Mission Organziation HELP #2

Janis, you and I may tie for the title of Joe Btfsplk. You are not old enough to remember but he was a character in Al Capp's Li'l Abner newspaper cartoon strip. Joe always had a black cloud over his head, folowed him everywhere!

ROFL Darius :)
I know who it is from my mom. Never thought if it that way, but you're right. I was so diguested when we had no waterlast night. I did remember to turn the water off to the commode, so that the kids didn't flush it, and put lots of water in the lines. At least I did dishes before I ran out :) Gotta find the silver lining someplace

Got a lady coming tomorrow to pick up some of the halloween costumes I posted on FreeCycle yesterday :) Possibly 2 ladies not sure yet waiting to hear from the 2nd one.

Today I am gonna finish my kitchen floor :) 15 minutes at a time, gonna sweep and mop, and get it all done.

Wish me luck. Oh Using the swiffer wet and wet jet so no wasted water LOL

Janis

I need to mop my kitchen floor too. Just hate to do it because the industrial string mop is SO heavy although it cleans much better than a sponge mop. A Swiffer would NOT get that floor clean!

Darius, LOLOLOL

Here is my floor. Kool Aid and dirt from tracking in and out. If the wet jet doesn't do it, I get my regular swiffer, and put the dry pad on it, and spray the floor with Mean Green, and use the regular swiffer and get the bad stuff up, then go over it with the wet jet.

I don't even own a string mop anymore. Jeff will a couple times a year get down with a scrub brush and scrub the floor. I can do it now with a bucket and rag if I use my kneeling pad I use for gardening LOL

Janis

Janis, i hope your water pressure stays up. We live in a very rural area and have a well too. A few weeks ago i heard this weird hissing sound in the garage... Our pressure tank had blown a hole in the side. We had no water for three days (luckily we have nice neighbors and a looong hose) It cost us $700 and cost my husband a day and a half of plumbing The new tank was shorter and wider than the old tank, and wouldn't fit in the same spot. We have to watch the watering too, we can only use so much water at a time or our pressure is gone and the pump starts sucking sand. bad... bad... bad.

Oh the joys of country living!

OMG that would stink!!!!!

We had to replace the pump a year ago, and had to put a new pressure valve on the new one. I really like that it shuts itself off when the wate rpressure gets too low. I hate trying to get it restarted tho.


Janis

Well, I did dishes before bed. Did wake up to the stove rings and drip pans soaking. Cleaned stove today. Also some of the counter area around the sink... amazing how stuff piles up everywhere, isn't it?!

When floor is cruddy, I usu throw some water on it, come back in a little and it cleans up fairly decent. The scrubber on the mop head will usu get anything harder.

My DDs got inspired. Older one even found the chair in the LR!! She says wants to find the couch too... I'm thinking, we still have one of those?! LOL ~ Suzi :)

Suzi, you are funny... I think I have a couch somewhere under all the Springbok puzzle boxes, too.

Well company is finally gone. Had 11 today. Had it pretty well under control the cooking part. After everyone left, I have put up the food, washed the dishes, and cleaned the stove. Tomorrow, I am going to completely clean my counters. my house is in pretty good shape, cleaned before the company came. Now I need to catch up on the laundry. Maybe will have some spare time to garden tomorrow.

Suzi, I had someone actually say something similar to me. Back before the remodel gave me an excuse [I can't get in these rooms til I have a kitchen to put the extra stuff into] - any way I showed a friend the state my bedroom had gotten into.

As usual she was attracted to my wall display of treasures and commented only that it was a lot of clothes. i said yea, you can hardly tell there's a chaise lounge under there.
She spun around and said: "There's a LOUNGE in there? You gotta be kidding!" true story.

I'm going to be starting with a fresh brand new kitchen. As much as it's all so wonderful, the little bits I've been putting back shows me I'm going to have a lot of stuff that used to fit and doesn't anymore.

Gonna be a lot of that "Ain't no usta bees here anymore" going on. Some of that stuff I won't mind parting with, some I am simply going to have new places [hunh!] to put them.

There's a spare set of dishes that usta live in the back side of the pots and pans shelf. I use the bowls. They're nice dishes. Just not my cuppa. They could live in the cellar 'till DD wants them. oh yeah, the one that thinks I collect/have too much stuff. LMAO

egads, NO WAY do I want to show my nasty kitchen/entry room floor. Maybe THAT will be my 15 minutes tomorrow... even though I KNOW 15 minutes is not enough to get it clean.

