Minimalism Monday - Bouncing Around

Whewww! Last week was a full week of fast living and on the go go and go!

This week I do not plan for the week to be as fast but I know my life and that is not going to happen. I got up earlier this morning for two hours to use for just me and here I am, blogging :)

The past weekend was ..... it was do as I could. I am taking care of someone very sick and when he sleeps I can`t wake him, he needs to sleep, so I do whatever I can on pother rooms.

However, I did mange to get three loads of laundry done. I washed , dried, folded and /or hung and made sure all of them were put away.

I always seem to keep the kitchen cleaned up, I think I am OCD about that room, but its where I cook and what goes into my body.

Since I had to be quiet I decided to consolidate items to make more space in the pantry, or rather make things more accessible, instead of falling if the shelf ever got bumped. Plus this keeps me in check so not to over buy any product that might spoil, after all if it spoils I am wasting money! I don`t know about you but I don`t have enough to waste.

You can read more about that here :Organizing Your Space -Consolidating Stuff

I did not, I repeat I did not finish the pantry.

Next I bounced to the dining room table, all the paperwork, I filed more but I did not do anymore with the tax preparation. 

I picked up all the stuff in the living room and put it away, seems this is a catch all place because he loved the couch and t.v.

I did buy the newspapers this Sunday for the coupons, I clipped those, filed them away in the binder. NONE laying around for later.

I used a lot of the stockpile last week, since its the last week before payday I did not want to spend all my money buying something else or eating out. ( I am so burned out on food!)

I did take off the recyclables and got all the trash out, I am paying for trash pick up at the office so I take it there. (I know! that irks me to have to pay)

SO... I did not finish anything this past weekend.

How did you do with your home?

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry

My Minimal Hoarding life - Mid Week Check In

January 25, 2017 - Am I making an effort?

That would be a big yes! Although I am overworked, but what woman isnt?, I am keeping up with the house work as a working woman can, a little at a time. 

However, I am giving up about an hour of working online. I will say that I am not missing anything because its easy to catch up with online work if I do not go on any of the social media sites. Work first, being social next :)

Lets see how far I got in just a few days :

Monday

I got caught up with a few things that slid passed me on the weekend, I only had one day off and half of it was used to grocery shop. 

One was laundry, since I tale care of someone sick in my own home I do sheets a few times a week, I added his quilt this week.

I did three loads of laundry, folded and put them away.

I cleaned the kitchen up. I mean I swept, mopped and cleaned the sink. Wiped down all the counter tops.

I swept and mopped the pantry and laundry room.

Tuesday

I stated the morning off with doing my own hair, I dyed the roots and since my live in patient needed a bath before an appointment, I had to clean the tub so I did that while waiting to wash out the hair color. Cleaned it in the morning instead of evening. 

His bathroom was awful! I cleaned the entire room, it took all of the thirty minutes I had before washing the color out.

I scrubbed the bathtub and sink with comet and the toilet with scrubbing bubbles with bleach. I mopped the floor with lemon Mr. Clean. No more bad smells at all! I removed the bat rug and washed it and put down another clean one.

Wednesday 

Today I work two jobs so I do not expect to do anything in my house.

How about you? Have you managed to get anything cleaned up?

You may also like : Knowing When To Let Go

By Andria Perry

Photos by Andria Perry

My Minimal Hoarding life - Will I Ever Catch Up

The stress of working a couple of jobs and keeping the house up is there, I feel it bearing down on my shoulders, more one day than another.

The lack of sleep is why I am feeling so tired today. I took a nap yesterday to catch up on the lack of sleep from the day before but I am breaking this cycle now. No more naps and get back on a good sleeping schedule, if possible, being a 24/7 caregiver is not easy and lets toss in showing the rentals on the weekends.

I am a full time caregiver and I am a full time landlady, I like to write on the side for a few extra dollars and I really like to empty my brain :) I also run everything alone. Enough with the self pity, at least I do have work, lets move on. 

The mess.

I wake to a mess each day. I get up and clean it before I start anything else. Why? I have someone else living here that I tend to, some nights he cannot sleep, or wakes before sunrise.

This morning I have a little more to do, since I stayed up late I worked later on paper work, but I still have more paperwork to do. Keeping the books for the business means I have A LOT of receipts for work preformed and the rent receipts, I itemize, meaning every cent can be counted.  Anyways I did not wash the dinner dishes, I stacked them in the sink. I did not wash and dry that load of laundry in the washer. The kitchen needs swept and mopped and the bathroom needs cleaned but the bathroom will have to wait because I leave for work soon. 

BUT I am me and I will NEVER give up!

More on minimalism Monday : Minimalism Monday - Making February Plans 

Of late I wonder what it feels like to clean nothing, have servants.

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry

My Minimal Hoarding life - Wednesday Check In

Doing the mad dash on this Wednesday check in day! 

I am not perfect and at times I do let something slide to go to work, My house loves to hoard cob webs and me being short and nearsighted, I don`t wear glasses in the house, I often do not see them.

