More About Yard/Garage Sales

Three yard sales in October of 2014 helped by several friends including their husbands who could price shop equipment. One in January with my Huntsville brother and Pharis helping to pull it off. Three in February. One unsuccessful one yesterday.

Discovered that books do not sell. Discovered that clothes do not sell. Discovered that selling large items works well with a virtual yard sell, but not at all in a yard sale, especially when the Strawberry Festival is on.

Just packed up those books and brought them to Lighthouse Ministries.

Many other items that didn't sell well also went to The Goodwill. Saving receipts for 2015 taxes. 

The last items I hoped to sell just sat there in the driveway yesterday and then I moved them inside the garage. One day I may be able to park in that garage before the house sells.

Dog not for sale

Anyone need something here?

Family heirlooms were given to my husband's family.

Yesterday during the yard sale when I did not sell anything for a change, my out-of-town brother-in-law Danny, married to my husband's sister,  came by for four framed paintings by his wife and one stitched family tree created by my husband's mother. They understood that it is time these get passed on to their grandchildren or kept by them.

While Danny and I  were standing in the front yard, two students I have substituted for came by and Danny heard me rap for them. Danny also highly complimented me for being an angel taking care of my late husband who had Alzheimer's. Yes it was a tough job, tougher than downsizing and getting ready to sell and move.

Happy I could go to the Strawberry Festival on Thursday and enjoy large, juicy strawberries on a stick dipped in chocolate. The high schoolers working in that booth recognized me and I rapped for their kin working in the booth.

Dale Carnegie once said:

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.

So many little jobs in moving. I am excited about moving closer to my family in Huntsville, Alabama, renting an apartment and having a landlord take care of things. I am excited about living more simply and enjoying my good health (so far) in my senior years and then having less distractions so I can work on my dissertation.

However, my house has to sell first. 

Reflections on Peter Walsh's New Book

I am in the process of selling my house and also I am dieting with Weight Watchers. Peter Walsh points out that dieting and decluttering all go together in his book released this past week. Amazon got it to me on the release date, February 24th, and I have been enthusiastically reading it during planning periods while I substitute teach.

Peter also adds a third element to decluttering and eating and exercising--mindfulness. And so he launches a plan to work on all three. In this very thoughtful and might I add organized book, he takes twenty-two volunteers on a six-week program. 

From 9/14/12

My Decluttering

But decluttering has taken/is taking me much longer than six weeks.  Walsh uses a room-by-room approach to decluttering as I did when I went through Mindy Starns Clark's book, The House That Cleans Itself.  15 people got Mindy's book that she mailed me beginning HERE IN 2012.* Those of you who have been following my blog saw me prioritize areas to work on, Alzheimer's proofing the house as I went. Along the way I did get help from Pharis for the outside of the property #9. The last two areas, I never got to--the garage #11 and the workshop #10 as my caregiving days became more difficult and even house maintenance took a back seat to caregiving, a sad fact that I have had to remedy in recent days.  My Huntsville brother and Pharis were the ones to clean out Areas #10 and #11 and give me new purposes for those rooms--the garage has hosted three garage sales in 2015 and the emptied workshop is now the staging area for my move to Huntsville, Alabama (Rocket City) as the above banner suggests. The whole project has become a downsizing with rooms changing and furniture leaving the house as I have been chronicling recently.

My Dieting and Exercising

I started back to Weight Watchers at the end of 2011 as reported HERE. In 2012 I lost 25 pounds and I kept off 15 of it as the caregiving proceeded. Who knows! I might have gained all 25 pounds back! As I reported in that first Weight Watcher post, I chose 7 am Saturday as my meeting time. Spring of 2012 also saw a respite cruise paid for by family and on that cruise I maintained my weight. During the last years of caregiving, I chose caregiving above dieting, realizing that I was called to be there for my husband above all while also having to work to make ends meet. My husband did not want me walking outside and so I did get a treadmill that is going with me when I move and that treadmill might have helped my stress level. I might add that Peter says you don't need a treadmill, but because Huntsville is a colder climate, I might not be able to walk outside in the Winter. 

After my husband died, I went back to that 7 am Saturday morning meeting. Weight Watchers has been for me a great social and inspirational time. Why I even checked out Weight Watchers in Huntsville, Alabama last December.  This morning my total weight loss since 2011 is 31.2 pounds. Here I am today with my Lakeland, Florida leader. I looked all over this computer and my Notebook computer and could not find my "before" picture, but people are starting to notice the change. My weight loss is helping me decide  what clothes to keep as I downsize. 

In Walsh's book, he does not plug Weight Watchers, but I certainly want to and studies have showed that Weight Watchers is the best diet program around. 

