SORRY I HAVE BEEN MISSING - DOUBLE POST - CANCELED CAR PURCHASE/BANK LOAN PROBLEM AND LAUNDRY BAG CORD AROUND AGITATOR

 A bit of a followup to my post of (can it really be this long) over a month ago.  

Two weeks after we went to the car dealer and then decided  - while at the dealer – not to buy the car and canceled the transaction, we received a letter from a bank denying our car loan.  This shocked us for two different things.  

First, we know what our credit rating is and it is about as high as one can have.  

Second – We had canceled the car purchase – without signing any paperwork for a loan – though the “finance manager” had told us she as entering our info that we had the loan.  

We wrote a rather extensive letter to the bank which had turned us down.  (One reason given my credit report was locked – something I had done with all of our credit reports long and ago and forgotten about  - which makes me wonder why husband's was not locked.)  And we told about all that went on that day and we had NOT applied for the loan!  Waiting to hear from back from same.  


NEXT– LAUNDRY FUN.  

I do three loads of laundry most weeks -clothes, towels, and bedding.  Dirty clothing, bedding and upstairs towels go in a large laundry bag in our upstairs hall closet.  Dirty towels from the kitchen and downstairs bathroom go in a smaller laundry bag which hangs on the basement side of the door to same in the kitchen.  I throw the laundry bags into the towels load to be washed weekly.  Something I always wondered about happening – happened.  The string from the downstairs laundry bag wrapped around the agitator in the washing machine and would not release from it – even after I cut the cord and only left a short piece in the washer.  Husband and I finally gave up on getting it released.  With much trepidation about the mechanisms in the washer getting the piece of the cord wrapped further around the agitator and breaking the washer completely I kept doing the laundry in the washer.  Two weeks later – MAGIC -  I found the piece of cord loose in the bottom of the washer – relief!

To prevent this from happening again – even before the piece came loose – I now take the cords out of the bag before throwing the bags in the washer.  Yes, it is a bit more work each week – but stops me from worrying about a repeat.

I no longer put the cord in the downstairs bag at all.  It is short now (since I had cut off the piece which was stuck) and I knotted the ends together.  Short of it being there having been a holiday that week and having used fabric tablecloth/napkins, there is not much put into the bag and the kitchen/bathroom hand towels are relatively small.  I have a medium sized safety pin which I use to attach the remaining small, knotted piece of cord to the bag so I can hang up the bag on the hook on the back of the basement door during the week to collect the laundry in it.  

I have a large safety pin which I use to push the cord through the channel of the larger, upstairs bag so I can hang the bag on the 3 hooks in the closet which hold the bag open to make it easier to throw the dirty laundry in the bag.  

Yes, it is more work than before – but having worried for 2 weeks about the possibility of having to repair our washer if the cord wrapped further around the agitator or needing to buy a new one and the cost and mess involved in doing so.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

If it is not one problem – it is another problem!   While both of these problems wasted time, caused great annoyance – they are minor compared to what can happen in life.

Any one have a problem like either one of these – what did you do?

ANOTHER WEEK AND AT LEAST WHAT HAS TO BE DONE IS ......DONE!

 Goodness – another week again – seems like I just posted yesterday!!

Have you found that time moves differently since Covid started? I find this. I think I did something a couple of weeks ago and when checking on something about it in my computer organizer – I see that it has been a month and a half!! Things I do by rote, suddenly I forget to do. File on my computer drive are not in the order they should be.

I am trying hard right now to get everything back to where it belongs and how it should be. One problem is that husband was miserable staying home all the time and is now trying to make up for it – I pray for rain so we will stay in the house and I will get things done. Even as I writing and posting this (at 1:30 am) I have just moved the first load of laundry to the dryer and put the second load in to wash.

REALLY need to clean the house. Husband had started vacuuming the floors out of boredom – but no longer does. (I prefer to “Swiffer” them, sound of a vacuum has scared me since I was a child.

Four things I have extremely cautious to do on time – clients tax returns, pay our bills, the laundry, and cook meals/wash the dishes.

Does anyone else use the toe of their “fuzzy” slippers (while wearing them) to gather dust bunnies together and then pick them up and throw them out with their hand?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I try to keep doing the little things which HAVE to be done to help me keep going. We are fed. We have clean clothing and towels/bed linens. We have our medications and take them as we should.

What do you ALWAYS do as it so important to be done?

NEW YEAR AHEAD OF US - A FRESH START

 Well, here it is – another new year. A clean year ahead of us – a fresh start.

Let's put behind us what we have done wrong in the past and start the new year fresh.

I have posted in the past that a new year actually starts every day – so if you missed January 1, pick another day, it starts a new year also – Lunar (Asian) New Year starts on January 22 this year, you can use it as a second chance for a new year's start. I don't make resolutions as they are never kept. I do try (yet another time) to do everything I do a bit better – less putting off of things, less “a lick and a promise”, less “I'll do next it next week”. As I said “I try” it generally does not work, but I do try.

Right now our bedroom is a mess. We did several days of a reenactment event over 2 weeks and clothes and accessories tended to be dropped each night when we got home all over our bedroom. I collected the clothes which need to be washed. As usual on Wednesday nights while I am posting I am also doing our laundry for the week. First load – regular clothes - is in the washer as I write. I will fitting in one or two loads of reenacting clothes depending on how many white items and how many color items there are. If I can fit all in one load – fine with me. If not I will do one load of white items and one of color items. I will also do a load of towels for the week. I know I will not finish tonight and will be continuing tomorrow night. When I go to bed tonight I will bring up the dried load of clothing and fold it while husband gets ready for bed (he takes longer than I do). I will put away the “goes in drawers” part of it away afterward and the hang up items will be put away tomorrow, when I will also fold the towels from a later load at night, as well as any other laundered items which need to be folded or hung and put away.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

As we go into the new year try to use same as a chance for fresh start catching up and keeping up with what needs to be done. If not remember – tomorrow is always a new, fresh day ready for one to make a start for the future. After all, I did not finish putting out Christmas decorations inside the house this year until January 2!

WHEN ONE'S SCHEDULE GOES AWRY - BE PREPARED FOR CHANGE

Something we don't really think about planning for – but should.  Yesterday I pulled a muscle in the back of my left shin – OW!  I have done this before and it goes away so I (and my poor husband) are just putting up with it for now.  

I figured out the least painful – and safest – way for me to go up and down the stairs.  It happened on the steps outside our back door on our trip out for lunch – so I was walking about in stores for awhile before I had to deal with the steps again.  I need to keep my left leg straight as much as possible to avoid pain.  I never realized that there are so many things I do which I never think of as I do them.  

Apparently my left leg cannot be higher than my right leg – by which I mean – on the stairs I have to step up with my right leg and then pull the left one up to the same step -repeat.  Coming down the stairs I have to step down with my left leg and then with my right leg.  Basically if my legs are different steps my right leg has to be the one higher up.  When I forget – I am quickly reminded by the pain.  

When sitting in the house I put my left leg up on something – in the kitchen I use the single step that I keep under the table so I can climb up and reach the higher shelves in the  top cabinets (meaning anything above the bottom shelf).  Convenient to rest my left leg on – and since the step is at back end of the table (a couple of feet from where I am sitting) when I put my foot on it my leg is more or less straight on a slight downward angle – perfect for my leg.  (I am at the table as I write.)  When at my desk I have a file box stored under under it which serves the same purpose.  That leaves the car and our lunch out today as the problems – I tried to keep my leg in the air as much as I could.  

But how does this relate to organizing?

Well, it is laundry night.  Main laundry has to come down 2 flights of stairs to the basement from the hall closet outside of our bedroom.  I always tie the laundry bag closed and give them a shove down these stairs – so that was relatively easy.  I cannot do this with our basement stairs as there is a display of electric trains cars across from the foot of the steps – maybe 2 feet from the bottom step – and I don't want to damage them.  I was planning to ask my husband to carry the bag down for me – but being the nice person he is he figured out the problem and offered to carry the bag downstairs.  The bag for our downstairs laundry (towels from kitchen and downstairs bathroom only – unless we use a tablecloth or fabric napkins due to a holiday and that I could carry down the stairs and did.  

First load of laundry (clothing) is now in the dryer and second load (towels and laundry bags) is in the washer.  Later when he comes downstairs for late night/pre-bed snack I will ask him to carry the laundry basket down for me.  I will empty the dryer into the laundry basket and throw the second load in the dryer – it will stay there until tomorrow anyway  after it finishes running and hopefully I will be better by then.  I fold the laundry in bed while he is getting ready for bed (and usually a bit after in the dark by the light of the TV) so that is not a problem.  

I know that I often read about how important it is to have one's family throw the laundry in “the hamper”.  I don't use a hamper – I hang our big laundry bag at the bottom of the closet – 3 hooks in the closet and 3 rings on the laundry bag which line up with them and hold the bag up and open.  This holds dirty clothes, towels, bedding and anything else. When time for laundry take the rings off the hooks, pull the bag closed  - go to top of staircase to ground floor of house and  -  - push !  Gravity takes the bag down the stairs.  Any laundry which goes into closet before the bag is replaced, I just pick up and toss in when I put the bag back.  Downstairs I have a smaller laundry bag hanging on a hook on the basement side of the door to the basement.  Just take it down and carry the relatively light bag when I go down to put the first load in the dryer and start this load.  Laundry bags both go in the second load.  

Sheets and pillowcases are their own load when I wash them, as are blankets.  Some weeks I need to wash reenacting clothing also – and they can be one or two loads depending on if I only need to the “small clothes” - that is the period undergarments, socks, neck cloths and cap, depending on if all need washing or if there are main clothing items which also need to be laundered.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes things happen – whether an injury, an illness, not being able to do a chore on the day it is normally done (such as being away or involved in a problem which arises), or a myriad of other things which throws one work schedule off or makes it harder to deal with or equipment needed dies.  One should have some idea of alternatives (do the laundry the next day or have someone else do it if you can, get help and so on) that can be used in these situations.  Or one has to learn to think quickly on their feet to deal with things.

DO YOU MULTI TASK - I AM DOING SO RIGHT NOW!

 I haven't written a post since the start of the month?  I am shocked.  I actually have last week's post writing (and posting of it) checked off in my calendar!  

And nothing special to write this week either.  Hmmm -

Multitasking – that's it!  I do a lot of multitasking to get things done.  As I am writing this the first load of laundry for the week is in the washer.  I am in the kitchen and can sort of hear the washer – plus I set an alarm in my older cell phone to remind to go down in 50 minutes and switch loads.  

I will then transfer this load – all of our clothes from the past week (with two sets of exceptions) to the dryer and toss in the towels and laundry bags to wash.  Reset alarm for another 50 minutes and put the clothes in the laundry basket with husband's shirts laid across the top of the load so they don't get wrinkled.  The towels then go into the dryer.  

If we have used most (or all) of our Covid masks (we are still wearing them when we go out as we are both high risk and many people here still do so) I will throw them into the washer for another load.  I put the masks in smaller sized net bags that zipper closed to protect them in the washer.  I own 3 bags and will spread the masks as evenly as possible in the bags.   The alarm is reset for another 50 minutes.  If not the alarm will not be reset as I don't take the last load out until tomorrow.  

If the masks are in the washer, when I go down again I will put the towels in the larger laundry bag from the dryer and leave it on top of the washer.  The masks will go into the dryer set on half an hour and will be taken out the next day.  I take the masks out of the net bags for drying, but zip the bags closed again and put them in the dryer with the masks.  

Some weeks I have a different third load than the masks.  When I have a load of sweatshirts that I wear to keep warm – in winter as it is cold and in hot weather because husband has the air conditioner on and I get too cold.  These would go in the washer after the towels as an extra load every few weeks when I have used up most of them.  Or I could be washing the sheets and pillowcases from our bed as a third (or even fourth load).  Once in awhile I could also be washing the blankets from the bed as an additional load.  

While all of the laundry is being done I write and post to all of you.  I also visit an online needlework group.  Sometimes I do some clothing repair/sock darning.  

And while I do almost everything in the house – the TV is on for me to “watch” - well, mostly listen to and look up at every now.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Plan to use your time as well as possible.  If you have something that you can “set and forget” such as laundry – use the same time to do something which takes more attention. 

MORE INSTRUCTION BOOKS DEALT WITH - WHY ARE ORDERS ARE ALL COMING DAYS LATE THESE DAYS?c

 Well, another week gone by.  I have scanned some more instructions books and just discarded some for items we no longer have.  The last several weeks of books have not been thrown out as I am going to tied them together and put them out when next I put out recycling as I did with the earlier scanned ones when I last put out recycling.

In normal times I out recycling weekly for pickup.  A stack of tied together newspapers, magazines, etc.  and a cardboard box of cans, bottles, and jars.  I recycle the boxes we get into the house this way as some years ago the second plastic box we had from the township for recycling was taken (as was the first one) by the garbage crew as they decided it was too broken to use.  So I keep boxes in our side porch – small ones – for a normal week in normal times and we used 4 soup cans and nothing else to put in.  Big ones for weeks when there is a holiday and I do a lot of cooking with a lot of things to recycle, and medium sized boxes for in between.  These days we can use only one can or two cans in a week.  Combine this with we not are temporarily not getting our newspapers in hard copy, and most weeks if I put the stuff for recycling – it would not be seen.  So I have been putting out the recycling when the carton I use to collect it all in is overfull and I put it in the larger can they gave everyone some years ago – this holds about 2 months worth, maybe more with how many items we are using these days.

