Good Morning Everybody

Hi Tatoulia
Mom's cat is such a sweetheart, so happy she has her.

Thanks for the info on the pond/fountain.
We have a small waterfall fountain in town, no pool at the base and it freezes if they don't stop it.

Good luck with all your plans for today!

I wear jewelry, only at home, never when I go out.
Heartbreaking to lose it.
This Summer I lost a hair pin that was my Great Grandmother's somewhere in the yard and I keep looking for it out there.
Pack rat probably found it and stashed it in it's house. ;p

How exciting! A 90th birthday party!
((((HUGS)))) Tatoulia's Mom 🙂

Tillie they drain the pool in the winter. The fountain is flat with a drain. So in the summer the kids can play in it-I have a really cute picture somewhere and will try to find. Since it's flat (no water in a basin at the bottom), they don't have to do much to winterize it. I haven't seen it running, in fact, during any of my walks lately, even before 9PM. The reflecting pool is a strict no entering policy, and the sign says "even when empty".

I bet kitty is glad you fixed up the cat post! I ran to mom's last night after doing errands with BF and after initially hiding, her little cat came out. She's being a very good girl and using the cardboard scratcher.

Ok Ive got a big day in front of me. I need to remember to breathe. I'm teaching during my lunch hour and I have a meeting at 10AM. Oh and I didn't get ready for my class so naturally I'm grateful that I did the slides all at once. Except that tiny bit at the end. Maybe I can do tonight.

Mom's Party is shaping up. I'm pretty excited.

Cm I'm glad you could sync the computer and retrieve some of your things.

Tillie I realized last night, most people don't know that I lose things. It's so silly and it should bother me, I guess, but generally I find them again and I only allow myself a short period of time to look before giving up. It made me think about what would actually break my heart and it's acting given to me by a friend and some jewelry from my BF.

Ellie you MUST stop yourself from working until you are frazzled, exhausted and having flair ups!!!

That is called BURN OUT.
After a burn out it's impossible to get motivated to do even simple things ever again.
You remember the pain and shear exhaustion and avoid even starting on anything.
ALWAYS stop before you have passed your physical and/or mental limits.
Here, we are very concerned with a person's health and enforce a strict "Self Care" policy.
(((HUG)))

Good Evening Everyone

Hi CriticalMass
Happy dancing you found some of your files!
Yes, Badger is programed to attack any of us who is being hard, mean or critical of ourselves.

Hi Tatoulia
Keep forgetting to ask, does that reflecting pool freeze over, what about the fountain?

Lets see... I hot glued the sisal back onto Scooters cat perch scratchy post.
Took a shower, washed my hair.
Washed laundry & will hang it out about sunup.

Hi Ellie, and welcome. Sorry I'm in putting out fires mode but it's always a treat when a new person joins. Looking forward to getting acquainted.

I synced my tablet to my laptop and in a convoluted process I can't remember (so yay, y'all are spared a boring description of it heh heh), I got SOME of the history back. But not the bookmarks and there are gaps. I can hope maybe what I did find will jog further memories.

Tillie, I wasn't being critical of myself, really - Badger is trained to smack us when we do that, right? LOL. We need to introduce Ellie to Badger. Ellie, he is on my Instagram, @BunnyPlanetQueen. He is tasked with "badgering" us if we are ready to declutter yet simply dragging our heels, and he likes Sno-Cones and cucumber sandwiches.

Yay Ellie! You did ALOT today. Great work! I love doing laundry. It's so satisfying. I had to learn to fold it and put it always, and I've been doing that for a number of years now. Again, it comes from having a place to hang and put my clothes. Tillie and others here helped me to develop good habits.

I'm so excited you went to college here! I live smack dab in the city, and I walk absolutely everywhere. I work near South Station so it's a lovely, invigorating walk each day.

The black cat is my cat and the only one who lives with me. The tiny striped cat is mom's cat-she died a few months ago. The lovely little pastel colored cat is mom's new cat. And the very old tiger cat is my BF's cat. BF's cat lives at BF's office.

I am so excited by what you've accomplished and I'm so excited you know my city. You have no idea how happy I am right now.

