What worked for me

This post is an update to my previous posts from so long ago. Since it is over a year later, I wanted to share what worked for me and what didn't.

1.  Email clean up to songs. This worked wonderfully for me. My email box now rarely gets over 100 emails. Once I got it under control and unsubscribe from emails I did not want, I no longer had to clean it daily. But if I see it inching toward 100, on goes a song and down goes the email count.

2. Mail sorting boxes. OK so this failed horribly. We are still buried in paper. The boxes filled up in a week and broke. But the thing is, the idea was not a bad one. We did sort what came in and get rid of what we did not need. But we had no good place to put what we needed to keep or deal with at a later date so it just accumulated in the boxes. So we are still struggling with this. I have a feeling this will be the last part of our house that we get under control. But we are making progress and I am hopeful that once we find a place that works to store the paper we need, then the mail trays will actually be useful. So this is still a work in progress.

3.  Litter genie. Yup I still love it. In fact, we have added an elderly hamster named Abner to our household. He was surrendered to our shelter already 3/4 of the way through his expected life span and my heart broke at the thought of him living out his few remaining months in the shelter. Thankfully my amazing niece felt the same and decided he should be her first ever small animal pet regardless of how long (or short) the rest of his life would be. So now not only do we use the litter genie for the cats, we use it for the debris from the daily spot cleaning of Abner's cage.

4.  Sunrise lamp. It does still help. I am currently going through a horrible sleep phase, one of the worst in a long time. It is a result of the multiple courses of steroids I was on in the year my asthma was out of control. And my new asthma med makes breathing easier but sleeping harder. But I still notice that it is easier to wake up on the days I use the sunrise lamp. My sleep needs to improve if I am going to continue to make progress but I will take it one night at a time.

5.  The black hole that is my closet. Is still clean!  This is a HUGE accomplishment for me. I could not keep my closet clean even when I was "healthy". It is not totally uncluttered but I can find what I need when I need it.

So that's about it for updates. Coming soon in what works for me, I will tell you about a cleaning product and house cleaning system that has made it possible for me to contribute to the house cleaning in a small way for the first time in almost 10 years.

And in the months to come, I hope to share my attempt to regain some of my strength and balance while I work to find an exercise program that works for me regardless of my multiple chronic illnesses.   Right now I am way to close to being bedridden. I can only tolerate being up for a few hours at a time without needing to rest. So there is no question this will be challenging but I am determined to try.   Wish me luck!