Tag Archives: home

Planning Ahead Even If It’s Stressful (or I Might Be Moving)

Posted on August 27, 2021 | Comments Off on Planning Ahead Even If It’s Stressful (or I Might Be Moving)

With all the craziness of this past year, there are a few things that have been steady and stable in my life. And I was so grateful for those few things because I needed to feel some normalcy and consistency in the world. I do like having routine and not changing too much, but I also know sometimes change is good. But when I have something that makes me happy, I stick to that as long as I can.

And one of the stable things that has made me happy for a long time is where I live. I’ve been in my house for about 11 1/2 years now. It’s not perfect and there are things that I would change if I could, but it’s pretty amazing. I have my own space, I don’t share walls with anyone, it’s safe, and even though it might not have everything I want it does have everything I need. And most importantly for me, it’s very affordable. Living somewhere this long and in a rent-stabilized building has the advantage of the price not being able to increase that much each year. And rent-stabilized buildings also have extra protections from evictions (so landlords can’t just kick you out to raise the rent for a future tenant without a lot of hurdles).

And while I have been in other apartments before, I think this is the first place that really felt like home to me. My first apartment was when I was in college and it never really felt like home. It felt a bit like another dorm room to me. I also lived alone then and hated it, so that didn’t help. My second apartment felt a bit more like a home to me, but I shared it with a series of roomates and whenever I had to find someone else for the other room, it made my apartment feel less like it was mine. My current place has been the place I have lived the longest (except for my childhood home) and the first place that I made decor choices that took a bit more effort like putting up shelving or curtain rods. I have made this place my home and I really am happy here.

But the other day, I got a call from my landlord seeing if I’d be home next week. They are selling and their realtor needs to come in so they can make a digital floorplan. I let my landlord know that I’d be home and ended the call. And my mind started running a million miles an hour. I know that selling a building to a new owner isn’t rare, but I think we are in a unique situation. A new owner could keep things the way they are, but I really don’t think they would. There is a lot of space that could be used to build a building with double or triple the apartments. And even if they weren’t going to build a new building, I bet a new owner would want us to leave because they could get a lot more in rent. It still wouldn’t be easy to get rid of us, but it’s possible to do if they wanted to. And I really don’t question that is what will happen.

Of course, I’m thinking way ahead right now. It’s not even listed yet. I have no clue how long it will take to sell. After it sells, we can’t be kicked out right away. There will be at least a few months before that could happen, and that is if it happens. Maybe I’m wrong and nothing will change, but I can’t just think that and hope everything will be ok. So even though it does stress me out to think about moving, I’m trying to plan ahead. I know it won’t be fun to move, but it’s not the worst thing to have to do. I think I’m more stressed about finding a new place. There are a lot of ideas I’m trying to figure out for my next place, so I don’t have a lot planned. I just know I want to stay as close to my current neighborhood as possible. And I need to make sure that I don’t offset making more money right now with a huge increase in my monthly cost.

I’m glad I am starting to plan now so I don’t have to do everything last minute. That’s what I had to do when I moved the last time and I know how lucky I am that I found my current place. But I can’t believe I will necessarily have the same luck again. I have the luxury of having time now and I’m going to take advantage of that so I make sure my next move is the right one and I don’t have to settle for a place that doesn’t feel right to me.

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Default ThumbnailPlanning Way Too Far Ahead (or I Want It Now) Default ThumbnailA Free Weekday (or Planning Ahead For Fun Things) Default ThumbnailA House Anniversary (or A Decade In One Place) Default ThumbnailTrying To Plan Ahead (or Hopefully Things Will Normalize Soon) Default ThumbnailEnjoying The Now (or Not Trying To Skip Ahead To The Good Parts) Default ThumbnailFirst Weekend Of Freedom (or Looking Back Before Moving Forward)

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Even More Redecorating (or One Planned Change and One Due To Being A Klutz)

Posted on June 10, 2021 | Comments Off on Even More Redecorating (or One Planned Change and One Due To Being A Klutz)

I have done a lot of redecorating around my house recently. There have been a few reasons why, but boredom has been a big one. But I think I finally have some of the boredom feeling out now that I’m able to go out and do things again. But that hasn’t brought me to the end of my redecorating in my house.

