Any diagnosed germophobes or hoarders on this forum?

Sorry to hear your catch-up was a bit awkward.

Well done on your efforts yesterday done with difficulty. 👏

I went shopping for salad ingredients this morning and made a salad! I've never made a salad in my life. I also posted the 2 birthday cards I'd been putting off. They should both get there in time, but I had to put a priority sticker on the Australian one.

This week is a busy week at work - potentially every day except today. (I will enjoy that.) So I'm trying to go through my list of household task priorities today. Plus August as a month looks busy.

It seems you're focusing on admin and papers at the moment? Good luck with them 🤞

@Dimity

The salad sounds very healthy @NatureLover , hope you enjoyed it. I've been thinking i should make more effort with meals. Well done for getting past your block on card writing.

I did a bit more admin today and yes my papers are very challenging but I'm trying to get back to chipping away at them.

Your job seems to have expanded from a couple of days a week to nearly fulltime. The charity is lucky to have you.

August *should* be a busy month if I'm going to meet my decluttering goals. I'll have to push through.

Hi @Dimity , I think papers are always challenging. Plus not a lot to show for the work, as they're small in size. But well done on doing the hard work.

You're so good at setting your decluttering goals.

My job is still two days a week, 5 hours a day, but we have projects that take extra time sometimes. On other weeks there's barely enough work for the basic 10 hours a week, and it's more like 8 hours a week. It's nowhere near full-time.

I did enjoy the salad, thanks 🙂

I was able to cross off quite a few things on my list of tasks yesterday, but not all. Today is a work day so no tasks will be done! (Other than the basic, which includes laundry usually).

This winter seems to be lasting extra long this year, do you think?

Good luck with your papers and tasks today, my friend.

Oh no!!! You know how I said I had a busy week this week, working every day? I just got notified of a rental inspection next Tuesday!!! OMG 😯

@Dimity

That's bad timing for you @NatureLover . At least you've just cleared oodles of bags, and can pop the empty ones in your daily wash. Can you make a list of what else needs to be done so you can do a bit each day?

Thanks for understanding my efforts with papers. I've just found some jottings I'd made on family history after speaking with an elderly relative, now passed, underlining the importance of checking everything. Revisiting old diaries and correspondence is mostly very painful, but I'm better at processing now, which makes it possible.

I don't think I'm good at goal setting! My efforts in Lent this year were an exception. But I guess I use my mood/activity tracker fairly consistently. I only met my daily housework target quantum 35% of the time in July, and my mood was very low. The forums meltdown and breakdown of my social support group probably contributed.

I'm impressed that you're generally working at least 10 hours a week, as well as regularly catching up with friends. You seem to have come a long way.

Please keep me posted on your inspection preparation, I'll be barracking for you.

Thanks @Dimity . I haven't made the list of tasks for the inspection yet. Ama bit frozen in panic. (Which usually happens)

Had a busy day at work today. Going to need a miracle. It usually takes about 16 hours of work to prepare for an inspection, but I think this one will take about 20 hours. 😣 Thanks for barracking for me. ❤️

Well done with getting better at processing painful documents.

I hope today has been successful for you. Haha - I start winding down now (4pm), whereas you're probably just getting into your stride!

20 hrs is a lot @NatureLover but still possible if you pace yourself during the week and catch up on the weekend.

Yes I keep going into the evening. I've been trying to get into a better routine and often get started in the morning. A psychiatrist once told me people with bipolar disorder have disrupted body clocks, maybe that's part of my problem. I know in principle I should stick to a routine but it never works out. I'll keep trying.

I looked for some paperwork today and realised my clutter is even worse than I thought. Again all I can do is keep trying to work on it. I've spread a lot of it out so it looks quite bad, but I have a better idea of the categories. I don't want to rebox it.

I hope you won't need to put more stuff in the elastic-sided shed.

The elastic-sided shed! 😂

Yes, I fear I may have to put a box or two in there.

Well done for getting started in the mornings (if that's what you want to do).

I agree, you don't want to rebox your papers. Spreading them out sounds like a good idea despite looking messy.

I've got a busy work day today but I'll try to do some tidying and put some shredding in the bin. It's not possible to do 10 hours' tidying and cleaning each on Sat and Sun, so I have to do something! 😣

@Dimity

P.S. @Dimity - I just cancelled my psychologist appt on Monday, which I really didn't want to do. So now I have 20 hours of housework split between Sat, Sun and Mon. Which is still massive (nearly 7 hours a day, oh gosh!!). 😣

Hello @NatureLover

That's a lot of work in 3 days. Pity you couldn't do more today or tomorrow. I'm a believer in breaking down big jobs.

Yes I certainly do want to reclaim at least part of my mornings. It's very difficult, I tie myself up in knots (metaphorically) re sleep patterns.

I'd wanted to do a lot today but somehow it didn't happen. As usual. I'm worrying again about the big picture of my family situation and feeling paralysed. Back to trying small steps.

My home help won't be back for at least another 5 weeks. I don't know what's happening or why she'd acted oddly. I hope she's ok.