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I made an e/n thread half a year ago about how I ran away from my abusive parents' home and needed serious mental help (and also a place to live). I just want to say I am doing much better now. I am still a little unhinged but meds are helping me get a sense of normalcy and I am starting to do things like exercise and I am making friends. My rough times are almost over.  But! There's something bringing me down. You see, for the time being, I live with my two uncles. My uncles combined are The Ultra-Goon. Suzuki Method posted:My uncle's room. I am a person whose mood and general motivation greatly has to do with the environment around me. My room back at my family's house was spotless, and pretty. I had a nice little space-- it wasn't amazing, but it was great for me. I greatly, greatly miss that room. In fact, I almost considered going back to my abusive parents home just to get my loving room back. Obviously once I sobered up I realized this was loving stupid. I live in the spare room on the top floor. It is the only place other than the basement in this entire house that got skipped during reno. It has the grossest carpet ever, mold pouring down the walls, and, most importantly: it was a room full almost to the ceiling with junk. My grandpa came and cleaned up a lot of it when I first moved in, when I was at work one day (I was sleeping on the couch). He got rid of like FOUR MATTRESSES which were in here for no reason collecting bugs. There's still a lot of bullshit in here though. Which is why I made this thread. I've let it sit and look ugly for way too long. I want to feel happy. I want to become someone new and get rid of my entire hosed-up past. And I can't do that while I live in a goon lair. Help me clean this room! I know I am capable of cleaning it! I just don't know where to start. Every time I think "yeah, I'm gonna clean this poo poo" I just get so swamped in "But what the hell do I do with X?!" that I give up. Here's my room!  [click for big] Still a goon lair, but less so than the neckbearded uncle who lives in the basement. Still not suitable for a teenage girl such as myself. The clothes on the floor are all me, though. I don't have a dresser and the closet (which is another point of interest I want to get rid of) is full of my grandma's forgotten clothing and probably has about 5+ spider nests in it. I have a load of the clothes in the wash right now, and I'm going to be washing the rest of the contents of the floor throughout the night tonight. I'm also gonna make a donate pile. Here's some detail pics of various places in this shithole.  Here is a desk at the far side of the room. This desk is loving HUGE. It's way heavier than me and like gently caress if I can lift it. Also notice the godawful broken light, the printer that I'm fairly sure doesn't even work, the wrappers and clothes tags, some poo poo I brought with me I never found a place for (cardboard boxes) and the thick layer of dust over everything.  Here's a pic of the absolutely vile carpet full of gross poo poo, and also what I am using to power literally all of my stuff. It's just wires all over my room like this. I trip over it all the time.  Here's those mile-high storage bins. They're full of poo poo that isn't mine but no one else has told me I can throw away.  I want them GONE but for the moment I can't move them, so what can I do to make it not look like a piece of poo poo? Lastly, here's a huge shelf that isn't holding anything of worth. Next to it you can see the corner full of wires where we keep all the routers that keep the MMO-marathons around the house running. This room is a piece of poo poo. I have the will to clean, but not the organizational power to know what I can actually do with this room and where to start. I want it to be a girl paradise where I can do girly poo poo. Some extra info: - I want to post pics of the journey of making this place less crappy. This is both for your amusement and to encourage me to clean up more. - I can paint the room apparently so if anyone has some good room colour ideas and some suggestions for cheap paint I'd like to actually paint the place at some point. - I don't have a lot of money to spend on new stuff, but I do want to at least buy new necessities. In particular, I guess I need a dresser, and I want some better lights in here, and anything else you can suggest to make this place a little nicer, as long as it's affordable. I will save up for it. - What can I do about these floors? My uncles don't give a poo poo what I do with the room, so I could replace the floors if I wanted to, I suppose. But if it's too expensive and will be too hard for me to do, it'll be a no-go. Any suggestions for this would be great. I am obviously not a home decor/DIY person. So, any help anyone wants to try and give me about cleaning up the room is greatly appreciated. Tell me where to start, tell me what to clean with, tell me how I can hide all the poo poo I can't actually take out of the room, tell me how I can make it into a place where I can feel good! Thank you for reading.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:34 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 17:36 |
