First a followup - I now have the ornaments off the main Christmas tree, the studio tree, and the tree in the dining room which had all ornaments from Colonial Williamsburg. (We have been members for a couple of decades and get one each year.) The ornaments are boxed and ready for storage. The trees are taken apart (artificial trees), boxed and stored in the basement. I also stored the decorations from the kitchen, dining room and our entry hall (one box total) in their box. Living room is next.
I started thinking about how much more cleaning, organizing and cleaning up I used to get done and tried to figure out why I don’t get more done now. Now I realize what I used to do would be much too little for many people, but it kept our house clean. Lately I only get the basics laundry, and changing bedding and towels, done.
When we were first married, husband would come home on Friday afternoon exhausted and go to bed early and I would clean our tiny apartment while he slept. Not too many rooms to clean and a time to do so.
After we moved to our house I did not do a good job of cleaning - big house, my work load increased - then I started reading books about organizing. We go to Barnes and Nobles weekly and I was bored and found out that there were books about organizing. At about the same time we were on the board of a crafts organization which rotated the board meetings to different board members houses - I really needed to get the house in some semblance of order. Then again we had saying in the group of kindred spirits - “Have the board meeting at your house, better you should clean then me.” I started reading the books while we are at the bookstore - I read fairly quickly and would finish about a book a month. While much of what was in the in the books did not apply to me, they did give me impetus to work at organizing and cleaning the house.
The schedule I came up with was that I used to clean the floors and dust the upstairs the first Wednesday of the month. On the second Wednesday of the month I would do the same downstairs and clean the bathroom downstairs. On the third Wednesday I would again do the upstairs and clean the bathroom upstairs. On the fourth I would again do the downstairs floors and dusting and clean the kitchen. I did this for over a decade. Now, I don’t get to anything that it is not urgent - WHY?
Again there was a change in my life. My husband is home all the time now! When he went to work I would clean upstairs in the morning on the weeks I did same and the downstairs in the evening while he was upstairs. Now he is with me all the time and I have no more mornings as we get up late (and go to bed late) and he is around most of the evening..
Also we have the RV stuff in the dining room half the year - next to impossible to clean a floor covered with boxes. Now we have the loom and it’s stuff in the living room - yes, it is now back and set up since the Christmas tree came down last week - again hard to clean around it.
I used to food shop on Mondays and do a fill in on Fridays for the weekend if needed. Husband hated food shopping so I did not want to need anything on the weekend when he would be home. I also would make sure that I would not need to food shop while he was on vacation from work (his place was on a modified school year, several one week vacations). Now we shop willy nilly - barely a list in my cell phone, no set day and we can end up food shopping 3 -5 days a week. Last week we had a day when we spent an hour and half in 2 supermarkets - and bought maybe 6 items - he likes to go up and down aisles and see what there is - looking for the magic healthy, tasty, low in carbs meal he will love, which is he is sure exists somewhere. I used to go out on Tuesdays - Thursdays for a 15 minute trip to and from the post office (check our box and mail anything to go out) - now we go out for at least an hour a day - wandering in one or the other of 3 stores. All that time which could be used at home to get things done - gone.
So, life changed again. So I have to come up with new plans for cleaning the house - because it needs to be done more often. I am thinking of trying Tuesday nights instead of Wednesday days.
Of course there still exists the problem of trying to clean while husband is home - clean a bathroom and he will need it and just try to dust his computers and desk while he is working at them.
I need to get the food shopping back on a schedule also. We have had a shake up here in supermarkets which has made food shopping even more confusing. The store I shopped at since we were married as my main store, was taken over around when he quit his job. (Understand this was a mutual decision based on his being horribly burned out at the job and he works from home now.) He was just starting coming food shopping with me then and he pointed out that we went to the market I had been going to and then to one from another chain as “mine” never had what I wanted any more. So we started just going to the “other” market. Since then the food markets here have changed. The chain I used to go to and another chain owned by the same company are gone in bankruptcy. In their old locations new markets are opening - several are upscale ones with food bars - too expensive unless there is a sale to buy food there and the food bars never look properly tended - another one of these (which will be the third chain like this around our area) will be opening in the fall. The chain that was my alternate has opened a second store a little further away from us - in a better area with better parking so he is not as upset about going there as before. And Walmart opened a “Neighborhood Market” here. Our Walmart stores have small food sections. They are not the huge food markets or stores that they are elsewhere (and are not open 24 hours). This store is food and what one would normally find in a supermarket, but still not the size of the food departments in Walmarts in other areas nor do they carry everything the other Walmarts (or other supermarkets) carry. To give you an idea - this store does not have a bakery - just items baked elsewhere and brought in; the deli counter never seems to be open - we wonder if we have to ask to have it opened.
I need to start looking at the circulars and matching items to my list again. I used to have a list on the fridge - who ever took the “item” which brought quantity left to the point where we needed to start looking to buy it, would the add the item to the list on the fridge. Now I put it in a “BUY list” memo in my cell phone. We always seem to be in a rush, so I buy what we need NOW and wait for the rest. I do try keep up my coupons - but our diets and lives are such that, combined with less coupons being delivered, and the fact that we buy some stuff at Costco which does not accept coupons, and that we buy a lot of store brand items, we use a lot less supermarket coupons than before. (Though, last week the supermarket had brand name chicken soup - you know the brand - on sale for 49 cents with their store card and I had a coupon for $1.50 off - that was a good deal!) I keep my coupons and store cards in the car so if I need something - it is just outside the store in the parking lot. (I keep store cards we might use when traveling in the RV and some of them also in the car, and I keep store cards that are only local also in our van - just in case). The coupon holders come with us on trips. I have one holder for regular and store coupons and another just for a large hardware chain which puts out constant coupons (I am guessing you know which one I mean). I bring them into the house once a week (okay, I mean to bring them in once a week, sometimes less often and sometimes I add or remove in the car while husband is driving) to pull out old coupons and add new ones.
