DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 May 25 - 07:30 PM

The manager of my old apartment building and I have been in contact about my eventual move out, and all is going smoothly. We reached an agreement: I'm almost never there, and he will want to find a new tenant as soon as is practical. Therefore, I agreed that the manager could go ahead and start renovating the apartment while I am organizing the move out. In particular, the kitchen, which has gone unused for years in my absence.

I was there this morning, and the kitchen has experienced a major de-clutter: all the appliances and cabinets were gone. There were only the walls where you could see where the cabinets had been attached. And already, in the living room on the carpet, the new refrigerator and stove (range plus oven) were sitting and waiting while the new kitchen cabinets were to be installed.

There was only so much work I was able to do, as the cabinet contractors showed up with their truckful of cabinets while I was in the apartment sorting and discarding more stuff. And that is all right, time is on my side even if the management is in a hurry. I spoke cordially with the manager who was running around installing cabinets and appliances not only in my old apartment but in the apartment across the hall as well.

My next apartment, although it is so much smaller, looks much more welcoming with all its renovation done and everything spotless.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 25 - 12:25 AM

Good job! Though, technically, at the moment you have *three* places to live. ;-) It will feel good to pull all of the strands together into one home.

A friend is coming to visit around June 1 so I have until then to tidy the house. Last year she was here during the Mother's Day Skunk Assault; we all hope for a mellow visit this time.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 22 May 25 - 08:41 PM

Congratulations on the new home! Hope you take your time and get it set up just the way you want it. We know how much thought and work it took to make this happen.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 May 25 - 06:14 PM

Well, I'm officially a resident of the retirement community.
My bank account was decluttered of a substantial sum,
but it's done -- papers signed, keys handed over.

I'm still staying at the treatment center at this point,
and there's my old apartment that needs packing up and moving.
But I've secured my destination at last,
and I can make the moves in my own good time.

Tomorrow I drive back to my old apartment to sort and throw out some more/donate some more stuff.
It should be very different now that the major de-clutter
of furniture was done, one week ago.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 25 - 12:08 PM

Over a dozen years ago when the big reorganization of offices at my library started, a co-worker who had a lovely bank of windows gave his plants to people because he was being moved to the basement. He's still in the basement, and I visited with him and a couple of other friends yesterday. I reminded him about a cactus he gave me. It came home to live and has been here since. Repotted a couple of times, occasionally fertilized. I'm not particularly fond of it, but kept it going. I told him I'd bring it back. Since I'll be on campus again today I've boxed it to travel. He can take it to his house.

Yesterday when I arrived at the library the e-waste bin wasn't on the first floor (I thought it might have been moved up a floor because the basement access was blocked for construction this summer.) But after asking and looking, a former co-worker on the second floor and I found it - in the same place it always was, the basement stairwell outside the construction area. The building has one of those open stairs so we could look straight down to see it. It's just a silly story of spending time looking for something that was always in its original place.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 25 - 11:42 AM

Bad night's sleep, probably my own fault, I forgot to take my little collection of vitamins and supplements until later in the evening and one of them has green tea as the base. I did a couple of small 3am chores. Looking at the use-by dates on some old Rx bottles resulted in a half-dozen to drop off at the safe disposal bin at my pharmacy. This after I went into the sewing room to get out materials for a project I want to do this week, and realized I had stacks of stuff for three other projects. Have an idea, decide I'll do it, pick up some materials, they make it to the sewing studio then are forgotten. I have to spend more time in there again.

Today I'm thinning out the political email subscriptions; there are way too many. I need to spend less time fuming about events and move to other, healthier thoughts. Follow through on a few items (the 5 calls site can help with that - they're trustworthy and done the research so I don't need to read as much.) I'll still write and march, but whether the PMR has come back or I'm achy from gardening, it's time to pay attention to stress levels.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 25 - 06:16 PM

A couple of retired friends I worked with have the same interesting setup for personal services; we went to doctors and hair stylists and shopped near work, though we lived in the next town or the next county. Now as retirees we go back to those doctors or stylists or stores as part of our routines. Tomorrow is part of that, when I have a haircut, then I wend my way through town for a couple of other stops, including my old library, where there is a large e-waste bin. I put a bag of e-waste in the car for that stop.

I've loaded two cases of canning jars in the car for my daughter's friend who can use them. Quarts and half-pints will be exchanged the next time we have lunch together later in the week. It makes enough room in the pantry to stash a couple of small Igloo coolers that were sitting on the floor in the hall.

