View Full Version : August Purge
The two items put out on the sidewalk on Saturday are gone. Unfortunately, it was via garbage pickup, but they are gone.
I was working on weeds until I got repeatedly sting by what might be carpenter bees.
iris lilies
8-1-22, 7:12pm
I was working on weeds until I got repeatedly sting by what might be carpenter bees.
Those bees are not normally big on stinging, They prefer to hover around you and try to intimidate you with their presence.You must’ve made them very very angry Jeppy! What were you doing invading their space??!!!
They looked like bees but smaller. They chased me to the opposite side of the house. One got up under my shirt, another behind my ear, a third near my knee. I am buying wasp and hornet spray tomorrow. Removed part of the dead wood I was using as a border for my flowers and they are swarming all around the remaining wood. So something that nests on the ground and likes wood.
iris lilies
8-1-22, 9:16pm
They looked like bees but smaller. They chased me to the opposite side of the house. One got up under my shirt, another behind my ear, a third near my knee. I am buying wasp and hornet spray tomorrow. Removed part of the dead wood I was using as a border for my flowers and they are swarming all around the remaining wood. So something that nests on the ground and likes wood.
They probably are not Carpenter bees. Carpenter bees are the size of bumblebees and they’re black and gold like bumblebees they just have a somewhat different color pattern. They are big slow buzzing things. They would not follow you.
Maybe Catherine will chime in here. Are they yellow jackets?
Teacher Terry
8-2-22, 2:03am
That’s awful Yppej. You need to be careful as too many stings can be dangerous. They sound too aggressive for bees and sounds more like wasps or hornets. I spent today going through my closets and ended up with 4 bags of stuff for the thrift store.
Maybe yellow jackets. Not wasps as those would be in a papery nest up high.
One of those thermal food bags that keep food warm. It works too well and actually makes things soggy and the inside of the bag gets dripping wet with condensation.
yppej, I bet they were yellow jackets, they often nest in the ground and are very aggressive. Spray the space in the evening.
I got rid of a bunch of yellow jackets :)
The areas where they bit me are still red and two are itchy and painful.
stings are awful and take a long time to stop itching and swelling...at least in this house. Thus the vigilance!! Glad you purged them.
Speaking of itchy, I don't think I told you guys the itchy dress saga, but sorry if I'm repeating myself. Last summer, I got a great maxi dress at Savers. It was so pretty, raw silk, fit me perfectly, and only cost about $7.00. I like long dresses in the hot weather. I mostly wear them at home, but they are cool, comfortable and cute. So I bought this dress late in the season and never wore it last year, but I did wash and iron it. A few weeks ago on a hot night, I was wearing the dress while sitting in the gazebo with a book and a glass of wine. I had a bit of itchiness, and I thought a mosquito had gotten me. As time progressed, I got a couple more itchy spots, so turned on my Thermacell mosquito repelling device. It took me awhile and a lot more itching to realize that I seemed to be having some kind of a reaction to the dress. When I took it off, I had hives all over my upper torso! I took a Benadryl, and the next morning, there was no sign of rash or hives.
So apparently being a glutton for punishment, I washed and ironed the dress again on the off chance there was something in the fabric I was reacting to, and maybe a second washing would eliminate it. I really liked the dress and didn't want to give up on it! I put it on last night, and started feeling itchy after a few minutes, so took it off and I will not be keeping it.
Google tells me that some people do have allergies to silk, although silky silk has never bothered me. I'm not sure if I've had anything that was raw silk before.
Anyway, goodbye pretty dress! Should I donate it under the assumption that the problem was me, or send it to fabric recycling or even trash it under the assumption the problem was the dress?
In case you are dying of curiosity. Wasn't I lucky that I was at home, and not at a restaurant or something? Yikes!
4670
That's too bad, rr. Glad the rash didn't last long.
RR give the dress to someone you don't like.
