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Post by larataylor on Aug 15, 2020 10:33:42 GMT -5
I like the idea of expanding maintenance. And a shifting baseline. Something Tidy People do is set the house "to rights" once or twice a day. I can't set my house completely "to rights" in a day, or a week, or a month ... but areas can be set to rights, and the areas can expand.
I'm setting the kitchen to rights today
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Post by creativechaos on Aug 15, 2020 16:58:19 GMT -5
NewLifeToday, i love your list of accomplishments from Thursday and that you are definitely expanding your maintenance and that you got some nice cool air in the grocery and shopped for food for just you. WTG on stuff out for special trash pickup.
my manager tried to get me to put drain cleaner in the toilet - it hasn't flushed right for a year. i turned him down and he had even bought me a gallon of Drano. but this is safe? too bad, i returned it but maybe he would buy it for me again or it's cheap. how long do you let it sit in there?
larataylor, i love this - "putting your house to rights" - yes, expanding maintenance and putting to rights; those are good themes to work toward.
today i went to storage for at about 1.5 hrs. worked in the big unit, mainly just trying to excavate a path through there so i can start sorting. have several small boxes sorted that are going away. my hope is to designate an area for easy access that i can put all of the "going away" things together. i want to commit to at least an hr there, i'd like to say every day but for now i'll be happy with 3 or 4 times a week. i did get rid of an old phone modem, a big mosaic lamp base i started and knew i'd never finish, and a bag of trash. i also brought all the whole tiles i could find out back of the shed - those were from the very large mosaic neighborhood project i did several years ago - i brought those to the exchange and got two small boxes together to donate. i wish it could have been more but i'm happy with anything at this point.. as long as i keep creeping along, that's ok.
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Post by goldenthreads on Aug 15, 2020 17:12:28 GMT -5
my manager tried to get me to put drain cleaner in the toilet - it hasn't flushed right for a year. i turned him down and he had even bought me a gallon of Drano. but this is safe? too bad, i returned it but maybe he would buy it for me again or it's cheap. how long do you let it sit in there? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i wish it could have been more but i'm happy with anything at this point.. as long as i keep creeping along, that's ok. You're right. DO NOT PUT DRANO OR OTHER DRAIN CLEANERS IN A TOILET!!! Dangerous for you, and could corrode/melt/ruin the pipes and area around them. The chemical reaction produces a lot of heat. Making a path and a little sorting area in your storage unit sounds like a great idea. Keep up the good work. You are making headway.
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Post by creativechaos on Aug 16, 2020 23:46:58 GMT -5
goldenthreads, thanks for the encouragement. regarding the toilet, what would you recommend? Would CLR or some such lime/rust/scale remover do the trick further down below the bowl and in the pipes? i am so tired of having to flush many times... and i don't even put much paper in that toilet. doesn't matter, it refuses to flush things down.
i had another bout of work at storage, not much accomplished, mostly moving things around to make a path, put some like with like, piled empty boxes on a table so they are easy to access. put a few small items in a donation box. i put some of my garden deep trays up high since i don't use them that much. found my circular saw that i thought i had got rid of. need a lesson on using it - i'm afraid of power tools - i do everything by hand, the hard way.
also went to clothing consignment store, tried a lot on, none of it fit right. i made an appointment to bring some clothing in for next Friday. so glad they are taking some stuff again!
came home and got several things done - got the oilcloth down on the front balcony so both balconies are now more protected from second hand smoke coming through the decking, and both look nice. i wish now that i had gotten something different for the balcony out front; this is too much like what i had before, same green background and i find it kind of boring. oh well! too late now! money's spent and i'm going to live with it anyway. decided not to move ALL the plants that i had here before, back home or upstairs. some are at my big garden, some gerberas are downstairs in tiny garden. main thing is to keep the slugs and snails off of them, but they seem happier down there than they were up here.
did the dishes, made a healthy meal, stacked fabric boxes and bins together in LR, will do the same thing with papers - all in one area to sort. just have to figure out where.
it was hot today, the hottest day this year. did not do much else. it's cooling off nicely so i may rally before bed and do some more.
