2015 Declutter and Get Organized Thread

[startsmart]

Ah, if it's not one thing, it's a half dozen other things. Finally back to update my long weekend list  

Wed:
clean the house
move china cabinet in garage
move chest freezer
degrease spots on east side of garage floor
Thurs:
unhook and move old washer and dryer
power wash east side of garage floor and dry
finish painting garage walls (east side)
take down tree outside
put up Christmas decor if I have the energy
Fri:
paint east side of garage floor and allow dry - nope, weather did not cooperate
Sat:
move stuff to the east side of the garage
degrease spots on west side of garage floor
power wash west side of garage floor and dry
Sun:
paint west side of garage floor and allow dry
Mon:
move stuff back to west side of garage
call and check in on the car repairs
Tues:
get new washer dryer delivered and installed
do the 8 loads of laundry that have been backed up - started! 
Wed:
fold and put away all the laundry

As you can tell it was too cold to do the painting and I mostly didn't want to wrestle with the paint mix only for it not to set up correctly. I am thinking it'll be warm enough by March or April to do. I hope. 

I did get a lot of the garage cleaned today and rearranged things. My dad set up 2 metal/wood storage towers and after moving them I realized that they are CRAP. Like, I pray they don't fall apart overnight crap. Since he thinks everything he buys/gives me is perfect my goal is to replace them with new, actually good storage units, from Home Depot and then give him the whole set back. I'll need to wait a couple weeks before I can get that purchased but I'm looking forward to it! Plus a new workbench  

The new washer and dryer were delivered but need longer water hoses before they can be stacked so that's going to be a project for another weekend. Now if I can just get the pilot on the hot water heater to re-light I'll be all set! 

[snapdragon]

Dec 1, 2015 11:55:51 GMT -5 snapdragon said:

I have been very naughty. I have done pretty much nothing this last half of the year.

Tonight here is the list - 

Fold and put away all clothes

Strip bed and wash everything.

Watch the first episode of Foyles War.

So of course after I posted this I started to feel like crap. I ended up falling asleep sometime between 7 pm and 8 pm last night so the only thing I managed to do was fold and put away my clothes this morning.

I will watch my show and attempt to strip the bed and remake it tonight. I am fighting something so nice crisp sheets are a wonder to crawl into. Especially with two down comforters on top.  

[startsmart]

I got the pilot light ignited last night with some help from a family member. Third load of laundry is washing now and I'm putting away a lot of clothing as I go. 

Still working on putting up Christmas decorations so I can put all of those tubs away. 

[Jaguar]

I just threw out more crap, a whole bunch of rusted baking pans and sheets. There was about 12 that I had brought here that belonged to my mom. I got my own, and better quality, so out went the garbage.

[busymom]

Yesterday I mailed off a bunch of paperwork. Today I'm sorting, filing & throwing away paperwork. (And doing laundry.)

Tomorrow the place that installed the new windows into Mom's house is FINALLY coming back to do some repairs on those new windows. (I reported cracks in some of the window frames when they were first put in. During the Summer. Can you believe it's taken them this long to come back out?)

[debthaven]

Was to go Sugi! I'm glad you treated yourself.

Busy that really is long! I'm glad they're finally coming back.

I'm behind on paperwork but it's going to wait till next week (between batches of finals).

This week's marking: 33 finals
Thurs: Grammar: 33 finals
Vocab: 33 finals
Fri 
22 essays 
Sat
11 essays

The semester is officially over! I'm on a reduced schedule through 21 Dec. 

[busymom]

The window repairs are finally done!  I'm happy about that, even 'tho the guy was running late.

I took some more items out to the trash at Mom's.  We're getting very close to the end, but I need to get everything off the walls that my Dad fastened so securely.  (It's not like anything was valuable.  He just put things up, & fastened them like they were never coming back down.)

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Hi everyone, 
I've been a bit busy lately. DH has been gone on business trips, plus he's been a bit overwhelmed because he doesn't have a secretary right now. He and DS#1 went to the same conference (DH works in public education, and DS works in mental health services.). I wanted to get both DSs and DIL's Christmas presents purchased and wrapped for DH to give them all to DS at the conference. I did accomplish that, and I'm pretty excited about not paying shipping for all of that.

Tonight, I had 600 poinsettias delivered to my house, and now people are picking them up. This is a fundraiser for DD#1's Project Graduation parent group. I did make queso dip and guacamole and Christmas cookies for those stopping by. 

I'm working on Christmas cards right now. I've resorted to e-cards through American Greetings. It's a subscription-based program. The e-cards are about as nice as e-cards can be. This year, I'm putting in our family picture from when we did DD's senior pictures. 

DD#2 has another ballet performance this Sunday morning and another Nutcracker performance on Dec 15. 
We have a few different school performances to go to in the next few weeks--district-wide band performace, high school's fall drama production, and something else I cannot remember right this moment. 

