THERE'S SOME CHANGING AHEAD

Things have been happening fast here in the last couple of weeks.

Not only am I having a knee replaced in one month, but ten days before that I am moving!

I had put in an application to rent one of the new duplex units that are being built here in town as soon as they started taking applications. I just found out last week that I was approved, was able to tour the unit the next day and decided to move in by August 1. Unfortunately that is just a few days after my knee surgery, so they agreed to let me start moving in on the 16th, before the surgery. So I should be pretty well settled in time for surgery and following recovery.

So here I sit, very early in the morning with boxes and 'stuff' from the closet shelves, plus the kitchen table is completely covered with all the things I had on display above the kitchen cupboards and a long shelf above the doors. Everything is very dusty and spider-webby so it all needs to be washed before packing. Hopefully I will be able to part with some of the things as storage is a bit limited in the new place.

Yesterday my granddaughter and her husband from Omaha stopped  and brought me quite a few flattened boxes from her work so I have a bunch to fill for now. I do have to go buy some packing tape first. When I moved here I used duct tape as I thought it might be stronger, but found out it does not stick to cardboard boxes very well and bottoms started to come apart in the moving!

The kids got on the step stool and took everything down for me since I couldn't reach it, and am unable to use a ladder or step stool with my bad knees, and that was a huge help. So you know what I will be doing a little later this morning.

The unit I am moving to is a two bedroom so it will be nice to have the extra room to use as a sewing/ computer room. Hopefully by the time I get everything in there I will still have room for an extra bed for guests. I will also have a big shower with a low lip that will be easier for me to get into instead stepping into a deep bathtub which has become nearly impossible with my knees. There is also an attached garage that is drywalled! I have lived in several houses and none of them had finished garages like this. All new appliances come with it, including a dishwasher! Carpeting is only in the bedrooms, so no more carpet on every single floor in the house, like here, including kitchen and bathroom. I might wish I had the carpet this winter since I always run around barefoot all year long. But there are always area rugs I can put down in places if I want to.

My daughters will be here the weekend of the move, and I asked my church if they would be willing to move the big stuff for me like they did 10 years ago when I moved in here. They said yes! I am only moving one block north and 2 blocks east so it would be really expensive to hire a moving company.

One thing I am a little sad about is that I have no place to hang my husband's porch swing. It is an antique. And it was so handy when I had to give someone directions to my house. They just had to find the red swing in front. There is at least one other house on the block with a swing but it is white. Just can't miss that red! I just have to keep reminding myself that you can't keep things forever. It is too bad that none of my kids have a place for it either.

With all this happening, my blog posts will still be quite sporadic for awhile. But you have a pretty good idea what I will be doing. I will also be going to physical therapy two or three times a week after the surgeries so I have a feeling I will be taking a lot of naps as I will be worn out.

Until next time. . . . . . .

CLEANING OVERDUE!

This is embarrassing!! No judging, please. Unless you are a super clean, cleaning freak (like a late sister-in-law of mine), I can bet you have a spot or two that gets ignored, too. I have been looking at this shelf in the kitchen for quite awhile, intending to get to it soon, but it just didn't seem to happen . . . . until today.

I show two pictures as the top one is a better picture, but later I had taken the frame down and put up the old enamel strainer in it's place, and that is how it looks today.

I decided to somewhat get back on the Flylady schedule, at least for zone cleaning, and this week it is the kitchen. Usually when I get myself psyched up for cleaning, I start in the bedroom, and that doesn't make sense since others don't really see my bedroom except when they walk by the door to get to the living room. But, the kitchen is as good as any place to start. Therefore, the first thing I knew I HAD to do is that shelf. Here are some before pictures, and if you look closely you will see the fringes of 'hair' on the edges, as well as the thick dust that settled on things. I did not take a picture of the empty shelf and how dirty that was, because I would have had to get the step stool out, and my knees won't let me get up on that anymore. Look at this gold ladle. The inside of the cup part is supposed to be shiny!

Look at the 'hair' fringe on this little pitcher, not to mention the thick dust on the rest!

