TOLERATING, CLEARING, and MINIMIZING CLUTTER

Mar 11, 2013 by MizLoo

 

I do try to be tidy, but it’s not in my genetic programming. And post-brain injury, forgetfulness, added to my pack-rat DNA, results in a lot of clutter. IMHO – nobody can really “keep up.” Life happens. And we who are disorganized, are disorganized.

I take a picture whenever a room looks great.  That’s to remind me I can do it.

And if I have company when it looks tornado-tossed, I can always show them the picture and invite them to come see me again when it’s back to looking great. Meanwhile, let’s visit. After all, they came to see me, not my house.

As for trying to maintain, it gets easier with practice (never actually gets “easy”). I use a daily check sheet modified from from the FlyLady ClutterBuster  files – God bless the woman who posted it originally.

 

Every evening I add tomorrow’s To-Do list – a max of 5 items – to my daily Morning, mid-morning, afternoon, and evening routines. I adapted her basic form to my specific needs, with a focus on the meds and routines I need to stay functional & a comments section to let me see why, on so many days, my To-Do list never got done.

Looking back I can see that I dropped everything to take a friend to the ER, or had a wild attack of cooking enthusiasm & filled the freezer with nutritious soup, or was dealing with a financial crisis  - one that required many phone calls.

I keep the kitchen very clean for reasons of hygiene. The bathroom is next in importance. All the rest is Sisyphus and his rock (In Greek mythology, the poor guy spent all day pushing the rock to the top of the hill, and when he woke up in the morning, it was back at the bottom, waiting to be pushed back up again) Some days, in my house, the rock just sits there.

And that’s OK.

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We’re Off!!

May 2, 2012 by MizLoo

Our adventure begins this winter afternoon at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.  We have reserved a roomette for the first leg of our trip – Philly to New Orleans.  We arrive at the station, collect our tix and find a red cap.  Familiar with the station from occasional rail rides to New York or Boston, we are newbies when it comes to crossing the continent.

 

The friendly man who packs our bags onto his cart knows the ropes and gives us an earful of advice.  If only we hadn’t been too excited to remember it all.

The immediately useful information is that having a roomette means that we are traveling “First Class.”  So we are taken to the private waiting room up on the mezzanine.  I’ve been here before, with a group meeting with our senator about the Iraqi war.  This time I see more than the conference room.

 

Newspapers from four northeastern cities are available. as are beverages and snacks.  From our cushioned chairs we look down at the familiar wooden waiting room benches downstairs.  And the spotless ladies room up here has a vase of flowers!  Sweet.

 

About now, I reach for my smartphone and realize it is still on my bedside table.  Frantic call to friend and neighbor, Carol, who will overnight the phone to our NOLA hotel.  Before boarding our first train we’ve encountered the first unbudgeted expense – $70.

 

About now, our friendly red cap returns to take us via elevator down to the train tracks.  He assures us that all our bags will fit in the sleeper car.  He talks non-stop as he settles us in to the astonishingly tiny roomette.

 

It becomes clear that we have too many bags, but with the assistance of the helpful porter (who is apparently now called an attendant rather than a porter) we get somewhat comfortably situated.

 

We spend the next 10 minutes reminiscing about other train trips.  My partner has rarely traveled outside the Northeast corridor.  My earliest train ride?  When I was 5 or 6, my parents pinned a tag with my name on it to my coat, put me in the care of a smiling uniformed Pullman Porter, kissed me goodbye and sent me off to visit  – who? – probably my grandparents.  I’ve loved train travel ever since.

 

We never hear anyone call “All Aboard!”  but suddenly the train begins to move.

 

And we’re off!

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ORGANIZING RECIPES

Sep 9, 2011 by MizLoo

It only took 50 years, but I’ve finally found a recipe collection format that works – i.e., that doesn’t make me crazy.

I started out with my mother’s system – a notebook with hand-copied recipe notes.  I soon figured out I’m way too sloppy in the kitchen for that to work long term, plus there is no coherent order to chronological entries..  I do still copy out a backup of family recipes here, but that’s just to archive them for posterity.

