Good morning!

Lila, yay for clearing the table! I hope you enjoyed the family party! Also, way to go on the closet!

At school:
I got all the tape off my wall that was holding my tile's up until they dried, and a couple of nice school dads who happened to be in the building put the big ladder away for me.

I cleared my tables, but partly by stuffing things into my two cupboards that have doors and partly by bringing home some things that I won't use the first week and am pretty sure I am going to struggle to find a home for.

I need to:
Make new shelf boards - I have part of the material at home, part at school.
Clear off the student shelves (big job)
Make three open shelf areas look nice (another big job)

Ideally all the things on the open shelves would be neat and organized and in the right place, but I may settle for "thrown into boxes and stacked on my ware carts in the closet" just so my room looks decent for open house.

My new shelf that I am very excited about looks neat, but I got in a hurry yesterday and didn't bother to organize it - imagine you had a fancy shoe shelf, and a huge pile of shoes - ideally the shoes would be lined up in pairs with boots in one place and dress shoes in another, maybe even color coordinated. what I did was the equivalent of picking up individual shoes and putting each one in the next space - except, most of the people who are coming to open house can't tell the "shoes"apart, so I can organize it later. There are also a few "hats" thrown in because they fit.. "This definitely doesn't belong here, but it looks fine."

Today I'm off to finish packing Dd2. She is in a wedding this weekend, so we will pack everything except what she needs for that and for the trip. (Also we will not pack her food or cleaning supplies) She will stay in her apartment (mostly gone doing wedding stuff) through Monday (she works remotely on Monday). Then take her desk apart. Tuesday Dh goes to load the trailer and they empty the apartment. (Her bed is going on the curb)

Things to do!

Thank you. SubC, I'm sorry about your buck. So sad. I hope you can find another to breed. And hope things go as well as possible for your dd and the dog 🙁

I am stressed out about stuff and feel very anxious (teen medical stuff) but trying to be calm as possible and get things done.

The cake is baked and cooling on racks.
I am making bacon for teen.
I got all the cleaners and other items from the closet sorted and put back plus the cleaners from the table AND I have space to spare! Yay.
I put several items from the table where they belong or at least into the general area where they should have a home, and off the table. There is still a ways to go.
I put some food items from the table and the counters away in kitchen cabinets.

So maybe the bar is not going to get worked on today but the table is getting close. I have to go fry an egg for teen and then will work some more.

hi Tatoulia, I went back and read posts. I hope you are feeling energetic, or if not, at least content and at peace today.

I am tired but I GOT THE TABLE CLEANED OFF. Yes, cleared and cleaned. Is everything exactly where it should be? No. But the table is clean and ready for us to have a place to sit down and eat together tonight, and that is something.

They will be here in an hour. I think my priorities now are:

- vacuum (the dog hair is everywhere)
- frost the cake
- clean up the kitchen

That will be enough. Tomorrow is another day.

Wow! That must've felt great to get three car loads of things to Goodwill! Even if it wasn't your stuff. Heck, it wasn't my stuff and I'm still feeling the rush of donating things and feeling lighter!

Going into the office today. Need to get ready.

hi guys,

I have gotten almost nothing done. I was sick for a few days and had to rest plus deal with friend drama. Now I am drained, but feeling better.

Tale is a disaster area, as is kitchen and bar. Closet is still not put back together, so things are on the table and recliner from there. I have not read your updates yet... I'm saving them to read when I take a break between cleaning.

I have to bake a cake (like, now) and have family coming over for dinner and a birthday party tonight in about 5 hours. I am slightly panicked.

What I HAVE to do in the next 5 hours:

- bake a cake, let it cool, frost and decorate it
- put the closet stuff back in the closet in an organized manner
- get the table cleared off so we can eat on it
- get the kitchen cleaned up so it's not terrible
- and if possible, get the bar under control

I also should vacuum and pick up so the house is not covered in dog hair when people come.

I don't want to do any of this stuff!!! Cheer me on, I have to do it!

