I have 2 basic goals for the month: consistency and improvement. Vague enough for ya?
Consistency:
I want to start with consistent record-keeping. I want to have complete POAs and food/exercise diaries for every day of the month. Even if I didn't do anything, or I ate way too much, I want a record. Am I going to do everything on my POA every day? Uh, no. Even if I tried I'm not sure I could. Well, I *could*, but I'd never get that far on my current energy and health level. That's a goal for another time. It is enough right now for me to know how much I *am* doing on a fairly regular basis, and to work on improving upon that amount.
Speaking of improvement:
I want to have a higher points per day average than last month. I want the house to be cleaner at the end of the month than it is now - by which I specifically mean having it picked up enough to really *clean* on a regular basis. I want to see progress on the scale and other measurements of health and fitness. I want to spend less time on pain-killers and more time up doing things (not a whole lot I can control about that, except that if that last goal is met it should help).
Specific tasks to complete:
Get my sort-of-secret project up and running
Get up to speed on the holiday planner
Finish any one section of PCCX cleaning
Write a minimum of 4 HK101 essays
That'll do for now. My POA is full of other things to do daily, weekly, monthly, and once. I will have plenty to do in September.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
5 & 1/2 Months Later
Yep, it's been over 5 months since I've posted which I just happened to notice because of Amanda's new post, so I'm posting an update and a few goals for the month of September.
I ended up slacking on the decluttering process back in April because I'd started college classes. Last week I'd finally decided that I was going to just have the garage sale with what I'd already decluttered and attempt to go through the garage as well (which I did). I'm pretty sure I sold well over 500 items, leaving me with 2 totes, a box and a rack of coats.
During the month of September, I plan to:
- Sort through the garage sale items and sort to donate or sell online.
- Drop off donation items
- Post items online for sale
- Scrub the shower & tub (I hate hard water...my tub is a "goldenrod" color (5 points if you know that color) and I'd like to see it white again
- Attempt to remove the paint from carpet in bedroom with goof off (pointless but going to try anyways)
- Begin job
- Start new college classes
- Clean out filing cabinet
August In Review, September Preview
Technically the 50point bonus reminder came out Tuesday, but I figure as long as it's done by today - the day after the end of the month - it's worthy of the points. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
So, here's August by the numbers, cuz ya know, I'm a numbers gal:
5 - number of days I didn't track diddly
4 - number of days I only have points because I forced myself to add up the abysmal "accomplishments"
12 - number of days I exceeded the daily goal
93,215 - number of points earned all month
3,007 - average number of points earned per day
0.5 - number of pounds I lost
2 - number of pounds I gained back
3 - number of times I was called by a school in the first 8 days of the school year
4 - number of family and friends' birthdays
19 - number of trips to Sonic - that I can document
31 - number of days the temperature reached 100+
6 - number of medical appointments - none of them mine!
8,767 - number of emails and RSS posts I received and deleted
609 - number of Spark Points earned ((re)joined 8/18)
There was all the usual back-to-school fervor to contend with of course. Clothes and supplies to buy, and mountains of paperwork to fill out, much of it repetitive. I don't think there was anything else truly interfering with my progress last month other than inherent laziness and the semi-excusable time spent in bed with pain meds.
In September we have 3 birthdays to celebrate - heh, all on consecutive Mondays, how 'bout that. A will be a teenager in less than 2 weeks; heaven help us all. I have 7 medical appointments already on the docket and at least 1 more will be added after tomorrow's visit to the orthodontist, I'm sure. This season of True Blood will come to a close and the next season of Boardwalk Empire will begin. I'm anxious to see what the HBO winter headline show will be now that Big Love is finished. Neither of my A-list network shows begin this month (House and Bones, premiering in Oct and Nov, respectively).
In other words, there's not a whole lot going on that should impede any progress I'd like to make. Next up, goal setting - but that's another show.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Miss Me?
It's been far too long, I know. I've been so spotty in my progress that it isn't really funny. I've been tracking points all year...when I do anything. I made it through most of the month of January, then skipped the first half of February. Then I lost 4 days to the hospital but got right back in for the first half of March. Skipped almost 2 months and then worked most of May. June and July are empty, but I've been working this month. My next mini-goal is to keep it up until after Labor Day, which will make this my longest streak of the year.
I've got a POA that mostly works for me, and now after a couple of solid weeks I'm starting to add weekly drills back in. I haven't even looked at PCCX or holiday planning since January, which is likely to be my downfall in the next few months. Now that school's back on and I have 3 out of 4 kids out of the house all day, yet it's not so late in the year that I'm tired of it all and just want summer back so I can sleep in the morning, I'm putting on a major push to not only get things done but get them done well and consistently and to keep track. I'm also working 3 weight-loss programs at once to see which one I will settle on. I *also* have a major (secret) project or three that I'm working on. I really do like doing multiple things consecutively rather than add one on now, another one later, another one later, etc. It's the overall consistency that I really have to work on.
So that's my goal, and I'm sticking to it. If I don't post again in the next week, call out the cavalry.
