Gobnait's grind to wean the house.

[Gobnait]

I've been away for a while and now I'm coming back.

 

Many games have grindy parts that don't really progress the story or directly get you closer to the main boss.  It's looking like I'll be spending this challenge on the stupid stuff that keeps me from progressing.

 

Main quest: Get the house so that it takes care of me more than I take care of it.

 

My last challenge, I had a 12-week plan to track how much time I was spending on housework and then work on limiting how much I did.  This challenge, I'm going to be a little bit more lax and just note what I did so that I know that I'm doing something.  I'm not sure how to score it if I wait so long that I can't remember what I did on a particular day. 

 

I also want to note the answer to the question "Did I do enough?" at every day, roughly every week, for the two halves of the challenge, and for the whole challenge.  Good answers are actually "eh, sorta," or "no, and I'm too tired to care." Last Sunday I did a stupendous amount of work, like 16 hours, and was frustrated that I dropped from exhaustion when I wanted to keep going.  It put me out of commission for most of the week.

 

Grind 1: Keep track of what I did in the day

Grind 2: Answer the question "Did I do enough?"

 

Since last challenge, I still haven't resolved the creeping issue of cooking.  Many times I have regretted not buying hot pockets.  The main idea is to get some freezer-to-oven meals into the freezer, but I'll go easy on myself because it's harvest season and include everything from loading the dehydrator to brewing beer.

 

Grind 3: cook at least 6 things for future consumption.

 

XP seems a little bit inappropriate for what I am doing, except for the freezer-to-oven stuff.  Some grinds are just to get to a high enough level to progress, or enough currency to get gear, or the gear itself.  Other grinds are meaningless except that you get a piece of bling to prove that you did it.

[forkboy]

 Many times I have regretted not buying hot pockets.

 

Solid quote for the day, thanks!  Good luck out there!

[Blaidd]

Hey Gobnait. I get what you mean about the house.  Do you have any other fitness type goals that will work around your house goal? Maybe getting a certain amount of steps if you have a tracker of some kind?  It's not necessary but in case you might like to do something. Also you don't have to worry about not having attribute points - i don't use them, but i do give myself rewards still (some proper physical ones). 

 

For those freezer meals, sometimes if you make a little extra at dinner time, you will have enough to pop into the freezer (i do this before i've even dished up my own dinner so that i don't "accidentally" eat if). It's been my saving grace since i started Whole30.

 

Good luck xx

[Teros]

Since I hate cooking in general, I tend to make batches of things so that I don't have to cook later in the week.  For example, I would make mini-quiches on sunday and put them in a container so each morning I could just microwave them for 40 seconds and have breakfast ready to go.  I also did the same thing with grilling a bunch of chicken/burgers and then reheating them.  Fall is coming so I'm geared up to make big batches of stuff in my crockpot.  That thing is a lifesaver. Roasts can last for days, as well as big hearty soups, stews, and chili.

[Gobnait]

I really don't think that a formal exercise plan works in with what I am trying to do right now.  If I had started this 3 weeks ago, it would have seen me moving a loaded bookcase. (Not all at once, putting the books elsewhere, moving the case, then reloading it.)  I've been doing similar things off and on that whole time, and I'm not done.  Hopefully I also won't be stalled.  (Already have had a lot of hiccups on what I'm planning to do.)  Then again, if I do get stalled, just getting the floors done once per week is going to be Sisyphus.

 

The sort of freezer-to-oven I was talking about is full four-serving lasagna-like meals.  Basically preparing for winter when I can't keep up my pattern every day.  When I mentioned hot pockets, I'm just having random erraticsms in the schedule where his late night and me needing more calories than usual and the utensil want is dirty coincide.

[Gobnait]

Did you do enough today?

 

Well, I allowed myself to be lazy Sunday (after a whole week of tired and BS) because I thought I would be ready to kick some house.  The dishwasher was over half-full, I finished filling it and then emptied it.  I went out and bought non-essentials except for needing gas.  I moved some boxes.  I also spent some time being at a loss about what I should do, and chatted with a friend for advice about how to tackle the need for a counter over the laundry area so it could be part of the kitchen.  (Weird layout on the house.) 

 

I didn't eat anything except eggs, and that's only because I thought I should.  I wasn't hungry enough to cook those cube-steaks that I thawed, but I only encountered them while looking for that lump of beef that I want to stick into the crock pot before the potato rots.

 

Answer: What the hell of a non-rest day do you call that?  That sort of leaving the house does not call for slacking off!  What the hell is wrong with you?

