De-junking - not as easy as it sounds.

It's been two weekends now, and so far 14 boxes of mostly clothing have left, or are slated to depart for charity. I am sure there will be at least 8 more.

I didn't realized how many clothes I'd saved over the years. Some of them, I still can't let go. But I'm down to one box of "extra special priceless treasures". Such as a favorite shirt from junior high. My absolutely hottest dress (black spandex, and yes, it looked good at the time. A sweater that was my mom's from the 50's, and a flannel shirt she made that was originally my sister's.

However, I managed to part with such "priceless treasures" as the brown overalls I was wearing when I met The Saint the first time. And a shirt and nightshirt I wore on our honeymoon. My "PIF" shirt - which stood for Physics Is Fun. A highly controversial t-shirt from high school, due to the atomic bomb clutched in the talons of our eagle mascot. It was meant to be sarcastic - some people didn't get it. All those will have another life.

Also going away; all tiny clothes, even if I do get skinny I don't think sizes 5-10 will be in my future. Even if they do my tastes have changed since my 20's. I have pictures of me wearing them, that's enough.

At least a ton of stuff has gone in the garbage or to the dump - yes, it's true. Difficult throws have been the still-working, belt-slipping treadmill that always shocked me as I was working out. Non-working VCR's and CD players. Clothes charities don't want because they are stained, or ripped. I'm not sure if the difficultly comes from sentiment, or wastefulness, or the idea that good money is gone. Perhaps all of those, even though most of the "throws" were well-used.

Easy things to get rid of have been mementos - why did we have any wedding bells with Jordan Almonds inside? I mean, those suckers are 24 years past their shelf life! Also things such as a half bag of cedar chips from when we had small pets. A cabinet removed long ago from above the freezer that was too high to use. Straw sombreros.

I did find a plastic bathroom tote from a long-ago trip. Among such priceless treasures as extra toilet paper, toothpaste and shampoo I found my butane curling iron! It's really gone forever NOW, but I thought it had been discarded long ago. Yes, once I was so concerned with my hair I had a butane curling iron for those away-from-electricity mornings.

The boxes await - it is an adventure to see what "priceless treasure" rests inside, even if most of it is going away. I don't have to keep the item to keep the memories.

It's Time to Get Rid of Junk

We've lived in the same house for 21 years. While we are not complete and utter packrats as some folks are, we certainly have a share of "priceless treasures". You know them. Those items that are too good to throw away, but not anything you every use, or even look at.

My goal is to de-clutter our house. My ultimate goal is to get rid of 1/4 to 1/3 of all of our stuff. All those "priceless treasures", ultimately known as junk.

It will be much easier to find items we want to use, and can't find as they are buried under priceless treasures.

All the methods I have seen boil down to a fairly simple proceedure.

Set aside time.
All the books say you have to do what works for you. Some suggest a week.
I personally am not taking a week off to clean my house.
Some suggest one day per room.
I also don't want to spend an entire day of my precious free time cleaning.
I am planning on spending two hours on my days off - one on the designated room, and one on one of the two extra bedrooms. Trust me, the extra bedrooms are going to take at least 20 hours each to clear.

Now you get boxes, and label them.
Actually, I am bringing our big garbage can too. They suggest a box, but why sugar coat? Much of this stuff will be going into the garbage.

Garbage. Anything broken, dried up, partly used, ripped, torn, unusable. This includes clothing, and stuff that might be usable if it's fixed. If it isn't fixed now, it's not getting fixed. Recycleable stuff like old magazines that don't have anything written by either one of us.

One box for Goodwill. This will be good stuff we don't use anymore.

Another box; Treasures. Treasures are rarely-if ever used items, or those having a slight sentimental value. One treasure box per room only. This box is dated, and if left unopened for 6 months, off it goes to Goodwill, without being opened.

The Saint's box; since I am going to be going through The Saint's stuff too I am putting stuff he has to decide on in this box. He will have a month to look through it, then...off it goes.

Hopefully this will massively reduce the treasure in our house. Yeah, maybe I could sell on
e-bay or have a garage sale and ultimately make a few hundred bucks, but it isn't worth the hassle. I just want it gone. Ebay will be for later - objects I kept but decide next year I don't really use.

The final trick; now you have de-junked, nothing comes into the house without something else going. Buy a new thing - an old one goes in the charity box. This may not always be feasable in all cases. Books. Guitars. Clothes. Wish me luck.

And if you have any tips, let me know.

The most important writing tip of all.

