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.