Future goals

Though it is Tuesday, which is a very busy day here, I stopped in at yesterday's RevGalBlogPals Meet and Greet and thus visited a new member's blog Fruitful Words, more specifically her category for "Declutter." I am struck by the idea of "Goal Planning Monday" (even though it is Tuesday):


There's a seed for my future. . . .as well as visiting the other new blog members, plus old regulars, since I have not been blogging much lately.

Friday Five: De/Re/CLutter?

Since posting about decluttering, I am still muttering about the need for it in my house. How about you?

1. What things do you like to hang on to?
I hang on to notes and cards friends and family send me, which I put in drawers. I like to keep pictures, my kids' toys and books, cookbooks, books, clothes I might need someday. . . .

2. What is hard to let go of?
All of the above. Books are really hard for me to part with.

3. What is easy to give away?
Spontaneous giving makes that the easiest way to give things away.

4. Is there any kind of stumbling block connected with cleaning out?
I get hung up on giving things to the "right"person who will like it. The other stumbling block is imagining how long the cleaning will take, so I avoid that entirely.

5. What do you like to collect, hoard, or admire?
Books; Zuni corn maidens; cards and stationery; quotes

Bonus: whatever you can think of that goes along with this muttering about cluttering.

RECYCLE!

Try to Freecycle in your community. It's easy!

In fact, I blogged about Freecycle when I first heard about it.

Decluttering (all the STUFF)

I really needed to read this today. I also need to remember this. And I need to act upon this.

Leo Babauta writes for Zen Habits:

If you’re holding onto stuff because you feel it would be a waste of good money if you got rid of it, here is the answer you are looking for:

I hereby release you of your burden.

You are free. You bought these items with hard-earned money, and you don’t want that money to go to waste, so you’ve been holding onto them. It’s a burden that keeps you from freeing yourself of these unneeded possessions — it forces to you keep the space they occupy, to maintain these possessions, to constantly see them every day even if you don’t want them, to walk around them or trip over them or live in a cramped, cluttered space. This is a burden, paying penance for your initial wasted expenditure of cash.

But: the waste was when you bought it, not when you get rid of it. You bought something you didn’t really need — and the real waste would be to ignore this and not learn from it.

So here’s how to make sure that by decluttering possessions you don’t need, it’s not a waste:

1. Learn your lesson. This might sound condescending, but it’s not meant to be — if we don’t realize our mistakes, we can’t learn and avoid them in the future. So realize: you shouldn’t have bought the items in the first place. Avoid doing this in the future, by buying as little as you possibly can. Stop being a consumer, and start living.

2. Realize that keeping the items is wasteful. If you keep stuff you don’t need, it costs you money — you pay for the space to store it (lots of possessions means bigger homes or storage containers), you pay to maintain it, it costs you time (and therefore money) to keep it and go around it, you have to fix things when they break, you have to sort through things to find things, you spend time moving things around, and so on. Getting rid of this unnecessary stuff frees you of this waste.

3. Find someone who will use it. It’s a waste to keep something when you’re not using it (a good reason car-sharing is a much better use of cars than private ownership, btw). So find a friend or family member who needs it, or give it to Goodwill or some other such charity, or donate it to a library that will let many others use it. Consider starting a neighborhood tool library, or a book-sharing spot in your community. When someone else uses your items, it’s not a waste.

4. Test the waters. If you’re unsure of whether you’ll need something later, put it to a test: have you used it in the last six months? If not, you probably don’t need it (unless it’s seasonal — then ask if you needed it in the last year). If you’re still unsure, box it up with today’s date, and check on it in six months — if you never needed to open the box, you didn’t need it.

5. Don’t let your possessions own you. If you hold on to possessions because you feel it would be wasteful to get rid of them, they are controlling you. They are dictating your life, rather than you creating the life you want, living how you want to live. Let go of possessions and be free — living otherwise would be the true waste.

