Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Junk Jettison: Day 8

Clean for tomorrow night's guests.  The Yes Virginias are coming to my house to rehearse, so I had to make room amidst all my junk.  In order for us to have room to set up, I had to clean the downstairs (enclosed carport) room, a.k.a. The Dog Den.  Maybe I should say "rearrange" since it will never be clean as long as the dogs have their way.  And they have us outnumbered.


Here's what I had to do:
-Disassemble the dog crate the Big Oaf hasn't been able to fit into for a year.
-Group the miscellaneous extra lawnmower parts together and stow under the shelving unit until I might need them.
-Put away/throw away the box of stuff we cleaned out of the car 10 months ago.
-Wash dog blanket, dog curtains, dog door mat, dog placemat.  See a pattern here?  Dirty bastards.  I love them.
-Break down boxes to be recycled/composted.
-Move treadmill.
-Move clothes rack.  Currently used for anti-cat plant rack.  Which, of course, fails miserably.  How is it that a fat, lazy cat, who can hardly hurl her bulk over a 2' baby gate without hitting the top, can somehow gain access to a shelf that's at least 5' tall?  And then proceed to eat something she'll inevitably retch up later?  Did it taste good?  Or is it just the lure of forbidden fruit?  Cats.
-Move empty plastic storage boxes awaiting junk for the yardsale.
-Move weedeater.
-Clean dog card table.  (Yeah, I wish they all sat around it, playing poker.  At least then they would make me money, instead of the opposite.)  It's actually the guard tower for Sassafras.  She jumps on top to look out the window and bark at anything that moves.


The room looks pretty good now.  Not to an outsider, I'm sure, but noticeably better.  And I feel accomplished.  We should have guests more often.


Day 9 Goals:
Realistically, not much, since I'll be rehearsing tonight.  Maybe clean the kitchen, post dinner/rehearsal.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Junk Jettison: Days 4-7

Day 4:
1. Prep some food for the remainder of the week and clean 3 things out of the refrigerator while I'm working on the food.   Made chicken and dumplings for the first time ever.  Now I know why Grandma didn't make them as often as I wanted... they're a LOT of work.  But totally worth it.  The C&D satisfied my comfort food craving on a chilly night and brought back fond memories of time spent in the kitchen with my grandma and cousin.  I also roasted bones for beef stock and got that going in the crockpot, made cornbread, zucchini olive breakfast bread, and chicken salad.  Off to a good start for the weekend's food.
2. Find a better home for junk piling up on catchall table.  Nope.
3. Clean dining room table, which is also beginning to look like catchall table.  Nope.
4. Give dogs overdue heartworm preventive.  Didn't even do this.

Day 5:
This was a Friday.  After work, I attended a friend's book reading, then Christian took me out for a sushi dinner as advance payment for helping him film a wedding tomorrow.  Upon returning home, promptly fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie.

Day 6:
Saturday.  Washed two loads of clothes before leaving to help Christian with the wedding.  At wedding from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m., so you know I didn't do anything when I got home besides peel off my wet clothes (rainy outdoor wedding) and go to bed.

However, kudos to co-challenger Amy, who cleaned out a bunch of stuff, including some HUGE 80's eyeglasses.
SEXY!  Not sure these will sell at the yard sale.  Think the Lion's Club will take them? 

Co-challenger Kerry also made weekend progress cleaning clothes out of her closet and organizing all her seed packets for next year's garden.  Woo hoo!!!

Day 7:
On Sunday, I began to tackle the catchall table.  I finally realized why this particular project overwhelms me so much - none of this stuff has a place it "belongs".  I just walk around in circles thinking about where to put it.  Ultimately, I need an organizer box or small secretary/writing desk to hold the important stuff like bills, envelopes, stamps, pens, phone chargers, etc.  Would love to be able to stow a small wastebasket and shredder in there, too, so everything could be centralized.

Day 8 Goals:
Clean for tomorrow night's guests.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Junk Jettison: Day 3

Well...I kinda changed direction last night.  Really wanting to finish my closet, but not energetic enough to get down on my hands and knees to pull out all the shoes and clean the floor, I decided to go through my dresses hanging on the back of the closet door instead.  Junked 6 dresses!  And also uncovered the "art" on the back of the door.
What can I say?  It came with the house.  Not a selling point.


