Wonderful what an impending (annual) MIL visit does each year to spark and assess decluts. Caps ahead for emphasis-- too busy to HTML! :~)

THIS year really shows the progress in ways I might not have discerned till today. The ONLY stuff getting packed up to "hide" is the last batch of upstairs-office WORKING materials. It goes to the room where it can WORK, that is well setup to receive it. Heck, the whole upstairs is clean and neat, and usually stays that way.

AND-- this is REALLY astounding-- the knick-knacks going upstairs to grace an area of Hardi's (a few others already went up to MudDorm for same purpose).... will pave the way.... to...... [happyshouting] PAINT OUT THE BIRD WALLPAPER in the living room. YEP! (Past visitors will understand THAT one!)

How?!?!?!?! A young man looking for work and a little help learning HOW to work for pay is gonna paint me up right!

The other GREAT news---!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-- is that THIS year, SUSAN is doing the cleaning, not Hardi. GIRL-cleaning. And it reminds me of a goal I recommend you other declutterers think about-- do you want it all to "look better," or do you want it to be [insert vision of choice]? I'm well enough-- I want it to be CLEAN. And pretty. And it is amazing how much cleaning can be done from a chair!!! (I did pretty, but I couldn't dso "clean.")

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Another old goal reaching completion. The first of two chainlink dog pens will be done by Saturday. It already looks like a fence, and will be ready for doggies by Sat.

It adjoins an old brick smokehouse (4' x 9') that holds an easy chair for me and will hold pallets I've been saving for the doggies to lie upon on cold days. Under the pallets is the turkey-litter and shavings from the turkeys we raised 10 years ago. The dirt from digging the post-holes and a trench to sink the fence underground-- that will fill my container-gardening pots in the spring!!! It turns out this property has topsoil we never dreamed of, and my helper is a quick digging musclemanling.

That pen will be their summer vacay pen so housesitters will no longer be required and access to house will no longer be necessary for the annual dogsitter. YAY! A spare pen away from the house, and I am well enough to put them OUT there.

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The young-man-learning will do the larger pen adjoining the kitchen after that, and the dust-reducing gravel is on order. That pen is already opened up for me to able to work in there with him, and get in on a regular basis to de-poop it.

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Keep your eye on the ball, and you can hit it instead of it hitting YOU. As NHL goalies know-- you just have to let it come to you.

~Susan