That's exactly why I haven't posted pictures....I'm too embarrased. Plus DH saw me with camera in hand and just about had a fit LOL - not really but he said if he ever met any of you, he'd have to know if you'd seen the pics or not ROTFL!

I'm about ready for chorus start up tomorrow. Tom and I went grocery shopping first thing this morning - then came home and stuffed folders. Have spent the afternoon getting the paper work ready and all. Tomorrow night will be hectic and busy - but fun.

Now I need to get the trash out and get a shower so I can watch my shows - well maybe I'll make it.

Later! Keep up all the SMALL flutterings! We're making progress!

M.

I know all of you know this, BUT... I never choose my friends by the state of their house!!

Wut if they're TOO neat??? hmmm?

There's always the exception! lol!!!

Thank you Darius - me either! and neither does Tom = he just likes to joke about it.

m.

Karen, I DO have a couple of friends ( nearby) who are so neat I hate to visit. They often invite me to spend the night since it's about 45 miles and I do not drive well after dark. I usually decline, sure that I will NEVER get all the bedding and throw pillows back in the right order!

Oh! Darius! You brought back old memories with that Joe Btfsplk. We always use that name to describe people who seem gloomy, but now no one knows what I mean. Brought back chuckles.

Well, I DO NOT feel gloomy, and wish that durn black cloud would stop following me around!

Who was the character in the 'Toons who was always poppin' buttoms off his shirt... and the chickens grabbed 'em? I thought it was Dodpatch but I don't see him in the line-up.

Still haven't caught the gist of this thread and 'Toons and company, but cannot resist:

Will have to read this thread more closely - was just scanning and saw Woofens' post about pulling out the ground chuck and dinner and I'm thinking about the woodchuck, skunk and 4 raccoons we trapped and relocated from our garden...but for a more minute there, Woofens had me goin.

We depended on a 22' deep, very temperamental well for water between 1974 and 1986 (not sure about exact date) -- good thing inlaws didn't mind our mooching their shower on Friday nights. What nostalgic memories - hauling recycled milkjugs of water up 22 steps to flush the toilet...But, in the days before gentrification, we could sit out on our porch any time with out the neighbors' lights turning our porch into noon at midnight...

Darius, you'd be at home here.

Blooms, did you ever read any of Helen and Scott Nearings' books? They were paragons of self-sufficiency and simplicity back in the 60's - he was a banned professor of social science and she was a flutist - they each had one bowl. For guests, sometimes she'd put a freshly dug head of broccoli on the table and that would be dinner.

Well, I promise not to put a freshly dug anything on anyone's plate if they come to visit, but like Woofens' ground chuck, it does give pause...

Blue, my monitor and keyboard thank you for the fresh coat of sunkist LMAO

DH swears that the kind of ground chuck you're talking about is good eats... but I"ve never been hungry enough to find out
OMG I'm gonna wake the house up laughing here.

The gist of the thread is we are a bunch of DG'ers that can't get off our hind ends or out of the garden long enough to keep the house presentable. :) Its CHAOS= can't have anyone over symdrome :) Weare you kind of spurring eachother on, using a couple different systems, and combining the 2 as needed, and trying to stay motivated. Stickers on my calendar is my thing. I think we are all having fun :)

Nice to "meat" you LOL pun intended

Janis

Bluespiral/Karen, I cannot answer for Blooms, But Helen and Scott rest safely on my bookshelves! And, as a matter of fact, the house that LizH and her husband live in in Todd/Boone NC looks suspiciously like the rock walls the Nearings built, section by section. (and I'm still looking for a copy of their book about their greenhouse.)

My step bro lived with me about 5-6 months last yr. His idea of cleaning was to pick up everything, throw it into black trash bags and put it all in my bedroom. THAT was an interesting evening when I came home and found my paperwork messed up and lots of stuff thrown into my room!!

Step bro came back and took almost everything out of the upstairs, putting it downstairs in LR. Another brother rewired most and left few details for SB, who put in the insulation. SB came back w/friend, did most of the drywall. They couldn't measure out an obtuse angle and wasted about 7 sheets of drywall. Still not finished up there and LR is still full of the upstairs stuff. Plus, my old job went away and my stuff from old office is in there, in boxes.

Well, with law school in full force, couldn't do anything about it since the only time I wasn't working, studying, or in school, I was trying to catch Z's or running back and forth to my Dad in hospital in Ohio, then to the funeral, then taking care of step mother.

