What a shame, SubC about the very real effect the tax change is already having on you. I do not know exactly how it will affect me although I pay very little interest on my home due to the fact that I'm nearing the end of my mortgage. I suppose I will learn soon enough, I'm afraid.

Tillie the outdoor work must've felt so satisfying! I have to get my garbage up and out tonight. I've just showered so I need to dry my hair before getting car loaded up for goodwill.

Mar how are you?!? Let us know when you can!

I have no progress to report just yet. But I will.

Good Morning Everyone 🙂

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
WAY TO GO!!! enjoying looking with no need to buy! 😀
Good Luck with the second counter project!

Hi Subclinical 🙂
Sorry the new tax plans are mucking up and complicating everything so much. 🙁

Hi Porter 🙂
Have fun!

Yesterday I spent over three hours outside.
Clipped the old dead runners & leaves off the Honeysuckle and thatched a third of the lawn, which isn't really much since it's a small lawn.
Also cleaned up the flower bed under the dining area window.
Plan to get out there again today so I have to hustle now and get indoor stuff done(cat chores) so I can go out. 😀

Hi tatoulia! I hope you have your music on and the counter underway!

I have removed and packed up all the Christmas ornaments - I found two that are going in the discard pile. After lunch i'm Going to take the lights off, wash the tree skirt, and feed the tree to the goats.

I'm not totally sure what is going to happen to the discard pile this year, because we are some of the people who are going to be affected by the new tax laws. - the property tax is going to particularly hurt with the farm, and the town I work in takes almost 3% of my paycheck, so I will be paying taxes on the money I use to pay taxes.

The plan is to put off the charitable donations we would usually make in dec 2018 to January 2019, and then donate again in dec 2019, so that we will itemize every other year.

Books I will take to half price this year, they give very little for them, but it is something, and it will keep somethings moving out. Other items i can't give to people, I may set aside for a big January 2019 trip, depending on their deduction value.

Good morning! We had a dusting of snow overnight. I'm having coffee and running the dishwasher. I'd love to be doing laundry but I'm sure with it being a holiday that many people will be using the washer. So I will wait til I'm home on Wednesday.

I have all my goodwill donations in one big pile. I also have a return for UPS. I'd like to get rid of one of the chairs in house too. BF wants it.

One good plan for this AM would be to clear off a second kitchen counter. I've kept the one clear and I know I could clear another one with the help of some music.

I will report back.

Oh how I hate that frazzled feeling, Tillie. I'm so sorry about the three day weekend.

I got mom out today and we had a nice time. We went to the consignment store. It the guy wasn't there and the women who work there follow protocol so without an appointment they won't take my stuff. I respect that. At least the few things are in my car. I'm now playing music and puttering. Just changed my sheets and now I'm having a tuna sandwich.

I bought nothing at the consignment store. I enjoyed seeing all of it and it was great but I'm glad I didn't buy even one thing.

I'll write more later.

My feet hurt
So I just worked on the hover vehicle today.

I look up ideas from Internet in the imsges search for public domain inspirations .
I wouldn't call it a break through , but but I'm looking into two more concepts other than my own . Is like eye candy to me.

Waiting like a child whom knows what he is getting for Christmas for the hydrogen bike to arrive. I'm dying with anticipation. Like dr Sheldon Cooper love of trains.
The thought of pedal less bicycle. Thats pollution free.

I have to admit the hover vehicle is extremely complicated .
To expensive and dangerous to tink with. But there is progress in the industry . With the entire house comp,etly clean and organized . I just work on my creative out let.

Good Morning Everyone 🙂

Wonderful to read all your posts. 😀

Very frazzled this three day weekend.
Steven's cold has gone down into his chest and he gets very whiney and annoying when he's being sickly.
Yesterday I volunteered to go into town to pick up some OTC meds for him.
Took my time since it was so nice to be away from the house.
It's very quiet here right now because he went off visiting his friend.
He "said" his doctor told him he had bronchitis and prescribed an inhaler (albuterol) but no antibiotics. ?
He bought the inhaler but has refused to even open the box and use it.
Says it's too complicated to read the instructions on how to use it, even though I explained to him how simple it is.
Plus he smokes. He said he quit years ago when I made that a condition for my caring for him after the brain surgery.
He thinks I don't know he is smoking out in the garage.
He chain smokes out there.
One of the reasons he spends so many hours in the garage sitting there playing computer games and watching old TV reruns.
Anyways, he doesn't take care of his health so why should I care or help him?

