pshaw_raven | Entries tagged with decluttering

Happily, when I woke up this morning, my watch said "Fri 1" instead of "HE2*q~22jiit_is_c0m1nggg" or some such garbage. And outside, there is no giant health bar in the sky and boss music is not playing, so that's good.

Fox is off doing his virtual Dopey Challenge today, running to Keystone and back. He hates treadmill running with a passion, so we brainstormed how he can self-support most of the way, and when he starts approaching the county road that will lead home, I'm going to drive out and drop water bottles and energy gels at a couple of pre-determined locations. I'm chilling the water, though by the time he gets to it they might not be COLD, but they will at least be cool.

I'm going to do my Dopey next week, in the high-support environment of our home gym. On the treadmill. Near a bathroom that isn't a tree. I also realized I left off listening to the No Sleep Podcast at around season five, so there's a ton of episodes left, and I can binge-listen to the rest of Old Gods of Appalachia. I've been trying to portion that out so I don't run through it all at once, spread the enjoyment out, but this is as good a time as any to catch up. After that's done though, I'll need to figure out my running schedule for the rest of winter and spring. With no races to train for ... what do I do? I will probably come up with some sort of personal goal, like logging 2,021 miles this year or something. Except I think I've done a similar challenge in previous years and ended up finishing in September. But it'll give me something to shoot for.

The sun's almost up and it's light enough to see the neighbor's cat outside, which must be what all the squirrels are yelling about. I'm making a small batch of lemon cupcakes, doing some housekeeping tasks, and probably working on my studio some. I started last week with finally cleaning out the drawers of the desks Kitty had in there. I don't know why it's taken me this long to get rid of that stuff, but I got tired of bumping into tables I wasn't using. Fox thinks we can fix the aluminum top of this one older kitchen prep table. It's not like one you'd eat at, it's one that you would have stored pots and pans in, and done your bread kneading on and such. I'm converting it to a work table. The main task left is building some drawer dividers, and I have pieces of scrap wood around to use, so I'll start taking measurements and get out the jigsaw and router. That way I can store annoying stuff like small paint bottles and fiddly little items and not lose my mind.

(later the same day)

Fox is home and alive, LOL. He developed some pretty gnarly blisters and is tired as hell. Once he's done showering I'm going to drive us over to Wawa for lunch so he can carb load. Yes, it's just as important after the run. Not much else planned today after that except a longish yoga sesh for me this afternoon and working on fixing a weird mic issue with my headset. I downloaded some software to help out, but haven't really just gone to my computer and worked on it.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: OneRepublic - Love Runs Out

I know my brainstorms are not that brainy or stormy, but I had one anyway and I'm going to share it.

In my last post I talked about giving away my "shrine stuff." I never actually build shrines anymore, but I still find myself thinking about them, which is, I suppose, why I haven't gotten rid of this stuff yet. Part of the challenge of making them was in finding and acquiring the right objects. Once I spent two years tracking down a tiny plastic glow-in-the-dark St. Michael the Archangel. So some of the things I have are 'valuable' in the sense that a lot of searching and effort went into obtaining them.

But when I think about making a shrine, I mainly get to the point of sketching it out, and never actually get into the work of painting, gluing, and all that other stuff. And it occurred to me just now that ... I can just take pictures of the stuff I like best. I can do this digitally. Paint or draw them and then use PaintShop or After Shot to 'collage' things in. There's nothing at all stopping me from building these things as digital art projects. I've had one in mind for years now that I haven't made any headway on because I can't seem to get glass eyes anywhere any more.

So now I'm thinking before I start mailing and donating, I'm going to set up a backdrop and take photos, then just have a swipe file on my computer to work with. Then I'll feel like I can part with these items without undue agony. And this isn't obviously a wholly original idea to me - Marie Kondo recommends photographing sentimental items before discarding them.

Anyway I have a three-mile run today so I'd best go do that. I'm feeling groggy since we were up later than normal looking at the Comet Neowise, or trying to despite the best efforts of some low-hanging fuckyoulo nimbus clouds. Happily we have another week to look, and as the comet gets higher in the sky it should be easier to spot unless storms move in. The cats are also Very Upset by the fact that I moved my bed and they pester me at night. Nana has taken to waking me at around 3 each morning, then again at 4:30. Crowley meows a lot, and Feisal has even started coming in and hopping on me, walking around, then leaving, only to come back an hour or so later and do it again. Because cats.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Ringo Starr - Photograph

Yesterday afternoon, I was standing at the end of the deck, just enjoying the gray, cool weather we're having. I like overcast, rainy weather. Anyway, there are a number of small dead pines all around. I don't know what kills these smaller trees, but you're talking about a whole pine tree that may be ten feet tall or more, but it not much bigger around than my thigh. One of these simply fell over while I was looking at it.

We went across the road and dragged it back to our yard, mainly as potential kindling, but also because it fell at an awkward angle and was sticking out into the road at windshield height. If someone weren't paying attention it would be bad.

I got all the perfume oils decanted into an old peanut butter jar. It took about an hour - there were around 150 of the 6 ml or .2 dram sample bottles. BPAL calls them "imps." There were another forty to fifty of the "regular" bottles - the brown glass bottles you normally see aromatherapy oils sold in. I was able to peel a lot of the labels off without much trouble. And even though I wore gloves, I still stink of the different perfumes, and probably will for another day or so. Ugh. I'm posting a picture in case you were at all curious what all that oil ended up looking like. Don't be too shocked at the color. Some of the oils had a very bright red color, whether artificial or because of some ingredient that was naturally like that. I know it looks like something from a serial killer movie.

With that I'm going to go finish up some of the other chores I have listed for today.

