BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 06:02 PM

know what? chilli is exceptionally good if you stir in a little green and blacks 70% cocoa dark chocolate...


yummy

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 06:22 PM

It's been a bit like Sherman marching thru Georgia, this month. October/November are always fully committed to diocesan ministry events, so September is always my month to do big projects. And this month it's been getting that attic room up to snuff to squeeze some money out of it. But I'm cleaning my way towards it as I go, bigtime.

Today I knocked out the laundry room "cleaning prep;" it's about 8 feet by 20 feet and now ready to vacuum, power-wash, and wet-vac up the water. That slate floor has not been really clean since our 2000 housefire filled it with ashes, and it's the mudroom and catbox room as well. It's also the main entrance to the house, and the only entrance in winter.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: kendall
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 08:04 PM

A little boy was sitting on the curb eating from a sack of candy bars. An old minister came by and asked what he was doing. Boy says, "I'm eating my lunch."
Old Minister said, "You won't live to the age of 80 eating that stuff."
Boy says, "My Grandad lived to the age of 91."
Minister says, "Ill bet he didn't do it by eating junk food."
Boy says, "No, he did it by minding his own damned business."

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: LilyFestre
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 08:39 PM

Oh Kendall....

   LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

:) Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 08:56 PM

I need a shower, I'm covered with dust and grit and who knows what else from in my son's room. I've been down on the floor sweeping under furniture before moving it, which allowed me to reach all of the floor areas with a mop. I will pack up some scattered supplies in boxes just to get them out of the way for changing out the table in there for a segment of an office work desk (think the wrap-around or L-shaped units they sell at Office Depot or Sam's Club). Shortly after I moved in here I was at a garage sale and found a desk with two main work spaces and a triangular corner piece. The two pieces have been used around the house and are about to get re-arranged.

I may also store one of the antique trunks in his room, use it for the television. It's a huge honker my neighbor gave us after her mother died in the nursing home. It's 36", a good size for the game players. Right now it sits on a chrome wire heavy duty rack that I can use someplace else.

Nothing is going away, he'll be able to poke through his stuff. I don't want him to think he's getting the bum's rush out. But it'll all be boxed and put on shelves. As with his sister's stuff, it is compressed so the room can have more grown up uses (such as visiting guests or for staging projects for the house, etc.)

It feels good outside, cool, still a little humid. Tomorrow might just be that first day that really feels like fall. It might have a nice fresh-mown grass smell to go with the weather. I know as soon as it cools I'm going to feel like cooking up a storm. I'll have to figure out how to do that and not make so much that it goes to waste. Not everything is suitable for the freezer.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 10:46 PM

Auction ended - after the fees and such I'll clear a tidy sum that will pay a couple of bills. I have to ship to Australia. Good practice for the upcoming Secret Santa Season, this overseas shipping! I really do enjoy that - it's such a great game to look forward to.

Box in my son's room to clear stuff off of the desk. There are unused shelves in his closet, so I should look to see what fits in there best, and work outward.

The laundry is all washed, dried, and folded. The kitchen table is almost clear, there isn't a lot on the island and it won't take too long to clear up after dinner (fried rice). I need to work on the formal dining table, that still has a lot of crystal glasses that need to go somewhere. I pulled them out of a trunk, the one that I think I'll put in my son's room - it's very sturdy, a WWI ordinance locker.

I vacuumed in my bedroom, under furniture and around areas where spiders and cobwebs have congregated. The mop and bucket are in the hall and I can do the bathrooms before I pour the wash water down the toilet. I need to put on the heavy rubber gloves and scrub the sinks in the kitchen, so I can leave it looking good for tomorrow morning.

I haven't gotten the skunk smell off of Cinnamon yet. I've been spraying enzymes on her two or three times a day. It'll take care of it pretty soon, but I'm not ready to let her come in and sleep in the house with that skunky forehead. :-/

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: mouldy
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 04:49 AM

There's a bit of a lull in the progress of the move at the moment, as the bank are playing "catch-up" on mortgage processing after the holiday period. My buyers have gone on holiday for a week, and I am waiting for my survey report on Church Street.

So - I started visualising my furniture and stuff in the much smaller space and came up sharp with the realisation that MY CHRISTMAS TREE IS TOO DAMN FAT FOR THE LIVING ROOM - or at least I think it is. It's a 6 foot bushy thing, and will take up far too much space. So it will have to be de-cluttered via an ad in the village post office window, methinks, and I will have to look at one of these newfangled "slimline" ones. (I bit the bullet and went from real to artificial 3 years ago. Now I've got to go even further.)