 

I did move some boxes.

[Gobnait]

Did you do enough today?

 

I got a recent bad purchase back into its box and I just need to get it sent back.  I found a piece of mail relating to my vehicle registration and attempted to take care of it.  I attempted to slice some sort of peach-like fruit for the dehydrator, gave up and ran it through the blender, now I need to decide if I'm doing fruit leather or syrup.  Got a few things moved, swept the floor, the kitchen is still a mess.

 

You really got to step up your game, girl.  This is the level of puttering that you're aiming for once the house is in shape.

[athousandwords]

I would love to hear more about your house - should I search your old challenge threads or can you give me the low down here?  Is it a fixer-upper, or did you just move in?  I just bought a house last summer, so I know how you feel!  After renting for 5+ years, I had no idea houses were so much work!  One of my goals for the last challenge was to get a little housework done everyday (10 min or emptying the dishwasher or moving boxes, etc).  I didn't get a great grade in the end, but it did help reinforce that habit, so now I'm finally (finally!) getting to the point where as you say, "the house takes care of me".  Just remember, there will be an end to it one day and you can just relax and enjoy your living environment!

 

I'm also fascinated that you make your own beer and dehydrate food!  I'd love to get into that kind of food preservation. 

 

Best of luck getting through the grind, it sounds like you're determined!

[Gobnait]

I would love to hear more about your house - should I search your old challenge threads or can you give me the low down here?  Is it a fixer-upper, or did you just move in?  I just bought a house last summer, so I know how you feel!  After renting for 5+ years, I had no idea houses were so much work!  One of my goals for the last challenge was to get a little housework done everyday (10 min or emptying the dishwasher or moving boxes, etc).  I didn't get a great grade in the end, but it did help reinforce that habit, so now I'm finally (finally!) getting to the point where as you say, "the house takes care of me".  Just remember, there will be an end to it one day and you can just relax and enjoy your living environment!

 

I'm also fascinated that you make your own beer and dehydrate food!  I'd love to get into that kind of food preservation. 

 

Best of luck getting through the grind, it sounds like you're determined!

I don't think the full low-down is online.  I've been here for just over a year, the problem is that I'm part hoarder without my aunts' organizational skills.  (Seriously, I want my storage rooms to look like theirs, the rest of the house to be more minimalism.) And this house is not set up for storing a lot of stuff, so I keep having to move stuff around to wrangle dust bunnies.

 

Hopefully  is password protected with ilovenerds because that's where I put some snapshots of my ground floor.

I'm working on building more storage, trying to make this work. 

[athousandwords]

I don't think the full low-down is online.  I've been here for just over a year, the problem is that I'm part hoarder without my aunts' organizational skills.  (Seriously, I want my storage rooms to look like theirs, the rest of the house to be more minimalism.) And this house is not set up for storing a lot of stuff, so I keep having to move stuff around to wrangle dust bunnies.

 

Hopefully  is password protected with ilovenerds because that's where I put some snapshots of my ground floor.

I'm working on building more storage, trying to make this work. 

 

Yeah, I see what you mean.  One thing that worked for me (if you have the rooms to spare) is to declare one or two rooms 'junk rooms' and cram the excess in there.  Our house looks very minimalist and organized (most of the time...) unless you look in the office or utility room, where boxes are overflowing.  But at least I can close those doors and enjoy the other rooms!  And I can slowly chip away at the problem without feeling like it's spilling all over.

 

Otherwise, I'm not really a hoarder (my husband is though!) but have you tried the Outbox method to declutter?  Info here, but the gist is you designate things to give away without actually getting rid of them, that way it's easier to let go (and if you truly need something, you have time to get it back before it's gone).  I use this with my husband to help him let go of things he's not using anyway. (like random champagne flutes from prom).

 

</unsolicited advice> 

[Gobnait]

 

Yeah, I see what you mean.  One thing that worked for me (if you have the rooms to spare) is to declare one or two rooms 'junk rooms' and cram the excess in there.  Our house looks very minimalist and organized (most of the time...) unless you look in the office or utility room, where boxes are overflowing.  But at least I can close those doors and enjoy the other rooms!  And I can slowly chip away at the problem without feeling like it's spilling all over.

 

Otherwise, I'm not really a hoarder (my husband is though!) but have you tried the Outbox method to declutter?  Info here, but the gist is you designate things to give away without actually getting rid of them, that way it's easier to let go (and if you truly need something, you have time to get it back before it's gone).  I use this with my husband to help him let go of things he's not using anyway. (like random champagne flutes from prom).

