Eating the Elephant

As the days creep closer to September 4th, I'm a bit panicked about how much junk, erm, personal possessions, I still need to get rid of. I can't believe how huge this house is, nor how naïve I was about how much I'd already downsized! After the horde left on Saturday, I was left feeling pretty depressed and overwhelmed. I spent Sunday in a bit of a funk as my overworked brain tried to figure out how to deal with what's left.

My original thought had, of course, been a garage sale, but I've been convinced that this won't be worth my while (mainly because of the neighbourhood I live in). So, I've mulled things over and realised that getting money isn't as important as feeling as if my things are going to people who need and want them, rather than just ending up in the trash heap.

I started by contacting someone who had picked up a ton of books from me in the spring. She's working on a database project involving books and knows a lot of readers. She had been thrilled to receive the mountain I gave her then and enthusiastically accepted to pick up this week what I have left. That helped me find the second wind I needed to tear through the house and box up the books I have left. I was surprised to discover that I still had a visceral attachment to a lot of them, then chided myself. Those books are ones I've read a million times over twenty years or so. It's time for me to read new things!

I've advertised the last bit of furniture on Craigslist and am hoping to get money for my computer armoire and craft hutch. I put two bedside lamps on there and was shocked when someone snapped them up almost immediately. Same thing for a filing cabinet, which I gave to a grateful student.

Extra linens that are still in good condition will go to a Saint-Vincent-de-Paul drop off box. Like batches of things, like empty DVD cases and kitchen supplies, are offered on the local Freecycle-type group.

As for the things that are coming with me, I found a new use for my Ikea Kasset boxes as they will be the perfect fit for the overhead cabinets in Miranda. So, I've got a row of them spread out in the living room and they're all divided into categories--hardware, electronics, bathroom, office supplies, etc.. As I move through the house and gather up odds and ends, I deposit them in the appropriate box. Once that box is full, I start another. Since I can't just dump things pêle-mêle into a box now to dump back into a drawer at the other end, because I won't have much furniture, this method is working out brilliantly.

In just two hours this evening I could see definite progress, so I'm actually starting to feel that I might have this buttoned up on time.

12 sleeps left till I move in and 17 sleeps left till I leave!

Wardrobe Woes

Miranda's wardrobe is surprisingly useless for a full-timer. Blame it on the sliding doors. If I had doors that opened outwards, I could have done something like Andy Baird did in his rigs, that is put in plastic drawers to fill in the space. Instead, I have to contend with doors that eat up a surprising amount of interior space. I will put in at least one drawer unit, but it will have to be quite skinny.

When retirees move into a full-timing rig, they can usually downsize their clothing since they know they'll be doing mostly casual things in mostly warm climates. I don't have that luxury. I'm still going to go through four seasons and I have no idea what sort of scenarios I'm going to encounter. It therefore doesn't make sense to get rid of anything I've worn in the last year except for pieces that are definitely too big for me now.

I divided my wardrobe into three: winter, summer, and inbetween. Since I'm leaving at the beginning of September, I can expect to wear summer clothes for at least that month, but will want ready access to the inbetween items, which include longer-sleeved tops and heavier skirts. The distinctly winter items--corduroy skirts, heavy knit tops, coats, boots, hats, etc. went into two rubber totes that fit nicely in the basement. I'll need to figure out how to squeeze the summer things into the wardrobe using the hanging and drawer space I have available to me. As for the inbetween stuff, I want it at the ready for the first chilly morning.

So, I just spent a half hour staring at both my closets (yes, both, I'm in suuuch trouble, LOL!) and realised that I hadn't figured out yet where I'm putting my suitcases. Yes, I'm taking my suitcases with me since I plan on doing one round trip air flight per year to Montreal to visit my family.

The three suitcases nestle in each other, so there's only the big one to worry about, size-wise, and it should fit on the wardrobe's shelf if I measure things correctly. I put the smaller suitcase in it and stuffed it with rolled up long-sleeved inbetween tops:



I then closed up the small suitcase and laid on top the dressier clothes I own that would be suitable for interviews or office jobs. They'll be out of the way, but stay reasonably unwrinkled.