The one thing that I've always done, even in my worst filth and clutter, is I've made my bed every day. And I have changed my sheets at least once a week. That is something I've always managed, thank God. I generally recommend that people start with a made bed. It just feels so good.

Cm we will get through this together.

I am downright giggly that I found a nice community to communicate with about these things!

One down side... it's now 7:30pm mountain time... I've been going nonstop for 7 hours now. Sometimes when I get going on my household projects, getting started is the hard part. The concerning thing is that I go so hard, so long, when I finally get going, because I'm afraid once I stop I won't start again! Does anyone else have that thought process. So I just kept going all day, but now my fibromyalgia is in full swing and everything hurts so darn bad!! And I haven't even stopped yet. Now I'm doing things like cleaning up the cat and dog feeding mats, putting away last week's groceries, etc. Time to just call it a night very soon...

Have a lovely evening, thanks to everyone who chatted today and shared your activities, challenges and thoughts. 🙂

Hi Ellie
Yes! Aren't Tatoulia's pictures wonderful!!!
So nice they bring back good memories for you too.

WAY TO GO!!!
Tackling that bedroom was a big job but you did it!!!
And you vacuumed floor spaces too.
Getting dishes gathered up and into the kitchen and almost into the dishwasher is fantastic progress.

You did a LOT today.
Pat yourself on the back, well done. 😀

We all post things that we need to do here then feel obligated to do our best to do them.
This message board keeps us accountable.
Keeps us all connected to real people who truly understand and care.

Oh my goodness Tatoulia, loved your instagram feed!! Your fur-babies are 100% adorable (we have 3 cats and a chocolate lab dog)...

Your home pics are so inspiring! They are basically excellent "goal pictures" for what I hope to get my areas looking like some day.

And bonus... loved the Boston pictures!!!!!! I had to do a double-take before I saw your caption, I was like "hey, that's Christian Science Center reflecting pool". I spent so, so, so many hours there during my college years, my college bf and I would go stroll around there all the time. Such a relaxing place to unwind in the late evenings...

Fenway, Prudential Tower, oh all the memories of my youth. 🙂 Thank you for sharing!

Hello everyone,

Wow, I've been so isolated for so long, I forgot how lovely it is to have fellow human beings out in the world who I told my intentions to at the beginning of a day. LOL!!

First, let me say that reading about your days (all of you), I want to thank you for sharing... hearing about the beauty of the apricot tree, the ordinary-ness of all those tasks that take up time in all of our days - such as Critical Mass dealing with technical snafus, someone else winterizing the windows, etc. - it's good to know I'm not the only one who gets sidelined and occupied with all those types of tasks! Where does all the time go?

Second, although I started my day with a too-long list, I found it pretty motivating that I did put it out there to you all, knowing I'd come back in the evening to share the outcome!! So I sat in my bed from 6:30am-12:30pm, and was feeling pretty frustrated that it looked like another day was just going to pass me by. But then I thought about my intention to update here about what I got done, so I figured I'd better get my a$$ in gear so I'd have at least something checked off the list.

So here's the late afternoon update:

* dishes - not done yet, but I've gathered them from all over the house into the kitchen, so I anticipate I might actually load them into the dishwasher in a little while.

* my bathroom - nope, not even on the radar yet. probably not a task for today

* vacuuming the public spaces - DONE

* my son's room. Whooo-wee buddy, that's the one I prioritized for the day. I am so worried about him... So I got his room lovely and DONE. All clean, generally organized, and I left much of his personal items in an easy to find, accessible manner. I hope he likes it and doesn't hate me for it, I'll know in a few hours when he gets home. I've got about 8-10 loads of his laundry all out in my kitchen, hopefully I'll at least get his bedding washed and back on his bed before he gets home, but it will take me all night and tomorrow to get the rest of it done.

Gotta run but I'll come back soon. thanks to you all for being here!

I have a severe case of CRS (Can't Remember "Stuff")
Also known as old timer's disease.

Only way I can address you all individually is by opening up another window and switching back & forth between my post and this page.

I'm on a laptop computer, right click on reply and now I have both pages.

