{"id":6899,"date":"2020-05-23T14:23:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T18:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=6899"},"modified":"2021-05-30T15:16:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T19:16:08","slug":"365212-leaks-dust-discoveries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365212-leaks-dust-discoveries\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#212: Leaks & Dust Discoveries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>LEAKS: <\/strong>Last week we had several days of torrential rains. No problem. Handy Jim had dutifully cleaned out our gutters of tree debris which often causes them to overflow and water seeps into our basement \u2013 where my office is! BUT, this time it was a side of the house which has no trees and should be safe. It wasn\u2019t. Water leaked under \u00a0my desk, file cabinets, and laundry area. I now had to spend the better part of my day moving stuff, running fans, and sopping up wet carpets. Repeat.<\/p>\n

It was a hassle, BUT it also forced me to reexamine all the things I had to move. One large cardboard box on the floor held historical documents about the Marianist Lay Communities I\u2019ve been part of. They could have filled a file drawer. The box was history, but the papers were only damp so I spread them out to dry. Good rescue. However, the box had been on the floor because I didn\u2019t have a free file drawer. I assume this is a sign from above that I should prune the papers – or – my file cabinets. Both are ominous tasks that I don\u2019t have time for. After all, during coronavirus season who has time for anything? \ud83d\ude41 I guess I\u2019ve been avoiding this task.<\/p>\n

The smaller task that I thought I could tackle, however, was to review the stray papers that I had on my desk to help me feel less behind in life. Done!<\/p>\n

DUSTING: \"\"<\/a><\/strong> I\u2019ve been noticing more dust around our house. Covid-19 causes me to spend more time at home which prompted a Holy Week dusting spree. Funny thing about dust \u2013 it doesn\u2019t go away forever. Well, I figured it was time to dust again since I had started this new habit and now noticed the dust. BUT, I didn\u2019t want to go to the trouble to take all the little boxes off my dresser again just to dust it. Solution: have fewer boxes of stuff. So I pruned more jewelry and kept only those earrings, necklaces, and pins I actually wear \u2013 at least once a year. Result: 1 less box. I also rediscovered a book, Called To Community<\/a><\/em><\/span>, that had been resting on my night stand for at least a year, waiting to be read. I committed to at least reading the opening Introduction before I put it in a pile to give away. I was hooked. It has 52 short chapters about living in community so I committed to read at least one chapter a week. Then I went on to giving the rest of the house a quick dusting. And I learned once again that \u2013<\/p>\n

Jim is usually right<\/em>. In our family I\u2019m usually the \u00a0one who sweeps and vacuums the floors. BUT, Jim says I should clean the higher surfaces before I do the floors since much of the dust ends up on the floor. Who would have thunk? Well apparently lots of people. I came across the article How to Dust Everything in Your Home<\/a><\/em><\/span> if you\u2019re a serious duster, BUT the main take away is dust higher surfaces first.<\/p>\n

LESSONS LEARNED:<\/strong>
\n1. Humility<\/strong> \u2013 How dang ungrateful I am. Here I\u2019m grousing about a basement leak when some families have lost their homes in floods. I have furniture to dust and jewelry to spare. Hmmm.
\n2. Just Start<\/strong> \u2013 I procrastinate on many tasks because it would take too much time. Breaking a commitment into smaller steps by just clearing one small pile or reading 3 pages helped.
\n3. \u201cBUT\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 There are usually two sides to every decision\/task\/problem. One may be burdensome, BUT look for the unexpected benefit.<\/p>\n

So, what unexpected benefits have you discovered from doing mundane tasks?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEAKS: Last week we had several days of torrential rains. No problem. Handy Jim had dutifully cleaned out our gutters of tree debris which often causes them to overflow and water seeps into our basement \u2013 where my office is! BUT, this time it was a side of the house which has no trees and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[22,17],"class_list":["post-6899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-process","tag-household","tag-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6899"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6918,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6899\/revisions\/6918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}