Cleaning Happens!
It's amazing how much I can get done if I divide everything into small areas. My therapist has been telling me to divide my messes (and yes, I have a lot of them) into small areas by taking a picture frame and laying it down in an area. Work on that area and then, sit back, take a break, drink a glass of iced tea or something, and feel happy and proud of what I've done.
Well today, I decided to take her advice but not quite. I didn't put a picture frame down, but I divided two parts of my kitchen, into three areas. The first is a 9 foot counter that stores my microwave and lots of other stuff, and is a collector of mail, ads, anything that I happen to have in my hands that I want to get rid of, but don't want to trash, yet. So...
That is picture one and two, before.
I divided this counter into two parts and started cleaning. It was amazing how easy it turned out to be. Hell, I even managed to get my microwave cleaned, inside and out, which, sadly, it's needed for way too long. This counter holds my microwave, as said, my toaster oven, my dehydrator, a lamp, the food processor and my old mixer, it also used to hold my meat slicer, a fan, and trash. Now it is down to less trash, it still has a lamp, microwave, dehydrator, microwave, food processor, and the old mixer, but neat and clean without the trash, the meat slicer is now in a place out of the way but where I can get it if I need it.
Admittedly there is still a lot more to do in the kitchen, like the bookcase, you'll see those in another photo, and the half wall behind the counter, and of course the ledge behind my regular counters, which I am not ready to show you in photographs.
See pictures three and four.
The next task I tackled was my work table. I have a lovely stainless steal work table where I keep my heavy duty Kitchen Aid Mixer, my supplies for dog treats, those are under it, my cookie sheets, herbs, spices, flour and other goodies. I also keep my marble rolling pin and some cookie cutters on the table. The first picture shows the table top with all types of things on it, including my second food dehydrator, books, mail, tea, light bulbs, my mixer, and loose things that needed a place to go.
See the next picture, which is hard to see because of all the stuff behind the table, mostly my bookshelves that have my cookbooks, supplies, including a rack for some of my cookie cutters (I have a rather large collection which seems to keep growing), and lots of things besides books. But most of the books there are my cook books and my antique books, why they're there is a long story for another day.
As you can possibly see, it is a mess, and the stuff behind it makes it messier. It was dusty, had flour dust on it and generally was unusable if I got an order for dog treats, unlikely right now, but also another story.
The next story shows the table, still in front of the messy bookshelves, the bottom shelves look the same and messy but are now organized but the top is clean. It has three new canisters to hold, you never guess so I'll tell you, small cookie cutters. They are perfect, I can add the smaller cutters by type, and there are types, like Valentines day, Easter, Tea Pots, Animals, that sort of thing. So now I can put some of the smaller ones in one place, at least some of them.
All of this took me surprisingly about two hours, but you may remember I have some physical limitations, the good news is that I can work from my wheeled chair, and move around that way. My work table is on wheels so I can move it wherever I need to so I can get behind it to do some cleaning, sorting, and organizing.
Why am I writing this? You might ask, well simple. I did something productive today, it achieved something that has been making me crazy for weeks, but I haven't had the energy to get to. My house keeper helpers, who I lost never did even try to clean either of these two surfaces, but now they are done and I hope and plan to keep them that way.
I'm incredible proud of myself, and I'm proud of the fact that I did this. Another thing that helped me get this done was a strange happening that started last Thursday. I've had aides for the last 10 years, because I need them. I have them for 36 hours a week, one aid for 30 hours, he takes me to appointments, helps with the really heavy work, keeps the yard clean, that sort of thing, the other has the simple task of cleaning the house and doing the laundry, at least some of it. It isn't that hard of a task if you are completely mobile and capable of using a vacuum, dust cloth, and a mop, but for some reason this past year I've had trouble keeping a house keeper.
So lately I've changed the way this is done, my aides now get a much larger salary, how this is done is not important, but it is with the help of the state that I pay my aides. Anyway, last Thursday a lady who had been my six hour aide called and asked if I needed someone for those hours. Now this lady did a good job but the way she quit was not all that appealing to me, she was supposed to work two more days, because she owed me the time, she promised to come in on the following Monday, but did not.
This made me more than a little unhappy, so when she called on Thursday I had my doubts about giving her the six hours that my other aide had picked up. But since he's been working for me for 36 hours and another job for anything from 24 to 30, I told her I'd ask if he'd be willing to give up the six hours. I did this he was. It took me until Sunday to reach her but I finally did and we arranged for her to come in today and do the hire package so she could start either this week or the beginning of the next.
I ask you, if you called someone and asked for a job, made an appointment for a specific time and had essentially been hired, except for the paperwork, would show up for the job. She didn't. I'd arranged for her to come in, at her convenience, at 11:00 this morning, I was up, and waiting, paperwork ready for her, and she never came, she didn't call, she didn't even indicate that she was no longer interested. Amazing! But I also have to thank her, for now Jerry will continue to get his 36 hours which will be better pay for him, and I can now push myself to do more around the house, with Jerry's help.
Leaving this rambling post, I'll leave you with one small reminder, just last week I was so depressed I was almost ready to give up. This week, because of a change in medications, and tweaking of the meds, I'm able to get out of bed and actually work around my house and feel good about it. So if I can be helped so can other people. Almost undoubtedly one of these days I'll need a medication change, or dosage change, but it won't be so hard, it should be easier to tweak my medications from now on because in addition to a change in the drugs for my depression, I've gotten a new pain medication which is actually helping me stay more or less pain free, OK not pain free but at levels that I can ignore the pain, almost completely. Yeah! For new pain medication and tweaked drugs.
