Mrs Landlord sent me an email, apologizing for having forgotten about the inspection; it's now rescheduled for next Sunday.

Monday is one of my regular board game nights, so I didn't get any cleaning done. I got home at about 2am, and then spent four hours doing some volunteer proofreading that couldn't really wait. Now 6:30 and it's getting light out; I hope I can sleep into the afternoon.

I've got dinner plans for Tuesday (though it may well be breakfast for me), so I won't be doing the online chat this time.

Thank you Dianne :)
Yes, he does deserve the pink undies. lol

I too have found that mixing the litter brands does make for a nicer box.
The litter boxes are large plastic storage bins and I fill them deep.
Since the sides are high there is never any "over the side" accidents.
When the cats jump out they carry less litter on their feet and that makes for less sweeping in the box area.

OK you all motivated me.
Been asking him to clean up the pumphouse since even before he made that huge flood in there.

It is a small room with a primitave rough cement floor.
Over the years he has tracked in sand, a one inch thick layer.
He has stuff stored in this room.
9 big plastic 5 gallon buckets of paint and over 30 one gallon cans of paint.
A case of green glow in the dark halloween spray paint and some christmas spray snow.
A big heavy bag of stucco patch.
There was a lot of obvious trash strewn around and a jumble of various assorted other items.

This was just the floor. Not even bothering with the shelves.

Moved everything out and the flood waters had made mud that was still wet.
Shoveled and then swept the floor clear.
Restacked the paint cans to the side that didn't get wet.

The floor looks very nice again in there. :D

I really resent having to clean up areas he has messed up.
Thinking about washing his underwear with a bright red sweater. ;D lol jk

I came in, took a shower, washed my hair, put on all clean clothes, ate lunch and am over it now. :)

Five is more than I'd expected to find, but I agree it's not too many. Yes, I'll have to pick out a "good" place to store them and other dental spares; at the moment they're with the medical stuff, but a separate small container would be better organization.

If I have extra space after the re-organization, maybe I'll put some towels in the bathroom cabinet. Currently I'm keeping the clean towels in the closet just outside the bathroom, but they're kind of crammed in there.

It is good to see so many posting. I really miss it when folks don't so much.

Diane, I have a journal from my great grandmother written over a five years span starting in about 1930. Mostly it is incredibly boring, if not confusing. She refers to her "work" about which I know nothing and sounds more like she does home visits of some sort and does some kind of healing ritual. Very strange. I do know she had at least six children to raise on her own after her husband died young (of which I know nothing and so far have found nothing). I intend to leave the journal for future generations. It does have a nice list in the back of names and birthdates and such. It is helping me in my work on ancestry dot com.

I got teeth brushed yesterday and also today. No idea what else I may or many not accomplish. I do of course feed and water animals indoor and out each day, so I just assume you folks know that and take it as a given that it is accomplished. I do know I need to start setting up some kind of litter box routine as I am very bad about that and it is not fair to the indoor kitties. I did order a Breeze system to see if that might help. Here's hoping.

I'm trying still to figure out how or if I can break down cleaning floors to a manageable system for myself. Mostly I ignore but that's part of how I got in a fix in the first place, right? :(

Hi AnneW :)
Sometimes it is hard to find a proper balance between all the things we try to get done daily.
Unfortunately we tend to take time away from self care to make up for the other activities.
This is where I find that I must schedule in time for proper rest and meals. Make it a priority over doing other tasks because we only have just so much energy and need to recharge to be at our best.
GREAT plan you have for this week! :D

Hi Karl :)
WAY TO GO! finding the medical supplies! :D
Having 5 new toothbrushes in stock is not too many. Some people could open a shop with all their extras. ;)
A good place to store them is in a bathroom drawer or in a shoe box with extra toothpaste & dental floss on a cupboard shelf.
My mother always kept the shoe box on a shelf in the linen closet next to the towels.


The cats are all fed. :)
My To-Dos for today are.....
Scoop litter boxes.
Put down fresh water.
Go out and water some things.
Sweep floors & porches.
Do a load of laundry.
Wash my hair.
This evening I will wash some dishes.

Monday! A new week for a fresh new start, no matter what happened or didn't happen in the past. ;)

I sorted the bathroom cabinets tonight. It turns out that I have five unused toothbrushes! I'll open one of them tonight, and retire the old one. I also found all the medical stuff -- it was already sorted, I just hadn't found the bag last time -- and put some liquid bandage over my recent injury.

