WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE - AT LEAST IN THE BASEMENT

 My apologies for missing last week's post.  After years of not missing any posts, seems lately my attention gets taken away and I forget to post or I am otherwise needed in the house and don't get a chance to write and post.  

Lest you think this is a unique situation to this blog, on the final Wednesday of the month I send out a newsletter to my embroidery chapter which includes the meeting notice for the meeting the following Tuesday.  Club used to meet on Wednesday and the newsletter/meeting notice went out a week before.  Location of meeting was changed and with it the day the group meets and I have not yet gotten into the habit of sending out the newsletter a day earlier so it would remain a week before the meeting.  Being the lazy person that I am, I write and post the newsletter  for them at the same time.  (I do send an email a week in advance to the other board members in case they have something to include.)

Today I dealt with all sorts of things online and then suddenly realized that their newsletter had to go out today.  It was put together quickly, but as completely as possible and went out today just before I started making dinner – all 3 versions of the newsletter, which this week were basically the same.  (One version to members, one to region of group to be sent to other newsletter editors in the region plus the head of the region, and one version I send to people (okay, ladies) who have asked about joining our chapter or used to be members and like to keep in touch.) Mostly all 3 versions are the same, but, for example, we normally have our June meeting at a specific members house before we break for the summer and I don't want to send her name, address, and contact information to everyone who has asked about our chapter, so only the member's version will have the info.

We are also dealing with water in the basement whenever it rains since Hurricane Ida earlier this year.  We never had this problem before (or at least never noticed it before) and it is now a recurring problem.  When it rains we check the basement and vacuum up the water with a wet/dry vacuum and then run our dehumidifier  - which would running anyway, but it is set at 35% dampness instead of its normal 70% dampness so it needs to be emptied much more often.  Yes – we had a large rain storm yesterday and will have another one this weekend.  We are hoping this is only a problem with needing new plastic covers over our basement windows (on the outside of the house) and the second window so far, thank goodness, does not seem to have this problem.

Husband has decided that we need to clear out a bookcase which stands in front of the window in question.  It is adjacent to his exercise bicycle and has his stereo, a VHS player, and some other similar electronics on top – so he is figuring out where we will moving these items.  The books on the shelves tend to be ones from when he was in college and of his field of study.  He figures that they can be donated – presuming we find someplace to donate them and go out to do so.  (If we do, I have some items I packed to donate just before the pandemic started and they will go out also.)  Another bookcase near by has books he plans to get rid of also, but thinks he can sell them online so they will remain for now.  

We can then move the bookcase and see what is going on behind it – as well as sort see to each side of where it was – behind a second bookcase and behind metal storage cabinets.  He has given me notice that he plans to work on this over the coming weekend.  Well, at least I know I have to finish up anything I want to do before then – such as pay any bills and write any letters I want to mail out on Sunday night (unless it raining again on Sunday night).  I know that there is some mail in our box at the Post Office and would like to post the outgoing mail from there and take out the mail in the box if we can, one in particular has me wondering what it is – looks like a card, addressed to me, and from someone I have never heard of in Washington state – and we live on the east side of the U.S.  Probably just a piece of fancy junk mail.

How do I know what it is our Post Office box?  No, I am not a psychic.  The USPS has a service which will send an email to one when there is mail at their address – including in their USPS boxes at their Post Office.  They will only send if first class mail and there is a scanned picture of that first class mail.      It does work well for us now when we are not going daily to our box as we did back in normal times.  (Back in normal times almost all of our mail was going to the box as more secure than box at our front door, especially when we went on a trip.)  We do not have to go to the Post Office unless we know there is something there to pick up (we can post outgoing mail at a local USPS collection box instead).

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Too much to do when doing nothing!

P.S,  The problem which I posted about when last I posted – the money from the loom we sold being taken back by the company it was paid through – has been resolved and we have the money back in our bank account.  It will sit there for a month before we touch it again!

Stay dry all!

MONEY IN BANK ACCOUNT TO BE TAKEN AWAY DUE TO AN ERROR AND WHEN IT IS DONE IS BEFORE THE NOTICE WAS EVEN SENT!!

 Husband and I have a checking account which we use only for having money sent to us through Internet sites – Etsy, Square, Paypal and the like.  Our idea was that we did not want to give out our checking account information to site after site after site… and make our checking account vulnerable to  hacking of so many sites.  It is at a separate bank than our main account.  

When money comes into this account it sits in the account a short while – to make sure that there is no problems with it and then I write a check on this account and deposit it into our main account.  Easy as can be and has worked for well over a decade.  

In November my husband sold a piece of craft equipment he was no longer using to someone on one of the various sites he is on and chats/posts with other people.  The person paid through one of these of these sites (which will remain nameless).  The sale was made back in September.  She paid, we shipped the item, she liked it, several weeks passed and I wrote a check for the amount we received from her (after the site took their fees) and we deposited it in our main checking account.  Something we have done so many, many times over the years with no problems.

Husband received an email from the person – she received her credit card bill and did not recognize our name and protested it as not hers.  She then (a day or so later) realized it was what she paid us and contacted her bank to stop the protest – too late.  

The same day husband received a notice from the company involved that there had been a protest and they would be taking back the money gave us  - plus the amount they had taken from it for fees (so they are taking back more than they gave us – they would take the money back in 1 to 2 days, which might be delayed by the recent (U.S.) holiday.  I envisioned the check to our main bank bouncing and fees from both banks.  Both of us were ill from this problem.  I checked the balance in this account and the transfer to our main had gone through successfully.  This meant that there was not enough money in the our “transfer” checking account to cover the return of the money to the company which had paid it to us.  I wrote a check on our main account and we ran to the bank to deposit it back into the original account.  Should not have a problem as it was to take a day or so – maybe even longer for the transfer to occur – right?

