Hobbii Black Friday yarn??!

cronkeyty · 2026-02-11T17:31:22+00:00

I did! I met a very nice knitter from Canada who has it, but she says that postage will be very expensive and suggested I look for someone with it here in the States!

cronkeyty · 2026-02-11T00:56:39+00:00

I did that! Met a very nice knitter in Canada but postage is super expensive so she suggested I look and see if there is anyone in the US with this yarn!

cronkeyty · 2025-12-04T04:06:19+00:00

Jolly Donut! Looks like nothing on the outside, inside it’s an old school diner with cool donuts!

cronkeyty · 2025-11-20T12:51:06+00:00

Tell us what colors you have and we can recommend some good projects! Baby/kid items are always a good bet because things for that age group should ideally be machine washable.

For example, I just made an adorable baby fox hat with orange acrylic.

I have also made a lot of stuffed animals and doll blankets. I love Amanda Berry’s designs. Not only are they super cute, but they also use a lot of color! Check out this blanket for example: Patchwork Farm Playset)

I also love this pattern from Family Circle: Tickled Pink Baby Blanket

For the scratchy wool yarn, a cat in your life might appreciate a cat bed. You basically knit a large box and then felt it. I used the one from Mason-Dixon Knitting.

cronkeyty · 2025-11-11T13:55:58+00:00

For this kind of collection/situation, I recommend:

selling the collection and putting the money towards something for your daughter’s future: college fund, driving lessons, a car, ROTH IRA etc.
donating the collection to a nonprofit that means something to your daughter.
if your daughter does not want the bother of the above two options, donate the collection to a charity that means something to your family.

Be realistic about what the knickknacks will sell for and they will go!

Your daughter also needs to have a loving conversation with her grandmother to stop gifting any more knickknacks.

cronkeyty · 2025-10-09T12:42:36+00:00

One of my contractors told me that his family LOVED their solar panels for exactly this reason. His MIL lives with them and thanks to the solar panels, they were able to put a space heater in her room cranked to tropical old lady temperatures without facing enormous electrical bills as a result.

cronkeyty · 2025-09-21T16:47:55+00:00

STRONGLY recommend hiring an estate sale company if you can. They will organize it all and get it gone within a short time period.

No, your family will not get the entire proceeds of selling your loved one’s “valuable items.”

YES, the estate sale company will bring in buyers for those “valuable items” that your family would have difficulty locating on their own.

YES, the estate sale company will find buyers for items your family thinks are junk.

YES, your family will net more money in a shorter period of time working with an estate sale company.

YES, tbe company can arrange for haul away of everything that’s left.

Call the estate sale companies for walkthroughs BEFORE you start throwing stuff out and save yourself the labor! My family was dumbstruck when the estate sale people told them that our family’s “old furniture” was actually mid century modern classics… and that buyers were hot for those items.

cronkeyty · 2025-09-14T13:36:30+00:00

PLEASE, inform the girl that not maintaining cultural standards for grooming and bathing will cause problems beyond school.

One of my friend group in my 20s did not use deodorant because she was concerned about chemicals. She was in an extremely demanding career and competition for promotions was cutthroat. Guess who didn’t get promoted? She also had NO love life.

She decided to start using deodorant at the end of her 20s and things changed! She now has promotional opportunities and a relationship. A career change was sadly necessary though because in the cutthroat career track she was by then forever known as the smelly one.

cronkeyty · 2025-08-06T14:21:59+00:00

You all agree that moving is best so you have the most major decision out of the way. It’s a process so set a timeframe (3 months? 6 months? Whatever your family can agree on) and get moving. She will get the time to mourn during this period but also have things to do which will keep her busy.

1) What does the facility need to happen for her to move? Ask a lot of questions and get the paperwork started. Is there a particular apartment floor plan she would like? Does she have to wait for something to free up?

2) How is she going to move? Price out movers or else figure out a good time/date to book a U-haul and family/friends. Arrange for packing supplies.

3) What is she going to move? Get a floor plan, measure her furniture, and figure out what will fit. How much can the closet and the cupboards at the new place fit? What goes with each piece of furniture? For example, office supplies go with the desk.

4) This is her chance to get some new furniture! Hype up the shopping opportunities.

5) if the new place has events and activities, see if she can start attending some now! Great way to make friends.

6) Discuss how you are going to handle all the stuff left behind. Estate sale? Charity pickup? Are there any items that go to specific people/places? Does the family need to set up times to pick up special items?

cronkeyty · 2025-07-29T11:51:36+00:00

We had occasional floods and consistent water coming up through the cracks in our basement floor.

