thank you for posting. I'm having a hard time getting to the posts, and a harder time posting.

SubC - thank you for your courage to open a cupboard and turn a stomach-ache into help for someone with cancer. and kudos for so much persistence in chasing after those plastic drawers-full.

Lila - congratulations on the empty room and your Brilliant considerate solution for its use.

I have not gotten to much. I did buy some paper yard-waste bags to put clothing etc. in to go to donation.

It is late. It is cold here, in the negative digits. I am hoping my heat does not go out tonight. or my hot water, lol

Good morning!
I am so glad to see you both!

Lila, I believe you thought about me. When no one posts, I imagine you all (even people who haven't been around for a while and some I have not met) listening quietly, like we are all sitting in a room somewhere and heads are nodding, and there's just this moment of silence before someone speaks.

I think your choice about the room was good. Your son's family is too crowded! Hopefully the extra space will make the kids better rested, less stressed, and therefor calmer. Also, a big piece of furniture is leaving! Even if it is not your furniture, that should help.

And if you can reach your bins, maybe you can access some older ones and find you don't need everything in them anymore.

Messi, I hope you are warm and have hot water and all is going well. Be careful not to let the bags become more clutter. You can donate things in whatever bags your groceries came in. Really. I promise, the place you are donating to will take them. They will take loose armloads from the back of your car.

I am home for the next three days. The boys are probably not coming because of snowmageddon. I should be able to get a lot done and really feel rested, but last night I started coming down with the nasty cold Dh brought home from work. 🙁 I am just going to lean into cozy with lots of fluids and whatever I feel like doing.

Good evening!

I did yoga and my chores, built a fire and kept it going all day (21 outside, 72 inside), did two more than my goal of evaluations, dropped off a bag of trash, went to the grocery store, put the groceries away, went to the feed store, ran a load of laundry, unloaded and partially loaded the dishwasher, cleaned up part of the playroom, did chores again and set up the coffee maker for tomorrow.

The house is basically status quo.

I need to do lesson plans, pack my swim bag and lunch and dinner snacks, and do yoga and chores again before I leave for school tomorrow. The lesson plans and packing I could do tonight. We'll see. Tomorrow is not quite as full as yesterday, but I have to leave school earlier to swim because the pool closes earlier, so I won't have time to work on evaluations before I go.

Good morning.

There is now snow in the evening forecast. Just light "showers" but it is supposed to rain off and on during the day as well and freeze before the snow. I am still tired and don't want to drive home in that in the dark after teaching and swimming. So I'm going to skip swimming today. That also means I have less to do to get ready this morning.

I feel like I have been pushing really hard with little to show for it. The best thing about my schedule change next year is that I will have a maximum of 68 evaluations to do because some of my classes meet 2x a week. This year I have 81. If all of my classes were full, that would have been 92. I average about three an hour.

I want to be ordering my garden seeds, working on my basement, doing work for my pottery class, spending time with my grandsons, baking, and resting. I can't relax with the evaluations hanging over my head. Also, I resent them so much I waste a lot of time avoiding them.

More on topic, I read an article referencing an author that claims there are only 5 types of things in any room. Trash, dishes, laundry, things with a place and things without a place. And that you just tackle them one at a time. She forgot "things that need to be repaired and things that need to be washed" or maybe she believes that I have a place for those, or that they are things without a place even if I have a place they could go if they were clean or fixed. Also, clearly she doesn't understand how thoroughly those categories of things can get churned together and how you can have places for things but not be able to reach those places to put them away. Anyway, it wasn't helpful, because 90% of the mess in my house is caused by more things than places. But I feel like 90% of my clean up time is spent on trash, dishes, laundry, and things with places. Which I guess is why progress is so slow.

hi all. Today is the first day in a week and a half that I woke up and felt pretty okay and not sick. Yay, hopefully this is the turning point!

Messi, wow, you fixed the water heater?? I would have zero idea how to do anything. I understand that you got internet help but what did you have to do once you got the cover off? Just getting the cover off would stress me out! I am so glad you got it fixed, wow. I need to take a lesson from you, since my youngest son moved out yesterday and soon TotsFam will move out and I won't just be able to say "hey can you fix this for me?"

