Continuing to TOSS, AGGRESSIVELY (thread #4)

[morningglory]

I think from now on I'll call any unknown item found in the fridge "PROK".

[Di]

The only place for PROK is the garbage!!!!

[morningglory]

Or the "PROK can", as it is affectionately known.

[morningglory]

Started pulling things out from under the bed to sort. Lots of dust (cough, cough) and trash. But also boxes with various papers going back over 10 years! Some are things I want to save, much is trash. But it's terrible finding some things that were important documents at the time that *somehow* slipped away under the bed, never to be found when we were probably looking for it!

There were a couple of boxes of papers, just like there were several of at the side of the bed, in which I had neatly stacked up papers, because I didn't have time (or, let's face it, the psychological ability) to sort them, so I put them there for safekeeping until I could get around to them. Well, that day has finally come. And now I realize that I cannot do that anymore (just shove papers out of sight). When new things come into the house, a decision must be made on them--file, toss, or put in a ready location until they are no longer needed and then toss. Most will fall into the second and third categories.

I am using this method with my email now. When mail comes in, I decide whether I need to keep it permanently. If not, I leave it in the inbox only until it is no longer relevant, then it goes. I find hitting that delete button to be difficult, after so many years of feeling that every bit of information must be saved. But at the same time it feels good. Good to reinforce that habit of keeping things CLEAR!

[puppybox]

thanks sunshine and morning glory.

Yay for drawer cleaning.... uh, clean drawers? heh heh.

i verily understand the "pile of papers i put to deal with later because i was psychologically unable to do it before". I will get to that eventually. yay for building up decision making and processing skills on e-mail!


LOVE the word PROK. i cleaned out my fridge partially 2 weeks ago and more last week and there was mucho PROK to toss. I did not open the plastic containers becuase the smell of PROK is much worse than the PROK itself. now the fridge is almost empty but needs washing. fortunately not too icky.

Update: so i took at least 27 books to the salvation army last night quick, before I changed my mind. I can't remember if this was including or on top of the first 6 books from the other day. who cares! it was 3 shopping bags full.

If you are pressed for time the rest is me rambling on, skip it:
i uploaded these books to my goodreads account. its a website for books. its great for me becuase you can then look up what you read even if you got rid of it and forgot the title and author and only remember the colour of the cover! I've decided that one day i will get an e-reader and therefore when I feel the need to re-read books I can rebuy them that way. ( i do like re-reading books but my criteria became "if i won't reread it in the next few months" get rid of it.
I have at least 100 unread books (where do they come from? i don't buy books!) that were doublling up on the shelves and so I still need to get rid of lots more books. if i get rid of lots then I can put my new hobby, collecting old sheets, on the bookshelves.

[morningglory]

WOO-HOO!!!!!!! That is FREAKING AWESOME that you got rid of that many books, Puppybox!

And thank you SO MUCH for the tip about Good Reads. It is precisely because I don't want to "lose" the info that I hold onto so many books. I have often thought that I wished I had taken notes about various books I'd read, to help me remember. But who had time, when I didn't even have time to sweep my kitchen?

Now that I am clearing things out, I think keeping those kinds of notes might be just the thing I need. In fact, it's like what I've been doing with a few other things:

*Created a spreadsheet of home repairs and purchases, rather than keeping all those papers.

*Added info from notes and cards I find lying around to my electronic contacts.

*Made electronic notes on little bits of info that I might like to remember (when I purchased a car, how I know a particular person, etc.).

Having all that stuff in electronic form also makes it searchable, instead of buried in piles, or even in files!

Your suggestion about the books might be just what I needed to spur me to move a lot more books out of the house.

Although right now I save a lot of them for my kids to read (since they are constantly looking for things to read), especially since we homeschool. But there are definitely plenty of books they would not be interested in any time soon, if ever.

Thanks!

[puppybox]

oh i'm glad to be useful, thanks!
I was talking about goodreads with people in chat and someone reccomended the similar site
LibraryThing". apparently you can buy a scanner like a library beeper machine and just beep all your books into the site! doesn't that sound fun! I'm just going to continue with the site i started with though. i've had book purges before so its not like I have that many.

Last night I chose 39 more books to get rid of. haven't taken them out yet but started (finally to see some space on the shelves so that feels good. lighter, i feel lighter. of course, i then filled it up with some of the unread books that were on the floor.

I'm looking forward to getting rid of more stuff tonight. don't know if it will be books. but am motivated to feel even lighter! the minimalist blogs i've been reading are right.

[morningglory]

Puppybox, did you pick out more to get rid of? I know what you mean about feeling "lighter". That's definitely in the mix of how I'm feeling, the more space I clear:

Light
Open
Airy
Free
Clean
Spacious

Our 15-year-old son even made a comment like that about our bedroom. He came in, sat down to talk to me, then noticed the huge difference just in what I've done so far. He said, "It feels so much more open in here. I mean, it feels like the air is flowing through me." I thought that was a surprisingly descriptive way of expressing it. It feels that way to me, too.

Still lots to do, and one thing I am struggling with is not letting anxiety build in the opposite direction--feeling anxious that I need to spend time on other things every day and that there is still dust and trash and disorganized piles in the room. I need to feel ok taking relaxation and recreation breaks, too. It will get done, because I am not giving up.

[Sunshine]

May 17, 2012 6:12:46 GMT -5 morningglory said:

I need to feel ok taking relaxation and recreation breaks, too. It will get done, because I am not giving up.

