The Organizing Journey Day 15

Day 15 – Day Off

Not a day off from blogging because this is like when I needed that “perfect attendance” certificate in 7^th grade.  No, just a day off from organizing.

Although I do have some things to share with you they will wait until tomorrow because it’s almost 10pm (WAY past my bed time) so I’m actually calling it a night without writing my post on my daily progress.

I’ll be back tomorrow and to make up for today’s lame post I promise I will share some good tips with you.

To see the beginning of this journey, click here.

The Organizing Journey Day 14

Day 14 – Distractions Take Two, or Three, or Four

Tomorrow, a half a month will have gone by since I started and I’ve done barely anything.  When I look at the boxes and piles of “stuff” that needs to be sorted, I’m anxious. 

Worried about the huge amount of project ahead of me, but excited about the prospect of having some if not all of it sorted, organized, dealt with.

So maybe my goal for today is to be chill.  There are boxes of stuff.  Being upset about it doesn’t change the number of boxes.

I haven't done yoga or meditating in months.  I've eaten terrible food choices the past week.  I'm not taking care of myself.  I’ve got four custom orders sitting on my workbench (meaning on my list… they are nowhere near my workbench).  They are all right now only existing in theory, not practice.   And today I have to process SRAJD applications, clean a very messy kitchen, still do my outside chores, pay my bills, strip and wash my bedding, then get into the studio.  I've got to get all my houses in order.

And here’s the guilt.  Right on time.  Let’s remember, my two-day company just left.  I need to not be so hard on myself.  I can do this.  Just nose to the grindstone.

As I type, I’m looking at a variety of silver wire sitting in front of me (on my computer desk) and it’s taunting me with the possibilities of things I can make.  I did manage to make ONE thing this past week (in preparation for a class I was teaching).  I made this pair of earrings with my rolling mill (still sorting out the process).

I look forward to finishing the custom orders and start on new work.  So let’s get on with it!

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and feedback.  It’s great hearing from you all and finding out that I’m not alone in this journey.  :-)  Share your tips, tricks, ideas and experiences too, in the comments section.

To see the beginning of this journey, click here.

The Organizing Journey Day 13

Day 13 – Listen to Yourself

Yes, you have to listen to yourself.  Because yourself (your intuition) talks a lot.  But it’s a very quiet voice so often, if not always, gets over-looked.

You know how it is: you empty the change in your purse because you’re tired of carrying around the extra weight.  Then later that day you’re at a parking meter that only accepts change and there you are on your hands and knees looking under the car seat for even a few dimes.  And you say to yourself, “Man, I thought about keeping a few coins in my purse.  Why didn’t I listen to myself?  I knew I should have kept some change.”

Yes, yes you DID know that… you said that to yourself in that tiny, quiet voice… and it got overlooked.

So we must train ourselves to start listening to us, to our intuition… and eventually, our inner voice will become louder and will be heard more often.

For a year or more I’ve had my recycling bags tucked in here behind my wall separator and just in front of the baker’s rack.  I thought it was the perfect out-of –the-way but still convenient place for my cans/bottles, cardboard, and newspaper.

Then remember on day 4 when I showed you the before and after photos of my kitchen.

Just for that day, I ended up moving the recycle bags when I moved everything else that was there on the floor in my kitchen.  I think I moved them because I was cleaning the floor.  Anyway, I hadn’t put them back yet and that night I was cooking dinner and realized how nice it was not having the bags there. 

It’s THAT kind of thing you have to listen to when you start to organizing your living space.  If it feels good to have something in or not in a place, you need to listen to that feeling and honor it.

So I will see what “feels” right and not right as we continue this journey.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and feedback.  It’s great hearing from you all and finding out that I’m not alone in this journey.  :-)  Share your tips, tricks, ideas and experiences too, in the comments section.

To see the beginning of this journey, click here.

The Organizing Journey Day 12

Day 12 – Avoiding Temptation… and Running Off onto Tangential Topics

Friday is the one day of the week that I cook.  The rest of the time I eat whole foods (veggies, fruits, baked fish, etc) or just throw things together (quick salads).  Tonight is a mayo-free tuna salad with a dairy-free zucchini lemon cake for dessert.  Friday is also the day reserved for cleaning the kitchen and living room.  Luckily, those two rooms aren’t wildly chaotic (remember, I’ve been “picking up” as I go along).

