I am a Federal employee & was out of work on furlough for 5 weeks from 12/22/2018 through 1/27/2019. During my forced vacation I managed to get a lot done at home, some of which I’ve already shared:
[1] – I refinished a 3-drawer cupboard with high gloss paint:
[2] – I built additional shelving for our front hall closet:
[3] – I installed a new dryer tube in the laundry room:
[4] – I transferred all our house paint from rusty cans to air-tight mason jars:
[5] – I replaced the dining room DVD towers with much-needed cube storage:
[6] – I transferred my DVD collection from their cases into a handy binder which takes up almost no space:
In addition to those larger projects I also completed a few smaller projects:
[7] – I unclogged our 2 bathroom sinks which were a horror story. Hubby left a sign on the bathroom mirror to make sure I didn’t forget:
What even is that nasty black/pink/white shit that builds up in drains – SO GROSS!!!:
After an hour of plunging, tweezing, and scrubbing, they were unclogged & beautiful:
[8] – I replaced one of the small square cat platforms in the living room with a bigger one, which has made it much easier for the cats to get up and down:
[9] – I wall mounted the 2 power strips behind our TV so the TV table isn’t a mess of cords:
I had to be very careful in how I secured the cords on the wall b/c the space behind the TV is a cat runway. It’s so nice to not stare at cords anymore:
[10] – I installed magnetic closures on some of our temperamental kitchen cabinets so they’ll stay closed. Some of them had a habit of remaining open about an inch which drove me crazy:
After screwing the magnetic bracket to the inside of each cupboard I stuck the matching catch to it, dabbed on some red paint:
Then shut the cabinet door so I knew exactly where to screw the catch:
The cabinet doors over the fridge are always problematic – the hinges always need adjusting or the doors hang askew. I used upper & lower magnetic brackets for each door hoping it will help them remain aligned:
I installed another magnetic bracket on the left side cabinet door over the stove:
[11] – Lastly, I deep cleaned 85% of our condo. Including the kitchen, dining room, living room, hallways, stairs, front hall, master bedroom closet, and laundry room:
Deep-cleaning meant removing all the furniture and vacuuming under and behind it, mopping the floors, dusting and/or washing the walls, removing the dust-bunnies & cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, washing every surface including the tops of doorways & artwork, touching up any paint that was nicked, & cleaning out any cupboards, cabinets, baskets, or closets in the room. It was EXHAUSTING! But kept me very busy and focused. All that’s left is the master bedroom, upstairs bathroom, & the girl cave. Each room took about 8 hours!
I read your blog this morning first thing. It wore me out so I went back to bed. Great job, it reminds me of the good old days. ❤️ Dad
Ha Ha Ha!!! We might be furloughed again this Friday at midnight, so I’m prepping my new list!
You are amazing! I am astounded by your productivity. Well done!
The last time we had a furlough – in 2013, for 2.5 weeks, I did NOTHING. I sat on the couch and watched daytime TV [such a waste of time] the whole time. I decided that if we were ever furloughed again I’d be a whirling dervish of productivity! I didn’t expect it would last 5 weeks… I’m still exhausted from all I did!
I so need to deep clean our bedroom. All our critters leave lots of grungy stuff that mere vacuuming doesn’t remove. Not looking forward to that!
I’ve heard that toothpaste is a culprit of clogged drains. Pouring boiling water down the drain helps clear it out.
OOOOooo that is a good tip!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Toothpaste [and hair]. Nasty. I will try boiling water next time 😀 Jim’s idea of unclogging a drain is to pour a gallon of drano down and let it sit all day, but I don’t like using chemicals when I can get most of it out with a bit of time and elbow grease.
And PS – I know what you mean about grungy pet stuff. I found so much “Bonkers grease” on the baseboards, stair railings, lower wall corners… he rubbed his little greasy cat face on everything which took a lot of soapy water to dislodge! Thankfully the other 2 don’t do that, and since poor Bonky is gone, we don’t have to deal with it anymore.
Your energy and ambition are impressive! You did an amazing job on all your projects, especially the most daunting of all – that deep house cleaning. It’s so time consuming, and SO exhausting!
I am always appalled at how much dust and dirt build up behind furniture and under stuff, and how much junk accumulates in closets and cupboards. I always think my house is clean until I look under or behind something!