September 10, 2014 by clumpaday

I Made It To 30 Days

Clump #235: Return furniture to carpeted rooms; final cooking and cleaning for guests; bring Dickens collection to car. Day 30 of the 30 day challenge … baby!

Oh, the adrenaline is flowing, friends. But one blissful fact lifts me up: Day Thirty!! Whoo-Hooo!

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: my husband’s sisters are the greatest. Fun, warm, down-to-earth, generous … just about any positive adjective you might imagine; I can’t wait to see them. If they were here, they’d say, “Don’t fuss!” So my pre-guest anxiety is wholly and completely of my own making, out of proportion to reality. I guess that’s the puzzle I’m trying to solve in these posts.

Thank you so much for reading and following along this month. Your support has meant so much to me, whether I’ve heard from you or not. It’s always a surprise when I’ve received comments. Really? You’ve been reading? How wonderful! The following message was emailed to me today by a very dear friend. I want to embroider it on a pillow … after I stop tearing up.

relax and enjoy your sister-in-laws visit.

I’m sure everything looks lovely!

No need to reveal what is hidden or

apologize for whatever you didn’t get to

You have a lovely home.

don’t forget you live there

And its the heart & soul of your family

home is where the heart is

and yours is filled with a lot of love

So please relax & don’t fret

As promised, Charles has left the building. The complete Dickens collection is in the back of the car, ready to donate tomorrow morning. If they don’t sell at Fall Festival, I will give (read, lug) them to Goodwill. (Sorry the font just shrunk … another puzzle I’m too tired to solve.)

At the end of this challenge, I’m whittling down my to-do list to what is practical for the very little time left. But I’ve been keeping up with the mail and newspapers. (I say with a shake of the fist!) Yesterday’s Cryptoquote solution, in today’s paper, was so very apt. I can’t expect the house-transformation equivalent of a twenty-year-old tree. But second best is pretty darn good.

I’ll end with a photo I took this evening from the car on the way home from visiting my mom.

The cows were coming home. I stuck this challenge out ’til the …

September 9, 2014 by clumpaday

The Weight of The World in our Arms

Clump #234: Clear out bedrooms in advance of carpet cleaner; day 29 of 30-day challenge … one more day!

The clump for today was a tremendous achievement, but not in terms of getting stuff out of the house. Our son and I had to clear the bedrooms and basement floors of every bit of clutter before a carpet cleaner arrived. Our older daughter’s room had been serving as a holding zone for clumps that our younger daughter had mined from the basement … it was especially grueling. Too late to do the necessary sorting and decision making.

In summary, scheduling a carpet cleaner felt like the best and worst thing I could have done. Wow. Up close and personal with our excess belongings. The previously cleared-out basement storage area is now re-clogged. Nooo!

I had taken the photo below of an old Parade magazine during the big paper purge. This is exactly the way I felt today. We were working against the clock, and at one point, I said to our son, “What would I do without you?” With a strained expression and pleading tone of voice he answered, “Start earlier?” From the mouth of babes (or dudes, or gents …). The truth hurts, as do my sore muscles and back.

I guess people pay good money to do step aerobics with weights. That’s essentially what the job felt like. The complete works of Charles Dickens, below, weigh about a gazillion pounds. I have hauled them from my parent’s bookshelves to our home, to at least two used book sellers (who were not interested in buying them); our younger daughter hauled them upstairs, and I lugged them back down to the basement. Somehow this description doesn’t seem to include enough hauling steps, but you’ll just have to trust me. Talk about an albatross. Enough is enough! I’ll donate them to whoever will have them. This will be the first clump out of the basement. I promise.

I’ve got the motivation, I’m in the Tow Away Zone,

soon the wheels will be on and the junk will be moving.

September 8, 2014 by clumpaday

Sowing Seeds of Self-Acceptance

Clump #233: Clear and clean downstairs for neighborhood meeting; day 29 of the 30-day challenge … almost there!

Anxiety Alert! Today I had to get the house in shape for a neighborhood meeting, which was also a good kickstart to prepare for the visit of the Aunties (two of my husband’s sisters). I will not post before and after photos of our house. Suffice it to say it was a fairly dramatic change. I’ll substitute before and after pictures I took this past weekend on a garden tour. The photo below (held down with a nut?) was taken two weeks before the garden tour and displayed by the owners for all to see:

This was the way the garden looked the day of the the tour:

Kindred spirits like me, they obviously needed a deadline to get motivated. Below, their charming water feature:

I did a lot of thinking about the unrealistic expectations I set for myself/my house when company comes. I kept trying to remember that the most important aspect of having guests over is my own state of mind. Who wants to be with someone all stressed out and frazzled? Anxiety is a bad hostess vibe with which to infuse an occasion. I will never be Martha Stewart. HA-ha-ha! Something anyone who has ever read this blog does not need to be told!

