January Cure 2025 - Tasks & Discussion

I have kind of caught up with task 2 after starting late. I have daily and weekly committed to paper but the additional tasks will have to be kind of a monthly "To-Do" list.

Before bed tonight I will manage a sweep of the kitchen. I still don't have dedicated spaces for some things. I am trying to figure out how to effectively use the cupboard over the fridge. It is deep, high and has a security monitor blocking the doors.

Task 4 is truly going to be ongoing for me. When I moved in here at the end of Sept, my sons helped me stack all the boxes into the main bedroom. By the beginning of Dec, I had managed to move my bed into that room and set up a guest room. Now my decluttering project is to set up my bedroom as I want it. I check the second hand stores for a dresser regularly. I will know it when i I see it.

glad you are safe. I was just searching the news for info. Worried about someone from my past.

What I like about this challenge is that it shows me that just taking a small step to get started often unleashes the motivation to keep going. I meant to do the one room declutter/wipe down and I ended up deep cleaning the entire kitchen for the afternoon. My husband asked, “where did all this energy come from??” It just snowballed from the January Cure! Need to remember that for other things I’m putting off (my desk!) maybe just committing to one small step will break through the procrastination.

Day 4: I picked our hall cupboard which holds all sorts, from towels and toilet paper to cleaning chemicals, Christmas decorations, a travel bird cage and spare toothbrushes. It is such a relief to have tidied shelves in there. In particular the creams and home maintenance supplies were especially muddled and confusing. Some things I did have to just put back in the cupboard because I ran out of time, but at least it's categorised and therefore will be easier to sort through when I'm able.

Yesterday I was happy that I got the kitchen counters decluttered and cleaned and put a new toaster out. It looks great!

But then I went out for an appointment and to pick up my grandson at the bus stop. Oh no!! I fell on the ice, ended up in urgent care, and have a fracture in my lower leg. I’m so sad, my January Cure may be a March or April Cure.

It's so hard to step away from the coverage of the fires. A pretty reliable source posted that my childhood home in Altadena is gone. (No family there anymore). I feel oddly like that closed the book … still concerned about friends, though. BTW once we still had our Xmas tree up in April. We snuck it out of our building in the middle of the night. The next day other tenants were really confused by all the pine needles in the hall. (We were very young).

Today ended up being a total waste. My mom called to have me take her to the hospital for an x-ray after a fall a few days ago. Today was one of the worst days to go there. X-ray was done by 1pm, but it was an 8 hour wait to speak to a doctor for results.

i I knew there would be days like this, but at least i got my clothes through the wash this morning.

checking in: so far I have only completed Day 1.

Day 2: I put a few regular chores on my calendar so I would at least see them on the days I intended to do them. I can more or less stick to the schedule that way, and be aware of the things that didn't get done on time. I did this about six months ago though, so to actually do the Cure assignment, I will be re-assessing and adjusting as needed. I'd also like to find a free resource online for task scheduling that I can make work for me.

Day 3: I sort of did this yesterday morning, but in a very scattered way. I was just leaning into the ADHD and flitting from room to room moving objects around and putting things away. So all my rooms are about 80% "done", just have to get that last 20% (story of my life).

Day 4: I can't even decide which room to go all-in on. But I put on my weekend list to "finish" the living room.

Weekend: I'm going to clear out a cabinet in my garage where I store tools, paint, and miscellaneous and try to make room for the random things that are scattered about the rest of the garage. Then I've got a bunch of stuff to give away on my Buy Nothing group.

I've got nearly 50 years of accumulated stuff to go through so I'm finding it hard to get through these. How do you put stuff away when so much has no logical home?!

But I picked the "sitting room" ( a front room that's not the living room) and removed 2 bins that were sitting there taking up floor space. One of them had all the stuff that was on our old fridge and I've already gotten rid of several items—but not before I did a min-dust and a floor vacuum. Makes me smile when I look in that room now!

Going through the 2 bins might take some time, but I'll get through it. And I can always move some of the stuff to my "maybe" bin if I'm not ready to say goodbye to it.

Did day 4 & 5 on the weekend

Day 4: picked a utilities closet that also has my washer inside and that I also use to store items that need to be recycled (paper, bottles, etc). Put a lot of items where they actually belong and cleaned the shelves. Looks better now.

Day 5: I cleaned my oven. Enough said. Probably the task I hate most. Now when I look at the clean oven I never want to cook/bake anything there anymore so it will stay clean. lol

My mom is okay. I have to get used to this. She tends to build things up in her mind. At Christmas she spent a night in hospital for something that wasn't needed. She fell just before the new year and was sent for an x-ray due to her age. I should have already taken her to ER, but didn't think of it. Now i I have to figure out how to get a medical alert set up in case she falls again. I live only 5 minutes from her.

Update: I cleared out the cabinet in the garage. Threw away a lot. Designated a lot for the Buy Nothing group which is gradually being picked up by various members. Managed to create enough space to tidy away a few things that needed a place. There are still a few more things that need places, but the garage is relatively under control at this time.
I also dusted the cobwebs throughout the house. I'll see if I can mark anything else off my list before the end of the day, but "reading" and "resting" are also on the list.

Relax.

My word for Day 6 is CONSISTENCY! If I do this stuff every single day consistently, it will not take much time and the results will be great. But I know if I slack off or do it inconsistently, nope nope nope.

My word is also "comfortable".

I used day 5 to catch up and to refine my task list a bit. I starred the tasks that are easy wins, ones that I can do in just a few minutes, like clean a toilet or get the shower curtains in the wash. Today I'm going to get through as many of these as I can.