Any Sold Thing

It's no secret that I like lists. They are efficient and get right to the point. They sum things up at a glance. They keep count. They are easy to read, and even a joy to read. So here is a list of things I've sold on craigslist:

1. dining table
   
2. chairs
   
3. coffee dispenser
   
4. toilet
5. bath tub
   
6. shower doors
7. barbell and dumbbells
   
8. side tables
   
9. desk
   
10. filing cabinet
    
11. tower fan
    
12. bowls
    
13. plates
    
14. flatware
    
15. wine glasses
    
16. water glasses, mugs, water pitchers
17. table cloths
    
18. beverage tubs
    
19. area rug
    
20. bar stools
21. floor lamps
    
    
22. coffee table
    
23. book case
    
24. 2 printers
    
25. LCD monitor
    
26. bread maker
27. camera case
28. wireless mouse and keyboard
29. 2 motorcycles
    

What have you sold or bought on craigslist?

Bites of Dust

Does anyone know how these things get dusty and debris-y?

Annoying.

Clean Sweep

We are cleaning up around here. Our house has become a disaster zone. We have a toilet tank in the hallway and unexpectedly had friends come over and they didn't even ask why we had half a toilet outside our bedroom. Or maybe they didn't notice. Either way, it means we are pigs.


So we decided to clean up a bit. Sell some stuff, donate a bunch of stuff, throw away more stuff. Sure we live in the digital age but sometimes you have to toss out that digital stuff as well. Look at that pile of outdated material. My favorite is the one labeled "CD Music" (I'm tempted to write "CD" on the blank one).

Do you keep a drained toilet in your hallway? Does that lead to cleaning out your discs? And then leaving the toilet in your hallway anyway? Please tell me yes...

Clearing Up the Air

I have a dirty secret. Literally. And it involves this:

(my furnace)

I have never changed the air filter in this thing since I've lived here. I have no excuse because I have pets. And eczema.

So that's where this comes in:

I ordered a 6 pack from Amazon. Not that kind of 6 pack. Or that kind either. Although I would be happy with either. Or both!

First take out 1 filter, and put away the rest. Then cut along the top to access the filter, but don't remove the plastic case completely (you'll soon see why).

Then head to your nasty old air filter located under your furnace:

Remove the old air filter*. And brace yourself:

How gah-rows is that? Big time yuck.

This is when you finally remove the plastic sleeve off the new filter, and carefully slide it over the old one:

Mark your new filter with the date you installed it:

Now slide the clean new one where you pulled the gross old one out.

Now toss the old filter and try to forget you let that happen. And then sit back and take a deep breath.

But before you forget the horror, here's one last look at how nasty mine was. *You saw right, it said '30 Day' on the old filter (and indeed it's been a year and half since we've lived here). Are you horrified? Did we beat the world record for air filter procrastination/ignorance?

Have you any similar horrors? Obviously, I won't judge...

Grout Out

I scrubbed the grout in the powder room. It was not fun. It pretty much sucked. And I didn't see a huge difference, but enough.

Before

After

Have you done this before? If you know of a less sucky way, please let me know!

Tax Break

If you get a refund during tax season, it means you gave the government extra money throughout the year. Technically it sounds like a loan. Shouldn't we receive interest on that? At the very least, shouldn't we be able to have our taxes done for free?

Image from here

And if you owe, then you pay to get your taxes done for you (or do it yourself). I don't know about the interest part because maybe you didn't know you owe until after you did your taxes.

Come Clean

Happy New Year everyone (or at least all 3 of you who read this)! Hope you all survived and enjoyed the holidays.

Some of my resolutions are to stop wasting money. Especially if it means being a little friendlier to the planet as well (watch out here comes a list!):

1. Last week, I already got a head start with window weatherstripping.

2. I'd also like to drastically cut down on paper towel and paper napkin use with these suckers:


They are microfiber cleaning cloths. There is one for windows and mirrors, furniture, general cleaning, and stainless steel (not shown, it's dirty right now since I'm actually using them! Go me!).

I've already cut down a ton by using cloth napkins:


3. Compost more. Admittedly, sometimes I get too lazy to empty out the bucket in the kitchen, to the bin outside. I will get off my lazy butt and just do this simple task.


4. And hopefully as a result of resolutions 2 and 3, I will reach resolution 4, which is to reduce waste in general.

Less paper towels and more composting = less trash. Even though less trash won't necessarily mean less expense, it is better for the environment (we pay a monthly fee for trash removal but we opt for the cheaper and smaller trash bin). Sometimes I skip a week putting the trash bins out. And we only set out the recycle bin every other week at most, only whenever it's full (see? No recycle bin this last week. Disregard that it's an overwhelming amount of trash and remember that it's a mini trash bin!). I figure this saves some energy and emissions from the trucks, at least a little right? Like half if I put them out only half the time?

And I always recycle everything possible (motor oil, used batteries, old CFL bulbs, old paint, junk mail, water bottles). My city holds e-waste collection every once in a while, and once a month holds a hazardous waste collection. And old CFL and battery drop off bins are found at Home Depot and grocery stores.

5. Either cut down on designer coffee drinks (bf if you are reading this, hint hint - this would be ideal) or at least bring along one of these:

Those disposable coffee cups are never recycled. And are used for like a second. And don't keep the beverage hot for very long. And you'll save a tiny bit of money for bringing your own mug. And best of all, no one will have to know that you are one of those people that order a triple-grande-nonfat-double shot-two pump-soy milk-decaf-caf-venti-white chocolate-mocha-frap-no whip*.

*I'm well aware this example does not make any sense and includes 2 different milks, 2 different sizes and contradictory numbers of shots, with caffeine and beverage temperature confusion. Just focus on the point that I am making.

These should be attainable resolutions. I mean I partly do them already. Maybe this is part of a bigger resolution of sticking to things? Let's not get too deep now. Anyway, if I can partly do these few resolutions already, anyone can achieve them fully in a year right?

House Decency - part 9

It may not seem like it after cutting out old drywall and putting in a new piece but raking and general cleaning outside was a lot of work. Let me list the reasons:

1. Raking on an incline is not fun.
   
2. Raking a mostly dirt area is dusty.
   
3. The incline is full of not only dirt, but also little rocks.
   
4. Piles of leaves and little rocks can be heavy.
   
5. At the bottom of the incline is our patio. which meant it got really dirty before getting clean.
   
6. Ditto for the patio furniture.
7. It's autumn so the wind blows. Wind made plants move and therefore I got poked - make that stabbed, directly in my right eyeball by a stiff New Zealand Flax.
8. It's autumn and the leaves won't stop dropping so it's somewhat futile. And the results are really short lived.

After all that labor, we were able to start cleaning it up:


We swept the patio. Hosed off the patio furniture. Hosed down the patio. Scrubbed the cooler.



And then I scored these door mats at Target for $2.50 each (I got 1 for each set of sliding doors). They're great because not only are they dirt cheap (pun intended) but they are wider than most mats, and the boyfriend has a thing for roosters.

The front patio required very little work. Just sweeping, moving some plants around, and placing a couple chairs and moving the coffee table under here:

We decided to hang my house number sign here. It matches the coffee table and the door. And makes sense to put it in the front of the house, right?

Does it look like a lot of effort into this? Probably not.

House Decency - part 8

Next up, clean the fireplace. Why? Well it was going to be the gift mantle for the shower, my spin on the gift table. Because I don't have any more tables, or room for one. And the mantle would be dead space anyway.
So I gave it a good wipe down with soapy warm water, so it would be ready for clean little baby gifts.


I think it worked out pretty well. Where do you put gifts? How do you clean a brick fireplace?