Lots of hair on this large spoon, and the poor little owls have turned 'grey' and almost blinded by the dust over the eyes.

Easy to see the hair on the left side of this place, and if you look close, it is there at the front as well.

Yes, more hair around the edges of this plate. The other dust isn't so visible on the pictures.

And this poor dried arrangment is just totally covered with the fuzz.

I am not sure if I can even get this to look half way decent. The dried stuff is very fragile. I happen to like this and can't replicate it as some of the stuff I picked outside several years ago, so I really hate to dump it and put something new in the jug. I know, it isn't the most beautiful arrangement, but I still like it.

I pulled as much of the fuzz off as I could without causing too much damage. Then I tried a tweezers to pull some more out of the smaller spaces. But there is still quite a bit left. I will try tweezing a little more, then put it back up on the shelf for now. If, or when, I find something I like for a replacement, then this will go out.

Everything else is washed, including the shelf, and put back up. At least I know it is clean and hopefully smells a little fresher.

Now to decide what I will work on tomorrow.

COMING SOON. . . .

A new year is fast approaching, are you ready?

When I was younger I always tried to start the year with a clean house, as well as have things somewhat better organized. Of course, that did not last long - the organized part anyway.

I have gotten out of that habit ever since my hip and knees got really bad. But this year, I am working on it again. I have been sort of forced into it since Felix died. He made such a mess with tracking his litter all over the house this last year, plus messes around food dishes, and water bowls all over the house, and a small milk saucer next to the fridge, not to mention many toys that he no longer had an interest in. I must admit that, even though I loved having Felix around, I was getting tired of  having to work and walk around those things. Plus, with having walking difficulties, I was getting concerned they might cause me to fall, and I don't need that!

I am not going to have this house 'perfectly' clean by the new year (or ever anymore!) but I have been busy doing a more thorough vacuuming in every room. Remember, I have carpet in every single room in this house, including kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. That is not my preference, but when renting you don't have much choice.

All the cat food, toys, and treats are gathered and boxed so my daughter can take it all to an animal shelter in her city the next time she comes this way. The litter boxes are in the garbage and that area has been cleaned up. I still need to shampoo all the carpets but I am not sure I can handle doing that myself, so may have to wait until one of my daughters will be here for that as well. Nose prints are on a few of the windows, but it is frigid cold right now - only 9 degrees at 3 pm - so washing windows, even inside, will wait for a much warmer day.

I am not good at making and keeping New Year's resolutions. Is anyone? Some of my friends and fellow bloggers do make a list of goals for the new year. One priority for me is to continue to do some deep decluttering, especially paper things - recipes, magazine pages of hints and things I like, old financial/business type papers that are no longer necessary to keep. I have decided I am a paper hoarder. Not as bad as those on the TV show!! But I do have way too much, and to be honest, they are never looked at again after I saved them. I can always look things up online quicker than trying to find a paper in a huge stack or 4 drawer filing cabinet.

I also intend to work at blogging more regularly again. I have neglected this much too long. And I have lots of work to do in getting all my genealogy research in order. I do want to make a trip to the small town where I grew up, so I can go through the newspaper archives in the library there. I wish they were digitized and online like the neighboring town has done, but they are not. I have found a lot of needed information from those online archives, but some things are missing that might be in the old home town papers.

One side of my family is trying to have a family reunion this summer and I have several ideas of things I would like to do with that. I have started the ball rolling, so now I need to keep it going, hoping other relatives will take on some of the load. We are thinking the last weekend in June for that.

Then my granddaughter is getting married the end of August, and I suspect a bridal shower or two to attend. And a sister-in-law from California is coming for a visit in June, a niece is coming for her all school reunion this summer as well, and has asked to stay here during that time. So the summer schedule is filling rapidly. But it all should be fun times.

I think that is more than enough to concentrate on for the year. And that is why I need to get the cleaning and organizing done this winter! Time to get busy.

SPRING CLEANING

This is me doing spring cleaning when I was younger. I wish I could do it like that today, but it just isn't going to happen.

