What's everybody doing today?

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Patchouli said:
Have you ever seen those chore and cleaning organizational websites that line up the day by day, or is it week by week, schedules to get the whole house cleaned out and straightened up?
I think January targets the kitchen on one. @Weedygarden @Amish Heart @ anybody
Click to expand...

I have seen them. I get emails from one of them. They are working on the kitchen now. I have done my kitchen many times in January. Another one, starts at the front door. I have done that as well. My dining room has needed work, and hasn't gotten much attention, so I decided to start there. I will work on every room in the house, doing a thorough cleaning on each. I have done this many times before.

I like to have some idea or plan and to keep cleaning or redoing all the aspects of one room. I have redecorated many rooms in my house that way. Before I start redecorating, I remove all the furniture and put down cloth drop cloths, wall to wall for the room. If the ceiling or walls need repair, that is next. I have had some dry-wall and plaster repair done, and have done some myself, but I hurt badly during that if I try to do too much at a time, so I have hired some of that done. At one time, the walls were plastered and then covered with wallpaper that was later been textured and then painted, all done before I owned the house. Eight rooms have had those layers removed and new plaster or drywall has been repaired or added. It takes me time to get it done, because of thorasic outlet syndrome. If the walls have been scraped down to plaster or the dry wall is good, I wash walls and trim, paint ceilings, walls, then trim. Wash windows, clean windows sills and repaint, window coverings replaced or cleaned, new light fixtures and electrical plates painted or replaced. Each room has special needs to be addressed, such as repainting the floor vents, replacing a counter, or redoing baseboards. Shampoo the carpet or deep clean the floor coverings, or re-place the floor covering. I have done this process through 8 rooms, and have 2 more rooms, a hallway and front and back stairways to get done. This is the redecorating process.

I do a similar process for cleaning, but drill down on organizing the contents more, purging, deep cleaning and surface cleaning (such as dishes in the china cabinet), organizing. I remove the extraneous stuff, sorting it as I go. Some needs to go to recycling, some to the trash, some to a thrift store, some needs to find a better location in my house, and other places. Sometimes there is stuff that needs to be repaired. Furniture can go away, or be replaced or painted. Each room is different. In the garage, all the extraneous screws and nails get sorted out.

I just watched the Marie Kondo series on Netflix. That has been an inspiration.

I have done the Side-Tracked Home Executives plan. That does not really deal with things like cleaning out collections and closets like Marie Kondo.

I have also done the 40-day challenge during lent. You decide to get rid of one thing a day, or one box a day for the 40 days of lent. I've done 40 boxes. My biggest thing for the 40-day challenge was to get rid of boxes of books that are rejects from my online book selling business.

I know there are several plans out there. I am just focusing on one room at a time, plus my daily chores like dishes, laundry, etc.
 
Amish Heart said:
When I retire I'll probably do something like that. Have you seen the index card method? I like index cards, and prepare them three days ahead. I put one extra item on the first one, and hope to start it, and complete it at least by the third day. Like clean out the worm farm trays. Tomorrow I have daily chores and a full work day, prep apples for dehydrator, buy more feed, post office and of course dinner and evening stuff. My extra tomorrow is to go to the eye doctors and pickup my bifocals. Saturdays I usually spend cleaning house, but it would be so much easier if I was decluttered first, and could do some of it each day. Ho hum.....Ever heard of that Flylady? She is popular.
Click to expand...
Side-tracked home executives has a card system. I have had it set up for decades. I like it. Each activity you do has a card, such as make your bed, empty the dishwasher. Some of the dailies become no brainers, such as making your bed. They color code cards by daily, weekly, etc. Then you have dividers 1 - 31 for each day of the month. There are also dividers for months of the year. I haven't used it in a while. I had always kept it on a shelf in my dining room, but I must have moved it last year.

Your card system sounds like a good one. I write too many things on one card. Sometimes I make lists and get some things done, but one card per activity is what Side tracked home executives suggest.

