Entries Tagged with Clean Sweep
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, eliminating some of the wall-to-wall furniture. I have hopes of getting rid of some of the bookshelves upstairs and moving one of the bookshelves remaining in the living room up there.
But that had been where I left off and the living room had fell back into darkness and dispair when I’d collapsed back into despression after the funeral in February.
It wasn’t pretty.
So, we had a lot to do on Saturday.
Now, that said, remember how Sunny described her friend as a combination of all the guys of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? I never realized how mean they are. He really was mean. “Hate this.” “This is ugly.” ‘You can’t possibly like this.” “No, really, this is ugly.” “We’ll just put this aside to be put in a box for when you have a house.” — the last is what he did with the things he really thought were ugly that I wouldn’t give up.
He also made me purge books again.
Plus, he took down some of my art, including my clay sun and my copper gecko I brought back from Mexico. He really hates my Mexican art, which is the style I was going for in the living room. Even Sunny told me I could put my gecko back up when she was leaving.
Basically he told me that my walls were too busy and my knick knacks were too everywhere and that his eyes just didn’t know where to focus. He thought that maybe part of why I was feeling so overwhelmed and oppressed was because of all the visual clutter, not just the trash clutter.
O.K. I’ll never admit it to him, but sitting in my living room yesterday, looking around at how he’d arranged the few knick knacks he’d let me keep on my shelves and stuff on the side of the room he’d arranged…it was very nice looking…classy even…maybe even…calming.
Though I think I’m going to hang my gecko back up tonight.
When I was talking to my mom about it, she did point out that I was after all paying these people to tell me this stuff and give me this advice. She’s right of course. *sigh*
He does have this cool suggestion though about putting my piano in the center of the back wall of the living room and then kind of “wallpapering” the wall around it with hanging pictures, my art, mostly my Ruth Thompson art. Then doing the same on the wall with the sofa. Then we would leave the wall with the entertainment center and the windows blank (except that there are some shelves hanging between the windows).
Anyway, he’s still mean.
He also didn’t like my tablecloth, my piano runner, the piano seatcover my mother made, any of the fairy figurines because they were made in China, any of the handmade figurines because they looked cheesy, my coffeetable books, most of my candles and votives, my quilt rack, and the handpainted Mexican cats my mother got me in Mexico… *thibbit*
Anyway, I was probably feeling extra sensitive already from the long nasty talk with N2 the night before anyway.
Sunny doesn’t come back until Saturday and then for only 3 hours. I want her to help me in the bedroom, so I’m trying to get the upstairs bathroom done before then. My plan is to get the upstairs bathroom and the bedroom done before Pugly comes and shut off the office. Then Sunny and Queer Eye can come back and a more leisurely pace to do the office and finishing touches to the apartment.
Meanwhile, I’m sore as heck and the bedroom is going to be a nightmare. My mom keeps saying, “Wait till she she sees all those shoes!” but it’s the clothes that’s the real nightmare…and since I’ve already lost 15lbs since the beginning of March, I really don’t want to give any of the lower sizes up now.
Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
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 through a box of sex toys when they’re organizing a bedroom on Clean Sweep. Is that one of the questions you have to answer do you suppose when you audition?
“Do you own sex toys?”
Or do you suppose there’s some sort of underground movement where people all over the country are secreting out boxes of porno mags and sex toys and Fredrick’s of Hollywood-wear before TLC arrives on the scene to their neighbor’s homes for safe keeping? And how do you think they broach the subject to the neighbors?
“Hey, do you mind holding on to my naughty stuff until TLC leaves? Hilde’s doing my house and I don’t want to come home and find dildos hot glued to my walls.”
And I think this may have been the most disturbing post I’ve ever written…
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 be run as soon as it’s full and both have to be empied as soon as things are dried. There’s no room for procrastination because there’s no dishpan.
