14 January 2011

Me just now and weekend!

I cut my hair short this week.  Whew!  What a relief!  That chin length bob was irritating me.  Here is a blurry cell phone pict...



It's out of my face, and I like that.

What else is going on?
Three day weekend!  Thank you, Dr King!  I know I should be doing something worthwhile and altruistic, but I am going to start on a new project.


I think that the two most popular resolutions that are made in January are:
1) Lose weight
2) Declutter

I’m going for both!

T and I have started a weight loss plan that seems to be having some positive effect already.  Yay for that!  Next up for me is the long process of decluttering my house and life.

Here’s the thing, I have a two story house with a basement and an attic.  I’m happy to say that the attic is completely empty.  It’s the basement that is an absolute embarrassment.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that!  I don’t let people down in my basement because it is a disaster of epic proportions.

When I moved in to my house, I had too much stuff but couldn’t make decisions about letting it go.  Add to that a moderate tendency to be a packrat, a strong attachment to things of sentimental value, and a desire to reuse and repurpose everything rather than throw it away and you have a recipe for junk.

I did pretty well last spring when I took a week off work to clear out some of the basement.  I took 3 or 4 loads of junk to the dump.  Yes I did!  And I was proud of myself, because it was hard, dirty, and at times wrenching work.  I had to throw away stuff from my daughter’s childhood and that made me sad.  But, I had two “water intrusions” as they say in the home repair business, and I had to clear out the stuff that was ruined.

The first water issue was when the water heater sprung a leak.  The second was a leak in the basement wall under a downspout.  The result of these two leaks was that I had to move crap from one side of the basement to another and then back again.  What had once been reasonably orderly was now complete chaos.

As I said, I cleared out a lot of it last spring, but there is still much work to be done.  Here’s my new plan: I’m going to empty one box per week (minimum, more is ok too) for the entire year.  Yes, I realize that might only add up to 52 boxes, but that should make a difference right?  I might put a widget in the sidebar here to keep track and increase my accountability.  Feel free to ask how that project is going… I’ll need prodded from time to time.

6 comments:

KMae said...

Great idea! Maybe I'll try that in my closet room. One pile a week... And your hair cut is great!

GrumpyGranny said...

Love the haircut! Looking good. I am happy to say that we have re-arranged the basement (other than my office space) to have a big, open area that's perfect for me to practice my t'ai chi. I love it and don't want anything cluttering it. Maybe you need to find a good reason to have open space and then getting the clutter out will be easier!

Good luck!
GG

Anonymous said...

I love your haircut!

Gf and I are always working on organizing and decluttering - it's one of those things that you need to stay on top of otherwise it will overwhelm you...as you know.

I have an easier time getting rid of things than gf does but she's getting better at it. Really, we don't have much of a choice since we live in a fairly small apartment. Things pile up quickly.

8thday said...

I love the haircut!

e said...

Thanks! I love the haircut too. And I love the fact that I have a cowlick right in front where I part my hair. :-)

I took 5 boxes out to the trash yesterday and have four more sitting in bags, waiting to go. To be fair, most of these particular boxes were already in the pile to go out, but they are moving now, rather than sitting there.

A sweet bonus for me was finding a trove of pictures. Some from when my daughter was very young, some from when she was in middle school. Also a couple of pictures that she took of our beloved orange tabby, Newton, when he was a kitten. What a reward!

Vikki said...

May I say that your silver locks look like they would be as soft as a chinchilla?