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.