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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
I probably do in some way. Don't really know why. Maybe it is because this is the first time in YEARS that I have actually been able to get at my stuff and see what is what. You know like what do I need to keep and what can I donate or what has to be plain chucked because it useless to me or anyone else.

My other problem is is this is a small one bedroom apartment and there is only so much room for my stuff. And so some of it comes down to rearranging things again to make the space more usable for me.

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Yeah... My problem is that I keep taking stuff in and I've got way too much space to put other people's junk so I don't have to make decisions... Until I start noticing that my space doesn't belong to me anymore and it belongs to the stuff. By then, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. We're not exactly there yet, but I can feel it coming on if I don't start going through things and throwing most of it out.

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I've been looking at something to put my nails and stuff in to. I've got my dad's old nail can and his hammer sitting on top of the fridge but in a side thing with shelves, on the floor is some nails and other stuff I have bought over the years for various reasons. But I can't really get at them because something else is in the way.

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You just said the problem right there...

You can't get at something because something else is in the way.

That's how it is in my garage right now. I had that thing perfectly organized a few years back with a few dozen modular shelving units I built from discarded lumber. I knew where everything was and never had to move anything to get to what I wanted. But if you don't put stuff back where it belongs or clean up after a project AND you're taking in other people's crap, the space fills up and becomes pretty unusable, fast.

That's also how it is in my livingroom. But that's for different reasons like I said yesterday. I just need to remove a bunch of stuff that is useful and worth keeping to a different room where it's out of the way and I can get to it on the rare occasions that I need it. Then I can use that space for things I do in there every day or at least much more frequently, and I can keep the clutter out of sight when I'm not working on it.

The other major thing that comes out of this after you get your space working for you and you keep up with it is that you never lose anything anymore. No more going through the entire house and garage to look for a tool until hours pass and you've checked inside your refrigerator 3 times.

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I hear you on the laziness. I've got my files in a plastic thing and it is right in the middle of the living room and I have to walk around it to get at my Victrola on Sunday. Been meaning to do something with those for a long while.

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That's funny you mention that. One of the things I have in my curio cabinet is a plastic tote with the most important paperwork that I've got. Things like my birth certificate and my High School diploma. Stuff I've had to use in the past for things like applying for jobs and what not.

But that's just a great example of what I mean here. I've had that curio cabinet there for probably 4 years now. I know I've been in that box at least one time, but right now I can't look back and visualize the 2nd time I was in it in 4 years. I do remember the one time that I did go through it that I took time to go through everything in there and decided some of it could be thrown away. But it's a big plastic tote taking up some prime real estate when it could be put in a closet upstairs where it's not taking up room that would work much better for me if I had it doing something else.

If you absolutely have to bury something, make it important things that you rarely need to get to.

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Like my kitchen table. It has become a place to throw my keys on some times. Mail till I read it, change. Note books, a mah jong game someone gave me. Bottles of pop.

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I know EXACTLY what you're talking about, Brenda. I have a nice entryway table that I restored under a really great wall mirror by my front door, and I filled that space with so much small crap that is rarely ever used that I started putting stuff on the shelves and above the curio cabinet. Just more little things that "I'll eventually" get to...

I really have to clear it all out...

It doesn't look terrible because it's not out of control and on the floors and all over the house... and I can still make it look like organized chaos, but that's all in the room everyone first sees when they come into the house. It's just dumb.

I have to take some time this week to sort through all of it and find a better home for most of it.

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I've got stuff in a hall way too that can make it awkward but then it isn't straight. It is sort of Z shape.

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Yeah... see. That's what I mean. I understand you have a small space... I also know that you're really sentimental too. I really think that for your own sake you need to make your mind up to spend some time and really think about what you need to keep and what you need to let go.

I have a huge house and I did what you're talking about. Before my initial dehoard years ago, all of my closets were as full as I could get them. The attic was full of crap. The 2.5 car garage was so full I could barely open my door when I pulled my car inside, and I had to make sure that I parked far enough away from the junk that I could get out. Every room had way too much furniture, and then there was just more junk on top of them and between them. Everything was a hazard.

But I was still young and even though I was a drunk I was still otherwise healthy and didn't have much problems getting around even when I was a lazy drunk POS. Things have changed since then though, and I know that they just get harder as the years go by. I can't let my house become a hazard like that again.

I worry about you when you say that you have stuff in the hallway that can be difficult to manage when I know you already have mobility issues. I just think that you could make one wrong pivot around something one night and pull something. It's just a possible future accident that doesn't need to happen.

I hope you take what I said without thinking I'm putting judgement on you for it. I totally sympathize with you since I've been there myself and it's always a struggle.

But I think if you really set your mind to do it for yourself and your own well being, you can find some things you've got tucked away that you can say goodbye to to make enough room for other memories along with all the useful and imortant things without making your movement around your home an eventual trap.


I'm going to do a little work on it tomorrow if I don't do any tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe we can motivate each other to do a little long-neglected cleanup and reorganization.

Get our minds right.

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Yeah, people say move that dresser and it becomes where.

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I'll bet there's a good place for it somewhere if you use your imagination. That's what I'm trying to do right now. I've been so comfortable with my own status quo here that it's hard to imagine re-arranging everything because I'm so used to everything being exactly where it is.

But the rational part of my brain knows that most of it just doesn't work, and what I've done is made a lot of minor things more work than they need to be and take more time than they need to take. It's all little things, but over the years it all adds up.


One of the things I have to do is get myself some nicer storage solutions. Years ago I bought some cheap fabric box things from the dollar store and although they looked real nice when they were new, a few years of filling a few of them up with more than I should have and otherwise beating on them like a man does, they don't look that great anymore. And most of them are filled with stuff that just doesn't need to be right there.

And then I think about my kitchen storage. I've got a bunch of good quality and useful things in those cabinets, but I only regularly use 10% of the stuff. Most of what I use is on the surface and easy to get to. Most of what's in the cabinets is either bulk purchases that can mostly be stored in a different place until they're needed, or really nice kitchenware that I know that I'll never use in the future if I haven't used it by now.

Why do I keep all of that?

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I know. I know. The frame is in my bedroom sitting on top of something else. Everytime I look at it, I think I should really do that and maybe clear the papers off the table too.

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Maybe you should work on the frame first.

Get yourself in that right mindset with a small project that you've been meaning to get to for a while.

Maybe you can hang that up and have a piece on that wall that means something to you and it could even motivate you to do other things that you've been putting off.



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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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