What happened this week...
I was waiting for this week for a couple of months. Do you want to know why? My husband was on a business trip again! You wouldn’t hear me saying that a few years ago. In the past, he used to travel a lot and I was alone all the time, so I wished he was able to travel less. Now, you might wonder why I was looking forward to this trip..
The truth is that sometimes I simply need to clean our apartment! So no, I was not planning a big party while he was away 😊 Let me explain..
When he doesn’t travel, he prefers to work from home. He works with people from different time zones and it can happen that he might be on a call with the US at 9 PM our time or with Asia at 6 AM. This would be difficult to maintain in the office, so he has his office at home as well. I usually don’t enter that room because it’s a complete mess and I would start cleaning it immediately which would be difficult with him sitting there all the time.
However, we will have visitors next week and I assume that they would like a tour around our apartment, so cleaning was inevitable. And therefore, I was happy that he wasn’t at home this week.
He left on Monday and I was planning to start my cleaning project on Tuesday. I hoped that it would take me up to one day to go through all the papers, bills, newspapers and whatever else I would find there. I was wrong!
It took me two days and I am not going to describe everything I did as it would require a process map for you to be able to follow but I’m going to talk about a few things that happened during these two days.
I’ve filed more than 300 bills/statements/letters in the binders. It must be clear that those papers were in envelopes before. On the front of each envelope is a foil window. If you also separate paper and plastic like me then you understand by now that I had to cut out that foil from each envelope. I’ve read different opinions about this, but I decided to go with the conservative approach and cut it out. It took me 3 hours and I cut myself just a few of times.
I am always looking for pens. I thought we have some fairy tale elf at home who steals them to annoy me when we sleep. It turns out I was wrong as I found dozens of pens in the strangest places (such as under the cushion on his chair and I have no idea how it got there), so this elf doesn’t steal them. He only hides them!
My husband collects newspapers in the hopes of getting to read them once he retires so there were paper piles all over the office. Well, I believe that deep down we both know this is not going to happen, so I’ve tied them up for recycling and will secretly remove them from our home 😊 The oldest one that I found was from 2016!
And this is not the only thing that he collects. He also collects all kind of receipts! It's not collecting in the right sense though but it's rather being lazy to dispose of them. We don't have a paper shredder machine so I had to check all those old receipts to make sure that I would put the relevant ones aside and then cut all of them in small pieces. It took me another couple of hours and let me tell you that it really hurts when you cut your finger with paper. I'm sure that anyone who works in an office knows what I'm talking about.
We have large library up to the ceiling. When I was sorting out the books and trying to create some order on bookshelves one heavy business book fell right on my head from top of library. At that time, I was about to give up and save my dear life from other accidents, but I continued my mission as I don’t like failing. I ended up hurting my back, so I didn’t sleep properly for two nights in a row. And I still have that lump on my head.
Lucky me, there were no major disasters and I finished my project on Wednesday night. My husband is back at home and he is very happy with the result – or at least he pretends to be which is enough for my satisfaction 😊
On a positive note, I found a 100 EUR note casually placed on the table under piles of newspapers and took it as my commission for my hard work and minor accidents 😊
I know that this is not my usual kind of writing so we can call it a shitpost or a freewrite. Either way, I simply needed to share it with you.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina
Congrats Martina! Your shitpost has just been curated as The Daily Worst Top 3, since it failed to meet our shitty requirements. Keep them coming please, and enjoy the huuuge upvote! :)
Hahaha, that made my day Donica! Thank you! I didn't even know that something like this existed :D I don't remember when I made it to Top 3 in anything I did.. YAY!! :)
You are the only person I know who removes the plastic foils from the anvelopes, that's really hardcore recycling :) well done, the Swiss should be proud of you. I'm sure your husband will take you some place nice this weekend in return for your hard working initiative. Keep the 100€ for the local spa just in case :)
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Hahaha, I do my best! But I could still do better. Just until recently I didn't know that if you have a package from pizza that is dirty you shouldn't recycle it.. every day is a school day :)
I hope they are! I'm the best citizen here. I pay a lot of taxes, recycle everything and don't use the state services at all, lol..
We should go to the mountains tomorrow but we need to see if the weather permits us. Oh, I kept it and of course didn't tell him that I found it :) He doesn't need to know everything ;)
Ok didn't knew that either, so only clean cartons, no ketchup, I need to be more careful from now on and a bit ashamed. No worries Martina, you secret is safe with us, this is not Facebook :))
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Lol Martina... your husband and I would get along great :)
I love how you describe his collection of things, and definitely happy to see that you found a treasure buried in his nest :P
I hope you continue to have a wonderful spring and very cool post as always!!!
