My mother's been here for nearly two weeks, helping us by watching Anthony and enabling us to have a few nights out, and to catch up on some of our chores. Yesterday, I decided to make a preliminary pass at one of the closets in my office--moving things to a more ideal placement, writing up a rough inventory, and throwing out two bags worth of garbage plus 7 or 8 redundant boxes for the burn pile. Near the end of my day, I'd emptied all 5 of the north shelves (I have 3 walls worth, sort of a "U" pattern), and I could start filling those with various homeless things that have been sleeping on the floor for the past few months. Here are 13 (of many) things that I found during this first purge:
1. Afro Celt Sound System cd (v.3:Further in Time)-- it had somehow become separated from its case, and was in one of those free AOL tins. I popped it into my MacBook and had me some good cleaning music. While it was in there, I also imported it to my iTunes.
2. 2 BookCrossing books-- Drawing Blood, and Sixteen Pleasures. Not that I'll be able to read them anytime soon, but it's good to have them where they belong.
3. Anthony's baby book-- Needless to say, that's another pending project, maybe I'll find time for it this winter.
4. Calculator-- Yes, I still use the one I had to buy for 8th grade pre-Algebra. The one on my Dashboard is nice, but sometimes you really need to have the numbers in sight at all times.
5. 3 pairs of sunglasses-- Don't ask me how they wound up in the closet! Well, now I can have a pair in each car, one in my purse, and one to use at home. Overkill? You betcha!
6. Thank You cards-- Bought these before Anthony was born, and didn't get around to witing them. This is still a running fight between me and DH, and one of the reasons Anthony will probably never celebrate another birthday while he lives here. I think I'll send them to my younger sister, who's having her boy in December.
7. Corner cutter-- Bought this a few years ago for my new scrapbooking hobby. Will put it to good use one of these days.
8. Pet hair remover (brush)-- With 3 cats, not a good thing to go missing. Need to add this "ToDo" to my chore list, to help me remember to keep up.
9. Sonic coupon-- It's still valid! DH can save his usual $4 and still have a good breakfast.
10. Birth certificate-- This needs to go into the firesafe, along with my great-grandmother's cookbook. It looks like the copy that my mother needed to register me for kindergarten.
11. Free meal certificate for Buffet Palace-- There's no expiration date, but I know it's at least 5 years old, so who knows if they'll still honor it? I don't like the restaurant itself as much as I did back when I got the certificate, but it will do if I'm desperate and in the neighborhood.
12. Christmas ornament-- My mom gave us this one a few years ago; has both our names engraved on it, so it needs to be on the tree.
13. Two screwdrivers and my hammer-- My toolbox is looking a lot better now, and yes, I have labeled my hammer.
I still have some shelves to fill, but I think that will have to wait until Sunday (at the earliest, who knows what kind of energy I will have left after spending Saturday at Maker Faire?). I also did some shelf-shifting, and I was able to get some more books off the floor. Save for the NE corner of my office, I can nearly make an unobstructed circuit around the workspace behemoth. I'm also working on clearing the mass next to the door so that I can close it when necessary. After all that, I'll start working on the action items in the closet (decide on giveaways, put some boxes in the attic, file paperwork, go through magazines). Finishing all of those should halve what's taking up space, and I might even be able to start stage 2: move more of the office supplies to the closet, swap out the big "desk" for something else, and start creating a homier space that might double as an occasional guest room. Ah, pipe dreams...
