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

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Dustin, Fall Leaves, Life, Paper Clutter, Photos
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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!

August 31, 2014 by clumpaday

Paper Chains

Clump #225: Tackle box of swept-up papers and other clutter; day 21 of 30-day challenge.

I must confess to a Clump A Day roadblock. I was dreading clearing out this container of (mostly) paper all day today. The task was especially onerous because much of it was culled from previous clearings … a core clump, one might say, dense in its stubbornness. One might say many other less polite things, but I’ll just add that I spent most of the day doing anything else to avoid it. (“These plants need watering … immediately!”)

I finally got it pretty much sorted out, but there are a few piles I’ll need to consult with other family members about, and a “Do” pile, which will take a bit longer to make go away. More work for tomorrow. But two full bags of paper for recycling are inspiring.

This continues to be the hardest part of my Clump A Day journey: I perform a herculean paper purge, feel victorious, and then the tide comes roaring back … and I’m pulled under again. It’s been especially challenging this summer to keep up with the paper flow while away on vacation.

One such trip was to Boston, where my older sister and I spent a wonderful day at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In a fairly new “Monk’s Garden,” pictured below, circuitous paths — almost labyrinth-like — wound through beautifully varied greenery …

evoking lessons learned over and over again in an endless (?) loop.

August 30, 2014 by clumpaday

Birds of a Feather, Stored Together

Clump #224: Clear out catch-all box; day 20 of the 30-day challenge.

At first look, this box below seemed like a container with a certain logic: mostly office supplies.

But … No. It was clearly a soldier pressed into service during a company’s-coming-clutter-attack. A mishmash of all sorts of junk:

Since our younger daughter’s summer project to create logical areas of storage in the basement, I find it is satisfying to place office supplies with office supplies; Easter grass with the Easter baskets, etc., in their places down there. Even a tiny button is now with its compatriots in the vintage 1991 (our son’s infancy) baby food jar.

I considered giving away the Monday through Friday calendar note pad (unopened, unable to help me get organized), but I decided to actually give it a whirl, and placed it on my desk. Here goes!

And then came a tough one. A very old card I had found in a five and dime when I was a college student. The courtly language and pictures still charm me today, but do I need it?

It’s not in great shape, so I don’t even think it would be valued by a collector.

I can’t be so organized and streamlined that I omit things in my world that give me joy, like the one folder I’m keeping from yesterday’s file purge. It was put together by our older daughter when her hero was Jane Goodall.

The folder opened to another folder:

And then opened to reveal a dozen animal fact cards that, I’m sure, were sent to us to entice us to buy more. We didn’t bite.

One of the Honest Tea bottle cap quotes I unearthed gives me pause: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” –Charles Darwin.

I’m responding to change as best I can, while holding on to a few cherished things.

August 29, 2014August 29, 2014 by clumpaday

Antiques, Oddities, and Pretty Flowers

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Babies, Flowers, Life, Paper Clutter, Photos
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Clump #223: Comb through and recycle ancient file folders; day 19 of 30-day challenge.

The photo above of a blue poppy (from a botanical garden in Stavanger, Norway) is for two-year-old twins who, I was told, viewed this blog today. Crying “purple pretty flowers” over and over for five minutes while resisting a nap is the best “like” I’ve ever gotten. Babies were the theme of the day, like this shop sign my husband and I passed by, both sweet and creepy:

But then, it did go along with the general Antiques and Oddities motif of the store:

So … to the clump! An old, old, yes, antique, box of file folders, hideous in their out-of-date-ness.

They contained quaint things like preschool contact lists and actual written directions (before the day of the GPS):

I saved so many magazine and newspaper articles I know I won’t ever reread. A good lesson for the present and my continuous clipping habit. And speaking of clipping, a bit of sweet and creepy of our own: hair from our older daughter’s first hair cut (Awww):

And, finally, the box is empty and a pile of papers is ready for the recycling bag.

I vividly remember having tried the sunflower house, above. The idea was to sow sunflower seeds with morning glory seeds to make a cozy little house. I believe there’s a reason it is shown in a drawn illustration. It never looked this dense and wonderful, just leggy and ratty. Unlike the flowers that grow wild.

Purple pretty flowers!

August 28, 2014August 29, 2014 by clumpaday

On Angel’s Wings

Clump #222: Transport clump of junk to Fall Festival storage area; day 18 of the 30-day challenge.

So the thing about a big de-clumping project is this: things look worse before they look better. Exhibit A: part of the pile of stuff that was (past tense) clogging up our older daughter’s bedroom, the current repository for things to be given away. Most of it had been brought up from the basement to be sorted, or was handed over to me by a friend who was moving.

I filled our car with most of it today, and put it in a storage shed for the flea market-style fundraiser at our Quaker Meeting’s Fall Festival.

The basket below and its twin lived for years and years in the basement storage area. Why not let someone else have them and put them to good use? But they caught my heart at the last minute. I had bought them to fill with flowers to decorate our wedding ceremony. I just couldn’t give them away. I told myself if I kept them I’d really have to put them to use, but how? At this point in my life I’m not interested in containers of artificial flowers, or any such dust-collectors.

And then it hit me. What am I constantly struggling to control and corral? Magazines and newspapers! Hooray! It was a “You’ve had the power in your shoes all along” moment.

The newspaper on the top contained an article called “The angels who care and comfort in worst of times,” from The Philadelphia Inquirer about health care “angels.” Talk of angels seems to have a new-age reputation, associated with being “out there.” I loved seeing this biblical quote at the top of the piece:

Nothing flaky about Luke 22:43. Reassuringly solid. May you, as I have, feel strengthened by angels.

August 27, 2014 by clumpaday

Freeing Chi

Clump #221: Clear away piles of paper; day 17 of 30-day challenge.

Here’s proof positive that a clump can be cleared on a day of lethargy and low incentive. I really had to push myself for this one, but was rewarded with a few hidden gems:

I hadn’t remembered that I’d put aside the April (!) newspaper section containing an obituary for Mary Scottoline, “Mother Mary,” the mother of my favorite Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and mystery writer, Lisa Scottoline. I’d read about her for years through her daughter’s column, but I loved learning more facts of her life from the article. For instance, she was the youngest of 19 children. Wow. Understandably, she had to fight for attention.

This little snippet also lightened the work:

And the feng shui chi is saying “Merci …

we may now flow free!

Clump A Day

postcards from the clogosphere

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