Hahaha, another man that would drive me crazy with these things :)
Oh, at first I was so happy to find those 100 EUR but now I believe I would deserve much more for the back injury. I didn't sleep for 3 nights and then on Saturday night (at 3 AM) he took me to the hospital because I couldn't sit or lie down and it was so bad that I couldn't stop crying. I was in such pain that I couldn't inhale properly. Until now I don't know how it happened though. We were lucky that there were no other people in the hospital so it went quit well. They checked my kidneys because it looked like some kind of seizure that would require a surgery but lucky me they are ok. So they gave me 3 strong pills that I took there and became kind of relaxed so I could stop crying.. then they gave me something to relax even more before I get to bed and I finally could sleep. In the morning I couldn't feel my fingers.. it was like they were not mine.. but then it was better however the pain returned.. I took so many pills in these 2 days so that I could sleep. Now I'm doing better but I'm still in bed..
I must say that Stefan took the best care of me and I didn't have to do anything these days. Plus he told me that I'm not allowed to do such cleaning anymore and that he'll do it himself going forward.. But I still think that I have to charge him something more for these troubles :D
awww... so sorry to hear about the pain you underwent... but on the positive side, you have now encouraged him to pick up after himself, so maybe a small pain leads to a bigger gain ;)
and hahaha on charging him for the troubles... be careful though, if you do that he may just decide to keep it messy instead of paying (I know because I'm a packrat too) :D
Glad you're feeling better! Have a wonderful week Martina!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow @delishtreats …
… I certainly can sympathize with getting behind on stuff like this. But … 300!? Well, hopefully they had all been paid and you didn’t go without basic services. At least … Not for too long … 😉
… and paper cuts. Sounds ”brutal” but somebody’s gotta do it, so good for you! I imagine you feel a considerable sense of accomplishment. If papers go back to 2016, this has been on the “to do” list for awhile …
Well, we can certainly see, among his other fine attributes, your husband is wise … 😉
So, you ended up with 100 EUR note for your troubles, plus the sense the accomplishment … ”All is well that ends well!” 👍
P.S. Any progress on your dream of opening a restaraunt?
Hahaha, they've been all paid. We have quite a good system with the payments.. there was just no solution for the filing part :) You can get into problems quickly if you don't pay your bills here.. you get on the 'black list' and you may face issues if you (for example) would want to rent an apartment because owners check this list or if you need to get new work permit..
Well, we have split the responsibilities at home. He needs to take care of the papers because if I take care of them then I will throw them away :) This is why it took so long.. he simply doesn't have time for these minor things which make ME crazy so I took it in my hands :) Oh, and yes, it is a great accomplishment. I sat there all evening and enjoyed the 'new' room :D
Hahaha, he is very wise and he usually know what to say :)
Exactly! If I don't count the cuts, lump on my head and hurting back then it was a successful mission :)
PS: I will know more on the 3rd of June...
Whoa @delishtreats, a "black list"?! Sounds very unpleasant, so glad to know you aren't on it ... 😉
Here in our home, the battle with the "paper monster" goes on, day by day ... Applying my skillset to the challenge, we have attempted to go largely paperless and file anything worth keeping away electronically.
Just two "teeny, weeny" problems:
Okay, well "no pain, no gain" is an old saying here, although I think it is baloney ... And we'll look forward to hearing further developments on your dream, after the 3rd ...
Have a great day (evening) "over there!" 😊
Haha! Howdy Martina! what a wonderful post, a slice of your everyday life which you were able to make informative, interesting, entertaining and funny! I like the part about at least he pretends to like the results of the cleaning! lol. Well done!
Hello cowboy! How are you doing? Hahaha, well, I can imagine that you like it.. you're definitely pleasing Mrs J. the same way, aren't you? I usually don't share this kind of posts but I thought that I had to share that one. It was a big happening here and I couldn't keep it for myself :)
How is the weather over there? We finally have some nice warm days so we can enjoy some sunshine..
Hope you have a lovely weekend!
howdy Martina! I loved that post for sure and if your husband loved all the work you did, which was amazing, then that's really even more of a major thing. Who knew that cleaning a room could be such a major event? lol. But that was no ordinary situation.
He didn't mind that you got rid of all the newspapers that he'd been saving?
Oh yes, I'm doing all kinds of work at home for Mrs. J too! lol.
