Bridget Jones's Stunt Double

This entry marks the longest gap between posts, I know. For some reason I do have some readers (thanks Instagram followers!) but I don't know why anyone would want to come back! I'm like Marie Kondo after she eats a cannabis gummy and puts a Sandra Bullock movie into the old laptop.

Anyhow, as you might guess there's been a lot happening since we last spoke. I had my one year anniversary at my current job and I'm still there! I went to Ireland for the first time in my life in August. I finally took up the carpet in that extra bedroom and I'll be installing a guest bed, like a real adult. See below for my progress pics!

I found an IKEA twin bed on Facebook Marketplace and picked it up yesterday. I got an Uber to bring it home with me.

In September I made my first visit to the dump! I had a few old sets of blinds and most of the carpeting to discard, and I didn't want to pay someone over $100 to haul it.  One of my friends who has a van drove me and my stuff there and we threw it all away for a total cost of $28!!!!

Speaking of Marie Kondo, I've been wanting to make a zine about my own adventures in organizing and tossing out crap. It would be specifically for people in Portland, a really condensed version of my blog. People I talk to have a lot of interest in discovering where and what to recycle, and creative ways to re-home usable objects.

One of my latest projects is my scariest to date. I'm planning to buy a house in the near future. How near, I can't say yet. I'd like to be an owner sometime next year. I've been in my current place for 16 years! I love it so much and yet I want something more.  I'll check in here as this unfolds.

OK, time to head out. Maybe I'll be back soon.

March Hares

The big changes I made in the last week were to move my gardening supplies and the last of my craft items to shelving in the basement next to my other craft items. for the first time ever all of my crafting supplies are in the same part of the house!

Fun fact: the wire basket drawers on the far left and the plastic shelves to the right of that were found on the sidewalks in my neighborhood! They are perfect for separating the quantities of supplies I have.

I had the VVA truck come and pick up a bag of items that I couldn't seem to sell or trade. Now that I've restablished the art supplies I can get rid of a couple of containers that are taking up shelf space. That's the great thing about organizing and purging: you can get rid of the shelving and storage implements for those items, making more room on your floor and walls!

Now that it's proving less likely to freeze, and there's some sun forecast in the next few days, I have to get my hands on a hedge trimmer. I missed my chance last year to clear out a lot of dried-out vines and plant life before everything started leafing out again. I'm going to start including my yard in my blog posts so get ready.

I'm missed the Twilight Rummage Sale for the first time in several months, as I won't be around. I'm going to have to work extra hard on my art, design, and gardening goals, which is why March is so important.  When I'm away from home I tend to obsess about the things I want to be doing and the plans I want to get started on.

In fact, right after I finish this post I'm heading home to do a little gardening and indoor plant care. I hope to have some good before-and-after shots of my yard before long.

The Call Was Coming From Inside the House

I swear I started writing this a few days ago!

All of the CDs have successfully transitioned to their new home in the basement. I'm amazed at how much fewer I have now that they are racked! The wall space at the bottom of the stairs is the perfect width to keep their shelving too.

I divested myself of even more stuff this week. I sold a dj turntable to a friend of mine, and offered him a small bookcase and wastebasket I had in the garage. I had some time to take some things over to Village Merchants to sell, and at the Twilight Rummage Sale I gave away a shoe rack.

I put the desk on Facebook's Buy Nothing page for my neighborhood and a neighbor came and got it on Sunday morning.  The spare bedroom is cleaner than it's been since I moved in.

Farewell, friend

 It's not just objects I'm pushing out- I deleted my Tumblr page and I plan to leave Facebook altogether. I want to leave Wells Fargo and start banking at a credit union.

I wonder how many bookcases I've given away since I started this cleanout project 7 years ago? It must be about a dozen. I've given away and sold thousands of books since then. This process has brought me a lot of new friends and acquaintances, as well as a sense of peace and control over my environment. 

Geek Love

I'm reporting live from the Frankenstein's Comic Book Swap, happening now at the Eagles Lodge on SE Hawthorne & 49th in Portland, Oregon. We had a quiet start because of the inclement weather, but the fans are getting bolder and now there's a lot of foot traffic in the aisles. I haven't been able to sell at this show in many months due to the changes in my work schedule, but now that I have Saturdays off I shouldn't have any more problems.  I had a few modest sales today and I'm probably going to blow all of my money on my table costs but we have four more hours to go.

