Can I get some advice/help/company?

[Penelope]

Perhaps what I really need is a kick in the fanny.

I'm going out of town for two weeks on Sunday. My house is a disaster. My garden needs weeding plus I need to clean up some branches that dh and a friend cut down while repairing our fence. I'm teaching p/t (online) and *just* finished a big revision project. I'm having some anxiety about getting stuff done before we go. Dh, unfortunately, is not being a lot of help.

Here's my list of stuff... anybody care to help keep me on track and honest about all of this?

Today: Guide dd in cleaning her room; empty of furniture and scrub carpets. Take bikes in for repair. Finish folding laundry, put away as much as possible. Clean up branches in yard, if possible, to put out with trash tomorrow morning. Ask dh to repair rabbit fence in garden.

Wed: Clean bathrooms. Make packing list. Weed garden. Clean living room. Clean family room. Take things currently cluttering hallway to Goodwill.

Thurs: Dh doctor's appt; set up watering/veggie collection w. neighbor girl. Adjust sprinker system. Weed in front garden.

Fri: Pack; ds playdate; clean bedrooms; put away laundry.

Sat: Parade; finish packing; clean playroom.

Sun: Church; catch plane.

[tinybutterfly]

I lurk in here sometimes.

I won't be much help. Our basement is a DISASTER. I've been talking about decluttering it for years! I used to have a little decluttering blog on Xanga, but...yea, well, my basement is still trashed.

But I CAN some here and cheer you on!!!

Are you going to post when you get something accomplished?

Good luck and think how GOOD you will feel when you get your list done!!!

[Penelope]

Thanks, TB!

Ok, this is my progress so far (totally not going in order, it turns out ): cleaned living room and family room; finished folding laundry; vaccuumed/swept the LR, FR and kitchen. Took out some recycling. Guided dd into cleaning her room, which she says is done, but I haven't expected so who knows.

So what's left: branches; bikes to the repair shop; scrub dd's carpet and now also the LR carpet (coffee and bubble soap spilled ) and the dining room if we can get that far.

It's not anywhere close to done, but *much* better in the most-lived-in rooms, so I won't be quite as frantic about the clutter and cat hairballs and fifty bazillion puzzle pieces.

[Penelope]

Ok, sent dh to drop off the bikes (he got all wierd about taking his old bike for repair, so pretended he didn't want to hassle with the bike rack and instead took my bike and ds's in the back of the car. Which I'm just going to let go.)

Cleared out the branches in the yard, bundled for yard waste pickup, raked, planted three ferns (the area in front of my fence used to be covered in pretty ground cover, but days of rain plus days of fence repair have left me with a bare patch about 15x4 feet. So, first some ferns... later some hostas... ), and threw away various bits of trash in the yard.

I would like to do the bathrooms tonight as I'm already grubby and can just take a bath after, but we'll see whether dh needs help scrubbing the carpets.

I'm making some decent progress here.

[tinybutterfly]

Better than decent, FANTASTIC progress! Seriously!!!

WHEW!!!



So what all do you have left to do?

Wanna come to my house and help me get organized, cleaned up, straightened up and decluttered?

[Penelope]

Yeah, because this isn't months of deferred tasks I'm working through, oh no...

Now finished: round one of the carpet scrubbing. I vaccuumed and spot-cleaned, dh did the rest. I might give it another run in the morning, and I need to put dd's room back together, but that'll take two adults, so probably a brief evening task.

Still on the list from today: the rabbit fence. But I can look at it, and run to the hardware store to buy some chicken wire, in the morning. I might pick up a few plants for the fenceline, if they're on sale, and then put some mulch down, if I'm feeling ambitious. We're going swimming with some of dd's friends in the afternoon, but I can drop by Goodwill on the way there.

So basically bathrooms, some gardening, and some errand running on the list for tomorrow. And making a packing list. I'm feeling pretty good about things.

[tinybutterfly]

You should feel good about things! You really did get a LOT done today!

Maybe some of your industriousness will rub off on me. I can hope!

Have fun swimming tomorrow and good luck with the rest of your list! Sounds like you are good shape getting things ready for your trip! I'd much rather come home to a clean house after being gone. It makes a huge difference!

ttfn!

[mkksmom]

Wow! you did get A LOT done!! I'm exhausted just reading it!

[Penelope]

Thanks, guys!

I'm hoping to keep moving today... the swim playdate should be over by about 4pm, and I've got some work to do in the morning, but I'm planning the Goodwill dropoff and the chickenwire pickup in the morning.

Then after the swimming, I think I can evaluate dd's carpet, repeat cleaning if needed, start to put her room back together, make the packing list, and clean the bathrooms. Mine is the worst... piles of semi-clean laundry and cosmetics scattered around the sink.

I've been feeling so overwhelmed and it feels great to have a plan. I keep thinking about how good things will look when I get home from my trip.

Adding to the list: finding someone to water the plants on the porch and the back deck while we're gone, as ds reports the neighbor girls will be away.

eta: I'm now off to run 10m. Why can't my whole life be like this two-day snapshot??

[Penelope]

Ok, yesterday kind of got eaten by work stuff. I did get the chickenwire, but then also got a bunch of new plants that I need to put in today.

So my plan for today:
weed veggie garden.
Add new chickenwire.
Weed/plant in front garden.
Clean bathrooms.
Go to dh's appointment.
Make packing list.
Get caught up in grading for online class.


Off to eat and change into gardening clothes!

[tinybutterfly]

Originally Posted by Penelope

Why can't my whole life be like this two-day snapshot??

