Intervention

We all have our weaknesses.

She says she's cleaning a drawer a day, but I think my mom has been carefully--even strategically--avoiding one particular drawer. Drumroll, please...

The Tupperware drawer.

I was unassumingly emptying the dishwasher last week when I stumbled upon an entire sleeve of Chinese food containers.

My immediate reaction? "Oh my god, count those so we can put it on the blog."

The Vidmar household was hoarding not one, not 12, not 25, but THIRTY THREE hot-and-sour soup containers. (In their defense, every dish on the Chinese food menu comes in one of these containers, so you only have to order Chinese food a few times to start accumulating them. But still--you don't need to KEEP them ALL!) I encouraged my mom to get rid of them, and she became distressed.

"But, what will I do? Where will I put my stuff? I hate to think of them just being recycled!"

Okay, so you can keep three and we're giving the rest to your BFFs at Purple Heart.

This solution proved acceptable, since Purple Heart is scheduled to come to our house every Monday from now until the end of time. Don't worry, they still have two dozen other Tupperware containers of various sizes and shapes...plenty of places to "put their stuff." The Vidmars have now parted ways with 30 hot-and-sour soup containers...along with two large trash bags full of random stuff that was in my closet. Like I said, we all have our weaknesses. Sometimes you just have to stage an intervention.

My Nightmare

I have decided to tackle my nightmare.

Handsome Husband was a news reporter for one year after college.  He fancied himself a photographer as well.  He takes a lot of pictures.   If one picture of a child engaged in some worthy activity is good, then 50 taken that day will be better.  And in the days of film, he always ordered duplicates of the whole rolls.  Too much trouble to pick out the good pics and go back for duplicates to send out to friends and relatives.

This cabinet (it's very deep) contains only a few years worth of photos.  Perhaps you can tell that they are in no order.  Many times over the years, people have gone through them to look for something, pulled everything out of envelopes, and left big piles of unrelated photos swirling around in the cabinet.  I have made previous attempts to do something with this mess, but I have been hampered by

1.  HH's absolute refusal to allow any photo, no matter how bad, to be thrown away;
2.  My own inability to identify the subjects of many photos, thus, I can't really organize them and don't want them in a book;
3.  My own laziness;
4.   Every school project, funeral, etc., which requires going through the photos, leaves me with a big pile of unidentified pictures spanning an entire generation.
5.  No one else seems to care.
6.  The door of the cabinet will still close.

In previous attempts, I have labeled the envelopes with a year and some general description.  I have also labeled the boxes by year.  None of this helps.

I should mention that the friends and relatives, who were happy to receive pics over the years, have begun to clean up their own lives.  Some of these people have decided to send the pictures back to us rather than throw them away.  (!!??!!)  I know they mean well.  But do not allow this strategy to take hold in your family.

And what do you do with the negatives?

Before you decide that the age of digital photos is better, you should see my computer files.  Same problem.  And HH will not even allow the photos to be deleted from the SD cards after they are put on the computer.  So we have a collection of memory cards as well.

Now you see why I call it a nightmare.

A Lot of Catching Up to Do

Please comment on the following questions:  Are you keeping up with the drawer-a-day program?  How do you make up for skipped days, or don't you bother?  

I'm back!!

For the past week, I've been living out of a suitcase.  It's been all I could do to keep my clean clothes separated from my dirty clothes, and my biking clothes (sometimes smelly) separated from my other clothes.  We moved hotels 4 times, so I feel a bit like I've been doing a drawer a day - it's just been the same drawer, i.e. suitcase, every day.

I arrived home to find my house in good order (Thanks, girls!), so there are no immediate crises back home.  But you know how it is when you've been away for a time.  I have to adjust to this time zone and figure out where I left off in my projects.

I think my plan this week is to count some of my "back-from-trip catching up" as drawer catching up.  This illustrates, to those of you new to the Drawer a Day concept, that you define your own method of compliance.  So today, I define my "drawer" as my dining room table, full of mail from last week.   Maybe I'll even count emptying out my suitcase, which is full of flyers and mementos as well as clothes and shoes.

Important questions:  Should I do two things every day for ten days to make up for being away, or plan a big day to do ten extra things? Or should I just give myself a break and skip it?  

