Well my client was not there when I telephoned her last week. I will be going to her on Thursday. Due to not going to her and a few other bills that popped up I started to go into a panic about paying our bills on time. We pay every bill, every month in full - no payouts, with two much discussed before we did them, exceptions, in the almost 40 years we have been married and we each did so before. This was a timing error - bills were due out and the money was coming in too late to pay them. So we had to raid my tiny IRA for $1000 to carry us through. We will need to make a regular scheduled withdrawal from husband’s IRA next month to pay our quarterly real estate taxes and our semi-annual car insurance payment in February.
I packed up the rest of the ornaments from the main and studio trees over the weekend. Monday night I took the lights off the tree - except the top section which the lights stay in place on. My right elbow started hurting last week (maybe even the week before at this point) especially when lifting my arm or lifting something heavy with my arm and it has been hard to do all of this. Our main tree is artificial (well, all of them are) and had to be disassembled and the sections are too heavy for me to lift with this arm, so last night husband took it apart and stacked the pieces in the dining room where I told him to put them. This way he can warp his loom and start working on it again and the pieces of tree can “drift” downstairs as I can deal with them - he would get ill bending over to put them into the tree box. The studio tree is not in the way and will also find its way downstairs and after the these trees are down I will be able to take apart the one in the dining room- currently blocked by the pieces from the main tree. Since we don’t really get Christmas gifts there is nothing of same to put away - just one empty box that I will ask husband about tossing. I did move the “Christmas boxes” we use for storage out of the way - these are Christmas decorated gift or storage boxes that I store Christmas decorations in during the year and then put them - empty - under the tree so it looks pretty and like there are gifts under the tree. So today we warped his loom - without the tree there is enough room to do so. But he is still surrounded by Santas, angels, Christmas and Chanukah bears.
I finally had a chance to write a cover letter and get out the renewal reminders for our reenactment unit - I serve as the membership chair in addition to being the treasurer as it is easier than passing the info back and forth to someone else about renewals. I had been delayed due to an error on our national group’s website. Something interesting - when I went on their website with my computer and clicked on this year’s membership form I got instead a form for people to form and sign up a new unit. When I contacted the person in charge she said that when she clicked on it she got the membership form. Hmmm? Turns out if one went on the site with a computer one got the unit form, but if one went on the site with a tablet or phone one got the correct the form. It has been corrected thank to my asking about it - it also delayed sending out the renewals a week waiting for this. We put together the mailing t - folded cover letter and forms, put in envelopes, put on stamps and address and return address labels. Out in the mail today. The renewal reminders and forms went out in today’s mail.
I have out a stack of books to write a talk that I am scheduled to give at my embroidery chapter on our meeting next month - 2 weeks from today - on the history of samplers. I keep trying to get started writing it. I know the basics of what I plan to say and the order, but I have to get it all together and have an outline to follow - I would hate to suddenly forget a word in the middle of the talk and I don’t want to start to wander off point! Husband will print out photos for me that he has taken at exhibitions we have gone to - plus I may pull some off the Internet or out of the books I have. Somehow I know it will be done as I want to do it. I don’t feel that I can teach stitches or techniques at meetings as others have done, but I am real good at talking. (Can you tell that from my posts?) I sent out an email today to the chapter board asking if anyone had anything for me to include in the newsletter - which will go out next Wednesday (meeting is the week after).
I put my older software DVDs/CDs that I still need to keep in 2 new boxes as the old ones did not hold much and kept falling apart. The old ones will be donated next month - along with a bag of unworn pantyhose - I wore one and it was awful, so I tossed that one and the rest of the huge bag (from an outlet) will be donated. I have a glass bowl that did not make it in December when I went to Goodwill that will join them. Looking around for what else can be donated.
And now tomorrow I will spend driving to Queens, taking the subway to Manhattan, working for about 3 hours, and then take the subway back to Queens and drive home. I will spend between 4 and 5 hours in transit for the 3 hour visit. Hopefully our mechanic found the problem last month and the drive home will be comfortable. I have already put burgers in the refrigerator to defrost for dinner tomorrow night when I get home.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
We can get more done when we have to than we do when we don’t have to.
It seems odd to me that I normally have trouble getting through what I need to in a week, but then those weeks come when I have to do a LOT more - Christmas decorating or decoration storage, writing a talk to give at a meeting, catching up on laundry when I fall behind, tax season, and other assorted extra or emergency jobs. Somehow it all always seems to get done.
Showing posts with label clean up room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clean up room. Show all posts
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Thursday, December 21, 2017
IT WOULD BE ENOUGH
I managed to get the dining room decorations finished over the weekend. I also decluttered it a bit - and hid what has to stay a bit better. The small Christmas tree I put up in there is up and decorated with the brass ornaments we get with our membership in Colonial Williamsburg. A silverplated tea caddy ornament (we bought the full size caddy on sale one year and the ornament came with it) hangs at the top of the tree instead of an angel or star.
Sounds simple right? To get ready to set up the tree I had to store away husband’s DVDs which have accumulated since last Christmas. The new ones sat on the chest he made to store his DVDs because - yes - it filled a few years ago. We have a secretary (piece of furniture- drawers with fold down front for desk and shelves above it - green curtain inside hides the shelves and what is on them). It was bought to be used as a bar and to hold table linens in the drawer. The shelves held assorted bar and my good glasses. I have been clearing it out as I can to make room for - yes - more DVDs. Most of the bottom of the 3 shelves is DVD storage - I donated unneeded, unused glassware in the kitchen last year and moved most of my good glasses to where they had been to make the room for these DVDs. I just donated a set of small wine glasses we never used earlier this month. I want to get rid of most if not all of the bar ware as it was rarely used when we had people in and that will give him more room. But, back to the chest now. I ended up with DVDs that there was no room for and set them aside. The chest when it was built by my husband was put on wheels just for this - I pushed it from the living room to the dining room. Other than having to jump a molding between the living room and front hall, it is easy to push. It goes against the far wall in the dining room. The table is moved to the center of the room for this - it is normally pushed against the same far wall. This gives room in the living room for the big tree (where the chest was) and a place to put the dining room tree. I put the leftover, homeless DVDs behind the tree and then found a nice throw we received from CW some years ago, folded it in half lengthwise and wrapped the bottom of the tree - and the DVDs behind it - it looks like a nice tree skirt and the DVDs are hidden.
Sunday I also started bringing up the parts of the big tree and stuck them together - and the small tree that goes in our studio. The studio tree gets ornaments we have made - but some also go on the big tree and all are stored together, so they get decorated together. I figured - okay, we are close on time, but not too bad to get done before Christmas. I had planned on Monday night to spread out the branches and make the big tree look nice and add the lights - along with our traditional first 3 items - the angel topper and two angels all stitched by me or my husband.
Then we got an order on our Etsy account. We don’t get a lot of orders and they are mostly of the smallest of the items we sell. This was for a medium priced item and I had to do the paperwork before I started working on the tree - okay, I figured, half an hour. Yeah, right. Paypal changed their website and we got so confused trying to buy postage and print the label that we ended up doing it twice and had to cancel one of them. So the entire evening was gone and no work on the tree.
Tuesday we went to the eye doctor. He is in the next county so we go to together. We can’t come home right away as neither of can see enough to drive that much so we go to stores near him. (Good eye report, thank goodness.) We ended up having dinner out at Ikea on the way home. I did get the tree arranged and the lights and first three items on it at night.
Tonight I took the exam I had to take and now the exams are done with until the middle of next year. But by the time I was done, and taking into consideration doing the laundry and writing to all of you - no time for the tree tonight. Oh, well, at least gift shopping is over - we are done with his nieces and I will mail checks to my niece and nephew.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One can only do what one can do. For the Passover holiday in the spring there is a song which translates to “it would have been enough” - it talks about things that God did to help the Jews leave Egypt and after each item is mentioned the refrain is “it would have been enough”.
If the tree is finished at the last minute it will done then. If it is not finished then however it is, it is finished (and I can always add on after the holiday). My teddy village will be done when it is done. It is often not worked on until Christmas Eve or Day or later (I guess that is why it stays up so long).
My point being that whatever is done when the holiday come is enough. If stuff is shoved into a bag and stuffed behind a bench - that is good enough if that is all there is time for. A few years ago for two years we had one little tree with only a limited decorations - and that was enough.
I take the time now to wish all who celebrate, a Pleasant Christmas (merry sounds too demanding).
Sounds simple right? To get ready to set up the tree I had to store away husband’s DVDs which have accumulated since last Christmas. The new ones sat on the chest he made to store his DVDs because - yes - it filled a few years ago. We have a secretary (piece of furniture- drawers with fold down front for desk and shelves above it - green curtain inside hides the shelves and what is on them). It was bought to be used as a bar and to hold table linens in the drawer. The shelves held assorted bar and my good glasses. I have been clearing it out as I can to make room for - yes - more DVDs. Most of the bottom of the 3 shelves is DVD storage - I donated unneeded, unused glassware in the kitchen last year and moved most of my good glasses to where they had been to make the room for these DVDs. I just donated a set of small wine glasses we never used earlier this month. I want to get rid of most if not all of the bar ware as it was rarely used when we had people in and that will give him more room. But, back to the chest now. I ended up with DVDs that there was no room for and set them aside. The chest when it was built by my husband was put on wheels just for this - I pushed it from the living room to the dining room. Other than having to jump a molding between the living room and front hall, it is easy to push. It goes against the far wall in the dining room. The table is moved to the center of the room for this - it is normally pushed against the same far wall. This gives room in the living room for the big tree (where the chest was) and a place to put the dining room tree. I put the leftover, homeless DVDs behind the tree and then found a nice throw we received from CW some years ago, folded it in half lengthwise and wrapped the bottom of the tree - and the DVDs behind it - it looks like a nice tree skirt and the DVDs are hidden.
Sunday I also started bringing up the parts of the big tree and stuck them together - and the small tree that goes in our studio. The studio tree gets ornaments we have made - but some also go on the big tree and all are stored together, so they get decorated together. I figured - okay, we are close on time, but not too bad to get done before Christmas. I had planned on Monday night to spread out the branches and make the big tree look nice and add the lights - along with our traditional first 3 items - the angel topper and two angels all stitched by me or my husband.
Then we got an order on our Etsy account. We don’t get a lot of orders and they are mostly of the smallest of the items we sell. This was for a medium priced item and I had to do the paperwork before I started working on the tree - okay, I figured, half an hour. Yeah, right. Paypal changed their website and we got so confused trying to buy postage and print the label that we ended up doing it twice and had to cancel one of them. So the entire evening was gone and no work on the tree.
Tuesday we went to the eye doctor. He is in the next county so we go to together. We can’t come home right away as neither of can see enough to drive that much so we go to stores near him. (Good eye report, thank goodness.) We ended up having dinner out at Ikea on the way home. I did get the tree arranged and the lights and first three items on it at night.
Tonight I took the exam I had to take and now the exams are done with until the middle of next year. But by the time I was done, and taking into consideration doing the laundry and writing to all of you - no time for the tree tonight. Oh, well, at least gift shopping is over - we are done with his nieces and I will mail checks to my niece and nephew.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One can only do what one can do. For the Passover holiday in the spring there is a song which translates to “it would have been enough” - it talks about things that God did to help the Jews leave Egypt and after each item is mentioned the refrain is “it would have been enough”.
If the tree is finished at the last minute it will done then. If it is not finished then however it is, it is finished (and I can always add on after the holiday). My teddy village will be done when it is done. It is often not worked on until Christmas Eve or Day or later (I guess that is why it stays up so long).
My point being that whatever is done when the holiday come is enough. If stuff is shoved into a bag and stuffed behind a bench - that is good enough if that is all there is time for. A few years ago for two years we had one little tree with only a limited decorations - and that was enough.
I take the time now to wish all who celebrate, a Pleasant Christmas (merry sounds too demanding).
Thursday, August 24, 2017
MAKING CHANGES TO GET MYSELF GOING AGAIN
I admit it. Just because something is written in my task list does not mean it gets done. Sound familiar? I have my house cleaning scheduled for Wednesday. In the old days before husband was home all the time and my schedule went topsy turvy this worked. On days without appointments I would wake up around 9:30 am normally or 10:00 am on a lazy day. I would work in my home office most mornings until around 1:30 or 2:00 pm and then I would go out for the days errands. Most days this would be a quick run to the post office - send out any mail and pick up mail at our post office box. Then lunch at home (except Fridays - my day out alone) and then back to work in the office. On Wednesdays however, I would do my housework. When during the day I did it, depended on which Wednesday it was. I also start the laundry Wednesday night - right now while I am writing to you the second wash load is in and the first dry load.
I have different chores to do on different Wednesdays. On the first Wednesday of the month I have my embroidery chapter meeting in the morning, so I have a lot of normal stuff to catch up on during the day of daily things, so I keep it light. I am suppose to dust upstairs and clean the floors. We have only three rooms with carpeting - our office, the Teddy Bear’s room (aka the just about never used guest room), and our craft studio. The rest of the house is easy cleaning - either 1950's hardwood floors or some sort of vinyl flooring. I used to do this in the afternoon after I came home from my meeting and while husband was at work. It includes dusting the computers and related in the home office. Well, now when I get in there husband is working at his computer. He does not find it funny when I try to clean around him. So this is no longer such an easy thing to do.
On the second Wednesday of the month I am suppose to clean the floors and dust downstairs as well as clean the downstairs tiny bathroom. I used to do this when I returned from the post office - long before he was home. If he is working at his computer this is not too bad to deal with in terms of dealing with him about it as he is not near where I am working. If he is weaving or otherwise working downstairs - I have to clean around him - and invariably he will need the bathroom immediately after I have cleaned it and it is still drying. Downstairs are not the hardest floors to clean - they are basically “swiffered” and the kitchen and bathroom floors washed. BUT the dining room often has items in transit which makes it hard to clean around them and the living room has some of the furniture out of place (the coffee table is wedged between two chairs to clear the middle of the room for example) and has husband’s warp table and loom in the middle of the room which also makes it hard to get around and clean.
On the third Wednesday of the month I am suppose to again dust and clean the floors upstairs, as well as cleaning the bathroom upstairs - only slightly larger than the downstairs tiny one. This used to be a “do in the morning” job, but no longer. Now, again, I have to work around husband in the office - and like downstairs - if I clean the bathroom, he will immediately show up and need to use it.
On the fourth Wednesday of the month I again do downstairs - dusting and floors and clean the kitchen - same problems as the second Wednesday.
If there is a fifth Wednesday I would find some special project that needed doing.
Well, now the days are later days then before. In addition I have a new project on Wednesday nights when I should be getting the cleaning done - writing my post for all of you. Now, I am suppose to do this on Tuesday night, but never get to it.
SO, I have decided that as of September I will move my cleaning to Tuesday nights. I will see how this goes in terms of actually cleaning. It won’t help with husband, but it might work on Tuesday to get me up and doing it.