So the instructions to be discarded sit in a bag in our office set aside to go out.  

We did go get to go food shopping yesterday – a good sized fill in trip.  Though much more relaxed than the 2 months major shopping we had done through most of the pandemic.  Even used a coupon – we complained about a frozen meal we had bought (main course – lacking in meat) and they apologized and sent a coupon for the next purchase.  I almost forgot not only to use it – but how to do so – husband remembered.  

I ordered 2 pairs of jeans – yes, we ONLY order something if we cannot get it any other way.  I noticed the knee of one of my pairs jeans had a hole – looked in Walmart – they no longer carry these jeans and have no acceptable (to me) alternative.  Husband looked up the jeans company – and we ordered from them.  Jeans were to be delivered today – no, now they may not come for another couple of days, so we even if we wanted to run errands we have to stay home to wait for them now as they are left in front of our house – easy to be seen and taken as we live on a main road.  Add to that bad rain storms over the next couple of days and we could not go out if we wanted to.  Same thing happened with some items husband had to order for his handcrafted business and a different delivery company – also got notice at last minute that not coming on day specified by them.  (Is this a new trend?)  

So more time to scan instruction books and do other housework which needs to be caught up.  Right now, as normal for when I am writing on Wednesday night – our washing machine is washing our clothing.  When same goes into the dryer – the towels go into washer.  When clothes come out will fold in bed while going to sleep tonight and towels will go into dryer.  Towels will be folded tomorrow night while going to sleep.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Lately more things seem to go wrong.  Do you find this to be true?  Just have to go with the flow and take things as they come – and I am not someone who likes that loss of control.

How is your organizing going – anything special which works for you?

COVID 19 #15 MORE DELIVERIES - MORE PROBLEMS, BUT NOT AS BAD

Well, Monday husband commented to me that he found a couple of things he needs, but not enough for a delivery order (US$35 minimum).  I decided to tell him that I needed some things also – most important was lint trap filters for our washing machine.  (These are the mesh bags that go over the outgoing hose of the machine and keep lint from ending in the drain.)  We went to the computer and the Walmart site and started going through our lists - $35 – easy – we went over $100.  Most of what we ordered was not food – but household stuff.    We put in the order – first items were to come today, Wednesday. 

Last time we ordered (the first time we ordered) from Walmart the first shipment came a day early and most shipments were sitting on steps when I woke up and looked out – 3 hours earlier than I normally wake up.  So despite husband insisting that nothing was coming on Tuesday – per the delivery information  - I woke up and went downstairs and looked out the front door.  Nothing there.  I decided to agree with him and not wake up hourly to check and went back to sleep. 

Tuesday is one of the days I go out and take in the mail.  When I did so in the afternoon – surprise!  A box from Walmart!  I brought it into the porch and unloaded it – wiping each item down with alcohol on a piece of paper towel and handing it to husband in the kitchen.  (Items that are packed in a package – we just toss the outer package instead of wiping it down.)  We cover the kitchen table with a towel – and we are running short on bath towels as we have the dining room table covered with same so the cans and plastic boxes living there for now do not scratch or mar the table – to hold the items he brought in.  Nice assortment, but none of the urgent items. 

Today we were to officially get a delivery.  I woke up early again – no package.  An hour later – no package.  An hour later – no package.  Finally in the late afternoon I was working at my desk in the office -with the curtain opened so I could see if a big truck parked in front of the house – I saw the truck and the package was here.  I went downstairs and brought the box into the porch and repeated the unpacking procedure.  The lint filters I needed was in the order – using one of them right now as I am doing the laundry as I write.  The filters come 2 in package and we had bought 4 packages – I opened each package and held it out to husband to pull out the contents – they did not need to be wiped down. Good thing – if I did not get them, I would have to constantly run downstairs and make sure that when water was expelled from the washer the lint screen over the drain (there in addition to the filter all the time) was not completely covered and that water could still go down the drain. 

There was also the package of bars of soap.  Husband has been constantly afraid during the pandemic that we would run of hand soap.  Mostly we use liquid hand soap for washing our hands and bars of soap for showering.  He has had trouble finding liquid soap to buy more of and when he saw the brand of bar soap – we decided to more of them for showering and “just in case”.  The soap arrived today.  As soon as I opened the shipping box I knew the soap was a problem.  The package had looked right in the photo and it did not occur to either of us to make sure it was unscented.  It is scented.  I now have the bars in double plastic bags and still smell the awful scent when going past them.   I am working on the kitchen table onto which we had unloaded the items.  The towel which covered the table is gone from here – but the odor of the soap continues in the room – ewwww!  I figure if we don't need them  during the pandemic/soap shortage – I will donate them rather them use them.

The next (I think last) delivery should be tomorrow.  Husband has been worried as there was no update of its location until after 6 pm tonight.  At least after it comes I won't have to wake up early to check for it.

THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK -
Even now one should not rush and should stop and make sure items being purchased/ordered are the ones that one actually wants. 

Never trust that the delivery will be on the day one is told – always check the day before. 

COVID 19 #3 - GETTING BILLS PAID IN NEW WAYS

I have mentioned that I am in an embroidery club.  We meet the first Wednesday of the month except in summer.  I reserve for the group the room at a local park in which we meet.  This is done in November for the coming year.  When I saw that the April meeting would be today – April Fools Day – I wondered what might happen.  I never dreamed that we would not be meeting due to a pandemic – or even just an epidemic.  I hope that all of you and your families continue to stay safe and well.

We are learning bit by bit about how to deal with the threat of  COVID 19 as I am sure most to all of you are also.  Every time I touch something to use it – my husband gets upset that we will use up all of whatever it is I go to touch so I have been figuring out how to do more with less and alternatives for consumable items that I normally use without thinking about it.

Luckily we did manage to buy an extra huge package of toilet paper just as the emergency was becoming obvious – husband, as I have said panics easily – so he has not started rationing same.

We have a lot of paper towels  - but did not think to buy extra when we could.  We have started packages of both full and half sheet paper towels.  (And as I always mention to him – a started and a full roll out in our RV – we have spares of most household items there – including at least 2 started and 2 full rolls of TP.)  But he did not like that I was using a half sized sheet each meal to wash the dishes – this quickly became one half sheet for the day's dishes.  I offered to go back to using a sponge to wash the dishes (we had stopped same last summer when we had ants) but he did not like that either and told me to stay with one half sheet a day.  Then looking in the cabinet under my kitchen sink I had an idea.  I keep several old kitchen towels there to use for things like wiping up a mess, covering the front of the sink/counter when husband washes his hair in the sink, etc. I took one of them – actually a rag by now – and thought about it.  I pulled out a pair of shears and cut it in 6 pieces (smaller would be too small).  I now have a small dish rag to wash the dishes , etc – as well as wipe up spills  - I change it every day and throw the piece from the day before in the towel laundry bag in the kitchen.  They actually work pretty well – they are “bumpy” so they scrub a bit.  I cut 2 more pieces off another towel, leaving the rest of it intact – for now.

