More Covid Organization Projects

I'm beginning to wonder whether the things we do while we are in self isolation are actually essential, something we would have done sooner if we'd had the time, or if they are just make work projects to keep us busy.

At our house, we have a fair sized pantry filled with quite a few canned goods. I thought it might be a good idea to take inventory of the contents. I was afraid that some items had been there for awhile and would get outdated or remain unused when new products are bought. I made an inventory which I soon decided was not an efficient way to keep track. I listed how many of each item there was, then changed the numbers as the cans were used...messy.

After a short time, I decided to sort out the contents of our jelly cupboard as well. Same issues as the pantry. In fact, you might say there are more pantry type items stored in the jelly cupboard

I came up with a better plan. After creating the chart, with enough boxes in each direction, I put an / for each  thing we already have. I taped the charts to the inside of the cupboard doors. As the
 products are used, we will put a line through and end up with something like an x. That's the theory. There's space to add to the list at the  bottom. I have left a conspicuous pen to be sure that what's used is crossed off. Essential or make work project? So far, it's working well and I like it.

I also decided to do something about my jewelry. I found a hanging holder which was formerly my daughter's. I'm sure she's forgotten it exists since she's no longer even in the country. I hung it on my bedroom wall near the closet. How sensible. Now I can see my earrings and perhaps even use some of them instead of  wearing the same ones every day. I also found a hanger type jewelry holder that I'd forgotten about, in my basement. I've owned it for a long time but, like so many other things, it was just sitting idle. It has a clothes hanger and is two sided...brilliant. It will store costume jewelry and larger items...eighty in total. The concept of "shopping your house" is becoming more and more handy for me these days.

I decided that whatever I don't wear/use in the next year, will be disposed of.  The left holder looks pretty good on the wall. The one on the right, once filled will go into the closet and hang with my clothing.


My next project will be an attempt to deal with shoes. I have not as yet figured out a perfect storage solution. I've tried see through shoe boxes, boxes with photos on the outside, racks, and hanging organizers. All of these take up space which I don't have. It leads me to think that perhaps I just need to downsize. Alas, I'll miss my multitudinous Birkenstocks. On the other hand, as the expressions goes, "How many shoes can you wear at a time?"

Hivey Hilde After Hours

It's happened to me before. Some of my friends say they have this  problem all the time. For varying reasons, aches, pains, worries, people are awake at odd hours. I have not often been cursed with this afflicton. In fact, just the opposite. I can usually fall asleep almost anywhere, anytime. Not so for the last several weeks.

I'm told this causes problems with growth hormones. That would partly explain the ever shrinking senior frame. Mental capacity declines with lack of sleep. Again, explains a lot.

Perhaps it was the excitement of what was surely our first snow and being able, even at this age, to create as snow person with my daughter last week. Perhaps it's the latest drug that's been added to my arsenal. Or maybe, it's the mysterious spots which have been annoyingly itchy on my body. Who knows? For whatever reason, I'm awake. I tossed and turned for an hour before admitting defeat.

Screens aren't supposed to help with insomnia, I disagree. There's something soothing about being able to sit here and spew the weird and crazy thoughts that go through my head at three a.m. I suppose there are other options...warm milk, sleepy time tea, Tylenol PM (wait...already took two), reading the latest night stand novel. But I opt for this...a blog after midnight.

Thus far, the months of January and February 2016 have been interesting if nothing else. On the second day of the year, I developed an unusual and horrifying affliction which looked something akin to the Otrivin cartoon eye ad.

For no reason of which I was aware, my eyes swelled beyond anything imaginable. Lids and bottoms were red, purple, puffy, itchy, wrinkly and just plain scary. I've searched on the internet but have as yet to find a photo of anyone's eyes as hideous as mine were.

They got uglier and itchier with each day until I was ready to rip them out of my head. I thought this was the worst of it until I developed spots on my arms...hives no less. Then I got spots on my legs, my torso and probably on my scalp.Very uncomfortable. No amount of allergy medicine or eye drops seemed to diminish the problem. I couldn't go out, but when I had to, makeup almost made the look more frightening.

As always, when something happens to us at this age, we wonder whether this is it. Will this be the thing that eventually kills me? I hadn't thought that way about these hives, not until a couple of nights ago. My first waking was accompanied by moaning and groaning (mine), sore joints that felt as though someone was dousing them in acid, ankles that could only have been garotted, a stiff jaw (teeth clenching), and shaking, even shivering. I drifted off briefly only to wake up again with a stomach pain that said, "You haven't eaten in a week." Only problem was that I had.

