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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

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

COVID - 19 # 18 HAVING SERVICEMEN IN THE HOUSE

Last week since I diverged to the car accident clean up I did not finish the story of our bedroom air conditioner replacement from the week before.

We purchased the air conditioner from a local appliance store that has been around “forever”.  We have purchased air conditioners from them before, as well as other appliances.  I do not really like them as I think they overcharge and they don't seem to understand how our state sales tax applies to air conditioners.  If we were not in the corona virus situation, I would suggested to husband that we should shop around before buying, but since we are that in situation – I said nothing as we needed to resolve the matter quickly.   

In our state sales tax does not apply to things which are are “capital improvements” to one's house.  For those who might not understand this, a capital improvement becomes a permanent part of one house – a  window (new or replaced) is a capital improvement, a window shade or curtain is not.  If one buys an air conditioner and sticks it in their window opening it is not a capital improvement as one can easily remove it from the window and the house would not damaged from doing so.  The exact same air conditioner if it is installed through a hole in the wall, as our is, – a permanent installation – is a capital improvement.  In both cases it does not matter if it is a new unit (and new hole in the wall for the permanent install) or a replacement unit (even if through an existing hole in the wall).  If one only replaced part of the air conditioner it would be a repair not a capital improvement whether the air conditioner was in a window or through the wall. 

So basically- we should not have paid sales tax on the new air conditioner, but we were charged sales tax.  This has happened in the past when we have replaced air conditioners (all through the wall) from this store and is one of the reasons I don't like this store.  I have argued in the past to no avail and did not want to get excited and make a fuss this particular time, so after one questioning of the salesman, I went did not make a fuss.  (His story was that there is sales tax except on the first air conditioner installed – I did double check at the state tax website that there should not have sales tax on the air conditioner, and I downloaded the form from the state tax website to apply for a refund of the sales tax we paid. 

I will say that I am giving the store (employees) the benefit of the doubt that they are not trying to rip off customers and they actually think that they should charge the sales tax and are sending it to the state when they send in the sales taxes they have collected.  I hate to think (though I do) that they are knowingly charging sales tax which they should not and either keeping the sales tax collected themselves or are charging the sales tax and sending it to the state as it is too much trouble for them to bother to deal with sales that should not have sales tax charged.

Now our house is rather, ahem, “casual” – as in my dresser has all manner of bric a brac and other items on it.  In addition our rooms are small.  The day before the air conditioner was to be installed I cleared off the dresser (left the clock , my eyeglasses holder and my day of the week pill box).  I packed it into a large plastic box (husband was nice enough to remove scarves he wove that were stored in the box so I could have it.  I wrapped the items – most being breakable – in two of my worn tee shirts and some spare underwear and socks to keep them from breaking.  In the hallway at the top of the stairs – an area of limited space – I have my teddy  figurine village and I was concerned that since the area is small one of the installers might bump into the village – so its “residents” were stored in the same box as the items from my dresser and the “buildings” were moved to the table in our living room that husband uses when weaving (at his suggestion). 

That night we took clothes for the next day out of our closets and then moved our night stands to in front of the closets and pushed my dresser along its wall towards the closets to give the installers the most room possible by where the air conditioner would be placed.    In doing so my lack of vacuuming the room was obvious, so we had to vacuum.  We also pushed our bed to husband's side of the bedroom as far as we could – against his dresser and a bookcase – he had to get into and out of bed at the foot of the bed – had to vacuum under the bed also.  Prepared for coming adventure we went to sleep.

Now, in addition to fear of catching Covid-19, I am still terrified of having bed bugs again.  It was an exhausting and expensive process (1/3 of our income for the year) to get rid of them 11 years ago, and we have been very careful and worked hard to avoid having them again.  Service people who walk in and out of people's houses can easily pick up bed bugs at one house and bring them to their later stops and this was not just someone coming in the house - they were coming in our bedroom!  So the next morning we covered our bed with 2 plastic tarps that we normally use on the bed in our RV when it made it up (in this case to keep the bed clean and so anyone looking in would not see a bed in the van).

When the installers came husband opened the front door.  (We had rearranged our vehicles on the driveway the day before to allow them the most access to the house we could.)  The main installer walked in – he did have mask – sitting below his nose – but no gloves.  Husband made a comment about the mask and it was put into proper place, but when asked about gloves – he said they don't use gloves.  (If me and another time I would refused the air conditioner – but we were stuck.)  Husband dealt with showing him where it was to go, etc.  I stayed downstairs as I felt myself getting upset with virus and bed bug fears.  The assistant installer was outside unpacking the new air conditioner on the driveway – his mask was around his neck as he breathed and sweated all over the air conditioner.  When the main installer went out to him he said something and the assistant's mask was put on properly.  I am under the impression that if nothing had been said – the masks would not be on or at least not properly on.

I stayed mostly towards the back of our living room breathing deeply in an attempt to keep from being upset over people in the house.  It worked – more or less. 

When they were done and left husband sprayed Lysol on the air conditioner, wherever they had been working or put their equipment down, the covers on the bed, etc. We moved the furniture back into place.   It took me well into the next day – as I put the pieces back on my dresser before I stopped feeling in a panic.  The teddy figurine village took another day before it was put back together. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When something is unpleasant (such as having people in our house – in general and especially right now) one has to go ahead and get whatever it is done and over with. 

REORGANIZING AND CLEARING OUT THE LINEN CLOSET - PART 2

Well the new layout on the towel shelf in the linen closet seems to be working.  It lays out so evenly and well that I could even label the front of the shelf if I wanted to help husband figure out which are the towels he likes and which he hates.  (He takes towels and after he starts using them he realizes that they are not the ones he likes.)

I am not sure if I have mentioned that among the other crafts that husband and I work at, husband does weaving.  He had always wanted to do this and a few years ago we found a floor standing loom that was small enough to fit in our living room, but large enough for him to weave scarves, shawls, table runners and the like.  This past September he bought a second one that is narrower and smaller to bring to events where he is selling his weaving to demonstrate.  He also has a much smaller loom that is a reproduction of a type used in earlier centuries that makes fabric tape used in clothing in the period.  (Remember Disney's “Snow White?  The ties across the front of her clothing would have been this type of tape.)  After a piece is woven it has to be washed to “set” it.  If he uses the dryer to dry the pieces they end up with folds that we have to iron to try to get out.  He uses large white towels to roll the pieces in to take down the wetness of them (similar to wringing something out so it is not dripping wet).  He bought a towel to use for drying himself that he hates and it has been in the linen closet taking up space.  I took it out when I redid the layout and brought it to the living room (which is the “loom room” mid January to mid December) for him to have it to use when drying pieces he has woven.

With the new layout  working and the removal of the above towel  and the two large ones mentioned last week – I decided to move the shelf below the one I worked on.  The two larger towels had been on that shelf.  Currently they are rolled up in a bag and will stored on the top shelf of the closet in a spot we cannot reach without a step ladder. 

The shelf below had our bed sheets, our spare mattress pad, and the 2 large towels and was jammed.  The sheets are still in a stack (we have 3 sets – one on the bed, one being washed, and the next ones to put on the bed, so the most in the stack in 2 sets of sheets.  The pillowcases hang below the shelf in a wire hanging shelf, like those below the first shelf.  There is a second wire shelf hanging with pillowcases from old sets of sheets - the sheets wore out, but the pillowcases are still good.  In addition to still being usable for sleeping, they are also good for putting needlework or cloth dolls that we have made to protect them when going to an exhibition.  The sheets have remained where they were.  The mattress pad is folded in thirds the length of them and then rolled up - for some reason this is the best way to store it.  Instead of putting it side to side on the shelf, I put it on the end of the shelf from front to back.  Fit perfect – okay, it did take a bit of pushing to get it in place. 

I then managed to fit a couple of spare shower towels between the sheets and the pad – they are still folded in quarters and are pushed to the back of the shelf.  I put our spare bath mat on top of these spare towels.  We have 3 “bar towels” that we use in the bathroom to wipe up things when we notice they are wet. Normally two of them are in use and I will rotate the three of them to laundry one while two are in use.  I put the third one of same in front of the spare bath towels/bat mat. 

Again, a shelf that seems to work great! 

Next I have to go through things on the wire hanging shelves on the inside of the closet door to get rid of stuff.  Husband tends to buy shampoos when he is not happy with the one he is using, not like them, and stick on these shelves – and they are not sample bottles.  I will toss out about 4 or 5 bottles of shampoo.  There are a variety of other items that have accumulated on these shelves that I will also get rid of.  Anything of his, of course, I ask before I toss.  I hope to have enough room on these shelves so boxes of bandaids do not have to be stacked on each other and fall down on our heads, as well as fit washcloths and guest hand towels on the shelves – or else they will have to be fit on one of the two shelves.  I might even be able to put the box of “ear swabs” right side up on a shelf – right now it is sideways and sometimes swabs fall out. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Little by little this is being accomplished.  If I tried to do it all at once it would not get done.  Try doing small bits of organizing when you can. 

This week I hope to defrost a small spare freezer in our basement – there is years of ice in it.  We have not really used it in awhile, but the freezer in the new refrigerator seems smaller than the one in the old one – and I am not allowed to put anything against the back wall of it as, apparently, that stops the air from moving correctly.