When do I see all the mess?

When someone says " I will be there at 9 am" and you have one day, no one evening to clean up.

I will do a quick scan of my house and usually I will say to myself" CRAP! this place is nasty!" and do the mad dash to get it presentable.

I know some people say " Don`t worry just be yourself!"

Naw! This nastiness is not me and it stays clean till someone HAS to come work at the house or pops in for a visit while in town.

The dining room table looked like this on Monday, why? I am doing the tax prep and I have all the receipts scattered about in this messy system across the table.

I got half of it done the same night I had to make the call for help, I need a repair done.

After working Tuesday, I drove into the big city that is a 45 minute drive, took the patient to one doctors appointment and as soon as he was done at that one he had another, thank God they were just a couple blocks away from each other. Anyways I was exhausted not just from driving and waiting but from the stress of dealing the mental part of the job as well, I did not want to clean house!

BUT I did a little, I picked up the stray stuff and clean " his" area. 

I washed a load of whites but left them in the dryer, out of site out of mind, BUT clean!

Wiped down the kitchen and that was it.

However, I did get up a little earlier to clean the bathroom, yes I just cleaned in a few days ago but lets face it, men pee and when men pee all of it never makes it into the toilet. I find one place that will stink after a week and that is the bath mat in front of the toilet so I have three and I change them out often, washing the dirty mat. Instant smell better when that rug is gone.

Now I am waiting for the repairman to show up, oh did I mention he is also related, kin folk, cant have them talking now can I? :)

How are you managing on this mid week check in?

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry

Minimalism Monday - Work And My Home

Its Monday again, how did your past week go?

I have to say that last week was an up and down work cycle, some days I was on call and did not know if I was to work or not till 8 am each day, so I did not actually plan anything and if I did not have to work I would clean something around my home.

When I found out I did not have to work on Thursday I did take that day of to rest, I caught up on sleep for the most part.

But Friday the 13th. came around and I did not have to work that day either (I thank God) so I made this day worthwhile. 

I mopped those dirty floors! 

When the ice and snow storm passed through it left everything outside muddy and that comes inside when you do, especially in the laundry room because I used that entrance the most due to the ice lingering in the front. The floors were filthy so I mopped the laundry room, the pantry and the kitchen.

I also have been doing paper work, some for the business and some that was in a box. I got half of both done. For the business I am doing the receipts for taxes and the box is personal papers. For the personal papers I am to the conclusion that I need a shredder.

Seems I cannot get away from laundry.

Tony messed up his bed again so I had to wash those sheets. 

And since the throw rug at the back door was mudded I took up the bathroom bath mat and washed those together. I did hang all that outside to dry, we are having nice temps.

I messed up the kitchen a couple times last week canning potatoes and cleaned that back up.

I kept the recyclable dropped off at the donation bins in my way out to work and made sure all the trash was out daily.

On Sunday I worked outside. I just do not know where all this trash comes from. I actually picked up an entire trash bag, filled to the top!

I also clip coupons on Sunday, actually in the evening while watching T.V., I got those clipped and filed in the binder.

I don`t feel like I accomplished a lot but if I had not done anything I guarantee I would know it!

How was your week? 

For The first half of my week : My Minimal Hoarding life - Midweek Check In

Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry

My Minimal Hoarding life - Midweek Check In

After being gone for nearly a month in November and part of December life kind of got away from me here at home. Things were left unfinished, just managing to get by day by day.

I have a couple months of away from home work to do so I am on the road more than I am used to.

BUT....

With the new year and new goals in life I got busy, although organizing is not one of those goals I still will keep up this lifestyle.

SO.......

I can sit and think about what I want to get done and write it down OR I can get up and do what I want to get done.

I chose "Get`er Done!"

The first weekend of the month I did accomplish one "clean up/clean out" with the office closet. I got rid of a few things but for the most part it was just unorganized, things needed to go back into their place.

 Read more here : Minimalism Monday - Office Closet

The water froze so I did not get any cleaning done and when it was fixed on late Monday night I began to wash up laundry, two loads.

Tuesday was changing the bedsheets, washing and drying and putting on the clean sheets.

Wednesday was a no brainer, no thoughts about what to clean before work because it was stinky, clean the bathroom! The common bathroom was bad, I had planned to clean it over the weekend but no water put that off till.... Wednesday! I also gathered the gallon water bottles and refilled them with water and stored those out in the garage. I put away all the plumbing supplies as well.

So far the first half of the week I have continued to clean the kitchen each night, meaning the dishes are done and put away. It has not been to hard since we are not eating much these days, A pizza for Tony and a bag of veggies for me.  I have been managing to shop for extra foods on the way home in the evening, using coupons so there will be easy to cook food. Usually I cook whatever they want, I have not had any cravings of late.

That is the check in for mid week.

How about you? Accomplished anything?

You may also like : Minimalism Monday - Recyclable Or Trash

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry