That's cute about tech support. When covid first struck, I would refer to my cat as my supervisor. Funny, I worked from home on a hybrid schedule starting in 2010 but we never had video conferences until the pandemic (we did have them in-office to link the offices but never with someone remote).

I know you are exhausted but good work! I ran the dishwasher today, too. I haven't been keeping up with the dishes due to being sad but I did run it tonight.

I took tmr off, so I'm happy about that.

Tatoulia, funny to see him called "Mr. Subc". My students call him "Tech Support" because during Covid he would sometimes come in to online school to help me with the zoom set up, and the kids would hear or glimpse him and ask "who is that?" And I'd say "tech support."

I got a few things out of the cupboard. I emptied the bowl. Then I put some of the things from the cupboard into the bowl in warm water in the scullery so I can soak the dried out product off of them, rinse, and recycle.

The dishwasher is running. I feel run down.

Thank you both for being so kind. And yes, SubC, we have good technology now. What a beautiful thing that you and Mr SubC did for each other! Yes we are fortunate that I'll be able to visit or we can meet different places.

The rain has cleared so we will go get something to eat and then walk down to the esplanade to watch the fireworks. I went to mom's and took her to her place's Fourth of July party!

Tatoulia, I also want you to post. We will know you are sad. You can talk about it, or you can talk about other things so we know you are ok. Also I am selfish and want you to help me.

Three years is long, but you can manage it. Dh and I dated long distance for three years. I saw him one day at thanksgiving and one weekend in the spring the first year, we didn't have any money, so we wrote lots of letters. We could afford to talk on the phone for half an hour once a week. There was no internet.

You guys can call or video chat every day! And you have some money, so hopefully you can visit in person at some points.

Three years will go faster than you think. Bean is almost 3.

Lila, I am so excited about your bedroom!

I just took the things I use everyday out of the bowl and put them back. The other things need to go in the cupboards, but I have to clean out the cupboards first. Maybe I will try to make a start. I did wash some of the things that were piled by the hose waiting to be cleaned up for recycling or back to school while Bean was playing in his pool this afternoon.

They are gone now, so I definitely need to go do something!

Oh, Tatoulia, I know for myself, I do want to see you posting. We want to be there for you. I had a bit of an emotional meltdown the other day when I was trying to sort, and felt like I did not want to "clutter up" this thread with my meltdown... but I needed to say it somewhere. So I posted it on the Daily Tally, out of the way, unlikely to be seen by many. And wasn't it SubC who posted a separate thread once about a bad thing that happened? So if you need to come and cry here, please do it, in whatever space you need. At the very least you get it out in print, you know someone else knows, and I will pray for you.

Today is a paid day off for me. We will have a cookout tonight, but I have all day to reax and work on my house some more.

My bedroom:
Floor between bed and closet is clear.
But all surfaces have clutter - nightstands, little table, dressers. The rocking chair is finally free of clothing (and I have to admit it felt weird to go open the closet this morning to get my tee out) but has a stack of books on it.

The floor on the other side of the room, between my bed and the far wall, is pretty cluttered/hoarded up. I am not sure what I am going to do about it. I do in there to start and just stand there, looking at things, nothing seems to be an easy start point.

BUT, I am in a mood where I do want the clutter gone now, and see it is possible. So will ride the motivation and work on decluttering the surface tops today. Even if it means finding drawer space or bin space. I hope to have things to post on the Daily Tally.

Happy 4th my friends.

Lila! Wow! I'm glad you donated the sweater. Bad feelings linger in every corner, I'm afraid, and while I'm upset at what happened to you, you need not carry that around with you.

Amazing work on the bedroom!

The BF is leaving for what we can best estimate at 3 years. Initially he was talking about five to eight months, to work on the family properties and make some decisions on some land he owns. Now he has a job offer that he will be taking. We do not know what the future holds. He speaks three languages fluently. English is his third language. He will be able to make a lot more money overseas. We are sad but hopeful. We use the expression Leap of Faith. We are taking a leap of faith.

He was crying yesterday because once he leaves, he will not see my mother again.

The shipping container and movers arrive on Tuesday. Then he's here for about a week before departing. We have my support system activated. He will take my car to be serviced and inspected this week.

I am very, very sad. I am not sure you want me posting here with my sadness. I don't want to be bringing you all down.

Tatoulia, I feel your sadness and pray it will get less painful for you. I don't know how long the anticipated time apart is, but I hope you are okay. Wish we could all get together and watch a movie and have a glass of wine, or something.

I spent the day with Tot. It was great! A day well spent.

Before I went to get her, I worked on my room a little bit this morning. For the first time I can remember, ALL of my clothes are in drawers or hung up. ALL of them! It is kind of shocking. I hope to keep it this way.

I sorted drawers and while I only found one top to donate, I took out the items in the pajama and tees drawers that are too tight, and I moved those into that tub of clothes downstairs. That gave me room to reorganize and fit the light sweaters and cardigans in a drawer, and I made space in my closet for the few tees from the rocking chair to hang up.

I kind of feel I had more to donate but now I am not sure what I did. Maybe I put them away again or moved them to the tub downstairs. But eventually, they will go. I am working to get my bedroom nice and then will keep it like that.

I also realized I have clothing that I wear that I kind of hate, but I wear it because nothing else fits. Hmmm. As I am able I want to get rid of those items. But right now I would be naked so that is not an option yet.

I did, however, finally donate that one piece of clothing that the guy made fun of me in. I was hanging onto it because I loved it, it was pretty new and soft and fit perfectly. But I can't wear it because I feel so self conscious in it now. So I finally put it in the donate bin.

Also Son helped me fix the vanity doors in my master bathroom (the newly clean one), and I cleaned off the scale in there as well. It is really coming along and looking nice now!

Tomorrow I have off and we will have a cookout for dinner, so I have morning and afternoon to continue cleaning and decluttering.