Late this afternoon I found my desk clear of things to do and an hour before I had to go make dinner. Too late to make a phone call to our local real estate tax assessor’s office - which I have been calling for a couple of weeks and actually get a message telling me that no one is available to take my call - call back another time. One more try and I call my county legislator. What to do?
Ah, now that the Teddy Bear Christmas village was packed away and the boxes moved to the dining room (see what I mean about it being a holding area) to go to the basement, and what needed to be stored in the trunk the village sits on, I could put away the line of bears and Cabbage Patch Kids waiting to see Santa. First I had to take the bears sitting on the bed in the Teddy Bear’s room and put them on the trunk in the hall - where they are suppose to be. Then the crew that goes on the bed went there. Wow, one could actually walk into the room again. I then started poking around to see what else I could deal with. I pulled out the empty boxes that were floating around in there and put them in the hall - husband is going to store assorted papers he has collected on movies in the boxes, which will free up the shelves they were on for books - which we need space for. But that is his to do. I then went through some bags and boxes in the Teddy’s room to see what I could get rid of - I found in the closet there when I cleaned it out for husband to use for storage an entire carton of Teddy Bear items packed away when the house was treated for bed bugs - in 2009 - which have never been put back in place. Not enough time to go through it , but a quick look showed I did still want most of what was in it. Perhaps I will get a matching box to use for my storage in that closet. Well, now at least I can get in and out of the room and I can get to the bear figurines I put out in the living room by month again - right now March is still out!
Why am I suddenly trying to get things done and get back on schedule? I think it is the dish drying rack. Since the dishwasher broke, I would wash the dishes and put them in same to dry. It was large. It was out of sight. I would then take out what I needed each time we were eating, add whatever else I needed that was not in the dishwasher and put that all in to dry. So basically nothing was put away unless it became too overcrowded in the dishwasher or it was a holiday and I knew I would need extra space. Now after each meal the dishes (and of course etc. is included in dishes) are washed and piled in the rack. When next we eat I take out what we need as I go along. Then before I wash again - everything else is put away. Not easy - some items had no place to go, such as spare pudding size cups which I use for storage of extra half can of soup, extra frozen tomato sauce, etc. - but I have found homes for them. Generally the glass we each use for the day end up never being stored away as it is used meal to meal and sometimes between. I am not sure that this putting away of the dishes has not gotten me motivated to clean, declutter, and organize more again.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes a small change can inspire you to do more. Go with it. I use anything I can to help me get the inspiration to make the house cleaner and more organized.
I have different chores to do on different Wednesdays. On the first Wednesday of the month I have my embroidery chapter meeting in the morning, so I have a lot of normal stuff to catch up on during the day of daily things, so I keep it light. I am suppose to dust upstairs and clean the floors. We have only three rooms with carpeting - our office, the Teddy Bear’s room (aka the just about never used guest room), and our craft studio. The rest of the house is easy cleaning - either 1950's hardwood floors or some sort of vinyl flooring. I used to do this in the afternoon after I came home from my meeting and while husband was at work. It includes dusting the computers and related in the home office. Well, now when I get in there husband is working at his computer. He does not find it funny when I try to clean around him. So this is no longer such an easy thing to do.
On the second Wednesday of the month I am suppose to clean the floors and dust downstairs as well as clean the downstairs tiny bathroom. I used to do this when I returned from the post office - long before he was home. If he is working at his computer this is not too bad to deal with in terms of dealing with him about it as he is not near where I am working. If he is weaving or otherwise working downstairs - I have to clean around him - and invariably he will need the bathroom immediately after I have cleaned it and it is still drying. Downstairs are not the hardest floors to clean - they are basically “swiffered” and the kitchen and bathroom floors washed. BUT the dining room often has items in transit which makes it hard to clean around them and the living room has some of the furniture out of place (the coffee table is wedged between two chairs to clear the middle of the room for example) and has husband’s warp table and loom in the middle of the room which also makes it hard to get around and clean.
On the third Wednesday of the month I am suppose to again dust and clean the floors upstairs, as well as cleaning the bathroom upstairs - only slightly larger than the downstairs tiny one. This used to be a “do in the morning” job, but no longer. Now, again, I have to work around husband in the office - and like downstairs - if I clean the bathroom, he will immediately show up and need to use it.
On the fourth Wednesday of the month I again do downstairs - dusting and floors and clean the kitchen - same problems as the second Wednesday.
If there is a fifth Wednesday I would find some special project that needed doing.
Well, now the days are later days then before. In addition I have a new project on Wednesday nights when I should be getting the cleaning done - writing my post for all of you. Now, I am suppose to do this on Tuesday night, but never get to it.
SO, I have decided that as of September I will move my cleaning to Tuesday nights. I will see how this goes in terms of actually cleaning. It won’t help with husband, but it might work on Tuesday to get me up and doing it.
Late this afternoon I found my desk clear of things to do and an hour before I had to go make dinner. Too late to make a phone call to our local real estate tax assessor’s office - which I have been calling for a couple of weeks and actually get a message telling me that no one is available to take my call - call back another time. One more try and I call my county legislator. What to do?
Ah, now that the Teddy Bear Christmas village was packed away and the boxes moved to the dining room (see what I mean about it being a holding area) to go to the basement, and what needed to be stored in the trunk the village sits on, I could put away the line of bears and Cabbage Patch Kids waiting to see Santa. First I had to take the bears sitting on the bed in the Teddy Bear’s room and put them on the trunk in the hall - where they are suppose to be. Then the crew that goes on the bed went there. Wow, one could actually walk into the room again. I then started poking around to see what else I could deal with. I pulled out the empty boxes that were floating around in there and put them in the hall - husband is going to store assorted papers he has collected on movies in the boxes, which will free up the shelves they were on for books - which we need space for. But that is his to do. I then went through some bags and boxes in the Teddy’s room to see what I could get rid of - I found in the closet there when I cleaned it out for husband to use for storage an entire carton of Teddy Bear items packed away when the house was treated for bed bugs - in 2009 - which have never been put back in place. Not enough time to go through it , but a quick look showed I did still want most of what was in it. Perhaps I will get a matching box to use for my storage in that closet. Well, now at least I can get in and out of the room and I can get to the bear figurines I put out in the living room by month again - right now March is still out!
Why am I suddenly trying to get things done and get back on schedule? I think it is the dish drying rack. Since the dishwasher broke, I would wash the dishes and put them in same to dry. It was large. It was out of sight. I would then take out what I needed each time we were eating, add whatever else I needed that was not in the dishwasher and put that all in to dry. So basically nothing was put away unless it became too overcrowded in the dishwasher or it was a holiday and I knew I would need extra space. Now after each meal the dishes (and of course etc. is included in dishes) are washed and piled in the rack. When next we eat I take out what we need as I go along. Then before I wash again - everything else is put away. Not easy - some items had no place to go, such as spare pudding size cups which I use for storage of extra half can of soup, extra frozen tomato sauce, etc. - but I have found homes for them. Generally the glass we each use for the day end up never being stored away as it is used meal to meal and sometimes between. I am not sure that this putting away of the dishes has not gotten me motivated to clean, declutter, and organize more again.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes a small change can inspire you to do more. Go with it. I use anything I can to help me get the inspiration to make the house cleaner and more organized.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
A STEP FORWARD
It is amazing how fast a week goes past. This applies both to posting on this blog as well as to getting things done.
Last night I finally got around to moving our DVD storage box (a piece of furniture on wheels) from the dining room back to our living room. Why does it get moved? Well, in December it has to be moved as the Christmas tree goes in the living room where the box normally is kept. Normally in our dining room our table is pushed to the far wall. (This was the normal thing to do in the 1700s. Furniture was kept along the walls. One would move out what one needed and then put it back after it was done being used. This was called putting the room to rest.) It matches the period of the room. Our table is 40"x40" when closed down. So when it is moved against the wall there is space in the room to walk around and space for any other uses we may find for the room. It also cuts down on how much stuff gets tossed on the table as it is further away from traffic in the room so one has to actually walk over to it to put anything on it. When the DVD storage box is in the dining room for Christmas the dining room table is moved to the center of the room - great for Christmas decorating.
The DVD storage box has extra DVDs on top of it. Last year I got rid of unused drinking glasses (almost never used in the almost 38 years we have been married) by donating them, and move some of our “good” glasses from the secretary in the living room into the now free space in the kitchen as that freed up space for DVD storage and had stored away all of the DVDs that were on top of the box - except for one set. Oddly there seems to now be more DVDs on top of the box than I found room to store last year. I will have to figure out what else to get rid of from the secretary - or where else glassware in it can be stored - to make more room for husband’s DVDs. Lots of bar ware which has never been used - I hope to talk him into getting rid of it. For those who might not know as it is no longer a common furniture piece - a secretary is a cabinet with glass doors (generally with green fabric curtains on the inside of the doors) in front of shelves for the top section and large drawers in the bottom section. Between the two sections is a door that opens downward and makes a desk area - hence the name. We used it as a bar with storage for same, plus other ‘good” glassware on the top shelves and for storage of items such as tablecloths and napkins in the drawers.
So, yes, I am still putting away things which were moved for Christmas. The dining room table is back against the wall. However, I had left a board in it just in case husband wanted to use it to take photos of table runners he has woven, but it is rare that he does so. I will pull out the board and store it in the front hall closet - the four boards are stored in a crateish piece that they came in, which is located behind the coats in this closet. I also have to put back a roll up foam pad and a green felt cover for the dining room table which came out of the same closet during the holidays and never went back.
Lest you think I now have a lovely neat dining room now - I still have the large plastic boxes to store the teddy bear Christmas village in, as well as “gift” boxes which have Christmas decorations in them - the boxes go under the tree after the decorations are taken out and it makes it look like there are gifts under the tree. These “gift” boxes store in the trunk that the teddy village is on and cannot be put away until the village is packed. I took assorted reenacting items which we are not using at the current time and had been stored in one of the box benches we bring to events and had not been bringing, but had to come out of same when we started taking the box bench to events again, into a single fabric bag and put that on the box bench until we can figure out what to do with it. There are also some items from our RV which have to go down to their new home in the basement.
Tell me, honestly, are all of your Christmas items stored away yet?
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Anything done is a step forward. Every step forward takes you on your journey to a neater, more organized house. If a step backwards happens - work at getting back to where you were and then taking a step forward. Walking is one step after another, so is organizing.
Last night I finally got around to moving our DVD storage box (a piece of furniture on wheels) from the dining room back to our living room. Why does it get moved? Well, in December it has to be moved as the Christmas tree goes in the living room where the box normally is kept. Normally in our dining room our table is pushed to the far wall. (This was the normal thing to do in the 1700s. Furniture was kept along the walls. One would move out what one needed and then put it back after it was done being used. This was called putting the room to rest.) It matches the period of the room. Our table is 40"x40" when closed down. So when it is moved against the wall there is space in the room to walk around and space for any other uses we may find for the room. It also cuts down on how much stuff gets tossed on the table as it is further away from traffic in the room so one has to actually walk over to it to put anything on it. When the DVD storage box is in the dining room for Christmas the dining room table is moved to the center of the room - great for Christmas decorating.
The DVD storage box has extra DVDs on top of it. Last year I got rid of unused drinking glasses (almost never used in the almost 38 years we have been married) by donating them, and move some of our “good” glasses from the secretary in the living room into the now free space in the kitchen as that freed up space for DVD storage and had stored away all of the DVDs that were on top of the box - except for one set. Oddly there seems to now be more DVDs on top of the box than I found room to store last year. I will have to figure out what else to get rid of from the secretary - or where else glassware in it can be stored - to make more room for husband’s DVDs. Lots of bar ware which has never been used - I hope to talk him into getting rid of it. For those who might not know as it is no longer a common furniture piece - a secretary is a cabinet with glass doors (generally with green fabric curtains on the inside of the doors) in front of shelves for the top section and large drawers in the bottom section. Between the two sections is a door that opens downward and makes a desk area - hence the name. We used it as a bar with storage for same, plus other ‘good” glassware on the top shelves and for storage of items such as tablecloths and napkins in the drawers.
So, yes, I am still putting away things which were moved for Christmas. The dining room table is back against the wall. However, I had left a board in it just in case husband wanted to use it to take photos of table runners he has woven, but it is rare that he does so. I will pull out the board and store it in the front hall closet - the four boards are stored in a crateish piece that they came in, which is located behind the coats in this closet. I also have to put back a roll up foam pad and a green felt cover for the dining room table which came out of the same closet during the holidays and never went back.
Lest you think I now have a lovely neat dining room now - I still have the large plastic boxes to store the teddy bear Christmas village in, as well as “gift” boxes which have Christmas decorations in them - the boxes go under the tree after the decorations are taken out and it makes it look like there are gifts under the tree. These “gift” boxes store in the trunk that the teddy village is on and cannot be put away until the village is packed. I took assorted reenacting items which we are not using at the current time and had been stored in one of the box benches we bring to events and had not been bringing, but had to come out of same when we started taking the box bench to events again, into a single fabric bag and put that on the box bench until we can figure out what to do with it. There are also some items from our RV which have to go down to their new home in the basement.
Tell me, honestly, are all of your Christmas items stored away yet?
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Anything done is a step forward. Every step forward takes you on your journey to a neater, more organized house. If a step backwards happens - work at getting back to where you were and then taking a step forward. Walking is one step after another, so is organizing.
Thursday, May 18, 2017
REMEMBERING TO DO CHORES
I have mentioned that I use my cell phone to remind me to do things. Before I had a cell phone or a computer calendar, heck, back before I had a computer or used my husband’s comptuer - I needed a way to remember to do things.
When we lived an apartment chores were a lot easier. My husband would come home exhausted at the end of the week and go to bed early on Friday nights - very early - so I would clean the apartment while he was sleeping. I changed the bedding on the weekend. At first when the laundry bag filled up - about once a week to a week and a half - I went to the laundry up and across the street and wasted time doing the laundry - it came home in the same bag which also was washed. Then someone left a lipstick in the washing machine there - the washing machine I put all our clothes, towels, and bed linens in. Most of it had to be thrown out. Even then we were “odd sized” and had trouble replacing the clothes - plus the expense of replacing same and the rest. So we looked around and bought a very small washer and a very small dryer - really small. This turned laundry into an ongoing process most of the week. On Monday I would put the first load in the washer - a week of our shirts was all it was hold in one load. The dryer was about the same and did not have an exhaust hose, it exhausted the hot air into the adjacent air in the apartment and it took about twice as long as drying a full load of clothes does now. So this was a laborious process for most of the week - and very hot in summer with the air from the dryer heating the apartment beyond the summer heat, even with an air conditioner running.
When we moved to the house I needed to find ways to remember and “force myself” to do the household chores. I found it helpful to associate the chores to things to remind me. We have garbage pickup on Monday and Thursday - so, I started changing the towels on the same days - new towels went out on Mondays and Thursdays. Eventually I decided that I needed to change the kitchen towels more often and they became Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, while bathroom towels stayed the same. (Shower towels are taken out when they will be used and used once.) Works well.
