Tag Archives: clean

A Failed Monthly Challenge (or I’m Possibly Going To Fail Again This Month)

Posted on June 1, 2021 | Comments Off on A Failed Monthly Challenge (or I’m Possibly Going To Fail Again This Month)

I hate when I fail my monthly challenges. I try to set them up to be things I can be successful at as well as things that I want to do. I always feel so accomplished when I end a month and see what I’ve been able to do. And so many of these monthly challenges are things that I still keep up with every day. I love that I have created so many positive and productive habits. And I always hope that whatever my next challenge will be that I have the same outcome.

But that wasn’t the case for this past month. Honestly, this may have been the biggest failure of a monthly challenge for me. I challenged myself to try to work on creating some weekly meal plans that I could have ready to go. A weekly meal plan seems easier to me than figuring out each day one by one to be ready for a week. And while having a meal plan still feels like a bit of a reach for me to be able to do, having a plan is the first step to making it happen. So even if I only planned out a good weekly meal plan but never used it, I would have considered that a win with this challenge.

I didn’t even get started with planning last month. Some of this was due to being busy with other things, but I can’t use that as an excuse. I could have found the time to do this if I really wanted to. But I never had the motivation to do it. I know that this would be something good for me, but I just didn’t want to. And this is the ongoing struggle I’ve had with being better at cooking at home. I don’t like to meal plan. I don’t seem to always feel motivated to cook. I don’t know what it will take to make this click for me, but I really want to be hopeful that something will. And I just have to keep trying until I figure it out. And I guess this idea wasn’t the right thing for me at this time. I’ll keep the idea in case I do find the motivation to do it, but I guess this past month made me realize while I loved the idea it wasn’t right.

And while I would love to have a monthly challenge this month that I know I will be able to be successful at to redeem myself from last month, I’m not going easy on myself. I picked another challenge that I have been putting off and I know there is a high risk of me having another big failure at doing. My challenge this month is to reorganize my desk and filing system.

This might not sound like a big deal, but my desk has become a catch-all place in my house. If I have paperwork I need to save for taxes, it gets dumped on my desk. Eventually, I’ll put it in the file folder I have for taxes, but there is almost always a huge pile of paperwork on my desk. And if there is something I want to put into my filing cabinet, all my file folders have labels for things that I don’t need or use so I don’t know where to file them.

I’ve been putting off organizing my desk for a long time. I know I need to do this, but I was always finding excuses why I shouldn’t. When I wasn’t sure what my job situation would be, I was putting it off because I wanted to make sure I was creating files that would be right for my new job (even though I knew almost every job I have is mostly digital files and I wouldn’t need to file things away). I’ve held onto things that I know I do not need or use, like information from when I was a substitute teacher.

And because I spend so many hours of my day at my desk, I want the space to be much more functional and not feel cluttered and hectic. And the only way to accomplish this is to do a big cleaning and organizing mission. And I also know that to do this, things will have to look messier for a while. I need to pretty much clear everything out of my desk and sort through them before seeing how to put things back. And maybe because things have to get worse before they get better, I’ve been putting this off every time I tell myself I need to do it.

I do hope that this month, I follow through with this. I know I might keep putting it off and fail again, but I have to set it as a challenge because I need to try. And maybe I’ll surprise myself and this won’t be as bad as I think it might be. And in a month, I might be writing about how I was overreacting about this challenge and it wasn’t that hard to get done.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailNot Perfect This Month (or Challenged With The Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Check-In (or Doing My Own Version Of An OTF Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailFailing And Succeeding In One Monthly Challenge (or Another Repeat Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge (or What To Do When You Are Crazy Busy) Default ThumbnailMy First 2017 Monthly Challenge (or Working On My Tumors)

Comments Off on A Failed Monthly Challenge (or I’m Possibly Going To Fail Again This Month)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Always Cleaning (or At Least The Pandemic Helped Create This Habit)

Posted on February 11, 2021 | Comments Off on Always Cleaning (or At Least The Pandemic Helped Create This Habit)

I don’t think I’ve ever really had a messy house, but I also know it hasn’t been as clean as it could be. In my old apartment that I shared with a series of roommates, I feel like I was a bit messier. Even though I had less space that was just mine, I wasn’t as concerned about keeping it clean. I would let magazines pile up as I needed to read them. Or not clean out my bathroom cabinet for expired products. And I remember moving into my house and saying I would never let it get that messy.

Of course, I didn’t become a neat freak just because I moved. I was cleaner than I was in my apartment, but I never really had a great cleaning routine down. I have tried so many times to have a regular cleaning schedule, and it just didn’t happen for me. I had a monthly challenge a few years ago to spend a little bit of time every day doing a speed clean, and that worked. And I’ve managed to keep that habit up ever since then.