Lila! You are doing great! Find a home for the things you use by seeing if there are a few more things you can donate! I was looking for an article of clothing last week (now I've forgotten what I was looking for, which is a blessing) and after a while I decided, I must've donated it and that's fine. At the time I kept thinking I bet it would fit now and look cute but guess what? Today I'm not even sure what it was so I'm good to go!

I'm sorry about the bowl of stuff that you have to go through, SubC. I hope when you do so, you'll find some things to let go of.

I am very, very sad. He has set a date to leave and so it is all very real. He does think he'll make enough to give us a good retirement life. He knows I am devastated. The big thing is not showing the devastation at work. I cannot let people see this.

Okay will go visit mom now. Trying not to cry.

Good morning SubC. It sounds like you will have a nice family day today. I messaged ddil to see if I could come pick up Tot and spend part of the day with her. I would love to have her help me sort, make biscuits, do a little errand running. I hope she is not busy.

I did get my bed cleared off and put the books in stacks on top of stuff along the other wall and the clothes on the rocking chair until I figure it out. Small stack of papers left, on the night stand. My floor between the bed and closet it clear! I find id strange how on one hand I love it and on another hand it makes me nervous.

What is in the drawers... well, I have, let's see, 4 big dressers and three small 2-drawer night stands. Wow that is a lot, plus a wardrobe cabinet and 2 book shelves. Let me process for a moment.

2 tall dressers - one near my bed has clothing I wear now. The one on the other side of the room is winter clothing, cameras and random things in one drawer, and clothes that are just slightly too tight.

The other dressers, one is photos and little special things, thicker sweaters. The other is sheets, pillowcases, a few warmer pajamas. The top drawers are tools I use often and special mementos of my dog and some other stuff... one of those I could probably clean out and make space in.

The wardrobe is paperwork, photos, blankets, a sewing basket, some other things. The nightstands are greeting cards, stationery, old coins (yeah I know...), journals/diaries, a few other mementos and stuff I use like USB drives, a tablet, a few cords, a memory rock someone gave me that I can't bear to throw away but don't want to look at all the time either in my yard.

It seems as I share this, that I could make some more space by donating from drawers, move the shapewear stuff to a drawer on the other side of the room, and have space for the clothing that is left on the rocking chair.

I also could reconsider donating 3 or 4 items from my closet so I could hang a few more things.

Thanks for asking. It helps me question myself when people as me things.

Will update the Daily Tally with a few more things that have left.

What are you all doing for the 4th?

Good morning!

Lila, I hope you got your bed cleared off and got a good night's sleep. It's ok if you put everything back on the floor and the rocking chair. You have less dirt and dust, fewer papers, and more clarity.

What is in your drawers now? When do you think you can start returning the book stacks?

Dh leaned the toilet and vanity in our bathroom yesterday and gave the floor a quick sweep (there are still dust bunnies in the corners) unfortunately, he swooshed all my vanity clutter into a big plastic bowl and left it on the floor. So I guess my job for the day is to clean out the bowl.

I did put the various packaging from my shoes into the appropriate recycling collections. I also brought more papers up from the basement and sorted through them and added a small stack to the recycling. I need to spend a few minutes tidying up the"none of the above" piles that have been accumulating.

Dd will go to work today. Dh is off, so the two of us will spend the day with Bean. I have a small bag of trash to take when we go to the library (the shopping center the library is in has a row of public trash cans and my bag of trash is smaller than the average fast food bag)

I hope everybody has a good day!

Good words, SubC. Thank you.

I had a clogged sink but I think I fixed it by putting baking soda and vinegar down it, then Dawn dish soap, then boiling water.

Son took a bathroom fixture down today and washed it for me.

I got a lot done today but am emotionally drained from the sorting.

I piled all the books from the floor on my bed and sorted. I moved everything so I could get to the bookshelf and put several books on there. I did not find any books to donate, but did a cursory dusting. I made five stacks of the books from the floor that are not mine. Three stacks, each from a friend, one stack from a place, and one stack that I have no idea who loaned me those books. I will take a photo of the unknown stack and send to a few friends and ask if any are theirs.

But my bed is covered in book stacks... also papers, and clothes.

I picked up receipts and papers off the floor and little table. Sorted and threw out a bunch. Have a few I need to keep. I have a few other random items on my bed that I don't know what to do with.

I have the tee shirts I wear when I am home laid out of my bed, and some tank tops. They all fit. I wear them. But I am almost out of hangers and drawer space. I don't know where to keep the clothes I always wear. For 15+ years they have been thrown on the rocking chair.

I vacuumed dust bunnies in my room as well.

I was excited to see things clearing out, but now I feel depressed.

I am eating pizza, and then will decide what to do. Might sit on the deck for a bit.

Tatoulia, it will be ok. You will visit each other and there is video chat now, and then BF will come back or you will go there and it will all be well. This is not forever, it is just one season of your life.

Lila,
I love that you have a clean vanity!

You are making really good progress. I love that the clean and organized is spreading.

You say "thank you so much for loaning this to me, but I have realized that right now is a period of my life when I just don't have time to focus on reading. I'm working on getting the house in order and I'm afraid your book will get misplaced, so I want to give it back to you for now. I'd love to borrow it again sometime when things are more settled." Or something like that.

My new shoes arrived. They are very comfortable.

I mostly spent the day with Dd and Bean. I didn't even really keep up with things, although progress happened on the dishes.

Dd is putting Bean to bed, so maybe I will at least get my shoe packaging sorted for recycling and maybe spend a few minutes on my pile of papers.

update Sunday:

I am working on my bedroom.

I hung up everything I wear that I could hang. I have a few items that do not hang well: light sweaters and those very gauzy cardigan things. Not sure where to keep them yet.

Then I started to focus on the massive pile and spread of things on the floor and a little table, between my bed and the closet. I can't even walk. Can't get to the bookshelf and barely can get to the closet. First I picked up dog treats and chews that had somehow magically jumped out of the bin and onto the floor. I put most back in the bin, brought 2 chews out for the dogs.

