Ex got his ass fired on Valentine's Day...what a loser

Things on the home front seem to have settled down a bit. At least the kid and I aren't at each other's throats right now, and that is all for the good.

My daughter will be moving out, that much we know for sure, we just aren't sure when as of yet. Largely because I am not back to work f/t yet, and she doesn't want to leave me fucked for rent. So, probably once I return to work 40hrs a week and maintain it for at least a month is when she will probably give me her notice. Or June 1st at the latest.

I have decided that I will remain here and cut back my spending on needless things. Honestly, if I'm not spending mindlessly, I can afford the rent and bills here. Even on EI, but it would be extremely tight, especially as I have bills I absolutely MUST catch up on before my daughter moves out.

One of my friends has said that she'll move in to help with rent and bills, but this is the same person who has been saying that she is going to leave her husband for as long as I've known her but has made no effort to do so. Other than bringing her cat to me about three years ago. She acts likely she is so deeply in love with him and still lets him control everything she does outside of work. Well, I can sort of understand that - he is more than a bit controlling, but despite having places to go she still has not left. But I know that as long as I don't spend like mad that I can afford my apartment on my own.

Honestly, I have never lived completely on my own before - it's always been me and my kid, or me and a roomie, or just me renting a room somewhere. I'm almost 50 so it's definitely time to make a go of it.

I'm already mentally making plans for what I will do with the apartment once it is just me. One of those things will definitely be to get rid of most of the clutter. I've already told that kid that any mugs they want (other than my Harry Potter, spiderwebs, and skulls) they are more than welcome to pack up now because I will be getting rid of them by month's end. And that's just the start.

I will be getting rid of SO MUCH junk that I simply don't need to keep around. Not that we need it now, but I will need it even less once I don't have to share my space with another person.

I have entirely too much plastic food-storage stuff that never gets used, or sits in the back of the fridge growing science projects. It all needs to go with the intention of replacing some of it with smaller glass containers or a series of canning jars that can be re-used as needed.

I will not need as much food storage space either so I will be able to cut down on the clutter in my cupboards and pantry. Heck, I may even be able to get rid of my pantry entirely and use that area in my kitchen as my garbage/recyclable sorting center if I don't figure out a way to put that on the landing outside my apartment door.

And as my daughter plans on taking the foster cat with her (we've had her for three years so she's pretty much ours anyway) I may be able to get away with buying less cat food and litter each month. Unless I decide to adopt another cat - I worry that my Katya will be too lonely to do well as a single cat, but I'll play it by ear. We've got some time to work on that, and know I've got to talk to the friend who brought her to us to break it to her gently. I don't think she will have too many issues with my daughter taking Sophie with her, but it is still a decision that needs to be made.

As for what I will do with the empty room, well, I've got so many ideas. Mainly, I hope to use one of them primarily for storage and crafting. It will also hold a lot of the clothing I don't wear on a regular basis, and will likely also have enough racks for all my shoes and boots. I will also have a single bed set up as a day bed if I need a change of scenery during the day or night.

The room I am currently using for a bedroom may end up becoming the 'empty' room - the other room is bigger, not that I will really need a ton of bedroom space. Especially because I will be able to clear out a good chunk of the living room clutter.

If I can clear out the living room of all it's clutter I plan on turning it into my most used room. My desk can go in there, and I can set it up for all my entertainment needs. I will have a room to put all my bins and boxes, and even the old rat cage (although I can see me getting pet rats again...but I don't know if I'd keep them in a smaller cage or the huge one), and that will free up a large amount of space to turn into my writing studio, and maybe even my recording area.

All of the furniture outside of my daughter's room is mine. Well, other than a glider rocker that she hasn't said if she wants to keep or not. If she doesn't want it, I'll be getting rid of it because I can't sit in the thing without my hips and lower back screaming at me. Besides, it IS her chair.

I think that with the extra space to put things while I figure out what I want to do with everything I'm keeping will be a good thing.

I have asked if she wants one of the bookshelves as I have one that is still in the box, unopened, but my daughter says she doesn't need it. And that I can keep all the books we've bought together as she likely won't get a chance to reread them nor does she really want them. I'm actually okay with that because it would be very difficult to figure out who would get which, and it would split up sets that we have both contributed to. There are a couple of sets that are entirely hers so I will ensure that she gets those, and perhaps figure out a way that she can take my small bookcase with her - I'm currently using it for all my witchy stuff, but I can always set up a new altar and integrate my witchy books into the large bookcases.

She will have to leave the end table that she is currently using for the fan in her bedroom though, because that goes with the rest of the set I have in the living room. But she can take the old TV stand with her if she wishes. I was going to use it for the bird cage if my parrotlet hadn't passed away, but now it's just holding my printer and the small Christmas tree that has been up for over a year. If she agrees to take the TV stand I will clean it up for her so it's ready for her to use. Hell, I might do that before she moves out just to make it easier on both of us.

I have tossed around the idea of cutting my kitchen table in half because I will not need such a large table, but then I realize that it will be so valuable for my sewing that it would be stupid to do anything to it. Other than sand it down and repaint it at some point, using it for all my sewing and pattern making needs. I may have just added an adhesive tape measure to one of my Amazon wish lists. I figure that I can likely make something along the lines of a breakfast nook with storage on one side for my itty bitty kitchen for my dining needs. Not that I have actually used my kitchen table for eating at in a lot of years...heh.

Maybe I will use the larger room as my storage/craft room so I have space for the table. Not sure I'm going to keep all the chairs that came with the table though. At least one is currently unsafe to use and trying to find plywood to replace the busted seat has proven to be next to impossible. I think that two of them actually need the seat replaced, but all four need to be recovered - the blue fabric they came with and the boring beige under the blue need to go, or at least not be seen at all anymore. At least one chair will be kept to be used when I'm sewing or whatever in the room. And painted to match the table too.

If I do not go with the kitchen nook idea, I may end up getting a cheap two-chair set with a small table. I know I do not need anything larger. Hell, once upon a time I had a huge antique table that sat six without the leaf, seating eight with the leaf, and I NEVER had that many people over for dinner. Hell, I used to have a shitty card table and it was just fine for the one time I had people over for dinner. If I could get a stable card table with a hard top (instead of the puffy top that seems to be too common) I'd get one of them again just in case. Bleh.

I already know that I will be painting all my bookcases black and getting my hands on some cheap wood trim to make them look fancy and shit. I think I may invest in a paint sprayer so I can deal with it that much quicker when all is said and done. Besides, I have several painting projects I want to get done. Starting with the empty room - easier to paint when there is almost nothing in it, right?

I also know that when the dollar store gets their Halloween stuff in again that I will be buying at least twelve of their lacy tablecloths. Cheap lace curtains for all the rooms that need them, including the rod in the living room that is currently holding a couple of black sheets to help keep the heat in the kitchen right now...they used to keep the heat in the living room for the bird, but the heat is currently on low in there, only to keep the room from freezing right now.

I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm going to be Goth-ing the place up quite a bit. I could do it now, but right now I've got way too much clutter to easily work around. Clearing all the clutter is going to be the primary focus between now and when the kid moves out. That and cleaning the disaster that the apartment has become.

What I may do, if the kid is willing to help pay for it, it purchase a carpet/upholstery cleaner so that I can scrub the shit out of all the carpets and the furniture. Buying instead of renting will mean that it will be here for whenever I need it, instead of renting one for three days and trying to figure out how to get it home and back to the store. I will always own animals so being able to clean up their messes is always a good thing.

I still need to figure out exactly what I want to do with my matching loveseat and chair. I have bought all new legs for them but have yet to replace them. I want to change the colour the fabric, but I don't know if I want to paint/stain the fabric, go nuts and reupholster it, or make slipcovers. About the only things I do know that I want to do with that furniture is change the colour and rip the box-pleated dust panels off. I'm not even sure what colour I want on them! Black trim and accents, certainly, but what other colour? Purple? Green? Burgundy? Dark grey?

My daughter and I have already talked about what game systems she will be taking when she moves. The PS4 is staying here as I bought it for my own use. The GameCube will be staying as most of the games for that system are mine. The Wii is still up for discussion due in part to the kid having a Switch and me having exercise games and peripherals for the Wii. We'll play that by ear for now.

At the moment I should probably crawl into bed as it is almost 5:30am but I'm not that tired. Ugh. Maybe things will change once I'm back to f/t hours and things are fully set for my daughter's move.

I've also been putting some thought into my gaming set up, especially as I plan on putting together a gaming tower eventually. But that is sometime in the future. For now though, bed.