The weather here is unusually wet but most days are still warm and sunny even if it rains at some point. It was 32C today and will be for the next 7 days and so far it's a wonderful summer. I hope you guys have a long, warm summer with perfect weather! Any news on anything to do with the business?
Hahaha, if you don't clean it for a few years then it is indeed a major event :D Well, I think he hasn't realized yet that those newspapers are missing. I honestly think he has never cared. He was simply too lazy to dispose of them.. so typical..
We have also crazy temperatures here. It's really hot but I like it so far. I will probably feel different if it continues like this and if we have over 30 degrees for a couple of months but right now it's fine :)
I will have more news on Friday... I have found a place and I have checked with the authorities if I could open a restaurant there and now I'll have a meeting with a guy who will help me to understand how much it would cost to make it work.. so I'll let you know then :) So far I have a good feeling about it so we will see :)
Howdy Martina! Typical male..lol...yeah me too.
Oh you probably would get tired of our temperatures too, at least in June, July and August the daily highs run from about 35 tp 43C so those are a long 3 months.
Oh the new building thing sounds very exciting, I can't wait to read about it! this project may happen this year after all. wow.
Wow, I imagine it must be rather lonely sometimes to have your husband away, but maybe a little nice to have some alone time as well.
Haha I have a similar elf in my house, only mine steal scissors. Seriously, I have purchased loads of scissors, and yet I can ever only find one pair, if that. :/
That is a strange item for the elf to take. I hope he is not hiding them somewhere under the pillow so that you won't hurt yourself :)
Im sure they are all in my kids' room somewhere.... :/
I understand you perfectly. My husband works at the university and prepares for habilitation. Papers, documents, articles, newspapers, books are on the desk and on the floor. Sometimes it's hard to get into his office and get to the window. Of course this is the room our cats like the most.
The last cleaning of the office took us a week ... and my hus and says he can not find anything right now :-)
Hahaha, I have the same! It's almost impossible to get to the other side of that room :) My husband was busy and couldn't check his stuff yet but I'm sure that he won't be able to find some paperwork. I just hope I didn't throw away some important receipts. I checked them all but you never know as there were hundreds of them :D When did you do that cleaning that took you one week? I hope it's not time yet to do another one :)
This wasn't/isn't a "shitpost" Martina...It is a very humorous account of an interesting day in your life; plus a celebration of found money :>)
I once found over $400. dollars in an envelope that I almost threw out. It was a Tax refund,(check) which I thought was a Tax bill (The reason it got tucked in my 'open later' pile of mail)
Hope you heal well from all your 'work injuries'...maybe you should file a Workers Compensation claim??? Or, maybe you can 'sue' yourselves and agree to an Out-of-Court settlement with your insurance company?
Many Regards,
Ciao
I'm glad that you see it this way :) Oh, my back still hurts a lot. Actually, I have never had such pain before so I'm thinking about going to see my GP on Monday as I can't move well and I also can't really sleep so I don't feel that good right now. Hahaha, I will file this claim and deliver it to my husband :) I just need to think about the compensation ;)
Lucky you! It was a nice surprise :) One of my hobbies is to go through my winter jackets in summer as I usually find some forgotten money :)
Thank you for stopping by and for your nice comment :)
Can you come help me with my spring cleaning? Haha, I don't think I have quite that big of a collection of papers and receipts, but definitely could use some clearing out. I tend to get overwhelmed just thinking about it which keeps me from even starting sometimes. I just need to take it one thing at a time and not think I have to accomplish it all in one sitting. It is such a good feeling to have a clean room, though! I hope you find a good treat to spend that found money on for your efforts!
Hahaha, I'm sorry but I have to say NO to this :) Once was enough :)
Oh, I have the same... I know what is waiting for me and I can't get myself moving to accomplish it. But then I have days when I say What the hell and simply do it. Afterwards I feel so good! It's amazing to have a clean room.
I have ordered a new dress already :) We are invited to a wedding of my cousin and I was feeling guilty to buy something but with this money out of the blue it was not a problem anymore :)
Does your husband realise when he collects newspaper to read when he's retired, they're called oldspaper by then? And I hope there were no over due bills within that pile of 300!
Take care
I've tried to explain to him that you need to read the newspapers when they are new but he doesn't seem to get the point :) He even has the 'newspapers' from the time he lived in Luxembourg which is more than 10 years ago. I already told him that if he believes that we are going to pay a company to move his papers once we change the apartment then he is wrong. He will have to do it all by himself :D
No, no, all of them have been paid :) He is good with paying.. he just somehow doesn't get that he needs to put them in the binders after the payment :) Men..
Thank you for stopping by my dear!