Friday, January 23, 2009

The great purge of 09 continued

These are random images
from this week
from my bedroom window
kinda like my life right now
random...images...and thoughts

I have the rare opportunity to go through everything I own, sorting, discarding, passing on and just getting a sense of what things are important to me. I feel like I have touched each and every thing in my house over the last 2 weeks and I am almost finished. Just 2 closets and then my art stuff (yikes!! I have been gathering it all up from where ever it has landed and the pile is growing) and I am done. And I have learned valuable lessons. Since I am a sharing kind of girl you get to know what I have learned about myself.
1. I should never be allowed to darken the doors of another art, craft, hardware, or office supply store ever again. Ever. Really. Or really allowed outside since I seem to pick up and bring home any shiny (or not) object that appeals to me. Who can leave a rock outside? That piece of rusty metal? Mine! Discarded bottle cap? Mine! Crow girl lives!!
2. I hang on to the weirdest things.
3. While I have always appreciated the help, I will do everything I can not to let other people pack things up for me again.
4. When something appeals to me, I buy it in every color I can find. (I learned that from my sister, at one point she had an identical red jacket in every size from 8 to 20... packed away just in case)
5. Things, while fun and exciting for the moment, don't make me as happy as they once did. But then, did having every single color of silly putty egg really make me that happy? I do know that all 309 slinkies (yes, that is the count, not an exaggeration!!!) make me very happy... still. Hey, they go down stairs, alone or in pairs, and make that slinkity sound! A spring! A spring! A marvelous thing!
6. I need a guardian. Or a gardener, that sounds like more fun.
7. You can have too many shoes.
Back to the trenches, as long as the trash bags hold out...

12 comments:

paris parfait said...

Well I have one friend who buys several identical pairs of shoes in the same size, if she really loves them. Personally, I would draw the line at bottle caps. But shiny and rusty things - bring them on! And 309 slinkies? Shouldn't that be in the Guiness Book of World Records? Shouldn't you call the local newspaper? The local museum? The local doctor? :) Good for you for sorting through all the stuff. I'm doing the same thing, rather slowly. Am determined to keep only the things I love (but that's a lot of things). Bon courage, as the French say! xoxox

studioJudith said...

I'm with Tara on the Slinky count ... . that's truly incredible! I also completely concur that I should never be allowed in another Michael's or HobLob. Jjjjjj
_______
p.s. Should my roller coaster life take that giant Miracle Leap - - I'll send you a ticket to join me at Lake Como :-)

moongipsies said...

You feckin rock. And you are not alone in the compulsive picking up of random things... or in the "should be banned from stores" category.
Love you bunches.

PS> Keep the slinkies.

christina said...

I am that way with shoes. If I find really comfy, cute ones. I buy more than one pair. ; )

Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio said...

I need to do that. I need to do that. What you're doing. I need to do that. Too many excuses. Too many distractions. I need to lighten the load. And when I do, I will think of you throughout my process and journey and that will give me the strength to get through it. Knowing that you did it.
309??? Wow.

Anonymous said...

Trash bags? Surely NOT! This is not trash, it is raw material for some other artist (or art teacher). Get your ass onto the free section of CL and list it. Based on what I've seen offered (and taken) in one major metro area over the past year, there's more of us out there than you might think.

Or perhaps you've already done this, and your finds won't suffer from being jumbled all together ... not that
(if we had unlimited life spans), they don't DESERVE being individually wrapped in tissue paper and carefully boxed up. And I KNOW you've saved different colored tissue paper, right? ...

Anonymous said...

Trash bags? Surely NOT! This is not trash, it is raw material for some other artist (or art teacher). Get your ass onto the free section of CL and list it. Based on what I've seen offered (and taken) in one major metro area over the past year, there's more of us out there than you might think.

Or perhaps you've already done this, and your finds won't suffer from being jumbled all together ... not that (if we had unlimited life spans), they don't DESERVE being individually wrapped in tissue paper and carefully boxed up. And I KNOW you've saved different colored tissue paper, right? ...

PS When you're finished, can you rush right over (while you're still in divest mode)?

Anonymous said...

That wasn't me! Cat decided post was finished enough (but didn't tell me she had hit "publish"). Can't figure out how she mastered the Captcha routine, but if any cat is smart enough to, she is. Has already realized a paw whack to the keyboard breaks my attention span, garnering her pets and/or play. Must be careful what I put on copyboard, lest it end up in an email to the Mayor.

PS Do you have any of those teeeeeny slinkys? Saw one in a gift shop last month, still can't figure out who has teeeeeny stairs to go with it.

A.Smith said...

That is me with shoes. Friends wonder often how my shoes last so long. Well...find one that fits, on comes the avalanche of one in every color. And so, I have shoes I bought in Spain that are 30 years plus old and that look new. Honestly. As my son said "Imelda has nothing on you Mother".

Magpie is me, my sister used to say that in a past life I must have been some kind of lady of the night since show me some shiny and I follow you anywhere. Like you I am in the middle of the purging process. Does this stop me? Oh yeah. Yesterday we went to an antique shop in search of some lace for my Diva bracelets. So what did we come back home with? A 1950s, in prime condition, working fine thank you (incredible but true) Sunbeam mixer, with two bowls, and guess what? Pink! Where are we going to put it? So the big Cuisinart is taking a vacation and the KitchenAid is going into exile and Madame Pink is taking center stage. Is there a rehab for people with no will power in the presence of beauty?

All this by way of telling you that this makes me love you more, we are a pair of victims of our love of beauty. And by the way, the tiny slinkies? they are used by piling books like a staircase on top of a table and going from there. Love from here, darling.

Unknown said...

Are you having any luck getting rid of the bottle caps and rusty things?

I'm at the point of getting rid of everything we loaded into the storage pods...because...at this point I don't even remember what we put in there, have not missed it.

AND I am loving the big beautiful skies we are having.

x..x

Anonymous said...

oh yes - I am on the same page here...

working through shelving units one by one... now that the studio - the big spacious one has come home - there is a LOT of organizing to do...

I might - MIGHT have one slinky - you are the best Leau...

gettin' back into the flow girl - and me too - a crow girl for sure

xox - eb.

Chris said...

somehow, going through everything I own scares the hell out of me. I have been known to buy the same thing in diff. colors, but somehow I always just use one of them, so I stopped doing that. I tend to have favorites and hang on to them too long...
You are a brave woman.