Seinfeld chains - June

[Chicken lady]

Ok ejchase, I'm back in the trenches. One link. I got a stack of papers, a little recycling, and a little trash out of my basement today. I will hit it again tomorrow. I can feel a deadline looming in my future.

[nswef]

Good for you! Yesterday I took a few things to Goodwill that had been sitting in a cupboard...waiting...

[mschrisgo2]

Oh, this sounds like a great idea. I'm on summer break now, and need to do lots of clean-up and decluttering, but I also need to keep up the "already cleaned" places.

So- 10 minutes a day in the kitchen- Done
10 minutes going through paper- Done
10 minutes evaluating one item/category for duplicates and thinning quantity- went through a box of school/office supplies today. I will drop off a whole bagful to the kids' program at church on Sunday. :)

[mschrisgo2]

Reporting in- Kitchen - did 10 minutes both Friday and Saturday (today). Amazing how good I feel to walk into a clean kitchen in the morning!
Paper- 10 minutes- DONE both days, I'm beginning to see the light at the end of that tunnel...
10 minutes on ONE category- Friday, evaluating nail polish led to 12 dried up bottles into the trash, and cleaning the entire bathroom, top to bottom! It only took me 35 minutes, and it is spotless!
Saturday- collected and sorted all the used plastic bags, made a bagful for dog waste and put it by the leashes by the door, and a bagful for trash, into the kitchen cupboard where they are most likely to be used. Also threw out a bunch that were too yucky to reasonably use again. This actually took 15 minutes, but the results were so well worth the time!

I'm loving timing these small projects, not much time spent, really, and I don't get overwhelmed with a Big project, and the results are Wonderful!

[Chicken lady]

Good job!

I have three links but have done only small things each day. My son leaves for Germany today. He's been living in the basement so I have tried to be less disruptive.

[mschrisgo2]

For Sunday, 10 minutes in the kitchen DONE, 10 minutes on paper DONE, packed for a 2 day trip, and in the process, evaluated and trashed many items/personal care products meant for traveling (small bottles, that leaked! samples, etc)

Monday, even though I got home really late, actually put away the leftover snacks and dog food instead of dumping them in the kitchen, kitchen 10 minutes DONE, and filed the paperwork I brought home, instead of adding it to the mess, Paper 10 minutes DONE. Special category, 10 minutes, DONE; I had a plastic box of "important stuff" that I had simply transferred from the last car to this car when I bought it last August. Took 10 minutes to evaluate it last night- don't need the map books anymore, Google Maps on my phone works great; the fuses wouldn't fit this car, not the right oil for this car, jumper cables were cracked from being rolled up for so many years, etc... kept the first aid kit, a couple of things to pass on, the rest in the trash.

[catherine]

You guys have motivated me with this chain, and I actually found an app for it:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dont-break-the-chain!/id313567772?mt=8

It's free.

[Chicken lady]

I guess there's an app for everything.

I'm still picking at it. I'm working my way through a box of "social studies" themed books right now. Which is harder than it sounds - I basically threw everything related to people, cultures, history, government, geography, languages, arts, etc into the box. I thinking should have labelled it "not math or hard science". Also I keep reading.

[ejchase]

Thanks, Chicken Lady, for starting this up again. I can't start today but will soon!

[Chicken lady]

So today I broke my chain. I'm ok about it though, because basically he time went toward finishing the room on the first floor so I can get the stuff that belongs in it out of the basement.

[mschrisgo2]

I've done 6 days! Wow, they add up in a hurry...

[Chicken lady]

I got back to it yesterday. I finished sorting out the books in the social studies bin and a moved a toy car out to the workshop.

[mschrisgo2]

Two more days DONE, I'm loving the clean kitchen and the "extra" projects, but really dreading the paper. I wish I could just trash it all, but at least half of it really does need to be kept and filed.
Special projects:
I sold a bagful of self-help books to a store out of town yesterday, got $36! Half-Price Books is hardly paying a dollar a book anymore, glad I set these aside for a different store/trip.

Went through a gathered up a small box of "teacher" gifts. A friend in charge of a summer school program wants to give her teachers something on the last day. I tried to tell her they'd rather have Starbucks cards, but she says they are all brand new teachers and they will be tickled with these things! Cool, l now I don't feel guilty for getting rid of them!

[mschrisgo2]

Four more links completed. I'm still really enjoying and appreciating keeping the kitchen clean, and doing the small projects. i have spent 10-15 minutes each day for several days rearranging the books on my shelves. It's all done now, looks nice, and I can find things again! now if I could just feel as good about the paper stuff... hopefully I will when it is finished.

[ejchase]

Hi All,

I have finally returned to my chains - well 2 out of the 3 so far.

I have 2 links on my a.m. home routine and 2 on my office tidying routine. Need to get my p.m. home routine started in the next couple of days if I can.

Thanks for the inspiration!

[Chicken lady]

Didn't work on the basement yesterday, so I guess this is day 1 again.

So far today I have moved games from the basement to the empty shelf in my son's closet, cleared off a bookshelf that belongs to my oldest and she will be taking this evening, and found two blankets in the basement linen closet that can go.

The chain will get broken again with family stuff the first week of July, but then I will need to double down before the electrical work starts.

[mschrisgo2]

I've kept up all 3 of my chains, 20 days so far. I like the structure of this process, and of course, the results! I have decided that until I leave on vacation on July 9th, I need to focus my "project time" also on the paper mess, so I'll be doing 10 minutes on the kitchen, and 30 minutes on paper every day now.

[Chicken lady]

I kept up but I'm on break now until Monday. Good luck with your paper!

[freshstart]

ok, I think I sort of get what you are doing here, but then not quite so sure, is it like making a chain of things you have to do and do so many a day? and I've gotta know, why Seinfeld??? lol

[mschrisgo2]

I've kept up my chains, and now have the dining table and my desk totally clear of papers. And I actually FILED what I kept! Still have the coffee table and my work table to go, those will be much easier and I hope to get them done before I leave for vacation Thursday night.

[Chicken lady]

Fresh start,

It's picking one task - or one for each chain, and doing it consistently. Generally every day but if your task is something like "leave desk clean at work" - that would only be workdays. Every day is a link in your chain and as long as you don't skip, the chain gets longer, so it establishes a good habit toward your goal. Ejchase started a thread explaining it and the Seinfeld part - he popularized the idea.

Does somebody want to make a July thread? I need to start over again. Sigh.