Archive for the Clean Sweep category
December 29th, 2006
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n. mallory
So, thinking about my “Things I’d like to do in 2007,” I decided to get a head start.
I took the To Do lists — daily, 2x a week, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, 2x a year, annually, etc. — and assigned the items dates or days of the weeks. I put them all into my Palm Z22; the to do program has a repeating functionality which allowed me to do all sorts of neat things. I am giving myself permission to go
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Tags: Thursday Thirteen, knitting, reading, books, housecleaning
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December 27th, 2006
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My Life,
Friends & Family,
Books, Music, Movies, & T.V.,
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Blogging & Other Blogs,
Wellness,
Clean Sweep,
Thursday Thirteen,
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Gardening by
n. mallory
So this is the time of year when everyone is doing New Year’s Resolutions. I prefer not to do “Resolutions” because they’re generally broken and joked about by the middle of January and forgotten by President’s Day. Then, next January, they’ll be resolved again.
So, instead, I usually try to use the time to reflect and think about the things I’d like to work on in my life, changes, improvements, and so on. I don’t make myself any impossible promises though. I know my limits and I know physics. There’s no way I can lose 60 lbs in 2 months, for example; nor is it likely that I’ll be getting up at 5am any time soon to exercise 3 times a week. 
Anyway, here is my list of things I would like to do in 2007, no promises, but I’m working on it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Thursday Thirteen, bloghopping, meme, New Years Resolutions, gardening, knitting, debt, weight, health, writing, Green Living, housekeeping, dysfunctional family
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My Life, Friends & Family, Books, Music, Movies, & T.V., Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, Wellness, Clean Sweep, Thursday Thirteen, Memes, Little Red House, Gardening
July 24th, 2006
Over the weekend a friend of mine asked me what she should do with the piles of books she’s finished reading. Apparently selling them on eBay and Amazon hasn’t turned out to be all of that profitable or rewarding for her and I’ve apparently become the expert on what to do with your stuff when you want to get rid of it since I’m no longer the reigning packrat.
So, here’s my recommendations:
April 17th, 2006
Well, while my personal mental crisis was going on, Sunny and her friend Queer Eye came over Saturday to begin the assault on the living room. (I did take before pictures which I’ll post here in a few days in another photo-spective.)
Just so you know, I had begun the assult on the living room back in December when I came back from New Mexico. I started with the bookshelves and purged books from the monstrocity bookcase and a long window-high retro-shelf and a third bookshelf I have in the room. I then gave the retro-shelf to KH for her daughter,
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Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
April 13th, 2006
About 45 minutes into the first session with Sunny it occurred to us that we should really have taken before photos. It’s too bad you didn’t see what the kitchen really looked like before we started because then you’d realize what a brave woman Sunny is. Let’s just say that there wasn’t an uncovered surface in the kitchen when we started and I tried to get Sunny to wear a gas mask as she approached the kitchen counters and sink.
In this picture below, you can kind of see the corner of the cube cabinet that is of
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Tags: personal organizer
April 11th, 2006
I spent five hours working with Sunny on Monday. That’s not to say that I didn’t spend a gazillion hours on my own over the weekend sorting and cleaning here and there on my own, but nothing like the serious business she and I do when she’s there. Though I might try my hand at that this weekend some.
Oh and she laughed at my poor excuse of a strainer. I admit it’s sad. I have $1000 restaurant-quality pots and pans and really nice serving dishes and am particular about my utensils but I have this sad plastic pasta strainer. I
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Tags: personal organizer, Ruth Thompson
April 10th, 2006
If you even occassionally skim these entries you know I’m addicted to TLCs home invasion shows. You know the ones where they invade someone’s house and redo a room or two. I have huge crushes on Evan Farmer and that blonde carpenter Eric on Clean Sweep.
I was thinking this weeking while I was watching TLC since I’m experiencing my own home invasion of a personal organizer that you never see anyone on those shows accidently discover anything “untoward” or something the owners’ parents would be horrified to see on national t.v. You certainly never see them sorting
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Tags: personal organizer, TLC, Clean Sweep, Evan Farmer, Trading Spaces, While You Were Out
April 9th, 2006
I’m already picking up a couple of lessons that Sunny obviously intended for me to learn without actually telling me to do them. Tricky and very sly.
For one thing she took away my dishpan. She filled it with the things that were under the sink. So now, there’s no way to just dump things in the dishpan to soak. I have to deal with it right then. Rinse it and put it in the dishwasher or wash it and put it in the dishdrain. This also means there’s no dilly-dallying with the dishwasher and dishdrain either. The dishwasher has to
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Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep
April 7th, 2006
Oh. My. God.
I am so exhausted. I ache all over. Even my palms hurt. It’s all a good hurt, but still, I hurt.