REORGANIZING AND CLEARING OUT THE LINEN CLOSET

That was a short week!

I am starting a new project.  We have a linen closet in our upstairs hall.  We keep what I presume is normal stuff in it – towels, bed linens, cleaning supplies, band aids + related, spare shampoo, spare soap, spare Diabetic supplies, and the like.  It had been fairly well organized, but suddenly it just doesn't work any longer.  This is not a large closet – similar to our other closets – about 2 feet across and a little less in depth.  It is one of our closets that has the roof line coming down through the ceiling so the ceiling is not flat.

Mostly the problem is in the towels – somehow they no longer seem to fit.  I started looking through them to try to figure what the problem is.  I remembered that we have 2 bath sheets with our name embroidered on them.  When we were first married a local store was doing the embroidery and it was something that “everyone” was doing.  The towels are also red  (white embroidery) which is not my favorite color.  These two towels are on the shelf below our other towels and behind the spare mattress cover.  I pulled the towels out for now I will bag them (in clear bag so I know what it is in it) and store, if they fit, on the top shelf of the closet – in the back of same. 

We have too many of our other bath sized towels also.  I figure if I keep 4 of the bath size and 2 each of the size each of us uses for our hair plus 2 towels for the top of the cart in the bathroom (we have no counter and made the cart instead) where they can be reached and store the rest of the towels away – and one set of each will be in use and one set stored.  In case you were wondering – husband likes a towel on top of the cart so if he drops anything – on them nothing will break – he tends to drop a lot of things lately.

I will refold the larger towels in thirds so I can get 4 rows of towels on the shelf.  I have been rolling the hand towels and will continue to do so – I will keep all of them available as I change them twice a week and have 5 sets in each bathroom (downstairs half bathroom has its towels in the cabinet under the sink there). 

We have set of wire small shelves that hangs inside the door of this closet to hold bottles and things. I am going to go through the assortment of started and upstarted shampoos and lotions on the shelves and get rid of them.  That will allow us to store some of other things on the shelves more safely – we both get hit in the head by bandaid packages that are stacked on each other above the height of the front of the shelves and fall on us.  I am sure that there a lot of other items on these shelves that can be tossed out. 

I might even find a place to hang the roll paper towels which wanders around in this closet.  I have gone through the top shelf (where the extra towels will go) before and gotten rid of excess items from up there but I am sure that there are more items to get rid.

Other than the top shelf, towel shelf, and bedding shelf I have a half depth shelf below them which holds cleaning supplies.  The bottom of the closet is where our laundry hangs (off the half depth shelf above it) and where we keep spare toilet paper and boxes of tissues.  I also have 4 wire hanging shelves.  Two of them hang from the bedding shelf.  One has our spare pillow cases and the other has older spare pillowcases – just in case they are needed.  We do have a single bed in the spare bedroom and some of these spare pillow cases are for it (bed has sheets on it and spare blanket for it would be one of the twin bed blankets we use in the RV and in winter in our bed for extra warmth).  The other two hanging shelves hold spare medical items and small items – which hopefully will fit in the shelves on the inside of the door.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Try to find a small area to work on – especially if it is one that you know has stuff you can get rid of.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL OF YOU.

CLEARING OUT THE FAMILY HOME.

I have several large plastic bags with stuff that we took from my family home.

I am not calling it mom's house as my sisters and I do as it is really the family home. My family moved there when I was 5. My (now) middle sister was 6 months old and “baby” sister was 7 years in the future. While I remember the apartment that my parents and I – and middle sister briefly – lived in before the house, my sisters have no memories of any other home growing up. It was a huge house to me coming from the 3 room apartment we lived in before. When middle sister was born I was moved from sleeping on the opposite side of my parents bedroom from where they slept (I often wonder how they managed to create my sister with me sleeping in their bedroom) to a cot in the living room. Since the only TV (a large 1950s console set) was in the living room I got to watch such late night shows as “the Late Show” (old movies) and the early versions of “the Tonight Show – back when Johnny Carson was just a page at NBC, California with my parents – or they could not watch them. I have been thinking a lot about those early days of our family lately – both as my mother is 90 and with the clearing out of our house for the sale of it. I have not taken a lot of family stuff as I am in my mid 60s and have no children to inherit any of the family house – it will eventually reside with my niece or nephew any way.

Since we had the bed bugs here in our home I am always concerned about getting them again. We have a device called a Packtite. It is the size of a very large softsided suitcase with a rack and a heater in it. It is intended to place suitcases in after one has been on a trip to heat the suitcases and what is in them to kill any bed bugs that might have come home with one. Because I am a crazy person, we have it set up with a laundry basket – that we drilled in holes in the bottom of to allow for air flow – in it and we heat any soft items – paper, fabric and the like that we bring into the house – that we are concerned might have bed bugs in them. So the items from my family home - mostly papers and needlework of mine from when I was much younger – all has to be heated.

I am doing so in small batches and have finished two large bags so far. I am going through these items I took when there or my sister set aside for me. (She said she had a box for me – I expected an office files sized box- there were two of them plus other stuff in the box she left.) It is a trip down memory lane and a record of what I considered important enough to keep at one or another point in time. I have found work appointment books from my early days in accounting (could have used one of them when I was positive that I knew a building in a scene on “Blue Bloods” and went crazy to find it and then figure out how I knew it – it was where a client had his factory – the work appointment books also have clients contact info). School grades – I did as badly as I remember. Lots of occasion cards – birthdays, engagement – ours and friends, anniversaries, Valentines (old boyfriends same went straight to the paper shredder), and so on. I have been weeding through – baby age birthday cards, one copy of wedding related paper items, cards from certain people – parents, sisters, husband, a few very good friends, a special aunt &uncle, my grandparents were kept – others were shredded. I found some remembrances of things such as graduation or awards programs – kept, articles I had published in the college newspaper – kept, personal diaries – kept.

Of course I am keeping my needlework – finished or not. I did leave behind two latch hooked throw rugs that were finished except for the edging as I figured they might sell and make a couple of buck for mom, plus husband said to me as I looked at them “Where would we put them?”. I did decide after leaving them if when we went back they were still there I would take them – but we did not get back while they were still in sight.

So I am trying to figure out what to add to the mess of stuff here in husband and my home, without going overboard. I was a bit “lucky”. My toys would have been the hardest to deal with and decide who “lived” and who “died” but the house was hit by Hurricane Sandy and the basement where most of the toys were flooded and they had to be tossed out then by the crew that came in and worked on the basement. Not only were they not there for me to deal with, I had already “mourned their loss”.

There were 5 items in particular that I was looking for. My Girl Scout sash -with my few badges and my annual star pins on it. I had put together a loose leaf book with hand copied lyrics to old folk songs. My dad had given me one of his army shirts from when he was in same during World War II during the late 1960s/early 1970s when wearing army shirts was popular. There is a stapled binding, thin, soft-covered book about our family in “the old country”. Lastly, when I was in high school I embroidered a table cloth. When I got married we could not find it, I figured if any of it ever would turn up – it would be as the house was emptied. I have the army shirt and the loose leaf book of song lyrics. The other items did not show up.

There has been a tag sale by a company that my sister found and much of the contents of the house are gone. We have to go in and clean and fix it up a bit before we sell it. The next day neighbor already is telling us about someone she knows who is interested in the house.

Just in case anyone is interested – mom has had her pacemaker (or its battery – story of what is to be done was different to my sister and me) replaced, so we won't have to figure out how to plug into a wall outlet if it dies. :-) She has also had (within the same week) surgery to remove a lesion that was causing her anemia. As of tonight she is back in her apartment at her assisted living facility – pretty good for a 90 year old woman I think.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - If you were getting ready of your family home – or your own home – what would you be looking for as you would want to make sure that you kept them?

PLANNING YOUR ORGANIZING

Another week – another post – but not much done during the week. 

Last week, as mentioned, I hurt a muscle in my stomach and husband would not let me do anything heavy so I would heal.  This meant that I could do computer work, some cooking (not “heavy” pots) and such.  He carried the laundry bag downstairs so I could do the laundry and then carried the basket of clean items upstairs (twice as I did clothes one day and towels the next) for me.  The basket of clean clothes that I carry upstairs on one hip with one hand normally, he can barely lift.  Unfortunately after feeling better, today my back was hurting – I could not even twist to see the office phone to dial as I had to lean around the file holder stack on my desk – I had to go to the kitchen to call our bank to see if something coming into the account had arrived.  So not much done again this last week.

I will say that we were very pleasantly surprised after using up most of our available time last week to prepare for the reenactment event I mentioned that it was much easier to do than we had figured how it had been explained. 

Rather than hand everything over the fence, we were allowed to drive right to the space set aside for our unit.  The people from the museum that was having the event were the nicest people we have ever met running an event – and we started doing craft shows in the 1980s.  They bent over backwards – if we wanted the space set a different way, they were glad for us to do it and helped us.  They were helping us unpack.  They had tables out for us to use – one less thing for us to have to take out and set up.  When we had finished unpacking I asked one of the men to help me back the van out of the museum grounds.  He sent me up the road about a block to a school that was letting them use their parking lot  - okay, a small bit of disorganization, the lot was small and full – there was a children's soccer game going on.  There were no spaces.  The fellow (not from our unit, but a friend) who was the blacksmith followed me in – he had a regular car and told me he as going to park between the two rows as another car had done.  I luckily saw a father and son heading to their car and got that space.  Not sure what later cars did – demonstrators, volunteers, and the public. 

