2016 Declutter and Get Organized Thread

[debthaven]

Sat
- made breakfast for DS3 and a friend
- cleaned out / organize school bag + files
- photocopied 2014 and 2015 payslips (I told the gov't retirement dept they haven't updated my info since 2013 so they asked me for them.)
- input recent marks
- mark 1 -4- long reports 

It looks increasingly like we will have to go to the UK soon for DH's uncle. That's why I cleaned out / organized my school bag + files. I really need to start marking but I can't concentrate.

[plugginaway22]

Happy Saturday, I have some goals for today and tomorrow.  In the end, we invited the family for T-giving and will have everyone bring a dish.  I am thinking of ways to further simplify things. If everyone attends it will be 18.  So today's grocery trip is a longer than usual list, to get some of the non-perishables for that weekend.  DH just shakes his head and says 'where the hell are 18 people going to sit?'.

It wasn't planned, but I got some early Christmas gifts ordered this week.  Again, trying to simplify the holidays in any way possible.

Need to really clean the bathrooms this weekend, have let some things go too long.  Laundry has been started and again, the outside leaf situation is crazy.

[dee27]

The fall chores are done except covering the outdoor furniture. I started to restock the freezer in prep for winter; the soup is made and frozen, but I need to can spaghetti sauce this month. I froze a large batch of meatballs and meatloaf yesterday. I make small loaves of meatloaf because DH likes it, but I do not.

[debthaven]

Meatloaf is a good idea Dee! I haven't made that in years.

[startsmart]

If you want to see pictures of my bench project I'm posting a series on how it came together on Instagram and my blog here: myfriendkelly.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/my-newest-project/

I've got a lot of work around the house to do this weekend and I'm hoping to finish up some big projects. 

I ended up reposting for help with outdoor work and then deleting it after hearing from idiots all week who would email me things like "I can be there early" like... WTF dude? Early is not a time. Later is not an appointment. Tell me your availability or go away 

Decided that I'm not having Thanksgiving or Christmas with the family so I'll be emptying out my freezer in the garage this weekend and then cleaning up. Thankfully I go on vacation in December and am so looking forward to time on the beach, hiking, this one reservation spot with a pool overlooking the jungle... whenever I am feeling the stress I go back to those plans and get excited. 

[debthaven]

The bench looks great Start! Very impressive!

[startsmart]

Thanks Debt! I'm still posting pictures but will do another set of pics later The paint is done and I think it looks great! 

p.s. Target had a bunch of Blu-ray movies on sale for $4 today if you're looking for gifts there are some great options! 

I just finished the trough I made - last month I had a client meeting in San Francisco and picked up a HUGE bunch of hydrangeas and then dried them. They held their color so well that I built a 5' long trough with leftover wood, stained it, filled it with flower foam and then added the dry flowers. It looks AMAZING and now I'm super excited to finish decorating the living room. 

[debthaven]

I'm getting super stressed with the end of the semester coming up so soon. Only 4 weeks left.

I fell behind in my 2 MSc groups. Since I have to set a certain number of assignments, I'm getting 30 essays from them on Thurs, as well as 42 from my first-years. I generally manage to space them out but I messed up this time. And DH and I think we'll probably have to go to London next weekend. He's actually looking at going early in the week but he has much more leeway than I do with work. 

Sun
- mark 4th long report At least that's finally done!

[dee27]

Very nice bench!

[TheHaitian]

The lady that was going to buy our bedroom set came yesterday and changed her mind... she felt it would be too big for her bedroom!

So back to posting it online. Also planning on posting other things tomorrow since I am off! Make the most of the days!

[debthaven]

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Paris terrorist attacks, so DS2, his GF and a friend came for the weekend yesterday. It's so good to be all together. Only DS1 is not here.

DH is going to the UK tomorrow. His uncle is on morphine now.

[Jaguar]

Sorry debthaven.

[dee27]

Sorry Debt.

[wvugurl26]

Sorry to hear about his uncle debt.

[taz157]

Sorry debt.