 

</unsolicited advice> 

 I don't have photographs of the upstairs.  I'm a little bit lazy, a little bit afraid of loosing my footing, but I've been sticking less-critical things up there until this next project is done.  Eventually I want to just know what is in the attic and which quarter of it to look in.

 

I like the Outbox method.  I actually used it for some pretty random junk, and that was just holding for hubby to finally get a look at it.

 

 

Let's see, today I hung a rack for my pot lids on the wall and then realized that the rack is wrong for my lids.  I threw the lids that don't fit into a cupboard and threw the dish-drainer that they were sitting in behind the freezer.

 

I scrubbed one counter-top.  I did some tidying that wasn't directly involved with the counter-top.  The dishwasher was mostly-loaded before I got up, I ran it, hopefully I'll empty it before bed.  I hope that rotten potato smell was either the garbage or part of the mess I just cleaned.

 

I neglected to put that hunk-o-meat into the crock pot yet.  Hopefully with a clean kitchen I'll have the will to overnight the damn thing.  In the meantime, I am getting sick of frozen hamburger patty with random frozen vegetable in white-sauce.  At least I had some leftover rice to toss into it. (Actually, today it was just some sliced red pepper that I thought I was going to use sooner.)

 

Did you do enough today?

 

I guess barely, but I went through too many episodes of "Drop Dead Diva" while doing it.

[Gobnait]

A revised accomplishment list...

 

I loaded the crockpot, complete with carrots and potato, got another counter scrubbed plus the clean one is clean again... except that I washed my new food mill now and the parts are on the counter.

 

Clean knives clean cutting boards, dishwasher is accepting dirties again.

 

I did okay, especially since I need to take names with my fridge tomorrow.

[Draco]

If you make any good freezer meals, would you mind sharing recipes?

I'm a certified public accountant, so I go months at a time where I'm home for dinner only one or two days a week. And my wife is physically handicapped, so if I don't have something set up that she can prepare easily, the kids just end up eating processed prepackaged foods. So any new ideas of what to prepare would be a huge help!

I can empathize with the house issues - I don't know you of home, so I have no idea of the scale of he problem, but my house has been an enormous embarrassment for years because I can't bear to throw things away. And then there's so much stuff around that cleaning around it (or even worse - finding something when you need it!) takes forever. Papers are the worst for me. I have no filing system (at least not one that's effective), and I can't bring myself to toss anything I might need one day - so I make a pile to go through. One room of the house and a decent chunk of the basement are just paper, and probably 99% trash. I'm slowly working on recovering though, and flylady.net has been a big help. You might want to check it out.

[Gobnait]

If you make any good freezer meals, would you mind sharing recipes?

I'm a certified public accountant, so I go months at a time where I'm home for dinner only one or two days a week. And my wife is physically handicapped, so if I don't have something set up that she can prepare easily, the kids just end up eating processed prepackaged foods. So any new ideas of what to prepare would be a huge help!

I can empathize with the house issues - I don't know you of home, so I have no idea of the scale of he problem, but my house has been an enormous embarrassment for years because I can't bear to throw things away. And then there's so much stuff around that cleaning around it (or even worse - finding something when you need it!) takes forever. Papers are the worst for me. I have no filing system (at least not one that's effective), and I can't bring myself to toss anything I might need one day - so I make a pile to go through. One room of the house and a decent chunk of the basement are just paper, and probably 99% trash. I'm slowly working on recovering though, and flylady.net has been a big help. You might want to check it out.

Believe it or not, I can't use Flylady well because her site is not organised well. I'm at the point where I should know what to do. One thing that helps is bankers boxes. They're sturdy, cheap, all the same size, (perfect size for papers,) and they don't take up much room when they aren't being used.

Here is a recipe I'm going to be doing later.

1 pound kidney beans

1 pound black beans

Rinse and sort through them for pebbles and bad beans. Put them in a pot of water, bring to a boil then turn, off heat and let them sit for a while. Drain and divide between two freezer containers.

A few green peppers and

1 hot pepper

Cut up and put into two freezer bag

3 pounds hamburger

2 diced onion

Brown in a pan and then drain off the fat. Divide between two freezer containers. (you can do extra hamburger for taco filling)

1 six- pound can of tomato.

2 bottles of beer

Chili spices and hot sauce

1 container of beans, 1 container of meat, 1 bag of peppers, 1 beer and half of the tomato will fill a six quart crock pot. We usually do both batches and eat nothing but chili for several days, but the leftovers and the tomatoes will refreeze.

