Bad Habits

After sharing my first attempts at purging and reorganizing my life it may seem as if all has gone silent.  Certainly things have slowed down a bit as my attention was taken with other activities, but I am still persevering, albeit a bit more slowly and less emotionally.

I find that I am having to deal with a couple of rather bad habits that have been hanging around for way too long.

1.  Procrastination:  the action of delaying or postponing something

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An Example: This basket of magazines, some of which are several years old, had been getting fuller and fuller as I just tossed my partially read subscriptions into the basket to finish reading later.  Somehow later never seemed to come.  I knew it should only take a few minutes to sort through them and toss what I didn't want or need anymore.  The trouble is, as soon as I sit down with them I will start reading instead of sorting!  Does that ever happen to you?

I really am easily distracted, but I was determined to stay focused and get the job done no matter how many interesting articles caught my eye.  Only magazines that were less than a year old were allowed to stay.

You can see, that I took care of quite a few. The basket is almost empty.  I am also proud to say that I  immediately took all extra magazines to the library so I wouldn't be tempted to take another peek and canceled a couple of my subscriptions. Now, for those of you who are rolling your eyes at this point, you must understand that this is big for me.  Doesn't everything look nice?  Just a warning, don't let that desk fool you...which gets me to another bad habit.

2.  Avoidance:  an act or practice of avoiding or withdrawing from something

An Example:  Often times something important comes in that needs to be kept, but instead of dealing with it immediately, I just put it onto the desk so I would know where to "find" it.  Unfortunately, I had been avoiding things for a long time, and the desk can only hide so much.  I wanted to be able to start using my desk properly so I decided to go through every cubby and drawer.  Goodness!  It was definitely time to purge!

 
It took me three days to go through everything during which  I counted over 180 ink pens, nine pair of scissors, five boxes of paper clips, and eight rolls of scotch tape, not to mention colored pencils, markers, glue etc,etc.  I found all of last years Christmas Cards in a stack (I must have had a craft project in mind for them but I can't remember what it might have been.)   There were boxes of stationary rarely used, and old address books that need to be converted into one.  Trouble is, I don't want to erase the names of those who are no longer with us, another avoidance.  Then, of course, there were the actual papers that needed to be properly noted and filed.

In the end, everything either found a new home or a new place in the desk or elsewhere.  I also found the last letter from my husband's step-mother as well as a letter from an aunt with some knitting instructions for making slipper socks.  I remember getting a new pair from her for Christmas every year for many years.  I still have the last pair she ever knitted for me.  They are pretty ragged now but I keep them anyway.  Needless to say, those letters  are definitely keepers.

Now I have a working space which I am already using.  Did you notice that I found a use for some of those stacking boxes?  One is filled with colored markers and the other has bottles of glue for projects.  

My home is starting to feel more restful already.  By the way, the oil painting was painted in the 1940s by the Inspector's great-uncle who was actually better known for his portraits at the time.  

And speaking of paintings, we cleaned out the cupboard over my closet and found this little gem we had forgotten about which was painted by one of our great-uncle's students. We found the perfect spot for it.

Love that frame, and since it's a seascape it fits perfectly with the theme in my living room.

If I can continue to find fun forgotten little treasures like this, I am ready for the attic and the basement.  Bring it on!