So this speech I’m having to write is sitting on my computer mocking me, and I’ll be all disciplined and sit at the computer and surf tags on tumblr and play on Facebook think really hard about it. And hours go by. Got disgusted with myself the other night, and figured, if I was going to procrastinate, something was going to come from it.
Hello invisible corner that popped up by the stairs:
Meet various combination of stuff that has to be put away upstairs. Only I have to find a place to put it away upstairs, so it is sitting there until I do. Guh, storage! I need to toss stuff out, but I keep using that as the excuse of other stuff piling up.
Nope, not anymore. Set that app timer for 20 minutes and I was off. Into the eaves, moving stuff around (hey, I can toss this!), into the closet (::shuffle shuffle 5 minute organize::) and with 7 minutes to spare, everything where it is supposed to be, 1 box of stuff no longer needed in the trash, we have:
Nothing in the invisible corner except random cat toys. Which are allowed to be there. (they, too, are on an exercise program for the new year because we all need to lose weight around here.)
Procrastination feels better when something is getting done….
The pile of stuff on top of the wicker chest that sits under our entry-way coat hooks.
Before:
After:
Look! I found space for a boot mat! And I swept the entryway, too! The bottle-shaped brown thing belongs to my other half. I don’t know where he wants to keep it, so I am leaving it there for him to deal with as and when he wants to.
The invisible corner by the front door.
Before:
After:
The wooden crates hold DH’s and my winter hats, mitts, scarves, and our work gloves (we live on a hobby farm). The crates will eventually, one day, maybe even this year, get mounted on the wall.
The large round wicker basket holds bags of stuff on their way out to Goodwill / charity shops. Cunning, eh?
Note to those not familiar with the English spoken by Canadians: “Eh?” is pronounced “a” (as in the letter), and means, “This thing that I have just said, it is true, is it not?”
OK, so, this is the last box in the bedroom that needed to be unpacked and dealt with. Instead of doing that right away, I’ve spent the last month+ ignoring it and piling crap on top of it. The large bag on the floor has clothes that need to be taken to the donation place, the bags on the box had assorted winter socks and undies that needed to be put away. There are also some placemats and a dirty top that have special washing instructions (why on earth do I allow such items into my home in the first place?!).
About thirty minutes later, I’ve got my corner cleared out. The bag of old clothes is next to the front door for our next outing, the dirty things have been put with the laundy and will be dealt with the next time I do laundry. The items in and on the box have been sorted and put away.
Feels good.
(the eyesore painting has great sentimental value, don’t judge!)We still have a whole room of piled up stuff and the last of the moving boxes to go through, but we’re getting settled in, finally.
This invisible corner has been hanging out for, oh, probably at least two years. Maybe longer. Best Beloved likes to go to farm auctions, so he keeps bringing home things like canning jars for me. He also has a catering business, so various storage containers keep making their way home, where they get piled in front of the door so he can take them back. Somehow, this rarely happens.
I have a small shelving rack that we put our coffee mugs and various odds and ends on, but I want to repurpose it into a shoe rack. The diagonal-slanty ones don’t work for me—shoes keep sliding off, and they’re not tall enough for boots except on the top shelf.
Here’s what I started with:
At long last, more unfuckery! Today I attacked a literally-hidden corner.
I keep that painting there for a few reasons:
- It isn’t quite finished and I’ve been meaning to do something about that for ages
- I don’t have any particularly better place to store it
- It hides an otherwise terrible corner
There are 2 unused printers, an unused monitor (to be used soon), a tub of electronic stuff (already sorted), a crate full of sketchbooks, a bag full of sketchbooks, a pile of drawings and binders full of drawings, two piles of assorted papers, a box of old cards, and my paint cart.
There ended up being 36 sketchbooks, and I know I’ve gone through and gotten rid of sketchbooks from the crate and bag before… I tore useful drawings (which were then sorted/stored those appropriately) out of and got rid of some, kept in tact the oldest ones which I really want to keep, and removed drawings from and set aside those which weren’t fully used. I ended up tossing 22 sketchbooks, and it is amazing.
Paint cart got organized, assorted papers were tossed or filed, printers are staying there for now. The blue crate is full of blank sketchbooks and unused supplies (some of which was previously in a crate on the shelf, which now just contains old artworks, including the stuff which was kept from today). Painting is back in place in front of the corner, but now it’s not for purpose of hiding things, and there’s space to store inactive paintings behind the easel now!
It took an entire afternoon of 20/10s, but I no longer dread what lurks behind the easel. Thanks UfYH!
