Life in 409

A Real All-Star

2011-06-01T08:40:00.004-04:00

The kid is 11 years old and has been playing Little League baseball almost every year since he was 5. He is a solid player – not the best on the team, not the worst. He usually plays in the outfield where he doesn’t get much action. He can hit; he also knows when to wait it out and often walks. This year his hitting has improved and he has gotten a hit at nearly every at-bat. The coach and manager have been impressed with him and have told us so. He goes to every game, every practice.

There are only four teams in the Majors division this year; each got to pick six for the All-Star Game, which was held last night. My husband felt that with all the compliments J has been getting, and with half the team going into the All-Star lineup, the Kid had a pretty good shot. I was more cautious as I know how stressful it is waiting and hoping to be picked...

Last Tuesday was the last regular game before the All-Star game, as there were no games over Memorial Day weekend. The manager said he had not yet made his All-Star picks, but we would know soon. This brought back bad memories of last year, when J's team had sent the five kids who were the kids of the team's coaches and managers (all different people from this year's group). He had made the decision in secret, as opposed to other teams who had made a big announcement and encouraged all the kids to come and cheer on their friends.

Back to THIS season... after practice on Friday night, the Kid was smiling when we picked him up. “I am probably going to the All-Star game!” The red flag went up in my pessimistic mind: “What do you mean ‘probably’”? He said that the manager was away, but the coach told him, "The manager has final say, but right now, you are on the list." My husband spoke to the assistant coach who told him what a great job our son has done all year, and how she is pulling really hard for him. My doubts still lingered but I was excited for him and he was excited for himself.

We received no phone calls regarding the game over the long weekend. While this put further doubt in my mind, my husband felt it meant nothing had changed, and he was still in the lineup.

What was stressing my husband out was that J has a major role in a play at school, and this would be the final week of preparation – dress rehearsal Tuesday and Wednesday, performances Thursday and Friday. J had been warned that he could not miss dress rehearsal, which was going on until at least 6:00 PM - but he had to be on the baseball field by 5:45 PM. I wrote him a note that I would be picking him up at 5:20 and he braced himself for a lecture from his drama coach, but said it would be worth it to him. He got the lecture but was allowed to go.

We picked him up. He ate and changed into his uniform in the car – baseball pants and his own t-shirt – he would be getting an All-Star jersey to wear over it! There was a moment of tension when we realized I’d forgotten his Yankees hat. I figured he could wear any hat from the car (the logo shouldn’t matter, this being the all-star game and not a regular team game – right?) or borrow one if worse came to worse. I let him and my husband off at the park entrance, and took the other kids to go find a parking spot.

By the time we arrived at the field, there was a problem. I thought it was the hat – had to be a Yankee hat. My husband was pouting but I solved that quickly – the assistant coach’s husband had on a Yankees cap and she took it off his head and offered it to J. No problem? “Yankee is Yankee” agreed the manager. Her son actually grabbed it and gave Jake his own little league Yankee hat and all was well, or so I thought. Then my husband took me aside to tell me what the real problem was.

Apparently, J was “never supposed to be” on the team. The assistant coach said she didn't find out until 1:17 PM that afternoon when the manager sent her the roster. She says she tried to call us, but got only a busy signal. Who gets a busy signal in this day and age? Besides, our caller ID log showed no calls from her. AND she has our cell numbers but did not call those either. But anyway -- even if she had called - who tells a kid, the day of the big game, that he is not actually in the big game?

His team members heard all the drama but J kept his cool. The daughter of the assistant coach (who is my daughter's new BFF, of course) even approached me to tell me "J is not playing tonight." I was trying to be calm but I was fuming.

Despite this, J had already put a jersey on. There was also some switching of jerseys due to size. The lineup was announced, he was batting sixth and would not be starting in the field but would switch in later. Someone, I guess, had not shown up, so there was a slot for him.

I got busy with the other kids, setting up chairs and getting them their food from the bags. My husband had already told me, quietly, that he had yelled and screamed – VERY UNLIKE HIM – when he found out what was going on. How do you do that to a kid? The manager was very calm in any case. He maintained that it was all a miscommunication and J was never supposed to be on the team.

Then there was commotion behind me. The final kid – a huge kid, the kind where you want to check his birth certificate – had shown up and his Dad was yelling about "Why doesn't he have a jersey?" and "Why isn't he he in the lineup?" I heard the manager telling the dad that the kid was late – it was already 6:01 PM and they were starting already – and the dad was making a stink. Next thing I know they are telling J to take off his jersey. But to my amazement, and pride, he didn’t. I tried to listen in without being obvious but in the end I just let things happen.

In any case, he was playing -- and when the fifth batter got out, ending the inning, he was set to lead off in the second. But when the Blues got up to bat again, he was scrubbed. Again he was told to take off the jersey, again he did not. The big kid batted in his place, wearing a Coach's jersey, and his dad was still yelling about "Where is the real jersey?"

J didn’t say a word to us, he sat in the dugout. Here is a kid who “wouldn’t say shit if he had a mouthful” and whose stubbornness sometimes pisses me off, and he was holding his ground without being fresh or snotty. Maybe he was told something encouraging out of my earshot, or maybe he was just hoping and hoping, but he waited it out.

I noticed the head of the LL was watching the game and I approached her. Actually I asked my husband to approach her but he said he wouldn’t know what to say. So I told her what was going on. She was concerned, asked if he had been in the field (which would mean he HAD to bat), but since he had not, there was no issue there. Her eyes seemed to say “Whaddayagonna do?” and she told us it was a matter for the commissioner. The coach came over and said HE was also really upset about the whole thing as he really wanted J in the game. She said that the manager and coach are supposed to be on the same page regarding all-star picks. And during this conversation, as my husband took over the talking, and I went to check on the baby, I realized J was out in center field. Maybe the manager saw us talking to her and didn't want an issue. Maybe he was going to put him out there all along. Who knows. But he was playing.

He got up to bat in the third inning and struck out. Three up, three down, he was the third out. But he was playing. He shrugged it off and went back in the field. The assistant coach wouldn’t look my way. I wouldn’t look at the manager.

He played the whole game. Our team was losing pretty badly but in the final inning, we rallied. And J got up to bat again. And this time, he HIT. A nice strong hit and he made it to first base. And on the next batter, he advanced to second. And on the NEXT batter, he ran and ran and scored a run and we were all beside ourselves. The team went on to score several more runs – we didn’t win, but we didn’t get trounced either.

And then the game was over and the manager was telling him he had to give back his jersey – it was for another kid. My husband was right in there – "He wore it, he should keep it." The manager said that the kid wearing the Coach's jersey had to give that to the Coach, and there were no extras because the sponsors need them, and that the J’s jersey had to go to a player who was actually on the team. Yes, he said that. J's jersey wouldn’t fit the big kid though – would it? No, but everyone had switched around to accommodate him and would now be switching back.

He took off the jersey. He was perfectly polite. He told us he didn’t need the jersey. He had played and played well. He was proud of himself. He only wanted to go home and put his pictures on Facebook. I told him I was proud of him – not only for the way he played but for the way he stood his ground and did so with class. Better than I would have handled it, especially at age eleven.

-

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2010-12-23T12:38:00.004-05:00

Just some cute things Brandon has said over the last few weeks

(while watching Batman a/k/a "Batman and Rob-nan" on TV)
"Why does Batman have girl panties?"

(while carrying around and pumping a ball inflator)
"It sounds like seltzer."

Last night:
Brandon: Mom how was your day?
Me: LONG
Brandon: Is that because you didn't see me and you missed me so much?

In the car, while hubby and I were talking
"DAD! DAD! DAD!!! STOP IGNORING YOUR KIDS!"

After a fight with his brother that involved a plastic dog -- apparently Jake was calling the dog by the wrong name
(In tears) "Jake is confusing my dog!"

Mumbling something about Christmas and getting lots of presents - I'll admit I didn't hear the beginning-
Me: You know, our family celebrates Chanukah, so we really don't get presents for Christmas.
Brandon: I'm not TALKING about CHANUKAH. I'm TALKING about CHRISTMAS.
Me: I know, but I want you to know, you already got your presents because of Chanukah.
Brandon: I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT CHANUKAH, OK?

My favorite of recent weeeks was the reaction to the Chanukah presents... whether a toy or a hat and gloves, his reaction was the same:
"THIS IS THE BEST PRESENT EVER!!!"
Ahh to be three years old!

On the Street Where You Live

2010-12-14T13:49:00.005-05:00

I guess I'm not much of a blogger, for reals. There's lots I've been meaning to write about, but I never actually put pen to paper (or hands to keyboard) and do it. Today, though, I need to vent about something.

My husband has been wanting a GPS for quite some time. I was very resistant because I don't like the whole idea of them. I think they contribute to the dumbing-down of society. I think people should learn to read maps and know how to get around. But after getting lost and engaging in yet another argument (and another and another), I finally decided to buy him one for Chanukah.

I gave it to him on Friday the 3rd. I even used it the other day and I admit, playing around with the different voices and options is even kinda fun.

Then today he calls me and says the super rang his bell to tell him someone broke our window. Or more accurately, smashed it with a rock. And bam, no more GPS.

It just makes me so angry. The unit itself wasn't high-end, it was less than $120 with the tax. The broken minivan window will set us back a few hundred dollars (we have a $500 comprehensive deductible and we don't have full glass protection). The aggravation of filing a police report, finding a glazier, cleaning the mess - priceless. Did I mention it makes me so damn angry?

I try to teach my kids right from wrong. I try to embrace my husband's philosophy that "anything that can be replaced with money isn't really that important." But I already spent a buttload of money this season -- including "Winter Wishes" gifts for underprivileged children, which my husband dropped off by using the GPS to find the facility, by the way -- and now I have to shell out more because some piece of sh*t decided to rob me?

In desperation, I called my credit card company, which has a Purchase Assurance plan, that reimburses for stolen items if it is less than 90 days from the purchase date. Oh joy!!!! Hurrah!!! What? Not so fast. It does not cover items stolen "from the inside or outside of a vehicle." GREAT. (I am going to try to file a claim anyway - it couldn't hurt.)

So now the husband, who is home in 409 with not one, not two, but THREE sick children (youngest has a random fever, middle has a tummy ache, cough and sniffles, oldest puked this morning) is dealing with the NYPD, the insurance company, and who knows what else, and I am here at work trying to channel my anger into this post.

This isn't the first time I've been robbed in the neighborhood. Our old car, a 1996 Oldsmobile, was broken into several times in the late 90s. The thieves would steal the computer chip that controlled the car... apparently they could sell it for a quick $100 but it cost us $400+ to replace each time. It was stolen at least 3 or 4 times between 1997 and 1999. Finally they took the whole car (not off our block though; it was parked on a busy street in another neighborhood) off our hands. It was found a week later, not by the NYPD, but by someone who had noticed it parked on a dead end street for several days. He had found a receipt with our names, and called us to let us know. The thing was stripped and a total loss. On our current van, we've had the driver's side mirror stolen a few times, as well as the radio antenna.

Besides than the car, there's been other incidents. A few years ago, I had cash stolen from inside my apartment. I am 99.9 percent sure it was my young neighbor, but I couldn't prove it -- and his mom said he didn't do it -- but that's a story for another day. Oh, and just the other day, we had a package delivered and left in front of our door - my husband left it out in the hall while he brought the kids in, and when he went out to get it a little later, it was gone.

So tell me - what am I supposed to do with this helpless, angry feeling? How am I supposed to teach my kids any values? And on the flip, how can I teach them not to get hung up on material things, when I am so hung up on this right now?

To Mom or not to Mom?

2010-04-26T14:33:00.004-04:00

My son J is playing Little League this year. Having turned 10 in December, he is in the Minors, which here consists of 9 & 10 year olds. He had not played last year, but did play 2 years ago. Of course Minors is very different from 7 & 8s; some of these 10 year olds are big and strong and a few show a hint of fuzzy facial hair. The pitching is faster and harder; the stakes are higher; there are playoffs as well.

J is a decent player. He can get a good hit to the infield, he waits for his pitch and doesn't swing wildly, he listens to the base coaches and he makes strong attempts in the outfield. He is short, but not the shortest on the team. With 9 plate appearances he is batting .400 with an on-base percentage of .667 including getting hit by a pitch in Game 1.

The roster has, I think, 12 kids... the coach can put 9 in the outfield and let 10 bat in any given inning. The thing is, they have played 4 games so far, and my J has sat out for portions of three. In Game 1, he batted the whole game, but was only in the field for the second half. Game 2, he again batted the whole game, but was only in the field for the first half. Game 3, he played the whole game. Game 4, he played the first 3 innings, then was out for the second three (no at-bats or fielding).

So... with 1/4 of the regular season down already, I am unhappy with this pattern. With 12 kids and 4 games, should he have really been out for portions of 3 of them, when other kids haven't sat out at all?

I don't want to be "that mom." But he is frustrated and sad. When he brought it up after Game 4, I told him I would speak to the coach if he wanted me to, and likewise would stay out of it if he preferred. At first he said he wanted me to talk to him, but later said he would do it himself. His prepared speech is simple - "I was hoping you could put me in the whole game this time, since I have sat out a few times already." I suggested he wait before speaking - maybe it wouldn't be an issue the next game. Intelligent and thinking ahead, he would rather speak up early, because once the lineup is made, they won't change it. He was very disappointed that Sunday's games were rained out, as I think he had already psyched himself up.

Look, I know coaches want to win. I know that. But I also know that kids don't want to sit on the bench (not to mention that parents who pay for Little League should get to see their child play more than a few innings a week). Again, my son is far from the worst player on the team. The assistant coach told him several times on Saturday what a great job he did -- he only batted once, but he hit a double and then scored from second; he also made a good stop and throw from center field. Does that mean he will play him next time, or was it only empty reassurance?

So what do you think, parents? Should I stay out of it? Next game is Tuesday evening. I will be at work and will probably not get there until the game is half over, if at all. My husband thinks we should stay out of it as parents (but let J speak up if he chooses). Thoughts?

Eskomix

2010-04-06T15:57:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I taught B about Eskimo kisses. He can't quite say it; instead he says, "Gimmie Es-ko-mix."

I don't think I am ever going to correct him.

By the way, that link taught me something new about Eskimo kisses, which are not exactly what I always thought.

A Beautiful Mind

2010-03-23T09:28:00.003-04:00

My daughter is smart. My son is smart too, but I am only realizing now just how smart my daughter is. Since J was always advanced, and S is three years younger, it seemed natural that she was always a little behind him. But now that she is 7 and reading - nay, DEVOURING- books on her own, it is easy to see just how intelligent she is. And I'm so proud.

Of course, I was smart once too. I got told constantly, through elementary school, how smart I was. Back then I was always jockeying for position of "smartest" with a boy, Tony, who was my friend and rival... but I knew I was smart. I loved to read (still do) and was a fast reader (still am). I got 100s on my tests. I got honors. I won the spelling bee (though not the science fair - never liked science).

And then I went to Junior High. I was still smart, but there were other smart kids. And I got lazy. And in High School I discovered friends, and hanging out, and music videos... and I was still smart, but I was too cool to let people know. I got good grades when I wanted to, and bad grades when I didn't. I slacked off, but managed to ace my standardized tests (Regents, PSATs, SATs). I went to a great school but did not get into my top choice. In college I was happy, I loved my friends and classes, but I got lazy in pursuing a career.

And here I am today. I'm in a mediocre job, where I'm not even important enough to be kept on the payroll full time. I still love to read but I'm not doing the great things that I'd guess my mom & dad expected from me as a child. And I wonder how to keep my son & daughter (and the tiny terror, when it's time) from falling into the same trap.

Where have I been all my life?

2010-03-19T10:00:00.003-04:00

A lot has happened here in the last six months. A lot of nothing. Let me give a quick rundown.

In late August, I was told by my boss that on September 1, I would be cut to part-time -- working 3-day weeks for 60% of my usual pay. The upside was I would keep my benefits. It came from above my boss's head (they actually told him to cut someone and he talked them into the part time deal) and it was supposed to be temporary, but my boss made it clear that if he were me, he wouldn't waste any time looking for something else.

I have been doing that, with no luck. Some people would say I'm being too choosy and I should just apply to any- and every-thing. But I don't want to be stuck doing something I hate for a company I hate (well, I'd do one or the other, but not both). And I need enough money to support my family. Others are saying that the hubby should get a job to supplement things. And yes, maybe he should. But he's been out of the workforce for 13+ years and whatever he is qualified to do right now probably won't help all that much. I feel responsible and yet I'm getting nowhere with sending out my resume.

