2014 - Juggling Life Club (formerly New Leaf Club)

[Bucky]

Happy New Year!!   

Today, is January 1st, 2014 . . . .  a brand new day, a brand new year, and brand new adventures that lie ahead in this new year.

If you have been around this forum for a while, in years past, I posted about a New Leaf Club that started in December 2009.  The premise of this "club" was a support group for our members who are looking to get their affairs in order - whether it be their house, their jobs, their families, etc.  For myself, I am more focused on my home and getting it organized so my "spoon" allotment is used wisely.

Here is a link to our club last year and from some other previous years:  http://sjogrensworld.org/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=66934de8472f8cfdbfda0742d2971e21&topic=21551.msg236498#msg236498

Just as in years past, I still struggle with the same old problems . . . clutter.  It wastes sooooo much time and effort (and spoons) when I spend way too much time hunting for things.  There are several reasons why I think THIS year I might finally make some headway in my quest for a more clutter-free home. 

#1  Our son is graduating from high school in May.  We will be having out-of-state family coming for the occasion.  If I start now - in January - that will give me five months to keep working on the house and have it ready by graduation.

#2  This past fall we had to prepare my parents house (and my childhood home) to sell to settle my parents estate.  It was such a daunting task to sort through 63 years of their life together and empty the house.  They had accumulated so much "stuff" along the way.  Way too much stuff.  I had to help with this cleaning out and it made me want to come home to my own house and downsize immediately.   

Life IS all about juggling so many things - our day-to-day activities, our homes, our families, our jobs, our health, our way of living.  I know for myself, that the journey is made sweeter when you have support and encouragement along the way.  That's what this "club" is all about.

I don't want this thread to focus on our health - even though that IS a big part of juggling life.  I want this to be about projects we are working on, plans for gardens, shared ideas on organizing, filing systems that work, craft projects, recycling projects, etc.  Please, no Debbie Downers - I want to keep this thread upbeat, positive and encouraging.

My first accomplishment of this 1st day of January is to install a new Carbon Monoxide detector in the hallway outside our bedrooms.  Everyone should check their smoke alarms today too to make sure they are in working order.

Is there anybody who wants to be a part of this Juggling Life Club with me? 

Bucky

[genko_b]

Hi Bucky - I'm in!

We are looking at downsizing soon as well. When my sister and I had to clear out our mother's house after the family had been there for 50 years, we went through something similar to what you did, and I am determined not to do that to either of our kids.

We are also planning a lot of travel this year, to see some places we've wanted to see before we are beyond that kind of travel. So very much a juggling act this year, making sure we have the energy for that.

My resolution to avoid build-up of clutter - handle each piece of mail only once. Open it, read it and dispose of it one way or another. If it is a bill I write it out right then and put a sticky on it saying when to mail it. It requires being completely on top of the bank balance, which also prevents nagging stress. You know what you have to spend.

Genko

[susanep]

Bucky count me in. It is this year for me!!!! I still need to repeat last years. Need to get rid of stuff I never did, but will do. I need one place to put mail, and sort carefully through, and make a box etc. for the papers that need to be kept.

I need to start with tonight, and it's really into the morning where I am at, by throwing something away that has been sitting for a long time.

I hope later today to put away my little table top tree back into my closet.

On the 1st I did some sewing.

 I will say prayers for all of us on this. 

[SjoGirl]

I'm in and as you suggest, it's one step at a time. Before you know it you will have "walked" a mile, maybe two. . .

[quietdynamics]

Life IS all about juggling so many things...

I am still handling estate matters;
In hindsight. I should have handed over all the files to the attorney, and let the firm do the muddling. The fee for conversations/email, it would have been the more expedient way to go.
We will list the home in early spring, have photos done, prospective buyers have the option of purchasing furniture, etc.
Since the home is at the shore hopefully we will spend time there this summer for a much needed and overdo rest. We will need to be there anyway.

We started re-doing closet space here to make it more effective and easier for me to use.

The kitchen pantry had a lot of wasted space; things lost in the back, time wasted looking for things and it was tiring. When simple things time me I get frustrated.

So we had shelves cut (fee of charge when you buy the wood) and the braces and installed 3/4 shelves inbetween the existing ones. The 3/4 let the light in and now I can put cans there in order and not lose things. We painted inside semi-gloss white for added light and durability.
We added a bottom shelf to hold the cookie sheets (that usually nest in the oven) and the roasting pan, etc. So now I do not have to take them out of the oven when I want to use it and then have to find a place to put them and have them in the way...some of you may know what I mean. 

We changed the configuration of the shelves in the refrigerator.
So now the milk and heavier items, I am able to lift.

We just purchased a new carpet cleaner that is "all terrain". We researched cleaners to death. With berber carpet in the family room we really need a great machine that would extract and NOT leave the carpet wet.

