SDD Clutter Free Day 16: How to Destroy a Roach Colony

It's Day 16 of the So Damn Domestic Clutter Free Countdown, and that means today I decluttered 15 items. I decided to tackle my roach drawer, I mean, my plastic grocery bag drawer. I'd saved the bags in a drawer of the storage console in my dining area, either to use for emptying the litter box, or until I'd saved up a bunch to recycle.

I saw roaches go in and out of the drawer, and some major denial happened. I just stopped using that drawer. I don't think I made a conscious decision to avoid it, I just left the drawer closed and it became, "out of sight, out of mind."

Well, part of a 30-day decluttering challenge is facing those areas of our homes that don't work for us. The time had come. I put on rubber gloves, covered my nose and mouth with my shirt, and opened the drawer with my toes, from a distance.

It wasn't so bad! At least not on that top layer of bags. I started moving one bag at a time into the trashcan. Would you believe there were exactly 15 bags in there? Exactly the number of items I needed to declutter for today's goal. I really had no idea how many bags were in there, so that made me laugh.

Once all the bags were out, okay, it was gross. But it wasn't an Indiana Jones-esque swarm, so I was pleasantly surprised. The really disgusting part was underneath the drawer. It was pretty much black from dead roaches and poop. It was also horrifying behind the console, where the still-living ones had scurried and hid from my wrath.

(Actually, I didn't have wrath. I've been saying an equanimity meditation a few times a week for a couple months, so I mostly just felt bad for the roaches and tried to kill them quickly and painlessly. But my air quality comes first.)

I'm absolutely not an expert on pest control, but I'll share with you what I did to clean up the console.

1. A few days before cleaning, I moved most of the roach bait poison to that corner of the apartment. I didn't want to open up the drawer and displace a bunch of living roaches into the rest of the

apartment. (Spoiler alert: a bunch lived and dispersed anyway.)
2. I removed all of my baskets from the shelves, so if they did disperse, they didn't camp out in my belongings. (This way they're in the walls...so much better...? >.<)
3. Day of cleaning. Removed everything from the drawer they lived in.
4. Sprayed open drawer with anti-roach mixture: water, vinegar, peppermint oil, tea tree oil.
5. Coated with baking soda. Let sit one minute.
6. Doused drawer with vinegar.
7. Unscrewed the hinges and removed the drawer. Washed it in the kitchen sink. This seems like an unsanitary step. If I had access to a hose, I would have washed it outside. I just used the sink hose, hot water, more vinegar, and a scrub brush.
8. Repeated with three other drawers, even though they weren't as bad. I wanted to make sure all roach poop was cleaned because it's so bad for air quality, and also wanted to make sure to kill any eggs.

9. Set drawers outside to air dry.

10. Swept really gross under-drawer area. Broom heads can be washed or replaced!
11. Repeated same process under the drawers: vinegar spray, baking soda soak, pure vinegar douse, and then since I can't fit a whole storage console in the sink, I mopped it.
12. Moved the console forward. Repeated step 11 behind the console. There's a cable tacked back there that they're small enough to crawl behind. I haven't cleaned that because I ran out of stamina. Tomorrow I'll have to take out the tacks and wipe down the cable.
13. Called a friend from the fresh, outdoor air.

So it was horrifying and disgusting, but not as horrifying and disgusting as I imagined it would be. I'm very pleased that they hadn't lived in there long enough to damage the console. It's a good piece of furniture when it's not infested.

I'm off to shower for about a year.

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SDD Clutter Free Day 15: Plants Vs Zombies Figurines, My To-Do List, and My Expectations

It's Day 15 of the So Damn Domestic Clutter Free Countdown, which means time to declutter 16 items. I had to confirm the numbers a few times, like, "Wait, is it Day 16 or 16 items?" I don't need to make a list for my items today. I chose to get rid of my Plants Versus Zombies figurines. There's exactly sixteen of them, so it's perfect.

I bought them online, and when I opened the packaging, they smelled horrible, a strong, chemical oder. I didn't return them because I ordered them right before I moved to bring to CA as a gift for my cousin. There's too much going on when moving to deal with shipping a return. I didn't want to be responsible for my little cousin's lead poisoning, so I held on to them.

