Cleaning - Organizing

After letting my home get into a terrible mess over the last few years, I have begun to finally make some progress in cleaning and organizing things.  My friend Phil came out a couple times and helped me to get started as this job was just so big and so overwhelming.  Phil can't sort and organize my stuff for me, but he was able to put things into boxes and sweep the floor.  Now the place has some clean spots that look really good, and I like that a lot, so am working at making those small clean areas larger.  It is almost like when you throw a rock into a still pond and the little ripples go out, out, out further, so are these clean areas going to go out, out, out further.  Today I cleaned off the top of my one standing cupboard thing and washed it all off, then cleared off a shelf until I had in my back room, putting all the books from it into a box for now.  I unscrewed the 3 huge screws that were holding the shelves on the wall, carried it to the kitchen, washed the dust off it and put it onto the top of the standing cupboard.  I then washed all the tin canisters and filled them with bulk food items, then put them up onto the 'new' shelf.  It looks pretty good.... way better than it was before I started.  Not everything I took down has been dealt with so is still sitting on the table, still needing to be washed and put up somewhere.... but where is the question.  I also have been thinking about moving all of the furniture in the living room into different spots in the hopes it will all 'work better' once reorganized... and I look at the mess at the front door and wonder what I will do there to clean and organize it.  I used to have a standing coat rack, then went to hooks on the wall but they have all broken as they were cheaply made and couldn't stand up under the weight of my coats.  I need to replace those hooks and/or figure out a different place to put my coats.  This is all a big job and a definite process to reclaim my home from the mess I allowed it to become.

Project House Cleaning continues

I have continued to do a bit of cleaning here and there.  The area in front of my computer desk is now partially cleaned out though still needs more attention.  I have managed to maintain the cleaned off kitchen table, counter and stove for the most part, though there are some books on the table and a few things I've been working with on the counter.  I plan to clear those off this evening before I go to bed.  I was looking online at different tables as i think it would be good to have one that folds down so leaves more free space in the kitchen between meals, and provides me with less space to stack stuff up on.  I like the amish dining tables, though none of them fold down in quite the way I have in mind.  I have seen some like what I want, but think they are antiques. Someone offered me one a year or so ago, if I cleaned up my kitchen.  I haven't seen her in about 10 months, so not sure she'd remember never mind follow through on the offer.  The table I have now is from the 1950s and reminds me of the one in the farm house where I lived for the first 12 years of my life, though mine is read and that one was grey. With a crochet table cloth on it, my table looks great!!

Project House Cleaning

Yesterday I took all the stuff out of a couple cupboards in my kitchen.  I threw out several things then washed stuff that was dusty and going back into the cupboards.  I put my teas where my spices used to be as they need a whole cupboard as it turns out, but so do the spices. Odd for someone who rarely cooks.  Anyway, I decided to put in a new shelf in the one spot in order to put more of the spices. Today a friend brought me some wood which I quickly turned into a shelf.  Now instead of one shelf with spices strung all out and a lot of wasted head space, I have 2 short shelves of spices with little head space.  It looks so much better as well as being very user friendly.  Now I'm about to head into town to one or two Dollar Stores to find some baskets for organizing bagged spices and boxes of zip top bags, etc. I am pleased to have made some progress.

My Bed

I have always loved antique furniture and was delighted when my parents one year long ago now gave me their old bedroom set.  It has the bed with head and foot boards, one of those bedroom vanity sets with the vanity and stool, and what they always called a highboy... a tall dresser with 4 drawers.  The bed was still the old style with a set of springs that the mattress rests on, no box spring.  Well, I slept on this bed for nearly 20 years, then this fall I bought a really awesome box spring and mattress, brand new.  They are the first ones I've ever bought.  I put the old springs and mattress outside in the carport for now, and put the box spring and mattress with the old bed.  It makes for one very high bed to climb up on each morning, but it sure is comfortable to sleep in all night.  I am so grateful for the comfort of this new bed and for the fact I have so much less pain all night than I did before. 

My day today:

Planned to do: 30 minutes on treadmill.... laundry... clean chinchilla & rabbit cages.

Actually did: 3 loads of laundry - washed/dried/folded/put away... cleaned all 3 chinchilla cages and 1 rabbit cage, gave the chins their dust baths, topped up water bottles... talked on phone to George for 4 hours while I did the laundry, talked on phone for 1 hour to Ray, talked on Messenger with Dan for undetermined time twice, thought about Mark and wondered if he'll be coming over this way any time soon and if he has bought another truck yet. (I have one I will sell him, lol)

All that is on top of 'every day stuff' like feeding birds & cat (rabbit & chinchillas get food dishes filled every few days as needed). My dog, Indaway, is inside now and just finished eating his dinner or raw turkey. Oh ya, including feeding myself, haha.

