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to-do list blogging #4
Okay, today's sole job is to clear off my top bunk, which is where I have been putting all of the Stuff I Want Out Of The Way But Don't Have The Energy To Deal With for, uh, nearly a year? So that's fun.
And also reading Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, because it's due back at the library today and other people are waiting. So far I'm about fifty pages in and it's very good. (Also very urban fantasy-y, trope-wise, though I don't know what else I was expecting.)
And the building committee this even, which hopefully will be pretty painless.
Morning was getting everything else in the room cleared out so I had space to work, so here's the starting point for the main job:
I have forgotten what-all is up there. This will be exciting. Check back for updates!
12:30 : I have found a sack of Star Wars action figures! Why have I done that!
12:45 : CASSETTE TAPES. Okay I guess this afternoon instead of podcasts it's listen to cassettes and figure out which ones I don't need to keep, I have six slots left in my cassette storage.
1:00 : More... star wars... toys...
1:30: There is a lot more stuff being added to the "mending/finishing" list than I had planned on....
2:00 Progress has been made! Not showing you what bedroom floor now looks like...
3:00 I FORGOT ABOUT THE ENTIRE BOX OF OLD DENTAL TOOTH CASTINGS
JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!
WHO WANTS TO COME TO A PARTY AND DECORATE YOUR OWN SET OF CREEPY TEETH?
3:05 oh hey that's why it seemed like I can never find any scissors anymore
3:20: The good news is, I'm already down to the strata where things were already sorted before they went up! The bad news is, they are sorted into various categories of "I have no place to put this"e
3:30 Cassette is playing "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" by Leonard Cohen. Big mood.
3:35 Who wants some vintage bra band extenders? Or a menstrual belt? (I have to wonder how many people who have fetishised garter belts have realized just how closely they resemble menstrual belts.)
4:15 : A poem:
Two lightsabers, a head made of glass, a tennis ball, binoculars, many teeth, a stress ball shaped like an astronaut, another lightsaber, a knit hat;
A reflector, a jar of bubblers, Vader candy, a spork, a bag of kite parts, a cross of seeds, a geocache, a chromatic harmonica;
More teeth, a trick knife, a golf ball, a scarecrow pin, a wooden fan, a paper fan, a pile of tattoos, two astronauts;
A golf ball, an eye ball, a bouncy ball, a juggling ball, a squeezy ball, a sack of balloons, a pocketknife.
4:30 The balloons sort of still work! I made a quadrupedal animal. And then his tail blew off and he went rocketing across the room. But it worked until then!
(I can only make two shapes out of circus balloons, and the other one is obscene. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
4:45 Second verse:
A star destroyer skeleton, a lanyard, a pestle, a sandperson, a candle, a candle, a candle, a candle;
a candle snuffer, a candle holder, a candle, a candle, a candle, a candle, a candle, two pairs of balls;
Some teeth, a petri dish, a cross, a kite, kitestring, a whirlybird, a glider, a bottle of vodka;
Black Manta, a marble, a mask, a goggle, glowing slime, a butterfly, a coin collection, a mercury thermometer.
