“Remoted” – Day 175 (Monday – Labor Day)

There were two opportunities for fun today. The dance group was meeting in the morning, and there was also a potential hike with cousins. Both were declined.

Today may have been a holiday from work-work, but it wasn’t a holiday from housework. Chores have been accumulating, and the recent rodent sightings had me anxious to explore an area of known visitation.

Before - four years of clutter.

The entire morning was spent dealing with the bathroom closet. Oy. It hadn’t been reorganized since I moved in, so it had four years’ worth of accumulated disarray. It was hard to even tell what was in there. The project began at 8, was finally finished at 1:30, and was an example of a saying I learned in business school, “work expands to fill the time allotted.” 

Most of it felt like a treasure hunt, which is why it took so long. My little trip down Memory Lane saw the reacquaintance with two caulking guns, three packs of sandpaper and a wistful remembrance of all the traveling I used to do and the excess of cosmetic and toiletry bags collected in the process. Then there are all the hair flower clips and gadgets I keep buying on sale in case they are ever needed for a costume.

Due to slacking by the warehouse team, inventory levels were skewed, resulting in an excess of toilet paper but paper towels and tissues are low. There is a mysteriously large number of lightbulbs. At least a dozen contact lens cases were rounded up, along with four pairs of new contacts in the original boxes. I haven’t even worn contacts in about four years. After decades of great success, they just didn’t work for me anymore and I still needed readers for close-up, so I finally said screw it and returned to glasses full time (which I take off for close work).

Three bottles of long ago expired canine skin sprays were discarded. There are enough hair gadgets and bottles of nail polish to open a kiosk and an overabundance of sheets and towels. There is an entire Sterilite container of neatly wound extension cords and every variety of computer and electronics cable. All the old exes who cherry picked my tool bag left me with all sorts of cables, but it doesn't feel like a fair trade. A basket is full of Ace Bandages, physical therapy bands, gauze, and bandages. I hope I never need the medical supplies, and until the magic “someday” when the spare room sleeping situation is sorted out, all the sheets will stay.

After five hours of work.

The bathroom closet was the day’s target because I have seen a mouse (or maybe a rat, I don’t really know) scurry under the door and disappear in there. After everything was pulled out and the floor was cleaned, I crawled in to have a good look. One corner had a big gap between the baseboard and the tile floor, another corner had a smaller gap. It didn’t look like it had been chewed, it looked more like crappy workmanship.

The gaps were stuffed first with cotton with tea tree and grapefruit essential oils. Then I used a shim to cram some steel wool in there, which I read the rodent types are not fans of. Then, I finished it off with a nice line of caulk.

The next project will be the coat closet, which is jammed full of coats, every one of them mine. It’s smaller than the bathroom closet, but if I go through all the coats, it could take forever.