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Post by dtesposito on Jul 19, 2015 21:35:33 GMT -5
Diane, there are many people here dealing with old paper--it sounds like you're doing okay with letting a lot of it go, though. It's just time consuming because each piece requires a decision!
Phoenixcat, great start! Are you hanging these things in the living room?
I did my stretching, 20 more minutes on my book job and I have a couple of small decluttering things to add to my list.
1 Stretching Done every day so far except for one.
2 Book Job 9 hours 30 minutes out of 10 hours.
3 Summer Clothing Nothing done on this: still to do are altering 2 pair of jeans (already purchased) and sewing the sleeves on a few scrub tops.
4 Blinds DONE! 2 finished out of 2 that I said I would do. I might actually try to do more since there's more than a month left in this challenge.
5 Further decluttering
Dining Room: Got rid of contents of old trunk, trunk still in the room but will go down to storage. Got rid of one long-term pile of books from DR table. Got rid of one long-term pile of magazines and papers from the DR table. Added a basket to the DR table to hold some odds and ends so they look much neater.
Living Room: Got rid of one long-term pile of books on main desk.
Diane
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Post by angela on Jul 20, 2015 0:55:52 GMT -5
See that bit of floor? The goat trail in the doom room is restored!
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Post by Diane on Jul 20, 2015 0:56:58 GMT -5
Diane, excellent progress! Thanks for the encouragement. Phoenixcat, I'm impressed with your accomplishments this weekend. That's a major breakthrough!
I'm pleased to report that I made a dent this weekend. I finished going through the one bin of paperwork. I shredded (emptying our large shredder twice), I recycled (half a garbage bag full), I tossed, I filed, and occasionally I stashed someplace else to decide on another day. I found a box of papers related to my subject of passion and could not decide. (This will require a different kind of decision making, than whether to dispose of old restaurant receipts from our 2009 vacation.) So I dumped all of those papers into the much sturdier, now empty plastic bin, and took the empty box to recycling.
This means that two empty bins and two cardboard boxes for recycling are now out of that closet!
And my daughter's birth certificate was found, rescued, and returned to the fire safe.
On another tack ... I also helped Mom clean out Dad's closet. This was emotional but necessary.
Very little in regular maintenance got done this weekend, and neither did the bills. I hope I can catch up with that stuff over the work week, in the evenings.
Your support really is a huge help.
Diane #2
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Post by angela on Jul 20, 2015 1:19:14 GMT -5
Hi phoenixcat, dtesposito, Diane, magda, and sparkle! Everyone is really doing great. I am so encouraged by reading of all this progress. It's energizing! dtesposito, I really like your goal list. I started to write one but as per my usual pattern, it got really long and too complicated. I barely have the mental energy to post at all after all my decision making and organizing. Not as many hours working today, I think 4 is all. Listed a couple more things for free on Craigslist and Freecycle. It's amazing what people won't take even for free! A bit of eBay research on some of my friend's things, set them aside in a separate box. A few things added to the general donation box, a few things added to the box of trash. Big project in downstairs Doom Room. S had a reloading table in there along with I think 5 boxes of supplies. I did some sorting on the front porch to make room for the table. Then moved things out of the way to get the table out so that is done. Moved the boxes and crates of supplies into the living room to go along with the rest of the reloading supplies. The now clear floor space got swept and the window got cleaned on the inside. Then moved the 5 green bins of Christmas stuff from the living room (where they had been sitting since last December). So I have clear floor space in the Doom room for sorting the miscellaneous in that room. Restored my goat trail so I can get into all the corners and things in that room, hooray! Clear floor space in the living room to put reloading supplies after I do inventory and pricing on the dining room table. Slide-puzzling at it's finest!
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Post by Diane on Jul 20, 2015 12:24:28 GMT -5
angela, kudos to you! That was a lot of physical work, and you hung in there and did it! I'm sure that getting the Christmas stuff to a better storage area and recreating your goat path was a huge psychological boost. I found Christmas wrap and tags in my weekend bin. It's kind of jarring in July!
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Post by dtesposito on Jul 20, 2015 22:22:40 GMT -5
Angela, is that a wood floor in that photo? If it is, I LOVE the dark wood! Do you have any leads on selling the expensive specialty stuff that you have? It seems like that would be the thing that frees up the most space for you.
Diane, I'm glad you found the birth certificate--I misplaced mine some time in the last few years and it never did turn up.
Well, I am finished with the 10 hours of book job--I did the last half hour today. Obviously I need to keep going with it, since it's an ongoing source of (a tiny bit of) income, but I finished my goal time so that's good.
I also did my stretching today.
I think at some point over the next few days I'm going to go around to rooms and see what pockets of clutter I can get rid of. Underneath my kitchen sink is horrendous, and it shows, because there's no cabinet or curtain or anything--that would be a good project. I need some kind of containers to put under there though, to hold the things I keep there--like dirty rags waiting to be washed. Other things off the top of my head are my "to be read next" cabinet in the hallway, which has ridiculously high stacks of books on it which will probably come down in an avalanche one of these days. And, I can go through the cabinet in the DR that has my dormant baking things in it, I know there are a few things there I can rid of, which will make storage room for something else.
Notice how I'm carefully avoiding sewing my jeans, which is a job I hate even more than washing blinds??
Diane
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Post by angela on Jul 21, 2015 15:42:35 GMT -5
Hi dtesposito! Yes that's the ancient wood floor. It's in terrible shape but much better than the layers and layers of old, soiled carpet, underpad, linoleum, subfloor, tar paper.. I have some people interested in the specialty hobby supplies. My job is to inventory and price the stuff. Now that I've cleared some floor space and the dining room table I have a place where I can do that activity. You're right, that would clear up a lot of floor space. Good job on your stretching. Looking forward to seeing what pockets of clutter you are able to excise.