Today's trash pickup carried away a whole bunch of seedy weeds that I don't want spreading through the yard (they don't belong in the compost). Next pickup is on Thursday, so between now and then I'll pull more of the bad vines and stuff them into the can. This particular vine can spread by seed or by the roots so I don't want it taking over my compost. Spring yard cleanup continues between thunderstorms.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 25 - 12:42 PM

I agree with Charmion, that sounds like a problematic design on that hand vac. But it reminds me that I didn't buy the extra kit with my Ryobi hand vac (there is one that comes with all of the extras but it was out of stock, so I got the bare-bones one instead).

This morning I looked out to see what kind of trimmer the next door neighbor was using and I think it's the same as I just bought. He's a careful shopper so it feels like I made a good choice (I did compare reviews, but I didn't go outside of Home Depot to read them.)

In my files I keep receipts and warranties, and in my office closet I keep the boxes of various things. This weekend I decided I was tired of the saggy side on my phone's protective case and was all set to order another one when I got out the boxes from a couple of other cases I tried when I first bought the phone. The sturdy case it's in for the time being doesn't allow for wireless charging. The defunct one did, and when I looked at the box and the miles of folded warranty paper enclosed I was able to make out the tiny print English language section and realized I was about a week under the 2-year-warranty limit on the old one. And the application process wasn't particularly onerous, so a newer design Otterbox is on the way for the cost of postage. It's so rare that warranties actually work in my favor.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 19 May 25 - 11:41 AM

I'm still very, very tired, despite going to bed at nine-thirty last night and not getting up until eight -- very late for me. Maybe I should be more punctilious about taking the iron supplement that can't combine with any medication so I consistently forget it.

Patty, I feel your pain with the deliberately bad design of your hand vacuum -- especially the part about paying extra for a crevice tool. That's just mean and low-down.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 18 May 25 - 07:53 PM

More dust blowing around today and yesterday. Working in the rock room with its leaky windows, had to run the dustbuster on the windowsills and nearby objects. Speaking of which, the new one is awful, spewing exhaust out both sides so it's impossible to keep your face out of the exhaust. And they don't supply a crevice tool, you're supposed to buy one for $10, when it probably still costs 50 cents to extrude one, and no there were none at my usual thrift, perhaps everyone is scooping them up after getting rid of all the extra ones from the 90s. AND the wide mouth on the dust buster is just curved enough that it can't clean up corners. Can you say deliberately bad design? Make the product look sleek but not do the job people buy it for?

So at first I was distressed about sand in the door lock, but it basically worked its way down the first day and the lock has been working, but things are not sliding perfectly. I guess a shot of wd-40 is in order?

Made great headway today on getting set up to mount micro and thumbnail minerals in perky and micro boxes. Much organizing got done, and one mini-dresser that used to hold small articles of clothing in storage is now sheltering mounting equipment.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 18 May 25 - 04:10 PM

Pro tip, Stilly: When you empty a container, get rid of the container along with its contents. Don't give yourself permission to load it up again.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 25 - 11:25 AM

I have a cabinet Victrola and a bunch of lacquer records. Haven't played with it all in years, but they still play. Another thing the kids won't want.

I just noticed more of a post from Patty about returning home to dust on the porch and in the door lock. That's a new one! What did you do to clear the lock?

Yesterday I did some clearing in the closet; I realized I had more than a dozen pants hangers (the type that clamp on the legs and there is a hook that pulls them closed when placed on the rod). These are left from the last pass through to take out pairs of pants I was never going to wear. There is a small wire "Closet Maid" cabinet with three track drawers and a basket top, and I suspect I won't miss anything that is in it now. So - empty it and reassign the drawers to other stuff? Or take it out completely. It has several small backpacks I never use. Boots I don't wear. (Because I don't need them or because I never see them to remember to wear?)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 18 May 25 - 04:52 AM

Re records surviving, where books don't: Shellac 78s tend not to. Whenever the Sunday School in London broke an attendance record, they'd celebrate by having one of the children break a 78 over the head of the Church Warden; I never did think to ask whether him being bald was cause or effect.