Subsequent back episodes, injuring hand in fall at work, infected tendon, poison oak/ivy, gardening, yard work and life in general have limited what I either can do or have time to do, even after withdrawing from LS in March. Imagine my surprise a couple wks ago when I moved a bag and found a recliner that I forgot was in my room!! Unfortunately, I am being serious! Hoping to make it to my dresser one day soon, so I can start using it and stop living off my clothes on the top of the washer!

Friend gave me a ride back from turning in my rental car on Wed night. It was embarrassing; so thankful that she didn't come in.

Gee, can't believe I told you all this. Now, I'll be afraid to go to the RUs and meet you in person!! Took pics, but will NOT post till can post before and after shots!! ~ Suzi :)

Suzi. please don't be embarassed... that isn't why any of us are here :(

I posted my pics (and I know to some of you, I am further along, but I"ve been doing flylady on and off for probably 4 years) to kind of give myself a boot in the rear. I look at my house and see a disaster. I try to look at my house as someone else would see it and I cringe. I know that I am not the only one of us that feels that way.

When someone does stop here, the first thing out of my mouth is, "please excuse the mess" Uusally I hear in return, something like you have 4 kids, its not supposed to be spotless. I'm not happy with it tho, and I think that makes the difference. I would never judge anyone by the way their house was (unless it was utter filth, and I have seen that too. Had a neighbor whose kids sippee cups had maggots in them, and in the carpet, it was so gross)

My friend Linda that introduced me to FLYLady ages ago, her house was probably one of the worst I had ever seen. My house has looked worse thean hers in the past few years. My house has also looked great in the past few years. Linda gave up on FLYLady, and it breaks my heart. Maybe it doesn't work for everyone, but I can personally say it works for me. I feel better about me when my house is decluttered and neat. I love to sdee my shining sink. I stand there every evening when I am done and grin LOL

Mt carpets need vacuumed, my kitchen still needs scrubbed (SHEness LOL I found out how to use the macro setting on my digital, and that is all I have done LOL) but I"m making a dent in the laundry, and I see a difference. Its becoming automatic for me to stop and put something that is out of place bback where it goes, where as before I"d just move it to the side or push it out of the way. Habits are forming without me even realizing it.

Just hang in EVERYONE. We can all do this.

And Suzi, we are close enough that we should get toether and have lunch you know that right??

Hugs,
Janis

I am obsessed with keeping my living room clean so if anyone comes, I can usher them in there and trick them into thinking the whole house is just as neat. I live in fear that someone is going to ask for a tour or God forbid someone will eventually need to use the bathroom.
I got half my dining room clean last week and said I was going to take a short break, I haven't been back since LOL. I am going to try and do 15 minutes, 2 or 3 times a day in there all this week. I bought a picture I have been wanting for in there yesterday to inspire me to keep going. I had bought paint for in there a couple months ago and think I have changed my mind. I won't buy anymore until I get it cleaned out and look at everything I have for in there. All of the stuff I have for in there centers around my Fire King collection and Fiesta Ware, so red, orange, purple, lime and yellow. I will probably need some advice from you guys when I get to that point (hopefully some time this year hehe)
Adam said at dinner tonight that he wants to invite everyone here for Christmas this year, eeeek! Can I get it all cleaned up or will I have to withhold food and liquids so no one has to go potty? LOL

Rachel

LOLOL Actually you will get there and hopefully without any christmas eve crisis cleaning either. Actually last year flylady did a Month long Vacation in December.... If I remember right. She has a holiday control journal on her site, and even posts holiday menu's from Leanne Eli ( http://www.savingdinner.com )

You will be fine :)

Janis

Janis - where is Dillonvale? Lunch? How about a cleaning party, then celebrate!! LOL

Nothing like houseguests to get a house cleaned!

Can't stand a messy house! The worst thing about this is, at one point in my life, I was introduced: "This is my friend Suzi, she's the one I told you that has to have all the dishes in the cupboard going the same way..."

I used to have my house very clean and organized. Always knew where everything was, etc. Unfortunately, kids, life, etc got in the way!! ~ Suzi :)

LOL Suzi. I'm down below Weirton. I can be up by Robinson in under an hour.

Cleaning party sounds like a hoot :) I would love to do something like that.