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Post by larataylor on Aug 17, 2020 9:36:48 GMT -5
creativechaos - I'm interested in the toilet question also. I have one that needs multiple flushes. I'm also noticing rings in the toilets that I think are mineral deposits. I've avoided harsh toilet cleaners for a long time, and mostly just brush the bowls frequently.
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Post by goldenthreads on Aug 17, 2020 10:10:02 GMT -5
goldenthreads , thanks for the encouragement. regarding the toilet, what would you recommend? Would CLR or some such lime/rust/scale remover do the trick further down below the bowl and in the pipes? i am so tired of having to flush many times... and i don't even put much paper in that toilet. doesn't matter, it refuses to flush things down.
creativechaos, I think I sounded as if I understand plumbing. I don't. I'm best at knowing what not to do. I was so alarmed by what your landlord suggested that I looked for verification of my opinion. Bob Vila of This Old House said not to, and that's good enough for me. I don't know about using CLR as a below-the-bowl de-scaler. You can use it for the mineral rings, so apparently it's fine to flush down the toilet afterward. Two times in my life I've had this problem. In one case, the rim jets were at least partially responsible, but we were doing many other things prepping to sell the house, so we just bought a new toilet, hired a handyman, and replaced it. Here's a link to cleaning your rim jets: www.thespruce.com/cleaning-toilet-jets-2719011. The more recent trouble... hmm... I don't remember if I noticed weak flushing or not. The toilet was backing up because tree roots had grown into the old clay sewage pipes. The solution was a plumber using one of those drain cleaning machines (Roto-Rooter type). I'm sorry that your landlord is making this your problem. If I discover anything else that amateur DIYers can try, I'll let you know. I'd start with the jets.
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Post by mylittlescholar on Aug 17, 2020 12:50:26 GMT -5
oh goodness creativechaos that is risky advice from your landlord that could come back and cause them problems! there are certain pipes that draino can damage. one way to trouble shoot is to figure out where the problem is... which is facilitated by being able to see how the pipes link up, which you might not be able to do. are any of the other drains slow? are you on sewer, or septic? do any other people in the complex have this problem? does it ever stop up completely? is it getting worse? if you pour a bucket of water in the bowl, (bypassing any clogs in the rim) does that solve the problem? these are the questions that a plumber would ask.
in my house, for example, the way the pipes were installed, its easy for a clog to happen at a particular juncture, but fortunately there is a clean-out near there. I eventually learned to recognize the slow-down pattern before the commode overflows.
anyway, congratulations on your progress! I think the actions you took are a Big Deal!
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Post by NewLifeToday on Aug 17, 2020 17:30:19 GMT -5
There are several different brands of enzymes for putting in drains, including the toilet. "Green Gobbler" is one. It is enzymes and detergent. The enzymes are just digestive enzymes which break down protein, fat, and carbs. Mineral deposits can be removed with vinegar, or borax, or pumice, depending on one's available "elbow grease". Hope that helps. Congrats to everyone on so much progress.
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Post by creativechaos on Aug 18, 2020 18:07:29 GMT -5
thank you, goldenthreads and mylittlescholar. seems to just be my toilet in this 4-plex. i have heard the septic alarms come on a lot though... maybe i should call them to see the last time anything was pumped out. seems like cleaning the rim jets would be a good place to start. we have hard water with lots of limescale and i am not very attentive to cleaning as i should be. oooh thank you too, NewLifeToday - i have vinegar and a pumice stone. could look at grocery to see if they carry borax; i hear it is also a good clothing brightener - and safer than bleach for clothes. and "green gobbler" sounds very good - hope my grocery carries some of these things! thanks everyone for the responses!
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Post by NewLifeToday on Aug 18, 2020 20:01:35 GMT -5
creativechaos I buy the Green Gobbler at Ace Hardware. Might be a less expensive brand that works as well, though. A hardware store manager might be able to advise as to other possibilites. Sometimes I make a paste of vinegar and borax and let it sit overnight on things. I have helped someone else whose toilet seems to attract mineral deposits. It took many rounds to get the deposits out of the toilet bowl. I don't know how to get the mineral deposits out of pipes easily. Perhaps a plumbing supply could advise, too?
