Pile Puzzles

Three days down, 363 to go. So far, so good. :-)

It's happening. The organization has commenced. FINALLY. Peter Walsh's book "It's All Too Much" is an eye-opener. Not just advising you to get tubs and pretty labels, it delves into the psychological reasons for holding onto items that turn into clutter. He can be a tad brutal with the honesty sometimes—but for serious hoarders and clutteraholics (like me), it's the antidote to staying stuck.

I've learned so much already. Now that I have a better understanding of WHY I haven't been able to part with stuff, it's easier to let go of a lot of it. I've also learned better ways of thinking about my ideal vision for my life and what the function of each room means to me.

For example: today it occurred to me that where I hang my coat and leave my tennis shoes doesn't work for me. Right now, Grandma's old coat tree sits in the dining room collecting coats, hats and my messenger bag. It's cluttery. For 46 years, coats, hats and scarves were put away in the coat closet in the living room. But I don't use the front door. I come and go via the back door. There is a huge closet in the utility room (where the back door is)—it's a clutter zone. Why has noone ever thought to put the coats THERE? It makes sense. EVERYONE uses the back door. Even my sister and nieces when they visit. Front door people are not as familiar to us. My bad solution was to position the coat tree halfway between the back and front doors.

By the end of the week, my frequent use coats, hats, etc will be stored in the UTILITY closet. (I already put up a mail and key rack out there. (Out of reach of burglars)

I never before thought about the logic of where coats live, I just followed the standard set by my parents.

Today, I consolidated my music gear. It suddenly made no sense, if I was interested in recording with Cubase on the computer AND on the VS2480 unit, to have them in separate rooms and have to move guitars back and forth. Why not have them all in one room? OK, I hadn't wanted to move the desk the VS2480 sits on from the room Rocker Boy had occupied (because it requires dismantling it somewhat then remantling it in the next room). Laziness.

Well, today, that's what I did. I moved the desk, moved the guitars, moved the equipment. Now everything is in this room. File transfer should be easier, too. Oh, you ask, but what about the fibery goodness?

The yarn stays in the closet in the Music Offie (it's the only one big enough to store it all until I destash). The loom, which can fold up even when warped, will live in what was Rocker Boy's room—aka the third bedroom off the dining room, now known as the Guest Room/Library/Sewing Room. Yup. All the bookcases except one will go in there. All the books except the computer software and music books will go in there. The sewing machine and serger go in there which makes sense since I use the buffet counter in the kitchen (you'd have to see it to understand) as a cutting/layout table and the walk is shorter.

It's starting to come together. Granted, it's not according to Peter's F.A.S.T. plan which I'm supposed to do first (basically clear out the lazy clutter aka trash THEN hit the hard stuff), but it makes too much sense not to do. Then I can better deal with the other stuff.

Only trouble is, it's like that puzzle. The one where there is one space and eight squares and you have to move all the squares around to get them in order. I don't know the name of it. I move one pile out to make room for the incoming pile, then that pile moves into a space left vacant by the pile I shifted to make room for it... so there are new jumblings about, which stress me slightly. However, I understand that it'll look worse before it looks better, and I'm focused on the end result.

I think painting the rooms is out of the question for now—can't get to the walls...

---

Labels: 30-Day Org

posted by Jeanne @ 9:24 PM