6. Make better use of your time and space. Once you’re freed of this clutter, don’t waste your freed time on acquiring more stuff. Spend your time on incredible experiences, not on possessions. In the end, get a smaller house, now that you need to store less stuff, and help save the earth while you’re at it (a smaller home, along with ditching your car and becoming vegan, is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your carbon emissions).

To subscribe to Zen Habits, go here.

Friday Stuff

With Dennis so ill in Seattle and it being so HOT here in TX, I have not felt like blogging lately. And this is despite my responsibility at RevGalBlogPals to write today's Friday Five, which has had a healthy 29 responses (without mine). I am glad RevGals wrote about games, which will give me ideas for our family vacation as I am not a "game-y" person.

I want to write something, so I guess it'll be bullet-style, for my own benefit.

• TX heat--this is the hottest year in TX history since 1925. The only thing it is good for is hanging clothes out on the clothesline to dry, which I do almost everyday. Our two dogs prefer the house air-conditioned atmosphere, but a full laundry basket is a signal for both of them to come outside with me. Our beloved BLACK Lab, who died a few years ago, hated the heat so much that she could not be fooled by an empty laundry basket, when I sometimes tried to get her to go outside.

• Husband CB and I are flying to Seattle on Wednesday to visit Terry and Dennis. Dennis is having surgery to remove the tumor in his liver on Friday, July 24. We will stay one week. Then we'll come back to TX for six days before returning to Seattle with our family for a vacation, which is hard to predict with Dennis' future uncertain.
  

• Before my friend Joe died last year, I ordered a book with the subtitle "A guide to the emotional and spiritual care of the dying." I never read it, and it was shoved into a book shelf for the past year. When it was decided that we would go to be with Dennis, I found the book and started reading it. Facing Death and Finding Hope by Christine Longaker is just what I needed before this trip. The author is a Tibetan Buddhist who keeps emphasizing that we learn to die as we live: "Thus all the things that happen--especially the 'deaths within life' that we necessarily experience--are markers, along our path, pointing the way toward learning how to live, and in so doing, how to die." (15)

• This week has been a beginning in de-cluttering. Each day I am getting rid of TEN items (even one piece of paper is one object) in each room of the house. I vaguely remember this idea from FlyLady, which I tried a few years ago but quit when I was inundated by emails. (She suggests the 27 fling boogie.) I usually put away or throw out more stuff than just ten, but the small minimum helps me get started.

• I am excited that the General Conference of the Episcopal Church passed Resolution C056 (http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation/view_leg_detail.aspx?id=898&type=Current). "This resolution allows for a ‘generous pastoral response’ to the needs of same gender couples. What that actually means will vary from diocese to diocese, depending on how the Bishop discerns the needs of the people and the movement of the Spirit. In some places it’ll mean church weddings, in others something very private and discreet, and in some places there will be nothing at all." (from here) However, I fear the south TX Bishops did not vote in favor of this resolution and so effects may not be seen in this area of the country.

• Susan Russell is the current president of Integrity USA. Her blog is An Inch at a Time, which will tell you much more about the 2009 General Conference in Anaheim.
  

Friday Five: It's all about the look!

I got back from Calgary very late last night, and so it is fun to reconnect with a Friday Five, which is looking at one of my weaknesses of hoarding and not cleaning out!

Sally writes for RevGalBlogPals: "In readiness for my move in 6 weeks time I spent almost all of yesterday morning sorting through my wardrobe ( closet, I am so British :-) marvelling at how I had accumulated so much stuff! The result is three large sacks full of clothes to be given away. Some came into the category of " what was I thinking", some too big now ( at last), and others I will never shrink into again. Some are going simply because I want to streamline my wardrobe."

