Gobnait dusts herself off

[Gobnait]

I want to get ambitious with my goals, but realistically I know what I'm struggling with and I can't even kick in "do fun stuff away from the computer" right away.  I did sign up an introductory session with a professional organizer, so I'm going to write my goals as a list where I start committing to them along the challenge and see if I can commit to them all for the start of the next one.

 

The core of my goals are going to revolve around habits and routines.  I need to build some flexibility into them, but breaks in routine need to be because of good whims and not because of feeling lousy.

 

I need to come up with a list of every day chores to keep the house in order. (*3)

I need a morning routine that starts the moment hubby leaves the house.  (*1)

I need to limit computer time when I'm not writing or doing digital art, basically limit mindless browsing and gaming that falls into boredom and not research.  (*2)

I need to focus on leaving the house more often for adventures and earn having my own car.

 

(*1) I'm going to use hubby leaving the house because it's consistent.  A lot of the time I'm awake before he is, or wake up at some point in his morning routine, which means I could either wake him up or get in his way if I try to do anything before he's gone.  Once in a while, I might stay asleep until after he leaves, but I can allow myself a delay for sleep.

 

(*2) We have a spare computer that I can hook up to a monitor over the treadmill, so I'm going to mess with how much screen time I get when not on the treadmill.  Otherwise, I just get to watch tv while playing with stuff that occupies my hands.

 

(*3) The house is a mess and it takes so much energy just to cycle the dishwasher, much less sweep or clean anything else.  Hopefully the expert can help.

 

I want to use up my art supplies.

I want to draw every day.

I want to make art journals.

I want to do a weekly journal comic in the spirit of Wasted Talent once she started using markers.  http://www.wastedtalent.ca/comic/zomg

I want to sew my own clothes and use up my fabric stash.

 

I should work on grooming routines as well, actually taking pride in my appearance.  Maybe I'll fit that into my household chores or morning routine.  Maybe messing with my hair and experimenting with makeup could be one of my "entertain myself without the computer" tasks.

 

This list looks too ambitious for a six-week challenge, but this is gearing up to prepare for where my life is going and the priorities are going to settle naturally.

 

 

 

 

[Jett]

Hi there. I saw you were following my topic!

 

I struggle with dealing with a mountain of dishes, too. I let it go for about a week and a half, and ended up using almost literally every dish in the house. I've gone through 2 dishwasher loads in the last 2 days, and it's only halfway done. T_T I'm very seriously thinking about making a 'Keep the Dishes Clean' pvp challenge to get some accountability. If I just rinse the darn things on a daily basis and put them in the dishwasher, it should be easy to keep up with... My husband also suggested getting rid of all excess plates/bowls/cups and just having one set to rinse off every night. I'm tempted...

[Gobnait]

Hi there. I saw you were following my topic!

 

I struggle with dealing with a mountain of dishes, too. I let it go for about a week and a half, and ended up using almost literally every dish in the house. I've gone through 2 dishwasher loads in the last 2 days, and it's only halfway done. T_T I'm very seriously thinking about making a 'Keep the Dishes Clean' pvp challenge to get some accountability. If I just rinse the darn things on a daily basis and put them in the dishwasher, it should be easy to keep up with... My husband also suggested getting rid of all excess plates/bowls/cups and just having one set to rinse off every night. I'm tempted...

 

Yeah, in this house, supposedly I need to run the dishwasher every day, and not just because he dirties the blender about every day.

 

One thing that accidentally happened is that we have five blue plates and they can't go under the brown plates.  If I keep up enough that we don't use the brown plates, I feel like I'm doing okay.  The spares do come in handy though.  The big thing is not needing to let the cat eat off of our desert plates.  She has a set of seven and though she may get to use two in one day, I need to remember her dishes.

 

I suggest getting a set that doesn't match your current plates and just making a rule that you have to pay a penalty if you use anything from the larger set without good reason.

[Jett]

Eh. I'm not that fancy. Guests can use paper plates. (And your cat gets a fresh bowl every time? Goodness! Now I feel like a bad cat-mommy... mine only gets his cleaned about once a month unless it's particularly dirty for some reason.)

 

I have one nice set of dishes I got as a wedding present, and a random assortment of stuff I used before that. I think I'm going to donate/toss the non-matching stuff. The idea being, the pile of dishes physically can't get that big if we don't have that many dishes.

[Gobnait]

Eh. I'm not that fancy. Guests can use paper plates. (And your cat gets a fresh bowl every time? Goodness! Now I feel like a bad cat-mommy... mine only gets his cleaned about once a month unless it's particularly dirty for some reason.)

