January purge

[Tybee]

That is an interesting principle, TT and CL. Now that I have completed phase I of the album project, I find I have 15 photo albums, and all the pictures are in albums, except some from my folks, which are still their property which I have at my house for safekeeping. When they pass, I will revisit how many to keep and make new albums with the ones I keep.

But this has allowed me to make finite the photo universe. I now can say, do I want to devote 15 albums worth of space to this? Or do I want to purge some of the photos (give originals to kids, maybe) and get down to 10. What is my maximum acceptable album number? Is it 20? 30? Surely not more than that. What if I do an album a year from now on, or two, and I live another 25 years? That's 50 more albums on top of the 15. Surely that is too many.

So I think the idea of containing is brilliant. I once helped a friend with her closet--she had 125 golf shirts. I said, "How many golf shirts are you willing to have, wear, care for?" I don't remember the number, but she got rid of a lot of golf shirts that day.

So I like this file cabinet idea a lot, Terry.

[Teacher Terry]

Thanks CL and Tybee. Yes his shed is the same and he hasn’t added to it. Occasionally he will throw away a few things in his office but makes a big mess going through the boxes. Now he will be able to just open a drawer. The office hasn’t been cleaned in 7 years because it’s not possible. Now I can clean it.

[Chicken lady]

That sounds terrific! Here’s hoping a clean office will inspire him to work through the drawers! Maybe strategically position a flat surface, a recycling bin, and a paper shredder. Does he prefer to work alone or have you nearby or helping? If nearby, would he get more done if you were both working on a clearing out project?

[iris lilies]

Today I thought instead of being irritated with his stuff all over his office I bought a bunch of file cabinets and putting his stuff in there. Then the office can be cleaned and stuff contained. Will just let him know if it doesn’t fit it doesn’t stay like I did with his shed which has worked for 5 years.

Contained is a concept we are not sure of here in this household. My DH appears to believe in more than 3 dimensions . When the space goes from here X................................................. .................................................. ............x to nere

it still overflows, but
I am not blessed with the vision to see those additional dimensions of space that “contain” it.

I continue to talk about how easy it is to keep our Hermann house clean because there are no piles of crap or or tchotkes or etc in the main rooms. He sometimes seems to hear that.

[Teacher Terry]

Great ideas CL. Most of the time he doesn’t want my help but when he does we accomplished a lot more. I bought 3 today and we will see if that does it. He wasn’t using some of his shelves effectively so I fixed that yesterday.

[ejchase]

I finally got some things out of the house today: 13 items to Goodwill, 8 hand-me-downs from my daughter to a friend's daughter, 8 items of clothing returned to stores. Total for month so far: 29.

[ejchase]

Took 11 books to the used bookstore/library donations shelf. New total for month: 40.