I have been daydreaming about returning to school for a complete career change. I keep thinking about nursing. (Not breastfeeding, ACTUAL nursing, as in, being a nurse.) I just don't know how it would be feasible because I NEED to work full time... I need the money. How could adding school be possible? Still... a plan is forming and even if I can't swing it now, I may be able to swing it one day. People do it all the time.

But anyway... it's been 6 months. SIX MONTHS of me working part-time and you would think with all this "free time" (ha), I would have everything else in my life under control.

But... not.

My boss has been very flexible with my schedule, allowing me to take the days when I need them, as long as my hours add up at the end of the pay period. I managed to stack December so that I was off most of the week my kids were home, and I am doing the same for spring break. But the back and forth, the off and on, it gets to me. One month I decided to work half-days the entire month, to see if that made me feel less crazy and more organized. It didn't. Working 9AM - 2PM with an hour commute each way really didn't feel like part-time at all -- it felt like full-time for part-time pay -- so I went back to 3-day weeks the following month.

As for the apartment sale... well... I didn't tell my realtor right away about the part-time thing. I was counting on the fact that by the time we'd get an offer, I'd be back to full-time, either at this job or another. Didn't work that way. In December, since we weren't getting offers, she pressured us to lower our price. We did, even though we weren't happy about it. In January the offers started coming in, albeit at the lowered price that we weren't thrilled with. And we were down to the wire, with pressure from the realtor to accept an offer, so I called up a mortgage broker to see what we could realistically afford on my greatly lowered income and...

The news was not good. We have excellent credit and we would make a profit from the sale, but that is not good enough these days with the tightened lending restrictions. Our new expected housing payment would make our debt-income ratio enough to squeak by with the banks, but not for the amount we need. If we bought a house, we could not afford something big enough or in good enough condition to be worthwhile. Buying another (larger) co-op would cost less, but we would never pass the co-op board, which generally requires an even lower debt-income ratio than the bank.

So after much back and forth and internal debate, I came clean with the realtor and we took our apartment off the market. And I cried for 2 days because it was a huge blow to me.

I tried to convince myself we dodged a bullet. After all, we weren't thrilled with the offers to begin with. They were definitely below what we expected, even in this crappy market, and maybe it is better to step back for a year or two until things improve.

Except... now we're back stuck in this little crowded apartment... and because we don't have the pressure to keep it cleaned up for showings... it is even worse than before.

And my free time slips away day after day and I'm still getting nothing done. Except...

Spent time in the park and playground with my little terror
Took naps
Started organizing my very disorganized photos and albums
Did a few focus groups and extra mystery shops
Volunteered at school picture day
Had lunches with my hubby, with an old friend, with myself, with my little terror
Hung out a little, here and there, with my older kids, when they weren't too busy for me
Spent most of Christmas week home when the kids were home
Spent too much time on Facebook
Did dishes, folded laundry, picked up toys over and over and over and over and over (how do you SAHMs do it?)
Watched too much Law & Order
Cooked (sometimes)

What I should be doing is cleaning, decluttering, organizing, painting (walls, not art), writing.

Food for thought

2010-01-21T12:29:00.002-05:00

Another post having nothing to do with clutter (which, by the way, still reigns chez 409). This is probably my first semi-political post as well. You've been warned.

My older 2 kids attend public grammar school here in Queens, NY. I expect my youngest will follow suit in 2-3 years. The NYC Public schools, as you may know, are suffering from massive budget cuts. My kids' school lost roughly $1 million in funding this year. As a Title I school, it gets some monetary aid that others do not, but still - massive cuts are massive cuts.

Last fall, the schools chancellor twisted the knife even more, by eliminating bake sales, one of the major sources of fundraising in the public schools. The ban was put in place to help eliminate excess sugar and fat in the children's diets. A noble idea, but misdirected, in my opinion.

In my kids' school, bake sales were generally held by the sixth graders, to help fund their senior activities such as a class trip, dance and tee-shirts. They have had to resort to alternatives this year, none nearly as successful, especially in a school with low parent involvement and cash-poor families. These parents and families are now being asked to take up the slack by making a $50 contribution to fund their senior's activities. Not all will be able to afford it.

As of last week, however, bake sales are back on. Hurray, say the seniors. Not so fast, says the chancellor. The ban is being lifted, temporarily, for one reason: to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti. Again, misdirected in my opinion. I applaud the efforts to get our children involved in fundraising and relief efforts, particularly since NYC has such a large, Haitian community. But meanwhile, our schools are losing valuable programs such as Academic Intervention Services, extracurricular activities, and library services. Why not let the bake sales continue - perhaps after a certain threshold or timeline has been met - this time to benefit our own kids and families?

Something completely different

2009-08-14T09:42:00.009-04:00

Today I'm writing about a different kind of clutter - what Flylady calls "Body Clutter" - ie, the excess weight we are carrying around on our bodies.

I am 5 feet tall. Though some calculations recommend my weight be as low as 108, I feel and look happy when I am about 125. (I am curvy, particularly on top, and solidly built). In my 20s I fluctuated through the 120s... started rising after my second child was born. When she was about 2 1/2 (summer 2005), we took a vacation and the photos shocked me... I had really put on weight. I tipped the scales at about 144, higher than I'd ever seen when not pregnant. It finally got me moving.

I did a modified version of the Weight Watchers POINTS program using some old materials a friend had given me and some free websites for calculations (in other words, I didn't officially sign up or pay for WW). I had started this many times, but finally got serious. Over the next few months, I managed to get down to 128, where I looked and felt great. That was early 2006.

About 6 months later, I got pregnant. Maintained a pretty healthy weight. I nursed, which kept the pounds off. And as he grew and I nursed less and less, the pounds piled on again. And now, summer of 2009, I am right back where I was four years ago, at 144 pounds (and baby is just over 2 years old).

I made a few false starts already this summer, but I am starting yet again. I have had my morning coffee with a tablespoon of half and half. I am staring at a biscotti I brought from home, knowing it's 4 points and wondering if I should eat it (I'm not feeling hungry but it looks goooooood). For lunch I packed tuna (2 points, no mayo) with lettuce (no points) and 1/8 teaspoon of almonds (2 points for that little bit!!) We are probably eating dinner on the go tonight which already piles on the points, so perhaps I should skip the biscotti afterall.

By the way, looking at the two photos here (one from 2005 and one from 2006), I realize I don't look all that different. You might say the same if I posted one from today. In fact, these days people are constantly telling me I look great and asking me if I LOST weight. (It may be because I am trying to focus on my posture, and also because I finally traded in the nursing bras for some well-fitting, super-supportive models.) But I know myself. I know when my pants refuse to button at the waist and my skirts are too clingy and I know when I just feel fat. Fifteen pounds on a frame my size makes a big difference.

By the way - I FINALLY got the keys to my storage unit!!! I can't wait to start moving stuff in!

Of course I almost moved myself in there last night after freaking out and screaming at the 2 year old for dumping water all over the bathroom floor. I don't know what set me off but I had a full-on freak out. Instead of locking myself up, though, I took a walk. To Dunkin Donuts. And had a big iced mocha latte (with skim milk and no whipped cream). And a Boston Kreme donut. Soooo... we will do better today. Right?

Just a Cute Story

2009-08-10T16:53:00.003-04:00

The big kids are going to day camp this summer. Not every week, but five (maybe six) weeks out of the nine. (By the way, a nine-week summer seems somewhat unusual on the NYC Public Schools calendar. I think it's usually eight, but I'm not complaining.)

Husband has to be home around 4:45 to meet the bus when they get off. He generally takes the little one out to the park in late afternoon, then heads back to wait for them on the stoop. The other day, B was not content to play. Instead he grabbed his Dad's hand and led him over to the stoop, anticipating the bus's arrival.

It's sweet things like this that I have to remember when he is biting and hitting and generally trying my (and the big kids') patience.

Apartment update: Had a showing yesterday and having another one today. Still no bites, but supposedly today's lookie-loo is "very interested." The broker also told her we are "very negotiable" though I'm not really sure that is a great thing to say..

the blue kimono: How Do You Simplify Your Life?

2009-07-21T09:58:00.000-04:00

the blue kimono: How Do You Simplify Your Life?

Someone on one of my Yahoo Groups pointed me to this post... I think it's really good.

The Story So Far

2009-07-17T17:51:00.002-04:00

Sorry it's been a while. I doubt anyone's actually reading, so whatever. Here's the latest news, in no particular order.

After much nagging and cajoling, finally got the listing on the MLS!!!
It's listed with a photo of the stoop, a photo of the lobby, and several of the private park. Still no interior photos.
Still nagging the super about the storage. He claims it's cleaned out and he just has to get me the keys and the lease. Okay, I'm waiting.
We had pretty much no one show up for the open house. Okay, TOTALLY no one, as far as I know. Maybe because the apartment was not listed!
We have had a few showings over the last few weeks. The reaction has mostly been that it's a good space but needs work. We knew that.
Realtor called me Monday to see how low we would go, gave me a number that is 12.5 percent below our asking price. She didn't have an offer, but she was feeling someone out who was actually looking for a one-bedroom. I told her I wasn't sure (since there was no offer yet and the person hadn't even seen the place). Hubby was home when they came. The lookie-loo didn't even look past the living room - she wanted a 1-bedroom.
Neighbor across the street, who has been trying to sell his place for 2+ years, is finally about to close. His apartment is the one we almost bought 7 years ago. It is nicely renovated. He sold it for $1,000 LESS than what we are asking.
Apparently he had a buyer last year willing to pay $38,000 more than what he finally sold it for. The deal fell through because the buyer could not get an APPOINTMENT with the co-op board. (You read that right - it's not that he didn't get approval - he never even got in at all. That's scary.)
Neighbor used the same realtor as us, at first. He eventually sold it on his own.

I think that's it.

Two Days Away

2009-06-11T16:54:00.007-04:00

For the last few weeks I have been obsessively checking my building management’s site, Craigslist, MLS and the New York Times and looking for my apartment listing. It’s still not there. My broker had not yet answered my email from Monday about getting the keys to her for the Open House (2 days away) and asking WHEN my apartment would actually be listed. I finally called her yesterday. She apologized for being out of touch as she had some family issues to take care of. She assured me the apartment would appear in the MLS before the Open House (did I mention, 2 days away!) and that the Open House would be the official start of marketing. She is picking up the keys Saturday AM. Open House is from 12-4 Saturday and Sunday. TWO DAYS AWAY.

I’ve been working hard trying to get things in order but I know that what looks incredibly awesome to me still looks like a cluttered freakshow to other people. But maybe the open house will be a good place to start - I'm sure there will be lots of feedback afterwards (presuming it actually gets publicized).

My kids and I have been cleaning up their room a little each night and it looks pretty good right now. I've also been trying to neaten the obvious stuff... but with very few places left to stash things, and no storage yet, I haven't had much luck. I am thinking of stashing a bunch in my car tomorrow night and then driving it off to storage after Little League on Saturday, since we can't return home during the Open House... but we'll see if I have the time and ambition.

Tonight, in addition to staying on top of the mess and getting my bedroom and closet in order (in 409, the closets that would normally be inside the master bedroom are actually in the hallway outside the bedroom), I have to help my son make an “American” dish for the cultural festival at school tomorrow. Are mashed potatoes American? I sure hope so.

Open Sesame

2009-06-06T22:32:00.001-04:00

Realtor emailed me - she is setting up an Open House for this coming weekend.
EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!!

Dum de dum

2009-06-05T16:27:00.003-04:00

Somehow I thought things would move faster. After I recovered from the initial insult + injury of being told my clutter would repel buyers (not in so many words, but still...) I tried to tell myself that the realtor knows her stuff and that I can only do so much. But I still feel like I'm not doing enough.

I emailed her Monday asking when it would be listed... no answer (other than a dream that she was deliberately blowing me off). I emailed again Wednesday and she wrote back apologetically, saying my agreement had just been signed by their VP (I signed it and sent it to the realtor almost a month ago!). She also asked when a good time for showings is... but that's it (other than a dream that we found a house I loved and hubby hated).

As of today I still don't see the listing. Maybe over the weekend?

Oh - and I've still not done anything new about the clutter and "busy" aspect. I've been wiped out (and, yes, lazy).

Now what?

2009-05-27T11:45:00.003-04:00

I am at work, but also near tears. My apartment is right now neater than it's looked in months, and yet... the realtor tells me that her photographer says it still "shows too busy." In other words, he doesn't think he can take pictures to market it to its best effect until we put a ton of stuff in storage. My super still has not come through with the storage unit, but the realtor suggests that even the available unit might not be big enough and I should go with a public storage type place. She offered to take photos with her camera (ie, not the fancy photog) just to get them out there, but she still recommends decluttering (DUH).

--
While I was typing she called me back. She thinks it might be best to get it out there WITHOUT photos (or photo of the building/park only) and let people be drawn in by the price & description. Then when she brings them by, she can explain the situation. Makes sense, but still really, really demoralizing. She also did suggest it still might not be a bad idea to start packing stuff up and storing it (after all, we'll be packing to move anyway, right?)...

We shall see.

When's the Day? Wednesday!

2009-05-21T16:36:00.004-04:00

That's the day the realtor is coming to take photos for the listing. YIKES. Given that I will spend a good portion of the upcoming long weekend cleaning and neatening, I'm still worried. My fear is that my toddler will undo everything I've done in the space of time between me leaving for work at 8am and the realtor's arrival at 11am. He's fast like that.

Remember that scene in Poltergeist where the mom pushes all the kitchen chairs neatly under the table, turns away for 2 seconds, and turns back to find THIS?

Yeah. That's what I call Brandon-style.

Ink and Paper (and Scanner and Email)

2009-05-12T16:55:00.002-04:00

Monday morning I brought the marketing agreement to my husband who was trying to get back to sleep after moving the car to a legal parking spot (we had parked at a meter the night before, had to move the car by 7:30 am, one of the “pleasures” of street parking in NYC). I said “Here. Sign my Mother’s Day present.” He did. Later he called me up and asked if he had really signed it. But he had a smile in his voice.

Today (Tuesday) I scanned and emailed it to the broker. I’m a little nervous (okay, a lot). Also I just called my super who said he would get back to me about the storage space “sometime maybe next week” when he has the keys. I’m not hopeful, considering we had this same conversation at least a month ago. It may be time to start schlepping things to the inlaws’ house.

Other than that, I’ve just been dealing with a wicked bout of mastitis. That’s no fun at all.

Ways My 22 Month Old is Like a Puppy

2009-05-07T13:33:00.005-04:00

This has nothing to do with moving, selling or clutter, but it's on my mind.

Keep in mind that I love children and I love dogs... would love to have a dog if I had the space, but I don't now. Plus my oldest is allergic, and my middle is afraid of them ever since my sister-in-law's shih-tzu bit her on the ear last spring, and my youngest... well... read on.

Ways My 22-Month Old is Like a Puppy

If I am reading or working while spread out on the floor, he will come sit on whatever has my attention
Runs to the refrigerator as soon as it is opened
Insists on sharing my food
Will steal any unattended food
Runs to the door when I come home, blocking my entrance while greeting me
Runs to the door if he senses I am about to leave
Doesn't like to be on a leash (I tried out a kiddie-harness at BJ's. He got mad that I wouldn't let him hold the end himself. Did not buy.)
Likes chasing dogs, squirrels, and balls
Afraid of the vaccuum
Makes a mess wherever he goes
Full of energy
Climbs on the furniture
Adorable and cuddly

Tabled

2009-05-07T13:15:00.002-04:00

The marketing agreement is still on my table. My husband is stalling me. "I just don't know where we are going to find a place," saith he. I know he's not good with change. I don't want to steamroll him. But we have to move sooner or later, so why not sooner?

It's not like we'll be out in the street, right? I mean if someone wants our apartment, and we can't find someplace else to live, we just postpone closing, right?

It's a buyers market, right?

Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow

2009-05-05T15:43:00.003-04:00

Apologies for the Saved By the Bell - The College Years reference... I now have a marketing agreement in hand, just awaiting my & hubby's signatures... I know signing and returning it will be setting everything in motion. If that's what I want, why am I stalling?

Nothing wrong with the agreement. My sister, a broker herself, looked it over and said it seems to be kosher. Six month "exclusive right to sell" agreement, commission will be paid at 4.5 percent (5.0 if another broker is part of the deal), apartment will be listed in the New York Times, the broker's website, Craiglist, the MLS, and more...

