medical binders and recipe binders

Four of us now each have a medical binder. They are three ring binders filled with sleeve/page protectors. Medical forms go in the sleeves. There are sections, labeled wide dividers (that are made to work with sleeve/page protectors). We buy the dividers with the half circle labels so the labels do not slide out. Office Depot.  Sections include - immunizations, family records, lab work, Ortho, neuro, asthma/allergist, gyn, ENT, eye, GI, etc. Each binder has slightly different sections as we have different doctors.

Very pleased. I take my binder to doctor’s appointments. If I need to find information, I have it with me. I ask for copies of things and put it directly into a sheet protector in the binder, while I am there. No loose papers/records floating around the house.

(EOB’s and receipts/bills go in a hanging file in my file cabinet by year. Many years ago I made all the hanging files. Like 2000-2019.)

The girls use their binders exactly as I use mine. They keep their own binders. I only keep my own.



AND


I went thru two fat binders of recipes in my kitchen. They took up a lot of room. I realized I used the recipes in one binder much more than the other. I cleaned out a lot of weird things and got myself down to one 2” binder. I kept about 1/3 of the recipes and got rid of 2/3.

Middle made a recipe binder for herself and one for youngest. They all have overlapping recipes and they have unique recipes. So not exact duplicates.

Very pleased.

We are over populated with chipmunks, we have had hundreds of $$$ damage to car

There are five houses. I was in my bare feet when I took these pictures, so I did not photograph the ones in the backyard. The three below are all near the driveway.

The dogs cannot get in them.

I don't think a cat could get in them.

We have not yet had a squirrel in one. But we would not be sad if we did. Too many squirrels (in my opinion).

This is the trap that is in each stone house. They are all baited with peanut butter.

We sold (probably hundreds of) things over the summer.

Four day serious garage sale.

And then I have been systematic listing things (left from sale) on Facebook marketplace, ever since.

For the last several months those things have sold slow but steadily.

Really pleased. More to go.

Vacuuming

My rugs on the inside and outside of the backdoor are very dark and a solid color. They show dirt and hair and stray grass and things that come in on people’s feet. They show everything.

And I get such satisfaction in vacuuming those rugs. Because they go from dirty to very clean, and I can see it. Those rugs get vacuumed at least once a week. (And that is very often for me.)

The carpeting, in the bedrooms and living room and loft, does not provide the same satisfaction. It is neutral. And it shows no dirt.

If I vacuum and there are a lot of zing noises, I have satisfaction. But visually, there is little reward.

So I am unmotivated to vacuum the neutral carpeting. It rarely gets done. In fact when I vacuum carpeting, I am usually moving furniture and deep cleaning.

A carpet salesman or an interior designer would probably recommend my carpeting to clients. They would say - it does not show the dirt and it wears very well.

But I suspect that carpeting actually means we are living with dirty floors. Way dirtier than we realize.

There is a correlation in here somewhere with getting on the scale. And taking pictures. And wearing the most fitted clothes in your closet.

Pantry, added six tiny shelves

An 8" shelf will be added to the very top. (The current top shelf is very full of clear glass serving pieces; they don't really show in these pictures.)

The little shelves, tucked under the big shelves, my husband added this fall to the pantry. There are six of them, three on each side. They add so much more storage space, maximizing what is on the big shelves.

He did a great job, I was able to match paint, they absolutely look like they have always been there.

Food organization - yes, I am channeling Tracy Benjamin with the labels. (I love her.)

I put a basket which is sturdy and attractive and has a lid, on top the little refrigerator in the kitchen. And I put the things that other people eat, but I do not want to see nor eat, in this basket. Pretzels, crackers, cereal, pita crisps, etc.

And both refrigerators now look like an Alzheimer patient lives here.

I labeled shelves.

With three of us using two refrigerators, things were getting ignored. Lost in the shuffle. So now everything has a spot.

And labeled shelves is sort of like the basket. I eat things off that shelf. I do not eat anything from those shelves. Simple but effective on several levels.

Medication is in the drawer on the upper left.
The cases of water are to help regulate the temperature of this refrigerator.