2024 Organize & Declutter

[debthaven]

It's 56 degrees in the house! The boiler isn't working. I've called but I haven't been able to reach them. I'm sure I'm not the only one and they're very busy but it sucks. It also means we have no hot water.

[finnime]

Hope you get the boiler working again very soon, debthaven, before everything gets too cold to warm easily.

[azucena]

Jan 12, 2024 5:24:03 GMT -5 finnime said:

Massachusetts has banned throwing away clothing as it's not biodegradable and fills up the dumps. Instead, it's to be donated or bagged up and dropped off at, in our case, the firefighters' station, for rags. Almost all clothing is not biodegradable any more; it's typically a blend of manmade and natural materials that don't break down.

I never really stopped to think about this issue. Your post def made me pause in a good way. Something to chat about with my girls to see if they know that.

[azucena]

Debt - I'm looking fwd to sending DD15 random packages when she's in a dorm. Betting DD11 will have fun with it too. Setting a smallish budget is prob a good idea lol.

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Jan 13, 2024 6:27:45 GMT -5 debthaven said:

It's 56 degrees in the house! The boiler isn't working. I've called but I haven't been able to reach them. I'm sure I'm not the only one and they're very busy but it sucks. It also means we have no hot water.

Oh no! Hope you aren't expecting severe cold like we are!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Jan 13, 2024 8:59:24 GMT -5 azucena said:

Jan 12, 2024 5:24:03 GMT -5 finnime said:

Massachusetts has banned throwing away clothing as it's not biodegradable and fills up the dumps. Instead, it's to be donated or bagged up and dropped off at, in our case, the firefighters' station, for rags. Almost all clothing is not biodegradable any more; it's typically a blend of manmade and natural materials that don't break down.

I never really stopped to think about this issue. Your post def made me pause in a good way. Something to chat about with my girls to see if they know that.

I saw this great new recycling technique for clothes where they put it into a machine and break it up to make new yarn/thread out of it. So cool!

Hope sequestering clothing for this type of thing catches on!

[wvugurl26]

Jan 13, 2024 9:01:21 GMT -5 azucena said:

Debt - I'm looking fwd to sending DD15 random packages when she's in a dorm. Betting DD11 will have fun with it too. Setting a smallish budget is prob a good idea lol.

This is a great idea. Several of my friends used to walk after lunch and check our mail boxes. None of us were very far from home but it was still awesome to get a small package or even a card. My stepmom sent me a couple cards "signed" by our dog.

[azucena]

My main hs job was working in the kitchen of a convent. Some days I'd help serve the nuns in the assisted living side. When I went away to college, two of them took turns mailing me various coupons from the paper along with notes and cards. Coupons were for fast food, toiletries, whatever they thought I might like. Made me smile on those mail days and I def used some of them.

College kids are spoiled now as I'll just hit send from Amazon lol. Got a taste for it from sending some of her key senior friends from last yr freshie gifts this fall.

[azucena]

10 am - time to wake up the teen and teen wanna be and get the ball rolling on sat morning house chores. Remember all that laundry I did, first item is hanging up our work and school clothes that's been laid out in a pile on the bike all week.

[TheOtherMe]

No stuff is leaving my house today.  DN3 was not able to get anything out of the van last night in blizzard conditions but they do have all of their stuff sitting on the driveway.  Hopefully I get plowed out by tomorrow as they couldn't get inside my garage now if they could come here.

It's fine by me as I know the weather did not cooperate.  They did sleep at their new house last night.  Don't know if it was on the floor or in beds.  

debthaven  I hope you can get someone out to repair your boiler so you have heat very soon.

[debthaven]

DH got it started again!!! Hopefully it’ll stay on.

We are already having severe temps for us…

[ners]

I have turned my heat up in case I lose power.   


debthaven Glad your heat is back on.

[startsmart]

I put in a grocery order for Monday and will pick it up when I go to town for another appointment. I’m feeling a lot better today and able to keep food down. My goal is to clean the fridge out tomorrow but I hate being even colder than usual while cleaning.

Midwest weather is freezing cold so I’ve kept my heaters going and the fireplace all night. They’re projecting snow tomorrow but we usually don’t get more than an inch.

[debthaven]

azucena that's a great idea about the care packages for college! I wish I had done that when mine were in college. 

The heat is still on, but it's taking a LONG time for this very old house to heat up! It must have gone off much earlier than I realized. At least I took a hot shower! I can't imagine what the temperature would have been with the old windows. 