Okay, I am going to get the cake in the oven, put a FEW things away and then come back and regoup.

Tstoulia, I am proud of her.

I know how hard it is.

Lila,

You can do this! I believe in you!

Right now I feel like I am in day two of a three day swim meet with no end in sight. (All three of my kids were swimmers and they eventually were in different age groups with different sessions, and then some of them would qualify to come back for evening events and we never lived closer than 35 minutes from whatever pool it was - sometimes well over an hour.)

Dd1 is in crisis right now because she is going to have to redone her dog for valid and unavoidable reasons I will not bring here, but she is so sad, and Bean will be sad too.

Heartdaughter has found a tentative educational solution for heart grandson.

Dh is a wreck about Dd2 moving.

And my Buck died last night. Which means I cannot currently breed anybody for next year's milk. (Right about now is when I breed the first goat to go into heat..) the best option I can find is $150 and a three to four hour round trip - in my SUV because we no longer have a topper for the truck - so that is a nonstarter.

I am tired. But I had fun with Bean and I got two loads of laundry done (washed, one dried, none put away). As soon as he wakes up we are headed into town to return him and for me to work on my classroom.

I'm sorry you didn't sleep well, SubC. I have a lot of those nights and they are misery for me.

Another nice day here. I think I can get more done today without the list. But just in case, I am making a list. Will stop by again in a bit.

I have so little to show for my evening. And my day. And here it is 10 and I have to do dishes, get ready for cleaners tomorrow, shower, and think about stuff.

How is everyone?

Dd2 and I took three trips to goodwill - two in her fiesta and one in my suv. She filled the back of my suv with things for me to store here, keep/use, or pass on here. Including a trash bag full of things like half bags of stale chips for the chickens, and another bag of recycling. I gave her homework and am going to go back on Thursday to help her finish - we need to do the kitchen and finish packing.

Tomorrow - finally! I get Bean. I will take him back to his house and stop at school to at least get the tape off the wall and put the ladder away, and hopefully do a little more cleanup and organizing.

Second post today.

I filled the back of my car with (mostly df's) donations and the backseat with (also mostly dd's) recycling plus a feed bag of trash, and I put a small shopping bag of "goes to school" in the front seat.

I'd like to say I emptied the car, but I same home with a piece of drywall that I need to use as a pattern for classroom shelves, and a little wheeled shelf with bins that I bought for Bean's toys either here or Dd can take it. I suffered from "too cheap, useful, and well made" syndrome. I am stressed out from Dd2's moving process and probably should be banned from stores.

Hey SubC! I'm here. I felt like everything would be hard to do today so I made a checklist even though it was easy stuff like clean the litter box. I only have to do the dishes to be caught up. Seriously the routine stuff seemed hard today.

Another lovely, cool night.

This no spend month could not have come at a better time. I need it. I need to do next month, too, because there's magic to the two months.

Tatoulia,

Some days the routine things are hard.

Some days you get a gold star if you get out of bed.

I did not mention that I baked two loaves of bread and a batch of biscuits yesterday, plus hardboiled some eggs for egg salad - but did not have the energy to actually make and eat the egg salad - I had biscuits for lunch and unhealthy leftovers and two glasses of wine for dinner. The first glass of wine was probably a bad choice, and it talked me into the second glass. I didn't sleep well. I left the kitchen a wreck.

I have finished moving my furniture around in my classroom. I have a set of clear plastic drawers I'm not sure where I will put. What I wish I had instead is a little tower of 4-6 sturdy opaque drawers that added up to the height of a 2 drawer filing cabinet. I started putting away glazing supplies and plaster molds. I finished gluing all the tiles to the wall but still need to go back, peel off the tape that holds them in place while the glue dries, and put the extra tall ladder away (hopefully with help). I'm starting to feel pretty good about my classroom.

Today I drive a long way to dd2's apartment and we sort every. Single. Item. By the end of the day maybe she won't want me to come with her on her moving trip..

