Dreary weather weighs heavily on my mind and spirit. I woke up feeling miserable and knew it without looking through the curtains that it was miserable outside.
I was not happy with leaving the basement mostly finished (I managed to basically shift everything from being stacked on the floor to stacked onto a counter, although I did get rid of two aquariums, a smell corner shelf, filled a bag with backpacks/cooler bags and blankets for donations and de-cobweb most of the basement). It was better than before, but knowing it was not done was eating away at me. But today was one of those days.
One of those days where I sit in front of the computer, mentally challenging myself to get up and walk away, but physically cannot. Depression does that to me. One day is Sunny and Beautiful and I am happy about everything. Like the flip of a light switch, the next day is Gloomy and Sulking and I am annoyed by it all and the Enormity of it all.
I’ve had a lifetime of perma-fucked habitat. It only got worse when I fell in love w/ and moved in with someone with an equally fucked habitat.
It is time for things to change! My entire house needs some level of unfucking, but here’s what I’ve done recently:
The “dining room” before:
Clearly not being used for actual meals - we have been eating in the living room (our one good room) off of tv trays. Not ok.
and after several 20/10s:
I didn’t get the floor in this picture, but it is CLEAN. The TV is gone, the trash/recycle have been moved under the sink, and I am heading out to buy proper chairs this afternoon.
Big storage cupboard before:
This cupboard has stuff that has never moved since it was first shoved in there at move-in, two years ago. I also desperatly needed to apply the UfYH laundry maxim to my dry dishes - step three is PUT THEM AWAY.
After:
Not perfect, but much better! I can find my teas, paper and plastic bags (which were actually part of the dining room mess) are stored for easy re-use, my partner’s power tools are accessable without being at risk of falling onto my head, and my cookbooks live somewhere I can actually use them. Hooray!
Thanks for the lessons and motivation, Team Unfuck Your Habitat!
My desk was my invisible corner. I had let it spiral out of control for months, ‘til I discovered Unfuck Your Habitat. Through that blog, I realized that it was only my sheer laziness that kept me from slaying that beast. I grabbed my duster (sword) and a damp sponge (shield) and got to work.
Unfucked the floor of my room
As you can see - pretty fucked.
THE FLOORDROBE IS GONE
See! There is floor under all that!
A washing basket, so the floordrobe doesn’t make a comeback tour.
the other side of the bed. Also unfucked!
So I’ve been pretty good at keeping the important stuff unfucked - doing the dishes every day, ~making my bed~, keeping the floor vacuumed, litter boxes get cleaned out twice a week. Some of this stuff is automatic (litter boxes), some of it I have to struggle with (doing the dishes every day, it is my least favorite chore ughhh), but if I’m honest my worst housekeeping habit is not staying on top of clutter. That shit is how everything spirals out of control, and one of the worst things about my OCD is that I have some real (as in, controlled with medication) hoarder tendencies.
I did a grand unfucking about a month ago and have been really trying to stay on top of the clutter, but that shit builds up so fast and what am I supposed to do with it and ahhhhh.
So today I decided to unclutter two of the places that get the worst of it: the coffee table (a natural place to dump shit like whatever’s in my coat pockets at the end of the day, pencils, spare change, etc), and my work table (where I do sewing, print/zine making, etc - this gets cluttered with art paraphernalia when I’m busy with creative work, and cluttered with random crap that doesn’t have anywhere else to go during lull periods for said creative work).
Finally got something done. I split my iTunes upbeaat songs into a bunch of UfYH playlists (45 to be exact) spanning from 20 minute lengths to about 50 minutes. Idea? Music stops=time for a break.
Music stopped, I started next playlist and kept going. Went for about an hour straight at first, then took about a half hour break before doing another hour and a bit.
The Unfucking, Part I: The Living Room
Week before last I came down with a touch (hint: full on fever chills sleeping 21 hours a day flu, rargh) of the plague, and allowed my house to get fucked. This weekend is all about recovery from the fucking, and seeing the Avengers again, and reading fic on my kindle in the park by the lake.
But first, the unfucking:
Bag of used tissues from the week I spent on my sofa watching all of Seasons 1 and 2 of due South? Check. Half the dishes I own, all in various states of plagueyness? Check. White Castle bag that never made it home? Check. Blanket comma unfolded? Check.