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Hey, no judgement

I just spent an hour rearranging my bookshelves into the following categories: food, music, sports, science, disadvantaged children, humor, "classics," murder and war, fantasy and young adult fiction, travel, and things by the same author. I have two six-foot-tall bookshelves in my apartment, and I ended up with only one shelf of books that could not fit into one of these categories.

I also found eight books to donate/lend, so I think this project fits under the "drawer a day" umbrella.

But I do feel a little silly for spending so much time organizing something that didn't really need to be organized. I pulled the eight books to give away off the shelf FIRST...I could have donated them and been done with it. No one will ever notice that my murder and war shelf is right above my fantasy and young adult fiction shelf. They might just think that I am really weird for having such shelves in the first place. (But, I mean, I really think everyone should read In Cold Blood AND The Chronicles of Narnia, so whatever.)

I texted my best friend from college that I think there might be something wrong with me because this is how I'm apparently spending my Saturday afternoon, and this was her reply:

"I just organized all of my parents' DVDs by genre and then alphabetically within each genre. You'll get no judgement from me."

Garage Majal

Handsome Husband (HH, for short) purchased a new oriental rug last week.  It is a handsome specimen, 10' x 12', in rich colors of tan, burgundy, brown and black.  It doesn't go with any of my furniture, but that's okay - it's for the garage.

It is football season, after all, and everyone knows that a man cave needs an oriental rug.  And the best television in the household.  And some "wine furniture."

HH says that the TV helps to keep the garage clean.  When it's not football season, he likes to loop Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, The Godfather, and Deliverance DVDs.

But like The Shadow,  I know what evil lurks in the drawers of the man cave.

Some drawers are not mine to clean.   So if you are looking for a tool in my house, ask me.  I keep a tool kit under my bed.

But I have tackled some of the cabinets.  Heaven knows that important items, like Mardi Gras beads and  holiday lights in colors suitable for Ravens or Packers football games, are stored here.  

Before

After

Like all of us, I have a few hard choices to make, deciding whether to keep things for grandchildren who have yet to exist

But it's all under wraps.  Don't be surprised if you come to my house and we offer you a drink in the garage.   Unlike Prince Harry in Vegas, you can feel comfortable accepting.  

Follow the Money

--> I loaded up my little car with all the financial relics of my life from 1974 to 1999 and drove the crumbling boxes over to the parking lot at Catonsville UMC on Saturday and dumped a mountain of paper into a large trash bin that would be poured into a truck where I presume they had the shredder.

Gone are pay stubs, receipts, insurance reports, bank statements, cancelled checks, and stacks of financial forms. Gone too is the proof that, during the 70's and into the 80's, I lived on less than Mother Teresa, bought my first house for $13,000, (it was a handyman's special – too bad we weren't handy,) was an early adopter of both the TI 86 and Commodore 64 computers, purchased every He-Man action figure and Castle Grayskull, bought wrapping paper for every PTA Fundraiser between 1987 and 1999, and paid out tons of tuition to music teachers, gymnastics instructors, driving schools, and tutors for any subject that ended in "ology." Of course, no one has ever asked me to prove any of those things, particularly in the last 12 years.

Happily, I have gained a large hole on a shelf in my attic. I'm hoping to enlarge that hole by daring to rid myself of documents from this century. There will be another shredding event at Green Valley Marketplace, 7280 Montgomery Road in Elkridge on Oct. 27 from 1-4 p.m. If you missed the one on Saturday, this is another chance to get rid of those pesky old boxes.

True Confessions of a Basket-aholic

Yes, it it true. I did not believe it at first but I suffer from a rather unusual affliction. I love those cute little multi- colored, many sized organizing baskets.  I am particularly drawn to those on the smaller end of the scale in florescent colors, most often used in drawers/ sometimes linen closets. No matter what the collection of useless, broken, obsolete items packed into a drawer, it all looks so much better if corralled into an adorable fuchsia basket. Says me.

The discovery was made when I happened by the Target Dollar Bin section and purchased three new collections. Having replaced baskets in Kitchen Junk Drawers #1 and #2, started upstairs to tackle the linen closets.  Truth be known, the baskets that were already there were in fine shape, a result of last year's DaD replacement program.