Doing dishes was something I should have done and would have done, though didn't get to. They'll still be there tomorrow. I am disappointed that I didn't get on the treadmill today, just couldn't fit it in. Guess I could have done that while on the phone, if only I had thought to do so.

So... my 'To Do' list for tomorrow will start with 30 minutes on the treadmill and do the dishes. Fold more laundry tops the list too. Then work on cleaning the kitchen.

Distraction

Have you ever gotten distracted and lost all track of time? Unfortunately it's something that happens to me and even more since I received a brain injury about a year ago. This evening I was going tell you about Pastry/Baker Chef Jobs, then stopped to think what exactly I was going to say.

I ended up going to the kitchen to get a cup of tea, seeing all the plums sitting there waiting for me to make them into jam and a sink full of dishes waiting to be washed. I washed the dishes while the water heated for tea and once the dishes were washed I poured the boiled water over the tea bag in my cup and washed the plums. Since they were washed and in the pot, I turned on the stove and cooked them, put them into a colander and squeezed the fruit through, removing the pits. You see, these are Damson Plums, about the size of a cherry, so the pit is not easily cut out of the plum like it is with larger fruit. I added honey to the cooked fruit and returned it to the heat to cook it down into jam. This is the first time I've made jam using honey instead of the sugar and wanted to give it a try. It seems to have worked very well, though it is much more costly than using sugar. This was the 3rd batch of jam I've made in the last few days, going to my yard to pick more plums as needed. I plan to give jam as gifts this Christmas and have a good stock for my own use. I made the 1st batch 'plain' using just the plums and sugar. The 2nd batch I added some cinnamon to the mix, the first time I did this and it turned out very nice. This, the 3rd batch, I substituted the honey for the sugar. Now I plan to make a batch using brown sugar instead of the white, just to see what it tastes like, and a batch using apples & cinnamon with the plums. I'm not fond of Damson Plums as an eating plum, though I know people who do like them for just munching on. However, when it comes to cooking and jam making I think there is nothing better than the Damson Plum and they are well worth the extra work involved with using the smaller fruit.

Oh ya, I drank cold tea and am now too tired to tell you about anything else. Off I go to bed. Good night.

My Floors

I am so very happy to have the fellow that lived in my yard for awhile gone. I liked the money he gave me to stay here, but I did not like him, a very negative person who was always lying about everything. Though it is good to have him gone I am grateful that he was here for a time. Thanks to the money he paid to stay here, I have much nicer floors than I had previously. I got a good deal on some laminate flooring for my living room, kitchen, bedroom, loom room and hallway. Oh, it's not pergo flooring, but it still looks very good and is a not too bad quality. I do wish though that I had gotten a darker color as this shows all the pet hair so looks dirty shortly after I sweep it. I thought light would be good as it would brighten up the gloomy home, but now I know if I had it to do over again I would go with a bit darker than this while still not being too dark. Over all, I do love my laminate floors.

House Number Missing

I'm thinking about getting myself one of those house address plaques, or making a sing to put down by the road. Lately I've been giving away lots of lilac bushes over Freecycle, working at fixing up my yard, and since the number fell down I have to give directions to anyone that is coming here for any reason like picking up lilac bushes. This is reasonably easy since I can give the neighbor's house number and explain I am right across the street from there. However, I know that if I had to call police or ambulance, every second counts and not having my house number up could cost precious moments. Yes, I need my house number posted at the bottom of my driveway!

Passing Time

Sometimes during the winter I dance with depression. The cold temperatures and many, many dull, gray days. We know that spring will eventually come, yet it seems like it never will as those dull gray days go on and on and on. Sometimes I tend to stay home a lot more due to snowy &/or icy roads. When this sort of thing happens, I get 'cabin fever' and feel like I'll go crazy if I don't get out, then finally, in a day or two, things change and I can get out again. As soon as the snow is gone so I can bring my utility trailer up the hill to the house, I plan to take on of my armchairs to the dump. It's old and broken, has outlived its allotted time. It came to me free through Freecycle, more than 2 years ago though I don't remember how much more. The other chair in my living room is a heated, vibrating recliner chair which is awesome, though the vinyl has cracks in the arms so not so nice as it once was. This also came through Freecycle. Face it, folks, I am in need of new cabin furniture. To be honest though, I have too many bird cages in this room to be able to fit furniture in for me to sit on. I must figure out something here, get rid of something to make more room. Maybe my computer desk needs to go, it's big and takes up lots of space, yet it does provide lots of storage with its cupboards and drawers... hmmmm. Anyway, the weather is warming up and spring is just around the corner. Doors & windows will soon be open and 'stuff' will start to move out the doors and off to new homes.

