unpack

These boxes sat here for 8 months and it took all of twenty minutes to unpack them and put the items in the display case. I’m thinking I may want to put just a little more effort into this goal.

This is where I’m going to start. It’s a little scary, because I think most of what is in these boxes is not just stuff but stuff that represents projects that I wanted to do. I find it harder to give up projects than I do to give up stuff, so this may start some new adventures and who knows how long they may take? Worse, I may find some things that I should have taken care of two years ago but that got packed up instead. Oh well, the situation doesn’t improve with time, so I might as well start tackling it.

I’m hope to have an “after” picture here by the end of March.

The before picture of this project is in my “first things first” entry for Jan 2.

We have three areas where stuff accumulated during the move and didn’t get unpacked—my study, the living room, and the dining room. The last two areas contain stuff that is more R’s than mine, so there is a limit to how much control I have over getting that done. But encouragement and support should help. Also, setting a good example by unpacking the things in my study! So, that’s the goal for the next few weeks.

so gotta put it all away for 5 weeks until i haul it back to school.

even though there is still an appalling amount of cleaning up to do.

Reframe, re-energize, move forward!

Shame is a marvelous motivator.

As I’m slowly unpacking, I’m acquiring new stuff. My foster mother passed away in January and I have her daughter bringing me some of her old stuff. Some of it is very difficult to sort though and pass on to a good home. Some of it is easier, french cookbooks and pilates VHS for example.

I’ve been given a really nice marble table and a glass display case, which I love. There are a whole bunch of trinkets that I think I might hang on to. Then there’s the artwork, which I think is much too nice for my apt, but I can’t bring myself to give away. These are pieces that I grew up with on the walls. There’s always Freecycle, but… just no.

And finishing the bookshelf let me unpack the bunch of books that were lurking in boxes. Now I need another night stand so that I can retire the boxes holding my alarm clock :P

So lots of progress today. Now I think the next task is to save up some money so that I can buy furniture that I’ll love to have in my apt, not just stuff to fill up the room, because I think that I need it, then end up hating it completely.

Tackled a whole bunch of boxes over my weekend this week. Now I basically only have my books in boxes so that I can paint the bookshelf and various and assorted papers and random stuff that doesn’t quite have a home yet. There also my pile of posters and stuff that has to go on the wall. Then of course there’s the stuff that lurks, that you don’t even realize that you have.

I should post some pictures of my progress. Maybe I’ll post that when I get home.

Finally started a little bit of decorating in the new place. Has it really been a month since I’ve been there already… WOW does time fly!

I have this collection of pictures, a sort of time line from my childhood to a few years ago. I had it up on the back of my kitchen cupboards in my last place. I had the idea that I wanted to have a sort of “long and winding road” of memories in my new place. I finally took the time to put it up the other day. It makes a big difference in making the place mine.

I also hung up my coats and jackets the other day. I should unpack my shoes. I’m waiting to paint my bookshelf to be able to put all my books away. Then there’s the pile of paperwork, which always ends up being unpacked later (MUCH later!)

Was talking to a friend about his insistance that I need a couch. I really hate most couches, I find them ugly and not very comfortable. Then I realized that I would actually like to have a leather couch. Not a new one of course, but we’ll see what we can score off of Craiglist in the next little bit after I build up my cash reserve again.

Then there’s the living room table (since it won’t fit in the kitchen). Right now I’m eating off of my desk when I’m home alone. I have this little unit that I’ll unpack my money “shrine” onto eventually, but for now when I have company it’s my little buffet unit.

Then there’s the computer chair that I’d like. I’m surviving with a fold up chair for now, but that’s a temporary solution.

Still, I’m comfortable with what I have now. And as I keep reminding myself, I didn’t accumulate everything I have now in one shot, it took years. Therefore I don’t need to have everything now, I can learn to wait for stuff that I’ll love to have, instead of rushing and just getting stuff that I hate to fill a space.