Cleaning

Locals Only: Requesting Assistance with Cleaning

TL; DR: meri is asking for warm bodies to carry things outside.

If any of you happen to be available this Saturday (or potentially Sunday) to help G and I make the final push on this whole “decluttering of the house” thing, we would both be eternally grateful for your assistance. Mostly, what we’re looking for is people who are willing and able to pick up stuff that we point at and take it (often up stairs or down stairs) outside to a waiting truck and/or pile. We will do all of the actual sorting, it’s just help getting things from various points in the house to the actual outdoors with which we need help.

In exchange for your kind assistance, we offer beer / soft drinks / coffee / tea / water, and pizza. And, a good chance that you might find some stuff that you want in the stuff we’re getting rid of. Also, this will likely be the last “social” thing that G and I do before we take Mr. Soule’s advice and head west.

If any of you are interested (or not interested, but inclined to help), please send me a message, and I’ll send you our address and contact info.

Many thanks!

Mary

CAVEAT: If you have cat or dust allergies, you should probably sit this one out. 4 cats. Lots of dust.

But why did the yarn go away?

I’ve started culling the yarn stash. I’m doing my best to be brutal about the process. I’m getting rid of novelty yarns that I bought when I was but a wee knitter (so to speak). I’m getting rid of the random skeins that I only bought one of, and now have no earthly idea what to do with (10 Stitch Blankets and Bee Keepers Quilts aside). I’m getting rid of yarn in colors that I would never find enjoyable to stare at for hours while I knit. I’m getting rid of lots.

Luckily, I already have a recipient in mind for the yarn, and so I can imagine her (and her daughter) enjoying the new stash each time I get a pang about putting something in the “to-go” bag. I’ve already filled a 13-gallon trash bag, and that’s just by going through the stuff that resides outside of my actual yarn storage bins. (I don’t have a problem. A problem implies a need for a solution, and I fail to see that as necessary.)

But it’s an interesting process, destashing.

I have stuff. Do you want stuff? You should take my stuff.

I am preparing to do a massive craft destash. I haven’t used a bunch of the stuff in my craft room in the year since Jer and Shamala came down to help me clean the room, and that means I probably don’t need it.

I’m not sure the best way to divest myself of these things. They’re all perfectly good craft tools and supplies, not crap. (For instance, I have *4* guillotine paper cutters. I want to get rid of two of them.) I also don’t want to hold on to things forever waiting for someone from Facebook / FreeCycle / Craigslist to come pick things up (the goal being to make these things go away). Schools are remarkably hard to give thing to. I tried giving a bunch of craft supplies to my local elementary school the *last* time I did this, and there was a whole process, that was going to take several hours that I didn’t have the energy for.

(I know what to do with yarn that I’m going to be rehoming. Unless anyone here has an interest in it, and come get it, or meet me somewhere, I will be taking it to Cloverhill Yarn to offer to friends, and then adding it to the charity knitting box.)

But for the rest of it: What to do, what to do?

Time is running out.

Well, there are just under 12 hours left in 2013. I’m looking around (both physically and mentally) and trying to figure out what I can wrap up in that time, to say it was accomplished in this year. Based upon my level of spoons, there’s not much in the way of cleaning that can happen, so it’s going to have to be somewhat more sedentary tasks.

I finished writing my thank you cards, and a birthday card to my mother. I even went so far as to find some stamps and put said cards in the mail box. (For those of you who write physical mailings, you’ll know that this is, by far, the most difficult step.) (Crap. I just realized I forgot to put the flag up on the mailbox. Be right back.)

Ok. Where was I? Oh, right. Stuff I can finish this year.

  • I could upgrade my laptop to Mavericks, but that seems a bit like tempting fate.
  • There’s a book or two I could finish. I was hoping for something a little more active.
  • If I knit madly for most of the rest of the day, I could finish Missy’s cowl. Could happen, but my hands kind of ache at the thought of it.
  • I could finish my Hitchhiker shawl. I mean, the knitting is already done. I just have to weave in loose ends, soak it, and block it. That might actually happen.
  • I could finish my Clara cardigan. It’s almost done. The knitting is done, and one half of the seaming is done. But, I think that, without peer pressure or mocking, it’s unlikely to happen. (I really hate seaming. Another reason I’m really looking forward to Harvest, the next knit-along.)
  • I could destash my yarn. This is… highly unlikely. But it could happen, in some universe.
  • I could clean off my desk. Tee hee hee. I’m such a cut-up.

Suggestions? Do you have anything that you’re trying to wrap up this year, just to check that checkbox?

It’s like Christmas in here.

Having returned from a dentist appointment, and having had lunch, I’ve suddenly been overcome with rage at the state of my craft room / office. I had been really nice and neat and clean, thanks to Jer and Shamala’s efforts. But, inertia and meri-tendencies set in, and it’s starting to look like a storage room again.

So, I dive in.

(more…)

Achievement unlocked: Car (mostly) cleaned out.

While it may not sound like a big deal to clean out one’s car, this was a special case.

Back when I parted ways with Noblis (in February, mind you), my poor officemate Brian was stuck with the job of packing up my side of the office. I finally went and picked up all the boxes and other stuff he’d packed only when he was about to get another officemate. I’ve been driving around with this stuff in my car ever since. So, yeah, for like 7 months or so.

With much help from G, the boxes and other stuff has been sorted into keep / toss, the toss dealt with accordingly, and the keep brought inside. There’s a little bit of cleanup left to do in the car, but it’s minor compared to having the entire back of a RAV-4 filled with stuff.

Also, now that that’s taken care of, I can take advantage of the super-duper interior detailing GroupOn that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. This will be fabulous, as my car hasn’t had a good cleaning in a couple of years, and there’s a lot of dust and former-smoker-grime in the vehicle that I would like to have go away. And this way, my car will be all spiffy and clean before Liv, Carel, Ivo, Tara, and half the world show up for MAAWG next month.

Many many thanks to G, without whom this would have been impossible.