 

I have one nice set of dishes I got as a wedding present, and a random assortment of stuff I used before that. I think I'm going to donate/toss the non-matching stuff. The idea being, the pile of dishes physically can't get that big if we don't have that many dishes.

 

When I was letting my cats have cereal, that bowl got washed maybe once every three months and the water bowls got done about monthly.  The plates are for wet food, and the remaining cat is a picky eater so there could be disgusting day-old food left on the plate.

[oldnews]

I too am limiting my screen time for this challenge. I'm not sure how best we could be buddies on that, as it requires being online. :|

 

A few good cleaning tips I have found:

 

-Spend five minutes straightening a room before you leave it. It doesn't have to be completely done, but clean an area before you leave the kitchen after dinner, or put away a few things from the living room before you go to bed. 

 

-Five (or ten) minute dance party while cleaning. I do my best cleaning while listening to 90s pop.

 

- Temptation bundling. Fold clothes while watching TV, wash dishes while listening to an audiobook, etc. Make that the ONLY way you get to watch/listen/whatever.

[Gobnait]

I too am limiting my screen time for this challenge. I'm not sure how best we could be buddies on that, as it requires being online. :|

 

A few good cleaning tips I have found:

 

-Spend five minutes straightening a room before you leave it. It doesn't have to be completely done, but clean an area before you leave the kitchen after dinner, or put away a few things from the living room before you go to bed. 

 

-Five (or ten) minute dance party while cleaning. I do my best cleaning while listening to 90s pop.

 

- Temptation bundling. Fold clothes while watching TV, wash dishes while listening to an audiobook, etc. Make that the ONLY way you get to watch/listen/whatever.

 

Oh, I'm allowing myself to have the television running.  I grew up with the idiotbox constantly on as background noise, and I'm almost never devoting my entire attention to the screen.  I'm not even counting nights when I go up to hubby's office and sleep on the floor so I can have Netflix running.  (Sound transmits exceptionally well between the living room and the bedroom.)

 

The screen time I'm limiting is me sitting at my computer and not doing anything either useful or energetic, like browsing Pinterest or playing games.  I can sit if I'm researching, typing a story, or drawing with a tablet.

 

As far as being internet buddies, we can still do that.  I don't obsessively check nerdfitness that much, though I should find more people to support this time around.

[Jett]

When I was letting my cats have cereal, that bowl got washed maybe once every three months and the water bowls got done about monthly.  The plates are for wet food, and the remaining cat is a picky eater so there could be disgusting day-old food left on the plate.

Oh, that makes sense! I always put my kitty's wet food on top of his dry food, so that keeps things pretty clean.

 

The screen time I'm limiting is me sitting at my computer and not doing anything either useful or energetic, like browsing Pinterest or playing games.  I can sit if I'm researching, typing a story, or drawing with a tablet.

That sounds like temptation bundling of a sort, actually. WWACH's idea of listening to audiobooks or music while doing dishes and laundry is a really good one. My husband does most of the cooking, and he streams netflix to his tablet while cooking... which would probably work perfectly well for dishes and laundry, too. Anything to make the time go by faster... and if there's one particular show you really like, you could designate it as the "dish washing show" and only watch it while doing dishes.

 

If you don't have any shows in mind at the moment, I recommend Ascension. It's a sci-fi mini-series currently on Netflix. It's really good, though it ends a bit abruptly.

[sterre]

Yeah, in this house, supposedly I need to run the dishwasher every day, and not just because he dirties the blender about every day.

You could always start cleaning the blender the lazy way, by running it with soap and water. Then there's no dishwasher required (at least for day to day). 

 

That said, I could definitely use more regular dishwashing in my life. I spent half an hour doing them before leaving for work this morning because they were basically all dirty except a few chopsticks and forks. 

[JessOfAllTrades]

I can definitely relate with how I spend my computer time. I have a lot of work to do on the computer, but the amount of other mindless stuff I do (facebook, pinterest) takes up most of my screen time. Best of luck this challenge!

[Gobnait]

Oh, that makes sense! I always put my kitty's wet food on top of his dry food, so that keeps things pretty clean.

 

That sounds like temptation bundling of a sort, actually. WWACH's idea of listening to audiobooks or music while doing dishes and laundry is a really good one. My husband does most of the cooking, and he streams netflix to his tablet while cooking... which would probably work perfectly well for dishes and laundry, too. Anything to make the time go by faster... and if there's one particular show you really like, you could designate it as the "dish washing show" and only watch it while doing dishes.