Since I can't do steps, a step-stool or ladder is out of the question. So while my daughter was here I had her take down all the curtains, and they got washed and dried. (oooh, they were dusty)Then I could sit and iron them while my daughter was doing some other cleaning in another part of the house. Once ironed, she put them back up.

Now, back in the day when I was able to get around, those windows and woodwork would have been washed before the curtains went up! But that didn't happen this time. I really wanted my daughter to wash the windows outside while I did the inside. She really had the easier part. But she hates washing windows and did not want to do them. By the time we got the other stuff done, the last day she was here it was hot and humid outside and we were both tired. So the windows are still dirty. I am hoping to at least get the insides done soon as I am really tired of looking out such dirty windows. Maybe, if I take one window a day, and push myself a bit, I can get most of them done.

DECLUTTER - DAYS 10-15

I have to combine all the declutter days of last week. I can tell you that most of the work of decluttering was done on Day 11 (June 17 since weekends are not counted). That is the day my daughter was here to help me clean the garage, among other things.

I wish I had remembered to take before and after pictures, as well as all the stuff I got rid of. There were so many items that I am sure there more than enough for the 5 items each day for last week, plus every day this week!

I will try to remember some of the things and list here.

Donate --

• metal folding table -good for camping as well as extra table for crafts, eating, etc.
• wood plant stand
• 100' garden hose on reel in hose box
• Tupperware cake keeper
• several planters and pots
• several macrame plant hangers (boot box full)
• cute can cooler that looks like a drum, still in original box
• old electric roaster - still works but really heavy and not so pretty anymore. (haven't used in 20 years)
• small metal plant stand that holds 3 plants (went to daughter)
• folding lawn chair

Recycle --

• 8-10 plastic ice cream pails and lids
• paper shopping bag full of various plastic containers that I had kept to use for food storage - but can't see a need for them, plus always get more that food comes in
• 3 cat litter jugs
• several empty cardboard boxes (originally saved in case item needed to be sent back, or larger ones saved to put donated items in)
• I know there were more things but can't think what

Throw away --

• old, broken litter box w/cover
• bag of dirty rags
• 4 spark plugs that were in the garage when I moved here
• and my mind has gone blank - I do know that there are 3 full garbage cans waiting to go out to the curb this week
• lots of dirt, dust, dead leaves, dead bugs -- either swept up or blown out with a leaf blower.

One thing I noticed a couple days later that it even smells cleaner in there, although we did not wash anything. Now the back of my van is so full of stuff to take to Goodwill that I have no room to put the garbage to take to the curb! 

Since the weather forecast says we won't get rain tomorrow (Monday, June 23), I think I will make the effort to drive to Sioux City and drop all that stuff off at Goodwill. I will have to pay attention to flooding, though, as we could get another inch or two of rain tonight. And it rained during the night last night and I don't know how much we got. Maybe I should get a couple of oars or paddles in case we start floating. Sioux City is where the Big Sioux River meets the Missouri River and there has already been some flooding along the Sioux there, but that should not be a problem getting to Goodwill. I hope.

I might add, that of all those craft supplies I decluttered earlier, my granddaughter only got the stamping supplies and small set of artist brushes. She had fun with that while she was here too. She is the artist in the family right now. The rest of the craft things will be going along to Goodwill.

DECLUTTER - DAY ?

Before life got in the way, as I stated in a previous post, I did get another day of decluttering in, and the result is in the picture here.

The reason I put a question mark in the title is that I don't know what number of the declutter days this actually was. I see the date on the picture as June 12, so that must mean it was probably Day 9. If you count each catalog and each newspaper section (not pages, but that would run up my numbers, wouldn't it!), then I think this qualifies for 5 items per day for the previous days. I finally went through the grocery bag full of newspapers that I always think I must do before getting rid of them. I HAVE to make sure I don't miss anything! Now all those things have been put in the recycle tub and are gone, gone, gone! Now I need to read the newspapers that are beginning to fill the basket again. Hopefully I will get to them this week. It is a GOOD thing that I do not get a daily paper! I just get the weekly shoppers, one weekly community paper, and a friend saves our town's weekly paper for me. She only brings them once a month or every two months, so they tend to pile up until I get time to read them.

