My younger kids are back in school today. My teaching won’t take off till next week, so today I dropped the kids off at school, came home and headed next door.
We really just have two rooms left, but they are a bit tricky. I didn’t have the trailer today and most of the stuff in the back bedroom is bulky enough that just needs to be thrown straight into the trailer. I bagged up as much loose stuff as I could.
We still have a closet of clothes that haven’t been gone through. But, I’m going to let my daughter go through them first and then just toss them straight into the trailer.
After that, I headed into the kitchen. Andy has already done a lot of work in here. There is a lot of glassware that is keepable, but we need to pack it into boxes so it won’t all break. Haven’t done that yet.
I threw away everything that was plastic and aluminum. There was an extensive amount of original Tupperware in the house. Nothing that I would want to store food in any more.
Unfortunately, there were still some cupboards with food stuff in them. I tried to look for dates and there werent any. So, old enough that they hadn’t put expiration dates yet.
That cupboard was not too bad. Mostly all glass jars and rusted out cans. I was standing up, lots of space around me, squeamish but doable.
Then I got to this cupboard..
It is in the island and I had to sit down on a stool with my back up against a cart and the bag right next to my legs and the cupboard was really deep so I had to reach way back to get stuff. I found myself whimpering and by the time I was done, I was shaking. I left one line of cans in the very back of the bottom shelf because in order to reach it I would have had to kneel down on the floor and stick my head in. Couldn’t do it. There is still one more food cupboard on the other end of the island, but I didn’t have it in me to do it today. Also, still have two fridges that need emptying.
I need an empty trailer and probably my husband there for moral support to finish off this kitchen and back bedroom. Getting so close to being done with the clean out!
Today I went next door with my husband and two youngest sons, ie, “the little boys”. The little boys acted as runners for me since I was working upstairs. They carried all the keepable stuff down the stairs to the bedroom we’ve set aside for that purpose. Andy tackled the bathroom upstairs and I tackled the kitchen and pantry closet in the kitchen and the boys helped with the upstairs hallway.
Here’s the upstairs hallway:
And then after.
Here’s the kitchen:
In this pic Andy is the bathroom doorway. This is of course the upstairs kitchen that hasn’t been used in I don’t know how long. The fridge still has food in it though, but its been so long that there is no longer a smell. If that makes any sense. I did not clean out the fridge.
There’s also a pantry closet.
The kitchen wasn’t too bad, but the pantry closet still had old food in it, or rather, old rusted out cans and boxes that had been demolished by time and rodents. Speaking of. I had Andy move the dresser out the pantry and I opened the drawers. Noticed a mouse nest, threw it away, and then shortly after saw a big fat mouse go running across the kitchen floor. Which made me scream and the little boys came running and then they said they hoped another mouse would run out so they could see it. The mouse made the rest of the cleaning more stressful as I did not want any creature to jump out of something I was moving and perhaps run up my arm or over my foot or really just get anywhere close to me. Fortunately no more mice were spotted.
And then the kitchen mostly done.
Andy did the bathroom.
While cleaning the bathroom he found these.
And here its done.
We didn’t have our trailer today so we piled up things by the upstairs window to be thrown down later and then had our garbage bag pile. Definitely a full trailer load.
We wrapped all that up and then I came back home to jump in the shower. Only to discover that the little boys had just started their showers so I had to wait. So I sat on my back deck and pondered how much we have completed in one year. Just working at random times when we have had a free day. That upstairs kitchen and bathroom were rooms I had been gladly avoiding as they just seemed so gross and overwhelming. And now they are done. I have decided this house project is going to be my easy reminder that I can do hard things.
I went over to the free house today to clean out another room. This particular room we had already cleaned out, though not it’s closet. But, when people were going through the house to pick out things they wanted, this room became the dumping ground for all the sorting and it managed to get full of stuff again. So I tackled the room again and also did the closet, which turned out to be a lot bigger and roomier than I first realized.
My two youngest came over to help. I set the eleven year old on fan and lamp duty. He found some fans and figured out which ones worked and then came and set them up for me. I opened a couple windows and it stayed decent. There is a kitchen upstairs that we haven’t tackled yet and the eleven year was poking around in there and realized there was a window unit AC in the window. He turned it on and it worked! But I had him turn it off cause I’m still paying the electric bill. But maybe when we tackle the kitchen and bathroom up there we can put on the AC. Though the open windows and fans do also help with the smell. I don’t know, we’ll see. The boys were a great help carrying keepables downstairs for me and they had fun poking through the stuff.
Here’s the closet.
This upstairs is considered the 2nd floor, but there’s a walk out basement where we have the trailer, so when I throw the trash out the window, I’m throwing it down three floors.
Here’s the window I wrestle all these bags through.
With my dog admiring the view.
I squeeze the trash bag through the window and then have to balance the bag on the little overhang and scoot it over so that it will fall down into the trailer. I was about to ask my little boys to help me with this, but then images of them leaning too far out the window made me change my mind. It feels a little precarious.
While we were cleaning my boys also discovered a snake skin in the room I was cleaning.