I finished by stuffing the suitcase with socks and tights.

I will most definitely need to hang some things, so I suspect I'll end up using up as much of the wardrobe for drawers as I can, and then put up hooks in the entrance and study for hanging the coats and shawls I'm using at the time. I'll hang the other coats in the wardrobe in the dead space between the drawers where the doors intersect. I'll need to remove the drawer units to get at the coats, so that will be fine for rotating storage.

Thoughts No Longer Silly

I wrote the following post on March 1st of this year, but felt the thoughts were too brazen, too self-assured, too unwavering in their conviction. I didn't want anyone to read those words and look back at them four months down the road and laugh at me for failing, yet again, to live up to the big things I want for my life. I've bolded the two sentences I wrote that night which made me realise that I really, really, really should not post this entry. While my current plans don't completely concord with my March 1st musings, I'd say that where I'm heading is a refinement of the thoughts running through my head then, not a tangent.

So...

I don't know how many times in my life I've dreamt of some external force sweeping through my house and divesting me of all my worldly possessions. I dreamt of mobility, but put too much attention on things. I resented my ball and chain, but felt I couldn't live without it.

Yet, through all my dreaming of a house and how I would decorate and furnish it, there lay a stronger dream within me. This dream belonged to the 'real' me, the one who doesn't try to conform, who leads a fantasy life of her own designing, who knows that who she is is perfectly okay even if the rest of the world rolls her eyes at her.

This real me screamed at me yesterday. She made me take a good hard look at how I've lived and the patterns I always fall back into. She firmly advised me that I'll fall back into them in Manitoba. Once I started to listen to her, her screaming became the voice of reason.

I'm freaked out about my move to Manitoba. It's so overwhelming to think about packing and then figuring out how to get all my stuff from here to there and then tying myself down to a rental or worse buying a house right away. There's no doubt I'm moving there, none in the least, but all the scenarios I crunched brought more hassle and expense.

Then, everything came together. I posted to a blog about a different matter and that person posted a comment here. She led me to a forum where I began to ask questions and read. I Googled, I mused, I dreamt, I faced reality, and then I began to make plans. Last night, I took a slow walk through my house and said goodbye to everything. There is nothing in it worth my freedom, worth my peace of mind, worth my dream of seeing this continent.

So, I am in the process of researching motorhomes. As it turns out, there is an RV show in town and I will be spending the day there tomorrow researching possible models. What I am about to undertake, RVing in Manitoba in winter isn't going to seem like a sensible option, but I believe in my heart of hearts that it is the right thing for me. I have no idea how easy it will be to find a place to spend the winter as parks seem to be closed October to April, but I will find a way.

I want to rent a motorhome this summer to try life in one and to see how they handle. At summer's end, I will make my purchase and place in it only the few possessions worth taking to my new life. Then, without any hassle, without having to spend more money flying back and forth to Manitoba to find a place to live, I will, at the appointed hour, hitch my car to my home, embark with my cats, and head west. I will have all of October to find a job, if I haven't already done, so and a home for the six months following. I will be able to take just about any job anywhere.

So, that's where my journey of decluttering and purging which began almost five years ago has taken me. I cannot imagine my future other than in the context of my current life so I will not be making plans at this point. I will focus on meeting with my financial adviser to reevaluate my five year plan, picking the right RV, job hunting, and thinking about every purchase I make since I will no longer be hauling it from Quebec to Manitoba, but hauling it for the rest of my life. At this point, I am envisioning purchasing the motorhome in the very late summer or very early fall to give myself time to outfit it and then hold the rummage sale of all rummage sales.

Eureka!