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[athousandwords]

Believe it or not, I can't use Flylady well because her site is not organised well.

[...]

 

We usually do both batches and eat nothing but chili for several days, but the leftovers and the tomatoes will refreeze.

Hahah, I felt the same way about Flylady!  I heard such good things about her methods, but couldn't get past the website!

 

I've been eating chili all this week, it's one of the easiest cook ahead meals.  Plus it's getting colder here, and chili just tastes like fall... 

 

Good job on getting the crock-pot loaded and the kitchen cleaned up!

[ShadowLion]

I'm going to try your recipe - its sounds like it will taste great and be super fast an easy to prepare!

 

Wow, I know about the struggle with the house! I've got too many different hobbies and work activities, so too much stuff in a small space and not much time to spend keeping it up. The thing that saves me is that we live at D's in the city, but I still have my old place out in the country with some sheds where I can stash stuff. Bit of a drive, but it's cheap. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to turn around. It still takes more time than I'd like, though.

 

I think there's a mental fatigue component to housecleaning that people don't talk about much. Kind of like a factory job, it's so much of the same thing over and over, it never feels like you are ever done. With a lot of paid jobs, you work on projects which have definite starts and clear ends. With housework, you get something all nice and clean and shiny, then some member if the family walks through the room and you're right back to where you started! And housework is definitely work, but often doesn't get the respect it should.

 

Rooting for you Gobnait! You're off to great start - keep after it!

[Gobnait]

Hahah, I felt the same way about Flylady!  I heard such good things about her methods, but couldn't get past the website!

 

I've been eating chili all this week, it's one of the easiest cook ahead meals.  Plus it's getting colder here, and chili just tastes like fall... 

 

Good job on getting the crock-pot loaded and the kitchen cleaned up!

 

 

I'm going to try your recipe - its sounds like it will taste great and be super fast an easy to prepare!

 

Wow, I know about the struggle with the house! I've got too many different hobbies and work activities, so too much stuff in a small space and not much time to spend keeping it up. The thing that saves me is that we live at D's in the city, but I still have my old place out in the country with some sheds where I can stash stuff. Bit of a drive, but it's cheap. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to turn around. It still takes more time than I'd like, though.

 

I think there's a mental fatigue component to housecleaning that people don't talk about much. Kind of like a factory job, it's so much of the same thing over and over, it never feels like you are ever done. With a lot of paid jobs, you work on projects which have definite starts and clear ends. With housework, you get something all nice and clean and shiny, then some member if the family walks through the room and you're right back to where you started! And housework is definitely work, but often doesn't get the respect it should.

 

Rooting for you Gobnait! You're off to great start - keep after it!

 

 

The day-to-day of keeping the house clean hasn't gotten to me yet since I haven't gotten a routine baseline established.  I guess the tidal forces of getting one room clean by trashing another is daunting, though.  (I swear that the rooms in those photographs had a few pristine moments that I did not capture.)

 

I hate to impose declarations about the future, but next time we move, I want to use a storage facility.  I might even like a smaller house if the storage facility has reasonable policies.  (Not my priority, but if they allow me to brew beer in the drive during business hours, they'll allow me to do other reasonable activities.)

 

Did you do enough today?

 

I did not take names in the kitchen today.  I ran the peach-like puree through the food mill, washed the food mill, got the apples to cook down enough to fit into the four-gallon kettle.......

 

The hunk of meat I put in the crock pot was really too fatty to not be oven-roasted.  I salvaged what I could, ate some really greasy vegetables, and wondering what uses for stewed meat would actually appeal to me.  (I'm thinking filled bun, just can't decide if baked or steamed or raw will freeze better into a substitute for hot pockets.)

 

So I ate really overcooked and greasy carrots and potato with traces of meat today.

 

I was going to base today's success on yesterday's potential.  I didn't really cut it.  I'm putting the same or more pressure on my tomorrow. 

[Gobnait]

Check out the mess I left for myself last night.

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[Gobnait]

Yesterday I spent most of the day grinding apples into sauce. (I'm glad to find out that my shoulder doesn't hurt this morning, I was worried about that.)  And then spent a lot of energy struggling to find a way to get the juice strained out.  (Cheesecloth-lined spagehti pot suspended in a food-grade bucket with another pot of water pressing down on it.)  I'm dissapointed that I got too exhausted to empty the dishwasher and get any of the mess loaded into it.  I didn't even wash the entire food mill, but I did get the gunk out of the screen at least.  I also resorted to commercially prepared food for most of the day since I forgot to cook before starting.