By the way, in one week, it has gone from "presentable" to "disaster area" once again. This is part of what terrifies me. How can I keep it neat enough to show on short notice, especially when I am out of the house from 8am to 7pm every day and my husband is home with Destructo Boy?

Step 2

2009-04-28T17:21:00.002-04:00

The broker emailed me last night with a friendly follow up email, reiterating her pricing suggestion and asking if we wanted to market it. I emailed back that I think we're ready, and also asked her about a dozen questions. Her reply was quick: I'll send you a marketing agreement. EEK.

The beginning-

2009-04-27T09:40:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone (anyone?)

Well, I've done it. I've finally taken the big step and started the process of putting 409 on the market. It's a little sad to me. I loved the apartment so much when we moved in, in early 2002. Back then it was just me, the husband, and our son, who had just turned 2. We were living in a 1-bedroom rental and we bought an apartment in the same complex, just across the street. We had moved a bunch of stuff over a little at a time, before the "big moving day" and when we took J over to see his new room, he ran around, happily exclaiming, "All my Toys are 'eere!!!" Of course, now it's seven years later, and we have THREE kids (and two turtles, and a crawfish, and a frog) and all the stuff that goes with them, plus my husband and my own's packrat tendencies. But that is all about to change.

I was stalling and stalling about calling a broker. I felt like I needed our place to be in tiptop shape before I would let a stranger in to assess, analyze and judge it. It slowly dawned on me that the place would never be in tiptop shape. (If it were, there would be no need for this blog, not that I've really kept up with the blog, but you know what I mean.) I also realized that telling my kids (and, let's face it, my husband... and really, ok, me too) that "we need to clean up so that when we put it on the market, it looks nice" really meant nothing to them (us) because it was somewhere in the future... Until it is really on the line, it is just not real. (Yes, I admit to being a procrastinator... was there really a doubt?)

Even after realizing this, I dragged my feet. How do I pick a broker? How do I know if it's the right broker? Can I get a storage unit to temporarily store some of my mess? What do I do first?

Finally I broke down (HEH. I first typed "broker down") and called JN at my building's management company. She is the dedicated broker for my building so I figured I'd start with her. I had Friday off and spent a lot of time straightening up... we were out all day Saturday, and the plan was for her to come Sunday at 1:45 after my girl's tee-ball game. She actually pushed it to 4:30 which gave me more time to straighten and (gasp!) mop the floors and (swoon!) clear the dining room table (again).

Her visit was nothing like I imagined. As I said, she is the dedicated broker for the building, so she already knew the apartment and the line very well. She took mostly a cursory look around. Her assessment: hey, it is what it is. It hasn't been updated, it's not in great condition. Someone is going to buy it looking for a bargain and knowing they have to put some money into fixing it up. The price point she suggested was lower than I'd hoped, but in line with what I expected. It will still give us enough money to pay off the mortgage, pay off the credit cards, and have a down payment for the next place.

My biggest surprises? Two:

I asked when we start looking for OUR new place, and she said, "When you have a signed contract for someone to buy this one." I figured we would be looking as soon as our place is on the market.
I asked what I should do to get it ready, and was surprised to find that there's not much I can do. Cleaning up the clutter in the entryway might make for a faster sale, but not necessarily get us more money. Painting? Would be nice, but not necessary. "You have three kids, are you really going to be able to paint?"

JN was honest about everything, which is why I liked her. She showed us the scuffed up floors in the entryway that may need to be replaced... mentioned the lack of dishwasher... but she also reminded us of the great selling points - large size, great view, lots of light, utilities included... she thinks it will go fast if we use her price point.

She didn't ask us to sign anything... she said we could get some pictures taken and get it up on the market ASAP. I guess I will get back in touch with her in the next few days... I think we are going to go for it...

A New Leaf

2009-03-10T10:44:00.002-04:00

I had lunch with an old friend yesterday, someone I haven’t seen since college. She made me laugh a lot, as she always did. Surprisingly I made her laugh too. She said I should write this funny stuff down. I don’t think I’m that funny and now I can’t think of anything humorous to say.

I didn’t sleep much last night, for no reason I can figure. Just had an insomniac night, where I kept trying to sleep and realizing, Hey, I’m not asleep yet. So now I'm tired. And I'm sick of my job and looking for work, but trying to be thankful that I have a job.

So what's funnY?

Last night my six year old needed to know how to spell “diary.” Apparently she was writing in her Hello Kitty diary (which, until now, has just been used for drawings). She told me she wrote about Brian and that I could read it later. I said no - that I didn't need to read it, that a diary should be private. Of course, I was curious about what a 6 year old girl writes in her diary about a 6 year old boy with a mohawk, but I restrained myself. Practicing for the teen years, I guess. Or maybe restraining myself now so I feel LESS guilty when I can't restrain myself in the teen years (future me: “What? I swear this is the first time I’ve ever read her diary. It’s not like I’ve been reading it since she was six!”) This morning she said she was bringing it to school so she could write in it at afterschool. I dissuaded her from this as well.

Am I being funny yet?

2008-11-13T15:10:00.003-05:00

I was a bad Mommy this morning.

It's hard to get my kids out of bed. They probably go to bed too late, but we're working on that. It's hard to drag myself out of bed as well (I already know I go to bed way too late).

So this morning, as usual, I spent a good 20 minutes yelling at them to get up, get dressed, get up, get dressed, etc. I was already overstressed because hubby was out moving the car, Baby decided he needed milkie RIGHT NOW, and I still had to put their snacks together and get myself dressed. And it was already 7:35 AM.

But they got out of bed (finally). And hubby found a spot for the car. And the Girl finally got herself dressed, and the Baby was settled in his highchair with some yummy Gerber puffy-snack things. And I was beginning to think we might get out the door on time after all. And then, the Boy comes to me with this: "Mom, have you seen my glasses?"

He says he put them on his table last night, as always. But they weren't there. And they weren't on the floor (at least what I could see of the floor). And we couldn't find them.

My guess is that they were moved by the Baby, who likes to sneak in there once I turn out their lights (yes, the Baby is routinely up later than the big kids; he doesn't have school and he naps when he feels like it, and it was the same way with the Girl and the Boy back in the days before they went to school, so no lectures please). The Baby likes to take stuff and move it - as evidenced by the fact that I have now been sleeping in my contact lenses for 5 nights because he stole/hid my contact lens case and I am too cheap/lazy to buy a new one.

But instead of blaming the Baby, I screamed at the Boy. And the Girl. Because of the mess. And the fact that I have to do everything. And they have too much crap. And they never clean up. And they don't take care of their things.

I used lots of curse words. And yelled. And threw some stuff. And yelled some more.

They got to school just as the doors were closing. My son did not have his glasses (of course we couldn't find his old ones either, which have been on my dining room table since about January but suddenly are not there anymore) and I don't know how that worked out for him. His eyesight is not as bad as mine, but I get the feeling it's not so great either.

Of course, I am still sulking and feeling the bad mommy feelings. And wondering why decluttering is still so very hard for me.

Hi!

2008-11-04T13:28:00.003-05:00

My evening, last night.

7:10pm Arrived home
7:15pm Nursed baby (Okay, he's a toddler. Whatever.) while watching Spongebob Squarepants
7:25pm Dinner. Mainly leftovers and food grubbed from a visit to the inlaws over the weekend. Tried in vain to instill conversation and manners into children who feel the need to stand on their chairs or walk away mid-sentence.
8:00pm Debated with husband about whether he should do laundry (sheets, towels, underwear, etc.). It's been 2.5 weeks since we last washed those categories, the Boy has been wearing my socks and I may have to go commando pretty soon).
8:15 Sat on bathroom floor wondering why hubby is allowing baby/toddler to walk through building hallways banging baseball bat on the floor. Hubby comes back to tell me downstairs neighbor complained. Duh?
8:25 Hubby decides to do laundry after all.
8:30ish After wandering around the apartment picking up various stray toys, papers, etc., decided to do 15 minutes in the hallway/dining room (which is Flylady's current Zone). I took the big basket that has been sitting on my table forever and decided I wanted it OFF my table. Sorted through it while watching wrestling with the Boy. Basket contained
- several Christmas, birthday and anniversary cards from 2006
- headset for cell phone that hubby never installed
- blank thank you notecards from various kids bday parties
- A few random already-WRITTEN thank you cards from various kids bday parties (UH. OOPS. Sorry. And thanks.)
- Chunks of rock (coral?) from 2007 vacation
- Art projects from school
I was able to junk a lot of the cards (though I still kept a few), put away the blank cards, toss the thank yous that never got sent (sorry, REALLY), put the art projects in a different file (I want to get boxes to put away the best of the kids' schoolwork so I can toss the rest, I guess. Also need boxes for the cards I insist on saving).
Now the basket is on a bookshelf and will be used for CURRENT stuff (ie, papers and mail that have to be dealt with within the week. That's the plan, anyway.
9:00ish Flipped mattress for the first time in, er, years. The Girl and the baby/toddler watch in amazement. Also, I put on clean sheets.
Was thrilled not to worry about bedtimes since kids are off tomorrow.
around 10:00ish Attention divided - 50% watching Boston Legal and 50% coloring with the Girl.

What I didn't do: Dishes. Now there's a sink full.

Something New?

2008-09-09T17:30:00.002-04:00

Maybe I'm just not meant to write a blog on decluttering. After all, I'm not very good at it.

Going Home Alone

2008-08-13T17:59:00.003-04:00

It has been a crazy few days here. First I'm proud to say I mostly did everything I needed to do over the weekend. I managed 15 minutes a day in my kitchen, which included getting rid of some more old food, organizing the canned food and baking stuff in my cabinets (WHY do I have four cans of evaporated milk and what can I do with them?), and throwing out some pot lids that no longer have related pots. Unfortunately I did not do any work in the kids' room. At all.

On Sunday I misjudged one of the narrow pathways between the clutter. Unfortunately, the baby's highchair was sticking just into the pathway and I banged my pinky toe on it. Hard. I think it might be broken. It's all bruised and swollen. I've been taping it to the other toe and it feels much better, but it does still hurt. See kids, clutter is dangerous!

My hubby takes the older kids each year on a special trip, each one separately. He and the Girl are away right now, they come back tomorrow and he leaves with the Boy on Friday. My in-laws are nice enough to watch the Baby and the child who is not with Dad. Of course, the Baby is still nursing, so for the last two nights, I stayed over and commuted from Long Island. As such, nothing got done at home, since I haven't been there.

Anyway, after much internal debate, I have decided not to stay by my in-laws tonight. Instead, I am going home alone. This is only the second time in probably 8 years that I have been home, alone, overnight, with no kids and no husband. The first time was just about two years ago. I was nervous then, but not as nervous - the Girl was already 4 by then, whereas the Baby is just 13 months and still wakes up at night. I know he will be fine, but I didn't really want to burden my in-laws with that. Still, my mother in law kept saying to go right ahead, so I'm taking her at her word.

And what am I going to do with my night off? Declutter!!!!!

At least that's the plan. I thought about doing 15-20 minutes in each room, running through the place, organizing and neatening. Then I realized what I really want is to clean up my bedroom. Really clean it up. So after picking up some takeout, that is what I am going to do. Wish me luck.

Hubby has the camera, but I'll try to get a "before" pic with my cell phone, at least.

So far, so good!

2008-08-08T09:22:00.004-04:00

OK. I got a lot done last night. Right after dinner, hubby took the older kids to the park. Baby was asleep so I stayed home. Yes I vegged out in front of the TV for about 20 minutes, then I went to clean off some shelves in the kids' room. I had set the timer for 15, but the baby woke up after 9ish minutes, so I played with him & cuddled for a while, then went back in for the other 6 minutes. These 6 minutes consisted mostly of me yelling "NO!" while he took things off the shelves, tried to eat papers, etc. As I was about to give up, his eyes caught a Little People farm that I had freed from a pile of junk. While he played I managed probably another 15 minutes. I tossed a bunch of stuff they won't miss (junky prizes from goodie bags, a set of dominos missing half its tiles). I also took some other items they won't miss into my donation bags, such as a babyish and annoying toy-guitar-like-thing that lights and plays the same few songs over and over when you "strum" the air, and a phonics "writing desk" learning toy that they have never really used (there is another over at my MIL's if they get desperate). In the process, I found tons - and I mean TONS - of loose trading cards - baseball, wrestling, Garbage pail kids, Webkinz, etc. The boy does have a large collection of these, organized in binders, so I'm not sure what all these extras are. I put them in a box for him to deal with later. The shelves are looking better already.

Anyway, once they came back from the park, the Boy and the Girl got involved in a game and were actually playing together nicely (despite banning the Baby from playing one of his own new toys, which was somehow part of THEIR game). I managed to get in the kitchen and get some stuff done there too. I did clean off both of my kitchen carts - though not completely and not perfectly, I worked for 15 minutes and got rid of even more stuff, including:

big box of instant hot cocoa mix packets that has been there for at least 4 years (yuck!)
big box of microwave popcorn packets - the popcorn tasted funky last time I made it, probably because the packets said to use by 2007!!!
dried up plastic placemats we haven't used in years
old cookie sheet with burns and scratches all over it
stale gum from breadbox

What's left is a lot neater, too.

Things I'm not sure what to do with (hey, ya interested?)

Gift box set of Remy Martin liquor and glasses - we're not really drinkers but I don't know whom to give it to
Gift box set of some other fancy liqueur and glasses (ditto above)
Old Pentax Optio digital camera that stopped working (would someone want it for parts?)
5 rolls of Fuji film (I do still have a film camera, but haven't used in a while. How long does film keep these days?)

I also put a bunch of books up on Half.com but I've had others up there for years with no takers. Does anyone actually use this service? I think I'm better off with Paperback Swap.

Finally, I cleaned and shined my sink as Flylady insists you do when you start/restart her program, got all the dishes done, and cleared one of my "hotspots" (a Flylady term for an area that keeps getting cluttered and recluttered - in this case, the corner of my dresser).

So I'm feeling optimistic as we head into the weekend. Busy weekend ahead, a wedding shower tomorrow (have to go tonight and buy the gift!), a Mets game tomorrow night with the family, and then another Mets game on Sunday (our annual "group outing" with a bunch of friends - and probably our last, since the new Mets stadium is going to be so pricey and inaccessible). Next week is crazy because I am spending a lot of it at my inlaws' house and commuting from there - hubby is taking the Girl on a father-daughter trip from Tuesday to Thursday, then taking the Boy on their father-son trip from Friday to Monday, and MIL will be watching the baby (and the kid who is not away with Dad) while I'm at work. So I guess I will be spending most of my nights on Long Island, since I'm still nursing and since baby Boy doesn't like to sleep in a crib...

4:19PM Edited to Add:

I wanted to add my weekend goals. I'm tempted to list a ton of stuff, but I think it might be better to list only the things I'm realistically going to be able to accomplish. To that end:

Small food shopping excursion (just the basics, since I will be gone much of the week
15 minutes per day in kitchen
15 minutes per day in kids' room (preferably with kids helping, though more gets done without them
Put new photos onto computer so camera is ready for hubby to take on his trips
Clean out one shelf of videotapes/CDs/junk from entertainment center (there are 6, I have done one already).

That should keep me busy, especially since I am trying to keep up with VERY basic morning/evening routines (cf Flylady) once again.

Happy weekend everyone!

Oh yeah

2008-08-07T16:44:00.003-04:00

Two posts in one day! That'll show 'em!

I thought maybe it would help me if I posted what I hope to accomplish each night. You know. To keep me honest and all.

Flylady is in the kitchen this week. I plan to declutter the two microwave carts (15 minutes or as long as it takes).
Also plan to hit 3 shelves in the kids' room (15 minutes or as long as it takes).
That is all.

Another Day - er, 4 months - Another Post

2008-08-07T11:30:00.005-04:00

Well. Here we are. More than 4 months since my last post. And my apartment is still looking fabulous and pristine.

NOT.

Yeahhhh. Although Stacy was awesome, it didn't last. She was more than willing to come back, but I couldn't stomach the thought of paying her again when I couldn't keep up with her great work. Instead of being happy with what she had done, I was doubly frustrated by not being able to keep up with her progress.

So here we are again. More than half the year gone, and still the same mess.

I try - or at least I feel like I try. But obviously I'm not trying hard enough.