I used to change the bedding on Mondays as it was a new workweek. This worked okay until we started traveling for weekends more often as we often stayed away through Mondays. Since then Tuesdays is the day I change the bedding - unless there is a reason to do it on another day.
I started doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. Why? If we were going to take a weekend trip it definitely would not be while we were away and we would have clean and folded clothes for a trip leaving on Friday. I used to do the entire washing and drying on Wednesday nights, then husband started watching TV in the kitchen and blocking the basement door, so I could not conveniently do the laundry while he was sitting there and had to wait for him to go upstairs to his computer, so I ended up splitting the laundry between Wednesday and Thursday nights - and folding them Thursday and Friday mornings. Yes, “West Wing” changed my laundry schedule. :-)
Even this blog is tied to something, it is written on Wednesday night and posted late on same - or technically early on Thursday - as I do the laundry at the same time.
Actually cleaning and dealing with the house was easier before husband quit his job and is now with me all the time. My time is no longer my own - similar to him sitting in the way of doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. I may plan to do one thing - but he needs help warping his loom. I plan to do things during the afternoon - not even house related - and he has other plans. Today the eyeglasses he ordered came in, so everything I hoped to do was gone. We drove 45 minutes to Walmart in the next county (the only one with a vision department around here) plus the time there and then the drive back - and while driving home I remembered we needed to buy milk at Walmart and had to stop at another one and buy it.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Are there automatic reminders which you can tie your house chores to?
When we lived an apartment chores were a lot easier. My husband would come home exhausted at the end of the week and go to bed early on Friday nights - very early - so I would clean the apartment while he was sleeping. I changed the bedding on the weekend. At first when the laundry bag filled up - about once a week to a week and a half - I went to the laundry up and across the street and wasted time doing the laundry - it came home in the same bag which also was washed. Then someone left a lipstick in the washing machine there - the washing machine I put all our clothes, towels, and bed linens in. Most of it had to be thrown out. Even then we were “odd sized” and had trouble replacing the clothes - plus the expense of replacing same and the rest. So we looked around and bought a very small washer and a very small dryer - really small. This turned laundry into an ongoing process most of the week. On Monday I would put the first load in the washer - a week of our shirts was all it was hold in one load. The dryer was about the same and did not have an exhaust hose, it exhausted the hot air into the adjacent air in the apartment and it took about twice as long as drying a full load of clothes does now. So this was a laborious process for most of the week - and very hot in summer with the air from the dryer heating the apartment beyond the summer heat, even with an air conditioner running.
When we moved to the house I needed to find ways to remember and “force myself” to do the household chores. I found it helpful to associate the chores to things to remind me. We have garbage pickup on Monday and Thursday - so, I started changing the towels on the same days - new towels went out on Mondays and Thursdays. Eventually I decided that I needed to change the kitchen towels more often and they became Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, while bathroom towels stayed the same. (Shower towels are taken out when they will be used and used once.) Works well.
I used to change the bedding on Mondays as it was a new workweek. This worked okay until we started traveling for weekends more often as we often stayed away through Mondays. Since then Tuesdays is the day I change the bedding - unless there is a reason to do it on another day.
I started doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. Why? If we were going to take a weekend trip it definitely would not be while we were away and we would have clean and folded clothes for a trip leaving on Friday. I used to do the entire washing and drying on Wednesday nights, then husband started watching TV in the kitchen and blocking the basement door, so I could not conveniently do the laundry while he was sitting there and had to wait for him to go upstairs to his computer, so I ended up splitting the laundry between Wednesday and Thursday nights - and folding them Thursday and Friday mornings. Yes, “West Wing” changed my laundry schedule. :-)
Even this blog is tied to something, it is written on Wednesday night and posted late on same - or technically early on Thursday - as I do the laundry at the same time.
Actually cleaning and dealing with the house was easier before husband quit his job and is now with me all the time. My time is no longer my own - similar to him sitting in the way of doing the laundry on Wednesday nights. I may plan to do one thing - but he needs help warping his loom. I plan to do things during the afternoon - not even house related - and he has other plans. Today the eyeglasses he ordered came in, so everything I hoped to do was gone. We drove 45 minutes to Walmart in the next county (the only one with a vision department around here) plus the time there and then the drive back - and while driving home I remembered we needed to buy milk at Walmart and had to stop at another one and buy it.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Are there automatic reminders which you can tie your house chores to?
Thursday, January 26, 2017
CIRCUMSTANCES CAN CHANGE WHAT I CAN GET DONE
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.
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, December 22, 2016
WORKING ON CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
Well, here it is the first day of winter - and I have mostly not finished my Christmas decorations.
As I mentioned last week our reenactment unit interprets a house at the local restoration village. The house was built in 1730, with expansions in 1740 and 1760 and again after our period. All of the other houses in the village are from the 1800s so this house is sort of lost as the employees and volunteers are dressed and trained in the wrong period for the house. So members of our unit volunteered to interpret it for this event.
We treat the event as if the owner of the house (in period ) and his wife are having a “small” gathering of friends between their holiday (the family was of Dutch background) of St. Nicholas Day and Christmas. When the event had been held between Christmas and New Year’s it was instead a large party for the X night of Christmas. X being the day it actually is - for example on December 26, Boxing day to us in period, it is the first night of Christmas and so on.
Some of our unit members greet people at the door and tell them about the house in modern terms - where it was, how it got here, etc. They also show the public the parlor which is on the side of the hall and the public is not admitted to. Then they send them into the kitchen for the party. The public is told that not everyone they meet knows anything past the same date in 1775.
In the kitchen some of our members play period music - especially that of Christmas - and others sing along. I interpret the kitchen - which has an older Dutch fireplace, a Dutch cabinet bed, and items out as if the children left them out after Sinterklaus visited them on St. Nicholas Eve.
They then go into the owner’s office which has a bed chamber to either side of it. My husband is back there, also as someone from the period, to quickly tell them what they are seeing and then to speak with the people, especially children.
We are rather popular with some people telling us they come back each year purposely to visit us.
This year’s evenings were Thursday through Sunday nights. Thursday night was COLD. It was also WINDY, with many gusts of 40-60 mph. The front door is a “Dutch door” - that it is the top and bottom operate separately. We use a piece of wood to keep the two pieces together, and leave it just beyond the point that it would latch closed. We could not do so Thursday night. The wind kept blowing the door open. We ended up latching it closed and listening for noise of possible visitors. We had perhaps 30 visitors through the house, including a chorus that was hired by the village to wander about and sing. After they sang, one of them asked if they could come in and we told them to, of course, and to warm up.
Friday night was a tiny bit warmer, but at least the wind was gone. We had more people, but not big crowds.
Overnight Friday to Saturday it snowed about 3-4 inches, following which it got warmer and it rained, so there was very little snow left by Saturday night. Husband and I started to change into our period clothing Saturday afternoon and he suggested that I call the village and check that the path to the house had been cleared. Good thing! The village had canceled the event for the night. We scrambled to call our members who were coming and let them know. Then we went out for dinner and a movie.
Sunday night the weather was pleasant. We had good sized crowds in the house - lots of people, but manageable in size. There have been years, especially when the event was between Christmas and New Years, when they have had over 1500 people come through in a night and we have ended up needing to have people form a line to get in. Altogether Sunday night was a satisfying evening for us and I hope for the public and the village.
So, not much was done last weekend while all this was going on.
Monday I got rid of the last of the stuff sitting around in the dining room. The stuff for our RV was stored outside in the RV. Room was found in our studio behind the kitchen for a large box with my stored plastic containers for food in it (some of which are also used for the RV in season) and another large box which is used when husband washes the pieces he weaves after they are finished.
I then decorated the kitchen, the dining room, the front hall, and part of the living room, including a small beaded tree I made years ago. This tree is stored decorated (glass dome over it) and loses some decorations - this year much more than normal. I also caught up on assorted email, mail, papers, etc. not done since Wednesday.
Tuesday night I brought up the pieces of our Christmas tree and assembled it and put the lights on it. I added the angel topper and two other angel ornaments. These 3 items were made by us and always go on first, with the two angel ornaments sitting on the front of the tree just below the angel topper. I also set up a small tree we set up in our studio (where it can be seen from the kitchen) as I split ornaments we have made between the two (as opposed to the ones we have purchased and put on the main tree) and I therefore work on both at the same time. That was exhausting enough.
I did something smart this year. Whenever I am going up and down - something goes on any trips which I have nothing else to carry. When I went down for each section of the main Christmas tree I would carry down something, such as an empty box from the Monday decorations (2 of those to go down - 9 sections of the tree plus stand, pole, skirt, etc.) or the box from the beaded tree I set up Monday or the box from the small tree in the studio. Each time I also took up a bag of lights and stopped to check the lights in the kitchen to make sure they worked. This gave me a chance to breathe before running back down to the basement for another heavy section of tree. It seemed to work. After the top and 4 of the remaining sections I stopped and assembled the studio tree to rest a bit from running up and down before bringing up the other 4 sections.
Today I started decorating the two trees in earnest. I finished one box of ornaments completely and most of the second of 4 boxes. As I go along there is less is each box as the boxes are packed to be opened in order (and each box is labeled where it falls in the order) so there are more smaller ornaments in the first two boxes as they are the fancy ones and the latter two hold less as they tend to have the larger ornaments to fill in - such as plain balls. Over the years I have started doing the tree in sections so I have some idea of the general area to put each ornament which helps when setting it up (and finding the ornaments to pack them when taking it down).
I am pretty sure the trees will be ready in time. Not sure if I will get up the last of the decorations - some fake roping over the dining room and rear living room windows - as I am not sure I can get to the rear living room windows due to the rearrangement for the weaving stuff.
I took out one of the hams we took bought in Pennsylvania at the end of October to defrost for Christmas Eve dinner - should have plenty of leftovers for Christmas Day and even beyond.
So - a Happy and Merry to all - or as we say in the 1700s - A good Christmastide.
As I mentioned last week our reenactment unit interprets a house at the local restoration village. The house was built in 1730, with expansions in 1740 and 1760 and again after our period. All of the other houses in the village are from the 1800s so this house is sort of lost as the employees and volunteers are dressed and trained in the wrong period for the house. So members of our unit volunteered to interpret it for this event.
We treat the event as if the owner of the house (in period ) and his wife are having a “small” gathering of friends between their holiday (the family was of Dutch background) of St. Nicholas Day and Christmas. When the event had been held between Christmas and New Year’s it was instead a large party for the X night of Christmas. X being the day it actually is - for example on December 26, Boxing day to us in period, it is the first night of Christmas and so on.
Some of our unit members greet people at the door and tell them about the house in modern terms - where it was, how it got here, etc. They also show the public the parlor which is on the side of the hall and the public is not admitted to. Then they send them into the kitchen for the party. The public is told that not everyone they meet knows anything past the same date in 1775.
In the kitchen some of our members play period music - especially that of Christmas - and others sing along. I interpret the kitchen - which has an older Dutch fireplace, a Dutch cabinet bed, and items out as if the children left them out after Sinterklaus visited them on St. Nicholas Eve.
They then go into the owner’s office which has a bed chamber to either side of it. My husband is back there, also as someone from the period, to quickly tell them what they are seeing and then to speak with the people, especially children.
We are rather popular with some people telling us they come back each year purposely to visit us.
This year’s evenings were Thursday through Sunday nights. Thursday night was COLD. It was also WINDY, with many gusts of 40-60 mph. The front door is a “Dutch door” - that it is the top and bottom operate separately. We use a piece of wood to keep the two pieces together, and leave it just beyond the point that it would latch closed. We could not do so Thursday night. The wind kept blowing the door open. We ended up latching it closed and listening for noise of possible visitors. We had perhaps 30 visitors through the house, including a chorus that was hired by the village to wander about and sing. After they sang, one of them asked if they could come in and we told them to, of course, and to warm up.
Friday night was a tiny bit warmer, but at least the wind was gone. We had more people, but not big crowds.
Overnight Friday to Saturday it snowed about 3-4 inches, following which it got warmer and it rained, so there was very little snow left by Saturday night. Husband and I started to change into our period clothing Saturday afternoon and he suggested that I call the village and check that the path to the house had been cleared. Good thing! The village had canceled the event for the night. We scrambled to call our members who were coming and let them know. Then we went out for dinner and a movie.
Sunday night the weather was pleasant. We had good sized crowds in the house - lots of people, but manageable in size. There have been years, especially when the event was between Christmas and New Years, when they have had over 1500 people come through in a night and we have ended up needing to have people form a line to get in. Altogether Sunday night was a satisfying evening for us and I hope for the public and the village.
So, not much was done last weekend while all this was going on.
Monday I got rid of the last of the stuff sitting around in the dining room. The stuff for our RV was stored outside in the RV. Room was found in our studio behind the kitchen for a large box with my stored plastic containers for food in it (some of which are also used for the RV in season) and another large box which is used when husband washes the pieces he weaves after they are finished.
I then decorated the kitchen, the dining room, the front hall, and part of the living room, including a small beaded tree I made years ago. This tree is stored decorated (glass dome over it) and loses some decorations - this year much more than normal. I also caught up on assorted email, mail, papers, etc. not done since Wednesday.
Tuesday night I brought up the pieces of our Christmas tree and assembled it and put the lights on it. I added the angel topper and two other angel ornaments. These 3 items were made by us and always go on first, with the two angel ornaments sitting on the front of the tree just below the angel topper. I also set up a small tree we set up in our studio (where it can be seen from the kitchen) as I split ornaments we have made between the two (as opposed to the ones we have purchased and put on the main tree) and I therefore work on both at the same time. That was exhausting enough.
I did something smart this year. Whenever I am going up and down - something goes on any trips which I have nothing else to carry. When I went down for each section of the main Christmas tree I would carry down something, such as an empty box from the Monday decorations (2 of those to go down - 9 sections of the tree plus stand, pole, skirt, etc.) or the box from the beaded tree I set up Monday or the box from the small tree in the studio. Each time I also took up a bag of lights and stopped to check the lights in the kitchen to make sure they worked. This gave me a chance to breathe before running back down to the basement for another heavy section of tree. It seemed to work. After the top and 4 of the remaining sections I stopped and assembled the studio tree to rest a bit from running up and down before bringing up the other 4 sections.
Today I started decorating the two trees in earnest. I finished one box of ornaments completely and most of the second of 4 boxes. As I go along there is less is each box as the boxes are packed to be opened in order (and each box is labeled where it falls in the order) so there are more smaller ornaments in the first two boxes as they are the fancy ones and the latter two hold less as they tend to have the larger ornaments to fill in - such as plain balls. Over the years I have started doing the tree in sections so I have some idea of the general area to put each ornament which helps when setting it up (and finding the ornaments to pack them when taking it down).
I am pretty sure the trees will be ready in time. Not sure if I will get up the last of the decorations - some fake roping over the dining room and rear living room windows - as I am not sure I can get to the rear living room windows due to the rearrangement for the weaving stuff.
