wen521

It was magical and fun!

I’m getting ready to do a big clear out. Wish me luck.

i’m still going 1x week to yoga—friday lunctimes. i can’t stay for the whole class, but at least i turn up! i went another day last week, which is just well because i was sick friday and missed the regular class.

So far I’ve cleaned my closet, and unpacked some bags I wanted to ignore…

after i got things rolling on monday night, i ended up cleaning out my closet! i still have one other to go, but it felt really good to make space for the work clothes that had been “homeless” around the room, and to get rid of 2 large bags of clothing.

I decided to take the advice I often give others: just do something. I cleaned out my mail slot (everyone in the household has an inbox of sorts for mail) and my magazine holder. I decided a while ago that I will only keep what fits in the holder. It was overflowing (not quite to the breaking point, but enough that it needed “weeding”) so I went through it and tossed out a bunch of magazines.

well, this year at least…

but i’m keeping it on here for inspiration and because there’s always next november.

I am usually pretty good about just digging in and taking a small action if I don’t know where to start. But today, not so much. I was going to clean out my closet, but now I’m looking around and I haven’t unpacked from the weekend, there is filing to do etc. and all of that is out in the open. I am torn about what to do: get the clothes under control, or get the visual clutter out of here. I get this blech feeling when I think about any of it right now. The other day I was feeling very energized and did a bunch of things (as much as time would allow). I wonder if I can even do a good enough job on the closet. I sometimes aim to clear out just a bit, so that I know I’m making progress, and hey, 3 shirts and a few pairs of pants gone is still good. Then there are other times I set myself up to toss out everything I’m not currently using. Now, I want to do that (or think I do) because when I do a half-way job, I end up still having too much stuff and having to redo the decluttering later on. I know it’s one of those never-ending things (ack) but I have hope that evenutally it’ll be manageable…less stuff to start with, less stuff to worry about decluttering.

If you want to read more about decluttering, you can look at my blog, which is located at Declutterbug http://declutterbug.blogspot.com/

I don’t know if this is really an accurate goal, because I have come in first before at dance competitions. I would like to win the Rising Star Women’s Standard and the Rising Star Women’s Latin division.

My partner, T, and I got 2nd place in the Rising Star Women’s Latin this weekend. I didn’t fare as well in Standard (4th place) because I got a horrible leg cramp during the waltz and could barely make it through the rest of the dances.

i have a huge backlog “to do” list and i’m going to try do do one thing from it each weekday. i was originally going to do one thing from it a week, but i will try this first and see if i can do it!

Mark Morford on Clutter.

I resonate with this.

I am in the midst of clearing things out, or trying to. I haven’t been home much, which makes it hard, but just last night I got rid of a grocery bag of white tee shirts that were less white than they should be. I did it while packing for my dance competition. So, perhaps I need to build in an extra few minutes every time I deal with my “stuff” to toss out that which I don’t need. This won’t really work for big huge messes, but I can chip away as I go.

I have way too much stuff, and I struggle with that. There’s a part of me that wants to hang onto things for the possibilities—ooh, that’s cool and OLD and old means VINTAGE and I could do a REALLY neat art project with it in my spare time and what if I toss it out and then need it and can’t find another like it or can’t afford a new one, what then, I ask you?

There’s also my history (and my family’s history) with STUFF, which is long, and confusing, and would probably take a year in therapy to sort through (Pun intended).

It’s all ridiculous when I say it aloud or type it here, but alas, it’s no less true, the pull of my stuff. The security, the fascination of being able to shop in my own house, to unearth things I’d lost or forgotten about.

I know that someday the house that I live in will match the house in my head.

i went to the driving range a month or so ago with my gf who was going to compete in a golf tournie the next week.

i’m a lefty and so we borrowed a couple of lefty clubs and a couple of others (right-handed ones) from the pro shop bent-up loaners. they didn’t fit particularly well, and two were lefty and two were righty, so i had to keep going back and forth between them! t. said i did really well, though.

there’s hope yet!

i’m now eligible for the IRA plan at work, and so i’m going to sign up. i keep thinking what i can put in isn’t “enough” but, alas, it’s way better than what i’m doing now, which is nothing.

consolidation is good because it is protecting me from the higher interest rates that are coming, however, when i consolodidated they made my 10 year loan into a 20 year one, which means that my monthly payment is lower, but i will be paying a LOT more interst over the long run unless i pre-pay (which i hope to do some of).

picked up the taxes friday and went to the post office! yay!

If you can afford it, it’s worth it for the peace of mind…nice to know it will start in the rain, the brakes work, there’s no weird rattling sound in the tranny etc…

my officemate and i went to yoga at our gym at lunch. we can’t stay the whole time because we have an hour lunchbreak and the class is an hour and a half, but the instructor is this really nice guy who seems to understand why we come late and leave early.

we did a ton of hip opener exercises today, which was nice for me because i was sore and tired and hadn’t stretched in ages, but these are some of the easiest ones for me to do. ;) that meant i got to ease back into the flow of doing yoga without feeling like i was going to topple over or rip something from its mooring.

plus, since the yoga classes are included in the gym membership, it’s economical.

i hadn’t given my accountant one of my 1099s, which i don’t think i ever got (unless it just got lost somewhere). i called the place in question and got the numbers he needed, and called them in.

i just received a call back from my accountant and my taxes are DONE. he is leaving for the day, but i can pick them up tomorrow. i’ll do that at lunch or right after work, take them to the post office and i’ll be done! yay!

i’ve been using a “to do” list program; it’s a bit simple for my needs (i can’t break down a task into smaller components in an “outline” form), but as i think of things i need to do, i jot it down there. that way, i will have a list of all my unfinished business, and i can get going with it.

i posted a comment to someone’s entry about a self-helpy book i read that suggested getting everything down and onto a “to do” list and a “someday/maybe” list so that you can actually know exactly what you have uncompleted and begin closing those loops. The idea is that by finishing or getting rid of all that “old” stuff you can be more present (and productive).

i dropped off my numbers to the tax accountant yesterday, and he will be calling me in the next day or so to pick them up and send them out!

yay!