Week 4: Progress Report or The Curse of the Curtain Panel....

Short Version:
Toss Totals:
Garbage and recyclables: 50 lbs
Donations: 75 lbs
Toss total this week: 125 lbs

Toss total to date: 495 lbs

Sorted books and relocated most of what remained to the upstairs

Sorted fabric, pillows, pillow covers, tablecloths, napkins, and curtains.

Rearranged Living Room

Put a new socket in an old lamp base and put on a new (old) shade.

Sewed curtain panel

Installed dish towels as curtains under the sink

Long Version:

Monday.
Today is a school-day, so I'm working in spurts. So far I've opened and sorted three boxes of books. The foreign language books only take up one box, not two as I'd thought, and about 1/2 the books had water damage. Fortunately my English-French dictionaries, Micro-Robert and grammars are fine as are my German resource materials. Text-books and workbooks had to be pitched. Still, I was not without pangs of loss when I put them in the big garbage bag.
These need a new home upstairs:




I have a bunch of old self-help books I don't know what to do with--as well as some E.R. Burroughs (the Tarzan series).

Crap. I just opened an old solid hard-case brief case: it was empty except for a wooden display case. I'd been thinking it would be nice to have one: so imagine how please I was to find it.

Alas, the case and the wood box, both, are moldy. We had a flood from above a few years ago. (I'd left the tap running to wash the dishes, got busy, and flooded the kitchen and portions of the basement.) I thought we had dealt with everything that had got wet at the time: but I guess not. Both pieces had to be thrown out.

So, I turned my attention to measuring and hemming curtain panels. I'd already measured the panel last week, but the pin used to mark the spot fell out. So, I've just done it over again, using a piece of paper from an envelope to secure it in place. Now I can't find my measuring tape.

It's getting to the point, where, because of my persistent bad habits (like not putting things away when I'm done with them, but leaving them out because I plan to use them again, shortly) I am frustrated with finding the tools I need to get things done. I also have the usual chaos upstairs: so introducing new projects without clearing out old ones (Like the stack of binders with the kids' old schoolwork on the dining room table, the humidifier which needs a thorough clean on the kitchen table) is making life ONE BIG OVERWHELM.

Later--behind those Nancy Drews were...you guessed it...more boxes of books. Most of them are my husband's. Great big thick tomes on history and "important" people. I think he's going to have to look at them with me and decide what can go. If it stays, I'll have to find space on the upstairs shelves for them. I'm not keeping books in boxes down there anymore (unless they're on shelves, like maybe sewing and crafting books).

Wait, if I move the sewing/scrapping books downstairs--then I'll have room upstairs for these. Hmmm. Must think about that. It means I'll want to get an inexpensive second hand bookcase. I had once thought I'd buy an Ikea Billy (or two) and put it down there...but current tall Billy's are too tall...yes, our ceilings are shorter than a tall Billy. I nearly wept with frustration the day I realised that. It would have been so cosy lined with bookshelves.

The husband just helped me weed out some of his collection. Now, to find room for them.

Still can't find my measuring tape, but I did throw out a few school related things on the dining room table (and moved the rest to the basement).

It was, all in all, a fairly frustrating day. We also didn't get as much school done as I would have liked. The husband came home early from work and our concentration was shot.

Tuesday
This is the BIG Shop day--so, after taking the husband to work at 7:00 am, I was ready to hit Safeway by 8:00am. Done by 9:30, we were home again to do a bit of school before we left for the afternoon errands.

I boxed up my donations and dragged the bags of clothing I sorted last week up the stairs and out the door.


That's 75lbs, right there, folks.

One of the things I forgot to do though, was grab the piece of paper with the name of the colour Maxwell has recommended for a Chinese Red for my trunk. My route took me right by BM and two Sherwin Williams' paint stores--and I had nothing. (The SW recommendation comes from a web-site recommending "good Chinese Reds." It was written on yet another pad--the one I usually carry in my purse but have removed for some reason).

It's just fatigue catching up with me. And given traffic, the time the husband gets home with the car, and the lack of late night hours for paint stores, I don't know when I'll have another chance to go and get it. I'm bummed.

So, I took a nap and woke up to find the dog house assembled. We are all absurdly pleased with it. Not sure what the dog thinks of it, though.