So many beautiful images in your post, Morning Glory

A bit pressed for time today, but wishing you all sorts of goodness, and will be joining you for some tossing this weekend

[morningglory]

FENCE: I was still not happy with the low-bid company, because they do not even offer a warranty on the work. So I decided to go ahead and try one more estimate. I contacted a place that got back with me very quickly and set up an estimate for Monday. They said they are scheduling three weeks out, which means they couldn't start the job until then, but everyone says this job will take only two days to finish, so I should still be within my time-frame, if I go with them. I don't know if they will be any better than the other company, but I figured it's worth a shot, since I am feeling hinky about the one. Even if I end up going with the first company, I will have explored this option, which should make me feel more comfortable about it. And at least I did not remain in paralysis, letting the clock continue to tick while I stewed.

BEDROOM: Planning to clear the top of my nightstand and put away a stack of papers I collected when going through the piles, then call that section between the bed and the wall DONE. I hope to have pictures to post by tomorrow.

After that, I will choose another specific area of the bedroom to focus on, probably the other side of the bed and underneath it. I can already post "before" and "during" photos, as I have made a significant impact all over the room already.

[morningglory]

Thank you, Sunshine! I look forward to reading your TOSSING reports!

[Hurricane]

Once again ladies, you're doing an incredible job tossing and clearing and making your houses a home! I'm cheering you on in everything you do, and admiring your progress.

Glory, you know you're really getting somewhere when all you want to do is toss, and you have to force yourself to take a break and do other things. Your motivation is impressive and will carry you far!

Congrats to everyone tossing books! I think I let go of about 100 books total when I cleaned out my closet a month ago....I kept only 4 that I like to read over and over. Otherwise I came to the realization that I really like to read NEW things 99% of the time, so why keep the old stuff? I also gave myself amnesty and just tossed the books in the garbage....books are so heavy, and it's difficult to lug them to the donation center. Yea for making our homes:

Light
Open
Airy
Free
Clean
Spacious

[morningglory]

Thank you, Hurricane! I hope your hands let up on you soon.

The motivation thing is serious business with me, because my normal mode is not being willing to even state something in a positive, committed way, for fear I will not actually be able to follow through, so not wanting to make a false promise. I am more likely to say "I plan to," or "I will try to", or even "I will try to plan to".

It's very different for me to actually say "I WILL" get something done. So it is a strange feeling for me to see myself type out my intentions in such strong language. It has to do with overcoming fear and taking risks.

Like I said in an earlier post, keeping things is the "safe" choice. It is inaction. But making decisions about what to get rid of is taking a risk and taking responsibility for the outcome. That's often difficult for me. In many situations, I tend to want to be cautious and keep away from responsibility.

I haven't trusted myself because there have been times in the past when I set out to do things and it ended in disaster! Getting over my perfectionism is going to have to involve learning to live with the fact that sometimes when you take risks things don't work out the way you had hoped, and you just need to learn from it and move on, rather than shut down and stay put.

Maybe we can rearrange those words to form an acronym. SCLOAF? FLOCAS?

[Sunshine]

May 17, 2012 8:58:58 GMT -5 morningglory said:

I did not remain in paralysis, letting the clock continue to tick while I stewed.

Great stuff, MorningGlory!

Yes, get the information you need to make a decision you're comfortable with (the warranty would trouble me too). But the main thing is that you've kept moving forward, and you're not stuck

[cando]

Morning Glory -- Once again, so impressed with all you've done! I know this sounds bad, but I would get another quote... assuming there are lots of fence companies where you are. The one that is 3 weeks out scheduling... just leaves me a bit uncomfortable. If they are great when they come out & can assure you and schedule an exact date... that sounds good. Can you call one more to come out either before Shabbos tomorrow or on Monday, too? I know it seems strange to get so many quotes, but there is an uncomfortableness (? is that a word?) with the quotes you already described. I like the least expensive quote but am bothered about you having to get permits, etc. The others seem to pricey for you, so... 2 more quotes seem reasonable to me.

Puppybox -- I just realized before I left town last week that I have too many unread books hanging around. I am not wanting to get rid of them, though... until I've read them or at least looked at them more closely. This is an issue for me, obviously. And, I took 1 book with me out of town and finished it (will give that one away, btw, and I already logged it in the document that I am using for this -- which has helped immensely in releasing books). Unfortunately, I did not have another book with me... so uh oh.... bought another book!

I'm trying to decide what to do next (besides get caught up on stuff since being out of town)... my bedroom or other projects. Hmmmm.
(In addition to some other important projects that I need to do like get a job and put together an appeal with insurance company for some coverage on DD's medical expenses):
1)going thru & getting rid of old purses.
2)going thru old tax boxes & shredding & tossing papers
3)my bedroom
4)major filing/bookkeeping project... (can't deal with a bunch of papers until bookkeeping stuff is resolved & then can either file or get toss many papers).

I have been away helping my DD move to her first apartment. Tons of work and am exhausted. Lots of shopping for her, too. Both her watch & her shoes broke while I was there... so had to shop for those things too... and of course, cleaning and groceries.

Bought her: groceries, shoes, watch, bed, floor lamp, microwave, desk chair, desk, table & chairs, vacuum, duster, cleaners, broom, swiffer, rolling laundry hamper, 1 book case, plunger, trash cans & bags, a tool kit, shelf paper, carton cutter, exacto knife, etc.

I personally took at least 5 bags of trash to the dumpster. Thoroughly cleaned her shower & toilet. Met with maintenance people, etc.

Unluckily, I had to do just about everything myself as she started a full-time Internship and was simply exhausted after work. I wish that I could have done more...

So, my plan for today:
1)unpack
2)go to Vet's office for heart worm preventative
3)at least one load of laundry
4)go thru incoming papers/mail from the last week
5)15 minutes on an old purse
6)15 minutes shredding & on a tax box

CD