I normally do laundry on Wednesday night (while writing to you) and sometimes more than one night is needed so Thursday sometimes also.  The downstairs laundry bag almost always holds nothing but towels (sometimes a sock wet from the rain or similar might end up in there also).  My upstairs laundry bag holds clothes, bedding and towels to be washed.  I put a second bag upstairs for just towels.  I normally change all the towels on Monday, the hand towels in the 2 bathrooms again on Thursday, so each time they are used for about half a week, and the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and on Friday.  Now all towels are changed every other day – so the towel laundry is now done on a day that changes as I do so every 3 changes of towels – hence the need for a special bag for them upstairs.

Last weekend I went online and signed up to have our mail forwarded from our Post Office Box to our house.  No more late Sunday night runs there to get the mail – I forgot which hand was for touching mail items and doors and which was never suppose to do either once too often for husband and was annoyed at having to do so – and we wore plastic gloves on both hands.  Our only trips there now will be at night to mail out items that have to go out – and they will go in the mail boxes outside the Post Office.  I only take in the mail at our house 3 times a week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  The mail goes into a sealable plastic bag and I spray Lysol into it – the bag then sits until the matching day of the next week – once our mail starts coming here on the forwarding, it will not sit that long as it will already be 7 -10 days additional time in the mail – and bills cannot wait that long.  These procedures are to make husband less terrified – not recommended by anyone.

Bills – I thought we would be okay.  We are both on Social Security and most of our income comes from same.  Our payments are deposited in our checking account and ready for use.  Luckily within the past year  I had changed our Social Security to go into our checking account instead of our savings account where it used to go.  Well, we ran into two problems with our bills. 

First, I realized last week that we had to pay our electric bill – and did not have the money to do so in our checking account.  In normal times we would have gone and transferred money from somewhere – perhaps some extra cash that we ended up with in the house after one of our few trips would be deposited back in the bank or we would transfer it from savings – but we are not going out and not going to the bank to do so.  I realized that we could pay the electric bill with a credit card – we never do this, but since we pay all of our credit card bills in full in monthly, there is no interest that will do on same. 

We use one credit card for rare online, mail, phone order purchases or recurring items that have to be credited to a credit card – it has only has $1000 line of credit due to what it is used for – did not want to tie up that line with an amount equal to the electric bill.  So I decided to put the electric bill on one of the cards that we do not normally use at all – I use it once a year to keep it active for, generally, an under $5 purchase.  I was concerned that using it pay of a couple of hundred dollars of electric bill all of a sudden might get rejected.  So I figured that I would call the credit company in advance and let them know. I started calling Monday early afternoon.  I would be told by their computer that they have an unusually large number of calls and to please be patient.  I understood this and was prepared to be patient.  The computer kept trying to get me to use their website instead – I don't do financial things online unless there is ABSOLUTELY no other way to do it.  I started to wait.  I was then told to call back later and the computer hung up on me.  I called again and tried to use the computer – same thing.  I tried several times during the afternoon (no where to go anyway) and again in the evening.  No luck.  I waited until 12:05 (the next day) and then called, figuring how much “later” could one call and also that it was night it in the most US and that hopefully there were different offices to handle customers in other countries – after all on the back of my credit card it said that it was “24 hour number”.  It seemed to work.  This time I was told to hold – and I did – I was prepared to hold as long as needed.  At 1:05 am a message came on telling me the office was now closed and I should call back – yes, - later.  Now how can a 24 hour office be closed?  I thought about this and applying some logic – perhaps they switched to the next office in the time line and if I called again I could be hold with that office.  So I called again.  To my shock the call was transferred almost immediately after I spoke to the computer to a LIVE PERSON!!  I managed to make the arrangements with her to have no problem with paying my electric bill with their credit card.  Now as annoyed as I was, I knew that these are rare circumstances, though I was a bit po'd at the treatment that I had received – but thought that all the credit companies might be like this.  Yesterday, I called the electric company and paid the bill with the credit card – by the time the credit card bill comes in – our Social Security will have done so also.

I keep our bills organized with Quickbooks – the repeating bills (even for credit cards that we do not normally use) come up in the QB calendar  two weeks before they are normally due – a week to remind me to pay in a week and I pay them and mail them a week before they are do.  Normally I am in our Quickbook files almost daily.  But since we don't want to go out more often than we need to, I have been paying bills in advance of when they are due if we have the money in the account, so I am not in QB that often.  Today I decided to go into the file and take a look.  GOOD THING!  Our cable/Internet bill has not come and is due next week – and suffers from the same problem as our electric bill!  I tried calling our cable company today – they are taking no calls – we are to do everything through the website as the telephone system is overrun also.  I need a week delay from them to pay the bill and knew that under the current conditions it would be given.  Husband signed into the cable company's website and tried to get to “chat” to talk to someone about this.  The chat must have been jammed – it would not even all the way!  So, again, knowing that there is someone there 24 hours a day (to help in case Internet or TV goes down – they tell one to pull the electric cord and plug it back – as if we have not that already) I waited until after dinner.  I then signed into their website again.  In the interim while I cooked dinner husband had played around and found a COVID 19 part of the site with a chat.  I had to wait about 10 minutes but a very nice fellow came on the chat – I explained that we needed an extension to pay until April 15 and he told me that there is automatic 60 day extensions on all payments – matter resolved.

In the middle of sitting and making these long extended time phone calls and website connections, yesterday was my mom's 91st birthday.  Of course we cannot visit her.  My sister who is younger than me and lives near the assisted living residence mom is in, went and left a cake and flowers for mom on a car the residence has outside for items to be left to be given to one's family in the residence.  I tried telephoning my mom – I called her 7 times,  She is barely and rarely allowed out of her room these days due to COVID 19.  I even tried yelling a message when her answering machine picked up – she does not check for messages, but I hoped she would hear me and pick up (and I had proof that I tried to call her).  How could she not be in her room?  I later contacted my sister and she told me mom had a bad stomach and did not feel well and went to bed early.

When I did not reach mom the first time I called her yesterday I called a client and friend as I had sent her email about the need to file her 2016 tax return or she would lose her refund (no one says the deadline before same goes is lost has changed) – so I also spent time on the phone with her.

So instead of getting lots things done for work and in the house  - I am spending time on the phone and online dealing with problems!  But I do get to go outside to the front of the house and take in mail tomorrow and then I get to open last week's bag of mail – yippee!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – This too shall pass as all things do.  The important thing is for all to stay well – stay home if you can and be careful if you have to go out.  I only have a few followers on this group – I can't afford to lose any you!

LIVING WITH THREAT OF COVID-19

Well  - it has gotten much more serious dealing with the Corona Virus or COVID-19 as it is now being called.  I certainly hope that all of you and your loved ones are well and stay so. 