Signed up with Flylady yet again. Mostly it results in a cluttered email inbox (as if my email inbox weren't cluttered enough), but it gives me a little more motivation. As does the idea that we are indeed going to have to move soon, since the little man is growing by leaps and bounds, and the big kids are needing their own personal space. My heart wants a house. My brain knows I barely have the strength to keep up with an apartment. My heart says a house will have lots of room. My brain says it will become just as cluttered as the apartment, so why add the extra expen$es.

I do want to keep up with this blog - but I think the decluttering aspect is just frustrating (ie, if I have no progress, I have nothing to post). So I'm going to use this to post about both my clutter and my "real life" - yes, I do have a life OUTSIDE 409 - and to keep you updated on the clutter as well.

CLUTTER UPDATE:
Last night we cleaned out the refrigerator (DH's idea). We tossed, among other things:

Farina that expired in 2006
Scary looking old salad dressing and jellies
Very old big cookies from a bakery (in shrink wrap, but still, very old)
Bag of stale shredded coconut (which I used to feed to the hermit crabs, which have been dead for several years now)
Bag of stale marshmallows
Packets of duck sauce, chinese mustard & McD's bbq sauce

I still need to really CLEAN the fridge - which logically should have been done at the same time - but whatever. I did sponge up some of the more obvious yuck, but I need to get in there with the elbow grease, preferably when the baby is not trying to get in there and whack me on the head with a very old bakery cookie he pulled back out of the garbage.

I also cleaned out under the kitchen sink, which I have been dreading. There is water accumulating there and I need to call the super. The leak is coming from behind or under the cabinet, which is now starting to rot (and attract insects). Lovely. We have been in the place 6+ years (we own it) and have never redone the kitchen, but this part will at least have to be repaired before we sell the place. I just pray the leak is from inside the wall, which would make it a building expense, rather than inside our apartment, which would make it OUR expense.

From under the sink, there wasn't really much to toss, but I did organize it a little better, and make it neat for when the super comes to take a look. And I put down some Combat gel. I also got rid of

Wet grocery bags (which I usually keep around to use for garbage bags, tossing out diapers, etc)
Stencil pattern bought 6+ years ago and never used

More tomorrow. For reals!

Bitten: One Bullet

2008-03-31T17:47:00.003-04:00

So, I finally did what I've been considering for years: I hired a professional organizer. I found Stacy on Craigslist and after several emails back and forth, I finally found the courage to call her. I did hem and haw, but she was a good salesman (read: a little pushy) and she had Saturday morning open, so I agreed.

She said she works fast, and she did. Somehow she managed to do the things I wouldn't or couldn't: zoom through my worst spaces, insisting on decisions, convincing my kids to toss out things they don't play with and don't love.

It was a nail biter. I was panicking, I knew somehow that my kids (okay, me) would freak out later about "Why did I get rid of this" or "But I still loved that. It was all I could do not to stop them from tossing the Dora doll (one of at least FOUR that the Girl owns) or the Batman observation tower (but you LOVED Batman!).

There were times she went so fast I was afraid things would get missed in the shuffle: She presented the kids with a big bin of teeny tiny toys and said, grab what you want and the rest is going out... boom boom boom and she was dumping it in a big trash bag... the Boy did rescue a few things and he seems ok with it all but I wonder. Maybe it's all me, and not them.

She wasn't too forthcoming about donating stuff, dismissing a lot of it as "broken or missing pieces" when I didn't think it was, or "not worth the bother" when I DID think it was. Especially since I am always trying to teach my kids not to be wasteful. Then again, this way the stuff actually did leave the apartment (as opposed to all the stuff still in my kitchen awaiting a time when I can take it to Goodwill). Nonetheless, after she left, I did rescue a few things from the trash (to donate, not to keep. I don't think.)

One big burden of which she relieved me: My son has a collection of Rescue Heroes and their stuff. If I had to guess, I would say maybe 50 guys, some with pet animals, plus several vehicles (police car, dune buggy, boat). And a giant Rescue Command Center which is about 3 feet high and took up a large part of my living room for about 3 or 4 years now. He hasn't played with it in ages and has said many times he's ready to give it up. We (hubby and me) always said we didn't want just to donate it randomly or throw it out, since it was such a big collection. Anyway, Stacy also sells on ebay and she took the entire collection and is going to post it on a commission basis. The only thing she wouldn't take was the Command Center, as it is too big and bulky to ship. She suggested I toss it. I couldn't bear to do that, so now it's in my kitchen too. But I think it was a good move to let her handle the sale, etc., of all the guys, since she has the time and ebay experience, whereas the stuff I try to sell on ebay barely makes a profit and sometimes shows a loss. The Boy is excited too, as he has Dollar $ign$ in his eyes!

Don't get me wrong - the place still needs work. But the living room and the kids' room look (and feel) amazing. Stacy wants to come back and help me more. I would love it but not sure if my wallet would love it quite as much. I want to try to do a little on my own, now that I've gotten a kick start. We'll see.

The best part? The Boy was able to have some friends over to watch Wrestlemania on Pay-per-view last night, and they could sit on the couches, and play on the floor!!! Everyone was happy! (Except my downstairs neighbor. Sorry, 309.)

Pictures and more info later.

Some photos

2008-03-24T21:21:00.002-04:00

I took these a few weeks ago. They ain't pretty.

The left is my dining room table. It's been cleaned many times since, but it still pretty much looks like that. The right is my kitchen "eat in" area. We don't eat in it (obviously) but I do store a lot of crap there.

Weekend Update - March 22 & 23

2008-03-24T11:01:00.007-04:00

What I got done this weekend:

Cleaned/scrubbed stovetop, counters, dishrack & drawers. I am frustrated because although I have not seen/heard mice, I keep finding mouse poopies in my dishrack and next to my toaster oven. I am now being extra careful to take out the garbage, not leave stuff in the sink, etc., as I had been lazy about taking care of these things on a nightly basis.
Took down recycling (also trying to do this daily now)
Mentioned mice to exterminator, when he came by. He was not the usual guy, and when he saw the place, he was probably thinking, "Well, DUH, look at this place, surprised you don't have roaches and bats too." He put down more pellets. Then he stood around - I think he was looking for a tip!
Went to BJs and bought lots of meat so we can cook at home. Also bought diapers, soap and other necessities that have been needed for a while. I then cleaned out the freezer somewhat to make room. I threw away a very old box of ice cream push pops that my kids didn't like, and some bread that I froze about a year ago. I did not throw out the McDonald's birthday cake that has been in there, unopened, for 14 months.
Went to Key Food and bought some other needed stuff - just the usual - milk, seltzer, eggs, cheese, yogurt...

What I didn't do that I really needed to do

Unload the laundry basket of clean laundry. We sent the laundry out last week (about 2 weeks worth) and it is expensive, but nice when it comes back all folded. The downside is, there is no urgency in putting it away - unlike when it comes out of the dryer here and is thrown on my bed in a big heap.
Unload clean clothes, toys, etc. from the bassinet that has become a dumping ground since boychik doesn't actually sleep in it, preferring the mama bed as did his brother and sister before him.
Clean off my dresser and nightstand like I wanted to, especially since my favorite earrings are missing and probably in the mess somewhere
Laundry - which I wanted to try to keep in control so we don't have to keep spending $$$$$$$ to send it out
Put together the crib - to try and get the kid OUT of the mama bed.

What else I did
Got the kids to the park. Twice. And isn't that what it's really all about?

Two steps back, two steps back

2008-03-20T14:18:00.001-04:00

Months have gone by. Things are improving but also worse. I have cleared paths and obstructed paths. I am starting over, again and again.

I resubscribed to FLYLADY. I was subscribed for so long and finally gave up. Well, I've given in and hoping that it will "take" this time. I have freecycled some things, but not enough to make a difference.

Spring, spring cleaning. Hopefully I'm back to blogging too.

See you soon.

Clearing a path

2008-01-29T12:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have not posted. Believe it or not, I have gotten a lot done at home. I can see the differences, here and there, though I think a stranger walking in would still be a little overwhelmed by the clutter.

I actually got inspired by taking out "Organizing from the Inside Out" at my local library - and then proceeded to ignore most of the instructions and planning stages, in favor of jumping right in (which the author specifically said NOT to do). The book actually makes a lot of sense and has already helped my thought processes somewhat. I loved the idea of making a space easy to use, so you use it more often. Case in point, my filing. I do tend to keep a lot of papers (mainly paid bills and medical claims) but my filing tends to pile up, because my file box is in an inconvenient place. I keep it on the shelf under the computer which is a)dark, b)hard to get to, especially when someone is on the computer, and c)distracting, because I usually end up jumping online "just for a second" and stay online until I get called away, usually before I actually do any filing.

So, I bought a new file box (to replace the shabby A-Z file folder currently housed inside a milk crate) and I put the file box in the kitchen - next to the mail slot where I usually end up sticking the stuff to be filed. VOILA!!! File this under "why didn't I think of that?"

In the process of being excited about filing (and also thinking about getting my tax stuff ready), I also threw out a ton of paperwork. Like I said, I save a lot of papers. I don't think I'm obsessive as some people, but I realized there was plenty I could throw away, including

Medical claims and paid bills from 1997-2001 (I kept the last few years though)
Bank statements and paid credit card bills from 1997 to maybe 2002 or 2003
All the paperwork on my student loans, which were paid off in 2003 (I kept the final statements for each)
Paid parking tickets from over the last 10 years. There must have been 20 or 30. I only kept the most recent ones.

Probably some other stuff went out too. I didn't weigh everything but I'd guess there were 50 to 100 lbs of paper. Amazing! In doing this I cleared a whole shelf on my printer stand and fit all the rest into another file box (it's mainly tax stuff going back 6 years and the bank statements & credit card bills from those years). That's also in the kitchen now, underneath the active files. Of course, the newly cleared shelf is already filled with stuff again, but that's temporary -- it's mainly stuff I want to put on ebay, Craigslist or Freecycle and haven't had a chance.

Best of all, it's easy and quick to file now, and I've cut out the step of shoving everything in my mail slot until I feel like filing, and I no longer have to sort through it again and again when looking for other important stuff in the mail slot.

There's more... but it will have to wait.

,

Stinkin thing lost my post

2008-01-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

I didn't have a great title, anyway. OH well. Here goes again.

Last night was a bust. We had a PTA meeting and didn't get home until after 9pm, at which point J. announced that a) he was hungry and b) he still had homework to do. I fixed him something to eat but I was angry about the homework. To my credit, I didn't blow up - but I was pissed off nonetheless. Then he wanted to play a game with me, but I explained that there was no time - he had to finish the HW (which he was frustrated with, and didn't want to do) and then go to bed. Somehow he was still up until 10:30.

I managed, finally, to put two items on ebay - a PUR Water Filter system that I had tried to install but couldn't get quite right, and a Power Rangers radio-controlled Ninja cycle that J. has had for over a year and never opened. (He agreed to let me list it and I agreed to share the $$ with him.) Also managed, during this, to figure out how to download from my new digital camera. That means pics will be coming soon!!

Oh - the good thing - at the PTA meeting, S. received the Student of the Month award for her class and got to go on stage with the other winners. (Not to leave him out, J. got the award for HIS class in December.) I'm so proud!!!!

The Crib Thing

2008-01-16T10:15:00.000-05:00

Let me explain that last comment yesterday about the crib.

Our kids are 8 years (J), 5 years (S), and 6 months (B). We have never owned a crib.

When J was born, we had the best intentions. We were living in a one-bedroom apartment, so we didn't have a nursery to furnish. Hubby's grandma had made us a beautiful yellow bassinet and we planned to use that in the beginning, and get a crib a few months down the line.

J slept in the bassinet for a night or two, but he was fussy and would cry. I ended up cuddling with him one night (I believe my excuse was "he's cold,") and he went right to sleep. About two weeks later, I figured out how to nurse him while laying down and dozing off myself, and that was that. He stayed in the bed. We never bothered with the crib because we didn't mind co-sleeping.

When J was 2, we moved to a larger apartment (2 bedrooms) and I got pregnant again soon after. During the pregnancy, we worked on transitioning J from our bed to a toddler bed. Then when he was 2.5 he developed asthma and somehow went back to sleeping in our bed (I wanted to watch him breathe). S was born and we tried the bassinet again, but half-heartedly. Most nights we had both of them in bed with us. When J was 3.5 we got him a big-boy bed and worked on the transition again, since he was ready to start pre-K, was potty trained, and so on. But S stayed with us and the idea of buying a crib went bye-bye again.

So now B came along. The big kids have bunk beds and sleep in them most nights (though little miss S protests a lot). We decided that B would be the one to sleep in the bassinet and even get a crib. Hubby's sister went so far as to buy the crib for us - months ago - and is just waiting for us to give her the ok to have it delivered. B was sleeping in the bassinet most nights - or at least starting out there until the overnight-nursing session. But I go back and forth. I really don't mind having a baby in the bed - it's the toddler and pre-school age when it gets tough. But there is a lot of pressure to have a crib this time around - from hubby as well, as he is tired of sharing. It's just that I'm the one doing the overnight work with the baby, and I'm also the one who has to get up early every day. So why not make it easier on myself?

Middle of Month 1

2008-01-15T12:22:00.000-05:00

It's been nearly a week since I posted. (Should I keep posting? Is anyone reading? Who knows. But maybe posting helps keep me honest/on track.)

What's the last week been like? Hmm. Well, I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of routines. I make a lot of plans but they don't become habits. I have, however, been great about writing (obsessively) in my planner. I write every little thing that I need to do, and lots of them are getting done! But my problem is, and always has been, that sometimes I forget to look at my planner. And then things don't get done.

My kitchen -- still kind of bad. But I'm not letting things pile up on chairs, and I'm getting the dishes done (almost) every night. Garbage has been going out, and recycling going out more often too. Don't want to encourage the mousies anymore than we have to, right?

In the kitchen, I took down two large, yellowed plastic box-style picture frames (which contained two large, yellowing Jello ads from the 60s, which I love, but which don't make me happy anymore). In their place, I hung J & S's school photos. That alone made my kitchen look so much nicer upon entry. Um, the framed ads are still on the kitchen floor though. Bad. Are they worth anything? Who knows.

My dining room table -- still has holiday decorations out, and a basket full of crap on top. Still has a missing nut/loose leg. But getting better. I finally hung up B's big photo plaque which was about to get ruined by sitting UNDER the dining room table. Speaking of decorating, I took down about 10 watercolor paintings that were taped up in my entry hall... they were also curling and yellowed. They were painted by S back when all S could paint were blobby things (maybe they were impressionist or abstract masterpieces?) OH! And I taped up the telephone wires that were dangling for the last, um, five years (yes, they were dangling when S was a crawling baby. But she turned out ok).

So, some beautifying did happen, but nothing is beautiful with all this clutter, as I've lamented over and over again.

Did I get rid of anything? Let's see. I called my neighbor to tell her I was bringing back her baby swing that she loaned me for B, and she told me she didn't need it anymore, so I should put it by the trash. So now of course it's back in my hands. Did I put it by the trash? No. Because what if someone needs or wants it? Gotta freecycle it. But it's nice! Should I Craigslist it? But what if she sees it (she loves Craigslist) and thinks I am taking $$ out of her hands? Dilemma!!! Why is it easy for her to say "toss it," but not so easy for me?

What else have I gotten rid of? Not much. The guy never came to pick up those packing peanuts, so I still have those. Gotta email him for one more chance. Sigh. I just don't know what to do anymore.

My living room really needs to be intervened with tonight. Asap. Jake's birthday gifts are all over the place... books have exploded outward from the bookcase onto the floor... you get the idea. FLYLADY would be in "the bathroom and one other room" this week, and the living room next week, but I think I may bump the LR up and work on the kids' room during LR week. I can dream right?

Oh, I did make some headway in my bedroom. Got hubby to throw out a bunch of old sweatshirts. Dismantled the quilt rack (which is a nice idea, but really just causes quilts to collect extra dust) and put the blankets into the now-empty space where the sweatshirts were. Um. Yeah. Not much else. But I figure that if I put away my maternity clothes (ever) and move the DVD rack, the crib will fit along the wall.

The crib is a whole 'nother issue. Maybe later.

... and losing ground...

2008-01-09T10:09:00.001-05:00

What got done yesterday:

Baked brownies with the kids, for J's in-class birthday celebration
Listed asthma peak-flow meter on Freecycle (actually I think I did this on Monday)

What didn't get done yesterday:

15 minutes of decluttering
garbage taken out

I guess baking the brownies was a good thing, time spent with the kids doing something fun. But I can't take the way my house looks anymore. (I say that every day. So why can't I fix it?)

