My French professor said...

Not much decluttering to report over here...January is not a bang-up time for clearing stuff out. I was thinking about books today and something my French professor said: "The more books you have, the fewer you read." Well, that might sound like simple math, but I think of that often now. I own a LOT of books, still haven't read several, and I check out numerous books at the library. Right now I have more library books than I will read in three weeks--especially given that I am more likely to watch TV than spend hours reading each night. But there's something nice about having those titles onhand. Will I read the Jennifer Weiner novel with bleh reviews? Probably not. But I like that it's ready on my coffee table should I decide to try. I will definitely crack open Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? I read a page in the bookstore and laughed out loud. I even got ambitious and checked out Lolita because a professor referenced it so much and I feel like I should have read it by now. The odds? Not great that I'll squeeze it in this month. The library won't like to know I'm overbooking books--ha ha. But I have good intentions. And mad props to our library for having such a great selection. I wonder if they really think I'm reading all these.

I remember deliberately reading one book at a time growing up--it seemed chaotic and disorienting to jump around unless school required it. And I read a lot more fiction for pleasure back then. Today I might jump in and out of different books, and it does take longer to get through them. I'm sure there's some wisdom to be had in focusing on one title at a time...but I don't want to get legalistic and judgey either. Just like jumping in and out of text online, I'm probably typical in wanting to get some book info here, some there, and then check my email. I do miss the days of reading for an hour or more on my bed in high school and having a sense of order to my reading. Today I'll focus on one title if I'm addicted to it or really love it--that's what it takes to grab my undivided attention. 

Times change, screens dominate our world, and I have more books around than ever. For now, I'll enjoy the excess. Until a stack falls on me as seen in Hoarders or the space taken up makes me angry, I'm not too anxious to spring clean the shelves.

Podcasts, Tears, and Laundry

I often complain that the internet is ruining our ability to read and concentrate for long periods of time. However, the internet brings many educational gifts. One of my faves is the podcast. And I especially love a podcast that relates to me somehow.

I did a post on grief movies a while back and agreed that a good cry makes you feel better. If you have time to hear a scientific discussion about tears, listen to this episode of WHYY's Voices in the Family. While some of the researchers' comments sound a bit flat and unemotional, it's pretty clear that talking about tears is a huge topic--and it's especially interesting when it's mostly men covering it. The show concludes that we usually feel a release once we allow ourselves tears. Unfortunately shame and the pressure to not cry, especially for men, stops some people from sharing their feelings. (You can check out the following show about men and emotions.)

And if you're looking for a declutter tip, find a good podcast to listen to while you putter around and clean up. Folding laundry is always more bearable while listening to something new and noteworthy.

Media overload = increased Thanskgiving productivity

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The long holiday weekend. If you're traveling and spending it with family, then yes, you can use up the days quickly. This year I didn't go out of town and spent a minimal amount of time at Thanksgiving dinner, so man, this has been a long weekend! Usually I can easily fill up extra time with movies, audiobooks, and podcasts, but people, I am media-ed out! Okay, only after listening to NPR's Splendid Table Turkey Confidential, and then after watching Nova Science Now's Can I Eat That? (I know about food molecules and stuff now.) And then I finished a Horatio Hornblower movie I had started the night before. But then I was really done for real. I went for a lovely walk before dinner, but after that, I had to be home. I didn't know what to do, but I have a lot of to do's, as most home-owners can imagine.

By Friday I was almost glad to busy myself with tasks I had procrastinated on for weeks or even months. I finally vacuumed my car after thinking about it for much of this autumn. I even carefully wiped down the interior. Dang, my car hasn't been this clean in...six months? A year? Later at home, I looked at my kitchen and realized I'd rather clean out my fridge than watch yet another hour of Netflix. Only media saturation could compel me to choose this task, but the fridge needed a serious cleaning, not the routine one. I even washed three shelves. I spent some time looking for my fridge's mysterious drip pan. I've read you're supposed to clean it, but I can't find it anywhere. Funnily enough, my mother has never heard of drip pans, so I couldn't get help by phone. Maybe yet another year will go by with a dirty drip pan—if it exists. I did get down on the floor and dust off some of the refrigerator's coils—supposedly you can save a lot of power by cleaning them off. See? This is stuff I would never do during regular life. 

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I then shined my sink a la Fly Lady and did the dish drainer mat. Is this super interesting to read? Probably not. But I do find it noteworthy that I can reach my quota of distraction by media. At some point I will choose to do such tasks. Today? I already mailed two low-priority items I had been meaning to send out for at least two months—an Amazon return and some old family photos. Apparently a bit of boredom or ennui can get your home cleaner. And it feels good to cross those items off my list! Who knows when I would have gotten to them without a surplus of free time. Maybe turning off the TV and backing away from the Internet can create this free time, but the lazy holiday of Thanksgiving seems to be just what I needed to get things done. All of this should be balanced by some fun, so I hope to get more of that done this weekend too.