My next task is the books. I have books scattered all over the floor and piled in corners and on the table. Probably a dozen that belong to other people, and the rest are either books I intended to read or started to read, or books Teen took off my living room bookshelf and threw around in their bedroom. I will put those back in the living room. I will clear a path to the bookshelf in my bedroom (mainly by shoving things out of the way and moving the rocking chair and little table) and will see what books on that shelf I can donate. Then can put the rest on those shelves. Then make a stack of books to return to their owners. I need a nice phrase to say to people whose books they are, when I return them unread. People mean well, and bring me books and say "oh you need to read this" or "this will really help you, it applies to this lesson you taught" etc. I know I need to stop taking them. But what can I say that is gracious when I return a book I have not read after having it for 6 months or a year?

oh Tatoulia, that is so sad. I am sad for you. I hope whatever happens in the relationship, in the end, is good.

Today I:
- found a bottle of cleaner that I hate the smell of. I thought 'I should use it up' but when I use it I hate the smell. So instead, I dumped the entire bottle into the toilet and let it sit for an hour. Came back, scrubbed and flushed - it did a fantastic job on the bowl! Sparkling clean! And it is a counter/tile cleaner. Then wiped the toilet down with the Mrs Meyers Peony cleaner so it would smell nice. Very happy!
- sorted my dresser drawers and found 2 shirts and 2 bras to donate.
- moved some clothing that is too small but not ready to let go, out of the drawers and ito the tub downstairs that I donated a few items from the other day.
- folded and put away a lot of my clothes that have been sitting around my bedroom with no space in drawers. Now there is room!

I can see my bedroom starting to take shape. Having a clean bathroom, vanity and toilet is motivating me to get my bedroom done.

It's like instead of the hoard spreading, the clean and organized is spreading. Yay!

I think since I am feeling motivated in this area, I will continue to work on it today. Ride the motivation instead of the "I should do x area" thoughts.

Good morning everyone! Great work on the vanity, Lila. Cm I am sorry kitty is under the weather. SubC yay for finding more categories to recycle!

We couldn't see any sky or clouds yesterday due to the smoke. I can't smell it but BF can.

We have trash and recycling services twice a week. This is a big thing for me. The hazardous waste is a few times a year, which is terrific. So far I've been using the shredder at work (with permission) and so I'm keeping up with my shredding much better than when I had to shred myself at home.

We took blankets and towels to the cat shelter yesterday. I also took a small bag of clothes to goodwill. BF took some suits and shirts to goodwill. Beautiful suits he'd bought in Montreal and wore many years ago.

His countdown to his move has started and so I'm feeling a lot. I cried most of last night and it was pretty intense. Then we parked the car and went to our favorite restaurant and I sort of pulled myself together. I was crying today too but not making a noise.

I've made a list of the ten percent that isn't done in my house. So I'm going to work on it now. I'll pick a room from the list and do the ten percent that would change up the room. I do have one lamp to give to BF. Then he has all of his stuff from my house.

It is hard to do anything when I am this sad. My heart is broken. But we have plans to meet in a few places overseas. Maybe todays task will be getting my passport renewed. I can have the pictures taken later in the week.

I did get up to a clean vanity!! And it was so amazing. I scrubbed the other half right before bed and it is sparkling clean. I still want to organize what is left on it, just a few things I use every day, and the waterpik. I will do that today.

Backstory - it is a very wide vanity but just one sink. DH and I added this bathroom when he moved in, and one side was his and one side mine. I always kept my side nice, and his was a hoard. His side was always dirty, piled with junk, made me angry every day for awhile. Every few months I would get so sick of it I would move everything and clean his side, but could not get rid of any of his stuff. I used to think, "someday, when he is not here anymore, I can have a clean vanity!" and yet look. A year later and I have not mastered this. Maybe there is some emotional component. Although I never let it get as bad as it was.

So now it is clean and so so nice to use! I will keep it like this now. Thank you all for the encouragement!

CM, I hope your kitty feels better soon. If they are in a room without other cats, perhaps you could put the medicine in a dish hidden in a yummy treat for them to eat, if he will eat it.

SubC, grandchildren are a huge motivation to make areas nice. I want a nice room for Tot and Acorn to play in and spend the night. I need to work on that as well. I started - this is the room all the broken angels were in - but it is an emotional room and being used as a sorting area. The other spare room, where guests stay, is clean and close to empty. So for now, that may be the play area for the kids, until I get the other room in order.

I stayed home today and am about to start working on stuff, as I drank too much coffee and am feeling jittery.

Good morning!

Wondering if Lila got up to a clean vanity today.

CM, try this: don't try to make a plan, just do it. Go pick an area you feel interested in, get started on it, and see where it takes you. Then you can analyze it afterward instead of trying to overcome every possible obstacle before you start. It may go wrong, it may go well. You can always stop and refocus, but I think trying something new and different might at least give you some useful insights. Even if they are "well, now I know not to do that."

I am near both a city and a major transportation corridor. My job and pottery studio classes are inside the beltway. Usually the air quality warnings are just yellow for in the city and green for me, but the Canadian wildfire smoke has been traveling down and we have had several days of red in the city and even orange out where I live. I wore my Covid mask to class last week.

We were out late last night, visiting friends who live a hour away. His garden is so beautiful, it made me sad. It was good to see them though. This morning I slept late, but I am still tired.

Bean and his mommy are coming this afternoon to stay through the 4th (daddy needs some alone time after traveling and spending almost a week with my parents) it's supposed to rain most of the time they are here, but it isn't raining this morning, so I should get outside.

I also have a messy kitchen to clean up. I got a book out of the library about art projects with toddlers, and it gave me an idea of creating an arts and crafts area in the basement for Bean and me. It's a big project, but I'm feeling motivated. Especially with the new option for recycling things - for example random plastic part from a toy or game I can't find - nobody is going to buying at the thrift store, so I find myself thinking "I *could* maybe use it for this, or this, or that, or what if I wanted to..." or I could drop it in "plastic, unmarked" at the recycle drop.

