Excavations

[e_moon60]

Warning #1. I am not a good housekeeper.

Warning #2.  Do not tell me how to be a better one.  As a friend said his grandfather told him, when he came home from college ready to teach the old man how to run the ranch better, "Son,  I already know how to ranch better than I can..."   And I already know how to keep house better than I do.

That being

Comments

[mallory_blog]

Is it possible you could trade with someone? There seem to be things you excel at ::smiles:: and there are probably persons you know who probably excel at housework - sometimes a trade goes a long way to solving such things...

[e_moon60]

Not at this point, and possibly never...as a writer, I have tons of critical-to-me paperwork interleaved with stuff I don't need (such as service leaflets from church, grocery store receipts, etc.) and no one but me knows if an empty envelope covered with scribbles is important (has the address & phone number of someone I need to contact) or not (has the address & phone number that's already in the computer.) Same with clothes...some are damaged and must be thrown out (drat the varmints that get into a country place), some are outgrown and should go to Goodwill, some were just lost in the piles and are happily found (a long-john top I'd been looking for, for instance, showed up this afternoon.)

If I ever get it to the point where someone else could do the cleaning part, I'm ready to hire someone weekly, if I can find someone I can afford. But there's a long way to go.

[freyaw]

My mother hired me to pitch things for her. And do the filing. Slowly we've got a system in place for her to put important stuff (like bills to pay) in one pile and interesting stuff (like knitting patterns, which I'm sure if I looked I would find somewhere else in the ever-increasing pile) in another pile. Anything like scribbled addresses and business cards that I find in amongst the Business Stuff goes in a pile for her to deal with.

But there were things like close to ten years' worth of unopened newsletters from the Embroiderers Guild. That, I pitched on the grounds that she was unlikely to ever open the plastic thing encasing them. I did put them in a pile and told her to do what she wanted with them, but the pile stayed where I left it for six months.

Apart from that, 'interesting stuff' not my problem. Except to remove it from the business-type paperwork, along with the recycling paper (you know how there's frequently a last page of a website printed which has one blank line on it plus the URL data? That's recycling paper).

[e_moon60]

But you aren't MY daughter...(sound of mournful sniffs...)

[anysia]

Warning #1. I am not a good housekeeper.

Warning #2. Do not tell me how to be a better one. As a friend said his grandfather told him, when he came home from college ready to teach the old man how to run the ranch better, "Son, I already know how to ranch better than I can..." And I already know how to keep house better than I do.

I have always felt if you don't want to wipe your feet after you leave my house, then it's all good. That being said, I don't have 2 inches of mud all over the floors or vorpal cobwebs. If people brag their floors are so clean, you can eat off of them, I tell them I own plates.

My aunt instilled the 'you visit the person, not the house' when you drop in or are invited.

[cdozo]

Hugs. I sympathize with you and admire your effort.

My sister cleared the clutter out a few years ago and she's kept the house clean. But that's the house in Connecticut where it's only her and her son, and they spend the weekends in Brooklyn.

Even so, it's pretty interesting to see her be a bit of a neat freak.

[bevhale]

When I worked for CJ I did a complete sort through years and years of stuff. Some was important, some wasn't, some was. We shredded over 40 bags of stuff and sent it to recycle. Ask alfreda89 about the system I set up so she can get receipts and other stuff organized (Of course I scared W when I reorganized her house for a big party during WFC. I used to be a meeting planner as well.

I also organized my sister's entire practise so she could find things and keep track of them. We're doing this at our house, but it's not nearly as much fun to do this for myself, still it beats going crazy trying to find stuff you really really need.

If it gets too hard, I could probably be convinced to help organize- I understand the author scribbles and records. I could at least help you to get the storage materials needed and organizational items. It does make life easier. Let me know if I can help.

[comrade_cat]

Cool! Someone else who needs stepping places in the piles! This makes me feel better...

Good luck in your task. I know how hard it is.