I know phones don't have all the same features as a laptop/desk top.

Tatoulia! You always lose everything???
That would be sad if it wasn't so funny. ;D

Oh I bet the apricot tree looks beautiful, Tillie! Great job on getting the weather proofing up!

I ended up keeping my ivy. It's starting to turn and it looks so pretty. The rest I pulled up.

I think having my sister stay over will be a much smaller sacrifice than last year when I had mom's friend here for many nights. Six, I think it was.

Ellie, I used to have trouble keeping up with my dishes, despite having a dishwasher. It was largely attributable to having too many dishes and no where to put the clean ones. Now when I do my dishes, I think, look how nice it is that everything fits. Not only dirs every thing fit, but I've got room to spare.

If you are on Instagram I can be found at Susie.7010. I post pictures of my apartment and random cats. I hope you'll check in to see how far I've come and no I don't have before pictures!!!

Ellie you'll learn our names. And we forgive if you fail to remember what we've written. I'm the chief reason why we need to be forgiving! I only remember so much.

Cm just forge ahead. Sometimes when I screw up I like to decide that I'm -free instead of -less. Especially when I lose or break something. I'm wallet-free, not wallet-less. It takes the sting out of it for me. You didn't lose your open tabs, you are free of them. Try it. You probably aren't aware of how often I lose stuff. And so a long time ago, I decided how light my pockets feel now that I'm free of my keys, etc. I once was trying to get out of a parking garage and I'd lost my credit card on my way from the office to the garage, and I was trying to tell the guy that I'll pay twice tomorrow and he said, oh yeah? I think if you'd actually lost your credit card you'd be upset. And I said, call my secretary, she'll tell you that I lose my stuff so often that it doesn't even register. Funny, though, when I did call my secretary to ask her for a credit card, on her way to the garage she actually found my card.

It is garbage night for me. I'm always pretty excited.

Mom's Party is shaping up. I'll post photos of the things I am planning. I'm going to bring over one of my nice tablecloths. It dry cleans nicely.

Good Afternoon Everybody

Hi CriticalMass
Please quit being so critical of yourself.
S%&T like that happens to all of us.
We have so many things running around in our brains that we click on the wrong button or drop beloved glass dishes.
So very sorry you lost everything (((HUG)))
Wish there was some way I could give you a time out, time to rest, relax and reset.

Hi Ellie
Yes! your To-Do list is too long.
Priorities...
What one thing on that list is the top priority?
Then break down that priority into smaller more doable steps.

A good rule to make for the Son's room would be that ALL garbage & food must be gathered up and removed EVERY week.
That dirty clothes must be gathered up and put in the hamper EVERY week.
The food garbage could cause an infestation of bugs and rodents and we don't want that.
I have tried to get Steven to follow this simple rule but his room is disgusting and stinks to high heaven with all the garbage and dirty clothes.
Makes the whole house stink and he gets mice and bugs in there.

Good luck 😉

Hi Tatoulia
Yes, yesterday was good and I would have loved joining you all for lunch. ;D
Good luck spending time with your sister.
Just do not bring up any controversial subjects.
Only small talk about extremely trivial things.
If she brings up something off limits distract her by changing the subject completely around.
Goodbye Summer window plants, thank you.

Covered the dining area window in plastic this morning and the temps inside immediately went up 5 degrees. 63 to 68
Covered the window to my room. Being on the north side of the house in Winter it can develop a sheet of ice inside if not covered.
Next week the night time temps will get down into the teens.
Thinking maybe tomorrow I will detach the hose and insulate the outside faucet.
The Apricot tree is absolutely gorgeous.
All decked out on red, gold, apricot, tangerine leaves.

A lot has been happening, I'm trying to get my bearings.

My roommate felt well enough to go to work today. I was going to try and declutter some in my bedroom. Then I got on my tablet and was trying to free up space, because it was so full it wouldn't even display photos.

So I reset my Google Chrome app to the factory version - and in so doing, lost my bazillion open tabs AND my bookmarks. For some reason I guess I assumed they wouldn't be affected, just the software. Probably dumb of me in retrospect, but software keeps changing and I can't keep track as well as I used to what affects what.