Great work, everyone!

I too was going to suggest putting the grocery bags in the car. I keep only two of the grocery recycling bags with the nylon straps. Any more than that is too much for me. There are certainly times when I'm out and about and decide to get groceries. I pay the dime or nickel for the plastic or much preferred paper bag. Then I use the plastic bags over and over again by keeping it folded in my purse. The paper bags I recycle with my recycling or I use them to put my donations in. I will not allow the ones with the handles to take over my house. Frequently if BF and I are going for a walk, I bring a bag for him.

I used to keep too many bags and boxes. Now I keep these numbers very, very low.

Lila, I'm sure you are exhausted by the work you did today so I am hesitant to offer any advice. Just keep doing what you are doing. You are doing a great job.

Bf, now that he's not working every day, is learning a lot. Even when we took his boxes of paperwork to be shredded yesterday, he said how he's much more willing to get rid of papers now. The first two times we hired the shredding truck, he was being more discerning. Now he's built up some of those muscles that are necessary to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. The next day in Boston is near the end of September . He has marked his calendar! The city hires the same type of shredding truck that we hire, and we can watch them raise our bin into the truck before leaving. And the city recycles the boxes we brought the paper in. Pretty good thing! We also discovered that we can take our old batteries for recycling on these days. All around a great event.

We also took a box of shredding for his neighbor.

Today I relaxed then did mom's groceries (with a tote bag), unloaded the groceries and then did some of my grocery shopping with the same tote. BF will take me for the heavy stuff I need tomorrow night.

Another beautiful night here, so I can sleep with the windows open and ceiling fan on. Pretty nice.

Good morning everyone!

Lila, how is the table?

Tatoulia - good job with the shredding! And how nice about the batteries!

Bean cannot come today because he is (was?) sick.

I haven't heard from them this morning, but he had a fever yesterday afternoon.

The end of my August is all topsy-turvy at the moment.

Dd2 has been approved for an apartment, but doesn't have a lease yet. She is trading in her car, but the new car is not ready and nothing is signed or paid yet. She reserved a Pod for moving, but has not paid or confirmed yet.

The current plan is that I go tomorrow to help her sort out her entire apartment, pack and purge some things, and at least some of that is nailed down. Then Thursday Dh and I go back again and we load the pod. The pod gets picked up Friday and she stays in her apartment all weekend with only the stuff that will travel in her car because she is in a wedding. Monday she works remotely, and next Tuesday she loads everything up and comes down here to stay with us for a while - our road trip has been delayed because the pod won't get there until at least Sept. 1.

Meanwhile, today I think I am going to try to drop the donations off, work in my classroom again, and maybe garden and bake.

Dh said he will get up and do yoga with me this morning. Progress is slow, but I do feel like I am moving forward.

Thank you for the help, SubC. Your words help me get outside the cycle in my head and think in another direction.

Why 10 boxes is too much... hmmm. Well, I guess I am imagining it to be emotionally draining to even look in one box. But, in the past when I was sorting, I would just open a box, dig through, feel overwhelmed and put it back away. Taking things OUT of the box and spreading it out probably would dissipate a lot of the overwhelm.... wouldn't it. Yeah I think it would. And privacy would be key. If anyone is WITH me looking in the box or sorting anything, I start to feel pressure, and I can't seem to get rid of things underany pressure.

I have not started yet today, but perhaps a good place to start this day is that closet. Things are falling out of it, things are blocking the sliding closet doors from sliding, stuff is just piled up, falling off the shelves. I will start there, try to donate a few things and beaten it up enough to fit the cleaners on the table into the closet, on a shelf.

I'll report back and I hope people come and post! Even if it's just another episode of the SubC and Lila show 🙂

post 2 today.

So, I've taken a lot of things out of the closet. It's a "coat closet" and has a few coats in there. But mostly it is other stuff since we really lack closet space. It has double sliding doors.