But while I was bored and out of work last year, I got into cleaning a lot more. I looked into what products might be best to use and what tools I needed to have to make cleaning easier on me (like using microfiber cloths instead of paper towels and having a little scrapper tool for any sticky residue). I even got a cleaning caddy to keep my supplies together in one space. It wasn’t the cleaning schedule I wanted to create for myself, but it was working for me.

And I was worried once I started working again that I would let the cleaning routine stop again. I know I’m not working full time and I do have a lot of downtime in my day, but having something scheduled still makes me feel rushed in my day where I don’t have the same amount of time to do things even if I have the time. But with so many things since I started working, it turns out that easing into my new work schedule really helped me keep things going. I haven’t really slacked off much with my cleaning, and I’ve actually gotten a bit more planned out with when I can do certain things. I know that doing a big cleaning job is probably going to be the main task for the day (like when I scrubbed the grout in my bathroom tiles). And on other days, I can fit in all the surface cleaning plus vacuuming.

I’ve been unemployed other times in my life and I’ve never picked up a cleaning habit as I have now. I think part of it has to do with being a bit fearful of germs and trying to stay healthy. I never was the person who cleaned every item that I brought into my house, but I’m much more mindful of what surfaces I’m touching every day and what has been cleaned and what still needs to be cleaned.  I’m hyperaware of keeping things as safe as I can, and cleaning is one of the few things I can do and have control of.

I don’t know if I’ll ever say in the future that I’m grateful for the pandemic for a lot of things. While I have learned a lot about myself during this time of isolation, I don’t know if that outweighs the negatives of this time. But I will be grateful for a few things that I have changed about my life during this time. The first is cooking more often. And now having a cleaning routine. Two things that I wanted to do for a long time but never seemed to be able to stay consistent. But I guess the pandemic forced me to make these changes and I can only hope that they will stick with me even when things are safer again and I have a full and busy life.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Feeling Pampered) Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again) Default ThumbnailFall Cleaning (or Making My Workplace Spotless) Default ThumbnailFeeling Like A Fresh Start (or Spring Cleaning and New Toys) Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House)

Comments Off on Always Cleaning (or At Least The Pandemic Helped Create This Habit)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,

Shopping More To Shop Less (or Finding Ways To Be Less Wasteful)

Posted on October 28, 2020 | Comments Off on Shopping More To Shop Less (or Finding Ways To Be Less Wasteful)

I’ve always tried to be aware of how much trash I create. I’m nowhere near what those zero-waste people do, but I try to recycle when I can and not just throw away stuff that could be reused or donated. I know that it’s really easy just to put something in the trash and it seems to go away. But that’s not what really happens and it’s possible to create a lot of trash every day.

I think since the pandemic started, my trash seemed to be more and more. I think part of that was due to things being packaged differently or how we couldn’t use reusable bags at the grocery store. I know some of my friends said they had more trash because they were home more, but I don’t really have that excuse. I just was using more stuff that was disposable that I usually didn’t. And it was starting to feel a bit much and I knew that I needed to do something about it.

There are some things right now that I use that have to stay disposable. For example, I do rely a lot on grocery deliveries so I can avoid the store, and there’s no way to get paper bags instead of plastic. And because cleaning products are limited in stores, the disinfecting cleaner I use happens to be wipes right now instead of spray. And there are a few tasks I do that I use rubber gloves for, and my dishwashing gloves are too thick so I use the blue one time use ones.

But there are also a lot of things that I have been using disposable things for that I’ve realized I can find better options for. And these options are better for multiple reasons. First, they are better because they don’t create trash. But they also are better for me because if I find things that can be reused, that means I don’t have to go to the store to find more. And even though many reusable things cost more when purchasing them, the cost per use is much lower because you don’t have to keep replacing them.

I’ve slowly been adding more and more reusable things to my life. Some of these things are things I did years ago, such as using reusable cotton rounds that I wash each week instead of the throwaway cotton ones when using toner or makeup remover. I do wish I had gotten them in black instead of white because they are looking dingy, but they still work as well even though they aren’t looking super bright white.

But more recently, I’ve been trying to limit the paper products I use each day. Part of this was because it was harder to find things like paper napkins or paper towels. But I have known I needed to change this habit for a long time. So I guess the pandemic was just the catalyst for change for me. I have invested in things like cloth napkins and microfiber cloths.

I’ll admit, I’m not so great about using the cloth napkins for now, but I also have a lot of paper ones left, so I can take my time with the transition. I think part of the hesitation is how to clean them if they get super dirty. I don’t have my own washer and drying and it’s expensive to do a load. So I can’t just do a load of napkins. But I bet I could do something like doing a little handwash for the dirty ones before putting them in the laundry with my clothes.

