Mental clutter is most difficult.

Time for my weekly check-in.  Sadly, I haven’t made much progress this week.  Why?

First of all, it was a very dreary, rainy week.  For some reason, when the sun isn’t shining, I find it hard to get the energy to do the things I’m supposed to do.  That was my excuse for not getting my packages mailed.

Secondly, I’m having difficulty deciding what to do with some of the things from my linen closet.

• There are a couple sheet sets I love, but they don’t fit my bed.
• A couple more sets are reasonably soft, and almost the color I like.  I’m hesitant to get rid of them because I might need the pillowcases.  (I sleep with 6 pillows.  Eight if you count the two I use when reading in bed.)
• Memories.  I have a quilt and a couple pillowcases my mother made.  I don’t use them.  The quilt is badly stained, but I can’t seem to part with them.  So for now, they’ll stay on the bottom “shelf” (actually the carpeted floor) of the closet.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to part with them.  But not today.

As for the finances, I downloaded AceMoney Lite and tried to set it up, but it wouldn’t allow me to split my categories.  (Or if it allows it, I couldn’t figure it out.)  So I checked some financial software reviews, and YNAB (You Need A Budget) came out on top by far.  It’s somewhat expensive, but I’m trying the trial version for now.  So far, I rather like it, but I haven’t had to use it much.  We’ll see how it works when most of the bills come due at the beginning of the month.

Two steps forward, one step sideways

A week has gone by since I posted my goals for January.  Am I making progress?  Let’s see…

Big Thing #1:  mail all packages.

• I mailed my HSN package (boots that didn’t fit).  It was important to send it back before the end of the month in order to credit the account.
• Got my biggest Christmas package mailed.  The UPS clerk said he guaranteed delivery by Christmas—2013.  Haha.
• I have wrapped all the Christmas packages and found boxes to mail them in.  (These can use USPS as they’re not as big.)  Hopefully I’ll get them mailed this coming week.

Big Thing #2:  take car in for service—Done!

Routine Thing:  clean out the linen closet.  I’d already cleaned out the top two shelves (forgot to mention that last week).  This week I began tackling the lower shelves.  I was planning to go shelf by shelf, but once I got the third shelf cleared, I still had some energy and tackled the next.  Once that was cleared I decided to go all the way and do the bottom shelf, too.

But once I had everything out and strewn all over the hallway, I became overwhelmed and lost my energy.  I was shocked out how many sets of sheets I had.  I ended up posting two sets of flannel sheets and a down comforter on Freecycle.  I was surprised at how quickly I got a response and how many people were interested.  At least now I know people are ok with recycled sheets.  (I  don’t think Goodwill and Salvation Army take them.)  I do have a few more sets to get rid of.  But that’s a post for another week.

Other Thing:  get finances in order.  I think I’m up to date on my bill paying.  But Quicken and my actual bank statements are way off.  Fortunately, it’s the bank statements that are in my favor.  I hate Quicken and would like to just delete it and start all over, but haven’t figured out how to do that.  I also have a Mint account, but I’m not really fond of it either.  I’m going to try out AceMoney Lite to see if I like it.  If so, I might just swing the $40 for the full version.

I’m open for advice/recommendations on personal financial software, so if you have any, please comment.  🙂

Resolutions, Schmesolutions

It’s that time of year again—time to make the old resolutions.  (Well, it was about a week ago.  Obviously, conquering my  procrastination hasn’t been a priority.)  I gave up making resolutions several years ago.  Instead, I make goals, and instead of making them for the year I make them for the month.  That’s not to say I’m successful, but at least I keep on trying.

This year I’m breaking my monthly goals into 3 categories:  Big Things, Routine Things, and Other Things.

For January I have two Big Things because I can’t really put off either one another month, for various reasons.  The first is get all my packages mailed.  This includes shoes I bought online (from HSN and Zappos) that don’t fit, and yes (do I dare admit this?), Christmas packages.  Fortunately, the receivers (my “nibblings”) are not sticklers for opening all Christmas presents on Christmas day.  Like me, they enjoy having something to look forward to even after the holidays are over.