My mom was the one that had her canned goods in alphabetical order LOL Her friends thought she was a loon:)

Janis

I might get the house presentable, but I will not cook. I'll buy Honey Baked Ham and everyone can bring a sidedish or something. Cooking is not my thing, but I cook breakfast and lunch at work and usually dinner also. I know this sounds weird, but I do not like my kitchen here, and I don't go in there. I haven't been in there for weeks. I am saving up the money to get it renovated and then maybe I'll use it on the weekends. Rachel

ROFL I'm sorry but I wish I could use that excuse!!! I know that you mean it, but I hate to cook and I'm about the only one that does it. Jeff used to use the grill on his night s off but working 6 10 hour shifts a week put a damper on that.

When we moved in here, one of the things I loved was the size of the kitchen. I hate my countertops and floor and paneling, and wallpaper but the kitchen is big. I like a big kitchen LOL

Hugs,
Janis

I like a big kitchen too, but mine is a little hole on the back of the house. The original house didn't have a kitchen and someone eventually boxed in the back porch. I wish they had leveled the floor first, but nope. The counter tops are those ceramic tiles, and although those are pretty, I think they are nasty and it gives me the heebie jeebies, who knows what lurks in that grout, ewwww. Some genius put bead board on the walls in there, which is quaint, but loses it's appeal when some pieces are horizontal and some are vertical. The floor cover is those peel and stick squares and some of them have unpeeled. It is clean in there, probably dusty, but neat, since we don't use it.

DH works out of town most of the time and so he rarely eats here. When he does, we cook out and use paper plates lol. My uncle bought a new house and gave me the new fridge he had just bought for the old place. I have it in the laundry room with drinks in it. I want to tear down the wall in between the dining room and kitchen and make it more open and modern, but I don't know how I want it all laid out yet.

The bathroom isn't really dirty, maybe 10 or 15 minutes form being spotless. It is just ugly and embarassing. The ceramic tile is cut wrong and there are gaps, the ceiling is funky shaped with a steep angle. The sink is from the 50's and has been painted a dozen times or more, as has the wallboard. I am 6 feet tall and dh is 6'3 and the ceiling isn't tall enough. We put one of those shower ring thingies up over the ancient tub so we could shower, but with the pitch of the ceiling, our heads stick up over it ROFL. Will have to have someone jack up the back corner of the house at some point. We call the bathroom our 'California' room because we figure it will eventually seperate from the rest of the house if we don't do something about it soon.

It's funny, the original part of the house (1865) is in pretty good condition with just some cosmetic things needed, but the newer add ons in the back (kitchen, bathroom and laundry room) are horrid. I curse HGTV for making renovations look so easy. I always thought it would be so cool to refurbish an historic home, but it never occured to me that I would have to win the lottery first. It is so slow going and every decision overwhelms me because I don't want to pay to do it twice if I choose wrong.

Rachel

I understand that one!! I saw mine, that's okay, we can do this, that, etc... Sure, I know that I got a deal. Sure, could borrow the money, but then, have to pay back student loans and home equity loan along with the bills and mtg... I don't think so! Little by little - even though living in it while fixing it up, by myself, sucks!!! ~ Suzi :)

Exactly Suzi, it sucks lol. A little background, if anyone cares... Back in 2000 when we were dating, Adam and I were driving through K'ville on our way someplace and we passed this house. I said 'That is the type of house I would love to have someday!' Well we got married in 2001 and were renting a house in Winston. The lady had told me I could have a small dog. I bought a 'Boston Terrier' at a pet store, I was so excited. Well after several months, "Tinkerbell' the Boston Terrier weighed almost 40 pounds and is a pit bull. The landlady saw her one day and called us that night and said we had to get rid of Tink or move within 30 days. I was frantically trying to find another rental that would allow me to have my baby, not so easy with a pit bull! Adam called me all excited one day and said 'Your house is for sale, let's just buy it'. I said 'what house?' and he said 'the one you said you wanted'. Well I didn't know what he was talking about, it had just been a little comment 2 years earlier. We applied for the loan and were approved and rushed through everything since we had such a deadline. We didn't have it inspected (silly newbies), but we moved in less than 6 weeks after the landlady called and gave us the ultimatum. It was a whirlwind, trying to get everything done fast, etc. We signed the papers at the lawyer's and they gave us the keys right then, it was ours!!! We drove straight over here on cloud nine, we were homeowners, woohoo! We came in, looked around again and I took a hard look at the condition of things and started crying. Adam said 'what's wrong?' and I said 'we just bought a dump' he said 'but this is the dump you said you always wanted' ROFL So, I am living in 'the dump of my dreams' I guess.