The other little thing, and it’s such a little thing, I noticed that when she left last week, both times, Sunny put the coffee filter in my coffee pot. So the next morning it just just that much easier to make coffee. It doesn’t sound like that much, but it was. No fumbling half-asleep trying to get the filter open or separated from the other ones. It was just there. All I had to do was add coffee grinds and water. So, I’ve tried doing that before I go to bed too and it does make a difference.
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 rid of my old glass set that I thought I’d already gotten rid of. All my plastic cups went away — my mother would be so proud.
But when we got to the kitchen drawers…apparently normal people don’t have five or six spatulas or four or five slotted spoons or three laddles. I was o.k. getting rid of most of the knives. I only use a few. Heck, I don’t know what most of the knives in the drawer are for, honestly. Most of them came from grandparent’s homes and were thrust in my drawer by my mother. Meanwhile over the last few years I’ve carefully invested in a few knives I really like.
There was a small recurring battle about the fact that I have two garlic presses and that I refuse to give one up. It’s just not going to happen. On heavy cooking weekends, I do end up using both. One ends up in the dishwasher (they are a pain in the ass to clean) and I need the other. It just has to be that way. 
I got rid of my Pampered Chef Apple Corer/Peeler/Slicer and stand — one of my male co-workers is currently playing with it and having great fun. The Corningware was also very quick to go. Actually, it was like a feeding frenzy over at my cubicle. I’ve enjoyed the giving away. Whatever’s left will go to Goodwill.
The funny part of all of this is that I now actually need to go shopping to buy some stuff. Believe it or not.
I had to go buy cable wraps/ties last night, which are pretty nifty things. Actually, I bought like a pack of 50 and Sunny says I’ll never run out. Good to be over-prepared I guess. Anyway, they’re like twist ties but velcro so you can wind up your cord and store it neatly in a corner or a cabinet or a drawer. What a awesome idea. Sunny sent me looking for them so I have to thank her.
She’s sending me on a shopping spree to Linen’s N’ Things and Bed, Bath & Beyond this weekend to replace my icky blue plastic step stool she made me throw out with a nice wooden one for the kitchen so I can reach the top shelf, particularly where my measuring bowls are now residing over the stove. Plus, I’m looking for hard to find exceptionally small 10″ lazy susans for my spice cabinets, which have been sorted but really could be more easily assessible.
We lined the upper cabinet shelves with self liner I’d previously bought for the purpose but ran out of in the process so I need to go buy more of that and liners for the drawers. I also need to keep an eye out for a silverware organizer in a style I actually like. Since I’ve only ever seen the one style I don’t believe Sunny that there are more out there. I hate the design as it doesn’t appear to be designed for people who actually have silverware.
Monday’s battles will be over the lower cabinets involving the plasticware, the FoodSaver, and the Pots and Pans, the Cubit Cabinet Peter and I built which stores the odds and ends and the all important coffee, and the baker’s rack which currently holds the Pampered Chef stoneware among other things. I think we should get to the utility closet as well, I hope.
Between now and then to surprise her, I’m going to try to get the laundry out of the downstairs and into the bedroom at least, even if it’s not put away. I’m going to really good clean all the litter boxes, vacuum, sweep and mop the tile floors downstairs, get all of the cans in the house picked up and at least bagged for recycling and try to figure out why my stereo’s rear speakers weren’t working. Seems reasonable enough, right?
Oh, and I’ve totally decided I’m going to tell my mother about Sunny after all. Sunny has already decided she wants to introduce me to this guy friend of hers. My mom would totally love her.
Tags: personal organizer, Clean Sweep
March 18th, 2006
I would give someone $500 to clean my house from top to bottom in a Clean Sweep kind of way. I might even help. Seriously. I’m not kidding. I just don’t know how to find this trustworthy person to give the $500 to. I suspect that Merry Maids would take one look at my apartment and tell me that it’s too messy for them to clean. I need help. I accept it. This is part of the depression. If I could just get some help to get started.
I actually was sitting here thinking about what to get myself for my birthday last night and I realized that the one thing I really wanted was a clean, organized house and that I didn’t want to do it. I thought about the price I would put on it. (Technically I might go over $500 too.)