But there are also other reasons why I changed things up in my house. Sometimes they are planned and I just needed to be motivated to do it. And right now, my planned change is with my home gym setup. I’ve been so grateful to have all the workout equipment I was able to get for my house while Orangetheory was shut down. But now, I’m not using it anymore. I know I could add more workout days to my week if I wanted to, but I’m feeling good about working out 4 days a week right now. But I am not getting rid of what I have. One day in the future, when I own my own place, I would love to have a little home gym setup. But for now, there is no reason for me to have everything in my living room where it has been set up since I created my little gym.

I’m torn between just getting a giant storage container and putting it in my garage or getting a cuter decorative storage piece (like a storage bench) and putting it where my home gym setup is right now. I’m looking at some options and taking my time since there is no rush for me to do this. I don’t need the little space my gym takes up now for anything else. So I’d rather spend the time looking for something I like.

And then there are reasons I redecorate that are not planned and feel a bit more rushed. The other day, I was walking next to my bed and my hip went out. This is a normal occurrence for me and I don’t always fall down. But this time, I did fall and somehow managed to trip on my comforter while also holding onto it. And when I got up off the ground, I discovered that the seams of my comforter had split. I’m still impressed that I was klutzy enough to make this happen because it almost doesn’t make sense. But it did and now I need to get a new comforter or bedspread for my bed.

I’m planning on throwing out the ripped one this week when it’s trash day, and I’m lucky that it is summertime because I don’t need to get a replacement right away. But I am trying to find something soon because I don’t like the look of just having a sheet on my bed. So I’ve been looking online at a few different places to hopefully find something I like. But I also don’t want to buy something just to have it. It’s weird because this does feel rushed, but also I want to take my time.

Sometimes redecorating is fun and carefree and sometimes it is stressful. And I seem to be experiencing one of each right now. But I also know that this isn’t a life or death decision and it’s going to be fine no matter what. So I’m trying to have fun with this when I can.

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Default ThumbnailDoing Even More Organizing and Redecorating (or Continuing To Change Things In My House) Default ThumbnailFeeling Jet Lag Without A Time Zone Change (or Back To Home) Default ThumbnailNot The Family Visit I Planned On Having (or An LA Afternoon) Default ThumbnailMy Cold Caught Up With Me (or I Guess I Was Due To Get Sick) Default ThumbnailStill Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work) Default ThumbnailNot The Workout Week I Planned On (or Starting To Prepare To Go Back)

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Doing Even More Organizing and Redecorating (or Continuing To Change Things In My House)

Posted on May 13, 2021 | Comments Off on Doing Even More Organizing and Redecorating (or Continuing To Change Things In My House)

About a year ago, I did a lot of work around my house. I wanted to keep myself busy with all the craziness going on in the world. But I also realized I was going to be spending a lot of time inside my house and I figured it was the perfect time to change things up in my house. While I do change things up from time to time in my house, there were a lot of things that have stayed the same since I moved into my house in 2010. And because I was spending a lot of time inside, I wanted my house to be the best set-up that I could.

I got some new decor things for my house, changed up some artwork, and reorganized a lot. I didn’t spend a ton of money and tried to do things for free or with what I already had if I could. But I did spend money on getting a few new things and gadgets to help me organize. Making it feel like everything had a good place to live in my house gave me a small sense of control in a world that felt like it was in chaos.

And throughout the past year, I have changed a few things but I haven’t done a big project as I did at first. That was partially due to realizing how much I had spent before, but I was also feeling satisfied with how things were looking around my house. And lately, I’ve been getting the itch to do some more projects.

I think this feeling is because of being bored in my house, but a lot of the projects I’m considering are things I’ve thought about doing for a while and just didn’t do it before. For example, I wanted to change my bedding again. It’s not a crazy change to get a new comforter, but I just haven’t picked out something I like. But I really want to change it up soon because I feel like I’ve been putting it off. I also have tried for a while to find storage for my bathroom because it’s very tiny with limited space. And I saw on a random list online about a new slim storage tower and I got it and it fit perfectly! Of course, getting that led to me buying other things to organize other parts of my bathroom, but I haven’t gotten all of that in yet.