In my other rental house (not the MFH), the oven stopped working. I've spent some time remotely dealing with that. If I can get the MFH sold, I might turn the other house over to a property manager. 

We've decorated the outside of the house already, and I plan to decorate the inside this weekend. From there, I think the goal through December 18 is to keep the house looking good, keep up the paperwork, and deal with the MFH to be up for sale by January. 

December 19, I have two weeks off of work, and we will do a lot of clothes purging!

[debthaven]

Good luck with the next few weeks! When you sell the MFH, will you still be "Underwater" Chloe? 

This week's marking: 33 finals
Thurs: Grammar: 33 finals
Vocab: 33 finals
Fri
24 essays
Sat
9 essays

I was up early so I marked today's essays by 12.30. I hope to do more later but I get cranky when I mark too many. 

Off to do laundry and run the dishwasher. :-)

ETA: No more marking today but I:
- did 2 loads of laundry
- emptied dishwasher
- proofed 4th set of DS1's essays
 

[WholeLottaNothin]

Hit 700!

[debthaven]

Whoo hoo Nuttin!

[WholeLottaNothin]

I just wish you could tell! LOL

[snapdragon]

I have been sick and all I want to do is crawl into a hole and hide. I can't wait to finish up here at work and head home for some heavy sleep. Hopefully I will be doing better by Monday. 

[debthaven]

I hope you feel better soon Snapdragon!

Besides marking the last 9 of this batch of finals tomorrow, I also need to proof DS1's 5th set of grad school essays. I'm very glad he's nearly done with his applications!    

We also got another batch of translations today. When DH accepted the second translating job (against my wishes) I basically told him that he's on his own, I want nothing to do with the translating. He's fine with that. But I feel like I should help him out if I can, AFTER my marking and DS1's essays. I'm struggling with it because I REALLY don't want to. The 2 translation jobs will average out to about 35 pages a month and that is just INSANE on top of both of us working a FT job. I refuse to subject myself to that kind of pressure on a regular basis. If it was occasional, a few times a year, it would be different.

I really wish I had just refused that 2nd job without even telling DH about it. 

ETA: He has promised me that if it's too much for him he will pass one of them onto a friend who is a FT translator. 

[lund]

snapdragon, Get better soon!

[startsmart]

Why does the week after a holiday have to be so long?! While I didn't get a lot accomplished this week I'm hoping to make up for it this weekend. The laundry is mostly caught up but needs to be put away and I am making due in the garage until I can buy some additional storage towers that aren't as flimsy as the ones I have now. I really, really need to organize my desktop and office so that's where I'm focusing tonight.

Done: 
went through a STACK of papers that were leftover from months of travel and busyness
threw away 100s of old receipts 
added to the "to be filed" stack
began collecting magazines that can be donated 
am organizing my journals (there are many, many of them)

Still to do: 
complete the filing
shred all the papers in the shredding box
hang file organizer on the wall and label it 
steam clean the office rug
put away all the piles of papers properly 

I have another 321 items to purge or sell this month in order to make my goal and now I'm fired up to do it again! I have a bag of things in the trunk of my car for Goodwill and I've decided that every bag of shredded or recycled paper counts as 5 If I can get 100 done this weekend I'll be in good shape! 

[busymom]

It was one of those days today. DS got sick with something, & was up several times during the night throwing up, so no one here got much sleep.

I did go through all of my coupons, & got rid of all of the ones that have expired. I also did a bunch of laundry.

[debthaven]

I hope DS feels better soon Busy!

[debthaven]

Marking: 33 finals (out of 125 total)
Thurs: Grammar: 33 finals
Vocab: 33 finals
Fri: 24 essays
Sat: 9 essays

Done!   (Until Fri when I pick up 59 more). I also proofed DS1's latest essays.

[debthaven]

I finally started my Xmas shopping.

I usually avoid malls on Sat but I took DS3 to a friend's house next door to our local mall. I found a spot right away. I got a sweater (I had seen it in my town but the store didn't have my size.) It was on sale. I got coffee pods, and I got a Xmas gift for either DS1 or his GF ... very nice steak knives for their new apt. (It's customary here to have the recipient "buy" the knives with a coin.)

[msventoux]

Dec 5, 2015 13:06:54 GMT -5 @patstab said:

I am tired, it was near noon before I got up. I ate oatmeal and am dressed to go work but having trouble moving. I

ran all week and ran down I guess. Once I get busy I will be ok. I am taking the truck and while in the garage putting

out mouse poison, I bought a bucket of it.

So need to get my old body moving before I fall asleep again.

I also have a headache.

Maybe your body is telling you that you need to take care of it. It's okay to have a down day every once in awhile where nothing gets accomplished.