I checked my "bills" folder, and was amazed to see that our boiler will be 15 years old in March.   So there may be a new one in our future... we'll take out a (partial?) loan when we need to replace it. 

Our boiler guy never called back. I'm sure he will on Monday. There is NEVER a good time to replace a boiler!!!  

We have NEVER liked our current boiler, it has been a PITA since day 1. Before that, we had "the Rolls Royce" of boilers, which needed replacing after 28 years. It was still going strong, but the hot water tank was leaking, and it seemed crazy to get a new tank for a 28YO boiler. 

IF/WHEN we need to replace ours, we would want the old brand.

I'm just grateful the house is MUCH less cold than it was this morning! 

I went to see the show this afternoon. I'm working Front of House and bar at the show tomorrow.

Laundry/dishes/kitchen are caught up.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

It's Saturday

All I've done chore-wise is 

• Paid four bills
• Put way my laundry
• Cleaned off the dresser tops in my bedroom
• Put away random items in the kitchen/dining room
• Took the donation pile to Goodwill
• reconciled accounts
• set up the digital picture frame DH received for Christmas
• tossed three shirts that are way too small
• cleaned up our personal email
• spent 10 minutes straightening up the pantry (tossed six items and put one in the donation pile)

[debthaven]

On this crazy play weekend, to me that seems like A LOT Knee Deep in Water Chloe.

[finnime]

Jan 13, 2024 10:54:58 GMT -5 azucena said:

My main hs job was working in the kitchen of a convent. Some days I'd help serve the nuns in the assisted living side. When I went away to college, two of them took turns mailing me various coupons from the paper along with notes and cards. Coupons were for fast food, toiletries, whatever they thought I might like. Made me smile on those mail days and I def used some of them.

College kids are spoiled now as I'll just hit send from Amazon lol. Got a taste for it from sending some of her key senior friends from last yr freshie gifts this fall.

This made me smile, the nuns sending you fast food coupons and clippings. I bet they loved it!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Rough start for me doing it all "on my own".

Thrusday involved rescuing a stray cat in bad shape, by Friday night I knew he needed immediate medical care. Got home well after 2am from ER vet, got to bed about 3:30am on the couch as the stray is isolating in the room my bed is in.
Friday morning, my 'Helpful" neighbor decided to shovel snow for me at 6:30 a.m. - even on porch, and I'm asleep on the couch and felt very violated and exposed! I asked him not to do that again and I will let him know if I need help. He seemed a bit offended, but really, I don't care! Did not get back to sleep after that.

So this cat seemed to be not feral, but it might just have been that he was on death's door! He seemed to be taking to me before the vet but now that the meds and fluids are kicking in, he is just hiding all the time. Not sure which way he will go but I will try to rehabilitate him or TNR and release back outside.

So friday and saturday were just a blur of fatigue and stress (spending nearly 1k on a cat that isn't even mine was a hard thing but I knew he was going to die in the cold snap in the condition he was in, and he was even worse than I suspected. Vet recommended overnight hospitalization for him, but we compromised on a long acting antibiotic shot, long acting pain reliever for the fever, and fluids before discharge. Hospitalization was going to be 2.3k+ to start - and anything they did while he was hospitalized would have been more).

The room he is in is disgusting now! Not understanding the cat box it seems, smells terrible and I can't all tell where he is peeing! This is my chosen charitable work, but it can be hard as I don't choose when big expenditures or intensive caretaking occur!

Got decent sleep last night, so want to be sure to use today to clean up everything but the patient's room, and then just do what I can in there. He is still a bit freaked out so don't want to get too involved with laundering bed linens and mopping, etc. Will give him a few days.

So for today -

New cleaning regime!

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Also - some may remember that I applied for a promotion sometime between thxgiving and xmas. Never heard anything and somewhat expected to come back after more than 2 weeks off to either an interview request or someone starting in the position. Nothing. and I just kind of forgot about it. Thursday as I was checking my calendar for Friday - there was an interview time requested in the calendar! accepted that, and was quite agitated Thrusday night about it all - should I try to prep for it? I just decided to let it lie and think of it in the morning as interveiw was at noon.

Then on Friday interview cancelled, will be this upcoming week.

All of that, plus the cold snap and I am stressed to the max!

It is cold enough my heating is struggling. I have 3 space heater going as well and was a bit afraid to go to sleep last night in case the boiler frizted out while I was sleeping! There are several storm windows I did not close and kicking myself! Way to late to try to get them closed it is -7F outside and we had rain right before the temp drop so they may well be frozed and I'd be there with the window open trying to get the storm window down for who knows how long and maybe not successful. I've decided to just try to get through it without opening the window and trying to shut the storms.