My table leg keeps falling off. It just needs a nut, but I don't know what size. The bolt is attached to the leg so I can't bring it to the store to see (unless I bring the whole leg). I guess I have to take a nut off one of the other legs for comparison. Meanwhile I just yell at the kids every time they lean on the (now very wobbly) table. What I really want is a new (or used, but new to me) dining room set. I want a SMALLER table, so that (a) it doesn't get as junked up with clutter (yeah right), and (b) it fits the space better as we need to move the highchair back in there soon and there's just no room.

Also I need to tape up the electrical wires that are trailing my dining room floor (phone is in the kitchen, outlet is in the dining room) because baby boy is starting to move around!!! He's not yet crawling but he's getting squirmy, and nothing is safe from his jaws...

Picking up speed

2008-01-08T09:34:00.000-05:00

Last night was a hassle. Without getting into details, let me say that we rushed to an appointment, cramming down McD's as we went, and the appointment was canceled. The good news was, we got home earlier than planned. Time to watch American Gladiators with J, and help him put together his Steel Cage Wrestling Ring (birthday gift from Grandma). I also forced myself to work in the kitchen for 15 minutes. I didn't get much done but I started in the front corner where random things tend to pile up.

There were a few toys over there that somehow didn't get into the donation pile last week... they will have to go out, and the sooner the better. (Is it wrong that I reclaimed two of them for Baby B?)
I found a Peak Flow Meter that the insurance company had sent me for free, for the kids' asthma. We never used it. I listed it on Freecycle instead.
Threw away my old drill set that refuses to charge.
Put away my other drill that was laying around (power tool + small children, not a good combo).
Threw away the excess paperwork from the kids' school candy sale, moved the last few "deliveries" (for Aunt/Cousin) onto hallway shelf ("staging area" for things that need to be returned).
Gathered up serving utensils to return to PTA, bagged them and moved to "staging area."
Ditto for earrings hubby bought me that broke and need to be returned/exchanged.
Opened set of LED bulb stick-on mini-lights and tested them out. Cool, they work! Now I just need to figure out where to put them.

So, not too much but it already looks a little better/brighter.

Still, sometimes I see my apartment as others see it and I just want to crawl into a hole (or a pile of dirty laundry) and hide.

Weekend Update - First weekend of 2008

2008-01-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

It was a sort-of busy weekend, I got a little done but not much.

I did list that big box of packing peanuts on Freecycle. I have someone who may want it. Better than that, when I hauled it out from under my dining room table, I also found a $30 Toys R Us gift card that I didn't know was missing, and my MIL's Chanukah present, which I had forgotten was missing. So that was nice.

Much of Saturday was spent at a party at the home of one of J's classmates. They have an apartment around the corner. It's a 3-bedroom but the 3rd is tiny and off the kitchen; I think they created it rather than it being a true 3-bedroom. I don't know that we will ever find a true 3-bedroom in Briarwood. Not that we've really started looking. Yet. That's a topic for another day, though. In any case, we stayed at the party most of the afternoon, I slapped together some spaghetti, sauce (Tuttarosa) and frozen shrimp for dinner, we made the goodie bags for J's party, and not much else got done.

Sunday was J's 8th birthday party, which was really a lot of fun and only a little stressful. Of course when we got home I realized I didn't have my camcorder on me. The place says no one has turned it in. I am hoping maybe someone took it by mistake and will return it. But what are the odds? I can replace the camera but I can't replace the disk of the party memories. I get so angry about things like this. Angry at myself for being careless but angrier at society. Even so I'm pretty calm, for me. Nothing I can do, right?

Anyway... like I said... not much got done. I've been unable to commit 15 minutes a day to decluttering - or even five minutes. Just being lazy, I know. In Flylady land, the first week of the month is dedicated to the dining room and entryway. Mine are pretty horrible these days. I still have holiday cards and decorations out, hats & gloves all over despite my attempts to corral them, and things are starting to pile up along the wall. Gotta stop this. But since we are starting the second week, it's kitchen time, and I really want to work on that. As I've said, my kitchen is pretty large, or it WOULD be if I could clear out some of the crap.

Other notes...
What didn't get done this weekend that really should have -

my laundry (the stuff I wash delicate so hubby doesn't fry it in the dryer)
kids sheets & blankets needed washing
J's scarf that I promised I'd fix
Partial turtle water change (slacking off already)

What got done, surprisingly enough -

Dumped a stack of papers roughly 8 inches high, that I didn't even know I had (mystery shopping notes from 2003 & 2004)

At least it's Friday

2008-01-04T10:33:00.000-05:00

No significant decluttering yesterday. Worked all day and then was out all evening on a date with hubby. We ate at the Marriott Marquis (had a gift certificate) and then saw Young Frankenstein on Broadway. Hubby liked it much better than I did - but still, it was a night out. Got home at 11:30, so that was it - I washed & prepped the baby bottles for today, and then went to bed. I did, however, give our babysitter 3 fancy dresses that I will never wear again. I love these dresses, but they didn't fit my post-baby curves even when I was at my lowest weight, and "the girls" just can't wear spaghetti straps anymore. Hopefully they will bring M. some happiness.

Tonight is Friday, so hopefully I can get some decluttering accomplished over the weekend.

About to Freecycle a large, almost-full box of styrofoam packing peanuts from under my dining room table...

Dids and Didn'ts

2008-01-03T12:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday/Last Night:

Did:

Succeed in getting QCP to pick up several large bags & boxes of toys and clothing, after months of being stored randomly around the apartment

Partial replacement of turtles' water (should be done 1-2 times a week, gets done rarely if ever, usually resulting in nasty green water after 2 weeks. Changing all the water is a big pain, so we procrastinate, water gets nastier, turtles get unhappy, big hassle ensues)

Played games & read with kids

Crockpot dinner, washed dishes

Didn't:

Declutter at all

Today:

Need to:

Go to the bank, make deposits

Pay bills & parking tickets

Going out on a date with hubby tonight (dinner & "Young Frankenstein" on Broadway) which is good for us, but means nothing will get done at home (ie, no decluttering). Kids are home sick from school, but not sick enough for us to have to miss the evening out (so far, knock wood).

Deja Vu All Over Again

2008-01-02T11:24:00.000-05:00

Well here we are. January 2, 2008. And the last time I posted was pretty much exactly one year ago. All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about how I was going to get rid of my clutter and get things in order by the time I had a baby in July.

Well, I'm proud to say, I had a baby boy in July. But as you may have guessed, I never got rid of the clutter. I now have more clutter than ever. My living room is still unlivable. My bedroom is a disaster area. The kids room is a war zone. My roomy kitchen is still not roomy. My dining room table remains mostly buried, and we eat around the piles of papers and mail. The only uncluttered room remains my bathroom, which is really just too small to hold any clutter.

But I'm blogging again so I must be ready to commit, right?? (Riiiiight.)

Yesterday was January 1. A new year. And despite superstitions (not my own) about not taking anything out of the house on New Years Day, I got rid of lots of garbage. Hubby brought down the recycling (which gets out of control for some reason). I actually CLEANED my kitchen. I mean, the kitchen is generally clean due to daily maintainence, but this was more of a pro-active cleaning. Good thing, too, as it turns out the kitchen was not as clean as I thought... when I moved the microwave, I found a chewed up skittle, an open lollipop... and several (OK, more than several) mouse poopies... confirming my suspicions of the last few weeks. Wonderful. I don't get freaked out about mice (this is, after all, NYC) but it just isn't a nice thought. I tupperwared some foods that seemed intact but appealing, tossed a few expired packages out of my cabinets, and stuffed all the breakfast cereals in my fridge. (Now at least my fridge looks full.) I also mopped the floor and then put out some cottonballs dotted with peppermint oil, which I hear foils them. A few weeks ago, the exterminator had given me glue traps, but they freak me out more than the thought of having mice at all - so I didn't use them... but I guess I may have to bust them out if these measures don't work.

Anyway, enough about critters... we were talking about my clutter issues.

A few weeks ago I had finally gotten around to calling QCP about making a pickup... they are supposed to come today, so this morning I dragged my donations down to the building lobby (about 6 big bags, plus a big box, of donated toys and clothes). This stuff has been sitting in my apartment for MONTHS or longer. (OK, longer.) I only hope that QCP shows up before my super decides to toss it all (I don't think we're supposed to leave stuff in the lobby like that - but I don't know what time they are coming and I don't want hubby to miss them).

I have a weekly plan, I have morning routines, I have hope. Mostly I hope it isn't another year before I post again.

Still going!

2007-01-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

Another successful night last night. Five minutes in the entryway, during which I pulled out some broken camera equipment (going to see if it's fixable or worth fixing), and some stuff to put on ebay, Craigslist or freecycle (still not sure). Also tossed 2 pairs of Little Miss' outgrown sneakers, 1 pair of hubby's old sneakers, an un-used disposable camera that "expired" in 2001, and even a partially-used disposable camera that expired in 2002. This was rough for me - who knows what photos are on that roll? But the film is probably no good and it was a cheapie with poor quality anyway. BIG STEP as I am usually obsessed over saving every frame of film ever taken ever.

So... anyone want 3 Mets seat cushions or a brand-new video camera tripod? I don't need 'em...

I also managed not one, not two, but THREE five minute sessions in the living room. All three were spent sorting through some of the plastic shoeboxes that hold many of my kids toy pieces. These were uncovered, spilled out and spread around in front of some of the storage shelves. That area is a disaster but I'm going to tackle it a little at a time.

Did you miss me?

2007-01-03T15:17:00.000-05:00

I'm back! Not that I ever really went away. I just sort of crashed and burned. That is the problem I always seem to have with the decluttering.

Well, the new year brings all sorts of new years resolutions including my annual resolution to Do Better in terms of clutter, cleaning and so on. But for the first year, I didn't make myself a Big Promise. I am starting small and slow. So far it's frustrating. But it's only day 3.

FLYLADY says to give it 15 minutes a day. Some days even 15 minutes seems monumental. So I'm starting with 5 -- or rather, two times five. My plan is to spend 5 minutes a day in Flylady's "Zone" - she moves to a different zone each week. That's part one. And for me, I am focusing on a different room each month, so the other five minutes will be spent in my "room" - starting in January with the living room, which is so unlivable that we hardly ever go in there. This means my bedroom is the social hangout for children, tv watching, snacking, and apparently, painting with watercolors (thank God my rug is old and that my kids don't have oil paint).

The last two nights I've actually managed the 5-minute Zone and TEN minutes in the Room. It doesn't look like I've made much progress, but I have found the couch and also moved a pile of photo albums that's been on the floor since, like, August. I should have taken a "before" picture. Maybe tonight.

I'm also going to start a notebook of projects and tasks that I find as I work in each room... such as, fixing the living room VCR (which, when fed a tape, promptly unspools it and spews it out). And I plan to re-vamp my nonexistent morning routines.

If all of this sounds very familiar, it's because it probably is. But maybe this time it will work. I hope so. If I really stick to One Room A Month, things should be well in hand by the end of June. At which time I'm really going to need some room -- as we are expecting a third child!!!! Sure hope that nesting instinct kicks in soon...

...just like starting over...

2006-08-15T23:43:00.000-04:00

Well my niece has come and gone. Did I get through everything on my list? Nope. Crashed and burned. The heat wave a few weeks ago gave me an excuse not to do my daily tasks and things fizzled from there.

Even so, the place didn't look as bad as it might have. The Boy was very anxious to clean up for his cousin's arrival and he really inspired me. Things really are looking better. I got the new bookshelf put together and that is helping make the living room a much happier place, as all my photo albums are finally in one place in chronological order, and some of my other shelves (where albums had been stacked) are now freed up. Hopefully, having the albums arranged nicely will inspire me to get through the box of loose photos that still have to be album-ized. MAN do I have a lot of photo albums!! And they are heavy, too!

So I guess it's not going as planned, but it's going.

The Niece, age 14, actually commented, "where's the toys? It looks like you have a lot less than last time." (I am not sure what she is smoking but it must be pretty good stuff.)

Now for the interesting part. Hubby took the Boy and the Niece to Maryland for two nights, to see the Penn League all-star game. Since I couldn't take time off from work, mother-in-law agreed to watch the Girl - but she wanted to watch her at her own house. Fair enough. Which means that tonight, for the first time since, oh, I'm gonna say 1999 or so, I am sleeping in an empty home. Tomorrow night I will probably stay over at my mother-in-law's, but everyone encouraged me to have at least one night to myself, so here I am. And what did I do on this very exciting evening? Let's see.

Left work, took a hop over to The Container Store. Have you ever been to one? It's like, they could organize anyone's life... maybe even mine. I spent about an hour browsing, but realized that most of the baskets were really too small for my needs, and I didn't want to spend all my money buying multiple baskets when I didn't even have the floor space for them. I ended up with something I'd had in mind all along, though -- a chain with clips for holding stuffed animals. I also bought a toothbrush holder and a soap dish
Went home, picking up dinner en route
Ate dinner. Took a deep breath and...
dived head-first into the Kids Room, which looked like this:
My first task: tackling the Toy Box from Hell. I pulled out all the stuffed animals (that's all that's in there - stuffed animals) and put the TBFH in the hallway. Started throwing the animals back in - both the ones that were already in there, and the ones that were laying around. I stopped counting when I hit #94 and they were scattered all over the hallway because there was no more room in the TBFH.
Went under the bed and pulled out bags of baby blankets and crib sheets. I am keeping most of the blankets as most of them were hand made and I can't part with them yet. Since I have never actually owned a crib, I took out all the crib sheets and padding, and put them in a pile for giving away. Tossed some boxes and bags that were hiding under there. Made everything else neat and put it back under the bed, out of sight.
Started moving boxes and reorganizing shelves. This was like one of those puzzles where you have to slide the tiles around until they form a picture. Every step had to be calculated three moves in advance. Add in a few injuries from stepping on teeny toys (this is why FLYLADY says to wear shoes!), and frights from randomly talking toys and stuffed animals (I'm talking to you, Cheer Bear, Stitch, and Elmo), and you can imagine the fun.
tried to hang up the animal chain on a nail that was already sticking out of the wall. This worked until the chain got too heavy for the nail (which really was not nailed in all that well) and pulled a large piece of plaster out of the wall. Good thing I don't rent. I am going to have to cover the hole and also take the time to hang this thing up decently.
took down the FANGST hanging storage from IKEA, which was really useless for us
put several dozen smaller stuffed animals into two new pop-up hamper type thingies (also from IKEA).

And so it went, until I got too tired to do any more. I should have been in bed an hour ago, that was part of the "relaxing evening" plan. Oh well. I do feel like I made progress, but I also left things unfinished - including leaving a HUGE pile of stuffed animals in the middle of the floor (yes, BESIDES the ones in the toy box and the pop-up hampers) - and if I don't get them finished before my family returns, I'll be back to square one.

In any case, the space formerly hogged by the TBFH is looking pretty awesome...
Before and After
But... the TBFH is still taking up my entire hallway, so that's no solution. I don't know where it's going to end up, but I do like the kids' room WITHOUT it. If I can find a decent covering for it, I can actually make it into a coffee table - although the top is rounded, so that probably wouldn't work too well. Hm. It sure won't fit anywhere else. Maybe the kitchen, if I get rid of those end tables that are still hanging around. (There's that tile-puzzle metaphor again.) But first I have to get the kids to part with some of those animals. I was tempted to toss every last one of them... but if I was the type of person who could actually do that, my clutter would never have gotten so out of hand...

Getting there?

2006-07-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

Last night my son broke out his legos, and he and my daughter sat in the living room on the floor and built ships and raced them. The very fact that there was room for them to do this made me realize - I'm getting there. The room is still shrinking as things pile up around its circumference, but there was room for them to play - and there hasn't been in quite a while. I'm trying not to think about the fact that the couches were covered in toys, and two chairs were piled on on top of another. I'm getting there, right?

I bought a bookcase on Craigs List, $20 from a guy moving to Texas next week. He was kind enough to take it apart, so I have to put it together. Haven't done that yet. I am going to use it to replace a smaller bookcase. My plan is to put it near the computer, so I have space for my photo albums (which are now overflowing the smaller bookcase, onto the floor and stuffed in several "nooks" in the entertainment center), some of our files, and ... not sure what else. Officey stuff. Maybe reference books and maybe some file boxes. I bought two nice file boxes the other day, I want to use one for the Boy's school stuff... but I have to sit down with him and cull the good from the bad. How do I teach him that he doesn't need to keep every single paper he ever set pencil to, when I can barely live by that rule myself?

