sinking in an ocean of stuff

But bailing as fast as I can. Where did all this stuff come from?! I mean, I recognise it. It's not like I can claim that some clutter elf came and delivered it during the night (or the last 700 nights). But holy cow!

I have identified at least three sources of this clutter:

1. paper

This category includes paperwork not filed or thrown away, supplies for future scrapbooking (including fliers and tickets and stuff like that, and also the actual supplies for the craft part of the exercise), notebooks and other evidence of my considerable stationery addiction, and unrecorded info (addresses, recipes, hexidecimal colour codes) on pieces of paper that otherwise would have been thrown away. Etc, Etc, Etc.

2. things that I've been meaning to give to other people.

It's going to be like Christmas in April when I start dropping these things off or mailing them.

3. projects not yet completed

Occasionally projects not yet started. (Oh, the shame.) I am severely well-intentioned. I am also (apparently, according to my clutter) a procrastinator of epic proportions. Or maybe I have too many plans for my limited time. I'm sure any number of valid-sounding justifications exist.

All I know is that I am extremely glad to have this big L-shaped ex-government workstation desk of mine. This means that to the left of my computer there is a workspace. Once the declutter is complete, these projects are going to get ticked off, one by one, because I am never again going to watch TV (which I watch on my computer) without doing something off to the left.

I really need to find my camera battery charger. Or maybe it's a good thing that I can't show you this clutter. Hmmm. Anyway, I'll keep swimming. Gotta reach the shore sometime...

living space

Yet again chosha is on the decluttering path. The nature of clearing stuff out is that it gets worse before it gets better, so at the moment I feel completely surrounded by boxes and bags of stuff. I've only lived here for five years and I'm not really that much into shopping, so I find myself confused as where the heck all this stuff came from.

At least my procrastination in getting to this tedious task has some benefits. For one thing it makes the decluttering process less painful. There are several boxes I sent to myself when I left Japan. The first time I tried to cull these I could hardly bear to throw anything away. I was missing Japan and everything seemed too precious. Now that a few years have passed it's amazing what I'm willing to ditch.

I'm really looking forward to finishing. My mind is definitely more organised when my work or living environment is the same. More than that, I want to do more with my space at home. The first few years I was in Canberra I was constantly trying to decide whether to move interstate to some livelier city. It never seemed worth settling in properly and making the place my own. As a result I have artwork not yet up on the walls, shelves and the like unassembled and a 'whatever' decorating theme throughout. I was pretty happy with my apartment in Osaka. It had a relaxing vibe. I'd like to have a go at making my current space as liveable. Decluttering's a good start. So I guess I'm back to sorting. It's going to be one hell of a garage sale!

Do you like your living space?

can you be half a superhero?

I'm turning into a total organisation freak at work. I've got all this energy lately and I'm so much more focussed. After weeks of distraction and irritating slowness I'm starting to tick things off my to-do list with surprising regularity.

Then I get home and my room (just my room, not the whole house, thank goodness) still looks like a freaking warehouse of unsorted goods. Where did all this stuff come from and why is it taking me so long to get rid of it all??

Am I only half a superhero, or is it just that the pile o' stuff in my room is actually an arch villian in 'potential eBay items' disguise? That would explain why it seems to grow after I've been working on it.