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Post by desposito on Oct 31, 2022 17:55:43 GMT -5
Winter is almost here!
Let's challenge ourselves to get some projects done by December 31st.
They can be about decluttering, cleaning, gardening, organizing, repairing--anything that will make your home and your life better.
The rules are up to you--psychologists say goals are more achievable if they're measurable and specific. BUT--if specific goals scare you, make them open-ended--anything that will help you get something done.
One goal or more, counted by time or items or square feet of space--or any other way you want--think of something that you'll be happy to accomplish by the end of the year.
Then post and let everyone know how it's going.
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Post by desposito on Oct 31, 2022 18:02:03 GMT -5
I have three new goals in mind, plus I will carry over my unfinished goals from last time. But I will think about it until tomorrow to see if I can come up with anything else.
Diane
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Post by goldenthreads on Oct 31, 2022 18:42:34 GMT -5
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Post by Jannie on Nov 1, 2022 4:41:53 GMT -5
i want to clean out just one spot every day. I live with my daughter, she does the majority of house cleaning. She's very extremely neat and clean (read-anal) My only responsibility in the house is my bedroom and a large closet plus my pesonal bathroom.
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Post by mylittlescholar on Nov 1, 2022 9:39:17 GMT -5
Thanks for starting us off, Diane!
I will use this post for a brain dump. One thing I learned from the Fall Challenge is that I am motivated by events. my DF has a birthday, I am participating in two Thanksgivings this month, I want to write every day (for the National November Memoir Writing challenge, in this case), I want to finish unpacking (sigh), continue focusing on health issues, swap out summer/winter clothing, and get my cosplay together for the holiday season.
EARLY THANKSGIVING PREP: unload boxes from car--they have giant bins I ordered for DVD! also bring in bins from the backyard
set up November calendar with relevant milestones copy and print food lists and recipes discuss mattress and TV with DM take the mattress and one of the TV's to DP's
put away Halloween decor, costumes, toy drive boxes from living room
review items in fridge and freezer w/ DVD put up leaf garland pre-sort mail call re: trash pick up call re: electric bill set up big gnarly list on the door
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Post by phoenixcat on Nov 1, 2022 10:18:23 GMT -5
Here we go again............  I have several tasks that meandered from the fall challenge. Plus we have two big things occurring in December (independent of the holidays) and two other BIG BIG things occurring in January/February that I need to prep while I have time (HA) 1) I need to finish the home office - it is horrible and a real stumbling block. Plan to start on it tomorrow when the cleaners are here. 2) Continue with my medical appointments. Hoping that they will be mostly finished in November and the only one I will have in December is the nutritionist (which is now covered 100% by my insurance at least through the end of the year). So far, five scheduled appointments for November.   3) We are starting a bathroom renovation early next year which is trickling into the master closet and the master bedroom. Between now and Thanksgiving - I need to get out of those rooms everything that can be donated or thrown away. When the renovation starts - it will just be moving into other rooms with no sorting/evaluating necessary. 4) We are planning a 3-4 week trip internationally in January/February. Not fully committed yet - a lot depends on my health. But assuming that it is happening - I have a lot of prep regarding my wardrobe and gift items to bring which brings me to... 5) Sort out the closet with all the clothes I typically wear there and see what fits and what I actually like 6) In that closet is a floor covered in stuff that needs to be hung in various rooms - just want to pick out a few that I can hang in DM's old room (nails in the wall already) plus a few that I want to hang in other areas. Then maybe designate a dozen or so things for donate. The rest will wait until Spring 2023. 7) Maybe (if I can get DH on board) start our own estate planning with meeting an attorney and forming a trust. Drives him crazy because I always get a little nuts about stuff like this when we are both traveling. . However, we wouldn't have wills if it wasn't for that craziness.  8) Due to a friend's son's wedding - I have two major things happening in December. A) Hosting some of the out of town family so guest rooms/bathrooms need to be accessible and clean and just general "hosting stuff" like food, cleaning. And, B) I'm having a wedding shower at the house so lots to plan around that as well. Think that is enough . Scary part is I'm not sure what to avoid on this list especially since I will be having another HUGE holiday list. . #6 and #7 can probably wait. But other than that............hmmmm Good luck everyone - we will need it!!  PC |
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Post by goldenthreads on Nov 1, 2022 10:41:43 GMT -5
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Post by desposito on Nov 1, 2022 18:41:49 GMT -5
Hello everyone! Thanks for joining in!
