. I'm a compulsive list maker. I have a notebook where I write my daily to-do list of things, both work-related and personal.
For years, I kept WEEKLY to-do lists, but when my mother became ill last year I was so overwhelmed with things to do and remember that I started keeping a DAILY to-do list. It really helped keep me on track and not forget important things.
The sense of urgency in needing to do that isn't so bad now, but I chose to continue the daily lists because it really keeps me organized and on top of things.
I will cross items off the list when I do them, and when I do everything on the list, I mark a big "X" across the page. Once I complete the to-do list on the other side of that page (for another date), I rip it out and toss it, but if there are items left undone on any to-do list, I keep that page in the notebook until it's done.
So I had about a half dozen pages in my notebook containing one item that was undone, from months ago. There are certain chores, I guess, I just don't feel like doing. But these undone chores were from an older notebook, and I've already moved on to a new notebook with new dates, and I disliked having these last remaining chores.
I finally took care of 3 of them this morning, and a few were so simple you're going to laugh:
1. Put basement key on key chain. Um, yeah, this sounds simple enough. I wanted to make sure that if anything happened to my front door key (like it breaking in the door...it's pretty old), I would have another way of getting in the house.
So I wanted to put my 2 basement lock keys on the keychain as well. But first I had to find them in the jar I keep with extra keys. I had a key for one lock, but not the other. Anyway, I did find them, labeled them and now they're on my keychain. Phew.
2. Put up 3rd shade in dining room. I saved my mother's handmade window shades from her condo. She put so much work into them and I always liked the way they looked. Some time ago i managed to put 2 shades up, one in my front facing living room window and the other in the front facing dining room window. I wanted to put a 2nd shade up in the dining room but it requires a bit of attention since my mother's windows were much, much wider than mine, and not as deep.
So I had to actually carefully cut the wood bar holding 2 shades in half. (She stapled velcro tabs to the wood bar and attached the shades to the bar in that fashion. Thus I can launder the shades if they get soiled. She also created an ingenious pulley system to raise and lower the shades.) After a bit of action with my cordless drill, it was done. SO happy. The room looks better and I didn't like storing the unhung shades (there are still 3) in the basement becus eventually they'll get mildewy or something. The attic isn't great for the same reason so not sure where to store the remaining shades. Have to think about where else to hang them.
3. Some time ago, the Bluetooth in my car suddenly stopped working. Actually, the system told me there was no longer any phone connected to it, so I must have pushed the wrong button at some point.
I thought I vaguely remembered the dealer saying you have to pay to subscribe to Bluetooth after an initial free period, but aside from one feeble attempt, I couldn't get the Bluetooth working again. I called the dealer and they said no, there's no subscription. So at that point I sat in my car with the manual and very slowly figured out how to reconnect it; then I deleted my mother's phone from the speed dial and added voice calling (so neat) for the coupla phone numbers I have in there.
And to think I went without this convenience for months!
Now I just push a SINGLE button on the steering wheel and I can command the car to call wherever. So cool.
That's all I did, but I feel so satisfied I got those things done. I did also want to hang the smoke alarm on the ceiling at top of my stairs, but haven't done that becus I see the paint is peeling a fair amount and should really be scraped, sanded, primed and painted before putting the smoke alarm back up. Ugh. The smoke alarm is operating, but it hasn't been hung in that location for well over a year. That's how long these dumb chores hang around. I hate to see them "accumulate."
Do you have any dumb chores you know you need to do but for the life of you just can't (or won't) get around to?
Little pesky chores: done, done & done
October 5th, 2016 at 05:18 pm
October 5th, 2016 at 05:52 pm 1475686344
1) Thank you notes - I started these, but since buying the house have decided to wait, so we can send a postcard from the new house and take care of both thank-yous and address notification updates in one go.
2) Clean/preserve wedding dress and dry-clean reception dress.
3) Mail out leftover attire items - I'd gotten my bridesmaids' robes and they coordinated and got themselves yoga pants. Some of these items were left in our hotel, and it's been on my list to mail them to the ladies for awhile now.
October 5th, 2016 at 06:12 pm 1475687557
October 5th, 2016 at 06:12 pm 1475687574
Washing water bottles that can't go in the dishwasher. I do pots and pans, which means I also do all other hand-wash stuff like knives and colandars. Water bottles keep getting put on the back of the sink until I'm feeling especially energetic about washing, and then I get all the less-urgent handwashing done with my regular pots and pans. But right now, one of our newer water bottles has developed mold or something, and that's going to need a bit of research and a special tool--possibly an unopened spare toothbrush. For now I just keep pushing it to the side.
October 5th, 2016 at 06:14 pm 1475687684
I have 188 items in total but only a few on my list today of course. Some of the others have a priority of 'maybe, someday' or a tentative start date so they won't hit my hotlist until next year.
October 5th, 2016 at 06:29 pm 1475688598
October 6th, 2016 at 03:57 am 1475722672
October 7th, 2016 at 10:14 am 1475831656
October 8th, 2016 at 04:13 am 1475896405
Yep ... wedding gift thank you notes. They are written. They are now signed by both DH and me. I have the stamps I need. Now ... just need to get them addressed. Then out in the mail.
I really probably ought to put togtether a system kind of like yours. So many times I'll have to stop and think really hard to remember what I was supposed to do next ...