Having had hives for most of 3 years, our reactions are pretty unique to each individual. I would donate. (I was either allergic to the pines all over NC or the new house and chemicals in it while in NC). Would not wish them on anyone.
RR give the dress to someone you don't like.
LOL. I actually tend to like most of the people I know in real life, and I don't think it would fit Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert.
They probably are not Carpenter bees. Carpenter bees are the size of bumblebees and they’re black and gold like bumblebees they just have a somewhat different color pattern. They are big slow buzzing things. They would not follow you.
Maybe Catherine will chime in here. Are they yellow jackets?
Yes, you sound like you have what we had last year. There was a nest in the compost and a nest in dead wood (see picture). I only got stung twice when I disrupted the compost pile, but the "Bee Stump" tribe never bothered me. They did, however, bother my family members (not DH) just because they were there. I was intimidated into removing them but, frankly, I was a bit sad about it because while they don't pollinate, they do prey on garden pests.
My neighbor told me they are common yellow jackets.
Note DH's experiment with Tootsie Roll pops. We learned that yellow jackets actually love them! It was licked clean in a couple of days Maybe they thought it was a strange new flower.
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catherine, it's like you had given them their own address sign and treats. LOL. I love it!
rosarugosa
8-6-22, 10:49am
Catherine,
That is so cute with the sign, and who knew they liked Tootsie Pops?
littlebittybobby
8-7-22, 3:03pm
Okay--I went to install the nice, clean, safe NEW steering damper on my littlebitty Suburban, and guess what? I had the supplied, special mounting hardware for the frame anchor, but needed the special & not-supplied mounting bolt for the damper-to-tie rod! I looked around, and sure enough--it was still attached to the rusty, dirty, old steering damper I removed months ago, which I THOUGHT I had pitched into the trash to keep things nice and neat and tidy and clutter-free. But guess what? There it was, on the bench with other misc. stuff. So, I removed it and buffed it up and painted it and the new bolt for the other end. Soon as it dries, I'll put the damper on. Good thing I didn't get in a hurry to dispose of the old damper, right? Meanwhile, I'm gonna adjust the steering gear. It has twio adjustments, to take the play out of it. Hope that helps you some. It's only 90 degrees F outside, today.
Did a small declutter on my bathroom cabinet and undergarment drawer. Five pairs of underwear, two bottles of eyeglass cleaner along with the rags that went with them, two pressed power puffs, and two random keys that I have no idea what they unlocked (and why they were in my bathroom cabinet :) ).
Found more primer samples that I am using up.
Teacher Terry
8-8-22, 4:28pm
Long story short I met a 19 year old girl working 2 jobs living in a camper. She was happy to get all the food I had planned to take to a shelter and all the stuff in my trunk for the thrift store. I had the food because my son is gone for work for at least a year and it was stuff he eats but I don’t. I actually ended up making up 2 extra bags of food that I do eat because she was so nice and I felt sorry for her.
Long story short I met a 19 year old girl working 2 jobs living in a camper. She was happy to get all the food I had planned to take to a shelter and all the stuff in my trunk for the thrift store. I had the food because my son is gone for work for at least a year and it was stuff he eats but I don’t. I actually ended up making up 2 extra bags of food that I do eat because she was so nice and I felt sorry for her.
It's so much easier to give stuff directly to a person who needs it! Good for you, Terry.
Nice, tt!!! Sounds like a win-win for both of you.
Decluttered and reorganized one side of the garage. Was able to give a plastic shelf to my son and DIL.
I'm finally getting some stuff out the door: 20 hand-me-downs from my daughter to someone in our Buy Nothing Group with 2 younger daughters and 27 random items to Goodwill. Total for month: 47.
Dried up paint. Got replacements for touch ups on sales tax holiday except one gallon that one place wanted $45 for and the other $40.
I was wanting a colorful print for our extra bathroom downstairs and had been looking through the thrift store stacks but didn't find anything. Last week, I was sitting in my office and noticed a framed floral painting that I had on my wall there. I took it off the wall and put it in my bathroom at home. Perfect. No $$.
