Which means it is the perfect time to buy a new 8 foot long antique cabinet for the studio.
Which means it's a great opportunity to finally organize and clean the studio, until it is just so.
Which, of course, means that it is a great time to rearrange my son's room.
Which means my house and my life have fallen into complete disarray.
Of course.
I am on the other side of the tunnel today.
Kitchen: built pantry, sold island, rearranged furniture, purged until all remaining items will fit in a reasonable amount of cabinet space. Chugging forward. Slowly but surely.
Ray's room was a quick fix, move the dresser, pivot the crib et voila! 10x more play room.
My studio. Ouf. That's not really a word but that is the sound I make when I think about the fact that I am still not done cleaning and sorting and purging and organizing. Almost, but not quite.
So far I have purged one complete car load of stuff. About 3 large trash bags full of trash and 4 bags full of recycling. Among all of this debris, all of this clutter, I have come to the realization that I am a hoarder. A pack rat. I'm the old man with 27 baby food jars full of random screws and nails.
This.
This troubles me more than anything else in this world. I never really stopped to think about all the extra weight I keep piling onto my mind and my body by never saying no when I am offered a box of old things. By never thinking do I really need this now?
No, my philosophy has always been, "oh, but I might need that 6" x 8.35" piece of black plastic someday" and "you never know, this vintage plug/phone line adapter, that might come in handy..." I have extras of my extras and backups for my backups. Enough is enough.
But wait here's the kicker: I spend even more time worrying about selling all of the no-longer-needed-things than all of this put together! Naturally, I blame eBay and her hippy brother Craigslist. I can see the inherent value in any given thing. It might only be a penny but I know it has value. Where I seem to go wrong is in making it my problem that this item and it's respective value get put into the right hands.
So here are a few things I have learned in this past week or two. Maybe you can glean a little wisdom from them, maybe they'll just make you laugh. Either one is fine with me:
1. Do not go shopping with someone that you feel even the teeniest bit of competition towards. Trust me you will come home with bags and bags of crap you do not need. And honestly it'll all be stuff that just makes you feel bad because you bought it with the wrong intentions.
2. Do not work at a store you would shop at. I've now made this mistake twice and I have all the rubber stamps to prove it.
3. Instead of asking yourself "hey, in this vast expanse of a world, is there a possible use for this item?" ask, "hey do I have a use for this item, right now in my life?"
4. Instead of thinking to yourself "ooh, but I could sell that." Think, "NO NO NO. I will not buy another useless item because someone else might want to buy it from me." (This one's personal. Your main source of income might very well be selling things on eBay and that's great, I used to do that too.)
5. There's an old saying that has come back into fashion these days and I don't think it's half bad. "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
My new mantra.
6. And last but not least. Even if you spend your money on a kajillion used items and thrift store finds versus one brand-new shirt. $50 is $50 (right dad?)
I think the really deep meaning I've come to find in all of this is that for me personally, when life is in the pits and things are uncertain I used to feel reassured and calmed by my things. When life is grand and only getting better, I don't really need all that junk anymore.
xo
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