Strata

[stoutfellow]

It really is amazing what things turn up when you start clearing away the debris that accumulates in the home of a moderately lazy housekeeper.

I'm working on diminishing the piles of recyclable cardboard - mostly boxes, from Amazon and other such dealers - and the dinner table is beginning to be visible again. (I normally eat standing up in the kitchen.) So far, I've discovered the chopsticks that came with my wok, a number of books (including G. H. Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology and a Library of America volume of Ben Franklin's lesser-known works), and a solicitation from a charity, dated Feb. 16, 1999. There was also a CD-ROM drive that I never got around to installing; it was already creakingly slow by the standards of the day when it arrived, and would be an embarrassment to any self-respecting computer today. Old wall calendars, set-up instructions for computer games I haven't played in years, and an assortment of keepworthy magazines round things out.

If I can keep this up, I may have the chaff out of the house by the end of the year. The next step will be to get some more bookcases and storage for tapes and DVDs, to get all of those off the floor and tables. Then and only then will I be able to think about actually cleaning the place.

Five-Year Plan, anyone?

Comments

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

This made me laugh!

"It really is amazing what things turn up when you start clearing away the debris that accumulates in the home of a moderately lazy housekeeper."

And it takes one five times longer than expected, because one must also *read* everything that surfaces - after all, you kept it for a reason, even if you now don't remember why - or play with the new-found objects.

That is also how I came to discover the stuff from my grandfather...my mother keeps a very clean house, made easier by virtue of the habit of stuffing things into boxes when they arrive, placing them where they are not in view, and then handing them on to *me* when she wants the space! And I, as a mesquite seedling having fallen not so far from the Mother Tree, place the unopened box in a place (hopefully) that the Teflon Spouse will not feel compelled to zen-ify, thus having no idea of the treasures contained within, since the written description on the outside of the box rarely jives with the actual contents.

"I'm working on diminishing the piles of recyclable cardboard - mostly boxes, from Amazon and other such dealers, and the dinner table is beginning to be visible again. (I normally eat standing up in the kitchen.)"

Were you keeping them in case they came in handy to mail something? Or did you just forget to put them in the recycling bin? I keep boxes to put presents in or to mail future stuff, but I would draw the line at having to eat standing up!

"The next step will be to get some more bookcases and storage for tapes and DVDs, to get all of those off the floor and tables. Then and only then will I be able to think about actually cleaning the place."

Do you have an IKEA nearby? Or even pine boards from a Home Depo[si]t Your Money with concrete blocks works...

If you ever do get to cleaning the actual surfaces (g), Mr. Clean has a product out that I have become totally enamored of. Magic Eraser is a sponge treated with something (probably radioactive) that literally makes dirt and grease jump onto the sponge. Strong wiping with it replaces what used to take hours and lots of elbow grease to get rid of. Maybe it will still be around in five years (g)!

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Were you keeping them in case they came in handy to mail something? Or did you just forget to put them in the recycling bin?

Not exactly either. I'd broken them all down, preparatory to recycling, but they have to be bundled or bagged, thus requiring other supplies (twine or paper bags) that I don't always have available. Throw in my standard procrastination, and the Murphyesque Law that the time needed to deal with a problem is proportional to the square of the time you've been putting it off, and, well...

As for bookcases: I've gone the blocks-and-planks route before, and I've used cheap bookcases too. But the former are ugly and the latter break. I want good sturdy hardwood cases. There is - or used to be - a good furniture store in Collinsville that I patronized after I first bought my house, but I haven't been down there in years. I'll check there first, when the time comes.

Thanks for the cleaning suggestion!

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

"But the former are ugly"

Ah, bookcases only their mother could love! That's what I've just done with the rescued shelves from the family room. They are now separated by concrete blocks and live under Kipper's window. They don't look *too* ugly to me, but perhaps it's because I just see the books in them (g)!

[filkferengi]

Think Nasfic. We'll be there with a rental car, & the lawyerspouse can't be at ballgames the *whole* time. He's generous to a fault, always willing to help out, & has a certain amount of experience in putting together bookshelves.

Just sayin'. :)