We did the thing where you go through all of your clothes and get rid of the ones you know you’re not going to wear again. If you’d be ashamed to donate it, throw it away. If, jeez louise, it’s the t-shirt you bought when you went to see Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, the Indigo Girls, Shawn Colvin, and Meredith Brooks in 1997, okay, fine. Put it in the nostalgia storage bag. Everything else either sparks joy, gets worn to work on a regular basis, or is out the door.
Pardon the state of the car. Here is the aftermath of last weekend:
That’s the big trip. We took a smaller trip with two boxes and only 3 bags full of donations.
There were also two bags of trash and we’re working on one last bag of donations as we wander through the stuff we transferred from the Jumbo Ziploc Storage bags holding the winter clothing (which now hold the much smaller amount of summer clothing) and doing the baskets and baskets of laundry from the clothes that have been idle since April and smell like they could use a good washing before being hung up. As such, this last week has involved 2-3 loads of laundry a day. (Some of the loads were tiny ones that required stuff like drying on the rack instead of going through the dryer so it’s not like we’re doing baskets and baskets of sweatshirts. We only did, like, *TWO* of those.)
By the time Friday night rolls around, the laundry will be fully caught up. (Well, excepting a last few items that need to be washed by themselves and then set to dry on the rack. (The rack only has but so much real estate.))
And this has turned into us doing the spring cleaning that we’ve been putting off since the start of quarantine. Clean up this area, donate 20 books to this library, donate 10 books to that one… next thing you know, you’re finding yourself discussing what could, theoretically, happen if, theoretically, we got rid of enough stuff to consider selling the house and downsizing. This house still owes $X on the mortgage, but if we sold it for $Y and bought a house for $Y-X, we could, like, live without a mortgage payment. Like, entirely. Theoretically. Selling the house would be a major pain in the butt, after all. And, seriously, we’re nowhere *NEAR* wanting to do that. But, you know, in *THEORY*, what’s possible?
And that’s what happens when you donate five boxes and a dozen bags to the Goodwill. You start pricing houses in Fountain.
Though I’d probably want to donate about 8,000 books before I could *SERIOUSLY* start considering that. Because, seriously, we are never moving that many boxes of books again. Theoretically.
Anyway, this weekend will be devoted to finalizing the clothing transfer and putting off the switching of the sheets from cotton to flannel for another fortnight or so (THOUGH IT DID SNOW TODAY!).
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “Goodwill Store” by JeepersMedia and is licensed under CC BY 2.0)
i *think* (have not decided yet, will depend on the weather) a trip out to the next-nearest city that actually has interesting and distinctive shops, in order to get a start on Christmas shopping. (Yes I know the “supply chain is failing!” stories are mainly hype, but as I actually SEE my brother and his family on Thanksgiving, I want to bring their presents to them then, to avoid the mail snafu of last year, where I mailed the presents a month early and they got them a month and a half late)
I am going to try to buy local-made/artist made stuff if possible.
Also I need to start easing myself into public more; after a year plus of mostly isolating I find crowds make me anxious, the rudeness of some fellow drivers torques me off a little, and I just go a bit nuts staring at the four walls of my house.
also I forgot to get a few things on my recent grocery trip so maybe I run to the Albertson’s near the little downtown there (oooo a new and different store!)Report
It snowed yesterday! Not a lot and it didn’t come close to sticking but we had our first snow!
So… yeah. There are worse ideas than shopping early.Report
They were claiming on the weather this morning “ooooh you’ll need a couple layers today!”
the high today? 75F
that’s t-shirt weather.Report
Highs for the last three days here were 55, 61, and 48. As it’s the Front Range, most of the men out and about during the day continued to wear cargo shorts (sorry, Saul). The most interesting precipitation was the evening we had lightning, thunder, rain, small hail, and graupel. The next few days look like a return to the seasonal 70 and sunny.
Clouds back over the peaks are clearing this morning. The peaks look nice and white, with reports of over a foot of snow in places.Report
I live on the north end of the Springs and work on the south end. My drive home was rain, slush, snow, graupel. Pikes Peak has a nice coat today.Report
We turned the heat on earlier this week. It’s set low just to keep the house from being “OH MY GOD I’M FREEZING” when I get up to make the coffee.
We keep a box in the garage, and stuff gets thrown into the box periodically. When the box is full, K inventories it and we either call DAV or take it to one of the various donation places.Report
We had a high today of A/C, and they’re calling for a low tomorrow night of heater.Report
We set the fancy thermostat in the new townhouse (including basement) to “eco” with a low of 67 and a high of 73. The townhouse is well insulated and the windows are tight. The A/C hasn’t run that I have noticed since sometime in September, and the heat came on for a bit this past week when the outside temperature had dipped below 30 °F. Our electricity and gas bills are both significantly lower over the past year than they were in the old place. Where we had spent quite a bit on efficiency over 30 years.Report
Had Dr’s appointment: Got flu shot. Got tetanus booster.
So go out and get your flu shot. Get your tetanus booster while you’re at it.Report
yeah I realized I’m almost due for one, I got a TdaP booster shortly after my niece was born (before I went to see her) because the advice now for adults is to be sure your pertussis immunity is topped up before seeing an infant too young to be vaccinated. And my niece just turned 9
I got my flu shot a couple weeks back, a week before doing the intensive weekend fieldwork. And a good thing, because flu’s already shown up in my state.Report
We got the flu shots last week. There was slightly greater incentive this year, our daughter is pregnant. We’re both with Kaiser, and when our tetanus boosters are due, Kaiser’s computers will nag us incessantly about it (to quote a Kaiser nurse when I got the pneumococcus vaccination rather than put up with any more harassment, “Honey, nobody nags like Kaiser’s computers.”)
In a completely different direction, I am torn about whether I find it more offensive for a woman 20 years my junior (so, approaching 50) to call me “Honey,” or to call me “Sir.”Report
There’s a very young second lieutenant in the national guard unit we work with who insists on calling me “Mr. Fish” instead of by my first name. She’s being properly professional and I was never one to give much weight to customs and courtesies (even when I was active duty), but…No sir, I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.Report