Our 2014 List

Hi - I'm Susan and will be using this blog along with Don to re-visit "cleaning up my life".  We have (or mainly I have) been on a quest to eliminate the clutter from our lives - room by room by room.  Some days/weeks are well - others suck.  I'm a pretty organized person, but sometimes it feels like I just can't get ahead of the "stuff".  So there's THAT for the year . . . 

We also started a list - a completely off-the-cuff list - of accomplishments, large and small, that we would like to work on this year.  The list is too large to accomplish financially, I think, but once we prioritize it, we could perhaps accomplish quite a bit.

I need to get this list out of my notebook and somewhere more visible so we can work on it.

• restore the kitchen in some way
• new range, at the very least
• solar panels on the house
• sort through the papers under the stairs in the garage
• IKEA cabinets for the dining room
• get a structural evaluation of supports on the first floor
• new driveway
• new driveway extension on the right of the garage
• fence for the dog
• an RV/Rialta/mobile home 
• decide what to do with the Triumph Rocket III
• sell the Simpsons
• empty the storage unit
• convert all the movies to digital storage
• close all Family Partnership accounts
• order new passports
• get general physicals - both of us
• set up a six-month teeth cleaning
• evaluate Susan's health care from Aetna - find new provider?
• add a wall of bookcases to the south wall of the green room
• put iron pickets for rails on the stairway
• build a new deck
• rent a steamer to remove the wallpaper from second story bathrooms
• set-up an October vacation for Don and Sue
• purchase new windows for the house
• at least for the kitchen - north side of the house
• insulate the first floor in the crawl space

So now, all we need to do is prioritize the list . . . it's pretty all over the place . . . and keep decluttering.

Of course all of this sits on top of the bigger question of whether we stay living in this house or not?  Half of the list would be eliminated if we chose a different place to live . . . somewhere perhaps with . . . 

• a flatter back yard
• more land
• a smaller house footprint (so I wouldn't have so much to clean)
• a ranch (one level)
• with a basement
• room for out buildings

Ah, well . . . one thing at a time . . .