SubC, you still are chugging along, even if most of it is not things without a place. I agree that 5 things analysis is extremely simplified and only helpful to people with a completely normal organized home and no issues with keeping stuff.

I have not gotten much extra cleaning or decluttering done while I was sick, but I managed to take care of laundry and dishes yesterday. I am very far behind on work stuff and have a long list and not sure where to start, so this morning I will make myself some breakfast and then use a highlighter to mark the top items to get done today and tomorrow. I have that speaking engagement in just one week!!! and am not prepared at all, plus my boss asked me to take over and teach his class this week !!! and I have to create my own lesson plan (he just gave me a topic). So those two things are the work priority.. but not sure what the home priorities are. Probably vacuuming is one.

Hope to check in later!

Good morning!

Gave myself an extra hour of sleep this morning, so I'm more rushed but more rested.

I left filling and running the dishwasher off my done list yesterday.

So, here we go again, very full day:
Yoga
Chores
Lesson plans (almost done)
Pack lunch/snacks/swim bag
Drop off recycling
Take bulletin board borders to office supply closet
Unload kiln
Teach - including getting fill in notes for some evaluations
About an hour putting notes into evaluations (all the time I have in the schedule)
Swim
Chores

Off I go.

good morning,

I'm not feeling well. I was not feeling well yesterday and got very little done. Just got my planners re-coiled and put away. But I feel sick.

I have an event tonight and I really need to be there if I am functional. I took this morning off to stay home and rest to try and go work tonight. Will see how it goes. I am getting really behind on work.

Good evening.

Lila, I hope you feel better and your evening work turned out ok.

I did all the things on the list.

I have another too long list for tomorrow, so I will make a "done" list. I may try to work on the basement some more.

Good evening, good morning.

Lila - I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well. Yet you persevere. I hope it's better today.

SubC - congrats on doing the list and the work you've done on evaluations. I appreciate your lists. Sunday I had a list-less day (excuse pun) so nothing on the house got done (did lots of unexpected people things- good). Reading your lists encourages me.

************

I do not know what I would do without the internet. Well, I know many things would be more difficult and I wouldn't have met you all and that would be a shame. life more difficult.

Tonight's internet help:
I have been having appliance meltdown this month, lol. My microwave and radio went down, and today it was the water heater. When these things happen, it is a frustration and inconvenience but it can also make me laugh because I feel like I'm being given an opportunity to appreciate things and take care of something I was neglecting and to try something new. Ex: when my dog has an accident or I spill something, it is an opportunity to clean the floor which had been neglected. Without the microwave, now i get out the hot plate and pots and kettle. I appreciate this kind of cooking. It happens in a different time frame. I also appreciate the time and fewer dishes to clean that the microwave afforded me.
So, on to the water heater. Every day i count the blessing of water and warm water. Today I was running late and was soaped up in the shower when the water went cold. Rinsing was frigid, but at least i had water. I rushed on with my day. We had a snowstorm and it took 2 hours to get home from work. I wished i could take a hot shower, but i was not prepared to call a repair person because of the condition of the house. Remorse. It took me til 1:00 am to get up enough courage to go online and read and view enough water heater videos to take the cover off my water heater and troubleshoot. I now have hot water, at least for the moment. I LOVE the luxury of hot water and I appreciate the miracle of the internet and the generosity of people who post online. Thank you all!

***********
on the list - get to bed earlier

Good morning Messi (and all)

I love your pun. That is how I feel too, my list-less days tend to become listless. Or perhaps it's because I am feeling listless that I go list-less.

Today it was very hard to get up. I slept in a little and would have stayed in bed a lot longer, but my husband asked me to get up and make him breakfast. (Making him breakfast is a normal thing I do every day and I almost never skip a weekday, so he counts on it - if I had stayed in bed he would have had to eat less healthy cold cereal or granola bars because he did not have time to cook. It's 27 degrees out and he has an hour drive to work because I wanted to live on a farm. Sending him off with a hot breakfast doesn't seem like a big ask. I am usually up an hour before him.)

I'm not sick or anything, just tired from yesterday and my bed was cozy.