Nine collector cards, a foam book, a lace collar, a CD, a cassette, an envelope, a set of blocks, a stick with a string tied to it;
A lacrosse ball, a basketball, a laundry ball, a squeezy ball, a clothespin, a chip clip, a band-aid, a bottlecap;
Four more cards, a bookmark, a bee, an egg full of buckeyes, a box of magic snakes, sheet garters, a maxi pad, shoe polish;
A sit-upon, an owl pellet, an electric fan, a wind-up space shuttle, an X-wing, a coffee stirrer, Greedo's head, a pair of lacy Barbie panties;
Big Bird, a laundry hedgehog, a squirrel skeleton, a commemorative podracing cup, a netted water bottle holder, a pencil box full of sugar packets, a dental instrument, a Lincoln log;
A library card, a Chinese finger trap, a ping-pong ball, a candy dish made from an AOL CD, rooting solution, a lego that is not a lego, a coin purse, a sock garter;
A small glass vial, a mug warmer, a Tesseract, an rfid card protector, a bag of dead batteries, a robot ID tag, three things of nail polish, a yo-yo;
A screwdriver, wildflower seeds, a two-foot octopus, a dragonfly, a Vader keychain, a crocheted Mobius strip, two cigar boxes full of seashells;
A mouse bookmark, a small bag of screws, a pig keychain, a 25-year service ribbon, a palm cross, a name tag, two pens, some cat hair, a rock;
A small bag full of other smaller bags, a UFO, a tiny Army hat, a pig keychain, a box of glow-worms, a bag of not screws, a string with a single wooden bead strung on it, a headless chenille Yogi;
A steel ball bearing, assorted pins, paperclips, and bottlecaps stuck to half a magnet out of a microwave oven; a seahorse tail; a pad of post-its; six stars; a paper bead; a jade bead; three clothespins; two pennies; a stick;
An empty Frostie bottle, an empty Ale-8 bottle, an empty Sidral bottle, an empty Barrillitos bottle, an empty Switch bottle, an empty Red Rock bottle, an empty Nesbitt's bottle, an empty Mercury bottle, and empty Lorina bottle.
It is 5 PM and this has been the Ballad of the Black Basket.
5:30 PM: Enforced break due to dinner meeting. Current status:
Perspective slightly different because I can't, um, stand in the spot I was in before,
due to giant pile of winter clothes that has moved there...
I keep panicking slightly because what if I don't get it finished tonight and then I'll be stuck in this half-done state! And then I remember I have the whole week off work, I will have time to keep working on it tomorrow and the day after.
The wage labor system is a con.
9:15 : Back from meeting, freshly fortified with two glasses of sweet tea, so I may be up and working for awhile yet!
Goals before sleep are : finish first sorting of things, get the bedding onto the mattresses, get the pile of clothing managed, get *my* bed to where it can be slept in. The rest is for tomorrow afternoon.
10:30 : okay, first pass done!!! Everything is now either thrown out, put away, or sorted into baskets/boxes of a) empty containers, b) posters, c) clothes, d) useless decorative crap, e) small useful adulting objects like toothbrushes and lightbulbs and binoculars and test tubes and nail polish; f) toys; g) posters and pictures
Figuring out where in the house to neatly cram all that stuff is a job for another day. Next up: reassembling the bed!so I can then pile more crap back on it, but neater
12:00 : There, isn't that a pretty picture?
Of course I immediately have to pile some of the stuff back on it so I don't die if I have to get up and pee in the night, but it will not stay on longer than another day! this I swear!
1 AM: Bed.
I also want to make it clear that this pile really wasn't representative of how I live! It was very much a sacrificial anode, a child of Omelas left in abjection so I could keep the rest of my space the most consistently livable it's ever been.
And also reading Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, because it's due back at the library today and other people are waiting. So far I'm about fifty pages in and it's very good. (Also very urban fantasy-y, trope-wise, though I don't know what else I was expecting.)
And the building committee this even, which hopefully will be pretty painless.
Morning was getting everything else in the room cleared out so I had space to work, so here's the starting point for the main job:
I have forgotten what-all is up there. This will be exciting. Check back for updates!
12:30 : I have found a sack of Star Wars action figures! Why have I done that!
12:45 : CASSETTE TAPES. Okay I guess this afternoon instead of podcasts it's listen to cassettes and figure out which ones I don't need to keep, I have six slots left in my cassette storage.
1:00 : More... star wars... toys...
1:30: There is a lot more stuff being added to the "mending/finishing" list than I had planned on....
2:00 Progress has been made! Not showing you what bedroom floor now looks like...
3:00 I FORGOT ABOUT THE ENTIRE BOX OF OLD DENTAL TOOTH CASTINGS
JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!