Last week I called and canceled a follow up doctor visit for mom as she should NOT go out – she will be 91 the end of this month.  Doctor's office was very nice and told me the  - very good  - results for mom.  I have not made appointments with two other doctors she needs to go to – they can wait until it is safe for her to go out. 

During this past week our lives changed.  We had changed to going to the post office, lunch at Wendys, an attempt to find comfort items for my husband – more hand sanitizer, more hand soap, more alcohol, and/or more food – did get some more hand soap in small bottles and a bit more food.  Shelves remain empty day to day, though I did point out to husband that we do go late in the day and that may be the problem.  One of the local supermarket chains is opening early – 6 am to 7:30 am – special for only senior citizens – we just qualify for same, but 6 am?  I fall asleep at 5 am.  We may go if they continue to do this and we continue not to find things.  We are not in danger of running out of anything for a few weeks – but my husband is from a very nervous family and panics easily.  I keep reminding how much of these things we have, which always ends with “and we have more in the RV”.  We then would go home without going to other kinds of stores to walk around.  Last Sunday we did not go out to our usual Costco, BJ s , big Walmart as we normally do for fun, but it was the same as the other days. 

This week we went to the Post Office once to mail out paid bill payments,  still daily to Wendys for lunch – but, of course, we can no longer eat in Wendys – just home and eat at home.  One day went back out to supermarket – still the same. 

Last Saturday night we took in Chinese food (no dinners out any longer and that was before they ordered to only have to go/delivered orders) for dinner.  We did not go to the movies.  The theater we go to is an independent and they had sent out an email that they were going to spread the showings out further and clean/sanitize between shows – especially the seats and arm rests, bathrooms and food counters, but we still decided not to go.  We stayed in a watched a movie on TV. 

Now, everyone has been making fun of people running to buy toilet paper right?  In the middle of the movie we each received a text message.  MY sister texted me to see how my husband was doing as she knows he panics. HIS sister texted him as she never knows what is going on in the world and – yes – she suddenly found that there is toilet paper available and she is out of same for her family, let alone the news is also, but we would never be that on toilet paper ever, and she needed her big brother to help her find some.  (Eventually her husband found someone selling toilet paper at a 7-11 and bought for who knows how much money.)

Well, I have our food organized  - cans all in rows, lists of what is in the basement freezer on the refrigerator, - and we are eating less than normal at dinner.  Husband said that he would stop going to Wendys and picking up lunch – but each meal we do same, leaves more food in the house.  I am no longer using paper towels to wash the dishes – but husband did not want me to go back to using a sponge – it swirled around in my head – then I remembered – I have my old kitchen towels that are raggedy and  use for cleaning up in the kitchen – I cut up one and I have 6 pieces to use – one a day – to wash the dishes and then they will be washed. 

I normally put out clean towels on Monday and on Wednesday and Friday do so again in the kitchen and on Thursday do so in the two bathrooms.  I am now changing the towels every other day. 

My hands are raw from washing them – the cuts on them from same worry me – but what else can I do. 

Oh, today husband had a text from his sister – do we know where she can buy fish – she suddenly claims she can only fish or she gets sick (in the past it was because it was less fattening) – I guess she will be getting sick often as one will have to eat what is available.  Then again, I had expected him to hear from her upset that they could no longer eat out (every meal) and her gym (she goes daily) was closed. 

On the other hand – being in the house all the time, I am getting work done – on client's taxes and  household clearing up. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Please stay safe – listen to what the instructions are for where YOU live and follow them.  Stay away from those outside your home as much as you can and far enough away for safety.  If we are all careful there should be fewer people ill or worse.  One day this will all be over and we will be able to put our lives back together again. 

Oh, and for something to relieve the stress – do a search for penguins at Chicago aquarium .  Since there were to be no visitors they were allowed out to walk around the building  - they look like tourists seeing the other exhibits!

CHANGES IN PLANS OCCUR AND ONE HAS TO DEAL WITH THEM

I had plans for tonight's post – but things come up and I almost forgot what I had planned to write about. 

We were suppose to take mom back to her cancer surgeon today for a second follow up visit.  I have spent part of the last two weeks getting the wellness center at mom's assisted living residence to do the blood tests requested by this and also by mom's oncologist and send the results to them.  My sister who sees mom a lot more than we do as mom lives near her, had to go in and talk to the staff to get the results sent.  I checked with this doctor and the blood work results were finally there – great, we could take her there today.  Oh heck, I had not realized that today was Ash Wednesday when I made the appointment.  Why does that matter?  Well husband is Catholic and cannot eat meat today – so for lunch he had to have Wendys fish instead of his usual lunch.  So?  Well, often eating fried foods makes his stomach ill and we were concerned about eating lunch, then having to drive out, pick up mom, take her to the doctor, take her back to her residence and then drive home if his stomach was bad.  But he figured he would be okay, but was not happy about taking mom to the doctor today.

Yesterday, the day before the appointment, I was called by the doctor's office - though they thought they were calling mom as we gave them my phone number instead – why? - you will see in a later  paragraph.  They wanted to move her appointment an hour earlier.  Big problem.  It takes, from the time we arrive at mom's residence, an hour and a half to get her to an appointment 15-30 minutes from there.  We have to go up to up to her room, take the big wheels off her wheel chair (or it is terribly heavy and does not fit in the back of our car and she cannot deal with getting in out van). Stop at the wellness office for a list of her meds for the doctor (easier than trying to remember).  Get her through the building to the front (only) entrance.  (Mom's apartment is literally the furthest in the building – top floor, end of the hall.) We then have to sign her out of the building – and we have to sign in as we run through the lobby coming in and then again when we leave.  We have found it easier to take mom to our parked car than try to get her in or out of the car in front of the building – curbs and sidewalk cuts are problems.  So we have to push her – uphill – to the parking area – either together or me as too hard for husband to do.  Then we have to get her into the car and stow her wheelchair.  Then the drive.  Then on the other end we have to park – where there is room for mom to get out into her wheelchair (we have to get her a handicapped permit so we can park in those spaces with her) and then get her into the building.  This last can be very easy to do – or hard – one building was on a hill with the building at the bottom of the hill and we had trouble finding the doctor's office – out and down hill, then back up hill – with both of us pushing.  Most of the doctors offices require one to sign in 15 minutes or 30 minutes before the appointment time or they cancel it.  Mom's lunch is at 11:45 am. Her dinner at 4:45 pm. If I make the appointment for 2:30  - it allows us to each lunch, drive out there, pick her at 1 pm and get her to the doctor – after she has eaten lunch.  Other than the “doctor with the office from h*ell”  she will be back at her residence, with the big wheels back on her wheelchair and settled in, in time for her dinner.  So 1:30 pm was a big problem.  We compromised on 2 pm.  

