This week I'm celebrating -- throwing stuff away!
As you know if you've been reading my posts, I've been shamelessly whining about Spring Cleaning for some weeks. Now that I've finally finished cleaning (YAY!), I realize my writing room is like a garage (or attic). It has a ton of boxes filled with the leftovers from the 2 careers I had before I became a writer (dancer & singer), plus all those things I rarely use (like a sewing machine or suitcases) or never use (like a VHS player and tapes or curtain rods from a different apartment).
My writing space is half the size it should be because of boxes, and I'm wedged into a little corner.
Time to go through everything and get rid of as much as possible!
Once I began to organize and decide what to keep, what to giveaway, and what to throw away, I started to feel as if the box stacks grew to gigantic proportions. Soon I might become Indiana Jane and stumble across the Arc of the Covenant!
Using mylazy, snail-speed slow-but-steady approach to work, I hope to be done in a few weeks.
But if you don't hear from me soon, I may be trapped under the pile.
Do you have a room that's a catchall for all those things you don't know where to put?
New Celebrate Member – Update Your Blog Rolls:
Our Simple Life – http://www.our-simple-life.com/blog
Welcome Marion!
Removed From the Celebrate List – Update Your Blog Rolls:
Two Book Minimum – https://twobookminimum.wordpress.com/
My kind and wonderful co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog
Celebrate The Small Things Linky:
Grab the Linky html-code here:
** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **
Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful for that week. It can be about writing or family or school or general life. This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)
Here are Foxy's suggestions for May 5, 2017:
Free YA Contemporary Romance – Win 180 Seconds by Jessica Park, about a shy ex-foster child roped into a college experiment to honestly interact with a social media whiz and is shocked by the outcome. Enter the rafflecopter on YA Books Central blog. (US only; ends May 11)
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For Foxy's other Freebies, go to the Freebie page.
As you know if you've been reading my posts, I've been shamelessly whining about Spring Cleaning for some weeks. Now that I've finally finished cleaning (YAY!), I realize my writing room is like a garage (or attic). It has a ton of boxes filled with the leftovers from the 2 careers I had before I became a writer (dancer & singer), plus all those things I rarely use (like a sewing machine or suitcases) or never use (like a VHS player and tapes or curtain rods from a different apartment).
My writing space is half the size it should be because of boxes, and I'm wedged into a little corner.
Time to go through everything and get rid of as much as possible!
Once I began to organize and decide what to keep, what to giveaway, and what to throw away, I started to feel as if the box stacks grew to gigantic proportions. Soon I might become Indiana Jane and stumble across the Arc of the Covenant!
Using my
But if you don't hear from me soon, I may be trapped under the pile.
Send help!
Do you have a room that's a catchall for all those things you don't know where to put?
New Celebrate Member – Update Your Blog Rolls:
Our Simple Life – http://www.our-simple-life.com/blog
Welcome Marion!
Removed From the Celebrate List – Update Your Blog Rolls:
Two Book Minimum – https://twobookminimum.wordpress.com/
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog
Celebrate The Small Things Linky:
Grab the Linky html-code here:
** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **
Foxy's Friday Freebies!
Foxy has been nosing around the net.
When she finds great FREE STUFF, she'll feature it on Friday Freebies posts -
- Free short stories, novellas, and novels
- Giveaways for books and swag
- Free services for authors
Here are Foxy's suggestions for May 5, 2017:
If anyone has a FREE short story (for download or online at a free ezine), novella, novel, special giveaway, or author service, please let Foxy know so she can plug you here! Write to: laura.6eg(at)gmail.com
37 comments:
Heh, heh, Lexa, I actually wrote a story about you on my blog a few weeks ago for WEP and called it The Avalanche, but she did get buried under her boxes, LOL. I adore getting rid of stuff. So hard to know what you'll ever need again...:-(
Lexa,
Sadly and shamefully I admit I have such a room, maybe two. We outgrew this small house eons ago and instead of downsizing, things got out of hand. There for awhile we were making headway but still buried under a mountain of stuff we didn't know what to do with when we stopped sorting and tossing. I reckon it's gonna take us moving into a larger place to finalize this job because I. Do. Not. want to take anything we don't need to our new home whenever that day arrives. I reckon with everything that's going on and will this year that we're going to have to put on hold house hunting until next year. Life always throws a curve ball at ya. I wish you the best success in getting rid of your clutter. At least you're doing it and that's reason to celebrate!