I don't know what I will do with the smaller bookcase once it's empty. There really isn't room anywhere else. Could I maybe possibly maybe get rid of it?

That reminds me, those two damn end tables are still in the kitchen. Wasn't I making a decision on them 6 weeks ago?

Night of the Living Plush

2006-07-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a while since I updated and I wanted to let you know I'm still going along, doing my one box/bin/whatever each night and still not much else. My head has been reeling between making sure I check off one of those tasks every night (not too hard, now that I'm used to it), stressing over when we might be able to afford a bigger place, and thinking about the Kids Room.

Ahhh the Kids' Room("K.R."). Those capital letters are well deserved, as the problem is one of great importance. I have already posted pictures of the K.R. and it looks even worse these days, if that's possible. The problem is they just keep getting more stuff, but we seem powerless to get rid of the old stuff. I know, I know, excuses, excuses.

My main area of concern right now is the Plush Problem - the stuffed animals that are taking over. Now, I know there are all sorts of systems out there, like the storage nets that hang in the corner - we actually have one on the wall, but it isn't as big as I thought, and it is too hard for the kids to reach, and then there is the dust issue. I saw this one from QVC a few nights ago while flipping the channels, but I keep thinking it looks like something I could make myself (even though I would never actually do it). And I found The Zoo in a google search, which looks really cool, but seems a little pricey. And there is still the dust factor (both my kids have asthma). Still, any of these ideas seems better than our current non-solution, which is to keep the animals (a) lying all over the floor, (b) stuffed into those pop up hampers which I got from the 99c store and are already destroyed, and (c) in the Toy Box from Hell ("TBFH"). You can see the TBFH here. Or you can see it in action here (top left corner of photo).

Let me take a minute now and tell you about the TBFH. It's actually a great item, large and sturdy... the "from hell" part is more about my indecision on how to deal with it. Grandma J bought it when the Boy was little, and we used to keep it in the living room in our old 1-bedroom apartment. The lid is big and heavy, so at the time, it really was something only an adult could open and close. We mainly used it as storage for toys that the Boy was not yet old enough to enjoy. When we moved, I got the idea to keep the Boy's stuffed animals inside - it would keep them dust-free, yet accessible. The thing is, at this point in time, it is filled to the top with stuffed animals. And yet, there are still more stuffed animals all over the K.R., my room, the living room, and for some reason, in the kitchen. Also, considering the stuff that is piled on top of and around the TBFH, I have reason to believe the kids have NO idea that it even exists, much less that it is filled with happy plushie friends.

Well the obvious thought, then, would be to dump its unknown contents, and refill it with the animals that they do know exist... but I have a hard time dumping the stuff that was given to us by friends and family, or bought on special trips. So I know I'm to blame as much as the kids. I just don't know what to do. I also really feel like that space in front of the Boy's bed could be put to better use than storing the TBFH. But I don't have anywhere else to keep the TBFH at this point.

One other note about the K.R., I am really hoping that soon we can get the Girl out of our bed and into her own. But I think in order to do that, we need to buy her a real bed, and not just the little toddler bed she currently has. A better solution would be bunk beds, but then we run into an issue with the ceiling fan. But maybe we're better off giving up the ceiling fan in exchange for some nice bunk beds with drawers underneath... we'd gain back an awful lot of space along one side of the room... plenty of room for more stuffed animals!!!

Morning Routine Redux

2006-07-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

This is a pared-down version of my morning routine... I think I am having to go "back to basics" and strip down my routines to the very, very basics... that is, the chores I already do EVERY DAY without fail. What happens to me is that I add too many things and then I just can't keep up. So... here goes. Now, to many of you this may be blatantly obvious stuff... but some of this stuff seems not to get done unless I am looking at a piece of paper that tells me to do it.

Shower & wash hair
Wipe down sink/counter and toilet, swish toilet with brush
Clean out shower drain and hang up mats
Get dressed, fix hair

OK. Those are the things I MUST do every day. Now the things I really should add:

Check calendar
Eat breakfast

And finally, the things I would like to do but never seem to accomplish. These need to be added slowly... but this is where I get caught up and figure if I don't have time to do these, why bother with anything on the list... and I'm back to square one. So for now, these are officially OFF my list, until I can adapt to the calendar checking and breakfast eating part of the routine:

5 Minute Hotspot cleaning
5 Minutes in Zone
Make sure a plan is in place for dinner (even if it just means take out or hubby is taking care of it), and do any prep work
Put on makeup (ok, I know some of you are probably horrified that I don't do this, much less that it's on my SOMEDAY list and not on my RIGHT THIS MINUTE list. But I never quite got the hang of it)

I will update you on my evening routines (HA) shortly...

One box a day...

2006-07-10T21:16:00.000-04:00

..and I'm able to keep up! I am trying not to fret about other things, but I am making sure I cross one area off my list each day. So far I have done:

5 of the bins/boxes of kid-stuff in the living room
1 big shopping bag of stuff in the living room
2 shelves of the linen closet
top shelf of my closet
top of the kids armoire
1 shelf of the bookcase.

Things are looking a little better and as I'm making spots for things, each box gets easier, as now I know where stuff goes.

Unfortunately, as I said, not much else is getting done. My morning routine is the barest minimum (shower, remove hair from drain, wipe down the toilet & sink, get dressed, fix hair, go to work). Now that I have more time in the mornings, at least until September, I am trying to get some small tasks done during that time. I am also trying to make an evening routine with the kids; that is easier said than done.

I have started trying to use my calendar again, as I can't seem to remember anything unless it's written down. My problem has always been that I write stuff in the calendar, and then NEVER LOOK AT THE CALENDAR AGAIN. I was doing alright for a while, but I've slacked off, as I seem to do with everything else.

I am also going to try to get some more photos up and make this blog more interesting...

I'm still here!

2006-07-06T16:13:00.000-04:00

It has been about a week since I posted... things are getting done, albeit slowly. We were away from Saturday morning until late Tuesday night, for the 4th of July weekend, so obviously nothing got done during those days. Then again, no one was home to mess things up, either.

I have been plugging along, trying to keep to my schedule of doing one box or bin or shelf each night, at random from my list. (I even snuck in an extra one this morning - I have so much free time now that I am not getting the Boy ready for school and walking him there before I go to the train.) But I'll admit other things have fallen by the wayside... I haven't even been doing my morning and evening routine, as minimal as they are. My dining room table is re-cluttered again and the piles are growing. My dresser is subject to the same creeping pile disease.

On the bright note, by going through the bins, I am finally getting the kids toys more organized. I also instituted a summer bedtime routine for them, which will consist of bath and/or pajamas, cleaning up their room for 5 minutes, and then reading stories. Seems easy enough, and as we go, we can add to it. I read them 5 books last night - 3 short ones and 2 longer ones - and it really was nice to connect and also give them some winding down time.

Tonight I am getting my hair cut and they will all be out... with any luck I will get home before them and tackle another box from my list.

Wide Open Spaces

2006-06-29T12:19:00.000-04:00

I have been doing alright the last few nights - working off my list and not much more. So far I have done the top shelf of my closet, one shelf of the linen closet, and one box of kid-stuff in the living room. All three were relatively quick jobs.

My dining room table is once again piled up, though not as bad as it was. I should be able to deal with it tonight, as I have another night "off."

We actually all spent some time in the living room last night - amazing! - and the Boy decided he wanted to have a campout there, in his Bob the Builder tent. (There was actually room to set it up!) Yesterday was the last day of school, so I said ok. The Girl was going to sleep there too, but after 5 minutes she decided it was "creepy" and returned to our bed. (I guess her own bed is "creepy" too, as she doesn't sleep there either...)

So... overall I'm keeping up with the "list" but not with my routines too well, and I haven't done much in the way of decluttering. Now that school is out, I will ostensibly have more time... but we'll see...

It's Monday again!

2006-06-26T19:37:00.000-04:00

I did not get much decluttering done over the weekend, despite my best intentions. Hubby and the Boy went on a father son trip, and I had visions of the Girl taking long naps while I whipped the place into shape. Didn't quite work out that way - but it's alright. My girl and I did lots of fun things like going to the park, watching videos, and eating M&Ms. On Saturday I met my neighbors and their 4 year old daughter at a McDonald's with a big indoor play place, so while it poured outside, the girls got to run around for 2 hours and the moms got to sip iced coffee and talk. I don't get to connect with my neighbors a lot, so it was nice and it even felt like "down time."

As far as what I got decluttered, let's see. I did go through all my yarn and organize my many unfinished projects. I now have a list of unfinished projects and a bag of said projects along with their patterns. Will I finish them? WHo knows. But a surprising number are a) very close to being finished and b) unassigned (I didn't make them for anyone in particular) - so maybe the thought of banging them out and giving them as gifts or selling them on ebay will inspire me to get cracking. I also have several unfinished "assigned" projects which I should probably finish first.

I have more yarn than I could ever use, but surprisingly I didn't really earmark any for donations. I should have, I just didn't. No excuse here.

I also finally dealt with the portable air cooler that has been sitting in my bedroom, unused, for over a year. My super rescued it from the trash and thought I could use it as a humidifier, but I was always squeamish, since I never knew who used it last and what kind of mold or funk might have been in there - and I had no instructions on how to use it or clean it. From what I could figure out online, you have to fill it with ice and it works like a portable air conditioner. Not very practical either. But of course, it seemed wrong to throw it out. I had tried to freecycle it, but the person who was interested never made it here, and another person wanted a demonstration of how it worked (hey, buddy, I'm not making a freezer full of ice for you. It's free, take it or be gone). So, I brought it down to the basement and left it by the trash. I don't see it today, so either someone else took it, or it's already been put with the trash and I will see it outside tomorrow night. I do feel a little guilty, but every time I see that empty corner, I'm happy.

My daughter helped me straighten up the living room (and wanted me to move things so we'd have a "nice empty space") - it looks nice but we didn't make any progress on the decluttering. Still, we were able to sit on the couch and read a book without me cringing every time I looked around.

My niece (14) is staying with us for a few days in mid-August. I counted up the days on the calendar and have just about 36 days until then (skipping over the days I will be out of town or busy at night). Then I made a list of things to do before she comes - very basic - things like "living room box 1, living room box 2, top of my closet, bottom of my closet, top of linen closet, etc." The living room boxes are numbered up to 10, though I don't think I have that many. I don't quite have 36 things on my list yet, but I will add to it as I think of things. The idea is to do one thing a night so that the place isn't a total nightmare by the time L. comes around. Now that the boy's school is done (in 2 days) I hope to use my extra morning time and/or extra evening time (since he'll be staying up later) to tackle one task each night. I got home from work tonight and since no one is home (where are they? Park? Hospital? Dead in a ditch? Who knows. No note and hubby left the cell phone here) I chose an item at random. Top of my closet. It only took a few minutes because there's not much up there. Mostly I neatened it up. I do have a bag of the kids' "special" baby outfits up there but I made a note to buy 2 rubbermaid boxes - one for each - so that I can store these in a better way and move them into THEIR room.

That's all... if Hubby ever gets home we need to clean out the turtle tank as it is looking rather greenish...

Victory is Mine!

2006-06-22T07:37:00.000-04:00

Before

Ahhhh... after!

OK, I'll give Hubby some credit, he did a little bit before I got home. But just a little. I did the rest. I also washed it down to get rid of the stickers and the stickiness.

The basket still needs to be dumped and purged... and a lot of stuff just got moved temporarily to other places... but the garbage has been tossed, some things have actually been put away and the dining room is clean, at least for now.

Also last night, got the laundry folded and put away -- I was going to leave it for today, but I went ahead with it, and was much happier this morning for having done so. Do you know that in 7 days, the Girl managed to wear 15 shirts???

I will also give Hubby some credit for having done a sink full of dishes in the afternoon... (though I did b**** him out about it that morning) and for washing and drying all the clothes too.

Losing steam (again)

2006-06-21T11:09:00.000-04:00

Things in 409 are on a downward spiral, as we've been on the go for the last few days. I feel like the little progress I've made has been washed away. My dining room table, which is usually not too bad (it used to be worse) is suddenly a major "hotspot" again. It doesn't help that we haven't eaten dinner at home in nearly a week because of various events:

Last night: Baseball game - ate at game
Monday night: Co-op board meeting - ate pizza
Sunday night: Father's Day - ate at inlaws' house
Saturday night: Baseball game - ate at game
Friday night: Hubby took kids to baseball game, I ate takeout
Thursday night: can't remember, so this was probably the last time we at at home.

It's now Wednesday and my table looks like this:
This is where my son does his home- work...

...for added fun, it's also sticky!

Among the things scattered across the table are:

The pirate ship given to the Boy by my neighbor's son
a bag of soil and a flowerpot for some seeds that we have yet to plant
a box of crayons, pens, glue & other school supplies
toys
Books
a sticker stuck to the table
flowers that were fresh 2 weeks ago (or more)
cup that needs to go in the sink
the boy's homework (imagine trying to concentrate in this chaos?)

The big white basket in back started out as a temporary holding place, so that when I would clear off the table for dinner, I could just dump things in there quickly. The idea was to clean it out each night after dinner. Can you guess what happened?

On the chair are some more things we got from my neighbor's son when he cleaned out her apartment. We still have to find space for them. There's also some clothes and a baseball cap on top of the pile.

I asked my Hubby on Monday if he would clean it up. So far he has not. I know I could probably do it in less than 15 minutes but I'm just so annoyed about how bad it's gotten.

Oh and since Steph asked for the after pics of the kids' room...

Before
After 10 days

Now you see why I didn't post the after pictures...

Sluggish Monday

2006-06-20T09:22:00.000-04:00

Did nothing last night. Between the co-op board meeting, getting the kids fed and bathed, and eating too much pizza myself, I just couldn't deal with anything. (I am coming to realize a lot of my motivation or lack thereof revolves around what I ate and whether I ate too much of it. Hmmm, something to think about.)

I fell asleep earlier than usual and was up around 4am with a bad tummy ache. I eventually got back to sleep.

When I looked around 409 this morning, I realized there is not one room that does not look like a hurricane hit it. Well, maybe the bathroom. But who wants to hang out in there???

A friend asked me why there are no "after" pictures of the kids' room on here. I haven't posted them yet because they still look like "before" pictures.

Better luck tonight I guess...

Sunday Morning, all before coffee

2006-06-19T16:49:00.000-04:00

Everyone's allergies were acting crazy on Saturday due to the heat and humidity. I spent a lot of the night listening to one or both of the kids coughing. They both have asthma so the slightest cough tends to set me on edge, but there were no incidents. Still, at 6am, the Girl (who sleeps with us) started in again and I could not get back to sleep, so by 6:30 I moved to the living room. (In 409, we are often playing musical beds, and many mornings I wake up to find both kids in bed wtih me, while Hubby is sleeping in the Boy's loft bed.)

Anyway, I was still awake and watching some bad TV didn't help, so I figured I'd try to tackle some of those toy bins in the living room. It was much easier going through the kids' stuff without the kids, of course. I actually got through several bins, though the process actually made more mess, as I ended up with a dozen piles of stuff, and was undecided about where to put them. Some, I was able to integrate into the new homes we've been making in various other bins. Others are, as of Monday evening, still spread out on the living room floor. I didn't throw too much away, but my box of "stuff that I can't figure out where it's from" is getting bigger.

Eventually I had to stop, as the kids got up (also earlier than I'd planned), the Hubby got up (and wanted his Father's Day presents), and we were due to meet my inlaws for brunch... and I needed coffee, badly...

So, other than that, I didn't get much done over the weekend, but I'm feeling optimistic today. Flylady is in the Master Bedroom this week, and since I did a lot of work on mine already on Friday, I bet I can keep up and make the place much nicer by the end of the week. I hope so, anyway.

A Night Alone

2006-06-16T23:13:00.000-04:00

Hubby took the kids to the Mets game tonight, and so I had a night to myself. I picked up his Father's Day gift on the way home, picked up some Chinese food for myself, and came home and vegged in front of the TV for a while. I saw my neighbor's son had dropped off more stuff (toilet paper, light bulbs, ziploc bags, and some food from the pantry) and I rang the bell to thank him, but no one answered, so I went back to get some "work" done.

I had promised myself I'd finish cleaning the kitchen floor that I had started here so I first moved most of the stuff out of the kitchen, then got down to scrubbing - real scrubbing, on my knees with a brush. When that was done, I mopped over it and let dry.