Andy Baird is a full-time RVer with a lifestyle that really compares to mine. It was by perusing his site that I became convinced that a class C with rear twin beds is the best layout for me. He's also provided me with great advice on shopping for a class C and how to safely travel with an iMac. Through his site, I could see that he has a lot of really good ideas on how to get organized in a small space. So, when I saw that he offers a CD/download called Eureka! filled with his best RVing tips, I didn't hesitate to purchase it. I wasn't disappointed.

Eureka! is a treasure trove of RVing hints that is basically a full compendium of what this man has found to make RVing life more practical, pleasant, and safe. I've referred to it several times a day since purchase as I build up my 'to buy' list. Like me, Andy doesn't like 'idiot lights' (ie. gauges that tell you something is wrong before you can do anything about it) and has tips for adding information gauges for your engine, fridge, and solar panels, as well as how to upgrade the standard RV tank gauges. Other great advice includes an alternate solution to a doorbell which will make RVing safer, plans for adding many extra linear feet of storage space, and an explanation of electricity in such plain English that I actually understand now what volts, amps, and watts are!

No, this has not been a paid advertisement for Eureka! but Andy has been so much help that I felt he deserved a shout out. Thanks, Andy!

Ritual Supplies

June 30th will mark the three year anniversary of my learning/accepting that I am a Witch and of my initiation to Wicca. It feels like a long time since that night and, yet, like no time has passed!

Friday was Litha, the summer solstice celebration, and I wound up casting a fantastic impromptu, tool-less, circle out in the woods. While tools are just that, optional aids to ritual, I found myself thinking that it would be nice to be able to grab supplies and go when I get the urge to have a ritual somewhere other than at home. Until then, I'd either have a tool-less ritual, or clumsily pack up a few things only to discover that I was missing something once I got to my destination.

I went through my drawers and pulled out my assortment of coloured candles, incense, oils, herbs, and various other supplies, then I gathered my tools. With an idea of how much space I needed, I headed of in search of a case, which I found in a hardware store, in the tool box section, appropriately enough:



While not that aesthetically pleasing, the case is able to hold all my supplies and a few of my tools--my athame is almost invisible on the left part of the inner lid, vials of herbs and oil fit in the little pockets, my wand has an absolutely perfect resting place, and the box that holds my tarot cards fits beside the matches. The lid insert is easily removable; behind it I've put my small Book of Shadows and my favourite tarot reference. Now, when I want to head out, I don't need to dismantle my alter. Instead, I can add the tools to this case and throw my robe, chalice, and required books into my cauldron.

Just call me addicted to containerizing. :-D

Organizing Bookmarks (of the Web Browser Variety)

I've found del.ici.ous to be a fantastic bookmark organizing tool. I don't know all the ins and outs of it yet, but I can say that I like the following features:

1) having access to all my bookmarks from any computer;
2) being able to 'tag' my bookmarks to group them into categories;
3) being able to search within my bookmarks;
4) being able to add a comment to each bookmark. I mostly use this feature to leave myself a note as to why I bookmarked the site in the first place if it's not obvious.

There are two macros to download for your web browser. The most important of these reads 'post to del.icio.us'. While having a page open, you just hit this button and it takes you to the del.icio.us page where you can add tags and info. Then, you're taken right back to your page. The other macro is 'my del.icio.us' which is a shortcut to your bookmarks.

There are other, social, uses for del.icious.us, but I haven't explored them yet.

A Colourful Epiphany

For years now, I've oggled these boxes in the makeup department of various stores:



I don't know if it was my DVD project or what, but I suddenly had an epiphany as to what I could use this box for:



I don't like how most of the top cover is not utilized, so I plan to add more elastics.

I want to get more of these boxes (they have different styles) to compartmentalize and corral several other areas of my life.

Now that I know that I'm aiming for a fairly nomadic, don't want to be weighed down by furniture, type of lifestyle for quite a while, it makes sense to make all activities in my life portable. These compartmentalized cases are definitely more organized than just shoving everything into a shoebox!