[snapdragon]

Rukh O'Rorke -- HUGS    

I feel the same way about the 16!! air vents that I have under my house. Most used to be broken and so the animals got in. Some had blocking material to help insulate the crawlspace. I got rid of all the blocking material when replacing the vents. "It doesn't get that cold out here on the coast." Boy am I mentally kicking myself these last few days. My new plan is to put blocking in about half later when the weather is good and just leave them in place.  

[Empire the P.A.]

I’ve got serious regret right now. I pulled everything out of my big closet and dusted/vacuumed it out. But now everything that was in there is taking up all the space in the bedroom and half the living room. I am weeding out all the old stuff that needs to get out, so have big piles of stuff that needs to be put in the car. I don’t want to do this anymore.
 

[snapdragon]

Hugs Empire the P.A. 

I am proud for getting the mail today. It's supposed to be almost 40 degrees! Going back outside earlier I am questioning that. 

I have tea seeping and need to think what is going to be for lunch and dinner because I just have no clue right now.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 14, 2024 15:01:19 GMT -5 Empire the P.A. said:

I’ve got serious regret right now. I pulled everything out of my big closet and dusted/vacuumed it out. But now everything that was in there is taking up all the space in the bedroom and half the living room. I am weeding out all the old stuff that needs to get out, so have big piles of stuff that needs to be put in the car. I don’t want to do this anymore.
 

Think about how much better you'll feel when it's all, purged, sorted, and organized

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

We have lovely weather today, so we did outside chores. We filled up the yard debris can (which is twice as big as the garbage can). We took down the plastic draping and the string lights for our outdoor room. I did a bit more set-up/organizing in the new amping trailer. That process gave me two baskets to remove from the trailer set up and put in  Miss Grandbaby's playroom--which meant I could toss the plastic food bins I'd been using. Between all of that, we've also filled up a regular (inside) trash bag of recyclable materials and put five more items in the donation bin. 

[Empire the P.A.]

Thanks snapdragon and Knee Deep. My closet is done so got that accomplished. Now about almost done with sorting and discarding everything that is not going back in the closet.
 

[debthaven]

The boiler is still working, and the house has warmed up! It's been two weeks of very cold temps for us. 

Rukh O'Rorke I'm sorry, that sounds difficult, and expensive. Fingers crossed for the promotion!

Well done Empire the P.A. ! I'm sure you'll be super happy once the Stuff is out of the house. 

Knee Deep in Water Chloe I envy your weather! It's still ridiculously cold here (for us).

I did bar at the theater today, but left before the party. DH has been working/running around like crazy, he really needs a break. I worry about him overdoing it. 

I go back to school on Tuesday ... I am NOT looking forward to it. This will be my last semester of regular classes. I know I've said that before, but this time I think it's true. 

[TheOtherMe]

It's cold for here, too.  I am seeing the names of schools rolling across the television screen.  

[finnime]

I've got the photography Stuff organized and partially put away. It will be split between the guest room closet, the office closet and the basement for the larger equipment. And I put away the ornaments and decorations for Christmas. Just need to take the tree down and the wreath. That will happen today.

I'm very impressed with your efforts, Empire the P.A. and Knee Deep in Water Chloe! 

[megaptera]

Jan 11, 2024 11:56:38 GMT -5 megaptera said:

Sharing my weekend to-do list with ya'll to keep myself accountable.

Scrub toilets and clean mirrors in two bathrooms. (I hate cleaning bathrooms so much, I gotta do it in tiny chunks, lol.)
Finish knitting project.
Clean out/organize laundry room closet. (This is huge, and has been on my to-do list for our entire 1.5 years of living here. I mean, the closet's not huge; it's actually pretty tiny. But the project will be huge. Ugh. Or maybe I'll just watch NFL instead.)

Have a great weekend everyone.

I got most of my weekend list done. As suspected, more NFL watching got done than closet cleaning (RIP Dallas Cowboys.)

Got our usual weekly shopping done too, along with all the folks doing cold-weather panic-shopping. :/
 
New list forthcoming.

Have a great week everyone.

[snapdragon]

Due to the heavy winds and crazy rain/wind combo over last week, I have someone coming out tomorrow to get me a estimate on 2 areas of roofing that need to be patched. There is no question I will pay it's just making sure it's safe enough to be on the roof and the weather conditions for the next few weeks. Looking at the forecast besides today there is rain for 10 days! Depending on 90% to 40% on which day.