So now mom was going to have a problem with her lunch, husband was going to have a problem with his lunch – so I had a problem in general.  Then I had a thought.  I telephoned the doctor's office back and asked about moving the appointment to a different day.  Doctor would have plenty of time to her surgery and not rush us, husband did not have to worry about his stomach after lunch, and mom would not miss lunch.  First date offered was next Wednesday – my embroidery meeting and my only day out – no way.  We settled on a date in mid March.  Doctor's office happy.  Husband happy.  I had to call mom and let her know of the change.  I had been texting my sister as I went along in case she spoke to mom before I did, she could let mom know.  Mom is hard to reach, at least for me, by telephone.  By the time that generally I can call her in the afternoon – she is at dinner.  I figured that the best time to call was around 7:30 pm as that is when she calls me.  First time I left a message – but knew she would never get it.  I called another 4 times as time passed.  I went down to cook dinner.  Mom called,  “Did you call me?”  I explained.  “No, I never hear that there are messages.”  Huh, hear that there is a message, she has to look at the machine – and has being doing so for over 40 years.  Okay, go on there from there.  She remembered we suppose to go the next day and I explained about the change.  Fine with her.  We discussed it four times.  I also told her that if my sister called and said it was to be earlier tomorrow – that was old news and changed.  We did not get a call from her today asking where we were so apparently all went well with the change.  Mom is 90 and a year ago I would not question that she understood and would remember the appointment and the change,  but a year can make a big difference.

Next wonderfulness was our basement freezer.  We have a small freezer that we bought probably 30 years ago or more (it has out lived at least 2 refrigerators, probably 3).  We used to grow vegetables in our back yard in summer and would freeze the excess in this freezer.  Have not done so in at least a decade and it was being used for backup frozen vegetables and meat since, until about 3 years ago when we somehow switched to buy the food for dinner that day.  So it has mostly sat in the basement with some commercial frozen vegetables in it and a few other items.  Last year we used it when our refrigerator died and we had some items in its freezer.  It had about 4-5 inches of ice on the top coils.  Husband will not let me put frozen items at the back of the freezer in the new refrigerator – he read an article that the back needs lots of space for air to circulate – so I have (somehow) a smaller freezer in this refrigerator than our old and I cannot use about 1/6-1/4 of the space in it.  I figured I would melt the ice in the basement freezer so it could go back to being used – and since there was nothing in it as we used the last item stored in it about a month ago – this was the time to do it. 

I knew it would take a long time and would be messy. I had a plan.  I needed to remember to do this when we come home fairly early from running errands.  Today was the day.  We were home early and I would be making many trips to the basement at night to do laundry and could combine the trips down for both purposes.  When we came home I went to the basement and shut off the freezer.  I put in two large, deep baking pans – one on the right of one shelf and one on the left of the other shelf to catch the dripping water as I knew the bottom drip pan would not hold anywhere near enough and would be a mess to empty.  I grabbed lots of old used for junk purposes towels and spread them in front of the freezer.  I propped the door open, set an alarm for an hour and went upstairs to work.  An hour later – nothing had started – reset the alarm and back upstairs.  An hour later – still no melting, reset again and started to cook dinner.  After dinner while watching TV in the kitchen the alarm went off again. I went back down – goody!!  Two small puddles (dots) of water in one of the baking pans – it was working.  I went back to the kitchen – husband asked what I was doing.  I told him.  He had to inspect the situation.  He decided that what I was doing would never work.  He was going to use his heat gun.  Luckily he decided that was too hot.  We sat there for a couple of hours as he melted the ice with his hairdryer.  Dumping the baking pans and a couple of times the bottom drip pan into a bucket.  (I have done this before – just with a lot less ice – and knew that I would not be able to carry the baking pans or the drip pan to the sink without spilling.  Finally the last big piece of ice was loose and fell free.  After dumping the last of the water and ice into the basement sink he went upstairs and I dried the inside of the freezer. It is sitting with the door ajar to dry out before being plugged back in. 

Sooo, my post on doing your income taxes will be delayed until at least next week. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Plans are plans  - until they go awry.  Whether the appointment has to be changed for someone else's convenience or needs or what you plan to do in the house needs to be done differently than you think it will  - and takes more of your time as a result, or have you plans to write something and other items come up which need to be written about first  - they go awry. 

One has to deal with the changes and see what can be done.  If nothing else – the appointment change and the change in how we had to defrost the freezer gave me something to write about and you get out of hearing about income taxes for at least a week!

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.

BACK AND FORTH - TWICE - ON THE SAME TRIP AND FALLING BEHIND

Late again posting - sorry. 

We did go away last Thursday and Friday.  When I telephoned Wednesday afternoon to make the reservation the woman I spoke with, was rather odd about the entire thing.  The spaces I asked for were not available for two nights - we had decided to stay through Saturday.  When I asked if any of the spaces were available just for the one night, Thursday there was still confusion.  I finally worked it out and reserved one of the spaces for Thursday night and figured that we would ask what was available for just Friday night when we checked in - just in case something was available that would work for us.  I made sense to me that Friday would not be available even though Thursday was as Friday is a weekend night and more people travel.

Our trip down was fine - better time than the usual mess.  As we drove down husband suggested, which he acknowledged was crazy, that we drive back again on Tuesday of the following week for the day.  We have not been to the farmers market that is on Tuesday most or all of this year and different vendors are there from the Friday market.  The idea hit me, I suggested that we drive down Monday and stay until Tuesday. This would relieve the problem of possibly getting stuck in traffic on the way and arriving too late to have enough time at the market.  (Mostly we have lunch and walk around, perhaps buying some small items we need or see, good shop at Tuesday market to look for bears for my village and I have not been there since the village went to year round.)  Plus, if we use the toilet in the RV it has to be dumped at the RV park.  It needs to be 2/3 full minimum, to dump so that there is enough force, so Friday morning we were going to have to fill the tank (having only stayed one night) to dump the tanks.  By coming back, there would be double in the tanks when we dumped and it would fill faster.  The weather promised to be nice for Monday and Tuesday and I would make the reservation when we checked in.

Remember I said that it had been suppose to rain there on Tuesday?  When we arrived in the general area we saw lots of fields (this is farm country) with huge puddles- almost pond size in them.  We went around to several touristy we go to in the area and then around 5:30 pm went to the RV park to check in.  We paid for our space for the evening and reserved the same space for Monday night.  It is a fairly small RV park along a stream.  As we were walking out of the office the employee said “Oh, if the space is too wet, just come back and we will give you another one.”  Huh!?  Apparently they had trouble from the rain on Tuesday.  As we drove to our space we were driving along the row of spaces facing the stream.  We saw what they meant - the spaces had MUD in them.  Our space is in the next row so we were concerned.  We drove to the space and it seemed mostly okay.  I got out of the RV as we do a few things when we arrive at a space at the start of a stay there.  First husband will back in (rare that we get a “drive through space”) and we will find the level spot.  I guide him.  This time I checked that the actual space was dry - it is gravel and the gravel looked different, very light in color, apparently washed in the flood.  I saw mud on the sides of the space, so I walked to the back of the space and it was not muddy there - where we have to walk to hook up the electricity and the TV (and water if we hooked up same), so it seemed okay.  He backed in, we found the level spot and marked it with markers he made.  Although we have been in the space numerous times, when we arrive there we check the electricity to make sure it is functioning properly and we did so and went off again. 

