Still Small Stuff

Thought I'd start off with our Christmas decor.  We got this many years ago in Germany and it hasn't seen the light of day in almost as many years.  Needless to say, I found it in the basement and chose it to put up instead of a tree.  The heat from the candles turns the fan blades and the scenes in the middle spin around.  It's very cool!  Also found a holiday / winter wreath that Darling Girl made when she was in grade school and I hung that on the front door.  That's as festive as it's going to get and it's more than I had thought to do.  Thanks for the nudge from June who urged me to decorate a little.

So on with the decluttering...I got a bit behind posting pics but have made some progress.  Feeling a little discouraged that it will ever be done.  I'm currently thinking it will be a 3 part process.  1 - get the house decent enough to have visitors without total humiliation.  2 - go through the process again to winnow out the things that I'm not quite ready to make a decision about yet or don't have time to sort thoughtfully.  3 - empty the storage unit (thus filling up the house again!) and sort through that.  It's going to be a long term project.

For those who have forgotten, here's where I started in the laundry room:

Here's what it looks like now:

And then, slowly I turned...

 The other side of the laundry room.  I was skimming through a book about decluttering and one chapter was called "Don't Look Up"  meaning only look at the area you are working on or you will go nuts!  I'm finding it to be very true.  That little white basket turned out to be laundry that I apparently simply forgot to do several years ago (at least 5) and then other stuff piled on top and it was forgotten.  You'd think someone would have missed their clothes.
And then turning once more there's this...There's a sink there on the right, not that you can tell.

It took a couple days but that room is done as far as sorting.  Still doing laundry for clothes to donate and Darling Man has the house gear and tools to organize.
So on to the next disaster area...the finished side of the basement:

 That's the chair I rocked my babies in.  One arm spindle is broken from those same babies getting much bigger and sitting in the chair sideways.  This is the space that needs to be cleared so we can put the extra bed in for guests.  Who, let's not forget, are arriving in a little over 2 weeks!  This corner had a whole lot of stuff that just went to recycle or trash.  Unfortunately I found another huge box of clothes under the desk (yes, there's a desk back there)  I sincerely hope that's the last of them!  I haven't uploaded the pics of the "after" for this corner so will save that for next time.

This process has brought up some feelings about how all this mess reflects my inner life as it was for so long.  And, also, the relationships in this house and to this house and the idea of "home" and what does that mean anyway?  After this came up, I started seeing the idea of home as a reflection of who we are in other places (a book I got from the library that I'm kind of afraid to read beyond the first few pages I've read, and the Dr. Oz show yesterday).  I'll write about it at some point.  but not yet.

Small Stuff - 4 weeks and counting

Well, Darling Boy and his friend are visiting in 4 weeks.  Can you say "Yikes!"?  I figure that gives me one week for each level (we live in a townhouse) and one week to clean.  I'm still keeping all the mental doors to the big picture firmly shut or else I will freak out!  So, with that in mind I continue working on the laundry room.  My thinking is once that space is cleared, I can use it for storing keepers and do-it-later-ers from other areas of the house.

I did a short session (about an hour or so) earlier in the week.  Here's what it looked like when I was done.

The red tubs are Christmas decorations and things.  We generally don't do Christmas decorating anymore but I'm not ready to give up on the idea of never again so they're staying as is for now.  The shiny tube is the Christmas tree, hee, hee.  The tall box behind the red tubs is 1/2 an artificial tree.  Apparently the other half has already been tossed so that got taken to the shed today to await big trash day.  I'm keeping the red chairs and plan to recover them.  Of course if that doesn't happen in say a year, they will have to go.

I spent several hours clearing today (taking breaks as needed)  The creepiest find was the cricket graveyard in the back corner under the shelves.  I did not take a picture.  You're welcome.
The "are you kidding me?" find was a juice box that has to be at least 10 yrs old.  Older, actually, but that is just too embarrassing to admit.

There were a few holiday decorations made by the kids that were in a random box so I decorated the door in the corner with them.  I'll leave them up for awhile and then toss them since they've been recorded here for posterity.

The weird hanger "Christmas tree" was made by my mom.  I kept it to see how it's made but will probably let it go.  There were toys in the cow box, almost all too beat up or broken to pass on.  A few went into the donation box and a couple will go to Darling Nephew who is about the right age.  In a box that had been packed 20 years ago I found my high school yearbooks!  I thought they were long gone.  So I had a nice trip down memory lane.  Boy, did I turn out differently from what I was like then.  Some ways good, some not so much.  All in all, no regrets.  It is what it is and what I do now is what matters, etc. etc.  It's pretty cool that I really believe this.

Anyway...here's what it looks like now (drumroll, please)

The bigger cardboard box on the floor is army gear so Darling Man gets to go through that one.  Tools on top of it.  The little box is collecting house gear like paint brushes and a saw.  Next to tackle will be the shelves.  But not tomorrow.  Tomorrow I am going to finish my last paper (final) for school that is due on Wednesday.  I think I'd rather clean...

Small Stuff - Big Motivation

Darling boy is coming to visit next month - Yay!  He's bringing a friend - yikes!  Don't get me wrong we are excited to be meeting her but don't want to scare her off with all our cr**.  So now I have a time frame for putting a real dent into the mess.  What I've noticed is that I really have to be aware of NOT thinking about the Small Stiff project as a whole.  When I get a mental picture the different areas of cr** I have to shut an imaginary door and not think about anything other than the cows currently being herded in the laundry room.

Okay...here's where we left off in the laundry room...

 Can't really see the cows (there's 2)  I kept working on the baskets of clothes, straight to the washer to be donated or the trash.  This time I found a couple of items to keep.  Darling man will be getting one for a Christmas gift, heh, heh.  Found some strange things, too.  See that neatly folded piece of blue on the Dirt Devil box?  I've been thinking all along that it is a tablecloth so I was surprised to discover a very large pair of hospital scrubs...I have no idea where they came from!

 I found the shirt I embellished for a FISH themed party held shortly after I started working at the job I was laid off from last year.  I suspect showing up in this shirt hinted to my new co-workers that I might be a little less "quiet" than first impressions implied!  Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking... 

Still, it's pretty cute for felt basted on a t-shirt, if I do say so myself.  Also in this batch, 2 crafty things that I added to my crafty things collection.  Doesn't mean they're safe since that stuff will get winnowed out, too! 
And last...there was a single hot pink sock and a pillow case tied in a knot.  I wonder if I could write a silly poem about this????

  Please, tell me!  Why on earth would I tie a knot in a pillowcase???

Hey, hey, there's more clear floor showing!  And yes, I did just sit the Dirt Devil box on one of the other boxes to make the clear spot bigger!

 I'll be done with school for the semester in a week and a half and am really looking forward to having more time for a few weeks (I'll need it!)