Since a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

This is what I would have brought with me to Winnipeg (contents of boxes removed for dramatic effect... and does not include all the packaging I recycled):



What's going with me, including the binders in which I put the inserts:

Use What You Have, Redux

I came up with a much better idea for storing the DVD inserts: mylar sleeves in a binder. I will get some cheap matching binders at a dollar store, but I have hundreds of mylar sleeves doing nothing. Using these, I can see both the front and back of a sleeve so I don't have to pull it out to view it (ie. less damage) and it'll be easier to keep the collection alphabetized (ie. one insert per sleeve regardless of whether or not it has something on the reverse side).

I've put away and catalogued all my DVDs except my collection of Stargate and have about a quarter of the box left, so there's room to 'grow' in that box. I'll get a second box devoted to Stargate so I have them all in one place.

I can't believe how much space this convenient system is going to save me, much less how practical it is! Random surfing sure has paid off.

DVD Storage, Redux

After writing my last post, I began to think think obsess about my DVD storage. I knew almost from the start that my current system wouldn't work that well for me, but I thought I'd adapt. Truth? It hasn't worked at all. It just feels like so much work to open a door, find the right box, pull the box off the shelf, locate the correct DVD, put the box away, and then repeat to put the DVD away. I've ended up not watching many of my DVDs this year and the ones I have seen I haven't always bothered to put away. Hence why I thought the binder method might work better for me. I own the deluxe set of M*A*S*H, all the episodes in one package that opens like a book, and I love having to pull only one thing off a shelf to access the DVDs.

That said, I spent part of the afternoon researching DVD storage in binders and I came to the conclusion that it's not a good long term solution because of potential warping of the disks. On a forum, someone posted an image of another idea and I went BINGO! I'd finally found what would work for me. A quick trip to Walmart later and I was home with this:



This is a hard-sided case that's about the same size as an Ikea box that holds 20 or so DVDS... but which holds 200 disks.

These cases are available in larger denominations, like 500, that were appealing, but I decided that several smaller cases would be easier to move and store. I'll need another couple of the cases, but decided to start small.

Throwing out all the packaging gives me a bit of the willies, so I'm considering saving the DVD covers in a binder. It'll still be less to move than my current setup. Of course, I have to get over my lack of desire to recycle the 'sleeves' of box sets. Geeze, it's just paper.

Several hours later...

I figured the best way to get over my willies was to dive in, and I did. I put seven Ikea boxes worth of DVDs into the case... and I still have room for about 100 titles! I've put away all my movies and the complete series of 'MacGyver.' It'll be so much easier now to pull out my favourite episodes.

I've decided that I do want to keep the DVD covers for reference purposes and figure that sticky photo album pages are the way to go. I still think it'll amount to a lot less 'stuff' to move... but I am a bit disturbed by how much I've spent in the last year on organizing systems for DVDs. This had better be it!

In order to find my only loosely alphabetized disks, I've entered information on each one into a DVD organizing application with a reference as to which case and sleeve I can find a particular movie or episode.

Filing, Redux

Perhaps it's the historian in me, but I've always had a hard time getting rid of paper. For years, I moved dozens of boxes of paper, some organized, some not, from one home to another. Eventually, I got the 'important' stuff into a two drawer filing cabinet, then, when I got room for one, I acquired an additional four drawer cabinet. Finally, for the first time in over five years, I went through my dozens of boxes and organized them.

Time passed and I began my purging journey and I started to go through all that paper that had once seemed so vitally important. Dozens of boxes became six and then three; two stored in a filing cabinet, one consisting of 'archives.'.

Today, I took the final plunge. Could I get my files down to one box? Could I give up my filing cabinet?

At Wal-mart on Friday, they happened to have the RubberMaid file totes on sale for a good discount. I picked one up.