Despite my back I held up one of the tent poles (this is a reproduction tent – not a modern popup tent) for the unit set up as our members put it up.  We had table next to the tent with plenty of room for the wooden drying racks we were using as display for the scarves husband had woven.  After we set up I found a space between our table and the unit's setup to sit and embroider.  Other members set up across the aisle from us in a group.

I talk about this in this column as organizing a setup for a display – whether a craft show, a reenactment event, a flea market, or a display setup up involves advance planning and then one has to hope that all goes as expected.  We have learned to carry a variety of setup items that we do not normally need or use – just in case.  Even if one knows the space that one will have it may be different than it was last year or otherwise expected.  If the person that the next space is reserved for does not show up, one may be able to expand into their space.  One may have to deal with uneven ground – or even a large puddle or flooded area.  This time we were lucky.  The venue's employees were nice and accommodating and the space well situated and not limited.  We have gone to craft shows where we are supposed to have the same space as the year before – a corner space with 2 sides to display on – and found that the setup had changed or an error was made and one had different space in a different area midaisle with one side to work with.  As we did this when we brought more items for setup than we needed, one has to be prepared for anything. 

Think of trying to organize your home – you have plans to clear out the closet in the spare room and then find items there that you had not remembered.  You are not ready to deal with those items – maybe not enough garbage bags (or the bags you have are too small) or you need help to move what you find.  Or maybe you have to sort a lot of very small items and have no where to sort them.  One has to be ready to deal with situations that one did not expect when organizing. 

As to the event we did – very nice.  Husband has been weaving for about 3, maybe 4 years and has tried to sell his scarves and table runners online.  No sales of same at all.  He has been despondent about weaving and no one buying.  Our thought was that if the pieces could be seen in person it would be different and hoped that to be true.  Craft shows around here for the most part are buy and sell junk shows – no chance of selling an actual hand woven scarf if commercial scarves for $8 each are being sold, which is why he jumped at this chance to sell, especially in the fall (okay, it did not feel like fall, it was in the upper 80/lower 90Fs) but he sold a scarf partway through the day and then near closing, 5 scarves to one woman.  Yippee.  He is again happy to weave. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Plan for everything you can think of for a specific organizing chore.  There will be things that happen out of your control, but try to anticipate what you will need and the time you will need to do it.  Then “play it by ear” if something not anticipated pops up!

CLEARING OUT MY OLD CLOSET AT THE FAMILY HOME

Last Thursday husband and I went to my family home to deal with “my stuff”.  I knew that there should be certain things there that I wanted - not many - and I sort of figured that there would not be much more in the closet I had to go through.

A digression - yeah, I always do same, without labeling it - I am the oldest of 3 girls and there are big age jumps between us - 5 years to #2 and another 7 years to #3.  When my family bought the house I was 4 or 5 years old  - it was then built to order in a 1950s subdevelopment - and my sister #2 was born several months before we moved in.  The house as shown in the model house had 5 bedrooms - 2 regular and a master bedroom on one floor and another 2 bedrooms (and a 4th bathroom) on the floor above it.  The house is a split level so floors not on top of each other they alternate back and forth.  My parents did not need the extra 2 bedrooms or the 4th bathroom and wanted to save money, so that floor was not finished into rooms when we moved in.  I had one bedroom of the 2 regular ones and my sister #2 - baby in a crib - was put in the other one.  The house stayed with this layout and each of us in our bedrooms for about 7 or 8 years.  At that time sister #3 was born.  My parents idea was that they would now finish the upstairs and have a bedroom for me, an office for my dad, and the fourth bathroom up there.  Being only about 12 and not knowing that in the future I would love the idea of a bedroom so private, I refused to move up there and sleep alone.  So instead my parents made it into a second (larger) master bedroom.  Sister #2 moved into my bedroom.  Dad got an office in her old bedroom.  Sister #3 and I moved into the original master bedroom.  This worked great.  When sister #2 got married a year before I did over 10 years later, I left sister #3 with the original master bedroom and moved back to my original room - which by then had sister #2's furniture in it, except her desk, and I left my furniture with sister #3 = except for my desk.  The house arrangement remained the same after that until I married a year later and moved out and then sister #3 moved out some 10 years later when she was married.  So, the room I had to clear out was not filled with items from when I was a child, but rather items I had after college.  I took almost all of my stuff either when we were first married or 9 years later when we bought a house.  Just a cute story - I had picked this bedroom originally as the room in the model had a little rocking chair - no one told me that the house did not come with what was on display in it and I thought I would get the rocking chair - boy was I disappointed. 

So, back to clearing out the room.  I had expected to walk in and see my old bed and a room as I left it.  Hah!  Either my mom had turned it into a mess of a storage room or my sisters had been throwing stuff in there to decide what to do with as they have been there several times to work on clearing out the house. 

My desk was not there as I have it here and use it as my desk - and still hit my knee on the leg of it as I did when I was a child.  I looked at the dresser in the room and started opening drawers.  As I thought they were empty but with 2 exceptions.  When I was baby I had a dresser set (not a child’s set, a grown up person’s set).  It had 2 small china dishes and a china box with lid.  I have one of the dishes still on my dresser and thought the rest gone - I knew the box’s lid and the other dish were broken and presumed that I had forgotten about breaking the box - but there it was!!  And in it was my girl scout knife and a couple of other small items.  Took it and the contents to go through - the box will go back on my dresser.    In another drawer I found a small tack hammer and two small boxes of tacks - not mine and I left them. 

It was rather hot when we were there.  I had asked sister #2 - who is coordinating all of this as she seems to know what to do - in advance if the air conditioners were working - she said yes, but not well.  Husband put on same in the original master bedroom and the one in the dining room (covers same, living room and kitchen).  Not much cool.  So as I am working he is starting to get overhot.  I sent him to the dining room then to outside several times to cool off.

I should say at this point - this entire process would have been harder for me if not for Hurricane Sandy.  Most of our toys were in the basement.  If I had to decide which toys to take and which to donate or toss it would have been close to impossible.  Since mom’s basement was flooded in the Hurricane, everything down there had been tossed out - including her washer, dryer, furnace etc. (furnace was replaced, but she decided to go to a laundry for her clothes).  No more Barbies (I have one trunk of them I had brought here).  No more doll house that I got when I was 3 or 4.  No more games.  No more Bobbsey Twins, Honey Bunch, Nancy Drew, Dana Girls, etc books. 

I opened the closet door expecting a mostly empty closet - OH BOY.  I started taking stuff out.  I found a red looseleaf book that I had copied folk songs into while in high school - took as I hoped to find it.  I found love letters from husband - definite take.  I found 2 art projects from college - painting - took (I am not a good artist and it actually came out good), cut out initials - toss.  I had expected/hoped to find my dad’s army shirt - he had given it to me back in the late 1960s when “hippies” wore same - it had reproduced and I took both of them.  While I know that the rank and badges on them are not right, I figure one of the military museums might like and his name would go down in posterity (and my nephew had previously said the did not want same) so they were a definite take.  Some “awards” drawn by a friend who was editor in chief of our college yearbook (before I was) had been taped on the inside of the door - took the one I found - hope to find at least one more.

For a closet it was lacking in clothes.  As mentioned, my dad’s army shirts were in there.  There was a pink gown.  I took it out.  We looked at it and then at each other.  I was maid of honor at sister # 2's wedding  - I wore brown (the others wore orange - fat girls don’t wear orange).  I was not in my other sister’s wedding party - and did not buy a gown for same.  I had not worn a gown to the afternoon wedding of the sister of my old high school boyfriend.  What the heck was it for? It looked to be in good condition - I hung it over the top of the bedroom door and went on.  I found a sweater I bought in Mexico  - tossed it.  If husband was not there I would have put it in a donate bag - but he insisted it was not wearable.  I found a “genuine” 1960's/early 1970's peasant blouse - hung it over the bedroom door.  (Sister #2 has come across so much clothing from that period in the house that she plans to contact theatrical costume houses to see if they want them - she can add the blouse and gown.) My college house plan (similar to a sorority) windbreaker - took that.   I also hung a green jacket over the door - I have no idea whose it is, but it would not have fit me at 12 years old, let alone when I was grown. 

I found an assortment of papers I had written (brought them home to shred as my personal info on them).  I found needlework  - kits and almost finished.  Husband had me leave the 2 latch hook rugs - hooking finished, rug edges not finished there.  (If we go back and they are still there I will take them home - I decided I really want them.)  Two embroidery kits - not finished, I took.   One unstarted latch hook kit - left for donation or sale.

I also found a complete, unopened set of “spurtles”.  These were cooking utensils that a TV chef named Graham Kerr used.  We had apparently bought 2 sets - either to give the second set as gift or for when the others broke - they are still in great condition.  We opened the box and took the spurtles out and tossed the box. 

Then I hit the problem.  Apparently when we lived in our apartment we used this closet for storage of - yes - empty boxes.  Cabbage Patch Dolls, fancy teddy bears, etc - empty boxes - you know, because they will be worth a fortune one day.  I did not take the boxes - but since I had not thought that there would be this much stuff - I did not have enough garbage bags so the boxes had to stay for next time. 

I filled 3 large bags of garbage.  I could not put it out as there would be no pickup until the following Monday and the house is near an animal preserve and the animals come and go through the bags.  I left them in the living room - sisters would be there on the weekend to put it out.

There was a section of stuff still on the top shelf that was not boxes - but neither of us could reach them safely and husband was soaked through his shirt and we needed to leave.

Problem - I had not figured out how to pack the stuff we were taking in plastic bags and seal them without them coming into the house (that bed bug fear).  So I carried the stuff I was taking down to the front door and husband held a bag outside and little by little I filled 2 bags of stuff to take.  They are now in our garage - I will take it out a bit at time and heat it in our Packtite bedbug heater - just in case. 

I am missing an item I would like to have.  I embroidered a tablecloth while in high school.  When I got married I went looking for it - I could not find it.  I have looked a couple of times since.  I told both my sisters about it and asked that if they find it they save it for me.

As we were driving home husband commented on the lack of air conditioning in the house.  He had seen the one in the office (bedroom next to mine - remember?) but could not get to it as that room is completely filled.  I then remembered - there was one in my bedroom!  He insisted that there was none - unless it was removed and the wall fixed it should be there - not sure it works, but we will look next time we are there.

Sister #2 insists that we are almost done - I am not sure how - there is soooooo much there of mom’s..
                   
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

One can go home again - but mostly to clear out home.  Why not post about your experience in something like this?

YOU already know what to do

I don’t know about you, but I actually know what needs to be done for to declutter and get organized.  You probably also know what to do.  You have probably read it in book after book -
       
        1- Go through what you have
        2 - Purge anything that you have not used in X years (generally one or two years depending on the book.
        3 - Separate items that don’t belong where they are into one of four boxes - keep, put somewhere else, throw out, donate, sometimes, a fifth box - return to the owner.
        4- Survey what you have left and figure out how to store it, buying storage containers only after knowing what you need and measuring the space and items to go into storage.
        5 - Keep up putting items away every day.

Oh, this reminded me, I am looking to buy plastic storage to organize the freezer compartment of the fridge better.  For some reason lately a lot of food items we buy are in bags - they used to be packages in boxes, they lie on top of each other and I forget what I have.  I want them to stand up so I can see what I have.  Hold on a minute while I measure the freezer section - hmm mmm mmm - sorry, okay, I am back - that’s less than 10.5 inches tall, 14.5 inches deep, and 19 inches across and I plan on 2 containers across - that would be 9.5 inches across each maximum.  I put the measurements in my cell phone in the Walmart section of my “to buy” list.  I will have to see what is available.

Oh wait  - the timer in my cell phone went off - I have to down to the basement and switch loads in the washer and dryer.  Be right back....hmm mmm mmm.  Okay, back again.  I forgot that there was a blanket in the dryer from last week.  We sleep with two in winter, one in summer and I had this one on the bed, but put the other one on the bed last week and washed the one that was there as we both had colds over the past month and thought it best to wash to wash the one we had been breathing on.  It is now sealed in a plastic bag to keep it clean until it is needed again.  It will go in a small storage piece in our bedroom. Back to all of you, cell phone will go off again in 50 minutes to switch loads again.

Okay - while the above is true, I do other things while I am writing my posts, it is also why the common “simple 5 steps” to get uncluttered and organized don’t always work.  Oh, I also updated the browser in my other laptop while I have been writing this.  It is not that I don’t care about all of you - (I do wish there were more of you, but I am glad to have every one you reading my posts - feel free to tell friends to join us) but we all have to multitask these days.  It is not as easy in the real world as it is in organizing books.

Yes, the basic 5 steps are what need to be done, but sometimes they have to be done in small bites - catch as catch can.  When my husband was screaming about his sock drawer - too many socks, too little room.  He has trouble finding socks which are comfortable and the ones he liked are wearing out quicker and quicker so he is searching for new socks - as the ones he like are, of course, discontinued.  Of course he buys MORE socks and then hates them.  It is hard to convince him to let me donate them - “I haven’t even worn some of the pairs yet - and what if I can’t find new socks and neeeeeed these?  So I went through his dresser drawers - yes, more than just that drawer - over a period of 2 days - on and off when I had a chance. 

What did I find, well, his missing “space pen” for one thing.  I found that the bottom drawer was filled with more James Bond toys.  I managed to add them to the boxes we had bought and put in the spare bedroom (aka the teddys room) closet.  Ah, most of an empty drawer to work with. I put some empty shoe boxes in same.  I use them for drawer dividers - two boxes make 3 delineated spaces across - box, space, box.  I put the socks he does not wear in the bottom drawer. I also went through stuff he keeps on the left side of his top drawer (which is where his underwear and socks are also kept).  He has a small jewelry box  - mostly junk, the few nice pieces he has are in my jewelry box, empty eyeglass cases (yes, I keep same also) and other small items - under these I found the space pen.  Those items were sorted through and mostly stored in the bottom drawer.  Why did all of this go to the bottom drawer?  Well, he could not get something out of same unless he was sitting down as he would get dizzy, so it is a good place to put things he will rarely, if ever need.  I then rearranged the space in the top drawer and sorted the socks he wears into the boxes (the beige set in one box, the ivory set - he calls them white) in another box and the new socks behind them in the same boxes - white socks in with the beige socks and black socks in with the ivory ones - so they are easy to tell apart by color looking in.  Underpants are no longer squeezed into a shoe box, but in the space between two shoe boxes, so they have a bit more space.  (His underpants like mine are rolled as this seems to make them fit in the space better and easier to grab out - he needs to buy new ones of same soon - he complains all the time.) He also has some ankle height socks which he finds comfortable to sleep in during the winter as they keep his feet warm but don’t “bother him”. 

In doing this I did find some items which I knew he no longer needed and would not be attached to - especially the socks he won’t wear - and packed them to be donated.  Also in doing this I had pulled out some shoe boxes from the top of my closet - some were empty and set aside for use in situations such as this, others had shoes in them, and I pulled some shoes off my closet door rack, that I don’t wear, to donate also to make room for some of the ones in the boxes - although the door rack is about 1/3 empty after I was done - and I don’t have a lot of shoes.  (If I let him know, his extra shoes will end up there, so I won’t mention it.)

All of this - socks, underwear, James Bond toys, shoes, etc. took about 2 hours spread over 2 evenings.  I believe in doing things as one can.  Oh, I had no boxes for donation, etc. just some shopping bags.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Use the time YOU have available and try using your innate knowledge of what to do.  You know to throw out garbage  - you just have to figure out what is the garbage in what you have.  You know to donate what can be donated - don’t look at it as you are getting rid of something you loved (or hated and regretted), but rather finding the item a new home with someone who needs it. 

Think about what you use and how you use it - and how often you do.  Something - such as underwear and socks that are worn daily should be able to be reached as easily as possible. 

But remember we do things by habit which may not be the best way to do so.  What you do not use as often, can be harder to get to.  Since I was in junior high school I had a sock drawer and an underwear drawer.  In my current dresser these were two small half size drawers, the underwear drawer being the top drawer, the socks, the next one down.  The underwear had my underpants that I daily wear one of, my bras - 3 of them rotated through wear and laundry, and half slips - short white, long white, short black, long black - which I very rarely wear - only if the skirt/dress is a bit sheerer than normal.  My sock drawer had my every day socks, my panty hose (rarely worn - once a month to work and if there was an event to which I had to wear a dress), my knee high stockings (worn even less), and the socks I wear to keep my feet warm.  Husband said to me one day after we had been married for decades “every morning you open the top drawer and take out underpants and close the drawer.  Then you open the next drawer down and take out socks and close the drawer.  Why don’t you put the items you wear daily in the same drawer and put the other items in the second drawer?  Makes sense - why did I not think of this?  Well, I had been doing it the same way for so long, it never occurred to me that there was a better way.  I now have my everyday socks and underwear in the top drawer - panties are 3 pairs across, 3 pairs up and two sets of same deep (the set in the front is not a full 9 pairs) and the sock balls stand next to them filling the rest of the drawer - no separation between the two necessary.  The second drawer holds my bras in front on one side, my sleep socks across the front on the other.  A box of stockings - pantyhose and knee highs behind the sleep sock.  I have wool socks which I have acquired over the recent freezing cold winters we have had in the back of the drawer.  The slips are stacked between the bras and the wool socks.  One drawer to open every day instead of two - labor saved.

So think as you declutter and organize about how you can change where items are stored - even in something as common as your dresser  - to work better.


My thoughts and prayers to those in the path of Florence. 

LISTS FOR REPETITIVE TASKS

Husband has spent the last week and a half with cold - which we are guessing he caught from me.  I had been feeling fine and was doing things he would normally do concerning food - such as when we went to Wendys for lunch I would order, pay and pickup the food instead of him - this intended to keep me from catching back the cold.  Well, it worked for a while.

I had planned to be telling you about our being in our little RV and dealing with the problems of organizing it for the trip.  We had planned on leaving this past Monday and coming home on Friday as the weather was suppose to be nice there all week.  As the trip date came closer, Monday and Tuesday were to have RAIN there.  Wednesday would be okay there, but there might be some rain on the drive down.  Since one cannot cancel RV park reservations this close to a trip, we waited to make same. 