I'm trying to approach this like the scrap metal drives in the war. Except this war is to save human life. (I tend to roll my eyes when people talk about saving the planet. The planet is fine without dinosaurs, and it would be fine without us. - the natural cycle of life is diversify-collapse-diversify-collapse etc.)

Well, I had some energy today. And met a friend for breakfast and had regular tea so I've had a reasonable amount of caffeine - I put loads of ice in my tea so that probably makes it half-decaf, which is perfect. All the motivation, none of the jitters, lol.

Also when I got back I figured out a better plan for watering roommate's yard and gardens. Yesterday I'd hurried to do it for her before she left because she had so much to do, but it felt like it took forever and then today I realized that was just because I was hurrying so hadn't formulated a systematic plan of attack.

One of the kitties is kind of under the weather, though perhaps improving slightly. He is the longhaired one, and seems to have a stubborn hairball. I don't want to be too graphic, but I hope it moves one direction or the other on its own. This is the semi-feral who won't tolerate handling, who hides whenever anyone besides roommate or me enters the house, etc. So there's no catching him to give meds. He did eat a reasonable amount of his food, not his usual intake but at least he's not refusing everything. Trying to tempt him to hydrate a lot by mixing lots of water with the wet food.

SubC, I didn't realize you had air quality warnings - are you sort of near a larger city? It was less hot here today, and I'm not sure if it's acting like it might pop up a little storm here. Supposed to get some rain later in the week. I wouldn't mind at all if we got some now, because it'd save me some work watering plus make things less flammable when people start shooting off fireworks.

I was thinking too about something similar to the deal about mail or whatever that comes in, getting more items out than come in. And I really don't get that much mail, so I'd probably be ahead much of the time. Also thinking, okay, I gripe about ADHD, but it actually has a feature that could work in my favor - hyperfocus. How to focus the hyperfocus! There is my challenge. How to do it without getting bogged down or indecisive with regard to whatever item in the pile I pick up to decide the fate of. Hmmmm....

Scrubbed one side of the bathroom vanity plus the sink. Wore me out! Taking a break and then will go back and do the other side and make it nice. Feels good to scrub that grime off of there.

Anything I can do to reduce waste. ;)

I took my load to the drop site. They were very nice and helpful. I learned more things I can drop!

I did bring home a big yellow lidded bucket someone left with them to recycle - for clay. I really need less clay and fewer buckets, but for now..

I also stopped at a newly remodeled thrift store on my way home. Not overly impressed, but I got two pairs of jeans for work in the fall for $4 each. Unfortunately most of my current jeans are either too tight or in farm work only condition. I'll only be teaching two days a week, so two pairs should be plenty. Maybe I will lose some weight...

That is really good, SubC. It has me thinking about what other small steps I could take to recycle more. Just a bit more. I have been so overwhelmed that I only recycle what the place near me will take, but I really have not check on what they take easily beyond cardboard and electronics. It would be easy for me to have a small recycle box for papers, junk mail, etc that I could take to them when I take cardboard, if they take paper, which I am guessing they do.

I like your thoughts on giving being unselfish. I often use Facebook's Buy Nothing group to give away things that I have that are nice that someone else could use, for free. Saves them money, and I feel better about that.

Enjoying another peaceful morning.

Last night I got the kitchen mostly clean and then Son did the rest. When I was getting ready for bed, I finished putting away things on the vanity. Now only things that belong on the bathroom vanity are on it, and are on one side so I can scrub off the other side today. Then will move them again and do the other side and the sink. Then put everything in its place. One big benefit is I have a water pik, and I have not been using it due to the mess. So I will set that up on the counter and start using it again, which will help my gums.

I want to use some more veggies today. I have yellow squash, zucchini, onions, cabbage, lettuce. I love fried squash sandwiches. Also may saute some cabbage with onions. I have half a red cabbage too... maybe some kind of slaw? And zucchini bread, if I have time. All of this over the next 3 days probably.

I have started boxes to donate in my garage but it has been insanely hot in there. If I get a little energy this morning, I will go in there and consolidate, sort my clothes and put a box to donate in my car. Will share on the Daily Tally!

Looking forward to hearing what you all are doing this weekend. Anything for Independence Day?

Lila, to be clear, a lot of that recycling has been building up for about a year. But the stored recycling was in my basement. So now there is more space in my basement.

Remember, I have no "curbside services" (also no curb) every item that leaves my property has to be transported by a person (usually me) to a location. Recycling is really important to me. Also not bringing in things that won't be kept or consumed because everything else is just more work. It is easier to find recycling drops than to find places to leave real garbage. Some of my neighbors burn their garbage - which stinks and is really bad for the environment. I burn a few things, but they are things like butter wrappers, not plastic.

Do your kids want those body washes and shampoos? Remember, you just cleaned that bathroom out..

I ordered myself a new pair of shoes last night. My everyday shoes are so worn I can only wear them with heavy socks, and it is summer. I am going to make do with dressier shoes and my mud crocs and farm boots until the new shoes get here, because it is too hot for socks and the shoes are one of the things I can drop off today.

Recycling is a gift to me. I do not feel selfish when I hold on to items nobody wants or needs because I think I might find a use for them, but if somebody else has a use for them, then keeping them is selfish (and stupid).

When I clean out my paper piles, I am saving trees and fuel. Park benches can be made from my used and sometimes broken plastic instead of freshly piped oil. My shoes can become track surfaces. That helps motivate me.

Wow SubC, good work on the recycling! I am a minor recycler myself. I take in cardboard and old electronics to the recycle center. The rest, I can't right now, but goals.

I made beer battered onion rings, zucchini strips, and pickles from scratch! They were very tasty but after a few I knew I couldn't eat many. Not used to the grease. But some veggies got used, the kids liked them too. I will probably freeze what did not get eaten so they can air fry them when they want some. My kitchen is a floury, oily mess though. I will clean it. Son can help if I run out of steam.

