Clearing Up Clutter

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I have two big boxes of office supplies in my bedroom that need to find a home. (I.e., a home within my home.) They've been sitting there since 2009. I think I need to unpack them into smaller boxes and put the smaller boxes at the top of a closet.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I wonder WTF is in those boxes. I can't even remember.

[Jaye]

Wait. I'm trying to talk myself into thinking if I've got stuff in boxes for a long time and don't really know what is even in the box then I pretty much am functioning fine without it.
This is an important point, for me anyway.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

A lot of decluttering experts say exactly that. If you can't even remember what's in a box, you don't need it and you never will. They advise if you're not sure if you want to keep a bunch of items, put them in a box, tape it up, write the date on it, stick it in your garage or basement, and a month or two later if you haven't needed to open the box, throw it out. I think that advice is fine....however, if you don't know what is in a box and haven't known for several years, I think you should take a look. You don't want to be throwing away your grandmother's china or whatever without at least knowing you're doing it.

[evie]

Cynthia wrote: "Yep, we do a Luau every summer and guests will mostly be in my yard, seated for dinner in my next-door neighbor's back yard with a tent if it rains and a live band this year. I even got to choose t..."

*admires Cynthia's organisational skills*

[evie]

Lobstergirl wrote: " I think that advice is fine....however, if you don't know what is in a box and haven't known for several years, I think you should take a look. You don't want to be throwing away your grandmother's china or whatever without at least knowing you're doing it.

I'd definitely look at it first too. I know for certain I've stored away my deceased aunt's old photographs, but I can't remember where .

[Cynthia]

evie wrote: "Cynthia wrote: "Yep, we do a Luau every summer and guests will mostly be in my yard, seated for dinner in my next-door neighbor's back yard with a tent if it rains and a live band this year. I even..."

Thanks Evie. I've done it six times now and have a notebook reminding me what to order and what to cook and how much beer to buy, etc.

[Emily]

I am tackling the 'junk room'/study. So far I have made two boxes of recycling.

[Jammies]

Yay Emily!

[Jaye]

So.
I'm in my room thinking I've got to tackle a pile of books and correspondence. Underneath there were two boxes that turned out to belong to my daughter. They've been there for some time and I never noticed.
For Pete's Sake.

The cat went over to take a look. After a while I looked over the edge of the bed to see her sitting in the empty spot looking around. Probably thinking, "What the heck?".

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Cats love new spots.

[~Geektastic~]

I've been working on downsizing our bedroom every weekend for 3 weeks now and it's STILL NOT DONE. It's like a bottomless pit.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I hear you! Same thing here. I'm hoping to shred a third of my files and recycle some more, and computerize some more. It's endless. I am proud of myself though, my dining room is looking good.

[Jaye]

Going through things would probably be a whole lot easier if I started with the piles and piles and piles of books.
Maybe then I'd be able to partially function.

[Jaye]

Lg, yes, cats love new spots.
They also love to sit on high piles of boxes. Mine have been known to argue over choice spots.

[Cynthia]

Lobstergirl wrote: "I hear you! Same thing here. I'm hoping to shred a third of my files and recycle some more, and computerize some more. It's endless. I am proud of myself though, my dining room is looking good."

Nice job, LG. It is most certainly endless.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Every home tends toward entropy. Some are more successful at fending it off than others.

[Félix]

In the end it wins.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

And do we lose, or is it a win-win?

[Félix]

All a matter of perspective. Ashes to ashes.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

The World Without Us is a kind of cool discussion of entropy.

[Félix]

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I give humans two more centuries.

[Félix]

You're generous. By then we will have started colonizing the Solar System and beyond. If only about 50 individuals make it out, it's enough to keep the species going.

[[deleted user]]

Assuming that those 50 aren't all related.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Oh, we won't have the luxury of observing incest taboos at that point in time.