From the closet:

- threw out a half case of bottled flavored water, long ago expired

- donated a scarf, a hat, a couple pairs of gloves

- moved some protein shakes to the kitchen

- found 2 cans of dog food, which I need and was about to go purchase. Will use these today or tomorrow.

I took about half the rest of the stuff out of the closet and sorted by type. Who knew I had 8 or 9 cans of compressed air in there??

I have like 50 or more microfiber dusting cloths. I don't need that many, but hesitate to get rid of something I will use. I might donate the oldest ones, then put half the rest in a ziplock and stick them in the bathroom cabinet downstairs for when the ones I have up here get raggy. I also have a LOT of cleaning brushes, swiffers, etc etc. I will sort through them.

Several bags of dog food came out of the closet so I will decide which dog will get what and use them up.

I am going to pick out the cleaning supplies that are the closest to being used up, and use them up. That should make room for everything I need to fit in there.

I am not going to agonize over the rest of the things in there that I want to keep for now. I think just this bit of sorting will make enough room to help me get the table cleared off.

Good afternoon!

Lila, you did a great job with your closet!

Dd2 and I have been working on the bins she has stored in my basement. She found a bunch of stuff she is ready to get rid of (and I saved less than a shoebox full for the grandchildren) but there will probably be the same number of bins because she is planning on sending some things from her apartment that she wants but not to move out of state back here for me to store.

I sorted the bags of stuff she already brought from her apartment to get rid of into donation and recycling locations and managed to only "rescue" a small stack of consumables - mostly art supplies.

She also inspired me to disassemble and recycle an item from my desk.

Good evening!

Tatoulia, happy shredding day! Today I made squash pancakes, but my family ate them all.

Lila, could you use your driveway to sort out the garage?

Or maybe the weather or neighbors are a problem.

I'm guessing that your Ex's room is smaller than the garage, but soon it will be empty! Once it is empty, you can do a super deep clean on the surfaces.

Then you will have a relatively big empty space, so you could do at least part of the garage at a time. If you can get rid of 80% it should go well even if you do about ten boxes at a time. Then at some point you would have half the garage empty, and you could use that space to sort the other half.

If you put a lock on your new empty room's door, you can safely and neatly store the things you are keeping in there!

It sounds like you are making good food choices.

Where does the stuff on the table keep coming from? You keep cleaning it off - is it the same stuff just moving back and forth from another surface? Or just some difficult to manage category of stuff?

Good ideas, SubC. Weather is a major problem with sorting in the driveway or garage (which is not heated nor cooled). It is over 100 degrees outside here in summer, most days, so garage is unbearable. There will be a nice window in fall to sort in the garage, but until then, I can only do it early in the morning. I don't think I can sort 10 boxes at a time. The garage stuff is a lot of emotionally charged stuff. It's been in there for 15 - 25 years. Things that were my kids. Things like a ton of camping gear because we used to camp and I have not been able to let it go yet. But I am close. I keep wanting to imagine my grown kids and my grandkids all going on a camping trip with me. Hmmm. Other stuff that is from my childhood, or my exes, or... "might use someday" etc. I really have to get a grip though.

I like your question about the table and why I keep having to clean it off repeatedly. It makes me stop and think from an outside perspective. I guess it clutters up because we so rarely eat dinner together anymore. And that makes me so, so sad. But I don't have the time and energy to do it and invite my adult kids over. I dunno. My son who lives with me works through lunch and dinner. My teen is picky and grouchy. So there is no one to make dinner for unless I invote people, and sometimes they don't come.

What is gathered on the table? Let's see.

- A watermelon and a squash. There is no room in the fridge or counters.

- many cleaners and an aphid spray. The closet where cleaners go is a wreck so there is no shelf space so I need to clean out that closet to make room.

- a box with two brand new, pricey sweaters that teen begged me to order from etsy, that they then received and hated, but there is no return policy. They make me angry. I am planning to put them in a clothing tub because teen changes their mind so much and I don't have the energy to try and re-sell them.

