Sad news, and a new direction

I haven't had a lot of time to update this lately. This is Primarily becuase of my father's health that started landsliding this summer, when he was diagnosed with esophogal cancer. Sadly, he didn't survive the treatment. T__T His heart was too weak for it, despite being able to walk into his appointments, and he faded within a week of starting chemotherapy. Long explanation short, his white and red blood cell counts went down to zero, and his heart stopped. Mid-sentance with a doctor, from what I understand. :( The house is very quiet without him. :( Mother and I have been picking up the pieces, though. We were able to refinance the house, so I'm now a co-owner, and the mortgage payment is something we can afford. We've already made a difference in the utilities; we no longer have a 8' flourecent light, a TV, a gaming computer, and a stereo all going at the same time almost every day, so the electricity bill has dropped almost $100. O_o The water bill has also gone down, but not nearly so dramatically; $25 is $25 though, and we'll take that. We've also started work on some long-needed house repairs, and we're going to be fine. My brother has been a big help in everything, which is greatly appreciated. Within all the busy-ness, Mother and I have switched rooms, so I am now in the upstairs bedroom (ie, the attic), and she's in my old one. The upside of this is I now have more space to be in, and should be able to get most of my belongings out of boxes. The down side is the house is more of a mess than it already was. If the cleaning progress was a staircase, with the top landing being total cleanliness and organization, we were somewhere in the middle of the stairs before Dad died. We are now somewhere around the first step, though still on the staircase. We are also still at least at the stair case, and trying to climb it. (I suppose a hoarder house would be someone who hasn't even looked at the stair case to know it's there, or if noticed, hasn't bothered trying to climb it - yet. I'm not quite certain how the anology would work there. O_o ) So, given that the house is in need or repair and general organization, I've decided to use this space to show how Mother and I are getting the house more organized and repairs done. She's already replaced the dining room chandelier with something that hasn't blown a CFL bulb yet (and I mean that literally, since the chandelier tended to melt the bases of the bulbs; seriously, it was freaky), and replaced the front exterior light that hasn't worked since I was a kid. Unfortunately, I don't have any before and after photos of those two projects, as both were done with the assistance of Aunt Sally (Mom's little sister) while I was at work. Both projects also took longer than they were anticipating, but that's besides the point. My plan is to start working on some of the repairs and organization items that we need to have done, and post before and after photos once the task is complete. This does mean that updates will be random, but that can't be helped (not to mention that I haven't been able to make updates in a timely manner, anyway). I plan to start with the kitchen and work my way out from there, but we're probably going to be skipping around a bit, given that it's getting colder out. Wish us luck! :)

Almost gone gone gone~!

I am pleased to report (and some might be pleased to hear) that the last few weeks have both been productive and very satisfying. Not that one would know it to look around the house, since laundry is piling up again, but all the same, it makes me feel quite happy to annouce - The pile of papers is all but gone! Ever since high school and college, I've had piles of mail and paper in my room. As in, covers-half-a-3x5-cart-table-two-feet-deep piles of paper. College notes, old pages from writing my book, credit card aps, 401(k) reports, mailings from my insurance company, credit card and bank statements, old paycheck stubs, receipes from friends, family, magazines and newspapers... They've all been saved for when I could get organized, and gathering dust. Since they're paper, they've also been making dust, as well. A few weeks ago, I decided, enough is enough. If I don't tackle it now, I'll be carting this stuff with me when I finally move out of my folk's home! So I did a bit of research online for what I *need* to keep, and what I can get rid of. General consensus said the following: Pay check stubs - keep for one year Credit card statements/payment printouts - keep for one month (long enough to make sure everything is square; from there, it's online anyway) Bank statements - file if desired, otherwise, same as payment printouts Instruction manuals/warranty information & receipts for similar - keep until you no longer own the product they go with So I went through the stack and basically purged everything. I borrowed my dad's shredder, and everything that I didn't need anymore, I got rid of! I had paycheck stubs dating back to 1995, for crying out loud! O_o Anything that was a payment dated last year or older went through the shredder. I also found a bunch of checking account statements that somehow didn't get sorted out when I went to find them all and re-create my long history on my old laptop; those will be punched and added to my binder. My college notes I have elected to keep, but I scanned them into my computer, just in case. I had a bunch of photo-copies for jewelry designs I was working on; those went through the shredder, since I still have the originals in a my design books. All that's left of the paper pile of doom is the few things I have left to file away, and the comic books that I need to get a box for. I recycled about 20 bags of shredded paper, counting the eight that are in the garage, to go out this week. Right now, I'm looking forward to the weather warming up to the point where we can open windows, because shredding all that paper made a heckuva lot of dust. ;P Meanwhile, I've laudry to take care of.