This morning, I migrated my files from the filing cabinet to the box. Needless to say, I had way too many for the space. I was down to the crunch; what was I keeping just because I had room for it? The first obvious answer was tax records. Did I really want to die like my dad, having dragged forty years worth of tax records (no joke) through dozens of moves? Erm, no. So, I counted back seven years (not counting 2008) and shredded my 2000 and past records. I also shredded all my pay slips for the current years. Then, I went through my instruction manual/warranty folders and got rid of the paperwork for things I don't have any more and/or for which warranties have expired. I filled my shredder bucket twice today.

I'm not quite done yet as I still have some files to create, but I'm calling this project a success.



The box is full, you say? Nope, there's still a full quarter of a box left!

The next project that I am contemplating is moving my DVDs to a binder system. I'm not sure I'll want to invest in that at this time. Right now, they're well organized in the Ikea boxes, so the binder project will probably wait until I have a better idea of how much/little space I'll have in my RV.

Moving Mountains

Mountains of books, that is.

I'm so weary of it.

At least, after so many years of moving the same books, I've finally a) gotten a good grasp of what's worth keeping; b) lost any sentimentality in regards to keeping a book I enjoyed, but will never read again; and c) accepted that a book I've told myself I'll read 'someday' will obviously not get read.

I got rid of four more bags (big ones) of books today.

My library is growing sparse, but very special, holding mostly books that I have read over and over again, tomes I have given myself permission to mark up and mutilate by breaking the spine or bending corners. This serves to remind me that the value of a book is in the words within it, not its physical condition.

The more books that leave my house, the more books I feel comfortable bringing in to replace them, perhaps one really special book for every twenty that goes out. If a book does not inspire me to mark it up as I read, then I know I won't be referring to it again, so out it goes. It's nice to email a friend to offer her a book you enjoyed and which you're certain she'll enjoy (and even better to learn that it was on her reading list).

I used to be a Reader. I don't consider myself to be one any more since I only read in fits and spurts. This week I read three books, and started two others, but I can go for weeks without reading anything other than reference tomes on Wicca or ancient Egypt. The more I declutter my library, however, letting go of books that no longer reflect who I am, the more I want to read again, and voraciously so. No longer encumbered by the weight of books belonging to an old life, I feel free to devour piles of tomes that will open new horizons.

This past year, my focus was very heavily on my religious studies, but I've given myself permission to move on to other topics. A few days ago, I was reading a frothy novel by Sophie Kinsella while today I am deep into a post-apocalyptic novel (more about that one to come). Yesterday, I read the memoir of an American in Afghanistan. I am beginning to rediscover the me who was a true Reader.

I've decided that I will be limiting myself to five boxes (of the printer paper variety) of books on this move. It's a frighteningly small number and I will not consider myself an abject failure at purging if I go over this number. But I will listen to that little voice in my head reminding me that soon I will need to fit my library on a bus. The massive dictionaries I no longer consult thanks to good online reference sources will need to go next. That will lighten the load of the move considerably!

Much as I love the idea of acquiring technology like the Amazon Kindle, there is something to be said for the weight of a book in your hand. I love the different textures of paper, but prefer heavy scratchy pages. There is also that heady smell of ink mixed with dust that never ceases to remind me that I am about to embark on an adventure. Marking a striking passage with a pen and/or highlighter is another thing that cannot be done quite so dramatically with pixels. Those messy little lines and symbols tell me that I have been possessed by the material, that I have truly grasped it. Writing in books used to horrify me, but now I can't imagine not doing it. They are my proof that I read the book and that what the author had to say mattered to me.

Gift On My Organizing Site

I'm offering a free password organizing template on my site organizing-ideas.com.

Please visit the page for instructions on how to get this file.

Sunday Confessionals

The following would have been overheard at my house this weekend:

1) *mutter, mutter, rummage, mutter, rummage, rummage, mutter* How can I call myself organized when I'm always looking for these darn pants! (The (snow) pants in question were exactly where I thought they were supposed to be, but I missed them the first three times I looked there!)