For the microfiber cloths, I’ve been better at using those as replacements for paper towels when I clean. There are a few things I clean that I use sponges for and still use those sponges. But there are so many things I have used paper towels for and they just get thrown out. I know I’ve wasted a lot when I probably didn’t need to. For washing those, I shook them out after cleaning to get any bigger things off of them like crumbs from my kitchen counter. Then I put them in a mesh laundry bag before putting them in my laundry because I read online that would help if there was a lot of dirt left on them. It seemed to work pretty well with washing.

And the most recent thing I got as a reusable thing was mopping pads. I have a Swiffer mop that works perfectly for cleaning my house. And those mops use disposable pads that are designed to help scrub the floors and absorb extra cleaning solution. I’ve been using those disposable pads since I got the mop, but I’ve never really loved them. I don’t know why I didn’t look into alternatives until this month, but I finally decided to do some searching to see if there was something better to use. I wasn’t necessarily looking for something reusable, I just wanted something better than the branded pads. But when I did my search, everything kept coming back to reusable pads and these were the highest recommended ones.

I’ve used it once so far, and I feel like it cleaned my floors a lot better than the disposable pads ever did. And just like with the microfiber towels, I put it in a mesh laundry bag before putting it into the laundry. And it came out clean and my clothes didn’t seem to be dirty from being washed with them.

I know that starting to use more reusable and eco-friendly products has to be a natural progression. There are a lot of things that I have wanted to use but couldn’t get into. I have beeswax wrap to use instead of plastic wrap, but I haven’t loved it just yet. Maybe something will change, but for now, I just find other alternatives to plastic wrap that I like more. I also still use store-bought cleaning solutions. I know I can make my own, but again, I’m just not into using the ones I have tried that I made. But I do try to buy the largest size product and I can always decant it into a container that’s easier to handle.

I have been spending a bit of extra money in order to get these reusable products and I know that it’s a privileged place to be able to do that. Not everyone can spend more upfront right now. And I also know that for some people, there are other reasons why they have to use disposable products over reusable ones. I’m not perfect and I don’t expect anyone else to do exactly what I do or be perfect. But I’m trying and I think that’s the best I can ask of myself or anyone else. The small changes I have been able to make have benefitted me and I hope that I can continue to make these changes as I find things that work for me.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailSaving Money and Trying To Be Green (or Revamping Some Things) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House) Default ThumbnailFinding Little Things To Make Me Happy (or Shopping And Text Groups) Default ThumbnailFinding Ways To Treat Myself (or I Wish Money Wasn’t An Issue) Default ThumbnailFinding New Ways To Be Creative (or Almost As Good As Acting) Default ThumbnailShort Workout Week (or Finding Ways To Fit It All In)

Comments Off on Shopping More To Shop Less (or Finding Ways To Be Less Wasteful)

Posted in Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged , ,

Still Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work)

Posted on September 3, 2020 | Comments Off on Still Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work)

Since I’ve been staying in my house, I’ve done so many projects around my house. I’ve done some redecorating, I’ve done organizing things, and I’ve probably done more deep cleans of my house than would be necessary. Sometimes I do these projects because they are things that I’ve been putting off. Some of them have been to just change up the look of my house. And some of them are because I’m bored and have nothing else to do.

I have to be careful with the projects that I do just because I’m bored. If they are things that don’t cost me anything, that’s fine. But a lot of these projects cost me something because I’m buying supplies of some sort. And I don’t want to buy a lot of new things just because I’m bored. I know that I will buy some things when I’m redecorating my house, but I’m also really trying to use the things in my house in a new way that makes them feel different.

Doing projects has been a good way to have a sense of purpose on a day that I might not have anything else going on. I feel a sense of accomplishment if I do something and complete it. It’s silly how proud I can be of myself for some of the things that I have done, but at the same time, I’m going to take a win however I can get them these days.

I think I had a bigger desire to do projects a few months ago. That one was motivated by feeling bored in my house and wanting to have a different view when looking around my place. I have slowed down a lot with the projects or have found random smaller ones to do from time to time. And like I mentioned above, a lot of these projects are also about cleaning my house. My floors and surfaces have never looked better. Of course, I also am using the floors and surfaces as staging areas for other projects, so they can look a bit cluttered. But even if they are cluttered, they are clean.

And when I find a project that does cost me money, I try to be very aware of how much I’m spending and what I really need to get. For example, I recently spent some time online searching for some nice fake plants. As much as I would love to have real plants in my house, I’m not that great at keeping them alive. So fake plants allow me to get the greenery in my house without the potential plant murder. And there are so many nice fake plants online to pick from. Just like with so many things, if I had endless money I would probably buy a ton. But I wanted to keep it limited to maybe one new plant for now. I ended up buying a set of 3 small fake plants that I’m deciding where I want to keep them (right now, all three are in my kitchen window, but I bet I’ll move them a few times within the next week or so).