 

I'm only disappointed because I want to rest today, but I don't want this mess to dry out or neglect something that will be difficult to clean.

 

I definately need to get the kitchen really working for me before messing with any more involved food projects.

 

I'm going to call the week good enough because I don't have enough energy to argue myself into doing anything more.

[Draco]

Yesterday I spent most of the day grinding apples into sauce. (I'm glad to find out that my shoulder doesn't hurt this morning, I was worried about that.)  And then spent a lot of energy struggling to find a way to get the juice strained out.  (Cheesecloth-lined spagehti pot suspended in a food-grade bucket with another pot of water pressing down on it.)  I'm dissapointed that I got too exhausted to empty the dishwasher and get any of the mess loaded into it.  I didn't even wash the entire food mill, but I did get the gunk out of the screen at least.  I also resorted to commercially prepared food for most of the day since I forgot to cook before starting.

 

I'm only disappointed because I want to rest today, but I don't want this mess to dry out or neglect something that will be difficult to clean.

 

I definately need to get the kitchen really working for me before messing with any more involved food projects.

 

I'm going to call the week good enough because I don't have enough energy to argue myself into doing anything more.

 

Definately a good idea to hold off on the major food projects.  It's taken me a long time to get to that point, but my wife helped convince me to stop doing major baking projects for a while while we organize our house.  I actually bought a pre-made cake this weekend, for the first time in... forever.  I never buy premade - always bake them myself (even italian specialties like rainbow cookies or pignoli cookies.)  Usually I have at least one major baking project going every weekend.  Holding off for a bit saves time preparing, baking, cleaning up....  But as soon as the house is in better shape, I'm going to have to bake some cookies.  

 

Make sure you leave yourself some time to rest....  This challenge is another five weeks long.

And cleaning the house is more of a marathon than a sprint.

 

Thank you for the recipe!

[emptyknight]

Howdy Gobnait, thanks for stopping by my thread and offering advice and encouragement.

 

I don't really have much advice on the housekeeping front... I'm terrible at it myself.  But I'll cheer you on!

[Gobnait]

Yesterday was a little hit & miss.  I definately think I should set up a proper video game somewhere because I have trouble resting when the internet doesn't interest me.  (And I can't sit in this chair that much.)

 

I got one load of pots into the dishwasher that was purely apple mess.  Not everything is clean, but I did manage to get the smooth parts of the food mill and the siphoning hose clean.  As crazy as it sounds, I want to do another batch soon because the jug I put it into is only half-full.

 

I got clothing into the washer but not the dryer.  I dug around in the storage room and pulled out two pounds of bean soup mix.  I angsted about the lack of freezer containers.  I made this really disgusting casserole that involved those frozen burgers, milk, brocoli, and orzo pasta.

 

I did not do exactly the right amount.  I'm wondering if it was too much or too little.

 

I turned apples into apple sauce and apple cider.

[Teros]

Yeah, my brain needs to be occupied so tv doesn't do it for me. It almost always has to be reading online, playing a game, or activly moving around.  My g/f is the opposite, where zoning out in front of the tv is all she likes.  It bothers me =/

 

I clicked that link but it didn't load.  idk if it's because of the site going down or if I just have crappy internet. 

[Gobnait]

Yeah, my brain needs to be occupied so tv doesn't do it for me. It almost always has to be reading online, playing a game, or activly moving around.  My g/f is the opposite, where zoning out in front of the tv is all she likes.  It bothers me =/

 

I clicked that link but it didn't load.  idk if it's because of the site going down or if I just have crappy internet. 

It was the forum thing that ate my photo.  I inserted it directly from tapatalk so I don't even know if I have a copy.

 

I also have the problem where I need media constantly running while I do housework.  I should really get an antenna so I can have NPR instead of Netflix.

 

Today I cycled the dishwasher from clean to clean, washed the bedding, cooked bean soup, got the onion and carrot scrapings off the counter, rewashed the stuff I had left in the clothes washer long enough to smell mildewy, walked to the grocery store for some eggs, (less than a mile,) and scrubbed a boil-over from the top of the stove.  The knives and cutting boards aren't clean, maybe I'll get to them before bed.

 

You're lucky this was supposed to be an off day.

[Gobnait]

I took the cat to the vet and then dropped her off at home again.  I then went to the store to buy more freezer containers and wound up with only one per package that was the right size.

 

And then I spent the rest of the day screwing around on the internet.

 

Finally took a proper off day.