Category: my one word

Home Office: Post book purge

by Karen, posted in books, education, my one word, Work from Home
Post purge office bookcase

It took several days and lots of cold hard decision-making, but the purge is (almost) complete. It was interesting (and sad) for me to note that I had no less than 5 books about Simplifying My Life.

We don’t know when we’ll be transitioned to working at home but we’ve pretty much been told to be on standby for a couple of weeks already. This is stressful because I”m still waiting for the desk to be delivered!  It would be really helpful if the desk arrives before person who is installing the ergonomic keyboard tray does!  Hopefully that will come next week.

First I had the thought that I had to get honest about the books. How many are there, really? I got all the books from all the hiding places…I thought. When I was done I remembered a few more places that I was keeping books in the house and ferreted them out and added them to the (rapidly increasing) pile.

The next thought I had was this: I almost never reread a book (I definitely won’t re-read a novel).  This thought was followed by an epiphany: why, then, was I keeping any book I was sure I would never read again?

I didn’t know.

Next I thought, wouldn’t  having at least one bookshelf containing only books that I haven’t yet read be wonderful?  As would having empty space on the shelf to receive new books. Heaven.

Anyway, back to the book purge. Here’s what I did with them:

  1. I put a box out at the end of my driveway with a sign: “free to a good home”.
  2. I brought some to the library for their annual book sale.
  3. I made a gift of some of them to several friends.
  4. I brought some to Annie’s Book Stop, where they give you store credits in exchange for your used books.

Then I took the what was left, organized and shelved them. When I was done, I felt fabulous. Every time I’m missing one of the books I gave away, I remember the shelf on the book case that contains a little empty space now.

Bliss.

Setting up a home office, continued: the purge

by Karen, posted in books, my one word, Work from Home

I’ve been reading Mary Carlomango’s book Live More, Want Less slowly over a period of months. It’s organized into 52 chapters and my initial intent was to read a chapter a week (as the author suggested), then implement the “action items”  listed at the end of each chapter to help pare down my belongings, hopefully simplifying my life in the process. I started off okay, but then lost track of which week I was ‘supposed’ to be on, so now I’m picking it up occasionally and reading at random.

The chapter about books came at exactly the moment that I most needed it.  Currently I have books in many locations throughout the house. Now I am emptying out the room to use as an office that contained the bookcase and about half of our (okay, mostly my) books.  In our first home, we added on a room (not just for the books!)  and my husband had a bookcase built to fit on a wall that was very tall and very wide and accommodated all of my books: past, present, and future.  When we moved the big bookcase wouldn’t fit anywhere in the new house, so we found a smaller one at a yard sale which I am still using.

At first I thought I”d be able to reduce my collection and make it fit the space I had available,  and I did that. Unfortunately, over the years I have amassed books. I’ve been sort of stuck for the past few days as I tried to decide about what to do with not only the bookcase (where to put it in the now empty room) but also the books on it, on top of it, and in the basket along side it (full disclosure: there are more in my closet, under my bed, and in the built-in bookcase in the bedroom…oh, and in the kitchen!). When I posed this question to my husband, he said, “Maybe you don’t put the bookcase back in at all…”

That brought me up short.

Maybe I was asking the wrong question! What if I don’t put the bookcase back at all? In that case I would have (at least)one different question: What to do with the books?

To be continued…

Setting up a home office, Part Four: Flooring

by Karen, posted in my one word, Work from Home

We had a Berber carpet down in the room. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing except that it wasn’t a wood floor and that’s what we both really wanted. After we bought the house we planned to replace that floor at some point, and had been talking about it for about 5 years or so. We decided to view my “work from home” event as an opportunity to finally take the leap and replace the floor in the new office.

We went to Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Ben’s Flooring in Biddeford. We discussed the pros and cons of dark versus light wood, bamboo versus cork, hardwood versus Pergo. After several trips to evaluate the options. we both agreed to go with a darker wood, Maple? No… Hickory! Hickory it is.

But, Hickory it (ultimately) wasn’t. In the end, the most important factor wasn’t how well my husband and I could compromise on what we each liked best. In the end, the most important factor turned out to be this: What was available, could be installed in a timely  manner, and was within the budget we’d set.

Red Oak it is. Hey, at least we got the hard wood!

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My one word: April and May update

by Karen, posted in Midlife Crisis, my one word, Pantry Project, writing

April gone and it’s May already? I can’t believe it. It’s barely made it out of the 50’s here before today, for gosh sakes!