The second is to take my care in for its 30,000 mile service.  Because this is a big one and requires the car stay in the shop for a couple days, I get a loaner car.  But I had let my drivers license expire, which means I wouldn’t be able to get a loaner car.  (And heck, maybe they wouldn’t even give me my own car back.)  But I am legal now, so I have no reason to put it off any longer.

The Routine Thing is to clean out my linen closet.  The lower shelves are the most critical because they include actual linens, rather than miscellaneous items.  Right now these shelves are crammed with several years’ accumulation of sheets.  (The towels aren’t quite so bad.  I took out the old towels a while back to give to the animal shelter.  They’re still sitting in the box waiting to be taken—see procrastination comments above.)

Other Thing is get my finances in order.  I’m not super bad at not paying bills, but certainly not as good as I used to be—nor as good as I want to be.

How am I doing so far?

• I’ve already mailed back the QVC package, which was the most expensive (a tablet).
• I’ve cleaned out two of the linen closet shelves and thrown out many items I’d forgotten I had.  What I’ve discovered so far is a plethera of candles.  I’m a bit hesitant to use candles because I invariably forget they’re lit.  But I’ve decided to set a timer every time I light a candle, which will remind me to blow the damn thing out.  (Once these candles are gone, it’s battery operated only.)
• The bills and finances aren’t sorted out yet, but I’ve made a dent in them.  Granted, it’s a very small dent, but it’s also been a small dent into the new year—and month.  I’m not discouraged.
• I have been procrastinating on scheduling the car service.  But, it’s my top priority for tomorrow (Monday).  I’ll let you know how I did next week.

Seven Items Reclaimed from My Car

On my other blog I’m trying to start a “Sunday Seven” meme.  But I thought today’s Sunday 7 was more appropriate here.

I haven’t cleaned out my car since I packed up my office and retired.  Today I finally cleaned out the front seat.  Here are some (but not all) of the things I found.

1. A memory foam pillow I used to ease the tension in my legs when they cramped up from the long commute
2. A wicker basket I kept at work for miscellaneous things, like rubber bands and tabs for hanging folders; and two coffee cups from commands I served with that are now defunct
3. Three (3) empty water bottles
4. A pair of leather winter gloves
5. A booklet titled “Planning for Retirement for FERS Employees”  (I may still need it.)
6. Two (2) dollar bills, and
   …get ready for the gross…
7. A partially eaten hamburger from McDonald’s, along with half-full Diet Pepsi cup to go with it

There was more, but like the 3 water bottles and the McDonald’s souvenirs, it’s headed for the trash.

Going Backwards

According to the FlyLady schedule, this week is zone 3.  I was thinking this was an extra room, but it’s the bathroom and one extra room.  Well, the bathroom will have to wait.  Besides, it’s not that bad.  Comparitively.

I have two rooms in my home that are particularly horrible.  One of those rooms is an extra bedroom I’ve turned into my den/work/office room. This is where I open the mail, pay my bills and file important papers.  This may not sound like much, but an organization specialist told me once that keeping the paperwork under control is the hardest part of staying organized.  (And it’s even harder when you procrastinate.)

All this is the long way of saying that for now, my zone 3 is this room.

I began tackling it today (I took yesterday off because I’m basiclly lazy), but I didn’t start at the door and work clockwise as I’d intended.  Instead, I decided to change out my printer.  I was starting to have problems with the old printer, and the “new” printer has been sitting in its box for about 2 years.  (Yes, you read that right!)  The first part of my 15 minutes was spent clearing off the new printer box with all the paperwork that had accumulated there.

Once the box was cleared off I began the chore of installing the printer.  This turned in to quite an ordeal.  Anytime one is dealing with computer equipment, there are tons of wires to deal with.  This was made worse by the clutter getting in the way of getting to the back of the computer.  Yes, it’s a problem of my own making, but it was still frustrating, both physically and mentally.

When I finished installing the printer, I was quite pooped.   It’s quite warm today (“hot” for March!) and my clothes were sticking to me.  So I stopped.  And now the room is messier than when I started.  Not only is there a printer box and packing material lying around, I need to deal with all the paperwork I took off the box in the first place.  So this room is presenting me with challenges similar  to those I’m facing with my enter.  In addition to all the decluttering and storing and filing, I’ll also need to take time out to sort the paperwork that’s piled up over the years.

Well, nobody said this was going to be easy.