calling in reinforcements

today my friend sam comes and we start at one end of the apartment and move towards the back. then we go out for cupcakes.

she's super tiday and organized and please please please let this get me on the right track because honestly? it's so messy i can't even begin to get rid of things. unless the house burned down

gone, gone, gone today

20 pound fancy pasta maker.

today

i got rid of two blouses. tomorrow, two overnight bags.

i've invited my mother for thanksgiving, which is good because i actually have a deadline. it has to be really clean here by thanksgiving.

how?

laziness

i've been reminded that i have not written in this blog in nearly a month.

every day i'm taking out shit i don't need: bags, a cake serving/traveling thingy, baskets. i need someone to come help me make boxes of crap to toss.

i'm blue.

bookshelf purging

i have an extra bookshelf in the bedroom and i'm trying to move everything on it into my office. i'm 50% there. i know i have the space, it's just a matter of DOING it. then figuring out where i should put the bookcase. save or toss? don't know

i used the kitchen timer

and made myself do ten full minutes. i also filled the dishwasher, watered plants, started packing a bag to go away for the weekend, and got rid of three skirts.

i'm not sure what to do next other than eat.

bruised knees

i look like a walked into a wall. wait! i rode into a cement wall on a wooden sleigh! well, at least the thing is out of the house.

i've started working on my tiny tiny tiny pantry cabinets. i opened the one that wouldn't cause the avalanche, and have done everything except vacuum the floor.

i'm not even sure where to begin next.

for the past year i have been missing two long pink tank tops. i would like to find them. and a really nice wacoal bra. where is this stuff?

the table is gone

as might be part of my kneecap.

no, i did not ask for help. so i started to move the upside down table down the steps and ended up tripping and riding the table like a sled only not so gracefully till it hit the wall, i went flying, and that was only one of the flights.

nothing about this was fun. however. it's on the street, someone will take it. it's gone. i never have to see it again. i believe i deserve ice cream.

a small, shitty vacuum

handheld. is leaving the house with me to stick in the trash. and a broken down box.

small steps

dust

in the middle of the clutter/excess stuff battle, there's also the cleanliness battle. truth is, i'm a pig. if you came to visit i'd clean and it would look tidy, but if you took a closer look you might want to leave

i talk about this a lot in therapy, it rarely changes.

today the tv people came to install a DVR, so i had to pull out furniture and see what was behind things. grossness, that was behind things. dist so thick and dirty i needed wet rags to clean it away. further proof that this needs to change. i need to find a way to stop living like this.

how in the hell

am i going to get the "table in the livingroom" down the 'fing three flights of stairs in my building? (no, the legs do not come off... )

fleeing to the flea

i spent yesterday as i spend most saturdays: sitting in the heat, under my tent, selling my wares at the local flea market.

there is nothing fun about this.

don't get me wrong, the other vendors are a scream and we spend the day... eating and making fun of customers. because frankly a whole lot of customers are insulting and rude. at this point i'm no longer of the school that the customer is always right. if you're at my table and you're asking nice questions and buying things--even a little difficult about buying things--that's cool. but when you insult me or my work? i'm no longer going to smile. in fact, i'm going to snap back.

so when i got home i was bone tired and was going to do little that was important. i was going to EAT and watch TV. which i did, but i also put together two giant bags for a clothing swap i'm hitting today (and i swear i cannot bring that many clothes back into the house!). and i cleaned off the "table in the living room" and plan to take the legs off later. and put it out for trash.

it's long since seen its time, was once a nice hardwood wide table from pottery barn. but a candle melted on it, it's been scratched, and i don't have the energy or the desire to make it new again.

i'm trying, i am. i also unloaded the dishwasher last night! huzzah!

26 things

i read somewhere--fly lady, perhaps?--that you can start by waking around and chucking 26 things a day. i just made a bag of 26 things and tossed it in the smelly trash i then bagged up.

i think i need to have a new year's eve party, to plan one, to show up what will be my very clean, very uncluttered home.

ps: i don't much like fly lady. she makes me nuts, actually. shine my sink? hilarious. put on shoes and makeup to clean my closet, because that's how i'd get dressed for work? no. when i hunker down to work i put up my hair, take off my shoes--if i'm even wearing any--and sit down on the floor at get to business.

what i forgot to mention

i'm a phenomenal slob. i discuss it every week in therapy and it humiliates me. my hope in this clutter-removal-palooza is that i get rid of so much stuff it will be easier to keep things in order.

i hope.

the table in the hallway

for almost exactly one year i have had a table blocking the back of the long hallway i have in my apartment--it's a floor through, so the table wouldn't let me get easily to the office.

i moved that table today, into the kitchen. it will become either a work table in the kitchen, a sidebar next to the dining table, a console table behind the sofa, or trash. i need to make sure i don't leave it in the kitchen for a year.

and so it begins...

more than a year ago i created this blog to help me deal with my clutter, of which i've got more than plenty.

by new year's eve i want one third of it gone either by chucking it, donating it, or selling it,

can i do it? i don't know. but i will try to begin.

for reference, i am a single NYC product designer with a cat and a whole lot of dust. it makes me embarrassed and not want friends to visit my home, ergo i'm not just down-sizing i'm cleaning.

i ask for help without judgement, kind words when i've accomplished things, encouragement when i'm paralyzed. welcome to my blog.