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BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009)
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Subject: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Jul 09 - 08:34 PM I had to look further than one day back for our De-Clutter thread, and realized it is July. Maybe monthly is still the way to go. I moved a big piece of furniture today, from the dining room into the front room. Consider this Intent to make a dent in the disorganized arrangement we've arrived at. Something gets shoved a little one direction, something else gets moved the other, and soon you have an impasse in the middle of the living room. On top of that, my son booby-trapped the dark hall with a vacuum cleaner that I'd left in his room after getting some of his cobwebs and spider webs from under bedroom furniture. I rarely raise my voice, but I was so startled when I tripped and knocked a frame off of the wall that I bellowed. He has school stuff spread around, and I'm attempting to get him to sort and file (or trash) before I do. He has notes on some papers that he needs them next year, but there may be others that fit the category and I want him to make that call. So, it's up to 100s again, after a couple of cool days. Time to turn my attention to indoor work. Here's the June-09 thread. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: freda underhill Date: 01 Jul 09 - 08:56 PM It's winter in Sydney, and I'm going to the Blue Mountains later this morning. I've been sorting clothes and passing them on to neighbours. yesterday I spent time dusting and polishing (with lavendar oil) a beautiful wooden chinese cabinet with folding doors, that fits 600 CDs and DVDs both in the cabinet and in the doors. I moved the bookshelf to another corner of the room, and moved the cabinet into the space where the bookshelf had been. This part of the room now looks more spacious, and I don't have piles of CDs lying around any more. :-D |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 01 Jul 09 - 11:48 PM I moved four small boxes off of the jewellery table for Rog to put out in storage. I took a before picture so I can see the difference when I get the rest of it cleaned up. Kids, eh? I got blindsided by my daughter, today, which kind of took the wind out of my sails. I guess they feel safe doing that to moms as we will still love them...but she may not get all of the heirlooms she's counting on!**bg** |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:03 AM Today I FINALLY found the shelf support plastic things for the simple and relatively inexpensive (but good-looking) CD shelf that I moved to the livingroom. I can now move all of my CDs together, the windfall from the garage sale, plus my own, plus the ones from my father that still aren't integrated into mine. I have kept my Dad's CDs separate because a lot of them are folk and song CDs that I want to find easily when people talk about those artists here at Mudcat. Anyway, I moved a trunk, as noted, but haven't done much with the space I cleared up when it left the dining room. That's for tomorrow. My son doesn't like the computer hutch he's using (pressboard from Walmart, donated by a neighbor, painted and modified for my kids), so we are in negotiations. I don't care for it either, but it takes up the least space and at least looks like furniture, of our various computer options. I may let him use a folding table (the ubiquitous tables with collapsing legs that seat 8 and look like they belong in lunchrooms) in that area and set his computer on a riser under it. It would give him more space for when he does his homework. I'm open to that change, if we can agree to where all of the junk he has stashed in the hutch goes. And no tape or pins on the walls. :) |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Dorothy Parshall Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:17 AM Something wonderful! I sorted out a box of books with which I could bear to part - herbs, gardening, Foxfire, alternative stuff. I wanted others to enjoy them. SO I took them to Transition Whidbey Potluck with a Purpose tonight (being/becoming a sustainable community) and the coordinator said, "Oh great, they'll be one of the raffle prizes!!" I cleared out a boxful of no longer needed by me books AND it helped raise funds for TW AND interested people will garner some of the wisdom from neat books. I felt gifted, myself. If all de-cluttering could be so beneficial!! Now, what can I do next? I already keep a box in the garage for the local thrift shop. Anything I can part with goes in it to raise funds for the food bank. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:32 AM Whidbey. You must be in my home state of Washington (I lived in West Seattle as a child, Everett until I went to college, with Lk. Whatcom for a summer residence many of those years, then Bellingham for WWU and in the Cascade mountains for various summer jobs). |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 02 Jul 09 - 09:43 AM I got rid of another box of (really nice) clothes to a friend's rummage sale. Otherwise the cats have been wild and knocked over a bunch more stuff I just don't have the energy to pick up. Oh well, I have a nice long weekend to try to make some real headway.. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Jul 09 - 01:50 PM I don't get an extra day since the holiday falls on a Saturday and I'm a state employee, but I'll probably take tomorrow off and join the rest of the world. :) Laundry, picking up, etc. De-cluttering the pocketbook paying bills. I hope to report progress around the house over the weekend. It's hot again, so I'll do more work indoors (if I'm smart. . . ) Lots of tomatoes to pick and I'll probably can a few pint jars this weekend just to get a little practice again. I'll be defrosting the big freezer so canning is better now. I want to preserve them at the peak of ripeness and before they start to go downhill. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 02 Jul 09 - 04:21 PM It's been unseasonably cool in the Great Lakes area. I even made a pot of coffee this morning. I went thru a box of craft supplies in the basement. The things that are good will go to the senior citizens center. They make craft items and sell them at their annual fundraiser. Also de-cluttered the freezer/fridge. Caught up on all of the laundry. Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 03 Jul 09 - 12:31 AM I am about half-way through what I wanted to do to the jewellery table. After scooting over the old PC, monitor and mouse and sorting through all of my bead boxes, putting all of the same colours in the same boxes, I tired out and quit. I think the old PC is going to have to move to my desk and then I will have the WHOLE library table for creative stuff. That will be fun and productive! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:23 PM Sounds like a good plan, Kat. Our village's 4th of July celebrations include a White Elephant sale to benefit restorations to the hall; a Historic Site. I'm taking advantage of my officially healed wrist and filling the car with everything I can give away without serious thought. It continues next weekend as well, so no telling what might walk out our door by then! maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 03 Jul 09 - 01:28 PM Sounds good, Maeve -- isn't it amazing how much easier it is to get rid of stuff when it goes to a good cause? |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 03 Jul 09 - 02:20 PM Yes that's true, and it's also much easier when I don't have weeks on end of tripping over the things I'm giving away. Out the door into the car...solid gone! maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 03 Jul 09 - 04:24 PM I've been decluttering an infestation of bag worms from an ornamental juniper in the side yard. About 1/3 of a bucket full of the wigglers. I realized it was a mess this morning, and when I looked around, realized the stress that allowed it to be attacked was the "too deep in the ground" problem. You buy a container plant and plant it at the level of the container dirt, or think you're doing it a favor by planting deeper, but you're not. The root swell must be exposed so the tree can breathe properly. Nurseries start trees in black pots in a couple of inches of dirt, and before they ship they dump in more inches so it doesn't look that the plant has no roots at all. And if you leave that, the tree won't grow well. Better to take it out of the pot, knock off all of the dirt, and spread the roots out and fill gently. Now I know (now Howard Garrett, the Dirt Doctor knows--he's been figuring this out over the last few years). Okay, it's effing-100 degrees or more out, I've done what I can (I dug it out several inches, and will spray bt on the plant once it cools off this evening, to kill any worms not yet in casings). Now to the house: I had an ah-ha moment yesterday (don't you just love those!) and am going to take all of the flat baking sheets out of the lower cupboard where they're hard to manage and always seem to end up slipping or sideways. They will go, one way or another, in the pantry shelving in the next room. I'd rather they be easy to reach and work with than just close to the stove. I can put some other useful cooking thing in the cupboard where they are now (or just spread out the stuff to one side that is kind of buried in there). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Jul 09 - 11:55 AM My sister called last night and we had a long talk, one that covered a lot of childhood stories and perception/misperceptions. I heard some of the "other side" of stories Mom told me. Interesting. And it seems that she is also de-cluttering. She had the benefit of our Aunt, Mom's sister, coming for a visit and taking a look at a family dresser (belonged to our grandfather, the sisters' father). "It's ugly. You should sell it." And that was it--permission granted from someone else who might have had fond feelings toward childhood furnishings. Seems she was able to unload a lot of furniture she'd been holding onto and even had in storage. It's helpful to have that insight! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: mouldy Date: 04 Jul 09 - 01:04 PM I've not done a lot lately, as I have been baby minding and turning one of my ponds into a baby-safe area, but I now have less than 2 weeks to clear room in the garage for my big settee, as Peter (my man who does) says he's coming in early August (at long last!) to do my floor. I am off for my annual camping expedition on 16th July! Provided the damp repairs work, and if I can ever afford to get all the work done, there's an outside chance I might get most of it done before Christmas! Andrea |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Jul 09 - 01:16 PM The Coleman cooler lives in the garage when not in use, so it's very hot right now. I've dumped in some ice to cool the inside, then I'll drain it and put cold packs in with the remaining cold items from the big freezer. I'm going to defrost it today. I found a couple of left-over packets of frozen tomatoes from last year; I'll try to do a better job of organizing the stuff in there this time. Meanwhile, I've been bringing in a couple of quarts of tomatoes a day this week and have bowls full in the fridge. Time to process a few and get started on my canning for the year. I haven't moved those baking pans yet, but I'll do it today. It means I'll reorganize the pantry shelves, and it's a good time to do it if I'm going to be putting canned goods in there. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 04 Jul 09 - 05:44 PM I went to all that trouble, last year, to dry some roma tomatoes and put them in bags in the freezer. I don't know why but they wound up tasting very odd, kind of bitter, so we threw them all away. The dehydrator is cluttering the top of the fridge, so I hope to use it later when the apricots and peaches come out. I shifted a few more things in the office yesterday. Still need more sleep, so that's it for now. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Jul 09 - 11:21 PM Freezer is finished and the contents replaced. I'd drawn d0wn the food over the last couple of months in preparation for this. It took about an hour and a half of rinsing and draining out the ice and cold water and it looks great. Hopefully this will do for another three years. :) CDs are mostly into the one set of shelves, though I still have a lot in my office that I should commingle with the rest so I can actually go to one room to find something, and not to two or three (there are probably some in the bedroom, also. . .) If I move the DVDs into the space where some of the CDs were then I can put a bunch of VCR tapes of things that aren't on DVD into the shelves where the DVDs were. Movies will be in a couple of rooms, but thise means I'm keeping the like media together. Laundry is out of the way. I need to work on the pantry shelves and arrange those baking pans so I have room to store canned tomatoes. We easily picked five pounds of tomatoes today, and have for the last several days. Kitchen needs some attention. Moonglow may be back this evening to spend the night (on their way back from a party). They came by earlier for a BLT. Good timing! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Jul 09 - 02:34 AM CDs from office moved to living room shelves, DVDs from front room moved to living room shelf where CDs used to be. They need to be double stacked in that bookcase, they are small compared to the space. I'll find a board or something to layer in there. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 05 Jul 09 - 06:09 AM Kat- you're busy working on the great declutterer of mind and body: Sleep. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Jul 09 - 01:38 PM Clearing out the fridge. Made the potato salad and next I'm getting ready to deal with garden tomatoes. Gotta go get some sturdy rubber gloves, though. My hands are still tender from whatever allergy and callous problem I've been having (I think the dish soap and the laundry soap when I handle wet laundry have conspired against me. I've worn out a couple of pairs of gloves this week (they were cheap). I'll go with the hypo-allergenic laundry detergent next time and keep wearing gloves for the time being). Tomatoes are acid, my hands would feel bad after a while. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 05 Jul 09 - 10:48 PM Are you using liquid hand soap? I was using it for a while, when my hands got itchy & sore. Finally went back to just plain (pure) bar soap that I got from a vendor at the farmer's market. Cleared my hands right up, and smells better too. I re-potted some of my houseplants into bigger pots. That got the dirt & pots off of the diningroom table. Kitchen countertops are getting cleared up as I consume the fruit/vegetables that I bought. There aren't as many raspberries as I expected; a lot never developed, but there's enough for me. Just not enough to make jelly. Oh, well. Saved myself a lot of work that way. Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:44 PM Thanks, maeve. I'm trying.:-) Today I scrubbed the toilet, picked up in general, and washed the week's dishes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: ragdall Date: 06 Jul 09 - 12:09 AM I deleted about 600 images from my hard drive, does that count? |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Jul 09 - 12:22 AM That will work! I hope you backed them up somewhere. I picked up asparagus the other day, and this evening sat down on the couch next to the old cat to finish eating them. He perked up, sniffed around, so I gave him a little piece. Pretty soon this old guy is down on the seat sniffing around on my plate. I picked a piece off for him and picked up the rest of my sprouts and finished them as he polished off the head and the juice. Interesting! He usually ever only wants one taste of a food, he likes his dry stuff. I've been trying to reduce the number of soaps I use all around. I hadn't thought about the liquid hand soap, but yes, I have some in the kitchen. I think the original culprit was Dawn dishwashing liquid. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: ragdall Date: 06 Jul 09 - 01:09 AM SRS, No, I deleted them to reduce the clutter on my drive. What an interesting kitty you have! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Jul 09 - 09:55 AM He's a cranky lonely old Siamese mix. His companion died in January, but I don't want to get another cat, so we lump it and he scolds us about missing her. It's not like they did that much stuff together, and she would rarely let him groom her, but they had this kitty radar--if one was in the room (she used to sleep on my bed a lot) I'd hear a couple of little low-level cat chirps as they asked and answered some question like "you here?" "yup." I hate going to jury duty (tomorrow). I'm never selected, so it's a long morning (at least) of being told to do things, fill out things, sit here or there, read this, sign that. . . SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: GUEST,mg Date: 06 Jul 09 - 03:38 PM If you have one of those steamers you can defrost a freezer with great ease..just point it at the ice and it just vaporizes..doesn't drip or anything..you might have to move food around or out to clean but you can also clean with the steamer. I love them. mg |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: GUEST,Bizibod Date: 07 Jul 09 - 09:25 AM Well, made a small fortune a couple of weekends ago with a yard sale, and off-loaded at least 3 tea-chests full of assorted STUFF, plus hippy-dippy cast-offs and far-too-jolly knitwear. As a reward for my endeavours have decided to invest funds in one really nice piece of semi-precious and silver jewellery, and am now scratting through the house to weed out more unloved /unused/unwanted articles for a repeat performance! Saw a poster in a Derbyshire village where all residents, for a small fee payable to village funds , were encouraged to join in a Yard Sale Day where everyone "brings out their dead" and sets up stall at their own front gate.That plan is now being mooted in my neck of the woods with local church organising, advertising and drawing up map , and thus benefitting from modest stall fees. I am amazed( and bemusedly horrified ) at how much I have in the house that I can eject with never a twinge nor backward glance.