I am still working on the bathroom vanity. I got a lot of partially full bottles of really old stuff put in the trash. I put probably 7 items from there into the kids' bathroom, mainly body washes and shampoos I don't use. Then I straightened the vanity cabinets and started putting things I DO use in there on the shelves.

So the counter is about 60% cleared off. I will go back in and continue to put things in their places. I picked up a plastic bin off the floor and washed it, and anything without a home that I am not ready to let go of will go in that little bin and I will find room in the bathroom closet for the bin.

I hope I can get it done today, but if not, I will finish it tomorrow. I am pretty tired now.

Well thanks for reading. I feel more motivated when I share and read about what you guys are doing too.

Lila, I had started my post before you posted the second time.

Yay for throwing out that miserable lotion! One of my trouble spots is a basket of little hotel sized lotions in my bathroom cabinet. I keep thinking I will use them eventually and then I can wash out and recycle the little plastic bottles. And kids keep giving me lovely lotions for holiday gifts...

I watched a video during lunch today called the "use it or lose it" challenge. It was about craf5 supplies, but it could've about anything.

Maybe next week I will switch my tally project to "use it or lose it" I feel like I've got hitting an area every day down at this point.

Lila, I hope you get your vanity done because I don't like it making you sad.

CM, heat is really debilitating. Stay hydrated! Accomplishing a thing is better than not accomplishing a thing. How many pieces of paper came into your house today? If you can recycle that number plus one, that is progress.

The back of my suv is full to go to the recycling drop tomorrow. The whole back. With the car seat out and the seats folded down.

I even added in a bunch of plastic things that my brain said "I could use this for." I was like "I don't need you! Get out of my house! Go be a park bench!"

My Dh has decided to mow the lawn in the heat and humidity during an air quality warning. I think I need to go move the hose, because there arelowoddsof stopping him.

Funny experience note -

I went in my master bathroom to clean, as I stated in the last post. I took a trash bag and started looking for things to throw away. I admit to being a hoarder of bottles of lotions, face creams, oils, hair and skin products but rarely use them. It is hard for me to purge these. Some I have had for over a decade. (I threw out 6 partially used bottles this time).

So as I was tossing, there was the bottle of Clinique Happy lotion. Ohhh, my dear d*ckhead husband gave me that lotion as a gift long long ago when he loved me. Had to be a dozen or more years ago. I loved it. I saved this half full bottle because it was one of the rare gifts he gave me in love. I though, "oh, I should toss this since he is gone" but I had to have one last sniff for the memories. I opened it and couldn't smell it so shook/squeezed it a little and POOF, a squirt of liquidy lotion came out, all over my upper lip (and shirt!)

Ugh, had to wash it off but now all I can smell is that damned lotion, reminding me of him! You can bet it got thrown away! LOL.

CM, I liked your caffeine reminder so much that I went and made myself a cup of real coffee! Drinking it now. I was feeling sluggish myself, so hopefully this will help. It is not even 4 yet here so while it is slightly late for me to have coffee, maybe it will help me make use of the rest of that day. I have been sitting too much, but getting things done while sitting.

I cleaned out the fridge (well, not really "cleaned", but sorted and tossed anything old and wiped off the top shelf). I am always so horrified, sad and guilty when my veggies spoil before I use them. I am trying to work on this.

I just made a cucumber and red onion salad, so that is 2 more veg that will not go to waste.

Son and I are going to make beer battered onion rings and zucchini strips for dinner. He might have some meat with his. I know fried food is not idea, but once in awhile, I do love to make something really tasty that is fried, like this.

If this coffee perks me up, I will work on decluttering. I am a little sad I did not get up early and fill the trash bins for trash day, but they were 3/4 full so that's something. I want to sort my clothes and put more that don't fit me into boxes to donate, so I have more room in my bedroom.

This day is more of my rest and decompress day. I have all weekend to work more on the house, too. Although the caffeine is starting to kick in and I have a strange urge to clean off my bathroom vanity, which is totally cluttered and dusty and makes me sad. So maybe that will be my task I tackle.

Hi all from still hot Kansas. I keep nodding off, possibly didn't sleep enough last night. My roommate made it to her destination okay, and she's been having aches and pains that have really messed with her sleep. I was a bit concerned about her driving. And whether she'll get any decent rest up there; she has said the bed at her relatives' is hard and she never sleeps well on it. I pray things improve for her.

Lila, yeah, I may walk back what I said about 90 vs. 100 percent - take it with a grain of salt at any rate because I don't always practice what I preach. I think there's a tendency in all of this trying to find the secret sauce to make decluttering suddenly take off and flow smoothly and get done once and for all. I pounce on a concept that sounds good in the moment but it may be more realistic to be flexible and adjust our strategies to varying conditions.

SubC, you are slogging, and right now I don't even have it in me to attempt slogging. So I admire your tenacity. I got one thing accomplished today though it's not a decluttering thing. Aside from the routine of pet care and such fixed items on the agenda, that is.

Wondering if one problem is simply lack of caffeine, because I had been buying bottled tea for the convenience but I hated knowing I was spending more money than I should, so I got a jumbo Mason jar for sun tea - but my teabags I had are decaf! I don't want to overdo caffeine and get jittery, but perhaps I need some. I had bought English Breakfast because it can be like Ritalin for me but it can also have residual jitters. So I am not sure if I want to make it while I'm here by myself, in case I overshoot the mark and get anxiety.

The temperature will drop by tomorrow supposedly so hoping my energy will return. Projects seem too elaborate to set up and get started on, and then have to either finish in a short time or teardown the entire setup in this house where it's so hard to find workspace. My mind just jams its gears even thinking about how I would go about it.

Just in a slump, it will end, I hope. I will try to at least find a few papers to throw away or something. Did that earlier, it didn't feel like much but it was better than nothing.