Sometimes outside forces throw me off schedule. I just put out two and a half weeks of the kitchen pail garbage (meaning most of the first floor garbage). Why so much? Well, our garbage pickup is on Mondays and Thursdays. I normally put the kitchen garbage out on Sunday night for the Monday morning pickup. Monday last week (the 16th) was a legal holiday and there was no pickup. So, I planned to put it out on Wednesday night for Thursday - I forgot. We had a nor’easter here and the winds were suppose to start Monday morning. I did not want my garbage flying all over and did not put it out Sunday night - and I left the second week’s garbage bag in the pail in the kitchen as there was room in it and it did not smell. So, tonight I put out both bags for pickup tomorrow. I also have a mostly full bag of trash in our office, with smaller bags to be added to it from our bedroom and upstairs bathroom, but that can go out Sunday for Monday pickup next week. We don’t fill the office pail as quickly and it is mostly just paper. I also have two and a half weeks of recycling to go out - three weeks by Monday night when I will put it out for Tuesday pickup. Since Monday the 16th was a holiday, I forgot to put out the recycling for Tuesday. Then this past Monday/Tuesday we were still dealing with the nor’easter, so the recycling is sitting in the porch waiting to go. I will make two stacks of papers and use a larger box to put out the cans and bottles and they will be gone (well, at least as of now they say next Sunday to Tuesday should be nice weather). I put my newspapers out in cardboard boxes which we have gotten things in and recycle them at the same time.
I am trying to get back on some sort of schedule as I used to be to get it all done. I have writing my post for this blog down for Tuesday night - so it can be posted very late Wednesday night -which might technically be early Thursday morning. Many weeks I write it on Wednesday night. This week I was good and wrote it on Tuesday night, then thought about it, and revised it before posting it - it is much less rambling than it was as I originally wrote it.
Do you have a schedule or just do what you can when you can?
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING - Any step forward is better than none. I mentioned previously to change one thing and follow through on it. It took almost 29 years in this house - along with 9 years of stuff from our apartment and over 25 years of stuff from before that to get us to where we are. It will not be gone quickly, even allowing for the fact that some of the stuff has already been gotten rid. But any step forward is that much less to do afterward.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Thursday, January 19, 2017
TAKING DOWN CHRISTMAS
Last Thursday we had a nice day - not too cold and no rain or snow, so we took down our outside lights and stored them in the 2 plastic boxes we keep them in. Husband climbed up in the garage and put the boxes away. I also brought in our poinsettia and he stored them with the lights.
What poinsettia outside in the cold in winter - how can it survive? We have 3 holders in front of our house for flowers in pots. We had given up trying to grow or keep growing flowers in the garden in front of our house. We buy flowers in summer - we learned to buy geraniums as they last from the spring until they die from the cold as winter comes in. But in winter the pots were empty. We bought several fake poinsettia plants and put them in a set of 3 pots we bought for them. Husband filled the pots with insulation foam which comes in cans and expands to fill the space they are in - we added some fake, thin garland over the foam (which set itself permanently into the foam) and we have lovely “poinsettia” to put out for Christmas.
This year a number of houses still had their decorations up as of last weekend and we would not have rushed to shut off and take down the lights as long as others were lit, but figured that we would take them down while weather permitted. Based on this logic, our lighted wreath (artificial of course) between our doors is still up and lit - this is the first year we had this wreath and will store it in our basement with our other “in the house” decorations as opposed to the shed where our other outdoor decorations are stored. We have also left the battery operated candle lights in the windows for now.
Last Saturday we were to have “a trace to an inch of snow, which will not stick to paved surfaces”. We went to a shopping mall about a half hour away, just to walk around someplace different for a change. When we left a couple of hours later, there was at least an inch and it was sticking to paved surfaces except for main roads. We decided not to go out to dinner and movie, and brought in Chinese food. Afterwards I started taking down the ornaments from the main Christmas tree and the studio tree. (The ornaments for the studio tree are stored with those for the main tree as I switch which handmade ornaments go on the studio tree each year.) This was 2 days early, but husband is itching to start weaving on his loom again and we need to get rid of the tree to have enough room to set the loom threads up. I filled one box of 4. On Sunday evening I filled a second box. On Monday another. Tonight I filled the last box. Well, they are not really filled as there are assorted ornaments - as well as the angel on top and her two angel friends just below her (all stitched by us) to be stored away as the last items off the tree - which have to be put into ziploc type bags for storage. I have also been reminded that when I took out 2 bulbs from the tree lights (all of which still have to come off the tree) to plug in decorations, I dropped one. So I am missing a bulb. I put a white bag tie around the bulb holder so I can find it easily to deal with this as we put away the lights - spare bulbs and holders in the basement. The rest of the decorations can take a little longer as they won’t be in his way.
Some thoughts on storing Christmas decorations - Some items I keep in the original box - these include ornaments which are special and come with a special box which one wants to keep. The general fill in ball ornaments and such I also keep in their original box (or combined into original boxes as some have been lost over the years) as they keep better in same. The assorted odd ornaments we have bought are combined into small boxes. Each box has a list on the outside of which ornaments go into that box. Breakables are wrapped in paper in the box. The boxes vary from small gift boxes, tree light boxes, outer boxes that boxed ornaments came in, Christmas card boxes (the ones which have a cardboard box and cover), and so on. This gives extra protection to the ornaments. Some ornaments go into ziploc type plastic bags - fabric ornaments, some wooden ones (wrapped in paper) which husband turned on his lathe, a few odd ornaments (woven wheat, teasel animal...) . The boxes, loose ornaments and plastic bags go into the 4 large plastic boxes, with some of the soft ornaments going into the box the tree is kept in if they are bulky.
