Monday, August 10, 2009

baskets and baskets of stuff

Last week, I neglected my weekly "operation shit-sling" post, as I had a pounding headache and the only thing I wanted to think of getting rid of was, well, the headache. This week, I'm feeling better, though a bit antsy -- one more week of work until my vacation. Or, staycation, as all my plans fell through. That's ok, though. Lots of stuff to around here. And really? Is there any better place to be in August than Cape Cod? Not that I know of.

July 27: This week, I was moving on to the front entryway type place. First thing I did was go through the basket of coupons I keep there and throw away all the expired ones.

July 28: Then I went through the little basket with sunglasses and took out a pair that just look weird on my face. Put those in the donation bag. (In case you're wondering why I have a BASKET of sunglasses, it's because last year in a triathlon swag bag, I got a coupon for free sunglasses. So I filled it out and sent it in. Then they kept sending me sunglasses. Again and again. Until I finally just started writing "return to sender" on the boxes and sending them back. How many pairs of sunglasses does one person need?

July 29: All those baskets? Are sitting on a bookcase. So I looked down. At the overabundance of books I have. And thought of how when I walk up the stairs to my apartment, I see the overflowing bookshelf every day and kind of groan at how messy it is. So today I pulled out a book. That I've kept "for reference". I had little stickies on pages so I could go right back to the info I wanted. But today I opened to the stickies...and photocopied the pages I wanted to save. Then put the book in a donation bag. Ten pages in a file folder is much neater than an entire book on the shelf.

July 30- Aug 2: And then each day thereafter, I pulled another book off the shelf and put it in the bag. It felt really freeing to just give myself permission to get rid of the books, even though people had given them to me. And I may actually like the books. But I got to many. And I can get James Patterson, John Grisham, and Robin Cook at the library. Easily. Besides, we are having a books sale at work to raise money for something. And hardcover best sellers will go quick.

And here we are into August! I moved from the front entryway to the living room-type-area. (I saw a video blog post a while back where somebody showed a room in their house. Maybe I should do that at some point for the Garaje Mahal?) Anyway..

Aug 3: Magazine basket! Pulled out a few for the waiting room at work and a few for the cardio room at the gym.

Aug 4: With that fresh sigh of relief from getting rid of books still in my mind, I hit the project box and threw away a couple things I'm just not ever going to get around to doing. I just won't.

Aug 5: Laundry time. I have a pair of capri's that are just too big. They were too big two years ago when I was bigger (yet only 3 pounds heavier) I just kept them because they were both summery and work appropriate. But not when they almost fall off at work, as they (almost) did last week! Donate!

Aug 6: Under the coffee table are another two baskets (maybe the solution to my clutter problem is to banish baskets from my house!) One basket has books (go figure). So today I pulled three more books out and put them in the donation bag.

Aug 7 - Aug 9: The other basket has exercise DVD's and VHS tapes. I pulled out one per day for three days for the donation bag. I'm not sure if outdated exercise routines will go as quickly as hardcover James Patterson, but I guess we'll find out!

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