[lund]

@patstab

I agree wholeheartedly with msventoux - have a take care of yourself day!
It is understandable if you are a bit worn out after all that has happened during the last months.
You have taken care of your daughter's needs, your MIL's needs, and done very well, and now it is time to focus on you for a while.

(If you continue to feel very tired, consider a medical check-up.)

BTW, have you found any cash at your MIL's house?

[Robert not Bobby]

I haven't read one post here, so that is good for objectivity.

How do you declutter?

1) Don't be a haorder.

2) Examine yourself and your situation and decide on exactly what you need.

3) If you don't need it, throw it out, or give it to charity...you are allowed to keep a few useless nice and sentimental things.

I know it's hard for some folks...

[startsmart]

Dec 5, 2015 14:34:18 GMT -5 Robert not Bobby said:

I haven't read one post here, so that is good for objectivity.

How do you declutter?

1) Don't be a haorder.

2) Examine yourself and your situation and decide on exactly what you need.

3) If you don't need it, throw it out, or give it to charity...you are allowed to keep a few useless nice and sentimental things.

I know it's hard for some folks...

Hey, thanks so much for popping in with condescending comments that add no value to the conversation! 

After being involved in threads like this for years I've seen a ton of progress, women whose homes evolve to welcome new babies and send children off to college, parents who are ailing, family members that pass away, new marriages and divorces too. People move, then move again, remodel, have flooding, appliances that fail, trees fall down and normal wear and tear. And all that on top of running households, jobs, side jobs, family responsibilities, health concerns, travel and school. No matter how much progress you make to your own ideal lifestyle and home, I'm proud of you. 

[Robert not Bobby]

Dec 5, 2015 14:55:38 GMT -5 startsmart said:

Dec 5, 2015 14:34:18 GMT -5 Robert not Bobby said:

I haven't read one post here, so that is good for objectivity.

How do you declutter?

1) Don't be a haorder.

2) Examine yourself and your situation and decide on exactly what you need.

3) If you don't need it, throw it out, or give it to charity...you are allowed to keep a few useless nice and sentimental things.

I know it's hard for some folks...

Hey, thanks so much for popping in with condescending comments that add no value to the conversation! 

After being involved in threads like this for years I've seen a ton of progress, women whose homes evolve to welcome new babies and send children off to college, parents who are ailing, family members that pass away, new marriages and divorces too. People move, then move again, remodel, have flooding, appliances that fail, trees fall down and normal wear and tear. And all that on top of running households, jobs, side jobs, family responsibilities, health concerns, travel and school. No matter how much progress you make to your own ideal lifestyle and home, I'm proud of you. 

I'm sorry if you took that as condescending, I tend to be direct and speak my mind.

If you find that offensive, again, I'm sorry. I wouldn't want to upset whatever you have going on here.

Is this some sort of self-help group?

[msventoux]

Dec 5, 2015 15:09:28 GMT -5 Robert not Bobby said:

Dec 5, 2015 14:55:38 GMT -5 startsmart said:

Hey, thanks so much for popping in with condescending comments that add no value to the conversation! 

After being involved in threads like this for years I've seen a ton of progress, women whose homes evolve to welcome new babies and send children off to college, parents who are ailing, family members that pass away, new marriages and divorces too. People move, then move again, remodel, have flooding, appliances that fail, trees fall down and normal wear and tear. And all that on top of running households, jobs, side jobs, family responsibilities, health concerns, travel and school. No matter how much progress you make to your own ideal lifestyle and home, I'm proud of you. 

I'm sorry if you took that as condescending, I tend to be direct and speak my mind.

If you find that offensive, again, I'm sorry. I wouldn't want to upset whatever you have going on here.

Is this some sort of self-help group?

You could try actually reading the thread.  Not even all of it.  Perhaps just the first post in the thread might be enlightening for you. 

[Robert not Bobby]

Ms Ventoux,

Thanks, I read the first post...it is jibberish to me.

Am I missing something?

[debthaven]

Why bother posting on a thread if you a) haven't read it and / or b) find it "gibberish"?

Since apparently you haven't bothered to read the name of the thread either, I'll help you out. This thread is for people to either get or stay decluttered and organised, with some chatting along the way. We are not hoarders, and we don't need condescending comments and common-sense "advice". 

If you're interested in posting with us rather than at us, I'm sure you'd be welcome.

But I think you're probably just bored because it's the weekend.

[debthaven]

Pat if you're going to rent out your MIL's house, do you need to have curtains? Wouldn't the future renters rather choose their own?

We put up curtain rods in our rentals so they're put up properly and the walls don't get damaged, but we don't supply the curtains. :-)
 

[debthaven]

Since the semester is officially over, this morning I went through my teaching shelves. I burned a bunch of papers, and reorganised them so I can switch my 1st and 2nd semester binders. I'll take the binders next time I drive in, they're too heavy to carry on the train.

I also Shitepiled a bit, but I didn't quite finish because I'm waiting for some more papers.