 

 

Next try – and this one sort of worked for a long time – was a recipe card file, with the cards in plastic sleeve (from currentcatalog.com).  This solves the spatter & drippy spoon problem, but I just don’t/can’t categorize consistently. And I tend to pull out recipe possibilities, then not put the cards back.

 

 

 

No way am I bringing my computer into the kitchen, I’m just too messy – spatter and splash are part of my style.  But I’ve finally devised a two step process That doesn’t clutter the counter.

 

 

A Pendaflex folder for potentials – recipes I mean to try out – newspaper clippings and recipes copied from the internet.

 

 

 

 

 

And now for the GENIUS solution.  An old, unused non-archival quality photo flip-file for the recipes that really work & I use often.

 

 

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Dealing With Docs – Finding a New Doctor

Sep 9, 2011 by MizLoo

 

If we live long enough, one or more of our doctors will move, retire or die.  OR we may decide to move – into a smaller space, or eventually to assisted living.

When we need a new doc, a painful search begins. While I live in an urban area with 3 medical schools nearby, some of my search method will work no matter where you  live.  Here’s how I did it:

THE SEARCH PROCESS

A)  I began with my preferred hospital.  I prefer it because it is close, med school affiliated and not too big.  All my medical records are on file there, including imaging and lab data, so that’s the hospital where I will be admitted, when necessary.  I do not want any doc who hasn’t got privileges at my hospital, for a number of reasons:

+ I want my doc to be able to visit me if I am hospitalized

+ I want my doc to know the other docs treating me; so they can consult readily.

+ I want the record of office visits with my doc to go into the hospital data base.

B)  When picking a new doctor, I look for  one in her early 40’s.

+  I don’t want to outlive my new doc

+  Newer docs are more likely to be accepting new patients

+  Newer docs have more recently been learning the latest techniques

+  A woman’s physical experiences will more nearly parallel my own.

 

C)  Sources of information:

+  I started by asking friends if they had a doc in this area they like

+  Then I asked health workers I knew for their recommendations

+  I checked the hospital’s website for  doctor information

*** I Googled  every recommended doc & also checked them on Yelp

D)  Making a choice

+ In the best case, everyone recommends the same practitioner and that doc is accepting new patients.

+  I had 3 good candidates, so I called each office to ask

1) Is the doc taking new patients?

2) Does the office accept my insurance?

+  I made appointments with the 2 docs who were open to patients with my  insurance for an intake interview and

+  I chose the one I liked and communicated with best

 

A Final Note:  I take all these steps to find a new general care call-her-first doctor. This person can be a  GP ( General Practitioner), or another typer of PCP (Primary Care Provider) – perhaps an Internist, Family Practitioner or Gerontologist.  This is the most important health provider I have and the one who needs closest scrutiny – all my basic health care is provided by this person and oversight of chronic conditions better be top-notch.

For new specialists, I start with the recommendations of my GP.

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When Should I Toss Drugs? and Where?

Sep 9, 2011 by MizLoo

It’s useful to do an annual check of all your drugs  - prescription and OTC – to see if any are past their expiration date.  I know some OTC (over the counter, non-prescription) drugs are useful well after the “exp” date on the bottle. Those dates pertain to the latest the company was willing to test, rather than a date when it is known to “go bad.”

(Cynical comment alert.)  Why test for 10 years when you’re going to come out with a new medication 5 years from now?  Or when you can count on consumers discarding perfectly good stuff if an early date is on the bottle?

I’m comfortable using brand-name OTC stuff for a year or so beyond the published exp date, as long as it isn’t a matter of life or limb.  Same goes for lotions and creams – until they separate or otherwise appear changed, I’ll use them. Get gooey  – out with them.

I’m very careful with prescription drugs, although if they are in the original bottle, I don’t use the exp date on the mail-order pharmacy label.  That pharmacy label, I’ve noticed, is always one year from dispensing date, which has nothing to do with the date on the manufacturer’s label.  I peel off the pharmacy label, check inside the box, and make other efforts to see the genuine manufacturer exp information.

Getting rid of the truly expired stuff is something else. I want to ensure my medications aren’t landing in the water systems, landfills, or ground water in my community.  So flushing is a no-no.  Drugstore chain Rite Aid offers disposal service – for a fee.