Nice enough day today to put on my coat and go outside.
I think some moderate exercise in the fresh air would do wonders for me.
Think I will start raking/thatching the grass. 😀

*13 hours! Not 22!

I know it's afternoon but I just slept for over 22 hours I will say, good morning and coffee clinks to all!

I feel like making French toast for my breakfast/lunch. We shall see.

Bright and sunny here although I suspect it's cold. Yesterday we were in the 50s. Crazy weather here.

Mar, if I were you I'd do trash/food first since that you can take outside. I'd sweep and vacuum whatever I could. Now is not the time to rearrange your clothes or any small task that won't make a visual difference. I wish we could swap places for a day because surely you'd see my place with fresh eyes and vice versa. The important thing is don't get stuck re where to start, just start. Make your bed, take out trash, whatever it is. I know you'll be unable to un-stick yourself if you just start--it's worked for me. In any even I am standing by your side and sending you strength!

I am going to take mom out today and see if consignment store is open. It's only a small bag to consign but I'd love to get it out of the house. I would also like to get my dishes over to goodwill but will need BF's help for that.

I don't have many bins here. I have my shoes in my closet in clear shoe box sized bins, one pair to a box. They are on the shelves in my closet. They are easier to manage than having my shoes in boxes, I find. I have several small bins with cards and stationery and those are in my dining room closet. Mom's china is on shelves. My Christmas china is in a box that fits in one of the shelves in my dining room closet. Having a small apartment, I've had to eliminate having things in bins. If I don't have room, I don't have room. This is a hard-fought situation for me. Sometimes it hurts but it's fine. I need the space right now. If I had a basement, however, it would be bins everywhere. I guess I'm glad I don't have a basement. It would hide my stuff when really I need less stuff. I learned that from years of having an insane amount of stuff in bins in my storage space that I couldn't afford.

Tomorrow's a holiday and my family doesn't know it.

I have bins too. A lot of bins. I haven't counted my bins, but I know I have six big ones for Christmas and four big ones for Halloween, and one medium sized one for thanksgiving.

I don't take pictures, I stick labels on the outsides of the bins. Some of the labels are general "puzzles" and some of them ar specific "red tablecloth, centerpiece, paper star man...."

If I get rid of something, I change the label. I don't want to be reminded of stuff I got rid of in case I change my mind and feel sad.

Some of my bins are clear and do not have labels. Right now most of my doll collection is in bins. The dolls are layered with baby blankets and towels, and in the clear bins you can see the tops of their heads and their feet. Dd says it is creepy and weird. The Lincoln logs are also in a clear bin. I can see them, so I don't need to write "Lincoln logs" on the bin.

I'm working toward getting my dolls back out on a shelf, and then I will either have fewer bins or new things in the emptied bins. Probably the second one, because there are still things out that could be packed away in bins to give me more space to work.

The bins keep things clean and at least somewhat organized. Every time I open one, I try to sift through it and see if I can let go of anything.

Taking the pictures helps me becausei have memory issues.
I forget where things are. So if I objects that I keep but very seldom if ever use , but never throw away they end up in tub.
Then I can't see them and they become out of sight outbof mind. When a tine comes to find the object, I ave to search through and rummage rifle though the tubs sonestimes. It can be a bigger mess than .

I started photographing the contents of tubs and baling the tubs with paint . Or big big stickers. Then I keep the photos in a folder gallery on my phone, in my computer, and on the cloud. When I need to retrieve stuff , I just thumb through the gallery and find things much easier. I'd say I have 8000 objects., but they are organized like a wall of 90 tubs.