Messi, it sounds like your messy house SAVED you money. I'm glad you have hot water and I hope the hot water heater keeps working.

I have goofed around on the internet too long.

Time to do yoga and chores, get the fire going, and start some evaluations. I will be back.

Good morning!

It's nice to see everybody here.

Lila, good job on the vacuum and the freezer! I advocated Messi's plan of putting them on the list. Both are progress! Sometimes you just need to make a "done" list instead of a "to do" list.

Tatoulia, you may find that some things matter enough to ship to that "huge house in the mountains" (or you may not) but I think you have reached a pretty good place with your stuff management - remember that you only have to worry about what fits your life right now., not what will fit your life someday.

I laughed a little bit about you being limited by what you can carry but also "doing a lot at once" on the laundry. I have a farm sized washing machine. "What I can carry" is pretty much one load. This might be why I get so behind on putting the laundry away - even one load can look like an overwhelming task.

Currently it is running because I have no clean jeans and need something I can wear out to the barn to do chores. (Although it is supposed to be very cold today, I might just throw my quilted carharts on over my long John's.

"The discipline of sitting down and starting" is my downfall.

Messi, I think it's great that you are doing the movement classes. Your body is the vehicle that allows your mind to do things, so keeping it in good shape with exercise, rest, and healthy food is the foundation for everything else.

Dh and I did have a nice time at the concert last night. The pianist was fantastic and bit was nice to get away from the house and just enjoy the music with no other options pressing on me.

I want to get the fire started soon (well, I want to have the fire started, and Cinderella's mice have not done it)

I've been doing well with my little habits, but yesterday I forgot to take my vitamins - which matters because they are doctor ordered for anemia and vision loss prevention, not "well, these are probably good for me".

Here is my list for today (I hope you guys don't mind these, it is currently helping me to have them here.)

2 loads of laundry (one is started)
Start fire (and keep it going)
Yoga
Chores
Update calendar
Take out compost
Measure some things in the barn with Dh for some work we are thinking about
Evaluations (I have a mental number goal but don't want to write it down)
Get some things together in my studio and go to the city studio to do my homework
Vacuum the playroom
Evening chores

It's a lot.
My homework might not get done.

Wow, lots of posts! So happy!

Tatoulia, so nice to hear a good update! How long before you get to retire? As far as laundry, I have built a habit of doing laundry every Friday. I only do it also on Saturday if I have extra loads. Then I don't have to think about it all week.

messi, I think we all struggle with motivation! and like you, I make a list and then cross things off. When I do other things and nothing gets crossed off, I find it frustrating. But I am coming here and postin what I DID do - like cleaning the vacuum and clearing out the freezer - that was not on the list. and will sometimes add them and cross them off like you and SubC suggested! Today I will try to do some list things.

SubC, yes, a done list! I may do that. I may start a fire today as well. Son brought up logs for me a few days ago. Good job making and posting a list for accountability!

I stayed home to finish getting better today. I plan to go to work tomorrow. I watched worship service on tv and made myself a pancake and some blueberry sauce from blueberries out of the freezer.

I also took the freezer packs out of the bag. Some had blue stuff on them, so I washed them. I threw one out because it looked like it has to be 30 or more years old and gross on the inside.

Goals for today:
- try one last time to get the roller bar cover on the vacuum open. I can see junk in there I can't reach, so I am going to try using some different tools.
- in the afternoon, put the vacuum back together and try it out, and vacuum the dog pen
- finish sorting the freezer packs and either donate or find a home for them
- cook and food prep

I also decided to make a written inventory of what is left in the downstairs freezer. I want the list so I can plan to use those foods all up. Mostly it is vegetables. There are some fruits and a few other items.

I will check back in later.

Well, I decided not to do my homework. I will just have to do whatever I can at class tomorrow and try to catch up later in the week. As a result, I have just finished my minimum goal for the day for evaluations, while:
Doing yoga and morning chores
Keeping the fire going
Washing and drying two loads of laundry and putting one away
Loading the dishwasher
Vacuuming the playroom
Updating the calendar
Doing the measuring and
Taking out the compost.