Measuring tape still missing.


Wednesday
I decided to get up early this morning to get a head start to the day--and I spent ALL my time reading AT. Stupid.

Today's project is to deal with all the pillow covers, table cloths, napkins, etc. I may even get to the fabric.

I started by emptying two drawers of a dresser I use upstairs...when we moved the kitchen table to the basement last fall, I never cleared out the table cloths I kept in it. So, along with some pillow covers, two shawls (shawls? What for? I must have once thought I'd use them as a "throw" for a table), a lonely cloth napkin, shrapnel (yes, I typed that right. WW2 memento from my f-i-l.), and a few hats, I've cleaned it out. I've piled what I would "normally" take to the basement in the basement: now I can sort everything down there properly. I think I may have to invest in some storage containers. Using one or two great big ones is a bit of a pain.

Later--I became completely overwhelmed by all the projects I had once planned to do, the money spent, the projects that, perhaps, I would still like to do that I had to abandon the sorting. One good thing did come of it all though--I took up the table cloth on my kitchen table (after washing it thoroughly). It was a pattern--vinyl flocked backed table cloths just don't work for me in a pattern--I knew that, but I thought it might work. I put it on the table after Christmas because it was the only one I could find in my choked drawers. I found a nice yellow one I hadn't known I'd had. So, that'll go on tomorrow and someone else can have the stripey one. Sometimes it is the little things.

Then I put a new socket in an old lamp and found the bits I needed to attach a new (old) shade to it. That was so satisfying I then rearranged the living room. (There's room for the dog crate in the basement, now. Hooray!!)

Then the husband and I sat in it, had tea, and discussed putting doors on the Billys. ("It sure would reduce the clutter in here." he said. Wonders will never cease. 10 years ago, he wouldn't have noticed or cared.)

So, then I mentioned getting a rug....I wonder if Flor is available in Canada?

Oh--and I found my measuring tape! Things are looking up.

Thursday
You know that curtain I'm trying to hem? The dog peed on it.

Before that happened, I paid bills this morning. That felt good. And then I decided I ought to sort the backlog of mail.


About 1/2 hour later, we had this:


(After I'd sorted the various financial statements into their categories, I had my daughter put the papers in calendar order, from long ago to most recent. It was an interesting challenge for a seven year old to go from September 07(!) to March 08).

Now, I just need to file it all. Since I relocated my lovely filing cabinet (and replaced it with a file box/drawer) I have obviously been loathe to file.

Curtains washed.

Started looking at the fabric, pillows, curtains, etc., which I'd sorted yesterday. I'd actually gotten further than I'd thought. I had sorted the stuff I was willing to let go...so I just walked it over to the outbox this morning. What's left is manageable (kind of). I just need to properly containerize it all and the task is done.

Washed the bathroom floor.

Took out the garbage and recyclables.
Garbage: 35 lbs
Recyclables: 15 lbs.

When the garbage bag of 35 lbs broke, the husband found two books he wanted and fished them out. (One had had a broken spine and pages falling out, the other a moldy cover). So, I'm not sure what that total really was. I didn't weigh the paper from the mail sort.

Friday
There. I've set, pressed and pinned the hem (15 minutes, I timed myself!) and then sewed it. One panel for the curtains in the basement complete: 7 more to go. Actually, I'll be quite pleased if I get 3 more panels done today--that'd be the two sets of curtains for the exercise corner done.

Great. Just great. 1/3rd of the way through the second panel, the sewing machine is buggering up. And I had resolved this to be a sewing day.

AND, the husband just called to say he's working late, so no trip to the paint store for me today, either. I am NOT happy.

Well, I did get one thing done, finally.

Last fall, I decided to wash the dishtowels I had been using as under-the-sink curtains. Unfortunately, I washed them with something fuzzy and they linted up like crazy. It was so bad that I went to Ikea to find another set just like them: of course, they no longer have them! So we lived with this for about 5 months (this is where I keep our recyclables):


(I meant it when I said I ignored the house between cures.)

So, as I was clearing out the fabric earlier this week, I found a pair of tea towels from Martha Stewart I'd bought eons ago to make pillows out of. So, today, I washed and ironed and hung them.



Not sure what to think of them. Kinda fancy for the job, I think.