I have spent the last couple of days purging junk from our lives. I am not a minimalist in any manner, but I hate for junk to start piling up and cluttering our lives. The last time I did this big of a junk purge was a couple of years ago, and even then, there were things I just didn't finish doing, like my own closet.
I cannot believe how much junk I pulled out of that one spot. Today, I worked (with my friend Pam, the organizing lady) to declutter the office. We've decided to make a second office in the house using the spare bedroom since we never actually use it for a spare bedroom. That room will become a bid / file room, which will allow my office to be mainly used for writing. I will of course still be doing all the phone call stuff, but I don't have to have all of the old job files and old vendor files in here. We moved out a big shelf unit and put it in the other room, carving out a spot for my rocking chair and a reading lamp.
The other thing I did for myself today was order a new computer. I've been talking about getting a new one since forever, and I finally did. This is partly for the business (this old one will go in the extra office now), and partly a birthday present for me.
My birthday is tomorrow. I have a new computer on the way (well, it'll take a week to build and a couple of days to ship), a new reading space in my office, and several much cleaner spaces. Go me! I am thrilled.
Posted by toni at June 10, 2004 07:31 PMFirst of all, have a great birthday!
On the subject of purging - it's funny, yesterday I was sitting, thinking. I thought, if we were to lose everything in a fire, how painful would it be? It would be horrible. How would I go on? I sat reflecting, and then I thought, wow, what a clean start.
Now I'm not considering arson as a method of housecleaning. I just realize we have so much accumulation of stuff. There are knick knacks, souvenirs, letters, photos that I haven't seen in years because they are packed away in tubs. And we've managed to get by without them. Do we really need them? It's an emotional tug-of-war, really.
Posted by: Amanda at June 10, 2004 10:09 PMThanks for the wishes!
And I know what you mean. I have boxes and boxes of photos, which are piled up in a not-too-easily-accessed closet and wouldn't be grab-able if there were a fire. Which will change, now that you've mentioned that. The photos are really the one thing I wouldn't want to lose of all the keepsakes.
Posted by: toni at June 10, 2004 10:31 PMHappy Birthday!
You know those white store-all boxes for files? I've got like 179 of them in my garage... send help!
Posted by: otto at June 11, 2004 11:32 AMHeh -- I know how you feel. I went up into the attic yesterday to look at how complex that attic cleaning was going to be and sort of froze, frightened. How the attic has not caved in to the floor is a miracle, there is so much junk and boxes up there. I think I still have every single financial document (cancelled checks, etc.) from every year we've been married (22), plus every thing either kid ever touched with a pen, pencil or crayon, plus there is just something about having stored 3 billion empty boxes (in case I needed something to wrap presents in) which may have made it a tad worse. Add to that the heat (90 degrees outside, probably close to, and I'm not kidding, 130 in that attic), and I think we'll be saving the attic purge for late fall when it's cooled off. (Of course now we have to figure out why the attic vents aren't working.)
So I empathize, I really do. Lukcily, I have teenage boys who want to earn extra spending money who will think that milling around the attic, bringing boxes down for the burn pile is easy work. (They were on a jackhammer all day today in that 90 degree heat.)
Posted by: toni at June 12, 2004 12:49 AMGood thing my garage is on a concrete slab; if I had a real attic we'd be done for.
Next comment on your birthday post...
Posted by: otto at June 12, 2004 01:24 AM