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Post by dtesposito on Jul 21, 2015 20:52:05 GMT -5
I have some people interested in the specialty hobby supplies. My job is to inventory and price the stuff. Now that I've cleared some floor space and the dining room table I have a place where I can do that activity.
Oh good! Sometimes the work of finding out how to sell something is so hard that it feels better to just get rid of it. I hope you can get it inventoried now that you have the room.
Did my stretching today, that's it.
Diane
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Post by sparkle on Jul 22, 2015 0:06:26 GMT -5
I found somebody to help with the barn and took out a loan. Big day. I have August now to get it done.
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Post by angela on Jul 22, 2015 0:22:08 GMT -5
Congratulations on stretching dtesposito! sparkle!! Wow, I'm so excited for you! Well done stepping out and getting the help you need. It is very inspiring! ____________ Today my Mom and her husband came over and we worked outside in the carport. Mom cleaned S's car while her husband and I moved wood in the carport to make space to park the car. I also did a lot of raking, shoveling, and dumping wheelbarrows of dirty gravel across the road. So the car is clean, the battery is charged. It's parked under cover in the carport with a big tarp tied on. ____________ It's hard for me to make to-do lists and set goals and meet them. But here is a list of broad categories of the various projects I am working on. Decluttering my own excess possessions. Decluttering S's possessions. In day to day use spaces, restore function and cleanliness with reorganizing and deep cleaning. Declutter as I go. Set up the upstairs as the escape pod, bringing upstairs and storing things that I want to keep. Continue as best I can with the livestock activity and fiber and pelt business. S's estate paperwork. My own back paperwork as well as current paperwork needs. Some of these have some good progress made. Others, not at all.
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Post by dtesposito on Jul 22, 2015 6:47:46 GMT -5
Angela, it sounds like you had a very physically intensive day yesterday, I'm glad you had help. Are you keeping this additional car in case something happens to yours? Or is it something else you have to research and sell?
The main glaring extra thing in my apartment right now is that trunk, so I'm going to have to push ahead and try to get it into my storage room in the basement. I have from mid-afternoon on free today and it's a few degrees cooler than yesterday, so I think I'll have to try that later today. I also have to make my list of other extra things I can work on.
Diane
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Post by dtesposito on Jul 22, 2015 6:49:47 GMT -5
Sparkle, I just read the news in your blog about the contractor, excellent plan and still enough time left in the summer to get everything done!
And Angela, I meant to say that making a list of goals and not meeting them isn't bad as long as you've tried. It's better than not articulating any goals at all. If I had stopped making challenge lists because I didn't finish everything on my first list, that would have been my one and only challenge ever! I guess I'm just one of the people who love lists--if I don't have them, I spend all my time looking around wondering what it was that I meant to do.
Diane
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Post by angela on Jul 22, 2015 15:25:17 GMT -5
Hi dtesposito, I'm going to keep this car for a while. Having it available to use if and when my van dies or if it becomes clear that I won't be having the need of the van. I do need to go through the process of getting the title transferred to me so that is another project. As for goals, my biggest challenge is estimating time. I have never had any success knowing how long any given task with take. I've tried and tried. So I've just stopped saying, oh I'll get this done today or this week. It just doesn't happen. Also since I have unexpected things come up or my energy is running in low gear. So I have tried to focus on priorities so I know I've done the best I can to do the very most important thing in any given day. Every day, the critters get fed, watered, and cared for. I get fed, watered, bathed. Most days, I get daily basics done. But, right now, the stuff projects are kicking my butt.
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Post by dtesposito on Jul 22, 2015 21:36:56 GMT -5
Angela, I get what you mean, it's hard to know how long something will take when you have interruptions, and when your energy is not consistent. It does sound like you have a clear idea of the jobs you have to do, so that's the important thing. I like to give myself a deadline at least some of the time, because otherwise I just let things go on and on forever. I don't always make the deadline but at least I think about it and have more of a sense of urgency about the job. Today, I got rid of the trunk that I kept agonizing about! It's a big item to get out of my DR, and it's not in my storage unit, it's in the alley. I finally realized I should not keep the trunk. I think I knew all along I should not keep the trunk, but the separation just took a little while. I did my stretching today, and today (or yesterday?) I did make a list of decluttering jobs. It was interesting, because I kept looking around and saying..."Oh, that's temporary, I won't put that on the list". Then I had to make myself go back and start over, because it's all the temporary things that are causing the clutter now! So I have a list by room, I think I'll put it here tomorrow so I'm accountable. I'm not even counting my 2nd BR which is quite messy right now, because that's my work room, book wrapping table, extra storage, etc., so it never really looks totally neat. My bedroom also has a lot of book boxes in it, which will never look neat either, but I did write down my dresser because that can look neat when I work on it. Diane
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Post by angela on Jul 22, 2015 22:56:59 GMT -5
dtesposito! Good job on releasing that trunk! Just think how nice that space in your DR looks. _______________ I got the bag of wholesale wool stuffed and delivered to the drop-off location today. I'm not sure how many pounds exactly, probably around 80. Had a very nice visit with the shepherd who coordinates the wholesale delivery. I also got all of last year's wool and mohair out of the south room of the Little House and on tarps in the back yard. Most of the mohair will go into wholesale bags and sent to Texas in September. The wool is all my brown and gray wool and unfortunately, there isn't much dollar value to most of it. I'll make some into felt and will try to sell what I can online but much will need to go the dump. Dug out a goat trail in the north room of the Little House so maybe, hopefully, I can start getting some things gone from that building now too.
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