Which did not make me feel real comfortable cleaning out the deep dark closet. But, God has been merciful and I have not come across wildlife and bugs and snakes yet.
We are getting close to our one year anniversary of starting this project. I would love to have everything at least cleaned out by that milestone. We’ll see!
I went over today with the goal to clean out two rooms upstairs. My eleven year old came with me. He was mostly interested in finding treasures. He found a collection of old board games and helped me gather up pennies into a mug. He also helped carry keepables downstairs to the room we’ve set aside for that. About fifteen minutes into the project I decided this was going to be a one room project day. About thirty minutes in, I had to start pep talking myself to just stick with it. I think my energy levels are down today. Anyway, I persevered. Another room done.
I didn’t have the trailer available today, so all the trash is waiting at the upstairs hall window to be thrown down when the trailer is there.
I’m hoping I can get back tomorrow and tackle another room.
Andy and I went over to the free House to work today and I have to say, I think this is easiest session we’ve had so far. Highlights were no poop or pee and no rotten food. Woohoo!
We are in the upstairs now.
So apparently, when our neighbor first moved into this house it was in the 80s and she rented the upstairs from the elderly woman who lived there. There used to be a stairway that went up the outside of the house. Here’s what’s left of it.
There was a door which was obviously not original to the house.
The room we cleaned today must have been her living room. Here’s the before.
We found some interesting things today, including this giant safe thats not going to be fun to get back down the stairs.
If you’d like an electric hotdog cooker, I can help you out.
We actually found a lot of vintage, odd small appliances, all in their original packaging.
Since we cleaned the hallway last time, we were able to throw things out the upstairs hall windows instead of hauling everything down the stairs, which also made everything easier. We could have kept cleaning but our trailer was completely full again.
Here’s the after picture.
We’ve been talking a lot more about what we’re going to do with the house. On days when we are feeling poor and overwhelmed we tend to feel like just selling it. But then we revive and think of how amazing it would be to have it fixed up and available for use. That is still the plan, but sometimes it feels a little impossible. So we push on, one step at a time. We’ll do everything we can and then when we hit a roadblock we’ll reassess. For now, there’s lots of cleaning to be done, yardwork, and several repair projects we can do with minimal funds, so no roadblocks in the near future.
It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. We had one of the busiest holiday seasons I’ve ever had. It was a lot of fun, lots of good memories, great time with my kids, and we ended with the wedding of my oldest son! Then all the kids that came home for Christmas left, school started back up, and this weekend is the first time that I’m feeling like I can catch my breath a bit. It’s been a great day, I got my grocery shopping done first thing this morning, assigned my kids some chores, and then Andy and I went next door to tackle the next project. We worked three hours, came home, showered, and now I’m looking at the rest of the afternoon and evening with nothing on the schedule. Woohoo!
Today’s clean out was a lot more physically intense than normal. We have finally moved upstairs.
Which means everything has to come down those stairs, then you have to climb back up those stairs again to get back to work. We tossed lighter things down the stairs, but we escorted the big giant trash bags. At the top of the stairs is a rather large landing that had been turned into a bedroom.
We filled our trailer.
And then still had lots of stuff to fill another trailer load.
So, this is how far we got today, both of us working. I feel a little bit like an archeologist as I try to figure out the time line for the house. I found mail on the floor upstairs from 1999, which seems to be a significant year as I really haven’t found much mail or newspapers from before then. The upstairs ceiling is lath and plaster, and that started to fall apart at some point in time, so they put a cheap drop ceiling over the lath and plaster. Then I think enough of the original ceiling collapsed that it weighed down the drop ceiling and made that fall as well. So, we were cleaning up a lot of house debris today. As usual, I am always amazed at how much stuff can be crammed into one small space.
In other news, one of my older daughters went through some of the clothes that have been hanging in closets and tried washing them to see if they’d come clean, and they did! She is an eclectic dresser, so she had fun finding some things. This silk suit didn’t fit. Not sure what I’m going to do with it. But it’s clean!
Another day of cleaning. I finished the first clean of the Parlour. The armchair, tv, rug, and lamp all need to get thrown out. I’m not sure if the very old sound system is worth saving or not. It appears to still be working. And then we have to go through and deep clean. But, I’m working on the initial cleanout first.
I think that our neighbor was doing most of her living in this room at the end. It looks like the chair was being used as a bed and there is a lot more food trash laying around. It was interesting, as I was cleaning I got the impression that this room had felt comfortable to our neighbor. I can’t say particularly why. But, it reminded me of my bedroom this past summer.