I just spent four hours composing a blog; a thoughtful piece on basic writing techniques I find helpful.

I forgot the most important tip of all. Number one for anyone who writes on a computer. Save early. Save often.

Don't let four hours worth of work be virtually wiped out by a careless click of a mouse, and end up flipping out like I just did.

I may re-write the blog at a future date - for now I deleted the whole mess. I don't even want to look at the twitching remains. Which is probably all right anyway; usually the second re-write is better.

I have a feeling the whole thing was a pretentious mire of good intentions - at least I'm telling myself it was so I don't re-flip.

Remember. Save. SAVE. SAVE.

GAS otherwise known as "Guitar acquisition Syndrome"

I never thought it would happen to us. The Saint and I are a fairly ordinary couple. Except that we get along well 95 % of the time, and don't have kids. (I won't talk about the weekly gift.)

But no, one day we are discussing the make and model of our middle-aged crises car, and next thing you know The Saint has gotten an electric guitar. An inexpensive Fender Squire, with my encouragement, might I add. When TS and I got together, he played the guitar. He was no Eddie VanHalen, but he was certainly fun to listen too. Cool, I thought. I love having music in the house. I have fond memories of my dad playing while my sister and I sang as kids.

Next thing you know, he wants an acoustic, something cheap to play around with. Dad's Southern Jumbo Gibson (which TS inherited as the only guitar player in the family) was a bit too "Jumbo". "Cool" I said but added, "No, don't get a really cheap one, get the one you want. Don't think about price. Well, okay, don't think about price a lot. But, get something good." So he got a Martin.

So then, I started playing around with the guitar myself, thinking, "Hmm, this is kind of fun. Maybe I could learn how to play." Actually, I really liked a certain guitar. It was pretty, verry pretty....

Next thing you know, I am the owner of a 3/4 sized Art & Lutherie guitar. Although initially I decided I should at least know 6 songs before I got my own guitar, TS convinced me it might be easier for me to learn on a smaller guitar than his Martin. And he trades his Fender Squire in for a Epiphone (a good decision actually). Now fast forward to a few weeks later....I can play one song, and am working on number two, and....

We are a couple with GAS.

I can play one song, and am working on the second. But I have my eye on a couple of sweet acoustic/electrics. Unfortunately the "really pretty" guitar I fell in love with got universally bad reviews from all our guitar gurus. And TS, well, he wants an acoustic electric too, but he wants a different one that I do...GAS, it's a terrible thing.

VGimlet
Art & Lutherie 3/4 size all cedar (currently on loan)
Samick "LaSalle" JZ-2
wanted:Martin 000-28EC; Luna Moth

The Saint
Epiphone SG-400
Martin OOOM (spruce and mahogany)
Peavey T60
wanted:Martin something

Both
1956 Gibson Southern Jumbo
Taylor T5 (Custom blue burst)

People Who Dump Garbage are Scum

Last Friday I was taking a walk around my neighborhood. It's a neighborhood in transition at the moment. On one side of us are a mix of homes, dating anywhere from 1890 to 1990, some (like ours) with acreage, and on the other lurks the alley behind the strip mall. On my walk, I saw that our neighbor has once again become the victim of illegal dumping. Since the mall was built ten years ago, garbage and illegal dumping have become one of the many problems in our neighborhood.

When someone dumps garbage, it is the responsibility of the property owner to clean it up. Because of both easy access, and a lack of sight lines, many people now use our neighbors property as a free garbage transfer station. In addition it seems the strip mall employees sometimes join in the fun. Currently there are about 15 shopping carts and other assorted discards from the mall. Even worse are the items the illegal garbage-dumping scum leave behind at night.

From what I saw during my casual stroll, our neighbors' pond is currently being polluted by a computer monitor, a stove, several bags of mixed garbage and a pile of what look like unwanted toys. Even the King of the Misfit toys won't be coming for them. It's appalling.

And who pays? Who has to clean up? Our neighbor, in his 80's and on a limited income. His son, who comes over to clean up when he can. Even The Saint and I, who also pick up some of the garbage and haul it away as well. It's disgusting.

The mall was contacted a few years ago about removing their part of the mess, and assured us, and the local press, that they would remove it as soon as possible. The carts are still there, rusting away, and the garbage keeps piling up. The cars keep pulling up in the middle of the night, throwing their unwanted crap over the side, and making it someone else's problem.

A nice walk spoiled. A peaceful neighborhood - trashed again by garbage-dumping slime.