There was one Martha-like garden on the tour:

Every detail perfection.

Harmonious, color coordinated, divine.

So much “wow” packed into a relatively small space.

I must tell myself that such perfection is not in my nature. It would make me way too cranky to bear!

September 7, 2014 by clumpaday

Mail Basket and Beacon Hill

Uncategorized
Beacon Hill, Boston, Life, Louisburg Square, Paper Clutter, Photos
2 Comments

Clump #232: Clear out mail basket; day 28 of the 30-day challenge.

I am so tired. Before I fall asleep at the keyboard, here’s a small clump I forced myself to sort through. A pile of old papers is like an archeological dig … on the top, my Rosamunde Pilcher collection of novels that our younger daughter fished out of the basement for my post-surgical recovery (I actually chose to read Maeve Binchy, also cozy reading, featuring tea-drinking characters from the British Isles), and the “trashy” book my husband bought in the airport for vacation … ah, memories.

And, after, with a few remaining papers for discussion:

One reason I’m feeling so exhausted is a bit of work on behalf of our neighborhood association. When I was in Boston this summer I took a walk through the Beacon Hill neighborhood. My Fodor’s guide book recommended a tour that took me through Louisburg Square, below. Huh. I just googled it to make sure of the spelling and found a Wikipedia entry saying that “the square has been mistakenly assumed to be private property but is, in actuality, owned by the City of Boston …” Who are you going to believe, Wikipedia or Fodor’s? My guidebook said Louisburg Square was the first Homeowner’s Association in the United States. I got a kick out of that.

It’s a U-shaped collection of very exclusive homes with a small park in the center. One home is owned by John Kerry.

Louisa May Alcott died in another (not necessarily this one)

If, indeed, they do have a Homeowner’s Association, I wonder how much they pay in dues?

And what issues come up at their meetings? Doorway beautification requirements?

Cobblestone maintenance?

Tempests in tea pots, all. And speaking of tea, more tea please!

September 6, 2014 by clumpaday

Baby Steps

Clump #231: Start clearing out younger daughter’s room; day 27 of the 30-day challenge.

I’m coming down to the finish of the get-ready-for-compay challenge. Yikes. It’s time to start cleaning out the rooms where my sisters-in-law will be staying. This will have to suffice as a “before” photo for our younger daughter’s room. I don’t want to embarrass her. She spent a lot of time doing a miraculous job of clearing out the basement. She also put a bunch of old photos in albums, and this is the corner where she kept the supplies. I can’t fault her too much for leaving her room in less than optimal condition, given how much she helped out.

A dear reader of this blog sent me the following quote, which really sums up the essence of Clump A Day:

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. –Anthony Trollope

Right now, even a spasmodic Hercules sounds good to me … but I continue to clump step by step by step …

September 5, 2014 by clumpaday

Celebrate Being Alive

Clump #230: Clear kitchen tabletop (again) (and finally) of all papers; day 26 of the 30-day challenge.

For anyone interested in my photographs, I use an iPhone with no special equipment … just my often-unsteady hands. Sometimes I’m amazed at the detail it captures. This was a hydrangea I snapped today on a walk with my mom.

Admittedly, it was a bit like pulling teeth to conduct the final paper-summit with my husband and finish the job I started days ago. It’s the last thing we have felt like doing, and there were so many other things to keep us too busy and too tired … good excuses not to do it. But we got the job done tonight. Clearness achieved and order restored. My husband even made two more accounts paperless. Yippee!

One paper that caught my attention was this one listing “Mature Driver Safety Tips” that for the first time came with my driver’s license renewal form. I didn’t keep it, but if I did, I would have to file it under “You know you’re getting old when …” Ugh.

I can’t end on that note. I’m finally putting the backing paper from the Cherry Blossom Centennial stamps I referenced yesterday in the recycling, but I have to share one more quote from it: “Because these spectacular trees flower so briefly, the Japanese often see them as poignant symbols of transience — making every blossom an invitation to celebrate being alive.” (The photo below is not a cherry blossom, but a flower I photographed in Norway.)

I might be the only person to put cherry blossoms and driver’s license renewal forms in the same category: “symbols of transience.” I’ll take flowers any day.

September 4, 2014September 4, 2014 by clumpaday

Not Going To Pot

Clump #229: Clean out terra cotta pots and donate to Fall Festival sale; day 25 of the 30-day challenge.

Today’s clump was cumbersome, but easily dispatched. Old, dirty plant pots saved for possible reuse that, let’s be real, just ain’t gonna happen. How many years have they been sitting in the basement? Who can remember?

I stuck them in the sink with a few glug-glugs of white vinegar, and … presto … the next morning they looked good enough to donate to the flea market at our Quaker Meeting’s Fall Festival.

