Stage my home for sale.

This was a stupid challenge.

I challenged myself to stage my home for sale or I would give away 50 books. But I can’t stage my home for sale unless I get rid of about 200 books.

So this goal didn’t really make any sense. What was I thinking?

Currently trying to decide whether the books go to Goodwill or the Library. My first instinct is to send them to someone in the mail, but this would mean spending money I don’t have and I need to stop doing that.

I just packed up 80+ books to give away anyway. Do I need to change this goal?

I have done nothing the first week for lack of supplies thanks to the 11-year sunspot cycle that made this year the year for blizzards. Couldn’t even order supplies online because they couldn’t be delivered.

Sigh.

We got snowed in so I couldn’t get supplies to finish the kitchen or bedroom. I might have to randomize what I’m painting.

WEEK 1 (1-10) Paint kitchen, alcove, pantry
WEEK 2 (11-17) Paint bedroom
WEEK 3 (18-24) Paint laundry room
WEEK 4 (25-31) Paint bathroom

February:

WEEK 5 (1-7) Paint storeroom
WEEK 6 (8-14) Paint studio
WEEK 7 (15-21) Paint grey room
WEEK 8 (22-28) Paint hallway

March:

WEEK 9 (1-7) Paint kitchen cabinets
WEEK 10 (8-14) Put in new flooring
WEEK 11 (15-21) Sheetrock upstairs bedroom
WEEK 12 (22-28)
WEEK 13 (29-4) Paint upstairs bedroom

April:

WEEK 14 (5-11) Paint porch
WEEK 15 (12-18) Paint siding
WEEK 16 (19-25)
WEEK 17 (26-2) Landscape

January:

WEEK 1 (1-10) Paint kitchen, alcove, pantry
WEEK 2 (11-17) Paint bedroom
WEEK 3 (18-24) Paint laundry room
WEEK 4 (25-31) Paint bathroom

February:

WEEK 5 (1-7) Paint storeroom
WEEK 6 (8-14) Paint studio
WEEK 7 (15-21) Paint grey room
WEEK 8 (22-28) Paint hallway

March:

WEEK 9 (1-7) Paint kitchen cabinets
WEEK 10 (8-14) Put in new flooring
WEEK 11 (15-21) Sheetrock upstairs bedroom
WEEK 12 (22-28) 
WEEK 13 (29-4) Paint upstairs bedroom

April:

WEEK 14 (5-11) Paint porch
WEEK 15 (12-18) Paint siding
WEEK 16 (19-25) 
WEEK 17 (26-2) Landscape

I measured the biggest of the cat toys and a drawer organizer I wasn’t using anymore and bought an end table with a lower shelf and a drawer.

Now all of the cat treat packages, canned food, catnip, leads, Frontline treatments, emergency supplies and mouse and ball toys that come in the multipacks are lined up neatly in the drawer, and the larger items are on the shelf below. I bought a cheap one because I suspect it will eventually get claw marks and need to be repainted.

Loki and Laz approve!

Just put 60+ DVDs on eVilbay. If they don’t sell, they go to swaptree.

I’ve decided to also start trading for things for my brother’s twins and dvds that my parent’s would like as well—to get more things out of my house. My Granddad was a conservationist so giving used DVDs and books as gifts isn’t “cheap” to our family. On the contrary, it results in less obligation for the recipient because they don’t have to feel funny about “regifting”.

On the decluttering front, the combination of staging and the icky feeling I get watching “Hoarders” and the copy of Walden on my coffee table is making it really easy to get rid of stuff, much easier than any organizing book or storage system I’ve looked into.

Compared to a lot of people I didn’t have much stuff to begin with, but I love the staged living room so much I want the rest of the house to have such clean lines.

Over the last year I’ve been pushing the Honey to cut our DVD collection down. Since we don’t get TV out here, we had tons of DVDs. At last count we had around 600, and we got more after that.

I sold a few hundred on eVilbay last January, but we still had two towers, so I took everything out and we each chose ten at a time we wanted to keep until we filled up one tower. Of the rest, all animal-related DVDs are being sold in my shop, and the others I’m putting on Swaptree and either trading for books and DVDs to review and put in my shop, or to upgrade my paperback classics to hardcover since hardcover and trade paperback books look more sophisticated on display, especially if they have no dustjackets. (I’m also trading for books I want to read, of course, and Kurosawa DVDs since they didn’t often carry them in Best Buy when we were looking for things to watch on nights off.)

The nightstand I repainted and moved to the livingroom is perfectly suited to DVDs and has three enclosed shelves, so of the DVDs left in the tower, I removed all the singles and sets we both view as essential in order of importance and stopped when I filled it up.

It contains:

1. The David Lynch and Alan Smithee versions of Dune, which are entertaining in the wrong way much of the time, but nonetheless capture the essence of the book.
2. The Fifth Element: not perfect and totally a Mary Sue film, but for some reason we watch this a lot.
3. Babylon 5: Still hoping Legions of Fire will make it to video form someday.
4. Twin Peaks
5. Cosmos
6. Profit
7. Space: Above and Beyond
8. Firefly and Serenity
9. Some Like it Hot and the Seven Year Itch
10. Das Boot
11. Hero: the cut we got from China, not the Tarantino release. I don’t remember if there is a difference but we had watched it at home WAY before it came out in US theaters.
12. Both seasons of Rome
13. Fatboy Slim (Walken, Werewolves and Kittens, o mai!)
14. Good VS Evil: This is a timeshifted copy I purchased to replace my worn VHS tapes because it’s not out on DVD. WHY ISN’T IT OUT ON DVD?! I will so buy this if it comes out on DVD. Put it out on DVD, kthnxbai!
15. Greg the Bunny
16. Rock and Doris collection
17. Needful Things and Idiocracy because sometimes you need to prove to yourself people aren’t currently as stoopid as they could be.
18. Operation Petticoat
19. This is Spinal Tap
20. The 13th Warrior: because I’m obsessed with Beowulf and unfortunately this is as close as any movie got.
21. Brand starring Patrick McGoohan. Incredible performance.
22. Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Ran
23. Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Titus, Henry V, Much Ado about Nothing, Othello and The Taming of the Shrew
24. Wings of Desire

I have another matching cabinet waiting to fill up with Kurosawa, Cary Grant, and Doris Day movies. If there’s room, I’ll put in Tank Girl, Danger Man and a few others.

I’m also saving Blade Runner and Invader Zim, but the cases are too big to put in any shelf unit so I’ll have to pack them up.

Updated some old furniture with black, Colonial Red and Cinnamon spray paint, bought two throw pillows, eight sheer drapes, two pre-matted flower prints, and two bargain oak frames which I spray-painted black.

Moved the ball chair to a far corner, will either sell it or donate to Goodwill. Took down the extra-thick drapes you learn to live with when you work nights so you can keep delivery people from seeing you wandering around in your nightgown during the day.

Total cost for my new living room: less than $100.

I found a hotel-style flower art print in the same set of colors as the Pollice Verso print we have. We both believe our interest in historical battles, strategy, diplomacy and justice makes us reluctant to complain about meaningless things like socks lying on the floor and therefore makes our marriage less rocky than most.

However, most people see dead gladiators in Pollice Verso, not the story, so I replaced it with flowers. You’re supposed to have flowers or landscapes in your livingroom art when you’re trying to sell your home. Since I’m using these colors to accessorize, they will match Pollice Verso when we get to a new place and I can put up my own art again.