There are other little things I’d like to do and haven’t done because I wanted to go into a store to find what I want. That’s finally something I feel like I could do and still feel safe. But I’m trying to do the projects that are being shipped to me first before I go into a store. I might change my mind about what I want, so I want to wait a bit. I also want to try to be careful about how much I spend. I am in a better financial situation now than I was for most of last year, but that doesn’t mean I can spend whatever I want without worrying.

It took me a long time between moving into my house and when I did all the projects last year. I wasn’t expecting to feel such a push to do more projects so soon and to change up even more. But maybe being home so much for a year has made me think more about everything I have in my house and what I have wanted. I will always be limited by space and money, but I can still make my house feel more like what I want. If I’m going to be spending a lot of time at home (although, hopefully less than this past year), I should make sure that I’m happy with everything I have and change things I don’t like if I can.

And if adding silly little things or new ways to organize stuff makes me happy and even more like my house is perfect, then that’s what I should do when I can.

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Default ThumbnailMore Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues) Default ThumbnailStill Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work) Default ThumbnailEven More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project) Default ThumbnailHaving A Lot Of Repeat Days (or More Organizing and More Virtual Hangouts) Default ThumbnailMaking My House Look Fancy (or Doing Some Upgrades For The New Year) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House)

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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.

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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)

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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!

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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)

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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.

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Doing A Lot Of Shopping (or Just Trying To Have Some Variety In My Life)

Posted on May 26, 2020 | Comments Off on Doing A Lot Of Shopping (or Just Trying To Have Some Variety In My Life)

I’ve been doing a lot of shopping and organizing lately. I’m glad that I am finally doing this since there have been so many things that I have been putting off that I needed to do. I want my house to be the most efficient and amazing place for me. And there are things that I set up when I moved into my house that I just never changed. But it’s been a good thing to change them up and get my house to a place that I had been wanting to get it to for a while.

This is so important because my house is so small and I don’t have unlimited space to do what I want. Most things in my house need to be able to be moved if necessary or to be functional for more than one thing. I don’t want to have a ton of furniture that I have to work around all the time. Obviously, there are some things that don’t move, but for the most part I am able to shift things around if I need to.

But besides buying things to organize my house, I’ve been buying things to change up the look of my house too. I haven’t gotten as many of these, but I have been finding new decorative things I want to add. Some of this is because in my organization (especially around my desk), I’ve been taking a lot of things down and either getting rid of them if I don’t need them or moving them into different places. I could keep all my decorative stuff the way they are, nothing is horrible. But I just felt like I needed a change and went for it.

I haven’t gotten the new decorative things since I ordered them online and there are lots of shipping delays, but it has gotten me really excited. I just can’t wait until I am able to put things up and maybe I’ll move even more things around.

I wasn’t thinking too much about why I felt so compelled to redecorate my house. At first, I thought it might be because I have had so many things in my house for 10 years and I was ready for a change. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this might be due to quarantine. I don’t really leave my house for anything right now. I don’t go to the grocery store that often (I usually get it delivered but maybe go to the store once a month). I don’t go out anywhere. I am working on finding some good socially distant social events, but I haven’t planned any yet. I am just inside my house and looking at the same walls all day.

I think my urge to redecorate had a lot to do with that. I was craving a change and changing the decorations inside is something I can do and not have to leave my house. Maybe this will trick my brain into thinking I have gone somewhere different. Maybe it will just take some of the monotonous feelings of being home away. I still think that I will be antsy to get out and back to normal life, but hopefully this takes a little bit of the edge off. And even if it doesn’t, I’m excited for a change in my house. Everything that I have changed up has made things feel a bit more serene and less cluttered. And I have changed other things around my house to fit with those new things which changes it up even more. Even if it doesn’t, everything I bought does make me excited about them so I don’t need them to do more for me than that.

Whenever people can finally be out and social again, my house is going to look like an entirely new place. I’ve joked to people that they won’t recognize it when they come over. But even if nobody noticed or cared, I am still so happy about the changes I’ve been making. And I hope the new things coming soon will just continue to make me feel that way. But I do hope that I have a break of changing things up that require purchasing after this. As great as it’s been for my mental state, I know that I am spending money that I should probably be saving. But I’m not worried about that right now.