Mindfulness

This area of the soul, the self, for me incorporates my Christian belief and I have been meditating on Scripture regularly. In fact, with a clue from Georgene who has often commented on this blog, I started typing up numerous Scripture passages to meditate on and apply. 

In my caregiving and in my widowhood, Scripture is precious to me--it sustains my days and nights. I also was helped by Staci Eastin's book The Organized Heart, a book that helps us Christian believers be mindful. See HERE and also HERE where I reviewed it. 

So you can see I totally resonated with Lose the CLUTTER, Lose the WEIGHT--with all three of the author's main points, plus learned so much more. 

New Insights from Peter Walsh

Before Alzheimer's came into the picture seven years ago (by my estimation), my husband worked, I would watch Peter Walsh on the Home and Garden Network's "Clean Sweep" in the summers before retirement when I taught in public school. (Those were the days I watched TV before my husband sort of took over the big TV.)  Peter would produce episodes like this one he has pictured on his LIKE* page in his native Australia. 

Already a fan from back then, I enjoyed these gems from his book this week:

• Somehow, at some point, you became too large for your comfort.
• Given the environment we live in . . .  How can your body and home not get to this point?
• If the stuff you own is not helping you create the life you want, then let it go. My main job in Huntsville is to write that counseling dissertation on dementia caregiving. I do not need stuff. 
• Pitfall #1: Not seeing enough improvement. Oh yes. I can come home and be upset. Yet I look around and it looks so much different than it does before I decided to sell and move. 
• Pitfall #2: Lack of time. Walsh suggests you schedule tasks like you would any other appointment. I know that perfection is gone, but today I will pack-up my books which are not selling and donate them.
• Pitfall #3: Resistance from family. Had my husband still been living, I would have had to leave things the way he was used to. But since his death, my Huntsville brother spent time here in January to help me get repair projects underway and to clean out areas #10 and #11 of my home as I mentioned above.
• Pitfall #4: Isolation. Weight Watchers is such a great group of friends. They cheer you on and understand when you blow it. I do not feel alone. Also, I have learned to ask for help. 
• Task 1: DEVELOP A VISION FOR WHAT YOU WANT FROM YOUR KITCHEN. 
• Task 2: SEPARATE THE "BENIGN" FROM THE "MALIGNANT" ITEMS. Malignant items are defined as any items that make you feel guilty, sad, nostalgic or angry. 
• Task 3: CLEAN OUT YOUR FRIDGE AND FREEZER. 
• Task 4: CLEAN OUT YOUR PANTRY. 
• Task 5: CLEAR OFF ALL HORIZONTAL SURFACES.    

There are 11 tasks in all,  and this chapter ends with physical activities. The book continues with the bedroom, bedroom closet and the bathroom. 

Then Peter Walsh goes into meddling with my desk and finances. He suggests zones. Zone 1 should be the area by your desk. That has me thinking about getting rid of my four-drawer file cabinet and just keeping selected filing arrangements. Zone 2 represents material that one uses infrequently. I am going to label Zone 2 boxes for my move, put them in the workshop move staging area, and keep Zone 1 material available. The author tells you to back up your computer files. I have already been trying to change my email because I am moving from the Tampa area and cannot have a Tampa Road Runner email. I do like what he says about maintaining your changes and will perhaps discuss this in another blog post or when I move to Rocket City (Huntsville, Alabama). 

So this week I am all into Peter Walsh insights. Shoo away your extra shoes, he says. Yesterday I brought a dozen or more pair of shoes to put here by the music room in the school where I substituted. 

_______________________________________

Today we have rain today in Plant City, so I canceled my 7th garage/yard sale and am just working on my downsizing and putting the house on the market today. Besides, the 80th Annual Plant City Strawberry Festival is on and that is the focus in our area now. 

My deadline for having the house go on the market is March 9th and I have to get back to making my rooms look spacious, downsizing and packing. Might try to get to the festival sometime next week with friends from last fall's cruise I invited. Probably will put books into the car to donate when it stops raining, because books have not sold well in my garage sales. 

Carol

* One of my blogger friends (also a caregiver whom I interviewed) suggested I form a "The House That Cleans Itself" group on Facebook; that group is not as active as is the Plant City and Friends FB "LIKE" page that I regularly post on and which has 74 members. I am also following Peter Walsh's FB "LIKE" page now and we have messaged each other. His next book, I believe, is on downsizing for seniors or for your parents who are seniors needing to go to a nursing home.

Hubby Still Here and the LORD Is Already There

Thursday I prepared my husband for a date on Friday, even though he didn't realize it. I said, "Let's go out to dinner after you shower and shave." He did that. Behavior modification here. It seems one day is the same as the next day to him and even though 'shave" is on his list it doesn't always happen after I leave the house. We just went to Denny's Thursday night but then we checked out the Strawberry Festival and places to pick up a relative who was working for "Casting Crowns", a musical group playing Friday night at the festival.