When our family moved from there, my father left behind our stack of 78s, much to my distress. (They may still be in the loft.) Mind you, I'd long since broken the second half of the William Tell overture by sitting on it, so I could no longer confuse my younger brother into running in from the garden, thinking the Lone Ranger was on the telly.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 May 25 - 02:22 AM

the trouble with stuff going in & out of fashion is some items survive (LPs have been back again for a few years) but some get pulped (books)

When I was rehoming most of my 600+ CDs many went to community radio stations & many others went in small parcels (6 or so) to charity shops, spreading them around was better than overwhelming one shop!

sandra

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 25 - 10:21 PM

Sandra, I kept family antiques for years, lugging them around, storing them at times, and at this point I don't think the kids want any of them. Maybe in the next decade or two they'll come back into fashion.

The new trimmer arrived. It has an automatic feed (instead of a button you tap on the ground) and I think one battery will be enough to trim the front or the back. I need to figure out how often to start and stop it to keep enough string advancing so there's enough to do much of a job. I have several batteries already and this is a lot easier than staging 100' of electrical cord before getting started.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 May 25 - 07:13 PM

years after I moved & had to leave my cat with neighbours (who probably loved her to death cos they overfed her - poor starving pussy cat, meow, meow give me food - I told them not to listen to her!) I discovered some long-haired tabby fur when I pulled the cushions out of my old dining chairs ...

I wonder if the set still exists, I gave it to charity when I moved sometime later. We are going thru a period of yukky-brown-furniture-give-us-beautiful-modern-Ikea-stuff! Young tenants just toss everything on the street, the considerate ones? book a council pick-up - but a lot of good stuff goes into trucks that crush everything, or gets smashed by passing yahoos. Friends with vintage/antique pieces know their son-in-law doesn't like it, & anyway they are well set up after 12+ years of marriage, but their niece does like the family dresser!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 25 - 12:15 PM

Having that book (my Mom had a double boxed set of some version of the OED, it came with a little drawer and a magnifying glass) meant your household took books and reading seriously. I find I'm buying more books on paper than digital books, though it depends on the category. Nonfiction are on paper so I can mark them up, others are digital books to go through more quickly, and I get fiction audiobooks from the library.

Today was meant to be running around to a couple of events, but we are under a thunderstorm warning that includes the threat of beefy-sized hailstones. For those people who live near any of the points along the freeway where a street runs under all of the lanes, there are gently sloping sides to those underpasses and many people with vehicles parked on nearby streets drive to and park under the highway. There are sometimes 50-100 cars carefully valeted to the safe spot (there must be unspoken rules about where and how close to park, I'm always impressed with how many are tucked under there.) Today would be a day to find those parking skills on display. Since I own a garage and have always made a point to keep it clear enough so I can park in it, I'll leave the SUV inside. "Dimpled darling" is the term for a car hit by hail and it reduces the resale value. (We had a storm in 1995 with hailstones that broke size records. The Mayfest Storm hit during the week of the Fort Worth fundraiser and literally smashed a few cars with hail so the roof was lowered close to the level of the hood and trunk.)

The storm also struck the Fort Worth Mayfest – a local outdoor festival – pelting the roughly 10,000 people in attendance with softball-sized hail and resulting in over 60 hospitalizations.

So when the weather folks tell North Texans there is large hail forecast, we take it seriously. I was on the city park board at the time, and heard the report from the parks director about what that hail did to the huge glass greenhouse in the Botanic Gardens.

Moving on, and on a FYI note: I saw an ad yesterday and made note of the URL because they mentioned low-sulfite wines (none added, there is some that comes from the grapes themselves.) https://drinkavaline.com/. Considering they're organic and you can have it shipped to you, they seem quite reasonably priced. Actor Cameron Diaz is one of the owners. I also see a selection of them at a local organic grocery.

So, the day is dark and humid. This morning I took the rubber floor squeegee and got dog hair out of the kitchen and laundry room. It's a day for laundry, cleaning, and eBay listing.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 May 25 - 11:05 AM

BECAUSE!

it's the reason for many things in life

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 17 May 25 - 08:16 AM

Tuckered out today, and planning to do very little — a grocery run this morning, but otherwise zilch. This evening I’m going to a concert in London, but crucially not driving — I’m an invited passenger, oh bliss!

I put away all the books yesterday, a job that took hours because I’m such a neatnik. The library is so much reduced that the five remaining full-height IKEA Billy bookcases are only two-thirds full. This was deliberate, as there’s a good chance that, in my next abode, the big Victorian glass-fronted bookcase in the sitting room will have to become a china cabinet.

