Mom update

Nothing much has been happening with Mom this week.  She had the blood test and her potassium was good so she is going back to her normal dosage.  She's been feeling well.

When we went on Wednesday and we were in the lounge, the nurse came by and saw us in there.  She mentioned she had just been to Mom's room to clean up the roommates side of the room.  Every once and a while the nurse goes and cleans up the excess food she has because she attracts fruit flies.  The nurse had a whole bag full of stuff, fruit, pastries.  I notice when I go in she has a lot of  food on the windowsill and on the little dresser next to her bed.

Mom saves food sometimes too.  Last week, she had about 5 plastic containers.  I think they are probably from her cereal.  If she doesn't feel like eating it, she doesn't put the milk in and just saves it for later when she's hungry.   I mentioned to her she better start eating them or there's going to be no containers left in the kitchen.  Today, when I went in there there was just one.  So, I'm not sure if someone got rid of the excess ones or what happened.  

Eyesore - Friday

Thank goodness this is the last day.  This last one really isn't that bad.  It's in my husband's closet which is in the computer room.

 I could have sworn I had two containers of craft supplies.  I'll have to look around and see if there's another one somewhere else. Or else I lost my mind and just thought I had two LOL.  Anyhow, I'm hoping this will be taken care of  when ever I get around to cleaning out mom's clothes out of the dresser in the exercise/reading/craft storage room  ;-).

Then there's these.  They are encyclopedias my husband had before we were married.  We'll be married 33 years this year.  So they are ancient.  They used to be on book shelves but I needed space for other books.  They ended up in his closet.  You can tell by the amount of dust on them they've been sitting in there for a few years.   You can't even see in this picture how many there really are because they are even behind the carton with my craft supplies. For years, we got a book a year with updates for that year until we finally said enough already. This is really a dilemma because he doesn't want to get rid of them. I do.

So what do you think?  Probably a little procrastination on the craft supplies but the encyclopedias I just don't know where to put them.

Thanks for all the responses this week.  Seems like some of you think my eyesores aren't that bad.  I should have done a MckLinky to see yours LOL. 

I will look over all the suggestions over the months and figure out how to clean up the eyesores. Hopefully, in the not so distance future I will be showing after pictures. 

Eyesore - Thursday & Alphabe-Thursday

Today is Alphabe-Thursday at Jenny's, I'll give you the link at the end

My eyesore today is in the kitchen and B is the letter.

This is the cupboard in my kitchen above the microwave.  It holds a lot of stuff but mostly Baking supplies.  The weird thing about it is, I rarely Bake.  I think I keep all this stuff up there because there's no place else to put it.  I've got two rolling pins, never use.  I have a Sunbeam mixer I've had for at least 20 years which I've probably used less than a half a dozen times. Then I've got the hand mixer and if you click it Big, you'll see how dirty it is from never being used.  Plus, there's cooling racks.  Also, aluminum pans which I do use these for holidays.  Mixing Bowls which use.  My good set of steak knives.  Then a set of steak knives I bought and then didn't like.  I definitely use the measuring cups and spoons.  We use the Bacon thingie for the microwave. 

So what do you think?  I don't know if it's procrastination so much as I don't know where to put all the Baking supplies.  There's no room in my kitchen and I don't see any place in the Basement that it would fit either.  It does irritate me the way it looks right now.  Part of that is laziness on my part that it looks so messy.  Sometimes instead of getting a chair out (because I can't reach) I just kinda throw it up there and hope nothing falls on me when I open the door ;-) Please don't tell me to get rid of theBaking supplies.

For those just joining us, all week I've been showing what I consider "eyesores" in my home.  You know the place that's a mess that only you know about.  I'm trying to figure out if I'm procrastinating on these areas or if I'm just at a loss to figure out how to fix them. 

Consider going  over to Alphabe-Thursday and see what others are doing for their B word. http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2010/01/alphabe-thursday-b.html  If you have a Blog and would like to join in there's still time. For all you prize lovers, there are prizes involved. 

Waste not Want not

I read a news piece today about a book store that are closing some of their stores.  In fact, they closed the one at a mall near me not too long ago.  I used to buy books there sometimes.  Apparently, and this is something I didn't know, what ever books are unsold, the cover of the books would be torn off and the rest of the book would be thrown in a dumpster.  Sounds crazy, huh?  I guess it's too expensive to send the books back so they came up with this idea to save money. Even if they send them back to the publisher, they destroy them.  Supposedly, after a big uproar (which I never heard of) this store now says they will either recycle or donate them.  That's good if this comes to pass but from what I've read a lot of stores that also sell books do this as well.

After I read this, it reminded when I used to read the message boards (until they changed the format) on AOL.  I used to read about "dumpster diving", which again I never heard of.  People would go to different stores mostly at night because it is illegal and look in the dumpster's and take things out that were good.  It seemed weird to me but the more I read the more I realized how much different stores were throwing things away that were perfectly good.  Doesn't make sense.  Is it just too much trouble for stores to donate it or are they afraid of some kind of liability? 

One time, I had to take medication back to the pharmacy for my Mom because it was wrong.  We had just picked it up and probably came back less than a half hour with it.  I was flabbergasted when the pharmacist opened the bottle and threw out the pills and just gave me a bottle with the correct medication.  I remember after I had my chemo treatments I had a bunch of medicine left.  I hated to throw them out.  I asked if I could donate them to someone and the answer was no. How many times have you taken a medication and it didn't work out for you and you have a bunch left?   I can understand once its left the pharmacy's premises the medication can't be vouched for but it seems to me with the cost of medications there should be some way they could be donated and given to people that can't afford them. 