[lund]

Sorry to hear about the DU-IL, Debth.

(On a happier note, wouldn't your DS3 like some of your tea supply? I remember frequently using a Thermos flask for hot tea when studying....)

Good that you are catching up on the work that you already have, especially under the circumstances. Your DH leaving before you sounds like a good idea .
And if you have the time, cooking and freezing some food might help when the deluge of assignments hits later.

I am also on a freezer and pantry mission at present; we have quite a bit in there and right now suffer from slight underemployment. At present, we are focusing on the UFOs (Unidentified Frozen Objects) found (in all six so far - obviously one batch of "freezer" labels was bad), which has lead to some quite varied cooking and meals....

[debthaven]

Haha Lund on the UFOs! I hope the underemployment situation improves soon.

I agree I'm glad DH is going tomorrow. And I'm glad to be all caught up with school for now.

In fact DS3 IS taking 3 boxes of tea back with him. We got him a Thermos on Amazon when he was sick a few weeks ago and he uses it a lot. So that's 6 boxes / packets of tea (nearly) decluttered. And there's still plenty left.  

 

[Sharon]

We are having some unseasonably warm weather the last few days so I took the opportunity to get quite a bit of yard work done today.

Leaves raked (yard and flower beds),
Lawn Mowed
Front Yard Edged
Gutter along the covered patio cleaned out
Leaves manually pulled out around plants were raking wasn't possible
Moss from neighbors roof picked up.   This neighbor is an a-hole and pulls this kind of crap all the time.  I am about ready to have a conversation with code enforcement since he built this weird lean too thing that goes clear to the fence.  That is why when he hosed the moss off his roof it all ended up along the side of my house.

[dee27]

Lund,


We buy cheese in bulk, shred some and freeze it. I made pizza Friday and asked DH to take mozzarella out of the freezer, but he forgot to do it. I am rolling dough for pizza and asked him for the cheese. He brings me a bag, unmarked, and I tasted it, but it was a Mexican blend. When he packs the cheese for the freezer, he puts unmarked, 8 oz. packages in a larger freezer bag which he marks and dates. In the dimmer light of the garage, the 8 oz. packages were similar. Lesson learned, I should mark all of the bags so there are no surprises.

[dee27]

Sharon moss takes root quickly, and your neighbor is a jerk.

[lund]

dee27 , Unplanned cooking experiences at their finest ! More marking sometimes helps, though.

I thawed something that looked like yellow sauce with some spots in and something medium-colored under, thinking that it was either chicken with herb sauce over some wild rice mix, or potatoes au gratin over some meatloaf. Surprise, a main course of cinnamon baked apples with vanilla sauce...



Edited to add that we found some soup to have as main course, so it worked out well. It just was not what we had planned to eat.

[busymom]

Hi Kids! I'm afraid I won't be very productive in the coming weeks. I am spending more time getting out to walk (I really need to shed the weight I regained) and, I need to get going on writing Christmas cards pretty soon. Not to mention, Mom's attorney would like me to give him the final accounting on Mom's estate, and that'll be work.

Nice work on the bench startsmart!  

debthaven, so sorry about DH's Uncle.  The only aunts & uncles we still have are on DH's side of the family.  As you get fewer of them, it gets harder to let them go. 

I'm in the process of thinning out our freezer.  I'd hoped to make my holiday pies ahead of time, & freeze them, but right now there is no room.

[zibazinski]

Nov 13, 2016 18:45:23 GMT -5 busymom said:

Hi Kids! I'm afraid I won't be very productive in the coming weeks. I am spending more time getting out to walk (I really need to shed the weight I regained) and, I need to get going on writing Christmas cards pretty soon. Not to mention, Mom's attorney would like me to give him the final accounting on Mom's estate, and that'll be work.

Nice work on the bench startsmart!  

debthaven, so sorry about DH's Uncle.  The only aunts & uncles we still have are on DH's side of the family.  As you get fewer of them, it gets harder to let them go. 