THANK YOU!!! I just finished reading everyone's "What I'm Doing Today" posts from July 10th through today & they are all SOOO Chock Full O' Goodness!!!
It just reminds me what a GREAT GROUP we have here =D

And, reading the posts helps me feel re-grounded in my own intentions re: de-hoarding.

Over the past couple of weeks, I tried experimenting with energy output re: work time/social time/rest time/de-hoard time & I tipped too far on the work & social side, which took away from my quality of rest & de-hoarding ability.
It's okay... I've still managed to make progress, but it doesn't feel like it's as much(or maybe just not as consistent-?-) as I was able to do in May & June. I've been maintaining the areas I have cleared & been regularly cleaning them, too (& that's like a FIRST for me EVER!). Just haven't cleared another large chunk of space again yet -- just little bits/spaces here & there. Regardless, I guess I feel more comfortable when I have a bit more of a weekly plan in place.
Think for this week it is time for me to simplify -- Here's my simple plan for the week: 2 (15-min) timed de-hoard work sessions/day, & by next Sunday night, I'll have delivered at least 1 donation to AmVets & 1 to the Humane Society. Anything beyond those goals & maintenance, I'll consider "icing!"

Makes me happy reading about all of the accomplishments here!!!
Keep up the great work =)

Diane (((hugs))) :)
When I finished reading my Granma's journals I felt the need to burn them.
There was nothing bad in them but some of my Grandparent's friends are well known figures and I did not want Granma's personal remembrances to ever be made into a book or movie.
Her journals were her own personal experiences.
The hardest entries to read were when her 21 year old daughter died the same week I was born.

Back here on the farm.............
I have been telling him to ALWAYS close the gate behind him and too often he doesn't.
Fortunately, it's only one horse in my yard today.
In the past I have had over two dozen cattle grazing in my garden.
Sure, they leave good fertilizer behind but by the time they get finished there are no plants to fertilize.

Been playing music all morning. :)
Dancing and singing at times.
I refuse to allow anything to ruin my good mood. ;)

Woke up at 3am and tried to go back to sleep for an hour then got up at 4am, and vacuumed, did dishes, sorted a stack of papers. I wrote on here about reading my moms journals, but that was what woke me up, thinking I wish I would have known how to handle her in a kinder way. I wrote a page in a notebook about the feelings I was having, that helped some. The wood guy was scheduled to bring another cord of wood at 9am today so I was out there watering and cleaning up until 11am, then called him, message machine so left a message. Nice I have this group on days like this, I know the thing to do is look at the feelings and then get back to work. I felt like my mom wrote, nobody really cares when wood guy didnt show and didn't call. My good fortune is too have this message board and less clutter, so I don't have to feel bad for long, and making progress is so healing. Really looking forward to group tonight, reassuring knowing you will be there Tillie. Maybe the stinker will join in!!! Trying to make you frown go upside down!! Reading your post made me realize how lucky I am to be alone, and once clutter is fixed, it really will be wonderful. Thanks to all of your honesty, we can make life better as a clean team!! See you at 5

Good morning :)

Janie,
WAY TO GO! on all that cleaning, straightening, organizing and maintaining! :D
I hate yardsales too and would rather just send the stuff to donation. I'm happy you saved yourself the the frustration of having to handle the stuff again and again and didn't bother trying to sell your boxed up donation stuff :D

Diane,
(((HUGS)))
I know how emotionally hard it is to read daily journals.
I read my Grandmother's journals.
It is never too late for us to change our paths.
Try to make peace with ourselves and move forward.

Hi Karl :)
I hate this waiting.
Happy you had a pleasant evening, hamburgers, YUMMMY. :D

Hi Ali :)
Hope you can make it to chat. :)
Take care of yourself and don't over do. (((hugs)))

Hi Roxie,
Keep up the great work. :D


Well, I have no hope that he will do anything today, or ever.
Wish I had friends. Then I would call them to all come over often.
Maybe he would be embarassed and do something if people were always showing up around here.

