Tag Archives: do it yourself

January Cure of a diseased Linen Closet

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure

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Today’s assignment was to pick a closet and clean the heck out of it. I picked my linen closet because A. It didn’t require me crawling around on the floor again and B. it’s needed to be decluttered and cleaned for 20 years and 3 houses. We just moved the contents as is from our old house, to the rental and then to the new house, adding stuff as the years went by and only dumping stuff if it actually ripped. The result has been that I’d have to use real strength to shove clean towels and sheets in there. See for yourself.

beforelinenpurgeThat before picture should make up for the fact that I did not take a before picture of the laundry room closet. It was just like this except it was filled with filthy junk and twice this size.

So, what did I find when cleaning out the linen closet? I found my two (of three) good sets of sheets, an assortment of flat sheets that used to have matching fitted sheets, an old mattress pad I meant to dump over a year ago, an old worn out blanket, my good spare mattress cover, 4 towels, 4 table cloths, 2 woven place mats, and at least 24 pillow cases that don’t match any sheets I currently own! Was I afraid there was going to be a world wide shortage of pillow cases or that I might never be able to afford another one? You would think I lived through the depression with all the stuff I have hung onto over the years. I’ve had hard times, but c’mon!

Thankfully I have, at least temporarily, regained my senses. There’s now room in my linen closet to store my vacuum cleaner. I could probably store the dogs in there too. Amy is treading on thin ice today. My linen closet might become her “Cupboard Under The Stairs” if she chews up anything else vital today.

afterlinenpurgeI need to find out who or what has eaten all my gold colored towels. I used to have four gold ones and four blue. One blue towel is in the laundry, one is hanging in the bathroom, so I’m missing one blue and three gold towels. But by god I have pillow cases.

January Cure More on the Laundry Room Project

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by in January Cure

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I have now spent more time in my laundry room in the past six days than I have in 10 years. So has John. We have, in fact very probably spent more time in that laundry room in six days than it took our 12 pack a day builder to build it. I have definitely spent more time in the closet in the past six days than in the past 10 years. It was dark and it was scary and if there had been any other place in the house to keep a 25lb bag of dachshund kibble I wouldn’t have opened those doors at all. I had to move all of my newly purged and organized stuff back out of the laundry room, which meant it landed once again on my newly cleaned and pristine kitchen. Each time I have to shuffle stuff out of there I end up purging more simply because I don’t want to have to move it back. “Do I really need bleach?” “Do I really need floor cleaner? Not like anything works on it anyway. I’m pitching it.” The dachshunds did step in and prevent me from tossing that 25 lb bag of kibble but I’m still wondering if I really need to drink water because gawd am I tired of lugging THAT stuff from one room to the other.

helpfuldogsThe dastardly dachshund duo came in to help shuffle all the stuff to the kitchen.

Once all the stuff was shuffled out of the way, I measured the floor space in the closet, height of the kibble bag container, height of two stacked cases of water, and the height of my tallest appliance in order to arrive at the size table we needed. One thing that irks me about 2 x 4s is that they’re not really 2 x 4. They’re 3.5 x 1.5. Only guys would think this is reasonable. Me, I’m thinking if I’m paying for that width and depth I should damned well get that width and depth. So, when I’m measuring how deep this table needs to be for maximum storage in the space available, I have to take this .5 for each board into account. This is not as much of a problem as it once was because I have actually learned to take that .5 into account. But it’d be a heck of a lot easier if I didn’t have to. The only possible explanation for the discrepancy is that most guys are just used to adding at least half an inch to their actual measurements, unless they’re talking waistline.

While the dachshunds and I shuffled stuff out of the way and I planned out the length, depth and height of the table, listed the cuts (the doxies are no good with measurements) and the assembly instructions, John was busily taking apart the day bed we’d built. He even managed to salvage all the screws. He was able to start the cuts immediately while I handled the painting.

paintingwallThe dachshunds were positively no help at all with this and landed themselves in jail.

dogjailJohn built the frame for the table using pocket holes. Because we wanted to maximize the storage space of the table top we pretty much knew the table couldn’t be moved in once it was completed. The frame would easily fit but there would be too much overhang on each end. I’m not planning to move this table out. It’s there for the duration of my life. So John added the top boards once the frame was in place in the closet.

buildingtableJohn attaching legs and side supports to front and back supports.