I am now a high-volume user of e-books and audiobooks. As I reloaded the shelves yesterday, I had a long think about the real books I have kept, and why they made the cut: in most cases, it’s entirely emotional. I can’t part with “Archie and Mehitabel” by Don Marquis, or the tattered collections of poetry that our Dad used to read aloud from when we were very small. “The Golden Trashery of Ogden Nashery” has almost disintegrated, but where else could I find “The Tale of Custard the Dragon”? And then there’s the art books — they don’t work at all in digital format, and I still have a lot of them.

But why do I still have jeezly great dictionaries when the OED is on line? Riddle me that!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 May 25 - 06:43 PM

This afternoon I pulled weeds for over an hour, stuffing them into the trash can and a large trash bag. They await being taken to the curb and hauled to the dump on Monday. The weeds are invasive and the seeds might not break down in the compost bin.

While working I visited the far back yard creek; it's lovely and full of life, even if I wouldn't eat any fish caught in it. (Unlike Rock Creek where RFK jr took a dip, this simply has street and yard runoff, no sewage discharged into it. It's also much larger than Rock Creek.) Over the years I've tossed lots of plants and bulbs onto the property so there are stands of iris, agave, prickly pear cactus, and some trees that squirrels or birds planted and I've trimmed around them so they can grow through the undergrowth. It's an urban version of a "secret garden" (did anyone else fall in love with that book as a child? When I moved into this house I had no idea that part of the property was like this because the fence in front of it was overgrown with vines and weeds.)

This spring I'm doing so much better than last, my work sessions are such that I plan to pace myself and come in after a few minutes if I need, but an hour or more passes and I haven't noticed and I'm fine continuing what I'm doing. The main requirement is having enough water to drink while I work. This is what a clear brain looks like, those statins were really awful. (And Trump is on them now - what does that tell you?)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 May 25 - 03:18 PM

The front yard is mowed, but as usual, I didn't then drag out the long cord and the electric trimmer to do the edges. That's usually saved for a separate day. But as I looked at the spot by the house where I have a soaker hose that a couple of times I've cut to pieces with the mower (mowing as close as I could - oops!) I've decided to try one of the battery trimmers available from Ryobi, since I have so many other of their devices now. I ordered the lightest one and am sorry it has only a single line, but I will compensate by ordering the refills with heavier line (I'll get a larger roll and refill these refills; they hope you'll use it once and throw it away but I never toss the spools, they're easy to reuse.) The easier I can make the job the more likely I am to do it. I have a gas trimmer to use on brush and beyond the back fence by the creek. If the battery one works out I'll rehome the electric trimmer.

A friend sent a link to an estate sale near her home. When I look through the dozens of photos of these sales at first I see things that might be useful, but then viewing more photos they have one of everything, or duplicates, and the accretion of tons of stuff that needs to be redistributed. All good stuff, but way too much of it. We are such packrats. (I am in awe of how Charmion and keberoxu and Patty can do the downsizing they have so far.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 May 25 - 06:40 AM

well done!!!!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 15 May 25 - 09:32 PM

A big day for me.

Marco has finished painting the library — oh, why, oh, why did I wait so long? — and it looks GREAT. Tomorrow, the bookcases go back against the wall and I load ‘em up.

The basement is well on its way to full recovery, and a large proportion of the clag I accumulated down there is gone, baby, gone (another load for the church sale left the house this morning).

Also, I did the laundry and put it all away.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 25 - 06:06 PM

MaJoC, the books that Charmion and I have been reading by Gary Taubes and others are not a substitute for going to see a doctor, but they do offer insight into the diseases caused by diet. In particular, sugar is associated with metabolic diseases (there is a cluster of them - including diabetes, gout, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis). Something to look into.

Recycling dropped off, and the items given by a friend have been bagged for donation to the teachers project at the end of the month, stored out of the way in the garage. Finishing up a couple of regular job things here to free up time to sew. A friend still wears the 3D Covid masks and likes the Pride pattern I had printed (before Joann's went out of business I tried to get another batch, but they had closed down the online bespoke fabric store already). He heads to New York every year for Pride events so I'll make him a couple more. I still have some of that fabric for these.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 15 May 25 - 03:40 PM

This morning I delivered an exceedingly-overdue Round Tuit* and went to the doctor's over my skin problems: the doctor did an "oh dear" when I showed her my left hand, but we agreed anything more aggressive would be counterproductive.