Next I had wanted to deal with my bedroom, so I spent some time getting pretty much all the kids' junk out of there. Lots of books and toys. I was able to sort most of their stuff into the baskets and areas we had made on Saturday. As I hauled stuff into their room, I also took things back out - piles of laundry, toys that went elsewhere. So I accomplished a lot and my room looks a lot better. AHHH.

I decided I am going to give away at least one bag of the Swimmie diapers and also give away all the loose diapers from the last jumbo pack we bought. I bet I have 30 of them lying around and at least one neighbor who'd take them. I also still have two sealed bags from that jumbo pack. I know I should part with those too, but I feel like I spent the money and ... I know... it's dumb. What am I going to save them for 3 or 4 years until the baby I may or may not ever have, will fit into size 4s? (Thanks Fran for this great insight...) I should put them in my "out box" as suggested in the Apartment Therapy book, and see what happens.

Sometime during my bedroom clean up, the doorbell rang, and it was my neighbor's son and his wife, coming to say goodbye, as they are going back to Florida in a few days. I invited them in, and as they looked around, I saw my living room as they must see it - a disaster area, with toy bins and toys scattered around, not an inviting place at all. Just a ... yuck zone. I didn't really see it that clearly when my mom visited, because she is used to the mess and I'm used to not caring what she thinks. But tonight... ugh. I felt miserable.

With the bedroom done, the kitchen floor dry and things put back together in there, I took a shower, then vegged out and watched some bad TV for a while. I've probably spent more time here typing than I really spent cleaning tonight - but things do look and feel just a little better. Still, I'm feeling frustrated... I could probably do this every night, all summer, if I had the time, and still not make a dent...

OK Everyone's home so I'm signing off...

Esther's Stuff

2006-06-16T09:19:00.000-04:00

I didn't really do much last night. I cleaned out the little hanging cabinet over the toilet, but that took about 2 minutes and all I really did was shuffle things around and condense a few things.

There was some other stuff going on last night, too.

A few weeks ago, my neighbor Esther died. She was 80 years old but seemed healthy -- lived on her own, volunteered at the senior center, walked in the neighborhood every day. But something went wrong somewhere and she had a massive stroke, and died a few days later on May 17. Her son and daughter-in-law came up from Florida to be with her in the hospital, but returned home after the funeral. They are back in town this week to clear out her apartment. Lewis is like his mother, very friendly and generous, though it's obvious he is very sad about his mom. His wife Regina is very sweet and warm. When we visited with them after the funeral, they gave the kids a few trinkets from Esther's apartment as keepsakes: a crocheted clown, a large doll, some little "toys" like a light-up snowman and a little box that screams "Let me outta here!" when you pick it up (Seriously.) I took these with thanks.

This week, though, they are doing the heavy cleaning and they have offered us a lot of other items (you knew we'd come back around to decluttering, which is the whole point of this blog). They are donating mostly everything to charity but they want to offer us things too. So far they have given us:

a small air purifier (which is something I've always wanted to get)

a small space heater (which we absolutely don't need, since the heat is usually up so high in the building)

an electric menorah (we don't have one, but we don't really need one either)

a big stack of writing and drawing paper (great for the kids as they constantly use all my printer paper)

a couple of books (a History of Israel for Children, and a Hebrew Alphabet learning book - not bad things to have, I guess)

some wrapping paper (can always use that)

a pretty big model of one of Columbus' ships (kind of nice, but kind of odd - though the Boy really likes it and brought out one of his toy pirate ships to put next to it - both are on the dining room table right now)

Lewis also gave the Boy a very cool hologram ruler that shows pictures of traditional Jewish items (dreidel, yarmulke, menorah, etc.) and their Hebrew translations. He was honestly thrilled with this.

Anyway, now most of this stuff is in my dining room and I have to find places for it. I'm supposed to be bringing stuff OUT, not in. I'm sure there are other people in the building who can use this stuff more than we can. I know Lewis also offered Hubby the television, but we don't need it. I told him to tell them we'd be happy to try to find a home for it, or donate it for him and send him the receipt for his taxes.

But I feel terrible because I really miss my neighbor and I also know that Lewis and Regina want to be done with this so they can go home. And of course I keep thinking of Flylady's post that she sends around quite often, about "Will you leave clutter as your legacy?" Now I'm not accusing Esther of having clutter - but I do know how hard it's been for her son to go through all her items and it makes me very sad. I remember my Mom going through my Dad's stuff as well - he was not a hoarder but he kept odd things sometimes.

Well that's all for today, I guess. But surprisingly, I found this after Esther died. I bet she didn't even know it was out there. So have a look and remember her, if you are so inclined.

Fun in the Bathroom

2006-06-14T23:08:00.000-04:00

I managed to do 15 minutes (actually more like 25!) in my bathroom tonight. Armed with Fantastik OxyPower and some paper towels, I sprayed and wiped down my tile walls. The tile goes about halfway up the walls, all around the bathroom, which isn't much as it's a tiny room. I skipped the shower tiles - I will have to do that another time. After the walls, I cleaned the lightswitch, toilet, sink and mirror. When I checked the clock, I still had 3 minutes left of the 15 I promised myself - so I took out the two plastic shoeboxes of sample shampoos, creams and so on from under the sink. Hubby actually uses the sample stuff, and probably has a mental inventory, so I didn't dare throw out "his" stuff. I did get rid of three fairly large bottles of lotion that were given to me, though - they were all a few years old, yet all largely un-used, and even though they are "nice" (Bath & Body Works), I never liked the smell and probably never will. So out they went!

I then had to rearrange the trash because if Hubby sees them in there, he will grill me as to why I threw out the nice lotions. I would leave them in the basement, but is anyone really going to want to take someone's discarded toiletries? Doubt it.

I also managed to find a few bottles of bubble bath that I can use on the kids, and some lotion that I really do like and will use. When I was done, everything fit into one shoebox, so I liberated the other one (will probably end up using it for more of the kids' stuff).

Also got all the dishes done and took the garbage out tonight.

More laundry excitement

2006-06-14T10:17:00.000-04:00

Again I didn't get much done in my zones last night. It was laundry day and I did get everything folded and put away, clean sheets on the beds, clean towels in the bathroom. I kind of like that. And now that I've gone through the kids' wardrobe, there is lots more room for the clean clothes. I even matched up last week's socks, which I never got around to doing last week.

I didn't do anything in the bathroom or kids' room, but I did sort through a basket of their clothes that's been sitting in my room. It was mostly clothes that are still too big for the Boy, or stuff that the Boy outgrew but the Girl could maybe wear in a year or two. And then there was other stuff mixed in there that needed to be in the outgrown/donate/toss pile. I put the too-big stuff on the top shelf of their wardrobe, which I had emptied when I did the big switcheroo last week. So now there is no longer a big basket of stuff at the foot of my bed. The basket itself was one of those pop-up hampers, but being overstuffed had destroyed it, so out it went. And that's about it for last night.

I think I figured out why I always lose steam with Flylady halfway through the month. I do alright with the hallway & kitchen. When we get to the bathroom, I always feel like I don't have a lot to do in there, since it's really not cluttered. I guess I should be doing the deep cleaning in there. Something to think about. Flylady also says to work on "one other room" during the bathroom week, which should be the kids' room, since I don't have an office or laundry room or garage or den or anything - but I never quite get to that. And then the following week is always the living room, which I dread, so I avoid it. But I am going to try and tackle it next week when we are in that zone. I really am.

Too much lasagna

2006-06-13T09:37:00.000-04:00

I got nothing done last night. NOTHING. Hubby cooked the lasagna that I prepared, and it came out good (but a little runny)... and I ate too much and felt like a big slug all night. So I did nothing. OK, I did get my bills paid, but I had to do that anyway, and it didn't do anything to improve the overall condition of my house. The dinner dishes are still in the sink, and I didn't touch my "zones."

And the kids' room is already drifting toward mess. I knew I should have taken the "after" pictures while it still looked good!

I have to get myself on the ball tonight.

Kitchen Confession

2006-06-12T10:09:00.000-04:00

Well, as Flylady's kitchen week is just about over and I didn't finish the kitchen, I decided to take a little time in there Sunday morning. I wanted to reorganize the cabinets under the sink, so I could fit the empty fishtank back in there, but ended up having to do a thorough clean because - UGH - ok - I have trouble admitting this, but I'm here to keep myself honest. I pulled out a couple of boxes from under the sink, and realized they were gritty with some substance. Looking more closely, I realized there were dead, dessicated insects stuck to some of the inside walls of the cabinets... and some were stuck to these boxes... EWWWWW... The exterminator had come on Saturday, so I'm guessing the bugs came out of the walls to die, but still... UGH UGH UGH.

I pulled everything out of the entire cabinet (it is one large cabinet with 4 doors)and sucked the little suckers up with the vaccuum, then scrubbed the inside of the cabinet. It wasn't too bad and most of the dead bugs were limited to one corner, but the whole cabinet is pretty water-stained and grungy inside. I suppose dead bugs are better than living ones, but still. YUCK. Luckily the only food I keep down there is in sealed cans and bottles. Most of the other stuff is things like cleaning supplies, paper towels, grocery bags and so on. So, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but afterwards, I still felt gritty... ewww ewww eww.

I want to take this time to say I have been in this apartment for over four years and have never never really seen bugs. We had grain pests for a while, and every few months we see one of those giant waterbugs, but I don't have roaches and I keep my kitchen pretty clean. The exterminator comes every 2 weeks. So, I'm really upset about the whole thing. I'm just going to keep telling myself they came from the apartment next door, where a lot of work is going on.

Anyway... confession time over... I did manage to throw out a bag with a few lbs of playground sand (we were using this in the hermit crab tank at one time), combined a few boxes of Swiffer supplies and other cleaning supplies, made room for the empty small fishtank and the fish accessories, and neatened everything up. Then I went to the upper cabinet on the other side of the room and threw some stuff out of there - a bunch of Ragu Express pasta dinners (gotten as freebies from my old employer, but icky tasting, and the single serving doesn't even satisfy my 3-year old) and a jar of ice cream sprinkles that I've had probably since we were first married (we never use them). I found a sealed jar of salsa, which has been in there a while -- I opened it up to check it out, and it seemed fine, so I put it in the fridge and will buy some chips this week. I found two half-empty bags of sugar (each in its own sealed ziploc bag, lest you think I am inviting more pests), and combined the two. Found lots of wine and liquor that we will never drink, so I have a mental note to start asking friends & neighbors what they like.

I also got to the supermarket Sunday morning while everyone was sleeping and picked up a few things we needed. While there, I returned two bags of deposit bottles (just $0.50 cents worth, but getting them out of the kitchen = priceless). Last night I even managed to put together a lasagna for hubby to cook tonight.

I am trying to stick with Flylady's schedule this month, which means that I work on the bathroom and another room this week. My bathroom is probably the neatest room in the house (too small for any clutter) so I will focus more on the "other" room, which for me will probably mean dealing with the clutter in my closet and the linen closet. There is always the kids' room - but I think I will wait for school to let out, so they have more time to help me in the evenings. As for Apartment Therapy, I think the 8 week plan might have been a little ambitious for me, and I'm thinking of expanding it to 16 weeks, spending 2 weeks on each lesson.

In the Jungle

2006-06-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Well as I've already mentioned, the kids' room looks like a hurricane hit. Followed by another hurricane. Then a raid by Vikings. Then another hurricane. In any case, my mom was visiting on Saturday, so I wisely shut the door to their room before she arrived. Of course, during the course of the visit, the little one insisted on changing her outfit AGAIN and left the door open, and when Mom walked by later she gasped and made a million remarks about "How do you live like this?" and "No wonder they still sleep in YOUR room" and so on. I didn't discuss it and told her to back off... but GRRR...

The thing is, I really did want to get to the room, and after she left, we got down to it. NOT BECAUSE OF HER COMMENTS, you understand. On the contrary, her comments made me want to leave it a mess, because I'm nuts like that (just ask Mom). But I had been looking for a block of time to do this for a while, and an open Saturday night seemed like a good place to start. So here's a few BEFORE shots.
Remember kids, you can't organize clutter!
No wonder she doesn't sleep in her bed
Get something out of the closet? You must be trippin'
A closer look at what's blocking the closet and lower shelves. By the way, that toy box is full to the top with stuffed animals that the kids probably don't even know exist

With a promise of a trip to Baskin Robbins as an incentive, we started by getting everything off the floor. Stray clothes went out into the hallway (dirty, clean, I didn't care - I put them all in the hamper when we were through). Stuffed animals and dolls went on the Girl's bed. If it was obviously broken, or obviously trash, it went in the trash bag (though to my son, nothing is broken OR trash, it's all "part of something else" or "really needed"). Pretty much everything else went into a big laundry basket. After the floor was clear we took the big basket and started sorting again, making piles that made the most sense - characters, animals, legos, "stuff that we can't identify and/or need to find the rest of", and so on. It was hard keeping the kids on track, but we actually made it through that whole basket and another smaller bin that was full of assorted stuff. Then we had to find places for the piles, which we did, with more bins and baskets. It's not perfect, but at least there is a clear path.

I did manage to snag a few toys for the donation bin (including a few that had BEEN in the donation bin but somehow made it back to the kids' room). I have to get them out of the house soon or they will end up right back in their room again. I also managed to snag the pieces of a broken Sky Dancers toy that the Girl never plays with anyway, and hide them in a trash bag. She caught me going to the trash and cried her eyes out, even after I explained that the toy doesn't work and it's broken and not fixable. I told her that we can buy her a new one if she really wants, but I hope she doesn't hold me to that because to me, that toy screams "you'll put your eye out." (Hmmm, I'm not even kidding. I googled it to find a picture and found this instead...)

We went for our ice cream and had a really fun time playing follow the leader as we walked home. Then Miss Girl asked when we were going to get everything off her bed because she was "really gonna sleep there tonight." Yeah, right.. So we managed to stick all the dolls and plush into two of those pop up hampers. Where did all this plush come from and what am I supposed to do with it, anyway? Two pop up hampers AND a toy box full, and I'm pretty sure one of those milk crates in the living room is hiding more...

Losing Steam?

2006-06-09T09:09:00.000-04:00

I feel like I lost some steam last night - although really, I guess I still got some stuff done. First, in the kitchen - in addition to the cookie jar I cleaned out the other night, we have two huge bowls of candy. Mostly lollipops, jawbreakers and other sweets of the kind my mom called "tooth rots" when we were little. We keep one bowl on one of the microwave carts, and the other on top of the fridge. I have no idea why there are two different bowls. I think at one time they held different categories of candy, but not anymore. The kids helped me combine the two bowls. We threw out a few things - some stuff they don't like, some half-opened stuff, anything getting stale or sticky, and some stray Nerds & Smarties that had fallen out of their wrappers. We also broke down some unopened goodie bags and hauled out some little toys that had found their way in there. In the end, it all fit into the one bowl, which I put back on top of the fridge. I also explained to them that they need to ask from now on, if they want candy - as I frequently find my 3 year old eating lollipops at all hours of the day. I would like to reiterate at this point that we still have more candy than my kids can eat in 3 lifetimes, and most of it is stuff they will never touch (hard sucking candies, creme savers, and little taffies with Russian writing on the wrappers, which we seem to pick up every Halloween, and throw out every following October in preparation for more).

Other than that, not much got done, but we did do our turtle tank maintenance, which made its resident African Mud Turtle, Little Ann, very happy. At least I think she (he?) is happy.

My mom is coming for a visit tomorrow, so I need to do some of Flylady's "5 minute room rescues" tonight - but overall I think we're in pretty decent shape - and a lot better than we were a week ago.

Even so, I feel like I lost a little momentum last night, and I think I know what happened... I made the mistake of putting on the bedroom TV and sitting down for "five minutes" while hubby put The Boy to bed. Next thing I know, I was watching some new show about people winning the lottery, and I couldn't drag myself back to any of my decluttering projects. I know now why so many of these decluttering books tell you to GET RID OF THE TV - or at least keep it turned off. Heck, I figured the summer is a fine time to break the TV habit, since everything is reruns, but not anymore. Lots of new shows starting this summer. And reruns of stuff I missed the first time around. And fun stuff on the Food Network. I also see why Flylady insists that you keep your shoes on all the time - much harder to sink into bed and get stuck there when you are wearing your shoes - but that's a habit I still can't get into either. Oh well. Hopefully I won't get caught up tonight...

