side effect decluttering - The Chair is A Chair!!

Well, I didn't plan this, but in working on the hearth o'clutter yesterday, I had to move other things and put things away and consolidate and one thing led to another and.....voila! Two more energy-sucking clutter spots have vanished!

The Chair

I have to say I feel sort of sad that it is now A Chair That Was A Closet That Was A Filing Cabinet and not nearly so interesting.

But it had to be done. Right???

Oh, I had brief moments of crazy-thinking that I could somehow preserve it, make it a real art installation (as someone mentioned to me). But where would it go? And most of the Stuff on it was Stuff I use regularly and need - my monthly bills files, important papers for my mother and son, my winter coat and scarves, my shoes for goodness' sake! - just parked there because all the appropriate and convenient places are respositories of Stuff I Don't Use and Need.

(Incidentally, that shawl on The Chair is the first fiber thing I ever actually completed and wore - crocheted, 1971 acrylic, made while awaiting the birth of my first child.)

Here's the second clutter spot that bit the dust yesterday:

The Ottoman
Magazines, magazines, magazines,
knitting, knitting, knitting,
books, books, books,notebooks
pens, bits of notes, bits of yarn and fuzz

(before) (d'uh)

et apres:

I need say no more about The Ottoman, except that it's really nice actually to put my feet up when I sit in My Big Fat Chair!

So...next on the decluttering agenda, finish the hearth o'clutter (half-time picture in the previous post below shows current state of the project) and catch up with paperwork, get it more organized. Now that won't be so visible a project to document in pictures.

I put all the paper stuff from The Chair into a file box, and right now it sits at the dining table where I am forced to work on paperwork until I can get a desk area cleared off somewhere else:I shall try very hard....no, I will keep the dining table neat and orderly and work to create (ASAP) a better, easy-t0-maintain system elsewhere for dealing with life's damnably necessary paperwork.

Finally - I'm gonna take care of this spot toute de suite,
since I'm unearthing all sorts of things I want to iron or do finishing work on - my pie wedge shawl, and the sweetest bluebird-embroidered cloth I got on eBay ages ago. It had been languishing, un-admired and un-enjoyed, at the bottom of the Chair-Closet...

It will probably be a couple of days before I post here again, as I've got to take care of that paperwork and I also want to work on some art.

I feel like I've made a great start on what I expect to be a project that will take me a year (!), though I have a secret goal of finishing this by my 55th birthday at the end of September. My first priority has been to make some space where I can actually relax and not feel all those pulsating waves of guilt that emanate from clutter-spots. And it feels very good to have done that!