TO DO List

Here I sit at my laptop, playing solitaire and watching TV, now blogging, while the rest of my To Do List waits. Dan came over today and helped me, brought in a jug of water that he bought on his way and we went to get more pellets for my stove. I previously bought a ton, 50 bags and have been taking them as I need them rather than the whole ton at a time like I usually do. First I took 5 bags, then 15, now 15 again so have 15 bags there yet. This is my second ton so far this winter. Since my left wrist was broken and my right one sprained just 4 months ago, I can't carry the 40# bags myself, so must depend on friends, usually Dan, to do this work for me. He loaded the 15 bags into the truck there, then unloaded them here, bringing 4 bags into the house and the rest into the carport. He filled the stove & the tote box beside the stove and there are still 2 bags unopened on the chair beside the stove. This helps a lot and I am so grateful for his help. He also phoned around looking for a used winter tire to fit my truck and found just 1, apparently this is a hard size to get as everyone wants them. I must run to town really soon and buy that tire, get it onto the rim & onto the truck. My spare which is on the truck is an 'all season' and the rest are 'winter', so not good.

The To Do List also has lots of other things on it... so will go get the tire done and come home to do more work around here. I'm trying to clean up the house a bit even though I can't do a lot with the wrist yet. Hey, it's gotta be done, right? Right.

Dreaming

As I've told you in previous posts here, I would love to renovate my home, especially the kitchen and the bathroom. I want to make both larger and install more cupboards in both. My towels currently reside on a shelf I put up in the bathroom, right above the toilet. I want to have a much bigger bath tub so I can actually get in and soak without being tied up like a pretzel. I would also consider having one of the pedestal sinks as they look so much nicer than the built in sink/vanity that I currently have. I must say though that the vanity does give some storage space, but I don't like putting stuff there are mice seem to keep getting in there. I've done work to block them from getting in, but there are some places I just can't get to so can't put tin or that spray stuff in. If I got to do the renovations I want to do, I could block all wholes where mice can get in. I'm pretty sure the bathroom is the last place they can get in, I think I've blocked the rest up.

At this time, renovations are, for me, just a dream.... and as Carl Sandburg said, "Nothing happens unless first a dream..."

Dreamer

I often daydream about things I would like to change in my home, about renovations I'd like to do here. I mean, if you're going to stay in a place for a long time you may as well make it what you want and I've lived in this place for 20 years now. I've done some renovations: 1997 built on a 10x32 addition, a new roof over top the mobile home and both additions, a carport, changed all the windows, cut 3 doors through the mobile wall into the additions, a divider wall and new ceiling in old addition. 1998 a mosaic ceramic til floor in my bathroom. 2008 laminate floors in living room, kitchen, loom room, bedroom & hallway. Some of the things I still dream of doing include: large deck out back overlooking the lake, new kitchen counters/cupboards, enlarge bathroom & put in larger tub. I think it would be great for the bathroom to do part of the outside wall with those clear glass blocks and do the tub surround with glass tile work. I think it would go well with my floor as well as adding more natural light in the room. I think closing in the carport for another room and building the carport in a different place would be good too. Yup, I am a dreamer.

Making Headway... I hope

I've been working at cleaning up my home. You see, it's gotten pretty bad... I suffer from a terrible disease called Flat Surface Syndrome where you are compelled to pile things onto any and all flat surfaces in your home... including the floor. It is a terrible thing to live with... sigh. Anyway, I am working at overcoming it. My friend Tuggy asked me to clean at least my bathroom so he could feel more comfortable when he comes to visit me. I think that is fair and have made some progress in there. I cleared all the clothes off the vanity and the only things on there now are things that belong on a vanity (a nice cloth, some books, 2 mirrors - one that lights up and one that doesn't, hair and face products). The other day I purchased 3 curtains at the thrift store, really long and very narrow. When I first looked at them I wondered what they could be used for, then thought of the bathroom. I cut one down to make the cloth for the vanity and hemmed a piece I cut off of it to put onto the back of the toilet. I have also shortened one, changing the top of it so it can be put onto a rod rather than hung on a window with the standard metal thingies. When I get the next one shortened and the top changed, these 2 will be hung by the tub, just to make it look prettier. I have a see-through shower curtain and these will add a little something to the look. I used to have while curtains up there and now will use them somewhere else.

Tuggy was here a couple days ago, sitting at my computer desk that was piled high with 'stuff'. He started putting things into drawers and handing me things "put this in the back room, your tools don't belong on your computer desk" or "here girl, put this away". The desk sure looked good when he was done... now if I can only keep it that way. Some things are on it, but not for long :o)

Tonight, talking to Tug on the phone, he said to pack a bunch of my clothes into big bags then I can sort through them and return the 'keepers' to the closet, putting the ones I don't want or no longer fit into shipping boxes and taking them to the thrift shop. I have lots of clothes hanging and stacked in my laundry room so when I put all the clothes from my closet into bags or boxes I will move most of them from the laundry room to the closet... and some into boxes or bags to go to the thrift store. A couple weeks ago I took a big bag of clothes to the thrift and have nearly another bag ready to go... maybe will drop it off tomorrow.

