Woman vs. Stuff -
Can this house ever get organized?
Problem:
My possessions have sex in the basement every night, and multiply like rabbits. Or I'm a slut housekeeper.
Solution:
Maybe public humiliation???
Scorecard so far:
First floor: quite livable
Second floor (bedrooms): pretty awful
Basement: total disaster
Attic: fortunately, we don't have one
So I've started with the easiest stuff, of course:
Challenge #2: The Magazines
« Before picture: About 300 magazines
(tip: If you are going to buy a pile of old Gourmets at a yard sale for $.10, don't keep them for 20 years until they smell like mildew.)
********** SUCCESS! **********
» After picture: Most magazines recycled. Interesting images cut out and put into notebooks for design references.
Still to do:
Challenge #3: The Paperwork
« On the left is the paperwork that still remains on the first floor. Doesn't look that bad, really. But the trap is that most items require decisions or actions or phone calls, all toxic to a procrastinator.
» On the right is all the rest of the un-ordered paperwork, exiled to the basement. It was organized under the basic Ping-Pong Table Method in this picture - neatly covering the entire top of the table - but then somebody decided to actually play ping-pong, so it is in much worse shape now, if that were possible. Too boring to ever think of organizing, except that it contains some vital stuff within the morass.
Challenges #4 - #1000: Intractable Messes
Most of these messes are too embarrassing to publish. Here is one that isn't all that bad, all things considered - the laundry/workroom area.
Estimated time to clean all the messes:
10 years or so at the current pace. Reducible to 1 month with heavy use of dumpster and sane decision-making. Unlikely, however.
Challenge #1: The Books
« Before picture: Lots of books, some magazines, stacked on the floor
********** SUCCESS! **********
» After picture: Floor clear - many books were given away, room found for all remaining books to be shelved.