The ornament boxes are numbered 1 to 4 and contents are put on the tree in that order. By which, I mean the ornaments in box 1 are the ones I want to put on the tree first. They are the nicest ones. Box 1 also has the angel for the top of the tree and her two “friends” and the hooks for the ornaments. (I have green wire ones which are pliable, they work amazingly better than the traditional ones as they can be bent in a variety of shapes.) Box 4 has the “fill in the spaces” ornaments and the “icicles” to fill in empty spots also. Putting them away is done in any order. I have more of these large plastic boxes to hold the rest of the decorations.
Have you put away - or at least started to put away - your Christmas decorations yet? It is always so sad to “see them go”. I know some of my neighbors have Valentine decorations up already.
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
Time is fixed - but it can be amazing how much more I find I can do in the same time when I have to. I try to use short periods of time - perhaps we will be going out for dinner and husband is still upstairs and I have 5 or 10 minutes - I try to find something to do or at least start doing, whether organizing related or not in the time I have. Small pieces of time can add up.
What poinsettia outside in the cold in winter - how can it survive? We have 3 holders in front of our house for flowers in pots. We had given up trying to grow or keep growing flowers in the garden in front of our house. We buy flowers in summer - we learned to buy geraniums as they last from the spring until they die from the cold as winter comes in. But in winter the pots were empty. We bought several fake poinsettia plants and put them in a set of 3 pots we bought for them. Husband filled the pots with insulation foam which comes in cans and expands to fill the space they are in - we added some fake, thin garland over the foam (which set itself permanently into the foam) and we have lovely “poinsettia” to put out for Christmas.
This year a number of houses still had their decorations up as of last weekend and we would not have rushed to shut off and take down the lights as long as others were lit, but figured that we would take them down while weather permitted. Based on this logic, our lighted wreath (artificial of course) between our doors is still up and lit - this is the first year we had this wreath and will store it in our basement with our other “in the house” decorations as opposed to the shed where our other outdoor decorations are stored. We have also left the battery operated candle lights in the windows for now.
Last Saturday we were to have “a trace to an inch of snow, which will not stick to paved surfaces”. We went to a shopping mall about a half hour away, just to walk around someplace different for a change. When we left a couple of hours later, there was at least an inch and it was sticking to paved surfaces except for main roads. We decided not to go out to dinner and movie, and brought in Chinese food. Afterwards I started taking down the ornaments from the main Christmas tree and the studio tree. (The ornaments for the studio tree are stored with those for the main tree as I switch which handmade ornaments go on the studio tree each year.) This was 2 days early, but husband is itching to start weaving on his loom again and we need to get rid of the tree to have enough room to set the loom threads up. I filled one box of 4. On Sunday evening I filled a second box. On Monday another. Tonight I filled the last box. Well, they are not really filled as there are assorted ornaments - as well as the angel on top and her two angel friends just below her (all stitched by us) to be stored away as the last items off the tree - which have to be put into ziploc type bags for storage. I have also been reminded that when I took out 2 bulbs from the tree lights (all of which still have to come off the tree) to plug in decorations, I dropped one. So I am missing a bulb. I put a white bag tie around the bulb holder so I can find it easily to deal with this as we put away the lights - spare bulbs and holders in the basement. The rest of the decorations can take a little longer as they won’t be in his way.
Some thoughts on storing Christmas decorations - Some items I keep in the original box - these include ornaments which are special and come with a special box which one wants to keep. The general fill in ball ornaments and such I also keep in their original box (or combined into original boxes as some have been lost over the years) as they keep better in same. The assorted odd ornaments we have bought are combined into small boxes. Each box has a list on the outside of which ornaments go into that box. Breakables are wrapped in paper in the box. The boxes vary from small gift boxes, tree light boxes, outer boxes that boxed ornaments came in, Christmas card boxes (the ones which have a cardboard box and cover), and so on. This gives extra protection to the ornaments. Some ornaments go into ziploc type plastic bags - fabric ornaments, some wooden ones (wrapped in paper) which husband turned on his lathe, a few odd ornaments (woven wheat, teasel animal...) . The boxes, loose ornaments and plastic bags go into the 4 large plastic boxes, with some of the soft ornaments going into the box the tree is kept in if they are bulky.
The ornament boxes are numbered 1 to 4 and contents are put on the tree in that order. By which, I mean the ornaments in box 1 are the ones I want to put on the tree first. They are the nicest ones. Box 1 also has the angel for the top of the tree and her two “friends” and the hooks for the ornaments. (I have green wire ones which are pliable, they work amazingly better than the traditional ones as they can be bent in a variety of shapes.) Box 4 has the “fill in the spaces” ornaments and the “icicles” to fill in empty spots also. Putting them away is done in any order. I have more of these large plastic boxes to hold the rest of the decorations.
Have you put away - or at least started to put away - your Christmas decorations yet? It is always so sad to “see them go”. I know some of my neighbors have Valentine decorations up already.
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
Time is fixed - but it can be amazing how much more I find I can do in the same time when I have to. I try to use short periods of time - perhaps we will be going out for dinner and husband is still upstairs and I have 5 or 10 minutes - I try to find something to do or at least start doing, whether organizing related or not in the time I have. Small pieces of time can add up.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
A LITTLE SNOW
Last weekend we had our first snow of the year - okay, the year is not even 2 weeks old yet. The only other snow this winter was very light and mostly melted before we woke up.