About once a year I go through it all .
Due to my memory issues I can touch an object , I it triggers memories to flood my thoughts.
Like a lighter my first wife threw at me In hatred. I kept it.
But there were many other times the lighter was present in the relationship. And I sometimes relive those moments and remember the experiences.
Not just thelighter, but other objects that im emotionally attached to .I can't throw away. They have no value, but are priceless to me.
So when I purge the hoard about once a year, the emotional stuff is seperated from cluttercthat is simply just a value object. I sell or donate the big objects that I can easily replace using let go. And keep the smaller objects in the tubs . The tubs help with moving from place to place. The photos help with not mixing it all up again or digging through a clutter pile or stack.

I hate stacking and restacking clutter. My stacking skills are awful. My stack fall over and just become a pile again.
But tubs with lids I just can manage very well as long as the tubs are not in the common areas where guests may be present. Other things I do with tubs is have tubs within tubs.
So that when I take pictures . The tubs are filled in just one layer so I see the entire contents . Then if there more spcein the tub , I use a second container that has a separate photo.

In this way I can use my casting devices on my tv to sometimes look through my hoard , without opening a single lid.
Lately I've been obsessed with my projects for creative outlet .
So my hoarding is more focussed on model making. And I keep bringingbin new supplies which must be controlled or it will just become a mess . So sometimes just taking a pictureof it. And making digital stamps to move arrange and organize the supplies without going down into basement is a pastime , but helps me organize my hobby area. To put a lot of thought in not only the finished models, but the environment to create them in.

This practice has led me away from making strictly physical models , to developing my digital concept skills too.
Like for instance . A bouquet of flowers.
Cutting out the image of the flower pedals and rearranging the flowers in the photo. Attaching voice notes and collaborating with others that show intrest in my concepts. And re invintingthe concepts building from past collages.
I just love computers . But it's not the knowledge and skills but how I apply the skills.
Thing is I'm a hoarder. I also socially isolate myself. , so when I want to bring people into my living space, I my want to retrieve an object from my hoard,
Being able to do that quickly and easily using the photo gallery.gives me so much more confidence to incude objects in my hoard of objects withoutvthe panic of not knowing exactly how to access them.
A few people have seen the basement , with hoard in it.
And are perplexed and somewhat insulting. It's MY HOUSE, MY STUFF , AND MY SYSTEM. I've finally made my hoarding seperste from my living space. So to he'll with his criticisms, because IRS all been organized in a way that I move it all to another address easily, and will still ve able to retrieve stuff very quickly . Whereas in that it was a clutter stacked on clutter surrounded by more clutter.

I guess it would be like telling an old handy man he has too many tools and calling him a hoarder unless he minimizes his tool to his current projects. Ridicules right?
I keep many things , but I turning to more and digital concepts. Not needing photo albums . Not needing printers.
Not needing as many models.
For six years my creative outlet was bottled up. Because my hoarding management skills were so poor. The hoard took up Tje entire living space . When my wife became Ill I had to remedy the hoard so care givers could help tend to my wife.

So I can't stand here say my hoarding days are over because I've managed to contain my hoard for now. I have done that in the past and it keeps coming back in different ways. In different places.

So the photos are tool . With photos of packed tubs . The hoarding is less of clutter mess. Rather a hoard of contained transportable objects. with help I can move all 90 totes in 1 hour to storage unit , and still find each and every object from the photo gallery. On demand.
In this way I only need one day notice to move my entire hoard if needed to storage for only $50. Thus I FEEL very confident to invite and or welcome anyone into my home.
Without the photos in the hoard gallery I would be overwhelmed and would just keep stacking unstacking and restacking to find things.

Hi!

Tatoulia, thanks. I need to put order and clean the house, there is a lot of clutter everywhere. Identifying the most important things is a little problematic for me, hehe.

Subclinical, nice to meet yo too! Yes, it's very stressful. Some days ago I was feeling very anxious and desperate, but nice people in the chat helped me to get started 😀

Porter, how does taking pictures help you?

I meant to say
Having both a mansion and large sailboat , with enough property to grow my own plant foods , near areas where I could hunt and fish for my protein foods.
I am afraid of bears , but I think could deal with them.
I have no idea why we can't implant wild dangerous bears with identity implants that trigger when near fences or other electric enabled structures. So we can be better alerted to their presence.