Well, now I understood why there was confusion about reserving a space when I called the afternoon before.  Apparently the general area did not just have rain, it had RAIN!!!!!.  FLOODING RAIN!!!!!   As we went around over the rest of the two days we saw the result of flooding in many places.  At the Friday market there was mud on the foundations of buildings and pavement.  One building, which had flooded badly once in the past, had obviously been flooded as there was no merchandise on the bottom 3 shelves of the fixtures - tossed out as it was soaked.  There is an auction in a room at the end of one building.  I have never seen it closed.  It was closed and through the wall I could hear fans running trying to dry the room. 

If any of you are from the Lancaster, PA area - I hope that you were not hit by the flooding. 

Friday night we returned home.  I did not unpack much of the RV.  I left my clothes, the snacks, the towels, etc.  Husband insisted on taking his clothing into the house.  After 2 days, I repacked the RV on Sunday night for the drive down on Monday.  By then it was much dryer, although some of the space in the RV park needed work on them and were still closed. Understand, we were away for 2 days, 1 night, then drove home for 2 nights, 2 days, and then back again to Pennsylvania for another 2 days, 1 night and then home - and I won’t bore you with the local traffic mess on the way home last Tuesday night.  Of this time, we spent the equivalent of over half a day traveling forth and back and forth and back again.


I am behind in everything I was suppose to do the last few weeks.  I notice this when I went to change towels Tuesday night. I normally change all the towels on Monday, then change the bathroom towels again on Thursday and the kitchen towels on Wednesday and Friday.  The towels are all assorted - I had Monday bathroom towels out downstairs and Thursday ones upstairs.  (No, I am not that anal.  I put blue hand towels upstairs and green ones downstairs on Monday and another color on Thursday - as I have 2 sets of each color and all my other ones vary in color by pair.  This way I can tell by looking if I forgot to change the hand towels.)  I went to change husband’s weekly hair towel and 2 of the 3 were in the laundry and I was pulling the third one to wash.  My pillowcases are either white (2 sets) or beige (1 set) I have 3 white towels and a beige one on the bed.    I forgot to do the laundry last night.  I have been keeping up with washing clothing over the past several weeks of colds and travel, but not the rest of the laundry. 

So right now clothing is being washed (a day late).  I spent last night writing and rewriting the newsletter for my embroidery chapter.  I had figured to write it quickly as it usually does not take long.  We are starting our meeting year and I had not heard from the chapter president with her president’s message.  We are doing a project for most of the year and I had to figure out how to write up what we are doing at the meeting.  (I also list information from our national and region, as well as giving list of related exhibitions and events in a travelable area - this takes up most of the newsletter).  In addition we are doing a “stitch in public” that we do every year and I wrote a page to encourage someone other than myself and the chapter president (and husband who joins us) would also come with us.  I then found out, in reply to an email I had sent, that the chapter president had sent the info - apparently when I downloaded my email - from 3 days - it did not download on most of my email addresses.  When I downloaded it again after hearing from her, it all downloaded.  Her president’s message included this info for the meeting.  So I had to fit in her message, splitting it to the meeting information and get rid of what I had written.  Then send out 3 versions of the newsletter (members, prospective members, and other region newsletter editors).  So last night was gone - which is why I did not get a chance to write this post then.

I have a piece I am entering at the local three county, county fair - huh?  Our local fair, which dates back to 1842, is the legal county fair for 3 counties.  It is held at the restoration village I have mentioned before where there is an exact copy of the original fair grounds from photos) and is held in the style of a late 1800s fair, with many of the volunteers dressed in period dress.  The heart of the fair are the art, craft, needlework, sewing, baking, canning, fruits, vegetables, flowers and the like which have been entered by people from the three counties. 

I used to enter several items each year including an angel cake.  Lately it has been one or two items and no more baking - as there have been less entries they cut some categories all around, including angel cake.  I have one piece to enter this year - if I finish it.  I have about one or maybe two more nights of stitching it, then I need to assemble it and then husband has to have time to frame it for me.  I keep Thursday nights (which means 11:30 pm to 2 am Friday) for stitching and other crafts for me.  I have not had a chance in at least a month to do so.  I planned on tonight finishing the stitching.  Obviously I will not as I am writing this post and have other “must to do” items for after this.  If I don’t finish it, it will be entered next year.  I am not going to panic over not getting it done in time. I am a procrastinator, I know this and try to push myself to finish ahead of time.  When husband was still working I would drop off our entries while he was at work.  One year on the day the entries had to be in, I called him at work and - in a panic - asked where the craft wire was in the house, I was still finishing a doll I was making of Theodore Roosevelt and he needed eyeglasses.  He on the other hand, would have his entries done in July!

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

What must be done gets done.  What is nice to do or one wants to get done, may or may not get done - and that is okay.  We can only do a certain amount and cannot kick ourselves for not getting everything done.  

TINY BATHROOMS - I MEAN REALLY TINY!

Okay, let’s get back to the idea of trying to get organized.  We have a full bathroom upstairs and and a half bath downstairs.  For those from other places, this means that our bathroom upstairs has a commode, sink, and bathtub/shower, while our downstairs bathroom has only a commode and sink.  They are small.  The downstairs bathroom is just less than 4 feet by 4 feet.  The upstairs one is about 6 feet by 5 feet - the 5 feet being the cross measurement of the bathtub. I am not sure that in some of the new houses being built the “toilet room” in the bathrooms are not larger than our bathrooms themselves.

When we moved in the downstairs bathroom had a decent sink and fairly new small vanity.  At some point the floor had been retiled as it ceramic tile and based on what I know of tile at different points in my life, I would say it had put in within 10 years of when we bought. The walls in both bathrooms have plastic tile - something I have never otherwise seen and I presume is older.  The vanity had a drawer below the door section. 

The upstairs sink and vanity were not that nice - and much older looking.  At some point we decided to replace them.  We then found out that our bathroom sinks are below the smallest standard size.  Back then we had a choice of two, now I am not sure that this size is still made.  We looked and looked and managed to find a duplicate of the downstairs vanity - with a drawer at the bottom.  No other vanities in this size had any drawer and there were maybe 3 of them to choose from.  Understand I don’t mean that we went to a store and the store had 3 of them.  We went to ALL the stores and found 3 total.  We replaced the upstairs sink and vanity, putting in the new setup ourselves.  When we moved in there was no electric outlet in either bathroom - yes, I just said that there was no outlet in either bathroom when we moved in.  We are not sure how the families before us dried their hair and the men must have shaved with blades, not an electric shaver.  We are not sure this would be allowed under the current electric code where we live.

