November 2013

OK, I admit, I've completely lost track of my weekly count. However, it's the end result that counts, right? :)

It's still a few weeks until Thanksgiving, and I've at least touched on every room. 
So, I thought it would be good to do a room by room review of what's been done and what I'd still like to get done.

I started with the bedroom.  I actually managed to do more decluttering than I expected; but mostly I rearranged things.  As DH's condition changes, I make changes in the room to accomodate.  My most recent change was to put the electric wheelchair in there, sort of in a corner.  In a pinch it can be extra seating for someone visiting him.  Mostly it's in a no longer used corner and out of the way.   I got the windows and curtains cleaned.  I'm trying to keep up with routine dusting and vacuuming, which is a challenge because he spends a great deal of his time in bed now.

Next was the front hall.  In addition to a good cleaning, I purged the closets, and reorganized the shelves that hold supplies.  I plan to tackle the linen closet once more, hopefully this weekend.  I'm still working on getting my (huge) stock of decorative candles in a location that's easy to access.  I've also worked on making the hall easier to get his wheelchair through.

The hardest room to tackle was the guest room.  Since we never actually have guests - at least no overnight ones - it tended to be the junk room.  I worked very hard at getting all of the "extra stuff not just out of the room, but to find an actual home for it all.  Some of it went into donation boxes!  While I didn't do it all in the same week, I did go back and tackle a few other things.  I made more room on one large shelf unit by disposing of out of date supplies.  I cleaned out the closet.  And I cleaned out the drawers in 2 large dressers.  I moved furniture around (by getting rid of the big useless file cabinet), so the doll house has a pplace to be.  (I'd still like to sell it - but until I do, Butter has adopted one of the rooms as his own!)    Because I moved the electric wheelchair out, I had room to put a nice chair in, which also made the living room less cluttered.  I have a small octagonal table that was in the living room, but "tight".  I moved it to the guest room, which has now become a pretty little sitting room.

I never gave the front bathroom as good a cleaning as I meant to do.  But all of the cabinets and closets got purged and organized.  I also cleaned the window and changed out the curtain.  Since I clean it regularly, I'm reasonably content with that for now.

My room was also difficult to tackle.  There is a huge amount of *stuff* that needs to be gone through.  My vision has gotten so bad that it's getting more and more difficult to sort things.  It's also getting ridiculous how much *stuff* I hold on to when I know I'll never be able to use it. However, I have made progress.  There is less stuff cluttering up the floor now.  The sewing table is mostly cleared off (ready to try to sew if I ever get any help with threading bobbins and the machine).  
The room will probably always be a "work-in-progress".

I had to mostly skip the porch week.  (that's where my whole plan started to fall apart).  We've had very few nice days for working on it.  I did get a few plants inside before the cold snap.  And, my stepson got all of the cardboard that had accumulated off 2 weeks ago by burning it on one of the rare pretty days we had.  Of course, it's piled up again because when the boys put trash in the truck on Sunday afternoon, they keep skipping the cardboard. (It WILL go tomorrow!)
In theory sometime over the next couple of weeks a girlfriend is going to come help me get started on the outside Christmas decorating.  I've decided to scale way back this year.  Partly because any help I get is unreliable and eratic at best.  Also because I now have a family living next door with kids who play outside a lot.  They've pretty much taken over the center yard between our houses, so I won't try to put anything there.  And since they play soccer, the ball occasionally strays into my yard .. so I need to be careful how I put things up here too.  And - I just don't have the heart for it I've had in the past.

The back hall and laundry room were originally planned as 2 areas, but I did them all at once.  I still need to do a good cleaning; but they got a good purging and organizing done.  It's now much easier to go through the hall and to the back bathroom (which is where the litter boxes are, and where I store cat food).  This becomes more and more important as my vision fails!  

The living and dining rooms should have been next.  I am tackling one bookshelf at a time; but other than that, there's not really any purging needed.  Well, not a lot anyway, and what there is will wait and be a winter project.  I keeppp those rooms "company ready" as much as possible. I did get all of the "Halloween" items packed, only leaving out fall decorations.  The table is reset for November.

The den wasn't on my "Plan" for a few weeks, but I went on and tackled it.  Mostly all I did was rearrange furniture; but the end result is that the rooms looks much bigger and open.  Since I sleep in there, it was important to me to have as few obstacles as possible.  There's a lot of purging needed, but that's going to have to wait until winter.  I don't want any more boxes of stuff piling up at this point.

The only room left is the kitchen.  My friend has helped me purge and organize the refrigerator, the freezer, and 3 pantry cabinets.  There is one more cabinet to tackle.  All of the "dish cabinets" were done last year when I had help, and I have managed to keep them neat.  There are really only a few "hot spots" in the kitchen to tackle.

My revised goal at this point is to 
(1) continue to purge bookshelves
(2) have DSS take the 55 gallon aquarium and a large a/c unit out of the den so I can do a final room rearranging.
(3) get dead or dormant plants off porch
(4) get outside Christmas decorations in place (lights go on Thanksgiving night)
(5) begin packing up pictures and other non-fall stuff so that after Thanksgiving I'll be ready to decorate.
(6) get one last cabinet in the kitchen cleaned out
(7) give the whole house a thorough top-to-bottom cleaning
(8)IF I get the help I need, work like mad on my sewing project!