- papers that either need to be filed or dealth with

- a couple books

- a bag of bags. Sheesh. Well now you have to pay for bags at the grocery store so if I need them but have no place for them.

- a couple dog things my dog uses, but not everyday, but a friend gave them to me and wants a video of him using them.

- some Ramen bowls for Teen but there is no room in the cabinet

- a little pile of office supplies like adhesive tabs

- mail that came for ex or for son who doesn't live here, to pass on

- a bird feeder and hanger my friend gave me. I dont know where to hang it, and it's hot outside.

- a leash. A dog towel. Mostly just random things with no home that I stick there.

Mail - you can circle the name and write "not at this address" and put it back in the mailbox with the flag up. You are not the postman. ("Real" mail will get returned to sender if there is no forwarding order on file.)

Watermelons are a problem. Just try to eat the food in the fridge before you buy more.

Can you keep the bags in your car?

Cleaning out the cleaner closet sounds like a good idea.

Not buying teen anymore clothes also sounds like a good idea -
Teen has clothes
Teen has few or no places they have to go, so pretty much any clothes are acceptable
You are concerned about finances.
Teen has a pattern of requesting and rejecting clothes - you are reinforcing that.

You can't sort ten boxes at a time that is too many?
Or you need to see it all?

If it's too many, that's fine. I was just thinking ten boxes would be a good amount to spread out in a room and group by category. Maybe the boxes are bigger than I am imagining. Once you had it out, you could work on it at whatever speed worked and lock the door between (I am a big advocate of this door lock. You need a safe, private, space.)

Good morning! SubC I would love some of your delicious food right now! Had a bellyache and terrible heartburn all night. Just awful.

It is hazardous waste day in the city. I'm going to go get BFs car and go up to his house. He has boxes of papers for shredding.

I'll talk to you later!

Hello friends. So nice to come back and see lots of posts... I read every one! I am sorry for your loss, CM. Also, I want to come to Sorting Heaven! I would love to have someone help me haul the entire contents of my super-stuffed garage to another place, so I could clean the actual garage. The floor is strewn with shattered glass on and under things from teen, bits of leaves and stuff that blew in from outside, random small things and bugs. Then I would sort every stupid box!! I bet I would be happy to donate 80% of what is in the garage if I could step outside the space and SEE it all. It is hard for me to SEE things if they are in a box in the same spot for 20+ years. Now that ex is gone, I could clear that space without fear of him hoarding it up again.

SubC, great work on the bathroom, the garden, the classroom etc! You have gotten a lot done. And I am happy you are spending time with Bean. We are not at 14 days for Acorn and about 9 days for Tot post-covid, and finally yesterday they all stopped coughing. I am going over to see them all today finally.

I worked so, so hard this week. Every hour practically I was working, even my usual day off yesterday, so that I can take next week "mostly" off. I don't know how other, paid people there take weeks and even a month off completely. I hope to stay home most of the week.

My kitchen table and dining room bar are sooo cluttered and piled up you can't see the surface. Those are the areas I will tackle now. Plus cleaning the kitchen. I am tempted to work on the bedroom or the bathroom some more, and maybe I will in between, but the first thing you see when you walk in my house is the table and bar piled with crap. And I am tired of looking at it.

I'll come back and share how it is going and hope to see more posts of what you're all doing today! I wonder where Road is?

post 2, update:

So far today I have:

- worked on the kitchen table, filled a grocery bag with stuff from the table and took it out to the trash with 2 small boxed that had stuff in them, plus a squash gone bad

- sorted a container of spinach, took all the good spinach and washed it and am steaming it to eat today

- loaded the dishwasher and cleaned out the sink

I think for lunch I will eat the two ears of corn sitting on my counter, still pretty fresh, plus a nectarine and some of the steamed spinach.

The table and bar are still perplexing me. I don't have 'homes' for the stuff that is piled there. But it isn't stuff I will donate. I guess I really need to clean out the hall closet to make a home for things... but ugh, I don't wanna.

Good morning!