As for my other goals:


1. Prep some food for the remainder of the week.  Did not do this last night, but today at lunch, I put a chicken in the crockpot to make chicken and dumplings tonight.

2. Clean 3 things out of the refrigerator while I'm working on the food.  Only cleaned one thing out.  Wait... does it count that I cleaned out the last of the cookie dough just to make some cookies for my sweet tooth?

Day 4 Goals:

1. See Day 3 Goals.
2. Find a better home for junk piling up on catchall table.
3. Clean dining room table, which is also beginning to look like catchall table.
4. Give dogs overdue heartworm preventive.

Strange Bedfellows

Here's what I came home to find on my side of the bed last night...
He's a cute little potholder I always liked when he hung in Mamaw's kitchen.  I'd never thought of him as creepy until last night.  But it's weird to see him lounging on my pillow with that surprised expression on his face.

I just love Christian's* sense of humor.

(Formerly given the lame moniker "Hub," by yours truly, Christian is my husband, who immediately consented to having his real name used when he found out what I was calling him.  Not much need for anonymity when only 1-3 people read this.)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Junk Jettison: Day 2


Here's the Day 2 progress:

1. Clean out the top shelf in my closet. Done.  Junked a couple of sweaters, and lots of scarves and hats. Discovered a potential "French" Halloween costume.  No, not a French maid.  Prior to our challenge, I had already gone through my clothes. All that's left of cleaning out my closet now are my shoes, then vacuum it out (fur gets in the damnedest places).
2. Do some shredding that's been piling up. This morning, I caught up on my backlogged shredding.  Big oafish dog was highly interested.  Should have let him shred it like he shreds his beds.

Day 3 Goals:

1. Prep some food for the remainder of the week.
2. Clean 3 things out of the refrigerator while I'm working on the food.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Junk Jettison: Day 1

The Junk Jettison actually began yesterday, but I didn't start the ticker then, so I'm calling today #1.  Miriam Webster says jettison (v.) means to get rid of as superfluous or encumbering.  I plan to unencumber myself of some superfluous shit!

I did great last night!  (lie)  I actually fell asleep on the couch after a round of grocery shopping (ugh) and dinner (yum), courtesy of my hub.  So, determined not to fall behind, I did my stuff this morning.  Proposed activities are in italics, followed by actual results:

1. Get a big box and sit it in the hallway outside my bedroom.   Who needs a box junking up the hallway, creating marital friction when the hub stubs his toe on it?  I found a junk duffel bag in my closet and just started filling it.
2. Cull at least 5 items from my bedroom.  Done, plus more!  Just from the organizer on the door of my closet, I cleaned 5 purses, 3 belts and a toiletry kit.  Woo hoo!
3. Wish the big oafish dog would fit in the box.  No box.  Decided parts of the big oafish dog would fit in the duffel bag.  Had a little daydream about that.  Particularly about starting with the whacking tail.  There would be plenty of room for that.  Oh well (sigh).  
4. Change my HVAC filter.  Done.  So much fur I could knit a blanket.  But I already have too many blankets.

Day 2 Goals:

1. Clean out the top shelf in my closet.
2. Do some shredding that's been piling up.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Stuff

Following a discussion with a couple of friends last night, I've decided it's time to purge some stuff from my house.  Normally, I would be more of the your-stuff-is-shit-but-my-shit-is-stuff philosophy (see Carlin video below).  But lately I've been thinking my stuff is shit, too.  

I'm on stuff overload.  So I posed to my friends that we do a daily, or at least weekly, update amongst ourselves to motivate and challenge each other.  Maybe set 15 minutes per day as our cleaning/purging goal.  And now I've decided to blog about it.  At least for today.  We'll see if I can keep it up.  If I have to sacrifice the blogging time in order to fulfill the purging/cleaning time, so be it.

Here's what I'm going to do tonight:
1. Get a big box and sit it in the hallway outside my bedroom.
2. Cull at least 5 items from my bedroom (closet, nightstand, jewelry box, etc).
3. Wish the big oafish dog would fit in the box.
4. Change my HVAC filter.

Tomorrow:
1. Brag about it, or lament laziness/inability to find 15 minutes.  Try to be honest.
2. Set new goal.

Want to join us?  The more people to motivate/guilt, the better!