(no subject)

[platypus]

I think I'm going to follow rampling's lead and declare this National Home Cleaning Month. Yep, NaHoCleMo. Currently being observed, uh, all the way from Los Angeles to San Diego, looks like. StaHoCleMo just doesn't have the same ring to it, though, does it?

I took a week off of work in July and dedicated most of it to cleaning the apartment. How hard can it be to clean an apartment thoroughly, when you've only had four years to accumulate clutter? Harder than you'd think. Some of it's pure clutter, some of it's sloppy habits, and some of it's the shit that just won't stay DONE -- have to keep cleaning the floors, vacuuming, scrubbing toilets and bathtubs, sweeping patios. I think that once the clutter/sloppiness is dealt with, though, it will be easier to keep up with the revolving chores. Which I'll still have to schedule somehow, but there must be a decent way to do it. The problem is that I don't feel like doing much of anything after I get home from work, but I really loathe giving up my free Fridays wherein I typically go shopping or screw around all day. A lot of people manage a hell of a lot more than I do in their lives, though, so... there's got to be a way to do it.

One thing I did successfully in July was organize the outside storage closets. I made serious inroads on the indoor closets, too, but stopped short with several boxes of miscellaneous junk. Goal #1: Get rid of the damned boxes of miscellaneous junk. This is the hardest part; there are things I really, truly don't want in there, but they're decent things that someone could use. I've told myself in the past that I'd sell them on eBay, but I've never sold anything on eBay, and I don't particularly care to learn and then wait a week for people to maybe bid or maybe not, and then IF I do sell the things I don't want to pack them up and mail them either. For it to be worthwhile, I'd have to sell them for a decent price, and how likely is that? I'd just as soon give them away, but I'm not aware of any Goodwill type stores in the immediate area, and again, I'm not going to ride a bus significantly out of my way to get rid of this shit. My other plan was to leave it in geocaches, but I have WAY too much geocache crap and we haven't even been caching. If we get started again, I am going to be VERY generous and then probably stop trading entirely once I'm out of junk. If I'm ever out of junk. I can hardly imagine being out of junk. Maybe I need to go place a few well-stocked caches right now.

Or I could throw all this crap out. It's painful, though, to know I spent money on it and to have it end up in a dump. I'm not sure what to do about that. Now I know why people abandon random crap by the garbage chute. Whatever I do, it will NOT be "put back in box, put box in closet." If I don't want it, it's going SOMEWHERE else.

Comments

A thought

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'd just as soon give them away, but I'm not aware of any Goodwill type stores in the immediate area, and again, I'm not going to ride a bus significantly out of my way to get rid of this shit.

Does your area have a Freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org/) mailing list? It might not be what you want, but maybe it is. I've gotten rid of lots of "good stuff" (defn: stuff that is doing me no good!) on my local freecycle list.

Re: A thought

[platypus]

To be honest, I'm a little creeped out by the "have strangers stop by to pick things up" angle, and the scheduling of the strangers picking up the stuff might be problematic. I guess I'll go through the boxes again and see what's in there; I think it's mostly quite small. Would anyone want a few dozen rubber ducks, I wonder? (They'd probably turn around and ebay them!)

Re: A thought

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hear ya. I usually deal with the scheduling issue by leaving stuff on the porch marked with a name. But that doesn't do a thing for the creep factor.

fun times

[flyingcamel.livejournal.com]

You might try Craig's List (http://www.craigslist.org). It's free to use, and there's also a "free" section for giving stuff to whoever wants it.

I'm pretty sure a lot of charities will come pick your stuff up for you. I think St. Vincent's has come to our house a few times.

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

Look at the positive said. You could be my age. I've had 13 more years of crap buildup than you :-)

Hmmm...your post gives me an idea...I could turn my barn in to a geocache and invite people to take junk collectibles...

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

said = side Damned fingers....

[platypus]

The problem is that they're supposed to leave something of equal value in trade... so you end up with DIFFERENT junk. Portable geocaches will eventually be compromised and stolen, so that's okay, but I expect you want to keep the barn.

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

Sometimes that's questionable. When I was constructing the chicken coop area in the barn, I had to remove parts that were already there, and I found out just how structurally unsound parts of it are. Given that the barn is over a hundred years old, its probably doing good. But if it holds up another 10 years or so it will be doing good.

[lunza.livejournal.com]

Couldn't come at a better time, actually. ;)

Duckies!

[jaderabbit.livejournal.com]

The best wedding favors I ever saw were rubber ducks with the wedding date and the bride's and groom's name on them. (Don't really know how to construct that sentence, but I didn't want to imply that brides were being given away with the ducks.)

But seriously, if you have a few dozen of the things...I bet a local school, preschool, or day-care program would take them. It's a pity Halloween's over; trick-or-treaters would love 'em.

[angharad.livejournal.com]

Currently being observed, uh, all the way from Los Angeles to San Diego, looks like. StaHoCleMo just doesn't have the same ring to it, though, does it?

< TV announcer voice >
Now observed... in Canada!