If I had also driven down to do my homework and then returned to do the same number of evaluations, it would now be 8:30. Instead it is 5:30 and I am relaxing for a bit while Dh makes dinner again. He is a really good husband.

I remembered my vitamins this morning, but forgot to brush my teeth. (At this point I'll just wait until bedtime.)

I do have a few goals besides evening chores for after dinner, but we'll see. I could stop here.

I have been cleaning up and recycling papers as I go on the evaluations, so no mess to deal with.

How did your day go Lila?

Wow! Everybody's working!

I may have misspoke when I sent my get well wishes - I thought Messi was ill but it appears you are ill, Lila. Sending you my best wishes

I took my front window wreaths down so I can take them out back tomorrow night. I did just now start a laundry but someone had left their laundry (and boy did they over stuff the washer) and so I put it in the dryer. My laundry will be done tomorrow morning washing well in advance if their laundry drying but I had to start somewhere.

I slept rather late today and had a massage scheduled, so didn't get anything else done. Yet.

Okay going to transfer my sheets into a bag while I wait for the other person's stuff to dry. In the meantime I'll wash some delicates that I can hang to dry.

Good morning!

Tatoulia, I'm glad you got your laundry done.

I ended up mostly just showering and relaxing after dinner and chores. I'm working on balance in my life. I brushed my teeth.

I did find a small bin of tree blocks in the basement hoard, wash the lid, and move it out to the playroom. I could have had them out for Bean three years ago, but I'm doing my best. He isn't too big for them yet.

Today is a day with the boys. My list is simple:
Yoga
Chores
Load stuff for class into my car
Boys arrive
Enjoy and care for boys
Take boys home - get gas and drop trash
Dinner at Bean's house
Class
Chores
Bed

Tomorrow I will set goals again.

That's a big list! Subc, gently, do not upset yourself because the blocks weren't available to Bean earlier. He's having a beautiful childhood and just a very careful reminder that even if you never found them, his childhood would be remarkable by anyone's measure. So there are things that can be donated or repurpose (Not these, just in general) with no ill effect on anyone. Telling myself this, as much as you!

Okay I only got one load of laundry done last night because the laundry room was very popular. I dry to WFH today and my towels are in the dryer and my fleeces and indoor fleece pants are in the washer. Up next: cat blankets although it's really cat blanket now that I just have the one cat. I'll have a substitute while it's washing but she will miss the stinky one, I'm sure.

Good morning!

Tatoulia, thank you for the kind words. I know kids are happier with rocks and sticks and an adult who is genuinely interested in them than with any toy in the world, and Bean is spoiled with toys, but I still get annoyed when I find things and realize I saved them so long and missed the window that made it worth doing.

The tree blocks (and the toy trolls) barely got a glance, but the newly out dress up box with ds's old hard hat in it was a hit, and the toy periscope was exactly the right timing. He got really excited and asked to take it home. (And of course I said yes).

Is your kitty the type who loves a fresh, fluffy blanket, or will she be annoyed that it is no longer stinky?

I did all the things on my list yesterday. Plus I wrote some thank you notes (two more to be done, so will try to squeeze that in today) And I threw out a pair of adorable, beloved, but well used and leaky boots with the trash. Bean enjoyed them. Boots don't last forever. Buddy does not need cute boots that leak.

Dinner at Bean's house was yummy and fun - heartdaughter and her wife came over and there was much hilarity with the periscope. And my class was good, but I got home late and both wound up and exhausted. Didn't get to bed until 11 and slept badly, so here it is almost 8 and I am still on the couch with my coffee!

I am not going to post today's list. I know it is too long.

hi all, just a brief update.

I did get all the things done in my list on Sunday. I went to work yesterday and got exhausted. Today I am trying to work from home but have a bad headache.

I did go through my upstairs freezer this morning (I finished the big downstairs one and made an inventory the other day). I re-organized the food in the upstairs freezer, which is the small type on top of the fridge. I found 3 things to take out and thaw to eat - soup, cooked apples, and a tamale. There is quite a bit of good food in there for me to start eating.

I did throw out a small box of things that were either too old or contain meat and no one will want. So now it is easy to find everything I want in there.