STORMY AND BUSY

I didn't intend to be missing for so long, and now am wishing I had gotten several blog posts written and scheduled for publishing, but life happens, doesn't it.

I have not kept up with the decluttering schedule that my group is doing for this month, but I did get a whole lot of decluttering done in the garage this week, with the help of my daughter and grandkids. I am guessing that the things being donated, and put out for recycling, and those tossed in the garbage are almost equal. My daughter also took a few things home - not many as she doesn't need the clutter either. She brought her leaf blower and blew out all the dirt and dead bugs from the garage so it looks so nice out there. It doesn't look like an attached, semi-finished garage would look like, but it is a whole lot better. I can't even begin to could how many things have been removed from the premises.

My daughter also got all my curtains down and I got them washed and ironed, and she put them back up. She helped with several other things and I am so thankful for all the help. I know her vacation days were work and not fun, but sometimes it just has to be done. There will come a day when she won't have to think about doing my work anymore.

Besides me kids and grandkids being here 3 days this week, we also had severe storms, tornadoes and very heavy rains several days in a row. Therefore, my computer was disconnected to keep it from being damaged by lightning. We did lose power for 1 1/2 hours one afternoon, because of power lines down on two different streets in town. They must have gone down at the same time. That day was so dark that it looked more like 9:30 pm than late afternoon. So there was nothing to do but go to bed. There was no tv, no computer, no light for reading, no stove or microwave to cook. So after about 1/2 hour without power I just laid on the bed and took a nap until the power came back on.

In spite of the bad weather, my son, daughter and I had a very nice visit, and then got all that work done that is difficult for me to do. I hope to get back to a more regular schedule with blogging again next week.

DECLUTTER CHALLENGE

I am a little tardy in getting these posts written but I still want to share, so I need to get caught up.

On June 1 a fellow group member suggested our group do a declutter challenge for the month of June. She suggested decluttering 5 items each day, plus work on an unfinished project. Since I have been trying to work at decluttering in a haphazard way, I thought this was a good idea. So that night, before going to bed, I avowed to start the morning out right, and not touch the computer until I got some work done.

Monday, June 2

I started out well, and made some progress most of the day. While I was heating my cup of water for morning coffee, I filled the kitchen sink and put dishes in to soak. I didn't have a lot of them like I usually do, so it didn't take long to get those done after I had my coffee and bowl of cereal. I even dried and put away right away. Now, I should have formed this habit decades ago, but I have stated before that I am one of the world's great procrastinators, especially when it comes to work. ;o)

My back entry/laundry room area was still a total disaster since the water heater started leaking. So that was my focus for decluttering and straightening up. As I worked putting things away, I also threw in a load of laundry since I was already in the room, and the laundry sorter cart was still in there.

Here is what I decluttered ~~

 I had taken this black sweatshirt out of the closet the week before, but it hung on the door knob for several days. It is in good shape except for those pink spots. This was a pullover sweatshirt that I cut down the middle front, used bonding tape to make small hems, and then bonded a floral print fabric to fronts and back. That was a popular thing many years ago. Then I used fabric puffy paints to outline the roses, leaves and other areas. It was quite pretty. But I had used the wrong fusion stuff - using lightweight instead of heavyweight, so after several washings the edges started to come loose. I tried gluing them down but that just did not work well. After wearing it around home for awhile, I decided to just tear off the rest of the fabric so that I could still wear it. But as you can see, there are still pieces left, and there is some of the bonding residue left on the back. It just does not look very good in spite of being in good shape otherwise. It went into the donation box. Maybe someone else will try to do something with it, like figure out a cute way to cover all the bad stuff up, but I have no desire to try it.