Hellooo, I am back. I was working and working and working. Now I have some days off and am really thrilled to have them!

I too have a record player. Peter and the Wolf gave me an immediate flashback to listening to that in my childhood! Wow, I had not thought of that in decades! Sometimes I wonder what other memories are buried in there.

I appreciate the thought - pros and cons- of 90% and finishing. I think both sides have merit. If I am able this weekend, I plan to vacuum the downstairs hallway which is full of dog hair dust bunnies, and then mop it and the bathroom with Lysol. I will report back. Probably not today.

Today I:
- put some trash out in the bins to be picked up
- put away some clean dishes

Now I am on hold waiting to talk to an airline about Son going on a trip. I want to book him a ticket with my miles. I hope I can get a good deal. Their website and app are too glitchy, so I hope they can get me a good deal.

I had coffee. I looked up a crustless quiche recipe and will be using a lot of veggies in the fridge to make it shortly. I am getting hungry. I will have some fruit with it. I have cherries!

Oh, I need to update my decluttering the pounds and daily Tally!

CM,

I hope you have a sense of accomplishment.

I worked in the studio more, but I am still just moving things - sorting and grouping and rearranging. It is exhausting and discouraging. But I can't really make progress until I see what I have. I do have one big black plastic bag of stuff to drop at the recycling place. And it is a little neater with more open floor space.

We're going through some 100+ temp days but hopefully only a few before it changes. It's oppressive, the air is thick to breathe, and a person can't help but sweat. I hate the feel of sweating. So I've been indoors a lot.

Also, it's like the dopamine has been sucked out of my system and it's ridiculously hard to initiate any task whatsoever. But today I feel a little more energetic than yesterday which was the first day the heat shot up so high. I Googled foods that give you dopamine and one was watermelon. That sounds very appealing. Roommate is leaving tomorrow morning to visit family for the weekend. I might procure us a watermelon if I can manage to get to the store at a time when it isn't bedlam.

Some of this week was taken up with our hunt for a new phone for roommate - I was along in a tech advisory capacity. We did find a good one, it had to be ordered but it arrived quickly, yesterday, and she has it mostly set up. When I am ready to get a new phone, which won't be too much longer, I may get the same model, because it looks like a good value for the price and it will have loads more memory than my current one which is pretty much at capacity, and doesn't hold a charge as well as it should. I need to start backing up my photos and stuff so that I won't be pressed for time when I do make the switch, even though like I said, it won't be right away.

I have some ideas for things to accomplish while roommate is away, but I don't even want to say just yet what those are, for fear I will jinx the little dopamine receptors and they will scurry back into their caves. One must coax them gently out with warm milk, poetry, and unicorn tears. Or at least watermelon.

Ok! I was feeling discouraged, but then I got an email that is making me feel bette4 and more motivated.

There is a really cool place that will take a lot of hard to recycle items, but it is in the city, over an hour drive, and in a difficult area to navigate. It is also open only limited hours that are not great for me, so I've managed to get there twice. Meanwhile, I have a large recycling center set up in my basement.

The email was to tell me that there is now a satellite drop off on the first Saturday of every month (this Saturday!) in a large town only 27 minutes from me. So, I am going to really focus on getting everything together, filling my car, and dropping off on Saturday!

The other thing that is good is that the big center in the city has a "shopping area" where you can help yourself to useful items to reuse. So far I have resisted that, but it is hard. I am definitely not ready to make good choices in their "shopping area". The satellite drop does not have a shopping area.

Good morning.

Terrible air quality again today. I wore my Covid mask to class last night. My eyes were sore by the time I got home.

Sometimes I think about how hard I try to avoid waste and recycle things and how little all my efforts compare to one building burning to the ground. It seems like that might help me accept that a few bags of trash are not going to make much difference to the planet, but all it actually does is make me feel sad and hopeless and ineffective.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so hopefully that will clean some of this smoke out of the air. I am going to stay home and probably work in the studio again. Hopefully making things this time though.

I have been working in the studio today because the air quality is too bad to be outside. I haven't actually been making anything, just doing a lot of cleaning up, sorting, and organizing. Generated a little trash and a bag of recycling. Also broke a few things. I don't actually care that much right now, I just need a stronger sense of order and control.

This is really just a first pass - for example, I'm trying to get all the glaze jars together in one area. Later I'll sort them by color and then figure out which ones are still usable and which ones need to be rebatched. And then I will rebatch them one color at a time for months.. (Because it takes 5 minutes, and then 5 minutes tomorrow, and then 5 minutes the next time you go out. and then in a few weeks or months, depending on how often you walk by and shake/stir, you have a jar of usable glaze and a bunch of containers to reuse or recycle. And otherwise you have a very large bag of "hazardous waste" (that is actually safe to use by 5 y.o.s - eyeroll!)

I did find a really significant amount of floor space today. I feel good about that.

It's noon here —so do I say good morning or good afternoon?

I was sick all night. Something in my dinner did not sit right. I was up and in the bathroom during the night and then this AM I started to add vomit to the mix. No fun. I'm now washing towels I used to clean up the mess. I may end up having to take the towels to the animal shelter if they are stained. I just wiped down the bathroom and I have showered. I think I need to change my sheets, too, just to be extra clean. The sheets will be changed again tomorrow when the cleaners are here but that's okay. Two days in a row of clean sheets would make me very happy, to be honest.

Okay off to a meeting. I had to do my early AM meeting in a camera-off situation.

Good morning.

I'm having a hard time getting started today. It's an early day for Dh at work, and his alarm went off in the middle of my dream.

I did finish that last inch of papers yesterday.

I brought more stuff up from the basement, but I am starting to have an overwhelming number of categories. I need to start filing or use fewer categories and "none of the above" I'm starting to run into some hard stuff.

