Week 3

 The area between the display case and the trunk was done early this week as it truly was mostly dusting and vacuuming. On Saturday I dusted and vacuumed the rocking chair that is a little homeless right now because of Dash's recliner being in the living room. Once the library has a clear space for the reading nook, the recliner will be relocated there and my rocking chair can have its spot back in the living room. I moved Trixie's art supplies to a spot under the bed in the den. I didn't sort or organize, just relocated. I put her ukulele and music stand in the den closet and the basket full of folders and music I put in her room. I'll let her sort that stuff and then we can come up with a suitable storage solution. The inside of the trunk wasn't as full as I thought. I did pull out the broken rocking chair. I'll check with my parents to see if they have any idea how to fix or if they know of someone who could. The blankets from my great grandma and grandma are in there along with four pair of pointe shoes, two pairs of tap shoes, a pair of jazz shoes and a pair of ballet slippers. I kept the point shoes and my tap shoes. I'll see if I can donate the others. I also found the Columbus Dispatch newspaper from when Doc ran in the Columbus Marathon. I'll keep that. I also found the 150 -year anniversary edition of the Lansing State Journal from 2005. I don't think I ever read it. Not sure if I even need to keep it. I'll try to read through it to see if it's worth keeping. With the chair out of there, I found plastic zippered bags, probably from new mattress pads, that I was able to stuff with the stuffed animals Cards left when he moved. Fortunately, I had a really large bag to stuff his giant Chewbacca into. Everything else fit in three smaller bags. I've now gained a laundry basket that held his stuffed animals. I could see him saving some of them. Oh well! They aren't taking up a huge amount of space now. 

The couch is the next item to tackle. It's faux leather that has been flaking for years. My mom custom made a cover for it. But little black flakes surround the couch every time I vacuum. It is so going in the trash if we have to move. Not sure how long we'll keep it if we don't move. The goal, if a move becomes a reality, is to take as little as possible and get new stuff at the new place. I'll hold out on the living room furniture as long as possible, I guess. Washing the cover, blankets and pillows, and probably dog beds will be easy to do. Moving the couch around to vacuum underneath will be a huge pain. Maybe if I can figure out how to unhook the two sections it would be easier. Just afraid I won't be able to get them rehooked. A little dusting of the wall behind the couch, the vent, a picture and the lamp that I cracked this week while vacuuming. Oh, and the cube....I'll wash that cover, too. That was Brownie's favorite spot when it was in front of the window. When I cleaned the windows a few weeks ago, it was a little sad as there was no doggie nose prints anymore. I think there is only a blanket in the cube. Maybe that would be a good spot for Trixie's musical stuff. I think I will shampoo just the main walk way between the couch and the half wall. I'll save a full shampoo job for when the couch is gone.

This week I spent two days in the Plan-a-Palooza workshop learning how to do an annual plan. It was very neat. We did some homework before the workshop looking back at 2022 and looking forward to 2023. I had a hard time with my word of the year. I reached out to the Facebook group and those ladies were so helpful. My word this year is Reclaim. I'm going to reclaim my home from the dust and clutter that has plagued it the whole time we've lived here. If I can focus on this Mt. Vernon project in the coming year, although I've already started, I feel like, not only will I be ready in the event of a move, but all those annoying things I've put off forever will either get done or deemed totally unworthy of another minute of thought and taken off my list forever or will be scheduled to be done with a plan of action thanks to what I'm learning in the TOP program. I missed the bit of the workshop describing how to put our "want-to's" into our annual plan. The replays are available so I will work on that this week. I also had some other "want-to's" I want to work on for 2023. Fortunately, I still have a few months left of 2022 to work out the plan. I wish I could join the PAP23 membership. That includes the quarterly planning sessions. That's the puzzle piece I'm missing now. I'll just have to take what I know about annual, monthly and weekly planning and try to piece the quarterly plan together myself. The membership was quite pricey, like more than the TOP program itself. I'll just have to see where I can squeeze a few dollars from the budget which is getting harder to do. I'll save what I can and take advantage of the things I can afford. 

Anyway, I'm very excited that it's possible that I can complete my Mt. Vernon project with the planning tools I have available. In the workshop I did write out some milestones as to when I wanted to have rooms complete. The first being the living room being done in October. With what I have left to do is very doable. My office and library will be the biggest projects by far. If I can get some of the other rooms done quicker than I currently have scheduled, that will leave more time for the big ones and I'll still hopefully reach my goal of September for the whole house. I have thought of working on some of the boxes of papers and things in the office now just so I don't get bogged down when I get to this room. Maybe start going to the library to sort and read paperwork each week. Our library is going to be crazy. The books can certainly be organized. This year the goal was to read the books on the first bookcase. I'm on the bottom shelf of mostly picture books. I've boxed up my keepers. Need another box! (And a place for these storage boxes???) I have a small pile of books to rehome. My 2023 reading goal was to pick books from my recommendation list requiring check-outs from the library instead of just reading books we already have. Maybe save weekends for picture books that I can box up making room for what is primarily Trixie's collection of books. Decluttering of books may extend beyond 2023, way beyond. Neatly shelving might be the best I can do for 2023.