Another Post with Nothing to Do With Dolls

Today's goal is to clean off that darn kitchen table--you know the one I mean. I swear, it ATTRACTS stuff to itself!!! And it's not ALL my stuff, but I must admit that 90% of it is probably mine. So I am doing it thusly: 20 minutes of clearing off work, STAYING AS FOCUSED AS POSSIBLE DURING THAT TIME. I am still prone to wandering off task, but I am doing my best-est.
   On my alternating 20 min breaks, I am working on an art journal, and keeping up with my computer tasks: answering emails, posting on the blog (now), and I ordered a book online for my nephew, too.
   I DO hate sorting through stuff; if I could find a way to get someone else to do it for me, I would! But no one else can tell the difference between Stuff I MUST Keep and Stuff I Can Let Go, so I have to do it myself.
   It helps to pretend that I am moving in a month. That keeps me focused a little better. It would be truly terrible if I had to move quickly, so I try to be grateful that I am NOT moving and that I have TIME to do this task. The trouble is, it's often a quickly-closing-in-deadline that motivates me best, and not much else does.
    Off the subject, but I just thought of something I wanted to share with any readers who are aspiring writers. Steven King, yes THAT Steven King, has written a really good book on writing. It's about half memoir and half writing advice, but it is supremely readable and it's got good advice. So if there is an author lurking inside you, get this book and read it.
    Well, the bell is about to ring, summoning me back to that wretched table so I must go. Hope to have a lovely photo to post before I lay me down to sleep tonight.

Clearing Out

A friend of mine wrote:
   We so often mention needing to 'clean up/clear out' that special area where we create. Question??? Does the mess keep you from working?
       My answer to this is a firm YES. If my tools can't be found and there is no horizontal surface clear enough for me to spread out my project, then I can't work!  So I continue to work on clearing out and when that is done, I will organize what I kept so it is easy to access.

     Today is the day to drop items for the annual Starving Artists Yard Sale at our gallery. I am forcing myself to get rid of items I like but do not use or have room for. It is a process that is difficult, but people who have done this, promise that it is freeing.  And so I have faith and will keep on.

It's Been a Long Time!!

     It's been a while since I last wrote an entry here, and for that I am sorry.  I wrote about uncluttering, and it's taken me awhile to "get to it." But since my computer needed to go to the shop last week, and since I had a new printer, I decided that it would be a good time to reorganize my computer room. 
     Well, of course, one cannot reorganize anything without first uncluttering it, so I spent two days uncluttering the computer room and there is now a semblence of order there. I used the bigger desk, formerly layered with STUFF, for the computer and new printer, and put the smaller desk at a 90 degree angle (perpendicular) to the bigger desk. Now I can put the PhotoSmart printer on the near end of that desk, and have the rest of it for "projects," thus saving the kitchen table for eating--eventually.
    Soon, I will include a picture of the newly uncluttered and reorganized computer room--it's not quite finished. However, most of the "stuff" I removed from this room now resides in the entry hall, kitchen, and living room, making those rooms worse off than they were before--MUCH worse off! "One step forward and two steps back," is what it seems like.
    BUT our co-op gallery is having a yard sale in nine days, and what I can't find a place for HERE, is going THERE.  Three boxes are already filled with items already rejected, and priced too (it's required) for the sale.  So hopefully, the present sad state of those other three rooms will not last long.
     All I could think, as I worked feverishly on the computer room for three days, was how awful it would be to try to MOVE (as in "to a different house?") with the amount of clutter I presently have. It would be day, after exhausting day of this grueling kind of work, driven with deadlines and very little time to rest. People I have know who have had to do this have admitted they finally gave up trying to give their excess "stuff" away to "good homes" and just "took it all to the dump." This happened when my husband, his brother, and I cleaned out their mother's house--I hated seeing them cart off good stuff to the dump--in fact, it broke my heart, but they were in a hurry. By doing MY uncluttering NOW rather than LATER, I can do it more or less at my own pace and on my own terms-- without deadlines that force me to push myself past reasonable limits, and, most importantly, I can make sure items I can't keep go to a good place and not the dump. This is important to me. Getting rid of things I am somewhat attached to is hard, but it is made easier by knowing that someone will appreciate an item, or that some good will result from its sale.