When it comes to my sewing supplies, books, etc., are always part of an organizational challenge I have. My dining room table has had plants on it, brought in at the end of summer, and never properly addressed. I have repotted some, relocated the healthy ones, moved some pots out to the porch. I also had seeds that I harvested in the fall in brown bags. The table top needs to be sanded and refinished.

I have seen Flylady. I am not sure why I couldn't make it work for me. I am a visual learner and the card system works better for me.
 
Patchouli said:
What were you doing with your chairs, Weedy?
Click to expand...
LOL, I had responded to Amish, not realizing it was for you.

I will give my dining room chairs a good scrubbing and have wanted some type of padded seat. These chairs were my grandmothers. She bought herself a dining room set after she took her accounting class (having finished 8th grade) and was working at a bank doing accounting for them and before she was married, probably as a teenager. The seat is shaped to be more comfortable, so a piece of plywood, like you are doing is probably not a good idea. A cushion of some sort would work. I just have to figure it out.

I do have a set of folding chairs that are probably 60 - 70 years old. They are Samsonite chairs with a padded seat, painted gray. The original vinyl is in bad shape. My parents had a set just like these that I redid when I was a teenager, because the vinyl was ripped on them. The back and seat come apart. I repainted my parent's set and recovered the seat and back. I found the set I have at a garage sale and will repaint and recover them. I will paint them with antique bronze spray paint. I hope to find new tips for the feet of the chairs.

When the designer went through my house a decade ago and told me all the things I could do to update, one of the things she talked about was paint. She selected paint colors for the walls, ceiling and trim in the rooms. Kelly Moore had a paint color called Spanish Sands, and most of the rooms have been repainted that color. Ceilings are a lighter version of that and the trim is all called bone. She told me that plate covers and many things could be painted with an antique bronze colored metallic spray paint, rather than replacing all the things. I have repainted many things that way: almost all of my outlet and switch covers, some light fixtures, lamps, trash cans, t.p. dispensers, towel bars, furniture. I give them a good cleaning with alcohol, let it dry for a minute or two, then spray it. Ten years later, and it still looks great.
 
@Weedygarden You are so thorough on so many things! Your last paragraph is full of excellent decor and style pointers.
A friend painted her front room black, it was on the north side of the house. It was awesome.
It's weird that now gray seems to be a popular color, or greige, for a base wall color. Can go with anything.
Antique bronze is probably very nice looking for the chairs and trim pieces. You should post a couple of photos.
One of the chairs that I have yet to strip is an old oak office chair with a moulded seat, sounds like your grandmother's dining chairs. I'm lacking vision on this one. I use Pinterest for paint color and design ideas so maybe I'll find something there. I thought about simply stripping it and leaving it plain. It is probably a beautiful wood underneath.
I have two other scavenged dining chairs that need to be stripped, repainted, and the cane seating replaced on them. I've done it before on a rocker but keep putting it off.
 
Patchouli said:
@Weedygarden You are so thorough on so many things! Your last paragraph is full of excellent decor and style pointers.
A friend painted her front room black, it was on the north side of the house. It was awesome.
It's weird that now gray seems to be a popular color, or greige, for a base wall color. Can go with anything.
Antique bronze is probably very nice looking for the chairs and trim pieces. You should post a couple of photos.
One of the chairs that I have yet to strip is an old oak office chair with a moulded seat, sounds like your grandmother's dining chairs. I'm lacking vision on this one. I use Pinterest for paint color and design ideas so maybe I'll find something there. I thought about simply stripping it and leaving it plain. It is probably a beautiful wood underneath.
I have two other scavenged dining chairs that need to be stripped, repainted, and the cane seating replaced on them. I've done it before on a rocker but keep putting it off.
Click to expand...
The business of being thorough is why I like to focus on one room at a time. My house was in really bad shape when I bought it. You name it, it needed it. A family had lived in my house with 13 children. There were 10 boys and they were hard on the house. The dad was a janitor and the mother was disabled, so didn't work. I have done much to my house, and have long lists that I want to do.