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Is there hardwood underneath? You could just rip up & throw away the carpet + padding and have a hardwood floor. You'd need to do some staple-pulling, but it's doable.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:43 |
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Don't just tear up the carpet and throw it away. It looks like your uncles don't to waste anything, so see if they have another spare bedroom you can throw it in.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:45 |
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clammy posted:Is there hardwood underneath? You could just rip up & throw away the carpet + padding and have a hardwood floor. You'd need to do some staple-pulling, but it's doable. Hmm, I have no idea if there is or not. I will ask someone. This house is pretty old, and they did the reno when I wasn't here, so I have no idea what it looks like under there or anywhere else in the house. How difficult would it be to make the supposed hardwood underneath look decent? Safe and Secure! posted:Don't just tear up the carpet and throw it away. It looks like your uncles don't to waste anything, so see if they have another spare bedroom you can throw it in. There's no other spare rooms in this place, which is why I am in this gross one. They probably wouldn't care if I got rid of the carpet.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:45 |
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You can buy decent laminate flooring for like $0.40 a square foot at a big box and it clicks together. Surely there is a miter saw or circular saw or something there. It is easy to put down, will be clean, and will give you a sense of accomplishment.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:50 |
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jackyl posted:You can buy decent laminate flooring for like $0.40 a square foot at a big box and it clicks together. Surely there is a miter saw or circular saw or something there. It is easy to put down, will be clean, and will give you a sense of accomplishment. Ooh, I think they have that stuff at Ikea!  I have no experience with it, but I'd be willing to try it. I think cleaning up the place in general has to come first though, considering if I'm gonna paint and put down flooring, I need to somehow be able to move everything out of my room in a jiff.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:53 |
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Suzuki Method posted:Hmm, I have no idea if there is or not. I will ask someone. This house is pretty old, and they did the reno when I wasn't here, so I have no idea what it looks like under there or anywhere else in the house. How difficult would it be to make the supposed hardwood underneath look decent? If there's hardwood paneling underneath you shouldn't really have to do anything to it except pull out the staples after pulling it up. You take a utility knife and make an incision about 3 feet away from a wall, then stick a carpet knife in there and make a cut parallel to the 3-feet-away wall until you run into the wall you're moving toward. Then you just grab an edge near a wall and pull real hard & roll it up into a carpet crepe as you go. There will be little staple backs left behind near the walls that you'll want some pliers to pull out of the wood and maybe some wood strips bordering the edge of the room that you would want a hammer or a wonder bar pry-bar for. edit: the 3-feet thing is because you're making the carpet strips/rolls a manageable size so you can get them out to the dumpster.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:54 |
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You can also clean your messy bullshit-rear end room up for free. Do you need step by step instructions? Step 1: Get off your rear end Step 2: Clean up the disgusting mess you wallow in Step 3: Close the thread
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:57 |
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Floors schmoors, deal with them later. First you need to get straightened up. You are already working on your laundry, that's excellent. It's a legit accomplishment to get that cleaned so give yourself full credit for it. Next, get a box. Get that one labeled "Fragile" and just dump its contents on the desk. Now every time you come in the room, fold up one or two of Grandma's items from the closet and put them in the box. In a week or so the box will be full. Sneak it into Uncle's basement. He will never notice. Or just ask him - "hey I need to stow this in a dark corner, thanks". Now you can put your clothes in the closet. The same kind of bit-by-bit strategy can be used on the desk, the plastic bins of stuff, the shelves, etc. Also, 80% of the stuff on your desk is junk and you can sneak one item into the trash can on your way to work every morning. Keep checking in for more advice as you progress :> E. Don't close the thread, we will be sad and you will get banned. More: You are wise to catch on to how much difference the environment can make in your mood. It's hard to get things neat but if you do it, your mood will absolutely reflect it. slap me silly fucked around with this message at Feb 23, 2013 around 04:00 |
| # ? Feb 23, 2013 03:58 |
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Suzuki Method posted:Ooh, I think they have that stuff at Ikea! Pro tip: go to the post office and ask for their moving kit. The throw everything away except the 10% off any purchase Lowes coupon. Home depot will match it, so now you wait til one of the two has a sale on laminate and the go buy it with the coupon.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:01 |
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I can deal with a mess, but bugs/dirty/thathairalloverthecarpet is too much. Either take out the carpet or try renting a rug doctor. Failing those two options, you could throw down a large rug, but if this fairly permanent living I wouldn't settle for that. Is there another room in the house you can move what you can't throw out? If not, drape fabric (blankets, curtains, whatever) over the bins. I realize most of my methods for cleaning involve covering poo poo up. Oh and borrow or buy a nice vacuum and suck up the webs/spiders.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:02 |
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You don't need a moving kit because you shouldn't throw anything away. It's all precious. I think you should find a way to accept it. Become one with your room. Train the bugs to bring you food. Become mayor of bug city.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:03 |
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slap me silly posted:More: You are wise to catch on to how much difference the environment can make in your mood. It's hard to get things neat but if you do it, your mood will absolutely reflect it. How is that wise? The connection between gross people hating themselves and living in gross conditions most people would hate is pretty self-evident. Do you ever look at a fat person and think "wow, that person must really hate themselves?" You should be thinking the same thing when you see someone living like a filthy vagrant in a house or apartment. An inability to take a little bit of time out of your day to stop being disgusting shows a special sort of distaste for yourself.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:04 |
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It's all a state of mind, really. That said, I think a vacation in Kabul would be just thing for the OP to dream about, while she focuses on winning the hearts and minds of the insects local to her room.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:07 |
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Safe and Secure! posted:You don't need a moving kit because you shouldn't throw anything away. It's all precious. I think you should find a way to accept it. Become one with your room. Train the bugs to bring you food. Become mayor of bug city. I was saying to toss everything in the moving kit, since most of the things don't matter. That's basically a way to get 10% off at a bg box at will, which comes in handy if you're gonna spend a lot of money or are hurting for cash.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:07 |
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Just regard everything with patience and appreciate the progress you make as you make it. Every time I go home, I clean my parents' kitchen. The fact that they haven't become seriously sick from it astonishes me every time, because there are always maggots, and rat poo poo, and expired foods all over the place. It takes forever to get through it. But at the same time, you can look at the bags of trash you're taking out of the house--that's progress! The square footage of the floor you can vacuum or sweep--that's progress! Just an hour here and there can make an enormous difference .
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:08 |
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Just spray febreze everywhere and blindfold yourself before you walk into your room. It'll be just like those commercials and it seems way easier than throwing out all the garbage
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:09 |
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There is certainly something of worth on that bookshelf in your last picture. Those Fisher-Price castles are going for a decent price on Ebay if you can sell it. Then use the money to help purchase pretty organizing things for you. If your Ikea isn't far, spend a day there and take notes on what you like and how it's organized for ideas.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:11 |
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ShawneeRotten posted:There is certainly something of worth on that bookshelf in your last picture. Those Fisher-Price castles are going for a decent price on Ebay if you can sell it. Then use the money to help purchase pretty organizing things for you. She can't sell that. Where will the spiders live?
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:12 |
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clammy posted:If there's hardwood paneling underneath you shouldn't really have to do anything to it except pull out the staples after pulling it up. You take a utility knife and make an incision about 3 feet away from a wall, then stick a carpet knife in there and make a cut parallel to the 3-feet-away wall until you run into the wall you're moving toward. Then you just grab an edge near a wall and pull real hard & roll it up into a carpet crepe as you go. There will be little staple backs left behind near the walls that you'll want some pliers to pull out of the wood and maybe some wood strips bordering the edge of the room that you would want a hammer or a wonder bar pry-bar for. That doesn't sound too bad. I've never done anything home-improvement wise so it'll certainly be a challenge, but I thought it could be worse. Once I get this carpet out, I could lay down some brand-new click-wood flooring. The challenge here is that this is gonna be a one-woman job. My uncles barely see me during the day and certainly won't help me in my endeavors. But I can do it! vacation in kabul posted:You can also clean your messy bullshit-rear end room up for free. Do you need step by step instructions? I'm off my rear end cleaning right now! Mainly the problem is that I'm so flustered and easily-stressed-out that I'll look at a mess and process that I need to clean it but don't know where to start. So I'm starting with the floor. I'm dealing with my own clothes right now, washing them and then I'm gonna fold them onto the bottom of the bookshelf for now. I want to get a vaccuum in here afterward. But for instance, I'll look at the storage bins and go "okay what the hell do I do with that" and give up entirely. Which is why the thread's important to me-- it's more motivation for me to keep going than anything.I guess another thing keeping me down is that a lot of this stuff isn't mine, so I don't really have outright permission to gently caress with it. This was a storage room and most of the stuff seen in here is stuff that was like this before I got here-- I only brought small electronics and my clothes with me. A lot of my possessions, and all of my furniture, are still at my parents' house, which I am never going back to. What's happened here is a process of "This room initially looked like poo poo, why try now?". slap me silly posted:Floors schmoors, deal with them later. First you need to get straightened up. You are already working on your laundry, that's excellent. It's a legit accomplishment to get that cleaned so give yourself full credit for it. I've let my laundry pile up on the floor out of pure depression and 'The rest of the room looks like poo poo, why even try'. I'm glad I'm gonna get it folded. I had a nice, organized walk-in closet back at my old place.  I'm REALLY afraid of that closet, it's probably full of spiders. I'm gonna have to do it though. If I can get that closet clean maybe I can shove some of that storage bin mountain in it to hide it (since I can't actually get rid of them). I've been trying to employ a bit-by-bit strategy for the past week. I've managed to clean up a lot of stuff that was on those shelves prior to these pictures. I ain't closing the thread. I made this for a reason. The reason is I don't like looking like I am a goony slob. 
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:13 |
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Put your clothes back on the floor. They belong to the ants now.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:15 |
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Safe and Secure! posted:Put your clothes back on the floor. They belong to the ants now. No ants or any other bugs in here, but the occasional spider I find can definitely gently caress off to the goonlord's room downstairs, I don't need em t 
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:16 |
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Your Uncle has a real life hat from a game about collecting hats with an FPS minigame.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:17 |
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I still think you should leave everything the same way it was when you found it. Haven't you gone camping before?
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:18 |
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Stack all the bins on top of each other and see how long they stay like that before the tower collapses on you
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:19 |
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Omnicarus posted:Your Uncle has a real life hat from a game about collecting hats with an FPS minigame. No, nononono. He bought it for me.  Second load of laundry is goin' in now. I just realized that half of the laundry is actually towels. Towels I can put away in the towel closet. Yesssssssssssss. quote:bins Those loving bins. I HATE THOSE loving bins. If I never see those god damned bins again all the better. But unfortunately, my uncles would flip out if I moved them somewhere else in this place.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:20 |
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Aralan posted:Stack all the bins on top of each other and see how long they stay like that before the tower collapses on you Do this and then see how long you can hold your breath before you have to come back up for air.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:20 |
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No matter how many pictures and explanation you give in your OP, the bottom line here is that you set up a progress thread in E/N for cleaning your room. Eagerly awaiting sequel threads "help me get the mail" and the stunning conclusionpost "there was a bill in there! HELP!" That's a dirty room, though.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:21 |
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There's a perfectly good roll of paper towels on top of your bin collection, whatever you do don't throw those out by accident I hope this helps