While I was there, I asked about my big toe, which was panful enough to keep me awake much of last night. Much to my disappointment, it turns out it's not a fractured bone: I've got gout. Didn't think I was rich enough to suffer that.

* Full disclosure: Herself got fed up at me, and was behind me all the way .... with a pitchfork.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 25 - 12:58 PM

I use a bullet journal (started in 2017, I'm in the second volume now) for the longer-range objectives, where the page facing the calendar days has the month's task list. There are a lot of things that keep getting moved from one month to another, but others do get completed. And on a third page is my month's record of activity; while I might check off things from the task list, I actually make a daily note of events, making it easier to find when things happened if I need to know in the future. My appointments, changing AC filters, when something was purchased or fixed, when the dogs went to the vet, etc. Other than not finishing all of the things I want to in a month, I do a pretty good job of keeping up with this. I've always had some kind of journal or day planner since my college days. This is more compact.

The journal has Future log pages with, in my case, five months per page and they extend at least into the next year. I can put down a six or 12 month appointments there and transfer it when I finally set up the given month in question. Those happen on the occasional blank pages that happen through the book and everything has notes of "continued from #page" to find the next or last occurrence. I just pushed the future log into spring 2026 and should do another for most of the rest of that year.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 15 May 25 - 12:26 PM

Thanks, Stilly, I'm going to study that. Similar to my 'orders of the day'. She keeps it manageable by restricting it to 6 tasks. That's a good idea. Some day I have 12 pile up but I instinctively know I'm not going to get to that many, so they get pushed to the next appropriate day.

And as good as a daily list is, I still need big fat divided notebooks with goals and objectives for various aspects of my life spelled out. I find that really needs to be updated about once a month, and it takes quality fresh-brain time to do. When I put it off too long, that's when things seem to bog down.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 25 - 11:27 AM

I like that philosophy, Patty! This morning I was picking up around here and had the thought that I know why people downsize - so they have less stuff to maintain and hopeful more time to enjoy what is there.

There is a list system I hunted down just now; I used it for a while last year then got out of the habit. The Ivy Lee Method I mentioned back in late 2023 (I had to search on my posts to find it again). The trouble there was it's too easy to put big things on the top that can't be finished in one day so you end up with the same list and smaller things pushed to the bottom. I wasn't using it correctly.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 15 May 25 - 10:51 AM

Methodically slogging through lists of to-dos. It seems to help if I lay out 'pressing orders of the day' for about 4 days in advance.

Yesterday was actually more fun, because rehearsing music and picking out some specimens for next weeks mineral meetup were actually on the list. Had a good time doing both things. And, it pushed me to do a lot of rearranging, labeling, organizing in the rock room.

It's been a year since I put in a bid for this place. While I've spent time hunting for minerals, researching them, going to shows and meetings, I can count on one hand the blocks of time that I've had to just enjoy putzing around with the collection, getting micro-mounts ready to mount. Having time and space to do this was a big reason to get this home base. One can get so overwhelmed with house 'stuff', obligations, and social events that some things you love can get pushed aside. But life is short, and clean floors cannot be the top priority!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 25 - 10:50 AM

It's always a good idea to unload the stuff you don't need before you move than have to get rid of it once you've packed and moved it to the new location (but that is the order in which a lot of my extras have been disposed of.) Good job!

The house has two heat pumps and last week I switched the programing from heat to cooling in the office area. This morning I moved the bigger system to cooling also. I suspect this summer I'll be replacing that one, it has lasted a very long time (the office system was replaced three years ago). This is a prediction I'd gladly have proven wrong.

The weekend has a chance of rain and cooler weather forecast, so I'll mow on Saturday. Today I need to dig a plant from a friend's back yard and get some more bags of free mulch. With all of the yard work and the chair battery replacement this week it is possible that my achy arms and thighs have to do with those activities. I'm paying close attention in case the PMR has returned. If so, I need to start treating it. The last thing I want to do is medicate with steroids if they aren't needed, hence the wait and see period.

I have a growing list of useful things to distribute. Not as efficient as Charmion taking it all to a church sale, but clearing space by recycling or sending stuff to new homes. Next week's hair appointment always includes a stop near the university where I worked, and this time I'll go into the library to drop items in the ewaste bin.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 May 25 - 07:41 AM

well done!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 15 May 25 - 07:16 AM

The three-bay storage shelving unit in the basement is now completely empty.