I find that it is easier to empty a room, and then to work on it until it is mostly done. I remodeled my kitchen that way and that took a few years, working here and there, when I had time. I had my fridge in the dining room for a couple years. I had no working sink in the kitchen for a couple years, but used a couple plastic dish pans, filling and emptying with the sink in the powder room right off the kitchen. The kitchen had not been remodeled since 1948, based on the newspapers that were under the nasty floor. Everything was removed, down to the walls, except the stove. I would move it out and back in after working. A window had been removed and boarded up, but no brick outside to fill in the opening, so a new window was put in. It made a big difference. The walls were framed in to help with insulation and to create a space for new electrical outlets and to hang the cabinets on. Plumbing came up under the sink location with the dishwasher right beside it. New drywall. The ceiling needed drywall work and I did most of that. I painted and then hung new cabinets. I had a plywood counter top for a while, then tiled it with ceramic tile. New to me sink from a friend. New appliances, some new to me, some used. I put down ceramic tile on the floor including the underlayment. I did much of the work myself, including making some of the cabinets, but I had help and guidance with it.

I will post some photos of the bronze paint on the fixtures and ways I have used it.

I have little furniture that is from a retail store, but some of it is. I like to go garage saling and used to go a lot. I quit going because I have too much stuff. I am often trying to clean out and get rid of stuff. After I really purge and do my big annual clean out this year, I will have a list of things that I want or need, but it will be a very small list. I need a new stove and dishwasher. They work, but are need to be updated.
 
I've been put through the wringer!

First up Monday because Centerlink got hacked and locked out of their data base I got sent a pension termination letter.
Spent 2 days on the phone getting it sorted and reinstated.
Went shopping on Thursday with the car playing up. Managed to nurse it back home where it finally died.
Yesterday ( Friday ) I had to go to the doctors to get a new doctor's certificate for Centerlink so I spent my last few dollars
getting a taxi to the surgery to get one.
I had to walk home from the doctor's surgery because I had no money for the taxi ride home. I was a mess by the time I got back to the house.
I submitted the Doctor's certificate of incapacity to Centerlink on-line, waited half an hour and rang them to see if they had got it.
Centerlink told me they they were unable to accept the Doctor's certificate because he( the doctor ) had filled it out wrong.
I rang the doctor's surgery to tell them that Centerlink was cutting off my pension because of the error and I couldn't
get a taxi to get the new one because I had spent my last few dollars that morning.
The doctor apologised and sent his office manager with the new certificate to my address and she gave me a lift to the Centerlink
office in town to physically submit the new doctor's certificate.
She left me there and said she'd give me a lift back home.
Centerlink approved the new certificate.
The office manager didn't pick me up and wasn't available.
*sigh*
I walked/hobbled home in midday heat.
Sunburnt, dehydrated and in a lot of pain.
I had a hell of a night.

This morning (Saturday) I tried my car again after charging the battery all night.
Nothing! Still dead.
The next door neighbour heard me trying to start the car and came over and swapped out the fuel pump's 20 amp
power relay with the horn's 20 amp power relay in the fuse box and it started right away!
To make sure, I shut off the engine and restarted it.
Instant success.
The car now runs perfectly except the horn now doesn't work and I'll replace that power relay next pension.
It'll cost me $25 plus shipping.

To say it's been a stressful week has been a understatement.
 
Been doing up household chores.
It's been a grand daughter free day.
Strawberry has been clingy today.
She's sleep sitting beside me in the recliner.
Cooked in the oven this morning to warm the house.
Chicken, pea, mac and cheese casserole.
Oven fried chicken drum sticks, fresh green beans, potatoes.
Already ate the half the drumsticks, all the green beans, half the potatoes.
Got pinto beans soaking so will start them low and slow in crockpot before I go to bed tonight.
All the house has been vacuumed.
Dishes were done.
Will have to clean oven in near future, everything I cooked today overflowed.
Tank-Girl, sorry to hear about your adventures, hopefully things will get better.
Just about got twin size Dinosaur quilt top done, about half done.
Will have to run to Wal-Mart tomorrow for two yards of solid dark green fabric for sashing.
This quilt top is for great nephew whom is 3 years old.
Sketched out crib size quilt for his younger sister.
Haven't made this block before, so will have to see if I like it.
Will make sample quilt (doll quilt) for her too.
Still have to start and finish her birth announcement.
But will be glad when this family is done.
Glad to sewing and quilting again.
Have had grand daughter the last few days.
But weather, wind to cold to get her out today.
 