Well today, I decided to take her advice but not quite. I didn't put a picture frame down, but I divided two parts of my kitchen, into three areas. The first is a 9 foot counter that stores my microwave and lots of other stuff, and is a collector of mail, ads, anything that I happen to have in my hands that I want to get rid of, but don't want to trash, yet. So...
That is picture one and two, before.
I divided this counter into two parts and started cleaning. It was amazing how easy it turned out to be. Hell, I even managed to get my microwave cleaned, inside and out, which, sadly, it's needed for way too long. This counter holds my microwave, as said, my toaster oven, my dehydrator, a lamp, the food processor and my old mixer, it also used to hold my meat slicer, a fan, and trash. Now it is down to less trash, it still has a lamp, microwave, dehydrator, microwave, food processor, and the old mixer, but neat and clean without the trash, the meat slicer is now in a place out of the way but where I can get it if I need it.
Admittedly there is still a lot more to do in the kitchen, like the bookcase, you'll see those in another photo, and the half wall behind the counter, and of course the ledge behind my regular counters, which I am not ready to show you in photographs.
See pictures three and four.
The next task I tackled was my work table. I have a lovely stainless steal work table where I keep my heavy duty Kitchen Aid Mixer, my supplies for dog treats, those are under it, my cookie sheets, herbs, spices, flour and other goodies. I also keep my marble rolling pin and some cookie cutters on the table. The first picture shows the table top with all types of things on it, including my second food dehydrator, books, mail, tea, light bulbs, my mixer, and loose things that needed a place to go.
See the next picture, which is hard to see because of all the stuff behind the table, mostly my bookshelves that have my cookbooks, supplies, including a rack for some of my cookie cutters (I have a rather large collection which seems to keep growing), and lots of things besides books. But most of the books there are my cook books and my antique books, why they're there is a long story for another day.
As you can possibly see, it is a mess, and the stuff behind it makes it messier. It was dusty, had flour dust on it and generally was unusable if I got an order for dog treats, unlikely right now, but also another story.
The next story shows the table, still in front of the messy bookshelves, the bottom shelves look the same and messy but are now organized but the top is clean. It has three new canisters to hold, you never guess so I'll tell you, small cookie cutters. They are perfect, I can add the smaller cutters by type, and there are types, like Valentines day, Easter, Tea Pots, Animals, that sort of thing. So now I can put some of the smaller ones in one place, at least some of them.
All of this took me surprisingly about two hours, but you may remember I have some physical limitations, the good news is that I can work from my wheeled chair, and move around that way. My work table is on wheels so I can move it wherever I need to so I can get behind it to do some cleaning, sorting, and organizing.
Why am I writing this? You might ask, well simple. I did something productive today, it achieved something that has been making me crazy for weeks, but I haven't had the energy to get to. My house keeper helpers, who I lost never did even try to clean either of these two surfaces, but now they are done and I hope and plan to keep them that way.
I'm incredible proud of myself, and I'm proud of the fact that I did this. Another thing that helped me get this done was a strange happening that started last Thursday. I've had aides for the last 10 years, because I need them. I have them for 36 hours a week, one aid for 30 hours, he takes me to appointments, helps with the really heavy work, keeps the yard clean, that sort of thing, the other has the simple task of cleaning the house and doing the laundry, at least some of it. It isn't that hard of a task if you are completely mobile and capable of using a vacuum, dust cloth, and a mop, but for some reason this past year I've had trouble keeping a house keeper.
So lately I've changed the way this is done, my aides now get a much larger salary, how this is done is not important, but it is with the help of the state that I pay my aides. Anyway, last Thursday a lady who had been my six hour aide called and asked if I needed someone for those hours. Now this lady did a good job but the way she quit was not all that appealing to me, she was supposed to work two more days, because she owed me the time, she promised to come in on the following Monday, but did not.
This made me more than a little unhappy, so when she called on Thursday I had my doubts about giving her the six hours that my other aide had picked up. But since he's been working for me for 36 hours and another job for anything from 24 to 30, I told her I'd ask if he'd be willing to give up the six hours. I did this he was. It took me until Sunday to reach her but I finally did and we arranged for her to come in today and do the hire package so she could start either this week or the beginning of the next.
I ask you, if you called someone and asked for a job, made an appointment for a specific time and had essentially been hired, except for the paperwork, would show up for the job. She didn't. I'd arranged for her to come in, at her convenience, at 11:00 this morning, I was up, and waiting, paperwork ready for her, and she never came, she didn't call, she didn't even indicate that she was no longer interested. Amazing! But I also have to thank her, for now Jerry will continue to get his 36 hours which will be better pay for him, and I can now push myself to do more around the house, with Jerry's help.
Leaving this rambling post, I'll leave you with one small reminder, just last week I was so depressed I was almost ready to give up. This week, because of a change in medications, and tweaking of the meds, I'm able to get out of bed and actually work around my house and feel good about it. So if I can be helped so can other people. Almost undoubtedly one of these days I'll need a medication change, or dosage change, but it won't be so hard, it should be easier to tweak my medications from now on because in addition to a change in the drugs for my depression, I've gotten a new pain medication which is actually helping me stay more or less pain free, OK not pain free but at levels that I can ignore the pain, almost completely. Yeah! For new pain medication and tweaked drugs.
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