2) Oh. That brown stuff was dirt?! (I wipe down my sink every day with cleanser and it's always had a sheen of brown around the drain. Today, I decided to scrub with Comet... and the brown sheen lifted. I've ascertained that it's from coffee... and I'm completely grossed out and embarrassed.

Workspace

Woohoo, I finally organized my computer armoire!

I will not show any before pictures, but I did leave some dust. :-)

My computer armoire is my favourite spot in the house. I researched armoires for months before settling on this one. It's almost perfect. The one I wanted had more cubbies and a built-in filing cabinet, but it was also twice as big and ten times as expensive. This armoire fits perfectly in the space reserved for it and it has the exact layout I was looking for.

The upper portion:



I needed an armoire that had a space that was wide and high enough to accommodate a 24" iMac and allow me to swing it around easily to access the CD slot on the side. I also needed a keyboard tray that would go far enough back for me to be able to sit at a reasonable distance from the monitor. Obviously, this armoire fits the criteria and even has a bonus feature in the extra level between the desktop and the keyboard tray. Since I watch DVDs on my computer and live alone, I frequently eat at my computer. I keep a placemat on that extra level and slide the keyboard tray under when I eat, keeping things neat.



The lower portion:

This is what took me so long to organize. It's obviously configured for a computer setup where you have a tower. In the tower section, I put the files I use almost daily. My filing cabinet is upstairs and I noticed that papers weren't making it up there and ended up being scattered in two or three places. Above it is paper for the printer (which sits on top of the armoire).

The bottom right has wooden unit with drawers which holds all 'office' paraphernalia, including pens, pencils, stapler, rulers, etc. Behind it is my modem.

Above the cubbies is my powerbar and loose change collector.

Organizing DVDS... and a Contest

DVD storage has been a bit of a conundrum for me. VHS tapes were just as bad. I like having them out on a shelf where I can see my library at a glance, as I do with books. However, too many people see a library of DVDs as an invitation to abscond with some. I'll admit it: I don't like to lend my stuff. Okay, there are some people with whom I have exchanges all the time and that's great (I'm a notorious borrower), but there are others who return my items in poorer shape than when they borrowed them, and see nothing wrong with this. What can I say, I don't appreciate tears in the DVD covers or huge scratches across the disc.

All that to say that I've come up with a system that I don't adore, but which works for my current space. I'd actually call it perfect for this space:



All my DVDs are arranged in Ikea Kasset boxes by alphabetical order. I don't separate tv shows from movies or anything like that. Just straight up alphabetical order by title. This is just one unit containing boxes. I have three others. :-) The units have doors that close so my collection is perfectly hidden, but easily accessible.

Where's the contest part of this post, you ask?



I have one unopened package containing two Kassett boxes to give away! I will ship anywhere.

Please leave a comment with some contact info.

The draw will take place on February 28, 2008, my blog's first anniversary!

Anyone who blogs about this contest will get an extra entry!

Sometimes, Settle for 'Done'

What's a bird to do when her whole house (minus the dungeon, which she's avoiding) is neat and organized? How about doing little projects she's put off for years because there were more pressing things to do?

Project number one was to take a huge box of pictures spanning five decades and to sort them in relative chronological order into an album with descriptions. This wasn't a huge project; there were fewer than 300 pictures to sort, but pictures haven't been a huge priority to me until recently. Now that I have a pretty album to pull out for guests, I'm tempted to get a few of my digital pictures printed!

Project number two was one that I have put off for ten years. It was to create a scrapbook of sorts that would hold all the receipts, tickets, and other paper related to the various trips I have taken. It took me about a half hour to sort everything and then insert it into a nice photo album with sticky pages. Yeah, it's not ultra pretty, but it's organized and my mementos are no longer stuck in a box at the back of a closet. I can't believe I've put that off for ten years and am glad to have settled for 'done.'

Laundry and Cooking

I finally decided to tackle the laundry area today. It needed tidying up more than decluttering and organizing:



I put away the clean laundry and used the three plastic drawers to store overflow linens and rags.



Not much of a shocking transformation, but that's all I needed.

