cleaning nchanter's place / hot water

[supercheesegirl]

Yesterday I was Teh Complete Grump. Really pissy. But I went over to nchanter's place and she had made me a really nice dinner, which softened me up a lot, and we talked and I felt better, and then we cleaned her room. OMG. If you've never seen nchanter's room... it was a messy place. If you have seen it: now there's a floor! Lots of floor! I'm always kind of astonished that lots of people don't know how to clean the way I know how to clean. It just comes naturally to me, but I guess it's a skill like anything else. Jorn and nchanter have this in common: they walk into the messy room, look around, have no idea where to start, and instantly feel overwhelmed and don't know how to proceed. Given free rein to clean nchanter's room, I walked in and immediately began piling up clothes and having nchanter sort them. After the sorting, there was a large pile of clothes that needed to be washed, so we rolled the clothes up in sheets that also needed washing and tied the sheets up to make neat, portable laundry bundles. Nchanter thought I was crazy to have this idea, but it worked. Then it was a matter of picking up craft stuff and fabric off the floor, sorting through assorted other objects on the floor, and folding and putting away the clothes that were clean. I even dove into her closet and reorganized it so her shoes are all in there and the board games are stacked on the shelves and several boxes that were just sitting out are now in there too. Nchanter hung up some clothes hooks and we hung up her bathrobe and purses and suddenly she has a bedroom instead of a big mess. She was kind of astonished. It looks really good, and I feel like I accomplished something.

In other news, the hot water tank for my apartment was leaking everywhere in the basement, so George the Landlord had to turn off our hot water until he gets a new tank. There should be hot water again by the time I get home from work today, though. On any other day, I would just go without a shower until after work, but today I have a doctor's appointment, and I would feel very bad making my doctor, whom I like, examine my naughty bits when they're unwashed and stinky. So I packed shower stuff and grumped my way over to the gym to shower there. I spent the whole walk over grumping about the inconvenience, but I completely forgot about how nice it actually is to shower at the gym! The water is always hot, you never run out of hot water, and the water pressure is always fabulous. It reminds me of college. And now I feel clean, which was really worth it. I'm glad I went. Also I was at work before 9am, which I don't think has happened since we moved to this office building, and when I got here Rose at the front desk told me that there are showers on every floor here in the building! Good to know. I'll file that away for future reference.

Oh, and I stopped at Finagle for breakfast, since we're still out of milk and I was hungry and deserved a treat. I got my usual--bagel toasted with butter to go, and a nantucket nectars half & half--and the guy at first charged me $4.19, and I said, that's funny it used to be $3.03! And he reentered the order and it came out right. Score for me, noticing that I was getting overcharged and saving over a buck!

Comments

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

I have a radical method of cleaning when things are out of control. I call it the Rake Method (tm) Everything that is not where it's supposed to be gets put in big pile. Once that is done the remaining area is cleaned and straightened. The pile is then gone through, sorted and finally put away/thrown out. This method has two advantages. 1. cruft doesn't block the ability to put things away. 2. immediate cleaning gratification; things look cleaner immediately.

[deadwinter.livejournal.com]

Jorn and nchanter have this in common: they walk into the messy room, look around, have no idea where to start, and instantly feel overwhelmed and don't know how to proceed.

Add me to that list.

Holy fuck, your organizing skills are the r0xor.

Come to my apt. PLEASE. I will pay you.

:(

[tisana.livejournal.com]

"If you've never seen nchanter's room... it was a messy place"

You've never seen my place, nor my mom's. And we'll count you lucky for that last. THAT'S mess. Nchanter is cluttered.

But yeah, cleaning and organization is definitely a skill, and it's one I've had serious difficulty learning. I know how I want things to look. I just don't know how to start, or how to get around the myriad "But that won't work because of [blah]" excuses my mind likes to toss out to me.

And sometimes...what we need is what you did: coaching, telling us what to do so we have some structure. Good job. :)
Er...I may need to hire you for help with similar stuff. Do you do similar things with packing for moves and Storage Room Tetris? Sounds like a related skill.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Where do you live? We could work something out, maybe. *hug*

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I was such an obsessed organizer during my last move. I always packed with a black permanent marker in my pocket so that as soon as I packed a box and taped it up, I could write on it the exact contents (on both the top and the side, so it was obvious). I made Jorn do that too, and when we actually moved it made life *so* much easier. It was still hard to find a certain book or object in all the possible boxes, but it wasn't a needle in a haystack. Actually, I need to find some time to reorganize the pantry again--there's a lot of stuff in there now that could go down to the basement. After we put together the new bookshelves, maybe.

Heh, I'll do a Kat & Carlos Organizing Night--we'll start at his place, work for a while, then move to yours. :)

[lilacgrrl.livejournal.com]

omg. please teach me your mad cleaning ways. i am desperate need of education.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I wish I could! But the zen superpower of cleaning cannot be taught--it must be felt in the soul.

:)

[lydian.livejournal.com]

That sounds so productive! I'm jealous - I've run out of things to organize, and nothing feels quite as good as a nice juicy cleaning spree.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, said cleaning spree was not in my own house, which desperately needs one. :/

[lydian.livejournal.com]

If you get enough people to pay you to organize their space, you can always hire a maid. ;)

[lizabethanqueen]

Youre totally welcome to clean my place whenever you want. I'll cook!

And hopefully the showers at the gym are cleaner than the ones in college... Remember Reed hall and the obnoxious moldy crap?

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I don't remember obnoxious moldy crap. What I do remember, though, is living in North before the renovations, and how *incredibly tiny* the showers were there. Argh. Reed showers were like deluxe condos after living in North.