The chimney sweep is coming this morning, and then I think I will have to visit the loft and start to hoik the tree down the ladder. Maybe I'll go through the other decs and decide if I will be able to use them there. It's only September and I'm doing this? I must be feeling the pressure! I could have a look at some of the other stuff while I'm up there too, because I have a feeling I won't get much chance to store stuff in the loft when I move, unless the listing allows me to enlarge the VERY small original loft hatch!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 09:07 AM

Andrea, can you assemble the artificial tree minus its back set of branches (and thereby just move it closer to the wall), decorating only the front half? Or is there another room it can go in and show well?

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 09:25 AM

I am trying to declutter the lounge of one terracotta coloured sofa.

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 10:46 AM

Animaterra,

The day here is off to a great start.

<> The planned decluttered schedule (posted upthread) actually began life today; I went to bed thinking it would be just like that and actually got to sleep looking forward to it. I describe it as "began life" because the sched (rule of life) so totally reflects a life moving towards greater life-- across the board.

<> The major energy-outlay task of the month is DONE, and help to maintain it is on board. All the areas I worked so hard to make better (just tally the task's details tracked in my posts here!) are now at a point where weekly, focused attention is all they will need to keep them as are or better. They have subsided to NORMALIZED areas subject to the habit so well utilized this past year in upstairs routines I can now resume: "see a simple need, and simply do it as you pass by." Nothing "piles up" in an approach like that, and thus never needs to be decluttered.

<> The computer issues that precluded my doing this month's work in the ways some folks vainly insisted I "should" or "could" do them have been fixed; that supports not only the continuing income planning but the offCat commitments that supersede efforts here to control my behavior which, ultimately, have nothing to do with me. Your PM about the Light and what happens around it)-- SO TRUE. (That PM, as we discussed, is definitely going to my discernment committee. It looks to be a committee discerning two-- so your PM will also apply to the committee's talks with the other person.)

<> A correspondence in email with a landlady who has actual experience to share (instead judgement) is well underway.

<> I think I'm skipping the October meat sale that is either this week or comes next week-- MIL not coming this year wanting the special charred steak WE don't need to eat ANYway! :~)


A picky meds issue remains to address: the twice-daily Stupid Pill that (hopefully) brought my BP down from 225/175. A fasting test I need to do will, hopefully, happen tomorrow; that test (and the internist visit to follow, for results) will determine if I need to keep adjusting to the Stupid Pill or take something else. I'd hate to waste the month I spent adjusting to it halfway! ???
[shrug]

And I'm off and RUNNING! Thanks for your support and encouragement (ditto mouldy and mg and any others I missed)--

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 11:07 AM

Good luck with those medicines, Susan. They're very important.

Andrea, I had a similar thought about the tree - you have several rooms in that house, is there another one you can dedicate to the holiday for part of the year? (If you tried to put the tree in that tiny kitchen you'd have to use the branches to make a long wreath around the counter-top - but is there an extra living area?)

I have more ornaments than I need, and I have gradually thinned them out. My living room isn't decorated every year, sometimes I use garland and though it doesn't weigh much, it takes a couple of large boxes to store it properly. I suppose I should pull out all of it and decide what comes and goes. There are things my kids remember fondly that they may speak up for - but when will they make the move? Not likely any time soon.

I was able to compress the clutter in my son's room enough to take out a small stacking bin thing, and I'm working next on his computer table. I'll replace that with a smaller work area. My allergies are in full bloom today - not sure if it is his dust or the ragweed out in the creek. I'll be sure to keep the antihistamines going as I do this work.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: mouldy
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 12:56 PM

Unfortunately the branches are hinged on the trunk and don't come off. It may push up against the wall, but the weight of branches against the wall may make it unstable. I thought of the dining room, but it's a bit smaller. It might fit at the back of the hall, but that would block the understairs cupboard. I've fetched it down from the loft, and I'll perhaps put it up and measure the spread. It may not be such an impossible fit as I think. I think the problem I have it that the process has slowed just now, my daughter and her family are on holiday this week, so I haven't got Freya - and I am at a loose end. The weather's horrid and wet at the moment, and I can't get into the garden to sort that.