Two car-loads of useful stuff — most of it actually nice — have gone to the church for the variety sale already, and a third load is ready to go today once Marco the painter has arrived. The mason is due at 1300 hr to start removing the basement window.

And the lawn got mowed yesterday.

Things are looking up.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 14 May 25 - 07:38 PM

No, no, no, no, Maggie. The faulty basement window will be removed (think rotten tooth) and the hole will be closed — bricked up, to be precise. That has to be done inside the house. The next and more drastic part of the project involves digging along the foundation to clear the drainage tile and build a proper well in front of the surviving window, and waterproofing the outside of the concrete foundation. That will involve much Sturm und Drang, including taking up and relaying about half the patio.

All of it will be very expensive.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 May 25 - 07:38 PM

Well, the big de-clutter happened this morning.
It was to happen in early afternoon, but I got a phone call in the apartment
from the team: they were ready to come over right now,
did I want to start early? Sure, I'm ready for them.

Above all, they work FAST. Two of them, and
they were done in thirty minutes. They moved:
a bed, with mattress and box springs;
a futon;
a junked particle-board bookcase;
a large wooden chair;
a heavy wooden table;
a small table with a cast-iron pedestal;
and a file cabinet that was four drawers tall.
And then, one of them said, Anything else?
Well, since you asked, I said, take the typewriter.
So I let go of the typewriter, about which I was/am very sentimental,
have had the dear old thing for years. They took it away.

It hasn't entirely sunk in what all is gone from my life now.
The apartment certainly is a lot emptier than it was.

Meanwhile, the "closing" may happen next week.
I don't think "sale" is the right word for this arrangement.
The big amount is referred to as an "entrance fee."
What is more, if one chooses to move out of the community later,
most though not all of the "entrance fee" is returned to you.
So I think this is something other than a "sale".
It all seems to be happening so fast.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 25 - 07:06 PM

keberoxu, I hope the junk guys did the kind of job you were hoping for. Is the apartment closer to ready to close up?

This evening three quarts of frozen wild grape juice, two packages of standard canning lids and a case of jelly jars exited the house. She in return gave me a dozen of her home-raised hens' eggs - wow! I feel like the winner in this exchange!

Trash day tomorrow so I'll round up some of the vines I've pulled out of the front and wad them into the trashcan again. They spread so easily I don't want them getting started in the compost so those go to the dump.

Good news today from the friend with the wheelchair - she made a round trip a few blocks from her apartment to the post office and when she got home still had a full charge on the batteries. She thinks the company knew the first set were bad because they offered to replace them for free, it was the installation that was going to cost her. Excellent outcome for that good deed.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 25 - 09:59 PM

I hate to ask, I don't want to court disaster, but from the 15th to the 28th, what will be status of that window? Glass but not waterproofed? Not a hole into the basement for two weeks?

Good lunch with my daughter (who is in the middle of a virtual conference, so a face-to-face visit is nice after a morning on Zoom). I visited the friend downtown who is on housing assistance and who couldn't afford a $75 charge for a tech to change the batteries in her wheelchair. It isn't rocket science, and after about 20 minutes of shooshing off friendly cats in my face (one that wanted to eat my hair) the job was finished. I took her old batteries to a place that will recycle them. They weighed 45 pounds in the box - no wonder I kind of staggered across the parking lot.

I think I'll be able to send some of the excess canning jars to one of my daughter's friends (I described them at lunch, then sent follow-up photos of the cases this evening). I'll still have plenty for my uses.

Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot, then cool down the rest of the week. I watered this evening (and swatted a couple of mosquitoes) to prepare the plants to withstand ~ 104^o.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 13 May 25 - 07:12 PM

Lucas the foundation guy called today: the window-ectomy will be done the day after tomorrow (Thursday). The rest of the work -- waterproofing, the lion's share of the project -- can't start until 28 May, however, and that's only if the weather cooperates.

With the big push not starting for two more weeks, I asked Marco the painter to come back and abolish the puce-and-purple colour scheme in the library-cum-music room. As it happens, Stratford is due for three days of rain, starting today, and Marco's current contracts are all for exterior work, so he was thrilled to say yes, can he start tomorrow? So today I unloaded the bookcases (books are stacked all over the place) and cleared for action. I'm so glad I reduced the library as much as I did!

The first load of stuff for the church variety sale went out on Monday, and I have at least two more loads to go. I'm getting really ruthless now -- Edmund's matching portraits of Ulysses S Grant and Stonewall Jackson have left the building. Surely there's a Civil War buff in Stratford with a bit of bare wall and a taste for church rummage sales?

