[If you follow my meme blog, this will all look familiar to you: I posted it there first today.]
We have family coming to stay with us a couple of nights this week, so the push is on to get the house tidied up. Since one of those people is under 5, it means some major renegotiation of space so everyone has a comfortable place to sleep. One of the things I've put off (for several years) is getting the upstairs storage area cleaned out of all the old clothes. I scheduled a pickup from Purple Heart for this Tuesday, so this morning I sealed the Already Packed Boxes and loaded the Rest of the Stuff into garbage bags--their preferred containers apparently nowadays. They all need to be brought downstairs and left on the front porch, but after a little extra reorganization that storage space looks the best it has in several years. Plus, I found my parents' slides from when I marched in the Tournament of Roses parade; Beast is going to convert them so I can post them on our high school reunion and high school band Facebook pages.
Then I came downstairs with my lingerie and hand-wash-only clothing and started that load.
Next up: moving shit around in the pantry. That room has become an absolute nightmare: literally no place to stand but in the space the door opens. Since it's actually meant to be a laundry room, that means there is a LOT of junk piled higgledy-piggledy on the floor. But no more! The cases of pop are now lined up out of the way, the giant Bag of Plastic Bags is on the back steps to go for recycling when I hit the grocery store tonight, the ancient golf clubs that kept falling down are now back in a corner where they are less likely to get knocked down, the step stool, distilled water, First Floor Laundry Basket, and cleaning supplies are pushed back and stacked so there's room to maneuver, and all the paper bags are together inside the biggest. I also threw out some liquor bottles that were empty, tossed some very old food gifts, rearranged our drinking water containers, 409'd the liquor shelf to get rid of the sticky spots, and swept guinea pig fluff out of the corners (the downside of having them living near the pantry is that their stuff goes in there: yuck. Also, I took the bag of scarves, gloves and assorted other paraphernalia from my mother-in-law's front closet--she died 4 years ago--and added it to the pile for Purple Heart.
Once that was done, I moved the laundry around the next cycle and came back upstairs where I emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it with what can be cleaned in there setting aside a couple of things that didn't get completely degunked in the last load, and ran water to wash pots and pans. Beast spent 10 minutes levering out the Spiced Tea that had solidified in a mason jar in the pantry over the past 4-5 years since my sister gave it to me, and I washed up all the stuff on the counter.
All accomplished between 10:30 and 12:30 when my knees suddenly went weak and I started to feel sick--oh, yeah, maybe I should eat something besides bread today! Somewhere in the midst of all of this I had a Very Necessary Conversation with Katherine, my niece, who is hosting another contingent of family starting tonight. She's wanted to get all their activities absolutely nailed to the wall before they arrive--that's what my family tends to do--and has been freaking out about this all spring, culminating this week. She seems fine now. I dunno, relaxation is not her thing at all. That was actually the worst part of the morning, to be honest.
The stuff in the dryer hadn't completely dried when I checked, so that's still hanging fire.
What's left?
- Guinea pig cage cleaning. Maybe tomorrow. Then I don't have to do it again till next Sunday after Wayne and Elizabeth (and Justin) leave.
- Grocery shopping for us this week. Tonight. When Sparky can go with me; it's good to have him from a pragmatic point of view--he helps load while I scan at the self-check--and also it's good quality time to talk about stuff without him feeling like I'm grilling him. Which, of course, I am!
- Clean out the fridge. It's really not nice in there: lots of dried lettuce and so forth in the cooler bins, spilled baking soda, agéd food, and assorted stains. I really should also be checking the age of some of the food in the pantry, but I can do that later in the week.
- Find the sippy cups and lids. Technically, I know exactly where the lids are, but I can't remember where I put the cups.
Sparky is off doing his thing all day (7-7) at his "summer job" which is nothing we really want him involved in but are letting him try it out until he figures out why these things are called Pyramid Schemes (he's into it only $100 so far, which is a cheap lesson).
Beast is paying bills in the office. I may go in there and do some more work on my Goodreads shelves pretty soon. All in all I feel pretty good about today!