When husband went out to work and my time was my own, in winter I would plan trips to clients on days it was not snowing and stay in the house when it did and get all sorts of things done with the time I was “stuck” in the house. No more.
My husband has become terrified of snow storms. In the past he did not particularly like them, but now he is terrified.
When we first moved into the house we were (relatively) young and had a driveway which was one car wide and 2 cars long, so we would park the two cars in line with each other, towards the bottom of the driveway and clean the snow behind the back car and between the two, and a path to the cars - no problem. We had a snow blower, but rarely used it.
After living in this house awhile we realized that we needed to be able to drive either car out of the driveway and we could not park either in the street and figure they would survive (we lost 2 side mirrors on the car we had in the street from the cars driving past - over the speed limit). So we had a semi-circular drive put in. Understand, our property is not big enough for same, so we now have about 90% of the front of our house paved - which means that any snow which is cleared off the driveway has to go onto the 10% of the front.
At first we dealt with the snow the easy way. I had a small 4 wheel drive SUV and he had an all wheel drive van, and the snow was just about never, if ever over, say 8 inches at a time - mostly less, so we did not clear the snow and just drove through it.
Then came the year we were snowed out of the house - yes, snowed out. We left on a trip to Williamsburg, VA in early December. At home there was to be light flurries so we thought nothing of going away. While enroute we heard about the snow falling at home and it was getting worse and worse. Not wanting to go back and drive in the snow - we drove on. While in Virginia we kept trying to find out about the snow back home. At that time the Internet was relatively new, but the hotel did have wifi, and we checked the home television stations’ and the home local newspaper’s website. The local paper from home was showing interesting photos of the midwest not home! I tried calling my sister - she said it varies all over the area. I tried calling my next door neighbor, an older woman, she said that she had not been out and didn’t know it snowed a lot. We tend to arrive home at night when we travel and were concerned, since a foot plus of snow was being mentioned, about if we would arrive home and not be able to get into the house. We were to stay Monday night in Pennsylvania on the way home. I suggested to husband that he call into work and extend his time off a day. This allowed us to stay in Pennsylvania an extra day - they were saying that Monday and Tuesday were to be warm and we hoped the snow would melt - as well as we could come home in the afternoon and have a chance at dealing with the snow. It worked. There was still a lot of snow, but with the help of all wheel drive, we were able to drive up the driveway.
Husband never wanted this problem again and we made arrangements with our gardener to clear the snow for us in winter. When he left his job and we could not afford the gardener, we hired his former secretary’s brother in law who was also a gardener, to cut the grass (never wanted the rest of the gardening work done anyway, but our original gardener would not come unless he did what he wanted) and clear the snow. Worked great until he “sold us” to someone else.
The new gardener was fine for a year or so. Then a few years ago, we started getting snow such as rarely saw here. Record breaking snow over and over again. The first storm hit. We waited for our driveway to be cleared. No one came. We called - the phone number was shut off. We finally found out that the gardener had gone home to Ecuador for the winter! He called us from there and said that someone would be here to clear the snow - they never came and husband’s fear started.
He went on Craig’s list and finally managed to get someone to come and deal with our snow. By that time the snow had frozen. The fellow had a plastic shovel and it was not enough to even break through. We lent him our metal shovel (which will never be the same again). Still problems. Thanks to someone passing by with a plow on their truck who saw the problem and helped, the snow was broken through enough for the fellow to clear it.
The next storm came - a 2 day storm with about as much snow. The fellow could not come and husband went back to Craig’s list. The fellow who came this time came with his wife and teenage son. They came between the two days of the storm while there was a lull to make it easier. They brought one shovel and borrowed one of ours - the metal one, of course that cannot be replaced. They wanted coffee and were amazed that I had none in the house - cocoa was next suggested by them - none here either. I offered tea - not wanted. At the end of working he asked for half the money, I figured we had nothing to lose as they had done half the work and we paid them. After we realized that they had taken our shovel. The rest of the storm came, luckily less than the first part and much less than predicted. The fellow said he would come - and didn’t - ditto a couple of times. Then he came at 11 pm, said he was going for coffee and would be back to work - didn’t come. We cleared the snow ourselves. Now we had to get the snow shovel back - it took many calls and threats, but finally it appeared on the side of the house. Some how we dealt with the snow the rest of the winter - several big storms spread out as we were never able to find anyone again to clear the snow.
The following winter husband contacted the first fellow early in the season before there was snow, but he was no longer doing snow clearance. Husband finally found a landscaper who did residential snow removal and we signed a contract with him - for big prices. His prices started at $100 and went to $175 depending on the amount of snow. Beyond our budget, but what could we do. Husband was in a constant state of nervousness waiting for the storm to come and then waiting for the crew to come and clear it. Then again, the crew would come too early - often before the snow stopped falling and before the plows were done throwing snow back into our two driveway cuts. If they cleared the driveway and we needed them back, even if just to clear what the plow through back, it was an extra fee. To add fun to all of this, a neighbor 2 houses away had an arrangement with the neighbor between to clear her driveway in exchange for parking one of their extra cars on her driveway and one in front of their house (they have 5 cars with a one car driveway, as they have 3 adult children living at home). The son who parked in front of her house did the work. He would clear everything and throw it in the street in front of our driveway and we would have to go out and clear the cut - or pay to have it done. I finally had enough and called his mom and complained the winter before the house between was sold and we did not have to deal with him any more.