I made the perhaps controversial move of giving away a rare oversized book to a good friend of mine with the words "Get it out of my sight" - it had been stored in my garage or closet for years. I remember too well selling a similarly huge and rare book online and the time and trouble it took to sell and package it.  I don't feel that motivated anymore.

I traded a set of vintage nudie cards to a friend for a t-shirt he designed and a paperback bio of J.R.R. Tolkien. I spent just $2 on a rubber Kewpie knockoff, still in packaging that I can use to hang it from the wall alongside my collection of Betty Boop dolls.

Next week is another Twilight Rummage Sale.  I have so little now in the way of tchotchkes but I will end up bringing the books from today.

I'm pretty much done culling the CDs. My next plan is to clear out the closet they were in and shelve the CDs I'm keeping downstairs. I'm going to give away my desk and start pulling up carpet in that room!!

I've been having a good time purging in the last couple weeks.  Donating, selling, shredding, burning. It's a wonder I have anything left but I have the weird feeling that I'll cease to exist if I run out!

The Little Death

I was out of town for a few days so I didn't have access to make last week's post.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been at work!

I've been going through the hundreds of CDs I have and making a pile to give away to the Friends of the Library to resell in their stores and their big sales. So far I have many dozen to donate.  I've been stacking them next to my CD player and giving them a cursory listen. A lot of the ones that are going are some that I held onto because they belonged to my late husband, and because I wanted to have some variety for my old radio show years ago.  They are bands I'd never really want to listen to now.  I'm even getting rid of Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island, because I'm tired of it and a lot of music that sounds like it.

Now that I've returned I've caught cold and I have some time at home to purge some more of these things. I'm headed out to the store to pick up some supplies first.

On my trip away I saw two full episodes of Marie Kondo's show Tidying Up, and the beginning of a third.

It's really good! It's helpful to see all of her theories in action and working for people. I have a lot of empathy for folks who are going through this process.  I've spoken about how I've followed her advice but haven't been very faithful about it, but what I did do changed my life, and I'm not exaggerating.

The Minority Report

My seasonal affective disorder is at an all-time low, thanks to my new job. I work in the grocery business now so I'm always moving around, and there are a lot of colorful things to see as well as fresh produce and plants all the time.  There are windows and the lighting is excellent.  Usually around this time of year I'm thinking of making a permanent move to somewhere like New Mexico.  I do get a little anxious and crabby now and then but nowhere near my former experiences.  Office work sucks!  I was so irritable at my last job that it's no wonder things got worse during the cold weather.

I'm doing more craft projects and continuing my organizing. I'm taking all of my art and office supplies to the basement to prepare for ripping up the carpet. I've said it a bunch of times but that's one of my January goals: just clearing the floor for the carpet job. I'm getting rid of the desk I built to make space. It finally feels like objects have a place to go, or they are leaving for good.

BUH-

BYE!

I'm purging a lot of things these last few weeks, but don't think it's because of the new Marie Kondo program.  I haven't seen it, but I want to! I'd like to see what she's like in human form, as opposed to just reading her words from a page.  I also love watching anything to do with heavy sorting and cleaning. I lent her book to my sister so I haven't been following the KonMari program to a T, as if I ever was.  I'm just bagging up stuff as I go along.  For example, I've barely used my printer in years, but I have a ream of paper on the floor beneath it.  I found the duct tape and electrical tape I'd been looking for under some boxes, so I don't have to buy duplicates.

I haven't blogged much in the last couple years, but I'm committing to writing  a post once a week to stay on top of my projects. Every time I pick something up I make it more complicated so I want to make sure I move forward with each task.     
I'm doing more listening to music as part of my crafting and cleaning.  I hadn't used the record player much until this weekend.  I think I have more energy from not trying to watch a movie every time I do  a project.

But speaking of movies, I'm in the middle of Weiner, the documentary about the Anthony Weiner scandal.  What a prat! It's like watching a pteradactyl get harpooned and then fall through a glassed-in shopping mall atrium. Except Anthony does it to himself and seems surprised that other people are reacting, and his poor wife has to process in public. I forget what people used to do to ruin themselves before smart phones existed. Dude is getting out of jail this spring.  I hope he lives off the grid for the next 25 years because I think the first thing he's going to do is inappropriately contact a random woman. Remember when we used to just take pictures of our butt cheeks with photocopiers? Do people still do that?