Our idea was that we wake early (for us) today and call and make reservations.  During the night I started having cold symptoms again - bad and heavy ones.  I had trouble sleeping.  When we woke earlier than the alarm, husband was concerned about reaching the RV park to make the reservations as the office opens at 9 am, but it is hard to speak to someone before 11 am usually and we had to be on the road by 9 am to try to avoid the dreaded Belt Parkway and the construction along the entire length.  I was trying to breathe.  We sadly decided to not go today.

As we thought about this during the day - and I started to feel a bit better (amazing what 2 little aspirins can do in getting rid of a headache) and able to breathe again.  We decided that I would call the RV park and make reservations for tomorrow night and Friday night and have a 3 day trip.  We tend try not to be in Lancaster, PA on Saturdays - especially in summer - as there are too many tourists.  (Yes, I know we are tourists also, but we are polite ones who try to blend in, not act rudely as many of our fellow New Yorkers and those from New Jersey do.  We go there not for the novelty of the visit, but because it feels like a second home to us.)  I was only able to get a reservation in a space that we know (and know it will be level) for tomorrow night, so we are going for just 2 days - and will hope that along the way there will a space we like for Friday night also. Oddly the 6 spaces that they had available for the 2 nights in the section we like, were all ones we have had problems with in the past - maybe others know that they are not level?  (For those who have never stayed in an RV or trailer, if the RV or trailer is not level one feels off - walking uphill and down, the cabinet doors either swing shut or swing open, most of the refrigerators for same need to be level to work, etc.  Most units have automatic levelers; ours does not.  So we will go and see what happens as to how long we will stay.

Yesterday I packed the RV.  As I have mentioned before, we keep basic items in it so we don’t need to remember or pack them - toothpaste, soap, dish soap, shampoo, an electric razor for husband, cleaning supplies, office supplies (pens, pencils, paper, stamps, clear tape, stapler...), dishes, pots, tableware, blankets & bedding (bed is still made up from last time as we only used it two nights then - covered the pillows on the bed with the blankets), towels - hand & dish, flashlights, sun hats, rain gear and the like.  It is much easier to buy extras of these items than to have to remember to bring them each time - and then remember to put them away when we get home. We filled the water tanks on Monday - this gives us 25 gallons of water for drinking, cleaning, flushing, etc.  Yesterday I packed clothing for us for 4 days (we always bring an extra days clothing on a short trip, 2 days worth on a longer one) into the shelves in the RV “closet” (a small cabinet).  I packed snacks for us into plastic boxes which snap lock closed and put them into one of the “kitchen cabinets” - two thin shelves one about a foot long and the other about 18 inches long which have doors that snap closed.  When we first got the RV we would fill both of these cabinets. Now I use only one for food as we have learned that we do not need as much as thought we did.  (Heck, there are supermarkets and farmers’ markets everywhere there - including 24 hour Walmarts.) The other cabinet gets used to hold items such as plastic shopping bags, sweaters, whatever.  The refrigerator gets soda - a big bottle to use at night and some cans in case we have lunch at a farmer’s market - which is common - or such, we will not have to buy something to drink.

Shoes were brought in and stored - I bring or wear sneakers and bring leather shoes in case of rain.  We keep slippers in the RV.  I have a pair of slip on sneakers that I keep in it - in colder weather I might be wearing shoe boots and if I need to run outside, it is easier to slip on these sneakers.  We also each keep shower slippers in the RV. 

I put the batteries in the thermometer for the fridge - better to find out I need new batteries then, rather than find out when we are leaving.  I also put the toll reader into place in the front window.  I bring in the store coupons from our car. 
   
How do I keep track of all of this - what needs to be put in the RV when.  I have a list of course.  I have it memorized in my computer in a spreadsheet.  I have a “Do Ahead” section  - put water in the tanks, fill bottles of water to bring in the fridge, fill our travel medication boxes and such.  I also have a “Check Ahead” section - this is for items which get used up on trips - paper plates, cups, bathroom cups, napkins (well, okay generally these don’t run out as we end up picking up some at different places as we travel) is there enough paper towels, toilet paper and tissues; soaps and related items; did the towels go back in after laundering after the last trip; and such.

I then have categories of what to pack -
    What clothing items we need; what snack/food items we need/want.
    Items to take from our car and bring - sunglasses, glasses.
        Electronics - you know, tablets, laptops, extra or old cell phones as backups (we would not forget our current ones of course), camera if it is touring trip.
        Household items - laundry bags (we bring our clothes into the RV in 2 laundry bags to unpack them. One is stored away until the end of the trip and is used to take unworn clothing back into the house.  The other is used as a - well - laundry bag and then the dirty clothing goes back into house in it and tossed down the stairs to the basement. 
        I have some coupons which were picked up on earlier trips or came in the mail related to where we are going and I keep them in an envelope that I bring (it’s on the list of course).  Also for our regular main trips (well they used to be regular and main) I have an envelope for each that labeled on the outside on a edge with the name and approximate date of the trip.  For example - Labor Day trip- September, Fourth of July trip, etc.  I keep them in date order with the next trip in the front of the stack in the same 3 section holder on the wall next to my desk as I keep our unpaid bills (the travel coupon holder is mixed in the same section as these envelopes.  If say we pick up coupons for the Kutztown festival in advance - they are put in the envelope for same and will be there when we need them.  I also have backpack
        Things to do - magazines, my embroidery, etc.  Generally they are not touched while we are away, but I always bring them. Husband gives me whatever he wants of same.
        Finally, our “last minute bag”.  This contains items we might need at home until the   moment we leave.  I have 3 plastic boxes in the bag. One has OTC medications - if we our stomachs feel bad at home, we take the pill out of the box.  If ditto while on a trip, well, ditto.  I don’t like to buy these items special for the RV as we use them so rarely, that even the one bottle is not used up by any stretch of when the expiration date is or beyond that seems safe.  One has a bit more of same and our thermometer - one can get ill even on a trip and again, we did not want to buy 2 of them.  The last box has items we will need on the trip - prescription medications for example - and will taken out of the bag the first night of our trip and stored in the cubby that has our personal items needed for the evening and the morning.  We add other items as we use them for the final time at home before the trip.  Much of what is in the bag will stay in the bag for the trip and it is stored where it can be more or less easily accessed.       

The list also has a section for what we need to on our return to make sure that everything that needs to be is out of the RV and back into the house - and there are always items that we bought on the trip in addition to what we brought.  I have a pattern for taking everything out of the RV - but don’t worry I am not going into that now.  The list for our return reminds me of what needs to come out and that we need to shut off the refrigerator, air conditioning, inside light,  and the RV battery - and put a towel into the refrigerator in case there is any leaking from the small freezer section.  (There is a quick version of what absolutely has to come out/be done in case it is raining.       

So, everything but the last minute bag, this laptop, and the rain jackets we might have needed for the trip is packed in our RV.  Tomorrow we will bring these items, turn on the RV batteries, start the refrigerator in the RV, back out of our driveway and be on our way. 

Oh, that sounds so easy. To back out into 2 lanes of traffic on our side of the road involves me standing in the road with a walkie talkie and telling him when he can pull out - talk about needing planning and organization!

I also have a short list, kept on a little clipboard that we use to check off each day of the trip that we have done everything we need to do before pulling out.  We would not want to forget to unplug the RV from the electricity so the system is not broken or to lock a cabinet or the refrigerator door and have everything in it go flying when we drive.  A common thing that we husband forgets is after we disconnect from the camp’s sources he needs to open the curtain at the back of the RV so he can see out same - good thing it is on my list and I turn around see that it is open and if not send him to open it.  Even odd things are on my list.  We have an outside light next to the side door. (Same as the light next to your front/back door at home.)  We don’t turn it on.  One day after driving around much of the day I realized it was on - it must have gotten turned on by accident the night before - I turned it off of course and I added it to the check off list.  This short list has several columns so that on a trip up to 4 days can be marked off on the same form. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

If you do something that has many steps or many parts as a repeated thing, make up a list on your computer for what you need to do.  Print it out each time you are doing to do the task and actually cross the items off the list.  If needed I list the items that are going to be done at the last minute on the side as I see them - and circle them on the list.  If I find that there is something that I need to add - I list it on the back of the page and add it when we return home.

GETTING SOME FILE CLEARING DONE

I keep the financial records for the two organizations I am treasurer of. You know - bank statements, paid bills, end of the year reports, paperwork and returns filed with Internal Revenue and our state, whatever is required by the organization’s parent organization, etc.  I have one file drawer set aside for both of the organizations.  I have a metal piece which is suppose to go at the back of the files in a drawer to hold them to the front that I put between the two sets of files to keep them separated.

Do to the fact that I have personal files, business files (for our 3 small businesses) and both of these organizations files in my file cabinets I use color file labels.  I use red and blue labels for my embroidery chapter’s files (and also in another drawer for our personal files) and yellow and green labels for our reenactment unit (and also, in yet another drawer, our craft business files).  I use the blue or green for permanent files and the red or yellow for annual files. 

Huh?  Well, there are files which I will clear out each year - last year’s bank statements for example - these files get a red or yellow file label - depending on whose file it is.  Other files - such as government filings, copies of the meeting handouts or the treasurer’s reports - my embroidery chapter is required to keep those forever - do not get cleared out annually and basically just accumulate info in them these get blue or green labels and I know when I go through and clear out the folders for the prior year not to bother with these files.