Understand, when I am saying record setting storms, we were getting storms that were in the top 10 in size for the area or new number one storms consistently over 2 -3 years - sometimes every other day - it would snow, it would be clear, we would go out to the post office and run errands. The next day it would snow again and repeat. It was so confusing that I managed to make more than the 6 withdrawals we are allowed from our savings account (had to pay for the snow clearing) and was charged a fee, which I managed to get waived. In addition we have had abnormally cold temperatures.
This year the landscaper who was clearing our snow sent husband an email that he was no longer doing any residential snow removal - panic set in. We could find no one else. Husband decided to buy a new, lighter, smaller snow blower so we could do the work. Our problem with same over the years is that we have to clear a path to the backyard shed to get the snow blower out. We figured with the smaller blower we would get a small shed and put it in front of the side door and only need to get there. Well, we bought the snow blower, but it was too late in the season to buy the shed. So we have the snow blower in the corner of the garage - just inside the door and we have to shovel to there.
Last Saturday night we were to have 2-4 inches of snow. Husband was going crazy. In the middle of the storm - which was definitely going to be more than they said - there was a lull. Husband has had a terrible cold these past few weeks. I went out and shoveled the way to the garage, as well as across the front of the garage door and around to the side door, on the logic that there would be less snow to deal with later to get to the garage. This in the end did not do much, but it made him feel better. Our area got the highest snow of the county (the county east of us got much more) and we cleared it up in 40 minutes. Luckily we are having warmer days and other than snow plowed or pushed into piles, much of it is melted.
He is still concerned about “a big one”, but at least we know we have a half a chance. He has agreed that if we need to we will clear part and come in and rest than do more and that he may need to let me run the snow blower for awhile.
So most of the week was involved with getting him ready for the snow, watching it snow, and clearing the snow.
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
First -have you done one thing - and kept doing it?
Be honest - are your Christmas decorations still up? Ours are. We put our decorations up late and tend to leave them up a little later. Of course we would not dream of taking them down before the twelfth day of Christmas (Three Kings Day, Ephiphany, Little Christmas, Orthodox Christmas, it has many names). But even that seems too early for us. We picked the 3rd Monday of January as when we start to take down the decorations.
Set a specific date (calender date or such as ours - by the day) to start taking down your decorations and have what you will store them in available when you start.
I have the boxes in the basement and will bring them up. I tend to take the decorations down opposite to how I normally put them up - trees first, then decorations, then my teddy bear decorations. They all have assigned boxes to be stored in.
Our outside decorations will come down early this year as we are having a warm spell and the snow has melted - we plan to take the lights on the bushes down tomorrow and store them away while we can.
So make your plans and get ready to take down your decorations - then again, there is one house we pass just about daily that always has its outside Christmas decorations up - lots of them - and then gets turned on in season - it does look odd though in July!
When husband went out to work and my time was my own, in winter I would plan trips to clients on days it was not snowing and stay in the house when it did and get all sorts of things done with the time I was “stuck” in the house. No more.
My husband has become terrified of snow storms. In the past he did not particularly like them, but now he is terrified.
When we first moved into the house we were (relatively) young and had a driveway which was one car wide and 2 cars long, so we would park the two cars in line with each other, towards the bottom of the driveway and clean the snow behind the back car and between the two, and a path to the cars - no problem. We had a snow blower, but rarely used it.
After living in this house awhile we realized that we needed to be able to drive either car out of the driveway and we could not park either in the street and figure they would survive (we lost 2 side mirrors on the car we had in the street from the cars driving past - over the speed limit). So we had a semi-circular drive put in. Understand, our property is not big enough for same, so we now have about 90% of the front of our house paved - which means that any snow which is cleared off the driveway has to go onto the 10% of the front.
At first we dealt with the snow the easy way. I had a small 4 wheel drive SUV and he had an all wheel drive van, and the snow was just about never, if ever over, say 8 inches at a time - mostly less, so we did not clear the snow and just drove through it.
Then came the year we were snowed out of the house - yes, snowed out. We left on a trip to Williamsburg, VA in early December. At home there was to be light flurries so we thought nothing of going away. While enroute we heard about the snow falling at home and it was getting worse and worse. Not wanting to go back and drive in the snow - we drove on. While in Virginia we kept trying to find out about the snow back home. At that time the Internet was relatively new, but the hotel did have wifi, and we checked the home television stations’ and the home local newspaper’s website. The local paper from home was showing interesting photos of the midwest not home! I tried calling my sister - she said it varies all over the area. I tried calling my next door neighbor, an older woman, she said that she had not been out and didn’t know it snowed a lot. We tend to arrive home at night when we travel and were concerned, since a foot plus of snow was being mentioned, about if we would arrive home and not be able to get into the house. We were to stay Monday night in Pennsylvania on the way home. I suggested to husband that he call into work and extend his time off a day. This allowed us to stay in Pennsylvania an extra day - they were saying that Monday and Tuesday were to be warm and we hoped the snow would melt - as well as we could come home in the afternoon and have a chance at dealing with the snow. It worked. There was still a lot of snow, but with the help of all wheel drive, we were able to drive up the driveway.
Husband never wanted this problem again and we made arrangements with our gardener to clear the snow for us in winter. When he left his job and we could not afford the gardener, we hired his former secretary’s brother in law who was also a gardener, to cut the grass (never wanted the rest of the gardening work done anyway, but our original gardener would not come unless he did what he wanted) and clear the snow. Worked great until he “sold us” to someone else.
The new gardener was fine for a year or so. Then a few years ago, we started getting snow such as rarely saw here. Record breaking snow over and over again. The first storm hit. We waited for our driveway to be cleared. No one came. We called - the phone number was shut off. We finally found out that the gardener had gone home to Ecuador for the winter! He called us from there and said that someone would be here to clear the snow - they never came and husband’s fear started.