When I read organizing books there is an assumption that there are lots of drawers, a large cabinet and a counter top.  We have no counter in either bathroom.  We also cannot put an “over john” in the upstairs bathroom.  (This is a set of shelves intended to stand around the commode and put shelves over it.) Why?  Well, the window is over the commode and it would be blocked by the over john unit.  What we did end up doing is making a 2 shelved wheeled cart that just squeezes in opposite the sink and next to the bathtub.  It can be wheeled out when one is taking a shower or cleaning the bathroom and then wheeled back in.  The bottom is used for storage and the top for counter space.  Spare towels and related are kept in a small closet in the hall outside of the bathroom.  We also put up a wooden ladder shaped hanging, that we made, on the wall adjacent to the commode - this is for magazines, but they get a bit icky where it is located, so very little is placed there.

The drawer in upstairs bathroom is husband’s.  He has to put his razor and related items somewhere and the drawer is where they are.  Since he gets dizzy when he bends over, it is not the best place, but it is what we have.  In the cabinet I have a plastic shoe box without a lid.  This holds our first aid stuff for upstairs.  It can be pulled out to be taken to where it is needed.  We have spare toilet paper and mouthwash in the cabinet, as well as a spray bottle of shower cleaner.  That fills it.  In the “medicine cabinet” over the sink, husband has his teeth related items on the top shelf in what is sold as drawer divider box.  He can take the entire divider box out, put it on the cart to use it, and then put it back.  Small bathroom related items - including over the counter pain killers - are on the other two shelves.  We do not keep any prescription medication upstairs.  Why?  I have to count it out once a week into boxes (so if one of us says “hey, did I take my pills?” we can easily check if it was taken) and I do this in the kitchen, so the prescription medications are kept in the kitchen.  I keep my teeth related items in the hall closet - it just leads to much less arguing. 

We do have this closet just outside our bathroom and bedroom.  It had shelves so it is used as a linen closet for the bedrooms and the upstairs bathroom.  We put a wire shelving unit on the inside of the door and I try to keep the items there in sections by what they are for to be able to find them - such as all of the “Band aid” type items are on the same door shelf.  Cleaning items for the bathroom are on the bottom door shelf.  A roll of paper towels is also kept in this closet for upstairs use. 

The hand towels in use hang on a towel bar on the door - we went to change this when we moved in, but it is set into a cut into the tile around the tub/shower and could not be changed.  The started shower towels hang on the door of the shower.  I also have 2 “utility” towels in the bathroom. These are towels to wipe up spills and messes. 

I keep the box of tissues on the top of the commode.  Also there and on the window sill are pump hand soap and pump hand sanitizer .  For fun and decoration there are some small “rubber” duckies in a line across the window sill.  There is a holder for small paper cups on the wall between the sink area and the tub.

When it is time to clean the bathroom, I wheel the cart out of it.  I do have to lie across the (closed) commode seat to be able to reach behind it to clean it and the floor.  To clean the tiny space between the sink/cabinet and the tub, I have to kneel in the tub to be able to reach the floor there to clean it.  

The day after we moved in we had an electrician in to put in an electric outlet.  The choices were limited.  It could be on the wall that is behind one, when one is standing at the sink - not convenient. or we could move the lighting fixture and put the outlet where the light had been.  The light was moved to the eave angle of the ceiling and an outlet put in.  I can sort of reach the outlet, but not really.

The upstairs does have ceramic tile on the wall and on the tub surround so they must have been replaced as they are not plastic, although they look older than the ones in the downstairs bathroom.                     

Ah yes - I wanted to mention that we always seem to manage to drip some water off the back corner of the sink onto the floor (on the commode side) and I have started folding a paper towel in quarters and putting it this corner of the floor to absorb any water that drips. 

The downstairs sink has a bit more flat surface around it and I have the pump soap and pump hand sanitizer on the back corners of the sink.  I cut a paper towel in half and then cut it to match the curve of the sink and keep the pieces under the two pumps to keep the sink top clean - I change them when I clean the bathroom.

I also have to lie down on the commode to clean behind it.  There is a perhaps 1 inch to 1.5 inch space between the vanity and the side wall - it is next to impossible to clean.  A damp paper towel folded and shoved in and moved with a yard stick is about the best that can be done.  The cleaners are kept in the vanity.  The drawer here holds some magazines (BBC History magazine to be specific.)  The hand towels and some utility towels (no other towels needed for here) are also kept in the vanity.  I hang a set of hand towels on a towel bar.  The owner before us also had 2 large rings for towels and I hang a utility towel in one of them for wiping up. There is a cup holder attached to the wall with a metal cup in it.  We use this bathroom when cleaning up from doing crafts and the cup holds paint brushes that need to dry.

For an electric outlet in this bathroom we installed (ourselves) a combination piece which has one outlet and the light switch in what would be the second outlet area.  It has not been working right lately (only when I am using it of course) and we have bought a new matching unit to replace the old one. 

The medicine cabinet has more of the same over the counter medicines.  (We keep older bottles of them when we buy new and split the new between the upstairs and downstairs bottles, putting the new expiration dates on the older bottles as we never use them up before they go bad and do not want to buy 2 bottles.)  We get our prescription medications in 90 day supplies and I keep the bottles in this cabinet.  Since it is not a shower bathroom, it does not get steamy so we can do this.  I count the pills into smaller bottles (again ones from earlier prescriptions that match what is in them) of a month’s worth when I use up the month’s worth in them.  These smaller bottles are kept in the kitchen cabinet. There is first aid stuff in this cabinet also - not as much as upstairs, just so we don’t have to always run upstairs for stuff. 

Again the tissue box is kept on the back of the commode.  A basket with “for show”guest soaps is also on the back of the commode.  Over the commode (which is a wall here, not a window) we have a shelving piece with odd shape small shelves for husband’s small glass animals collection.

This room seems to have originally had a window.  Above the plastic tile is wood paneling and there is a ceiling exhaust fan that does not seem to be original.  There was a room added to the back of the house that sits behind this room and we assume that there was a window and was covered by the paneling when it was blocked off by the addition of the back room and the exhaust fan was installed at that time. 

So that is our bathrooms.  Each of them is probably smaller than a closet in the world of organizing books.  Do you have a bathroom like our ours or do you have a nice big one.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

If you have small room you have to figure out how to make them work for you.  When we started we were not sure what to do.  Over the years we have managed to make them work for us.  They are far from perfect or convenient, but they work.  (And, as small as they are, they are bigger and more convenient than our RV bathroom - if you can call it that.)

I would love to hear from you about your bathroom and what you do to organize it.

Both bathrooms are at the back of the house.