The last few days haven't seen me doing much. Maybe I'm still getting over the glut of cleaning the kitchen, but I blame procrastination, my job, and all my favorite fun activities taking place over the weekend. Ne'er-the-less, I did some late-night baking (because, really, baking in 85-degree heat sucks) tonight to send cookies to some friends, and while playing with my balls (OF DOUGH -- honestly, you people) I remembered one of the other ask.me suggestions. Pick three things. Get them done. Anything else is a bonus. Thus, on days when there are things that really, really need to be done, I pick three things to accomplish:
-Dishes. This is much less of a problem than it used to be. Since I did the kitchen rearrangement there are less dishes in the cupboards, thus we risk running out faster, thus we need to do the dishes more often. Completing the dishes, including putting them all away once they've dried, will be worth two points.
-One load of laundry. This means one large load of laundry, washed, dried, folded, and put away where it belongs. I'm specifically going to target areas of my room that need to be cleaned up the soonest. Completing this will be worth two points.
-Mailing off both packages I should have mailed off two weeks ago. Thankfully they're not super time-critical (it's not an ebay shipment or anything) but it would be a darn good idea to do so. If I mail them off through purchasing postage online, I even save a couple bucks! Due to the fact that I really should ahve taken care of this long ago, it's only worth one point.
Completing all three objectives, in full, earns me another three points! Anything above and beyond that earns one extra point per two objectives completed. No two-point laundry loads or anything.
... I really should sit down and write out the rules for points-earnings.
(Points total to date: 25)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
SOGOtP, Day Two (and three)
Wednesday saw me do absolutely nothing, which is okay because I did a bunch of things with some friends that I don't often get to see outside of the weekend.
20 (!) Points...
Thursday, however... oh boy. From 1600 to 2000 (that's 4-8pm for you non-24-hour-time folks) I was in my kitchen. OI's friend came over and we cleared off all the counters, then started taking things out of the cupboards above the counter. At least half of the coffee mugs were put into storage; three ended up in the trash owing to an accident breaking a few. I liked that big clay one, too. Many of the old drinking glasses were tossed because of cracks in the bottom. I remember we stopped using them because they would leak.
Half of the spices in the house are gone. Some of the jars will be recycled, some are being kept, but once a spice/herb smells like dust, it's time for it to go. I can always buy more, and they'll taste better.
We have two completely different tableware settings in the house. I moved the one we haven't used in years to the 'active' spot and put the others on the top shelf.
Anything that's worth keeping but we don't have room for has been put into storage. In my first post I linked the Ask.MetaFilter question I asked a couple months ago. I've adapted one of the suggestions to this: mugs and cups and silverware are put into boxes that are easily accessible int he storage area in the house. If we have need for more than eight place settings, we can pull them out. If a mug is broken, we can pull a new one out to replace it. If OI would rather have Mug X instead of Mug Y, he's welcome to swap them out. Every few months, we can change things up and use the other place settings. What's the use in having these pretty things if they can't be seen?!
The spices that are being kept still look a bit haphazard, but they're a lot more visible than before. Some of the ones I had I realized I have never used at all, which is sort of sad when I think about it. Hopefully this will give me the impetus to actually use more of them now!
OI got home late tonight. He was very surprised, and very tired from his trip -- I'll post his reactions tomorrow when I have the time. He agrees that there is a lot of work left to do but we have plenty of space to use to finish the job and I'm kind of looking forward to it in a sick, masochistic way.
20 (!) Points...
Thursday, however... oh boy. From 1600 to 2000 (that's 4-8pm for you non-24-hour-time folks) I was in my kitchen. OI's friend came over and we cleared off all the counters, then started taking things out of the cupboards above the counter. At least half of the coffee mugs were put into storage; three ended up in the trash owing to an accident breaking a few. I liked that big clay one, too. Many of the old drinking glasses were tossed because of cracks in the bottom. I remember we stopped using them because they would leak.
Half of the spices in the house are gone. Some of the jars will be recycled, some are being kept, but once a spice/herb smells like dust, it's time for it to go. I can always buy more, and they'll taste better.
We have two completely different tableware settings in the house. I moved the one we haven't used in years to the 'active' spot and put the others on the top shelf.