I took the photo below during yesterday’s mega-mailing and couldn’t let it go today. I had used up the last of the “Cherry Blossom Centennial” stamps I’d bought this spring. I just love the little poem written by someone who lived in the triple-digit years.

Soon the leaves will be falling in haste …

but right now we are in a delicious state of suspended animation.

September 3, 2014 by clumpaday

Mail: Benign and Hostile

Clump #228: Send off clump of mail and clear, right away, incoming mail; day 24 of the 30-day challenge.

First, a moment of awe, please, for the Cardinal flower I spied today. Like an elegant designer gown: devastating simplicity and breathtaking color.

Now back to our regularly scheduled clump report. It was a day of getting letters, checks, and packages out into the world. Phew. Tedious (especially in the case of the books to Russia), but so cathartic.

Equally cathartic in its own steady way: keeping up with the burgeoning piles of catalogs coming to our house, the start of the pre-holiday buy-buy-buy drumbeat. Makes me think of my late brother-in-law who used to say when dealing with left-over food, “Should I throw it out now, or next week?”

Shall I recycle them today, or when they start suffocating me?

I’ll close with an excerpt from the Tell Me About It advice column by Carolyn Hax from the August 21st Philadelphia Inquirer. This exchange stuck with me, to the point that I searched out and reread it. Good armor-toughening advice for “hurtable” people (all people?), something I needed today.

“Question: Can you elaborate on what you mean by controlling “the access we give people to our sensitivities”? I don’t “give” people like this access to my sensitivities, they just know exactly what they are and how to use them to hurt me. Even if I put on a show like it doesn’t hurt, it still hurts.

Answer: I’ll use my experience in reading hostile mail for 16 years, and also in some volatile, now-ex friendships. Both used to upset me deeply, and now the same things barely register. Nothing about the other parties changed, the abuse still comes. What has changed is inside me: I value their (or anyone’s) opinions less; I am more accepting of, less embarrassed by, and therefore less defensive about my own shortcomings; and I learned more constructive ways to handle my hard feelings. Combine the three and I am just not as, for lack of a better word, hurtable as I used to be. That’s what I mean.”

The exposure I’ve given myself through this blog has made me a bit more “accepting of, less embarrassed by, and therefore less defensive about my own shortcomings.” Thank you for reading.

September 2, 2014 by clumpaday

I’ve Got a Guy for That

Clump #227: Tackle “Do” pile and call some guys; day 23 of the 30-day challenge.

The 30-day challenge doesn’t seem so endless anymore, which means my two sisters-in-law will be here in a little over a week. Yay! But, also, hey! I’ve got to prioritize the to-do list I had imagined almost a month ago. Gone are the dreams of taking down wallpaper and redecorating the guest bathroom. But non-negotiable are a couple of plumbing repairs: the pokey shower drain and the broken sink stopper in there. I got right on it today, and the plumber was able to get here and get the job done in a matter of hours. Amazing! Now the new tub stopper (the actual problem) looks so clean and shiny, it’s putting the faucet to shame.

I also got a lot of papers and bills under control from yesterday’s paper-palooza and some books ready to be sent out, including the long-lost Russian books that finally arrived after our daughter took flight. Fly away! I shocked myself by immediately filing our invoice copy from the plumber and shooting off an excellent review of his service while I could still remember it. Who am I?

I also called a carpet cleaner who will be able to clean the bedroom carpets two days before my husband’s sisters arrive. This is great for two reasons: first, I’ll have to have those rooms cleared out by then (artificial deadline), and secondly, the rooms will be all ready, better than vacuumed, before my usual pre-company freakout can set in. My older daughter said she had read somewhere: “Sometimes all you’ve gotta do is call a guy. But you do have to call the guy.” So very true.

I’m on a roll, Baby!

And I’m seeing the light!

September 1, 2014 by clumpaday

A Whole Lotta Shreddin Goin On

Uncategorized
Dustin, Fall Leaves, Life, Paper Clutter, Photos
Leave a comment

Clump #226: Sort massive clump of papers and start doing something with them; day 22 of the 30-day challenge.

Just as seasons do not change in a day,

so, too, our killer paper pile will not be vanquished today. But my husband and I made substantial progress.

I’d say over half of it is either filed, ready to be mailed, or …

SHREDDED! (In my head I’m hearing a lead guitar shredding out a lightening-fast solo.)

Yesterday’s comic strip, Dustin, by Steve Kelley & Jeff Parker summed up our previous state of affairs. (“Seriously, Kudlick, what are you looking for in all that mess?” “My organizer.”)

The sense of knowing where every piece of paper might be in our house right now is downright thrilling. (Please don’t laugh … Clump A Day thrills are real thrills.)

Must hold on!

Clump A Day

postcards from the clogosphere

Month / September 2014