He went on Craig’s list and finally managed to get someone to come and deal with our snow. By that time the snow had frozen. The fellow had a plastic shovel and it was not enough to even break through. We lent him our metal shovel (which will never be the same again). Still problems. Thanks to someone passing by with a plow on their truck who saw the problem and helped, the snow was broken through enough for the fellow to clear it.
The next storm came - a 2 day storm with about as much snow. The fellow could not come and husband went back to Craig’s list. The fellow who came this time came with his wife and teenage son. They came between the two days of the storm while there was a lull to make it easier. They brought one shovel and borrowed one of ours - the metal one, of course that cannot be replaced. They wanted coffee and were amazed that I had none in the house - cocoa was next suggested by them - none here either. I offered tea - not wanted. At the end of working he asked for half the money, I figured we had nothing to lose as they had done half the work and we paid them. After we realized that they had taken our shovel. The rest of the storm came, luckily less than the first part and much less than predicted. The fellow said he would come - and didn’t - ditto a couple of times. Then he came at 11 pm, said he was going for coffee and would be back to work - didn’t come. We cleared the snow ourselves. Now we had to get the snow shovel back - it took many calls and threats, but finally it appeared on the side of the house. Some how we dealt with the snow the rest of the winter - several big storms spread out as we were never able to find anyone again to clear the snow.
The following winter husband contacted the first fellow early in the season before there was snow, but he was no longer doing snow clearance. Husband finally found a landscaper who did residential snow removal and we signed a contract with him - for big prices. His prices started at $100 and went to $175 depending on the amount of snow. Beyond our budget, but what could we do. Husband was in a constant state of nervousness waiting for the storm to come and then waiting for the crew to come and clear it. Then again, the crew would come too early - often before the snow stopped falling and before the plows were done throwing snow back into our two driveway cuts. If they cleared the driveway and we needed them back, even if just to clear what the plow through back, it was an extra fee. To add fun to all of this, a neighbor 2 houses away had an arrangement with the neighbor between to clear her driveway in exchange for parking one of their extra cars on her driveway and one in front of their house (they have 5 cars with a one car driveway, as they have 3 adult children living at home). The son who parked in front of her house did the work. He would clear everything and throw it in the street in front of our driveway and we would have to go out and clear the cut - or pay to have it done. I finally had enough and called his mom and complained the winter before the house between was sold and we did not have to deal with him any more.
Understand, when I am saying record setting storms, we were getting storms that were in the top 10 in size for the area or new number one storms consistently over 2 -3 years - sometimes every other day - it would snow, it would be clear, we would go out to the post office and run errands. The next day it would snow again and repeat. It was so confusing that I managed to make more than the 6 withdrawals we are allowed from our savings account (had to pay for the snow clearing) and was charged a fee, which I managed to get waived. In addition we have had abnormally cold temperatures.
This year the landscaper who was clearing our snow sent husband an email that he was no longer doing any residential snow removal - panic set in. We could find no one else. Husband decided to buy a new, lighter, smaller snow blower so we could do the work. Our problem with same over the years is that we have to clear a path to the backyard shed to get the snow blower out. We figured with the smaller blower we would get a small shed and put it in front of the side door and only need to get there. Well, we bought the snow blower, but it was too late in the season to buy the shed. So we have the snow blower in the corner of the garage - just inside the door and we have to shovel to there.
Last Saturday night we were to have 2-4 inches of snow. Husband was going crazy. In the middle of the storm - which was definitely going to be more than they said - there was a lull. Husband has had a terrible cold these past few weeks. I went out and shoveled the way to the garage, as well as across the front of the garage door and around to the side door, on the logic that there would be less snow to deal with later to get to the garage. This in the end did not do much, but it made him feel better. Our area got the highest snow of the county (the county east of us got much more) and we cleared it up in 40 minutes. Luckily we are having warmer days and other than snow plowed or pushed into piles, much of it is melted.
He is still concerned about “a big one”, but at least we know we have a half a chance. He has agreed that if we need to we will clear part and come in and rest than do more and that he may need to let me run the snow blower for awhile.
So most of the week was involved with getting him ready for the snow, watching it snow, and clearing the snow.
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
First -have you done one thing - and kept doing it?
Be honest - are your Christmas decorations still up? Ours are. We put our decorations up late and tend to leave them up a little later. Of course we would not dream of taking them down before the twelfth day of Christmas (Three Kings Day, Ephiphany, Little Christmas, Orthodox Christmas, it has many names). But even that seems too early for us. We picked the 3rd Monday of January as when we start to take down the decorations.
Set a specific date (calender date or such as ours - by the day) to start taking down your decorations and have what you will store them in available when you start.
I have the boxes in the basement and will bring them up. I tend to take the decorations down opposite to how I normally put them up - trees first, then decorations, then my teddy bear decorations. They all have assigned boxes to be stored in.
Our outside decorations will come down early this year as we are having a warm spell and the snow has melted - we plan to take the lights on the bushes down tomorrow and store them away while we can.
So make your plans and get ready to take down your decorations - then again, there is one house we pass just about daily that always has its outside Christmas decorations up - lots of them - and then gets turned on in season - it does look odd though in July!
Thursday, January 5, 2017
A NEW YEAR
Another week already? Seems hard to believe. We had a quiet New Year’s Eve at home and then went out to Ikea for dinner on New Year’s Day.
