Crap Room

Rise and shine buttercup, it is time to get up…..seriously get up.  We have a ton of things to see and people to do, so we need to get to it. 

Y’all welcome to my crap room.  This is the sunroom, craft room, veterinary hospital, catch all, and for the past year cat room. 

This poor room has seen some shit.  Literally.  When I first bought the house, I thought I would turn it into a TV room.  Well, that turned into the dog room in bad weather, or when the dogs would get sick, I would put them in there.  Then it turned into a chicken coop.  When I decided to get chickens, I put the chicks in there.  What a freaking mess. 

When I got them out, I thought it was the perfect place for my crafts.  So I turned it into my candle and craft area.  But still, it was a place for the sick animals. 

Cat Hotel

A little over a year ago I took in a momma kitty and her 3 kittens.  They have been in charge of that room this whole time.  The 3 kittens I have never been able to tame.  I would go in there daily, and I can not tame them.  And there was a boy and two girls.  I could not even catch them to get them fixed.  I tried everything.  3 cats turned into 9 inbred cats. 

Let me just say I am so incredibly tired of cats, and they don’t even catch the mice.  I am down to 3 again.  We were finally able to catch 3, the male got sent outside by chasing him, and my daughter took 2. The Original momma, namely Momma, one of her grown kittens, Biscuit, and one of her inbred grandchildren, Leroy are still with me. 

With all that being said, I have left Momma and Biscuit in the crap room because Biscuit is still not tamed. 

I know, I know….I am rambling but I needed to set the stage for you.  So Momma and Biscuit have been in my sunroom for over a year. 

I will go in from time to time and do a quick cleaning, but that is about it. 

And even though that is suppose to be my craft room, I have not done any crafts at all in there.

My crafts have instead spread throughout the house because I did not want the cats on my stuff. 

Now that I am starting this blog, and my YouTube channel, I want to take my crap room back over.  It is time to get re-organized, cleaned really good, and get back to my happy place.

I am going to take you along for the adventure. 

Just Gross

Y’all, there is freaking cat hair everywhere, and I am so embarrassed to even admit it.  But maybe my dismay will brighten your day. 

You may be wondering how?  By knowing that I am admitting the nastiness and taking control of it. 

Do y’all ever watch the rug cleaning videos or where they power wash sidewalks and driveways, or is that just my weird self? 

I find that stuff so satisfying.  Maybe you will find the same satisfaction by reading this.

I really am a clean person even though my stuff gets junky sometimes. 

I like everything to have a place, which we will dive into that obsession some other time.  Anyway watching things go from nasty to sparkling is satisfying to me, so maybe my misfortune and laziness will give you some satisfaction.

Walking a Straight Line

It is 10 a.m., I’ve had my coffee, and it is time to tackle this mess. 

I have a real problem with jumping around and not being able to focus on one task at a time when it comes to cleaning.  I do have a method, but whether I stick to it or not is a whole other matter.  The older I get the better I have gotten to sticking to the method, only because I think I learned a little more self discipline. 

This room is going to take a LOT of self discipline.  So I am going to start on one wall and make my way around.  I have a lot of shit.  A LOT.  This is part of the hoarding problem I have.  The first shelf I am going to start on is my candle and melts shelf.

Like I mentioned, I make candles and melts.  I sale them at craft shows, and hopefully one day I will be able to begin selling them on Amazon or Etsy.  But I have to do more research on how that all works. 

This shelf has definitely become a catch all like every other surface in this room.  It is full of jars to make candles. 

Just a tidbit of information is that the downfall to this room is it is not very dirt proof. In West Texas, that means everything is filled with dust and cat fur.  All these jars are going to have to be washed. 

It’s a Miracle

I also have some scents that were passed down to me.  They are not exactly scents that I care for, and before you say something like “Well Jill it is not just about what you like”, I am going to tell you that if my whole house is going to smell a certain way while I am pouring candles, I am going to pour ones that do not give me a headache.  They are really really old, so I need to just throw some away. 

Yes, mom, I am actually throwing some stuff away.  I know that is a miracle in itself. 

The best cleaning solution in the world is white vinegar and blue dawn with HOT water.  Vinegar will disinfect just incase you did not know that.  It is time to scrub them and get them all sparkly again. 

Now that I have all those selves empty it is time to clean them really good and disinfect them.  Before wiping them down, I am going to vacuum out each and every shelf.  Otherwise I will just be stirring up all the hair.  Even a microfiber towel can’t handle this job. 

Since it is empty I am going to move it out and clean behind it and the walls.  I will admit, I have never cleaned the walls in this room.  Eventually I want to paint in here, but it is paneling and that will be a huge under taking alone. 

All my melts were organized at one point, but as I have come in to grab some to use or sale, I have just thrown the others back up there.  

Moving On

I can’t blame anyone else on this disaster except me.