So now I'm dealing with that. I used to be able to keep up by making a monthly list of Links but it's been about a year since I've had things together enough even to do that. I've been doing a lot of research lately, too, and often it's from a link on a page that I go to another page, so only the history and bookmarks would be a record of where I went.

I am just so tired of my life being one stupid foul-up after another as I'm ironically trying to use the talents I do have (such as the writing for which I was researching) to make a better life.

Hi Tillie and Tatoulia and everyone else,

First, let me apologize that some of my replies might miss (or misspell names) from the posts I'm replying to... at least on my browser, the post-message screen makes all the other posts go away and I have a terrible memory. I wish when I'm posting something, I can see the other people's posts at the same time!! 🙂

That said, thank you for the warm welcomes this weekend.

Today is my third day off in a row when I could get out of bed, clean, purge, organize, etc. Saturday and Sunday I did absolutely nothing, except watch hoarding shows and think about what I'd *like* to work on. Today I am hoping to get out of bed and do something.

So in the spirit of naming something I will do today:
* my dishes definitely need doing
* my living/dining/kitchen area need a good vacuuming (got to love how fast 4 pets accumulate floor-fur!!)
* how nice it would be to work on my bathroom today

And lastly... and this one makes me really sad... this past week or two, it is becoming more and more clear to me that my oldest son (age 17) inherited some of my issues, and may have some ones of his own as well. I have come to recognize that his bedroom has long since surpassed "messy teenager room" and I think is early-stage hoarding. So I talked with him last night about the fact that I plan to add, to my to-do list, getting some order back in his room. At least it would get it back to a baseline reasonable situation again, and then I can work with him on skills to maintain it. I don't want to freak him out though, I know I wouldn't love an uninvited clean-out! That said, his own situation is such that there is zero percent chance that he'd be willing to clean it up in partnership with me, and also less than 5% chance that he would be open or interested in taking some skills conversations and try to implement them himself. So either I do it, or it doesn't happen, which is what I've done for about 1-2 years, and its just getting worse and worse every few months. Less clutter, more layers of actual garbage, food, etc., that is very unclean. 🙁

So today's goals: first three bullets, and maybe also try to get into his bedroom while he's at school today.

And of course, I already recognize this is how I get myself in trouble, because that's a long list... would probably occupy me for a week, and I will be so overwhelmed by it that I will spend day 3 also paralyzed by overwhelm, and stay in bed... I know I need to start small, but that's difficult to do in and of itself! LOL... gotta love this journey!!

Tatoulia, I really appreciated you sharing that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for the inspiration!!

Tillie! I hope you enjoyed your day off!! I thought if you yesterday while we were dining at the Wayside Inn and so wishing you could be with us.

Good morning everybody! Good to hear from you, SubC!!! Hope the stove is ready to do its job. WELCOME Ellie!!!! So glad to have you here. You'll get suggestions and support and zero judgment. And you can and will do it! I came here probably six years ago and now I live in s clean and clear house, if you can believe it. Not easy. Paperwork my goodness I am buried in paperwork!!!

You are not alone, Ellie. I feel very close to my friends here. I like to reread old posts to get inspiration.

So, yesterday I took mom and a friend for lunch at the Wayside Inn. It was a lovely time. Lunch in honor of mom's upcoming 90th Birthday! Lovely time.

So my sister says she's coming to see mom on Friday (mom's actual birthday) and so I invited her to sleep over on my foldout Friday night. I'm throwing a birthday party for mom (just cake and ice cream) at mom's assisted living (all invited, staff, fellow inmates, some of my friends from work, my BF, etc) So although we don't get along surely one night won't kill us. I've also asked my cleaners to come this week, even though they were just here last week. I'd like thx place to be wiped down and clean before sister gets here. And of course I won't mention having cleaners. Listening to that will be mite than I can bear.

Okay tonight's goal is to dispose of summer plants in my window boxes.

Tillie! I hope you enjoyed your day off!! I thought if you yesterday while we were dining at the Wayside Inn and so wishing you could be with us.