There are several more fake plants that I have saved online because I love the look of plants in a house. I want to get something to put on the floor near my tv, but I think it’s harder to find good fake plants when they are big without seeing them first. So far, I’ve only bought small ones online. But maybe in a month or two, I’ll change my mind about that.

I’ve also done a lot of organizing and cleaning of the random stuff I’ve had around my house. I don’t want to collect things that I don’t use, but I also struggle a bit letting things go because I’m scared I might need them eventually. But I have been getting better at that and then also organizing whatever I have left. It’s a process doing this and I’m taking small steps, but I have gotten a lot of stuff out of my house that I really don’t need (and either have it stored for donating or friends have taken things). This week, I worked on organizing my purses/tote bags/travel carryons. I pretty much only use one purse for my day to day life. I have a few fancy purses and a few other random ones. But I have a lot of tote bags and carryon sized bags. I went through them all, found the ones I haven’t used or don’t like anymore, and put up command hooks in my entry closet to hang up the ones I’m keeping.

I’m sure that I’ll find more random projects and organizing things to do this week and going forward. As I said, I need things to keep me busy and not just have my day be a nothing day. It’s probably a good thing I live in such a small house because there are only so many things I can do. I can’t imagine all the projects I could think up if I had more rooms to do them in!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House) Default ThumbnailJust A Normal Weekend For Me (or Lazy Days Are Surprisingly Busy) Default ThumbnailBusy Work (or It’s All Coming Together) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year) Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge (or What To Do When You Are Crazy Busy)

Comments Off on Still Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work)

Posted in Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged , , ,

Trying To Stay Busy (or Doing Lots Of Random Things)

Posted on July 2, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying To Stay Busy (or Doing Lots Of Random Things)

It’s been hard to stay busy during isolation. For a while, I was fine doing a lot of reading and watching things on different streaming services. And I’m still ok doing that from time to time. I am always a big reader, but I feel like I’ve read what I normally would read in a year in the last 3 1/2 months. Thank goodness for the library and e-books, because I would go broke if I had to buy all these books. And there are always new things to watch, so it’s not like I have run out of things. I just have been getting tired of sitting around to pass my time.

I’ve done a lot of random little projects in my house. I have reorganized a lot. I bought new things to change up how stuff looks. I don’t think my house has ever been this clean or organized. And yes, doing some of this has cost money, but I figure it’s money well spent because it’s going toward things that are going to last a while. And I think doing these little projects is the way that I’m going to continue to try to feel busy for a while.

I will run out of things to do around my house. I know it. I thought I ran out of things before, but I found a few more to do. But at some point, there will be nothing else I can do. But I am grateful for the little projects I’ve done recently. For example, I got a new organizer for the top of my desk. It’s like a little shelving unit, but it’s perfect for putting a lot of stuff in one spot instead of all over my desk. And what I did this week was organize all the masks I have gotten.

All of the white ones are just handkerchiefs that I got before masks were easy to buy. I probably won’t use them, but they are good to have just in case. I also have one that a friend made for me and one that I ordered randomly. In the front of the box (the colorful ones) are Disney themed masks and are probably my new favorites because they are comfortable. And I have more masks coming because I ordered some that are meant for working out (so they are sweat-wicking). I feel like we are going to be using masks for a while, so I’m glad I have a few different options. And now they are nicely organized instead of just being in a pile.

Now, I’m looking around my house for other things I can do to occupy my time. It’s getting very specific and they aren’t big or obvious projects anymore. But anything that can take up some time is a good thing right now. I know at some point I will need to think of other things to do, either inside my house or safely outside (like going on driving adventures). But for now, I’m just searching for more house things for me to do.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Bookcase Makeover (or A Free Upgrade To My Space) Default ThumbnailJust A Normal Weekend For Me (or Lazy Days Are Surprisingly Busy) Default ThumbnailCatch Up Time (or A Blog With Lots Of Random News) Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge (or What To Do When You Are Crazy Busy) Default ThumbnailStill Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work) Default ThumbnailBusy Busy Busy (or Triple Job Day)

Comments Off on Trying To Stay Busy (or Doing Lots Of Random Things)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Even More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project)

Posted on May 7, 2020 | Comments Off on Even More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project)

I’ve been working hard at finding ways to keep myself busy. I have struggled with figuring out what to do from time to time, but in general, I think I have been doing a pretty decent job. This is not a normal time at all, so there is no way that we should be acting. I’m just trying to do things that are safe and smart to occupy myself.