My plan for today...
Strip his bed and wash everything.
Only because he gets really pizzed off when I do this. "evil grin" emoticon.
His bed only gets changed at most four times a year.
I absolutely love clean bedding and can't understand why he likes sleeping on stinky nasty sheets.
He will pitch a fit and violently throw things around in his bedroom when he discovers what I have done.
But I don't care. "mad face" emoticon.
The stench keeps oozing out from his room and invading my "no clutter zones" cluttering up my air. ;P

Then at 5:00 pm I will be in chat. :D
Hope to see you there!

Coasting on too little sleep but basically I'm okay. I rallied a little yesterday and got a sink full of dishes washed. Also, although later in the day, brushed my teeth. I could not bear to not have another little X on my calendar. It's working!

Janie, your whirlwind energy reminds me of myself when I was in my 20s and 30s. Now, I get tired just reading of yours and others' amazing work here! Way to go all of you!

Karl, disappointing about your landlord, but we're proud of all your work and your willingness to keep digging in.

Oh Karl, So sorry to hear that after all your anticipation and work to get everything ready for inspection your landlord did not show. That had to be frustrating. Good news is your place is now ready to go and you were able to have company over.

dianne, I can really relate to how emotional dealing with your Mom's journals must have been. Sending you a big ((hug)).

I am fairly new to this board but I am so impressed by the hard work everyone is doing but also for all the support. As I struggle to get my life & home more in balance I really appreciate all of you.

I hope to at least stop by the chat support group tonight. I have not been feeling well so not certain I will make it. My surgery is Thursday and I am pushing to get as much done before that as possible but really needing to pace myself and not overdo it.

Wishing you all a Happy Sunday & a great week.

I got about four hours of sleep, then got up and did the last bit of cleaning in the kitchen. The scheduled inspection time came and went; landlords never showed up. I took a nap to catch up on the missed sleep.

I hadn't gotten around to scheduling an event to celebrate the cleanup. But as of last night, a handful of friends had been talking about getting together to watch some movies on DVD. In today's email, the host wasn't feeling well and had to cancel, so I sent out an invite to come over to my place instead. Only one of them got the invite in time to respond and come over, but it was enjoyable in any case; we made some hamburgers and played a board game.

I made sure that the kitchen was back in a clean state at the end. If landlords marked it wrong on their calendar, they might show up tomorrow morning instead.

Today I worked here decluttering until 5pm, then too tired to go to Bend summerfest, so will go tomorrow. I found 4 journals of my moms, that I had from when I moved her here before she died. I finally was ready to read them.(10 years after death) Took me 2 hours to read them, and many tears were shed while reading. She was a thrift store shopper and compulsive overeater, so most of journals contained daily accounts of what she bought, what she ate, and how lonely she was, it was so sad to read how tortured she was. She felt like no one had ever liked her personality, so very sad. She went to church and taught sunday school, took college classes into her 70's, but just never had close friends. I have come to be like her in some ways. By reading the journals, I understand more why I have become a hoarder, isolating myself from close friends. Read it at right time, because I am finally letting people back into my life, and reading journals affirmed I am doing the right things before it is too late. To die at 76, still trying to lose weight and find bargains, is so very sad. She daily wrote who called her, 5 kids and very few calls. I felt the feelings, and am thankful for this site that is saving my life. Thanks to you all. Hugs

Hi MayMay :)
Hi Roxie :)
Karl, waiting to hear how it goes. :)

Well, I cleaned the bathroom, swept floors and porches, washed floors, vacuumed carpet, generally straightened, did some laundry, tidied the kitchen and tried to make it look like I was extremely busy here.
He walked into the house with his shoes on onto my freshly cleaned floors. He knows the rule is NO shoes in the house but he never obeys it. :(
He has not done anything except move from playing games on his computer in his bedroom to playing games on his computer in the garage.
He did churn a few items once when trying to look busy.
He still has stuff on the back porch and pumphouse. I will give him till evening then I will move them.
He will complain that now he can't find ANYTHING.
But he can't find anything anyways. lol :)

At least my "NO CLUTTER ZONES" inside are nice and clean now and it smell like lavender scented Pinesol. :D

Ah, I get to live vicariously through each of you: swimming with MayMay, gallivanting and having fun spitting seeds with Diane, etc. Makes me smile.

Dianne, I concur with your interest in nature and in your efforts to teach your grandchildren about life and its other living creatures. I had wonderful freedom in childhood, barefoot, exploring neighborhoods, woods, creeks, quarries and many other places. I guess one cannot be so free today, but running barefoot and exploring nature are good things. Once my brother brought home an injured bat and nursed it back to health.