 

If you don't have any shows in mind at the moment, I recommend Ascension. It's a sci-fi mini-series currently on Netflix. It's really good, though it ends a bit abruptly.

 

Thanks for the recommendation.

 

You could always start cleaning the blender the lazy way, by running it with soap and water. Then there's no dishwasher required (at least for day to day). 

 

That said, I could definitely use more regular dishwashing in my life. I spent half an hour doing them before leaving for work this morning because they were basically all dirty except a few chopsticks and forks. 

 

Eh, that would be up to hubby since he uses the blender.  Considering that he had me buy a spare, I doubt he's keen on that idea.  Plus there's everything else.

 

I can definitely relate with how I spend my computer time. I have a lot of work to do on the computer, but the amount of other mindless stuff I do (facebook, pinterest) takes up most of my screen time. Best of luck this challenge!

 

Yeah, it's definately going to be tuff since I hate doing anything else lately.

[Gobnait]

Alright, yesterday we got a big box that was mostly dead electronics out of the house.  A charity that takes them was making pickups in the area and I managed to get rid of an office chair as well.  I was going to give them the one where I leaned on the back wrong, but I realized that it makes a great stool with the back removed so I took it off.  Then I spent about an hour cleaning dusty hair out of office chair casters.

[Gobnait]

I was reading Planet Karen and a couple of her journal comics were about getting out of the house and trying to have a life exciting enough to do a journal comic about.  I think I'm going to back-of-the-mind my journal comic for about six weeks to see if anything notable happens.

 

I got the house cleaner than it's been in a while, but still frustrated about some stuff.

[Gobnait]

I think I should not back-burner my comic, more like do that thing were I write down ideas constantly as if I were actually making a journal webcomic.  I lost some ideas today.  Many of them revolved around my husband falling asleep in the middle of a movie and me alternating between making him comfy and being happy that he's in the same room as me while I do what I want.

 

I went grocery shopping before dawn, which meant taking hubby's car because it's a single-car driveway... I should commit to something on monday or tuesday for the sake of my car.

[Jett]

I think I should not back-burner my comic, more like do that thing were I write down ideas constantly as if I were actually making a journal webcomic.  I lost some ideas today.  Many of them revolved around my husband falling asleep in the middle of a movie and me alternating between making him comfy and being happy that he's in the same room as me while I do what I want.

 

I went grocery shopping before dawn, which meant taking hubby's car because it's a single-car driveway... I should commit to something on monday or tuesday for the sake of my car.

A thing I have started doing is carrying around a small notebook wherever I go. When I get ideas, I write them down immediately, so I don't have to remember them. You could try writing out your ideas in a script form, so it's easy to turn it into a journal comic later. Or, if you don't have the whole script in mind yet, at least write a few notes about the event, so you can flesh it out later.

[Gaming_Jeweler]

I want to get ambitious with my goals, but realistically I know what I'm struggling with and I can't even kick in "do fun stuff away from the computer" right away.  I did sign up an introductory session with a professional organizer, so I'm going to write my goals as a list where I start committing to them along the challenge and see if I can commit to them all for the start of the next one.

 

The core of my goals are going to revolve around habits and routines.  I need to build some flexibility into them, but breaks in routine need to be because of good whims and not because of feeling lousy.

 

This list looks too ambitious for a six-week challenge, but this is gearing up to prepare for where my life is going and the priorities are going to settle naturally.

I'm trying not to be too ambitious with my goals too. I try to give myself enough that I feel challenged but not too much so that I don't feel like I'm over whelmed. I think it's great that you're using this as a means to lay a foundation for better habits. That's something I need to work on too.

[Gobnait]

Alright, I need to start a bunch of to-do lists.

 

I was looking for fishing line, and I realize that I probably haven't touched my beads since I got here.  I want to make them into stuff so that I can either get more or just not have a stash.  One of my to-do lists will be a list of art supplies I want to use up and ideas on how to do it.

 

I need to make sure that my sketchbook is loaded and that I always know where it is.

 

I was using postie notes pinned to a bulletin board for ideas.  I should go through the box of them for old ideas and re-hang the bulletin board so I can fill it again.

 

I hate everything, I don't want to go anywhere, and I've been up since four AM so I couldn't go anywhere if I wanted to unless I feel like grocery shopping again, which I actually didn't like going at stupid'o'clock last time.

[Gobnait]

Hubby had a rough enough day that he decided to eat instead of sticking to the Soylent.  We were going to go out, but he crashed when he got home and I wish that I had gotten something sooner.  I hate traffic in this area and Wendy's isn't that good.
 

