Urgently Hiring: Personal Assistant

You know how we all have jobs that are not that hard but that we just hate doing? I have a few for sure! For some of the ones I have, it would be easy to hire someone but they are things that I CAN do myself but just procrastinate starting. My brother and I were discussing this and we decided to swap tasks; I would help him do the things he hates doing and he would help me do the things that keep getting put on next week's to do list. Here are a few that made the cut. 

Broski was/is seeking someone to to the following: 

Rollover his 401k to an IRA. DONE. This is one of those things a lot of people put off but in reality, it is not as hard as it seems. It does involve a bit of paperwork and can be anxiety inducing due to the fact that they have to liquidate one account and then you have to use those funds to buy something in the new account, but for most of us, we have enough time until retirement that we don't need to worry about timing the market. Just do it. 

Clean out and organize his garage. DONE. Luckily, I love doing this kind of thing. However, I know it can be daunting, especially if you have any big items that you are not sure what to do with, or memories/mementos that you are on the fence about keeping (or that you need to look at as you sort). However, having a third party come in and be less emotional about your stuff can be freeing. The other hard thing is getting started! For Broski, he had one big item that he needed to get out of the way before the rest could be accessed, but that one thing was causing weeks of delay. I went up there and pulled that thing out, helped him reorganize, sort and label things and put the big item back. However, he just finally got rid of it so now we can commence with the second phase!! 

I was/am seeking someone to do the following: 

Fix the water pressure in my shower. NOT DONE. Broski took a look at this and it looks to be a bigger job than I want to do myself and I don't really care enough to hire someone to do it. It seems like the hot pressure is just lower in general than the cold, so there is probably some corrosion in the line or something and I don't really want to pay someone to do a huge job. I will just deal with the trickle. 

Weed the yard. DONE. Broski came over this weekend and we got so much weeding done! He is a beast with a weedwacker and a fork looking tool that he uses to dig up the weeds by the roots. I worked alongside him, but it sure was nice to have someone enthusiastic by my side. Be gone ye weeds! 

Install the bike rack on my car roof. NOT DONE. Broski got on this task and it was determined that before putting the rack on my car, I would have to buy other racks to put on my car. Hm. So I am mulling this over, but may just buy a different rack since some of the trunk mounted racks are the same price as the racks I need to buy for the top. Plus then I started thinking about it and will I really be able to lift my entire mountain bike above my head and put it on the roof? Anybody have any tips here? For context, my bike weighs about 32 pounds without anything on it and the rack does not require you to remove the front wheel. 

Power wash my deck. DONE! Broski brought over the washer and not only did the back deck, but the side porch and front porch and all of my flagstone and paving stone. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I forgot that the wood is red/tan instead of grey/black/dusty. It looks so good. 

So, I guess the moral of the story is, having a friend really helps when the jobs are crappy and/or one man's trashy job is another man's pleasure!? 

What job do you hate doing? What job do you love doing and would happily swap with someone to do? Have you ever pressure washed anything? 

Little by Little, Month by Month

At the beginning of each year, I do a purge, and somehow, although I do this every year (at least once), I still have lot of stuff. In 2014, I talked about going through the fridge and getting rid of expired items. At the beginning of 2015 (right before I moved into my new house) I went through everything again. In 2016, shortly after moving into my new house and moving a lot of things from storage, I did a massive purge and got rid of over 300 items. 

I would estimate that since then, although I have not kept track as well as I once did, I have probably gotten rid of about three to five bags/boxes of things each year. I have probably gotten rid of over 100 books, have definitely pared down my running things (although those race shirts are like gremlins! How do they multiply so darn fast?) and have given away many kitchen items, toys and clothing. I have reorganized my stationary (why do I have so much stationary!) and sorted through all the screws in my WTH drawer. 

However, there is still a lot of work to be done. So this year, just like last year and the year before, each month I will go through one section or room in the house and see what I can pare down. 

January: Paperwork and Files. I always dedicate January to the following administrative items. Finalize prior year and start new year address list and other yearly spreadsheets, make new folders, go through all mail, file current mail, organize in file box, remove older items from file boxes, start new planner, make/update 2023 to do list (this is a running list but I like to start a new file each year). I also update my list of current accounts (for example, in 2022 I switched from Comcast to Sonic and so will change my master sheet). 