~Curious as a Cathy
Friday Sillies, CTST, & More
I couldn't live like that. Good for you for clearing it out. We do have a closet that holds a few of those things, but I'm all about getting rid of what we don't need.
Yeah, it's called 'our house'!
My organization runs a big garage sale once a year as fundraiser/friendraiser. If you think going through your own stuff is bad, trying going through someone elses! Yick!
Almost everyone has a catch-all space, and it does take time to go through. Slow and steady wins this race, i promise.
We start to get little areas like that here and there. Neither of us likes clutter, so it goes. The only room that is really "full" is my office. Two large desks, a hutch, three bookshelves, tons of books and materials and stuff for DLP, a fish tank, a stereo cabinet and TV, and a shelf full of camera equipment. Plus my Minion shrine. Okay, I probably do need to go through some things.
Cute post! I loved your feet under all those boxers. Currently, my writing space is a built in desk in the kitchen with tons and tons of books and notebooks shoved underneath it. They also clutter my kitchen table. But now I am celebrating a new house! I plan to buy a new desk and shelves and file cabinets first! Yay! I have a real writing space now ... well ... in a few weeks. :)
I tell myself everyday that I am going to purge and declutter my basement tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. It is raining today and you have put the bug in my ear, so maybe this will be the day.
What kind of music did you sing and dance to?
Yes, we have a storage room downstairs that's choked with stuff we don't know what to do with. Every now and then I make a trip to Goodwill to get rid of stuff.
We have closets that collect treasures. I hate clutter, but often have something I'm not yet ready to part with, so off to the closet it goes. Husband, however, hates to part with anything. So my problem is finding a spot in a closet. One of these days, we have to tackle at least one closet.
Good luck. I could stand to get rid of more stuff myself, but after moving not too long ago, sorting stuff is something I don't really feel like doing.
I have a basement full of stuff that needs sorting as well as plenty of closets and drawers in the house that are no longer used because they are so full of stuff. It's rather horrifying.
Arleen - I was a professional belly dancer in New York City for about 5 yrs, working in Syrian, Egyptian, Greek, Turkish, and Israeli restaurants, and then I worked in Egypt for 8 years. Then I got a bit too old, so I found they needed singers in resorts and they had very few girls who would do it, much less sing in English. I sang oldies and new "hits" in English, plus learned to sing famous songs in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish. I did that for another 8 years, then retired.
I decluttered one room, now I just have a houseful left to go. Fortunately, I have a small house. Good luck getting done!
I decluttered when my husband died because he always held onto too much. There's some things, tho, that I just can't get rid of for emotional reasons, like a box of random papers he liked to save. My daughter is starting to re-clutter everywhere so I need to do like you and clean up. Good luck with your organizing your boxes.
I hope to throw out a lot of clutter when we move. I have a feeling though, it's going to be at the other end of the move because I just don't have time to go through everything carefully and in a considered way at this end. Luckily the new house has a garage for all the garbage we probably don't need.
Now I want to know more about your previous career as a singer and dancer :-) We don't have room on our boat for stuff that rarely or never gets used. But it still gets quite chaotic at times. Right now I've got stuff piled up on one of our settees so there isn't anyplace to sit down. Kind of feels like the picture with the person trapped under the boxes :-)
I've been working at that for weeks. Made some money on it too! But my goodness so much stuff just collecting dust. Even found love letters from former boyfriends. lol
Good luck!