I am continuing to EDIT, focusing mainly on my time/schedule right now. I have kept to my resolve not to sign up for any classes or programs or anything since November~ well, except for a writing class. Since it directly related to my goal of finishing my book this year, it seemed a worthy endeavor.

I am finding that my alternate word from March (FOCUS) is in my mind as often as is EDIT…like a true clutter collector, I have managed to make my one word into two. But hey, if it gets me to where I’m going, then it’s all good, right?

I had hoped that I’d be almost finished editing my book by the end of April, but I was only about halfway through. My bookstore owner friend Sheila says that it can take years to edit a book, so I should give myself a break This made me feel better…and worse. Now I’m here at the end of May though, and I’m DONE! YAY!

I have continued to bring in books, magazines, and clothing to put on the ‘free’ table at work, but at a slower rate than I did in March. One good thing is that I have maintained the momentum I had picked up with editing my pantry/fridge/freezer. At least once a week I go through the food stores and make a meal (mostly) from what we have already. Sometimes I might have to purchase one or two items to round things out, but I’m still using up more than I’m bringing in. I think.

I have been multitasking less, but am finding that the less I do, the less I want to do. I’m not feeling more peaceful by doing less, as I’d hoped, but rather am feeling less productive and more stressed. My mission for June will have to be to find a happy medium between frenetic activity and slothful do-nothingness.

My one word: March update

by Karen, posted in family, Life in the cube, my one word, Pantry Project, tweens, writing

This is how March went:

  1. Changed sheets on bed: threw out excess of two sets (one set for the wash, one set for the bed is really all I need).
  2. Brought one book or magazine a day (well, most days) out of the house and gave away.
  3. Brought clothing that my daughter has outgrown to give to others who have daughters that are wearing that size now.
  4. Pared down what is in my work space in the cube to less than half of what had been there prior. If only I could lose as many pounds as my cube did this month!
  5. Unsubscribed from many of the automatic emails I was getting. Tedious, time-consuming clutter eliminated from my inbox!
  6. Working my way through  editing my manuscript… almost half finished!!!!

I am also wondering if my one word should change, or better yet, maybe I could keep the word “EDIT” since it seems to be working beautifully but consider it my major, like in college. Then I can add a minor (word), which is “FOCUS” (actually, this word was suggested by my husband; ‘nuf said).

I actually have been trying out my minor (word) this month and am finding it also to be a very effective tool.

Does having two “one words” mean I’m cluttering up my New Year’s Resolution? Will have to consider this. I guess I’ll see how it goes in April.

My New Year’s Word: February update

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, education, family, my one word, Pantry Project, tweens

Okay, so it’s March, not February. I meant to post this last month and just realized that I never did. One weekend, thinking about my New Year’s word which, as you may recall is “Edit”, I helped my daughter edit her room. We purchased risers to lift her bed up high enough to allow and underbed storage container to fit underneath. We dismantled the bed, vacuumed it all out, changed all the bedding.

My husband started during the week, working their way around the periphery (like at the supermarket? The way you’re “supposed” to shop to get the healthy food, right?). They attacked the furniture surfaces (read: clutter magnets) first: bureau, nightstand, corner table, desk. They next moved on to the closet, completing the top shelf and the floor.
I took over on the weekend, finishing the contents of the closet and all of the (5!) bureau drawers. When we were finished, we had 4 stuffed trash bags of things she didn’t need/want/use/wear anymore!

I was so motivated by how great her room looked that I proceeded on to do my own closet (well, most of it) and my (6!) bureau drawers. I took out 2 1/2 bags of cast offs.

I read the book : 30 Days to a Simpler Life by Cris Evat about 10 years ago, and still have it. Okay, okay, I save things. It’s what I do. My mother threw away everything, including all of my childhood belongings, and I guess that I responded to this by never throwing away anything (at least, that’s what my  husband will tell you!) but sometimes I really do need something that I haven’t used in 10 years! So I have my book out, dusted off, and am consulting it as a tool to help me with my objective for 2011: editing!

One of the most effective suggestions in this book, and the one I still use to this day, is this: go around the house (or you can focus on just one room; it’s up to you) with an empty bag and fill it. With what? With anything that you don’t need/love/use/want anymore. Anything that you can part with that will give you the gift of this: empty space. Go ahead, try it. The book suggests that you do it every day, but even if you only do it once, that’s still one whole bag less of clutter in your home.

Try to resist the urge to fill it back up right away (you know you’ll want to). 🙂