I remember crawling underneath a neighbor's house to get to know the puppies born under it. What a cavern that was!

I got to dig my hands in clay when a neighbor who was a potter let us try our hands at it.

Sneaking down to a ditch and catching crawfish was forbidden but we did it anyway. Fun and interesting and memorable.

I have not seen either of the kittens previously mentioned though the moms are here every day of course. I scold both that I want them to bring their babies back, but they just turn their noses up at and stare blankly at me.

I got teeth brushed and dishes put away yesterday. Not much more. Today I am feeling better, though, so we'll see.

Karl, I'll be waiting to see how the inspection went.

Dianne, you are accomplishing a great deal and I am proud of you, as I am proud of Janie and Diane and Tillie for their work.

Hi everyone! :)

Today, after work, I am going to go over to my boss' house and go swimming. I always love swimming at my boss' house because he lets Cory, Matt, and Snuggles swim in the pool too. Plus he has a water slide. My parents also have a pool. But my mom always hates it whenever Cory, Matt, and Snuggles swim in it. Plus they only have a diving board. Diving boards are cool, but I love water slides more. Lol. :)

Thanks Janie,
You are so sweet. :)

Hey Karl,
Good luck with the inspection today. :)

Hey Tillie. :)

Good morning :)

Scooter went off to the veterinarian this morning for his second round of shots. Got a clean bill of health and an appointment in 3 weeks to be neutered.

Have a Red Tailed Hawk in my yard this morning eating all the baby Robins. :(
Usually it's a Great Horned Owl out there eating everything.
Oh Well.... the circle of life. :(

Planning to do a lot of cleaning around here while he's home.
Been thinking that maybe if he sees me working hard he just might get off his butt and do something, anything around here to address his clutter. This has worked before.
The goat trails are getting more narrow and the piles are getting taller.
There is a lot that is really just trash, stuff he needs to toss.
Some of my "NO CLUTTER ZONES" have stuff in them. The back porch and the area outside the pumphouse. :(
Today I will move his stuff away from there and sweep the areas clean.

Hi Janie :)
Hi Karl :)

Counters and stove top are clean now. I still need to do the floor, and take care of a couple more miscellaneous items. I'll need to set an alarm before going to bed, to make sure I'm up before the landlords get here.

HI :D

Hi Roxie :)
No, I haven't read Dr. Robin's book yet but hope to some day.

Hi Dianne :)
(((hugs))) for trying to save the goose.
Sad when a person is so afraid of germs that they miss out on all the wonders around us.
I was so excited when I found a tiny dead bat by my porch because I was finally able to see what the bats that fly around me in the evenings looked like. He was so cute! :)
WAY TO GO! on getting so much accomplished! :D

Hi Diane :)
Sounds like a wonderful way to spend the day! :D
Have a GREAT time tomorrow. You deserve these fun times. :D

Hi Karl :)
Enjoy that well deserved ice cream! :D
WAY TO GO! for all the progress you've made and doing maintenance! :D

I was too tired to get anything done this afternoon, so I took a nap; slept for about an hour, then just rested for another hour. I think I'm recharged now.

Tillie, unfortunately a long URL is going to cause problems with the margins whether it's a clickable link or just plain text. We'll have to see if we can work out what you're doing wrong.

Dianne, I have mixed feelings about your son-in-law's reaction. Wild animals do often carry diseases that would be good to stay clear of. On the other hand, kids who grow up in a sterile environment don't develop the resistance they'll need -- and barefoot in grass is just fun, too.

Right now I'm going to have some food, then I'll set the timer for 15m and get the dishes loaded into the dishwasher, and hand-wash any remaining. With ice cream waiting for me when I've finished.

Went to the lake with friend today, and we walked around it, then had lunch, sitting on log by lake. We had a cherry pit spitting contest to see who could make pit go the furthest. Yes, I won.
Now home, feel too tired to work. Put 1 load in washer, now will hang it out to dry. Tomorrow will get some work done in morning then go to Bend summerfest, fun to see all the art, then Sunday hope to work all day. Then the group.
It was so good going to the lake and laughing at creative ideas we came up. Best entertainment is a creative mind
Now home just laying low, maybe will get 2nd wind and get some work done.
Nice to hear what you have been doing.