No catchall room for me. I sure hope we don't find you under a pile of boxes. Make sure you have your phone handy. ;)
I thought we were the only people left to have a VHS player... and tapes! You've made me happy, but you can't throw them away now!
I have a teenager in my study. Okay... he calls it his bedroom, but I was there first. Only another 5 years or so before I can claim it back :-)
My spare room is still full of boxes from when we moved in over a year ago. I keep saying I'm going to go in there and clear it (so we can actually put the bed up!) but I have no idea when it'll actually happen.
Wow you have a ton of stuff. Definitely was time to clean up. You'll feel so much better when you're through. I've moved so many times (this is move #18), I've been forced to toss a lot. I'm still amazed at how quickly stuff adds up. Makes me think twice before I buy now. One rule I try to apply is 'buy one, toss one'. It helps!
You're welcome to come and clean up my study when you've finished there.
This book might help your mindset on cleaning up: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. Borrow the digital audiobook from the library and listen to it while you clean up. It might help you to get rid of more stuff. Good luck! I need to spend the next week cleaning, too, instead of working on my graphic novel because my father-in-law will be visiting us earlier than expected.
I love that photo under the boxes. I don't have a room like that, but I do have a closet like that for the group of 5-6-year-olds I lead each week. Once, it was organised, now it's a nightmare too big to tackle. I convinced one of our volunteers to do it. She hasn't shown up since.
Ha, ha! Love this post. Yes, recently I cleaned what once was my husband's work room, but now is a junk room. Empty boxes stacked everywhere, and my Sunday school ladies were coming over for our monthly meeting. Embarrassed for them to see their teacher's lack of domestic skills, I started throwing away. It looks much better now. Sometimes, we just have to let it go.
Wow, I so need to do this as well haha.. I have no idea how I have accumulated so much stuff! You've inspired me to get clearning too :)
You are talking to the wrong gal here - I am a terrible hoarder/collector. When we left our first house the removals chap came round to assess how many packing boxes we'd need - he made his assessment and then asked to look in the loft - when he stuck his head up he called down to his mate "OMG - double the number I've given you, Bob"! I did get rid of loads but moving from our last house was a nightmare and I'm sorry to say but I have an enormous attic here and it's already full!! My husband hates clutter but I LOVE stuff!! Wishing you all the best over the next few weeks :)
Special Teaching at Pempi’s Palace
I keep books and magazines which have my work in, but otherwise I don't hoard anything to do with my writing. That's the theory, anyway.
Do we have 'A' room? I've got a couple collectors in the family, so I'm at constant war with trying to skim things down. I declared this summer the time for attack! Lol! We'll see. Can't wait to see how your writing room turns out. I need to reorganize mine again too.
Hi Lexa!
We actually had such a room, then my husband decided to build a smaller house for us...so I had to get rid of all such things I had been hoarding for long :)
Don't give up! The boxes of stuff may win for a while, but in the end, your mastermind will outwit them.
Oh, eek, spring cleaning. Definitely never fun! (But usually very necessary, as I personally know, LOL.) Sorry to hear your writing space has become so cluttered. Best of luck clearing it out and not getting trapped by boxes in the process!
Best of luck with your task! Cleaning can be a long process. Hopefully you don't end up trapped under a pile of boxes. That could definitely be a problem.
Wow if that second picture was the room you needed to clean, you'd be in trouble for sure. I found it helpful to watch youtube and DIY storage ideas for cleaning parts of my place. I came across one video that suggested having a bag goal and trying to fill as many bags as you can with things you can toss can help.
OMG, yes. My office looks like a bomb went off in a garbage dump. No matter how much I try to keep it clean, it becomes the catchall for everything.
I rarely go in there.
Good luck with your cleaning!
If you do find the Ark of the Covenant in there somewhere...DON'T OPEN IT. Trust me on this one.
Yes, like most empty-nesters we have extra bedrooms which become catch-all places. I try to clean them out on a regular basis but when I look again, there's all this stuff in there. Where does it come from?
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