Originally Posted by Penelope

So my plan for today:
weed veggie garden.
Add new chickenwire.
Weed/plant in front garden.
Clean bathrooms.
Go to dh's appointment.
Make packing list.
Get caught up in grading for online class.


Off to eat and change into gardening clothes!

I always thought that when we would be selling a house...my house would be SPOTLESS all the time. It felt GREAT, I LOVED it...but I never seem to keep that up unless I am under the pressure of having to show a house to move. And it wasn't THAT hard...it just took some effort on my part!

You can do this list!

[Penelope]

Ok, and my progress report thus far:
- planted iris and sage next to front steps where there's a kind of unattractive empty patch
- planted a nice little lilac (Betsy Ross) in the front garden
- weeded the front garden
- planted two daisy-kinda-things in side garden
- weeded, trimmed, etc in side garden
- weeded veggie garden, staked up tomatos, etc. It had gotten really bad and needs another go-round; maybe tomorrow.

and my big accomplishment so far:
- weeded out dreadful patch of nothing behind the veggie garden where I'd planted some raspberries amidst the weeds a few weeks ago. Seriously, this was *so* bad.
- planted blueberries there, and mulched (I need to haul one more bag of mulch down, which luckily is in the garage). Might not be a conventional look for a berry patch but I'm hoping it'll keep the weeds down. I've wanted berries since we moved into the house two years ago!

[Penelope]

And now I've finished mulching the berry patch, done a bunch more weeding, transplanted a dozen volunteer coneflowers and ground cover to the bare patch by the fence, and I'm pooped.

I think I'll look for some more plants at the nursery next to dh's doctor's appointment - I have "July bucks" for a discount, have long wanted a pretty little Japanese maple to provide coverage and shade for my a/c and bring my butterfly garden into more human-friendly scale (It's alongside a two-story wall and a raised deck, so it feels a little unwelcoming to actually sit down there - I think a small tree would help.) Plus my mailbox garden looks a little sad, since the rabbits ate a bunch of stuff last year and I didn't get around to replanting. I've got a couple of salvia, a few coneflowers, and one teensy butterfly bush there, so I think some nice tough iris might fit in well.

I was so filthy I can't even begin to describe... it felt really nice to take a bath.

[Penelope]

Ok, and today!

So far I've planted a tree, done a small work project (need to pick that back up later in the day), and started sanding the front door to paint. I've also cleaned two bathrooms, vaccuumed the upstairs, tidied my bedroom although there's lots of laundry still to put away, and ds has a friend over for a playdate. Oh, and we put dd's room back together last night.

Today's list, then:
- clean master bath
- paint door
- finish packing list
- grade
- re-tidy various parts of the house that got messy again (enlist kids here!)
- clean office
- fold more laundry.

I think I'll tackle the door first, since I'm still wearing grubby gardening clothes, and then clean the bathroom, then change and work on laundry and tidying.

So much work, such limited progress. The yard does look great, though. I need to water my blueberry bushes a bit, and go admire my pretty new tree, but other than that I'm done outside for the moment.

[tinybutterfly]

Wow.

Seriously. Wow.

You have gotten so much done!!!


And...I am jealous of your energy!

[tinybutterfly]

P.S. In case I don't get back to this thread today, hope you have a GREAT time on your vacation! AND hope you get to relax while on vacay!

[Penelope]

Thanks, babe!

So far today:

I painted the door purple; cleaned some of the master bath; have done a ton of laundry (but it's unfolded); have hosted the playdate, which is going well; and have done almost all of my grading (for today. Tomorrow's another story.)

I'm feeling good, especially about the grading, and the door looks just awesome. It's, like, Moderator Purple.

Couple of straggling tasks, but dh is cooking dinner tonight, so I think I can take a serious whack at the laundry folding/putting away and packing, and get the dang chickenwire up.

I am not usually this motivated, but if I leave for two weeks and then come back with a month before classes start and a huge bunch of stuff to do, my head will explode. So this is all preventative measures to ward of later insanity.

[OkiMom]

Seriously, Im exhausted just reading this. I thought I got a lot done yesterday when I manged to do 4 loads of laundry and check the mail. Want to come over here when you are done and help me find my motivation?

[zoebird]

it's awesome!

i lol'd at "Moderator Purple"--i bet it looks fantastic!

i'm jealous of all of your gardening! we have a tiny garden here at our apt that the landlord said we could use, I'm trying to plan a party to build the little garden at our apt for my birthday. it's been tough, because work is keeping us busy.

if i can have people helping (and we do need help because i need to build two gates in addition to planting), then we should be able to get it done in a day.

also, we don't have any tools. LOL

so, that's the big task on my list, not including 10,000 things for the business. BUT, i did get ALL of the invoicing done for june on July 2! it took me 5 months to "get" it, but now it's something i can do in about 3-4 hrs! SWEET!

[Penelope]

Yay, zoebird!

The gardening party sounds fun. We had the "oh crap, no tools" thing when our fence blew down, and our neighbor friend totally saved us, what with the chainsaw and the nail gun and such.

My mojo is usually divided between kids and work, with some running on the edges, so it's fun to kind of blast through a bunch of household projects.

I've finished folding the laundry, sorted and put away a bunch in my bedroom, got started on the packing, and still need to clean the bathroom. I *still* need to get out there with the staple gun and the chicken wire to protect my veggie garden... maybe I'll go pester dh to help me.

Ds said this morning, "Mama! What is that *wonderful* smell?"

I said, "Toilet bowl cleaner!"

If that gives you any idea of how frequent my take-no-prisoners cleaning is. (Semi-annual...)