Tatoulia, thanks for keeping the show going yesterday.

CM, I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. I do think your warehouse center ideas sound great, but I've also reached a point where I realize something just has to happen now, and you really can build on a small pivot point. The answer to "I don't know where to start" really is "anywhere. Just start."

I worked in the garden yesterday and put four quarts of kohlrabi up in the freezer. We also had kohlrabi for dinner Thursday night - and carrot cake muffins (cupcakes!). I cut the sugar in the muffins by 1/4 and I think they are still too sweet. Dh put cream cheese frosting on his. My refrigerators are exploding right now. So many yummy vegetables, so little time.

While I was chopping kohlrabi yesterday I watched YouTube videos. I found a really interesting one on what she called the "chaotic creative brain". It made so much sense to me - my mind works the way she was describing. I have a super hard time with schedules and routines and lists. I find a new system, get really excited about it, and then quickly lose my motivation and stop using it. She said "if you want a chaotic creative to quit something, put it on a schedule and tell them they have to do it for 15 minutes a day." I don't respond to artificial deadlines. If I'm going to do a thing or stick with a thing, I have to be either super excited about it or genuinely almost out of time. And everything else will be sacrificed to that thing. I need to be exposed to something new for a while before I become interested.

I just kept thinking "yes. Yes. Yes.."

So, like right now, I'm tired of cleaning up after myself. I don't want to do it anymore. It was working great, but it takes too much energy and involves a routine and artificial deadlines. I didn't get excited about the cleaning up, I got excited about the system. And now I am tired of the system and ready to move on. Sometimes that happens in days, sometimes weeks, my interests and motivation can be cyclical.

Right now all I want to do is garden and preserve food. And that gets interrupted and I feel grumpy. I don't want school to start because I'm in garden mode. But making myself go into my classroom and set up gets me excited about my classes..

It's why I always say "I just need a week to.." Doing things in little bits is hard.

More thoughts -

First an accomplishment - my dressing table now has nothing on it but the framed pictures I choose to have there. This leaves the dresser - which is a large drift of mostly tiny items.

Ok, Dd2 is coming home today to have a combined b-day/going away party bonfire with her childhood friends tonight.

Dd1 called and is planning to come over later in the afternoon with Bean and probably sil to see her.

It's a nice day, so off to the garden I go.

You know what I would do among other things if I won the lottery? I would start a business, or it might even be a nonprofit - because I'd want to reach the people like myself who have the willingness to work on their hoarding issues but just lack the funds to have SPACE, so that everything's jammed together...

Well, I would provide them that space! I would obtain large, empty warehouse type buildings, either buy or rent depending on what's more cost effective and efficient in a given locale. I'd have folding tables, shelves, dollies and carts, and helpers to lift heavy stuff. Plenty of trash bins and supplies, recycling containers, and other bins and trucks that would regularly transport donations to charity.

I'd have clean bathrooms and a kitchen so they could come and stay as long as they needed during daylight hours. A lounge with wifi and comfy couches. Since my warehouses would be large, multiple sorters could work at the same time. If they desired, they could have curtains for privacy. Maybe some sorting spaces would be away from the main one, for those folks new to all this and more nervous.

The lounge could be a place for camaraderie, swapping war stories in the clutter battle, bolstering one another's morale and energy, and of course celebrating victories. A TV would have YouTube with Marie Kondo and other videos available. There might even be a very chill, very Zen vibe coach on hand in case someone needs a little advice, venting, hand holding, or whatever.

U-Haul truck service would be available to transport people's stuff - from wherever they currently have it to the sorting warehouse, and what is kept to its final destination which is hopefully a clean and uncluttered house or apartment.

I would call it Sorting Heaven 😇 lol

Or perhaps just Sortaway.

We could also get Cory in on it somehow, if he's interested. 😉

I ❤ to daydream.

CM,

Your warehouse sounds amazing, but I will tell you a secret - you won't like it,

You have all the space you need.