Since then I have been doing my regular chores while archiving last year’s computer files. I transfer the files from last year to an archive drive. When I am done with what has to be archived at this point I will make 2 DVD copies of the archive drive for backup and then update the archive files on my “offsite” drives (the ones I take to the bank vault each month) so I have additional updates of the archive files. Not all the files can be archived right now - I will wait to do my bank recs this month so the year end rec is in the 2016 records. I will archive my Quickbooks files after I close them out for the year, which will take a couple of months to do the taxes. After I have the archive copies made I will remove the matching 2016 data from my data file.
I had decided that my good china was in the wrong spot in the cabinet over the stove and needed to come down a shelf - those dinner plates seem to have gained some weight and gotten heavier over the years. When I put away the dishes after New Year’s I thought it a good time to deal with this. I took everything off the bottom shelf and brought the china down from the middle (of 3) shelves. I then went through the rest of what was on the 2 bottoms shelves (I can’t reach the top shelf without a ladder - I was on a chair - so it had to weight). I looked at each item and thought about when I had used it last, if I would use it, could I buy one if I decided I needed it if I got rid of it, and a number of pieces were not put back in the cabinet. Today I took them to Goodwill and donated them. I am trying to find stuff to get rid of and take to Goodwill each month on the day I have my embroidery club and go out alone - husband always insists we need to keep whatever I am donating, so best not to have him along (although I am not taking his stuff to donate, which I would never donate without his permission - only what is mine or basically mine, such as the kitchen stuff).
Husband has a craft business through an online site. Somehow I missed his renewal of about 15 items in mid December and never changed my records to match up to the end of month statement of fees charged. We had a sale on January 1 (we have few sales in general and we hope this is a good sign for 2017). When I found out that I missed the renewals I found out that we did not sell the item listed in July, but the relisted item in December and had to fix the inventory records. (We accountants actually like this sort of stuff so while it is boring to you, it is fun to me, if annoying that I had to do it to close out last year’s inventory.)
I also received an email from our reenacting group that we needed paperwork done for an event coming up soon. I managed to get that done and out.
My embroidery chapter president had me send out a notice that a project we had been working on needs to be done by the Wednesday meeting - on Tuesday. I forwarded out the message and finished my part of the project. At the meeting I found out that I was suppose to do something on the piece, which I did not know and now have to get it finished again, as soon as possible (notice that I am not working on it, but writing my blog.
I had a half hour waste of time returning plastic bottles. There were two women in the bottle room who did not seem to completely understand the set up. They would put a small plastic watr bottle in the plastic bottle machine. The machine would reject it. (Don’t know why.) They would try again with the same result - then try putting it in the can machine. They were putting cans in the can machine which were not deposit cans - I could tell by what they were for. Again they would try twice and then put the can in the plastic bottle machine! Then they would again try the bottle/can in the correct machine to have it rejected again. I go to this location as normally no one is there as it is hidden away and the supermarket next to this “big box store” has a bottle room adjacent to the entrances to both stores and tends to pick up most of the business. One of the other plastic bottle machines was out of order and the last one was full. Not wanting to be the always complaining customer, I waited for the machine. They finally gave up. I put a bottle in the machine, then a second one - machine full. I started towards the store entrance and 2 employees approached. I followed them back into the bottle room and asked if either could deal with the machines - no, but they said they would call. 10 minutes later, no one had come and they were gone. I headed into the store and asked for someone to be sent to the bottle room. 10 minutes after that I gave up and went to the supermarket bottle room. I walked in to the room - no line coming through the door and looked at the people with carts full of small water bottles. A woman nastily said to me that there was a line for the machines. It was too crowded for me anyway and I left - outside there was a line of shopping carts filled with more water bottles! I was about to head back into the store when I saw an employee who asked me if I was the one waiting for the bottle room and he went and emptied the 2 full machines. I was surprised at who it was. It was an older gentlemen, who is normally at the door of the store as one goes in. He has an excellent sense of humor - I think he used to be a comedian - and he was efficient at his job and told some jokes while doing it. I thanked him and finally got rid of the bottles (maybe 20 of them at most) - about 45 minutes after I started.
After dinner I called my mom. I love my mom. She is 87. She lives alone in the family house. She has two master’s degrees. But I can talk forever and so can she - so tonight’s call ran around 3 hours. Most of it while she was unpacking her food shopping as she was preparing for the huge snow storm coming this weekend - huh? I try to guide the conversation to subjects that we won’t get into arguments about. We discussed needlework - the project my group started today and pieces she did decades ago. My Christmas decorations and the holiday. New Year’s. Medicare. And I don’t know what else.
When I started this blog my idea was that I would tell people about what I do to organize and how I do it. I ended up doing a series of posts towards the beginning of the blog about where I put what in my kitchen - something like 3 columns and one or two cabinets later I realized that I was putting myself to sleep. I then decided to write more about what goes on in my life as I try to get more organized as that seems, to me at least, more interesting. I have been thinking and decided that to get back onto organizing more formally I will offer a “thought” as opposed to calling it a tip or suggestion on organizing each post.
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
Start with today. Do something today to take a step towards organizing. One thing. Pick up the clothes on the floor and put them in the laundry. Wash the dishes and put them away. Go through today’s mail - toss the junk (always shred or rip up anything with your name or address or the name of any of your financial institutions on it first) - decide what to do with the rest - check the bills, mark the date and amount due on the outside of the envelope ( I do this on the end of the envelope and date it for a week before it is actually due) and put them together in date due order somewhere - deal with other important mail now & find a place to keep the mail to be dealt with later. Clean the cat’s litter box.
Do any one thing, but do one thing. Tomorrow do it again. Do it every day and you will be cutting down on what stacks up for you to do - you will be making your future easier and more organized and then you can start on dealing with the past.