 This is an old rug that looks good on the top yet, but it had foam rubber backing that had disintegrated. I had used it by the back door anyway, but then Felix decided it was there to pee on! No matter how often I washed it and sprayed it with pet deodorizer, he would pee on it. I put a plastic garbage bag under it for awhile but got tired of constantly washing and spraying. Plus that blue did nothing for the mottled orange/rust carpet it laid on! I have no other place in the house to use it, so it actually went in the garbage. I had gotten my money's worth of use out of it long ago.

 I counted these as 2 of the 5 items. These are popcorn tins with Christmas designs on blue background. A couple years ago I got the inspiration to paint them with sand textured paint to make them look more like planters, and use them to store all the plastic shopping bags that one accumulates. I had a spot in the kitchen for them as that is where I unload groceries. That worked for awhile - until I took the blue desk out of the kitchen and replaced it with a tall console table. That console table is longer than the desk, but not as deep, so it fit perfectly in the spot, but did not leave room for these tins. I put them in another space but they were really too big for that spot, and I kept knocking into them, and they became a nuisance. Donation. I will check with my daughter first to see if she has a use for them, otherwise Goodwill, here we come.

Here are the last items. An empty humidifier box and a plastic hanger that came with some clothes I bought. It is a sturdy one, so I kept using it. But when I cleaned out the bedroom closet I found several empty good hangers, so there is no need to keep this one. I had decluttered several other hangers that I never use and had collected dust on them! So this one is added to that group. I had been using the box to store the humidifier in during the summer. But it actually takes up more room than just the humidifier itself. I found a good place to store that now, so no need for the box. It was getting a little dilapidated anyway. So that will go out with the recycles.

So that is actually 6 items decluttered, and the laundry/back entry is looking much better. It isn't finished yet, but at least I can now walk through without weaving through the small path between the 'stuff'.

After I got all that stuff out of the house, I washed off the vinyl flooring remnant my son got down from the garage rafters, laid it on the floor where the litter boxes sit, after I vacuumed the area well. So that is a project finished.

A FAVORITE

I bought this Dawn Platinum Power Clean some time ago. The reason I bought it is because it states "power of an overnight soak in 3 minutes". That really grabbed my attention since I don't wash dishes very often, depending on how often I actually cook. Some weeks all I have in the sink for the whole week are coffee mugs, cereal and soup bowls, spoons and knives that buttered toast plus peanut butter or jam. The rest is washing the recyclable plastics from yogurt containers and the food trays in microwavable meals. That's sad, I know. Occasionally I will have a frying pan or two waiting to be washed as well.

That means those dishes and pans have been sitting there dirty for several days and they need to be soaked. This stuff really works!! And it works well. I like it much better than the regular Dawn, which I always buy as it works better than other brands for the water we have here. It works great for those yucky frying pans and baked on food in casseroles, whether they are washed the same day or a day or two later.

So if you need something like this, I highly recommend you try it. This is my own personal experience and I have not be paid to tell you about it.

'Tis Home Sweet Home - Pantry Reorganizing - again

It is hard for me to believe, but it has been over a year ago that I talked here about cleaning out and organizing my pantry! Well, I was at it again recently. 

Above is what it looked like when I was in the process of organizing 15 months ago. That wide board is the front half of the middle shelf. I had also removed the front half of the top shelf. That makes it so much easier to find things on the shelves below.

The above picture is what it looked like a week later, after I had gone shopping and stocked up on a whole lot of great sales. Not too bad considering what I have to work with. I am in no way an expert at organizing, especially in getting it to look really neat. I just have too much stuff that has to go into a small space. I would like to stock up even more when there are good sales, but there just isn't room -- yet.

This picture shows you what it looks like today, after I put in the can storage racks and got the canned goods neater and able to find what I need, and what I am low on. I could use a couple more racks but there is no more room. I have one-of-a-kind cans there that do not need a place in a rack. At least now I am able to see what I have. I wanted to eliminate the front plank of that shelf, but there is just too much there to be able to do that. I am happy with the way it is for now.