I did not clean my bedroom this past summer. I had some standards. I kept the trash in the trashcan and the dirty clothes in the dirty laundry basket, but other than that, my room was completely taken over by clutter. Clean clothes that didn’t all make it in the drawer, papers that my cat knocked off my desk, still laying in a pile on the floor. The sock basket that my kids’ socks all live in was spilling socks everywhere. Stacks of books. No dirty dishes, I didn’t want bugs..but you get the idea. I thought about cleaning my room, but I didn’t want to. Not because I didn’t want to clean, but because I wanted the cluttered atmosphere. For whatever reason, this summer felt really overstimulating. The bright sun, intense heat, lots of activities to get kids to and from. Whenever I could, I retreated into my bedroom. It was cool. Not overly bright. And it felt comfortable to me. For some reason, the idea of cleaning up my room and making it neat and organized made me feel like I would then have to be productive when I was in my room. I didn’t want to be productive. I didn’t want to look at a perfectly organized desk and feel the need to pay bills, or write, or do some creative project. I just wanted to exist in my room with no outside pressure. So I didn’t clean it. I kept the rest of the house clean, because those were shared spaces that a bunch of us had to be comfortable in, and where I wanted to invite other people into as well. But, my room was for me (and my long suffering husband who obviously didn’t care enough, because he didn’t take the time to clean it either).
When summer started coming to an end, I tackled my room, and several big cleanout projects in my house and got everything organized and ready to be productive in time for the new school year. But, as weird as it might be to some, I understand how you can be comfortable in a mess.
Here’s what things looked like before I started.
Here’s the pile of trash.
And another pile of trash, ready to go out the window down into our trailer, except the trailer wasn’t there today, so my husband gets to do that when he has time.
And here’s the end product. I think this is my favorite room.
And here’s me, worn out after two hours of manual labor.
I went and cleaned for another two hours today. I find thats about as long as I can handle being over there. After two hours my brain starts getting foggy and I start getting a headache.
I’m just going to post some before and after pics this time around.
Andy got in a couple cleaning sessions also, so this our combined work.
Bathroom before.
Bathroom after.
Hallway at the beginning.
Hallway almost done.
The parlor when I started today.
About halfway done.
I keep having to remind myself that this is a marathon, not a sprint. But the progress we are making is encouraging.
I went over this morning to the free house, my first time going solo without my husband. Last weeks’ goal was to clear a path to the front door, which I accomplished, yay! But, there was some strategy there. I wanted to be able to just walk in the front door instead of having to go through the basement, climb some questionable stairs, have to pass next to the really horrifying kitchen and then get to work. Andy found a mummified possum in the basement which he has removed, but my first acquaintance with the basement was with mummified possum intact which I had to carefully avoid looking at as I climbed the stairs, and honestly, I just found the whole thing a little creepy. So, the thought of working over there by myself meant I wanted a way to avoid the basement and kitchen, which is at the top of the basement stairs.
So, today I walked in the front door! And straight into the living room.
The living room was not as bad as the hallway. Less foodstuff. And everything was less compacted. I managed to clean it out in just under two hours.
Which makes me a little sad. I found stuff on the bottom of the pile from 2002 which means this stuff has been accumulating for a long time. It only took two hours of work to make it all go away. Of course, it only took me two hours because I had no history with any of these belongings. I had no problem grabbing things and throwing them away. I found a good size pile of things that have never been opened and are still usable and I went and put them in our future yard sale pile, but I also found some things that were unopened but didn’t seem to serve any useful purpose, and I just tossed them. Cause I didn’t care. Those belongings had zero hold on me.
I wonder how many problems we make for ourselves because we are so connected to our stuff? It has been a journey for me to let go of those connections. I remember when our first four or five kids were little. They could not keep their rooms clean. I could not keep their rooms clean. We simply had too many toys. And it’s not like I spent a lot of money on toys. In our culture, we have so much stuff that we are on a constant search for someone to give our stuff to. Hey, I’ve got a big box of really nice toys my kids don’t play with anymore, here, you can have them! And then suddenly, I have another big box of toys that I now need to find a home for, take care of and clean up every day. On one hand, it’s a blessing: Free entertainment for kids. On the other hand, that also translates to daily tears and frustration as mom and kids try to keep it all clean.
Over the years I have slowly learned how to limit belongings, and also how to keep up with the belongings we do have. Lately, I’ve been dealing with my book connections. I have so many books in my home. Someone said that if you have more than 1,000 books it counts as a library. I have a library. Or, at least, I did. This summer I tackled my bookshelves. I got rid of a lot of my homeschooling supplies (after all, it has been eight years since I was homeschooling a crowd, four years since my last lone homeschooler went to school). I also got rid of a lot of early reader type books, because my youngest now reads long chapter books and isn’t interested in “Amelia Bedelia”. Sigh. (Ok, confession, I did keep one bookshelf that has all the best read-aloud books, I’m still counting on grandkids coming over one day!) But, I managed to haul off several totes worth of books to the used bookstore. And my house is cleaner and easier to take care of because of it.
The next belongings stronghold I need to tackle is memorabilia. Kids old school work and art work, old cards and letters, old programs from different events my kids have been in. I’m still really connected to all those things. This summer I bought a big tote and transferred several drawers and boxes worth of paper memories into the box, sealed it up and set it in the attic. With the hopes that I will leave it there for several years until I’ve forgotten about it and it no longer matters to me. At which point it will be easier to throw away.
Stuff can make your life feel cozy, luxurious, abundant. But, I think it’s a really narrow line to where that stuff becomes a burden and sucks energy from your life.
I can tell you that working in the house next door is definitely helping me to be wary about stuff, and a lot more hesitant about accumulating anything more.