More distressing, the stack of yet unused baskets found on the top shelf of BOTH linen closets.

No more baskets for me.I vow not to buy another until I downsize to Charlestown.
Or perhaps next year. whichever comes first.
After all, they are soo damn cute!

I'll Eat My Way Out!

My kitchen cabinets are filled with healthy foods. I have all kinds of beans, quinoa, lentils, miso, and bulgur. I also have gourmet items - sun dried tomatoes in special oils, risotto, flavored vinegars and oil and  a variety of exotic rices. Problem is, what I buy, and what I actually eat, have little relationship to each other. The pantry cabinet is so stocked with stuff I should eat that there's no room for the food that I actually do eat. So...as a part of the drawer-a-day project, I'm trying to eat my way through the food clutter. Each day this week, I've made it a point to plan a meal that uses at least two of these orphaned food items. Tonight we're having the tortilla soup mix which came in a carton that's about the size of a shoe box and its passing will free up a lot of valuable real estate. I'm just hoping it's better than the lemongrass corn soup we ate on Monday.
If anyone has a recipe for a meal that includes bulgur, pumpkin pie puree, coconut milk, sun dried tomatoes, mincemeat and black eyed peas in one dish, I'm all ears!

Have a Heart

Let's assume for the moment that you CAN bear to give things away.  Maybe after cleaning out a few drawers or shelves you have some things in good condition that you know you can't use.  It would be kind, after all, to let other people use them .

If you don't have a charity of choice to give them to, may I suggest a charity that makes your life a lot easier?  

My mother always gave things to Purple Heart, so there's a little sentiment involved.   Remember when the little old ladies used to call on the telephone and say something like, "We're going to have a truck in your neighborhood next Friday.  Do you think you might have some things for us, dearie?"  There was always a term of endearment tacked on to the end of the sentence, spoken in a kind voice by a woman you'd never met.  Who could say no?

I liked that personal touch, but the new system is even more fantastic.  Now, if you live in Maryland at least, click on  www.purpleheartpickup.org.  You put in your zip code, and up pops a list of dates.    You choose the one that is convenient for you, tell them where you are going to leave your items, and choose a donation size.  They will take as little as one box or bag. (They don't take furniture or large items.)   Click on "Schedule a Pickup" and voila! there will be a truck in your neighborhood that day.   You can do this serially, not even waiting for one pick up before you schedule the next.  So you don't have to leave things sitting around for very long.

Purple Heart came yesterday.  This was the pile in the morning.  It grew a bit by the end of the day.

And by the evening, it was all gone.  Now that's my idea of a good time.

I've already scheduled a time for them to come back on Friday.  I think I will have a few more things by then.  I just imagine the kind little lady voice thanking me for my help, and maybe telling me a little bit about her troubles.

You can call me "dearie."

Tangled up in...surge protectors?

Over the weekend, I had a friend over and we decided to check out the blog (we were lurking). I have to say, I laughed so hard that now I feel like I couldn't possibly have anything to contribute that could be as clever as what's already going on. I think my time would be better spent trying to secure the other contributors a book deal. Or a radio spot. Something. My favorite entry so far? THIRTEEN PASSPORT HOLDERS!!! Close runners up: putting your cords in plastic bags "so they don't breed," and saving construction paper for grandchildren who have yet to exist. It's all just too great. 

I've moved ten times in the past seven years. I usually move before I get a chance to accumulate clutter. I still have too much stuff, I just don't have a lot of surprise clutter. I mean, other people might be surprised to see the number of t-shirts in my dresser, but they don't surprise me.

The only surprise discovery of my most recent move? Enough extension cords and surge protectors to lap my entire apartment. I do not and will not need a surge protector, because I am no longer living in a dorm room where I need to plug 37 electronic devices into two outlets. So I gave them to one of my students who just started college last week. Problem solved. I did start to wonder, however...where did all these cords come from? I certainly did not purchase them. Then I remembered who helped me move, at least a few times...my father.