My dishwasher door is broken - it doesn't lower itself slowly any more, it is eitherlatched or drops hard if you don't lower it by hand. I put a box on the floor so it won't fall on my foot. Dh has now put the repair on his short list, which means I need to get the scullery clean enough for him to work in. More pressure than I want right now.

I feel like I should have more time and energy by now to accomplish lots of things - school has been out for a month. The goat and I are walking.

Yay for the record player! Peter and the Wolf was a favorite of mine!

No argument on 90% is good enough! I hear you and agree. For me, I need that extra 10%. I need to finish it. Because now that I live in an orderly house, that 10% is clutter and noise. And there I was tonight, telling myself to put all the cat food cans away. Not just all but five. And not only fold and put away the pjs, but get all the socks in their space too. So I'll work on finishing things because that's where I fall down.

Had a work dinner tonight. Very fun evening.

Dh bought me a record player!

It is self contained in a little blue 1950s retro case with silver corners. I have two cases of records I saved from my childhood and now I can 1) see if they are even still usable (I'm a little scared) and 2) hopefully share them with Bean!

Also, I'm remembering how much I loved the listening center in my preschool. I would put the padded headphones on, shut the whole room out, and listen to the grasshopper and the ant - over and over. I can still feel the headphones and see the record turning. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that was an early sign of autism.

Now where am I going to put my listening center...

I'm going to play devil's advocate. Sometimes 90% is enough.

Obviously I don't want to leave that last inch of papers on my table for weeks, but this is not Lila's bathroom. This is a bathroom used by another adult and a teenager, each of whom is capable of wiping with Lysol. If wiping the bathroom down would give Lila a sense of satisfaction, great! But if not, she has plenty to do and this may just be a case of "done is good enough." And move on.

I second that what Tatoulia said about doing the last part of a job - because boy, do I struggle with the same thing! It's like I get past the absolute worst part of the work to where it's sort of done, and my brain says "That's enough, no more."

Let us all pledge to be accountable to finish all the way. Maybe at first we won't be perfect at it but keep building the habit, find incentives to keep ourselves going, whatever it takes.

Have not read all the posts. Came on here because I wanted to comment on Lila's post. Great job cleaning the bathroom! As I read it, I thought, I hope they throw out some of the bottles of stuff. Too much. Should have been tossed years ago. I know it will stress out SubC, and me to an extent, that the bottles weren't recycled but desperate times call for desperate measures. When dealing with a hoard, you need to do what you can and not get hung up on some of the other stuff. That will come with time.

Two other comments. One, teen will appreciate it. Whether they express the appreciation is a different matter and you need to know in your heart that you are a good mom and you did for them what any good mom would do. I'm here to say you did a good job and I'm thrilled you and son worked together.

Second comment comes from my own experience. I know you are tired and have other things to do but please finish the job with the final swipe with Lysol. I tend to do things almost and I have to tell myself, no finish. I'll make my bed but not fold the thing by the bottom or tell myself that I'll come back. I literally say to myself, put that final spoon in the dishwasher now. So if you can't finish it or ask son to help. I fight against this every day.

Coffee clinks!

Good morning!

I did not finish my drawer yesterday. A friend called and offered me some flowers she was digging out. They are exactly what I wanted to finish off my new flower bed, so I went over and picked them up. And, drum roll.. I brought them straight home and planted them!

I finally got the last of the pussy willows planted yesterday too, so there are no plants languishing in my house or yard.

CM, I hope you get your machine fixed. I understand how roadblocks like that can derail everything.

Lila, yay for the stroller being picked up! And excellent job on the bathroom! It was really nice of you to give them a reset. And really awesome job on the products! Now, every time a product is requested, do a quick sweep to see if it is needed or something less desirable needs to leave before it goes on the shopping list (example - teen requests shampoo, there are 4 shampoos. if teen does not find any of them acceptable and son is not using them, they leave the bathroom!

I dusted my bedroom yesterday. Except my dresser. My dresser is still buried under a stuff drift.

SubC, when I first read your line about singers of that era were notorious for tension problems, I got a mental image of a rock star who was uptight and caused trouble. The tabloid fodder type. What can I say, my mind takes some strange twists and turns.

The funny thing is, my Singer sewing machine has behaved quite well all the time I've had it; that's why this all came as a sudden surprise. It's a 5830C, if by any chance you are familiar with those. The sewing on the jumpers finished late in the afternoon, after numerous back and forth with finding another one, needing a button sewn on, etc., and my cousin just made it on the uniform exchange deadline. I guess she will find out if they sold later.

I'd needed a nap this afternoon after the tiring (yet satisfying - it is going to be much easier for them, and less allergenic) carpet ripping at the bunny shelter house yesterday. I was sleepy when I got up and wondered if I'd have trouble staying awake in church. Did all right there, came home, was getting ready to make chicken and noodles then crash. Then got a text from my cousin about one of the unexpected jumpers that still needed some work. Since my machine has decided to misbehave again I ended up borrowing roommate's. Alas, no nap, though, so I hope to go to bed earlier tonight.

Must get my sewing machine in shape if possible, or if not figure out what to do, because I have already gone longer than I ever meant to without working on sewing projects. Still have those knit shorts needing pockets - remember them? And the crafts such as doll clothes, and most likely some sort of assembly of quilt components still; even if my church doesn't need them I'll find a different charity. Having the machine out of commission has made me realize I took it for granted. Won't do that again.

My cousin has still been working at my grandma's house off and on. It is sad that my aunts ended up with so much out of control. It gets harder the older a person gets and the more health and mobility problems they have. I look at the hoarding and/or clutter issues on that side of the family and I do wonder if there is that genetic factor involved, the Chromosome 14 thing - and if so, what the implications are for me. And that isn't even the side of the family with the ADHD and autism. Yikes. Double whammy much? I really need to keep my eyes on the prize and not slack off or I will pay dearly. I've hated how it got before I decided to make changes, and I've been gobsmacked by how hard it can be to reckon with it all even when I am desirous of a different way of living.