Jannie, that's a good goal, a little bit every day will keep things looking good, especially since you have a smaller space that you're responsible for.
Scholar, is that what they call "Nanowrimo" or something like that? I've heard of that, but I'm not a writer so it sounds very intimidating to have to write something every day. I'm sure it's helpful to do it along with other people though, just like decluttering together here.
Phoenixcat, you did so well on the last challenge so I'm sure you will do well on this one. I will put my two cents in about the estate planning--that never seems to be an urgent thing so people put it off, but I sure learned the last few years how important it is. I was reading an article about prioritizing recently and it pointed out that people fall down on the "important but not time sensitive" category because time deadlines always feel more important, but often those other things are the most important of all.
Golden, I think paper sorting will be with us for every challenge. Because...while we are sorting old paper, new paper is always coming in! And then, new paper becomes old paper because we're busy sorting the really old paper... 
In fact, one of my new goals is doing the huge tray of filing that is now on my desk, this is everything that has come in since my last file cabinet project, I have not been keeping up with it so I'll have to make it an actual project for this challenge.
I'm still not ready to make my list, I'm still finalizing what I want to do so I will post it tomorrow.
Diane
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Post by desposito on Nov 2, 2022 9:16:31 GMT -5
Okay, I will probably have to do this a little at a time, my goal lists always are more complicated than they seem at first.
The first three goals are the timed ones I did not finish last time, with the remaining times.
1. Clothing--get ready for winter (see if I need to buy anything, wash my mittens, hats and scarves, maybe sew something  ) GOAL 40 minutes
2. Cleaning--other than routine things GOAL 3 hours and 10 minutes
3. Basement GOAL 1 hour and 20 minutes I will have to get the handyman here before Christmas, if not, I'll have to start hacking apart the old cabinets and getting them out myself!
4. Fridge Cleaning I am notoriously good at avoiding fridge cleaning. Both getting old food out, and actually washing the inside. I've cleaned out old food, but I have not actually washed the inside of the fridge since I've been here, although I think I did wipe up a couple of obvious spills. It finally occurred to me that I don't have to empty the whole fridge out or even the whole shelf to do that, I can move just a few things at a time and clean in small bits. So my goal is to thoroughly clean the entire inside of the fridge, a tiny bit at a time. This could go under the cleaning goal since it's something I rarely do, but I think it needs its own goal or I'll never do it. I will time myself just so I know how long it takes, I'm sure I'll be surprised how little it takes, even though I make it into such a big deal.
5. Plant Room My plant room is a bedroom that was dedicated to plants. It has a couple of good windows, but I also have several plant lights. Besides it being where plants live, it also has a work table where I do potting and trimming, etc. Now, ideally the room where you do the potting would be a nice, efficient room added on to the back of your house--with work tables, built in storage bins for potting supplies and tools, and a SINK so that you could clean up easily. That would be heavenly, but will never happen, so my plant room is my potting room too--which means dirt gets on the floor and supplies are all over the place. I've been generally excluding this room from my decluttering efforts, because it will always look messy. However, in the last year it has become extra messy, I've even stopped sweeping the dirt up from the floor, and it's time to wash the plant table surfaces again. So I'm making a goal to make the plant room look BETTER, not perfect. Yes, it will always look like a potting shed, but it can look a lot better than it does now. I will time this, but I won't set an end goal because I just have to wait until I see it--when it looks reasonably neat and clean, I will consider it finished. There's a lot of work to do to get there, though.
I will continue with numbers 6 through 11 later.
Diane
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Post by desposito on Nov 2, 2022 13:48:20 GMT -5
Continued:
I am repeating 2 of my book goals.
6. Post more books for trading (out of the 10 posted for the last challenge at least half of them were requested, so I got 5 books out of the house and they went to people who really wanted them). GOAL 10
7. Read non-series books from the TBR boxes that I brought with me when I moved GOAL 2
8. File entire tray of new paper Since my last filing goal, I have accumulated a 3 inch high tray full of new paperwork that needs filing. I had decided that I could stop counting paper, because during this last challenge I got myself into the habit of grabbing some old paper every once in a while to go through it. However, in thinking about this, I have just added another goal--instead of counting each paper, I will make a time goal of 2 hours on old paper, and I'll count anything that's older than the 2 months of the last challenge. So, the new filing doesn't count, everything else does. I'm afraid that if I stop thinking about old paper altogether it won't get done at all.