Anything that's worth keeping but we don't have room for has been put into storage. In my first post I linked the Ask.MetaFilter question I asked a couple months ago. I've adapted one of the suggestions to this: mugs and cups and silverware are put into boxes that are easily accessible int he storage area in the house. If we have need for more than eight place settings, we can pull them out. If a mug is broken, we can pull a new one out to replace it. If OI would rather have Mug X instead of Mug Y, he's welcome to swap them out. Every few months, we can change things up and use the other place settings. What's the use in having these pretty things if they can't be seen?!
The spices that are being kept still look a bit haphazard, but they're a lot more visible than before. Some of the ones I had I realized I have never used at all, which is sort of sad when I think about it. Hopefully this will give me the impetus to actually use more of them now!
OI got home late tonight. He was very surprised, and very tired from his trip -- I'll post his reactions tomorrow when I have the time. He agrees that there is a lot of work left to do but we have plenty of space to use to finish the job and I'm kind of looking forward to it in a sick, masochistic way.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
SOGOtP, Day One
I've arranged with one of my friends who is a very neat person to come help me on Thursday -- we're going to be working on the kitchen. This is a huge project; OI has wanted to rearrange everything in the kitchen for months, as right now it's cluttered and the counters are almost always full. I don't want to go to a minimalist approach with it, but getting rid of some things and tucking away others would be a good idea.
My friend is a great motivator, and won't be afraid to push me to get things done or get rid of something that probably should be thrown away. Sometimes I get so used to seeing things as they are that I don't see why they should change, so having someone I can ask advice about will be a huge help.
If we manage to get the whole kitchen redone, I'm going to be pretty happy with myself!
2 Points: I did some more laundry today (only one load), and in the process I've been sorting through all my clothes that I like and want to keep, but don't necessarily want to wear right now. (One point for the laundry, one point for filling a storage bag.) I've got a full bag of clothes that can happily go into storage until I have a use for them. I've also put a bunch of my winter clothes away as well. I can keep some of them out, since it does tend to get chilly around here occasionally, but I don't need ten plus heavier-weight sweaters in June!
As the weather changes, I'll swap out the 'active' clothes. Also when a shirt (or any clothing item, really) becomes unusable I can grab a 'new' shirt from the ones in storage. A lot of what I have are t-shirts with logos, graphics, or other such things that make them frankly unsuitable for donating or selling at a garage sale. Volunteering at a used-clothing storefront for a domestic violence shelter has taught me people simply do not buy them, so they're thrown away or the volunteers take them home. The logo shirts I have were given to me over the years by friends and family, so they have some meaning to me -- I'll keep them around until they wear out, and then it's on to the next one!
(One notable exception to this rule is my socks. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a knitter, particularly of socks, and so anything handknit that's not specifically for wintertime will be kept in the 'active' pile. Yeah, I knit my own socks. What.)
My friend is a great motivator, and won't be afraid to push me to get things done or get rid of something that probably should be thrown away. Sometimes I get so used to seeing things as they are that I don't see why they should change, so having someone I can ask advice about will be a huge help.
If we manage to get the whole kitchen redone, I'm going to be pretty happy with myself!
2 Points: I did some more laundry today (only one load), and in the process I've been sorting through all my clothes that I like and want to keep, but don't necessarily want to wear right now. (One point for the laundry, one point for filling a storage bag.) I've got a full bag of clothes that can happily go into storage until I have a use for them. I've also put a bunch of my winter clothes away as well. I can keep some of them out, since it does tend to get chilly around here occasionally, but I don't need ten plus heavier-weight sweaters in June!
As the weather changes, I'll swap out the 'active' clothes. Also when a shirt (or any clothing item, really) becomes unusable I can grab a 'new' shirt from the ones in storage. A lot of what I have are t-shirts with logos, graphics, or other such things that make them frankly unsuitable for donating or selling at a garage sale. Volunteering at a used-clothing storefront for a domestic violence shelter has taught me people simply do not buy them, so they're thrown away or the volunteers take them home. The logo shirts I have were given to me over the years by friends and family, so they have some meaning to me -- I'll keep them around until they wear out, and then it's on to the next one!
(One notable exception to this rule is my socks. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a knitter, particularly of socks, and so anything handknit that's not specifically for wintertime will be kept in the 'active' pile. Yeah, I knit my own socks. What.)