I took out one of the hams we took bought in Pennsylvania at the end of October to defrost for Christmas Eve dinner - should have plenty of leftovers for Christmas Day and even beyond.
So - a Happy and Merry to all - or as we say in the 1700s - A good Christmastide.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND THE WEEK THAT FOLLOWED
We went out last Thursday to put up our Christmas lights. We also had some errands to run, but since we wanted to deal with the lights while there was still daylight we did the lights first.
Husband decided that the fallen leaves would catch fire from the lights and we had to rake and bag them first. This exhausted both of us before we even started with the lights. Sunny and 59 degrees which had been expected, was actually terribly overcast and colder.
Of course 3 of the 8 strands of lights only had half their bulbs still working - although they had been tested before being stored. We figured we would put up what we have and then go and buy replacements while running errands. The lights go on bushes and 2 small trees and a strand of red bulbs with white cords go around our white mail box post (which is at our front door, not along the road) which gives it a candy caneish look. Hooked up the extension cords, plugged it all in. I went to the basement and turned on the breaker for that circuit and turned on the timer - no lights. Husband comes in and checks to make sure I did it right. (I would say because he thinks I am an idiot who cannot turn on the breaker and timer, but I won't.) He decides that maybe the breaker is broken - it feels funny. Just in case it is the outlet (which hangs oddly since our siding was replaced - but worked fine last time we mowed the grass in July) he decides to disassemble the outlet and check the wiring. It is now dark out and getting colder.
He cannot disassemble the outlets as one of the screws stripped . He then spends an hour attempting to take out the outlets. He then gives up and spends another hour and a half trying to put the front plate (which covers the outlets as they are outside) back on as the entire assembly now is loose due to the stripped screw. We finally give up and put tape around the box - figuring we will be calling an electrician to deal with it all. It is now 6 pm. He goes back into the basement in frustration and finds out that we turned on the wrong breaker! When we bought the house there was one outside set of outlets in the back yard. The breaker was labeled "outside outlet". We later had another one added in front of the house (mostly for Christmas lights) which is labeled "front outside outlet". Yes, I forgot which one was specially labeled and turned on the back yard outlets! I showed him which one was correct. He labeled the other one as “rear outside outlets”. We had disassembled the extension cords to prevent problems and will have to plug everything in again and see if the lights come on - on Saturday. No he did not get mad or yell at me. I was crying too hard from being so stupid and making the problem and wasting so much time for him to do so.
We normally would put up a wreath on each door and swags (all artificial) from the lights on either side of the door - but that would wait. (So far we have put up one wreath - it is new. We put battery operated lights on it and it fits between our front door and the storm door and is lighter so it can go up with magnetic hooks instead of having to run fishing line over the front storm door to hold it outside the storm door . We still have not put out a wreath on the side door or the swags - not sure if he will do so or not.)
We then set out to the PO and the bank. As we approached the corner where the PO is located there were police cars and their lights all over at the corner to the PO. There is a very small "town center" in a pool park there and apparently this was the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. We managed to get through the mess and had to go aways to get a parking space for the PO.
We then had to pull into a side road and turn around, back into the mess, which now also had fire engines with lights and sirens on, to go to the bank. When we left the bank husband was going to go in a different direction to avoid the mess, forgot to and we were headed back there. Instead we kept going to a different main street which goes to our house. There were police cars all over with police directing traffic and apparently we could not turn towards our house - the street was closed either for an emergency or to put up Christmas decorations as there were "bucket trucks" with men in the buckets. We had to drive back to the bank a different way, drive past it and then go the way he intended originally. 15 minutes of errands took over an hour, so it was now 7 pm.
I then made dinner and called him and he had gotten a work online conversation and was on for an hour - to 9 pm. Just as I finished reheating the soup for dinner (and the rest was still reheating) my mom called and I had to tell her I couldn't talk. If you think I write a lot - a call between mom and me can run 2 hours.
Friday we went to Lancaster, PA area for a day trip - mostly Green Dragon Farmer's (and merchant's) market and dinner at Dutchway buffet - owned by and adjacent to their supermarket. Picked up the needed Christmas lights during a stop at Walmart there before our trip home.
Saturday we took the snow blower out of the box and assembled it. We then put up the rest of the lights after making sure that when we used the correct circuit breaker the other lights came on.
We bought gas for the snow blower on Monday and also filled the tank in our van - we don’t drive it a lot, so we don’t fill it a lot, so we figured we would do both at once. On Tuesday we started it and it started fine. Unfortunately we found out over the weekend that we cannot get the small shed we wanted. It would not come for 3 weeks and by then it would be too cold to assemble it. For now the snow blower is in the garage - sitting just inside the door, ready to go. But if it snows we have to shovel our way out to the garage. One idea husband has it to pick up the snow blower and put it in our tiny side porch (really just a covered entryway) - which means I have to clear it out - but we don’t know if we could carry it that much.
Today was my embroidery club meeting. As I was getting ready last night for the meeting it suddenly dawned on me that this is the last meeting of the year. Why is that significant? I never got the paperwork to reserve the meeting room for 2017. I called this morning and found out that the person in charge of the room reservations changed and I was not on the list she was given for who had to have renewals sent to them - “everyone else will call for them”. Luckily this room is not in great demand and there should be no problem - she is sending me the paperwork to do.
I also got rid of 2 months worth of soda bottles today and made about $2 in returned deposits - which I then spent plus more on a few grocery items we needed. I went to Goodwill and donated 3 of our suitcases - more to go there in the future. I also donated my good coat. I love this coat - it comfortable, nice fabric. It is the only piece of clothing I have ever heard my mom say I looked good in. Why did I get rid of it? It was a hard decision, but I have not worn it since 2009 when we had the bed bugs. It is a bit on the long side and I would worry about picking up bed bugs when walking on stairs in NYC if I wore it to work. When we go out to dinner for holidays or such - much rarer now - I sit on my jacket and the coat would be too bulky, so I decided it was time for it to have a nice life with someone else who needs and will use it. I kept it in its bag until the last minute so I would not change my mind. I added to all this a rotating CD rack husband has not used in years and said we should get rid of. Oh - don’t forget to go through all pockets in clothes and suitcases - I did and found copies of our driver’s licenses in one of the suitcases.
So another week is gone. I have put out a minimal amount of Christmas decorations - but I did put RV stuff in our RV to get it out of the dining room until next spring - more of it to go out yet. I also put away all of the various items that were out loose of our reenacting stuff - the dining room is on its way to being ready to decorate.
What did you get done this week? Even a small amount of things done is something done. Jump in and do something.
Husband decided that the fallen leaves would catch fire from the lights and we had to rake and bag them first. This exhausted both of us before we even started with the lights. Sunny and 59 degrees which had been expected, was actually terribly overcast and colder.
Of course 3 of the 8 strands of lights only had half their bulbs still working - although they had been tested before being stored. We figured we would put up what we have and then go and buy replacements while running errands. The lights go on bushes and 2 small trees and a strand of red bulbs with white cords go around our white mail box post (which is at our front door, not along the road) which gives it a candy caneish look. Hooked up the extension cords, plugged it all in. I went to the basement and turned on the breaker for that circuit and turned on the timer - no lights. Husband comes in and checks to make sure I did it right. (I would say because he thinks I am an idiot who cannot turn on the breaker and timer, but I won't.) He decides that maybe the breaker is broken - it feels funny. Just in case it is the outlet (which hangs oddly since our siding was replaced - but worked fine last time we mowed the grass in July) he decides to disassemble the outlet and check the wiring. It is now dark out and getting colder.
He cannot disassemble the outlets as one of the screws stripped . He then spends an hour attempting to take out the outlets. He then gives up and spends another hour and a half trying to put the front plate (which covers the outlets as they are outside) back on as the entire assembly now is loose due to the stripped screw. We finally give up and put tape around the box - figuring we will be calling an electrician to deal with it all. It is now 6 pm. He goes back into the basement in frustration and finds out that we turned on the wrong breaker! When we bought the house there was one outside set of outlets in the back yard. The breaker was labeled "outside outlet". We later had another one added in front of the house (mostly for Christmas lights) which is labeled "front outside outlet". Yes, I forgot which one was specially labeled and turned on the back yard outlets! I showed him which one was correct. He labeled the other one as “rear outside outlets”. We had disassembled the extension cords to prevent problems and will have to plug everything in again and see if the lights come on - on Saturday. No he did not get mad or yell at me. I was crying too hard from being so stupid and making the problem and wasting so much time for him to do so.
We normally would put up a wreath on each door and swags (all artificial) from the lights on either side of the door - but that would wait. (So far we have put up one wreath - it is new. We put battery operated lights on it and it fits between our front door and the storm door and is lighter so it can go up with magnetic hooks instead of having to run fishing line over the front storm door to hold it outside the storm door . We still have not put out a wreath on the side door or the swags - not sure if he will do so or not.)
We then set out to the PO and the bank. As we approached the corner where the PO is located there were police cars and their lights all over at the corner to the PO. There is a very small "town center" in a pool park there and apparently this was the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. We managed to get through the mess and had to go aways to get a parking space for the PO.
We then had to pull into a side road and turn around, back into the mess, which now also had fire engines with lights and sirens on, to go to the bank. When we left the bank husband was going to go in a different direction to avoid the mess, forgot to and we were headed back there. Instead we kept going to a different main street which goes to our house. There were police cars all over with police directing traffic and apparently we could not turn towards our house - the street was closed either for an emergency or to put up Christmas decorations as there were "bucket trucks" with men in the buckets. We had to drive back to the bank a different way, drive past it and then go the way he intended originally. 15 minutes of errands took over an hour, so it was now 7 pm.
I then made dinner and called him and he had gotten a work online conversation and was on for an hour - to 9 pm. Just as I finished reheating the soup for dinner (and the rest was still reheating) my mom called and I had to tell her I couldn't talk. If you think I write a lot - a call between mom and me can run 2 hours.
Friday we went to Lancaster, PA area for a day trip - mostly Green Dragon Farmer's (and merchant's) market and dinner at Dutchway buffet - owned by and adjacent to their supermarket. Picked up the needed Christmas lights during a stop at Walmart there before our trip home.
Saturday we took the snow blower out of the box and assembled it. We then put up the rest of the lights after making sure that when we used the correct circuit breaker the other lights came on.
We bought gas for the snow blower on Monday and also filled the tank in our van - we don’t drive it a lot, so we don’t fill it a lot, so we figured we would do both at once. On Tuesday we started it and it started fine. Unfortunately we found out over the weekend that we cannot get the small shed we wanted. It would not come for 3 weeks and by then it would be too cold to assemble it. For now the snow blower is in the garage - sitting just inside the door, ready to go. But if it snows we have to shovel our way out to the garage. One idea husband has it to pick up the snow blower and put it in our tiny side porch (really just a covered entryway) - which means I have to clear it out - but we don’t know if we could carry it that much.
Today was my embroidery club meeting. As I was getting ready last night for the meeting it suddenly dawned on me that this is the last meeting of the year. Why is that significant? I never got the paperwork to reserve the meeting room for 2017. I called this morning and found out that the person in charge of the room reservations changed and I was not on the list she was given for who had to have renewals sent to them - “everyone else will call for them”. Luckily this room is not in great demand and there should be no problem - she is sending me the paperwork to do.
I also got rid of 2 months worth of soda bottles today and made about $2 in returned deposits - which I then spent plus more on a few grocery items we needed. I went to Goodwill and donated 3 of our suitcases - more to go there in the future. I also donated my good coat. I love this coat - it comfortable, nice fabric. It is the only piece of clothing I have ever heard my mom say I looked good in. Why did I get rid of it? It was a hard decision, but I have not worn it since 2009 when we had the bed bugs. It is a bit on the long side and I would worry about picking up bed bugs when walking on stairs in NYC if I wore it to work. When we go out to dinner for holidays or such - much rarer now - I sit on my jacket and the coat would be too bulky, so I decided it was time for it to have a nice life with someone else who needs and will use it. I kept it in its bag until the last minute so I would not change my mind. I added to all this a rotating CD rack husband has not used in years and said we should get rid of. Oh - don’t forget to go through all pockets in clothes and suitcases - I did and found copies of our driver’s licenses in one of the suitcases.
So another week is gone. I have put out a minimal amount of Christmas decorations - but I did put RV stuff in our RV to get it out of the dining room until next spring - more of it to go out yet. I also put away all of the various items that were out loose of our reenacting stuff - the dining room is on its way to being ready to decorate.
What did you get done this week? Even a small amount of things done is something done. Jump in and do something.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
PREPARING FOR HERMINE'S "VISIT"
Well, we have been home over a week now and I am still trying to catch up. The laundry was done the first 2 nights and put away the next mornings in anticipation of perhaps a couple of days travel at the end of last week - Labor Day weekend. We did not go away.
We were in the line of Hermine - a hurricane which did damage along the eastern seaboard and then came north to visit us. It was like preparing for one of our trips - Hermine was to hit sometime between last Friday and Monday and stay around swirling off the coast to the south of the Island. People along the coasts of our Island are still recovering from “superstorm” Sandy less than 5 years ago - some people are not back in their houses yet as their houses are not yet rebuilt. Hermine was not a welcome guest here. As last week went along it became a situation of - she might hit us - she might just stay offshore - she might miss us altogether (but probably not). She might be a hurricane or she might be a tropical storm or a subtropical storm. She might be gone by Monday or she might be here through (tomorrow) Thursday.
We had extensive days of no electricity at our house in 2011 after Hurricane Irene and again after Sandy, and after we got our electricity back after Sandy, it went out a day later when the area was hit by a “nor’easter” Yes, we were hit by a tropical storm and in less than a week after we were hit by a winter storm! So we made preparations for the worst, hoping for the best.
We have learned from the prior storms what we need to do. We have been told that we should have (always) 2 gallons of water per day per person for, well it used to be 3 days, since Sandy we are told 5 days. We have a small house - full of stuff, no room for 6 to 10 gallons of water always in the house (and when I used to keep 2 gallons in the basement one gallon sprang a leak and we had water all over). We have another system. We were away in Pennsylvania immediately before Irene. (We actually pulled over into a McDonald’s parking lot to use its wifi as we tried to locate a campground near Pittsburgh, PA, the closest area which did not seem to be under the hurricane warning as we decided if we were going to run to same and sit it out or go home. Not finding any campgrounds, we went home. When we arrived home we still had most of the water in the RV tank. We left it. We were supposed to be going away a day after Sandy hit. Husband said what should we do to be ready if we can leave and go on the trip? We filled the water tanks - if we were able to go we had the water in the tanks, if not, emergency water! So last Friday we filled one of the RV tanks with water - 15 gallons. This idea only works in warm weather, once we winterize the RV we cannot really use it for water storage again until we clean out the tanks when we dewinterize in the spring - plus the chance of the tanks and lines freezing in cold weather.