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Having A Lot Of Repeat Days (or More Organizing and More Virtual Hangouts)

Posted on May 12, 2020 | Comments Off on Having A Lot Of Repeat Days (or More Organizing and More Virtual Hangouts)

I know a lot of people feel like they are living the same day over and over again right now. This is probably happening a lot for people who are completely out of work. I am lucky with my work because I do still have some (even though the hours are a fraction of what they used to be). I know that 3 days a week, I work from 8-9 am with doing customer voicemails. And I do still have my other job, but those hours are limited too as I can’t find a lot of things to add to the calendar. I also have my workouts a few days a week, so that helps to make things feel a bit different. I usually know what day of the week it is based on if I have a workout or work that morning.

But besides those things, there isn’t a lot of variety in my day. I’m working on not just sitting in front of a screen all day long and trying to continue to be productive, but there have been days where sitting and watching tv is all I feel up to doing. And it’s not easy to find other things to fill my day with while staying inside and staying safe (and yes, I know I can go out for walks or drives, but it’s not the same).

I wrote about 2 different things I’ve been doing a lot of lately. And those are organizing my house and having virtual hangouts. Honestly, that’s all I’ve been doing a lot of lately to change things up. And I know these are good habits or activities to have, so I don’t feel as guilty as I do when I watch tv for hours on end.

Fortunately, doing organization in my house was long overdue, so there have been a lot of projects to work on. Some of the projects have been pushed off because I needed something to complete them, so now I have been ordering what I need. Because of the pandemic, there are shipping delays with some things, so I just work on what I can as I get things. And this week, I got these little drawer organizers that I had been looking at online. I know it’s hard to make them fit perfectly in my drawers, but I found some that don’t actually snap together so I can keep open space between them. My plan was to just organize my desk, but I had so many extras that I also did 2 of my kitchen drawers. I didn’t really get rid of anything as I did these projects, but it looks much better and my drawers look like there isn’t as much because there is some space to spare.

I’m sure I’ll continue to modify these over time, but for now, it’s so much better than it was and I can start working on the top of my desk and my file cabinet now.

And with my virtual hangouts, I’m trying to plan them with different groups of friends so I have them as often as I can. And the one group of friends that I had been working on scheduling one with is with my workout friends. Right now, we are spread over 3 states and we all have different schedules and things we have to do each day. So it hasn’t been easy to find a time that works for us all. But we were able to plan one for this past Friday. And I felt like that was the perfect time to do it because when we all worked out together, Fridays was the day we were all there!

And it was so nice to see my friends. We did talk about workouts briefly (I think I’m the only one doing the official home workouts regularly), but we mainly talked about all the random things we could think of. We were all laughing so much and laughing so hard that we were crying. I needed this virtual hangout so much and I didn’t realize how badly I needed it until it was done. It really boosted my mood and made my day so much better. And now that we’ve done one, I think everyone agrees that we need to do these more often.

I’m sure this week will continue to be filled with more organizing and virtual hangouts. I also have some ideas for new skills that I want to learn since I have so much free time. Anything that can change up my day a little bit is exactly what I need to do right now.

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Default ThumbnailMy Monthly Challenge To Finish Out The First Half Of The Year (or Sleeping And More Organizing) Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailFinding A Social Life Where I Can (or Virtual Parties and Distance Hangouts) Default ThumbnailEven More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project) Default ThumbnailVirtual Memorial Day (or Doing The Best We Can For Now) Default ThumbnailAnother Virtual Friend Hangout (or Trying Not To Miss A Summer Tradition Too Much)

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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!

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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)

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A Night Of Very Little Sleep (or At Least I Could Laugh A Bit About This)

Posted on April 23, 2020 | Comments Off on A Night Of Very Little Sleep (or At Least I Could Laugh A Bit About This)

With my extremely reduced work schedule, I don’t really have to get up early anymore. I could work the 1 hour I work each of the 3 days at any time. And the days I don’t work, I don’t usually have much more than my workout and I could do that whenever. But I am really trying hard to be as close to my regular sleep schedule as possible. This time is temporary and I don’t want to struggle when I’m trying to get things back to normal. I am not perfect, but for the most part, I’m going to sleep close to the time that I normally do. And I’m trying hard not to sleep in at all since that can mess with my sleep schedule as well.