I've got a POA that mostly works for me, and now after a couple of solid weeks I'm starting to add weekly drills back in. I haven't even looked at PCCX or holiday planning since January, which is likely to be my downfall in the next few months. Now that school's back on and I have 3 out of 4 kids out of the house all day, yet it's not so late in the year that I'm tired of it all and just want summer back so I can sleep in the morning, I'm putting on a major push to not only get things done but get them done well and consistently and to keep track. I'm also working 3 weight-loss programs at once to see which one I will settle on. I *also* have a major (secret) project or three that I'm working on. I really do like doing multiple things consecutively rather than add one on now, another one later, another one later, etc. It's the overall consistency that I really have to work on.
So that's my goal, and I'm sticking to it. If I don't post again in the next week, call out the cavalry.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
A quick update
I do have another corner of the kitchen to talk about, but I thought I'd do a quick post about cleaning my desk today.
Before:
After:
It looks soooo much better now, don't you think?
Before:
After:
It looks soooo much better now, don't you think?
Monday, June 20, 2011
Knock, knock?
No, it's not a joke, I'm just coming back in from a long absence and thought it would be polite. :)
I've started up here and there with a plan or a poa or basics, but I just wasn't getting anywhere. And I could blame it on illness and things, or I could just suck it up and admit that I'm a lazy wench most of the time and just wasn't hauling my ample butt up out of this chair (or bed, more likely) to get any real work done. I'm not sure what bit me Saturday night, but suddenly I thought I was really ready to get moving. I decided to start in one end/corner of the house and move out from there doing anything and everything I could reasonably do along the way.
I woke up Sunday morning, ran over to the dollar store across town (which of course uses "run" in the sense that I drove, because there's no running from me, especially across our admittedly small town), and plunked down a bunch of money on cleaning supplies and came home to get to work. Incidentally, all that stuff I bought? 2 things I thought I was out of I had several of, 2 things I thought I had I can't find, and in the first 5 minutes the new long-handled duster went missing. Oh, and I still don't have anything that will cut through grease effectively. And so it goes.
I really did work yesterday. Probably a solid 4 hours all together. What I got done was a generally unused, small corner of my kitchen - but it's DONE, man. I'll give you the tour:
Oh yes, let's start here. I was mixing dilutions of a few cleaners into empty spray bottles, when I spilled straight-up bleach onto my navy stretch capris. *headsmack*
I remembered to start taking pics after I moved the popcorn machine out of this corner and picked up the first few things - including the lid to a round, covered trash can which we haven't owned in about 2 years. This is possibly the "deepest, darkest" corner of my house, kind of an afterthought corner in the back end of the kitchen. The only thing it's good for is storing the popcorn machine, and as such has been much neglected an abused.
After picking up, sweeping, and scrubbing, this is as good as the floor gets. The vinyl flooring came with the house all scratched up that badly, I swear. The tall piece of wood leaning in the corner is part of the door frame of C's room...a story for another day. It's staying there, out of the way, until I work my way around to there and figure out how to reattach it decently. Or maybe it's the one from my room? One of us is missing part of a door frame.
That's my large freezer on the left, which at one point - when my desk was in this part of the house - was "cleverly" used as a white board. The last brainstorm session stayed too long and now it won't come off. At least you can't see it from the rest of the kitchen. Oh, and one of the kids *coughCcough* added to it later, I found. The hanging cords were disGUSting. I barely remembered to unplug them before cleaning, but I did.
There are 2 windows in this corner, which was lovely when I spent the day there at my desk. Now, they're really just pointless. Worse, they're awful. I cleaned the glass and trim inside, but they're no better to look through than when I started. It doesn't photograph well, but the screens are torn, and there are hundreds of bugs, leaves, and other things stuck between the screens or storm windows and the interior pane. I don't even know how to clean that all out. I'll work on that later, when I'm cleaning outside I guess.
Here is the aforementioned popcorn machine. It, itself, still needs to be cleaned, but it's back in its home now that the surroundings are much better. It's hiding the cleaned and better contained cords.
Once again I started moving things before taking the opening picture. Perhaps you can see above that there were random dishes stacked to the left of the microwave and others on top, in addition to Santa there.
The microwave was actually worse than it appears, because half the mess was on the glass plate that I'd already put in the dishwasher with everything else I moved from this area. This poor microwave, by the way, is from around 1983. I distinctly remember when we got it; it was such a "new" thing that the appliance store that sold them held cooking classes free with purchase for something like 6 weeks, to teach new owners how to use them. I used to have the microwave fudge recipe from a class memorized. The fancy button settings don't work anymore, the meat probe thermometer is long gone, and it isn't even-heating anymore, but by golly it's still kicking.
The left side done...
...the right side, not so much. Those boxes there have been sitting, unpacked, since my mom moved in, in 2007. I found Christmas plates, crystal glasses, and an almost full (large) bottle of rum.
The microwave done...
...and there it is. That's a lot of Pediasure on the left, that used to be stacked on the floor in front of the microwave. The picture on the windowsill is an old one of the family from when C was a baby; I found it with the boxes and cleaned it up. Inside the buffet is almost entirely Christmas dishes, so I'll clean those and the interior shelves in November when I get them out. There's no need to open it until then so I'll leave it alone for now.