We also plugged in the RV and charged its batteries overnight. We also found during the 2 earlier storms that this gave us something to do in the evening. We would go in and turn on the batteries, put up the TV antenna on the RV and watch TV. Especially after Sandy this was good. The local (Long Island, not NYC) radio station was turning its air over to the local (again, Long Island) news channel to broadcast their broadcasts so that those without electricity (most of the Island) could get more extensive local news. This was very nice of both, but much of the local news consisted of “Look at this - can you believe this happened?” which did not help all that much. By turning on the TV we were able to see what was going on and get more news. We also had some diversion. Husband figured out that we could use the RV batteries for 2 hours to watch TV, recharge computers and cell phones, etc. and then put on the RV’s generator for an hour to recharge the batteries, using only 1/3 of a gallon of gas. We had to be careful as most of the gas stations on the Island were either out of gas or unable to pump gas due to not having electricity. (After a quick drive to look around the day after Sandy when we then found out about the lack of gasoline, we took the car out once for an emergency related to my mom and walked everywhere for about 3 weeks to a month. We were lucky. Most people here do not live within walking distance of stores, etc. We do.) After Irene things were considerably better than after Sandy and not as widespread, so that there were large areas with electricity (and with working gas stations) we went one night to the movies for something to amuse us. The freezer in the kitchen refrigerator is set it’s coldest setting. The refrigerator itself is set as cold as I can let it go without ruining husband’s insulin. We always go out before a large storm that has warnings and fill the car gas tanks.
Back to getting ready for Hermine. We brought in the electric lantern we keep in the RV. It is rechargeable plus it can use batteries instead. We plugged in the rechargeable pack to charge. We also plugged in our laptops and tablets and when not using them, our cell phones. They were all left charging whenever we were home. I always do the laundry if there is a possibility of losing the electricity so that we have a maximum amount of clean clothes, towels and bed linens, but since I had just done them, I did not need to. I unplugged the washing machine and threw the breakers for the clothes dryer - no need to take a chance on a surge coming through. The dehumidifier and stove would have this done also if and when we lost electricity.
We know that in the 1700s it was the standard to “put the room to rest” after using it. This involved moving the furniture against the walls where it was normally kept. This did two things - it allowed different furniture to be moved to the center of the room as needed for different activities and also allowed one to walk through the room in dim light without bumping into anything. I did this, clearing the floors - including furniture and general stuff and it really did help when we had to walk around the house during the day lit only by the light through the windows. I did this again. I pushed our portable air conditioner in the dining room further into the room into a small space where it would not be walked into. I then went to the living room where husband has his loom. I did not want to move the loom - it was set up to work, but I folded down the side of the drop leaf table he uses when warping the loom and moved it further into the room next to the side table next to the sofa. I took the standing lamps and moved them and their cords out of the way so that we would not walk into them nor trip over their cords. Upstairs we have mostly walkways around furniture so it was already clear, as was the kitchen and the parts of the studio we might walk around in.
We went about our life listening to the constantly changing weather reports - not only did they vary from source to source - they also varied hour to hour - not sure what was coming. Each day it was a question of will it rain today or will there be heavy, fast winds today? We are far enough in the center (north to south) of the Island that we do not have to worry about storm surge - but I was concerned about my mom as she was hit by a wall of water after Sandy and had to throw out everything in her basement and the first floor of her house (the garage, den and a bathroom are on the first floor).
There are many activities on the Island in general and it was Labor Day weekend so there were many more. The various government entities from New Jersey through New York City and both counties out here put out a “don’t go out in the water or you will get a ticket” alerts. There had been problems recently with unusually heavy rip currents and the storm sitting off of here was making it worse as well as making a terribly active, heavy surf. Of course going to the beach is a major activity this “last weekend” of summer. (Yes, it ends later in the month, but it is the symbolic end.) One of our local Native American tribes has a large Pow Wow on Labor Day weekend every year with their family members who have moved or traveled away returning every year to the reservation for it and it is open to the public - we have gone several times and might have gone this year - but no one knew what the weather would be.
Saturday we went outside to bring in some items early on in the preparation. We brought the garbage cans into the garage, small solar lanterns and the stands they hang from into the porch. I glanced out into the road and my eye caught on the large orange plastic “barrels” left there by the road crew still working on our street 4 weeks after the 2 weeks they were suppose to be here. There were also large piece of PVC pipe that hold signs and things for them - all ripe to go flying in a gale and do damage. I checked the Internet about contacting the County emergency office which was suppose to be up and runnning and tried calling them - I either got a busy signal or the phone kept ringing. I sent them an email to let them know about the barrels and other items and that someone should come and secure or remove them - no response and it all stayed out waiting to be blown about.
Saturday night the next county put out a warning that people on one of the barrier islands (our Island has smaller islands around it) should evacuate - voluntarily - from the island since if the surf got worse as expected, the ferries would not be able to run and they would not be able to leave. Instead somehow the warning that was sent and shown on TV, announced on the radio, was robocalled to all of the county residents (instead of just those on the island), and was emailed out was that the entire county was under a mandatory evacuation! Calls flooded their emergency management centers and a correction was put out. We came home from the movies and there was a notice on the top of the TV picture - annoying me as it was on constantly for about half an hour and the cable controls were not working right - about the error and correcting it.
So day by day the storm sat off the Island and we were told - later today or tomorrow. As of yesterday, they finally lifted the storm surge warnings and the storm is sitting further east, south of the Island.. While the preparations were needed based on the original state of things, luckily they were not needed. Unfortunately businesses at the beaches and also otherwise that anticipated an influx of visitors lost the income they were expecting for the weekend - we went to the movies Saturday night and the theater was empty.
Now, of course, everything that was moved or dealt with has to be put back into place. The water has to be let out of the RV the items moved in the living room were already moved back so husband could weave and so on. Until next time - the next storm is already forming!
We were in the line of Hermine - a hurricane which did damage along the eastern seaboard and then came north to visit us. It was like preparing for one of our trips - Hermine was to hit sometime between last Friday and Monday and stay around swirling off the coast to the south of the Island. People along the coasts of our Island are still recovering from “superstorm” Sandy less than 5 years ago - some people are not back in their houses yet as their houses are not yet rebuilt. Hermine was not a welcome guest here. As last week went along it became a situation of - she might hit us - she might just stay offshore - she might miss us altogether (but probably not). She might be a hurricane or she might be a tropical storm or a subtropical storm. She might be gone by Monday or she might be here through (tomorrow) Thursday.
We had extensive days of no electricity at our house in 2011 after Hurricane Irene and again after Sandy, and after we got our electricity back after Sandy, it went out a day later when the area was hit by a “nor’easter” Yes, we were hit by a tropical storm and in less than a week after we were hit by a winter storm! So we made preparations for the worst, hoping for the best.
We have learned from the prior storms what we need to do. We have been told that we should have (always) 2 gallons of water per day per person for, well it used to be 3 days, since Sandy we are told 5 days. We have a small house - full of stuff, no room for 6 to 10 gallons of water always in the house (and when I used to keep 2 gallons in the basement one gallon sprang a leak and we had water all over). We have another system. We were away in Pennsylvania immediately before Irene. (We actually pulled over into a McDonald’s parking lot to use its wifi as we tried to locate a campground near Pittsburgh, PA, the closest area which did not seem to be under the hurricane warning as we decided if we were going to run to same and sit it out or go home. Not finding any campgrounds, we went home. When we arrived home we still had most of the water in the RV tank. We left it. We were supposed to be going away a day after Sandy hit. Husband said what should we do to be ready if we can leave and go on the trip? We filled the water tanks - if we were able to go we had the water in the tanks, if not, emergency water! So last Friday we filled one of the RV tanks with water - 15 gallons. This idea only works in warm weather, once we winterize the RV we cannot really use it for water storage again until we clean out the tanks when we dewinterize in the spring - plus the chance of the tanks and lines freezing in cold weather.
We also plugged in the RV and charged its batteries overnight. We also found during the 2 earlier storms that this gave us something to do in the evening. We would go in and turn on the batteries, put up the TV antenna on the RV and watch TV. Especially after Sandy this was good. The local (Long Island, not NYC) radio station was turning its air over to the local (again, Long Island) news channel to broadcast their broadcasts so that those without electricity (most of the Island) could get more extensive local news. This was very nice of both, but much of the local news consisted of “Look at this - can you believe this happened?” which did not help all that much. By turning on the TV we were able to see what was going on and get more news. We also had some diversion. Husband figured out that we could use the RV batteries for 2 hours to watch TV, recharge computers and cell phones, etc. and then put on the RV’s generator for an hour to recharge the batteries, using only 1/3 of a gallon of gas. We had to be careful as most of the gas stations on the Island were either out of gas or unable to pump gas due to not having electricity. (After a quick drive to look around the day after Sandy when we then found out about the lack of gasoline, we took the car out once for an emergency related to my mom and walked everywhere for about 3 weeks to a month. We were lucky. Most people here do not live within walking distance of stores, etc. We do.) After Irene things were considerably better than after Sandy and not as widespread, so that there were large areas with electricity (and with working gas stations) we went one night to the movies for something to amuse us. The freezer in the kitchen refrigerator is set it’s coldest setting. The refrigerator itself is set as cold as I can let it go without ruining husband’s insulin. We always go out before a large storm that has warnings and fill the car gas tanks.
Back to getting ready for Hermine. We brought in the electric lantern we keep in the RV. It is rechargeable plus it can use batteries instead. We plugged in the rechargeable pack to charge. We also plugged in our laptops and tablets and when not using them, our cell phones. They were all left charging whenever we were home. I always do the laundry if there is a possibility of losing the electricity so that we have a maximum amount of clean clothes, towels and bed linens, but since I had just done them, I did not need to. I unplugged the washing machine and threw the breakers for the clothes dryer - no need to take a chance on a surge coming through. The dehumidifier and stove would have this done also if and when we lost electricity.
We know that in the 1700s it was the standard to “put the room to rest” after using it. This involved moving the furniture against the walls where it was normally kept. This did two things - it allowed different furniture to be moved to the center of the room as needed for different activities and also allowed one to walk through the room in dim light without bumping into anything. I did this, clearing the floors - including furniture and general stuff and it really did help when we had to walk around the house during the day lit only by the light through the windows. I did this again. I pushed our portable air conditioner in the dining room further into the room into a small space where it would not be walked into. I then went to the living room where husband has his loom. I did not want to move the loom - it was set up to work, but I folded down the side of the drop leaf table he uses when warping the loom and moved it further into the room next to the side table next to the sofa. I took the standing lamps and moved them and their cords out of the way so that we would not walk into them nor trip over their cords. Upstairs we have mostly walkways around furniture so it was already clear, as was the kitchen and the parts of the studio we might walk around in.
We went about our life listening to the constantly changing weather reports - not only did they vary from source to source - they also varied hour to hour - not sure what was coming. Each day it was a question of will it rain today or will there be heavy, fast winds today? We are far enough in the center (north to south) of the Island that we do not have to worry about storm surge - but I was concerned about my mom as she was hit by a wall of water after Sandy and had to throw out everything in her basement and the first floor of her house (the garage, den and a bathroom are on the first floor).
There are many activities on the Island in general and it was Labor Day weekend so there were many more. The various government entities from New Jersey through New York City and both counties out here put out a “don’t go out in the water or you will get a ticket” alerts. There had been problems recently with unusually heavy rip currents and the storm sitting off of here was making it worse as well as making a terribly active, heavy surf. Of course going to the beach is a major activity this “last weekend” of summer. (Yes, it ends later in the month, but it is the symbolic end.) One of our local Native American tribes has a large Pow Wow on Labor Day weekend every year with their family members who have moved or traveled away returning every year to the reservation for it and it is open to the public - we have gone several times and might have gone this year - but no one knew what the weather would be.
Saturday we went outside to bring in some items early on in the preparation. We brought the garbage cans into the garage, small solar lanterns and the stands they hang from into the porch. I glanced out into the road and my eye caught on the large orange plastic “barrels” left there by the road crew still working on our street 4 weeks after the 2 weeks they were suppose to be here. There were also large piece of PVC pipe that hold signs and things for them - all ripe to go flying in a gale and do damage. I checked the Internet about contacting the County emergency office which was suppose to be up and runnning and tried calling them - I either got a busy signal or the phone kept ringing. I sent them an email to let them know about the barrels and other items and that someone should come and secure or remove them - no response and it all stayed out waiting to be blown about.
Saturday night the next county put out a warning that people on one of the barrier islands (our Island has smaller islands around it) should evacuate - voluntarily - from the island since if the surf got worse as expected, the ferries would not be able to run and they would not be able to leave. Instead somehow the warning that was sent and shown on TV, announced on the radio, was robocalled to all of the county residents (instead of just those on the island), and was emailed out was that the entire county was under a mandatory evacuation! Calls flooded their emergency management centers and a correction was put out. We came home from the movies and there was a notice on the top of the TV picture - annoying me as it was on constantly for about half an hour and the cable controls were not working right - about the error and correcting it.
So day by day the storm sat off the Island and we were told - later today or tomorrow. As of yesterday, they finally lifted the storm surge warnings and the storm is sitting further east, south of the Island.. While the preparations were needed based on the original state of things, luckily they were not needed. Unfortunately businesses at the beaches and also otherwise that anticipated an influx of visitors lost the income they were expecting for the weekend - we went to the movies Saturday night and the theater was empty.
Now, of course, everything that was moved or dealt with has to be put back into place. The water has to be let out of the RV the items moved in the living room were already moved back so husband could weave and so on. Until next time - the next storm is already forming!
Thursday, July 21, 2016
BEST LAID PLANS...
The reason for the title of this weeks post is that we had several things fall apart on us. We were to be away and I planned a part 2 of “Organizing and Storing in our Tiny RV”. We decided not to go away - luckily before I made up the bed in rather hot weather - hotter in the RV. This turned out to be even luckier because of what happened. The piece will be written and run at a later date.
In addition to backing up my data, mentioned in a prior post (Organizing Computer Files, June 22, 2016) I also back up my computer. I do this on a monthly basis. I back up the computer, using a software program, to an external hard drive. Currently I am using a newer, larger hard drive I bought for this purpose (monthly backups). I have been making a new back up of the computer quarterly, with incremental backups for the following two months - by this I mean I make a new backup in January, then add to that backup in February and March and then make a new backup in April, etc. I also back up to the older external drive quarterly - in January, April, July, and October - each time a complete new backup - just in case the drive with the backups ever failed. I hate loading software when I get a new computer and did not want to deal with doing so for lack of backing up my computer or loose anything in case of a problem with the computer’s hard drive.
So last Friday I backed up my computer to a new monthly backup on what I will call (external hard) Drive N - for new - with no problem. At the same time I back up my computer which is a desktop, I also backup each of my two laptops on the same schedule. I backed up my smaller, newer laptop before backing up the desktop computer to both hard drives with no problem. I then attempted to make the quarterly backup of my desktop to the other drive - (external hard) Drive O (for old) and the same software just used for the monthly backup, but could not make up a backup due to bad sectors. I tried twice and then decided that instead of panicking I would wait and try it again another day. My older laptop is very s l o w and I set it up to run the backup overnight. I did the monthly back of it to Drive N overnight that night - no problem.