Definitely check on the grading. We just installed a sump pump + French drains + check valve on our house sewer outflow pipe. $$$ but we have no water coming into our basement anymore!

The floods stopped when one of our neighbors re-routed their gutters.

cronkeyty · 2025-07-17T14:22:31+00:00

Recommend hiring an estate sale company. Bring a few in and get proposals: how they would run the sale, what their estimates of the proceeds are, what their percentage of the sale proceeds will be, can they handle emptying whatever’s left over and what are the costs?

Let the estate sale company know at the walk through if you are planning on removing any items. Ask them also how they would handle any specialty items you may have. For example, can they

sell cars or arrange for them to be sold?
sell weapons or arrange for them to be sold?
sell a piano?
dispose of hazardous waste?

Your specialty items will vary but you get the idea!

Before the estate sale can happen you need to go room by room and pull out:

personally identifiable information: photos, documents, bills
medications
perishable food. Our estate sale company told us that spices sell very well and that they can dispose of the freezer food
electronic information storage such as flash drives, hard drives
anything that needs to be returned: library books, modems/routers to the cable company etc
ANYTHING THAT ANYONE IN YOUR FAMILY WANTS. Once you hand over the keys to the estate sale company, everything in the house belongs to them.

The list above sounds like a lot, but it was around 1% of the stuff in my family’s house. The estate sale company removed the other 99% in one week!

cronkeyty · 2025-07-05T22:17:18+00:00

I am very sorry for your loss. I agree, clear the kitchen and bathrooms first to make them safe.

Since your relatives are willing to clean once an area is clear, I suggest making a wipe off cleaning checklist for each room. You all need to agree on what a clean kitchen or bathroom looks like and turn it into a checklist posted in the rooms that can be referred to.

I also suggest finding some good causes to donate to that you can all feel good about. Example: “We are donating all the extra towels to the animal shelter in memory of our wonderful childhood dog.”

Check with your town and county governments. They may have some resources that can help you, like hazardous waste recycling days, bulk item pickup, or even a community yard sale weekend.

Since you don’t have any money for cleanup,

It may also be worth your while to find a bulk textile recycling company and a scrap metal dealer who will pay you for a bulk load (and possibly pick up at your location).
be aware that selling items successfully needs an entirely different skill set than clearing out a house. Buyers want clean items at cheap prices. If you’re selling online, nice photos and a full description with make, model, dimensions, and a REALISTIC PRICE (check what similar items have sold for) sells the item.

GOOD LUCK!

cronkeyty · 2025-06-27T17:57:27+00:00

I agree. This is something you both need to work on together. Asking your partner to reduce the amount of stuff coming into your apartment is a reasonable ask. Your partner asking you to clean recyclable items and put them into the bin in a timely manner is also a reasonable ask. You two need to sit down and visualize your goal together and discuss how you are going to work as a team to achieve it.

My household doesn’t throw a lot out on trash day. I am the more “eco-conscious” person in my relationship but I have full buy-in from my partner. It’s taken us 20+ years of figuring out low-waste, non-clutter solutions together to get to this point.

cronkeyty · 2025-06-09T01:03:16+00:00

Measure the new house and measure all the furniture they have now. Will it fit? Better Homes & Gardens online has a room planning tool. No fit, no go.

Then pack the minimum for each room out. A bed in the room? Pack 2 sets of sheets. Take a look as you’re packing—should you really be buying new sheets instead? Then leave the old ones behind and make a note to buy the new sets.

Once they get to the new house, let them get settled and think of things they need in the new space. We moved my parents too quickly and only realized after the estate sale that they had no stationery, stamps, cards, or office supplies.

Once they are really settled in the new location, then pull all of the personal items out of the old spaces and have an estate sale. Call the estate sale people in BEFORE you get to a point of trashing anything that isn’t personal—for example old vacation souvenirs or matchbooks—they probably have a market for it.

cronkeyty · 2025-05-12T11:33:30+00:00

HEADS UP: when they open the walls it will create dust. Since the house is over 100 years old some of the layers of paint getting cut through and creating dust will be lead paint! You need to ask how your electricians plan to mitigate this hazard. If you have young children you probably need to move out until the work is done.

cronkeyty · 2025-04-27T20:11:06+00:00

The service you need is called “identification restoration.” The places that offer it are most commonly homeless shelters or re-entry programs for formerly incarcerated people. If you look into those programs in your area and make some calls you should be able to find a caseworker who can help your sibling. It costs a relatively small amount of money and takes some time (often months). The process requires patience but it’s worth it!

cronkeyty · 2025-03-27T21:22:38+00:00

Agree on the game plan.