After thinking about this, it really makes to want to put more effort into cleaning my "eyesores" and disposing of the stuff in a good way. 

Eyesore - Wednesday

Now that I look at this one, this one definitely is procrastination.  The top of my bedroom closet.

 

There's really not that much up there.  About 6 months ago, this shelf was covered in magazines.  I must have had 10 years worth of Martha Stewart magazines; and some other magazines as well.  I always thought I was going to read them but I realized I wasn't.  I gave them to my girlfriend and she was going to donate them to someone.  Magically after she took them, this stuff appeared up there LOL.  I needed the space for the foot spa.  I've probably only used it two or three times and then when Mom was here I used it for her a few times.  Then there's her sewing basket.  One of the shoe boxes are holding old receipts, one of them holds shoes but the majority of the other boxes are empty.   We have a tendency to save boxes thinking we're going to need them for something.  Then we finally decide to throw them out and sure enough we'll need a box and won't have one.  I really don't like how this looks though. I'll have to figure out something.  What do you keep in your closets on top if you have a shelf?

So, what do you think?  Definitely procrastination, huh? 

Eyesore - Tuesday

Today we are going to take a look at my linen closet - not much linens LOL

 *On this first shelf I have photo albums.  Which I guess isn't a bad place to keep them.  I always figure if there would be a fire, I could easily get to them. But I also have a couple of containers of photo's in a closet in another room. Where do you keep your albums?  I also keep the phone books there.  How many phone books do you get?   I have 3 from AT & T and one big one from another place.  How many does a person need.  I very rarely use them.  I mostly look for phone numbers on the Internet now.

* On shelf two, I have mostly dish towels and dish clothes.  Then I have a bunch of plastic tablecloths I don't use anymore.  I should probably throw them out but maybe they could be used for drop cloths.  I also have some cloth napkins.

*On this third shelf, I have our towels.  They barely fit.  Most times I have a hard time fitting them all in.

*On the fourth shelf, is probably my biggest grief.  It's pretty much a catch all for stuff.  See that Splenda in there.  I used to drink sugar in my coffee but then I switched to Splenda.  Then I decided to drink coffee with only milk.  I still have a whole big package of it left and don't know what to do with it.  In that shoebox are extra batteries.  You see swiffer cloths there (should really go where my cleaning supplies are but there's no room).  Then you can't really see it but years ago, I asked for a Black and Decker scrubber thing to clean the bathtub.  I probably used it less than 5 times.  Also, there's the glass wizard.  It looked great and so easy on TV to clean windows.Well, it wasn't for me. Also, there's a shoebox with light bulbs, extension cords and who knows what in it.

So what do you think?  I think there is definitely some procrastination going on here.  But there are some things I'm undecided on what to do with.

**Thanks everyone for your ideas yesterday on my bathroom eyesores.  There were a lot of great ideas.** 

Eyesore - Monday

Yep, that's what I decided to call these pictures that I'm going to post this week.  It seemed appropriate. 

We all have them.  You know the places I'm talking about.  At least I hope you do when you see them and I'm not the only one LOL.  Only you and your family know about them.  My husband doesn't care about them but most times when I see them I cringe.  I think I really have to do something about that and then I don't know what to do. 

Eyesore:

Noun

Definition: thing that is unpleasant to look at

I'm going to start with my bathroom.  These are on either side of the big mirror.

*On this first shelf is a bunch of perfume.  I only use one in the white spray container.  Some are samples and one is expensive but I don't use it.  What to do with it?  Just throw it out?

*On the second shelf, do you see that English Leather?  That's probably over 10 years old.  My husband doesn't use it or the other stuff in there.  The only think that get's used is his deodorant and mine.  What to do with it?  Just throw it out?

*On the third shelf are ace bandages and other sorts of different sizes of bandaids.  Oh, and gauzes.  In the 1/2 bath I have a bunch too.  Also when I had surgery in 2004, I kept all the gauze and stuff from home health care but that's down the basement somewhere.  I always think we're going to need the stuff.  

*On shelf four, is the dental hygiene stuff.  Who needs 7 or 8 toothbrushes.  My husband's the only one that uses them.  I have an electric one but I still take the toothbrush from the hygienist.  Maybe I need to stop taking them.  There's an idea.

*On shelf five, I have a lot of lotions, body gels and fancy soap.  I find the only thing I use is the Lubriderm. Maybe I could give some of this stuff away but some of it's old.  I'm not sure if it's good.  Throw it away?

*On the first shelf, are a lot of medicated creams like Ben Gay and Cortizone cream.  I don't know how long it's been since we've needed those.  I suppose I should just check the expiration dates LOL.

*On the second shelf are mostly samples or when we went some where and stayed in a hotel.

*On the third shelf all kinds of cream for different parts of the body.  I should have the smoothest skin and feet around.

*On the fourth shelf except for the shaver all the rest could probably go.  I still have denture cleaner from Mom.

I suppose I could have my husband add another shelf to this cupboard LOL.

This is a drawer.  Now look how many medicine containers I have LOL.  What the heck do you do with something like those.  Hair brushes, mirror.  All kinds of junk.

Last one, I promise

Now, I'm definitely not getting rid of the top of the electric toothbrushes.  I have THREE paper toilet holders.  I got them for free sometime when I bought toilet paper.

You might think this looks bad or maybe not.  I know I don't like it when I look in these cupboards and drawers.. I don't think it's so much to do with procrastination as I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what to do with the stuff I take out. 

What do you think?  Give me some ideas.

That's it for probably the world's longest post.