2022 - Throwing away user manuals

February: Go Bag. This is kind of an extension of the last one, as I have a go bag with all of my important documents and information in it. So, after updating my master list, I make sure all of the documents and information in my go bag are current and updated. Additionally, this bag has food, some toiletries, flashlight, stove, gas etc. in it, so I make sure that the food does not expire in the next year, the batteries still work, the gas can is still full etc. 

March: Kitchen -- Fridge/ Freezer. This involves throwing away expired items, and eating things in the freezer rather than buying more. This also goes hand in hand with my "no groceries" plan for December, January and February, which consists of only buying veggies and fruit and using up some of the other thing in my pantry and freezer than I already have. PS I have a lot of legumes. 

April: Kitchen -- Pantry. After paring things down by eating them over the first quarter of the year, I like to reorganize everything and get a good handle on what I have left before starting to restock slightly. Also this is a great time to set aside some of the things I can use for camping food in the summer (instant mashed potatoes etc.) so that I don't double buy a bunch of things I already have. 

May: Garage -- Camping Stuff. To prep for summer, I will organize all camping stuff, make sure it's all in top shape, update it, fix it, patch it, go through my food supply etc. 

2022 - going through garage boxes

June: Bedroom -- Clothes. Easy wins are holey socks and underwear (I am getting good at getting rid of these tout suite!) and jeans that are long and need high heels, even though I never wear high heels. More difficult is the bleach stained Nike NYC half marathon shirt I use to sleep in that probably should go but likely won't. I have actually pared this down quite a lot over the years (i.e. I have not bought anything new in a long time) but I am still holding onto some of the oldies but goodies. But really, how many hoodies does one woman need? (the answer is...seven...or eight...or maybe nine? See what I mean!?) 

July: Bedroom -- Shoes -- Yes, I am designating an entire month for shoes. In 2022, I tried to sell some of them, but this was a complete fail. I need to rework my plan to try to sell them, as some are barely used. I anticipate this process may take a little longer than normal as I clearly have some things to learn about it. 

August: Kitchen -- Dishes, Pots, Pans, Cutlery -- just like the holey underwear, there are certain kitchen tools that I keep washing and putting back even though they have a chip or a rip. Also, I have collected quite a nice set of SF Giants plastic cups over the years. I will go through all of that and get rid of the unused, duplicates and misfits. 

2022 - washing and culling silverware

September: Living Room, Hallway & Spare Room -- these are probably my three most sparse rooms. However, I do keep my linens in the spare room and have pared them down to basically nothing. It never hurts to reassess though! In the living room, I do a general drawer clean out and shelf minimizing before calling it a day. The hall has two closets, which hold toiletries, light bulbs and towels, so I usually make sure there are no holey towels and take stock of my sunscreen stash so that I know what I am up against come summer (PS I have about 6 different sunscreens as of this writing). 

October: Reading Nook -- Entire Room. This room has three bookshelves and a trunk that holds blankets and crafty stuff. My goal is to have read at least 10 books from my shelves by October and to be able to get rid of them. Additionally, if I haven't read them, maybe it's time to reassess why I still have them! 

2022 - Purging the reading nook of books

November: Health. Although this is not a purge, I always cleanse my body by making sure that I have all of my yearly checkups and if not, I book them for either November or December so that I am using the current year's insurance (for example, with the dentist and optometrist, you only get a set amount per year and if you play it right you can get twice as much by paying for one thing in December and another in January if needed). 

December: Plants. Yes, plants. I have a lot of indoor plants and I love to take cuttings and make new plants over the months, but sometimes I fear that I will be one of those old plant ladies (hey, as long as its not cat lady, I may be okay with that). So I usually put some of the indoor plants out in the garden, repot and gift them, repot if a bigger pot is needed, etc. 

In addition to each of these, I also go through emails, photos and files on my computer for a couple of hours each month and unsubscribe, delete, remove duplicates or fuzzy photos and organize and trim files. As you probably know, this seems to be never-ending and is on my list every year. 

What is your purge system for the year? Do you do it all in one go or try to parse it out into smaller bits? 