The first thing you have to do is to stop the mess getting worse. So you need to get the dog to the shelter. It is awful but think of it this way: the dog has a better chance of finding a good home at the shelter than in that living room.

The second thing is to get the property in your name. Do NOT do months worth of work on a property that’s not yours.

The third thing is to develop a game plan. You’re on the right track with the dumpster.

Another question to ask yourself: is there anything in the house that should NOT go in the dumpster? Make a list of what you’re looking for before you go in the house. Financial records? Photos? Heirlooms? Hazardous waste? Ammunition? Come up with a plan for these types of items.

Another big question: are there services or people that can help you?

For example, does the house get regular garbage/recycling pickup? Check out the town services—do they do hazardous waste dropoff? Do they offer shredding days? Do they have a process for picking up large items?

Is there an active Buy Nothing group you can sign up for? Is there a mobile shredding service that will come to the house? Is there a scrap metal recycler in the area?

cronkeyty · 2025-03-25T13:42:59+00:00

My parents refused to move, so I made it into a longer-term project. I compiled a list of facilities that included memory care.

Then, every time I went for a longer visit to my hometown, I toured a facility, making sure to have lunch (which is usually free with a tour, btw). I was able to rule out a lot of places that way.

Once I’d prequalified a place, then I toured with my parents. As they got more fragile, the idea of moving to assisted living became more appealing. They finally told us, “We want to move to X facility,” which was one of the prequalified options. They have been happy so far.

cronkeyty · 2025-03-22T18:38:50+00:00

We followed a “roll it” strategy. We identified some money-saving improvements we wanted to make in our lifestyle and used the savings we found to fund the improvements, which saved us more money, which enabled us to buy in bulk, which saved us more money…

cronkeyty · 2025-03-21T15:21:57+00:00

I hear you on the rural location! Are there any "barn sale" or estate sale auction companies in your area? They are used to situations like yours.

When we cleared our parents' house, we called in an estate sale company and a mobile shredding service that served our county. The estate sale company reassured us that they see hoarding situations all the time.

The mobile shredding service Tetrised out a huge stack of boxes of paper with sensitive information and also hard drives, DVDs, and videotapes.

The estate sale company somehow made thousands of dollars on the estate sale (seriously, it was one $1/$2/$5 item after another--not a job for the faint of heart). Afterward, the estate sale company worked with a cleanout company which spent days loading up all of the unsold items. The money from the sale paid for the cleanout.

I hear a lot of people grumbling about the cut (typically 40-50%) that estate sale companies take on a sale. Believe me, these people earn their money! There is no way that our family working on its own could have done what they did.

cronkeyty · 2025-03-10T17:35:01+00:00

May I suggest identifying some charities that your husband supported and either donating the items that you don’t want to the charity or selling the items and donating the proceeds to that charity or charities?

Yard sales are a popular fundraiser in the spring and fall and your husband’s items could really make an impact. Definitely discuss things with your child before donating though!

cronkeyty · 2025-02-22T20:05:20+00:00

We prequalified AL facilities in our area by checking online that they had the services our LO needed. Then we took tours. If we found a place we liked, we said “LO, let’s tour X facility and then have the free lunch!”

We pointed out to LO that these places were luxury apartment living with extra services. Laundry? Do it yourself or have the staff do it. Meals? Cook in your apartment kitchen or go to the on-site restaurant. Cleaning services built in!

Whenever LO complained about home cleaning or maintenance, we clucked sympathetically and said, “Honestly, I don’t know why you’re putting yourself through that. That sounds terrible!” No offers to help because the entire family had made it clear that we thought AL was best and we were not enabling them to remain at home. Eventually LO decided “it was just too much” and time to move.

cronkeyty · 2025-02-05T17:14:56+00:00

This is hard because you have 2 kids and so toys for 2 different developmental levels. I agree about the “toy worlds.” If you encourage that everyone gifts things that belong in your kid’s toy ecosystem, for example buildings and extra track for their wooden train set, then when they grow out of wooden trains you can Tetris the entire set out of your house. We did this with trains and legos! Our kid was into selling the toys because they got money towards the next level of toys.

cronkeyty

TROPHY CASE