# Trash Day - Procrastination Victory



## RedTartan (May 2, 2006)

I've just come inside from taking the trash out. This is a huge victory for me! Taking out the trash is my husband's job. He usually only half does it though. He takes out the upstairs trash because that's convenient. The basement trash; however, gets left because it's not convenient for him to open the garage door to get it. 

I'm so proud of myself because, instead of nagging the man, I took out all the accumulated basement trash myself! About 20 bags worth! I've been putting this off for so long!

The basement looks soooooo good! And there will be even more next week 

Disclaimer: Please don't bash my husband here because I had to take out the trash. He's working 15 hour days right now and deserves my help with any of his jobs that I can manage.


YOUR TURN: Post your recent Procrastination Victories in this thread so that we can inspire each other. :banana02:


----------



## moongirl (May 19, 2006)

Congratulations!! (Feels good though.....doesn't it?)


----------



## RedTartan (May 2, 2006)

It does! I blow a job up in my mind (like cleaning the basement) until it seems like the job will take weeks. Once I get started, I'm usually done in 2-3 hours and spend the next week kicking myself for putting it off for so long.


----------



## pinemead (Jan 18, 2003)

Excellent!! Congratulations!


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

I finally burned all the cardboard boxes I had been piling in the backporch. There were an embarrassing amount of them back there, "just in case" I needed them. Also, while I had that fire going I drug the old cabinet doors that had been rained on (ruined) over and tossed them in. Two messes gone in one day, yes!

You can actually see through the back porch windows now, and there is a section of the yard that is mowable again.


----------



## pinemead (Jan 18, 2003)

Yeah!


----------



## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

I tend to "double procrastinate". Which means that if I have a big job I'm dreading, I will put it off and let it eat at me. In the meantime, I won't let myself start anything else, because I will feel even more guilty while doing something else when I know I should really be working on the big job I am putting off. So, in other words, nothing gets done, everything piles up more, and I feel even worse about all of it. I then get depressed, and it's all downhill from there...

That was me last night. My house is really a total wreck. I couldn't even pick a place to start. Instead I vegged out in front of the TV and fixed supper (leaving the dishes on the counter) and went to bed )

I applaud the rest of you for your victories! :bow:


----------



## RedTartan (May 2, 2006)

Awww! (((Lickcreek))) I "double procrastinate" as you call it, too.

I think I'm going to have one job that I get out of the way each week. At least one! I have some serious catching up to do. This week I meant to do more in my basement and then I sprained my ankle  It almost better. I'm going to give it one more day and then I'm going to attack it again with black trash bags!

I'm also getting the front garden weeded, but not under my own power. I'm hiring someone. It's not the first time I've resorted to this, and I'm a tightwad. That's how serious I am about getting this place caught up. I hired a college student to clean out my goat stall of 18 months of the deep-bedding method (I've been behind for awhile now) and he did such a good job that I've called him back for this weekend.

I'm rereading and I realize that it sounds wimpy to hire someone to weed. Let me explain: My front flower gardens are huge and the weeds are so high and thick that you can't even see the herbs and roses. And they are all 5-6 ft tall thistles. Ouch. There's a reason why my farm is called "ThistleTree Farm".

Pick one room, Lickcreek. The kitchen would be best probably. Good luck


----------



## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

RedTartan, it doesn't seem wimpy to me to hire someone to do the weeding. I have some major weeding needed in the front flower beds (out front... where EVERYONE can see!) and I know how much work it can be. And how much time it takes. That is one reason I haven't gotten out there yet. We have those thistles, fortunately not in the flowerbeds at the moment. But they did take over an area I tried to clean up a couple years ago!

Let that ankle heal, the basement will still be there. TRUST ME! LOL!

Well, I "picked" the porch last night to start with, as our DPuppy decided to shred 2 paper grocery sacks and a cardboard box that DS left outside, and one of his stuffed toys and string them all over the porch and sidewalk. So I cleaned up this mess, rearranged some of the furniture, took some boxes of DS's stuff to the shed, wiped down some cobwebs (not perfect, but they don't hang as low now LOL!) and tried to pick up anything else he might consider to be his next chew toy.

I also moved inside and cleared off part of the kitchen counter (right inside door, around coffee pot) and cleaned the coffee pot (THAT was ugly!!). So, tiny steps were made.


----------



## Jan Doling (May 21, 2004)

I'm thinking I will get more done when the weather is dry and cool enough to burn on a daily basis. I am always amazed at how much trash can be dealt with in such a short time. Also, we use a post hole digger to fill 5 gallon buckets which we tote over to the ruts in the driveway. Then we lay the bucket on its side and roll it along the rut, distributing the dirt. Then we take the empty bucket to the fire pit and fill it with cold ashes, which we dump in the hole dug by the post hold digger. It's a form of composting, I'm sure, but I don't have a proper name for it. I have also dumped rags in the holes, skipping the burning process. Someday an archeologist is going to have a field day (pun intended) sifting through my property. He'll probably think it was some weird religion or something.


----------



## RedTartan (May 2, 2006)

UPDATE:

I had my hired hand out two weeks ago and got the front flower bed weeded. It looks great! I'm putting down mulch, but I keep under estimating how much I need. So far I've laid 16 bags of mulch and I need 8 more! There was zero mulch in these beds though and they are big. I'm laying down about a 4" layer because I don't want to have this weed problem again.

I had my hired hand out again yesterday and had him flatten my garden failure. I had tilled a large space and let it get out of hand. Then it couldn't be mowed because it was really uneven so a bunch of huge, thick, woody weeds had grown up in the space. Some of them were over 10 feet tall! They are all gone!

While hired hand Chris was flattening the garden, I continued working on the basement. My basement has a garage door for an opening even though there is no way you could park a car down there. I shoveled a bunch of gravely dirt out of the bottom of my driveway and uncovered the drainage hole. I bagged up and removed 8 big trash bags full of horribly disgusting, flood damaged stuff. My basement is nearly finished being cleaned now! I can hardly believe it!

I also finally cleaned out my closet. This was a huge deal because my youngest child got in there months ago and pulled everything off the hangers, threw all the Christmas wrap everywhere, toys, old boxes, etc. It was about 3 feet deep on the floor and I'm not exaggerating. It's all gone too! 

After the basement is finished, I'm going to tackle the kitchen cabinets, I think. I also have some painting and remodeling projects to work on.

I just thought you would all like to know how I was doing. I find reading about other people's work inspiring. 

I hope you guys get a lot done today!


----------



## moongirl (May 19, 2006)

Red Tartan...........

p.s. Can we borrow that hired hand???????LOL


----------



## RedTartan (May 2, 2006)

Moongirl,

I've been thinking about what I'll do next year. Chris (hired hand) might not be available then. I pay him $10/hr. He didn't ask for that. I just know that what I ask him to do is hard work and figure he deserves it. He works hard and fast so I consider it money well spent. I've spent $140 on him. For that I got my barn cleaned, my front beds weeded, and my garden flattened. It would have taken me forever, but Chris was raised on a pig farm and is easily 6'5". 

Next year I may run an ad. Lots of people are out of work right now and a weekend of work could give someone enough to feed their family for a couple of weeks. 

In short, this has been a great experience for me. I realize now that there is NO shame in hiring work out. It doesn't mean I'm lazy; it means I don't have as much time as I'd like. If any of you would like your own hired hand, place an add! You'll be amazed what $50 will get done around your place


----------