Monday, June 20, 2011
SOGOtP, Day Zero
Here goes nothing.
I had a wild idea some time ago (right around the time I made this Ask.Me post) about setting up a points system to help me actually get things done around the house. This met with procrastinative success -- I conceived the idea in April, and I just today got it started. I'm using a few semi-modified ideas from that post's comments to get this done.
The OI is gone for about a week, and has zero knowledge of this project. I should have time to accomplish a great deal if I nut up and actually get things done instead of sitting on my ass. By the time OI returns, the house should look much cleaner and be a very nice surprise/welcome home present.
The Rules (such as they are):
I'm tracking the points progress through the calendar in the kitchen; every time I do something worthy of earning points, a hashmark goes on the calendar for the day. Certain things are worth more points, depending on how difficult or time-consuming they are and how much I loathe doing them. Some are worth more because they don't need to be done frequently, but when they are it's worth recognizing. Some are worth less because they should be done every day.
Day Zero:
1 Point: I put all the clean dishes in the kitchen away. In the future this will be rolled into doing the dishes themselves, because putting them away is sort of necessary. (I also did a tiny bit of tidying up that's not nearly worth a point.)
2 Points: Two loads of laundry. This includes folding and putting them away. It doesn't count if I sort of scrunch them up and stuff them into a drawer/closet/convenient corner -- they have to be put away. Gentle-cycle loads are smaller than normal loads, but end up being line-dried so count as a point even though there are fewer clothes.
I have a few large-scale projects that can be broken down into different parts. Cleaning up the kitchen is a good example; the first order of business will be taking the way-too-many coffee mugs, utensils, and drinking glasses, and putting a majority of them into storage, thus freeing up room to put other things away that right now have to sit on the counter or seriously clutter up the drawers/shelves. Each of these (mugs, glasses, utensils) count as their own point once they're put away, and contribute in the end to the completion of the Kitchen Project (which overall will be worth a ton of points).
Another future post will describe the projects including breakdowns of larger ones, and my reasons for their point values. I have no idea what these points will eventually be used for, except possibly a reward system of buying something I want but really do not need.
Shit or get off the pot.
I had a wild idea some time ago (right around the time I made this Ask.Me post) about setting up a points system to help me actually get things done around the house. This met with procrastinative success -- I conceived the idea in April, and I just today got it started. I'm using a few semi-modified ideas from that post's comments to get this done.
The OI is gone for about a week, and has zero knowledge of this project. I should have time to accomplish a great deal if I nut up and actually get things done instead of sitting on my ass. By the time OI returns, the house should look much cleaner and be a very nice surprise/welcome home present.
The Rules (such as they are):
I'm tracking the points progress through the calendar in the kitchen; every time I do something worthy of earning points, a hashmark goes on the calendar for the day. Certain things are worth more points, depending on how difficult or time-consuming they are and how much I loathe doing them. Some are worth more because they don't need to be done frequently, but when they are it's worth recognizing. Some are worth less because they should be done every day.
Day Zero:
1 Point: I put all the clean dishes in the kitchen away. In the future this will be rolled into doing the dishes themselves, because putting them away is sort of necessary. (I also did a tiny bit of tidying up that's not nearly worth a point.)
2 Points: Two loads of laundry. This includes folding and putting them away. It doesn't count if I sort of scrunch them up and stuff them into a drawer/closet/convenient corner -- they have to be put away. Gentle-cycle loads are smaller than normal loads, but end up being line-dried so count as a point even though there are fewer clothes.
I have a few large-scale projects that can be broken down into different parts. Cleaning up the kitchen is a good example; the first order of business will be taking the way-too-many coffee mugs, utensils, and drinking glasses, and putting a majority of them into storage, thus freeing up room to put other things away that right now have to sit on the counter or seriously clutter up the drawers/shelves. Each of these (mugs, glasses, utensils) count as their own point once they're put away, and contribute in the end to the completion of the Kitchen Project (which overall will be worth a ton of points).
Another future post will describe the projects including breakdowns of larger ones, and my reasons for their point values. I have no idea what these points will eventually be used for, except possibly a reward system of buying something I want but really do not need.
Shit or get off the pot.
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