Pretty much all I did this weekend* was to clean and move and throw out stuff in preparation for both the exterminator coming, and in preparation if the siding/window frame work requires the workers to come in, and just because my house had gotten bad. (I did find where the mouse nested, probably in May when I was at my mom's. I had a stack of old printouts of journal articles that were neatly shredded. So I masked and gloved up and just stuffed them all into a trash bag. At least I didn't find any "pinkies" and it looked like the mouse didn't stick around long; the paper wasn't, uh....messy. Just shredded).
(*well, there was Zoom knitting group for a couple hours Saturday afternoon)
So I got the area over by the south window in the living room cleared up, and I cleaned all the bad area around the desk in the guest room (the mouse nest was behind the printer stand. Luckily my Ph.D. diploma and the photograph of me being given it - which I had never framed and probably should - were on a higher shelf and were untouched). I also cleaned some in my bedroom (it can use more) and totally cleaned the dining room. And the last two tasks - I had had a basket pushed over near my piano I had kept magazines in, and realized I didn't need most of those (I hung on to one or two that were knitting magazines that had patterns, but most were very old American Scientist issues - I can get that information online - or decorating magazines I will never look at again). And I realized: if I put those knitting magazines somewhere else, I could stack the sheet-music books I don't use as often in there, and get them off the piano bench (I always have to move them when I practice).
I also vacuumed and wet-mopped the kitchen floor; it needed it.
I do think I was maybe low grade depressed and didn't really realize it in 2020 and 2021, I didn't keep up with housework the way I once did (I was never that great at it during the school year anyway) but now I feel more like doing it. And dangit, having a clean house DOES make me feel better. So I need to keep up with it.
What helped this time was I made a list of what I needed to get done (a list of the minimal things) and checked each item off as I did it. I may need, for the future, to make a weekly or monthly to-do list of cleaning - like, one evening, wet mop the kitchen floor, and another evening, run a duster over things. It's probably better to do bit by bit cleaning than to leave it all and have to do it as a weekend marathon. (Yes I know Flylady exists but I think I'd find that annoying, compared to a list I made up for myself)
But I also need to build in more fun or "rewarding" tasks where I can see the result more clearly. I did two of these.
First - a couple of the old incandescent bulbs in the dining room chandelier had burnt out, and I thought "Maybe I get LEDs to replace those"
I had to take one of the old bulbs because they have an odd-sized base (apparently it's called a "medium" base, as opposed to a "candelabra" base).
It's REALLY bright. (I also got a box for the bathroom lights - five of the six bulbs are LED and they all will be when that last one burns out)
I also finally hung the art quilt my friend Jo left me I had not done it before partly because I had a hard time finding the right shaped place (it's a landscape format, and is wide, and I don't have a lot of wall spaces like that) but also because looking at it made me slightly sad (it still does, but I'll get over it).
I realized that if I took down the inexpensive framed poster I had had hanging for years over the fireplace, it could go in that space. (And I might donate that poster in its frame to the upcoming church yard sale: I don't have anywhere for it, and I"m not sure I want it any more. It's not faded so maybe someone would want it.)
I had to put up new hangers but I was able to mark with a pencil where I wanted them, both so the quilt hung right and so it was high up enough:
(The metal thing in front is the top of a wire Eiffel Tower sculpture that is standing on my mantel)
I had also wanted to take my car out and have it washed, but I realized my favorite car wash (which I call the "disco car wash" because they have multicolored lights and stuff and it's actually kind of fun) is on the section of the road that's closed for construction and I have no idea how I would get to it. Also, it got kind of late - it was five thirty when I got into the shower after finishing the clean up
I'm trying to decide whether to go in and work on my paper in the morning (I probably should) and then go home in the afternoon and try to do the rest of the tasks on my list to get them done before Wednesday, and also get stuff over to the storage unit (and more books to the library for their sale)
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