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 25 - 11:48 AM

Need to wash your computer desk? Just sneeze when you're setting down a full cup of hot tea. I have a few soggy notes but the electronics are fine. Ugg.

I contacted the woman who took some of my grape juice through our FB free group earlier this year and have offered some jelly jars and more juice; she'll be by this afternoon to pick them up. It was encouraging that she posted a photo of the new jelly on her FB page later in the day when she first got it - someone who wants to use what you're offering is always a good one to go back to. And she has chickens so some extra eggs in exchange.

Lunch (Mother's Day) with my daughter this week and helping a friend by replacing the batteries in her wheelchair; probably tomorrow. I have a place to take the used batteries; they'll weigh a lot. The company was going to charge her $75 for the tech (she has the replacements already), but as usual, there is a YouTube video and the procedure is exactly the same as changing out the big batteries in my home UPS systems.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 25 - 12:14 AM

I have a chair like the one you describe as Edmund's chair. Nicely contoured, solid, but it doesn't swivel, and found at a garage sale. It was an ex-library chair from a university library, according to the woman selling it. It sits at the foot of my bed and is the seat and barre I use for various exercises.

The work in the pantry area has resulted in clearing the three-shelf wire rack. Mine fit perfectly in the space between the wall and the side shelves, but with the boxes of jars at the back jutting out a bit beyond the back shelves it can't roll all of the way in. Now what else can it be used for? With this work done I can easily reach the shoulder-high back shelf of the pantry where my router and modem are situated.

Trashcan at the curb. Along with dried out vines and regular kitchen waste I was able to break up a few slats from a fence panel that I'd put down between the garden beds ages ago. It was flimsy and went without much of a struggle.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 May 25 - 01:48 PM

Charmion, in these United States, Stickley makes chairs like that.
I was in a Stickley showroom once and sat in such a chair.
I didn't take it home, but I sure wanted to.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 May 25 - 01:33 PM

I find I have a whole lot of canning jars after pulling them out of the pantry cupboard and off of the bottom of the shelves in the hall. Giving them away now would be silly because if I get a good crop of okra and tomatoes I'll be canning. I'm not making jelly now but I put my tomato sauce in the half-pint jars; those are the first to be offered if I decide I have way too many. And I need to see if I can find one place where all of the jars and boxes can go so I have a better idea of the number in the future.

There are things in the pantry that I don't use often, and there are things that I never use. Those things will come out today for donation. My baking sheets live in there and are used frequently, so if I take them off of the rolling shelves where will they live for easy access? I'm rethinking how I house the jar rings so I can see what I have. The boxes they're in now hide that information unless I pull them down to look, I could use the transparent Rubbermaid gallon containers for those. And there are a gazillion cardboard boxes canning jars came in because the rule of thumb is to store the jars in the box they came in. Time to weed them out.

This afternoon I'll set up the garden sprinkler since next Wednesday is forecast to hit 102^o. I'll need to get outside for some fresh air after all of the pantry dust.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 11 May 25 - 11:05 AM

Cohen & Cohen are still in business, but their inventory does not appear to have the sort of chair you're after. (I had a chair like you described that followed me from office to office and building to building as I changed jobs in Chatham.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 25 - 09:57 PM

This evening I stepped out at dusk to bundle the vines I had pulled and stuffed them into the trash can. A glowing firefly/lightning bug bopped around as I worked. The first of the season!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 25 - 07:20 PM

A summer of theater and fireflies doesn't a bad thing.

I've considered how the yard would respond if I have someone else mow on occasion. I have to set it up with edges or barriers so that beds don't get mowed. One of the obstacles to an outside mower is the line of soaker hoses along the south side of the house (I know they're in place so mostly avoid hitting them). One of these days I should have a sprinkler system installed (and if I have the foundation worked on I'll have to have such a system to keep it within warranty - but put it in before or after?)

On the potting bench I have seeds started for several crops, so I'll get those beds ready. One has been tilled a couple of times and when they're tall enough the okra goes in and that bed becomes a jungle (okra can grow 8-10 feet tall and each plant can be 4-6 feet across). Other areas, like where the cucumber is planted, will have more careful attention and I need to put in things for them to climb.

