Posted in Organization 101
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I had a wake-up call two Saturdays ago. A friend phoned us to let us know that her elderly neighbor, bless his heart, had suddenly passed away. The bereaved man's church was helping the widow (who had flown to another state to be with her daughter) with the estate sale. Everything in the house was to go. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Then our friend added, “Come, they have plenty of books.” We were planning to have a leisurely Saturday morning, but the lure of books was too much. So we made our way there. The house was falling into pieces. And most of the books were dusty and musty. But what caught my eye was the amount of junk the couple had. There were also several kitchen-stuff still in their original boxes. There were pretty napkins (paper and cloth) that were never used. There were also lots of other trinkets and contraptions. We were there towards the end of the sale. When the clock struck noon, everything would go to some thrift store. The truck was coming just as we were leaving. We did get some good books, a nice basket and a couple of items for my husband's shop in the garage. But I was just consumed by sadness after I left the house. That it was dilapidated was one thing, but what struck me most was the junk and the fact that the couple didn't even open and enjoy some of their nice things while the husband was alive. I also suddenly had this “vision” of folks rifling through my junk, and all my pretty but unopened stuff, after I'm with the Lord. That picture in the deep recesses of my brain just rattled me hard. No way I'm going to continue “saving” nice things for some special time before I crack them open. If I don't have use for them, I'm going to bless someone by sharing them. No way too do I want my dear children to decide what to toss, what to give away, what to sell and what to keep when I go home with the Lord. Well, almost two weeks have passed, and I'm glad to say that some thrift shop will be very happy to get 8 bags of goodies from us. They are now sitting on the porch waiting to go. And I'm still bagging stuff daily. Yeah. I feel lighter and more liberated already. My daughter who is a born pack rat like her mommy is also getting better at parting with some of her “precious” things. More than keeping the house less cluttered, it is learning to let go of things that don't really matter. My house is 100 pounds lighter. 900 pounds more to go... |
Posted in Organization 101
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While reading another blog, I came across this link. It is just a sad commentary on the extreme danger of hoarding.
That report reminded me of the couple of times I visited my grandmother's friend many years ago. I could hardly step into the house for there were little hills of old newspapers and flattened-out cardboard boxes everywhere! The whole place also reeked faintly of something rancid. Outside the house were retired articles of all kinds. It was such a heart-breaking eye-sore. This dear old lady was living with her daughter and family. Her daughter had the hoarding disease and I, as a young girl then, remembered being totally mystified by her inability to throw away things she didn't need.
But sadly, I now understand a little of her mentality for I too am a bit of pack-rat myself. I am what you call a selective hoarder. Maybe I don't hoard old newspapers, but I do have stashes of old magazines and Reader's Digest that I know will never be re-read . I confess to hoarding a big box of old silk-screened tee-shirts. At least 25 of them. Horrors, some are more than two decades old! To think I actually shipped them over in a container when I moved to Huntsville 10 years ago! What was I thinking? Actually, I know. Childless then, I had already dreamed of showing each shirt to my future children and sharing with them the history of each event the shirt commemorated. Then maybe one day, I might even make a quilt out of all the old tee-shirts. But am I being realistic? Experience tells me no. I guess I could take pictures of all the tee-shirts and then use them as rags or something. I might give them away, but I doubt anyone would care to wear them. Then I have clothes that belonged to my single days, clothes you won't catch me wearing now...but they too have joined the Sterilite community of huge plastic boxes in the overpopulated attic. I'm so frightened the attic above us will collapse one day while we're having dinner.
Whether it's a bad habit, lack of organizational skill or sentimental attachment, I cannot make myself throw away some things I really don't need to keep.
Why, they may come in useful one day.
Why, I spent money on them; what a waste to dispose of them.
Hey, that's something from my aunt. I cannot part with that.
And those boxes of Christmas cards (including those from the real estate man and the insurance guy) ?Well, don't you know I still have cards from my elementary school days in my mother's house? I just don't throw any kind of card someone has spent the time and effort sending it to me.
But this year, I'm going to systematically give or trash things. No point hoping to organize a garage sale. Too much work and I rather give away a nice (but useless to me) item then to sell it for a quarter! For those that have sentimental value, well, I'll think of something to preserve their memory even if the objects and I have to part ways.
So far, this year has been good. I'll write more, when time permits, about a couple of practices I implemented since the beginning of the year and how they have helped control some clutter around in the house. I just felt I had to write something about hoarding when I read this sad article.
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Posted in Organization 101
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Since I'm not going to allow myself the luxury of printing whatever catches my fancy (part of my resolution to be more organized in 2006), I thought I could share this link with everyone here and I could just come back to it whenever I need it.
If you want to generate any kind of lined paper, graph paper, dotted paper or music notation starves, try this link! It's neat and fun and well, it can keep you entertained for many minutes if you allow yourself to. If you explore further, you will find other treasures that will sooner or later come in useful as you home school. In fact, the Ads by Google on the side-bars are fun to click to. So, visit this link at your own risk.
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Posted in Organization 101
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I don't know about you, but with the Internet, I've begun to amass even more paper. Because we buy copy paper by the box I admit to wasting lots of paper (not to mention ink!). I liberally print out anything that catches my fancy. Not just home schooling matters, but almost every topic under the sun (doesn't help that I have so many interests and different projects going on at the some time). So I have files bulging with reading matter I never get the chance to look over because there will always be more materials to be read, printed out and filed.
Well, starting 2006, I've done good, LOL. Because we haven't installed a printer driver *yet*, I cannot print anything from my notebook (yeah, I now have my very own desk in the play/school room) without running to the office and using my husband's computer. A blessing in disguise. So far, I've printed only what's relevant for the day. Even when we do install the driver, I'll still have to walk to the office to retrieve what I've printed so maybe that will deter me from printing too much. Last year, we'd talked about getting another printer, but budget aside, my husband thought that would not be a good move for me and I had to agree.
So this is my mini-step towards less paper-clutter. To some, this little move seems pretty basic. But to an information junkie like me, it's really an important step towards weaning myself from the addictive need to have more hard copies of information I imagine I NEED.
So principle number one:
PRINT OUT ONLY WHAT I TRULY NEED.
Another thing. Not being a linear thinker, it had been a challenge for me to organize my bookmarks and e-mails. Well, my sweet husband helped me with that on New Year's Eve, so with that organized and more importantly, maintained, I now need not 'fear' too much that I might lose a good web-site for future reference. |
Posted in Organization 101
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I'm going to have a new category, Organization 101, in this blog.
I'm going to share what my husband, the natural organizer, my organization coach (yeah, I like his new role) is teaching me. Besides his contributions, I'll also include other ideas that have helped me. So once a week or so, Lord willing, I'll post some tips and ideas here. I'll also post any personal progress made, time permitting.
Although my major weakness is paper clutter (mainly because it's the most obvious clutter, LOL), I naturally also have other areas that holler for attention. I will address those areas once I've my paper under control. Or maybe since I'm work-in-progress as far as paper clutter is concerned, I should concurrently also address problem areas as and when I get to them.
Please share your ideas too, and let me know if any of the future ideas here have helped you!
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