Interconnected decluttering....

Subject: Interconnected decluttering.... Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:40 pm

Here's the plan, as occurring to me at 4am when I woke up to nip to the loo...

If I deal with the stacked-up unsorted clutter in my big downstairs room, then I can move the chair, table and bookshelf down there from the attic boxroom.
If I clear the attic box-room which I emptied and decorated in 2006 for my nieces to have as their Very Own Private Room, then we can put a bed in there and they can have it as their V.O.P.R. which may make their lives a bit better jsut now.

Here's the actuality, as viewed by me at 2.30pm from the desk...

two bags of rubbish in wheelie-bin
two bags of recyclable textiles gone off for recycling
bag of charity-shop stuff to be cleaned and given away
not-my-own books stacked on stairs to be shelved in family shelves

Result? The room doesn't look one bit tidier or bigger or clearer or more organised or anything!!! It just looks exactly the same... waaaaah!

I'm going to keep on soldiering on... get this room cleared and it means the boxroom can be cleared and THAT means the girls have their own room....

Any tips on Keeping On Going welcomed... I can't just box it all up as it has my PhD working notes mixed up with childhood postcards and old torn jeans and vintage plates and spare keyboards for computers I no longer have, and... and... and...

I have a horrible feeling I may need to clear our tiny one-room cellar in order to put some of this stuff in there in order to put the boxroom stuff in here in order to...
laura

Subject: Re: Interconnected decluttering.... Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:46 pm

It's vicious cycle, but what about displaying some of the "clutter" on the walls in the attic box room. Using trunks or something functional for storage in plain sight. Having an eclectic room can be fun and a conversation piece. As far as your paperwork is concerned can you use the space under the bed that you're putting up? Just some thoughts.

I have a new websight for everyone

www.paperbackswap.com

It's a great idea.

Subject: Re: Interconnected decluttering.... Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:30 pm

The boxroom's only big enoughfor a single bed, so we'll have one of those ones with a second pull-out truckle-bed beneath... and also I'd really like it to be the girls' room when they stay here and no feeling of it being my room I'm letting them use...

I think there's actually enough space in this big room for everything that SHOULD be in here but it's a question of sorting through boxes and bags of unsorted Stuff in order to separate the Keep from the Throw... tiring and a bit dispiriting...

But I've jsut had some very-high-cocoa chocolate and a pint of chilled fizzy water with Pixley Blackcurrant adn Scottish Raspberry cordial in it and a sit-down in the garden admiring the Shropshire Lad climbing rose's beauty, so I'm determined to soldier on a bit longer today!

Now... where is the best place to store some of these things... a block with sandpaper taped on for the finishing-off of the replica 17th-century comb I made from bone (started as a cow's leg for 50p from the butcher... will end as a lovely little 3"x3" comb...)? The cat-litter tray filled with clean cat-litter that my cat never usually uses but we keep for emergencies when we have to shut her in one room (eg allergic visitors)? The speakers from my old stereo that I want to hook up to my record-player but haven't?

AAARGH!!!!!!!

*grin*

I can do this... those girls need their own safe-place... I can do this...

I'm keeping the following quotation from the New Messies' Manual to hand:
"
You begin by throwing away all the true junk you have accumulated in
the drawer. Put it in the throw away box. And be serious about it.
Don’t keep the pen that only works half the time and the year-old
calendar even if it does have nice pictures on it. Your freedom from
clutter is more important that they are.

Be willing to take a risk that you may later want what you
discarded. Also realize that it may cause temporary pain to throw
something out. However, it also causes definite pain to keep it.
Throwing it out is mild pain, compared with the pain which comes from
having to live helplessly with all the clutter which finds its way into
the house. There is an exhilarating feeling of freedom which comes once
the decision to take control of the house has been made and you
actually do it by beginning to throw out."

laura

Subject: Re: Interconnected decluttering.... Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:19 pm

I love paperback swap. I've been a member for over a year and it is wonderful.

Subject: Re: Interconnected decluttering.... Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:24 pm

Where is that messie manual? I love it...I need to mail it to about 3 people i know of...She sounds divine, literally.....LOL

Good luck, and by the way, the drink you had sounds very good.