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Music: Van Morrison - Into the Mystic

After the recent squawk & flap about Marie Kondo gently suggesting decluttering one's books and sharing that she personally only keeps thirty herself and the internet misplaced its excrement, there was an excellent tweet that showed up about the whole kerfuffle. I'm very guilty of this myself - I have always regarded my bookshelves as my outward self, and would no sooner part with a book I liked than chop off a finger. As you can imagine, between books I read and liked, books I'm meaning to read, and books I have just to show what kind of person I am, I have a lot of books.

But as much as I love books, value reading and authorship, and derive immense pleasure from mornings and/or afternoons spent absorbed in a book, there's no reason to keep a lot of them. I decided to be a little more ruthless and, not aiming for KonMarie levels of 30 Books Only, took a more careful and honest look at my shelves. Have I ever read it, and if not, am I likely to ever read it? If I have read it, am I likely to read it again? Is it a duplicate? Asking these questions culled at least another 50% of the books from the one bookcase I used it on. I am definitely getting to the end of book purging, but these are certainly helpful questions to continue asking and, since I'm obviously a voracious reader and will acquire more books, they're helpful questions to continue asking myself.

Also, when I say I removed X boxes of books, I mean the white "banker's boxes" you can buy in 10-packs at places like Staples or Orifice Depot. (not an autocorrect - that's what I actually call it) They're a bit pricey, but they're sturdy, classier than liquor boxes, and can be easily broken down to store flat and reassembled when needed again. Up to now I have purged probably 14-16 boxes, but haven't kept a strict count. This go-round I have eight, which rather than take to Chamblin, I am probably going to offer them to my local Friends of the Library for their book sale. It'll help raise money for them and increase the chances of these books moving on to new homes where they will hopefully make new people happy again. Besides, I still have close to a hundred bucks in store credit at Chamblin. The only books I'm considering offering to sell them are some antique editions that I won't ever read because I'm afraid of damaging them, and the only antique or vintage books I collect are cookbooks. If I avoid reading a book because I'm afraid of spilling coffee on it, or damaging the paper with oils from my skin, I think I should try to help that book go to a collector who'll appreciate it and get myself a sturdy little Penguin paperback that can handle some abuse.

All this stuff is stacked up in my studio right now, which is my "staging area" for all cleanup operations. The studio can easily be cleared of cats and have the doors shut, so it's an ideal place for things you need out of the way. I've also got bags of clothes from yet another round of closet and bureau purging, and a box of jewelry. And to think, this is just informal cleanup I'm doing as I think of it. I haven't even gotten to the scheduled "room a week" cleanup that starts Tuesday.

Speaking of cats! Last night around midnight, Feisal saw something out the rec room door that he really needed to go murder, so he literally busted the screen door out. This woke Fox & I up, but Fox said he'd taken care of it so I went back to sleep, assuming that Feisal was still in the house. So you can imagine my consternation at around 3:30 am when I woke to hear a plaintive meowing coming from ... outside my window? It was Feisal - on the roof of the water softener shed, meowing to come inside. My screen is fucked up anyway (because Feisal pushed it out, of course ...) so I popped it out and let him inside. Stupid, stupid, stupid cat! At least he's all right, and Fox can put the screen door back in its track, but we have got to find something to keep these stupid "safety" screens in place. Despite all that, Fitbit says I got 7:56 minutes of sleep so that's not too bad. You can even see on my dashboard the magenta bits where he busted the door down, and then later where he wanted back in.

So that's it for the time being. I have a three mile jog to do today, and may stream some digital art tonight but otherwise today is blissfully quiet. Now that I can tell what I actually have, I can update my TBR shelf on GoodReads, and once my run and shower are done I just want to read and relax for a while.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Location: kitchen table
Current Music: The Mighty Bop - Life

~ No spiders in the toilet this morning, yay! I also tried to ID the spider from yesterday but had to quit because I gave myself the willies. Lucas the Spider is adorable but the rest of his compatriots are icky and terrifying.

~ Free Stuff Alert! I have a Morocco Shrine hat in a carrying case that is free to whoever wants it, though a donation to cover shipping expenses would be appreciated. I can email you photos if you like. It's a Shriner's fez, embroidered and decorated with Morocco, which is the name of the local Shriners ... shrine. I guess. I researched this hat after buying it but I feel like I still know very little about Masons. But then it's not a subject that grabs my attention much outside of its historical context. SO yeah free hat. Might be good for a Doctor Who cosplay. Might fit your horse and add sparkle to his already dashing personality.

~ "Pro tip - set your expectations low enough and you'll always exceed them!" I said that last night being snarky towards little children, because I seem nice but I'm actually a terrible person. But I am absolutely in earnest about that. Start small. Stupid small. Make it so low and small and easy you can't help but succeed and your brain will think, "Hey, I did it!" Then use that momentum to do something a little bigger. And so on. Take the easy win and use it to build yourself up.

~ Don't they make vegan Doc Martens now? I have an old pair of Docs I'm donating, they're okay but they are a little too large which is not good in a work boot. I wasn't even planning on heading to Haven Hospice to drop off donation stuff until AFTER Disney but now I have three garbage bags full of stuff they can likely resell and I think I'll just get it out of the way.

~ I set my GoodReads challenge for fifty books again this year. Scanning the shelves, I have at least thirty-six books in my TBR stack, not including all the manga and e-books. I am also trying a moratorium on book purchasing outside of using my store credit at Chamblin. In the spirit of "don't set your sights too high," I'm aiming to not purchase a new book during the month of January. Then we'll see about February. Speaking of GoodReads, I wish they'd make the sharing buttons work on something besides posting to Facebook and Twitter. I tried sharing what I'd read in 2018 and people just got their own shelves.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Coldplay - Viva La Vida