Some progress, and yet none

I am pleased to report that I have made some cleaning progress! First off, I have cleaned all three of my workbenched/tables down staits; I can find things again! I also rearranged how I had things set up, so I have a little bit more space at the moment. This is a good thing, as it makes it a bit easier to work down there. I have a floor in my bedroom, for all the good it does me; I have a large stack of papers to sort through, so I don't anticipate the floor remaining clean for long. I had consolidated all the stacks of papers and magazines onto the one table by my window, and it has kept Squeak from jumping up there. Then again, it's also to high for him to jump. This hasn't kept him fully out of mischief, of course, but it does help. The down side is, while I can still raise the blinds, I cannot really look out the window, and I'm sure our new neighbor doesn't like the view he/she gets (haven't met them yet). My idea of ironing 10 pieces of laundry when I get up and ten before bed has unfortunately fallen by the wayside for the time being; the ironing board being a flat surface, it has collected a pile of items on top that needs to be cleared off before any ironing can happen. Books, mostly. The iron is on there too. With the addition of a new bookshelf under the window in the living room, I hope we'll be able to get the books more contained, but everything is going slowly. In the meantime, I've decided to try making Sunday my cleaning day, for however long they decide to give me this day off. Thus far today, I have cleared off the dining room table and folded 4 baskets of laundry, swept the dining room floor, cleared off the stand-slone counter in the kitchen (which is a metal cabinet against the south wall, so cannot really be called an island), and sweep and scrubbed both the kitchen and the bathroom floors. The house is looking better, though progress is slow. Still, we're steady as she goes, and I can't really complain about that. :)

I have more floor space!

My captain's bed had been getting wobblye, so I decided to move it a few weeks ago. Instead of sticking out into the middle of the room, it's now along one of the walls. Unfortunately, I lost use of one of my shelving units in the process; I'll be moving the disassembled parts out into the garange sometime later today (it's cold out there!) unless we can think of another place to put it. Granted, I do have another place I could put it, but it's just that little bit too big for said area, so it's not going to work out. Because of the rearrangement of everything, I have a lot more floor space, so I'm probably going to be moving the PS2 back into my room; we're not really using it where it is right now anyway. The down side is that in order to do this, I'll definitely have to get a move on on getting all the random papers in my room taken care of, so that's what's on my agenda for today. Would I rather be working on custom ponies? Definitely! But it has to be done. If for no other rason than Squeak keeps trying to climb one of the stacks and I'm worried about him getting hurt. Besides, it's on my to-do list for the year anyway, and that's one item I can definitely see me putting off way too long - that's what I did last year. *^^* So, if I really want to stop being a slob, I get it done, and now's a good time to do it. :)

Yay Laundry!

That's 6 baskets down, three to go! :D Not counting the big basket of socks and the leaning tower of ironing. ^__^; I've been avoiding the ironing, honestly. Not only because I don't particularly like doing it, but becuase it's, well, boring. I know, I know - "why don't you put on a movie to watch while doing the ironing?" I could, but it won't do me any good. The TV we have is the kind that we have to have a little black box for digital tv, and there's a subsidiary box we have hooked up so we can get input from the DVD player, but the sound isn't working through it. Which is to say, there's no volume from the DVD player. Or the PS2, so I know it's not the player itself. And when we went to various stores to get a new one, we got a ton of "what are you talking about? It does what? Huh?" from clerks, so I don't think it's going to be fixed anyh time soon. I've been considering trying to iron 10 pieces when I get up and 10 pieces before I go to bed, and see how far that takes us. Especially since after ironing 50 pieces at a time, even with a movie going to listen to, you lose interest in ironing clothing pretty fast. And, I'm pretty certain that with three people's worth of ironing in that basket there's well over 100 garments in there. So, yeah - try ironing a few pieces a day, and we'll see where that takes us. In the meantime, I'm taking a brief break from sorting all the ponies to clean up the bedroom. I still have stacks of paper and magazines to deal with, and want them gone. Some of them are valuable though, so I get to sort thoruhg them. First however, I get to pick up the ones that have fallen onto the floor from when Mr Squeak decided to jump onto the table. XD I have to admit, I'm torn. I have the choice of sorting and scanning the papers now, or waiting until after I re-os my computer. And I don't know how long the re-OSing will take. 9.9 Joy?

Something of an update

I haven't been updating this blog as much as I should, but then, what would it update with? I have been cleaning, of course, don't get me wrong. I've mainly been organizing, though. And what am I supposed to make an entry for that for? "Today, I sorted out another box. There is now a new box, with sorted stuff in it." ? Still, progress is progress, and I imagine leaving everyone in the dark sin't a good idea. But really, all I've been doing, organization wise, is sorting ponies. Yes, My Little Ponies. The toys from the 80s, more specifically. I collect the 80's style of My Little Ponies - MLP, for short. I still have all the ones from my childhood, as a matter of fact. And since I bought many, many of the ones I still needed, I have quite a few duplicates of the more common ponies; not really a shock, since I know I'm not the only on who operates this way. Due to space contraints, I've been working on getting the MLPs sorted out so I know what the condition is, whether I have said pony, and can get the rest of the ones that I won't be keeping ready to sell either on ebay or at the yearly MLP Fair. This is a process that is unfortunately very boring. On the other hand, it enables me to go right to XYZ box and get the pony in question without too much hassel. Not that I've needed to do this yet, but it's an option that I have. Sorting ponies is a process, and I've been doing my best to stick to it, but I have wound up changing a few things up. First, I'm using the Home Depot's moving boxes to sort the ponies into. The small ones, actually; I didn't want to try using the medium or big ones; I do need to move the boxes around every now and then, after all. I take a pony, and examine it; mark down whether it needs a bath and it's hair done (which more often then not is the case), the condition of it's eyes, blush and cutie marks, condition of cutie marks that aren't on it's flanks, and whether it has any stray pen, high lighter, or other dirst marks on it, the presence of smooze/pin dot mold/age spots or regrind, tail rust (from the washer holding the tail in place getting wet) and whether the pony rattles, whether there's mold coming out of the holes in the mane (which tells me the pony has massive internal issues from being in someone's bathtub), etc., etc., etc. Once all that has been cataloged, I also put down what it's stamped on it's feet. Because there are two main countries that Hasbro used for the US, and a lot of other countries that the pony could have come from. I have about 4 Argentinan ponies, 2-3 German ponies, and a good number that were made exclusively for the UK. There are also other countries that ponies were made in, but as far as I know, I don't have any from said countries. Regardless of this, jotting down the markings under the hooves is beneficial, as it means I don't have to pull a pony out if someone asks about the hoof markings. Once the pony is cataloged, it gets a piece of colored yarn ties around it's neck, so it's obvious which box it was in/came out of (mainly due to all the duplicates), then goes into either the bottom of the box, or the second layer of the box, whichever I'm working. I try to get as many ponies into a box as I can, but ideally I don't want them touching each other. This is because a lot of them have glitter for their cuties, or are covered in a soft fuzz that can rub off if you're not careful, and after doing all that work, I don't weant to have to go back and re-examine a pony because I ddi something stupid. ;) Now, when I started doing this, I waited until I was totally done with a box before photographing the ponies. This reculted in my knees getting very sore, as I have to kneel in front of the table my light box is on to get decent pictures. Then I wised up and am wearing knee pads while doing the photography, but this still isn't fun to do. Especially when there is usually a minimum of 8 photos for each pony. So now I finish the one layer, and immidiately photograph the individual ponies in that layer, and take a group shot of them all in the box. Then I either get a piece of 1/2"-1" thick styrofoam (which I cut to fit inside the box), put it in the box, and start the second layer, or I tape the box shut and label it for what color of yarn the ponies have around their necks. Granted, this, like cleaning, is mainly something I'm doing in my spare time. Thus far, I have a white list, a purple list, and am currectly working a gray list. After that I'll move to green, orange, and other colors as yarn permits. I have yet to start the G3s, but 99% of those are going to be sold anyway. See, this is progress without really making a lot of progress. ^__^;

Cleaning update: The Vacation Aftermath

Right! So my parents went on vacation about two weeks ago, and I spent most of my time while they were gone trying to get the house cleaned up a bit, as some people may have seen from my list of chores.

While they were gone, I swept and scrubbed the bathroom floor, sorted the plastics, swept the dining room floor, and basically did a ton of laundry.

I learned that ironing makes my feet sore.

I also learned that when you've the choice between cleaning the kitchen and appliances therein and folding/ironing a ton of laundry, you should do the kitchen cleaning first. I never did get more done in the kitchen aside from sorting said plastic containers.

Alas, the laundry has once again piled up, as Mom proceeded to wash all of their laundry from their vacation when she finished unpacking, and hasn't done anything with it since. *sigh*

Progress can be so slow sometimes. :/