So how about you:


1. Are you a hoarder, or are you good at sorting and clearing?
I am definitely a hoarder, as I have written about on various occasions. Coming home from Canada just last night makes me see my house with new eyes that are not covered with "house blindness". My closets are especially crammed with clothes I wore in various sizes of thin-ness; since I'll never be a 6-8 again (as I was when I was clinically depressed). I need to get rid of those clothes. (Confession time here)

2. What is the oddest garment you possess and why?
I still have the brown wool coat my mother bought me before I got married in 1971, having always thought that one of my daughters would like it. . . .in hot Corpus Christi, TX??

3. Do you have a favourite look/ colour?
For the past few years, I have liked linen shirts and crop pants. For the wedding I just went to, I was happy "looking like myself"--in a long brown crinkle skirt with gold sequins and a boxy bright green jacket from Chico's on top, plus the wedding shoes.

4. Thrift/ Charity shops, love them or hate them?
I love them so I can donate clothing to them, which is what I plan to do this summer. I shopped in them when I was younger.

5. Money is no object, what one item would you buy?
If I could find them, some comfortable and elegant shoes!

A prayer I need to pray daily

Lord, help me now to unclutter my life,
to organize myself in the direction of simplicity.
Lord, teach me to listen to my heart;
teach me to welcome change, instead of fearing it.
Lord, I give You these stirrings inside me,
I give you my discontent,
I give you my restlessness,
I give you my doubt,
I give you my despair,
I give you all the longings I hold inside.
Help me to listen to these signs of change, of growth;
to listen seriously and follow where they lead
through the breathtaking empty space of an open door.

Source: unknown

From Inward/Outward. Subscribe here.

Friday Five: Moving and Changing

Sally at RevGalBlogPals writes:


ALL IS CHANGE.... and although I am looking forward to it, it is not without a sense of trepidation, as change always brings challenges.

Changing location also means packing, so next month will be a month of clearing and sorting, deciding what comes and what gets left behind...

So with change in mind I offer you this Friday five; ( if you've never moved here's a chance to use your imagination)

1. A big move is looming, name one thing that you could not possibly part with, it must be packed ?
Now that we have no children living with us, I'd have to bring along our pets: Baillie, our old cocker spaniel; Cisco, CB's mixed shepherd; and Gracie, the furry queen cat.

2. Name one thing that you would gladly leave behind...
The HEAT/humidity of south TX.

3. How do you prepare for a move
a. practically?
Clean out and get rid of.

Having lived in the same house for the past 15 years has us packed to the gills. Moving motivates me to sort and clean out.

b. spiritually/ emotionally?
I'd check with Shalem for spiritual directors in the new area, so maybe I'd have possibilities for friends there. I have met wonderful people here, who were directed through Shalem.

Keep addresses in my address book. Try to see friends as much as possible before leaving.
I have lived here in Corpus Christi longer than I have in any other place in my life (since I grew up with a dad in the Marine Corps), and so it would be difficult to part from this "home," even though it's always too hot.

4. What is the first thing you look for in a new place?

This is what our moves usually looked like:

When we moved so much when we had children, I would always seek out the La Leche League leaders and groups, plus the local library.

Now I would seek out spiritual friends, probably first through Shalem's directory.

5. Do you settle in easily, or does it take time for you to find your feet in a new location?
One would think that moving so frequently both as a child and as a young mother, I would have gotten used to relocating. However, it has always been difficult for me to move, probably because I am an introvert.

The hardest move of all was from RI to NJ when my mother had just died. When we moved, the children (except for 2 year old MJ) were in school and CB was immediately at work, and I was alone with MJ. Thankfully, I had her.

The bonus for today; a new opportunity has come up for you to spend 5 years in a new area, where would you go and why?
This is a revelation to me.

I have been worrying about whether we should move to Bellingham, WA, where I still own (and rent out) my parents' home, but friends and three of our children living in TX hold me here. A move doesn't have to be permanent, except it seems that way with all our junk. So getting rid of stuff would bring freedom of movement, also.This is a map of Bellingham. Find Lakeway Drive and then see Puget Street--my parents' old home is about the middle of the word "Puget." CB's parents live past Yew Street on Lakeway Drive.This is a good view of Western Washington University (formerly WWSC, from which CB and I graduated) and Sehome Hill. The hill behind Sehome Hill is where my parents' house is.

