#quaranclean

[copperbadge]

Dear Sam, I like the 'crafting in a time of cholera' posts. Is there also a nice tag for cleaning while in confinement? With all appointments gone I started to tackle some stuff that needed to be unf*cked some time ago. It's not a case for my inner Viking nor Vampire, who do I need to become to sort through (mostly) paperwork and knick-knacks?

Hey, it’s awesome you’re cleaning! I’ve been doing a little, though mostly more fixit stuff -- repairing my clocks, re-hanging a coat hook that was coming loose.

I don’t have a tag for cleaning during quarantine, but you’re not the first to have asked. As much as I enjoyed NaClYoHo, it took a bit of energy to be the point man on it, as it were, and I’m conserving that a bit these days, so I don’t think I’m capable of quite the same level. But I encourage people to make posts about what they’re getting up to during the stay-home or quarantine orders, and I offer you a tag from the deep well of my terrible genius: quaranclean :D

As for who you need to become to sort through paperwork and knick-nacks (a reference to my To Viking list) may I suggest becoming a humble and scholarly Archivist? Or a Monk of the Library, or perhaps a Curator. You must identify, sort, catalogue, repair if necessary, and file many objects of great and arcane import in order to clear space for new priceless volumes of lore, scrolls of wisdom, amulets of protection, etc. 

SECURE THE COLLECTION AGAINST THE PLAGUE! 

[flowersnteacups]

After a very difficult weekend and several days with headache/exhaustion I’m slowly getting back up.

managed a trip to the laundromat and put the wet clothes on my drying rack yesterday

managed to buy a cake mix

washed the dishes

ate some soup

managed to fold and put clean clothes away today (yay clean clothes!)

managed to put the bag away that lived for four days in the middle of my hallway

threw away a few receipts

put the trash into the trashcan

cross stitched for half an hour

[desidesidesi]

Finished my #quaranclean !!! My markers and whatnot aren't back on my desk since I need to keep that clear for when I'm working from home, buuuut aaaah!!! Everything is so much nicer and makes sense to my brain 💖💖💖 https://www.instagram.com/p/CAQ792bBbRr/?igshid=omlxrwspeb2h

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day  68

Okay, this one will be a real quickie because it was a quiet day and I have to be up at 5:30am to trap cats. I picked up the rest of my groceries, mostly staples for the pantry and a few things to take back to NC that I couldn't get there, at Walmart this morning. I know it's Walmart and there is vague guilt there, but they do kickass contactless pickup, it was all ready on time, the guy was nice and he wore a mask, it was just so easy, and the money goes so much further. And it's not like Harris Teeter or Food Lion are little local stores, they're just worse local stores that cost more. Did you know Kroger owns Harris Teeter? I did not know that for a long time, even though I lived in Cincinnati. Weird. Anyway, it was raining so I left a bunch of stuff in the car, but the stuff I did bring in got put away, except for a lasagna that  I sort of had had vague plans for but realized it did not fit in the freezer at all so I'd have to cook it right away. Then I accidentally set the oven to 325 instead of 425 so it took three hours to cook. The good news was that I successfully used the oven without setting off the smoke alarm, finally. Yay! 

I finished cleaning the living room, including the vacuuming and spot-cleaning the carpet, so it looks pretty doggone good in there. Or it did, til I also started folding laundry in there, now it looks good but is under piles of clothes. The washer and dryer did not get stinky while I was gone, that is nice. I had a brief bad moment on the way out the door two weeks ago when I realized that the last load in the washer needed to go in the dryer, but the last load in the dryer was not done. So I set the clothes in the dryer for a last cycle to finish after we left, and strewed the contents of the washing machine over every hanging bar and tile surface we had so they could dry and not mildew in the washer. And it worked! Of course anything that air dries for two weeks without being touched feels like crunchy paper clothes, so I'm washing them again, but they didn't stink up the house. 

Tomorrow is cat catching with my TNR friends, a little last cleaning, and filing the taxes. This trip home has gone super duper fast! I want to be back in NC where I can help out far more effectively, but I won't deny the appeal of sleeping whenever, eating whatever, and only wearing pants if I feel like it. I pretty much haven't lived like this since the kiddo was born! It's probably a very healthy rest for me, but it can't last forever. At least when I go back, I can stop thinking about that horrible nasty milk I left in the fridge. 