We worked until 10:30pm last night and yet the kitchen is still not done. I’m beginning to think it’ll never be done. The cabinets above are done. They’re beautiful. I got rid of a few things, but not much. She made me whittle down my Corningware, made me pick a few choice pieces of the infamous white and blue set and get rid of the rest. I got
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Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep
April 6th, 2006
Well, last night I met with my Personal Organizer for the first time. We’ll just call her Sunny. She’s just fantastic. Definitely no judgement, full of energy, and lots of fun. She just kind of dived in, which is definitely what I needed.
We started with the kitchen which was horrible. I lost the kitchen about a month ago. I’ve been eating take out that long. One of the discussions of course is appliances and what I actually use.
There was a battle over the crockpots and I put my foot down and managed to
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Tags: personal organizer, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
April 3rd, 2006
Well, I made two promises last night. It looks like I can only keep one.
I promised PW that I would march down to the bridal shop and order my bridesmaid dress this morning as apparently she was a little miffed and stressed about the whole thing. Apparently brides don’t like it if you put that off. Procrastination is not the bridesmaid’s friend. Well, it turns out that the bridal shop is not open on Mondays. They also have a sign that says they are by appointment only. Plus, they don’t have an answering service. You have to call between the
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Tags: wedding, personal organizer, friendship, depression
August 11th, 2005
Yes, I broke down and called Rent-A-Husband and get your minds out of the gutter, it’s not like that.
Basically, because of my back injury, I need some handyman things done around the house that I cannot do on my own and since I don’t have BJ, Mickey, or Peter up here to call and beg to help me, I was desperate. Generally if it involved heavy lifting or power tools, they were up for it as it was all manly. 
1700 miles makes that difficult.
It’s supposedly $48/hour but I think that includes travel time though. 
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Tags: Rent-A-Husband
August 10th, 2005
Goodwill Eploded In My Living Room!
O.K. Not really.
However, every piece of clean clothes is now located in my living room — except the 1/3 of the closet that I returned to the closet. There are two rather large plastic tubs of winter clothes and two rather large plastic tubs, 3 medium under-the-bed-type plastic boxes, and two small tubs of clothes that are too small. I seriously almost started crying when I packed up my cute skinny clothes. So sad that I can’t wear them anymore because I can’t seem to stop eating. Also, I appear
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Tags: obesity, Discrimination
August 8th, 2005
I know this’ll bore you to tears. Tuff. I’ve got to do something to hold myself accountable and having this sticky in the corner will remind me.
So, here’s the two lists of things to do before I leave for DragonCon (Sept 1rst) and my parents arrive (Sept 16th). I’ll cross things off as I get them done…and sadly I’ll add or uncross things as necessary.
Pre-DragonCon List:
- Buy two pairs of jeans that fit. (by Aug 30)
- Buy a backpack purse. (by Aug 30)
- Pack. (by Aug 31)
Pre-Parental Arrival:
- Sort Clothes & Shoes (by Aug 14)
August 1st, 2005
So, the plan recommended by the shrink and the substitute doctor is to do activities in 15 minute segments so as to keep the muscles active but not put too much strain on them.
This weekend I made an attempt to start going through all my clothes to pack away the Winter clothes and the clothes that are just too small at the moment. It thought it would be easier since I’d be sitting. I guess I never realized how many muscles I used to fold clothes. My back and left arm were in agony by the end
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Tags: depression, wellness
July 31st, 2005
You know the old saying about your mother telling you to always wear clean underwear in case you’re ever in an accident?
I think I can expand on that.
Always keep the state of your life in the order you’d want it in just in case you’re ever in an accident and aren’t capable of handling it otherwise.
What I mean is — I was so depressed that I let my apartment go pretty bad prior to the accident. The Effexor was just starting to catch on when I had that toxic reaction and then the car accident. Now I’m
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Tags: Effexor, depression
July 30th, 2005
- I’ve just realized I use my left arm and back quite a bit in folding clothes, even when I’m sitting.
- The canvas baskets I bought yesterday don’t fit under the coffee table like I’d hoped so I could hide the clutter from my non-existent guests.
- I want some Afghan food but don’t want to drive to Portland to get it.
- I would pay someone $100 to clean my kitchen.
- Shaun of the Dead wasn’t as dumb as I thought it was going to be, but I probably won’t watch it on purpose again.
- I sometimes worry that I’m too self-involved.
- I’ve got too many clothes and
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Tags: discombobulated
July 1st, 2005
Ever feel so dirty after cleaning your kitchen that you can’t wait to take a shower to wash off the germs?
Tags: none
June 27th, 2005
I am taking a four day weekend for the 4th of July. Try not to get too excited. I’ve dedicated it to cleaning house.
With N2 possibly coming in August and my parents coming in September, it’s time to stop being a slob and start getting organized again.
So, I’m going to do the “framework” this weekend.
Friday:
- straighten the living room
- clean the kitchen
- clean the downstairs bathroom
- sweep and mop the kitchen, bathroom, and foyer
- vacuum first floor
Saturday:
- Hair appointment (should take 2-1/2 hours
- groceries
- clean upstairs bathroom & hall
- re-organize upstairs bathroom linen closet
- laundry, including folding and putting away
Sunday:
