Gobnait draws a battle plan

[Gobnait]

The entire month of January is going to suck harder than usual.  February is going to be interesting because hopefully there will finally be a steady pattern.

 

I think that I'm mostly going to plan and do some preliminary work, hopefully be ready to start developing habits I can live with during the challenge after this one.  For this challenge, I'm going to try different things at-whim.

 

Basically here I'm going to take a quick note of what I did during the day or any troubles I had.

 

  This is the area of the house I need to attack.  The attic storage and hubby's office aren't going to be my concern for a while.

[Gobnait]

Here's things I want to try before next challenge:

 

• Make to-do lists for things that would make my life easier if I got them done
• Make a pot of tea every day, or drink about a liter of replacement liquid
• Build checklists for dailies, weeklies, and every few days
•  

 

 

 

Here's things I want to consider for next challenge:

 

• Have the pantry and freezer purged for an honest food waste goal.
• Be ready to try proper meal planning.
• Daily kitchen maintenance.

 

 

 

Here's a master to-do list:

 

 

 

 

Here's things for the periodic checklist:

 

• Sweep every day so that every room gets done at least once per week.  (Kitchen/Bathroom only at first because other rooms are likely to be too cluttered.)

[Gobnait]

I added some things to what I'd like to try during this challenge...

 

Make to-do lists for things that would make my life easier if I got them done.

I guess I need to not keep things in my head.

 

Make a pot of tea every day, or drink about a liter of replacement liquid.

This is more about acknowledging the days and forcing a routine than getting liquids.  This is going to be more prominent once the chaos dies down.  I'm treating myself to another electric kettle since the one I bought in October turned out to be junk.

 

Build checklists for dailies, weeklies, and every few days.

Back when I was doing it for the points on Chore Wars, I was keeping up with housework better.  Again, this is going to go more prominent once the chaos dies down.  It's probably going to take the rest of this challenge to take care of the neglect-mess even if I'm only worrying about the kitchen dailies.

 

Something to strive for next challenge...

 

Have the pantry and freezer purged for an honest food waste goal.

Right now, I'm really out-of-touch with hubby's appetite and my own, and it's going to be rocky as he adjusts to the change.  It also means that I'm going to be avoiding "real" food until I get back into a schedule since I have so much that's rotting from earlier chaos.

 

Be ready to try proper meal planning.

I'm not sure what I've been doing lately.  It seems like we've been eating nothing but leftovers and stuff that I could just throw into a pan for months.  (Granted, there were two turkeys involved.)

 

Daily kitchen maintenance.

The way my battle-plan is looking right now, I will probably gain ground in one room while loosing the battle in another.  The kitchen shall be the one front where entropy shall not gain a firm foothold for more than a day.

 

 

---

 

So today I had to try and get the Sunroom and Kitchen clean enough for hubby to brew beer.  I didn't really succeed. 

 

The Sunroom's purpose is to be fairly empty so that it's always ready to be an art studio, or an exercise room, or a sewing area.  This isn't an official checklist of what I need to do because it's kinda depressing and I need my hubby's help.  There is a shelf that it halfway-installed above the fold-up treadmill; need the board cut for it, and another tv to chromecast or my laptop fixed so we can watch tv while walking.  There is another shelf that I want to install to put my houseplants on.  Hubby has his beer supplies lying out there, which isn't so bad.  He was also building a bar, and that half-completed mess is annoying and invisible at the same time.  I have a foam mattress from the couch that I want to sew a sheet to so we can use it as a spare bed, and that's lying there.   

 

Once I get the Sunroom clean, it's going to be temporary storage while I damage control the storage areas and try to get them clean.

[Gobnait]

I poked at the problems.  I bought myself the new electronic kettle.  I tried to retrieve data from a seriously infected laptop using an X-tree variant when I haven't messed with something that primitive in years.  Watched hubby mess with the laptop that I damaged by tripping over it... turns out the replacement harddrive was bad but at least we had two laptops modern enough to diagnose the problem.  Somehow tricked hubby into doing most of the work when cooking dinner.  (I was going to slice a roast into taco meat, he decided to roast it and the only thing I did was slice the onion.)

 

Today I watched a reality-tv show about professional aquarium builders and decided that I wanted a guppy tank, a beta bowl or two, and a jar full of sea-monkies or triops.  (Actually these are all wants I did have and I felt them more keenly instead of jealousy of the fancy tanks.)  I was kinda wanting to have a beta in addition to the goldfish, or get rid of the goldfish and switch to guppies since my cats aren't fish-killers.  It's going to take miraculous amount of effort needing reward just to justify setting up the 1-gallon for either a beta or sea-monkies.  And possibly just admitting that I don't like the goldfish and giving them to someone to use as ciclid food. 

 

---

 

I also bought some 100-peice puzzles for about 50 cents.  One thing I want to put as a future goal is to play with real things.  Read real books, handle physical game pieces, put together real puzzles, do art with real media, play with legos...

[Omega v1.1]

Ooo, lists; I like lists.

 

I like crossing things of lists even more though!

 

It's going to be very interesting to see how your challenge pans out.

 

Good luck!

[stealthstitcher]

I think "play with legos" is the best goal in the history of goals.

Also, keeping your kitchen meal-prep ready is an excellent plan. So easy to let it slide and then so easy to just eat out or make pizza or something because the kitchen's messy ... gook luck!

[Gobnait]

Ooo, lists; I like lists.

 

I like crossing things of lists even more though!

 

It's going to be very interesting to see how your challenge pans out.

 

Good luck!

 

I'm not too keen on lists, but Chorewars actually helped.  Basically I want to make a physical version of that.

 

I think "play with legos" is the best goal in the history of goals.

Also, keeping your kitchen meal-prep ready is an excellent plan. So easy to let it slide and then so easy to just eat out or make pizza or something because the kitchen's messy ... gook luck!

 

For a while, I was seeing "sensory play" in my Pinterest feed and I got jealous.  Then again, with coloring being good therapy for adults, who says that sensory play is just for making sure a kid's brain wires itself correctly?  I want to make glitter calm-down jars to put on display and have room do a watercolor sketch without having to clear away junk first.  Basically I want this quote without the messy impression.

 

 

Let's see, sofar today I have showered and emptied the dishwasher.  I've been up for about nine hours, I should get something more impressive done.

[Glacier]

I love my glitter jar! I do wish I had used less food coloring. It makes the glitter much less visible.

[Candace Koller]

I love sea monkeys!

Looks .like you have some good goals, best of luck!

[Gobnait]

I've done nothing but cycle the dishwasher less than I should.

 

I think it was Thursday morning that I had two insulated cups full of tea, I was sitting in the car as it was warming up, and I decided not to ride in to work with hubby, though I did retrieve my coat from the car.  All I would have accomplished was groceries, which hubby took care of on the way home, and I probably would have been at a fish store a half-hour away when he called for a pickup because of a sudden shift in the work-schedule... assuming that I made it worth my while to take the car.

[Gobnait]

So much fail.  I need to get back into a cooking habit.  Friday afternoon was some case of not getting started soon enough or just not wanting to.  I was going to do something involving ground beef, hubby wanted sausage and I did a fry-up involving onions and green peppers and slicing the sausage, hubby added cheese and finished cooking it after I made it edible.

 

Saturday, I forgot about just roasting up a bunch of meat in the morning for sandwiches.  Hubby started brewing beer, (which makes the stove all but unusable,) and then asked about lunch at one.  I threw the roast in the oven and told him there were more eggs if he was hungry sooner, he ended up ordering a pizza.

[Candace Koller]

I know that feeling. Many times I just don't get to the cooking even though I should and we order junk. Cooking is an easy habit to fall out of.

[Feowyn]

Hey Gobs! Sorry I'm late. I'm working on the whole cooking and cleaning thing too. Every day is a new day and a fresh start!

[Gobnait]

I am going to tell you the story of the office chairs.  I don't have the full details anymore, but saying they cost $30 and were only rated for 190 pounds sounds about right.  My husband and I both weigh more than 200.

 

My chair didn't last very long.  I would spend all day either sitting in it or constantly getting up and down.  I would lean back and ignore the cracking sounds.  One day it simply broke and threw me across the room, and I was very sympathetic to how long it held up even as I took it to the curb.  Hubby's chair fared better, was asked to do less, (He spent a lot less time in it, and I would usually kneel on the floor or grab the wooden chair if I did use his computer,) but his chair is still waiting for its garbage day since it's cracked and likely to suddenly give up.

[stealthstitcher]

This is a tragic tale ... two office chairs, the sad death of the first chair; the lonely separation, as the second chair wastes away ... perhaps you should write a lament for them. Or a cautionary ballad, warning other chairs to beware this fate.

[Gobnait]

This is a tragic tale ... two office chairs, the sad death of the first chair; the lonely separation, as the second chair wastes away ... perhaps you should write a lament for them. Or a cautionary ballad, warning other chairs to beware this fate.

 

Perhaps I should, but not about the chairs.

 

Actually, I haven't looked at it like that.

[Gobnait]

Wow, I had so much negativity that it was doubtful I would survive, then suddenly hubby came home with a "other people have it worse" story that actually helped.  It doesn't make the burden be right, but it does turn every whine about it into a gloat.

 

This afternoon, before the epiphany happened, he came home to me curled up on the floor in a blanket, and that was an improvement.  At least when he asked about dinner, I pointed out that there was chicken breasts in the oven, roasted california mix on top of the stove, and I had pulled some pasta and sauce from the pantry before going all floor burrito.  (To be fair, he did call me earlier and I could have said "fast food")  His cooking tastes better anyway, and at least I made "edible" He made a nice casserole.

 

Okay, positive things that were overshadowed by the amount of suck...  I dumped the storage room into the living room.  Not everything, just anything not in a standard box that was on the floor.  Living room was a disaster anyway, but now there are a dozen banker boxes in our storage room and I can walk around them.  (Slash Library, slash beer cellar, slash walk-in closet... yes I realize that keeping potentially explosive yeast cultures next to my good clothes is going to probably involve a box of black dye at some point.)

 

I actually did more stuff errand-wise even though I didn't want to stay out that day.  I ended up buying stuff at the thrift store, one thing being a lego game with missing instructions so that I just got $4 worth of legos in a nice box.  I didn't have any legos here, actually, but I transferred them to a smaller box.

 

I encountered a fishtank sale, so we're going to get a larger tank even though we can't fill it right away.  Tomorrow we are planning to be decadent and drive to Whole Foods for some treats.

[Gobnait]

We had a very decadent day.  We went to Whole Foods and got stuff.  They were still in breakfast mode so we went to Panera for lunch instead of getting grocery store sandwiches.  My salad had too much sauce and it was too spicy, the grilled cheese really needed to be dipped in tomato soup, and the cheesecake I bought at the grocery store was too salty but hubby enjoyed the cupcake.

 

Oh, actually the day sucked.  Hubby had us visit two thrift stores and we didn't find anything we were looking for, but I got a lot of the paper bags out of the trunk.  We witnessed a really nasty hit-and-run and I think we saw the idiot's car later.  (This is why I avoid leaving the house after nine.  This happened lunchtime Saturday and usually traffic inspires worse rage.)  We bought a 55 gallon tank even though it's going to be a few weeks before we start filling it or even get it into place.  The office supply store didn't have the pen I wanted, and I had to whine about not needing any more sharpies even though the sale was amazing.

 

I didn't buy any real food at the normal grocery store.  We have leftovers, but all I got (between grocery and WF) was eggs, milk, lunch meat, bread, cheese, tomatoes, broccoli slaw, and a pair of frozen lasagna.  and I forgot I'm entitled to a discount so I lost a few dollars.  Basically we're planning on scraping by and living off fast food.

[Gobnait]

I read an article that I want to integrate into my battle plan later.

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/7-cultural-concepts-we-dont-have-in-the-us

[Candace Koller]

I really like the idea of appreciating things for their broken parts and the idea of picking a small thing to improve continuously.

[Gobnait]

I really like the idea of appreciating things for their broken parts and the idea of picking a small thing to improve continuously.

 

I had been aware of a concept...

http://www.pinterest.com/agleamandaglow/keep-living-keep-loving/ 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/67413325648082667/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/30469734951905121/

 

What caught my eye was earlier in the page... The focuses on being outside and comfort.  (Rotting oak leaves sorta share the same mindspace as furniture that's gone.)  I did skip over the "small improvements" part, though I'll have to revisit it since it's related to the motto of a hoarding support group that I'm thinking about quitting because I hate the format.

 

I think I'm a hoarder.  I'm not being aware of time right now, but I left a box of teabags on top of the washer, and predictably the box fell on the floor, but I picked up the box and the teabags all fell out... I had to make hubby do anything with them while my back was turned.  Today, one of the soda stream bottles had a bad case of mold.  He made the decision to toss it instead of try PBW on it, and again I had to turn away.

 

The plan for this weekend is for him to game from either my computer or the laptop and keep poking me to get the living room into banker's boxes.  (Future plans to involve making everything in the boxes be things we want to store and properly categorized.)

 

I'm really jealous of the way my aunts manage to hoard.  They have just about everything, and they know how to find it easily.

 

I mentioned it to hubby, and he brought up the other side of my family, which always has furniture and stuff that they're willing to give away to the right person.  (I actually sorta weirded him out because after our first date, I noticed that he didn't have a dining table and gave him a dining table that we had lying around.)

[Gobnait]

So much effing decline.  If this were not the last day that I needed to put up with this, I would stop resisting the urge to buy a sledgehammer, destroy a concrete parking stop, and then scream at the top of my lungs at someone that concrete is a strong material and couldn't possibly break.  It's been a long time coming, but it has also been building.

 

Oh, on a mundane note; my feet hurt, my $9 clearance shoes need repair already, and I'm wondering what to do about it.

[Gobnait]

I can't find my $9 shoes.  If somehow they're not around here somewhere, I would be more confused than upset.

 

The problems haven't gone away instantly simply because the cause is gone.  I'm going to extend the battle-plan challenge into spring if I don't get my act together by the time the next one starts.

 

I'm thinking now about making meal-plans around vegetables, or eat a vegetable every day and make sure there is fruit sitting where hubby can be tempted.  (I don't like fruit, but I like different veggies than him.)

 

A complementary meal-related goal is to know what I'm doing for dinner by a certain time every day.  Ideally I would cut up onions for dinner while waiting for breakfast to cook, and have dinner ready to throw into the oven or the frying pan before doing anything else.

[Feowyn]

A complementary meal-related goal is to know what I'm doing for dinner by a certain time every day.  Ideally I would cut up onions for dinner while waiting for breakfast to cook, and have dinner ready to throw into the oven or the frying pan before doing anything else.

 

 

 

This is a great idea! I'm not the best in the kitchen and I struggle sometimes getting dinner ready on time. I like using the crock pot, but I usually don't remember to put the things in it earlier in the day. I hope this works out for you.