I've seen similar things on tv about sharks in tuorist beaches.
Where a boating party captures age sharks. Rather than be a cost to the local authorities , they offer it as an adventure for some of the gutsy tourists to help capture and release the sharks that are near the beaches to other other non human areas. I think that could be wise to do for bears too.
Tag then with small transcievers. And track them with phones that can also alert us to their presence in th area. Perhaps in their tails.. Instead of paying a ranger to do it . The ranger guides a tourist to do it for a liscence fee. Or at least be in the hunting party .

Tillie
Yes I do very much want to live on a boat.
I'm not very good a saving for it though. I'm still under a lease till November 2018 and may wish transition then. I commute 50 miles to my work. So I will need to move . I can decide if I want to move near the factory , or find another factory near a place I can keep a boat. I'd rather pay $1000 a month towards a boat than paying rent.
But honestly I just so obsessed with affordable home design , I'm not sure what I want to do. I have until November to decide. My direction. I believe my idea place would be Alaska near the coast. If i look in that direction .

Something like finding a propery that near a the ocean , near a lake near a river. I would then also employ green house food techonoly. However, the way I feel right now, I just don't want to live alone. So I'm glad you asked me that. It's making me think ?

Hi Mar
I used struggle with tubs and boxes till I started taking pictures of the inside of the ones I rarely open. Then I was much more connected.
---
Sorry about the bunny

----
This morning I I worked on a model home for awhile then spent about an hour reorganizing the model supplies..

My thoughts kept drifting to hovercraft design , I have shelved for a long time, but this morning went and organized it's models and supplies too. Using oil lamps in the basement near the pipes seems to keep the pipes from freezing. They do freeze but just a little electric heat for half hour and the water is back on. I just get lost working on the projects and while at work my mind drifts into daydreaming about it works.
Income home and voice text it the ideas into the tablet, go down to the project area and try to make it function.

Lately I've been obsessed with home modeling, but I think I'll return to the flying vehicle concept for awhile. On Friday a terrible ice storm hit the areas I travel through to get to work. I saw two horrific accidents happen right in front of me . Could of just as easily been me. So the hover craft concept is filling my thoughts. I've hoarded too many supplies. But not spent money. I'll never have a working model . But the more I try the more I'm convinced it's a doable achievement .

Two vehicles.
Hydrogen hover craft that levels at 50 feet. Must bee talker than tree height . Carries 350lbs.
Hydrogen powered bicycle top speed 40mph.
The hydrogen concept eliminates need for motor with moving parts except for the blades to reduce gyroscopic interload.

The bike travels to hover craft. Thry are snapped together and locked together. The hover craft asends to it's hieght.
The wheel of the bike work like propellers to navigate direction and speed. Weight of the two together 280lbs.
Once on the ground uncoupled . The bike will have a ten mile range to get more fuel. Or carry canisters

I've ordered the off the shelf hydrogen bike.
I really can't afford it, but just can't stop thinking about it.

I hyper focussed on it.
I'm now focussed on off the shelf hover technology. And looking up current manufacturers
.

I'm going to try tot get my mind off it for awhile and go detail clean the kitchen. Maybe the inspect the lower cabinets .
And play with my cat jackie. As we look for mice. For bait I use cheese curls in an especially loud crinkly bag .
Only two mice were caught last week. I've nit seen or heard any, but Jackie hunts for them while the weather is fridgid.

I'm so excited about the bike. This model has a range of 70miles without pedaling. Is only 28lbs but very strong .
So Ive lost 2lbs since new years day. Very focussed on that too. Not just Callie counting , but making it taste good enough to look forward to eating later. This is my steak day and I want the kitchen to be extremely perfect . Nealy a year and half since I started the lifestyle. I feel very well. Even though I'm now alone, Feel good about who I am , and not let hoarding control my environment.

Well that's me for this this week.
I'm going wash all trashcans this week.
And put all laundry where it belongs. All on one day. Sundays.

Hi mar! Nice to meet you, good luck getting prepared for your landlady. That must be very stressful.

Tatoulia, I hope you feel better. A day to one's self is such a nice thing. I didn't do any job work on my snow day yesterday!

I have jumped into "project reassemble the doll shelf" with both feet.

Woke up at 4:30 this morning, made some coffee, and cleared a path to move the "farm" (eggs, cheese, food awaiting processing) fridge across the room. Mostly organizing and relocating. I only found one tiny item to get rid of, But things look a lot better.