Sure enough, when I came home Friday afternoon hubby had forgotten about going to the Strawberry Festival noted on his daily schedule, but he didn't have a bad beard and so was ready to go. Like clock work we picked up the relative and took him to an early dinner at Buddy Freddy's, a Plant City landmark near the Strawberry Festival grounds.

Niece's husband and myself in a cowboy hat

Boxes of strawberries picked from the fields in background

I am not sure that our cowboy hats impressed my relative, but we did have time to give him a tour of Plant City, including our home, strawberry fields, and the down town area.

Then the three of us went to the Strawberry Festival. Our relative went to set up for the concert and I went to the exhibits after my husband settled in at a warm booth with his strawberry short cake.

Amazing puzzle in exhitit

Before Alzheimer's, hubby had been able to walk around with me at the Strawberry Festival . This year he sat and had strawberry short cake while I had a little bit of time to check out exhibits. I am so over buying anything anymore and "The House That Cleans Itself" is not finished yet. Why would I want to put anything more in our home!

I  did enjoy seeing  Lakeland's Fabric Warehouse exhibit. I should explain that I am making quilts and my introduction to Fabric Warehouse several years ago at their Strawberry Festival exhibit had bumped up my ability to make quilts with a new sewing machine and with their ideas. I also liked seeing FFA (Future Farmers of America) school exhibits and since I substitute often in Agriculture I can talk about their exhibits. The school I wrote about recently won first place for their exhibit.

When I had a chance last week while substitute teaching, I re-read a helpful book, knowing that I would test out its ideas at the concert last night--that is if I could actually get my husband to the concert. It appeared touch and go. I kept checking back with him while he sat with his coffee and strawberry short cake. It was a little chilly and he thought maybe we should go home instead. I encouraged him that we came to see the 7:30 pm concert.

About 7 pm we headed for our seats. The Queen of the Strawberry Festival with her court came on stage to greet the audience and told the audience to enjoy the "worship" experience. Yes, "Casting Crowns" is a Christian group and yes, my husband, I could tell, was able to worship. Me too, after a long week or working. I wanted to know about live music and my husband's abilities to enjoy a concert, even if later he wouldn't remember it. Sure enough we had great seats near the front and were able to enjoy the concert. My husband was throughly engaged in the concert, swaying to the music and even standing to enjoy the event at times. He was warm enough (we both had hats on and a blanket for our laps). Dr. Zeisel in I'm Still Here emphasizes that the dramatic arts including older movies are so good for Alzheimer's patients.

My husband is still here!  

Also so moving to me was the messages in the songs and one song especially that

the LORD is already there

He knows the end of this Alzheimer's journey. Thank you, Casting Crowns, for a wonderful concert.



Picking Strawberries Is a Tradition

It's strawberry picking time in Plant City area.  Soon the area will be abuzz with the Florida Strawberry Festival February 28 to March 10. See here.

Field across from Turkey Creek Middle

I saw this strawberry spirit first hand when I substituted in Agriculture at Turkey Creek Middle School on Valentine's Day, where, of course, there is a large strawberry field. The students planted strawberries in October and now they are ready for harvest. Two schools are next door to each other. J. S. Robinson kindergartners escorted by teachers and chaperones walked next door to pick strawberries in the middle school's strawberry field with the FFA (Future Farmers of America) middle school students on Valentine's Day.


The FFA Produce Stand where kindergartners gathered


The middle school students had already started picking strawberries, but soon paired up with the kindergarten students.

Kindergarten teacher Ms. Stevens



Chaperone Shirley Culpepper
  

Shirley Culpepper grew up in the area and remembers this fine tradition of picking strawberries when she was a child. 

For the young guests

At the end of first period it started to rain and we brought all the students back to the AG building which has two classrooms with a bathroom in between. Rain didn't stop the fun, because Turkey Creek AG teacher Ms. Sparkman had a plan. In one room the kindergarten classes watched the movie "Jammer the Strawberry"  (http://flastraberry.com/education/fammer-videos/ ) and enjoyed coloring books from The Florida Strawberry Growers Association. Funds from the produce stand also purchased cookies and drinks for the kindergartners. 

All in all a good time was had by all including this substitute
who enjoyed strawberries and other fresh vegetables. 

New Updated Edition of The House That Cleans Itself

The updated version The House That Cleans Itself by Mindy Starns Clark came Wednesday. That first version has sold over 100,000 copies. Wednesday I sat down on the deck to read the updated version, enjoying nutritious Plant City strawberries, a small avocado and a few almonds. Double treat of food and book The additional subtitle of the updated edition  is "8 Steps to Keep Your Home Twice as Neat in Half the Time". You can order that book from Amazon at the lower right of this blog.