So does Walgreen’s; they have an inexpensive ($2.99) program for mailing in old medications:http://news.walgreens.com/arti…..le_id=5343.

There is such a thing as a FREE drug collection event.  There’s one coming up in October.  So let’s clean out our medicine cabinets and linen closets, to collect the old stuff for the next few weeks,

The next National Drug Drop-Off Date is scheduled for 29 OCTOBER 2011 from 10am-2pm. I understand there will be police stations and other drop-off centers in local communities throughout the country collecting expired or unneeded medicines on that date.

Here’s the website: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj……index.html

Nothing like an honest-to-God deadline to move me to get something done.  Join me?

 

 

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BASIC?

Sep 9, 2011 by MizLoo

Last week it was the earthquake, and now hurricane Irene is headed my way.  It gives one furiously to think. And what I think is this: I spent the first half of my life working to pay for the acquisition of the things that I’m spending the second half of my life disposing of -   furniture I love that doesn’t fit in my new space, clothes I love that don’t fit me, clothes that fit me that I don’t love, gifts I don’t love from people I do, books I plan to enjoy some day, CDs ditto. The list goes on…

I have this fantasy:  If I were starting over in my life, could I decide to take only the basics into my new life?

What are your TRUE BASICS?  Here are mine:

Essential Furniture - a small sturdy table, for eating and writing, a lamp. a reading chair, maybe an eating chair.   A bed, with a set or 2 of sheets, a pillow.

Kitchen basics: 2 each plate, knife, fork, spoon ( I like company), 1 small frypan, 2 pots, one big, one small, a spatula, a big spoon, a hot pad, dishtowel, sponge, dishwashing liquid.

Bathroom basics : TP, facecloth, sponge, towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, Tylenol.

Essential clothes: 1 set grunge clothes (to clean in),

2 well-fitting, nice outfits of play/out-in-public clothes I LOVE.

Lots of underwear, maybe pjs/nightie/robe.

Odds & Ends: Makeup kit, purse, camera, smartphone, NOOK

All my medicines and a nebulizer.

I’m agonizing over the computer.  Is it basic?  Dunno.

 

*PS –  I would also have to acquire these books PDQ:

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

Ordinary people as Monks & Mystics, Marsha Sinetar

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen -  The annotated version by David M Shapard

Tao Te Ching translated by Steven Mitchell

Collected stories of O Henry

I could just cheat & be sure they are on my NOOK.

What are your BASICS?

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A Gaggle of Beach Bums

Sep 9, 2011 by MizLoo

 

We love the beach, especially when it’s nearly deserted, as it was just before Memorial Day, the week before, to be precise.

We had meh weather, but we had it nearly all to ourselves.  Yesterday was rather different.

 

 

The weather was perfect, 80 degrees, low humidity and a gentle breeze.  We weren’t the only ones who thought a day at the beach would be a good idea.

There was partial compensation for the overall crowding: the people watching was of rare vintage indeed.

 

The guy next to us – about our age – was doing his best to stay in shape.  He was didicated, persistent and strangely silent.  Not a huff, puff or sigh.  We seemed to be the only ones who even noticed.  I wonder if he reads this blog?

 

This intrepid traveler must have been planning to stay longer than we were.  Her caravanserie looks as though it can handle any beach eventuality, including an overnight stay.  I don’t travel light myself, so this made me feel better about my own chair and overloaded beach bag.

These two made me crazy – although I give them full credit for the greatseagull shot below.  About 5 years ago one of these gulls – i can’t be sure which one – snatched a chicken leg from my hand when it was on its way to my mouth.  Since that disconcerting event, I cringe when i see anyone deliberately teaching these scavengers that humans are a food source.

 

But the giulls did look pretty swooping around after the crumbs’ crumbs.

 

My favorite find of the day, however, was a woman who I’d guess has 20 or 25 years on me.  The wheelchair indicates she needed help to get to the edge of the ocean.  But the pose, the brolly, the languor and the snacks are all signs of a beach bum who really knows how to live!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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