So the other day I was at a thrift store, which is one sure-fire way for me to bring more clutter into the house.

“Oh, I can use this for a future project!”

(Projects that never actually end up taking place)

“This is a great price!”

(Maybe, but is it anything I need or will use?)

“I will resell this on eBay and make ten times this amount.”

(Right… because you’ve been doing so well with the other 200 items you are going to sell on ebay someday)

“This painting could be by someone well-known… if only I could read the signature, I could look it up.”

(Do not bring paintings into the house for potential value… only bring them into the house if they speak to you in words so loud you can’t ignore)

“What a great chair/purse/pair of shoes/etc!”

(Maybe, but do you need more? You have so many already)

You see the ongoing battle.  Luckily, my parenthetical arguer won most if not all of the battles.  I did buy some pinking shears (because good ones generally ARE expensive and I do have a specific purpose for them that is used frequently).  I also bought one impulse buy jacket… it’s cool, though.  Of course this means one-in-one-out.  That won’t be a problem as you’ll see when I get to clothes sorting.  I think a lot of it is going.  I have a lot of clothes I don’t wear.  I need to get rid of them no matter the reason.

I did also buy a chair (the thrift store person referred to it as “the cheese chair”).  But I do have a specific and very useful purpose for this chair.  First, look what a narrow profile it has!  Perfect for my studio (won’t take up much space).  Secondly, it has adjustable height and lowers to the perfect height for my saw work. 

This…

… is what I’ve been using for my sawwork.  I think this rattan(?) chair is about 40 years old.  Probably on its last legs.  And I have to say I like the look of the cheese chair better anyway.

Thirdly, the cheese chair has a nice straight backrest.  A backrest feels good.  I like a little lumbar support.  And I like that it’s straight (completely vertical, perpendicular to the seat).  I noticed something when I was at the airport a couple weeks ago, sitting at the gate waiting for my plane.  Almost all seating is arranged in such a way that we are forced to have horrible posture.  Our heads are continually jutting forward, completely out of line with our spine because the chair backs all slant backward.  So you either have to sit up straight without using the back of the chair at all or you have to have your head leaning forward (making a horrible curve at your neck and upper back).

I looked around me and every single one of us had posture that looked like this.

Why do chairbacks lean backward?  It’s not just airports… office chairs, living room chairs, even some kitchen chairs.

There was a study that “proved” that sitting up straight is harder on your back.

Um… do you KNOW what a 135 degree angle looks like?

Of course, laying back is going to take more stress off your spine than sitting up straight.  But who’s going to use this position for anything other than a cat nap?  Because, really, even if you used a recliner that had this angle, it’s horrible on your neck (unless your tv is mounted where your walls meet your ceiling.  The more a chair leans back, actually, the worse it is on your neck.

This is sitting straight. 

VERY FEW chairs are designed for us to sit up straight.  I bet 99.9% of the population (in the U.S. anyway) would feel there’s something wrong with the chair if it had a straight vertical back.

I have used chairs like this before.  They’re surprisingly more comfortable than they look.

This one just scares me though.

Okay, that was a big segue.  My apologies.  But really… it doesn’t make sense to me and I like to understand everything.  (That’s how us control freaks are, y’know.)

So to wrap this up, let me say that I went into town this morning at 8am and suddenly realize what day it is.  Friday to some.  But “yard sale day” to me.  I actually considered pulling the car over and looking at my yard sale app for anything nearby.  But then… I took a beat and convinced myself that there’s nothing in particular I need and I don’t really have time to kill today and garage saling is more fun when done in tandem.  So I’ll wait until my friend and I are both free and we’ll find some good ones.

Look at me, continuing to resist temptation.  What a miracle.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and feedback.  It’s great hearing from you all and finding out that I’m not alone in this journey.  :-)  Share your tips, tricks, ideas and experiences too, in the comments section.

To see the beginning of this journey, click here.