The chimney sweep rang to cancel - a "tummy bug" - he got nearly to my house and then rang me, saying he realised he needed to be rather close to "facilities". He's coming on Saturday now.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 02:31 PM

read up on celery for high blood pressure..works very well for some people I understand...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: LilyFestre
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 07:17 PM

1. Grocery Store, FOUR times. Don't ask.
2. Vaccuumed for my mom
3. Carried in all groceries and put them away.
4. Made a pot of cajun food (jumbolyia....killed the spelling, I know)
5. Made gingerbread
6. Did dishes

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Alice
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 08:49 PM

Exercise - walked around the neighborhood again this morning. Unusually warm weather here all of a sudden, in the '80s.

Gathered together more images and uploaded
click.



A.

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 09:06 PM

Whew! Productive evening! I ran to the post office to mail the box to Australia (eBay is making it easier and easier to mail overseas boxes now) and then ran by the grocery to pick up a few apples and some broccoli to go till payday. I have a long list to pick up after that, but the essentials were fresh fruit and veggies.

When I came back home it felt just perfect temperature-wise to mow. If I'd been spending time outdoors in quiet pursuits I'd have put on a long sleeved shirt (haven't wanted to do that since early May!). It was perfect for mowing, and when I came it in was the house that felt hot! :)

The front yard is mowed. I also went out with a spade fork and finally dislodged the little patch of native prickly pear I planted when I first moved in. Heavy rain last week and again this weekend made it an easy job. I had thought of turning that side of the yard into a cactus garden, but there is just too much rain in the area, it always filled up with grass even though I didn't water. And I took down a tree I had planted at the same time as the cactus that failed to thrive. Finally, I took another whorl off of the pine tree by the front walk--I want people to be able to see it clearly, not have a tree a burglar can hide behind.

The cactus are in the wheelbarrow and tomorrow I'll take it back and dump it on the "back 40" (feet, that is) overlooking the creek. Anything that will grow with deep roots is welcome back there to stabilize things. It's trees and vines now, the cactus is just another worker in the pack, and it will grow just fine in the shade.

I have to work on photos tonight, and see if I can finish and deliver them tomorrow. I'd have to head to that side of town anyway to get dog food, and drop off some old paint at the toxic waste depot.

Michelle, if you still have a lot of tomatoes from your garden, here's a recipe I stumbled upon over the weekend that I'm dying to try. I don't have a crop to speak of this year, so I'll hold onto the recipe, but see if you can resist this one!

Roasted tomato and garlic soup

MMmmmmmmm!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 09:13 PM

Lovely, Alice!

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: LilyFestre
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 09:46 PM

SRS,

   The soup looks WONDERFUL! I'm not sure we have that many tomatoes left in the garden (although who says I can't to the farmer's market?!?!) as Pete picked a bunch of tomatoes this morning for salads and sandwiches. We are finished canning them though as the Roma's are now gone. I think that tomorrow I'll be picking up another bushel or two of pairs at our favorite nearby orchard (both the pickin's and the people are GREAT).
   On a completely different note, having a baby in the house changes so many things. I just found myself asking Pete if he could watch the baby for an hour (on his next day off) so I can spend some time in our bedroom putting laundry away.....LOL...I want free time to put away our clothes....weird. Weird. Weird. I also need to rearrange Jeremiah's dresser again....getting rid of 90% of his summer clothes, keeping just a few things for Indian Summer days.
    I have so much fun dressing my baby. Today he was in little polar fleece pants, a long sleeved onsie, a sweater (made by one very wonderful Auntie Allison), a pumpkin hat and a blanket over his car seat made with love by Auntie Jacqui!!!! People at the grocery store are full of compliments....even the men!!! He is just so stinkin' CUTE!!!! :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 10:15 PM

You could reduce the recipe to a smaller amount and give it a try. The woman who runs this blog and some other cooking sites does a lot of canning, so the volume is there as a batch for the canner.

You're catching -- you've figured out that you have to sometimes schedule time when there's a baby in the house. I remember having trouble figuring out when I could even do something so simple as take a shower. It takes practice, and learning when they have times when they are safely tucked into the crib or play pen / play yard / whatever they call protective enclosures if they're still around any more.

On a kind of silly note: as I mowed this evening I realized my bra was kind of loose as I worked. I was thinking this is great, I've lost a little weight. But upon further consideration, I think the elastic is just shot and it's time to toss it. Darn! ;-)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 11:38 PM

That should have been "you're catching on".