Yup, I will win the fight against this nasty Flat Surface Syndrome.... or die trying. I never was the greatest house keeper, always was a bit cluttered, but never anywhere near as bad as I am now. A few years of depression and 28 or so years of pain takes its tole on people. I, however, and not going to let any of that win.

Wandering Down Memory Lane

Recently I moved my bed from the master bedroom in the mobile home to the bedroom in the addition I had built on about 12 years ago. I have lived in this home for 19 years now so it seemed a bit strange at first to be sleeping in this other room. The master bedroom has to be cleaned out and I will then use it for a storage room and possibly keep the chinchillas & rabbit in there for the winter months as it is a much cooler part of the home so will likely be more comfortable for these little fur balls, though they do love being close to me and won't be so much back there as they are in the living room. It will be nice, though, to have a bit more room out here, as well as the mess from the chinchilla cages in the back room instead of in the living room. Tonight I was working in the master bedroom, sorting through things that had been stored under the bed, and came across a few things I hadn't seen in many years. My mind did a bit of a trip back through time, and it occurred to me that over the last 19 years there have been many different people sleeping in that room. I don't mean that there has been a parade of different lovers, though a few for sure. What I mean is that I've gone through many different phases of how and what I am/was. I've been/become many different people over these years as I've grown up and learned to love myself.

I am grateful for my home
I am grateful for my personal growth
I am grateful for my spiritual growth
I am grateful for all the times I used to go out dancing
I am grateful for the experience of my cat having kittens and insisting I stay with her as she did so
I am grateful I got 'stuck' with one of them... Shadow
I am grateful for the 17 years I got to share with Shadow
I am grateful for the wonderful connection I had with D-o-g (my dog who is buried in my Pet Cemetery with Shadow & his mother Smoothedge & my dog Bronx... etc)
I am grateful for my first computer which I got while living here
I am grateful to have spent a summer with the Love of my Life the year I moved in here
I am grateful I was led to the Centre for Positive Living, later renamed the Centre for Spiritual Living... a year after I moved in here
I am grateful for the wonderful Dad I had.... who passed away Jan. 18/99
I am grateful for all the vehicles I've had while living here
I am grateful for the time I shared with Rob... a boyfriend I still think of often and wonder what ever happened to him, where is he now.
I am grateful for the friends I've had over the years I've lived here
I am grateful for the friends I've got now
I am grateful for the friends I've got that I've had since forever
I am grateful to be the person I have become
I am grateful I have found so much love inside myself and realized that I deserve some of that love to stay with me, not just be given away

It's somewhat mind boggling to think of all the people I've been, and all the changes I've made while living right here in this same home... and all the changes this home has undergone as well for that matter.

I am grateful for the addition I had built on
I am grateful for the big roof I had put on over the entire place, mobile & 2 additions
I am grateful for all the insulation I had put up in that roof
I am grateful I had all those non-working crank out mobile home windows removed, replaces with modern vinyl sliders
I am grateful for the carport I had built on at the same time
I am grateful I had the sliding glass door taken out and a proper door put in
I am grateful I was able to up my mortgage to pay for all that work
I am grateful I got laminate flooring last winter & I am grateful Dan installed it for me
I am grateful for the pellet stove I had put in about 3 or 4 years ago
I am grateful for the 'million dollar' view I have from my home
I am grateful I live out in the country, yet only 10 minutes from town
I am grateful I can have animals here (ie... chickens with rooster, rabbits, and if I had a fence, even a horse)
I am grateful I raised show rabbits for several years here, back around the turn of the century... yes, I have lived here since back in the last century and for that matter, since back in the last millennium. How 'weird' is that!!

At one time I was nearly nomadic, never staying in one place long and even moving 13 times one year. When I bought my first home I lived there about 4 1/2 years, then sold it and lived in my van for about 4 months. Basically, I was in hiding from a former boyfriend that didn't want to let me go. Before him I had a boyfriend that became my stocker. I even had a stocker while living here. I am so grateful that it has been many years since I last had that kind of person in my life. Yes, there are some good things to say about getting older, and hopefully wiser... and I am grateful for that.

Now... I know my chinchillas will all be grateful to get a piece of apple, my cat will be grateful to get some canned food, Reba will be grateful to come inside and have a 'cookie'... and I will be grateful to crawl into my bed and go to sleep. Nite nite to you all.

Oh ya.... I filled one recycle bag in that room tonight, found several books that were missing, and found some US money that Mom gave me earlier this year. I made 2 trips to the US since then, wondering what I'd done with that $$... finally I know. :o) More 'exploring' tomorrow. (at 2:34am I guess it's already 'tomorrow').