Sorry to hear about your horrid couple of days @Tank-Girl and Centrelink can be so pedantic about the right paperwork :rolleyes: . Glad you have a good next door neighbour that is mechanically minded to help you out :) . Rest up until you feel better friend :huggs:.

Surprisingly I had a fairly ok time with changing my address with Centrelink expecting that they would want copious amounts of paperwork but they didn't which stunned me. I am probably going to have a small debt with them as I was waiting on the 2 blocks being amalgamated but that seems to be taking forever and I wanted to change my address before they slugged me too much in overpayments. Luckily I have not got a similar letter of termination of payment from them fortunately.
 
Yesterday we did almost nothing and decided it was a rest day but did go to the local pub and brought a couple of raffle tickets to aid local charities, spoke to a few locals and drank iced water.

Round 1 of today we decided to finish off leveling the shed floor with our picks, hoes, shovels and rakes and that is now done and we also filled in holes in our side driveway and around the shed. After a quick wash up we dunked ourselves back in the rain water tank pool cool off again as it was around 35 oc and now it is still around the same. Sitting in front of our fan in the lounge room cooling off at the moment.
 
Last edited:
First sunny day in a week but it was cold out side, going to be colder tomorrow, high of 40F. I didn't do anything major. Woke up about 3am this morning, downloaded 3 new versions of linux (2 to 8am doesn't count against my metered internet account).

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the energy to burn the iso disks and mount the new hard drive... This chore is only 9 months over due.
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
Sorry to hear about your horrid couple of days @Tank-Girl and Centrelink can be so pedantic about the right paperwork :rolleyes: . Glad you have a good next door neighbour that is mechanically minded to help you out :) . Rest up until you feel better friend :huggs:.

Surprisingly I had a fairly ok time with changing my address with Centrelink expecting that they would want copious amounts of paperwork but they didn't which stunned me. I am probably going to have a small debt with them as I was waiting on the 2 blocks being amalgamated but that seems to be taking forever and I wanted to change my address before they slugged me too much in overpayments. Luckily I have not got a similar letter of termination of payment from them fortunately.
Click to expand...

Thank goodness SC!

They cause so much needless stress. The lady who physically accepted my new doctor's certificate said that the chap who
declined my old/ new Doctor's certificate really had no grounds to decline it as she felt it would have passed muster.
I told her small wonder I have trust issues where Centerlink is concerned.
I've been burnt too many times by their incompetence.
I'm also fast getting to the stage that it's a thousand times better to actually go to a physical Centerlink location
and get physically processed rather than deal with on-line or call centre when submitting documentation.
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
@Tank-Girl that is what I do is go to their offices usually and find it runs a lot smoother for any changes it is just we are a little further away now from an office being around 35 mins drive. Before that I went into their offices to make changes.
Click to expand...

I just and gave a dozen of my free range eggs to the helpful neighbour who helped with my car.
I don't have any money to give him and the only thing I had to give him and his wife was some eggs.
The chickens haven't been laying very well because of the heat so eggs at the moment are pretty scarce.
The rest of the garden has failed and died so I have nothing else to give them but I thought making the
gesture was important.
 
