In preparing for the old refrigerator to leave and the new one to come in - the first time - we had to make room for the crew to bring the fridges through the house. Being lazy - plus going away in the middle - we left the house as it was after the first new fridge - until the second one was here and installed.
I am not so much talking about moving clutter as moving furniture and household items in common usage. We have a small house. The new fridges had to come in the front door go to the left into the living room, close the front door, then double back in the opposite direction into the dining room through a doorway. We took the floor mats out of the front hall - put in living room. We have a standing chest for our good silver/tableware - it blocks the doorway into the dining room. It had to be moved - which we did, moving it further into the dining room. A wooden box with husband’s reenacting gun stuff that is kept under the silver chest also had to be moved into the room. We set up in the dining room a table which we take when go to reenactments to set up some stuff we put out for education and sales at events to put stuff from the kitchen/fridge on. So this gave a wide pathway through the dining room into the kitchen. What is on your fridge? We have 4 magnetic pockets on ours - one each with stuff to take when we go out, one with pencils and pens (and emery board) and one with papers which we need in the kitchen - maybe a dozen recipes or package instructions and other items. Magnets that hold our keys - 2 each. Magnetic calculator. Decorative magnets which hold small items. On the front of the fridge we added 2 years ago a large dry erase calendar - we use it to keep track of TV shows we want to watch since seasons no longer run as long as they used to - held on with magnets. Much of this went onto the table we set up in the dining room - the small magnets and the, oh, forgot to mention, the clippers I keep on the side of the fridge near the stove, held with magnets and potholders hanging on magnets went into a plastic basket that is normally next to the silver chest in the dining room - it normally holds items we have bought or received in the mail that we are concerned may have bed bugs and we need to heat in our Packtite heater until we have enough items to run it - this basket went into our studio behind the office with the magnets in it, and during the following week the items we wanted to heat were added. (Doing laundry and running the Packtite as I write to you.) The food that did not actually need to be in a fridge - soda, condiments, beer (hey, we did not even know we had beer), and the like took over the one open kitchen counter area. Our kitchen chairs were in the back room during the time(s) they were actually moving the fridges. Things were so confused that the first time I went to cook after all this, I stuck my hand out (by habit) to grab a potholder - and there were not only no potholders - but no hook for them either and I could not for the life of me remember where they all went. (I used a kitchen towel as a pot holder.) If I had to write something down no pen or pencil, no paper?) Leaving the house - where the heck are our keys? A couple of days after the second fridge was put in place and we knew it was staying we started putting stuff back. We also were adding back the soda, condiments, and such to the fridge - a little bit at a time to keep the temperature in the fridge from going up. I filled plastic bottles with water. It is recommended that the fridge be kept half full and we generally don’t have that much in it - and certainly we don’t now. So bottles filled with water are going in. We found out that the drawers stay a little warmer than the rest of the fridge, so husband’s insulin pens will go in there as too cold is more of a problem than them being a bit warmer than the food needs to be.
Then it hit us. Our reenactment unit’s big event at our headquarters would be on Sunday (this past). We needed the table we had set up. We needed access to 2 large box/benches that we bring for storage - and where the heck are the folding seats we have we bring with us? So we did a lot of putting back quickly - the silver chest and goes under it, as well as what was on the table. We broke down the table- the legs unscrew - and put the legs together in their carrier. We took out the box benches to the middle of the room so I could sort through - make sure we had what we needed for this event and not bring things we did not - this including checking that we had money for change if we sold anything and setting my embroidery so I could work on the area I intended to stitch without taking out anything modern. Husband packed a small loom he was taking with what he needed to work with it at the event. This all went out into our van on last Friday - Saturday was to be rain and we did not want to load it all in the rain if we could avoid it. Event went extremely well - hot day, but bearable, good sized crowd - no rain. Everything from the event is back in place in the house.