Anyway, one of my top-five organizational problems is what to do with jewelry, especially long necklaces. I can't hang them in the closet, or I forget they're there. I can't put them in a box, or they become tangled and useless. I'm kind of over the look of command hooks. So...I just have a pile of inexpensive, useless, tangled jewelry that's not sitting in a box OR hanging on an ugly hook. Instead, it's just giving me anxiety because I don't know what to with it. Perhaps the solution is to stop wearing long necklaces...but since I am a moderately trendy recent college graduate, that is not an option. I need to hang on to the Forever 21 dream for as long as possible.

This problem is definitely silly. But it's also an easy problem to fix. I think I have a plan, and I think it's a good one. Now is the time. I'll keep you posted.

But first I have to bag the rest of my cords so they don't get any ideas.

A Woman with a Lot of Baggage

We've been away at the beach so my cleaning was limited to the glove compartment of the car and my travel make-up bag. Small wonder that I have not mastered the art of traveling light. I had enough dried out, not-so-moist towelettes to clean up after a preschooler's birthday party.
As I was putting away the suitcases I decided to tackle the luggage section of the attic. Good news...If I ever have to move all of my worldly possessions, I apparently have enough luggage to pack it all up. Nine large suitcases, four overnight bags, a half-dozen gym bags and dozens of canvas totes. I also found 13 passport cases. The extra 11 could come in handy if I ever go into the spy business and need to assume multiple identities, but I set aside that possibility and threw the extras in the donate pile.
Also taking up valuable real estate in the attic is our tax returns for the 70's, 80's and 90's. I saw in the Catonsville Times that there will be a shredding event at Catonsville United Methodist Church on Sept. 15 from 10 am to 1 pm. I'm hoping I can get Tom to part with these relics of our financial pasts.

Comfort in chaos

Am really trying to conform to this drawer purging but realize I am oh so comfortable in chaos, it's homey, it carries the history of a family.  This explains how when I attacked the first kitchen cabinet and found every color of construction paper, my first thought was oh but the kids might need it! There is real comfort in knowing where to find construction paper when the need arises. Never mind the kids left grade school 9 to 16 years ago. Then the next logical thought was "Oh but what if the grand kids need it?" Then I realized we don't have any grand kids. Am embarrassed to admit these thoughts actually went through my mind. Reluctantly,  that paper was carted to recycling
If  the Board of Health isn't summoned to my house at 99 years old I do have you all, my faithful Drawer a Day friends to thank for starting me on the straight and narrow.

T-shirts galore

Having gotten a late start on this drawer cleaning thing, I decided to tackle 3 shelves in my wardrobe today, comprised of pjs and T-shirts. Here are the T-shirts I found: 7 UMD, 3 UDel, 2 AMS, 6 Ravens, 15 souvenir places, 7 Catonsville, 5 charities, 1 YMCA, 4 reading promotion, and 2 unmarked. In other words, 52 of them, which isn't even all I have, as some are downstairs in a tub. This isn't a brag, but a confession. If I ever in your presence start to purchase another T-shirt, please intercede.

Saran Wrap/Tin Foil, Beverage accoutrement drwer

Total count= 1 box SW; 1 box TF...17 church keys, 4 wine openers, 4 bottle stoppers. The good news, if Armageddon strikes, we have the tools to open the most important provisions.

This is a test. Only a test.
I believe I now understand the blog thing.Or maybe not. But I think if one "comments" after the blog entry, it does not become part of the rolling conversation~ others can see your quippy comment only if they open that item.  If you want to be featured on the overall page, you must create from the tool bar? Yes? Let;s see.
This is only a test.

PS. Found $50 AMEX Gift Card in the "spare keys to nothing drawer" in the DR buffet. That and 3 Southwest drink tix and several AmVet receipts....anyhow, I think it is $50...anybody's guess as to whether cash is loaded on it. I was adding two keys that surfaced in my multi-use jewelry box. Always good to know where all the keys are that belong to nothing. Keys that go to something are in the pantry.
Rule # 65 You can never ever throw out a key.
Rule #66 You can lose keys, numerous times~PERMANENTLY~ especially if they belong to your mother and go to either her car, the Suburban, or the house. Especially fun to do on important dates, when people have to be places, and always great to leave the house in time to avoid the fallout. Feel free to remove said keys from key-rings that are not yours.  Must be 21 or younger to play.

One Man's Junk . . .

I detest yard sales.

