clean my apartment

From Goodwill you came, and to Goodwill you shall return.

In my earlier post, I listed things that needed to leave my house. My list now:

-two old cell phones (recycle)-

old table lamp (Goodwill – should have brought it during the trip I did for the clothes, but it didn’t fit in the car)

-old clothes I never wear (need to create a pile and then Goodwill it)-

-books of recently published vintage (local used bookstore)-

stacks of housekeeping magazines, Real Simple, etc. (library or recycling bin – and then I have to stop buying these!)

Now, I am going to add more things:

- old books and the magazines to the bin maintained by the friends of the library

- piles of old paper that need to be shredded, which will go to a shredding business in the Big City near me that will shred a whole box for $30. I know I could just buy a shredder, but a good one can cost more than $100, and I don’t have the patience to maintain a cheap one. After this, I can fill large 9×12 envelopes with my shreddables and take them to my credit union, where they have a shredding deposit box.

I love how this list will never end, now matter how much I can cross off.

Also, apropos of nothing, I’ll just add that my washer takes about 40 minutes to wash a load of laundry. I timed this, so I can start the wash in the a.m., and load it in the dryer before leaving for work.

I hesitate calling them “chores.”

I needed to make this list, because my downstairs neighbor complains if I operate my appliances at night, but I get home so late and the mess in here is so overwhelming I don’t know what else to do after I load the dishwasher (the kitchen is only place in my apartment that is under control because I’m in there so much). Here are some ideas:

- load the laundry (so I can turn on washing machine first thing in the a.m.)
- scrub the bathtub or toilet
- wipe around the bathroom sink
- sort clothes for donation
- sort magazines for donation or recycling (or rereading - ultimately, there needs to be one landing place for magazines, so they can stop cluttering the apartment)

two old cell phones (recycle)

old table lamp (Goodwill)

old clothes I never wear (need to create a pile and then Goodwill it)

books of recently published vintage (local used bookstore)

stacks of housekeeping magazines, Real Simple, etc. (library or recycling bin - and then I have to stop buying these!)