The first thing I was curious about was the donut tray. Did she have it in the second book? Yes she does.



p.  184 in first edition vs. p. 52 in new version



My  Leaning Two-Step Sorting System

I thought about the difference in the 2007 and 2013 editions. In six years the author has been living this book and writing novels. That jelly rack or donut rack holds her research. It's probably more sturdy than my Office Depot file that helps me with the two-step sorting. My drawers pictured include Pending, Correspondence, Receipts, Health, Toastmasters and Taxes. It is so wonderful to now have all my tax information together. These are not projects, but broad category sorting that the author recommends. The white top box includes my daily mail that I sort through once a week and were it not for the paper clutter in Area #7 I am fairly paper clutter free now. However, I do not want a donut rack in my home. It is not pretty. But I do have projects to finish and Area #7 (the guest bedroom disaster area I blogged about earlier this week) can help house projects. What Mrs. Clark's donut or jelly stand translates for me is horizontal places for projects. I do have horizontal spaces in Area #7 on a wall rack that can house sewing and other crafts including photo albums. She suggests:

Create a project area in a different room where anything left unfinished after one sitting will be left alone until I can get back to it. (p. 52)

The updated book does seem to ease up on some suggestions in favor of concepts. Her COVERT
system takes a backseat (chapter 20) to her emphasis on 8 steps in chapters 4-11.  The 8 steps are:

1. Become a detective. She asks you to try to be detached, analyze the evidence of the problem, figure out the reason, and figure out the root cause. I saw evidence that I had tried a system, that it had gotten out of hand and I couldn't maintain it with all going on in my life, including adjusting to my husband's Alzheimer's.
2. Change the house to fit the behavior. This point was emphasized in the first edition that I wrote about earlier on this blog. (See labels for The House That Cleans Itself on this blog to read about what I have done beginning last fall.)



Stained rug

3. Create a first impression of clean. She covers sight zones, but also adds the concept of "inevitable invisibles"which she defines as

   those things that contribute to an overall feeling of disorder or disrepair--staines, tears, rust, grayed edges and nicks--but that you rarely notice because you've been living with them so long that they have become invisible to you. (p. 62)

   An example of one is our rugs which were professionally cleaned, but moisture deep down eventually came to the surface so the surface of the rug was no longer clean. We have our own expensive carpet cleaner in for repair. I will get a lesson in how to operate it when I pick it up, since my husband no longer cleans our carpets as he once did.
4. Think like a hotel. The author covers stations, up and away, and barnacling (the tendency to pile stuff on horizontal surfaces) so you can't easily dust.
5. Aim for simplicity. She again asks these three questions about stuff::

   1) Is this item worth my time?

   2) Does what I get from this item provide a fair trade-off considering the time I'll have to spend cleaning and storing it?

   3) Do I want to spend another second in the future fooling with it, or do I want to get rid of it now so it will no longer cost me a single moment of time? (p. 99 in the 2007 edition and p. 81 in the 2013 edition)



BEFORE picture shows my good potential,
but just collection of projects to go through
 and not any active projects.

6. Explore the "why". You have to discover why you are housekeeping impaired. Mrs. Clark discusses several senarios, or whys. I am thinking through the evidence in the above photo that point to poor housekeeping.  
7. Make it a team effort. I must admit that I have a hard time with this one because hubby does very little now and I do not have troops to rally. Perhaps I will step up and ask for volunteers especially in the yard, garage and workshop.
8. Put God at the center. She quotes Proverbs 16: 3 which says,
   

   Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

Certainly the LORD has been helping my efforts as I go through this house, and the discipline of prayer and Bible study is so important to me. I want God to be at the center of my efforts each and every day. I know He is guiding my caregiving of my husband and I know people are praying for us.

My husband's memory is slowly leaving his mind and I realize that I need to make photo albums soon before I finish Area #7, the guest bedroom. Lots of photos are in that room and I set up the same table that was in Area #4 as a project place now. Usually I would do a project in the den or on the dining room table, but now I have a project place picking up on Mrs. Clark's suggestions. I am now trying to get a photo album of some sort done for my husband by Valentines Day. It is the green drop down one at the right pictured below--much easier than a Creative Memories album, and it will fit nicely on his new DVD coffee table.

Station for creating photo albums

Love having this place to work that is not in the sight zone. When we have overnight company, it will be changed.

The updated book emphasies label makers. I have an Electronic Dymo Labelmaker and am ordering Dymo tape for it so I will be able to mark containers in the home.

This 2013 edition  of the book also has a glossary of terms and a chapter on yard sales. It was so much fun to read this book and gain new concepts about my housekeeping and de-cluttering efforts.

Carol