Tonight, more in the house. It's the Saturday night PBS mysteries and dramas that keep me interested and I can work while I watch.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 10 May 25 - 05:21 PM

Today, I finally broke out the bucket and scrubber to deal with the tiled floor in the kitchen, ground floor loo and entry area. While I was at it, I hauled the vacuum cleaner downstairs and tackled the sitting room. As usual, the quantity of loose cat hair had to be seen to be believed — and it gets everywhere.

The plastic upholstery on my office chair is perished after some thirty years of use, and it lately began shedding nasty black shreds all over the study floor. So today I hauled it downstairs (backwards so as to avoid risking my neck) and into the garage to await the next heavy-goods trash day. I don’t want to replace it until after the move, so I’ll make do with Edmund’s old bentwood straight chair for the next few months. I’d like to replace it with an old-fashioned oak swivel chair, the kind with a carved seat and no upholstery, but I’ll be lucky to find one of those in decent shape. Every furniture maker in Ontario (and there used to be dozens) churned them out for decades, but they were heavily used and are now very démodé.

So far, I have left the lawn alone, hoping to give the bugs and butterflies a fighting chance, but it’s getting noticeably shaggy — time to whip up the neighbour kid to start mowing.

I had hoped to have the house listed if not sold by now, but I’m still waiting on Lucas the foundation guy, who says he might be able to give me a start date next week. Note that he won’t be ready to start; just ready to give me a date. That means I’ll be in Stratford for a while yet, so I might as well buy myself some theatre tickets and look forward to summer evenings on the porch watching the fireflies.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 25 - 12:08 PM

This is the US Postal Employees' food drive collection day so I put a bag of canned and non-perishable bagged goods on the porch, and in the process of poking around the pantry shelves I found a number of way-expired jars. The contents of three jelly jars were stirred into a bucket of water that was sloshed around the base of the tomatoes in the garden (the sugar stimulates the biological activity in the soil). Other things can go into the compost.

I started mowing the back yard last night and I'll finish this afternoon. I have to take the trimmer out front and knock down more vines and use the Hori Hori knife to trimming out the vines under the Salvia greggii (it also makes a great weapon). I always joke to the neighbors that one of these days the village garden club may invent a "most improved" sign to award me one of these months.

I realize I'm probably setting up at this house the same kind of thing my friend who is moving soon is encountering now; I have a lot of specialized plants that if/when I ever sell, the realtor will want managed or gone. I'll just have to try to sell to another gardener.

After mowing I need to tackle the cluttered horizontal surfaces, flatten cardboard boxes, and get out that Ryobi scrubber to get the muddy prints up in the den.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 May 25 - 07:51 PM

html or ascii code?, source codes?- shudder!!!!

sandra (bear of small brain)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 May 25 - 06:31 PM

Good job on scheduling the declutter, keberoxu! Sandra, there are a few symbols you can leave on the Mudcat pages if you use html or ascii code. And if you look around there are lots of html practice threads. They started out with people working on the code they needed to make music appear correctly in this and other sites, but of course it evolved into
silly stuff like marquee messages.
(More information here at W3C and if you look at the source code on this old JohnInKansas post you'll get all sorts of goodies. Scroll the entire thread for more.)

Over the course of three days I paced myself to scrape the mounded lines of grass out of all of the cracks in the driveway. There are a few pots ready for veggie seeds and some larger pots sitting in place already that I'll stir in some fresh soil then drop in old packages of flower seeds to see if anything grows. I may mow a bit of the back yard this evening. Lots of yard work to do around here.

Got a call from the camera store - they received the box I sent and can buy some but not all of it. They don't buy things that need repair, but did tell me what the issues were, so those pieces are being returned and I'll list on eBay for parts or repair and state what work they need. I looked at YouTube, all of these can be repaired by someone who wants to take the time and the gear is otherwise in great shape.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 May 25 - 05:52 PM

well done - gold star, pat on the back & Happy Dance!!

sandra (some folk send emojis but I have a few screenshots I add to emails - drawing of a smiling face with a hand patting it's back, a big gold star & Snoopy & Woodstock)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 May 25 - 03:56 PM

Made some decluttering headway today;
the cartons of books were delivered,
sorting started right away, and I took three bags of books to the shop.

Even more momentous:
I made a reservation for next Wednesday
for 1-800-GOT-JUNK to come to my apartment building and
help me downsize by taking away the furniture that I can't fit
into my next apartment.
I was scared to call and make that reservation, but I did it.
That's less than a week away.