Tillie, no worries. The issue is fixed and I appreciated your attempt to link us to a very interesting show (can be found on Youtube).

I had two robins in my yard yesterday. Love to watch the birds. The feral cats do not seem interested in nor do they bother my songbirds.

Karl, WTG on the stove cleanup. Don't give up. Little by little will get it to beyond good enough. But since inspection is tomorrow, good job!

I just ordered some microfiber cleaning cloths as I've heard good things about them. Need to keep my stainless steel new appliances shiny, after all.

Has anyone read Dr. Szasio (spelling?) book? Interested in your impressions. Matt Paxton's book I think is good and a good starting place for someone who knows or is related to or living with a hoarder.

Not getting much done today, just trying to feel better first.

Hugs all around.

THANK YOU CORY!!!!

(((HUGS))) :D

I was just trying to make clickable links like Karl does.
From now on, if I post any links you all will just have to copy and paste them into the address bar.


Anyways.....
Great to see you all and to read all your accomplishments. WAY TO GO!!! :D

The robins are fledging and I have kept all the cats inside to give the chicklets a chance to learn how to fly and get back up in the trees.

Made some food, rice and veggies then cleaned the kitchen.
Been watching "The Hobbit" on bluray.
Don't know why our internet went down but so happy we got it back! :D

Done :)

Thanks for the heads up!

Cory ;)

Thanks MayMay :)

Hey Tillie,
It's okay. Don't feel bad. You didn't know that the link was going to affect the margins.

I said I was sorry :(

Then I lost my internet connection until just a few minutes ago.
Sent an email to Mr. Chalmers and when he reads it I am sure he will help me. :(
Again, sorry :(












So there! :P lol

I've finished cleaning the oven (I did more with it than I'd originally planned), put out new aluminum foil for the bottom, and also on the drip pans. I put a bucket of water in the microwave for 20 minutes to liquify the gunk -- there was more than I'd thought! It still doesn't look as clean as I'd like, but I think it'll do. I also made sure the fridge and freezer looked clean on the inside.

I think that does it for the appliances. I still need to wash the top surfaces and floor. Inspection is tomorrow.

Yeah -- I was wondering whether we should ask for moderator assistance, or to just wait for fifty new messages to go by.

Hi everybody. :)

Hey SusanL,
Haha, "Cleaning Gangster", love it! :D

Hey Roxie,
I hate going to the grocery store too. There are always so many people there. Although, I do love it when I go grocery shopping with my friends who are firefighters. Especially when they are wearing their fire department shirts and their fireproof suspenders. We always get so many stares. It's so much fun! Lol. :D

I think Cory is the only person who can edit and delete posts on here. Once the post with the long link disappears onto the second page, then I think the page will go back to normal. :)

Tillie, could you delete the post that has the long link? It is doing weird things to the thread so I cannot read the right hand margins. Maybe someone else knows how to shorten the link? I watched the Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners on youtube yesterday and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the heads up.

SusanL, gangsta sista, WTG.

I am having another difficult start to the day but hope for a rally later. Hard to breathe, hard to get moving.

Yesterday, I bathed, shampooed, got on clean clothes, brushed my teeth and did the grocery shopping. Put away all the groceries (yes!) and paid bills online. The grocery trips take it out of me, but I was so glad to have supplies in the cupboards.

Daughter saw the clean garage and declared me a 'cleaning gangster' :)

Looks like a really long link on July 11th is busting the margins and making it difficult to read all the way across. Maybe a kind editor could remove the link? Or else we can start a new thread for the daily chat?

way to go Janie, you really got a lot done today.
Just finished stacking the wood, I am soooooo tired physically, I will be 65 this year and I think I should do the work of a 40 year old!! Was great to get it done, but took much longer than I thought it would (wood)
Tomorrow when I get home I plan to catch up on some maintenance. Looking forward to walking around the lake tomorrow, but also have feelings about not getting to work tomorrow when it will be cool enough, in 80's, to get lots done, need the social interaction so will go tomorrow, and love the peacefulness of the lake.
The real treat tomorrow is that garbage will be picked up so will have lots of fun throwing more stuff away. the other great treat when I get home is reading all of your posts, love knowing how you are handling life.

Oh well,
I keep trying every thing to post links. :(

Sorry :(