crocheted fruit for Estelle's Christmas
1547759233446.jpg
 
got off work a tad early tonight..
today to millright: " the trim saw/ sorter" rythym" is "off" , has been off , kinda herkey jerky since the new drives were put in 2 weeks ago and getting worse daily..weird vibration..I know it sounds funny but, something isn't right.."
Millright looks at me kinda sideways..like..
"Well...yea..the timing is screwed up and the new drives I don't thing were worth it..something is wrong and I hope it doesn't break on our shift tonight. "
Me: " sideways smirk, I have my 80 hours and we still have 4 days left..Im cool if we do .."
The sorter in our mill is about 2 stories above, wood travels through the trim saw, out the sorter toward the sorting bins where all the wood gets "sorted" into all the bundles of say..all the 16 foot 2x6 get put in a "bin" (holding area) until the bin is full and I call it down to my machine to stack it in nice layers of wood to send it to the drying kilns..
My stacking maching is about 10 feet off the ground or so..The full bins of various lengths and dimentions of wood are held in the sorting bins, once full I call the full bins to me to be stacked..they fall down onto chains and travel down and up to my machine. My machine is lower than the sorting bins , which get to about 3 stories high at the tippy top, but the travel of the wood goes through the trim saw, past the sorter chains under me, to the sorting bins and back to me..and Im over, just to the side of the trim saw. So I get a view of the wood coming out of the trim saw as it passes to the sorting chains to the bins...
Tonight, lots of bin crashes..where wood doesn't settle into the designated bins and instead "crashes" jumbled, screwed up on the chains, sometimes falling off the chains 3 stories down to the floor..bang, boom, and once tonight a 16 foot 2x6 board almost hit me as I was walking under the sorter area to the control panel opposite my station to make room for more wood. A unit of stacked wood caught its fall instead of my shoulder n head but being it was inches away got my blood moving regardless...
For hours , it was stop and go on the trim saw sorting chains, lumber not getting to the correct bins..it was all screwy and messed up..
Finally, one of the maintenance guys just stood by the transition area between the trimsaw backtable and sorter chains to the bins and watched. this area is above my workstation about 30 feet out and above me..in my view..
he is looking and watching the area..where earlier I had told the other guy ..the rythym is all wrong..and soon he shuts the operation down..
he and the other guys start inspecting the area..it turns out..the new drives were tearing apart the support I beams and frame supporting the mulit thousand pound machine located 2 stories above ground level..he said he is surprised the back table and beginning of the sorter chains didn't break and fall to the ground. Metal fatigue and cracks all over the main support frames..The main cat walk is in this too..
So, I go up there after all my stuff is shut down, they give me the scoop and I look at the millwright and say, "remember eairler tonight I mentioned the rythym was off and you looked at me like I was crazy..lol?"
Him, "Yea, I knew something wasn't right too, dang it!" "these drives were basically tearing the machine apart the last two weeks!"
Kinda like the last week Ive been complaining the incline motor kept cutting out the chains on me with a firework show and my electrical panel shutting off..They cant find anything wrong with the motor so use it till it finally breaks..Im thinking ..I really don't like the electrical issues, sparks n such..It took me a day to figure out the electrical conduit 3 feet away from the motor that kept crapping out and throwing the panel switch off jiggled loose from a elbow in the pipe, the pipe was cutting the wires and exposing them to metal. every now and then it would jiggle right and boom, flash sparklies would crackle and a 480 motor would trip. I found the problem yesterday to that one too..It was under a frame not far from the motor and I had a piece of lumber get wedged in it ..
I wont deny If we don't work next week due to all the issues I will be a happy girl..
 
Once you have been working machinery for a while you just know when it isn't working properly @Hooch and usually the bosses never believe you when you tell them either.

I worked in building hardware and used to cut all the timber for the builders who would come in. We had one huge drop saw and the thing was mightily dangerous and used to jump sideways by a good distance. Keeping your hands clear and well away from the thing was your best course of action. This thing was responsible for cutting many a limb off and usually I trained people on this abomination of a thing.
 
Took apples out of the dehydrator last night, and in went squash slices. Today will be lots of chopped bell pepper. I hit up the clearance vegetables at our Kroger Store and ended up with 10 net bags of all kinds (and tomatillos, too) for 99 cents a bag. The hot peppers were chopped and put in the freezer (3 quarts chopped). Maybe going to Sams today. Absolutely doing some cleaning today and maybe cleaning out. Husband and I convinced son to hang out with the twins tonight so we will be going out to dinner. Have some Christmas gift cards to use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top