I think you all know that it takes constant effort to keep pantries in shape. Since I am a low energy person, whenever I go grocery shopping, I am just lucky to get it all in the house. It might take me another day to get around to putting it all away, and sometimes don't have the time to do it right, so it just gets put in anywhere I can find a space. I do hope that I will do better at it now that the racks are in place. It is so much nicer when I want to cook and I can find what I need right away instead of having to move can after can before finding it.

Frustrating

I am frustrated this morning. Oops, it is already 12:05 pm. When I sat down to write here it was still morning. I have spent quite a bit of time looking in my picture folders for one or two to add to this post, but had no luck finding what I was thinking about. For some reason, some pictures have been put in different places on the computer and I can never seem to find them back. Any suggestions as to how I can move them back into my main picture folder?

 

So, unless I find what I want later, this post will be picture-less.

 

I haven't been blogging much lately as I have been in a funk. I haven't been doing much, period. So how do you write about a very boring life? My brain has been a bit foggy anyway, so have had a hard time thinking of anything to write about. Other bloggers are so good at having set themes for each day of the week. Maybe I need to spend more time thinking up some themes so I can do something similar? Maybe I just need to get a life! Why would anyone want to read about me doing nothing every day? Could this just be the winter doldrums? It IS spring, after all. But it is hard to tell that by the weather patterns so far.

 

I like to look out my windows and watch the birds and squirrels, and sometimes the neighbors. <grin> But the windows are so grimy from the long winter, so I am hoping for some warm weather to coincide with a good energy day, so that I can get outside and wash those windows. It is not a job I really love, but I love the clean windows so I will have to get out there and do it. It is a tedious project with this house. All but one of the windows have combination storm windows outside. I hate them! One good thing, this is a one story house and it is a small house. Outside I can't q . u . i . t . e reach all the way to the top of the window when standing on the ground, no matter how much I stretch.  I am 5'8" so you can't call me petite. Because of my bad knees I can't climb a ladder. So what can I do?

 

I have a long handled window washer. It has one side that is like folded Handi-Wipes. Some come with more of a sponge type thing, sort of like a floor mop but without the thing that squeezes the water out. Opposite that is a squeegee. I go out with a bucket of soapy water and that mop/squeegee thing and first wash the top half of the window, then wipe the squeegee with a rag and squeegee the window. It doesn't do the perfect job, but it does work. I will do that with all the windows around the house, not touching the bottom half of the windows since there is screen there. The outside is done! Next I go inside, raise the bottom of the window, remove the bottom glass part of the storm window and clean both sides of that. If they are really dirty I wash them first with soapy water, then use Windex and shine with either paper towel or old newspaper. The newspaper works really well, and  is free.

 

This year, when I have used the last of the Windex I have on hand, I plan to try the homemade version that so many bloggers swear by. I have  seen it on Pinterest too. There are different mixes out there, but this is the one I thought I would try:

 

2 c. water

1/2 c. white vinegar

1/4 c. rubbing alcohol

 

Mix and put in spray bottle.

 

Then I wash out the sills in between the windows. If I am feeling energetic I will get out my hand steamer and steam clean as it gets in the cracks and narrow spaces a little better. An old toothbrush does a decent job as well. I also wipe off the screens with a wet rag or sponge. Then the storm window goes back in, the window closed, and then I Windex the interior windows and I am finished.

 

Some of you observant people might have noticed that I did not clean the outside of the interior windows, nor the inside of the top half of the storm window. Good grief! How much energy do you think I have??? If I were younger, slimmer, had good knees and back, and had lots of energy, that would be done every time as well. (maybe) A perfectionist I will never be! Really, how dirty can those parts get? They are not exposed to the elements. If they do get really bad I will attempt to clean them, but that means having to go outside again, and moving windows up and down. That really works better as a two person job, and I am not two people. I usually have to do windows room by room, with one room per day, or sometimes per week.

 

If I can get myself on the ball, when I finally get around to washing windows I will try to take some pictures.

 

Well, this was not what I had planned to write when I started! I do have something else to tell you about, but will do that in another post after I eat some lunch, unless I get sidetracked again.