That is a sparkly shark sticker on my laptop, yes. That is a batman glass, yes.
Papasan chairs are stuff-magnets, for really real. The bags of laundry I washed when I was *just* beginning to feel plaguey, and never made it to the hanging bins in the closet, or even my bedroom, due to bringing them back up and collapsing in a heap on the sofa, announcing, “GOOD ENOUGH.”
The sad thing is that I got the plague in the middle of unfucking: I did half my dishes and got the living and bedroom tidy enough to show to Coworker AR+Spouse Creature, whose vacuum cleaner and other household gear I inherited after their wedding this past April! The next day I was laid out, and the next two weeks I was either too sick to clean or too ‘hanging out in my friend’s air-conditioned house because it is hot’ to be physically present to clean. SADS.
So here’s the thing: Since I no longer have an awesome kitchen or infinite resources of time and money, writing has become my primary creative outlet. I don’t post a lot … nowhere near as much as I did back in 2009/2010, but I do create things with words, and I can’t create things with words when my habitat is fucked. I’ve tried. It doesn’t happen, because I look at the open word processing window and all I see is the bag of used tissues and the pile of stuff that should live in my messenger bag and oh hey that’s where my wallet went, I’d wondered, and I wonder if I have any clean mugs left? Probably not, but I loathe dishes D:
And then this morning I unfucked right and proper.
I rearranged the furniture so that my sofa is facing the kitchen, so that I HAVE to look at it and that way will maybe be more likely to MAINTAIN CLEANLINESS. Maybe. We’ll see.
Unfucking and rearranging the entire living room took a grand total of MAYBE 45 minutes … two 20-10s and change.
I also started in on the dishes: pots and pans first because I hate them, cups and glasses next because they are bulky, plates and bowls next because they stacked neatly, food storage containers last because I hate them more than the pots and pans (I KNOW). I went through 3/4 of a box of baking soda and half a bottle of dish soap.
Pics for that to come tomorrow because I still have to wash the silverware and one! last! glass! (in which the silverware is soaking), and I feel good about calling it a day with what I’ve done so far. And I have the smelly remains of two-week-old chicken stock in a lidded stock pot to contend with (such a bad plan), before I can even think about unfucking my stovetop.
But there ARE before pictures and the kitchen is presently 1000% more awesome than it was 12 hours ago and I am calling today a win.
Progress has occurred! This is the before and after for my sewing room. The closet was worked on as well but I’m not done with that yet. I do still have to finish cleaning up the sewing table as well but I finally have a place to write in here and there’s room to walk. :D
Yay for getting things cleaned up!
When I read about “hidden corners” on Unfuck Your Habitat, several areas of my home come to mind. But the first one is always my dresser. Behold:
This is actually a little bit worked on; contents of the Giant Back Pack (two comforters and some pillow cases) were spread out in a giant cloth monster of doom which did not allow me access to my clothes. It’s not a floordrobe for me: it’s a floorbed and an “invisible drawer” that my brain seems to think is on top of the dresser.
Anyway, two 20/10s and two loads of laundry later, we have this:
The floor is clean, btw. I just didn’t realize it wasn’t in the photo (oops!). Due to monetary considerations, two loads of laundry was the max for this week. However, I went ahead and sorted all dirty laundry by type, so the bags and hamper each contain either linens, bottoms, tops, or underwear/socks and I’m all set to go once I get that next roll of quarters.
The next project (after the vacation this weekend) is to Unfuck the Drawers!
PS: Celebrate! I put the laundry AWAY when I finished folding it last night. Yep; I actually had the voice of UFYH in my head reminding me laundry has THREE STEPS. And every time I look at my magic-erasered stove top, I SMILE :)
So, I got my closet done this morning and despite still feeling like poo, I decided to work on a couple of small things that needed done. Namely, my one bookcase, and my computer desk.
Here are the befores:
- My computer desk. Yes, that’s a plastic axe hanging on the wall. No, I won’t explain myself.
- My book case and surrounding environs. It’s still not holding any books, but definitely looks better!
Afters:
And the flag is once again, properly hung.
My desk is now awaiting my computer. Which will go back on Monday, once we’re done with Anime Weekend.
However, someone approves of the work I’ve done today:
- Bookcase
- Computer desk
- Book corner
- Bathroom- Downstairs closet
- Pantry
- Fridge