Good Evening Everyone

6:30pm and it's very dark outside.
Tomorrow I will cover the last two windows that need it in plastic.
Even if the afternoons are comfortably warm the house gets cold over night, too cold in the in the morning in here.
The plastic keeps in more of that daytime warmth.

Had a good relaxed day today.
Taking a day off every now & then helps keep me from becoming a drudge.

Good morning everybody! Good to hear from you, SubC!!! Hope the stove is ready to do its job. WELCOME Ellie!!!! So glad to have you here. You'll get suggestions and support and zero judgment. And you can and will do it! I came here probably six years ago and now I live in s clean and clear house, if you can believe it. Not easy. Paperwork my goodness I am buried in paperwork!!!

You are not alone, Ellie. I feel very close to my friends here. I like to reread old posts to get inspiration.

So, yesterday I took mom and a friend for lunch at the Wayside Inn. It was a lovely time. Lunch in honor of mom's upcoming 90th Birthday! Lovely time.

So my sister says she's coming to see mom on Friday (mom's actual birthday) and so I invited her to sleep over on my foldout Friday night. I'm throwing a birthday party for mom (just cake and ice cream) at mom's assisted living (all invited, staff, fellow inmates, some of my friends from work, my BF, etc) So although we don't get along surely one night won't kill us. I've also asked my cleaners to come this week, even though they were just here last week. I'd like thx place to be wiped down and clean before sister gets here. And of course I won't mention having cleaners. Listening to that will be mite than I can bear.

Okay tonight's goal is to dispose of summer plants in my window boxes.

Good Afternoon Everybody

Hi Subclinical 😀
Have a good time tonight.
GREAT getting the wood stove back and wonderful that extra Son looks like he's doing well.
Very relieved that you are doing better and your busy schedule is smoothing out a little. (((HUG)))
Sounds like your inner squirrel has some yummy things stored away in the pantry.

Hi Ellie
Perfectionism causes a lot of chaos and clutter.
Can't do it perfectly then why do it at all thinking.

OK...
Getting decluttered and organized goes in stages.
Imagine peeling an onion one layer at a time until you get to the tiny heart.
First go through only gets things started.
Every following layer gets you closer and closer to your final goal.

You tackle a small area, make keep/toss/donate or put in a better location in the house.
Move onto another area and do the same.
When you get back to the first areas again you do more decluttering and cleaning.
It's impossible to do it ALL perfectly first go around.
But every time it gets so much better than it was before.

"Good Enough" truly is good enough.
Be kind to yourself, you are only one person and trying to do your best.
Whenever negative voices start criticizing you in your thoughts fight back at them by saying out loud positive things.
For now, "Good Enough" is GOOD ENOUGH!

About sentimental stuff...
if it gives you a bad sad or negative feeling seeing it
then best to let it go.
No need to keep painful things around.

Paperwork is an other whole can of worms.
Lets leave that till later.
First lets work on making the living space a little nicer for now.

For starters let go of any medications or toiletries that have expired.
If a toiletry is something that you are loathe to use, let it go.
Please don't keep nasty things around for
"Justin Case".

Good Evening Everyone

6:30pm and it's very dark outside.
Tomorrow I will cover the last two windows that need it in plastic.
Even if the afternoons are comfortably warm the house gets cold over night, too cold in the in the morning in here.
The plastic keeps in more of that daytime warmth.

Had a good relaxed day today.
Taking a day off every now & then helps keep me from becoming a drudge.

Hi Subclinical,

Thank you for the positive encouragement! 🙂

I'm glad that it sounds like you are in the midst of a bit of an upswing.

I relate to your "got rid of this, but accumulated that". It sure seems like all aspects of life offer opportunities to accumulate. I'm always trying to get rid of (this file, that receipt, this expired can of soup, that sample shampoo)... and every time I turn around there's more stuff that creeps right back into my life.

Good to virtually meet you!

Hi Subclinical,

Thank you for the positive encouragement! 🙂

I'm glad that it sounds like you are in the midst of a bit of an upswing.

I relate to your "got rid of this, but accumulated that". It sure seems like all aspects of life offer opportunities to accumulate. I'm always trying to get rid of (this file, that receipt, this expired can of soup, that sample shampoo)... and every time I turn around there's more stuff that creeps right back into my life.