 

 

 

 

 

Today is a dark and dreary day here. It is very windy and RAINING! We need the rain so badly so best not complain about the dark and dreary. But winds gusting to 55 mph today is something I can complain about. We had winds gusting to 40 mph yesterday, and sustained winds around 20 mph. It wears one out if you have be outside.

 

This has been a busy week, but yesterday was the best. My daughter from Madison was here all day. We had a great visit, had the buffet lunch at the local Pizza Ranch which is a wonderful pizza and broasted chicken buffet. We ate enough that we did not need supper.

 

My daughter did come prepared to work and told me to make a list of things I needed help with. But the only thing I asked was if she would shampoo the carpet in at least one room. She had given me her old carpet steam cleaner but did not have the instruction book, and I had not taken time to look it up online yet. So she did the living room, even moving the very heavy hide-a-bed sofa. We did not move the heavy furniture along the walls but the sofa sits crossways in the middle of the room. There is also an area rug in there that is mostly off white and with a dark grey cat, it was looking pretty sad. Not anymore! Once that room was done she said, "Where next?" So she kept going and did the kitchen, bathroom and the small exposed area of carpet in the bedroom. Then started on the back entry/laundry room but the machine wasn't working quite right by then so it was time to stop. I will attemp to do that room myself next week now that I have seen the machine in operation. It did a great job of cleaning and did not get the carpets overly wet like the commercial machines I had used in the past.

 

The kitchen carpet was the dirtiest. No kidding. Not a surprise. I hate kitchen carpeting since I am not the neatest cook no matter how careful I try to be. I don't throw salt over my shoulder like Rachel Rae does, but things still get spilled. I wish I had some extra money to have vinyl flooring installed since I know the landlord won't pay for it. Would also remove the carpet in the bathroom. Who puts wall to wall carpet in a bathroom? (not the first house that had it but I changed the other one too.) Toilets have a way of overflowing now and then, and it usually isn't clean water that spills over. I think you know what I mean. It would be so much easier for me to be able to run a swiffer type floor duster over those floors every day than to drag the heavy vacuum out, especially with a cat that sheds all the time.

 

I am so very happy that the  carpets are clean again after over 6 years of living here. I am not even sure the carpets had been cleaned by the owners before I moved in. I know there were lots of large stains in the living room carpet which I covered up with the area rug. Now I need to get busy and do some other fall cleaning but that will all have to wait until next week because today I must prepare to teach the Bible study lesson for my early morning class tomorrow. Then tomorrow Bible study is at 5:45 AM, and I will be too tired to even think the rest of the day, so very little cleaning will get done.

 

And now I must get started with the rest of my day. Will talk to you again soon, I hope.

 

 

 

 

 

We are being invaded!

Invasion! A huge army is marching across the desert. Wave after wave on several paths among the sand dunes they come. See the columns? The first picture is a little blurry as it made me so nervous to see so many.



They seem to be forming battle lines in a couple of areas, while more are marching in.



Many are headed toward an oasis in that desert. I hope it isn't just a mirage.



Here is a close-up of the oasis. There does seem to be water there and they are circled around it to get their drink of that lovely sweet water. Oh, but it could be tainted water! It could be poisonous and all that drink of it will die! But they are oblivious to that and continue to drink, like cattle around the water tank.

I put a teaspoon in the picture to give you an idea just how tiny these invaders are! If they didn't move, you wouldn't even know what they are. They would just look like fine bread crumbs. But yes, they are ANTS. I had never seen such teensy ones until I moved to this area. I am used to the larger brown ants that are probably 3 times larger. Those are still smaller than the black ants outside which I have very rarely had come in the house.

Here is my ammo arsenal. I find that this pair does quite well. The Clorox Clean-up sprayed on all that can be seen kills them instantly. I then wipe them up and wash the area well. Then I take little pieces of thin cardboard and put a few drops of the Ant Terro on each one, place them in the areas where they tend to travel. That catches those that come later - the scouts and the reserves. It may take a couple of days to get rid of them completely but it works. It is important to remove any other food, crumbs, etc that they are searching for so that the only 'food' they can find is the poison.