SubC, I hate sorting papers. I want to keep everything remotely useful or nostalgic. I need to do it sometime, or it will be impossible to find anything.

Tatoulia, I hope you feel okay now!

Someone did pick up the stroller I put in the yard, so that's one more big item gone.

I worked, then went to lunch with a friend. Then came home. Teen is off doing something for a few days and has been complaining about the "gross disgusting bathroom" they have to use downstairs. I reminded them that I never use that bathroom, so they and Son should come up with a plan to alternate cleaning it. Or work together. But Teen has been so depressed and stressed out that I decided to surprise them by cleaning it while they are away.

omg it was so much work. It was not really "gross" as there was not pee everywhere or anything, but it was messy and dusty and needed a good scrub. I got Son to help me - he scrubbed the inside of the shower and wiped down the toilet and took the trash and laundry out of there. I sorted dozens of bottles of cleaners and personal care products, wiped out shelves and organized, scrubbed the sink, and swiffered the floor. It took us TWO HOURS. It is a small bathroom too. It is so much better.

It really needs another once-over with a mopping with lysol cleaner, but that can wait.

I threw out a while trash bag full of very old or never-going-to-be-used bottles of stuff. Like a soap everyone hates, aerosol hair spray for 10 years ago, bottles of cleaner with next to nothing left in them. I consolidated like bottles to make more space. Now instead of every surface being covered with stuff, it is nice and neat. I hope Teen appreciates it, but if they don't, I am still happy we did it.

And that is my task for the day.

Goid afternoon!

Tatoulia, I hope you had a good lunch with your brother and feel better today.

I have been sorting through school papers - lesson plans, resources, ideas, records, notes, forms, pictures, dating back from this past year to prepandemic for an hour and a half. I am recycling about half of it. Currently I am only sorting into 3 piles - recycling, pottery class related, not pottery class related. I am hoping to get all the "pottery class related" into a plastic drawer that is 9"x12"x7.5" tall. - from this round, but there are more papers in the basement. I only brought up one "stack" (actually, it was the drawer, which was sitting on a table because it was too full to go back in the frame and then got more stuff stacked on top.) I relabeled the drawer, took everything out of it, and started it with the pottery class things from this year I had stacked on the table on the porch.

I am hoping to put the drawer back in the frame before I go to bed, but I had to take a break. I've been working for an hour and a half and can't stand it any more.

Hi everyone! Good to read your posts! We went to the hazardous waste day today and took electronics including old cords as well as shredding. Then we went to goodwill and I got rid of a
Lot, including my mother's giant suitcase that she used for years and years and years. I also got rid of clothes and a framed print from the 80s that was in various offices of mine over the years. I cannot remember where I first got it. I'd forgotten all about it it is lovely and I hope someone is excited to find it at goodwill. We were going to take the things for the cat shelter (blankets, towels, cat bed) but I started to feel very sick in the car and we skipped it. The cat donations are in the trunk of BF's car. I just fell terrible all of a sudden.

I came home and slept in the AC. Then I got up and visited mom, then a quick trip to the grocery store. Came home, showered, did two loads of laundry.

I am ready for bed. Taking my brother for lunch tmr.

Lila, you had time to do something. Something is better than nothing. And honestly it sounds like you did quite a lot.

And you found the toys in time to make use of them before the kids outgrow them!

I decluttered two aggressive roosters. Enough said and enough for one day!

Thank you SubC!! Sounds good! In fact it sounds like pizza is in our future as well!

I am hot and tired. I waited too long to go in the garage and search for things and it got hot in there. But I managed to find a box of toddler toys and dress-up clothes/jewelry from when my kids were little, and brought it in the house for the grandkids to play with tonight. Some need a washing as they were a bit dusty, but I think the kids will like them. I also found a box of cute clothing and pulled out a dress, a few shorts and shirts, and some pjs for Tot and Acorn to wear. (Believe it or not, I sorted these boxes several times, had 2 yard sales and donated a bunch, but still have stuff left. At this point is is getting used by grandkids and then donated).

I also put an old stroller out on the driveway with a "free" sign. It is heavy. If no one takes it, it is getting put in the car tonight to be donated.

I could have put a whole box or two together to donate, but it was just too hot.

Now I feel worn out and wish I had some ice cream to cool down! Drinking ice water... thinking about cleaning and cooking and decluttering more.

Lila, here is my pizza crust, you just smoosh it flat on the pan, no stretching/tossing:

3c flour
1 packet or 2T yeast
Pinch of salt
1.5* c warm water

Mix dry stuff together, *add water slowly until you have a dough that sticks together well but isn't sticky.

Knead for 2 minutes on a floured surface
Let rise 2 hours
Flatten and cook at 500F for about ten minutes or until done (if you leave it thicker, it takes a little longer.

You can brush it with butter and garlic before baking.

Good morning SubC, and all,

Another day off. Two in a row feels like absolute luxury! Fall is my busiest season, so I hope to do more of this 2-day rest over the summer. SubC, a time of rest and ease is what makes us able to work later. I had many weeks of no progress on the house, but now I am ready. You will be too.

I had my coffee while reading on the back deck with my dog, who was watching squirrels. Then I went through the fruit drawer in the fridge and picked out an orange and 4-5 Clementines that looked past their prime, and I juiced them all. It made a nice small glass of fresh juice, which I greatly enjoyed!

Now I have pulled up some recipes online so I can make something new for dinner from all the produce I have, before it goes bad. I invited Tot and Acorn and parents over for dinner, but did not hear back yet. I will make it anyway if they don't come, so Son and I can have it and leftovers for the week.

I would like to make garlic bread, but don't want to go to the store. Is there a quick and easy substitute that is homemade? I have flour and basics. I am imagining something easy like a flat loaf or a pan bread or foccacia type thing I can mix up, bake, and slice. If anyone has a recipe I'd love to have it!

I will be working on the hoard today and looking forward to having a full box to put in the car for donation. How about everyone else?