I gave away my knitting box. Everything I had: the needles, the faux wool (because I'm allergic to real wool), even the lovely suitcase-box with a handle and clasp I'd bought at Michael's to put it in.
I've tried knitting several times in my life. When young; we learned it in school. When older: having learned to knit, I found I liked crochet better, set about to make an afghan when I was a post-grad. I even made a baby-bundler for a friend who was having a baby once. It was yellow. It was the lumpiest, funniest, badly made baby bundler you ever saw. I don't remember whose shower it was for; I hope they ultimately forgave me for the gift. I hope the poor baby never had to wear it. He'd be the laughingstock of babies.
I had the notion that because I like to sew, I should enjoy knitting. Then I thought that if I practiced hard enough, and often enough, I might get good at it, and then start to enjoy it.
These things have not happened.
People often knit while watching television. I do that too. But then when the show gets interesting, I stop knitting to pay attention. Or I grimly continue to knit, and feel irritated and edgy about it. I don't like dividing my attention between two things at once.
So yesterday, in the interests of decluttering, I offered my knitting kit to Sylvie, and she accepted it. I realized as soon as I mentioned it that I'd been feeling a vague guilt for not knitting, for not being good at knitting, for not finding it relaxing and production and useful the way so many of my friends do.
No more knitting. No more guilt. And one step closer to having nothing on top of my dresser.
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Showing posts with label progress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progress. Show all posts
Monday, November 11, 2013
Sunday, November 3, 2013
The weekend rolls to an end...
Two days now.
Yesterday it was clothes. I emptied my MALM drawers and my wardrobe (a stand-alone piece of IKEA furniture in the bedroom), and took all the clothes from the closet in the hall - which is fairly large, but the coats and jackets have to share space with the vacuum, the toilet paper supply, and various other storage items. That closet is a problem area I'll have to revisit; but for yesterday, it was just a matter of clothes.
I sorted the clothes into two piles: 'keep' and 'don't keep'. The 'don't keep' clothes went into green trash bags and will go to a charity as soon as I can find transportation. The 'keep' clothes were sorted for function and replaced on hangers or in drawers.
Top left drawer: socks. Top left: sleepwear. Next drawer down: T-shirts for the gym (most of which are purple and have "Curves" written across them); black T-shirts for work; bras, knickers, and wfite gym socks.
Next drawer: T-shirts. The one after that is all neatly sorted shoes in IKEA dividers.
Sweaters and woollens go into a nice wicker hamper someone left in the basement of the apartment building. That left the wardrobe for indoor jackets, work trousers, jeans, skirts, dresses, and whatever.
Sounds as if I have a lot of clothes, doesn't it? I never thought so, but even with four garbage bags of giveaways to show for my pains, I have more than I thought I did. Which is good. In a way. It does make me feel like a failed minimalist. Perhaps in future there will be another pruning.
Today, still happy about yesterday's triumph, I faced an area that terrified me: my desk. I treated myself to a marathon viewing of The Good Wife while doing it, and was mightily entertained. I offered my spare computer, monitor and printer to some friends - having discovered that I absolutely don't need a spare of either. They were taking up a lot of space on the desktop.
So I spent the day going through papers, trashing everything I don't need - and what a pile of useless printing there was. Leftover material from work, catalogues, old correspondence, half-used notebooks - okay, I confess, I'm enough of a pack-rat to keep the half-used notebooks.
Four carton-loads of paper went to the trash. Assorted items will go to the charity shop. I cleared off the shelves above the desk, and the top shelf is not displaying my teapot collection. I had ten teapots; I threw out the cracked one, and gave away the one I least liked. The newest doesn't fit on this shelf. so I'm still looking for a good place for it. That will come. Early days still.
What impressed me most is how much work this all is, and how slowly it goes. It's a little intimidating. Even working fairly efficiently, quickly, and steadily, it took me two days to accomplish what feels like tiny steps.
But it's a good start.
I'm hoping to do small increments of decluttering through the week, maybe ten or fifteen minutes of it per day, and then attack the big projects next week - the rest of the hall closet, perhaps, or one of the bookshelves.
- - -
Yesterday it was clothes. I emptied my MALM drawers and my wardrobe (a stand-alone piece of IKEA furniture in the bedroom), and took all the clothes from the closet in the hall - which is fairly large, but the coats and jackets have to share space with the vacuum, the toilet paper supply, and various other storage items. That closet is a problem area I'll have to revisit; but for yesterday, it was just a matter of clothes.
I sorted the clothes into two piles: 'keep' and 'don't keep'. The 'don't keep' clothes went into green trash bags and will go to a charity as soon as I can find transportation. The 'keep' clothes were sorted for function and replaced on hangers or in drawers.
Top left drawer: socks. Top left: sleepwear. Next drawer down: T-shirts for the gym (most of which are purple and have "Curves" written across them); black T-shirts for work; bras, knickers, and wfite gym socks.
Next drawer: T-shirts. The one after that is all neatly sorted shoes in IKEA dividers.
Sweaters and woollens go into a nice wicker hamper someone left in the basement of the apartment building. That left the wardrobe for indoor jackets, work trousers, jeans, skirts, dresses, and whatever.
Sounds as if I have a lot of clothes, doesn't it? I never thought so, but even with four garbage bags of giveaways to show for my pains, I have more than I thought I did. Which is good. In a way. It does make me feel like a failed minimalist. Perhaps in future there will be another pruning.
Today, still happy about yesterday's triumph, I faced an area that terrified me: my desk. I treated myself to a marathon viewing of The Good Wife while doing it, and was mightily entertained. I offered my spare computer, monitor and printer to some friends - having discovered that I absolutely don't need a spare of either. They were taking up a lot of space on the desktop.
So I spent the day going through papers, trashing everything I don't need - and what a pile of useless printing there was. Leftover material from work, catalogues, old correspondence, half-used notebooks - okay, I confess, I'm enough of a pack-rat to keep the half-used notebooks.
Four carton-loads of paper went to the trash. Assorted items will go to the charity shop. I cleared off the shelves above the desk, and the top shelf is not displaying my teapot collection. I had ten teapots; I threw out the cracked one, and gave away the one I least liked. The newest doesn't fit on this shelf. so I'm still looking for a good place for it. That will come. Early days still.
What impressed me most is how much work this all is, and how slowly it goes. It's a little intimidating. Even working fairly efficiently, quickly, and steadily, it took me two days to accomplish what feels like tiny steps.
But it's a good start.
I'm hoping to do small increments of decluttering through the week, maybe ten or fifteen minutes of it per day, and then attack the big projects next week - the rest of the hall closet, perhaps, or one of the bookshelves.
- - -
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