Gonna take some time off

S

Stop Laughing

New Member
As many of you know, my mother leaves for her cruise (her Christmas present) next weekend (16th and 17th). This weekend we have a downstate roadtrip, then all next week I've got a lot of work to do getting ready for her trip as well as the major cleanup. Then, while she's gone for the week, I'm basically gonna gut out the crap from the house, renting a dumpster as I have 3 whole floors to do. Anyways, the only way I can make myself do all of this is to cut off all distractions, and this is certainly one of them. Starting this Friday (roadtrip starts then), I'm gonna be cut off until May. It's gonna be hell having my computer turned off for over 2 weeks, but I think if I do it like this, I can get the job done. Just don't make a mess here while I'm gone or else whoever made the mess will have to clean my house next time.
 
Will you have room in the dumpster for the mess from here, or will he have to call Rent-A-Bin for a second one?
 
Good luck, SL. I hope your mom has the time of her life!

Does she know about the cleanup?
 
Hope your mom has a great time. As for cleaning up, i dont envy you but the job has to get done. We'll leave the lights on for ya SL. And if someone makes a mess i'll give the name to ya. :)
 
Wait a minute. We're allowed to take time off???? When did this start? I thought that lifetime servitude was in the AUP.
 
Yes, my mom already knows about the cleanup, it's technically her birthday present (saved me a lot of worries this week) since the cruise was for Christmas. Hopefully this cleanup will accomplish other things like finding those annoying little things I need every once in a while but just don't have right now (like that USB cord for the camera for example, I got some great shots from the Bulls game a couple of weeks ago I really wanna post). My mother needs this trip more than ever, she's been going through hell with work since her workload's been doubled the last couple of months, combined with dealing with her mother and her taxes today. My grandmother kept calling us everyday asking about her forms from Social Security so she could file her taxes and what phone numbers to call, etc. Well, today topped them all. She had arranged for the bus at her home to pick her up and take her to get her taxes done, but grandma in her total confusion told the bus to take her to the Social Security Office and tried to ask them there to file her taxes. :banghead: It took a 2 hour phone call to get my grandmother to understand that she didn't go to the right place, and now she's got one last shot to get it right, and there's a tax service that does it for free for seniors from her home right around the corner about a block or two away, not 20 miles away like the SS office.
 
I get a reprieve from next Sunday's holiday for all of this as well. :) Ended up having to get 2 dumpsters it was so bad, now the place looks like we're just moving in, and that's a helluva lot better than it was before. I think throwing away things like my crib (I turn 23 in a few days, gotta let it go) were a little overdue. Still much more work to do as there's basically 5 major projects I want done here ASAP. First of all, no more eating out 9 times a week, time to get a new fridge and fill with groceries, and not one so small that the freezer can't even hold a pint of ice cream like our current largest working fridge. Next is getting the back door replaced, and my cousin, who will have a free fridge for us as soon as we find a way to dump the old one, is much handier than I am and can get the measurements we need and pick out a good door for us. Then, somewhere down the line, it's time for a new oven/range, dishwasher and washer/dryer. The hardest part will be maintaining this as none of us have much in the way of housekeeping skills (this cleanup certainly proved that), and since my mother has a lot of physical problems and my brother's pulling major OT with long school and work hours, that only leaves one person: myself. If anyone out there is really good at it and wants to help, I'm certainly open to suggestions. Anyways, with all that's been going on, don't be surprised if I'm scarce around here for a while, as I still have many smaller jobs to do on the house as well as the big ones, and a lot more materials to buy as a lot of things needed to be replaced.

Whoa, anyways, my mother's cruise went well, despite having to deal with the black hole of Miami International Airport (her flight from Chicago to Miami took only 2 hours and 18 minutes, but it took more than 3 hours after landing to get to her ship), she had a huge blast, met lots of people, took 98 pictures which I'll post a link to all of them later when I get a chance, I haven't really gone through them all yet myself. She's been really tired since she got back, especially since we had a bowling banquet to attend just a couple of hours after she landed, so she hasn't really gotten a big chance to tell us all her tales from her trip, except the fact she lost $600 in the casino, at least she didn't go over her limit.
 
that's awesome, SL! Soooooooo what'd she think of the house?

a) I would cry over the crib. Yes, even after 21 years. :lloyd:
b) All I can say is get everyone in the habit of tidying a room as you leave it. That way it never gets too bad off. Just think...there is no later. Later, it'll be double the work. Or...dumpster style work again.
 
...also, this time I'm more ready for the task, last time it was like this I was still a struggling HS student whose bigger concerns were how to BS my way through my classes. We did blow her away with the house and will set up her office this weekend. It does echo too, but it's not too weird, feels like we moved. I will post her trip's pictures later tonight, but she had to have someone else take this one that was E-mailed to her: her with the stingrays at Grand Cayman.

e7f7.jpg
 
The best advice I can give you is set a celaning schedule and keep to it. Every two weeks (or whatever fits you), it's time to nail the bathrooms, dust, vac, and deep-degrunge the kitchen. Do it religiously, none of this "Oh, I'll skip it just this once" crap. You'll be amazed at how little time it eats, and it never gets that bad off.

*This, from the man who has the maid do it every two weeks*
 
That's the plan. I may change my schedule, at least for the summer, to work Saturdays rather than Mondays, that way Monday can be reserved for things that are easier to get done when the temptation of a weekend is gone, such as housework. I'm not quite ready to switch yet, but it's a consideration.

Anyways, the whole trip is now up in the photo album here! I may get captions for them later as there's a lot of pics there and I got her a little photo album to write captions for each of them and I'll copy them from there when she finishes it.
 
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