I wrote about doing some big cleaning projects recently. I’m working on getting into a better cleaning routine and schedule that I can maintain even when things start getting back to how they were. I know that I’m not the best housekeeper and I would totally pay for someone to clean my place if I could. But there is no excuse for at least trying to get better at cleaning and seeing what I can get used to doing.

Part of those cleaning projects has also involved getting myself organized. As I clean, I find things around my house that maybe I forgot that I owned or had been looking for. I need to make my space the most efficient and practical for myself. Organizing my desk has been a project on my to-do list for a long time because I can tell that the disorganization is making some things harder for me. That project still is on my list and I haven’t really gotten started with it. But I have been spending a lot of time organizing my kitchen.

My kitchen organization happened for a few reasons. When I did the huge deep cleaning of my fridge, I realized that I wasn’t keeping things organized in my fridge. Things weren’t necessarily in the best places to keep them and it made it look sloppy and harder to find things I might be looking for. And that can lead to food waste, which is something that I am very guilty of but am trying to be better about it.

After organizing my fridge, I looked around my kitchen and realized that I hadn’t really done much organizing of my kitchen at all. When I moved into my house over 10 years ago, I put things in places that made sense and they haven’t moved around much. And I know that there was some wasted space in my kitchen, which was really bad since I am so limited in space. So I decided to take a look at things, see where I can organize things better, and spend a lot of time moving things around and making my kitchen a better space.

This project took a lot of time (which was fine since I’ve got nothing but time right now) and I broke it up into chunks. I did have to order new things to help me organize like a new spice rack and some can holders to maximize the space that I do have.

I had a spice race before, but it wasn’t working for me because the containers had to be a specific size to work. I was using my pantry area to store spices because they needed a place to go, but once I got the new spice rack I could move the spices to a better place and use the pantry for things like soup and rice (using the new can holders). Being organized like this is also allowing me to have more food at my house. I’m not hoarding or stocking up a lot, but it’s nice to know that I have cans of beans that I can use for dips and not have to go to the grocery store just to get them (which you can’t really do easily right now anyway).

But what I think was the biggest organizing project in my house were my cabinets where I have kept dishes and cups. Those cabinets haven’t really had any changes in 10 years, even as I got new stuff or realized that I didn’t use things. The first part of that project was going through everything in those cabinets and taking out things that I know I don’t use. I put a lot of cups and mugs into boxes and stored them away. I had something like 30 cups and 15 mugs and really don’t need more than a few of each.

Then, I found some shelves that I could add to my cabinets to have the ability to use more vertical space. There was so much wasted space since I wasn’t going to make tall piles of dishes and these really made a huge difference. There were a lot of different attempts to make these work the best way that they could for me and I probably redid the cabinets a few dozen times, but I finally found something that I was happy with.

I wish I had taken a real before photos of the cabinets, but I only took it after I had removed most of the cups and mugs. So it looks a lot emptier than it really was. And in the after photo, you can see that I have a space to store things like reusable zipper bags, silicone dish covers, and some storage containers.

And by stacking the dishes and cups, I was able to use one half of the cabinet for those things instead of having one half for dishes and one half for cups. I’m really happy with how much easier this makes things for me with getting dishes and storage containers.

I’m not completely done with the organizing project, but I’m almost there. But I have already noticed a difference in how my kitchen feels. And since I’m cooking so much more now, having a kitchen that feels right and that things are where they should be is very important. Hopefully, when I finally get to my desk organizing, it will feel as good as organizing my kitchen did!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailOrganization Time (or Seeing A Bit Of A Mess) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year) Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again) Default ThumbnailMore Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

Comments Off on Even More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,

Doing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day)

Posted on April 16, 2020 | Comments Off on Doing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day)

Besides the limitations of being able to do things outside my house, I have more downtime in my house now. My main job doing customer service work has significantly cut my hours. I used to work about 30 hours a week for that job. A few weeks ago, most of my co-workers were let go and I had my hours cut in half. We weren’t doing any shows, but my manager and I stayed on to handle the few customers that were contacting us for help with various issues. Then this week, I became the last one left at my job (because of the way unemployment would work for me, it made more sense for me to stay on than my manager). But I am down to 3 hours a week. I now only will be working 1 hour for 3 days a week to answer voicemails. This could change to no hours, but I’m hoping at least I can keep this.

I do still have my other job (although I am restricted in how many hours I can do for that) and I can file for unemployment to make up the difference in salary once the pandemic unemployment assistance is set up. I’m not as worried about money as I thought I might be. Since so many people are in the same situation as me right now, I know there are a lot of people I can ask for help. And they are making the rules for unemployment different so I am eligible (when normally I wouldn’t be). So even though I’m sad that I’m not working normally, at least there is a bit of good news with the situation.