Good to virtually meet you!

Good Afternoon Everybody

Hi Subclinical 😀
Have a good time tonight.
GREAT getting the wood stove back and wonderful that extra Son looks like he's doing well.
Very relieved that you are doing better and your busy schedule is smoothing out a little. (((HUG)))
Sounds like your inner squirrel has some yummy things stored away in the pantry.

Hi Ellie
Perfectionism causes a lot of chaos and clutter.
Can't do it perfectly then why do it at all thinking.

OK...
Getting decluttered and organized goes in stages.
Imagine peeling an onion one layer at a time until you get to the tiny heart.
First go through only gets things started.
Every following layer gets you closer and closer to your final goal.

You tackle a small area, make keep/toss/donate or put in a better location in the house.
Move onto another area and do the same.
When you get back to the first areas again you do more decluttering and cleaning.
It's impossible to do it ALL perfectly first go around.
But every time it gets so much better than it was before.

"Good Enough" truly is good enough.
Be kind to yourself, you are only one person and trying to do your best.
Whenever negative voices start criticizing you in your thoughts fight back at them by saying out loud positive things.
For now, "Good Enough" is GOOD ENOUGH!

About sentimental stuff...
if it gives you a bad sad or negative feeling seeing it
then best to let it go.
No need to keep painful things around.

Paperwork is an other whole can of worms.
Lets leave that till later.
First lets work on making the living space a little nicer for now.

For starters let go of any medications or toiletries that have expired.
If a toiletry is something that you are loathe to use, let it go.
Please don't keep nasty things around for
"Justin Case".

Thank you for the warm welcome Tillie!

Yes, I definitely have perfectionism as a contributing characteristic... if I can't do the whole task perfectly and completely, it is darn near impossible for me to consider doing "step 1" of it. I recognize this but have not yet found the magic recipe toward combatting it's paralyzing effect!! Grrrrr....

Over the years of self-treating this disorder, I've figured out lots of facts and info, but haven't yet figured out how to actually successfully conquer it. LOL

So here are some of my top struggles. Any words of wisdom on how to tackle any one (or more) of these are always, always welcome.

#1 - PAPERWORK! This is by far my most difficult, pervasive, and voluminous issue. I have a son with serious medical issues, and I have some of my own. I also am on the back-side of getting out of a marriage with domestic violence. I'm also self-employed. So medical, legal/evidentiary, and financial paperwork just bury me, and it feels so very unsafe and scary to think of not having documents that I might need in these categories. I bought a very good, fast scanner a few years back, with the intention to convert all my paperwork to electronic format, but it would take me 100 years to get it all scanned in. Plus, I started, but couldn't find my "perfect" electronic filing system to ensure I could find all my scanned files once done. So it just sits... in boxes, bins, piles, and about 10 filing cabinets throughout my small apartment.

#2 - memorabilia. I have memory issues (mostly trauma/PTSD related) and getting rid of things that remind me of my life events feels very much like I will permanently lose access to all the memories the items represent.

#3 - medication, bathroom supplies/toiletries, clothing, food, etc. The old "what if I need it?" Single mom, self-employed, with both personal and child medical situations mean finances are always an issue so it's not like I can afford to replace anything that I do eventually need.

Of course, there's more to the list. Those are my top 3 challenges though. What if I need it and can't afford to replace it... I need it to help remember my life events... and if I am going to organize it, it needs to be completely and perfectly organized or it's not worth doing. My guess (from watching the shows) is that these are familiar to many who end up here! 🙂

Thank you for the warm welcome Tillie!

Yes, I definitely have perfectionism as a contributing characteristic... if I can't do the whole task perfectly and completely, it is darn near impossible for me to consider doing "step 1" of it. I recognize this but have not yet found the magic recipe toward combatting it's paralyzing effect!! Grrrrr....

Over the years of self-treating this disorder, I've figured out lots of facts and info, but haven't yet figured out how to actually successfully conquer it. LOL

So here are some of my top struggles. Any words of wisdom on how to tackle any one (or more) of these are always, always welcome.