9. Old paper - GOAL - 2 hours
10. Plant cuttings - GOAL - Get all of them planted in pots This time, instead of repotting existing plants, I need to plant all of the miscellaneous cuttings I have around the house. Some have been in water for a very long time so they might have trouble going into soil but if I don't get them there they will eventually die. I don't know how many I have, I'm guessing maybe 8-10? I'll have to count them to see but they are in various places so I'll do that later.
11. Enclosed spaces Most of my drawers & cabinets have become messy or overcrowded. I'm just going to list ones that I can reorganize, I'm not going to time it or try to get every one, but I will make a list as I go along of what I finish so that I can know what's left for the future and continue. I won't get all of them this time, there are a lot.
12. Office supplies & Stationery I got way more done on them last time than I thought I would, including getting everything related to this out of the basement except for one box of non-paper items--like file boxes, letter trays, paper punches, etc. Any paper items that could eventually get musty are out of the basement and in the reading room, and most everything is stored away in the storage areas, although they are not all in order yet. I'll time this one but not expect to finish, especially since Christmas is coming and there will be cards all over the place...those will probably have to go on into January. In thinking about it, maintaining the office supplies and stationery will probably be part of this ongoing goal too, since they end up everywhere as I work on them, so this is one that will never be "finished".
I feel like I have a pretty good handle on old food, the really old stuff is all gone, one way or another, there is a lot of stuff which is more recent that I'm starting to consider old, but this is another area where I feel I'm much more aware of it now and automatically look to see what's there on a daily basis--so I won't put this into the challenge.
That's about it...
Diane
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Post by catcats on Nov 3, 2022 16:36:42 GMT -5
I am back again too !
I will gradually continue with the desk in the DR, and the stationery supplies in it until it is done, a spillover from last Challenge.
My den in the back of the house (it was a bedroom in its former life) looks like a storage room, because it is. It has cat foods and old photos, out of season clothing, etc. in it. So I really Do need to keep them there. BUT it really should be neatened up so it looks nicer. It won't ever look great, but hopefully better because it has a door which I never close. The room holds things which used to live in the basement and attic, but my disc probs and arthritis have made stairs not an impossibility, but very difficult. There is my computer desk and an old working TV in there, so it is a room in use. I need to make it neater and cleaner.
I need to pull weeds outside.
I may add some more smaller things later. One may or may not be packing away some items in my kitchen cabinets.
catcats.
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Post by desposito on Nov 3, 2022 18:26:48 GMT -5
Hi catcats! Your storage room project sounds like my plant room project, making it better although it will not be perfect. Although yours will be closer to perfect than mine, I'll bet you don't have potting soil all over the floor! 
I had hoped to work on challenge projects today but I went in the morning to get a booster and stopped at a couple of other places and then had a long walk home, and I seem not to be able to do much. I will try again tomorrow--I'm actually looking forward to some of the jobs--plant room, plant cuttings, book posting. Not the cleaning one, though! 
Diane
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Post by goldenthreads on Nov 4, 2022 16:55:25 GMT -5
I started a dedicated pad of paper for tracking Christmas gift ideas and purchases. Decided on one gift. Also added to my own wish list.
Started doing my ballot. Have finished with candidates, but still have all the issues to learn about and vote on.
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Post by mylittlescholar on Nov 4, 2022 17:50:36 GMT -5
EARLY THANKSGIVING PREP:  unload boxes from car--they have giant bins I ordered for DVD!  also bring in bins from the backyard set up November calendar with relevant milestones copy and print food lists and recipes look up cornmeal recipe make menu and cooking plan make shopping list make room in fridge go shopping
discuss mattress and TV with DM take TV to DM?
put away Halloween decor, costumes, steampunk stuff, and toy drive boxes from living room
review items in fridge and freezer w/ DVD put up leaf garland pre-sort mail call re: trash pick up call re: electric bill set up big gnarly list on white board invite more guests? practice corn bread get prints made for DF's and LD's gift cobweb and dust vacuum mop make room in craft room to stash furniture
DUMP RUN: replace drivers license--waiting for the mail research how to fix seat gather tools schedule (Sunday?) find out if I can rent a truck with my temporary license and the cost take mattress and two book cases to the dump
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Post by catcats on Nov 4, 2022 23:31:19 GMT -5
Today after I went to drop off mail, including ballot, and then grocery shopped, I came home and began weeding the back yard. I was very tired afterwards.
catcats
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