The All-New Bunrab

My niece Hanna came to visit with me for a few days last week, and volunteered to help me go through stuff. We didn't get mountains done, but we did get a couple of very important molehills cleared. First, we cleared off the folding table in the sewing room, so that the guest bed could actually be opened. And then we listed the folding table on Freecycle and found a new home for it almost immediately. (This still leaves me with two folding tables left, BTW, which are folded and in closets rather than unfolded and collecting junk.) Then, we cleared off the dining table, so I can now have people over for tea or even a meal. A few people, anyway - it's still a tiny table, and the dining room is tinier than it should be because of the huge sideboard which I hadn't meant to have follow me here from the house. And then, we started in on a few of the boxes in the box room (the third bedroom, the one which is also home to Fern and the piggles). First, we cleared out a plastic rolling cart - and that's currently waiting for its Freecycle taker to pick it up. Then, I started in on a big box which turned out to be some of my files from the 70s and early 80s - tax returns, check registers, etc - and a whole bunch of cards - birthday and christmas, mainly, also from the 70s and early 80s. Most of that stuff went into the "shred" pile; a shoebox' worth of greeting cards still to be sorted through for personal messages is still in the room. Make a note of that shred pile.

Then, also from the storage unit, a two-drawer file cabinet, full of all of Steve's and my files from the 80s and 90s - every pay stub Steve had ever received from the City of Austin, all our tax returns, all our electric and gas and water bills from Austin, homeowners insurance documents from our houses in Austin...so again, most of that could go in the "shred" pile immediately. Altogether, we filled three bankers boxes of stuff to shred, and one box of stuff I want to scan before shredding, so that I have some small record of it.

And then we took the three boxes of papers over to Sir Speedy in Linthicum and had them run it through their big shredder in three minutes flat, instead of having it sit around the house waiting for me to run it through 3 sheets at a time in my tiny, very noisy, shredder, which would have taken several days of several hours apiece. It was worth every penny to have it disappear that fast, and every penny was still under $20. So it's not still sitting here, silently in the way, reminding me of unfinished stuff. And now I know where I can take the next load of similar stuff, instead of trying to force myself to shred a boxful myself and hating the waste of time. Definitely a victory. Oh, and the file cabinet went on Freecycle, had an immediate taker, and is now out of my way.

And we found three more boxes of paperback science fiction, out of which I kept about 30 books and about 200 went to Goodwill. Stuff that Steve liked that I didn't, incomplete series, nothing valuable or collectible or important. Just straight to Goodwill, along with the contents of an entire box which was full of unopened kits for cross-stitch christmas ornaments. Some of those were expensive kits in their day. But if I haven't gotten to even opening them in 25 or 28 years, I'm not going to - and it's not like I don't see three more similar boxes we didn't get to.

And then Hanna and I met up with Cindy to go to an art gallery opening and a fancy dinner, and on Sunday Hanna came with me to a concert the Montgomery Village band was playing at a retirement community, and then I put her back on a train to Pennsylvania. The whole process of commuter rail and Amtrak is so easy up here, and since Hanna qualifies for disability discounts, it's cheap, too, so I believe we will repeat this a few more times! Meanwhile, she starts back up in her freshman year at Temple next week, so she just has this week to get through at home with her noisy siblings. It is one of the features of being from a large family, that college dorms are downright peaceful and uncrowded by comparison! Fewer people to share a bathroom with! She's enjoying that feature as much as I did my freshman year.

This week, so far, I've done nothing except crochet. I need to take the Christmas tree down, don't I?

I have been sick for the last few days, with something vaguely flu-like and an overlay of ragweed pollen allergy (hay fever) to add to the fun. So I haven't done much, and I am once again behind on reading my flist. Sorry! And, the pile of books on the desk has just been stacking up, without me doing much about it. So here's some bookblogging to try and catch up:

Does this Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? by Peter Walsh - his premise is that being a packrat and being overweight are psychologically related, and some of his already published books about getting rid of clutter can also be used to help you lose weight. Interesting premise, some food for thought (pardon the pun), but of course, no one's going to de-clutter OR lose weight just by reading a book.
Saturn's Children by Charles Stross - a fast-moving space opera, read my amazon.com review here.
Life Sucks by Jessica Abel , Gabe Soria, and Warren Pleece - a graphic novel about vampires, read my amazon.com review here.
Dark Watcher by Lilith Saintcrow - fantasy involving witches, not a whole heck of a lot of plot and the characters are somewhat cardboard; it's there mostly for the romance, which itself is pretty lightweight. An easy read, but not something I'd drive out of my way to find.
1001 Books for Every Mood by Hallie Ephron - an interesting annotated list, read my amazon.com review here.

Thanks for checking out those Amazon.com reviews, friends! Keep the Yes buttons clicking!

I haven't looked at LJ in what, 10 days? We've been moving. We are mostly moved now. I just finished sewing the living room curtains (yes, at 1:30 a.m.), and I've finished one crocheted throw rug, and I've got two of the mug racks up on the kitchen walls, and the under-cabinet knife holder and a few of the hooks for various utensils. squirrel_magnet has most of the stereo put back together, and a good chunk of the vinyl records unpacked and put on their shelves in order. All this, of course, does not mean that the place is not still a complete mess, full of boxes which are full of stuff we haven't clearly identified.

Anyway, I'm going to look at the last few days' worth of entries on my flist, and I'll try to dig deeper if I have time...

Recent reading:
Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine - very funny, with extremely cute goats. And even a few actual words of wisdom about trying to use less oil, eat locally, and get off the grid.

The movers show up Friday morning at 8:30, so we have actually had to start packing, and perhaps we're even getting a bit frantic at this point. So that's what I've been doing instead of LJ - along with getting the last few repairs done at the new house, and making curtains, and stuff like that.

The last of the plumbing problems have been fixed - leaks, shutoffs, washer-dryer connections. Still a few minor electrical things but nothing dangerous or unliveable, just need to get a few three-way switches for various rooms where the only light switch is in a ridiculous spot.

Some pictures will be posted Friday night, of the house with mounds of boxes in it.

I'm back from my weekend in NY. I feel good about accomplishing a lot at Sally's, but somewhat depressed about how much more there is to do, and how difficult it is to do it. Getting a compulsive packrat to stop buying and saving stuff is probably a task that needs a psychologist as well as a friend, and I'm not a psychologist. I'm probably the only person Sally would consider letting do the throwing-out I did (8 garbage cans full and a few extra bags after we ran out of garbage cans, plus 12 paper sacks full of paper to be recycled, plus 9 bags full of aluminum cans; I'm pretty sure the garbage will make it out to the curb for Wednesday morning pickup, and I took the aluminum cans to the recycling center myself before I left Monday afternoon, but I'm not sure the paper stuff will actually make it out of the house to the curb Thursday night for Friday's pickup.) I spent a lot of time reassuring her, showing her the expiration dates on food I was throwing out, and that I was putting any charge card solicitations in the bag for the shredder, not in the recycling, and that I was actually saving anything that was a bill or receipt or personal mail... I lost the battle on some of the candy. She gets a lot of Christmas gifts of candy from her students/clients (she's a physical therapist who works for a couple of different schools on Long Island), and saves them all - and doesn't recognize that even candy goes stale after a couple of years; she's saving it all, even the stuff she doesn't like, because she can "bring it to school for the kids."

More details later; I'm glad to be home. Stay tuned for comparison of Greyhound vs. Amtrak!