Used it.  Oh my...what a huge difference. The sand colored wall-to-wall is sand colored again...wow. And this carpet is more than 15 years old.
Tried it on the kitchen, which I though was clean-ish...water came up gray.
Grout in the bathroom ..looking good.
Hoover Max Extract All Terrain. It has to be ordered online. We went with Walmart (free shipping) as then if we did not like it we could return locally and not have to box-up and ship back. Came in a matter of days.

So for now re-doing, utilizing dead closet space.
I would like to add a small chest in each under where shirts hang, maybe Ikea, which means I could possibly open space in bedroom.  Add a shelf above the existing shelf...just a dead zone.  Wish the rods for hanging clothes were higher..but we are not into ripping out and plaster...
Once I clean out a closet ...it is not filled with things we do not use...so recycled/donated.

[susanep]

Last night I did throw an old notebook with useless papers away. I did get the little table top tree put up today. I even moved some things around in the area where I sew to have a bit more room to put my fabric in. I am so pleased.

I even ate healthy today. I also said a prayer for all of us on all of this.

susanep

[Velcro]

I'm in.  I have several goals to work on this year.

1.  Declutter and organize (right there with the rest of you)
2.  Finish my book that I have worked on for four years (romance trash novel)
3.  Get my downstairs repainted
4.  Remodel my spare bedroom into a Royal Room (I'm a princess at heart)

[Katybarstool]

Hi Mrs Bucky!

I'm in - better late than never!

We have our house up for sale at the moment. It has four bedrooms and we are hoping to downsize to two, so I'm with everyone else with the de-cluttering.

I'm hoping to clear some paperwork this weekend but the nightmare for me is the garage. Apart from everything else, we have 3 sets of tyres to store, as we are using winter tyres now. Goodness only knows what we will do with them.

Thank you for getting us organised.

Hugs
KAthyx

[slccom]

I'm in! Working on a number of things:
1. Back yard.Got the wood cut up, manure in the flower beds and blubs planted. *^(@#(%^$ Chinese Elms possibly all gone (every time I said they were, I found more...) Everything mulched -- Mt. Massive free mulch on the driveway, five feet tall, is all in the flower beds or vegetable garden in the back yard. Still to do: get rest of peachcot stump out of yard, get dirt with manure and fertilizer rototilled, reseed.
Also: shed up on concrete slab.
2. Kitchen: clean up, clean fridge, start cooking again.
3. Dining room table: cleaned off, projects done.

THere is more, much more, but this is where I am starting.

Sharon

[susanep]

Today I did some more organizing in my sewing area. Got rid of one bag in that room.
Did some planning on a project.

susanep

[Bucky]

Welcome to all (8 of us, so far) who are going to juggle our lives together.     Anyone is welcome to join anywhere along the way . . . the more, the merrier.

I don't know about you, but I find that I am constantly having to do the "usual" things like grocery shopping, cooking, dishes, laundry, house cleaning, my job, bill paying, etc., that I'm tired after that to even think about doing anything on the "to do" list.    

It sure would be nice to do a job (cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc.) once and be done with it.  Nope, you have to keep doing it over, and over, and over.  Sigh.

Do any of you find that if you write down your intentions (make a "to-do" list) that you are more apt to actually do it than just "talking" about it?  Maybe it's the satisfaction I get when I see the items on the list being crossed off as completed that keeps me motivated.

Many times in the evening when my husband comes home from work and I've been home for the day he'll ask, "what did you do today?" (I work part-time, two days a week in the winter, and three days a week the rest of the year).  Some days I can rattle off quite a few things (from the list two paragraphs above), other times I say, "well . . . . . I had good intentions to do ________ (fill in the blank), but I ended up doing nothing!".  Thankfully, he doesn't care. 

I have SO many things on my "to do" list that I don't know where to start first.  Some things are "seasonal" - like putting up and taking down decorations, washing curtains, washing windows and others are more involved like organizing a closet, drawer or cabinet.

I'm sure some of you can relate . . . if I want to clean out a drawer for example, I start out doing well, then I get "sidetracked" by stopping and reading a card or letter in the drawer, or having all these little piles laying around as I'm sorting stuff.  Then, you have to take a break to fix dinner.  Then, you throw in a load or two of laundry and empty the dishwasher along the way.  Hours later it's getting bed time and you go into the bedroom only to find the drawer and all these piles all over the bed.  Ugh!!! Oh yeah, I was working on cleaning out the drawer  . . . . gather it all up again, put it back in the drawer and worry about it another day.     Story of my life!