In a fit of energy after my shower I decided to move the bed. Which of course meant moving the dresser, the wash stand, the lamp, and the table with the television. I found lots of dust (what a friend calls "someone coming or going").

The motivator, in addition to what I've said before about how I view the door from the bed, is having a lamp just inside the room to turn on, rather than walk carefully in the dark trying not to trip on the metal corner of the bed frame to reach the lamp. I often turn on the hall light and have to go back and turn it off once the room light is on (the ceiling light is usually off and flipping that switch turns on the ceiling fan - but that will change very soon!) The lamp is near the door now, and it's also one I can use to read with in bed.

This activity will confuse the heck out of the dogs next time they come in. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 03:13 AM

New sofa bed not arriving until Wednesday. The sofa maker's van is in for service. He has generously offered to deliver after 5.30 pm so I don't miss another day of work.

Old sofa to be assessed for worthiness to be donated to Farleigh hospice on Saturday. If they deem it too big, they will not take it away. I will try it on ebay for next to nothing reserve. If it still doesn't go then we will have to break it up to take to tip. Seems criminal because it still has loads of life left in it.

Have appointment with GP this morning to get blood pressure sorted per the cardiologist instruction. Watch this space. Wearing compression socks everyday has helped immensely with edema.

All DVDs and CDs are now stored in shelves in the spare room. Would like to paint the lounge walls from terracotta to nutmeg, but I don't have enough paint and can't carry cans of paint from shop. So I will have to live with the dark walls this winter.

Not finding the SADS lamp to be making any difference on the way I feel. Maybe later in the year it will be more effective.

One load of laundry going, after doc appt I will deep dust and vac the lounge (means moving everything).

Alice those pics are lovely. Maggie that soup looks wonderful.

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: mouldy
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 03:25 AM

Have lobbed out about half a dozen no longer required or worn pairs of shoes...4 to the bin and 2 to the charity shop.

I have decided to reassess the girth of the tree, given that my panic may be merely a product of frustration at the moment, given that there is a lull in the progress of the sale, and I am probably bored!

I've found a store that has some of the (now discontinued) range I got my sofabed from last year. I'm going to see if they have anything useful.

Dried a couple more trays of apple slices yesterday. There is no way I am going to ever use all the apples!

Andrea

ps - actually got on the scales this morning, and I have piled a stone back on since June. Not proud.

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: LilyFestre
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 10:42 AM

1. Laundry started
2. Pot roast and veggies in the crock pot
3. Big breakfast this morning, Red Pepper and Mozzarella Omelet, Side of Homefries (I know this doesn't sound very diet friendly but the cheese was minimal and the potatoes were boiled and then *fried* in Pam. Pointwise, it was 7 total including my skim milk!)
4. Baby fed, changed, loved, played with, read to and is now napping. I'm off to work in our bedroom on the mountain of clean clothes that need to be put away.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 11:07 AM

I had a pair of shoes that were for yard work and are finally so far gone that they are in the trash.

My neighbor from across the street and I were both out peering into the woods this morning, trying to figure out what the heavy equipment was that we could hear. Turns out the builder is finally picking up trash after years of letting it blow through the woods. Of course they're only picking up six feet back from the fence line. I am wearing a pair of capri pants, so came back and washed my legs because there is poison ivy in those woods. I walked carefully, but you can never be too careful with that stuff.

Good night's sleep - I like the furniture in the new locations. It's nice to have all of that dust up also. I washed a couple of small dusty rugs and they air-dried overnight.

My next door neighbor has had no phone service for several weeks and the AT&T folks can't seem to work it out. We were out poking around in the back yard on my other side, looking to see if there was one of those green phone stands. Nope. I'll look at some of the property tax maps, see if they show the utilities and the rights-of-way. We should be able to find the line. I wonder if they cut off his end of the old phone system before connecting him up to the new line they ran last spring (that we still don't have any access to, apparently).

These things will sort themselves out. And I'm enjoying any excuse to go outside on a lovely day like this. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: LilyFestre
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 02:05 PM

Seasonal baby clothing change-over foiled by a nap!!!! Sleep well Jeremiah!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Declutter & Accountability Sept 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 07:19 PM

Let's jump into October a little early. Leave behind the heat and light of September. Here's the new thread.

SRS