So that was my Sunday triumph: one useless corner, one piece of furniture (exterior), and one countertop appliance. Onward and upward from here.
I've started up here and there with a plan or a poa or basics, but I just wasn't getting anywhere. And I could blame it on illness and things, or I could just suck it up and admit that I'm a lazy wench most of the time and just wasn't hauling my ample butt up out of this chair (or bed, more likely) to get any real work done. I'm not sure what bit me Saturday night, but suddenly I thought I was really ready to get moving. I decided to start in one end/corner of the house and move out from there doing anything and everything I could reasonably do along the way.
I woke up Sunday morning, ran over to the dollar store across town (which of course uses "run" in the sense that I drove, because there's no running from me, especially across our admittedly small town), and plunked down a bunch of money on cleaning supplies and came home to get to work. Incidentally, all that stuff I bought? 2 things I thought I was out of I had several of, 2 things I thought I had I can't find, and in the first 5 minutes the new long-handled duster went missing. Oh, and I still don't have anything that will cut through grease effectively. And so it goes.
I really did work yesterday. Probably a solid 4 hours all together. What I got done was a generally unused, small corner of my kitchen - but it's DONE, man. I'll give you the tour:
I remembered to start taking pics after I moved the popcorn machine out of this corner and picked up the first few things - including the lid to a round, covered trash can which we haven't owned in about 2 years. This is possibly the "deepest, darkest" corner of my house, kind of an afterthought corner in the back end of the kitchen. The only thing it's good for is storing the popcorn machine, and as such has been much neglected an abused.
After picking up, sweeping, and scrubbing, this is as good as the floor gets. The vinyl flooring came with the house all scratched up that badly, I swear. The tall piece of wood leaning in the corner is part of the door frame of C's room...a story for another day. It's staying there, out of the way, until I work my way around to there and figure out how to reattach it decently. Or maybe it's the one from my room? One of us is missing part of a door frame.
That's my large freezer on the left, which at one point - when my desk was in this part of the house - was "cleverly" used as a white board. The last brainstorm session stayed too long and now it won't come off. At least you can't see it from the rest of the kitchen. Oh, and one of the kids *coughCcough* added to it later, I found. The hanging cords were disGUSting. I barely remembered to unplug them before cleaning, but I did.
There are 2 windows in this corner, which was lovely when I spent the day there at my desk. Now, they're really just pointless. Worse, they're awful. I cleaned the glass and trim inside, but they're no better to look through than when I started. It doesn't photograph well, but the screens are torn, and there are hundreds of bugs, leaves, and other things stuck between the screens or storm windows and the interior pane. I don't even know how to clean that all out. I'll work on that later, when I'm cleaning outside I guess.
Here is the aforementioned popcorn machine. It, itself, still needs to be cleaned, but it's back in its home now that the surroundings are much better. It's hiding the cleaned and better contained cords.
Once again I started moving things before taking the opening picture. Perhaps you can see above that there were random dishes stacked to the left of the microwave and others on top, in addition to Santa there.
The microwave was actually worse than it appears, because half the mess was on the glass plate that I'd already put in the dishwasher with everything else I moved from this area. This poor microwave, by the way, is from around 1983. I distinctly remember when we got it; it was such a "new" thing that the appliance store that sold them held cooking classes free with purchase for something like 6 weeks, to teach new owners how to use them. I used to have the microwave fudge recipe from a class memorized. The fancy button settings don't work anymore, the meat probe thermometer is long gone, and it isn't even-heating anymore, but by golly it's still kicking.
The left side done...
...the right side, not so much. Those boxes there have been sitting, unpacked, since my mom moved in, in 2007. I found Christmas plates, crystal glasses, and an almost full (large) bottle of rum.
The microwave done...
...and there it is. That's a lot of Pediasure on the left, that used to be stacked on the floor in front of the microwave. The picture on the windowsill is an old one of the family from when C was a baby; I found it with the boxes and cleaned it up. Inside the buffet is almost entirely Christmas dishes, so I'll clean those and the interior shelves in November when I get them out. There's no need to open it until then so I'll leave it alone for now.
So that was my Sunday triumph: one useless corner, one piece of furniture (exterior), and one countertop appliance. Onward and upward from here.
Monday, March 21, 2011
So I was talking to some of the girls the other day about my decluttering for my Memorial Day weekend garage sale. Because I have such a headstart, I'm limiting myself to going through 10 items per day. A box does not have to be completed in a day. The attic does not have to be completed in a day. I'm grabbing a box from storage and sorting into 4 piles: Keep, Donate, Sell, Trash (Note: This is NOT 10 items per category. JUST 10 items per day)
Keep items are packed away if I can (for my future move) or simply cleaned and put away.
Donate items are put into a box and any time I go into town, I drop it off at the charity donation center.
Sell items are priced, which can take more time to research online, but then put in the garage "staging" area for my future sale.
Why am I telling you this? Because it was pointed out that in one month, that's 300 items! Just try it, you'll be amazed how quickly you can sort through 10 items!
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