Saturday night, over night, I set my laptop up and did a quarterly backup onto Drive O - again no problem. So now I was pretty sure that there was no problem with Drive O. I then tried to backup my desktop to Drive O - again, it could not as I had bad sector problems. On Sunday evening, just to be sure that the problem was the hard drive of my desktop, I attempted a new, complete backup of my desktop to Drive N - to which it had backed up on Friday with no problem - it also could not make a backup due to bad sectors on my desktop’s hard drive. So, I told husband and asked him what to do. He told me that I needed to get a new hard drive in my desktop. It would not be much of a problem as we had backups and they are relatively inexpensive. (Can you see where this is going?)
So he did some research on hard drives (he builds our desktop computers these days) and figured out which one we should get and we went and bought it. At this time we were still thinking about going on a trip this week. Luckily we decided not to go on the trip just as we were starting the restoration of the computer to the new hard drive.
We brought the new drive home and disconnected the computer from all its wires. He had the good idea to have me take photos with my cell phone of each of the connections on the back of the computer to aid in putting them all back where they came from. It is filthy with dust - I dusted it and after we open it, we vacuumed it and dusted the parts that did not vacuum inside and out.
He disconnected and removed the old hard drive and we set it aside. Relatively easily he wires in the new hard drive and it snaps into place. We have trouble putting the sides back on the computer (it is a tower) and then remember it has to be done with the case lying down. The sides go back on. We are aided in all of this as I have the instruction books from the computer case and the computer chip from when he first assembled the computer, set aside in a folder for my computer (there is a folder for each computer he assembled - 3 to date).
By now the office is a bit disorganized - large manila envelope with computer instruction folders, parts, wires, box to new hard drive, old hard drive, work I had planned to work on... all out and about on the floor and what was before clear space on desks and printers.
We put the wires back on the computer. We turn it on. I use a touch pad instead of a mouse for the computer - it does not work. We then spend 15 minutes looking for a USB plug in mouse, including a trip by husband to the RV in case it was there - he finds it on his desk attached to a Raspberry Pi project (very small computer and coding). (We have since bought a second such mouse to keep around for when we need one in a situation such as this.)
We hook up Drive N (remember both N and O are external drives), we put the recovery disk into the computer’s DVD drive and start the computer. It finds the internal hard drive, it finds the DVD drive, then it keeps spinning. Finally we give up. We shut down the computer . We then hook up Drive O, restart the computer, and it appears on the screen. He runs the restore software. We go to reboot the computer and see that it has been restored - the computer will not boot. Of course, we try turning it off and on several times before being sure that there is some problem.
He looks up on the Internet what to do if the boot manager is missing. Oh, so easy, just run Windows repair. Well, I have the disk, but - it is in the closet in the office, which has all sorts of items from our earlier efforts of installing the hard drive and the project I hoped to work on spread around the room and blocking the closet door. So all of this must be moved elsewhere (in a crowded bedroom being used as a library and an office for 2 people). The Windows disk is put in the computer. He follows the directions on the Internet - I sit at his computer and read him the command line. We turn off the computer - then turn it on - it does not boot.
One instruction we find online says to reinstall Windows. We do so - which wipes out the restoration of the hard drive - computer now boots - yea! We reinstall the backup - it does not boot. We repeat this several times (we worked on this from around 3 pm to after 8pm- Chinese food for dinner as no time to cook).
As he has been doing the research for this online he finds out something important - the backup program, a popular (paid program, not freeware) has a reputation for not working. He had a problem when he tried to restore once before, but found that there was a problem if the backup or restore was done using USB 3 connections - so we had been using USB 2 connections. He reads that a newer version of the program does not recognize drives bigger than 5 TB, maybe it did not work at all with Drive N as this is an older version of the software and the drive is 4 TB, while Drive O is only 1 TB?
We finally give up. He reloads Windows and now I must find and reinstall all my software. Luckily the data, which was on a USB flash drive is intact as are the backups of it as they were on same and were done with different software so my data is all intact. I realize as I start to install software that much of my software is freeware and the downloads are on the old hard drive which was replaced. I did not anticipate needing to replace any of it by hand and so I also did not anticipate needing to get it off the drive before we took it out of the computer. While the programs could be downloaded again, many of them are older versions of the programs because I did not like the updated versions (and in many cases neither did husband), so I really need access to the old internal hard drive we took out). I asked husband if they could both be in the computer (extra empty drive bays in the computer anyway) - he said they could not as they are both drives which boot the computer and it would confuse the computer.
Today we went out and bought a case to convert an internal hard drive to an external one - so I can access the files on the old hard drive for whatever I need and is on parts of the drive which is still good. I then loaded more programs onto the computer with more to come.
I sat and checked my email and did other things on my smaller laptop while we were doing all of this installing and reinstalling the backups and Windows. I went to check my main email account. I changed the password a few months back - I know what it should be but that does not work, so I couldn’t check my main account - even worse, I had to hope that I checked that account with my bigger, older laptop - luckily I did and tonight - after not being able to check email yesterday or today on this account (I don’t check on the weekend) I was able to check email on this account. I still have to send an email to a friend for her birthday - which ended a little over an hour ago - as I did not have her email address other than in that email account.
I use very old software as a calendar/address book/todo list - an organizer program. I also use my old cell phone, a Palm Centro, as a PDA around the house as it syncs with this software (my current cell phone does not work with the todos section and I tend to only use same for home chores, so I sync both cell phones to the organizer software. When I start using it again, since it is being reinstalled on the computer I will have to overwrite the Centro - so I cannot make any entries or changes to same until they are synced again or I will lose any changes made on the Centro.
I cannot wait for all the software to be back, changed to how I like it to be (and you may know by now that I am picky and don’t like change) and it all to working as it used to be again.
I have learned that, unfortunately, one does not know that one’s backup software will not work until it is too late. We will trying another program which seems to be better liked and seems to work from now on.
While we were installing Windows and the backup Monday I also managed to start sorting through computer program and printer manuals back to I don’t know when. I pulled 3 large books (from when software came with large manuals) and some smaller ones. The 3 large ones I am going to donate as they are for programs not all that old and might still be used, the others have gone in for recycling. There were others I would have pulled out to toss, but they are for games that husband bought and I will have to go through them with him - I never toss or donate anything of his without his permission. I do now have the books to the printers on top of the others (they are lying down on the shelves) so they can be easily reached as they are still used when something goes wrong or needs to be reset.
In addition to backing up my data, mentioned in a prior post (Organizing Computer Files, June 22, 2016) I also back up my computer. I do this on a monthly basis. I back up the computer, using a software program, to an external hard drive. Currently I am using a newer, larger hard drive I bought for this purpose (monthly backups). I have been making a new back up of the computer quarterly, with incremental backups for the following two months - by this I mean I make a new backup in January, then add to that backup in February and March and then make a new backup in April, etc. I also back up to the older external drive quarterly - in January, April, July, and October - each time a complete new backup - just in case the drive with the backups ever failed. I hate loading software when I get a new computer and did not want to deal with doing so for lack of backing up my computer or loose anything in case of a problem with the computer’s hard drive.
So last Friday I backed up my computer to a new monthly backup on what I will call (external hard) Drive N - for new - with no problem. At the same time I back up my computer which is a desktop, I also backup each of my two laptops on the same schedule. I backed up my smaller, newer laptop before backing up the desktop computer to both hard drives with no problem. I then attempted to make the quarterly backup of my desktop to the other drive - (external hard) Drive O (for old) and the same software just used for the monthly backup, but could not make up a backup due to bad sectors. I tried twice and then decided that instead of panicking I would wait and try it again another day. My older laptop is very s l o w and I set it up to run the backup overnight. I did the monthly back of it to Drive N overnight that night - no problem.
Saturday night, over night, I set my laptop up and did a quarterly backup onto Drive O - again no problem. So now I was pretty sure that there was no problem with Drive O. I then tried to backup my desktop to Drive O - again, it could not as I had bad sector problems. On Sunday evening, just to be sure that the problem was the hard drive of my desktop, I attempted a new, complete backup of my desktop to Drive N - to which it had backed up on Friday with no problem - it also could not make a backup due to bad sectors on my desktop’s hard drive. So, I told husband and asked him what to do. He told me that I needed to get a new hard drive in my desktop. It would not be much of a problem as we had backups and they are relatively inexpensive. (Can you see where this is going?)
So he did some research on hard drives (he builds our desktop computers these days) and figured out which one we should get and we went and bought it. At this time we were still thinking about going on a trip this week. Luckily we decided not to go on the trip just as we were starting the restoration of the computer to the new hard drive.
We brought the new drive home and disconnected the computer from all its wires. He had the good idea to have me take photos with my cell phone of each of the connections on the back of the computer to aid in putting them all back where they came from. It is filthy with dust - I dusted it and after we open it, we vacuumed it and dusted the parts that did not vacuum inside and out.
He disconnected and removed the old hard drive and we set it aside. Relatively easily he wires in the new hard drive and it snaps into place. We have trouble putting the sides back on the computer (it is a tower) and then remember it has to be done with the case lying down. The sides go back on. We are aided in all of this as I have the instruction books from the computer case and the computer chip from when he first assembled the computer, set aside in a folder for my computer (there is a folder for each computer he assembled - 3 to date).
By now the office is a bit disorganized - large manila envelope with computer instruction folders, parts, wires, box to new hard drive, old hard drive, work I had planned to work on... all out and about on the floor and what was before clear space on desks and printers.
We put the wires back on the computer. We turn it on. I use a touch pad instead of a mouse for the computer - it does not work. We then spend 15 minutes looking for a USB plug in mouse, including a trip by husband to the RV in case it was there - he finds it on his desk attached to a Raspberry Pi project (very small computer and coding). (We have since bought a second such mouse to keep around for when we need one in a situation such as this.)
We hook up Drive N (remember both N and O are external drives), we put the recovery disk into the computer’s DVD drive and start the computer. It finds the internal hard drive, it finds the DVD drive, then it keeps spinning. Finally we give up. We shut down the computer . We then hook up Drive O, restart the computer, and it appears on the screen. He runs the restore software. We go to reboot the computer and see that it has been restored - the computer will not boot. Of course, we try turning it off and on several times before being sure that there is some problem.
He looks up on the Internet what to do if the boot manager is missing. Oh, so easy, just run Windows repair. Well, I have the disk, but - it is in the closet in the office, which has all sorts of items from our earlier efforts of installing the hard drive and the project I hoped to work on spread around the room and blocking the closet door. So all of this must be moved elsewhere (in a crowded bedroom being used as a library and an office for 2 people). The Windows disk is put in the computer. He follows the directions on the Internet - I sit at his computer and read him the command line. We turn off the computer - then turn it on - it does not boot.
One instruction we find online says to reinstall Windows. We do so - which wipes out the restoration of the hard drive - computer now boots - yea! We reinstall the backup - it does not boot. We repeat this several times (we worked on this from around 3 pm to after 8pm- Chinese food for dinner as no time to cook).
As he has been doing the research for this online he finds out something important - the backup program, a popular (paid program, not freeware) has a reputation for not working. He had a problem when he tried to restore once before, but found that there was a problem if the backup or restore was done using USB 3 connections - so we had been using USB 2 connections. He reads that a newer version of the program does not recognize drives bigger than 5 TB, maybe it did not work at all with Drive N as this is an older version of the software and the drive is 4 TB, while Drive O is only 1 TB?
We finally give up. He reloads Windows and now I must find and reinstall all my software. Luckily the data, which was on a USB flash drive is intact as are the backups of it as they were on same and were done with different software so my data is all intact. I realize as I start to install software that much of my software is freeware and the downloads are on the old hard drive which was replaced. I did not anticipate needing to replace any of it by hand and so I also did not anticipate needing to get it off the drive before we took it out of the computer. While the programs could be downloaded again, many of them are older versions of the programs because I did not like the updated versions (and in many cases neither did husband), so I really need access to the old internal hard drive we took out). I asked husband if they could both be in the computer (extra empty drive bays in the computer anyway) - he said they could not as they are both drives which boot the computer and it would confuse the computer.
Today we went out and bought a case to convert an internal hard drive to an external one - so I can access the files on the old hard drive for whatever I need and is on parts of the drive which is still good. I then loaded more programs onto the computer with more to come.
I sat and checked my email and did other things on my smaller laptop while we were doing all of this installing and reinstalling the backups and Windows. I went to check my main email account. I changed the password a few months back - I know what it should be but that does not work, so I couldn’t check my main account - even worse, I had to hope that I checked that account with my bigger, older laptop - luckily I did and tonight - after not being able to check email yesterday or today on this account (I don’t check on the weekend) I was able to check email on this account. I still have to send an email to a friend for her birthday - which ended a little over an hour ago - as I did not have her email address other than in that email account.
I use very old software as a calendar/address book/todo list - an organizer program. I also use my old cell phone, a Palm Centro, as a PDA around the house as it syncs with this software (my current cell phone does not work with the todos section and I tend to only use same for home chores, so I sync both cell phones to the organizer software. When I start using it again, since it is being reinstalled on the computer I will have to overwrite the Centro - so I cannot make any entries or changes to same until they are synced again or I will lose any changes made on the Centro.
I cannot wait for all the software to be back, changed to how I like it to be (and you may know by now that I am picky and don’t like change) and it all to working as it used to be again.
I have learned that, unfortunately, one does not know that one’s backup software will not work until it is too late. We will trying another program which seems to be better liked and seems to work from now on.
While we were installing Windows and the backup Monday I also managed to start sorting through computer program and printer manuals back to I don’t know when. I pulled 3 large books (from when software came with large manuals) and some smaller ones. The 3 large ones I am going to donate as they are for programs not all that old and might still be used, the others have gone in for recycling. There were others I would have pulled out to toss, but they are for games that husband bought and I will have to go through them with him - I never toss or donate anything of his without his permission. I do now have the books to the printers on top of the others (they are lying down on the shelves) so they can be easily reached as they are still used when something goes wrong or needs to be reset.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
ORGANIZING OUR STUDIO
My husband and I have a “studio”. One of the reasons we picked the house we did is that it had a family room off the kitchen - actually it sort of opens into the kitchen with a big squared off archway between the rooms. It is not an original part of our house. One of the several owners before us added it to the back of the house as room to watch television and spend time with their family. To us it was a room to set up to work on our crafts - personal and to sell - and I would be able to cook at the same time in the adjacent kitchen. In the days before cable boxes and flat screen TVs we could also put our kitchen TV on a lazy susan and turn it around to also watch in the studio.