My first husband and I almost did something like that.... I used to pass this building on my way to his house when we were dating, it was a huge old store that they had at some point taken the top half of and turned into an apartment. The downstairs was all original wood, floors staricases, and it had these huge 3 sided windows on either side of the door, kinda like the shape of the top half of a stop sign? The panes were probably 8 fet tall and 4 feet wide each. At the base of the windows was like a display area, this had been a store who knows when but a LONG time ago. I had the window treatments in my mind from the first time I saw it. I wanted that house.

We were looking for something to buy.... and I was moping that my house wasn't for sale. Went past it one day to go see mis parents and there is a realtors sign. I almost fell out of the car. We called the realtor, made an appointment, and went to see it. OMG, the downstairs was AWESOME. The wood didn't even need refinished, and it was just one big huge open room with bathrooms in the back. Dean and I just wandered down there and made these huge plans for what we could do. Then, we went upstairs. LOLOL The apartment was so tiny, you had to turn sideways in the halls to get through them, and I don't mean to pass someone, I mean, I"m tall but very small, at the time I might have weighted 100 pounds, and my shoulders hit both sides of the hallway. It was unreal.

We obviously decided not to buy, we wanted a large family and there was no way that we would have had the time or money to turn the place into some place comfortable for a large family. AND there were railroad tracks so close that you could almost touch them from the side windows LOL

That house/ store is still sitting there, and I don't go by it often anymore, but I have never stopped wanting it. Just to win the lottery and turn it into the place of my dreams (I love those windows. LOL

Janis

Rachel, "the dump of your dreams!" that is so cute! and the fact that your man bought the house you just made a comment on is so sweet. I am constantly telling my dh I love this or that house. You think he'd remember?!
What is so inspiring to me is when DH comes home from work and says "wow, the house looks great" and all I did was little 15 minute cleanups here and there. It seems though that I have traded "working" on the house (home improvement projects) for keeping it clean. If I only I can find some balance and do both.
Today I'm going to print out the control journal and put it in a binder. It's also the day to do the 1hr home blessing. Guess I should start on that!

Rachel - I was laughing at your post... (but, not at you!) "Dump of your dreams"... gee, we all aspire so high, LOL! I used to really love an old, historic home that I used to see and wanted one like it too... Of course, that means TONS of working on the home while living in it. Well, looked at another house when buying in Moon, that I liked, sorta like that old house. Thank goodness I had a friend that was a home inspector check it out with me, cuz it would have taken $10K work before we could move in, including the main beam on the home had to be replaced!

My DSIL used to tell me to never live in home while fixing it. She did and it was very hard for several years!!! Note to self: listen! comprehend!! understand!!! Sort of like law school, sure they go 4 nights a week. No biggie, I can squeeze in lots of study time! Sure you can Suzi!!! ~ LOL

RachelBee - one day that will be me! Minutes a day cleaning will keep my home looking great!! ~ Suzi :)

I have been there, done that, and have the T-shirt to prove it. When DH and I married 40 years ago, we bought a fix-er-upper. I lived for 28 years with a major re-do every year. I have been without a kitchen (do you think that meant no meals prepared? NOT) cooked on a hot plate located in living room. Been without a bathroom, took showers at neighbors, relocated living room to bedroom for major living room overhaul, slept on floor for 3 months while bedroom was being "redone". Then all of the outside work. Was wood siding when we bought, applied aluminum siding one year, new windows and storm windows, new roof 2 times I think. Then when vinyl siding came out, had that done, new front porch, and on and on and on. My advice to anyone is BUILD A NEW ONE. We spent way more on that first home, we could have built 2 new houses for what we spent. We still own the house and rent it out. Renting is not fun, as we always end up with tenants who either don't pay or destroy what is there. Darius, want to move to Kentucky?

LOL, Bonnie, I don't thinkl so, but I do think what I have seen of KY is beautiful!

It's 11:30 pm here and sweat is still running down between and under my boobs, Certainly NOT conducive to 15 minutes f cleaninf!

Darius, the present renters are about $1500. behind in rent. Always a good excuse. DH and I are "softies" and think maybe next month they will make a better effort. However, my soft spot is growing progressively harder!! Just keep us in mind, as that house will surely be for rent in the near future!! Ky is beautiful, and probably just as hot this year as NC is.

Where were you guys 3 years ago? lol I had no idea what I was doing. I found a pic of the house we took the day we went to look at it. If you squint and tilt your head sideways you might see a bit of the potential I did back then.
I worked from 7a until 8p today and raced to Greensboro to see if JoAnn's had their pots at 90% off like the one in Winston did, so I got nothing done around here.

Rachel