I'm in the process of thinning out our freezer.  I'd hoped to make my holiday pies ahead of time, & freeze them, but right now there is no room.

You're doing Christmas cards already? I need an emoji with a tongue sticking out.

[Jaguar]

Nov 13, 2016 23:00:07 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Nov 13, 2016 18:45:23 GMT -5 busymom said:

Hi Kids! I'm afraid I won't be very productive in the coming weeks. I am spending more time getting out to walk (I really need to shed the weight I regained) and, I need to get going on writing Christmas cards pretty soon. Not to mention, Mom's attorney would like me to give him the final accounting on Mom's estate, and that'll be work.

Nice work on the bench startsmart!  

debthaven, so sorry about DH's Uncle.  The only aunts & uncles we still have are on DH's side of the family.  As you get fewer of them, it gets harder to let them go. 

I'm in the process of thinning out our freezer.  I'd hoped to make my holiday pies ahead of time, & freeze them, but right now there is no room.

You're doing Christmas cards already? I need an emoji with a tongue sticking out.

I have the Christmas cards all ready, I just need to get the stamps. Here's your smiley.

[zibazinski]

I just bought thanksgiving cards finally. Sheesh you guys.

[dee27]

I buy Christmas cards after the holiday, so I already have the cards for this year.

[Iggy aka IG]

startsmart , congratulations on the bench. Well done!

debthaven , I am so sorry.

Sharon , I agree with dee27 , your neighbor is a jerk. 

I still have the crud, but managed through the agent meetings and travel to and from them last week.  I also made the cookies yesterday and did 5 loads of laundry.

Things left on my list:
Deliver the moving boxes to my client
Return the Halloween costume at the post office, deliver the last harvest mix from last month while there
Put the coffee table back which was moved for the Halloween party

Added:
Make an appointment with the real estate agent to look at the house this Sat
Monthly grocery shop
Meeting at the BLM tomorrow night.  Yay. 
Possible jury duty Wed.  Even more yay.

[debthaven]

Totally frazzled. I just got back from taking DS3 to the airport. The 45-min ride took 1h45m going a completely different way on the advice of Google Maps. I took the regular way home and saw that the way TO the airport was still completely blocked. They said there was an accident but wow it must have been serious.

Did a first load of laundry and emptied the dishwasher before I left for the airport. Just started a second load of laundry. DH uses a "valet" so whenever he goes away I wash everything. 

DH is in London but I have no news on his uncle yet. DH made it in time, which makes me happy.

I'll be up late tonight to make sure DS3 arrives home safely. We had a wonderful visit.

Have just poured a glass of wine!

[debthaven]

Are you moving Iggy? And Busy I saw that you are thinking of moving too?

ETA: Lund, in the end DS3 took only one box of tea. I kept a second (because he drinks it) and threw the third one out. DH DID eventually notice the "foreign" teebags in his canister, but there were only 3/20 left by then. So that's 5 boxes / packets gone. Only 12 left!   I've decided that anybody who stops by during Christmas will get a pot of "exotic" tea.

ETA1: I DO know how to spell teebag but the boards think it is a political post and replaces that word! LOL!

[Iggy aka IG]

Nov 14, 2016 16:14:51 GMT -5 debthaven said:

Are you moving Iggy? And Busy I saw that you are thinking of moving too?

ETA: Lund, in the end DS3 took only one box of tea. I kept a second (because he drinks it) and threw the third one out. DH DID eventually notice the "foreign" teebags in his canister, but there were only 3/20 left by then. So that's 5 boxes / packets gone. Only 12 left!   I've decided that anybody who stops by during Christmas will get a pot of "exotic" tea.

ETA1: I DO know how to spell teebag but the boards think it is a political post and replaces that word! LOL!

And, yes, it is part of our 10 year plan to move out to the country sooner rather than later.  That was the goal when we moved into our current home 11 years ago, but prices with land were too high for our budget as it was before the recession.  This place is an older home on nearly 10 acres.  Fingers crossed.  The real estate broker said it (the home) is no cream puff.  LOL!