Once the table was built, I painted it and shuffled the stuff back from the kitchen to the closet shelves, with more than one “Oh God don’t let this kill me” as I lugged cases of bottled water.

laundrytableshelves1When I go back in to paint the shelves a nice clean white, I won’t have to lug everything to the kitchen again. I can just set it temporarily on that nice table.

laundrytableunderneathPlease notice that the bleach and the crate of floor cleaners has mysteriously vanished. The bleach is in the garage should I ever decide to tie-dye a massive drop cloth again. The floor cleaners are hopefully busy killing some weeds along the horse fence.

The table looks so nice in there I hate to cover it up with my small appliances. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to get them in the pantry and can use the table for something really cool like folding clothes before they leave the laundry room so they don’t end up in a mountain on the foot of my bed.

Now I just need to figure out workable shelves that I can reach over the washer and dryer, paint the rest of the laundry room, repair the scratches in the exterior door from that sliding door incident, and come up with a landing strip of some sort so I can stop losing my keys.

January Cure Kitchen DONE!

11 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure

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gleamingstainlessCranking up the amplifiers to ELEVEN and singing WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! HooooooRAH and all that jazz. I’d be moon walking and hopping up and down if my back would bend anymore. How about I lay on the sofa and imagine myself doing those things? Sounds good. Notice the little white rice cooker for my celebratory roast beef supper tonight is the only thing out of place in this room now. I’d shake a pom-pom but I don’t think my shoulders move any more either.

Notice the gleam on that stainless? I learned this trick when we lived in town. Our neighbor was a janitor at the elementary school and he noticed us scrubbing windows one day. He gave us his secret for cleaning school windows, bathroom mirrors, stainless appliances, etc. Got a pencil and paper? It’s pretty involved. Wet a washrag, take some dish detergent, draw a smiley face in a very thin stream of detergent on the wet rag, scrub the surface, wipe or squeegie dry. No need to rinse, just wipe dry. That’s it, okay I added the part about drawing the smiley face. Moving on.

longview1Long view of my dazzlingly clean and uncluttered kitchen. John even climbed up on the counters and deep cleaned the grucky no-woman’s land known as the pot shelf.

myviewThis is now the lovely view from my desk.  LOOK I finally had space to put flowers other than atop the washing machine. There are a ton of things in the dishwasher from the cabinet purge that will soon be headed to the garage sale pile. I was actually able to put some small appliances in the cabinets where I can access them easily.

The laundry room project I chose for the month is on track. I’ve pared down most of it and will come up with a plan for neat and functional storage. Right now it’s functionally grouped on the shelves waiting for whatever I decide on for storage containers. For now, here’s what it looks like.

laundryshelvesI almost wish I’d had the courage to take a before picture but I didn’t want to break into the vodka. It would have taken a serious drunk to show y’all that. Suffice to say, I only opened those sliding doors enough to reach in and get the dastardly dachshund duo their kibble. Now the doors are gone and I DON’T CARE! I’m free of the fear that someone will open those doors and see the horror.  Even better things are coming for this room between other Cure assignments.

January Cure assignment Flowers and Kitchen

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure, Uncategorized

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laundrypurge1After Laundry Purge

This weekend’s assignment is to buy flowers. This is a great idea and I understand the concept, but at this point unless I plop them on top of the washing machine they are impractical. Obviously, I need to go ahead and print out the entire January Cure schedule so I don’t do things like decide my big project will be gutting the laundry room the day before I’m supposed to deep clean the kitchen <cough>.

laundrypurge2Laundry Closet Purged

There were small appliances, beaucoup light bulbs, cleansers, sponge mop heads from mops long gone, vacuum bags, dog grooming supplies, and tons of miscellaneous gleefus accumulated here for lack of a better place to put it. I purged the heck out of this room. Filled the dumpster for the first time ever. The purging of the laundry room was a resounding success. However, all the leftover stuff had to land somewhere while I was cleaning those near empty shelves. That place was every available space on already cluttered kitchen counters.  I have, thus, doubled the work for myself in the weekend project of getting rid of kitchen clutter and deep cleaning the kitchen. ARGH!