WHO WANTS TO COME TO A PARTY AND DECORATE YOUR OWN SET OF CREEPY TEETH?
3:05 oh hey that's why it seemed like I can never find any scissors anymore
3:20: The good news is, I'm already down to the strata where things were already sorted before they went up! The bad news is, they are sorted into various categories of "I have no place to put this"e
3:30 Cassette is playing "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" by Leonard Cohen. Big mood.
3:35 Who wants some vintage bra band extenders? Or a menstrual belt? (I have to wonder how many people who have fetishised garter belts have realized just how closely they resemble menstrual belts.)
4:15 : A poem:
Two lightsabers, a head made of glass, a tennis ball, binoculars, many teeth, a stress ball shaped like an astronaut, another lightsaber, a knit hat;
A reflector, a jar of bubblers, Vader candy, a spork, a bag of kite parts, a cross of seeds, a geocache, a chromatic harmonica;
More teeth, a trick knife, a golf ball, a scarecrow pin, a wooden fan, a paper fan, a pile of tattoos, two astronauts;
A golf ball, an eye ball, a bouncy ball, a juggling ball, a squeezy ball, a sack of balloons, a pocketknife.
4:30 The balloons sort of still work! I made a quadrupedal animal. And then his tail blew off and he went rocketing across the room. But it worked until then!
(I can only make two shapes out of circus balloons, and the other one is obscene. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
4:45 Second verse:
A star destroyer skeleton, a lanyard, a pestle, a sandperson, a candle, a candle, a candle, a candle;
a candle snuffer, a candle holder, a candle, a candle, a candle, a candle, a candle, two pairs of balls;
Some teeth, a petri dish, a cross, a kite, kitestring, a whirlybird, a glider, a bottle of vodka;
Black Manta, a marble, a mask, a goggle, glowing slime, a butterfly, a coin collection, a mercury thermometer.
Nine collector cards, a foam book, a lace collar, a CD, a cassette, an envelope, a set of blocks, a stick with a string tied to it;
A lacrosse ball, a basketball, a laundry ball, a squeezy ball, a clothespin, a chip clip, a band-aid, a bottlecap;
Four more cards, a bookmark, a bee, an egg full of buckeyes, a box of magic snakes, sheet garters, a maxi pad, shoe polish;
A sit-upon, an owl pellet, an electric fan, a wind-up space shuttle, an X-wing, a coffee stirrer, Greedo's head, a pair of lacy Barbie panties;
Big Bird, a laundry hedgehog, a squirrel skeleton, a commemorative podracing cup, a netted water bottle holder, a pencil box full of sugar packets, a dental instrument, a Lincoln log;
A library card, a Chinese finger trap, a ping-pong ball, a candy dish made from an AOL CD, rooting solution, a lego that is not a lego, a coin purse, a sock garter;
A small glass vial, a mug warmer, a Tesseract, an rfid card protector, a bag of dead batteries, a robot ID tag, three things of nail polish, a yo-yo;
A screwdriver, wildflower seeds, a two-foot octopus, a dragonfly, a Vader keychain, a crocheted Mobius strip, two cigar boxes full of seashells;
A mouse bookmark, a small bag of screws, a pig keychain, a 25-year service ribbon, a palm cross, a name tag, two pens, some cat hair, a rock;
A small bag full of other smaller bags, a UFO, a tiny Army hat, a pig keychain, a box of glow-worms, a bag of not screws, a string with a single wooden bead strung on it, a headless chenille Yogi;
A steel ball bearing, assorted pins, paperclips, and bottlecaps stuck to half a magnet out of a microwave oven; a seahorse tail; a pad of post-its; six stars; a paper bead; a jade bead; three clothespins; two pennies; a stick;
An empty Frostie bottle, an empty Ale-8 bottle, an empty Sidral bottle, an empty Barrillitos bottle, an empty Switch bottle, an empty Red Rock bottle, an empty Nesbitt's bottle, an empty Mercury bottle, and empty Lorina bottle.
