Archive for the ‘Pack brat’ Category
Busy (and productive) weekend
April 14th, 2008
This may not be a newsworthy post for most people, but for a hermit in the making, it’s pretty awesome. Many weekends out of the year, I will go home from work on Friday and not go outside until heading to work on Monday. (And I like it.)
This weekend, I had something planned for every day, including Friday evening. And two of them actually required (more than) a bit of effort on my part.
Friday: finally got my taxes done. Last year I went to H&R Block since I didn’t want to deal with it myself. It was kind of annoying and I wasn’t going to do it again. But once again I didn’t want to do my taxes, so I went to H&R Block again. It was much better this time, very easy & effortless. I really liked the woman I got this time and plan to use her from now on. She even gave me some suggestions for even more deductions.
The only problem was that I was 1/2 hour late and ended up waiting for quite a long time. Fortunately, I’d brought along a book to read, so the time went fairly fast.
When I was finished, around 8 p.m., I went outside. The evening was gorgeous! It was one of those early summer evenings that I absolutely love. The air was warm and still, the sky had a glow to it, and it just made you want to sit on a bench and watch the night go by.
Saturday I had a hair appointment. Not much effort on my part, but I pulled out a Real Simple magazine from a couple months ago to read while “processing,” and found a couple of nice articles to take to heart. One in particular was how to match flowers and vases. Everyone needs more flowers in their lives!
Sunday I had a professional organizer come over. Not only did we come up with a plan of attack, but we actually started attacking. I was tired and smelly and dirty afterwards, but I sure felt good. And I rewarded myself by relaxing all afternoon, watching Dark Angel episodes (I have just gone bonkers for Jensen Ackles), playing computer games, and making cute little icon pictures.
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Thursday Thirteen #6
January 24th, 2008
Thirteen things I need to do to get my home ready to sell
- Declutter the kitchen, getting rid of old pots and pans, cleaning out the pantry, organizing my “plasticware” so that it doesn’t fall out every time I open the cupboard door. This was supposed to be done in January 2008, but the schedule has been delayed about one month. (I broke my foot.)
- Clean off the dining room table, sort through the bookcase, hutch and surrounding areas.
- Declutter the master bedroom. (This does not include the master closet, which is so massive, it received its own number on the list.
- Declutter the “den” (put in quotes because it’s actually the second bedroom). It’s the room I use for my computer and filing. Besides picking up and sorting through the room, I have a ton of papers I need to file (mostly medical info and investment reports, both of which I seem to get once or twice a week).
- The “guest” bedroom. Right now it’s a storage room, full of kitty hiding spots. It’s horrid!
- The entry and hallway. Again, not including the entry closet as it has its own number. But I might be able to swing it in here, depending on the progress I make.
- Declutter the living room. This includes getting rid of at least one of the two televisions. And organizing those pesky DVDs and (*gasp*) video tapes.
- Organize the master bath. This shouldn’t be too hard, mostly throwing out the old cosmetics and stuff.
- Declutter the guest bath. Again, this shouldn’t be too hard. Maybe I can do both of them in just one month.
- Clean out the master closet. See, it has its own number. And it needs it!
- Clean out the entry closet. But now that I think about it, I should be able to clean it out when I clean up the entry way.
- Clean out the linen closet. I want to pare down to just two or three sets of sheets and towels.
- Clean out the closet in the “den.” This has lots of old photos, old clothes, and probably several other things I’ve forgotten. Oh, and it’ll probably include a few items from cleaning up the den room (see #4).
Once I finish sorting through the house (I have a few more places to go), I hope to do the decorating and remodeling.
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Friday Fifteen
January 4th, 2008
So, here are two things I forgot for Thursday Thirteen #4. (Then again, it wouldn’t have been a Thursday Thirteen had I included them.)
- Transfer MS Money and all financial data from my laptop on the dining room table (see item #1) to my primary computer. Obviously, this wasn’t accomplished as planned.
- Hold the “Great Mary Kay Give-Away.” At one time I was a Mary Kay “personal use” consultant with thoughts of actually selling the stuff. Never happened. Consequently, I have a boat-load of products just taking up space. This goes along with my goal of getting the clutter in my home under control.
Posted in Musings, Pack brat | Comments (0)
Happy 2008!
January 2nd, 2008
(See, a day late this year, too.) I prefer even-numbered years to odd-numbered years. It seems all the good things happen in even years: I was born, graduated from high school (& various colleges), was commissioned in the Navy. Good times! I like leap years even more! Feb 29 (besides being my grandpa’s birthday, as well as a friend’s) is Sadie Hawkins Day. That’s the day when women can ask men to marry them. (Ok, maybe it’s a little outdated for modern times, but the emphasis is still on the guy to propose.) Dr. Joyce Brothers once said it’s actually a good thing, because women tend to pick partners for better reasons than men.
And new years bring new “resolutions.” This year I’m trying to get my home in shape. First up is the kitchen. I spent some of yesterday cleaning up the dirty dishes. But the main intent is to clean out the cabinets and get rid of old/duplicate/unused items.
I say “some” of the time was in the kitchen, because I also welcomed in the new year with my very own Supernatural marathon. I didn’t get through all 10 or episodes I’d planned to watch, but it was fun to go back and watch some favorite episodes I hadn’t seen in awhile.
Tags: kitchen, Supernatural
Posted in Musings, Pack brat, Supernatural | Comments (2)
New year, new home
December 29th, 2007
I started another blog—just what I need when I don’t use this one enough. The purpose of new one is/was to record my progress through my attempts to fix up my home before I retire and put it on the market. I’ve been meaning to declutter and decorate for several years, but haven’t gotten to it.
The impetus for finally getting serious is that I miscalculated my retirement date. I thought I could retire in 2010, but apparently I goofed in my calculations and can’t retire until 2011. I was pretty upset, but decided to make the most of it by coming up with a plan to fix up the place. The idea is to take 1-2 months per room first decluttering, then decorating/fixing up.
I was just discussing this with someone and decided I better take a look at my schedule. January is dedicated to the kitchen. This room is first on the list because I want it to be an inviting place, where I’ll want to spend time preparing meals, thereby eating better.
I thought my next room was my bedroom, because it should be a sanctuary. But February is a short month (even with an extra day in 2008), and I felt I really needed a longer month for the bedroom. I realized the dining room is a better fit for Feb. It’s an appropriate follow-on to the kitchen, since it’s where I need to eat some of my meals, and right now the dining room table is filled to the brim with non-dining stuff. Things like my laptop, my happy light (a new addition), Christmas presents for wrapping (yeah, yeah, I know it’s past), financial papers, a set of blue margarita glasses, and other miscellaneous stuff. Compared to my other rooms, it should actually be fairly manageable, since I don’t really have any hidden drawers and cabinets to deal with.
So, that’s my plan for the next couple months. Oh, and the bedroom is planned for March, another “maximum” month. Wish me luck!
Tags: bedroom, declutter, dining, home, kitchen
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