But every year, during the great drawer clean-out, my neighborhood has its annual Community Yard Sale.  This year, it is just a few days away, Saturday, Sept. 8.  The scheduled time is 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., although any yard sale aficionado knows that some ghouls - I mean guests -  arrive earlier and most sellers pack it in by about 11:30.  

My husband likes the yard sale.  He hardly ever sells anything of his own because he believes that all of his junk is really treasure, and puts prices like $50 on things.  He will, however, give my stuff away for $0.10, because he believes that all of my slightly pre-used items are really junk (even if they are actually worth something).  And I just keep my fingers crossed that he won't scour the neighbors' tables and bring home different treasures.  Those cigarette lighters from the '60's really are not going to be valuable in the future.

Even I have to admit, however, that the yard sale provides a unique opportunity for the drawer cleaning set.   So I have developed a set of rules:

1.  If you care how much it sells for, you must sit there and sell it.
2. "The frame alone is worth that."
3.  Running through the house and finding things to sell while people wait outside is encouraged.
4.  Once it is put on sale, it never comes back into the house.
5.  The trip to Goodwill at noon is always followed by lunch at Five Guys.

Seriously, if you want to set up a table here on Saturday, we will be here (unless it rains).   The community has been advertising the sale for a while, so we usually have some buyers.

Or you can just join us at Five Guys.

Charged Up

Here's the conversation:  

"Do you know what this cord is for?"

"Yeah, it came with [here he might fill in the blank, or just look blank.  Either way . . .]  Don't throw it away." 

Cords come in white (more likely to go with Apple products) and black (everything else).  The ones we really use are plugged into outlets all over the house, where they just live until someone plugs a gadget into them.  But every year in September I find extra cords scattered in drawers around the house.  There's a box of them upstairs in the office.  There are baggies of them in the kitchen drawers.  My only strategy so far is to try to keep them in containers.  Perhaps then they won't breed.  

We have a winner!!

Day 2:
Let the games begin. A day behind, two easy drawers, and looking for a positive start, delved headlong into the "kitchen towels, playing cards, bunny ear wine opener- drawer" reluctantly....and imagine my surprise upon finding an envelope of stale dated coupons...sharing space with three twenties and a five!!! G immediately insisted the dough was his- sorry pal.  At this rate, 96 drawers and 88 days to go...I may well have enough to cruise down the Danube by Christmas. May you all be handsomely rewarded in your endeavors.

Please to report the "votive, rolling pins, and apron- drawer" in good shape since last year. Doesn't mean I haven't cooked; rather means I don't care much about those fine work clothes. Do I need 9 aprons, you ask? Well, plan is to host a Ladies Individual Souffle Lunch party at some point in the years ahead. Really, how cool would it be be issued your own apron and a cute little souffle dish.

Two days, four drawers, one question: Why did I think it was necessary to save every cardboard emery board I have used?

Getting started

It's the first of September.  Maybe you've let some things slip during the free-wheeling, oh-heck-it's-summer days of July and August.  Maybe you've been looking forward to cleaning up a few messes.  Maybe, if you are like me, you've even saved a few messes just for September.  

I'm sure that no one has a drawer that actually looks like this one.  

But whatever you want to straighten out, it's time to get started.

If you are new to this program, here is the only real rule:  Clean out one drawer* a day.

*How to define a "drawer" is up to you.  It may be a shelf, a box, the glove compartment in your car, an envelope full of receipts, or even a computer file.  We don't care.  Write a post or a comment about it if you have an interesting definition of "drawer."

And do something every day.  If you are too tired to tackle something big, do something easy that day.  If you miss a day, don't get derailed.  Find two things to do another day.

I like to start on September 1 and continue until Thanksgiving, or until the holiday craziness takes hold and I just can't do it anymore.  You might want to wait until after Labor Day, if you like to hang on to those last days of summer, and stop on Halloween.  Your choice.  Think of this as a 60 to 90 day project, not a lifetime commitment.  There will be other projects for the holidays, resolutions to break in January, and things to keep you busy on into next summer.  But in the meantime, 60 to 90 places in your life will be a little neater.

I'm still at the beach today.  I cleaned a drawer in the kitchen here.   I might clean out the trunk of my car tomorrow.  It's all good.

Happy September, everyone!
Sheila