Maintenance, maintenance

So you can tell I've been away from blogging about slogging through old relatives' stuff...regular life schedule has taken over. I still need to mail out some photos and mementos to extended family--I found items that I don't need to keep and can be passed on, e.g. a great uncle's WWII pins/medals. Chores like that are on the list of to-dos, but they are hard to prioritize when the routine stuff still needs to be done, along with a busy work and personal life. Eek!

I know the Fly Lady constantly mentions routines. Some of her music is cheesy, but that "Routines, routines" song is awfully cute and true. I wonder why I resist routines so much? I think I fear I won't have enough time to deal with work and personal stuff--maybe it's a scarcity of time mentality. But routines are part of maintenance...which keeps things moving smoothly. So while I still have to deal with old photos, mail some items out, and make some trips to the thrift store, I need to trust that my time is well spent doing routine maintenance tasks, whether it's cleaning the bathroom or my car, or dealing with a pile of mail. Hopefully I'll find that I will have time to do the extra chores of decluttering after attending to my own routine tasks. I've heard that's how you keep the engine of life greased and moving smoothly. I hope I can trust that it's time well spent, however busy I am in other areas of my life. I also need to remember there's still time to "go out and play," as the FL says. It's not a choice of either I do all the tasks OR I have fun. I tend to imagine I'll go all Martha Stewart--so I need to find a less extreme vision of keeping up with routines and dealing with home stuff. I hope I can trust that I have the time I need.

Summer Sun and Wide Open Spaces

Thinking about clutter makes me think about spaces...today I am tired of the indoors and ready to write about the outdoors instead.

I have a large corner lot with lots of space in my backyard. Theoretically I could garden up a storm, but I do live in Texas and have been through multiple “hottest summers on record” in the last six years. I am thoroughly in awe of Texan gardeners who keep up beautiful gardens. We have pests, diseases, freezes, and 100-degree+ days, not to mention the fascist yet necessary watering restrictions. So I have the large yard with some nice old trees, but the ornamental plants are not what I would have in the garden of my dreams. It's not like I haven't tried to personalize the spaces—the afternoon summer sun has killed probably three lavenders, a verbena, an Indian paintbrush, and possibly more. I'm not sure how these same plants survive and blossom in other yards. I call mine a “hot backyard” and for the most part have put my gardening dreams on hold until I move somewhere else.

What do thrive are Turks caps, which are okay, but they seem like a 1970s plant. (They were there when I moved in.) I did put in some survivors--Copper Canyon daisies (very fragrant), Lantana, rosemary, another yellow daisy-type, prickly-pear, and then a plant that said Jerusalem Sage but came out having purple flowers instead of yellow. It's very fragrant and aggressive. Hope it's not an invasive on the no-no list. Despite these few survivors, I have decided it's too much time and heartbreak over dead plants to make over my yard space, at least on my own. I have felt comforted by hearing the folks on Central Texas Gardener say that folks have taken serious hits to their gardens the last few years. While I see others with tidier, livelier gardens, it's difficult to find the plants that survive and thrive in this drought.

Though I sound pretty fatalistic about my yard, I actually love gardening under different conditions. In Colorado we had a 90-day growing season and I obsessed over planting my summer flower garden, sometimes from seed. It was a short show, but I easily had stand-out beautiful beds each year, sometimes featuring a row of tall sunflowers in the back. Texas is a whole other world and I haven't quite adapted or found the energy to fight for a great garden here. Perhaps if my space were smaller and more manageable, I could focus my energy on keeping a limited number of plants alive and well.

I will say that I've never lived in a state with such enthusiastic gardeners. I mean, our local PBS station has a weekly regional gardening show mentioned earlier, Central Texas Gardener. I've never seen that type of local program anywhere else. We also have a master gardeners' program, a garden society, seminars, etc. Here people are serious about their gardens, which is thoroughly impressive given all the problems year-round. I salute you, Texas gardeners. Maybe your backyards have more shade, but clearly you are skilled and working hard to keep things looking so good.

Despite the brutal afternoon sun, I hope to get back to gardening sometime soon. Nature is so healing, and it's all the more fun to be a designer and watch things pop up over a few weeks. When or how I'll get back to it, I don't know, but a garden is a serious must-have in my ideal outdoor space. Because I agree with what my mother says--plants are healing for the soul.