Not Happy

[Hound dog]

I've been purposely avoiding the attic. I knew it would be bad, but I never guessed how bad.

Thankfully, unlike most attics, it's not full of stuff. Main reason is because you have to walk upstairs to get to it. (it's right off the masterbedroom) And that can be a PITA at times. Our staircase is narrow and steep.

But I have to have warm clothes to wear and today I'm tackling a mountain of laundry anyway so I can put summer clothes away and finish sorting husband's to give away.

Eww ewww ewww ewww.

Mouse poo all over the place. And the way our attic is mostly unfinished I've no clue how I'm going to clean the vast majority of it up. And the mice have been busy or else husband went on a tangent and started moving around insulation ect. Because I'm sure I'd have noticed that before. It's been a long long time since I've been in the attic.......but yeah, I know it wasn't like that.

Found some of the xmas decor. One box of winter clothes. A big box of summer clothes I could've used but couldn't find/get to when it was hot out. Might be another box of winter clothes under all the xmas boxes. Notice I said *might*.

Heavy boxes of books. Kids are going through them and what they don't want is outta here. I never wanted husband to bring the darn things into the house in the first place. I'm for books one reads and enjoys, not books that are antique and look good on the shelf where they sit and gather dust.

And there is trash in my attic. grrrrr omg grrrrr I wonder if it's possible husband wasn't thinking rationally the last year or so. Because even the packrat lazy man he was never would think to do that before. There is an old air conditioner in there, broken. An old stand fan that doesn't even have the parts, it's just the stand. Found a box that was basically empty except trash and some odds and ends.

In a few minutes the attic will be majorly deployed in decon. I have no issues cleaning up carcasses. Not my favorite thing to do but I can manage ok. My closet will have decon in it too. They seem to like to travel from the attic to my closet to avoid the room then beeline to the door behind what was husband's chest of drawers.

I'm trying to figure out how to pull out all the xmas boxes (some are terribly heavy) in order to get to the box under them that looks like it should have clothes in it. If it doesn't.........then either husband stored clothes in the family room (which so far I haven't found any) or I'm suddenly missing a winter wardrobe.

All this just to find some warm clothes to wear and hopefully a pair of decent jeans for our Tday dinner tomorrow. I had NOT intended for it to get this involved. sheesh

Oh, and some of the antique tables in there now look like heck. Oh yeah, not happy at all.

Vent over.

 

[JJJ]

I'm sorry that you have such a mess to go through. About the old books, depending on which ones they are, age and condition, they could be worth money. It may be worth goggling each one to see.

 

[TeDo]

It sounds like a huge task. Mice.....EEEEEEWWWWWWWW

I hope the kids can help with some of that heavy stuff. You really shouldn't be doing that by yourself. The steps to our basement sound a lot like the steps to your attic. That's why we almost never go down there. I don't even change the furnace filter as often as I should because of those darn steps (not to mention the kazillion cobwebs & spiders).

JJJ is right about the books. Is there an antique store or used book store you could sell the books to? It all depends ont he book but if you have any 1st editions especially, hold on to them until you find a buyer. There are some that are worth a LOT.

 

[Hound dog]

Travis helped me sort out the boxes and did half the lifting. I found another box of winter clothes but still no jeans. Looks like those must be in the family room. Joy. I'm just so thrilled. Not. But I know they're here as these are my jeans I wear all the time. ugh

Although I'll say I'm like omg I have two huge rubbermaid totes of winterclothes.........for me alone........with more to be found. wow. But Travis reminded me why. It seemed each year for the past few years husband never dug out all the winter clothes........so I'd go to the outlet mall and hit the clearance sales for something to wear. I had no clue I'd bought so much. I may end up having to go through mine and sorting and giving some away too at this rate.

Got the decon out up there at least. Before dark I want to get it into the basement too. That door won't be fun to open once the cold weather sets in. (think cellar door type)

So far, unless I come across more of husband's clothing in the family room batch, it appears I have cleared out most of his clothing. I certainly hope so. There has to be an end to this somewhere.

 

[DDD]

Sending supportive hugs your way as you tediously work through the house. DDD

 

[buddy]

ewww. I had mice in my house one time....nothing is good for getting htem, the traps pop them and the poison has them in the walls dead..yuck. So sorry you had to do that. Luckily I got it right away and they were gone in two days. I think you are amazing to do all of that. I know you say you are overwhelmed, but gosh how you just keep plugging alone... honestly amazing.