A puzzle to someone in our Buy Nothing Group. New total for month: 48.
mschrisgo2
8-19-22, 1:57pm
FIVE partial rolls of tape, used up!
That freed some space in my drawer :)
frugal-one
8-19-22, 2:11pm
A puzzle to someone in our Buy Nothing Group. New total for month: 48.
I see you count the number of things you get rid of. Why? I have been meaning to ask for a while now.
A pair of high heeled boots, as I don't wear heels anymore. Two pairs of worn out sandals.
I've been able to avoid buying summer clothes by pulling some of the ones in my fat clothes drawer out as I lose weight, but my shoe size is the same. I am down to two pairs of sandals now that I hope will get me through to fall.
happystuff
8-20-22, 1:41pm
Just dropped off three owl puppets and a tub full of dinosaurs, zoo animals, farm animals, etc. to the kids next door. All spared a trip to the dumpster.
A pillow with the stuffing coming out.
rosarugosa
8-23-22, 2:29pm
I just gave away 7 items of clothing to a local woman who was very delighted with some things I gave to her in the spring. I told her I would keep her in mind for the future, which I did. So far this year I'm at 13 clothing items in and 17 items out.
I have been on a decluttering spree the last fews days. It always amazes me when I find so much stuff that I just don't need/want.
In the last 2 days, I got rid of:
Bedding
Bathmats
Paper bags
Cat food bowls
Napkin holder
Old t-shirts (husband's)
Three cleaning caddies
Also did a pass through the kitchen junk drawer and cabinets
What I am most looking forward to is paring down my cleaning supplies. Need to use up what I have and then will only buy 1-2 products to do the each room. I generally use a mult-purpose spray like Mrs Meyers for the kitchen. Don't really care which brand as long as it can be used for multiple surfaces. I use a generic glass cleaner for windows and mirrors. I use Pledge Multi-surface for dusting. Where I have too many products is in the bathroom. I have decided to only use Kaboom in the bathrooms which will clean the shower, toilet, and sink. Just need to use up the Comet and Scrubbing Bubbles that I currently have.
I have a Bissell Crosswave that I use to clean all my floors in the bathrooms and kitchen so that only uses one product.
I see you count the number of things you get rid of. Why? I have been meaning to ask for a while now.
Hi!
I think maybe years ago in this thread a lot of people were counting - some people were aiming to get rid of 100 things a month.
I just count because I have serious clutter issues, and I find it very motivating to keep track of how many things I get rid of every month. When I first started decluttering, I joined some challenge to get rid of 365 items in a year. I made that goal that year, and then I wanted to set a new goal of getting rid of 1,200 items in a year (100 a month). I've never made that goal, but I do still keep track of how much I get rid of every month and every year, and many years I've gotten to between 700 and 800 items, which has been huge progress for me.
It also just helps me with despair. Because my clutter issues are pretty severe, when I'm feeling really overwhelmed by them, it's good for me to see that number because it reminds me I'm still moving in the right direction. Even though I backslide with my clutter sometimes, my house is 10 times less cluttered than it used to be, and that's largely due to all the baby steps i've been taking with the support of the people on this "Organizing Your Life" group. When I start to feel shame about my clutter issues, I remind myself I got rid of 700 items last year, and I did NOT bring in that many!
So that's why I do it!
Teacher Terry
9-11-22, 2:02pm
Echase, you have gotten rid of a ton of stuff. One thing I do now is ask myself before buying something if I am just going to be giving it away in a few years. However, when you have kids new stuff is coming in by necessity. That’s one thing about buying stuff cheap at garage sales or a thrift store it’s easier to donate it back if you haven’t spent much money.
frugal-one
9-11-22, 4:21pm
enchase... Thanks for explaining....
enchase... Thanks for explaining....
Ooh, you're posting in the thread for a previous month. Should people berate you like you berated me? Big sin, big sin!
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