Today I smell like curry mayo and rotting food...

Finishing cleanout of the fridge

I spent several hours finishing my cull of food from the fridge today, then I refilled the fridge and took my "after" photos. After adding the last of my recycling, landfill and compost items to the city bins in my garage, I rolled two of the bins out to the street for city pickup early tomorrow.

Finally, I took a bath and changed to remove the smell of curry mayo and rotting food from my skin and clothes.

How can I do better with the fridge in the future? -- I often forget what I have in the fridge and ALWAYS buy too much. The fridge becomes clogged with items. I want to try posting all the current food in the fridge on the door, so that I can check items off as I use them. That should help me keep a better idea of what food items I need to restock.

Note: The "before" photo doesn't show the detail of food spilled on the floor of the cabinet. It was a mess. Also, I purchased the milk and yogurt shown in the "after" photo after taking the "before" photo. However, there was no room for them in the fridge until after the cull.

"Before" fridge cabinet and door

"After" fridge cabinet

"After" fridge door

Sorting nonfood items on the balcony

Before the smelly, messy work with the decaying and out-of-date food, I had spent several hours sorting through nonfood items that Elaine had stored temporarily on my balcony. Before leaving my house on Sunday, she had charged me with trying to find more items for the church garage sale by Friday, the deadline for the sale. So far I haven't had a lot of lucky with this assignment.

Culling this collection was TOUGH. I have quite a collection of plasticware, some of it brand new. What do I cull? My initial thought is to cull some brands of the plasticware but keep the others. I agree that I have too many -- I had recently purchased a number of tempered glass containers to replace some of the plasticware. I have several more bins of plasticware (currently stored in my living room) that I need to look through before making up my mind.

I also had hardware and bicycle items in this collection on my balcony. These belong in the basement, not in the kitchen, but I have temporarily stored these items in my dining room, where I have been collecting some other items for the basement.

I found an old scanner in the stuff on the balcony, which I will take it to one of the local electronic recycling depots. (Sellers of electronic devices in Canada now have to offer electronic recycling services.) I also found several packages of batteries, which I have transferred into a plastic box for storage.

A lot of the things I sorted today are still not in their intended home, either in the kitchen or elsewhere. I hope that I can get them to their homes before they get churned back into the kitchen.

This stuff is now sorted, washed and back in the kitchen,  but I still need
to make decisions about what will happen to these items.

Some people churn milk, but I churn stuff

One of my worst habits is to temporarily move stuff around and then, becoming distracted and losing my focus, leave it in a new, completely inappropriate place. Quickly, everything in my home can become churned into different rooms on different floors. This is typical of many hoarders, particularly those with attention disorders. As I mentioned earlier, my doctor doesn't think I have ADD, but I am definitely absent minded. One would find a strange assortment of treasures, abandoned food and dishes, and completely worthless junk in any small  area you might pick in my house. I am not aware of doing this. (My adult daughter often scolds me for this behaviour, but it has been with me all my life.)

I often have very good focus on whatever I am currently thinking about -- but I often don't pay much attention to other things going on around me. This isn't an age thing -- my mother took me to a hearing specialist when I was a teenager, thinking that I had a hearing problem. The doctor asked me, "What is your problem?" and I replied, "My mother thinks I have a hearing problem." He tested my hearing and confirmed that it was normal. I am just really good at tuning out other activities besides those I am focusing on. People often startle me when I am working away at my computer, because I am completely focused on my current project.

Time: 8 hours, 1 person