While I am fairly good at clearing out our personal and business files every year, the organization files tend to just sit there and fill up.  They are not a high priority to go through and are in the bottom drawer of their file cabinet, so I need to sit on the floor to deal with them, etc.  Well, the drawer had become too full to use.  We had gotten rid of a lot of our reenacting files to the new “commander” when he took over from husband, but there was/is still a lot of stuff in the file drawer.

Last week I had a bit of time somehow and decided to go through the embroidery chapter files.  I found out that I had last cleared out the 2012 files.  I need to keep by the chapter’s national organization 7 years of financial records - except for those I need to keep forever.  (I will find out from them if I can scan these items into the computer and keep them that way when I get a chance.)  I have 2 large manila envelope boxes (I love these boxes they hold so much) in my closet with the prior years files for the chapter that I kept.  These go back to the prior treasurer. 

I went through the boxes.  While for our personal files I keep 9 years prior to the current year (making 10 years all together), I am only required to keep 7 years, so I pulled the records before 2007 - I kept 2007 and later.  I went through the paperwork from each year that I was getting rid of.  I shredded the bank statements and other related bank items.  If I saw something I thought I should keep, I did - less than 10 papers.  I then shredded everything else.  I relabeled the folders and sorted 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 files of the files which should be cleared each year. I stored these in the emptied box and then put the boxes back in the top of the office closet. 

Okay, it was not that simple.  Particularly the putting away part - the boxes would not fit back into the space they came out of in the closet.  The two boxes stand on one side, one in front of the other to the right side of the door.  I tried putting in the front box and then the rear box - rear box did not fit.  I took them out and tried putting in the rear box - front box would not fit.  I tried shifting items around - maybe they loosened up or shifted - a plastic box fell on my head.  I put that aside and tried again - the lid from another box fell on my head (more about this lid later).  I finally managed to get both boxes back in - the end of a brief case had to be moved - and then get the box and the unrelated lid back in where they belong. 

I was too exhausted at this time plus free time had run out to deal with the reenacting unit papers.  The reenacting unit has much more paper and files in the drawer than the embroidery chapter did.  The embroidery chapter files had been behind the reenacting unit files - but I had so much room in the drawer and so few of them were now from the embroidery chapter, that I now reversed it so that the reenacting unit files were to the back - or I would never see the embroidery chapter files again.  Amazing what just moving out the 4 years paperwork made in the room in the drawer.       

The reenactment unit actually has it’s own file drawers at our headquarters.  In the upstairs hall (under the edge of the teddy bear Christmas village - yes it is still out) there are an assortment of old papers for the reenactment unit which I pulled out several years ago to take to the headquarters and store there.  I need to go through them again and see what still needs or should be kept and then go through the files in the “current” drawer and deal with them.  I needed to give my poor paper shredder a rest and then I will do so.

The box lid - I have had for years (decades?) a box for computer CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks. , actually I have a number of boxes - this one is being mentioned specifically here.  This box holds the various system disks for the various computers we have as well as for other equipment - printers, scanners, wifi, etc.  It is a long box and the lid used to be attached on one end and lift - even a lock (who knows where the key is so it is not locked) to lock it closed for security.  A few years ago this box fell on the floor.  The lid broke off the box and further broke so there was just a large piece of it over the disks - hence why the lid fell off onto my head.  On and off I have looked for a replacement box.  This accident spurred me to look further. I found a nice box that has handles which snap closed on the end (to keep the lid in place) and bought it - less than $5.  I was not sure if all the disks would fit in - they did with spare room and the box was tall enough that I could transfer them with the dividers I had been using.  Much safer storage for the disks and my head.  Know what I did with the old box?  I threw it out - no holding on to it to see what else it can be used for.  I actually needed the box of disks today.  We had a problem with our wifi modem and husband was hoping the installation disk would resolve the problem.    I took the box down and handed him the disk.  It did not help, but there it was - found in an instant.
   
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Sometimes less than an hour’s work can make a huge difference in space for storage.  What seemed like a huge job went quickly.  Just watch out for (and replace) broken box lids falling on your head . :-)        

CATCHING UP

Well tax season is behind me now and I am trying to catch up on everything which fell by the wayside. 

It amazes me that when I was working full time in the first 4 months of the year I would do payroll taxes for 10 business clients twice each - January & April - and the January ones involved typing W2s for all the employees of the clients, corporation or partnership returns for the businesses, year end sales tax for most of them (NY has a sales tax year which ends the end of February and is due in March), and personal returns for about 40 clients while also keeping house, dealing with Easter and Passover, a trip out of state for my husband’s birthday, and towards the end of April - a trip to Maryland for a reenactment event, plus dealing with my embroidery chapter and reenactment unit’s treasuries and renewal of membership for the reenactment unit.  It exhausts me to just list all of this.

These days I have about 6 tax returns, two corporations and a partnership (and only one of the businesses is not ours), three sales tax returns, payroll taxes for one company which has one employee, little to do for the holidays or husband’s birthday, and no trip to Maryland (too cold for RV to be dewinterized).  Still dealing with the two treasuries and the renewals for the reenactment unit.  Yet, I still have trouble finishing it all up timely.  It is true that work expands to the time allotted to do it.  Maybe this thought comes to mind just because I am watching the series on TV about Einstein and that brings to mind his relativity theory.

Think about it - you look around.  The house needs decluttering and cleaning.  If you have guests coming over on Friday - you are going to do what you do before Friday, if they are not coming until the first of next month - the same work will take you until then - right?  We used to have a room where no one could go when we had people in also.  When I was a girl it was my bedroom closet.  Mom would tell me periodically (I am guessing when people were going to be coming or she just could not look at it any more) to clean my room.  I would do as much as I could - then what was left would be tossed into the bottom of my closet.  (Sound familiar?)  Once or twice a year I would even be told to clear out the bottom of my closet - generally I would find items such as the bag with most of my Trick or Treat candy in it around May or June - that was a toss out as mom told us we would get sick if eat anything that old.  One problem was that no one ever actually explained to me the concept of throwing things out or passing them along, to me cleaning was put everything out of site.  I have since learned better. 

So now I am dealing with the catchup.  The stack on my desk - on top of my “todo folder”, which means that these items must be done before I can start on what I have to do - is shrinking. 

I spent an afternoon dealing with items waiting for me from our reenactment unit.  In addition to being treasurer I am also the membership chair as it is easier for one person to do so.  Dues are long ago collected, the dues collected for our national went out on time back in March. Membership cards had been typed up (yes, typed on a typewriter) and given to the unit commander to mail to members.  I had managed to get to the bank and deposit the dues check - and one for an event the unit did in January.  But, some members have been waiting to be paid for money laid out and I had to pay them.  One of our unit insurance policies had come in and I paid it.  I had the forms that members had filled in which had to be scanned into the computer so I could shred and toss the originals.  I had to make up the membership list for the year.  I worked on all this - all done except it took until today to get a clarification from one member as to whether the new phone number she gave me was her home or cell number that had changed.  I heard from her today - the new list will be out to the commander to email out by this weekend - I hope.

I managed to keep up on paying the bills for my embroidery chapter - most were to third parties, and were paid right away.  A couple of checks to members for, again, money laid out just were written.  Our national embroidery group has a membership year that runs from June through the following May (yeah, it confuses the heck out of me why that is the year for membership dues - the financial year is a calendar year, and somehow in the change from quarterly renewals based on when members had joined to an annual one - we paid for the month of June twice one year) and while I am not the membership chair, I help her as the treasurer.   I do serve as the newsletter editor and today wrote the May newsletter for the chapter, which is also the meeting notice for our upcoming meeting.  This one was a bit harder than most.  Last week chapter president had emailed her message for the month which included talking about the program for the meeting - which was not exactly what I remembered and had on our website as the meeting program.  I had a hands on project - she had a “fashion show” of what I had us doing - she had in mind the idea that we had sort of worked on this all year and members should show what they have done on the project.  I doubled checked with her and yes, that was the meeting program.  Yesterday I got an email from the VP of the chapter and she had the info to do the project I thought we were doing - and she was the leader of the project.  I also had an email from the chapter president saying a sort of “whoops - I guess I thought about it differently” and that I should go ahead with the project as the meeting and maybe include bring in items started.  I had to combine both ideas.  The president had told me to dump her message, but I managed to work it into a version of what she wanted for the meeting as a side to the hands on project.  Plus I had a lot of related exhibitions to list, so what should have taken half an hour to put together - 2 hours!  Then after it was emailed out (and I email out one version to our members and some region people and the same with a “you asked for this, let me know if you don’t want it” message to people who have asked for info about our chapter) I realized that I had forgotten something urgent.  Yes, I forgot to tell the members that it is renewal time.  So I sent out a separate addendum to the only the members. 

That leaves bank statements to reconcile, a month’s worth of filing for our reenactment unit papers (I managed to do the month’s worth of personal, business, and embroidery chapter filing over last weekend), and an assortment of other items to do - including scanning in our personal tax return and papers and printing a copy of same for my records.  (Right now there is a stack - you know about stacks right? - of the tax papers in front of the office closet waiting for me.)  If I had one day to sit and work....  Tomorrow I have to go to Manhattan to my remaining business client (other than our businesses) and do the books and payroll taxes. 

