The Great Purge Begins

I am encrusted with stuff.

Clothes, books, paper, photographs, artwork, art supplies, jewelry, old shoes, ancient electronics, doo-dads and thingamajigs.

My apartment is overflowing with things that have accumulated in the eleven years I've lived here (and, of course, all the stuff I brought with me when I arrived). I can't bear it anymore.

Plus, my place is really grungy and filthy, desperately needing a radical cleaning and fresh paint. But it's hard to clean with all this STUFF everywhere.

It's got to go. I need to pare down, simplify, minimize, and clear out the cruft. It's a daunting task.

I've made a start. Last week I went through my chest of drawers and weeded out the clothes I don't wear anymore, that don't fit, or that I just plain don't like.

Today I redid my linen closet. I installed a set of elfa drawers from the Container Store (on sale), tossed the skanky sheets and towels, organized the reserve toiletries and all the various bedding. My linen closet (which also contains ironing board and cleaning implements such as the vacuum cleaner and mop) is now a thing of beauty. Seriously.

This was a huuuuuge moral booster.

Next step: the bedroom closet. Same clothes pruning needs doing.

After that: bedroom books, jewelry & accessories, sundry knick-knacks, and media center (tv stand, really).

Clothing and books I'm donating. The jewelry and knick-knacks I'm going to offer first to friends. The electronics and photographs pose a logistical challenge.

The living room and kitchen are equally monumental undertakings.

And OH MY GOD THE PAPER. Just going through the paper and figuring out what I want or need to keep is going to take FOREVER.

On the upside: the whole enterprise is fantastic procrastination material for all the other unpleasant tasks I should be doing. And if I can do this, I can probably hold down a real job.

Speaking of the math...

I just sold 25 shares of AAPL, and now can happily finance the iPod shuffle I've ordered from Amazon (they're having a promo deal in electronics ~ the catch is it says 'shipping in March' :o). With room to spare. Lots of room.

May I just say: heh.

There's something sort of fun and karmic about recycling stock profits into the company that brought them to you. Apple has been very good to me. The shares I have left are now pure profit.