Not so much progress...

[holyschist]

I did a bunch of socializing this weekend instead of cleaning.

In:

4 books

Out:

1 box stuff to thrift store
1 big piece of what-was-I-thinking fabric to thrift store
1 lap desk to thrift store
A bunch of empty medication bottles and old shampoo and whatnot (cleaned out under bathroom sink! Lots of space there now)

Net:

-3 + 0 = -3 (but better by volume)

Did not get packages ready to mail--this week!--or finish going through papers yet (lots of papers). Off to get new tackle box today, but also some other stuff for upcoming move (which has thankfully been pushed out a little. :-(

I started a box for stuff that needs special disposal--old/broken electronics, unused medications, dead batteries. I need to find out about 1) electronics recycling in my area, 2) whether there are any local shelters or similar that would like cell phones, 3) battery recycling, and 4) proper disposal of medications. I may or may not actually get all this worked out before I leave, but at least it will be in a single box to be dealt with as soon as I get back. Also need to look into food pantries for when I clean out the kitchen cabinets.

Thing I'm struggling with: supplements and vitamins. I have a lot of these from over the years, and I'm not so great at taking anything regularly, so they mostly sit there. I hate to throw them out, but I'm obviously not using them right now. What should I do with them? I'm sort of inclined to keep the vitamins and a couple of the ones for joints for when I'm having a flare-up and toss the rest.

How do you guys decide what to keep and what to toss in the realm of bath & medical stuff?

in which beachlass attempts to take her own advice

[beachlass]

Fell off the radar for a few days

IN: Just a couple of magazines, I think
OUT: 23 cds

I tried applying the 1/5 rule to my cds this morning with moderate success.  When I was tidying up, the cd shelves were getting too full to put everything away. So I counted up our cds, and there's a little more than 160. I decided to aim for about 30 to go away, and it was hard, hard, hard. My first pass through the shelf netted me 13 cds I didn't want. So I went through them again, asking myself when was the last time I listened to each one. It's been more than 10 years for a lot of them. Or others that were gifts, and I've never opened.

So. 

I didn't make thirty, but I'm still pleased. 

This started as a reply but now isn't!

[all_adream]

I began to write in reply to people who were going to move, and was in solidarity but also wanted to point out that I feel some of the articals (even ones that I posted here), may be too extreme or missing the point or simply have a point of "empty everything out" as opposed to fine-tuning it more. What do you guys think on this theme?


Yup, my partner and I are moving from some places that are not finished and bulging with stuff (my old house which still has a lot of my valued things in it, my boss's 150-year-old office building that he just sold to a really creepy person who is pushing us out ASAP, my office rented downtown that I haven't been to in a couple of years since I had an accident, etc.), plus this apartment we have been in for half a year maybe, plus the fact that my partner and I plan to buy a house together somewhere else, which will require pruning everything from at least the old house and this one and any incidental things that I may have stashed in the office I have worked at daily for over 15 years, etc. It is amazing the amount and categories of crap I have, and how a lot of it is pretty much "me saving it for smarter generations" or "for those who would appreciate it" or even as sort of magical talismans. To me, some of the unclutter articles are ruthless and maybe miss the point: sure, if someone wants zero crap or belongings, it can be done, but then is the person's life utterly impoverished of things that evoke good feelings and memories and actual links to other time periods? I firmly believe that, say, a coin from 1957 or 2009 or 1678 *has* some of the energy of that time, because it was around then. My body was not necessarily around for all those time periods, and so it does not have a material link like that.

Additionally, when I lived in a dangerous area a year or so back for a long time, I *intentionally* packed the house with clutter, so that if people came in to steal stuff (they did), it would be harder for them to see something of value, and also I hoarded disposable stuff like recyclables that I planned to get rid of sometime as an extra layer of energetic insulation, in a way. I didn't want the cootie vibes of people, their noise and the petty criminals that actually came into the downstairs of the house and yard, and whatever cootie vibes some people swore were from ghosts etc., just roaming around unrestricted. Of course, I had nice Buddha statues and stuff too to combat the bad energy and try to balance it out, but I actually felt that it served a purpose in its way.

Can anyone relate to this? To me, it's pretty much the same as having extra fat on your body to keep you feeling safer from other people's energy or intentions etc.