But how to get started?
Tags: Clean Sweep, Me, depression
May 31st, 2004
I can’t believe tomorrow is June already. This month seems to have slipped right by without too muc hooplah.
I really have been meaning to write and I really don’t have much of an excuse. I’ve spent the month working, dieting, shopping, orgainizing, unpacking, cleaning and purging. I have a whole closet full of stuff to take to Goodwill but I’m reluctant to take it until I’m done with the unpacking. I’m so lazy I just want to go the one time. My goal is to have nothing in those carboard boxes except holiday decorations — and those will be transfered to more appropriate boxes as they are unpacked and used. Everything I unpack I ask myself if I’ve been using it or if I really plan to use it and if I do, it gets put in a place to stay and if not, it gets put in a box to go. I can’t believe how many boxes I’m giving up, though they aren’t out yet. However, it does feel kind of good to purge. I’m ready to stop being a packrat and start embracing my inner Monica. I guess all of those episodes of Clean Sweep are starting to pay off. 
My electric bill for the first month here was $66! I couldn’t believe it. I have a townhouse that is 100 square feet bigger than my last one and my bill is $100 - $150 cheeper! Of course, there’s no air-conditioning which was a big factor in New Orleans. I’ve discovered that so far, outside of one day, I’ve not really had a real problem with heat. Certainly there’s no problem with humidity up here that I’ve discovered. BJ always said humidity in New Orleans was like walking into one of those hot wet hand towels they give you in sushi restaurants. :hehe: The one day I had a problem it was 80 degrees outside and pouring down rain with high winds so I couldn’t have but two windows open that were protected somehow. The next day I bought a fan for downstairs and one for upstairs just to circulate the air. I’ve used the upstairs one a couple of times but not because of real heat — when I have migraines I feel hot with no raised body temperature but the fan blowing on me makes me feel better.
I’ve had a couple of migraines, mostly on Sundays, that were so bad I thought I’d be sick — was actually once. I only had one really bad one that I went to work with and I suffered but I made it through the day. I did get one last Friday afternoon too but again I just suffered through it.
I have a theory about my morning headaches. I think some of them are caused by sleep apnea. Now, the cats aren’t talking so I don’t know if I snore. I asked my mom if I did since we shared the big bed at the inn in April but she didn’t hear me snore — probably because she couldn’t hear it over her snoring. Anyway, snoring isn’t the only version of sleep apnea. It can be caused by a cessation of breathing for whatever reason. I think that may be my problem. Thinking back there have been a few times when I woke up taking a deep breath. Symptoms include restless sleeping, insomnia, day-time fatigue, and feeling tired all of the time. These are all things I suffer from. Still, I don’t have an appointment with a doctor until mid-July so I’ll just have to keep a list of things I want to talk to her about.
I tried eliminating the food on the no-no list but I just couldn’t do it. I did cut back on the foods on the list and I was caffiene free for 3 weeks before I was out shopping and hit with a bad headache and it was easier to get a Diet Coke than buy Tylenol when I have 2 bottles of Sam’s Club-size Tylenol at home. :plain:
So, I’m still having headaches pretty much daily. I’m trying to stick to just taking Tylenol. I reserve Ultracet for the bad ones and I’m avoiding the Zomig completely.
***My weight loss program isn’t going as well as planned. I’ve been staying within my WW points but I’ve only lost 1.6 pounds this month. The last few days my weight has been going up. Granted, I’ve not done well with the water and I haven’t added exercise back into my lifestyle. I’ve had excuses. Excuses aren’t always good reasons. I haven’t done my Firm DVDs because there are still big boxes with artwork in my living room in the way. I haven’t been on my treadmill because until this weekend there were too many boxes in the office surrounding it (stuck in the upward position). Today I went shopping for many hours and came home increadibly sore and aching — a sign that I’m really out of shape. My knees have started bothering me too which is upsetting me because I’m afraid that my weight has finally done something to them.
I really don’t want to end up having to do surgery because having watched Red go through it, I know that the surgery doesn’t really fix it and you end up having to do it again and again.