Now that I’m down to 3 hours a week (plus the other few hours a week I do my other job), there is so much free time for me every day. And I’ve really been trying to be productive. I put a lot more stress on myself to be productive when this all started and I realized that I couldn’t hold myself to that standard. This is not just a normal break with work like I’ve had before. I don’t know how long this will last and there are so many other things bringing stress into my life. SO I’m trying to find ways to be productive but not be hard on myself if there are some days that all I do is sit on the couch and watch tv. So I’ve been making a list of things that I have been putting off when I do feel motivated. And a lot of that list is big cleaning projects.

I’ve only accomplished one of those cleaning projects so far and that was to deep clean my fridge. I usually clean my fridge by wiping it down when necessary. But I couldn’t remember the last time I took the drawers and shelves out to scrub them. And I wanted to add some shelf liners to the shelves and a crisper drawer liner for my vegetable drawer to help keep it clean (or make it easier to clean when there is a spill). So I ordered a few things online that I wanted to use and once it was all here and I felt motivated, I did a huge cleaning of the fridge.

I was able to just shift things inside the fridge so I didn’t have to worry about things going bad. I just did one section at a time and then put things back and moved them around to work on another section. Because I was doing a deep cleaning plus adding liners, it did take a bit longer (it took me longer than I thought it would to cut the liners to the right size). But in the end, I’m very happy with having one big cleaning project done and my fridge looking so nice!

I think the motivation for the cleaning was because I have been trying to be better about cooking. And having a clean and organized fridge does help me want to cook. If I can store my ingredients where I can find them, that helps.

I’m sure that some of you are laughing at me for making such a big deal out of this, and I know that this isn’t something that should be life-changing. But it was something I was putting off for longer than I should and I’m so glad that I did it. It made me feel very accomplished and took up a lot of time, 2 things that I really need to feel these days.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailFeeling Like A Fresh Start (or Spring Cleaning and New Toys) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way) Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Feeling Pampered)

Comments Off on Doing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day)

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,

More Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

Posted on February 7, 2020 | Comments Off on More Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

I didn’t intend to do a lot of work around my house this week, but it looks like things just lined up that way. But I will say, it’s been nice to get a lot of things done this week that I haven’t been able to do before and I finally have them off my list. Maybe it’s because next week will mark 10 years since I moved into my house, but it’s nice that I’m doing things that feel like they are refreshing my space.

There are still so many things I’d love to do to my house if I had the money to do so, but doing little things is nice. I am also restricted with what I can do because I rent my house, but I’ve found lots of things that don’t require damaging walls (or doing minimal damage) that adds a lot to my space. But most of the things I’ve been doing lately to my house involve removing things and not adding them.

For a long time, I’ve had an exercise bike in my house. I thought I might have written a post about it on here, but I think I might have gotten the bike before I started the blog! I also thought I had a photo when my parents helped me put it together, but after searching my photos a dozen times, I can’t find it. The only photo I could find of my bike was from when I posted about it on Facebook trying to sell it.

The bike actually fit nicely into my house and I had the perfect spot to have it. When my living room was set up a bit differently, it faced the tv. After I moved things around, I had to move the bike a bit to see the tv if I wanted to watch while I was on it. Sometimes I would just listen to music and sometimes I would do something else, but usually, I was watching tv when I was on it.

And I did use that bike a lot. I have no clue how often I was using it, but it was something I tried to use pretty regularly before I discovered Orangetheory. After I started going to OTF, I would still use the bike from time to time. I would say maybe once a week or every other week, I’d use it for a low impact workout. I wouldn’t bike as hard as I knew I probably should, but it was still getting used.

But my parents brought it up to me last year that if I wasn’t using it a ton, maybe I should think about getting rid of it. My parents were the ones who bought it for me as a gift, so I never thought of getting rid of it because I was so grateful that they got it for me. But hearing them say that made me realize that there wasn’t much of a point for me to keep it for the minimal use I was getting out of it. When you live in a 400 square foot home, every bit of space is necessary. And I could use the space that it was in for something better.

Once I felt like getting rid of the bike was a reasonable option (before, it also felt like I was rejecting the idea of working out at home even though I was going to OTF 4 days a week), I decided to see if I could find someone who would want it. I have no idea how much it cost when it was bought because it was a gift and it was bought 7 or 8 years ago, but I wasn’t worried about selling it for a profit or anything. I got a lot of use out of it and I only wanted to put a price on it so that I wouldn’t get a ton of people trying to get a free bike. So I posted it for sale for $20 and thought that was a reasonable price.

I was surprised that it took a few months for me to find someone who wanted it, but I finally was connected to a friend of a friend who was looking for a cheap exercise bike. And mine was cheap plus it was in really good condition considering the age. So the other day, I had to find a way to get the bike out of my house (it was in pieces and in boxes when we brought it into my house) and off it went to its new home. And now, there is a big empty space in my house.