With the bitter cold here this weekend, my "plan" is to tackle the dining room table that is buried with papers, Christmas cards, college booklets, hangers, magazines, gloves, a few pumpkins that were part of my fall decorations, camera, a stack of papers I sorted a few weeks back (and gathered back up again until I can find a place to file them).  OK, I think I need a nap now!!   

Have a good weekend, everyone.  Good luck with any projects you are working on.  Even if we spend 15 minutes here and there throughout the weekend, we'll make a little bit of headway.

Bucky

[slccom]

My "rail" is broken. I derail constantly. I try to remind myself to "finish SOMETHING!"

Just finished my sewing edging on a blanket and hemming a pillowcase.

Goodnight!

Sharon

[Katybarstool]

I've made a start today: we had some house viewers unexpectedly just before Christmas. To make things look tidier, I swept a pile of brochures and papers into a kitchen drawer. Today I have sorted them out - most of them went directly to the paper recycling bin. Phew! one job down, a hundred to do!

Kathyx

[harrigan]

I love this thread Bucky - it really is the stuff of life!

Hope your house viewers were impressed Kathy and your move goes smoothly.  It will be nice to have only half as much house to be responsible for!

I'm terrible at putting house things at the back of my mind whilst sorting out Dad's new house, school-work, 5 kiddults etc.  However, I have a damp patch in my dining roomthat must be dealt with soon so I have contacted someone and am waiting to hear back. It will be a weight off my mind if I can get that done then redecorate as it has been worrying me but not done anything bout it for over a year now!

I also need to get all my mum's lovely china back from a friend's cellar where it is being stored.  Dad has treated me to a lovely welsh dresser so I can store and display it.  It feels like a very positive thing to so having missed her so much this first Christmas without her.  Someone please check up on me to make sure I keep at it!

xx Ailsa

[slccom]

The way I got everything done in the front and back yard this late summer and fall and even now is to simply focus on what I am doing NOW. I dug up and poisoned probably 100 treelets in my front yard by focusing on the one I was working on. If I looked up and saw something else that I needed to do, I just told myself, "I'm not there yet." And I kept on.

I made it fun, too. The State Fair was going on, and a lot of people park on my street. As they walked by, I invited them to skip the Fair and help me weed instead, even promising the guys a crack at the power saw. About half of them thought I was a sit-down comic. Most turned me down flat, but one guy said, "You know, you almost got me," but he kept on walking. A neighbor came over to chat, and so on. I thought long and hard and deep about some people and problems and issues, solved some problems and just kept on keeping on. I gave myself permission to stop when I decided to, generally after reaching a sub-goal. I even worked in the dark using a portable light, when it was nice and cool.

Finally, one day I looked at the front yard and all the weeds were gone! I pulled them out or poisoned every one by hand. And I felt like I could do anything!

Then I moved on to Mt. Massive, the pile of free mulch the nice tree guys left me at my request. It was on the driveway, at the highest, five feet high. I got probably 40 bags of manure/compost, and hand dug it into the back yard and front yard flower beds, then planted a whole bunch of bulbs and some perennials. I started putting the mulch from Mt. Massive on them, quite deeply. I got some of the beds done, and then moved the rest of Mt. Massive into the dog cage/vegetable garden. There is a nice guy with no legs who makes the rounds on the sidewalk in his electric wheelchair, and I worked from the garage side. I got most of the pile done, and the last two days, he bet me $5 that I couldn't finish it by Friday. Of course, he couldn't see what all I had done in back. I got it done, partly with the help my neighbor's five-year-old grandson and my neighbor. Little Jack wasn't a lot of help, but he really tried. He got a dustpan, and when Pat and I went to the dog cage with a load, he filled the dust pan, snow shovel and shovel with mulch by hand.

I can't describe the feeling when I returned Pat's wheelbarrow, with the driveway swept off and available again. I haven't worked that hard for $5 for many years! I sat down and wrote Asplund Trees a thank-you letter for the mulch, and added, "If perchance I should ask you for more mulch, please slap me upside the head and refuse!" I signed it, "Exhaustedly." They gave me probably $200 worth of mulch, which I appreciated, and they appreciated not having to take it to the landfill.

Next, I worked on the other flower beds in the back yard, putting another 20 bags of manure and compost in by hand, about 60 bulbs and then putting mulch on it. I made it just before the weather got too cold to plant bulbs. And, I dug out probably 30 Chinese elm weed trees. They made the back yard look like a primeval forest. And I mean, dug out. I had to go over a foot deep in places, saw a whole bunch of it out, then pull out the roots and poison what was left. Every time I thought I was done with the cursed things, I stumbled over some more. I may have them done now. Until something I missed decides to reveal itself in the spring.

And I got it all done by saying to myself, "I'm not there yet." And I gave myself permission to stop and rest. And sit whenever possible. And most importantly, to enjoy what I had accomplished.

Enjoy what you accomplished!

Sharon