Moving on...

My food fatigue phase has led me to reexamine the way I cooked ten years ago and compare it to today. Yeesh. I pulled out all the cookbooks that used to be opened almost daily, selected a few recipes, did a run at the health food store for items that stopped being staples when I stopped being able to afford them, and promised myself to make all the recipes this week.

First on the list are 'silver dollar pancakes' from Burgers 'n Fries 'n Cinnamon Buns. I can't believe I haven't opened this book in recent memory as it offers vegan alternatives to a bunch of foods I've stopped eating since I've had to cut back on dairy and eggs (which I'm trying to eliminate altogether). The recipes I've tried are all fantastic, and it's in this book that I first got the idea to make oven fries as well as 'sausage' from red kidney beans.

The pancakes were awesome!!! I couldn't believe it. The vanilla really gives them oomph. I did find them a bit blah at the beginning and needing syrup, so I added some raisins. This way, they are good as is. The recipe makes a big batch, so I'll freeze the individual portions for a weekday treat.

The Road to Organized

August of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of moving into my first home. It's taken a decade, but I think I've finally figured out what organized means to me, how to keep my house looking the way I want it to, why previous homes didn't work, and what my 'dream home' looks like. Let's reminisce, shall we?

Home #1: bachelor in an urban neighbourhood, August 1998 to July 2000

I loved this place the time I was in it although I did crave a larger home. Rental prices in its city were higher than in the city I had left so I had to give up my dream of having a one bedroom as a first home. I looked at about ten bachelors and picked the best one for its price. It had an awesome layout: ten foot ceilings, no windows overlooking the street, and clearly designated spaces. Sure, the carpet was bright red (think Mountie coats), the walls in the living space were dark wood paneling, the walls in the bathroom and kitchen were tiled in black, and the bathroom was literally a black tunnel with just a half tub at the end, but compared to some of the boxes I'd seen, this place had potential. I liked that there was an entrance area, so guests wouldn't see the whole place the second they stepped in the door. The kitchen had a bit of storage and there were two closets. I only brought as much stuff from my mother's house as would fit and left the rest in storage there. My furniture was a mishmash of bookcases my mother had made, a lawn chair for watching tv, a slab of melamine with legs for a table, etc. There wasn't a lot of space and I had no choice but to keep the apartment organized and neat.

My lifestyle there made it possible pursue homemaking endeavours. I was going to school full-time and working part-time, but I could walk everywhere (longest distance was 15 minutes to work), so I never lost any time in transit. I felt that I had time. The only thing I loathed was going to the laundromat and then spending a few days with a clothesline stretched across the apartment! I ate out a bit, but going home between classes was just as easy and quick as going out for pizza, so I favoured quality restaurant eats.

This apartment was a place to eat, sleep, cook, and study and it was only once or twice that I gave a thought to redecoration or finding 'real' furniture.

Home #2: One bedroom on the outskirts of a small town, August 2000 to May 2002

I loved this place, too. It was incredible to have a room that was just for sleeping! I wasn't so nuts that the bathroom was an en suite, so guests had to go through my bedroom to get to the bathroom, but that was okay. The worst part was that I was in the basement and my only two windows looked out onto the street. I just about never drew my curtains there. The kitchen was in the middle of the apartment, with two entrances, and it remains my best and favourite kitchen to date, not that I ever took full advantage of it. The apartment was in a small building with a lot of older people who were available to catsit for the new addition to my family. I still didn't have a washing machine, but the laundry room was the next door down the hall, so I didn't have to schedule laundry anymore.

My lifestyle there didn't suit homemaking endeavours and the place was humiliatingly messy. I went to school and worked full-time, and had a forty-five minute walk to school each way, as well as a half-hour walk to work each way (the bus would have taken fifty-five and seventy-five minutes respectively each way...). My apartment was the last of my priorities and it showed. Still, I started to dream of real furniture and picking out curtains....