One Man's Trash

I am always trying to get rid of things. I probably go through my closets once every month or two months and throw things away. When I moved into the new home and moved my old stuff out of storage last May, I tried to ge through each box as I unpacked it and to get rid of what I could then. I probably gave away a half a dozen bags full of stuff then. I definitely tried on all my clothes and threw away anything with holes, that was too small/big or that was completely not even close to my style anymore (huge Rage Against the Machine t-shirt....okay, actually I kept that to sleep in but I did give away the Nirvana shirt).

However, I somehow still have a ton of stuff and much of it is things that I have not worn for months or years, is expired or that was given to me by someone and just isn't something I would use (or that I need). So I decided to join Lisa in the February Purge Project. Her goal was to get rid of as many things each day as the number of the day that it was. For example, on the 1st, you give away one thing. On the 19th, you give away 19 things. And so on. That ends up adding up to 425 items. While you may think that there is no possible way you could get rid of 425 items, it is surprisingly easier than you would think!

So many old t-shirts!

I did not get it all done in February. I also did not really finish my sorting and purging (I still have the garage to go through! Ack!) However, I did get about halfway through, and in total so far, I have given away or thrown away 333 items. The majority of the things, unfortunately, are smaller things. For example, my biggest category was office supplies. Next biggest category was accessories. Here's the breakdown.

125 Office
73 Accessories
52 Home
43 Clothing
22 Books
18 Toiletries

I have to admit, I still have a lot of boxes from my move that I have not thoroughly gone through. When I began this purge, I started with a couple of them and either threw things away or put them in the Goodwill pile anything if I had not used in years or in many cases, if they no longer worked. For instance, I had so many old pens!

I will not read these again.

Doing this kind of thing takes time, especially when you are talking about some of the things that carry memories, as they are hard to give away. However, over the years I have become better about throwing or giving away things that I am not using or looking at or enjoying and probably never will. As much as I cherish that tchotchke that my grandmother gave me, I really don't need it and it will either sit in a box in my garage or it will just be another thing to dust on the shelves in my house.

I try to think about three things: Does it work/fit? Have I used it in the last 6 months (or year for certain items)? Is it worth passing on to someone at some point? The first two are easy, as they are quantitative. The last is not as easy and is where I often run into snags. The tchotchke is worthless to everyone but me, who associates it with a memory or a person. However, it sitting in a box is worthless as well. So why not enjoy it or give it to someone who may, whether they are a faceless Goodwill customer or a friend. So that is what I am trying to do.

Next up: the garage. I will have an update on that later!

Do you do a yearly or monthly purge? What strategies do you employ? How many dried out or non-functioning pens do you have? 

Be It Ever So Humble: Closet Makeover

It was very common back in the day for houses to not have closets. Don't quote me on this, but my understanding is that it had something to do with getting taxed for each "room", and closets were counted as rooms. Therefore, many older houses are closet-less. 

My house was built in 1924. I  have friends with similarly aged homes which have teeny tiny closets, which I have heard came from the fact that homes were taxed per square foot (and why waste it on closet space). Luckily, my closets are not too tiny and I even have a bonus hole in my hallway. However, there is not a lot of shelving in any of them.

The other day my Dad calls me up and says that he would like to come down and fix something in my house. Fortunately, I do have a self imposed Honey Do list. However, most of the things on it are pretty easy things I can do myself (not that I always want to, but I CAN). Luckily, I can think quickly on my feet, and when he requested a project AND a drawing, I quickly got to work. Here is what I came up with. 

Bedroom Closet Plan

Hall Closet Plan

Aren't my drawing skills fabulous? NOT. For the bedroom closet, I wanted a few shelves to put shoes or clothes on, as well as a rod to hang things. For the hall closet, I wanted some shelves and also a space for the broom/mop and a space to hang people's coats when they came to visit. 

So Dad came down and got to work. Here are the before and after shots. 

Bedroom Closet: The day I moved in

Bedroom Closet : Before

Bedroom Closet : After

Don't judge me. I have a lot of shoes. 

Hall Closet : Before

Hall Closet : After

I still need to paint the shelves in the bedroom closet and to figure out how I want to organize everything, which will involve a bit of shifting and time to see if things are working the way I want them to. However, overall I am quite pleased with the way everything turned out! 

