SHEs Organized

trying to downsize 40+ years of "stuff" is a challenge

Several of us here have been through this in one form or another, Molly's Nana. We did the same thing in 2009 and are still at it more or less. Sold our house then but the new owner just didn't care that we still had stuff there -dd plans to go up in the huge attic over the garage this summer to see if there's anything up there that anyone can't live without. Dh told me just before he came down that there was a set of dishes up there that I immediately recognized (by description) as the set my ddad gave me the Christmas before dh and I were married. It was a set of corning ware for 4 (white with a burgundy band around the edge). Think we're going to take that to our RV to use. I have dishes but this will be a nice memento without taking up much room.

Speaking of our Park Model, dh found we'd had a mice problem over the winter. Ended up washing everything (just to be sure) that was in the lower cupboards. (I have a lot of cupboards btw). So I think this fall I'll buy a few covered bins and simply put everything from the cupboards & drawers in those, then store them in our storage area when we come back next Spring. Can't be any worse than having to wash everything every year. I'm sure a lot of people will have had a problem -it was such a harsh winter as many of you know. He did say he didn't see any obvious signs in dd's motorhome however. Hope not. We wipe everything down with antiseptic wipes every year just to be sure.

((((Harmony))))
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Support for Harmony .

Harriet: it seems to me if dd has a sunburn, perhaps it wasn't all rain, rain, rain!

Long day. It is over. My voice struggled and I coughed a lot in the last service.

I've finished the first draft of the summary of our cruise (that's what I started while at the hockey game 8 days ago - finally found time this morning to get at it.) It is 23 pages long. That's the summary - I wrote about 70 pages originally!

Had a lovely time with one of the church toddlers at coffee hour. She's just everyone's favourite and learning to milk-it. The giggles were delightful and watching the old men completely charmed by her and 'chasing' her around the basement (as she'd call out "chase me!" but if they got too close "Don't tickle me!") was adorable. Dh said to remind him why his shoulders might be sore tomorrow - he was carrying her around upside down, walking up to people and saying "I've found these shoes on some feet, any idea who they belong too?!!!

It may take me 30 minutes to drive to church but I love my congregation!

We dropped by dd's and watered her seedlings.

Then we picked up a baguette and some steak and had a decadent dinner. Much better than anything we could have bought at a restaurant.

Of course, I still have the cleanup to do.

Dh and I just got up from the garage. We have the tires and other stuff loaded in the car and there's room for the tire rack if we disassemble that, so dh is working on that now. His bike is in a friend's parking spot. When he finishes with the rack, he'll put the car in the visitor's parking lot. We'll move everything back tomorrow night. In the meantime, I have all the winter mats up here in the apartment and will wash them after I get the kitchen cleaned up (there's a laundry tub in the shared laundry room.) They can dry on the balcony overnight.

Tomorrow night, after the car is emptied, I'll take it to a government parking lot nearby and give it as good a cleaning on the inside as I can. The lot will be almost empty in the evening so I can open all the doors and move around freely and there will be good light (unlike in the underground garage here.) I don't have a battery operated vacuum and don't know where the nearest pay vacuum is but aside from that I can bring water in a jug and bucket and wash things down on the inside. And I have a brush and dust pan to pick up the worst of the salt and sand.

I do hope Kathryn's DH returned those shoes and feet! lol lol lol

Monday. Things to do. 2 hours till home helper gets here.

Takes us about 1/2 hour to get to our church here too, Kathryn (and well, the one up north as well) and love them both.

Talked to dh for about 1/2 hour tonight. He never did make it to church today. Had things he HAD to get done today. One was picking up crutches for after his surgery on Friday. So praying that this repair works. He said he'd gone to C entral T ractor today looking for a denim jacket -not. W mart hadn't seen any in a couple of years. WAllah! DD came out with the P epsi denim jacket she got about 20-25 years ago. Still in beautiful shape. Dh had tons of P epsi points all those years ago from the recycling he did back then. Everyone had these jackets (that wore like iron), bicycles, duffel bags, flip-flops, and can't tell you what else. This jacket is a good as the day it was made. Oh I know they all got real heavy hooded sweatshirts too -dd still wears hers. Think dsons still have theirs as well. DD's is just too small for her and it's been in her closet for years. Well now! There's one more thing out of here -I'll mail it tomorrow.

Thank you Harriet. Y'all just ignore me when I get into that woe-is-me mood.

We need rain. DH dragged around the sprinklers and watered the lawn tonight. It will take much more of that to make a dent in this dry ground.

I've been sorting / purging. Working on photos and numerous pictures sitting around. Since the DGirls no longer send me updated pictures of my DGKids, I'm taking the ones I have out of the big poster sized frame and putting all the littler ones of family I have sitting around making dusting a chore. The ones from the poster will go into my nice big photo album I have for the big photos.

I guess what I've been doing is taking care of all those little items around here that cause me to say "why is it like this" and bothers me. Like nagging stuff in the back of my mind all the time. Too full shelves, old pictures (which make me mad at my DDs). I don't do well with junk and clutter around...if it wasn't for DH and the business, I would probably have a very minimalistic house. Somewhere there is peace of mind...

Harmony: my dmil had her rogues gallery on the old stereo console (which was unused.) The grad pictures of her four kids were on it. Then the grandchildren were added as they arrived. We would send 5 x 7's school shots (before school, Grandpa would take pictures) and she would put in the latest, take out the previous one and put it in a mini album for that child. Any other pictures we'd send of the kids would go in those albums (one for each grandchild.) My dsisil and I had a cry when we pulled the albums out of the closet - the ones for my two were pretty complete (ds was 17, dd 21), but her youngest only had a few pages filled since she had just started school. We both were saddened that dniece wouldn't grow up knowing Grandma the way my kids had.

There was always one other picture - her "Grandma's Babies" photo. Anytime we were all together, all the grandchildren had to line up (babies on the eldests' knees) so she'd have a picture of them all. The latest one of those was always there (and the older ones were tucked in the back of the frame.) The last time the kids were all together, dd's wedding, we made them all go out to the parking lot for a "Grandma's Babies" shot even though Grandma and Grandpa aren't with us any more.

But all of this was before posting pictures on Facebook or emailing them was the norm. Now a young mother posts something on FB and considers the picture sharing done. And those photos are not suitable to print and frame, the resolution is too low.