April 25, 2008
The catchall drawer. Does anyone remember it? The one drawer in the house that seems to suck everything into its depths, and some things never emerge again? All the drawers in my desk are starting to go that way, but the middle drawer is the worst.
Digging out the contents revealed: about nine hundred fifty pens; twenty highlighters; twenty pencils, wooden or mechanical; fifteen Sharpies of various shapes, sizes and colors; solid and liquid white-out; staples; tiny little folding papers to make those puff-up stars; two jade bracelets; a Masterlock the combination of which has been lost for all time; a tiny magnifying glass in a leather case; my Discover-to-go card that expired in June 2006; a half dozen sheets of really cute but juvenile stickers; 7 AAA batteries, two of which were dead, two which are questionable; two old pagers; old house keys to my best friend’s house, but for the door that her brother broke about 7 years ago; and a one legged compass. That’s just for an example!
Whew! I can’t believe that all of that could fit into one drawer, two inches deep! Granted, it’s about two feet across, but my goodness! That’s way too much stuff. I checked every pen, pencil and highlighter and threw away about a hundred, divvied the pens up into “good-keep” and “good-give away” piles, and now have a sack of perfectly good pens that I don’t want. I’ll take them to work, there’s always a need for pens there.
I can’t bring myself to throw away that lock. I know I’ll never remember or figure out the combination, but it’s such a good solid lock, I just can’t do it.
Likewise with the pagers. I know no one uses pagers anymore except the doctors I work with, but I’m pretty sure not a one of them will want my teeny tiny light blue pager. It’s really cute, it fits in the palm of my hand! It’s only 1.5″ x 2″, and still has the original silver chain/clip, and matching light blue belt clip. The only reason I stopped using it was because I finally got a cell phone back in 2001. Huh, I wonder if that’s why I had that box of AAA batteries? It does use a AAA battery …..
April 24, 2008
My desk is about 15 years old, and it’s kind of falling apart. It’s a pretty decent size, something like 5′ across, and 3′ deep, with an equally large hutch sitting on top. I use every inch of space on my desk and hutch, but often get annoyed by the clutter. I spent over an hour clearing off just the top of the hutch. Things like old business cards, phone cards, eons-old lip balms, old medications from when I was trying different drug regimens for my various ailments, photos, Lone Wolf and Cub, envelopes, notebooks, pens, pencils and mailing supplies had all accumulated into an army perched atop my desk.
Bit by bit, things were tossed out, or cleaned up and replaced. I’d call it a 75% success. I might be able to get rid of a few more things, but only if I get even more organized. It could happen!
April 23, 2008
Closet, Part Deux
The lower shelves of the closet were my next job. This is populated by my jewelry boxes, and hatboxes with smaller clothing items and undergarments. I love the use of hatboxes for undergarments, by the way. They’ll be easily portable, and the boxes are attractive. I don’t have an abundance of any clothing in these categories, so I just sorted through to make sure nothing needed washing, and refolded or rolled each piece so it was neatly organized.
The jewelry box was a huge mess. As I sorted, I realized that I was slowly forgetting the stories of some of the necklaces. I like knowing where each and every piece was acquired, or who it was a gift from, so I know I’ve got too much when I can’t recall where a particular sparkly came from. This reinforces my conviction that I was right to ask BoyDucky to stop giving me jewelry. The necklace and earrings he gave me will always have a special place in my heart, and they won’t get crowded out by others.
There were some junk pieces I’d hoarded since junior high: stud earrings missing backings, earrings missing mates, etc. Those all went out. The rest were reorganized by category: precious metals, precious stones (uh, the one pair of earrings), sparkly but not actual gemstones, and just sparkly or casual pieces.
April 22, 2008
I know I haven’t said much about the impending move since my final decision earlier this month. Rest assured, I have not changed my mind. It’s simply been a very busy time getting used to the idea, dealing with work drama, not so incidentally trying to figure out if I’m going to have a job for much longer, etc. Lots of things going on all at once, lots to think about. But, I have not forgotten, nor changed my mind. More than ever, I understand the need to move out is valid, and my real problem is restraining myself from going buck-wild quitting my job, packing up the car and moving cross country in the middle of the night so no one can find me again. Yeah. Once you open the spigot, watch out!!
Anyway, I know that I need to save up money for first/last months’ rent, the security deposit, start up costs for utilities, and miscellaneous moving costs. The one thing I absolutely do not want to do is have to pay for storage because I have too much crap. Between that, and my need not to kill myself moving too much crap, I’ve begun taking one small area of my room a day, one day a week, and clearing it all out. Junk goes into the garbage, salvageable things that I don’t need or use regularly get donated. Items in really good or new shape (haven’t run into much of that yet) will either be eBayed or Craigslisted. That’s the plan, Stan.
My first step was the closet: the shelves, not the clothes on the bar. The upper shelves are set up with cubes for easier storage. And, of course, more convenient stashing of clutter. I worked my way through the excess Comfortable Clothing up there, jammies, sweats, old ratty jersey sweaters. How many sets of pajamas does one person need? Even better, I don’t even wear pajama sets anymore, a loose-fitting t-shirt and pajama pants or shorts are as fancy as I get. The cubes are still a little full because I was just getting started and haven’t gotten really ruthless yet, but I’ll come back to it again later.