Closet is purged...ideas to make the remaining stuff look organized? l
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Possible to be TOO organized?
Comments (19)There is much written these days about mental exercise. That sounds to me like "blaming the victim." We don't blame cancer patients for getting cancer (well, maybe lung cancer in smokers, and even that is wrong), yet we tend to think that people with mental disorders or dementia have it because they are not stimulating themselves enough - do crossword puzzles, join a club! If that were the case, my mother would not be suffering from it right now. She is a brilliant woman who had a career she loved. Around 80 she became forgetful and now suffers from severe short-term memory loss, but there is not one historical fact that has escaped her memory. That she cannot remember current events is certainly not her fault....she doesn't even realize she doesn't remember them. I think your MIL can be compulsively organized and still not keep anything clean. I also think that if one suffers from dementia (does your MIL have a diagnosis?) that letting her keep her routines is enormously important, no matter what else happens in her life. It is not lack of mental stimulation that causes dementia, it is dementia that causes the inability to be mentally stimulated. One can be bored silly but not have dementia. Your MIL's ability to remain independent in her own apartment depends upon sameness and routine. Personality doesn't usually change with dementia. Your MIL has apparently always had social issues and still does. Don't blame her for not being mentally stimulated. If she suffers from dementia, she cannot help it. It is heartbreaking to see a parent go through this. All I can suggest to you is try to keep loving her, helping her, being kind to her. Her doctor may suggest a gerontologist and meds to help. The longer she can remain independent, the better for all of you. If that means she lives a life of sameness, so be it. It sounds like she has always lived this way, anyway. Sherry...See MoreHelp! I have 5 weeks to get my house clean and organized.
Comments (42)t-bird, surgery is 1/31. On the list: Everything! (But we've painted most of what has to be painted, so my job, unlike yours, is just getting rid of stuff and cleaning every surface, like an old-fashioned spring cleaning.) We're empty-nesters so there are no kids' rooms to clean or kids to give attention and time to. Kitchen is about 90% done, foyer (only a little coat closet and some tile and the front door) is done. Workout room was just painted and is finished except for the closet, which is full of old political-campaign paraphernalia I need to box up or get rid of, and I don't really care much if I get to that or not. Downstairs too is my office, which is a sea of papers, and a TV room and guest bath. Upstairs I have the LR, dining area, and MB, along with 1 1/2 baths. So I may be able to get all of this done. I move very slowly because of my knee, so it takes a while. I'm not going to stress about it; whatever I get done will be better than what it was before I started. Storage area in basement and garage will probably wait until later. I'll join you in a 2012 cleanup project. Mine will be to finish up whatever I haven't done, if anything, before I go to the hospital, and then to keep things in order. I'm the messy one and DH is very neat. Good luck to both of us, t-bird. And may we enjoy the process!...See MoreSlowly I organized ... inch by inch, step by step
Comments (48)Hooray for empty cabinets! I've got some empty space now as well. So strange and wonderful. Ended up with commercially made metal wall shelves in the garage and the spacing didn't work out for a rack over the freezer but at least there are a couple of bins on top rather than things that could fall behind. If something can fall behind it will and if you make a stack it will fall over so I avoid them at all cost. I am not happy that the space between dryer and freezer is unassigned, someday inspiration will strike. My garage is done. Had a great time making hangers from scrap wood for that big stuff that won't fit on shelving. Best was solving 2 issues at once. Needed a way to store garden tools and had a wood box without a job. It was originally for computer boards, about 8" square in cross section and about 30" long. I turned it on its side and cut slots through what used to be the sides to hang long handled tools. A slot cut through one side now top holds the loppers upside down and I used scrap hardboard to make dividers that conveniently slid into the board slots. That helps support the tools and made some little spaces for my gardening shoes, pruners and gloves. Used a couple of shelf supports without a job to hang it on the wall....See MoreStuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff!
Comments (61)"Just wait until you have to pack up all that crap and move it." My SIL just bought a retirement home so they are decluttering their current house as a preparation for selling it--she keeps telling me she can't believe how much STUFF she's got to get rid of. When I go to their house I always admire how it looks nicely organized and without extraneous things all over. However, I also admire her tons of closets and storage space which she says leads to keeping, you guessed it, all that stuff LOL. I've decided I will play a mental game this summer and pretend we have to move; maybe that will be my motivation to get rid of much unnecessary and unused stuff in our house! I use the holidays and shopping for gifts to satisfy any yen I may have to be a retail hunter/gatherer. The past few years I increasingly feel as if I am gorging myself after staying on a careful and healthy diet; by the time January comes I feel so psychically bloated from all the shopping /buying that I need another year to rest up and recover! It's interesting to me to watch my young adult daughter who is setting up her first home. She loveslovesloves Home Goods, Marshalls, Pier 1 etc. And when I go with her I usually find stuff I could easily buy. I have a rule that I can't take anything from those places home the day I see it. That usually short circuits the purchase, I'm rarely motivated enough to fight the traffic and crowds to go back a second time!...See MoreK R
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