No, the company that transferred the money to us had actually attempted to take back the money from our account before they sent us the notice that they were going to do so (in the near future) !  Our bank refused the transaction as there was not enough money in the account and charged us US$30 fee for their inconvenience in doing so.  I don't blame them – though I was surprised at the size of the fee.

Over this past extended weekend it dawned on us that the company involved would try again and the amount we had deposited back was short $30 due to the fee.  So we went to our main bank to withdraw $100 in cash from the ATM to deal with this.  Of course the bank door would not open with our ATM cards!  We went to another ATM at another branch of our main bank and was able to withdraw the money.  We then drove to the bank where we needed to deposited the money and did so through their ATM.  Luckily this worked and the money was in the account in case there was a second attempt.

Yesterday we went to the bank with the problem.  We met with one of the “platform” employees and I went through the timeline of the event and asked politely – and he refunded the fee to our account. (We NEVER bounce checks or have problems such as this – a good reputation helps a great deal when asking for something like this.)

So we were now at the point that the money was back in the original checking account.  We had the US$10 balance we normally leave in the account to keep it open plus the extra hundred dollars we put in over the weekend.  We left the account like that.

During all of this husband had filled an appeal with all of the information which had happened about the original sale, the person's accidental cancellation and notice to her bank that it had been an error and to pay us.  Reply to same that it would take a period of time (I forget how long – two weeks to a month perhaps) to research the situation and make a determination and that in the interim – the money would not be taken.

Today husband received an email from the company that did the money transfer for us and again it said that the money would be removed from our account in 1-2 days.  They did so, again before the email telling us this was sent to us- so they now have the money back.  

Husband then received a reply to his appeal – they need more information from the buyer's bank and he is trying to get same.  

Our decision was that from now on any money received through this account will sit this at least a month before we transfer it to prevent this from happening again.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Just because money has been received by third party credit and is in your bank account does not mean that the money will stay there.  Allow extra time for it sit in the account – just in case something goes wrong.  Always keep good financial records so if there is a problem you can back track and prove it to the bank or whoever else needs to be shown what happened.

STORING ITEMS LIKE WITH LIKE - SOMETIMES WHAT IS USED ALL THE TIME WITH SAME AND WHAT IS USED RARER TIMES WITH SAME IS BETTER

 When I first started reading about getting organized I was a teenager in high school.  One mantra of organizing that I learned about then is to group like things together.  To this day my closet had my shirts sorted by color, my two skirts together and I have 3 hangers, which each hold multiple pairs of pants, hanging from a hook each attached to the back (2) and side (1) walls in the closet.  (These 3 hangers – one holds my jeans, one holds the 3 pants of non-jeans pants I own, and the third holds my old ripped jeans that I use as pjs.)  

My husband was always amazed at this organization – especially since most of the rest house is not so organized – by a lot.  (He is not the greatest organizer either.)  He has changed my thoughts on using this rule for everything.  

I had always (since I was maybe 14 or 15 years old) kept my underwear together and kept my socks and stockings together.  When I lived with my parents this was one drawer.  When we got married my underwear went into the top left drawer of my dresser – a half width drawer – and my socks/stockings went into the same size drawer below them.  

One day husband pointed out the waste of time – every day I would open the top drawer, take out underwear, close the drawer, open second drawer and take out socks or stockings and then close that drawer.  He knew I had in both drawers items that I did not wear as often as others.  That started me thinking – what about putting together items needed every day and ones that are not often worn?  I redid those two drawers – the top drawer now holds my underpants and bras and socks. In the second drawer are things like my slips (haven't worn in years, but if need to dress up will need) and my stockings and pantyhose – only needed for work, religious services and the extremely rare other reasons to dress up.  Now I only have to open one drawer most mornings.  

In the kitchen I organized my dishes.  My everyday dishes, a set of 8 servings, were stacked – all the dinner dishes together, all the soup/cereal bowls together, all the small plates together, etc.  This involved two shelves of a kitchen cabinet.  I am 5' 1”.  I can reach the bottom the shelves, but not the ones above.  This meant every time I needed something on the second shelf I needed the step to reach it to take it out and then again to put it back – which of course meant that items were left in the drying rack for days sometimes if I did not feel like climbing up.  I took out 4 dinner dishes (use for serving plates for us also), 4 bowls, and 2 small plates from our every day dishes.  I fit a stack of 3 small serving bowls in the cabinet also.  (The cabinet has a wire shelf rack I added in it so I have 2 shelves in the one cabinet.)  Mixed in with the dishes and small dishes are 2 lighter dishes each also – these I use as utility dishes – serving, cutting on, draining on, etc. Now it is rare that I need something from another shelf for dishes and I don't have to climb up daily – easy to take out and easy to replace.  I have our drinking glasses in the matching cabinet on the other end of the cabinet.  I have 2 mugs on the bottom shelf, two of the drinking glasses I like, two of the ones husband likes, 2 ice cream glasses and 3 measuring glasses.  There are other items on this shelf also, but these are the basic items use from it and I can use without needing to climb up.  Again the upper shelves hold items not used on a daily basis.  In the third cabinet I can reach (between stove and refrigerator) some platters and serving bowls on the bottom shelf.  

Perhaps the problem is “what are like items”?  In both of these cases if like items means all of the same type of items together, the idea does not work.  If instead it means “items I used all the time vs. items I don't use often” it does work.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

How are your items sorted?  Do you have items you use frequently and items you use rarely together as they same type of items?  Or do you put items you use frequently together where they can easily be reached and used and items that are rarely used together in places which are harder to reach for storage and retrieval?  Try the second idea – it works much better.