As for the jars, I took each and every one of them to the kitchen and hand washed them all.  But I have to figure out how to put them all back in the shelf in a way to keep them all clean.  I have plenty of boxes around here, I guess I will put them in there.  I wish I could make them cute, but for right now, lets just get it all clean and put back up.

Next is the desk.  I have a perfectly good desk to work on my computer on.  It just needs to be cleaned and organized also.  Of course, this will change as I get to working in here because until I sit down and really begin using it, I don’t really know how I want it set up.  I have cleaned and disinfected it as well. 

I have all these blocks that I have made that were on these shelves beside the desk.  I cleaned each one of those and sat them on the desk for now.  Anything I have wiped off, I am not putting down on the floor.  Even though I swept it was just like stirring up a tornado of cat hair. So that nice clean desk I just cleaned is getting covered again.

Each and every item I take off the shelf is getting wiped down.  It is not just necessarily cat hair on all this stuff. 

I Know, I’m Rambling Here

Like I said before, this room is not very West Texas proof.  And my back yard is mainly dirt because of dogs, so if the wind blows, it comes straight in these windows.  I have put weather stripping in them, but they won’t shut all the way with that. 

I will eventually figure out something, but I just have not given it that much thought.  But I am sure tonight or tomorrow night, I will have a pillow staff meeting and figure something out.

I vacuum out all these shelves, move them out and vacuum behind them.  When I get the mop in here, I will mop behind them as well.  All sparkly!!!  Now to push them back in place and put all the stuff back on them as well.

Time for the next set, and these are almost as bad as the candle shelf.  The windows above these shelves are some of the worse, and I have left them open so there is fresh air in here.  I just have a tendency to forgot to close them sometimes. 

We are going to repeat the process all the way around this room.  I have a lot of shelving units in here.  And all sets need a deep though cleaning.  And all the stuff on them need a deep though cleaning. 

Take a Breather

Now, just so you know, Stormy had to work all day, got home about 4:30, had homework, and went to get stuff to make supper.  She knows to just stay out of the way when I am on a rampage like this.  It is just easier. 

I did stop long enough to eat supper. Here in Texas, we eat supper and not dinner.  Storm and Arnie (Stormy’s other half) made a sausage pasta that is to die for.  Oh my goodness it was good. 

But I can’t stop and sit too long, because I won’t be able to get up and going again.  My back and my feet just do not like it at all.  I will more then likely have to use my walker to get up to pee tonight once I am done. 

I told the kids I was going to get back to work.  Arnie doesn’t think I will finish tonight because there is so much stuff in that room, and I have only made it halfway through.

As Arnie is leaving to go home he tells me not to stay up to late.  Little does he know that once I get going, I will not stop until it is done.

I work late into the night….like 3 a.m. to be exact, and I have gotten every surface, every item cleaned and put back up. 

I have mopped the walls, cleaned behind all the shelves, filled up a huge trash can, and put a pile of things to go to the dumpster in the middle of the floor.  I refuse to go to the dumpster at night or in the dark.  I am terrified of what might jump out at me. 

I think it is finally time to call it a night, because all that is left to do is mop and bring my computer and printer in here.  I can’t mop with a pile of crap in the floor.

Calling it a Night

I changed clothes, didn’t even have the energy to wash my face or anything, and crawled in bed.  But did I fall asleep????  Nope.  Wide awake.  So I played games on my phone hoping it would put me to sleep.  5 a.m. and I finally dozed off.

And needless to say, I did not have a pillow staff meeting about those damn windows.

Day 2

7:30 a.m. and my eyes pop open.  SERIOUSLY!!!  I really wanted to sleep until noon.  I did not have to use my walker, but I did have to use my old woman cane to get out of bed.  My back and feet are shot.  But I am not done. 

I get dressed, make my way to the kitchen, drink some coffee, and start walking around the house to work out the stiffness.  By 8:30 I am ready to go, slowly but ready. 

I took all the stuff in the pile out to the pickup, but the trash I could not lift.  Stormy and Arnie grabbed it for me.  

I got everything mopped really good.  I wanted the power stripes off the floor so I hung them on the wall.  I tried to make it look nice and not trashy.  I hung a basket by the desk, then moved my laptop, sublimation printer, and label maker in. 

And Wah La!!  10:30 a.m. and it is all done. 

Finally All Done

Y’all, I am so proud.  It looks so good, and smells amazing. 

Yes, this is still going to be the cat room at night, but now that I got it back under control, I hope it will be easier to maintain.  I still couldn’t figure out what to do about all those containers.  The are full of material, flowers, and other crafting stuff.  Maybe y’all can give me some ideas in the comments!!!  I love to know what you think, and if you have any suggestions. 

With all that said and done, I want to do it to every inch of the house now.  I promise the rest of my house does not look like that room.  That room just gets the same or less attention than the garage or the barn because it has just become a sore spot to me.  However, once you get one spot completely organized and spotless it just makes you want to keep going.  Just maybe not today. 

Next on the to do list, who knows.