Just like I don’t want to waste space with stuff in my house, having so much empty space in my house isn’t what I want either. I have some ideas for what I would like to put there because I do need some more storage. But just like with my bookcase, I’m not going to just go out and buy something to have it. I want to find the right thing for the space and for what I need.

My bike has been almost like a room divider between my living room and dining room for so long, and it feels weird not to have it there. But it is nice knowing that someone who needs it has it and I have a lot of space to put something there that I know I will need more.

There isn’t much else I can get rid of in my house, but I will say these back to back projects/cleanings have inspired me to see what else I can do with moving things around in my house. I have a feeling there will be a few more posts like this one coming up soon as I continue to renovate my space to fit my life even better!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House) Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House) Default ThumbnailEven More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again)

Comments Off on More Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

A Bookcase Makeover (or A Free Upgrade To My Space)

Posted on February 6, 2020 | Comments Off on A Bookcase Makeover (or A Free Upgrade To My Space)

I’ve had said for a long time that I want to work on organizing my house more and making my space feel more like me. There are a lot of projects that I could do to accomplish that, but it’s overwhelming to think about everything I could do. I think because of that, I have avoided doing any of them. But I have had a feeling of needing to change things up for a long time.

I’ve slowly been making changing in my house to have nicer things or to make what I have work better for me. A lot of the changes are about getting rid of things that I might not need anymore. I’ve been selling things that I don’t use anymore to have a little extra money, but it’s not about raising money. But making $10 or $20 off of something I would just get rid of is nice. And there are a few things that I’d like to buy to add to the organization of my house that I could put that money toward.

But it’s always nice when I find something that costs nothing that makes my house feel so much more like me.

The bookcase I have in my room isn’t anything special. I think I bought it at Target or Staples and I know I bought it when I got my first apartment. So I’ve had it for over 16 years. It’s been with me in 3 different homes and it’s been in a few different places in my current house. I don’t love the bookcase, but it does the job and I haven’t felt motivated to get something new nor have I found one that I really want to get. I don’t want to replace it until I find something that I know will add to my space.

But the bookcase serves its purpose. I don’t have a ton of books, but I need to be able to store them and keep things organized. And for as long as I can remember, my books were organized in the same way. The very top shelf had my etiquette books and other types of self-improvement type books (more about style than improving my life, but still self-improvement). The very bottom shelf had all of my acting books. And the middle shelves had my other books. And each section was organized in alphabetical order. I figured that made sense and just went with it.

I couldn’t find a good picture of what my bookcase looked like before, but I did find this photo where you can see it a bit and it gives an idea of how I had things set up.

But even though this organizational method made sense, I didn’t like the look of it. I would love to have a library of beautiful books and have my bookcase look fancy. And the way that I had my books just looked too functional when it didn’t need to be that way. So from time to time, I would look at things online about how to organize a bookcase. I never really thought any of those ideas would work, but I still wanted to make a change.

For some reason, this past Monday I was struck with the need to change my bookcase. I figured I could try different organizational ideas and see which ones I liked. I didn’t think I would just work on it and be done with it, but I knew I needed to just start and go from there. So the first thing I did was take every single book off of my bookcase. And when doing that, I found a few books that I realized I don’t need anymore. I don’t think I got rid of any of my fiction books, but there were several acting and self-improvement books that were either outdated or that I hadn’t looked at once since I moved into my current house. All of those books went into a bad to donate (I didn’t want to sell them since donating them to the library or other places is better).

Once I got rid of some books, I started working on the first idea about how to organize a bookcase: organizing the books by color. I picked this first because I was so sure that I would hate it. Organizing books by color didn’t keep books together in a way that made sense. I still wanted to have some separation between my fiction and non-fiction books and if I just did all of the books of the same color together, that wouldn’t accomplish that. But I started to make piles around my room and found that I could still keep those 2 types of books separate even when I split them up by color.

I worked on putting the books back after making the piles, and I didn’t put them all upright. I did some of the books on the side which ended up making more room on my bookcase. And once I had the books in a place that worked, I added a few other things from around my house to fill in the empty space. And once I did that, I took a step back and realized that the idea that I thought I would hate ended up being exactly what I wanted to do.

It’s silly how my room feels so much more complete somehow just by moving around a few books. I didn’t make a huge change and almost everything is still in about the same place as they were before. But that small change put things into exactly where they should be and created the look that I didn’t know I wanted to find.