E-mail Clean-up Starts!

Embarrassing though it is, I am pleased to announce that I have deleted about 6,000 messages in my inbox and "sent items" box. Combined, there were about 10,000 messages, so you can see I have more to delete tomorrow. And I am grateful to my daughter for posting about this, so I was brave enough to admit my hoarding, even on the internet--but she had less than 10% of what I had (and still have).

CB installed a new security system on our computers and made some sarcastic remarks about all my stored messages, which I've been avoiding. This goes along with an article I received yesterday from Zen Habits, "8 Liberating Strategies for Clearing the Queues in Your Life."

The point in that article that applies to me is this one:

"6. Clear the rest. Once you’ve picked out the most important, see if you can clear the rest, or at least shovel them somewhere else to deal with at a later time. I’ve already mentioned how you can do this with your email inbox. With a to-do list, you can put them in an @someday folder/label to deal with later. Delete things you will probably never get to, that you’ve been dreading doing and don’t absolutely need to do, or that are unnecessary. Sometimes a big mass delete can be liberating."

Mass deleting of Joe Riley's poems and Inward/Outward daily email quotes (and other items such as Amazon orders) was quite liberating!

Freecycle!

Freecycle: Changing the World One Gift at a Time

When I was in Canada, the daughter of my cousin Margaret (and thus my third cousin, I believe) NF showed me how she "freecycles." While I was there she picked up a stack of exercise books that were all pretty new on someone's porch, absolutely free! There were even duplicate copies, so she gave me one!

I am a clutter person and somehow have a hard time giving things away unless it is for the "right" person. That's very self-defeating, which is why I have so much junk, especially in my closets. Though I'll continue to drop off stuff at Goodwill and the Women's Shelter, this seems like an excellent idea for the uncertain items, like a rarely used onion chopper.

Go here for the history and background of the movement that was started in 2003 in Tucson, Arizona, and now its current numbers are:

Number of Freecycle™ Communities:	4,121
Number of Freecycle™ Members:	3,890,000

"The Freecycle Network™ is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by clicking on the region on the left. You may then go directly to your local group by clicking on "Go To" or you may immediately joining by clicking on "Join." It will generate an automatic e-mail which, when sent, will sign you up for the local group and send you a response with instructions on how it works. Can't find a group near you? You might want to consider starting one (click on "Start a Group" for instructions)." From their "Welcome"

(This is one of their bumper stickers--sounds perfect for me.)

Sorting through books

I am cleaning out boxes that were packed in 1991, before we moved from Corpus Christi, TX to RI! I think they've been sealed since then. The only reason these boxes were taken down from the closet shelf was that about three weeks ago everything on that long shelf above clothes had to be removed, because insulation was going to be blown into our attic. MJ and boy friend CS moved all the boxes into big brother BJ's old room, where they've stayed despite a visit with BJ staying in there.

Most of the boxes contain books from when I taught second and third grades in VA and OR. I've filled two bags of "teacher" stuff that I'm giving to a friend, who may just throw them away--but that's up to her. (I tend to be a pack rat, which is probably obvious to you.) I am filling those little boxes again with children's books that I'll donate to the Brandeis Book Sale ladies. And of course, there are some books I cannot part with--for the someday grandchildren I'll have.

Some treasures I found:

• The slides of Japan my dad sent for AE to show in school. He kept asking where they were and I didn't know. Too late now.
• Two books of poetry husband CB gave me early in our marriage.
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that my mother's cousin Margaret gave me when I was in second grade.
  

I am running true to form--getting something accomplished before a deadline-- like a trip, people visiting or surgery. The out-patient knee arthroscopy is happening this Wednesday, so that must be why I decided to finally tackle this! (And there are still more boxes in the room to the left of the chair.)