Place to live #3: One bedroom in the boonies with outdoor space, June 2002 to July 2003

I won't deign to call this place a home. It looked great when I visited it, but life there slowly degenerated into hell. The landlords were noisy and nosy, the place was so damp anything on the floor turned mouldy, and there was no storage. I call my time there my lost year. I just ate bad stuff since the kitchen wasn't conducive to cooking, watched too much tv (the place came with cable), and surfed the net. The place wasn't just messy, it was filthy. If I wasn't working, I was taking mini road trips. I tried to only sleep at that apartment, but that was difficult because of the landlords upstairs. I vowed to never again take an apartment in someone's basement. I did love having outdoor space for the first time.

This was the first place where I acquired real furniture--a couch, a kitchen table and chairs, a coffee table--and where I actually tried to design a home.

Home #4: Two bedroom mobile home in the boonies, July 2003 to April 2007

A glorious mistake!

I started as a tenant and finished as an owner. I should never have moved into that place, but I was desperate to leave the apartment and was blinded by the fact that I'd have a whole house to myself.

The place never came together and was always excessively messy since I was always in the middle of some renovation project or another. I'd fix and organize something and there'd be a disaster in that area and my work would be for naught. I was convinced by this point that I was a slob. My 100km daily commute wasn't helping and I was spending all my time at home fixing a crisis instead of enjoying being in the country. I decided that since I was planning to move to Manitoba soon, I'd be best off to move to a place that wouldn't need work so I could take some time to just breathe and regroup.

This was the house where I started purging. Until this move, I'd never had to pay for a move, relying on my mother and family for help. When I realised just how much stuff I'd been moving around for years without touching it, I concluded that my packrat ways desperately needed to end. I did good in this regard and had a lot less clutter to move to the next place.

Home #5: Semi-detached in a quietish urban neighbourhood, April 2007

Finally, everything came together--time to deal with my slovenly and disorganized ways, a home that was conducive to the endeavours, a desire to tackle the problem, and a prize for doing so. I moved into my current home in April and without even realising it, I've been eating the elephant one bite at a time. There's so much more I'd like to do with this place, but I'm renting and will be gone in under a year. I'm satisfied with it being clean and decluttered.

Now, I'm envisioning home #6. I figure that if I pack up an organized home, the next place will be easy to set up and I'll be able to focus on decorating. I hope. :-)

What I've learned about myself is that my home isn't my number one priority if I've got a lot going on in my life and doing long days, but if the home is generally neat I will take the few minutes to spot clean and tidy so problems don't accumulate. Also, a dishwasher is really, really, really important!!!

Nice to Be Organized

Yesterday, I found a taker for my television, VCR, DVD player, rabbit ears, and several boxes of VHS tapes, all which I swore on the weekend I'd dusted for the last time. The taker said he would come between 5:30 and 6PM. I got home at 4:30 and it took me about ten minutes to assemble in a box the instruction manuals for all the devices (my tv and vcr are ten years old and I still have the manuals); the remotes; and the cables; as well as grab a couple of empty boxes from the dungeon for them to put their selected tapes into. By 5, I was ready for the pickup and assembling a nice dinner that would take about an hour to bake so I could eat when they left. At 5:15, I sat down at the kitchen table to continue work on a jigsaw puzzle I started on Tuesday.

The man and his daughter showed up at 5:40 with grocery bags for the tapes and were wide-eyed with wonder at how organized I was. They had expected a mess of cables and bit parts and there I was with a nicely packed box (containing instruction manuals!!!) topped with the VCR while all the tapes were arranged neatly on the floor so that the daughter could at a glance identify what she wanted. They were gone in fifteen minutes, I put away the tapes they didn't want, then tucked into my yummy salmon and baked potato dinner.

Just a few months ago I would have been scrambling to locate the remotes, much less the instruction manuals!

It was hard to see some of the tapes go since most of their contents isn't available on DVD, but so be it.

The weight of my world continues to feel lighter. Nine months till the big move!