kitchenclutter1kitchnclutter2

Before I get started, let me tell you an amusing story about that laundry purge. Notice in the photo of the closet shelves, that there are no longer any sliding doors. John removed them for me. The space is tiny. The door into the house had to be closed while he removed the sliding doors and took them, one at a time, outside to the barn. I was in the house. I did not realize he had leaned one of the sliding doors against the interior door so that he could open the outer door. I opened the interior door to take a peek at his progress which, of course, caused the sliding door to begin to fall. I did mention how tiny this space is right? This space is, in fact, shorter than a door. I made a desperate grab to catch the falling door, missed, the sliding door hit the exterior door slamming the interior door against my arm and pinning me to the door like a rabbit in a snare. Thankfully, my cell phone was in my pocket and I had the presence of mind to grab it and call John before he got back from the barn and tried to open the exterior door. Unfortunately, his cell phone was not in his pocket and it began ringing uselessly about 15 feet away from me in the bear trap. In desperation I pulled, twisted, maneuvered, pulled, twisted and maneuvered my arm out of the door (thank god fat can be manipulated and there’s an argument for having that piece of pie). The problem of a possibly amputated arm became how now to get into the laundry room.

The thought of just building a new laundry facility and a new wheelchair ramp, oh I dunno, out a window somewhere, occurred. I’m seriously contemplating removing the interior door and adding a sliding barn door there anyway, so my second thought was “Just get the damned Jigsaw and we’ll cut the interior door out of here now and be done”. John, thank god my kids grew up watching MacGyver, found a steel rod, bent it into a Z, managed to open the exterior door enough to stick the rod through, catch hold of the lodged door and lift it up out of the way and got it out of there. That process typed out much quicker and easier than it actually took, but he got it done and we were back in business.

This is amusing now because A. I didn’t lose an arm and B. didn’t give the local fire department an interesting story to tell news crews. My grand plans for being Donna Reed once again thwarted by my inner Lucille Ball.

Okay, now to get back to the Cure. John just left for work so I promise not to try anything remotely lethal until he gets home.

January Cure, Assignment 5

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure, Uncategorized

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Today I am supposed to sit in an area of the house where I rarely sit and contemplate on a problem area, envision the room empty, and rebuild that problem area in my mind, imagining how I want it to look and function. Can I just say here that there probably isn’t a place in my house where I couldn’t sit for hours doing this? Not even on my freshly changed patio and backyard. There’s always something that could be added, changed, something that could work better. I’m beginning to see that the January Cure, isn’t. It’s the 2015 Cure.

Today, I have meditated on the Office/Outbox. While this room is being used as the Outbox, there’s nothing I can do to start the changes I need in there, but I can imagine them and begin the plan. It’s an odd rectangular room with one window,  4 bookshelves, a wall shelf,  a double closet, a desk and a trundle bed. Even without the collected gleefus that’s been shoved in there from every closet and corner I’ve cleared, it doesn’t function well and it’s anything but attractive. I need it to function as a guestroom/office/craft room. It will need to accomodate a sturdy queen sized bed, craft table and computer desk. It will also need to be accessible to wheelchairs. Umm.. yeah.

The second half of today’s assignment is to pick a project from my list to do this month. I’m ignoring their “this month, in about three hours” recommendation. I’m staking claim on the <insert heebie jeebie causing music again> Laundry Room. This room has been the number one problem in this house since the day we moved in.

The laundry room is really a short hallway leading from the main house into the garage. It’s also the only wheelchair accessible point of entry to the house. It’s also where everyone enters when visiting. Why no one uses the front door I don’t know, but there you have it. The doors were build wide enough to allow for wheelchair access. But the room itself is so short that when both doors are open they overlap and bang into each other. invariably knocking into the sliding double doors behind them which hide the laundry closet. With the front loading washer and dryer in there (I chose front load because it’s easier for me to get clothes in and out from my wheelchair), I can’t back up more than a few inches while opening either appliance without knocking one of the sliding double doors off it’s tracks. Bottom line, the room is a nightmare.

This will be my month long, every spare moment, project. I have wood, I will build storage. My son and I build a backyard filled with furniture including a beautiful storage bench, I know we can insert a storage bench in the laundry closet. I have drills, I will remove doors. I have imagination, I will figure out something to cover the entry into the laundry room so that I don’t have to stare at the washing machine.  I will build a better over head shelving system that actually works and that I can actually reach. The room will have a “landing strip” and a way to hang coats. All in a space the size of some walk in closets. Well, that’s the plan anyway!

First I’ll get rid of the clutter. There’s a lot in there. Good things I’d use if I could reach them, but most of it is stuff I’ve long since lost the use for. John is home today and can reach the things on the shelves that are too high for me. This will be a clutter free area by the end of the day.

Before

laundrybeforelaundrybefore2