***I woke up at 7am this morning to a loud beep sound which turned out to be something in my house announcing that the electricity was out. What I then realized is that if the electricity goes out, I have no heat (because the gas heater is plugged into the electric socket for some reason) and I have no phone (because the cable phone is controlled by the special cable box which is plugged into the socket) and I cannot cook because I have an electric stove and my bathroom is pitch dark because there are no windows in there…By 8:30am, it was below 60°F in the upstairs room with the sunlight flooding in. Fortunately someone else in the complex must not have a cable phone because they turned on the electricity again.I just hope that doesn’t happen during winter…
***I went to see
Shrek 2 this morning at 9:30am. It really is hard to get used to the old theaters again. New Orleans has those THX stadium-like theaters that really spoil you. Still the movie is really good, as good as the first. I love Puss in Boots but I’m a sucker for a cat with a Spanish accent. What can I say? One of the funniest scene is when people run in terror from the Starbucks to the Starbucks across the street…you’ll understand when you see it. Really, I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD so I can watch it again to catch all the little details and jokes.Next weekend I’m going to see
Harry Potter for certain, and I’ll probably go to the Old Port Festival…unfortunately alone. I’m really not good at walking up and talking to strangers — guess my parents taught me too well — so I doubt I’ll come home with any new friends, but I’m at least going to go check it out.Toward the end of the month, there’s an anime/gaming con in Portland which I am definitely going to. I’m just trying to decide if I want to go for all three days (well, Friday eve through Sunday anyway) or just Saturday and Sunday. I really want to make an effort to go to the open board gaming and open SJ gaming since those are the things I’m used to and miss. I also want to go watch the Cosplay and learn more about it because I think I would be interested in participating in that in the future…guess I need to take sewing lessons.I have been kind of keeping my ears open for some kind of artsy class. I went to two craft stores today and inquired about the classes for next month but both only have painting classes this month — something that just doesn’t interest me unless it’s painting objects and not canvasses. I’d like to learn soap-making, candle-making, beading, sewing, applique crafts, mosaic art, and maybe glass staining. I would like to learn how to feaux paint my furniture too. I’d also like to take a cooking class — I wish now I’d taken a cajun cooking class before I lost my job.
***I’m just now really starting to miss “back home”; really it’s just little things, like the sushi place I used to go, just hanging out with friends occassionally, going to movies in the Palace, gaming, Cafe Cafe’s salads, my favorite Mexican places, Blue Bunny yogurt (do you know how hard it is to find Light Yogurt made with Spenda here?), and other little things that add up.Of course, finding Skinny Cows in coffee and strawberries & cream flavors helps a little…
***I know it’s going to take a while but I’m still having anxiety attacks about losing my job. I’m really kind of worried that the moment I get everything unpacked and have paid for my “new” used washer & dryer (buying them from some neighbors who are moving back South in a few weeks because the winters are too long), then I’ll be fired again. I just don’t feel secure though I don’t know why not. I mean, o.k., this is a 2 year temp job which makes me a little more easily disposable and also I don’t feel like I know everything I should yet but I also feel like I should already — though I know I was at my last job for over 6 years and while I may have at times thought I knew everything, I didn’t. I want to make myself indispensable so tomorrow I am getting together with MJ to learn how to do some of the work that only she does on the interface team because the other two simply had no interest in learning/doing it and it’s a bit of a carry over from when she worked on the Eclipsys product. She just seems so overloaded with stuff so I suggested she give some of the work to me and show me how to do it. My other two assignments are kind of slow and boring and I’d like to break it up.Still, the nightmares and the anxiety aren’t going away. In a way I think they are getting worse. I’ve been at my job 2 months now and I really feel like I’ve got another month to really prove myself. I want to accomplish something beyond a few Visio diagrams and creating some how-to documents.Though the Skinny Cows do help…sometimes…
Tags: Clean Sweep, migraine, sleep apnea, insomnia, Ultracet, Zomig, Shrek 2, anxiety
