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Home > Archive: June, 2010

Archive for June, 2010

new (?) lawn chair

June 20th, 2010 at 07:18 pm

Spent the past week tearing apart old jeans into strips, sewing them together and "reupholstering" a lawn chair:

It started out like this:


Stripped it down:


Finished product (the original chair was missing one screw, so I need to pick one of those up sometime...but it is usable as is):


Also, we traded or baler in on a newer model that won't break down twice a day. When you are trying to do custom work for other people, there is no way you can be broken down most of the day. You need to pull in, bale it up and get out. We traded off the lemon as our down payment, and the yearly payments don't start until next August. We are going to sell our planter sometime between now and then, and apply all of that equity to the baler, have them reamortize, and then the payments will be less than what the planter payments were. We got a 5 year loan for 3.99%.

The importance of these two things should be switched. But I don't have pictures of the new baler Smile

A little more organized

June 19th, 2010 at 07:16 am

I am so tired of the house being a complete and utter mess all the time. I hate washing dishes, the floors are dirty all the time, the trash, ugh. I don't know that there is anything I really clean well. I hate when people come over. I feel like they are judging me, and that I deserve their scorn. Even people who have bad houses themselves Smile

I remember ages and ages ago I had read some cleaning book my mom had. The acronym was S.H.E., and it involved setting up your cleaning system so that each task you had to do went on 3x5 cards, you assigned them to do Daily, Every other Day, weekly, every two weeks, every month and every 3 months. You can throw every year in as well. Then you have little file cards so you can just move the cards to the next day you have to do it, so that day you look at the cards and that is all you have to do.

I didn't have file card box and I didn't have any dividers, but I had a buttload of envelopes I had incorrectly printed on for my sister's wedding. I cut two pieces off each envelope that the 3x5 cards can fit in, and numbered them 1-31 and Jan - Dec. I put them in an accordian like pocket pouch I had been using for coupons, but not anymore.

I use sticky notes as my memory at work, and when I was fixing up my house to sell I put sheets of newspaper up and defined each task on a sticky note so we could tear that down as each thing got done, so I figured this may do the trick. The newspaper/sticky note thing really helped organize the 5-6 people I would have in my house helping me (and not always the same people) so they could just pick something off the wall they wanted to do.

As I said, my house was a sty. So, I figured I could make up all my 3x5 cards, put them in the system I wanted them, and even if I have to wait 2 weeks to get to something, it's been longer than a few months since that task was done, so it can wait another 2 weeks. That way I don't overload myself and start to hate it.

My everyday tasks are washing dishes, including putting them away, and cleaning everything off the table (don't leave clutter. Since it is just DH and I and the table is big enough for 8, I tend to leave stuff on there). My every other day tasks are sweep, work out (today) and take out trash, water garden, and put clothes away (I keep them going through the washer and dryer just fine, but I hardly ever fold them or put them away, so that is my task) tomorrow.

My every two week task for today was cleaning the countertop by the stove (it gets used as a catch all). It took like 10 minutes? I don't know why I don't just keep it clean. Maybe this will prompt me in that direction.

My weekly task for tomorrow is wash bathroom countertop and sink. My every 2 week task for tomorrow is clean bathtub, toilet and wash mirror.

I also have some big things I want to do, like finish making the computer desk (another 4 foot piece to put the printer on), move the 4 drawer filing cabinet and set up the computer desk, so I put that on Saturday as well.

Other big things involve making and hanging curtains in multiple rooms, cutting some carpet remnants for the front room, putting some electronics away, cleaning out the office (there is just a big pile of random stuff behind me right now), set up the back porch, install a new back door, etc, but those aren't assigned to days.

I already have a few more cards to add, but I am out of 3x5 cards. I need to clean out my pickup every couple of weeks to a month, and plan my menus and grocery shop for the week.

Of course, now that I am trying to get on a schedule, I am going to be gone for the last week of June for a training class, so hopefully I won't fall off the wagon.