A break from the kitchen

2006-06-08T09:42:00.000-04:00

Well I got some unexpected things done last night, but skipped on other things. As expected, my bed was piled with clean laundry, so I had to get that folded and put away. I dreaded putting the kids' stuff in their armoire because it is such a mess... summer and winter stuff all mixed together because the weather has been crazy... dirty clothes mixed in with clean because The Girl changes her outfit 4 times a day and doesn't get the concept of "hamper"... outgrown stuff, stained stuff, and too-big stuff all jumbled up because they have too damn much stuff. It's really The Boy who has the most stuff, as he inherits clothes from his cousin. Anyway... since The Boy is off from school today, there was no rush to put him to bed last night, so I managed to tackle a lot of the stuff in the armoire as I put back the clean clothes. I threw out some stained stuff. I divided the other things into piles like, "winter clothes that should still fit next winter" (put those in a drawer), "winter clothes in good condition that won't fit next winter" (split these about 50-50 between stuff to donate, and stuff to keep for sentimental/future baby reasons), "summer stuff they can wear now" (put in the armoire). He and his sister played nicely during all this, so I got a lot done. There's still more to do in various bags and boxes, but at least the armoire shelves are neat and they can find things.

I found two big bags of Swimmie diapers - two summers ago I had bought a big stash, because they can be difficult to find, and they were on sale at the time. Now that The Girl is potty trained, I don't need them. Once again I am torn between saving for another baby (maybe?) and giving them away. I think I will ask the people in my building who have little babies if they might want them.

I have this same problem with a huge box of size 4 diapers I had just opened. Why do kids wait until you buy a huge stash, before deciding they don't need it? The Boy did the same thing with grapefruit juice, drank it every day all year, I bought 2 more cases and he decided NAHHHH, no more for me!!!

The mess in my bedroom was getting to me also, so I got the kids to take a break and haul all the toys out of my room. They were really good about this. When we were putting stuff in their room, The Boy asked if we were cleaning his room too. I said, "Not tonight" because it is too big a job. Still, I felt guilty, demanding that my room be cleaned up, while I let their room continue on as a cluttered obstacle course. I'm hoping maybe this weekend we can get to some of it - but I hope for that EVERY weekend and it doesn't happen.

Hubby did the dishes and took down all the recycling, but we didn't get to the turtle tank. It's got to be done tonight as the water is looking a little green...

But we don't even drink tea!

2006-06-07T09:45:00.000-04:00

Last night, I suggested to the kids that we take on one of the toy bins holding their mishmash of toys that I piled up on Sunday. I realized in short order that one bin at a time is not going to work. My 6 year old son can make no distinction between stuff he plays with and stuff he doesn't play with, and my 3 year old daughter just keeps asking, "WHERE DOES BELLE GO? WHERE DOES BELLE GO?" And we just keep finding parts of toys without their other parts, so they end up back in the box. So I"m going to have to rethink this. We may need to set aside part of a day and dump ALL the bins, then sort into categories and piles, before deciding where everything goes. Hmmm, maybe if we do that, the kids will realize just how MUCH stuff they have, and they'll be more willing to part with things. Yeah, right.

Anyway, my own task was to continue in the kitchen. I took the four ceramic canisters that hold tea, sugar, matchbooks, etc., and dumped them out. I didn't count, but I'm going to say I had about 60 teabags of various brands, and maybe 150 assorted packets of sugar, Equal, and Sweet 'n Low, with a couple of Sugar in the Raw and Splendas thrown in there for good measure. The only time we ever have tea is when we're sick, and we rarely make it for guests. So why all this tea? I don't know. Does tea get stale? Probably. It's pretty old and I'm not even sure where it all came from. And yet strangely, I feel compelled to keep it. Well, I do like a nice cup of unsweetened iced tea, so maybe I can start using up those bags this summer. And Hubby insists we keep the sugar packets. "For guests." I did wash and dry the canisters. I also finished cleaning out the old fishtank, (dumped the old gravel, cleaned the accessories, etc.) and now need to find a place to keep that stuff.

I didn't bother decluttering the dish cabinets or the cabinet under the sink, as I am trying to make a dent in the way things look on the outside. I know this is somewhat contrary to FLYlady - she believes in holding off on deep cleaning until the decluttering is done - but I need to be able to see that I'm making progress. I did wipe down all the cabinet fronts on that side of the room, scrubbing off drips, finger marks, and greasy spots.

Then I went through the condiments and stuff inside the refrigerator door. Threw out a few old, almost used-up jars of jelly and other sauces that are never going to get used. Wiped down the shelves in the door. Found FOUR bottles of my mother in law's eye drops. I think she brings them here, uses them, and forgets about them. One has an expiration date in 2004, the other 3 seem pretty current. I have to ask her what to do with them. I didn't clean off the main shelves or the freezer, because they are pretty stocked right now. I'll have to wait until we eat some of the food.

Darn, I completely forgot about the TOP of the refrigerator. Next time. There's another big bowl of candy up there that could use some cleaning out, plus lots of stuff that can probably be trashed.

I then got down and scrubbed another section of the floor, then Swiffered over what I had scrubbed yesterday and today. Now my floor looks like one of those before/after demonstrations, with about half the floor shiny and the other half dull and dingy.

I'm not sure how much will get done in the kitchen tonight. It's laundry day -- hubby does the washing and drying and some of the folding, I do the balance of folding and putting away. On top of that, we need to do our turtle tank maintenance tonight. So the kitchen may have to wait until tomorrow.

Hurray! Clean water for me!

OK, one Before & After shot

2006-06-06T12:03:00.000-04:00

On top is the picture posted earlier - the view when you walk into the living room. Below, is the photo I took after some cleanup. The tables are gone, the windowsills more clear and accessible, the blankets and trash picked up. That's Dora the Explorer's house in the foreground of both pictures - my daughter is "still playing with that." Of course, I forgot to move the other pile of stuff (the other picture frames that had been in the windows) and dump the big bag of trash, before snapping this shot. Oh, and the books that were on the coffee table are sitting on the couch in Picture #2. All of those have been moved by now. Hey, it's a start.

Tackling the Kitchen

2006-06-06T09:39:00.000-04:00

FLYlady is in the kitchen this week, and Apartment Therapy's week #2 also focuses on the kitchen. 'Tis fate, no? I am going to combine the two and try to make some headway there. Apartment Therapy suggests a thorough cleaning and decluttering of the kitchen, while Flylady reiterates, 15 minutes at a time. Again, most nights I can barely find 5 minutes, so I'm hoping I don't burn out too fast. I tried to divide the kitchen into 5 "zones," so I can work on one per night. Last night was the window/stove/small microwave cart. I cleaned off the windowsill and threw out a dusty candle that was sitting there. There was also an ivy bowl (from a wedding favor) with a large candle that I had stuck inside. I wanted to toss the candle and keep the bowl, but it was wedged/melted in there so tight that I couldn't get it out. I wanted to toss the whole thing but was afraid the glass would break in the garbage chute, so it's still sitting on my stove. Hmm. I also cleaned out a cookie jar full of old, stale candies - tossed out most of the melty, stale hard-candies and starbursts and lollipops - kept a few lollipops for my daughter and a big bag of gummy bears for me (bought these from my niece's school fundraiser and forgot all about them). Then came a real emotional wrestling match - only it wasn't as hard as I feared, in the end. I have this little knicknack that was given to me when I was in the hospital, during a very rough time. It's dusty and faded and looks horrible, but I've held onto it this long as a memory of that time. I finally realized, with the help of Don Aslett and Flylady, that it was giving me more pain than pleasure when I looked at it. So, goodbye! I dusted the windowsill and the few things I put back on there (bud vase, wooden turtle we got in Jamaica, suncatcher that my son painted, the cookie jar, and a small basil plant). I cleaned off the microwave cart, dusted, and straightened. I did a brillo job on the bottom/broiler section of the stove - it's not perfect, not even nearly, but I made some headway. And then I swept and scrubbed just that area of the floor. So a small part of my kitchen is in much better shape.

I added pictures to the weekend update post below. They are the "before" pictures.

Weekend Update #1

2006-06-05T10:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had to take on the living room. Partly because I had just bought a long-awaited piece of furniture (I know, the idea is to get stuff OUT, not bring stuff IN, but this was an opportunity I had to take - more on that later). The other reason I had to deal with the living room is that it just ISN'T a living room. We don't do any living there. We don't do any anything there. We fight over the tv in the bedroom because we don't even want to SIT out there. So, Sunday morning, when I woke up, I took the advice of the Apartment Therapy book and spent 10 minutes just sitting there. I don't actually know if it was 10 minutes, as my timer is lost amid the clutter. But I sat there as long as I could stand it.

Here's what I saw... piles of toys in mid-play, chairs no one sits in, couches covered in toys, couch pillows thrown on the floor, a jumbled mess of buckets and cleaning stuff shoved under the turtle tank, picture frames that had fallen off the windowsill onto the floor, books fallen out of the bookcase and piled up in front, toys fallen out of the bins and piled up in front of those...

In the center of all this were two endtables that I had pushed together as a coffee table. They actually did have a matching coffee table at one time, but it broke and we ditched it a while ago. I kept the end tables around even though they were never really right for our couches. And when more and more toys and stuff took over the living room, I had no more room for them, but couldn't bring myself to get rid of them (what if I *NEED* them???). Finally, in a last ditch effort to save them, I pushed them together as a coffee table. They didn't look right - they were too high, they have rounded corners so didn't exactly align end to end, and there really was just no room for them anyway. Hubby says get rid of them. I tried listing them on Craigslist, but no takers. So there they are.
Our living room is actually quite large. Our computer desk and files are in a whole separate area. About a year ago I got the bright idea to move the kids' bookcase and some of their toy bins into that same corner, figuring they'd have a little nook to play in. The reality was that the computer chair always blocked the way and the "nook" was much too small for hanging out. They couldn't get to their stuff, and they certainly couldn't put it away, so the toys and books would just pile up IN FRONT of the bookcase and bins.

Looking west. This is the view you would get as you enter the living room - almost as soon as you enter the apartment, really. Yikes.

Looking north. This is what we see when we sit on the couch. Notice the fake coffee table.

Looking east, back toward the entryway. Not too bad right? But you can't see the pile of toys behind the love seat...

So here's what I got done on Sunday:
-- first, picked up assorted junk in the living room and put in a big laundry basket. Put the dirty socks and blankets in another basket. Threw away some trash.
-- Took all the picture frames off the windowsills (and floor), cleaned an inch of grime off the sills, changed the filter in the air conditioner so it's ready for use.
-- Cleaned and put back *some* of the frames, but took most away, as they blocked the light and blocked the access to the window and a/c. Not sure where I will put them - they're in limbo for now.
-- Drained the unused fishtank and discarded some old supplies. I was going to move the tank stand somewhere else, but hubby said to get rid of it - and he's right. It was second hand, it's wobbly, the wood is chipped, and it's not something I'd really want in my "someday" house. If we do decide to get more fish, we can worry about it then. So, we brought the stand to the basement. Maybe someone else in the building can give it a home, or maybe it will be trashed on Tuesday. Not my problem anymore. This also fulfills the Apartment Therapy requirement of throwing out one large item. YAY!
-- took the cardboard box from under the turtle tank, got rid of it, and put the empty hermit crab tank (don't ask) in its place. put the buckets and supplies neatly alongside.
-- moved the kids' bookcase and the hundreds of books, putting it in the spot where the fishtank had been. I managed to put a few books in the donations pile, though once the kids got involved, this became more difficult.
--I ended up putting the two endtables in the kitchen - temporarily. I will decide this week whether to freecycle or donate. In the kitchen, I also put three large tupperware bins full of beanie babies and Disney beanies. The bins had been stacked up in the entry to the living room, with more toys on top of them. I still didn't have the heart to get rid of the beanies, but hopefully the kitchen will only be a temporary home. Can't promise, though.

As I write this I'm realizing I didn't really get rid of very much - I mostly moved stuff around. But I'm trying.

-- I moved the printer stand/files to where the toy bins had been, and put the toy bins where the tupperware boxes and the printer stand had been. (Only now my printer cord won't reach, so I have to buy a longer cord. Noted.) The toy bins are the TROFAST style from IKEA that hold removable plastic bins that slide in and out. They are great, but in 409 they are overstuffed and useless. I told the kids, NOTHING is going back into these bins unless they actively play with it. So now what I have is two empty bin stands. The toys are jammed into the 8 plastic bins, 3 milk crates, a shopping bag and several baskets, and piled up in the former "nook" area. It's mostly junk - goodie bag loot, McDonalds' toys, and other random things. I told them we are going to do one bin each night. Or half a bin, if we don't have the time. The only things that are going back in the bins are things they actually play with - at least that's my plan. Everything else is either getting thrown away, given away, or if they can't do either of those, we will put it into a big box in THEIR room. I only hope I can stick to my guns and get through this stuff.

Everything is still fairly chaotic, but at least the "living" half of the living room is a little better. I did enjoy the sound of the kids laughing and playing in the cleared out living room.

As for that piece of furniture and how I ended up with it... I do mystery shopping in my spare time (what spare time?) and I got an assignment at a furniture store with a very generous reimbursement. The reimbursement was about 5 times what this store's usual reimbursement is, and that's quite a bit. So I picked up a cherry-finish rocking chair. Hubby had been promising me a rocking chair ever since my first pregnancy, but we never went through with it because we couldn't justify spending the money when we didn't have the space. Well, we still don't have the space, but the chair was free, so... there you go. It looks nice but the space behind it still needs organizing.

Pictures later...

Oh, also, over the weekend, I cleaned out the bottom of the hall coat closet, which is mostly outdoor stuff. I threw away a crumpled, yellowed plastic rain cover for the stroller and a broken paddleball game. I brought several sand pails and a frisbee (we had 2) to the basement for trash-pickers. I organized the rest of the stuff a little better - at least for now. And I got rid of a shopping bag full of outgrown snowsuits. Unfortunately I only managed to move them into a plastic bin. But once the winter season comes, I will give them away. I think.

Welcome to Apartment 409

2006-06-02T09:07:00.000-04:00

After years - my whole life, really - of being a pack rat, saver, sentimental collector... after nine+ years of marriage to another collector, and two children with an unequalled collection of fast food toys and junk from the junk dispensers at the local diner... after trying FLYLADY for five years or more and still not "flying"...

I think I'm ready to do it. I am finally going to get my apartment, my car, and my life decluttered.

The other day I picked up two books. One was "Apartment Therapy" by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, creator of the apartment therapy blog, and the other was "Clutter's Last Stand," by Don Aslett. I'm hoping these two books (which I am still devouring), along with the Flylady principles I've picked up and am still trying to implement, will help me get going.

Well if Flylady could see into my head, Don Aslett is LIVING IN MY BRAIN. His book is so awesome and I think it's finally given me the courage to throw out some of the emotional and physical clutter that is suffocating my family and me.

In the world of Flylady, a new month started yesterday, which means we are focusing on the foyer and dining room. In 409, this means a long, narrow hallway with a coat closet, coak hooks, storage bench shelf and shoe rack, along with a small half-room that has our too-big dining table, and overstuffed china closet. Flylady says "15 minutes a day" but most nights I can barely swing five minutes. Still, last night, I managed to clean off the shelf over the bench. I put two items on eBay (a pair of new Ninja Turtle slippers without tags, and some coupons from a casino guidebook), two items on my local Freecycle (a circular fluorescent lightbulb that was the wrong size, and a pyrex measuring cup), and one item on Half.com (a CD that my hubby never opened, didn't want, but felt guilty returning). I threw out a broken picture frame and an old, ripped tote bag we were using for one of our many diaper bags. From inside the bag, I tossed a dirty disposable bib and some wrapped, bent straws. I moved the bag's clean diapers to a basket in the bedroom (even though my 3 year old daughter just gave up diapers). I put the spare briefs and socks (my 6 year old son's) back into his drawer. I added the little fast food toys to the ever-growing pile (an issue for another day). Of course, all this did take longer than 5 minutes, but now I have a shelf that is clean except for 2 bike helmets and a bucket of sidewalk chalk. I'm hoping to move some of the outdoor stuff from the closet floor, where it is a jumbled mess, onto the shelf.

Have to remember to take before and after pictures.

As for the Apartment Therapy book... it presents an 8 week "cure" for apartments, which is probably too ambitious for me. Still, in the last 2 nights I've gotten it started - bought flowers for the table, and made a list of necessary repairs. Other chores for the week include a thorough vaccuming and mopping, sitting for 10 minutes in a room I never sit in, and putting one large item out in the trash.

.... Lookie! More toys for us!