Now I am working on consolidating my work planners. I de-coiled 3 of them and are putting the pages together and threw out a lot of old pages. I probably do need to keep these planners, but consolidating will help, and I am not going to buy this kind anymore. Having one per year is just too much, so I hope to find a 3 or 5 year planner next time.

Lila, good job on the freezer and the planners.

I'm Not feeling great about my day, but trying not to beat myself up. I won't list the things I didn't do, but we'll just say I forgot/skipped a bunch of basics - didn't even brush my hair until after dinner.

I did almost meet my evaluation goal
Do my chores
Finish my thank you notes
And unload my car.

I also worked in the basement a little and found 8 things to get rid of. 5 packs of bulletin board border to go to school, a plaster cast of ds footprints in sand when he was a baby (they didn't come out well, but I have held on to them all these years thinking I would do something with them.) a sentimental coloring book, and a large knitting basket.

Hi everyone! Messi I hope you feel better soon! I had my flu shot last fall and I've been wearing masks but none of this is foolproof. And this year's version sounds extra yucky. Glad you could order what you need.

SubC,we will live somewhere when we retire. He has a huge house overseas in the mountains (deliberately being vague) and I expect we will live in a very small place in Paris or London for part of the year. I will need a walkable city with public transportation. I'd love to end up in Switzerland but we will not have the money for that. I think we will need two places since I won't be able to stay anywhere for more than half a year. I need to figure out how this will work immigration wise. He'll have it somewhat easier because he has dual citizenship (neither are US). I have single US citizenship. I should get working on this.

So I'm working on further downsizing my stuff. Some of it just requires the discipline of sitting down and starting! How I ended up where I started - I used to be so good at this! I still am pretty advanced as to not bringing stuff in and making decisions but these days my motivation to get started is lagging behind.

I haven't been keeping up with laundry, which is out of character for me. I was doing so great about going to the laundromat when our machine was on the fritz and for some reason now with the new machine, I'm not doing laundry the way I used to. I'm thinking of just going to the laundromat tomorrow and getting a large hunk of it done. I'm limited by what I can carry but I'll be doing a lot at once. Plus I read my kindel so it is twice as relaxing. By the way I love our new machine here. Much less fancy and I'm very happy with it. Need to remind myself how soothing I find it to do laundry.

Hello, and kudos!

You all have kept at it, in spite of feeling not-so-motivated.

SubC - I hope you had a good evening and concert. You did many somethings today, and a great something in tackling the evaluations. bravo!

Lila - you just didn't let go of that freezer, in spite of being under the weather. Great work!

I have had a week of low motivation and feeling like I'm not getting anywhere. First not making a list, and then making one and ignoring it... it sort of turned into a list of things I am NOT doing, lol. Sometimes, though, I amend my list by adding on the things that I did INSTEAD of what was on the original list and checking those off. It helps me evaluate a bigger picture - some of the added things might be things that came up unexpectedly, were important to do, or maybe were just avoidance distractions... maybe it helps just to be able to check SOMETHING off.

Something added into the schedule this week were some movement classes taught by a friend. They focus on range-of-motion, balance, flexibility and getting your heart rate moving safely. They were terrific so i am going to try to organize the time to continue going. Putting it on the list.

I hope you can think of something to brighten your day, SubC! Maybe go out and kiss some goats?

I am still not really well, so resting. Although I am getting tired of resting.

I am feeling most motivated to get that big freezer downstairs dealt with. Yesterday in the afternoon, I went down again and filled a whole kitchen trash bag with old food that I knew I did not want to eat. Took that out. There is not a whole lot left. I need to sort the meats. Anything 2 years old or newer is getting moved to TotsDad's freezer for their use (I may cook them for them later). There are a lot of freezer packs in there, like what you put in a cooler. I am going to take them all out, wash them, decide which ones to save and toss or donate the rest.

Today I made an attempt to fix the vacuum, too. I have a dyson animal from, oh maybe 15 or 20 years ago! The hose is cracked (big cracks) so I wrapped it in gorilla tape and will see if that makes it usable. I also used a scissor to cut the hair off the roller. I need to empty it and then vaccum.