I'm not sure if I should sell them with a disclaimer, and let a buyer use their own disgression, or just throw them away.

Speaking of things I'm not sure of, I've been using this great app called Todoist, but I'm still getting in the groove with it. I love that it makes my to-do list an active part of my day, instead of a "someday I should get to this" list. I can assign different tasks to different days, set recurring deadlines, and compete with myself and how many tasks I'd completed the day before.

My Todoist Menu: After

My Todoist Menu: Before

I used it to pace my reading for book club. I did the math of how many pages I'd need to read per day to finish the book the day before book club. Then I set the task as "Read 15 pages Their Eyes Were Watching God every night at 11 PM." Sure enough, I finished the book right on time, and even had extra time to study the author's history and symbolism in the book.

The main issue I've encountered is if I skip a day of a recurring task, it marks it as past due. I'd rather it just reset the task to let me try again. It needs an, "I'm not doing this. Leave me alone" option. It'd be great if I were a master of discipline and never ever deviated from my plans. But then, no it wouldn't. I like having flexibility built into my schedule. I like being able to rest when I'm tired or do more when I have a burst of energy.

I've been using Todoist for a couple weeks, and I'd typed in my routines as individual items. Today I erased all of them. I replaced the fourteen Morning Routine tasks with one task called Morning Routine. It had started to overwhelm be that I had sixty-four tasks on my list every day.

Now it's much neater. I changed my Kharma settings from a goal of 40 tasks per day, to a goal of 10 tasks per day. That means my tasks are weighted about the same as they were, so I'll still rake in lots of points. Yeah, there's points! Your status upgrades at different levels of points. It's pretty great.

I only completed my massive night routine once this week, so I decided to take Flylady's suggestion to build a routine up from 3 tasks at a time. I was able to build my full morning routine as whole by taking notes along the way, but my dream night routine is about 2-3 hours long, so I think starting small is the way to go here.

The three items I'm going to work on are:
1. Fill up the dish drying rack. I like this because it's very visual and finite. It's better than "Do all the dishes," which can overwhelm me. I have a feeling all the dishes will be done with this goal, anyway.
2. Read pre-planned number of pages. Right now I'm reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio, 50 pages a night, because it's a children's book.
3. Meditate. I'm using the Stop, Breathe, Think app. I like that it tracks my mental and physical settledness, as well as my emotions. It helps me notice patterns in my mood. Plus the meditations actually help me and there are stickers!

It hurts a little bit to let go of the rest of my routine for now. It brought be so much peace of mind when I was able to complete it, but if it's not working, I gotta reset. Anyway, it's not gone for good. It's just on hiatus. Once I feel solid in those three things, I'll add in another three things.

Looks like today I decluttered 16 toys, plus my to-do list, and my expectations. I like that perspective!

A Night Owl's Experiment: Developing a Nighttime Routine

"Tomorrow, I'm going to honor a nighttime routine."

One of my big goals for July was to develop a Wake-up Routine. I succeeded in that goal, and it's been wonderful starting my days with intention. My apartment stays clean with fewer cleaning binges stressing me out. I let the routine slide during a high-anxiety week, and that's okay. The routine was all set and reassuring when I was ready to step back into it.

The reason it works is because it's more than "cleaning," it's meditation. It's cleaning mixed in with tooth-brushing, stretching and affirmations, and breakfast. It flows together like watercolors and reminds me that I am part of my environment, and I'm worth taking care of. (From what I understand, the “care” aspect makes it a ritual instead of a routine, but that’s a topic for another time.)

It's been such a comfort, I'm excited to work on a nighttime routine now. I'm a night owl. I get a burst of energy when the sun goes down and it takes major effort to pull me away from whatever I'm working on. I suspect learning to read my body's tiredness cues will be a big part of a nighttime routine's success.

When I experimented with a Dream Day calendar, I set numerous alerts to remind me to start winding down. They were absolutely useless, just like an alarm to wake up in the morning was useless. I need to apply the same strategy to nights that I've had so much success with in mornings, which is:

1. Focus on the task order.

I've tried making goals like "meditate every night" and they always get dropped for that extra episode of Cupcake Wars. Morning goals used to get dropped for extra time playing on my phone, and the way I got over that was by creating an “order of operations” for my morning. For my nighttime routine, if I blend meditation, cross stitch, and reading in with dishes, wiping counters, and washing my face, in the same order every night, I believe the whole will support the parts.