Yesterday we went and visited my mom. She has moved into what is called the “assisted living” building at the facility she has been in. My sister’s plan had been for mom to go to same for a few weeks so mom would realize that she cannot be home alone and then move mom home with her and then into an apartment with aides. Mom has liked it here so much that as of now we plan for to stay as long as the money can be found for her to do so. (It is not cheap.) It is the same group/agency as the one that runs the physical rehab she was in and it seems a wonderful place. We had not visited since her move to assisted living until yesterday. She has a small apartment - tiny main room with microwave and fridge and kitchen cabinets (no stove). It is set up to put one’s own TV and attach to the cable. It comes with a love seat and chair, as well as table and 2 chairs. (My sister plans to bring the living room chairs from mom’s house and get her a drop leaf table.) There is a good sized bedroom for one it is - another TV cable connection in same - she has a small TV for right now. The bathroom has a walk in - no lip shower and seat to use in same. Very nice, very modern, and housekeeping will keep it clean for her. She has a key and locks the apartment when she leaves. There are pull strings in case of emergency to get help. Talk about an efficient setup that is nice. Her meals are included so the cooking/fridge are just extra or if she wants to cook for herself. The breakfast is served too early for her and instead they bring cold cereal and muffin for breakfast to her apartment. There are trips - including shopping and entertainment trips that one can sign up for. They will take her to the doctor. Of course, she can go out with us whenever she wants and I am pretty sure she could call an Uber, Lyft or cab to go out if she wanted. Movies in a theater twice every day. Other programs are in a large space which also functions for religious services. My sister has decorating plans for it for mom with items from the house. Husband and I were highly impressed. The halls look like one is in a hotel. We were very impressed. She has made friends already which is good as before she sat home alone. The apartment is a model of efficiency and organization.
On the other hand the family now has to go through the house and deal with everything in it. My sisters, their husbands and the adult children of one of them started last weekend. (We couldn’t go as we were at the reenactment event. I have to clear out the stuff left in the last bedroom I used in the house (and maybe in the other bedroom I used for awhile) and help with the rest of the house. Since the house was hit by Hurricane Sandy the basement is empty. I am actually glad of same now, as the toys down there would have been the hardest to go through and get rid of it. I am not sure what is still in my old bedroom, but I think I can deal with it okay. I let my sisters know that I embroidered a tablecloth when in high school and when I got married I could not find it - I gave a description and told them that if they came across it to hold onto it for me. I am lucky that one of my sisters has a plan for items that are not toss, donate or take - but try to sell as they are of value and will follow her suggestions.
Today the monitor we ordered for me came in. I like it much better than the one we bought quickly at Walmart - it is squarer (more similar to my old one) and it can be turned vertical for when I am reading pages so I can see the full page. We are not sure we may return the one we had bought for me or we may keep it in case we have another problem like this and need a spare monitor that is easy to move around.
So last night - husband’s computer started shutting itself down while he was working on it. We spent most of this afternoon pulling it out from under his work table, clearing off a space on the top of one file cabinets for it stay now. We opened it and vacuumed it out. (He read that too much dust in it would make it overheat and shut down.) We then rewired everything so instead of connecting to the computer on the right side of his desk on the floor, it does on the left hand side of his desk on the file cabinet. We may be getting rid of a printer that is rarely used and was where the computer now is. Some small items have to be rearranged - including a label maker that may end up on top of our secondary printer and then be moved when that printer is needed.
Weather is very hot - over 91F today - and humid (thunderstorm tonight), plus everything we had to do - and I never even checked email yesterday - so we stopped at the supermarket while we were out and bought sliced deli turkey for us and potato salad for husband - added to bread in the house and turkey gravy we bought yesterday made a quick relatively cool dinner. We normally have soup with dinner, but skipped it tonight.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Oh, so many this week -
Make dinner quick and easy, even if it costs more than normal dinner, when you need to.
Just because a facility is a care facility does not mean that it cannot be nice. (Oh, I forgot, mom had her hair cut and dyed today - first time in year. She looks 20 years younger than she did before - she is 90, but to be honest, husband and I both liked her hair better how it was.) One has to be open to what help one needs as hard as it is to admit to needing it and moving to have the help.
Keep your computer clean - outside and inside.
Hurricanes have a good side - I hate to think what it would take to go through the basement and decide what to keep and what to get rid of.
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