NOW WE NEED TO PUT EVERYTHING BACK TO WHERE IT BELONGS

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. 

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.