Day 3: Early Bird Gets the Worm
Posted: August 4th, 2010 | Author: Dariane | Filed under: Daily Updates | 7 Comments »At the end of each day, I post a recap of what happened today and what progress I made. I try to be as detailed as possible when tracking the project.
I started the day off on time today which meant that I had more time in the day to spend cleaning my sister’s bedroom. I got up in the wee hours of the morning and accidentally woke my mom up while cleaning. She decided to stay up and clean part of the living room. Yay the cleaning bug is spreading! 
If only I looked this good at 4am…
Today’s stats:
Number of hours spent cleaning: 13
Supplies purchased: 0
Amount spent: $0.00
Number of (13-gallon kitchen) bags trashed: 2.5
Number of bags/boxes for giveaway: 3.5
The trash bin was emptied on Tuesday morning and I’ve already filled it up. Whoops? And I’ve now got six full boxes of stuff for giveaway in the room I’m working on.
Progress:
I spent a whopping 13 hours cleaning today, which is almost as much time as I spent on the first and second days combined (14 hours). I focused on a small area on the side of my sister’s bed. Although I spent a lot of time on the area, I still feel like I’m not making much visible progress. Here are the comparison pictures:
There were a couple of obstacles that set me back as far as pacing goes:
1. Papers take super long to sort through! I had to sort out a crate filled with papers including bank statements, old writing assignments, awards and certificates, letters from old friends and pictures. I felt like there would be no end to sorting that crate!
2. The giveaway boxes take up a lot of room, especially as I fill more of them with stuff. Right now I’ve got a tower of four large boxes stacked and two more boxes stacked in the area I just cleaned today. I can’t take the giveaway boxes out of the room because, well, I don’t have any place to put them. All the other rooms are far worse than this one. I’m constantly having to move things to get to other things; it feels like I’m in a real life slide puzzle.
This is a slide puzzle. FYI.
The other option would be to bring the boxes outside the house. There are two problems with this. First, the triple-digit heat, dust, and weather would easily damage the cardboard boxes and items inside. Second, there will be a tendency to not do anything about the boxes once they’re outside. When I tried to clean another room before, I put giveaway items into a large box. I asked my mom where I should put it and she told me to bring it outside. I told her that I was worried about the weather damaging the items inside, including my just-like-new baby dresses. She assured me that the box would be donated right away. Years later that box is still outside where I left it, weathered by heat, cold, dust, and rain. Needless to say, I am done bringing stuff outside that’s still in good enough condition to donate or sell.
What can I do? Well I can’t really do much about the paper sorting, that’s just going to take long no matter what. But for the giveaway boxes…
I placed an order with PODS today. They’re scheduled to deliver a 12x8x8 unit to my house sometime on Monday and I’ll have it onsite for two months. I’ll say more about PODS on Monday when they deliver and when I’m charged. I’m just relieved that I’ve got the storage thing squared away. I should also mention that PODS customer service is excellent. Thanks so much Carol!
I also did some research on renting 30-yard roll-off dumpsters. I put in a request for a quote on one website then got a phone call later in the afternoon with information. Absolutely horrible customer service. I think I was talking to someone in India who didn’t understand the questions I was asking him. It was very frustrating. The dumpster rental ended up costing more for 10 days than PODS for two months, so I decided not to get it. [But if you have any better dumpster rental company suggestions feel free to send them my way!]
Of course I would find this. It’s the story of my life.
Wow, Dariane, you’re like my hero. I know you feel you’ve hardly made a dent, but I can really see the difference in the pictures.
I know what you mean about the papers. That is what always stops me from getting fully cleaned and organized. They don’t take up a lot of room compared to, say, a broken appliance, but I feel like every little piece of paper needs my attention when I’m sorting. It really can seem interminable.
Also, PODS: What a great idea.
[Reply]
Dariane Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 5:35 am
Thanks so much Kathy, you’re so sweet! I hope that once PODS gets here and I can finally take the giveaway boxes out as I fill them, I’ll be able to start seeing the difference.
[Reply]
Sethra Reply:
August 25th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Regarding the papers:
The best advice that I’ve ever read on dealing with papers was from a book called Clutter Control, by Jeff Campbell:
http://www.amazon.com/Clutter-Control-Putting-Your-Home/dp/0440503396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282750851&sr=1-1
Campbell owns a house-cleaning company in San Francisco; their main claim to fame is that they can clean a single-level home in ten minutes. He wrote a book several years ago called Speed Cleaning (also highly recommended) that was a best-seller, but he got lots of letters from readers who wanted to use his cleaning methods, but couldn’t even get started because of their clutter. So he wrote Clutter Control for them.
Campbells gives a great breakdown of what papers to keep (and for how long) and what papers to throw away. It’s not comprehensive, but it’s a very good start towards understanding how to manage the papers in your life.
I should point out that both of his books are not just collections of “tips” or “advice”. They each contain a full-scale plan of attack for cleaning your house and for de-cluttering/managing clutter. That sets them apart from a lot of books that claim to help you organize, but instead just throw tips at you.
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Hang in there! It is lovely that you are doing this for your family!
If you haven’t heard of this before, there is a site/system that you can use to help keep yourself from being overwhelmed while you tackle this project. It also can help your family maintain the house after you are finished. Have you heard of FlyLady? http://www.flylady.net
Lots of information and systems that can help.
One good tip: don’t worry about sorting through the papers just yet. I usually have three boxes – one for things like bills & legitimate mail, one for shredding, and a garbage bag for junk mail. Later in the evening, put your feet up and sort or shred. I did this when moving, and it made a world of difference.
Good luck!
[Reply]
Dariane Reply:
August 6th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Thank you so much!
I have indeed heard of FlyLady; I’ve skimmed through a few methods and techniques on the site. Pretty soon I’ll try to post something up about the methods I have been using and whether they work for me or not. I think I’ll give FlyLady a shot! Thanks!
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[...] here’s the area I worked on yesterday that I finally finished [...]
I’m still working through your blog so I don’t know if you have this part handled yet, but what my sister did when she went through my mom’s place is rented a U-haul, filled it, and brought it to the county dump. They charge by the ton, but it wasn’t too bad ($150 to get rid of literally a TON of garbage!). As for donations, I have found that I have to take the box as soon as it’s full (or if I were you, at the end of everyday). I don’t know exactly where you are so I don’t know how feasible that is, but it might help you out mentally to see the boxes GONE.
Best of luck!
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