( I only retrieved 3 items , and 1 of those is definitely going next time .) I am either getting more hard-hearted or more mercenary..... Or just mortified at the thought of someone else ever having to sort through my masses of STUFF! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 07 Jul 09 - 04:25 PM I think all of the above apply to several of us Bizibod. You reach an age when you realize stuff doesn't = people and tripping over and managing stuff you don't need is more work than it's worth. Back from jury duty. A little time is left in the day, so I'll do some cleaning around here. The kids are out of town with their dad for a week; the only one that lives at home still has been keeping me very busy for the last few weeks (class, work, various activities) so I'll enjoy the down time. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 08 Jul 09 - 03:32 PM Yuck alert: Had to de-clutter my driveway of a dead 'possum. My neighbor helped me get it into a trashbag, then into a box for the garbage. Them things is heavy. M |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Jul 09 - 11:55 PM The electricity has gone off twice now, wiping out things I was working on. I'll try sending this before it goes again. I did that work on the pantry area, moving my flat baking sheets and some shallow pans (cake pans, muffin tins, etc.) onto my pantry shelves. I don't have a cupboard with enough height to follow the Martha Stewart tip that gave me the idea: Sometimes a simple search doesn't work in a link after a while, but here are two attempts: A direct link to the web page and a link to the "print" page: http://tinyurl.com/m7rfpy. I'll move things around a bit, get them on the right shelf level eventually. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: LilyFestre Date: 09 Jul 09 - 10:31 AM The annual yard sale is coming up FAST! I spent all day yesterday pricing things, transporting stuff to the venue and setting it all out. I had 2 carloads yesterday and another one this morning! It sure is A LOT of work but it will help me maintain my yoga addiction, so it's all good! ;) Michelle |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Jul 09 - 11:14 AM Oooooo! Yard sale! We'll all be there . . . oh, wait, we already have clutter problems . . . never mind. ;-D I'm going to take a few days off. I have to draw them down by the end of August. I'll de-clutter my time sheet! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 09 Jul 09 - 01:17 PM I've cleared a little bit off of my desk this morning.:-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 09 - 01:14 AM I'm taking three days off (around the weekend) and hope to make some major headway around here. No kids to cart around, no short-order cooking, etc. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 09 - 05:30 PM The kitchen looks great after a concerted effort to clean, rearrange, toss, etc. Laundry is out on the line. I picked up some wide-mouth half-pint Mason jars, some for me and some for my friend who has been teaching me how to can. We'll be at it again soon. I need to take recycling over to the collection site, do a little shopping, post office, etc., but mostly I need to look around and see what I can de-clutter while I don't have a son here asking to be fed or driven someplace several times a day. Or complaining that my de-cluttering is somehow imposing on his space. :) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 11 Jul 09 - 05:01 PM I have to start canning today; before I could, you know how it goes. I had to completely empty out the dishwasher, clear out all of the counter space, find my stored jars in my pantry shelves and arrange them so I'll have someplace to put the new jars. Right now a lot of stuff is piled up on my dining room table. I'll work on that while the tomatoes are processing. A nice touch today, though: I have several of those new classical CDs in the player. I'm going with piano music this afternoon; Debussy, Ravel, Chopin, Beethoven. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: LilyFestre Date: 11 Jul 09 - 07:52 PM $80.00 made in the first hour today of the yard sale. I have NO idea what was made yesterday as I wasn't there. Since it's a multi-family sale, they keep track, figure it out and pay us next week. Trusting soul, I know (takes something pretty big for me not to trust someone). In any case, I didn't have as much at the yard sale as I had wanted to so I talked to the own of this HUGE EMPTY garage and she said we can all leave our stuff there until next month and I can be in charge of running it again. Cool beans...that means I can really get on it and get more stuff out of this house and out of storage! YAY! Michelle |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 11 Jul 09 - 10:42 PM All that work and got only five pints of tomatoes so far. The hot pack method means you cook them for five minutes, and a dutch-oven full becomes mostly liquid with some tomato. But I have the liquid for some kind of broth, if I can think of one. The kitchen looks good, I cleaned up after. Rest of the house is still the inside of a goat's stomach. Computer work this evening. Possibly I can make a dent in my eBay stuff. Or maybe I should move my son's computer stuff; he wants a table, not the computer hutch. He needs more surface area for work that is related to computer work but needs to be laid out (homework projects). SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 13 Jul 09 - 11:54 AM SRS, my Rog makes tomato juice from canned, packed tomatoes we buy at the store, until we get our own going more. That way we get it with no salt or as much as we want, plus any other kind of spices, etc. that we may want. You cannot find low-salt tomato juice in the stores. I've decluttered the top of my scanner which means I put some CDs away, as well as some papers. I am sending out a book requested at paperbackswap, so that's one more out of that box. Still working up my energy, but helped Rog to clean up the house too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Jul 09 - 02:39 PM I spoke with a friend who is my canning mentor--he says to process the juice next time I do some canning (after bringing to boil) because it will taste wonderful in broth, etc. I'm also drying the skins to powder--the vitamins in tomato skin are the best part of the fruit for you. A brainstorm about furniture this morning: I took my son's computer and accouterments off of the inexpensive hand-me-down computer hutch (painted so it looked nicer than the faux-wood finish) and put it on a simple larger table in the same spot. He wants the surface area for homework. But where to put the hutch, or to donate to Goodwill, etc? I can't reach my sewing stuff in the sun room, so I'm going to pull my sewing dresser (full of fabric) out of there and set up my daughter's old bedroom as a sewing room. I'll move in also my rolling sewing stand (it holds the machine inside when it is closed and has a couple of shelves) and probably a few more things. A lot of my sewing stuff is going to stay in the wide shallow sunroom cupboard in for now, but there is a big 30-cube cabinet in her room that I built for her stuff that will gradually get used for my sewing stuff. The hutch will move closer to the door out (no way it's going to a bedroom), so for the time being it will stay in the sun room. I need to put all of the pieces back on it to make it more attractive to the next user (the door over the computer space, the drawer, and I think there are a couple of other bits around here). I have my eBay stuff set up in there on top of the fabric dresser and I imagine I can stack my library boxes on top of the hutch just as well. The kids are back sometime tomorrow, so I'll see what I can accomplish in the next 24 hours before the backslide begins. :) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Jul 09 - 05:54 PM Partly there. The big pieces have been moved. Now I need to arrange the stuff in the rooms around them. It's so effing hot outside that it's difficult to do much of anything. Even just going out to the garage you break into a heavy sweat. The dogs are okay, lots of shade, water, even a wading pool, but I am tempted to bring them in for a while to lie on the tile. I just don't want to make it harder for them to tolerate the heat later. The vet said they should stay out all of the time if they're outdoor dogs. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 13 Jul 09 - 11:25 PM I made some progress in the "music/computer" room. Bought a 2-ftx4-ft folding table to serve as my desk. Two small rolling drawer units fit nicely under it. That means I was able to get rid of the card table I was using. Big improvement, but there are still 4 boxes of Irish books to dispose of somehow. I plan to make a list of the books and circulate it among my friends. I ought to be able to get rid of some that way. Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Jul 09 - 12:30 AM When they said it was up to 105 at about 5:30 I brought the dogs in for a while and we all stayed quiet and tried not to warm up anything any more than it already was. Supposed to be just about as hot again tomorrow. When I let them out, after about an hour, the sun had shifted behind the trees some and they were so happy to be out the ran around like crazy things and probably warmed right back up to where they had been. ;-) I made an appt tomorrow to see the nurse practitioner at my GP's office. I'm not going to let the poison ivy get so bad this time before I get something to treat it. Every year I get it a few times, as I did this weekend out picking grapes. It drives me nuts for a few weeks (at most). I actually tried spraying my dog's Rx on the stuff today--it seems to have helped. I guess if my GP can't help maybe it's time to refill my dog's Rx for her topical steroidal spray for her allergies. (I know, I know. But the vet uses some of this stuff on himself--the last ointment I got for the dog's sore toe, he said he uses it on himself and it works great. I need to find out more about this spray and if he uses it.) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 14 Jul 09 - 03:31 AM SRS- Poison ivy reactions are maddening. The only thing that helps me clear up a bad case is Burow's Solution, an astringent you make using Domeboro powder packets bought at the pharmacy. I've heard about a tablet form, too. Mix with water in the amount specified on the package and apply, using compresses. This effectively and gently dries the blisters as well as cooling the inflamed area which helps reduce itching. Jewelweed is a populal herbal remedy in many areas (Janie mentioned a good recipe in the Gardening thread), and an astringent tea made from sweetfern is another standby. The latter is now being marketed in dried form here in Maine and beyond. I hope you get some relief soon. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 14 Jul 09 - 12:39 PM Oh, I miss jewellweed. It is so pretty and it does help with such afflictions; my girls and I used it a lot. It is supposed to get to 100 here on Friday and Saturday. I am ready for it; my Rog put the a/c units in the office and bedroom windows. When it gets that hot, the old evaporative cooler can't cool things down very well as the water it circulates is bombarded by the sun and gets so warmed up. We will all be moving s-l-o-w-l-y. Take care SRS! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Jul 09 - 03:29 PM Got a shot in the butt, a packet of pills and a couple of bottles of lotion. Kat, I heard a fellow on one of the NPR talk shows one day talking about poison ivy. He was a biologist, talking about the physical/chemical aspects of things, and he calculated that a light amount of chlorine bleach in water should dry it up. I put a teaspoonful in about 3/4 cup of water to try it out on my arms to see if it makes a difference. I used a cotton swab to rub it on, but maybe a compress would be better. I don't know how I managed to get this so widespread, considering all of the covering (long pants, long sleeves, socks, gloves, etc.) Itches like hell. Thing is, with my dry hands, I finally found a can of bag balm and I'll use that on my hands and try to not dry them out any more with the Rx lotion. Nothing like gardening and getting back to nature, eh? I'll do some work around the house today. The kids are coming back tonight and it's still a mess. It is a rearranged mess, but still, a mess. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 14 Jul 09 - 03:39 PM There were fines if anyone knowingly put poison ivy in the trash where we lived in CT; the trashmen were covered head-to-toe and still got AND there was no burning of it, either, as it is very toxic that way, too. Vicious stuff! Glad you went in. I did the dishes this morning. Whoo-hoo! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Jul 09 - 01:12 AM I've been cooking and freezing spaghetti sauce today. Making room on my shelves for the canned tomatoes by using up a gallon can of tomatoes I bought for sauce before I started canning my own. I added fresh tomatoes to it, along with my home grown onions, peppers, and oregano. I have a couple of trays of frozen fried eggplant from last fall, so I'm going to use some as a layer in lasagne with this sauce for this week. I didn't want to fool with figuring out what recipe can be canned (with the right ingredients, amount of lemon juice, meat or no meat, etc.) so I'll just freeze instead. I decided to clear a few surfaces in the living room where donation clothes have piled up. I photographed clothes on the cutting board and filled a couple of bags for the Goodwill tomorrow. My son didn't protest the change of his computer work area (he requested it, but I did the job without him being here). After moving his stuff around I had more room to lay out the cutting board. I just came in from taking a shower out in the back yard. I have a shower set on a patio so if I'm working on a hot day I can get wet quickly if I need to. And it is also there so I can turn off the porch light and step into the complete privacy of a large back yard and bathe in the fresh air. Not particularly decadent, but it feels wonderful. Since the poison ivy itches in warm water, why not treat myself? How funny--Craig Ferguson just came on and said it is "National Nude Day." Well, it was for a little while. I just added another post to my blog, and I stuck one up linked to the Social Topics page a couple of days ago. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: GUEST,mg Date: 15 Jul 09 - 03:16 AM I vote for getting rid of the hutch..why keep a junky piece of furniture that you no longer use? And there is always some way to use something, but ...your call of course. mg |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 15 Jul 09 - 12:30 PM I like the idea of a shower on the patio in the fresh air! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jul 09 - 01:18 AM The shower was marvelous! The dogs sat at the edge of the patio and kept me company. And the hutch is actually a more efficient item in the sunroom than it was in the living room. But it's near the door and can be on the curb when I get tired of it. I dropped off two bags of clothing at Goodwill this morning, and when I got home I wrote up my donation form and printed and filed. This is the way I need to keep doing it. My canning friend is bringing over some equipment on Saturday morning. We're planning to pick grapes then bring them home and juice them, make jelly, and process them. My house has been a bit overrun by tomatoes. I have a staging area where they ripen on my window sill and I have a big tray for them to finish ripening before they go into the SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jul 09 - 03:27 PM Poison ivy is slowly clearing; at least it didn't go into the ballistic itchy hamburger stage. Son sorted stack of papers--good! All went in recycling. There are more to go, but we'll pace ourselves, one at a time. Anyone in the mood for a sauna? Come sit in my kitchen this evening while I can tomatoes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 16 Jul 09 - 09:51 PM Made muffins yesterday, so I got the ingredients off of the counter & back where they belong; they had been sitting out on a tray for a week or more. Had a couple for breakfast today, then put the rest in the freezer. Went grocery shopping and our local store had Stouffers' frozen entrees on sale, so I stocked up. I don't usually buy them, but this was an unusually good deal, and they'll keep. My friend snuck out of work early (he's self-employed) and we went to see the new Harry Potter movie, then out for dinner. Two loads of laundry done, and one more to do tomorrow. I've set aside the last week in July to do my canning. I'll do tomatoes, etc. first. By the time I'm done (if I have any energy left) free-stone peaches may be ready-- they ripen later than "cling" peaches. Need to by done by August 13, because I've scheduled my 2nd cataract surgery for then. Maryanne Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jul 09 - 10:06 PM My canning already started and will go in several stages. I had hoped to get one batch done tonight, but I had some beans going that would be in the way. I was out of garlic when I started them yesterday, so I put the incomplete batch into the fridge to finish this evening. I'm tired, canning is hard work, so I'll do that tomorrow. I'm keeping the kitchen surfaces relatively clear, ready to completely empty them to work each time I have to can. It's one of those things that you have to stage and have everything in it's place (in the right order) and work steadily. Makes for tired feet (at the very least) by the end of the session. It feels good to have them finished and gleaming on the pantry shelves, better than many other things I do around here. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 17 Jul 09 - 12:18 AM That's a lotta tah-may-ters!! How wonderful! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jul 09 - 10:48 AM It's amazing how happy people are when you take them a couple of these big ripe beauties! I'm saving the "perfect" ones for canning (aren't supposed to have cracks, growths, etc.) to keep the possibility of extra fungus or bacteria out of the finished product. But a few cracks in the top (from watering) are never refused--we all know you trim off the top and eat the rest! The street is being dug up out front, they've turned off the water for a few hours for a line connection. They're digging the hole with a front-end loader in a what that is shaking the house. As much thumping as digging and pouring the road surface and dirt beneath. It's like having a pile driver in the street. A friend is coming over tomorrow and we'll pick more grapes and make some jelly. Should be hot work, but it's always fun. I'm stocking up the freezer and pantry for the next few months. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: LilyFestre Date: 17 Jul 09 - 03:52 PM Results are in from the yard sale and I made myself $130.00. I'm pretty happy with that considering that most everything in the yard sale (of mine) was $1.00 or less. And because I didn't get everything in that I had hoped to (kinda lost my oomph after the adoption fall-through), the folks with the garage are going to let me run another sale next month! YAY! The stuff IS going to GO! Michelle |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jul 09 - 01:44 AM Good work on the garage sale. I need to pool my few things with someone else, I don't have enough here now for one. But I have been getting back to donating again. Took about $100 worth down to Goodwill this week. If I did that every couple of weeks, it would add up to real money on the tax return. The tomatoes are processing for a couple of more minutes. I treated myself to kicking back with one glass of a nice white wine, and will soon turn off the computer and the lights and let the jars cool overnight--and be ready to start over again first thing in the morning. We'll pick grapes, and make some jelly. My friend Dean is coming over early and bringing his steam juicer along--it is such a wonderful invention! I have strawberries in the freezer also, if we have time to do more than one batch. The sinks are clean, the counters clear. I've concentrated the ripening tomatoes to one side of the kitchen, and all of my canning supplies for tomorrow (thanks, Dad! He was a packrat, but he collected some really useful stuff, like all of these canning tools!) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jul 09 - 06:56 PM Another batch, this time tomato sauce, has finished and all of the lids popped. I've cut down a couple of the exhausted tomato plants in the yard and will put in some bedding plants I picked up during the week. Fall veggies! I'm finishing reading the first Harry Potter book and trying to get enough of a head start on the next one so my son and I don't have to perpetually share the same book. I had decided a couple of weeks ago to reread the series, and he decided to read the rest of it he hasn't had read to him (I read part of the fifth book before his sister took it to finish herself and he lost interest). Now he's reading on his own, but we have to keep track of each other's bookmarks. ;) Anyway, less de-cluttering, more reading today. At least it's something I can do while the tomatoes cook. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 19 Jul 09 - 12:00 AM You should be proud of your plentiful garden and what you do with it all to see you through the winter, Maggie. Reading about it reminds of my mom and the busy days we'd have of canning. I think i enjoyed it a lot more than she did! Rog moved the old computer with its monitor, keyboard, and mouse over to my desk this morning, so I can now clear off and rearrange the jewellery table and maybe actually get back into making stuff. Morgan is happy that he can now sit side-by-side with me and do *stuff* "his" computer. It was fun to do that with him, today. I only see him on weekends now, so it seems even more fun. Rog mowed half of the front yard before it go too dang hot, 102, today! I finally potted up some pinks my brother brought over a week ago. I also did the dishes Friday morning and decluttered our bank acct. paying bills.:-) Little by little, I am getting my strength back. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Jul 09 - 05:39 PM I had a glass of my homemade tomato juice this morning and it nearly knocked my socks off. What am amazing thing this is--so much more to the flavor than the store-bought stuff. Now I look at all of these tomatoes and think "I don't have enough to make as much juice as I want to!" This is ambrosia. Getting ready to make the first batch of mustang grape jelly. It's trying to storm in the area, the laundry is about dry, so I'll be bringing that in before I start cooking. Bread is made, rest of the laundry put away, house is kind of a mess, though. I found more toys leftover from old garage sales to photograph and take over to the Goodwill next week. I'll lay that out and get it taken care of soon, so I can keep some donation momentum going. Got a good start on it last week. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 19 Jul 09 - 08:42 PM I've been gone for 2 weeks, guys, as my brother called 7/5 to say my mother was failing. She went quietly and peacefully that night and I have been in New Jersey with family for 2 weeks. She has had Alzheimers for years and years without being at all herself so I'm actually glad she is no longer suffereing; losing her memory was very very hard on her. I came home to a house as destoryed by pissed off cats as you can get. I'm not going to worry about it tonight' I'm tempted to go out and see the new Harry Potter movie. I didn't even know it had opened. My Mom was a packrat to end all packrats. Same house for 55 years; at home with brother/son care for some time now. Every closet is just crammed with her stuff, as well as the attic and every other room in the house. She used to put wall hangings on top of each other, there was no room for them. We wanted to start clearing stuff out but my brother just was not ready for that so now he is there alone and I'm a little worried. Anyway, I am glad to be home and noyt anxious to tackle this huge mess. But with my mother's example firmlu in mind I am determined, as someone else noted, not to leave such a disaster for someone else to have to clean up. MA |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Jul 09 - 09:45 PM Maryann, I am sorry to read this. So many things--Alzheimer's makes all the rest of it more frustrating. Caring for someone who doesn't know you, can't do for themselves or you, can't be who you know they once were. And then there is the baggage. You have to ask yourself "what were they thinking?" What are we thinking, as we accumulate it, those of us who are now the oldest in our families. Good luck with all of that. Did your brother live with your mother? How many siblings are there, any aunts, uncles? We went through it all by hand, tacking those personal things that are always part of the distribution and de-cluttering of the household. Neither parent (they died six months apart) had any brothers or sisters to give anything to, there wasn't a way to spread it out through the family here (there were lots of cousins for the stuff from my great aunt's house in Connecticut, no such luck in Seattle). Remember: if you throw something away, YOU'RE NOT THROWING AWAY OR REJECTING YOUR MOTHER. It's hard to sort, everything might be useful, but use the time until your brother is ready to mentally prepare for it. Fingers crossed you don't have the same personalities in your family we had in ours. Enough said on that, though. Very busy day here. Two batches of grape jelly made. Had a swift deluge of a rain late in the afternoon, the yard will love that! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 20 Jul 09 - 12:06 AM Dear Maryanne, I am very sorry to hear about your mother's passing. I went through a similar experience-- my mother died in 2002 (at 92 years) after spending about 8 years in severe dementia. She was living with me, and needed 24/7 care. By the time she passed, I had already mourned her loss many times over. I thanked God for taking her, and let her go. You will face a mixture of emotions for a long while to come. Just take comfort in knowing that you've done the best you could for her. Do whatever you need to do, and don't worry about what you think other people will think. Love and prayers, Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Jul 09 - 12:15 AM I think that typo of mine was supposed to be "tackling." Syntax means nothing to spellcheck. I meant to say, there are people who work on estates and run auctions and sell on eBay, etc. If there is someone you trust to help you with some of that, the profits they get usually come as a percentage of the sales. In the long run, they'll probably finish faster and get you a higher price (even after their percentage) than you'll get doing it on your own. This comes from the wisdom of hindsight and watching how a couple of friends handled parental estates. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 20 Jul 09 - 09:54 AM Thanks all for your kind thoughts. I wcho Maire- in saying losing some who has had dementia is a release and not a tragedy. Yes, my brother had moved back in and taken care of both parents (Dad died 3 - 4 years ago). We have 2 remaining sisters; one an obsessive driven physician, one a near hopeless lush whom we had to work around the entire 2 weeks. Yes we are all hardheaded and stubborn. My mother has one surviving sister who is hale and hardy and kicks ass at age 88. My brother is negotiating to keep the house so there is no immediate rush to get everything out; we all just think he needs to get stuff out of there and make it his own house and not be constantly reminded of our mother. It was quite a scene. In addition to the one sister, whose car most of us agreed to disable if she tried to drive home (her husband refuses to do that from the other end), my brothers bulldog going into heat and having to be separated from her son (of course my brother kept a male puppy from her one litter), his 20 year old daughter riding in a car whose driver hit a cop directing traffic and there turned out to be pot paraphenalia in the car so the kids all got busted, his 18 year old daughter, we found out, had been busted for drunk and disorderly, and instead of sticking around decided to take her Dad's borrowed car on a 6 hour jaunt whereupon the overused engine blew up on the freewat halfway home, well I'm venting. Therre is a reason I live some distance away for a reason. My brother's two sons are angels. So is the lush's son. Go figure. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Jul 09 - 12:46 PM Keep good notes, change all of the names or you'll be sued, but keep notes. This is the kind of stuff novelists dream about. Good luck with it all, though. Listening to Terry Gross' Fresh Air this morning. Powerful program, two past interviews: Frank McCourt and Walter Cronkite. My glasses seem to be a little foggy. . . |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 20 Jul 09 - 11:31 PM Made a list of more books to go to the library. Trimmed the forsythia bush and cut back the raspberry branches (seaon is over, sorry to say). Dug up some of the junk daylilies that were coming back up. Also fixed a hole in the soaker hose for the flowerbed-- that sounded funny when I wrote it, but there was one big hole in addition to all the little holes. Finished the laundry. Made "sloppy joes" for supper. I put some eggs in a saucepan to hard-boil them, walked upstairs to get something & forgot about them, until they burned and set off the smokealarm. Oops. Won't be using that pan again. Had all the windows open & the fan on, to get the smell out of the house. Gotta close 'em overnight, because it's going to get chilly. We've had temps about 10 degrees (F) below normal around here, while everybody else is roasting. But I'm not complaining. Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Jul 09 - 12:16 AM At least I'm not the only one to do that. Good thing your smoke alarms are working! The kitchen is looking good and tomorrow I'm going to juice some strawberries and be ready to make jelly later in the week. I'll take the steam juicer back to the friend who loaned it on Wednesday, when we're meeting at a pot luck dinner of library employees who have craft and gardening things to swap. I'll be taking some iris roots and a few plants in pots and as much of the craft stuff from my closet that I know I'll never use (and the kids won't use). None of it junk--no point in loading that off at work, but things that may truly be useful to someone else. One of the women has an arrangement to donate our unwanted items to a shelter that uses craft things for kids. Means no one has to take their stuff back home if it wasn't wanted by the group at hand. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Jul 09 - 11:27 AM Another rain overnight. Truly amazing for this time of year. The dog had a taste of rainwater from her food bowl before I took a look but think we had between a half inch and an inch. (This is a very informal rain gauge--entirely dependent on the dogs not drinking out of them before I view the evidence!) This week I do need to order a couple of things on eBay and the best way to do that is simply sell something so I have enough in my paypal account. I think I'll do that this evening. This is de-cluttering with intent. :) My sewing room (was my daughter's room, now the guest room) needs to be rearranged, I think, to put the bed in a corner so there is more floor space for staging the sewing furniture. Watching my son work in the living room on his computer yesterday as he and a friend laid down tracks for a song they've written, I can also visualize him using the guest room for this work. It might be easier on the ears of the rest of the household. However, I couldn't visualize him keeping the room clean so if guests arrive they could sleep in there comfortably. I don't think we're quite ready for a separate studio for him yet. Clearly there are enough rooms in this house for the various things we want to do, I just have to figure out which is the best location for each activity. The way to give me the most freedom is to finally finish the wiring and simply wire every room for phone, data, and cable, so I can move stuff without having to think about what I can set up in that room. It isn't difficult, just tedious and means climbing around in the attic. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Jul 09 - 07:46 PM Juiced some strawberries; need more pectin to make jelly and jam. I'm going to also juice some tomatoes tonight and then pack up this steam juicer and prepare to take it, along with craft stuff, to work tomorrow. I've decided to take my little-old-lady shopping cart. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 21 Jul 09 - 10:33 PM I downloaded about 400 pix for my ex from my camera and another one he dropped off last night. Does that count for decluttering even though I now have two CDs and a spare camera sitting here waiting for him to pick up?;-) I think it's always a good idea to have the kids' computers out where the parents can monitor it, anyway? I am going to try to finish the jewellery table tomorrow. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Jul 09 - 02:01 AM The computer in the spare room would be monitored, same as it is now, but it would be a little less noisy in the rest of the house. Short bursts of electric guitar rock riffs all day long. . . oy! But I'm not moving it in there, at least, not yet. There's another room to consider also. Making headway on a design for a newsletter. Someone used to put it up using html, after a fashion, but I'm trying to give it a cohesive look and new pages for each article. The old one was a huge long jumble of stuff. One gets a little cross-eyed after a while. I lay down for a brief nap this afternoon and found myself, in my dream, examining the code page of the program on the screen. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 22 Jul 09 - 05:41 PM The fleas seem to have taken over while I was gone. I got some spray, much as I hate to use anything toxic, 'cause these bugs just gotta leave. Hot weather must have helped. Still decluttering peed on stuff. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Jul 09 - 11:52 PM Beneficial nematodes outside, diatomaceous earth inside, will go a long way to remove the fleas. I took stuff to the craft exchange, but alas, I brought home at least as much as I left there. Some good patterns for my daughter to add to her collection for her costume design work. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Darowyn Date: 23 Jul 09 - 04:04 AM We are expecting to move house within the next month, so the decluttering has been on an industrial scale at our house. When we were house hunting in Malvern, we only viewed this house out of curiosity, because we could not make sense of the description in the Agent's particulars. As we walked down the drive after the first viewing, we looked at eachother and said,"It's far too big for just the two of us. We'd be crazy to buy that place. Let's do it!" The result is that we have a lot of rooms for special purposes, Art Room, Gym, Library, Music Room etc. Now we are moving, and things have to go. One great thing around here is Freecycle. If you want to get rid of stuff, you advertise it on the Freecycle website and people who need it come and take it away. A dozen bits of unwanted furniture have gone that way. We have boxes of stuff to take to a Boot Sale, as soon as there is any prospect of a dry Saturday, and there have been several trips to the dump. Contrarily though, we have just bought a Conservatory suite- though the one thing we do not have here is a conservatory. But there is a magnificent one where we are going, and it was a very good price! The process continues. My garage/workshop is going to be the big challenge! Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 23 Jul 09 - 09:36 AM A friend just made $2000 on a yard sale. How did they do it?? I got bupkus. Their clothes sold, even the ones I gave them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 23 Jul 09 - 11:44 AM I don't think there is any science to explain such things, MAG>;-/ Dave, that sounds like heaven! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jul 09 - 12:17 PM What is a "conservatory suite" (rough guess--furniture)? And I'm also wondering what one does in a household conservatory? Is it like a library or a game room? I'd try calling it a "den" but that may not translate. $2000 at a garage sale? Wouldn't that be a treat! Cool morning again, I need to mow, but I walked the dogs and I have to work. I need to take a couple of days off, declutter my use-or-lose hours. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 23 Jul 09 - 12:24 PM I've always thought it was an attached, useful greenhouse, more of an inside tropical room with comfy furniture in which one may languish away the hours while listening to the humidity slowly slide off the fronds teasing the koi into snapping at the water in the fond with a quietly frolicking water fountain. There may also be canaries or other songbirds. Mark Twain's house in West Hartford, CT has a small one off his library, it is so lovely, just beautiful and very inviting. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jul 09 - 12:52 PM A room for effusive language? Do you think Mark Twain, of all people, would go for that? ;-D |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Darowyn Date: 24 Jul 09 - 04:11 AM "An inside tropical room with comfy furniture in which one may languish away the hours while listening to the humidity slowly slide off the fronds teasing the koi into snapping at the water in the pond with a quietly frolicking water fountain." Yes that is the idea. The Conservatory suite is a set of a two seater sofa, two chairs, a coffee table and a storage box the same size as the table, all made from bentwood and wickerwork (plus cushions). The sort of thing that you would see in old pictures of India in the time of the Raj, or on the porches of White settlers in Kenya. British weather being what it is, many of us prefer to sit on the porch indoors- hence the popularity of the conservatory. Ah well, it looks as if the boot sale is on for tomorrow. Time to go box up some 'only want to read once' books, sort out the trestle table etc. Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Jul 09 - 11:52 AM We had some of that wicker at my great aunt's estate (house in Connecticut). It sat in what we called the "sun room" or closed-in porch. A guy who said he knew her insisted she had promised that set to him. All of these years later I still think he was pulling a fast one. I processed a gallon (four quart jars) of tomato juice and five 1/2 pints of sauce last night. It went late into the evening, but allowed me to remove a couple of large containers from my fridge (again). I have a listing on eBay again and plan to add more this weekend. I recently switched to the new SharePoint software (replacement for FrontPage) and it's a pain in the ass to work in. I'm going to back up a step and continue to use FrontPage for my eBay listings. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Jul 09 - 12:42 PM I waited too late this morning to mow the yard (it's too hot now) but I'll move the truck out of the garage, set up the oscillating fan, and work in that shady area sorting donation toys for the Goodwill and cleaning the poison ivy oil off of any of the gardening tools I used for picking grapes in the last couple of weeks. Don't want a repeat of that misery! Anyway, a cleaned out garage would be a great product for the day. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Jul 09 - 01:05 PM I meant to note earlier--a friend from high school tracked me down on Facebook last week. He's just discovered it and has only a couple of friends listed so far. I'll be curious to see who he tracks down. I took a look through my Facebook page "through another's eyes," looking to see what he'll discover when he views my activities. Not a lot of comments by me (though I did add a few photos this morning) but friends from all over the world. Mudcat and one other online site are responsible for this--but it also makes me see the richness of the Mudcat community, in particular. We have such a great network and support system. I haven't been to most of the countries where these fellow music travelers live, but I know chances are good I'd have a place to stay, the offer of a good meal, a tour of the area, and a chance to hear their music if I were to visit. Same as we've been able to do for Mudcatters who have passed through Fort Worth. We are a very lucky group of people, to have discovered this site, and through it, each other. I hope my old high school friend is impressed not with where you all live, but that you're all out there! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Jul 09 - 07:57 PM A largish box of bagged up toys went to Goodwill this afternoon. They came out of a couple of boxes in the garage, and I swept up and rearranged some out there also. My friend stopped by for his juicer and food mill and I sent him off with a bonus of a couple of eggplants. I'll be putting my jars of juice and sauce in the pantry this evening, and probably using the counter space for making a batch of strawberry jelly tonight. I trimmed a few limbs on the vitex out front--it had some that were touching the roof line (ants can get into the house that way, though heaven knows there are many other routes they already use). I trimmed enough to get a little better head clearance in some of my pathways out front also. Last night I gave the dogs baths. They didn't smell bad, but it had been a while, and they smell real purty now. :) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 26 Jul 09 - 12:09 AM Goodness, you are so busy and productive, SRS! It all sounds so yummy! I decluttered my bookmark..deleted a bunch of them and filed the rest. Now I might actually USE them and find them when I want to! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Jul 09 - 12:16 PM I was up late trying to tell the difference between a "wide I" or "wide II" versus "narrow" 1928F United States Note (not a Federal Reserve Note). Seems to be in the size of the outer margin on the face, but until I find out for sure (and price accordingly) I'll list some of the others. I missed a patch of grass when mowing last night so I quick went over it this morning when I went out to get the paper, and dragged a big bin of tree branches down to the curb. It may be only a few, and easily cut, but it announces to the world that I got a little something done around here this weekend! :) Laundry, jelly, and an eggplant and lasagne casserole await my attention. I'm taking tomorrow off also. These four day weekends are wonderful! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:43 AM De-cluttering my fridge of various fresh ingredients--I used some of my home-made spaghetti sauce and a fresh from the garden eggplant and sauteed it then layered it into a lasagna. Baked for a good long time (until it bubbles) and you have one tasty dish! Who knew eggplant would be so good in there? I got a couple of more listings up on eBay. Not much interest so far, but this can change, it is early days yet. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Liz the Squeak Date: 27 Jul 09 - 06:34 AM Well, I finally got around to doing some sorting! I just shredded a whole stack of things that have been piling up since January... I never reaslised I get so much junk mail! But then, I'm stunned to realise this is the first bit of actual decluttering I've done for over a month. Life got in the way and I had no energy or incentive to do anything much more strenuous than opening the fridge door. This means the computer room has a floor again, I found the carpet (and incidentally, the source of that peculiar musty odour... why must cats puke under desks?) and managed to not only vacuum, but clean it too! The folding bed has been secured and placed in its home, the landing carpet cleaned and the pile of stuff for the loft moved to a location nearer the loft and thus more likely to prompt me to put it up there.... Now I need to put the card making stuff away and all will be fine! LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:08 PM Spent yesterday washing everything in sight; everything the cats ever lie on, all cecorative and functional pillows tossed in a hot dryer, two kinds of flea killer sprayed on every surface. I probably didn't get them all but at least I can sleep in my bed without getting bitten. two weeks! two weeks I was gone and they took over. went to bed at 7:30. I am as stunned as everyone else about Sandy Paton. Only spoke to him on the phone, buying stuff. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 27 Jul 09 - 01:54 PM I will never declutter my Folk Legacy albums. I'd like to announce the awakening and successful operation of a certain much anticipated washing machine. It took a garden hose hooked up in the cellar (innovation courtesy of my Truelove) and the washer is quietly humming in the kitchen. Washboards are to be hung decoratively and with gratitude on the wall; all three. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:03 PM Success, Maeve! You have many more good things to be doing with your time than slaving over a washboard! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 27 Jul 09 - 05:41 PM Thanks, SRS. I hope to take care of some of them in the months to come. m |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 28 Jul 09 - 05:16 PM The other day, I found a NY Times recipe for a simple fruit pie. I made it even simpler, by using a store-bought crust. Threw in some peaches & cherries (I pitted them) and sprinkled some nutmeg on the fruit (no extra sugar or water used). Covered the fruit with crust (no bottom crust) & sprinkled some cinnamon-sugar over the top & baked. Yum. Plan to make taco-chicken soup later this evening. Also shredded all of the branches in the back yard. I had given the little woodland creatures a chance to collect the rest of the raspberries before I shredded them. Made a list of books to take to the library (tax deduction) & loaded up the car to take a bunch of things to the church rummage sale tomorrow. Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 28 Jul 09 - 10:28 PM I'm going to have two books to add to my shelves soon. I was one of the Twitterers who responded to the call for short answers to a bunch of questions for The World According to Twitter by the New York Times tech columnist David Pogue (and his 500,000 Twitter followers). He received over 25,000 answers total. Each person with a response selected for the book is to receive a free copy of the book. It was actually a lot of fun; it's not that I sent so many responses (I usually sent one per question if I answered a question--I realized later some people were sending waves of responses to each question). However, my answers seemed to be choice--when he sent me the list of the 8 he wanted to use he remarked that he'd used so many of mine that he would send two books! :) Apparently they are being boxed at the printers for shipment to the stores soon, and he'll be sending out books to participants any time now. I think I can find the space for them. (He is going to sign these books--I think it comes down to 1,200 contributors--that's a lot of signing so it might take a little while!) Meanwhile, I'm getting back into the eBay swing of things. No watchers and few hits so far, but I have more things to list and I'll just plug along and see what happens. After a time away it seems to take a little while to attract viewers again, even with as much stuff that is listed at eBay. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Leadfingers Date: 29 Jul 09 - 09:06 AM 100 |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: katlaughing Date: 29 Jul 09 - 10:51 AM I am about to go declutter a sink full of dishes from my brother's b-day party this Sunday past.:-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:34 AM I've decluttered all that huge pile of clothing; clean and dry and folded, ready to go to the village Swap Shop this weekend. I pulled a 4' high stack of weeds from the north end of the veggie garden too, adding them to the big working compost pile (6' x 14'x 4'high). m |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Darowyn Date: 29 Jul 09 - 02:43 PM I spent the afternoon clearing out the storage spaces in the eaves of our loft rooms. Lots of rubbish, and of course, a few things that I thought were lost for ever. There's a Classic Mac computer with its little printer which I shall offer on Freecycle- after I've checked it for files that I ought not to give away. Not that there is anything scandalous- but I don't think that some old student records and assignments and reference letters are anybody's business any more. The dressing up box with the red velvet cassock and the rock star shirt have gone too- and the false beard! There were a pair of blue suede shoes and my old powder blue Italian racing boots with the holes in the toes where I'd ground them away on corners. I must have been fast in those days! I still have to decide what to do with the tall rack for audio kit. I don't think I'm ever going to need it- but you never know..... Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: MAG Date: 30 Jul 09 - 09:28 AM My house is still flea infested. I invested in Frontline, which is helping my poor Scamp, who was in bad shape. The others not so bad; they outside while I was gone and there was a population explosion. The borax on the rugs seems to be helping. I do not want to have to resort to flea bombs but with the state of things it might be the only way to go. Still washing furiously, MA |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Darowyn Date: 30 Jul 09 - 06:37 PM The Mac was on the Freecycle site for nearly a minute before someone asked for it. A nice couple who used to have one years ago. One more thing we don't have to pack. The man who came to give us an estimate for the house removal reckoned that we will need eighty boxes to get all out stuff in, and 100 metres of bubblewrap! Good Grief! Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 31 Jul 09 - 12:31 AM My computer from work has been de-cluttered of a bunch of files that hung every time I tried to update. I followed knowledge base instructions last night and the computer stopped opening programs I've been able to use to that point, but I awoke this morning having apparently mulled it over in my sleep. I proceeded to patch in a file that had been changed (took a copy from my other computer) and then this evening I was finally able to download the whole kit and caboodle. Last week I listed some currency on eBay and it has languished, not many looks, only one brief watcher. Then I looked back this evening and one I thought was least likely to sell has sold and another is under surveillance. That'll be a little something out of here by the weekend, I hope. Tonight I dropped my truck off at the dealer (fairly near here, so I took the dogs along and we walked home). This will de-clutter my bank account a lot, but it was due its 100,000 mile check over 6,000 miles ago. I decided I'd rather do this now than pay for a bigger repair when one of these things fails. That's always more expensive. Next week another day or two off, and I think that will take care of my use-or-lose days. I spent about 30 minutes outside this evening de-cluttering my porch of Junebugs. I was trying to photograph a big toad eating them, but when he decided I wasn't going to eat him, just throw food at him, he started grabbing them so quickly I couldn't get the shot off. I had to go into the back to get bugs around a different porch light to finally *maybe* get one shot of his tongue flashing out. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maire-aine Date: 31 Jul 09 - 11:36 PM I've got 2 bags of clothes ready to donate. They usually call about every other month & offer to pick it up, so I'll just wait to hear from them. I fixed the hem in a dress; it's been on my to-do list for months. I've noticed a lot of dampness in my basement, so I had a plumber out. I wanted to make sure it wasn't a problem with the water pipe coming in from the street. But the guy said the galvanized pipe should be replaced, and offered to do it for $2400. Yikes. But he said the dampness was just groundwater seeping in thru the walls. It's anybody's guess what it will cost to fix that. I feel like I've been re-building this house piece by piece. I had some sweet cherries that were getting very ripe, so I pitted them, put them in a jar, and poured brandy over them. That'll keep them. Yummy on ice cream. Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: GUEST,MAG at work` Date: 01 Aug 09 - 06:19 PM My Scamp is not himself at all. lethargic. I read up on Borax and it is supposed to be completely safe to leave on a couple of days. Anybody know if a bad flea infestation could do this? He has been VERY thirsty; I hope the fleas did not give him anemia. Any thoughts? |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: maeve Date: 01 Aug 09 - 06:25 PM MAG- How worrying! Some dogs react to flea poisons like that. Our little poodle became very ill. I immediately gave her another bath using plain shampoo and a careful rinse and she began to recover. It's a possibility, to consider. I hope your Scamp recovers soon. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Aug 09 - 08:16 PM Simply washing the dog and leaving the soap suds on for a few minutes will kill most of the fleas. I wouldn't use something like borax, but you could safely use diatomaceous earth (as long as it isn't the stuff intended for pool filters. Use the stuff intended for animal feed or gardening.) Looks like it's time for a new thread. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Aug 09 - 10:08 PM Here it is. |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: GUEST,storyteller Date: 02 Aug 09 - 05:30 PM Regarding FLEAS... MAG, they can apparently live for MONTHS and MONTHS without snacking on anything. Yuck! Nasty little buggers! My daughter used to be allergic to them (probably still is but she's out on her own now) and so a couple of times I HAD to resort to flea bombs. Just know, though, that if you use them you have to redo again (label will explain)in something like 10 days or 2 weeks to kill the eggs that DIDN'T DIE in the first blitz but hatched after it! Advantage is good, but it won't kill off the breeding population that you evidently have, just the ones that get on the cats themselves. Someone once told me that fleas are BORN pregnant; it wouldn't surprise me! |
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Subject: RE: BS: ANOTHER de-clutter thread (July 2009) From: GUEST,storyteller Date: 02 Aug 09 - 05:35 PM Can you imagine if fleas were as big as dogs? or humans! Maybe that's where vampire legends came from originally... prehistoric mega-fleas! Eeek! |