Because eventually, everything has to fit neatly into the space you actually have. With at least a chair and most of a bed uncovered.

Yes, it's easier if you can spread it all out on tarps ala Cory and get help, but let's face it, we have limited energy.

If you have a square foot of clean surface, you can make progress.

If you pick a category that might be easiest for you to reduce and tell me how much surface area you have, I will give you a process.

Here is a thing that happened to me today - I wanted a tortilla for lunch, but we had no tortillas. But, I had a clean stove and a clean counter. I googled "fast, easy tortillas" I divided the recipe by 4, and I was even able to lay my hands on my rolling pin. In less time than it would have taken me to get to the grocery store, I had four hot, fresh tortillas made from only flour, water, oil and salt. - and no plastic packaging. They were do good I spread a little peach jam on a second one, rolled it up and called it dessert!

The key to this is: CLEANING UP AFTER MYSELF

I don't like it. It takes longer (except making the tortillas was so fast because the surfaces were clean and I could find all the things I needed!) it's frustrating when things don't have places they go (but I got the thing from somewhere, so it can go back there, or closer to where it actually belongs, or maybe I can move (or remove!) something else to make space for it.)

I removed some things from my dressing table today - I put the dirty apron in the laundry basket. I put the picture back in it's frame and hung it back on the wall, I put my earrings back in my jewelry box. I made a space on the closet shelf (by shoving things over - the closet is a work in progress) for the sentimental stuffed dog and put it away.

And when I was loading the dishes in the dishwasher and I started cleaning a plastic tray and realized it did not have a recycling symbol on it, I decided I can put it in a bag for the dumpster. And I did.

I want a life where I make tortillas.

Hello everyone. SubC The tortillas sound delicious. Everything you cook and make fascinates me. You are amazing.

I'm sorry that both SubC and CM have upsetting news. Shout out to MayMay, Road, Tess, everyone!

I am getting rid of more stuff. Some of my decisions are bad ones but I'm doing it. Allow me to explain: I have many new bras that are too small due to extreme covid weight. I could keep them, but they are mocking me. I haven't given up the idea of losing weight, but I don't need things in my house that are making me feel bad.

Before August 1 (and the start of a no spend month), I bought a new clothes hamper. I had liked it for a while but hard to justify the cost. It was down by $30 (and still priced outrageously high) and I didn't need it except that the one I have in my bedroom no longer goes with my decor. So I put donation things in the old and took it to my car. I'm happier with the new one. The old one went with my decor at the time but I've since recovered the chair and changed up what I was using in the bathroom so it didn't make any sense.

No spend August is going great. I'm in favor of it.

My house is feeling much cleaner. I'm getting rid of things and it's helpful. I'm also making sure that when I leave a room, I take whatever doesn't belong in it out. So if I'm leaving to go to rest room, I take my coffee cup and put it in the dishwasher. Just taking things with me is helping a lot.

The effects of having cleaners once a week is really helping me. It's just a luxury. And mom's place is so clean right now. So easy to be in it.

Nothing to report, but I hated seeing that at the top when I checked in this morning.

I think today is going to be a garden/food focused day, so I may not make progress on the decluttering front.

I'm tired and discouraged and my head hurts.

Those moments when you wish so badly that you had gotten on top of the mess and disorganization a long time ago...

My uncle, my mom's baby brother, turned 94 on Friday the 5th. He died this morning after an injury on Monday. I'm trying to find the photos that I know exist to send to my cousins, but there are so many boxes and in different places (including possibly the storage unit but I do recall I made an effort to get photos over here to the house because the damp was damaging them). I've found a few, though.

Why is it that we put off caring for the most meaningful things - short of the people themselves - that carry our memories, and busy ourselves with lesser everyday stuff? Is it just because it's more time consuming to scan and organize the photos and clippings?

I don't know. But this gives me something to think about as in a month or so we head into a cooler time of year when organizing my storage unit will be doable.

And yes, ultimately the people themselves are more valuable than even the photos. But the photos are nevertheless very nice to have.