Since then I have been doing my regular chores while archiving last year’s computer files. I transfer the files from last year to an archive drive. When I am done with what has to be archived at this point I will make 2 DVD copies of the archive drive for backup and then update the archive files on my “offsite” drives (the ones I take to the bank vault each month) so I have additional updates of the archive files. Not all the files can be archived right now - I will wait to do my bank recs this month so the year end rec is in the 2016 records. I will archive my Quickbooks files after I close them out for the year, which will take a couple of months to do the taxes. After I have the archive copies made I will remove the matching 2016 data from my data file.
I had decided that my good china was in the wrong spot in the cabinet over the stove and needed to come down a shelf - those dinner plates seem to have gained some weight and gotten heavier over the years. When I put away the dishes after New Year’s I thought it a good time to deal with this. I took everything off the bottom shelf and brought the china down from the middle (of 3) shelves. I then went through the rest of what was on the 2 bottoms shelves (I can’t reach the top shelf without a ladder - I was on a chair - so it had to weight). I looked at each item and thought about when I had used it last, if I would use it, could I buy one if I decided I needed it if I got rid of it, and a number of pieces were not put back in the cabinet. Today I took them to Goodwill and donated them. I am trying to find stuff to get rid of and take to Goodwill each month on the day I have my embroidery club and go out alone - husband always insists we need to keep whatever I am donating, so best not to have him along (although I am not taking his stuff to donate, which I would never donate without his permission - only what is mine or basically mine, such as the kitchen stuff).
Husband has a craft business through an online site. Somehow I missed his renewal of about 15 items in mid December and never changed my records to match up to the end of month statement of fees charged. We had a sale on January 1 (we have few sales in general and we hope this is a good sign for 2017). When I found out that I missed the renewals I found out that we did not sell the item listed in July, but the relisted item in December and had to fix the inventory records. (We accountants actually like this sort of stuff so while it is boring to you, it is fun to me, if annoying that I had to do it to close out last year’s inventory.)
I also received an email from our reenacting group that we needed paperwork done for an event coming up soon. I managed to get that done and out.
My embroidery chapter president had me send out a notice that a project we had been working on needs to be done by the Wednesday meeting - on Tuesday. I forwarded out the message and finished my part of the project. At the meeting I found out that I was suppose to do something on the piece, which I did not know and now have to get it finished again, as soon as possible (notice that I am not working on it, but writing my blog.
I had a half hour waste of time returning plastic bottles. There were two women in the bottle room who did not seem to completely understand the set up. They would put a small plastic watr bottle in the plastic bottle machine. The machine would reject it. (Don’t know why.) They would try again with the same result - then try putting it in the can machine. They were putting cans in the can machine which were not deposit cans - I could tell by what they were for. Again they would try twice and then put the can in the plastic bottle machine! Then they would again try the bottle/can in the correct machine to have it rejected again. I go to this location as normally no one is there as it is hidden away and the supermarket next to this “big box store” has a bottle room adjacent to the entrances to both stores and tends to pick up most of the business. One of the other plastic bottle machines was out of order and the last one was full. Not wanting to be the always complaining customer, I waited for the machine. They finally gave up. I put a bottle in the machine, then a second one - machine full. I started towards the store entrance and 2 employees approached. I followed them back into the bottle room and asked if either could deal with the machines - no, but they said they would call. 10 minutes later, no one had come and they were gone. I headed into the store and asked for someone to be sent to the bottle room. 10 minutes after that I gave up and went to the supermarket bottle room. I walked in to the room - no line coming through the door and looked at the people with carts full of small water bottles. A woman nastily said to me that there was a line for the machines. It was too crowded for me anyway and I left - outside there was a line of shopping carts filled with more water bottles! I was about to head back into the store when I saw an employee who asked me if I was the one waiting for the bottle room and he went and emptied the 2 full machines. I was surprised at who it was. It was an older gentlemen, who is normally at the door of the store as one goes in. He has an excellent sense of humor - I think he used to be a comedian - and he was efficient at his job and told some jokes while doing it. I thanked him and finally got rid of the bottles (maybe 20 of them at most) - about 45 minutes after I started.
After dinner I called my mom. I love my mom. She is 87. She lives alone in the family house. She has two master’s degrees. But I can talk forever and so can she - so tonight’s call ran around 3 hours. Most of it while she was unpacking her food shopping as she was preparing for the huge snow storm coming this weekend - huh? I try to guide the conversation to subjects that we won’t get into arguments about. We discussed needlework - the project my group started today and pieces she did decades ago. My Christmas decorations and the holiday. New Year’s. Medicare. And I don’t know what else.
When I started this blog my idea was that I would tell people about what I do to organize and how I do it. I ended up doing a series of posts towards the beginning of the blog about where I put what in my kitchen - something like 3 columns and one or two cabinets later I realized that I was putting myself to sleep. I then decided to write more about what goes on in my life as I try to get more organized as that seems, to me at least, more interesting. I have been thinking and decided that to get back onto organizing more formally I will offer a “thought” as opposed to calling it a tip or suggestion on organizing each post.
TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -
Start with today. Do something today to take a step towards organizing. One thing. Pick up the clothes on the floor and put them in the laundry. Wash the dishes and put them away. Go through today’s mail - toss the junk (always shred or rip up anything with your name or address or the name of any of your financial institutions on it first) - decide what to do with the rest - check the bills, mark the date and amount due on the outside of the envelope ( I do this on the end of the envelope and date it for a week before it is actually due) and put them together in date due order somewhere - deal with other important mail now & find a place to keep the mail to be dealt with later. Clean the cat’s litter box.
Do any one thing, but do one thing. Tomorrow do it again. Do it every day and you will be cutting down on what stacks up for you to do - you will be making your future easier and more organized and then you can start on dealing with the past.
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