Just spent the afternoon and evening doin'.......I can walk around my bed now, and 2 bags of trash removed from under it. Used the big old shop vac. It will **** the chrome off a Chevy.
Back to it.
do we have any psychologists on this thread? Any professional social workers? Seriously!
Bill,
I'm still rootin' for ya, but at this point I will only be putting stock in updates with pictures, period.
one other thing:
water, sewage, heat > cleaning stuff up around the bed

Nice job Bill. Be assertive and tell people to piss off. Thats a take charge attitude and signifies progress.
Get aggressive, I am pulling for you.![]()
Everyone gets on him about getting things done but then wants him to spend valuable time "daily" taking and posting pictures of his progress to satisfy themselves.
Just another small nudge, you have a few good days of weather and are going to lose a hour of daylight this weekend.
get up and get things done.
Every day's a blessing.
My best friend was diagnosed with two inoperable brain tumors (too close to the brain stem, apparently) last week. Her sisters thought she was having a stroke or something because she was suddenly having memory issues. They took her to the emergency room where an MRI was done right away after the emergency room doc gave her aspirin. When the results came back, they saw the tumors. She couldn't be scheduled for a biopsy until the aspirin was out of her system (because of possibility of bleeding). The biopsy was done yesterday. She'll be released to go to her sister's house tomorrow morning. We're waiting for the results so that a plan can be formulated to keep her as comfortable as possible for the duration. All the teachers/staff/students at school are praying. Every little bit helps. Miracles do happen.
I've been working more diligently on organizing my office and picture framing business records so my husband doesn't have to deal with it. I've let my filing and cleaning go lately while dealing with dad in hospice and apartment work. Bill's efforts have helped motivate me to get moving on these important things. I know Bill is making progress, too.
It's so easy to get trapped into thinking something can be put off until later. Since no one else knows about your "stuff", don't give others the additional burden of dealing with it when they have enough of their own stuff to deal with on top of a major loss (of you). That's my motivation now.
No one knows what the future holds.
Chris
First post in this thread... didn't read it all, just the first few and last few pages.
First of all, gotta admire this guy's bravery, fessing up on a public forum like this.
There's a very familiar pattern in there - I've seen parts of this in a lesser order of magnitude, in myself and some friends. I think I might know what's slowing your progress so much. So I'll take a shot at this.
You're juggling too many balls, and it's all too much. End result is you just sit at the computer all day, in a sort of paralyzed state of mind, not knowing where to start and feeling you have to do ten things at once, which obviously does not work. Not much gets done, it all keeps stacking up.
There's a few things you can do to work your way out of this, but you gotta set your mind to it. Only you can do it.
- Make a TODO list. Yes, that will be painful and it will look endless. Do it anyway.
- Subdivide the larger jobs into manageable portions. For example, don't list "clear up clutter on my entire lot", but tackle it one room at a time. Divide large rooms in sections, perhaps even one table/closet at a time.
- Stop running back and forth between 20 "half done" jobs. Nothing will get done, you will feel worse and worse.
- Work on one room/section at a time, until it's completely clean and finished. Yes, COMPLETELY. Stop at nothing to get it done, even moving stuff to other unfinished rooms is fair game. But do not start or work on any other jobs or projects, focus on one thing at a time. Ignore the rest completely. Then show us pics, let us admire that one squeaky clean room of yours, and encourage you to go on. Have no shame, pick the easiest one that maybe takes just a single day - it doesn't matter. You'll need that feeling of SOLID progress, to tackle the rest.
- But... never EVER move stuff to a "finished" room that doesn't belong there. Keep "finished" rooms clean at all times. Not even temporarily. No excuses. If you can't handle this rule, you might as well stop now. This will be easy at first, because you have a long list of unfinished rooms and sheds to shift stuff around to if necessary. But sooner or later this will force you to throw more and more away. So it slowly becomes harder, but at that point you will have many finished rooms, a much smaller TODO list and all of us as encouragement.
- If a job turns out too big, split it up into manageable sections.
- Whenever you feel bad about the jobs not done yet, go to a finished room and admire your work that IS done. Maybe take some more pics for us to admire. You'll feel so much better. You will no longer need camping trips to get away from the mess... you will have that much needed oasis right there at home.
- When something new comes up that needs to be done, and it's less than a day of work, drop everything else and tackle it immediately. It will feel so much better than adding it to the pile. Try what you can to stop the pile of work growing.
- Stop worrying about postponing the stuff you're not working on that day. If you weren't organizing jobs like this, it wouldn't get done either, so what's the difference? Let it go, and work on that one thing you've decided to work on today.
- STOP BUYING STUFF. Again: do not add to the pile. Dig out the tools you have, if you need them for the current job, but don't buy replacements until you've had to throw old defective tools away. Only buy tools that you don't have, and are absolutely essential to complete the essential job you're working on NOW. Not for something way down the TODO list, only for the current job. No excuses, just stop shopping, stay away from temptation, and don't worry about missing deals you didn't need anyway.
The computer:
- Don't start your day behind the computer. You WILL stay at it for way too long, even if you try not to.
- Don't leave it on when you go away to do something, turn it off and leave it alone for at least half a day. Ask yourself if it's really important to check mail/forums/anything five times a day. No it's not, nothing bad will happen if you skip even a whole day. So try it, and you'll be amazed how much you got done that day. Reward yourself with some computer time in the evening perhaps, but no earlier or it will eat up most of your day. Another day down the drain...
Well hope this helps... in the end it's about what works for you, but don't fool yourself there - you may need to be stricter with yourself than you are now. Good luck.



Been reluctant to post as progress is slower than people like, but progress is being made. I don't need kudos as I am trying to be self actualizing, but here is what's up today. I now have 7 dumpsters and they are all full and at the curb for pickup today. There's a pile of boxes of books on the front walk, ready for sorting and disposing. Same with 6 HD trash bags full of clothes to be sorted and taken to the laundry. Nothing is coming back in until it has a permanent place. The spare bedroom is 1/2 empty and the 2 metal closets in there are being used daily for her work outfits. The stairs is half full as it is the conduit for taking stuff out from upstairs. If it gets on the stairs it is immediately taken outside. I cleaned up the front vestibule and foot of the stairs so the french door to the vestibule can be closed.
All the leaves are dropping from our too many trees so she bought us a Billy Goat leaf vacuum. I've been using it and got all the leaves up twice. I rake out all the beds and then run the vacuum down the walks and roads. One more leaf fall and it should be finished for the year.
I've made a big decision on the dogs. We have one dog too many. Before any of them come back I've decided that we will let one go. I've contacted the rescue that we got one of our past dogs from and they will find her a good home. It's hard to let go, but she will have a better life with a family that has more time and attention to devote to her. It is better for her, and that is the point. I am also thinking about re-homing one of the birds. I am starting to realize that I don't have the time to enjoy them and someone else should. It will give me more time to devote to the remaining pets. It is time to simplify in all areas. Simplify and refocus.
Today I have decided to remove all the contents of the spare bedroom, with few exceptions (Dressers and closets will remain. If we haven't used items, we don't need them.
Photos when that room is cleaned out.
I hear the garbage truck coming, so time to go out a fill a few more dumpsters.
And BTW, Web's post was so right on the mark. I ate it up. I soaked it up. I am following it and referring back to it. I may print it out and post it on the bathroom mirror.