I also need to fold clean towels. I dunno what else I will do today. I am finding it hard to be motivated.

I'll check in later.

update -

I took another full grocery bag of old food out of the big freezer to the bin outside, also emptied the vacuum when I did that. And I brought up a full grocery bag of ice packs and such, which are sitting on my table to sort.

Hey it's something!

"Hey it's something" is today's theme.

I did yoga and chores. I changed our sheets and did a load of laundry but didn't put it away. I started the evaluations and did enough to be neither ahead nor behind tomorrow. When we picked up Dh car we took the truck, so I did not get gas or take trash. I emptied the dishwasher.

Dh could tell I am feeling low energy, so he cooked a nice dinner to eat at home before our concert. Now he is changing and then we will go.

I talked to all three of my kids today.

That was so nice of your dh! What a good guy.

I managed to get the dyson canister all apart, washed the bin, really scrubbed it. Then looked up videos about how to clean the cyclone part. No luck with the videos. It was so disgusting in there when I looked in the bottom - dust all caked in there smelling like old vacuums smell, ick. I decided it was so gross that I would take a chance and just wash it. If that messed it up, the oh well, it is too gross to keep using anyway.

So it took me a good half hour to bang all the caked dust out of there before using hot water and a sprayer, a brush, some Mrs Meyer cleaner, and it looks pretty darned clean now. It is sitting outside drying with the filters I washed.

That was exhausting, so I am resting. I only have to wipe down the rest of the vacuum, and wait 24 hours before putting it back together. If it works and doesn't stink, I will be thrilled, and might even go ahead and buy a hose for it.

The thing is, this was not on any of my lists, but it took all day to clean the vacuum. I have not being able to cross anything off my list. But tomorrow I will work on the lists.

I also got another 2 bags of food out of the old freezer and now everything that is left is food I want to eat. Yay! I will work on eating it until it is gone or it can fit into my upstairs freezer, and then I have to clean it and sell it.

I am tired.

Good morning!

Hi Messi!
Lila, I hope you are feeling better this morning!
Tatoulia, are you settled back in at home yet?

I was too tired to post last night.
But I did every single thing on that list.
Plus I remembered to take some (five pairs) old glasses with me and drop them in the box at the fitness center - they collect old glasses and hearing aides to refurbish for people who need them.

And I stopped at the grocery store to get a refund for an overcharge.

The girl (woman, but I am getting old!) I gave the box of scout stuff to seemed really happy about it. So that made me feel good.

My list for today is a lot of "this and that" around the house.

It includes finishing off thank you notes, an hour or so of school prep/admin work, and doing a more thorough job on the barn door since we are predicted to have a high of 60 and it will freeze again this weekend.

I'm going to try to make some progress on the basement, but the dining porch is getting messy again and the counter of doom still isn't clear and I'm trying to develop a habit of maintaining things.

I have literally brought nothing new into the house this year except food packaging and mail, and all the mail has been recycled except three coupons and a fancy art catalog I like to look through like a magazine for inspiration. (I can afford almost nothing in it, but I once ordered a carved wooden spatula from them as a gift, and now I am happily on their mailing list.) so, where did all the mess on the dining porch come from?!

thank you messi.

SubC, you are on a roll for sure! Great work.

I am at home again today, sick, but have a 2 hour Zoom meeting I must attend today. It starts in an hour and twenty minutes. I am VERY glad my bedroom is in good condition now. I cannot do a 2 hour Zoom in the living room (Tot and siblings noise/interruptions) and I had planned to have this meeting at work in my office. But now I am able to have it in my bedroom.

My desk is not "neat," and not exactly finished, and neither is the office chair. The chair has pieces of fake leather peeling and flaking off terribly getting on everything, so I was deciding between tossing it/replacing it or getting a cover. But I need to use it today, so will put a blanket over it.

I need to clear the desk and chair, dust the desk, and set up my laptop and make sure it will run a Zoom meeting in there. If it will not, I have to try the chromebook. I better go get this done. I cannot, CAN NOT miss this meeting.

Wish me luck...

Lila, I hope you got everything together and your meeting went well.