This does sometimes mean I’m not getting as much sleep as I could get, but being tired for a day is probably the better option than completely changing my sleep schedule and then having to spend time to get back on track. Especially since I have no clue how much notice we will have about things starting back up again. But I’m used to occasionally getting very little sleep. When I’m nauseous or having a bad hip night, I usually don’t sleep much. And when I do sleep, they are little naps with lots of awake time in between. I hate when those nights happen, but I usually know before going to bed that they will be that way.

But last week, I had an unexpected bad night of sleep. I was pretty proud of myself because I got to bed pretty early. I was looking forward to a nice long night of sleep and had been asleep for a few hours when I woke up suddenly. I didn’t know why I woke up, but as I tried to go back to sleep I noticed a beeping noise every 30 seconds. I thought maybe it was something next to my house, but when I woke up a bit more I realized that it sounded like it was in my house.

I have 2 smoke detectors in my house, one in my bedroom and one in my dining room. They are actually on the same wall, back to back. So they are pretty close together. I knew it wasn’t the smoke detector in my room, so I went to the one in my dining room and got a magazine to try to fan air at it. For some reason, in my partially awake state, I assumed that my smoke detector was going off. Even though there was no reason for it to be doing that and it wasn’t making the noise that it normally makes when that happens (it will say “fire” if there is smoke and “carbon monoxide” if a leak is detected). So my next guess was that it had a low battery.

I got a step stool so I could reach it and tried to get it off the way and then I discovered that it was hard-wired into my house. I’m sure I knew this at some point, but I didn’t remember it. And getting it down wasn’t easy. I still do not know how I did this, but I managed to disconnect all the wires from the back of the smoke detector while partially asleep without electrocuting myself. And I discovered later that one of the wires wasn’t covered the way it should have (or I might have pulled some of the wire protection off). Once I got it down, I was trying to get the battery out. And I couldn’t figure out how to do it. By this time, it had been beeping every 30 seconds for over 20 minutes and I was starting to go a bit crazy.

I calmed down and found the model number of it on the back so I could look it up and find the owner’s manual. I found it, but it only said to lift the battery cover up to remove the battery. No guidance on how to get it done. I knew where the battery was, so I was determined to get it out. It took several tools, lots of swearing, and probably doing a lot of damage to the smoke detector; but I eventually did it.

If you’ve ever watched “Friends” you might remember the episode where Phoebe breaks a smoke detector that won’t stop. I felt just like that. Except I didn’t take my mallet to it (I was very close).

When I was trying to figure out how to get the battery out, I looked up what the beeping meant and it was a signal that the smoke detector failed. And it typically fails between 7-10 years for safety. And my smoke detector was installed just under 10 years ago, so that seemed right.

I went back to bed (finally) and had a bit of a laugh about how crazy I was acting trying to get the beeping to stop. And the next morning, I had to call my landlord to let them know I needed a new one. I try to be a good tenant and not bother my landlord too much, but I had just called them 6 days earlier because my kitchen flooded (my garbage disposal cracked and all the water was going through it to the floor). But I knew this was a safety issue and I had to tell them.

And as soon as I told the manager in the office that I had another issue, she immediately asked me if my smoke detector failed. I was shocked that she guessed it, and she told me that dozens of tenants have been calling all week saying the same thing. It turns out, they installed all of the smoke detectors in all their different buildings and rental places around the same time, so they all started to fail at the same time too!

I’m not sure if it was the lack of sleep or how crazy it was that everyone had the same problem that I had, but I had a huge fit of giggles after that. The handyman was able to come to my house that day (wearing an N95 mask and wearing gloves) and replace my smoke detector, so everything is fine now. And even though I was tired that day, it was ok because I recovered after I slept the next night.

With having so little happening right now, anything that is outside of my normal routine is interesting. And this one also ended up making me laugh, even if it wasn’t funny when I couldn’t get the beeping to stop. But I did appreciate the moment of silliness to break up everything else happening.

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Default ThumbnailSuper Productive and Super Lazy (or A Balance Over 2 Days) Default ThumbnailBeing Socially Anti-Social (or An Observer At Game Night) Default ThumbnailMagic Castle Fun (or Girls Night Out) Default ThumbnailTaking Time To Laugh At Myself (or Having Some Dumb Moments) Default ThumbnailFirst Day In New York (or How To Do The Most You Can On Less Than 3 Hours Of Sleep) Default ThumbnailAdventures On The Red-Eye (or Surviving On Almost No Sleep)

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