Friday Report

[adair]

I have not been reporting for a couple of weeks - for 11 days our car has been having everything attached to the sub-frame detached, re-attatched or replaced to a new sub-frame. It was worth the expense; it is 14 years old but still in very good condition. We are looking for another in 2 years, when this becomes the secondary car, but Ohhhh! no car for 11 days is a challenge.

With this going on I did not do much decluttering. I took 4 books the Books to Prisoners (I get there via bus) but that's about it. When we got our car back we did a lot of grocery shopping, bought many clear plastic boxes at Target for B's own studio sort project, and took the 50 UHaul book boxes that lived near our front door for 12 days to the B2P workroom. When we bought them the steering problem involving the sub-frame manifested, and the boxes sat and sat and sat.

A friend who lives out-of-state called to tell us he is making his annual tour of the upper midwest visiting friends. He sleeps in our living room when he is with us, and there are so many books stacked around that we can not open the couch. He also brings a batch of electronics that need charging, so I need to clear my own charging space so Mike can use it. This inspires much-needed clearing and organization of Stuff.

I threw out 4 years worth of Prison Legal News; I have never gone back to re-read anything, and most of it is on line. I also put the records of the last Spanish books purchase for B2P in the bag to take to the workroom. This cleared two shelves in the project box, where I put all my electronic charges and cords, each in their own zip-lock bag, with label. The shelves are a little crowded, but I can take each bag off as I look for what I want, then put them back where they will be easy to find.

I found 2 2017 desk calendars - 1 with Zen quotations and 1 with daily crossword puzzles. I apparently kept them for later reference - these are now gone.

I threw out the ancient, dusty potpourri on the small table by the door, which is also my charging station. I put one pair of sunglasses in the give-away box, one, in a case, in the glove compartment in the car, and left two on the table, where I pick one up as I leave the house. I threw out political bumperstickers from 2016 that were in the file where I put things to mail on this same table. I found 6 lip balms there; they are still there, but I am going to put one in every coat in my closet so they are at hand when needed.

Preparation for Mike may be the push I needed. If I have to I can put books in banker's boxes and take them to the garage; I have done that before and brought some boxes in for more sorting. Books may move slowly, but even looking at the for stashing can start more thinking about what books to let go.

Comments

[lilysea]

I took 4 books the Books to Prisoners (I get there via bus)

Thank you for doing this! ^_^

[adair]

I volunteer there 2 days a week; this is a collegee town so we get a lot of donated books, but we are getting short of fantasy and thrillers because so many people now get them as ebooks. I like ereaders, but i stopped buying many things in e format so I can take them to B2P.

[fred_mouse]

You say you did little decluttering, but that list seems a goodly number of items have left the house! Good luck with the next stage of book removal.

[adair]

Moving books on is a never-ending task. I have to box up a bunch and take them to the garage so Mike has a place to sleep, but I will bring boxes back in for more sorting. My willingness to let go of books is improving - not by much, but some.

[sauscony]

Good job! Sometimes I need the push of house guests to motivate myself to clean and declutter too.

I found a few more baby feeding things I no longer need now that my daughter is not a baby anymore, as she's so fond of reminding us. And I found a few teething toys I can wash, then set aside for sale or donation, since my daughter didn't use them (they are just dusty from sitting around). I have a whole bag of nursing, baby feeding, and teething stuff set aside now.

We had to get a new TV which is bigger than our entertainment center, so we have to move everything to the smaller one my husband is picking up now. We will be wall-mounting the TV, so we don't need the giant entertainment center we've had forever. So I'm going to reorganize a few of our collections that lived in the old entertainment center this weekend.

[adair]

If i don't do something Mike will not have a place to sleep.

Wow! reorganizing entertainment center contents probably means getting rid of some things. Onward!

We want a bigger tv, but our entertainment center is so full of stuff, 3 dvd recorders and players, 2 different cd player and recorders, cd and dvd discs for recording, 2 baskets of commercial dvds, notebooks with medical and professional stuff, one cabinet of decorative this and that my family gave me and I can't get rid of - you get the picture. I am leaving it alone for now but it has to be dealt with. Let us know how your collection reorganization goes.

[sauscony]

:)

We took out our old DVR, broken DVD player, and VCR, but everything else fits perfectly in the new entertainment center, except the vinyl records. The only working record player is in my bedroom, so I need to move that to a room where I can listen to records without waking my daughter in the morning. I have a huge stack of records that I need to listen to so I can make sure they play without skipping because I'd like to trade them in at a record store.

The new setup with the TV on the wall and an entertainment center we can completely secure from toddler hands is great. No more stuff from the cubby thrown all over the living room and no more hands- and crayons- on the TV screen.

Yeah, it's so easy to collect stuff in an entertainment center, especially when you have to disconnect it all from the power outlets, TV, stereo, etc.

[tanaqui]

It sounds to me like you got plenty done despite the car troubles! But I know I find it frustrating when I can't complete a final step on something (or know there's no point starting something I'd hoped to get done in a certain timeframe) because of a lack of something necessary, and it sounds like you felt the same way.

Glad to hear you've got the car fixed and have been able to deal with some of the outstanding issues. And good luck with using the incentive of your friend staying to make some more progress -- I hope you have a great time when he visits.

I'm feeling very accomplished because I managed to finish going through the boxes of photos and family papers. Found another wedge of bits and bobs to get rid of, and pulled out some nice photos I want to frame. Which is the next job -- going through my large stash of photo frames and deciding which to keep and use, and which to donate.

[adair]

Photos and family papers are among the hardest things to sort, and to let go of some. Congratulations. It's nice to have found pictures to frame; makes the whole process feel rewarding.