[secretcherimaybe]

New QuaranClean project! Slowly reorganizing books from color (top) to first year published (bottom)

[flowersnteacups]

So the last seven days I tried to unfuck my rooms and

cleaned the kitchen shelves, checked the food

did the dishes (every day!), scrubbed the sink

cleaned the stovetop

sorted through the fridge

swept and mopped the kitchen

cleaned the kitchen window

swept the bathroom

wiped the sink and scrubbed the toilet

folded and put away the clothes from the drying rack

folded and put away the clothes that were parked on a chair

sorted through the laundry, handwashed a few items

unfucked two corners in the hallway and vacuumed that part of the hallway, too

vacuumed parts of the bedroom

took the trash and recycling out (several times)

repotted two plants

As my back is complaining a lot, the trip to the laundromat with towels and bed linens is postphoned. Also postphoned: Sorting through two boxes and deciding what to keep. No, just No. In my current state I’ll throw everything out and regret it later.

I miss the feeling of satisfaction when standing in my clean kitchen or when I see the free space in front of the bed. Mostly I’m just tired.

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 67

Gonna dash this one off quick because the kiddo is supposed to call me soon, as soon as he and his dad finish watching the new season of She-ra that just dropped a couple days ago. I gave them permission to watch without me so long as they don't start our long-awaited Avatar: the Last Airbender rewatch until I get back. We have waited literal years for ATLA to be available again on Netflix because the first time we watched it, the kiddo was just a toddler and not able to truly appreciate it. He was more into Shaun the Sheep, another good choice but perhaps without quite as much nuance, and Pingu, which we blame for him not learning to talk until he was three. Oops! Anyway, he talks very well now, so he's going to call me before bed and we're going to try Watch2Gether for our nightly Micarah Tewers video because last night's solution of me pointing my phone camera at the iPad so we could watch together was decidedly unideal. 

My first full day at home was not as productive as I'd have liked, but I did get some stuff done. Coming from the most liberal part of North Carolina to the most conservative part of Coastal Virginia was a serious shock when it came to getting a  few groceries, because around here you're a goddamn liberal pantywaist if you want to protect yourself and the people around you while shopping. So that wasn't great and got my anxiety spiking a bit this morning, plus reminded me that I haven't taken my Wellbutrin in like three weeks because time isn't real and taking meds in the morning is much harder than taking them at night. So I ought to fix that and it will help life get better pretty soon, I think. 

I decided to give myself a break and spent most of the morning screwing around and resting, but I did water the plants again. My bee balm is still alive, which makes me very happy since it looked really bad last night and it was the most expensive plant I bought this year. I watered them all again and they are looking very perky (except for the couple that actually did die)! I turned on The Good Place in the afternoon and cleaned the living room, which definitely needed it, plus ran the dishwasher three or four more times till it stopped being stinky. Tomorrow I will vacuum in the living room and tackle the washer and dryer, fun times! I got all my sewing stuff put away since for now we have plenty of masks and I need to get somebody to look at that damn sewing machine anyway, at some distant future time when I do things that are Not Very Important. It's back in its case for now and all the pins are either in the pincushion or stabbed into a bar of soap i found because it looked cool and I am easy to amuse. 

Tonight I deviated entirely from doing useful things and made myself a whole family size meal of sauerkraut and sausage. It made me happy, plus there are three meals worth of leftovers so I won't have to cook again for quite some time. It took a whole dishwasher load of dishes to make one meal for myself, but that's okay because I cleaned the whole thing up immediately so I wouldn't have to feel guilty about losing ground on the cleaning project. And it was so delicious. Like, really, really good. If you don't eat sauerkraut with dumplings alongside smoked sausage and mashed potatoes, you are truly missing out on something important and excellent

[thats-miss-spider-to-you]

when you spend 30+ hours cleaning out your entire apartment, then stand and admire the result….just to realize you accidentally threw away your glasses