Every race needs a starter's pistol. I can start with the same task every time. I’m thinking first, put on podcast, second, wipe table. That feels like a good starting place for me.

2. Time the whole.

Instead of assuming I'll get to everything every morning, I limit my morning routine to an hour. My morning routine has dishes and laundry in it. Tasks like those fluctuate based on how much mess has accumulated. It took some practice to learn what an hour feels like without watching the clock. I have an even better idea for nighttime! I'm gonna put on a podcast or CD while I do the cleaning part, then finish it out to cross stitch, and after it's done, move to my bedroom/bathroom for tooth brushing, reading, and meditation. While my Wake-up Routine takes one hour, with how much effort it takes to convince my night owl brain to rest, the Nighttime Routine will probably take two.

3. It'll happen when it happens.

My hope is that the self-regulatory nature of routines will lead to a regular sleep/wake schedule. Then, I’ll be able to say, “My nighttime routine starts at 9 PM.” (HA, 9 PM, that's like early evening!) Until then, my plan is simply to commit to the tasks, not the hour, so I have to learn not to push myself to exhaustion by starting too late in the night. Tonight is a bad example of listening to internal cues. I was so excited to repeat the routine I practiced yesterday, I went straight to Google Docs to write about it.

It’s a process!

I’ve decided to break my Nighttime Routine into three phases, so I can master them in baby steps.

Phase 1: Leading Rein (Titled this, not because any of these acts give me control, but because they allow my mind to take me where it needs to go. Of course, listening to a podcast impedes that. Hmm.Something to consider, there.)

1. Put on podcast or album
2. Wipe table
3. Wipe counters
4. Wipe stove
5. Diffuse a calming essential oil
6. Prep tomorrow’s meals as applicable
7. Throw out trash / sort recyclables
8. Wash dishes
9. Wipe sink and faucet
10. Brew tea
11. Sweep

Phase 2: Passage (The phase between active and asleep.)

1. Tidy desk
2. Tidy living room (adjust couch cushions and pillows, fold blankets, stack books)
3. Enjoy tea and cross stitch [I’m still working on timing. Until end of podcast? End of one needle’s worth of embroidery floss? 20 minutes? I’ll try it a few ways and see what works.]
4. Play with cats until they lay on their sides
5. Plug in mobile devices to charge
6. Refill water bottle
7. Turn lights and other electronics off in the living side of the apartment

Phase 3: Landing Place

1. Put on PJs
2. Brush teeth
3. Floss
4. Wash face
5. Moisturize
6. Read, 20 mins.
7. Adjust the bed covers and window so the room is cool, dark, and quiet
8. Body scan meditation
9. If not asleep within 30 minutes, repeat last three steps.

I made these lists in the Reminders app on my iPhone 4S. Any to-do list app will work great. Of course, it’s best to minimize screen use before bed, so a whiteboard, chalkboard, or plain ol’ piece of paper could be used instead.

I make sure to use the checklists even if I feel like I have it memorized because, honestly, if it were intuitive, I would’ve been doing it all along. Besides, the point is not to recreate the order every time, but to develop habits of Thing B after Thing A.

I’d like to say my goal is to master this by the end of August, but with three phases, I have a feeling it’s going to take longer than two weeks to get it down pat.

It’s important to remind myself to do these things without expectation. It’s all for me, so if it doesn’t improve my life, I can let it go and try something else instead. It is impossible to fail.

What works for you?

Dry Hair Faster: How to Clean a Hair Dryer

Tomorrow, I’m going to clean my hair dryer.

I got this blow dryer before I was old enough to understand manuals so when I discovered that the filter in the back comes off, I got really excited. I'm sure this is one of those things everybody already knows, but if that’s the case, here’s a reminder to clean your hair dryer. :)


It's amazing how much more efficient a blow dryer is when the air doesn't have to make it's way through all that dust!