 

[DammitJanet]

Lisa...I have mice right now too. It must be that time of year. I havent had any in years but suddenly I have seen a few in the last couple of weeks. Monday I have to start some major cleaning and going to get that poison I have told you about. I dont even bother with decon. I go for the big stuff. I am not afraid of mice, I am afraid of what comes after mice!

 

[Marguerite]

We don't often have mice or rats in the house (hermetically sealed) but we do have them in the yard. Rats mostly. The chook food (hens for the non-Aussie speakers) bring in the rats. difficult child 3 saw a couple of rats in the feeder the other night when he went out to change the water bowls. We have traps set in the garage (next to the chook house) and husband gets one every couple of days or so.

Time to invite the one of the village Diamond Pythons to pay a visit. We've got some big ones, over three metres long, and they can reduce rat numbers back a lot.

Lisa, I hope you find your winter clothes in good order. We don't have an attic but we can store stuff in the roof space. When husband was last up there working on the roof leak he found old evidence of mice in some bags of stuff I've had up there for years. They had got into the edge of one bag so those are now rags. The rest - clean and in good order, now heading to the op-shop. Probably will also end up as rags. I saved a retro dress for easy child 2/difficult child 2. The first dress I ever bought with my first after-school pay packet. THAT's going back a long time!

Marg

 

[DammitJanet]

Marg...just what you are wanting to invite is why I will kill all rodents. Otherwise I would let them live!

I am sure I have told my mice and snake story before but there are newbies here.

Years ago in a land far away...oh excuse me...ahem. Back when Tony and I had been together a very short time...lets see Jamie was a little over 2 and Cory was about 4 or 5 months old...we bought this really old trailer. It was a 71 mobile home. It had been through a fire though we didnt know it when we bought it. 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, no heat no ac and we lived in N. Myrtle Beach. We used a kerosene heater and window units. It was 10 foot wide and 60 feet long. Gosh we were living! We paid 2K for it. Sniff sniff...memories...the holes in the floor in front of the toilet. But it belonged to us. We were so proud. I laugh now. We actually got my mom to babysit the kids the first night we moved in and got boones farm wine and candles because the power wasnt on yet and spent the night on a mattress in the living room...just me and Tony.

Anyway...back to the mice. Well...Billy wanted some white mice...he was 6 at the time and I said okay, they didnt bother me. Well, 6 year old boys dont always remember the top of the cage, plus all the kids were sharing the same one bedroom. So Jamie being 2 sometimes also wanted to see the mice and maybe "pet" the mice. One day I noticed the lid was off. I put it back and didnt think anything of it. Tony commented that he thought that maybe a few mice might be missing. Uh oh. We also were renting a private lot out in a wooded area and with the holes in the floor we had noticed a few field mice. We set traps because we were afraid of poison with the kids. Well soon we noticed that we had lots of mice and they were colored like the white mice..mixed with the field mice. Oh NO! And they were pretty tame mice. They would come right out and stare at you. We would put a chicken bone down and they would come get it! Tony never mentioned it but he started to notice that the mice were thinning out. Dumb man.

One day I was fixing dinner. We were having a fish fry. I was in the process of frying and tony had gone to the store to get me some cabbage for the cole slaw and I reached up in the cabinet to get something and there it was...omg...it moved...a snake!

I left the fish frying...everything on the stove..

I turned and grabbed Cory out of the playpen, Jamie off the living room floor...and I hightailed it out the front door and I was standing in the middle of the road in front of the trailer when Tony got home. Smoke was wafting out of the open kitchen window as he tried to figure out what I was screaming about but all he could get out was...snake...kitchen and fire. He ran inside, threw the burning frying pan out the window, looked in the cabinets and found a rat snake. He thought it was funny. I didnt. He told me he figured we had a snake when he noticed the mice thinning out. I told him I was leaving and taking the kids with me and I would be at my moms. When he closed up every hole in that house and made sure we had no unwelcome visitors I would be back. I stayed away a month while he fixed the house.

 

[Hound dog]

I'd like a hermetically sealed house. Every fall it's the same thing with the darn mice. Normally not as bad but some of you may recall husband decided to try the electronic mouse deterrents. All they did was given me a difficult child nut case cat.

Janet, what is that stuff you get? If this doesn't do it I'm going after the big guns. Last thing I need is a rat. That I'd flip over.......but then as a very young kid we had to chase railroad rats around and whack em over the head with hammers.......that's enough to freak anyone out for life. A lil ol mouse ain't nothing.

 

[DammitJanet]

Lisa, when I go to the place on Monday I will get the exact name for you. I dont know it off the top of my head. I just know it when I walk in the store and go to the shelf. LOL.