Tonight, my entire body was covered in hives. I could barely walk and lying down to sleep was unimaginable. I can only deduce that trying to recline in a nest of fire ants might produce a similar effect. In order to avoid having my bed combust, I got up and am here.

Now as I sit, I'm wondering how much I'm shrinking from lack of sleep. Wondering how much my mental capacity will decline from the same problem. Wondering whether this is it, or whether there's a simple explanation for two months of hives. Hopefully, I'll find out soon.

On the bright side, being housebound is helping me organize things...a start. It also is helping me realize that I can't die yet. This is all too much of a nightmare to foist upon unsuspecting relatives. I hope at least that some of my silliness gives them a laugh or two as they deal with all my junk.

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The Funeral's The Easy Part

It was a source of contention in our house. Last year, it was suggested I look into purchasing a funeral plan. I got my back up. I was annoyed. I was angry at the suggestion that I should have to go and spend money that could be used on other essential things just to prepay a funeral. I was certain that with assets, pensions, bank accounts, and government funding, this could all be covered quite nicely if and when necessary....well, not if, but when.

Begrudgingly, I trekked to the local funeral facility and purchased that which they sell...a funeral. In addition, I bought dead body travel insurance. Now my corpus, which is no longer all that delecti, can be shipped back from anyplace on the planet at the low, low price of free. At last, free travel, no air miles required.

Two things have come of this activity. I am now obsessed with death and dying. Rarely does a day go by when I don't think about or plan for my own demise. I have come to realize that the clock is ticking.

The second is that my survivors will now have no issues since everything is done for them. Right? Wrong!

I know for a fact, tha't the funeral planning and its eventual execution is nothing compared to what follows. Nobody warns us of the complexities involved with owning anything from a driver's license, credit card, real estate, bank account, furnishings, or those multitudinous items which we deem valuable but are only so in our own minds. It's even worse if a person owns more than one of some of the aforementioned items. I believe that the hassle doesn't double but becomes multiplied many fold with each additional "thing".

How do I know all this? I have recently been enlightened by becoming co-executor of a will. Despite the fact that the the individual had downsized to near minimalism; despite the fact that the funeral was planned and prepaid; despite the fact that all files were intact; credit cards up to date, bank statements in order, it's been daunting. The driving around, the government offices, the cancellations, the notifications and the trips to charities with the "valuables" have been endless. The workload and the hours have been overwhelming. It has taken weeks and will go on for months before all is completed.

At some point, I'll elaborate on all of it and perhaps give some helpful hints. At this current time, I'm too busy. I'm busy executing. Most of all, I'm busy getting rid of and organizing my own chaos. If I do nothing else, I'm hoping to make the work easier for someone else once I'm gone. After all, what else do I have to do each day but plan for death and dying?

Hilde's Handy Hints for Wasting a Weary Winter...

Wow, who knew it could be so much fun to clean and organize? I am so proud of my accomplishments that I could just scream. The weather has been horrid. I've been housebound for what feels like eons and yet, I have a sense of fulfillment which I can't begin to explain.

I don't dare share my efforts with my non retired career minded friends. They would remind me of how old and boring I've become. I remember when I was once one of them, enveloped in work. I'd come home after a long day, do the bare necessities...perhaps a load of laundry, eat some unidentifiable fridge leftovers, veg out in front of the tube and fall asleep exhausted. On good days, I'd make it upstairs to bed and sometimes there was even time to blow my nose or shave my legs. Next morning, begin again, same routine.

It was worse when the children were small because I also had to fit in their lessons, their school events,  remind them about homework, do a lot of nagging about their paper route, plus I had to cook. Apparently, good moms feed their kids.

Front hall closet even has hangers for guest coats.



Since I am unable to share my new found helpful hints with the aforementioned hard working friends I will illustrate these significant changes in my home and lifestyle on my blog. I am about half way done. It seems, that I can easily, efficiently and competently complete half of any job. If this snowy, freezing weather goes on much longer, I might be forced to get the whole house done. In fact, if my hubby dares stand still too long, he just might find himself with a label firmly affixed to his forehead detailing his contents.

Clothes colour co-ordinated albeit mostly black.



I even sorted and filed the coupons and recipes. No longer are there bits of random scribbled on papers and magazine clippings hidden in the back of cookbooks. Gone are the piles of outdated coupons that haven't been used because of their lack of order. Yes, these too, are labelled and filed.

Important hint - be sure to highlight expiry dates.

I expect that any eulogy about me will include this most important of all my newly acquired skills. It might sound something like this. "She was a ferocious filer, the master of bins, the siren of symmetry, and the queen of colour coding. When we think of her, we will always remember the cleanliness of her closets."