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:23 |
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Why are the spiders such a big deal? Dust to get rid of any webs, buy some Raid spider killer to get rid of the spiders themselves.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:24 |
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I'm a big fan of UFYH, it's like FlyLady but with more curse words. What you're going to do is break down all of your tasks into manageable blocks of time, called 20/10s or 40/20s - you work for either 20 or 40 minutes and then take a 10/20 minute break before coming back. This way you don't wear yourself out. Even if you just do one 20/10 per day you'll start to see improvement. Start by clearing out anything that isn't yours that can be moved; sort into piles of things that can be donated, things that can be thrown away, and things that can be relocated elsewhere in the house. I'd tackle the closet first as it sounds like the clothing is forgotten and could be donated - then you've got a big empty closet to move your stuff into. Once it's empty you can spray for spiders. Then start moving items off of the floors and onto those empty shelves. When the floor is clear you can vacuum. I see a serape/Mexican blanket in one of your boxes. Why not tack it up to cover that ugly clear plastic shelving? It will reduce a lot of the visual clutter in the room.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:25 |
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bunnybean posted:No matter how many pictures and explanation you give in your OP, the bottom line here is that you set up a progress thread in E/N for cleaning your room. I actually need this thread. This room is so disgusting that I can never pull through with cleaning it, and just having a thread about it just means I'm making it official to myself or something. Just like when I needed the final push a long time ago when I had to run away from my home.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:25 |
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Its a testament to this subforum that I automatically assumed the OP was trying to lure underage girls to their goon lair. OP, I have no organizational advice because I am messy as gently caress and my fiance has to harp on me constantly to keep anything clean. However, decorating advice: 1) Craigslist for everything. I've found tons of cute furniture and decor. Watch out for bedbugs with upholstered things. 2) Slickdeals.com is my favorite deal forum. I thought of it because they always have home decor deals. For instance, home depot will randomly have unadvertised 90% off clearance and slickdeals will have a thread right away. I've gotten really cheap curtains and light fixtures from this, and stuff like that can really transform a space. 3) If you have an Ollies in your area, they have awesome furniture deals. And $4 storage bins! On my phone so that's all for now. Good luck!
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:26 |
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Suzuki Method posted:Mainly the problem is that I'm so flustered and easily-stressed-out that I'll look at a mess and process that I need to clean it but don't know where to start.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:27 |
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Maybe once you get clean and stable you can have goons help you find a boyfriend, too. These guys should be available soon: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3533648 http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3527021 http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3532806 http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3534674 http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3535075
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:29 |
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For the bins, you could find a sweet blanket or tablecloth or tapestry and drape it over the top and exposed part. Then you just have a cool shelf to put stuff on.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:29 |
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Yeah, OP, don't clean, just throw some fresh newspapers down and keep on truckin'.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:30 |
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discount dogs posted:For the bins, you could find a sweet blanket or tablecloth or tapestry and drape it over the top and exposed part. Then you just have a cool shelf to put stuff on. This has been suggested a few times now and I'm reluctant to do it because it would remind me of how fat people drape tarplike clothing over themselves to disguise the lard underneath. I dunno. I guess if I'm not able to outright get rid of the bins it's what I'll have to do.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:31 |
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Use the bookcase for clothing storage. Pick it up off the floor, wash it, fold it neatly and place on the shelves. You can use the lower shelves for shoes. Also, make your bed, throw out the trash, clear off surfaces, and vacuum. The room will look 100% better. You're getting derailed making grand plans for the "perfect room" instead of just doing the ordinary stuff to keep your room from being a hovel. I am an expert at this: I have slobbish tendencies and if I let things get out of hand, I wind up researching major home improvements projects for hours instead of getting up off the loving couch and cleaning the bathroom. Don't do this. Start reading Unfuck your habitat and you'll see what a huge improvement basic cleaning makes.
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:31 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 17:36 |
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Consider the use of small controlled burns to clear up hard to clean areas, just be careful it doesn't spread to the bins
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| # ? Feb 23, 2013 04:32 |
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