Sometimes if I work on a space and only find a small item, I make myself feel better by imagining 365 of that item in a box.

That's pretty much how I got into this mess - one little item at a time.

Hello everyone! Tillie his I love hearing about your dollhouse!! So wonderful!

Snow Day! Congrats SubC! Good for you to work on house! Someday we will have time to do things other than sorting and purging and making tough decisions, etc. I'm convinced of if!

Welcome back, Mar! What types of things do you need to tackle before LL comes over? How can we help? Just remember to do the important things first.

Tillie I had a miserable night's sleep. Work still wasn't great today but not as terrible. A number of people gently approached me to see if I wanted to talk. That was nice I thought. I didn't talk other than thanking them and telling them I thought it would work itself out. I did have a coffee with someone and ran the situation by her and she was able to give me a different perspective and a way to let go of some of the bad feelings. So I was lucky.

I just got in and I'm proud of my pike of boxed dishes and I'm trying to figure out how to get them to the car for donating. We are having massive rains and our snow is melting away!

We have a long weekend. I will get a day to myself.

Oh!!
I used to have a big doll house, it was beautiful. My mom made it when I was a girl.
But some years ago we had to move and disassemble the house. Now everything is in boxes, somewhere in our new home :-/

Hello all!

It's been a long time without posting! I'm glad to be here again.

Currently we have a little "crisis". Our landlady is going to come next Sunday and I don't have finished ordering and cleaning the house. I have now only 2 days. Hope I can finish on time ...

Tillie, I am so glad you are having fun. I am going to get there!

I can envision a day when I have a snow day and instead of "I can spend a couple of hours working on the basement" I think "I can work on that sewing/craft/hobby project."

That's great Subclinical 😀
Would be so nice if you could have your favorite toys all unboxed and displayed to enjoy.
No matter how old we are we will always need to play.

Have been playing with my new doll house furnishings.
Decided that the carpets must be replaced with something a little more posh to go better with the posh new furniture.
The wall paint and light fixtures are still alright.
Just the carpets need replacing.
Also decided to re-upholster the settee and two occasional chairs.
The antique white on them now is too stark of a contrast with the deep mahogany wood.
Anyways, I am having a BLAST! ;D

Along with putting away Christmas decorations, I have been wandering around the basement, rearranging things and thinking.

I asked dh about taking out a fairly useless closet (wide, shallow, narrow door) to create enough wall space to reassemble my doll shelf.

Dh was opposed to removing the closet, but helped me figure out a way we could reconfigure the basement so that the shelf would fit. I still have some more work to do before that can happen, but it is definitely something I could achieve before spring.

SNOW DAY!

Putting away Christmas decorations.

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
Good luck getting the trash out for pick up today.
Sorry about your terrible day and hope things have settled down by now.

No Rain forecasted for today. Scattered clouds, not too cold.
Everything is sopping wet and the humidity is high from the rains we did get.
No plans for today. I'm tired and think a slower more relaxing day is in order.

Great work, Tillie! Glad you were able to get the laundry hung today. So envious of your cleaning and maintenance skills. I'll get there, you are a great role model.

We are expecting to get torrential rain this weekend.

I had a terrible day at work. Will write more later. Tmr is garbage day and I hope to get mine out in time. B

Good Morning Everybody 🙂

Got two loads of laundry out hanging on the clothes line.
The outsides of the kitchen cupboards need to be washed.
They look too dusty and have finger prints.
Since they don't go all the way up to the ceiling I need to do the tops too and the few decorative items displayed up there.
Shouldn't take long to do then I can play this afternoon. ;D

Made my soup today. Turned out good and very satisfying.
Weather prediction for tomorrow is no rain so I can finally hang out laundry.

Checking in on you CM.

Hang in there and rest CM.

I am sorry about your bunny.

CM I am so, so sorry. My heart breaks for you on the loss of your bunny. I will join you in your prayers. You know that we all care for you deeply and completely understand that you may not be able to post. And remember, you don't need to read our posts in order to post. Just do what you can and when you can. We will be here for you.

I am so, so sorry. You are a good, loving person and you deserve peace.

Much much love.