[Félix]

No, it won't matter. You can be sure that the small number of our ancestors who left Africa about 50,000 years ago were pretty close, genetically. The gene pool for Africans is immensely more diverse than for those of us who descended from escapees.

[Sally, la reina]

"who left Africa."

Says you. I think :humans: as we know them arrived on a spacecraft in the 1950s.

[[deleted user]]

I spent the day yesterday helping my MIL declutter. Since my FIL passed away she has been very active with projects to tidy up and declutter. She is sensible about it and enlists our help with things she can't manage.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Sally wrote: ""who left Africa."

Says you. I think :humans: as we know them arrived on a spacecraft in the 1950s."

This is certainly true of Mittens.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Gail wrote: "I spent the day yesterday helping my MIL declutter. Since my FIL passed away she has been very active with projects to tidy up and declutter. She is sensible about it and enlists our help with thin..."

That's good. Sometimes people who are grieving get frozen and can't throw away anything.

[[deleted user]]

She was frozen for quite a few months. I think now she is doing things the way she wants them done, for the first time. She is enjoying it.

[Cynthia]

I've known many widows and widowers who ended up enjoying their new found ability to make decisions/changes without consulting their spouse.

[Jaye]

I think I read a study somewhere that said a large number of divorced women do not remarry. I imagine there are a great number of reasons/explanations for that.
Having lived alone for a long time I've found that making decisions by oneself, and not being able to share responsibilities, gets harder as time goes by.

[Jaye]

In the clutter catagory:
A current example:
There is to be a yard sale week-end on my street soon.
My friend up the street has his new wife behind him spurring him on to dragging things out to sell (getting rid of the stuff the previous wife accumulated).
There is no one to spur me on/tote/fetch/carry.
Just setting up tables for this thing by oneself is daunting.

[Sally, la reina]

I don't like the way a yard sale makes one's life on display for the 'hood.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

I don't even have enough stuff for a yard sale. I really don't have that many tchotchkes. Every piece of furniture I have is something I need, and use. Maybe I could get rid of a couple kitchen items, but I don't need to, because I have plenty of cupboard space for storage. Clothes, yes....I could sell a bunch of clothes. And shoes. And probably some pieces of jewelry that I hate.

[Sally, la reina]

I'd go to that yard sale.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

And an old keyboard and Dell monitor. Sunglasses. Maybe an AC window unit, or two?

[janine]

I just got rid of a Dell monitor.

[evie]

We are going to store some of mr evie's paintings at my FIL's house.
One of the paintings is a gift to my FIL. I still haven't tackled the clutter in my kitchen cupboards.

[Jaye]

Making Peace with the Things in Your Life: Why Your Papers, Books, Clothes, and Other Possessions Keep Overwhelming You and What to Do About It
I've been reading this book. It's very different than other books about things/stuff/organizing, etc.
I'm finding it very useful.

[evie]

I started decluttering the kitchen cupboards today.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

My DVD player died. This is actually not all that disappointing, since I now have an excuse to throw it out. It lasted 7 years. I can watch dvds on my laptop if necessary.

I'm resisting throwing out my TV, for now. Because I still have a VHS player and a few VHS tapes, gathering dust.

[Félix]

DVDs are a pain. Especially Netflix DVDs. We now just buy the occasional movie from Cox On Demand.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Why a pain?

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

A couple years ago I bought a few episodes of Damages on Amazon. Just digital. I wasn't sure if they would expire, but I was on Amazon yesterday (I hardly ever go there anymore) and they are still sitting there in my digital account - it looks like they can still be watched, although I didn't make the attempt. This is the kind of thing that never would have appealed to me before, but in my new desire to live without clutter, having "possessions" in "the cloud" is actually quite nice.

[Félix]

A pain because they often freeze up, jump to next segment, or go back to the beginning.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Oh. Right.

[Lobstergirl, el principe]

Oh, actually it turns out my dvd player isn't dead. It wasn't plugged in.