We set up the studio to suit our needs. We each have a 5 ft by 2 ½ foot office type table to work on. The tables sit back to back so if needed we have a 5 ft x 5ft space to work on - the tables are, for some reason, about an inch different in height, but generally that is not a problem if we need space. I have a bridge table in the corner of the room which abuts the table. When I used to make a lot of baby quilts it worked well to hold them up while I stitching them. It also is good to hold supplies and stuff next to me. I have two stacks of small plastic drawer units to hold ideas in progress, spare spools of thread, etc. There is a large 3 drawer plastic chest underneath with my sewing supplies and items to make small bears I used to make a lot of. Husband just had his table until a few years ago, after the bed bugs when I was trying to better organize the room, I added a 2 shelf plastic unit to hold items he needs more often than others next to him along the wall.
We have husband’s long dresser from his bedroom when he was a boy at the ends of the tables (the other ends are against the wall). Drawers hold embroidery supplies and pieces - completed and waiting to be made, miniature punch needle - ditto, wood turning parts and assembly tools, lucets, wooden games husband makes, some fancy batting and iron on glue and a pasta maker (well it is right off our kitchen and no place else was large enough). On top of it we have a 3 drawer unit which has a drawer each for items either of us is working on and a drawer of glues - all kinds of glues. (If we need glue in the house we know to look for it here.) There are an assortment of paper cutters - sliding ones, guillotine type ones, etc. There is also something called an Ellison machine - what is used in schools to cut letters, pictures, etc. to decorate classrooms.
We have 2 other dressers which we bought over the years which hold fabric - we have a lot of fabric. These are the ones which are cut pieces - the bolts are in the basement. We also have a dresser/cabinet combination - also husband’s from when he was a boy - which holds unstarted skeins of embroidery floss (Walmart discontinued them some years ago and we bought 2 of each color they had - since then they have brought them back) and other assorted needlework threads. The fabric dresser behind husband’s chair at his work table also serves as a counter to put things on and work on. We have two tall bookcases for books and magazines - mostly craft, but my recipe books are also here (again, remember this is next to the kitchen) and there is a collection of girls books I have and I keep it here as husband needed most of my bookcase in our office/library and there are some shelves along one wall which holds items we have made.
Lastly, of what I will mention right now, we have a big piece of furniture which I do not know what to call. It is divided in two - one side has shelves with full length doors in front of them and the other side has shelves with 2 small drawers at the bottom. The plan is to take the doors off and then plastic boxes of supplies can be turned depthwise - as they are on the other side of the unit - and smaller boxes put next to them - ditto.
When we had the bedbugs I had to heat all of the cut fabric in the dryer on high heat for 50 minutes and then bag them in sealed plastic bags. It was a mess. Between the fabric and personal fabric items I filled over 60 bags of fabric items. The thought of returning the fabric to the drawers was overwhelming. I finally decided to do 10 pieces a day. Husband pointed out that 10 pieces is not much - I replied that it is 10 pieces put away more than before. Day by day I did this. Some days it went well and I put away more than 10 pieces - other days there was just no time. Within a month and a half to 2 months - the fabric was put away - neater and better organized than before and I had done something I always planned to do - I cut a piece of each fabric and made a swatch card by gluing the piece of fabric to half a 3.5x5 inch index card. I then put the cards into the plastic sleeves made to hold baseball cards in a looseleaf book. (The looseleaf book dates back to high school.) We can now look through the book for fabric when need it. It is marked with the purpose the fabric was bought for, where it is located, and how much we have (all in pencil so it can be changed as needed). I also have a diagram in the front of the looseleaf book with the dressers, a number I gave to each drawer, and generally what is in each drawer to make it easier to find.
I sorted ribbon. I sorted lace. I bagged pompoms. I put all of the weaving, knitting, and crocheting and related stuff on one shelf in the unnamed shelf unit. I made a box with assorted general crafts. I made a box of buttons. I sorted findings for leatherwork into a sectional box (with a note where I stored spare in the basement). I was progressing along well. I used the dining room table covered over to protect it, some wood crates we used at craft shows to hold up the shelves, plastic boxes and such to sort and store craft supplies.
Then I hit a snag. We had a tall thin set of plastic drawers. They never worked well - any weight in them was too much. We decided to replace it with a new and better made dresser. We started looking. We could not get too wide a dresser as one of the bookcases faces the side of the dresser and we have to have room to walk in front of the bookcase to have access to the shelves. It took us about a year to find a dresser. We bought one in the children’s section of Ikea. We assembled it and set it up. I started figuring out what to put in it. Top drawer - in sectional dividers - scissors and small hand tools (and over the years it has also accumulated personal stuff I have to deal with), next drawer - paints, markers, inks, crayons color pencils, another drawer husband’s paper cutting scissors and paper, a drawer with pieces of felt in it. It was going so well.
Then we had mice in the (again, adjacent) kitchen. I carefully sanitized most of the cleaning supplies and put them in some of the cartons I had been using for sorting craft supplies and they ended up in front of the new dresser - leaving supplies unstored and drawers empty and inaccessible. This went on for several years until I got around to cleaning out under the sink in the kitchen this past year and moved the kitchen stuff back in place.
Now I could go back to organizing. In the interim we, of course, needed the dining room so supplies and what they were in were stored back in the studio willy nilly - filling up space and blocking things.
Two weeks ago husband was again talking about a weaving book “we” own. He wanted it as it contained instructions on how to make a certain type of small loom he wanted to make. I was sick and tired of hearing about this magic, missing book, so at 3 in the morning, I moved the crates and so on that were stashed in front of the bookcase facing the new dresser. I got everything out from in front of the bookcase and found the “weaving section” - 3 books. (I had done a lot of work at sorting and organizing in the studio before I got stumped at continuing.) I gave him the book that seemed to be what he was looking for and it was - yay for me. It did not have the directions he wanted for the small loom. Oh, well.
Well, now we had crates and other items out blocking space in the room. I went through the crates and they had much less in them than I thought and in one evening they were emptied out of everything which did not belong in them (table covers for craft shows were left in them). The next thing to do was to put them away.
The crates and a variety of other items store under my work table - far enough in to be out of my way when sitting at the table as they are rarely used. (The table itself is covered with stuff to be sorted and stored.) I figured that I would take out the plastic boxes under the table which “I knew” held the small bears I had made, store the crates, and put back the boxes - easy, peasy - half hour, 45 minutes at most. I bet you can guess what is coming -
I pulled out the boxes and put them on husband’s studio table. (His table is empty as he has been drying items he weaves on it.) I found out that most of the boxes had items other than I thought they did. Some years ago we had bought square and rectangular gift boxes for pens and jewelry which husband made to sell. They did not sell well. We have since been using the square boxes in shipping out some other items he makes and have been running out of the square boxes. One of these plastic boxes had some of the turned items in it - I combined some of the items which were in square boxes into 2 rectangular boxes - hmmm, 4 more boxes he could use. I then took the carton which had the jewelry pieces in the gift boxes and combined same into many less rectangular boxes- for storage - and ended up with a good number of square boxes. I also found that this way all of the small turned items fit in the one plastic box for storage (bowls, plates, etc. are in another carton). I then managed to combine 3 cartons of boxes into one as enough had been taken out and one also used to hold the jewelry - what a great change in storage space! (The 2 empty cartons went out to the porch for recycling - one was used for last week’s recycling and the other will be shortly be used for same.
I then climbed under my table and stored the crates, the plastic boxes, and some other craft show display items under the table - 2 plus hours work - but what a difference. What a great feeling of getting something done. I went on to clear some smaller areas and put the excess stuff away.
Now, I have mentioned in the past that we do 1770's reenacting. Husband is looking for something to do at events - he used to be commander, but no longer is and can now do what he wants instead of needing to run events. He needs a small, period looking table for several of his ideas. The table has to be able to be taken apart for storage and in transit. He decided the best way would be to use screw in legs which are available at home/lumber stores even though these are definitely not correct to the period, but made properly it would just look like a small table with legs. (What does this have to do with organizing - just wait and see.)
We went out the day after I had stored the crates and boxes away to find legs that looked right. He saw the price of the legs and realized that it would cost much more to make the table than he had planned - he had to get wood for the table top and the screw pieces also. Then I said magic words - “When I was under the table last night putting stuff away I had to move 2 sets of those legs.” He could not figure out why we had them - I reminded him that he had made a table for a knitting machine - decades ago - but neither of us can remember what the other set of legs is for. I was pretty sure one set of the legs was definitely passable for the purpose.
So, we went home and, yes, I had to take back out most of what I stored away the night before. This time I was smart - I handed him my chair so it was out of the way and I did not need to deal with it. (Notice when I am organizing and cleaning it is “me” doing it and he is scarce - when he needs table legs it is “we” doing it and he is “helping” me.) Well the legs were fine and then I had to store everything else back - again.
The other night - now that I have access to the bookcase - I sorted needlework magazines which I have just been fitting in on top of books when I did not have access. Most of them went into the magazine cases we have, I need 2-3 more magazine cases and, yes, I have decided some magazines I no longer need for reference and have started looking through them for any articles I want to keep and putting the rest out for recycling.
He had mentioned that one issue of the magazines I had and was sorting was suppose to have an article on weaving. As I was going through I noticed that one of them had weaving on the cover - yes, it was the one he wanted. The craft magazines are now sorted by date. Many of them have previously had their tables of contents scanned into the computer to make searching for an article or subject easier. Now with access I will one day be able to scan the rest.
Yes, progress is finally being made again!
Have you been working on any organizing projects and finally making progress?
We set up the studio to suit our needs. We each have a 5 ft by 2 ½ foot office type table to work on. The tables sit back to back so if needed we have a 5 ft x 5ft space to work on - the tables are, for some reason, about an inch different in height, but generally that is not a problem if we need space. I have a bridge table in the corner of the room which abuts the table. When I used to make a lot of baby quilts it worked well to hold them up while I stitching them. It also is good to hold supplies and stuff next to me. I have two stacks of small plastic drawer units to hold ideas in progress, spare spools of thread, etc. There is a large 3 drawer plastic chest underneath with my sewing supplies and items to make small bears I used to make a lot of. Husband just had his table until a few years ago, after the bed bugs when I was trying to better organize the room, I added a 2 shelf plastic unit to hold items he needs more often than others next to him along the wall.
We have husband’s long dresser from his bedroom when he was a boy at the ends of the tables (the other ends are against the wall). Drawers hold embroidery supplies and pieces - completed and waiting to be made, miniature punch needle - ditto, wood turning parts and assembly tools, lucets, wooden games husband makes, some fancy batting and iron on glue and a pasta maker (well it is right off our kitchen and no place else was large enough). On top of it we have a 3 drawer unit which has a drawer each for items either of us is working on and a drawer of glues - all kinds of glues. (If we need glue in the house we know to look for it here.) There are an assortment of paper cutters - sliding ones, guillotine type ones, etc. There is also something called an Ellison machine - what is used in schools to cut letters, pictures, etc. to decorate classrooms.
We have 2 other dressers which we bought over the years which hold fabric - we have a lot of fabric. These are the ones which are cut pieces - the bolts are in the basement. We also have a dresser/cabinet combination - also husband’s from when he was a boy - which holds unstarted skeins of embroidery floss (Walmart discontinued them some years ago and we bought 2 of each color they had - since then they have brought them back) and other assorted needlework threads. The fabric dresser behind husband’s chair at his work table also serves as a counter to put things on and work on. We have two tall bookcases for books and magazines - mostly craft, but my recipe books are also here (again, remember this is next to the kitchen) and there is a collection of girls books I have and I keep it here as husband needed most of my bookcase in our office/library and there are some shelves along one wall which holds items we have made.
Lastly, of what I will mention right now, we have a big piece of furniture which I do not know what to call. It is divided in two - one side has shelves with full length doors in front of them and the other side has shelves with 2 small drawers at the bottom. The plan is to take the doors off and then plastic boxes of supplies can be turned depthwise - as they are on the other side of the unit - and smaller boxes put next to them - ditto.
When we had the bedbugs I had to heat all of the cut fabric in the dryer on high heat for 50 minutes and then bag them in sealed plastic bags. It was a mess. Between the fabric and personal fabric items I filled over 60 bags of fabric items. The thought of returning the fabric to the drawers was overwhelming. I finally decided to do 10 pieces a day. Husband pointed out that 10 pieces is not much - I replied that it is 10 pieces put away more than before. Day by day I did this. Some days it went well and I put away more than 10 pieces - other days there was just no time. Within a month and a half to 2 months - the fabric was put away - neater and better organized than before and I had done something I always planned to do - I cut a piece of each fabric and made a swatch card by gluing the piece of fabric to half a 3.5x5 inch index card. I then put the cards into the plastic sleeves made to hold baseball cards in a looseleaf book. (The looseleaf book dates back to high school.) We can now look through the book for fabric when need it. It is marked with the purpose the fabric was bought for, where it is located, and how much we have (all in pencil so it can be changed as needed). I also have a diagram in the front of the looseleaf book with the dressers, a number I gave to each drawer, and generally what is in each drawer to make it easier to find.
I sorted ribbon. I sorted lace. I bagged pompoms. I put all of the weaving, knitting, and crocheting and related stuff on one shelf in the unnamed shelf unit. I made a box with assorted general crafts. I made a box of buttons. I sorted findings for leatherwork into a sectional box (with a note where I stored spare in the basement). I was progressing along well. I used the dining room table covered over to protect it, some wood crates we used at craft shows to hold up the shelves, plastic boxes and such to sort and store craft supplies.
Then I hit a snag. We had a tall thin set of plastic drawers. They never worked well - any weight in them was too much. We decided to replace it with a new and better made dresser. We started looking. We could not get too wide a dresser as one of the bookcases faces the side of the dresser and we have to have room to walk in front of the bookcase to have access to the shelves. It took us about a year to find a dresser. We bought one in the children’s section of Ikea. We assembled it and set it up. I started figuring out what to put in it. Top drawer - in sectional dividers - scissors and small hand tools (and over the years it has also accumulated personal stuff I have to deal with), next drawer - paints, markers, inks, crayons color pencils, another drawer husband’s paper cutting scissors and paper, a drawer with pieces of felt in it. It was going so well.
Then we had mice in the (again, adjacent) kitchen. I carefully sanitized most of the cleaning supplies and put them in some of the cartons I had been using for sorting craft supplies and they ended up in front of the new dresser - leaving supplies unstored and drawers empty and inaccessible. This went on for several years until I got around to cleaning out under the sink in the kitchen this past year and moved the kitchen stuff back in place.
Now I could go back to organizing. In the interim we, of course, needed the dining room so supplies and what they were in were stored back in the studio willy nilly - filling up space and blocking things.
Two weeks ago husband was again talking about a weaving book “we” own. He wanted it as it contained instructions on how to make a certain type of small loom he wanted to make. I was sick and tired of hearing about this magic, missing book, so at 3 in the morning, I moved the crates and so on that were stashed in front of the bookcase facing the new dresser. I got everything out from in front of the bookcase and found the “weaving section” - 3 books. (I had done a lot of work at sorting and organizing in the studio before I got stumped at continuing.) I gave him the book that seemed to be what he was looking for and it was - yay for me. It did not have the directions he wanted for the small loom. Oh, well.