I also need to pull out the 2007 box of old records.  I will shred almost all of what is in the box.  I scan the credit card and other bills to see if there is anything I need to hold onto.  With the credit cards I will scan each for amounts over $100 to see what they are.  Sometimes there may be a reason to keep a larger receipt - generally not and they will be shredded also. I will also pull out any checks, W2, or 1099 forms which paid income taxes (for the business if it paid corporation taxes, sales taxes, or annual filing fee) and keep them.  I always do that.  It is good to always keep proof that taxes were paid. 

I will then refill the box with the matching paperwork from 2016, change the label on the box to 2016 and put it back in the top of the office closet.  To make this easier I have different color labels on file folders in my files for permanent (leave everything in this folder in it) and annual (check this folder every year to see if anything should stay in it - or be put in the annual box).  I use red or yellow for annual and blue or green for permanent - red and blue are used for our personal files and for my embroidery chapter files, yellow and green for our corporation files and our reenactment unit files.  I also have a folder with items which need to be added to the 2015 box.  Then I will be able to open the office closet door again without having to move stacks of paper. :-)
                                   
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Take a deep breath and start doing a bit of  “spring cleaning”.  If nothing else switch whatever you need to from winter to spring.  If you put away winter clothes - see what you will not want next year and either donate it now or put it in a labeled box for the fall to donate then, if where you donate will only take seasonal items.  This way you can donate it without having to look at it again then.

Remember that time is relative, but one can only do so much.

And - if you live near where Carvel is located and you read this post early enough - Thursday, April 27 is free cone day this year.

WORKING IN THE DARK

We were suppose to go to Pennsylvania for the day on Tuesday, but when we woke up - it was raining.  No point in going to a mostly outside farmer’s market - driving 3+ hours each way and paying over $20 in tolls, just for half the vendors not to be there because of rain, so we did not go.  I had planned on going to a client Tuesday and put it off due to the planned trip. 

So husband changed the plan to go on Friday.  I sat down yesterday (Tuesday) and instead of doing things I should, I paid our bills and figured out how much we have transfer to our checking account to cover the bills - and making sure we had enough to do so. We went to the bank today and dealt with it all as I will be in NYC tomorrow and husband does not like to deal with our finances - he is always afraid he will do something wrong and checks will start bouncing. Normally we go to the bank on Fridays, but we hope to be away.

 I needed to catch up on work that I am behind on for the two clubs of which I am treasurer as well as work on client’s income taxes.  I planned to finish doing so today when we came home from running errands.  I turned on my computer to check email.  I was just finishing a rather long, complicated email and BANG!!  The lights went off with the sound of an explosion.  We know what this means - the transformer blew again. I called the electric company and was told that they know that 32 customers are out and the crew is on the way.

I unplugged my computer and related items - don’t want the electricity to come back on and spike and damage something.  Now, what to do?

I pulled up the shade and pulled back the curtains.  I sorted through some blank paper (sorted it by size) that I keep on the top of the folder holding shelves on my desk - I needed to do this for a while.  Then I went through the papers from one of the clubs mentioned above.  I had to do followup work on the annual renewals - pulled out the blank membership forms and put them in my “take to the meeting folder”, pulled out assorted papers from last year in the same file and put them together to file away.  Still no electricity.

I went to the you know and on the way I noticed that there was a lot of light coming through the window into “the teddies room”.  Hmmmm.  I wanted to go through the suitcases on the bottom of the closet in there and donate most of them as we no longer use them.  I moved the teddies and Cabbage Patch Kids still sitting in line to see Santa.  So I could open the closet door.  I found out that there was more in the bottom of the closet than I thought - an entire carton I did not get to after we had the bed bugs - I was wondering the other day what happened to my teddy bear magnets.  Carton was put aside to go through another time.  Tubes with posters in them were set aside for husband to look at - they must be his. 

I took out the assorted suitcases.  My idea is to come down to the larger suitcase on wheels (which husband likes to use), my shoulder carry suitcase, a backpack on wheels, and some of the smaller completely soft bags and 2 hangup bags.  (The latter as they are hard to find.)  When we travel now we travel in our RV and we bring the clothes into it in laundry bags, store the clothes in the closet, and then use a bag for the dirty laundry and the second one to carry the leftover clean clothes back into the house.  We want the suitcases for emergencies or other oddities.  We also have some small bags that we use when we go to quilt, woodworking shows, etc. to carry lunch and/or purchases, as well as some small bags we have received as donation gifts that are really nice, good bags and we use at various times.  I had planned on putting all of the other bags in the rolling bag.  Not big enough.  I put all of the other luggage in it.  I put all of the small bags into the rolling backpack.  Okay, down to 2 bags.  Better than it was. 

The idea of this cleaning was to not only get rid of unneeded luggage (and get a tax deduction on it next year), but also to make room in the bottom of the closet for plastic boxes.  Husband has a collection of articles about James Bond which are stacked and taking up room on book shelves.  We will store the articles in plastic boxes - they will stop get dusty - and have more room for books.  The boxes we bought to use for this fit perfectly where I planned to use them.  The plastic tubes with posters will probably have to go back in the closet - they should fit behind the 2 suitcases.  I will have to go through the carton and see what it is in it and what to do with it. 

Oh, I also found 3 teddy bear ceramic craft items to paint.   I knew there were more of them, but did not remember what or where.  I still like 2 of them and will keep them and paint them.  I need to think about the third one and decide if I like it - if not it will also be donated.

At some point as I was finishing up I realized that the lights were on downstairs and we had our electricity back.  Only an hour and a half.

I finished the catchup work I needed to do.  I plugged in my good laptop to charge and pulled out everything I need to go to work tomorrow. We picked up Chinese takeout for dinner.

On Wednesday nights I do laundry and write my blog post.  I had planned to take a shower tonight, but fate again ensued.  In the middle of writing this post - no really, between the second and third paragraphs to be exact.  My husband came downstairs as he did not feel well.  Nothing major, but he could not find the over the counter medication he needed.  I looked.  Unfortunately what happens is we buy OTC medications and then by the time we need them again - in some cases by the time we need them at all - it has expired.  I don’t mean - “darn it was up last month”, I mean it expired years ago.  I tend to toss them if I see them.  Some items I will replace right away.  Ones we rarely use I don’t.  This apparently tossed when it expired and was not replaced.  Husband was in a panic.  Our Walmarts here are not 24 hour stores, except for the Neighborhood Market one (basically a supermarket only).  So I left the washer running, shut down my laptop and off we went to the Neighborhood Market - 10minutes away.  Of course nothing matched what he bought last time and it took awhile to figure out what to get.  And as long as we were there and out of sugar free vanilla pudding, I ran and grabbed 2 boxes to have them.  Then home again to finish this post.

Decision time - write post or take shower?  Well, you are reading this aren’t you?  I will wash myself well before going to bed.  My client’s loss in my freshness is your gain in having this post to read.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Go with the flow.  When all seems to be going wrong, take a deep breath and think, just go with what needs to be done.  Anything which can wait - can wait.  I could have panicked today, but did not.  When I could not do what I planned to do - use the computer - I found something which has been waiting to be done for months and I could do. So now something which has been sitting is accomplished and most of what I was going to do is also done.  I could have told husband I couldn’t go with him to get the medicine, but I knew it was important and that he would have a problem if he went alone (and I would be worrying about him) so that was done and I will deal with no shower.

One can go crazy when one is sidetracked or deal with it and see what can be done as a result of the sidetracking or what can be eliminated or delayed to deal with it.                

HOW CAN SOME WEEKS BE SHORTER THAN OTHERS?

Wow, another week gone by already?  It seems too soon.  Again I did not write tonight’s post in advance - the election yesterday took up my attention last night.  No opinion being published on same.  This will be, again, a short post as a result. 

I managed to finish unloading the RV.  We let the remaining water in it out (there is a valve on the bottom with a cap - remove the cap and the water runs out and down the driveway - it is clean water so this is not a problem).  I went in and stripped the bed and disassembled it back into 2 seating benches as I need to clean the bedding, as well as we will be going in and winterizing and will need access under one side of the bed to the water pump.

I dealt with the mail from our short trip - it being the end and beginning of the month there was not much from the 3 days.

We dealt with a telephone problem.  We still have copper wire phone service at our house.  We have a cordless phone with an answering machine in the kitchen.  The last 2 times I talked to my mom on it (and we can go for hours) the battery ran out within an hour.  Husband looked to buy new batteries - discontinued and therefore very expensive.  So a new phone was needed.  Telephones have changed dramatically since we last bought one.  We have an additional problem that the phone hangs on the wall - so we need a wall phone - and the basement door is located across from the phone so it has to be able to open past the phone, and most of the few wall phones with answering machines we found would not allow this.  Luckily we found one, but the cordless phone sits in a separate charger elsewhere in the kitchen.  So far it seems to work well.  I will have to have mom call me - when I call her I use my cell phone.  So a lot of time this week was spent shopping for the new phone and then installing and testing it.

The reason we need one with an answering machine is that we screen our calls.  We tell everyone we know who might call us about this - “When you call me back about this problem, you will get our answering machine.  Leave a message for us; if we are home we will pick up when we hear you or we will call back if we are not home.”  This is a bit of organizing.  Our telephone number is rather similar to a Domino’s pizza (actually several of them, but one more than others), an optician, and a doctor’s office.  In all these cases the last 4 digits are the same and the 3 digits before them are similar when one looks at them and reads the numbers wrong. Add to the wrong numbers for all of these (This is Mrs. Jones, I want a cheese pie - I am timing you.  This is Mrs. Smith don’t tint my eyeglasses.  - would be nice if they left a call back number or an address to deliver the pie) the robocalls and other spam calls we all get and it is a major time saver not to be dealing with the phone calls.  We have 3 answering machines on the same line.  The one in the bedroom answers on the 3rd ring and is always on.  The ones in the office and kitchen are individually turned on and off depending on where we are and answer on the 2nd ring.  This way we can screen the calls in any of the 3 places in the house we generally are.

Managed to finally reach the person at our doctor’s office, so hopefully the problem we are having with the billing on our lab work - last June - will not need more attention.       

Ah, yes, managed to finally convince my husband that the shoes he actually wears should be on his closet shoe rack (on back of door) and the ones on the rack which he does not wear and keeps only because he wears such a hard size to find, in case he ever needs them, should be stored away.  I actually only needed to store away one pair of the shoes on the rack to fit all but the shoes he is wearing and his slippers on it.  This is a discussion which has gone on for years.  Now I can actually clean the floor in the bedroom as I no longer would have to move all the shoes.  Did I clean it?  No - it was a short week.  But I will and will do so more regularly.

Had to spend some time on my embroidery group this week.  I missed the meeting due to our trip last week and had to do some followup on business I missed as a result.

So, the week seems much shorter than it was.  I am now catching up the laundry, which of course, I decided not to do for the part of the week last Wednesday (I do the laundry Wednesday and Thursday nights) so I am doing lots of loads this week.

Hopefully this will be a more organized week and I will get more done.  Don’t you hate short weeks?

RETURN FROM TRIP AND EMPTYING THE RV

Well, we finished our trip last week and came home.  When we arrive home we have to take out of the RV the things we brought in and the things we bought on the trip.  I have a check list in the house to check after I think I am done.  I also remove the stuff to go to the house in a pattern so I, hopefully, don’t forget anything.  I have 3 cloth supermarket bags and of course, lots of store plastic shopping bags to use.  We leave the RV battery on so I can I can turn on the lights inside..

I start with the logical - I empty the little refrigerator.  One of the cloth supermarket bags has a blue handle - I use this one for anything which must go into the house refrigerator right away. During this trip (and many to that area) we bought some sausages at a local butcher shop.  They, of course go in this bag.  Also if my husband has insulin that has not been opened yet (or else it does not need to be refrigerated) it goes in this bag.  He always has insulin which is in use and not refrigerated and I add that into this bag also, just so it gets unpacked right away.  Then I add after these items other refrigerator items that are less important to keep cold - soda, juice, frozen plastic ice (they will always refreeze if they defrost), etc.  I have to not only deal with the size of the bag, but also not making it too heavy and I try to keep the weight of each bag manageable.  When I have a bag ready to go into the house I put it next to the third seat (see last post) and husband will come and take it out. When the refrigerator is empty I turn off the refrigerator.  There is a knob inside which turns it on and off, as well as adjusts the temperature in it.  We don’t want the refrigerator on when we are charging the battery, etc. between trips.

When I am done with the refrigerator items, I move on to the other food we have left in the RV.  The food is all in plastic boxes to prevent the smell of it attracting bugs or rodents.  The food is kept in 2 specific shelf sized cabinets and I make sure the 2 are empty even if I only remember putting food in one of them.  The other one may have other items - the empty cloth food bags, sweatshirts, empty laundry bag, etc.  This will usually fill the other 2 cloth bags when mixed with the refrigerator items which did not go out in the blue handled bag, if there is excess I use the store plastic shopping bags.

Next I add the clothes I used as pjs and the towels we used during the trip to the laundry bag with the dirty laundry to go out and close it.  I leave it on the floor in front of the third seat.   I pull any sweatshirts or jackets and put them on the third seat to go into the house.  I pull out husband’s computer and tablet, my embroidery and other items from a section in a cabinet.  They again go on the third seat.  Husband runs back and forth between the RV and house bringing all this into the house.  I also pull my computers, the “last minute bag” and anything we bought which stored with them under the bed and leave it for him to take.  I add to the last minute bag the box I took out at the start of the trip with things we always need on the trip - our medications and such.  The rest of the items are generally not always used and are stored in the bag.

I then go to the closet and pull out the clothes we have not worn - we always bring extra clothes for a day or two just in case something happens to what we are wearing or something happens and we have to or decide to stay longer than we planned.  This all goes into the second (clean) laundry bag.  I make sure to put it to be taken on a different run into the house than the dirty laundry and make sure husband knows which is which.  The bag of dirty laundry will be tossed down the basement stairs to where the washing machine is, which the bag of clean clothes will go by the stairs to upstairs to be unpacked.  I take the spare shoes out of the cabinet they are in and put them in plastic shopping bags to go into the house.

I then go to the front of the RV - the “van” part.  I pull out things we brought in which go in the house or the other cars - spare eyeglasses, store coupons (if we need to buy something while we are away I have them to use), papers from the trip - reservations, directions etc., crackers I keep in the door in case husband has low blood sugar while driving and needs to eat something without pulling over, etc.  These go in a store plastic shopping bag and are again put to be taken into the house. I add any magazines we brought or the freebie local ones we picked up on the trip - you know - the ones with local ads, coupons and what there is to see. I also take down the EZPass (this is an electronic device to pay tolls enroute) from the window and put it away.

Some trips I strip the beds and break them back down while unpacking the RV.  Most trips I leave the bed made and either take it down a day or so later (we tend to get home very late at night - technically very early the next morning) or if we were on a short trip and going on another short trip within a week or two  I leave it made up to use again.  (I told you in an earlier post that I HATE dealing with sheets.)

I then walk around the inside of the RV I put my hand on each spot that needs to be empty taking inventory in my head of what was there and “did I take it all out” - sometimes I look in - and go through step by step checking that all has been emptied.  I also put a bath towel (saved for this purpose) on the top shelf of the refrigerator so that if there is any ice on its tiny freezer when it melts the towel will catch it and I will not have water in the refrigerator or on the floor of the RV - the door of the refrigerator is left slightly open to avoid odors forming in the RV (and there is also baking soda in it for the same reason).

Meanwhile husband has been running back and forth carrying everything into the house.  He is generally exhausted and I keep telling him to leave stuff for me to bring in.  After this last trip he also turned on all the air conditioners in the house to try to cool it off.  It did not work - it was still too hot in the house when we went to sleep.

I close the curtains in the RV so no one can look in and see what it is.  I then turn off the lights in it and in the dark I turn off the battery and check that its red LED is out.  I then go out the door.

We then start on the back of the RV.  There is a space under the head of the bed which is accessed from the rear doors of the RV(remember it is a van converted to an RV).  We have 3 laundry baskets in it to hold stuff and keep it from moving around (remember this is important when one’s “house” is being driven around over bumps and around curves - one does not want anything moving and everything has to be secured in some fashion or at least stay in a very limited area).  One basket - the hardest to reach - has items we might need on the trip - air pump, tools, and such.  The middle basket has some additional items of such and empty space.  The last basket - the one we can most easily reach has some small items for set up at the RV park - and room for purchases during the trip.  Anything we bought has to be brought into the house.

When we know that everything is in the house we lock the RV and go into the house.

In the days after the trip I have to empty the clean water tanks by removing a cap from a pipe under the RV - we let it drain and a day or so later I put the cap back on.  The cap has a specific place in our side porch to sit until it goes back on.  Since this is clean water it can be allowed to just drain out and does not have to be disposed of as does the “used” water (which was dumped out at the RV park before we left it at the end of the trip).

I look at the check list in the house to make sure everything is in and then toss the “stuff to bring and do before the trip/stuff to make sure is in the house after “ list.  Then, of course, comes the sorting out and putting away of stuff in the house for a couple of days afterwards.  Checking the answering machine messages.  Laundry will done in a day or so.

 Now even the best laid schemes can go wrong.  We arrived home overnight Saturday to Sunday.  Monday evening my husband says to me “Where did you put the bag of pretzels I bought on the trip?”  (We can’t get these pretzels at home and he will buy a bag - or two - when away to have at home.)  I stared at him and tried to get my brain to work.  Then I remembered.  I had brought a larger plastic food box with us knowing that he was going to buy the pretzels and it did not fit where the food boxes fit due to the fact that it is larger.  I put it elsewhere in the RV “kitchen” and since it was not is a spot I usually use or empty - I forgot about it.  Out to the RV to get the pretzels.

As of tonight the laundry is done.  The clean clothes from the trip and those washed on our return are put away.  I have been catching up on mail and such.  The water tanks are emptied and the cap put back.  Food is still in the boxes, but since they are items we use at home, I am using them from the boxes here to empty the boxes.

Now if only I can find the store loyalty cards which I keep in the RV and we could not find when we went to one of the supermarkets.  Husband has me keep them on a key ring so I don’t loose any - so instead ALL of them are missing.  Hopefully they were tossed into the drawer in the RV or the map pocket - when the temperature comes down into the 70s later this week I will go in and look.  If not, I have duplicates of all of them but one.  -  And you thought I was going to say that all is done and back to normal!