It's there any other chair in the house you could use?

I rolled right into a wall. I have done a few of the things on my list, but none of the important school things for tomorrow. Right now I am binging on Christmas chocolate because I am cooked.

I tried to work in the basement today, and I did make things a bit more orderly and find three things that can go, but my big goal eluded me. I used to make flower fairies for sale, and I want to again, but I have TWO bins of silk flowers I thought I would sort them out, make a bag for the offsite craft storage, and get everything left into one bin. After two hours I couldn't make decisions any more and I had a full, neatly packed, but not stuffed paper grocery bag of flowers ready to go. I gathered up the rest of the flowers and..they filled both bins.

I know it was "fluffing" but it was very discouraging.

I did dig out the barn door track so it won't freeze shut this week, and I filled the wood boxes on the porch and in the garage so I can keep the woodstove going this weekend.

I got one small load of laundry done and I did yoga and cleaned up the playroom.

I've also spent time on FaceTime with Birdy and his mom and with my mom today.

In a few minutes I've got to leave to drop off the last of the old Christmas lights for recycling and pick up Dh - he's dropping his car off for some work. (If it's not one thing, it's another!

I guess I shouldn't be too frustrated. Things got better today. If I can say that every day fora year, I will be in a much better place, right?

Right, don't be too hard on yourself, SubC, you have been doing a lot! Decision fatigue is real. And things are getting better.

I did get my desk cleared, dusted, the laptop set up and had the meeting. It went well but I am sooo tired from it. I am very glad I decluttered my bedroom though, because the background was just normal looking dressers. NO piles and junk on them! I had planned to do this meeting in my work office, so imagine if I had not decluttered and got sick like I am and had to zoom in a hoarded room? omg. I have had to do it in the past, and had to take everything off the dressers and windowsills, put them in boxes or on my bed or hidden somewhere for the meeting, then put it all back. Ahh. This way is better.

The only progress I made today was that I took 2 bags of old, freezer burned food out of the big downstairs freezer out to the trash. I am slowly going to get it emptied so I can sell it. There is not room in the bins to do it all at once, so 2 grocery bags full is good!Just looking in there, I see 2 gallons of nice frozen whole tomatoes I froze this summer, a quiche from this summer, a lot of meat (I don't eat meat so might move anything that's not too old into TotsDad's freezer), not sure what is in the bottom drawers. I think if I take out 2-3 bags next week, move the meat, and cook a few things from either freezer, I should be ready to sell it by February.

by the way, TotsFam waited until tonight to add their 5 billion bags of trash to the bins, which left me room for my trash, the frozen stuff, and plenty of space left. He is putting all his trash out now. I really appreciate that. Last week I asked him to take all his leftover trash to HIS bin at the house he is remodeling, and he did that. So now we are "caught up" and I don't think the full bins will be a problem anymore.

That's all for now. Hope I will feel better enough tomorrow to get some cleaning done.

Lila, I love that you had a clean zoom background!

Think of all the time you got back not having to shift that stuff!

The freezer progress is good too! And I am glad the trash has been resolved peacefully.

I got one administrative thing done this morning, but still need to do chores, yoga, toss together some lesson plans, and gather up my stuff including healthy food before I go.

I also decided to stop being in denial about my evaluations - they are due in ten days, so I need to get on that. Bleh.

This morning I went down into the basement just to try to give myself a reality check while I have energy. Looking at my available storage space, I am going to need to remove at least one bin worth of stuff from the basement every month if I am really going to get it functional by the end of the year. I honestly don't know if I can do that, but I will try. It's not like I have a bunch of extra space in the rest of the house. It's really going to be about letting go of that much stuff.

I feel like I am down to the hard decisions, but then I remember it has all been hard decisions.

This is like lifting weights, right? We get stronger. The workout stays hard, but that is because you increase the weight, not because you aren't making progress.

Today's list:
Yoga
Chores
Lesson plans
Lunch and post swim snacks
Run dishwasher
(Trash)
(Kiln)
Teach
Swim
Chores

Plus a menu of options I am not listing because I will then feel bad if I don't do them, but if I do any they will be "icing"