#1 - PAPERWORK! This is by far my most difficult, pervasive, and voluminous issue. I have a son with serious medical issues, and I have some of my own. I also am on the back-side of getting out of a marriage with domestic violence. I'm also self-employed. So medical, legal/evidentiary, and financial paperwork just bury me, and it feels so very unsafe and scary to think of not having documents that I might need in these categories. I bought a very good, fast scanner a few years back, with the intention to convert all my paperwork to electronic format, but it would take me 100 years to get it all scanned in. Plus, I started, but couldn't find my "perfect" electronic filing system to ensure I could find all my scanned files once done. So it just sits... in boxes, bins, piles, and about 10 filing cabinets throughout my small apartment.

#2 - memorabilia. I have memory issues (mostly trauma/PTSD related) and getting rid of things that remind me of my life events feels very much like I will permanently lose access to all the memories the items represent.

#3 - medication, bathroom supplies/toiletries, clothing, food, etc. The old "what if I need it?" Single mom, self-employed, with both personal and child medical situations mean finances are always an issue so it's not like I can afford to replace anything that I do eventually need.

Of course, there's more to the list. Those are my top 3 challenges though. What if I need it and can't afford to replace it... I need it to help remember my life events... and if I am going to organize it, it needs to be completely and perfectly organized or it's not worth doing. My guess (from watching the shows) is that these are familiar to many who end up here! 🙂

Hi all

Feeding my inner squirrel this weekend.

One applecake to eat, one in the freezer, three pints of ice cream, about to go pick green tomatoes to make pickles. Dh birthday today so going out tonight.

Doing laundry, cleaning up.

Also reinstalling the wood stove so we can have heat. My extra son came over to help with that - heavy! He looks good. His life has been topsy turvy and is settling down.

Accumulated a souvenir pin since my last visit. Ditched a worn out garter belt.

School is smoothing out a little. I'm a little better too. More sleeping, less crying.

I have another sale Saturday. Busy week, but hope to come back soon.

Hi Ellie! Yes, you can do it!

Hi all

Feeding my inner squirrel this weekend.

One applecake to eat, one in the freezer, three pints of ice cream, about to go pick green tomatoes to make pickles. Dh birthday today so going out tonight.

Doing laundry, cleaning up.

Also reinstalling the wood stove so we can have heat. My extra son came over to help with that - heavy! He looks good. His life has been topsy turvy and is settling down.

Accumulated a souvenir pin since my last visit. Ditched a worn out garter belt.

School is smoothing out a little. I'm a little better too. More sleeping, less crying.

I have another sale Saturday. Busy week, but hope to come back soon.

Hi Ellie! Yes, you can do it!

Welcome Ellie 🙂

Here we post about our struggles, triumphs and goals.
We give each other support and suggestions.

It is very supportive to have a place to come to daily.

Suggestion, take it or leave it... 😉
Maybe you are setting the bar too high and it's intimidating to look at the task you are wanting to do?

Chip out a smaller area to clear or clean.
One drawer instead of every drawer.
Even as small as one square foot of an area to clear.
If we look at EVERYTHING needing done it's just too overwhelming and we tend to freeze.
But we can do just one small thing.

Then when you step back and appreciate that one small area it tends to be very motivating to do just one more tiny little thing.

Clearing out, cleaning and maintaining is a lot of little steps every day.

Good luck & best wishes and please stick around. 😀

Welcome Ellie 🙂

Here we post about our struggles, triumphs and goals.
We give each other support and suggestions.

It is very supportive to have a place to come to daily.

Suggestion, take it or leave it... 😉
Maybe you are setting the bar too high and it's intimidating to look at the task you are wanting to do?

Chip out a smaller area to clear or clean.
One drawer instead of every drawer.
Even as small as one square foot of an area to clear.
If we look at EVERYTHING needing done it's just too overwhelming and we tend to freeze.
But we can do just one small thing.

Then when you step back and appreciate that one small area it tends to be very motivating to do just one more tiny little thing.

Clearing out, cleaning and maintaining is a lot of little steps every day.

Good luck & best wishes and please stick around. 😀