So many organizational projects require supplies or buying something to complete it. It’s nice when I can find something that is completely free and still makes me feel like I splurged on something!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailIt Doesn’t Take Much To Upgrade A Space (or A Multi-Day Furniture Build) Default ThumbnailOrganization Time (or Seeing A Bit Of A Mess) Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House) Default ThumbnailMore Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

Comments Off on A Bookcase Makeover (or A Free Upgrade To My Space)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Cleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House)

Posted on November 15, 2019 | Comments Off on Cleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House)

The ongoing battle in my house is that it is very tiny and can look very cluttered easily. I love my house and I’m actually grateful to have a smaller space. In the apartment that I lived in before I found my house, I had significantly more space. My closet in that apartment could fit a bed inside of it. I had a lot of things in my room because I had space and I was living with roommates. So I needed my room to be more than just a place to sleep. I had a little couch to relax on plus my desk. I wasn’t working from home back then, but I still needed a place to do some work.

I probably have more space in my house than I did private space in my apartment, but I also don’t have as much storage as I did before and there are some rooms that were being fully used by me at the old apartment. Mainly the kitchen and bathroom (I had a private bathroom which was maybe triple the size of my current one). And I did a lot of downsizing when I moved here, but I also kept some of the habits from my old apartment in my house. For example, I had the storage space before to keep things that I didn’t really use but might use again one day. And now I don’t have that space but I struggle with getting rid of things because I’m worried I will need it again and don’t want to have to pay for it again.

I have needed to get over that struggle and have slowly made changes in my life to work on getting rid of things. And when I got my new tv stand, I had to do a lot of work with downsizing again. I’m still working on finding space for some of the things I had on my old tv stand that don’t fit on the new one, but I have gotten rid of a lot of things that were taking up space. And I think that project really kicked off wanting to do this in more areas in my house. The problem with these projects is that when I’m in the middle of them it makes my house so messy. But I have been able to find little projects I can do without making too much of a mess.

The first area I tackled was my entry closet. This already has a lot of organizational stuff inside of it, but the floor was a bit crazy. This was such an easy fix because the main thing taking up floor space was the storage box with all the holiday-related decorations I own. I rarely need to access this box (I don’t always decorate for the holidays) so having it take up so much floor space was unnecessary. I found a place in my utility room that isn’t easily accessible but fits the box perfectly. So even though I will need a ladder to reach the box when I need it, that’s a much better place than somewhere that I use every day and blocking things I really do need.

And when I was in my utility room, I knew I needed to do a lot of work on that space. That area has become a catchall for lots of stuff when I don’t know where else to put it. I’m so grateful I have that room because it is a great storage area that is inside my house. I can store things in my garage too, but I don’t store a lot there because I have to move my car to reach it and it’s not inside. So if I needed something in the middle of the night, it’s not really convenient. I try not to have too much in my utility room, but it can easily gather stuff. And a lot of it is stuff I don’t actually need and might have forgotten about.

I found some health and beauty stuff that I don’t need or use like unopened bottles of lotion I don’t use anymore or unopened bags of cotton rounds (I use reusable fabric rounds instead of cotton ones now). This doesn’t need to be in my house because I’m not going to use them. So they went into a bag that I’m using to collect things I can donate to a charity that needs it. Yes, I guess I wasted money on things that I never needed, but that’s in the past and I’d rather find a place that needs them instead of keeping them in case I decide to use them.

My dad helped me create some nice storage in my utility room, but I haven’t been maximizing it for a while. I have a sink that doesn’t work in there, and my dad built a custom topper so it becomes a flat counter. That space was used for my wine storage and I had a wine bottle holder on there. But I haven’t had alcohol for a long time and that wine bottle holder was just being used for me to put other things on top of. I could find a much better storage holder than a wine bottle holder for things like tools and cleaning supplies. So I asked a friend if they wanted the wine bottle holder and they took it off my hands. My utility room is still a work in progress, but I’ve been able to get rid of so much and I’m finally able to see what organizational things I need to make it a more efficient space.

I’m going to start working on organizing my kitchen and bathroom next because I know I have products in those rooms that I don’t need. I know my pantry has stuff that probably is past its use-by date that I forgot about. I know I need to store my baking supplies in better containers instead of just the bags they come in. And while my bathroom doesn’t really have storage space where I can forget about things, I know that there are products that I see in there that I tell myself that I use that I really don’t. I will probably take those products out of my bathroom and store them in a bag for a week or so. Then I can see if I go into that bag to get it out or if I really have been lying to myself that I need them and use them. After that, I need to work on my desk but that is going to be a much longer process and will probably require more time to decide what I need to save.

Even with the limited cleaning and organizing that I’ve been able to do, I have noticed a huge difference in my house. Things are easier to find and I don’t feel like there is just stuff around me. I like feeling more peaceful at my house since I am here so many hours a day. And once I have things clean and tidy, I might look at more decorative things to add since I know I want some more personality in my space too.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year) Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailMore Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again)

Comments Off on Cleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , ,