DH has decided he is going to do this today.)
• check on life insurance policy (because I'm suddenly not sure it exists!)
• change the flag
• menus for next week
• change sheets
• give Bill the Dog his hearworm/flea/tick meds. 
• pay the girls
• have them pay me
• finish grading papers
• create essay project check-off sheet
• go into my classroom and clean up my desk a bit more and set up a few things for Monday
• hhhmmm...

[jenpen]

Hey all. I’ve been keeping up with reading even though I haven’t been posting. I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I got back from vacation. On one hand, it feels like vacay was months ago, OTOH I don't know where the time went! Errr, maybe I do. Work has been crazy crazier than usual. The day I got back, I was informed that I am now supervising two of my coworkers. In addition to my regular workload, I’ve been scrambling to get all the supervisor/management training in.

Plus, I did a 900-mile round trip road trip last weekend to see my oldest niece for the first time in 3 years, and to be there for another niece to have her first baby. A lot of driving for a 36 hour visit, but well worth it!

Also, I signed up for a 7-week stained glass class through a local arts center, and that's taking up one full evening per week now.

I did make good progress with my closet and bathroom cabinet clean-out from a few weeks ago. I got all the clothing out of the house -- either sold or donated. I threw out one humongous (and super-heavy!) bag of stuff from the bathroom cabinets and storage unit. Everything remaining fit back in just the cabinet, so I now have an empty storage unit.

Still, I've barely been keeping up with the house, and really need to get some serious cleaning done this weekend.  To start with:
 - clean master bath (toilet, sink, mirror, floor)
 - clean half bath
 - launder bedding
 - dust and vacuum bedroom
 - dust and vacuum 1st floor
 - mop kitchen/halfbath/dining room
 - put away stuff 1st floor (dining table, coffee table, kitchen counters)
 
More to come (I hope!) once that all gets done. But first things first...

[plugginaway22]

JenPen I have also found it difficult to get back to 'normal' after our fantastic vacation.  We have been back 2 weeks and I still am working on our pictures from the trip.  Also need to do a large 'stock-up' trip at the grocery store, running out of everything. 

I am half-way through the book some of you have mentioned, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo (also referred to as Konmari method).
It is very motivating and should get me going!  I can already recommend it.

The change in weather has been great here, beautiful since we returned.

[busymom]

Wow Knee Deep in Water Chloe!  Nutcracker auditions!  That sounds exciting!  So, would your DD perform with an adult dance theater, then?

Well, so far today I got some paperwork ready to mail out. The bills just keep coming.   And, I organized a bunch of pictures.

I'm realizing more & more that the clock is ticking, & I may need to purge Mom's house this Fall.  Even if it means temporarily losing space for one of the cars in the garage.  (Which is a bummer, because Winter will be here in a couple of months...)

[plugginaway22]

hahah, why?  I run a household and see so many things she recommends that NEED to be done! One category at a time...

[debthaven]

I did NOTHING yesterday because my Macbook died. We spent hours trying to fix it. In the end DH bought a new internal disk drive for 50 euros and brought it back to life!

My last back-up was in late July but it could have been much worse (and I still have all the photos from this summer on my phone).

Chloe good luck to your DD for her audition!

Marking
Fri: 15 papers
Sun: 14 papers
Sun: 4 papers

ETA: Finished the marking AND went on a 1.5h fast walk in the forest with a friend. 

[Ombud]

Still recovering and have discovered that I might not be able for a while so I'm busy:
□ making a list on what I need to outsource to a contractor
□ picking out replacement mirrors
□ cleaning out 1 kitchen junk drawer a day (why do I have 4?)

[debthaven]

What an adventure! It may not be exactly as you'd hoped, but it still sounds like a win to me: matching sturdy furniture, plenty of room in the hutch, and a decluttered room!