Well, now we had crates and other items out blocking space in the room. I went through the crates and they had much less in them than I thought and in one evening they were emptied out of everything which did not belong in them (table covers for craft shows were left in them). The next thing to do was to put them away.
The crates and a variety of other items store under my work table - far enough in to be out of my way when sitting at the table as they are rarely used. (The table itself is covered with stuff to be sorted and stored.) I figured that I would take out the plastic boxes under the table which “I knew” held the small bears I had made, store the crates, and put back the boxes - easy, peasy - half hour, 45 minutes at most. I bet you can guess what is coming -
I pulled out the boxes and put them on husband’s studio table. (His table is empty as he has been drying items he weaves on it.) I found out that most of the boxes had items other than I thought they did. Some years ago we had bought square and rectangular gift boxes for pens and jewelry which husband made to sell. They did not sell well. We have since been using the square boxes in shipping out some other items he makes and have been running out of the square boxes. One of these plastic boxes had some of the turned items in it - I combined some of the items which were in square boxes into 2 rectangular boxes - hmmm, 4 more boxes he could use. I then took the carton which had the jewelry pieces in the gift boxes and combined same into many less rectangular boxes- for storage - and ended up with a good number of square boxes. I also found that this way all of the small turned items fit in the one plastic box for storage (bowls, plates, etc. are in another carton). I then managed to combine 3 cartons of boxes into one as enough had been taken out and one also used to hold the jewelry - what a great change in storage space! (The 2 empty cartons went out to the porch for recycling - one was used for last week’s recycling and the other will be shortly be used for same.
I then climbed under my table and stored the crates, the plastic boxes, and some other craft show display items under the table - 2 plus hours work - but what a difference. What a great feeling of getting something done. I went on to clear some smaller areas and put the excess stuff away.
Now, I have mentioned in the past that we do 1770's reenacting. Husband is looking for something to do at events - he used to be commander, but no longer is and can now do what he wants instead of needing to run events. He needs a small, period looking table for several of his ideas. The table has to be able to be taken apart for storage and in transit. He decided the best way would be to use screw in legs which are available at home/lumber stores even though these are definitely not correct to the period, but made properly it would just look like a small table with legs. (What does this have to do with organizing - just wait and see.)
We went out the day after I had stored the crates and boxes away to find legs that looked right. He saw the price of the legs and realized that it would cost much more to make the table than he had planned - he had to get wood for the table top and the screw pieces also. Then I said magic words - “When I was under the table last night putting stuff away I had to move 2 sets of those legs.” He could not figure out why we had them - I reminded him that he had made a table for a knitting machine - decades ago - but neither of us can remember what the other set of legs is for. I was pretty sure one set of the legs was definitely passable for the purpose.
So, we went home and, yes, I had to take back out most of what I stored away the night before. This time I was smart - I handed him my chair so it was out of the way and I did not need to deal with it. (Notice when I am organizing and cleaning it is “me” doing it and he is scarce - when he needs table legs it is “we” doing it and he is “helping” me.) Well the legs were fine and then I had to store everything else back - again.
The other night - now that I have access to the bookcase - I sorted needlework magazines which I have just been fitting in on top of books when I did not have access. Most of them went into the magazine cases we have, I need 2-3 more magazine cases and, yes, I have decided some magazines I no longer need for reference and have started looking through them for any articles I want to keep and putting the rest out for recycling.
He had mentioned that one issue of the magazines I had and was sorting was suppose to have an article on weaving. As I was going through I noticed that one of them had weaving on the cover - yes, it was the one he wanted. The craft magazines are now sorted by date. Many of them have previously had their tables of contents scanned into the computer to make searching for an article or subject easier. Now with access I will one day be able to scan the rest.
Yes, progress is finally being made again!
Have you been working on any organizing projects and finally making progress?
Thursday, May 19, 2016
I HATE SHEETS
I have a secret. There is one thing I really, really hate in housekeeping. SHEETS! I hate washing them. I hate folding them. I hate making the bed with them. I don’t know why I hate them, but I do. I don’t mind cleaning the toilets - I don’t consider it a fun activity, but I don’t mind - but sheets!!!!
One thing is that I am short just over 5 feet tall and therefore have short arms and I have to stretch them waaay out to hold the sheets. Our bed is a queen size, but I don’t like twin size either. Pillow cases are fine. Mattress pads are fine. Strangely even blankets and quilts are fine, but not sheets.
Growing up mom made our beds for us after we left for school - we usually used a quilt on the bed and mom would also put a bedspread on the bed. When we were older mom went back to work and we were expected to make our beds - the bedspreads were no longer used, but a quilt is easy to spread out and mom still changed the sheets.
Then I got married. We got an apartment. We bought two sets of sheets and pillowcases and blanket. It was up to me to make up the bed before we moved in - as well as after. My husband grew up in a home with a top sheet and a blanket tucked in - we did not have a top sheet when I was growing up and we agreed to a compromise - we would get a blanket and top sheets and when the blanket was replaced we would get a quilt - and use a top sheet with it. Our bedding has changed over the ensuing 37 years and we used a quilt for quite some time, until we had bed bugs - we then read that it was hard to heat a quilt in a dryer enough to make sure that any bed bugs died and we switched back to a blanket - in winter 2 blankets. Early on we had something to do and it was change the bedding day - and the other set was in the laundry (I had to go to a laundry up the road to do the laundry then and had not gone.) So we bought a third set - and have remained with 3 sets ever since - 1 on the bed, 1 in the laundry, and 1 waiting to be used.
Because I hate sheets I would plan to change the bedding in the morning and then not do so and plan to change it at night. At night we were too tired, so the bedding did not get changed as often as it should. . I finally came up with an idea - I strip the bed in the morning, the bed gets to air out, and I make it up before we go to sleep - I have to or we can’t go to sleep. This has worked well and also lets the mattress air out that day.
I was changing the bedding on Mondays for decades. Then, after husband was home full time, we started going to a classic film showing on Mondays at 1 pm ($2 each, popcorn and soda included if one wanted same - we were among the youngest there). This made a problem with Monday bedding change, so it was moved to Tuesday where it remains, even though the films have since been discontinued.
Weekly I change the sheets and pillowcases. On the first change of the month I also change the mattress pad (we own 2) and the underneath pillow cases - you know, the ones with zippers that are inside the nice looking cases. Since the bed bugs our mattress and box spring is each sealed in a bed bug proof case and our pillows have a 3rd pillow case inside the zipper cases which is also bed bug proof. The bed bug covers on the mattress and pillows are not normally changed, but I have just bought new bed bug pillow case covers as several years of use and summer sweat have made them unpleasant to look at. They have been heated in our bed bug heater and will be washed with this week’s load of sheets and pillowcases to be used the start of next month.
The reason I thought of this subject for today is that I tend to wash the bedding as the last load for the week and, once again, I did not get around to folding the sheets for an entire week - just in time to be able to do the laundry again.
I have figured out over the years that sheets do not have to be perfectly folded as if they are to inspected. If there are wrinkles in it - I don’t care. If the edges don’t meet perfectly - I don’t care. The fitted sheet - I match the corners (trying hard to figure out which way the sheet is long and which way it is wide so I will unfold it as needed to make the bed), then fold in thirds as well as it folds and then in thirds the opposite way - again just as well as it folds - to be stored. I fold the top flat sheet by finding the corners of the larger hem and matching them, following the sides to the bottom and matching those corners and then gripping all 4 corners with one had and following the sides to new middle fold and then on from there. When I make the bed it all - more or less - unfolds to match how it has to go on the bed.
The bedding is kept in a linen closet just outside our bedroom door in the hall. I have a hanging wire shelf which holds the pillowcases and a second one which holds older pillow cases which are still good from sheets we no longer use in case spares are needed - we threw out the sheets we had when we had the bedbugs as there was evidence of the bedbugs on them. Next to the stored sheets is a roll of paper towels (unrelated to this, but it is there and should be mentioned) and then the spare mattress pad is on the shelf with the spare under pillow case, zipper covers on top of it. Our sheets and pillowcases are now white or off white since the bed bugs. The shelf with the pillow cases hangs just below the sheets. The mattress pads are the type without sides and with elastic on the corners.
We also own a set of twin bed sheets and spare pillowcase as we have a twin bed in our spare room (I may have mentioned “the teddy bears’ room”) which was intended as guest room for our moms, but has not been used other than by niece and nephew once when they were young and two more times by my niece when she was junior high age. Some of the teddy bears and dolls do enjoy sitting on it. I keep a thin quilt (what we called a summer quilt in my family) on the bed over the mattress pad and made it up when someone was using it and then stripped the bed and washed the bedding - then stored it in the same linen closet as our bedding.
Several years ago when we bought our tiny RV I had to buy bedding for it also - more sheets. That bed is very unusual and has to be assembled to be used - it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to make up. It makes up into a short king size bed, but I make it as 2 twins immediately adjacent to each other. I will post at some future point (probably when I make it up the first time this year) about it and the heck of doing making it up - it is like a comedy routine.
There is another use for sheets that also makes work for me they can be used as fairly cheap fabric. We have cut them up and made table covers for our tables for craft shows. We needed some extra curtains for our RV for quicker use on the road (so no one can see in our windows when are stopped and not in the RV) - black sheets worked very well. Older sheets are used as covers over tables which are not ours at craft shows and demonstrations and also to cover over the items on tables in situations such as this when the tables are left for the night.
So, despite my hatred of sheets I have to spend part of my life dealing with them and have resigned myself to doing so, trying to make it as easy as possible.
Do you have a chore you hate to do? What is it and how do you deal with it?
One thing is that I am short just over 5 feet tall and therefore have short arms and I have to stretch them waaay out to hold the sheets. Our bed is a queen size, but I don’t like twin size either. Pillow cases are fine. Mattress pads are fine. Strangely even blankets and quilts are fine, but not sheets.
Growing up mom made our beds for us after we left for school - we usually used a quilt on the bed and mom would also put a bedspread on the bed. When we were older mom went back to work and we were expected to make our beds - the bedspreads were no longer used, but a quilt is easy to spread out and mom still changed the sheets.
Then I got married. We got an apartment. We bought two sets of sheets and pillowcases and blanket. It was up to me to make up the bed before we moved in - as well as after. My husband grew up in a home with a top sheet and a blanket tucked in - we did not have a top sheet when I was growing up and we agreed to a compromise - we would get a blanket and top sheets and when the blanket was replaced we would get a quilt - and use a top sheet with it. Our bedding has changed over the ensuing 37 years and we used a quilt for quite some time, until we had bed bugs - we then read that it was hard to heat a quilt in a dryer enough to make sure that any bed bugs died and we switched back to a blanket - in winter 2 blankets. Early on we had something to do and it was change the bedding day - and the other set was in the laundry (I had to go to a laundry up the road to do the laundry then and had not gone.) So we bought a third set - and have remained with 3 sets ever since - 1 on the bed, 1 in the laundry, and 1 waiting to be used.
Because I hate sheets I would plan to change the bedding in the morning and then not do so and plan to change it at night. At night we were too tired, so the bedding did not get changed as often as it should. . I finally came up with an idea - I strip the bed in the morning, the bed gets to air out, and I make it up before we go to sleep - I have to or we can’t go to sleep. This has worked well and also lets the mattress air out that day.
I was changing the bedding on Mondays for decades. Then, after husband was home full time, we started going to a classic film showing on Mondays at 1 pm ($2 each, popcorn and soda included if one wanted same - we were among the youngest there). This made a problem with Monday bedding change, so it was moved to Tuesday where it remains, even though the films have since been discontinued.
Weekly I change the sheets and pillowcases. On the first change of the month I also change the mattress pad (we own 2) and the underneath pillow cases - you know, the ones with zippers that are inside the nice looking cases. Since the bed bugs our mattress and box spring is each sealed in a bed bug proof case and our pillows have a 3rd pillow case inside the zipper cases which is also bed bug proof. The bed bug covers on the mattress and pillows are not normally changed, but I have just bought new bed bug pillow case covers as several years of use and summer sweat have made them unpleasant to look at. They have been heated in our bed bug heater and will be washed with this week’s load of sheets and pillowcases to be used the start of next month.
The reason I thought of this subject for today is that I tend to wash the bedding as the last load for the week and, once again, I did not get around to folding the sheets for an entire week - just in time to be able to do the laundry again.
I have figured out over the years that sheets do not have to be perfectly folded as if they are to inspected. If there are wrinkles in it - I don’t care. If the edges don’t meet perfectly - I don’t care. The fitted sheet - I match the corners (trying hard to figure out which way the sheet is long and which way it is wide so I will unfold it as needed to make the bed), then fold in thirds as well as it folds and then in thirds the opposite way - again just as well as it folds - to be stored. I fold the top flat sheet by finding the corners of the larger hem and matching them, following the sides to the bottom and matching those corners and then gripping all 4 corners with one had and following the sides to new middle fold and then on from there. When I make the bed it all - more or less - unfolds to match how it has to go on the bed.
The bedding is kept in a linen closet just outside our bedroom door in the hall. I have a hanging wire shelf which holds the pillowcases and a second one which holds older pillow cases which are still good from sheets we no longer use in case spares are needed - we threw out the sheets we had when we had the bedbugs as there was evidence of the bedbugs on them. Next to the stored sheets is a roll of paper towels (unrelated to this, but it is there and should be mentioned) and then the spare mattress pad is on the shelf with the spare under pillow case, zipper covers on top of it. Our sheets and pillowcases are now white or off white since the bed bugs. The shelf with the pillow cases hangs just below the sheets. The mattress pads are the type without sides and with elastic on the corners.
We also own a set of twin bed sheets and spare pillowcase as we have a twin bed in our spare room (I may have mentioned “the teddy bears’ room”) which was intended as guest room for our moms, but has not been used other than by niece and nephew once when they were young and two more times by my niece when she was junior high age. Some of the teddy bears and dolls do enjoy sitting on it. I keep a thin quilt (what we called a summer quilt in my family) on the bed over the mattress pad and made it up when someone was using it and then stripped the bed and washed the bedding - then stored it in the same linen closet as our bedding.
Several years ago when we bought our tiny RV I had to buy bedding for it also - more sheets. That bed is very unusual and has to be assembled to be used - it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to make up. It makes up into a short king size bed, but I make it as 2 twins immediately adjacent to each other. I will post at some future point (probably when I make it up the first time this year) about it and the heck of doing making it up - it is like a comedy routine.
There is another use for sheets that also makes work for me they can be used as fairly cheap fabric. We have cut them up and made table covers for our tables for craft shows. We needed some extra curtains for our RV for quicker use on the road (so no one can see in our windows when are stopped and not in the RV) - black sheets worked very well. Older sheets are used as covers over tables which are not ours at craft shows and demonstrations and also to cover over the items on tables in situations such as this when the tables are left for the night.
So, despite my hatred of sheets I have to spend part of my life dealing with them and have resigned myself to doing so, trying to make it as easy as possible.
Do you have a chore you hate to do? What is it and how do you deal with it?
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