I almost got it all done. (Final bucket list update!)
Today marks the official start of our homeschool year, which kinda means that my time for doing summer bucket list stuff is over.
So, here's how I did.
Plan/Sign Up for 2016-2017 school.
Done. Which is a good thing, because school is now in session. 😉
Declutter my house.
I got this all done. And a nice thing is that since I was a ruthless, crazy decluttering person last summer, I didn't have nearly as much to declutter this time around.
Even my problem areas like the laundry room and the office weren't bad. Yay!
my roomthe living roomthe kitchenSonia and Zoe's roomthe officethe laundry roommy bathroomthe under-stairs closet
Make photo books.
Nothing done here.
Make new chore lists.
Done.
Teach my kids to do their own laundry.
Done!
Power-wash and restain the deck.
The staining is halfway done. I'd be totally done except for the fact that the railings are SUCH a bear to brush.
So. many. sides.
Paint my front door. And the trim above it.
Trim yes, door is bumped til cooler, less buggy weather.
Paint my mailbox and post, and buy new numbers for it.
Done!
Paint my shutters.
Done!
Paint my laundry room.
Yep! It's all white now. Whee!
Get my kids to the pool at least once a week.
Yep.
Keep my kids supplied with books.
Yep.
Go see three movies.
Done! We saw The BFG at a matinee. Then we saw Alice Through The Looking Glass and Finding Dory at the cheap theater.
_________________
So. I didn't do any photo books, and I still have half of the deck left to stain. But other than that, I knocked out the things on my list, and that feels pretty good.
If you had a summer bucket list, how did things go? Did you spend your summer doing the things you wanted to do?
Wow, you've been busy! I haven't even started making the list of things I need to do yet. I wanted to sort through the HUGE pile of clothes that need to be tidied but instead I made bread pudding . It's not as efficient but much more enjoyable 😉
Bravo! I still need to declutter quite a bit around the house. We sign on our house this Thursday--eeeek! But that does mean that it's time to start getting rid of unnecessary possessions to make the move smoother.
I always try to make bucket lists, but I never seem to follow them through!
Congrats on the house!
When you declutter, do you just donate to charity, or have a garage sale?
I use a variety of methods to get rid of clutter, and I really try to avoid throwing it away if possible. Here's a post about what I do with my extra stuff: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2015/03/declutter-without-creating-trash/
Wow, I feel like I did absolutely nothing with my summer except work. That's obviously not true but I think maybe I should work on some Autumn goals.
Could you possibly write a post on restraining your deck? I need to do the same thing but have no idea where to start.
I second a deck post! Congrats on getting it all done! You've been working hard these last few weeks!
I don't have an overall summer bucket list...but when I have free weekends or staycation time, I always create a list of things to get done so I don't blow off the free time.
So far this summer I've:
-cleaned out, vacuumed and scrubbed my car/seats/windows/etc
-replaced garden bed plastic edgers with stone
-cleaned out the garage
-shampooed two 8x10 area carpets and a 5x7 one.
-Bought a new vacuum cleaner and vacuumed all the things
-Bought a shed (still have to put it up and create the foundation for it...)
-cleaned out and organized all kitchen cabinets and drawers
-had a garage sale
-listed things for sale online or donated to goodwill
-cleaned and organized the office and the spare bedroom
-organized the linen closet
Now I just have to keep everything clean and organized for the rest of the year....
Well, here's my bucket list, hurricane edition:
Emptied, shut down and completely cleaned the laundry room "extra" refrigerator. Restocked it when we turned it back on.
Cleaned and reorganized a corner of the laundry room at the breaker box -- we had to move everything around the box to hook up a generator, which meant moving the folding table and storage under it, and eek, the dust bunnies under that table! They are gone now, though.
Preserved more pears in sugar and brandy, instead of making that pear butter I was planning to make before the power outage.
Picked up the yard and got all the limbs into a pile. Swept all the walks and porch, earning a couple of blisters for my efforts.
Met one of my more distant neighbors for the first time, when I went to their house to see if they were getting the same confusing messages from the power company that we were. (They were).
Planned meals carefully, especially ones avoiding using the stove, which draws big power, and using the crock pot instead.
Managed to skip the drive throughs and restaurants and eat at home every single meal, even if it was peanut butter sandwiches. Many restaurants were closed, and the lines at the open ones were horrendous, but we didn't have to do that, thank heaven!
With some spare time on my hands, I cut some drawer organizers out of scrap paperboard and put them in some of the drawers in our bedroom.
Replaced wicks and refilled all our oil lamps, which they had needed.
So sorry you guys got hit! I hope your home is ok.
Our house came through fine, and thanks for asking, but quite a few trees fell on quite a few houses in the area, and the beach community very near here took a really hard hit -- the storm surge coincided with high tide. We had no local deaths, so we have that much to be thankful for!
Kristen, I'm really impressed with what all you accomplished!
I had posted on here that I wanted to get rid of 20 pieces of paper a day for the month of August. I didn't do 20, but I did keep track and averaged 6 per day. I say averaged because I would do a bunch at a time. So I didn't make my goal, but I do have 186 less papers in my house than I did on 7/31!
Yay for you!! Paper is always creeping in, so it's an important thing to regularly get rid of.
When I look at my paper/mail pile, I almost regret the invention of writing. It takes so much work to go through.
Wow, all that decluttering you have accomplished is amazing! Seeing you tackle all that this summer has been inspiring me to tackle some of those dusty cluttered corners of my own house, especially since we have some extra stuff that had to get crammed into other areas while we had a year long construction project going on.
Well done! Regarding back to school (and you may have answered this question in one of your past posts), is your son going to college full-time this fall?
He's still just part-time there...he's taking three classes this semester. Next fall he'll be full-time.
I set myself up for success by not having a summer list. Go me!
I would love to say I've accomplished a lot. But I broke my foot early in the summer and am still immobile from that. Plus, two of our kids moved home from college with all of their stuff. One has moved out, and one is in process. So there's a lot of extra stuff around that isn't mine. When I did get someone to help me, I have got rid of some trash, and had my husband move a bookcase into a bedroom, where I sorted the contents from the floor where I sat. So I'm feeling under the pile, literally.