I did a little bumming around, bought some 17-cent notebooks for some reason and some junk at the thrift store.  My head was in a painful fog for most of the day.  I should have at least looked at that $30 digital SLR.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_origami_cranes I think the only thing it's good for is if your wish is to become good at making paper cranes, and many of my other desires would be better served by putting effort towards practicing a skill or working on the problem.  I did make two cranes.  The first one is awful, I followed a different set of instructions for the second one and it's okay.

 

To do list... Well tomorrow is professional organizer day.  The day after, I want to empty one of my 12x12 project boxes and get some coloring pages and coloring materials into it.

[Gobnait]

Working with the professional organizer, I'm not really happy with the progress but I do have some homework and an intention to get her back here.  She thinks it's not that bad, but did spot some things.

 

She did have me rearrange the pantry/laundry area.  Not sure I'm happy with it, but I did have to throw a lot of stuff away because of pantry moths.

[Jett]

At least you're working on it and making it better.

[Gobnait]

At least you're working on it and making it better.

 

Yeah, though there is some point where working on it doesn't do any good.

 

I decided that I should do rituals as well.

 

Today...

 

I decided that I could do my hair up before my shower, but I couldn't find my spin pins.  I found a eyebrow brush while looking for them in my makeup kit, and was going to put "brush my eyebrows" on my list, but that made them look horrible.  I also decided that my face needed one of those fancy tubes applied to it, so I resigned myself to getting my hair wet and did a mud mask to fix my eyebrows.

 

I found my spin pins in a box of jewelry, (not a proper jewelry box, need to fix that,) and along the way I decided that doing something nice with my hair and putting earrings in should be part of my mornings.  I'll try to add other jewelry, makeup, and getting dressed properly once autumn hits.

 

At some point, I also decided that I should pre-plan something for breakfast.  I can change my mind to cook breakfast and eat the pre-prepared snack for elevenses or afternoon break, but I should have something I can eat first thing without thinking about it.  Also, I need to brew a pot of cheap tea every morning even if I don't want it.  I can brew some of the nicer stuff if I'm aware enough to be in the mood for special and know that the milk isn't sour.  (I really should freeze small portions of milk.)

 

I visited a friend I met recently.  I ended up talking her into taking up art journaling as a hobby and bought her about $5 worth of supplies. (Glue, paints, a set of markers.)  She needed a hobby and art journaling can be cheap.

 

Funny thing for if I do the webcomic journal... setting my gps for home and having it get confused because I decided to ignore it while going someplace else first.  (My mother trained me to memorize routes and where things are.  I like the GPS, I just get confuddled while trying to use one and end up frustrated.) Oh, also funny thing for the day... getting frustrated at the GPS because I didn't recognize the route to where I've been before because it was using a different route.  Also I discovered that my passenger-side door wasn't properly shut.

[Gobnait]

I remembered reading "the book of the gear" and wanting to do a fictional travel journal as well.  I downloaded this for inspiration because it's similar to what I want to do.

 

I really didn't do anything beyond randomly flipping through a pile of books I pulled off the shelf.

 

Well, I put in some earrings and they stopped itching after a while.  (I made sure to pick a pair that I bought recently, either they're silver or just made for sensitive ears.)

[Gobnait]

Another day of doing nothing productive save for cycling the dishwasher.  I mostly angsted in minecraft about how I didn't know what I wanted my house to look like.  I wouldn't have logged on except we were supposed to hold a wither-killing.

 

I also ended up sorting jewelry a bit.  I decided that I can't sleep in post earrings because my hair gets caught in them and causes irritation.  If I get that one set of rings in, (they're a bit over normal gauge,) I can sleep in them because there is nothing for hair to get trapped in and I figure that my ears will be less sensitive by then. 

[Gobnait]

I'm having problems in Minecraft because I have builder's block and keep getting frustrated.

 

I decided to call the organization expert back, I've got 11 days before she's back in town and I want to get as far as I can on my own.

 

I'm overwhelmed and feel sick and I've been sleeping on the couch lately so I can watch TV while falling asleep.

[Gobnait]

Well I'm awake at an indecent hour even though I took a melatonin.  Then again, I also spent a lot of time on the couch yesterday halfway asleep in the middle of the day.  The reason that my lack of circadian rhythm bothers me now is that I want to try avoiding the computer until I've been awake for a few hours, with the exception of hitting play on some show or movie that I've picked out ahead of time, but that's a bit tricky when hubby is asleep.

 

Oh well, I'm going to try caffeine in the morning and try to stay active all day.