It is 5 PM and this has been the Ballad of the Black Basket.
5:30 PM: Enforced break due to dinner meeting. Current status:
Perspective slightly different because I can't, um, stand in the spot I was in before,
due to giant pile of winter clothes that has moved there...
I keep panicking slightly because what if I don't get it finished tonight and then I'll be stuck in this half-done state! And then I remember I have the whole week off work, I will have time to keep working on it tomorrow and the day after.
The wage labor system is a con.
9:15 : Back from meeting, freshly fortified with two glasses of sweet tea, so I may be up and working for awhile yet!
Goals before sleep are : finish first sorting of things, get the bedding onto the mattresses, get the pile of clothing managed, get *my* bed to where it can be slept in. The rest is for tomorrow afternoon.
10:30 : okay, first pass done!!! Everything is now either thrown out, put away, or sorted into baskets/boxes of a) empty containers, b) posters, c) clothes, d) useless decorative crap, e) small useful adulting objects like toothbrushes and lightbulbs and binoculars and test tubes and nail polish; f) toys; g) posters and pictures
Figuring out where in the house to neatly cram all that stuff is a job for another day. Next up: reassembling the bed!
12:00 : There, isn't that a pretty picture?
Of course I immediately have to pile some of the stuff back on it so I don't die if I have to get up and pee in the night, but it will not stay on longer than another day! this I swear!
1 AM: Bed.
I also want to make it clear that this pile really wasn't representative of how I live! It was very much a sacrificial anode, a child of Omelas left in abjection so I could keep the rest of my space the most consistently livable it's ever been.
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But also, revealing a hidden truth this time....
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Can I ask what you are actually doing with all of this stuff? Like, scissors, okay, yes. But are you trashing most things or donating or... ? (asking because I am nosy, not for judgey reasons, honest!)
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My house is a whole lot neater since folks put five Little Free Libraries within walking distance of me. I used to have to wait months to donate books to the library booksales, then kill myself dragging all those books at once to the library.
(I've decided that the only thing better than completing a decluttering job is listening to you livetweet such an event.)
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An owl pellet???
What's a laundry hedgehog? And a Tesseract, in this context?
Dead batteries go straight into the trash, along with dead pens and other such non-functional items. We have so much battery-operated shit and so many pens around here that I've had to install that as an interrupt -- when I find one, out it goes, and then I go back to what I was doing.
I have a drawer full of miscellaneous "I don't want to get rid of this" stuff, which has among other things a collection of foreign coins and a small capsule of mercury that my dentist gave me when I was about 10 years old. But it's a lot smaller than yours.
Sounds like you've made a lot of progress. Go you!
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A laundry hedgehog is a little latex spiky ball that's supposed to make clothes dry faster in a dryer, although I haven't noticed much difference; those are probably going to the donation bin.
Dead alkalines are trash but dead rechargeable batteries have to go to electronics recycling/toxic waste day, which is only a few times a year. And of course there's no point going for just a couple AAs. So they sort of accumulate. And having to check if it's rechargeable is enough extra cognitive load that it's sometimes easier to just throw the alkalines in with them. (although these were mostly rechargeables.)
The sit-upon in this case is a foam portable seat cushion I got as a free giveaway somewhere, but I picked up the term from homemade newspaper ones in Scouts.
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(Laundry hedgehogs are sculptural, though I hadn't thought to call them hedgehogs.)
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It was very much a sacrificial anode, a child of Omelas left in abjection so I could keep the rest of my space the most consistently livable it's ever been.
....omg, that's like the function of why every single existing closet is packed to the brim with boxes in my apartment.
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Of course, then the "Deal with later" bag becomes the impossible thing... and then it becomes a laundry basket... or two... and then a bunk.... My grandmother had an entire room for the purpose.