Dilemma!

In a previous post I showed you my stuffed, unorganized food pantry when I was in the middle of removing the front half of the shelves so that I can find things better. Here is the picture when I was done, not  completely organized and neat, but at least like things are with like things - fruits, veggies, canisters, etc. And this is after I put in all the new items that I had recently purchased to build up my stores. I didn't think I would get it all to fit, but so far, so good. The paper shopping bag on the floor holds all the empty plastic containers that I have been saving to use for storing things that come in bags and boxes, but are not being used right now. No sense taking up shelf space yet, right? I do still need to work on emptying a few bags and boxes before I have it all done.

Oops! I went shopping again! A couple of grocery stores had a 2-day sale of loss leaders that I could not pass up, and some were things I will use right away, but many were to add to the reserve stores. There are 8, yes eight, 12 packs of soda pop! And I had weaned myself off of all sodas several years ago, so only have one on rare occasions. So what am I doing with all this? I just cannot pass up a good bargain! These were on sale with a coupon @ 4 for $7.88, that is 4 Pepsi and 4 Coke products. One coupon for each product. But now, where am I going to put them in an already full pantry? I bought a lot more stuff but much of it went into the fridge and freezer, and a few things I found room for in the kitchen cupboards as they will be used almost every day.

Voila! It all went in! I did have to remove the shopping bag with the empty containers to make room on the floor for all that soda pop. There is a bag of flour and a bag of sugar sitting on top of the soda pop, but their canisters are almost empty so I need to transfer them when I get the time.

So now this pantry is just about done. Next I need to work on the appliance/cookware pantry just to the right and out of sight in the picture. It hasn't been that long ago that I worked on it, but I am still not happy with it, and am certain there are things in there that I really don't need. I do need to have it organized so that the things I use most often are handy to get at, otherwise I just don't use it unless I absolutely have to. And I know there are things in there that I would use if it was more convenient to get to them.

Now I need to get to work. While writing this I got a call from my daughter and we talked for an hour. So now it is time for lunch first, and then try to get some housework done today.

Skeletons in the Closet!

Yes, I am baring my hidden secrets! This is embarrassing!

I am trying to make my pantry better organized and easier to use. I have been thinking about this for awhile but couldn't seem to get started. For some reason the 'bug' bit me this morning, and I opened those doors and started pulling things off the shelves. I actually forgot to take pictures before I started, which I had planned to do. So these pictures were taken in the middle of the operation.

This is the long shot to show all the stuff sitting on the floor. What is in the bags are the cans of food that I recently bought and never put on the shelf as there was no room. In the blue tub are most of the empty plastic containers that I have been saving to store things that come in bags and boxes so that critters don't get into them, though I have not had any problems with that as yet. But those containers have just been tossed in wherever I find a spot, and when I need one I can't find one I want. My plan is to put them all in a box on the floor so that they don't take up valuable space needed for canned goods. The boards to the right are the front part of the shelves that I have already removed. Peeking out from the right of those boards is the other half of the pantry, and that is where all the small appliances and large pans plus all the other stuff that does not fit in the kitchen has to be stored. And that is full too. I had done some decluttering in there not long ago, but I am not satisfied with it yet. So will have to work on that again soon. Right now, the food pantry is taking awhile since my body is still hurting from lawn mowing two days ago, and I have to sit quite often.



Remember, I had already started when these pictures were taken so things are even more jumbled than they were to begin with. I really did have it somewhat organized before. I don't have the canned goods organized as to category yet, but had just moved them so that I could get the front of the shelf removed.

Look how that plastic shelf sags! I think it was originally bought for shoes in the bedroom closet before I moved here. Not really sturdy enough for heavy cans. My plan now is to just put the little cans of odd stuff there, like black olives, jalapeno peppers, tune, etc.-- the ones that tend to get lost among the taller cans. The egg carton is empty. I was saving it for starting garden seeds next spring but now I don't think that is going to happen so the carton will go in the recycle bin when I get to it.