A pause before resuming...

Last night, I was too tired to do anything but wash dishes and put away laundry  Note how this implies (though I am not admitting anything out loud) that I didn't put away my laundry when I did my laundry two days ago. After I have already promised myself not to do that.

Bad girl.

Well, it's put away now, in all those shiny new places.  Thinking it through: If all goes well, I can finish the bookcase project this weekend, leaving two more weekends in November, one for the kitchen and one for the hallway.  I'm not sure which is more intimidating; but I remind myself that so far each of my projects has looked intimidating, but ended up being not so bad after all - just time consuming.  And needing effort.  But nothing unmanageable.  Nothing discouraging.

Meanwhile, the challenge is to get enough sleep, and go to the gym each day, and to do yoga each day.  I am both surprised and gratified how this gives me the energy to carry on with the decluttering. I would do it anyway; but this makes it easier.

The order to do things:

• Read another book on how to declutter and/or minimize. I got another one out of the library, and don't want to return it unread.  It's called the Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing  Your Home and taking Control of Your Life by Lorie K. Marrero.
• Empty the bookcase by the front door.  Dispose of it. Find or buy paper to cover the magazine boxes as necessary. (Note: go to The Papery after work tomorrow. Find out their hours.)
• Switch the books in the bookcase by the bathroom into the two brown bookcases that were in the bedroom.  Discard books as I go.
• Move the comic book boxes in the bedroom from the north wall to the east wall.
• Move the large bookcase in the living room into the bedroom, either on the west wall or the north wall - whichever fits best.
• Put the small bookcase in the space behind the front door.
• Put the teapot display shelves (formerly a bookcase) in an attractive spot in the living room.

Moved and seconded, and so resolved.

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From seed to blossom...

A few months ago I walked into a friend's house and thought: this is what I want.

It was a beautiful, peaceful place.  Not elegant, but not shabby, either. Decorated more with taste than money.  What I loved was that nothing was extraneous.  A living room with sofa, chairs, a bit of art; a plant.  Dining room with table and buffet.  Nothing special... but enchanting.

I want this, I thought.

I can do this, I thought.

I haven't done it yet, so it's time to start.

My place isn't a mess - not by my standards.  But I have too much furniture, too many books (is that an oxymoron?), not enough empty places to put things.  This can all be fixed.

Since I like to research projects - and it's a fine form of procrastination - I looked up the subject online.  I attacked it from three angles:

1. Moving out the clutter
2. Making it simple and beautiful, yoga-like and calm
3. Putting my life in order in other ways: saving money, making better use of my time

This is my quest.

There are many blogs and websites on the subject, most of them useful.  I kept coming across the same factors that make the sites a bad fit for me:

1. Sites about how to declutter a large house, assuming the declutterer has a spouse, kids, a garage and a car.  I have none of these things. I have a small one-bedroom apartment and three budgies. 
2. Sites which go too far: the people who live with 100 possessions only, which makes me wonder "is a pair of socks one object or two?" and "how do you deal with paper clips?" One package would be it.  Though of course, if you have no need of paper, you have no need of paper clips.  I have a way to go before I get there.  I want to be minimalist, even Spartan; but not stark.
3. Blogs which are defunct. The information on them is still good, but there's a static quality to them.  I am looking for encouragement, inspiration, a sense of immediacy.
4. Do It Yourself sites that give instructions on how to make all sorts of ingenious things, but which are based on the idea of "having more things with less" while I want to "have fewer things".

So I decided to write about my own process, and how I get there.  The theory and the practice.  The challenges and the (I hope) triumphs. Special bonus challenge: I want to do it without buying anything for the project. Ingenuity is the key: I don't need to spend money to do it.

My goal: to have a clear and beautiful place by Christmas.  "Beautiful" by my own standards.  "Clear" in terms of "free of extraneous things" and "purposeful and elegant".

Can I do it? I plan to prove it.

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