back to the journey

After finishing the main part of my mother's apartment, I decided to take a few days as "off" as I can, thinking I'd catch up on paperwork, do some reading in the Paul book, rekindle the fire of my first days in decluttering. Alas, none of that really happened. I did try to relax a bit, though my procrastination about doing the bills and paperwork was always there in the background, making me feel a bit guilty. Very familiar pattern. I decided to just observe it, and try to learn more about it, since I wasn't able to overcome the procrastination enough to actually do the bills and paperwork! I'm not sure what I learned except that I hate it when that happens.....

Today, I felt all the to-do's I'd thought I'd do as overwhelming. So I decided not to think about it and make a hat. I've made a lot of hats this week. And I'm very excited about these hats as they are very close to the visions I have of the sort of work I most like to create. You might think this belongs more on my fiber arts blog, and that's where I'll post the pictures in a day or two, but I wanted to write about this here as I really think that the decluttering I've accomplished so far is a major reason why I'm experiencing this creative leap towards my artistic vision. Even the the little bit I've done has been tremendously freeing for me in so many ways.

And that is, of course, my purpose in embarking on this journey.

But there's more....I made a hat, yes, but I pushed myself a little to get back to the journey and accomplished this today:

Remember this kitchen shelf?


















Now it looks like this.
Not particularly pretty,
but it's functional and organized,
dried fruit and nuts far less
than 5 years old
and shelves for art
supplies near where I
work and need them!
And best of all, some
empty space - the bane of
decluttering when you're in
as big a mess as I am is that
there is no place to put
anything when you do get around
to trying to put things in
appropriate places.





And remember my shipping table?


Well now it looks like this:

Of course, I don't have any book orders right now, but
I'm ready for 'em!



And now, I'd like to show you why I don't have anything to ship -- the total disaster area that is my main work area and the reason why I haven't catalogued, uploaded, created auctions, etc. since the bookshop closed last September. I'm not saying I'm ready to tackle this next, but I know I've got to deal with this very soon.

I don't think this picture really captures the extent of the disorder! It is the one area that really does look a bit like those poor packrat/hoarders homes. You can hardly get to the computer there, there's stuff on the computer chair, and look, my scale is just sitting on top of the scanner...I had to move a bunch of stuff because we had a leaky pipe and I've never put anything back. That was at least 4 weeks ago....

Finally, to end this long entry, I want to publicly thank my canister vacuum. I love canister vacuums. I hate uprights. There is nothing like a canister vacuum for ease of dealing with attachments, getting into the small spots and corners. And they follow you around like a loyal dog, or R2D2, and best of all, help suck you out of a mess and really help to make that decluttered area look so much better!





Thank you, Mighty Mite!!!