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Post by creativechaos on Aug 20, 2020 13:02:09 GMT -5
good thinking, NewLifeToday - thank you. We have an ace here; hoping they have Green Gobbler - but i have plenty of vinegar if not. And goldenthreads' link about cleaning the rim jets is super helpful! i have bleach and vinegar and will start with the guidance from that article - probably over the weekend.
i have been doing little bits at the apartment and working at the garden. i brought a plastic tote of bags home from storage and i had a bag full of them here - handbags, wallets, small purses, ETC. i am in the process of sorting through them, seeing which ones I could repurpose and which, no matter how beautiful, I will not use. It's hard making decisions. I did a rough sort and some small things went into the donate/consign pile. Some are mildewed (lesson: don't store things in plastic in a place that has ANY dampness or temperature changes). some can wash, some I'm not sure. These are beautiful ethnic bags. As a friend here said, when i said i loved them, "then why are they in storage?" I'm sitting with that thought and question.
today i will focus on the bags and clothing. i have an appointment at the consignment store tomorrow so it'd be great to have at least one or two grocery bags of clothing to bring to them to look through. that means going through accessories too - scarves, purses, shoes.
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Post by NewLifeToday on Aug 20, 2020 16:42:47 GMT -5
CC, the water here is so full of minerals, that the pipe walls get thick deposits on them very quickly. I need to soak my tea kettle with vinegar every week. (Tho' I don't always get it done so often.). I don't know how to really get at mineral deposits in a toilet drain pipe. A plumber's snake might be of use, but, to me, that is something a landlord ought to take care of. There is a landlord-tenant office in the municipality where I live, that answers questions, all day long, as to who is responsible for what, etc. Perhaps there is some kind of info office similar to that, where you live. If that is of interest to you. A plumber can run a camera down a pipe and find out exactly what is causing a problem and where. Don't know if any of that helps. -- For the mineral deposits in something I can scrub, I also use Bon Ami and vinegar. I often make a paste and let that sit, too. All the best to you for continuing success.
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Post by mouseanne on Aug 20, 2020 17:15:28 GMT -5
creativechaos, you mentioned starting a water maintenance project with bleach & vinegar. Don't use those together. Not dangerous, but they'll cancel each other out as they are opposite, vinegar is acid, and bleach is alkaline. When I worked in the photo printing shop, lots of the chemicals were bleach based. I put vinegar by the sinks so those working with the bleaches could rinse with vinegar to cancel bleach on their skin.
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Post by mylittlescholar on Aug 20, 2020 19:15:52 GMT -5
dang there is so much collective wisdom here!
I'm proud of you, CC! I'm getting down to some of the more challenging stuff to declutter. It is getting easier, but it is still hard! I'm letting myself mourn these losses. Even as they represent a transition into a life I am looking forward too, letting go is letting go. I posted about my latest struggle on the 2020 items thread.
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Post by creativechaos on Aug 22, 2020 16:11:40 GMT -5
thanks, everyone! don't worry, mouseanne - i know about not using bleach and vinegar together. these would be separate... depending on what i find on the rim jets. i suspect hard water deposits, and if so, i'll use the vinegar. truth be known, i'm too ashamed to have anyone come in here.
i may have to make an exception. i think my cat is not well. i am going to call the animal acupuncturist and tell her to come on Monday. i part-traded a plant she wanted so i will only need to pay her $15 for this time. he just seems in so much pain, and his coat literally knots if i even look at it. been researching on what to give him for the coat issues and for the pain. will talk this over with cat acupressurist. she recommended cbd treats. valerian helps some cats if they are attracted to it - a tiny piece of the root. mine is a catnip guy.
made it to the consignmnent store with the two tote bags of stuff i managed to release. have not been doing much except little bits. i'll never get anywhere if i don't step up my game.
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