(no subject)
Sep. 18th, 2005 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katallisonI had a voicemail message late last week from my landlords, letting me know that Painter Guy was going to be coming back on Monday to do some work on the interior of the new windows, and to check out interior windowframes in general for any that need touch-up, and I was listening thinking OK, crap, I really need to clean up around here, I guess, and then -- I heard the dreaded words, "Oh, and he's going to need to look at the basement windows, too, so he'll need to be able to get at them, if you could just, uh, clear a path."
See, my landlords have been in my basement, and so they know that it is essentially a dumping ground for fifteen-plus years' worth of unsorted, disorganized, dusty, cobweb-covered crap. So I was grateful for the warning, but damn it all.
There's no help for it, though, so this morning after an extra-strong pot of coffee, I ventured down there, took stock of the situation, and -- well. This is more or less what I was confronting. (The windows that need to be accessed are on the left-hand wall, just above the top edge of the picture.) Actually, at the time I snapped this, I'd cleared off the top layer; hard as it is to believe, and as embarrassing as it is to confess, it was even *worse* before I started.
In the course of several hours of sweated and filthy labor, I discovered an amazing amount of crap that I can't believe I haven't disposed of long before this, including:
--a gigantic removable leg-brace from when I had my knee surgery back in '88;
--a bunch of photographic chemicals from when I was doing darkroom work back in the late '80s;
--some books on counseling psychology that one of my profs loaned me when I was back in grad school and I never returned (shame, I tell you!);
--my grandmother's Electrolux vacuum cleaner, circa WWII, which by heft appears to be made out of pig iron;
--an Apple monitor from the early days of home computing, whose beige plastic casing has literally turned amber-yellow with age;
--many many canning jars, from back when I was actually deranged enough to do home canning;
--a broken-down NordicTrak, unused since the mid-90s;
--a warped and splintery wooden birdfeeder, extensively gnawed by squirrels;
--a whole platoon of grow-lights, from back in the days when I used to garden and would start dozens of seedlings indoors every March;
--and so much, much more.
I feel utterly unequal to the task of sorting through all this crap, but at least I've at least cleared a path to the accursed windows. And I've taken a first tentative step on Rational Means of Disposal by setting up a system to send myself reminder e-mails every Thursday night to take another few chunks out to the trash.
And kids? Don't let this happen to you. Travel light, cull often, learn from my hideous example.
See, my landlords have been in my basement, and so they know that it is essentially a dumping ground for fifteen-plus years' worth of unsorted, disorganized, dusty, cobweb-covered crap. So I was grateful for the warning, but damn it all.
There's no help for it, though, so this morning after an extra-strong pot of coffee, I ventured down there, took stock of the situation, and -- well. This is more or less what I was confronting. (The windows that need to be accessed are on the left-hand wall, just above the top edge of the picture.) Actually, at the time I snapped this, I'd cleared off the top layer; hard as it is to believe, and as embarrassing as it is to confess, it was even *worse* before I started.
In the course of several hours of sweated and filthy labor, I discovered an amazing amount of crap that I can't believe I haven't disposed of long before this, including:
--a gigantic removable leg-brace from when I had my knee surgery back in '88;
--a bunch of photographic chemicals from when I was doing darkroom work back in the late '80s;
--some books on counseling psychology that one of my profs loaned me when I was back in grad school and I never returned (shame, I tell you!);
--my grandmother's Electrolux vacuum cleaner, circa WWII, which by heft appears to be made out of pig iron;
--an Apple monitor from the early days of home computing, whose beige plastic casing has literally turned amber-yellow with age;
--many many canning jars, from back when I was actually deranged enough to do home canning;
--a broken-down NordicTrak, unused since the mid-90s;
--a warped and splintery wooden birdfeeder, extensively gnawed by squirrels;
--a whole platoon of grow-lights, from back in the days when I used to garden and would start dozens of seedlings indoors every March;
--and so much, much more.
I feel utterly unequal to the task of sorting through all this crap, but at least I've at least cleared a path to the accursed windows. And I've taken a first tentative step on Rational Means of Disposal by setting up a system to send myself reminder e-mails every Thursday night to take another few chunks out to the trash.
And kids? Don't let this happen to you. Travel light, cull often, learn from my hideous example.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 04:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 04:42 pm (UTC)Your trash might be their treasure!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 05:13 pm (UTC)For things that are functional, I second the recommendation of seeing if a charity group wants to take a look.
travel light!
Date: 2005-09-18 05:18 pm (UTC)Also? I have boxes and boxes of XF fanfic, printed out back in the day. Stuff I'm never going to re-read. I should really go through them and toss them...
Re: travel light!
Date: 2005-09-18 08:13 pm (UTC)I know I've seen it on lj somewhere (sorry I don't have the link off the top!)
And I think there's folks out there who collect electrolux vaccuum cleaners, too, btw...eBay might give a hint who to talk to?
Re: travel light!
Date: 2005-09-19 01:14 am (UTC)Sister! *G* I have a number of notebooks full of XF fanfic from those days. I printed everything out. I guess back in the early days of the Internet, I wasn't sure the whole thing would last. Much smarter to keep everything in hard copy. :::rolls eyes::::
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 05:30 pm (UTC)Too late - my attic is the same. I have been swearing I'll get up there and sort it out for the last *cough mumble* 10 years *cough mumble*
I WILL do this before Xmas though!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 06:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 06:23 pm (UTC)Speaking as someone who used to clean houses for a living, at least it's all stuff that won't spoil or smell bad. I've cleaned rooms that looked much, MUCH more cluttered, and that also had food and other ick in the midst. Your basement may be cluttered, but it's CLEAN clutter, which really makes all the difference in the world. *grins*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 06:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-22 01:32 am (UTC)Yes, exactly, me too. I saw the picture and my immediate response was, "That's not so bad!"
Seriously, you should see my garage. Granted, you *can* get a compact car in it, and it's only a one-car garage, but still, every non-car bit of space is full of stuff, mostly The Mom's stuff that was out there when I moved in, with a smattering of my own stuff piled up on top.
And yeah, garage, dusty, bare cement, spiders... Ick.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 06:31 pm (UTC)Ralph and I recently went through our closets and several boxes of clothes for donations to Katrina victims.
It felt good to make space. Even if it was just a few cubic feet. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 06:47 pm (UTC)I started seriously decluttering over two years ago, mostly because I needed to sell stuff for my travel fund, and partly because I had been living in a campervan for a while and realised how much stuff one doesn't need. I'm still decluttering. My current victim is my wardrobe, and I'm donating all the stuff I don't like and yet that is still in good nick. One advantage of the process: I'll never again buy stuff I don't need. One day I may even become a minimalist, but I'm not holding my breath.
The reminder emails are a great idea: I must try that, instead of the occasional frenzy method. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 09:47 pm (UTC)Already did. And my day of reckoning is coming next Saturday, when the electrician needs the attic empty, the basement clear enough to give him room to work, and access to all of the outlets in the house.
Your example (of tackling the piles of crap, not of generating them) inspires me.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-18 10:18 pm (UTC)What on earth are pornographic chemicals? *rereads* Oh... Nevermind.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-19 12:17 am (UTC)Remember, one person's trash is another person's treasure. Get thee to your local freecycle.com :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-19 01:16 am (UTC)Thanks for the reminder. Time to let some stuff GO. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-19 01:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-19 04:26 am (UTC)Sigh, 'tis too late for me! Back in the last millenia, in the Peace Corps, I learned what little I *needed*. Today I have a house full of rooms and an attic overflowing with stuff. And selective vision and paralysis sets in every time I think about cleaning it out.
Go you!