Do you have enough closet space? If you could have a closet makeover, what would you change/add? 

A-List Monday: Roofing vs Exercise

For the last week, I have been helping to re-roof a neighbor's house. It has not been easy! Not only is standing at an angle very uncomfortable, but it also uses muscles you did not even know you had! However, this may be better than a workout! Everyone who has made a New Year's resolution to work out more should just start doing construction instead.

FYI, the roof we put on was metal, which entails metal panels about 3 feet wide and  8-10 feet long. The roof was pretty steep on most of it, which makes it hard to keep the panels from sliding. I have illustrated these concepts below with my "excellent" art skills (which are at about preschool level).

3 ways Roofing is like exercise: 

{1} Roofing is like Yoga. You are constantly stretching, kneeling, crouching to reach a stapler without having to move too far while holding a panel, doing the childs pose in order to screw in the panel you are holding down with your body, or doing a downward dog in order to hold down a panel without it slipping.

{2} Roofing is like aerobics. You are walking up and down the roof, hopping over things, running across the panels and best of all, crouching and standing, crouching and standing. I once took a salsa aerobics class in college. Let me tell you, roofing makes you twice as sore the next day!

{3} As shown above, roofing IS weight lifting! I must have screwed in several hundred screws over the past few days. This is no easy feat, since the metal panels are difficult to screw. You have to put some muscle into it. Well, when you don't have any arm muscles to speak of, this is HARD! My arm is like jello today! Just the right one though. Also, the panels don't (unfortunately) walk themselves from the ground to the roof. They have to be carried! This means military presses for everyone!

According to LoseIt, you burn 300 calories an hour by roofing x 8 hours = 2400 calories per day. It's like running a marathon!  So, for all you January resolution makers, instead of joining a gym, go join Habitat For Humanity! It's cheaper AND it's a better workout.

Have you ever done any home improvement work? Did you like it? Were you sore the next day?

Look What I Found This Week

This week, since the weather has been so un-winterlike, I decided to do a little "spring" cleaning. Since I travel so much, all my stuff (except for my one suitcase that I travel with) is in storage. This week, I went through that storage, to see what I could get rid of. Of course, if you are like me, you know that sometimes going through your storage to "get rid of it" results in a walk down memory lane. So, grab a beer (inspired by Kim) and look what I found this week! In addition, I did do a few other things. They are also included below.

Before I went crazy and started doing a major sorting movement, I had my extended family's Christmas party (in January)! It was great to see all the cousins! 

My Dad (yup, that's a kilt) and cousin

Some of my younger cousins -- pretty in pink

I went running. Only twice! I have been slacking due to the fact that I have had so many other things to do this week! I need to get back on track, so to speak! 

I found a new trail! A little overgrown but FUN!

Instead of running, I have been helping re-roof a house! It is a lot of work! 

I also went to an auction -- not to buy anything, but to see how it worked, in case I want to sell anything. BUT...you can get some darn good deals on things! I saw one 46 piece dish set, a nice one too, go for about 5 dollars! 

Okay, so you have gone through old stuff, right?
I wonder if you keep as strange of things as I do. 

{1} My diary from when I was about 8. Complete with fool proof locking device!

 

 {2} My first medal from my FIRST running race! 1986.

{3} My first digital camera!

 

{4} My "best friends" necklace from Jr. High! Remember those!?

{5} SO MANY books. It is really hard to get rid of them though! 

*in case you can't read, they are "travel/memoir/reference" and "Not Read Yet" *

*These are the "not read yet" books! 

A whole box. I am SO embarrassed! I need to get a move on with my book reading goal!*

But...and you should be very proud, I got rid of FOUR bankers boxes of books! FOUR! I am sad, but happy!! 

And, last but not least, we had a bonfire. To burn the old files I threw away (tell me, WHY did I keep some of them?) as well as....the Christmas tree! How sad. Except I don't know if you can see or not, but my parents were VERY excited about it. 

Okay now, you need to help me. Am I normal? Or do you keep things too? What item is it hardest for you to get rid of? What do you do with your Christmas tree once you take it down?