Wading through the rubble
Jun. 18th, 2002 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikOK. I admit it. One of my roomates admits it. I suspect the third roomie isn't happy with the situation either. It's time to Do Something about the problem.
My house is a pit.
I kept denying it. Oh, sure, I'll clean tomorrow. I have nothing else planned after work. Well, okay, maybe this weekend. Yeah, that's it. I'll use a saturday and clean the house. It sure needs it. Hmmm... spent all weekend trying to get things done that I couldn't all week because of work. Well, there's always monday. Nobody has plans on a monday, so it's perfect for cleaning, right? Take this behavior pattern and continue, for months.
My previous roomate![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reality_fox would now and then get into a Mood and in a flurry of hyperactivity clean the house, and then grumble at us mightily that he had to do it. Now that he's gone and everybody who lives at the house is seriously over-busy with their day-jobs (it feels like dot-com days again, we're so busy sometimes) even those rare clean-it-all events don't happen. The only real clean-ups that occur are when either revar or I finally get so upset at having to walk over junk to get to the kitchen that we spend a half-hour surface cleaning a few floors. All the follow-through that makes a 'clean house' doesn't happen. The geek-house nature shows through strongly as well, with stacked boxes and computer parts and half-finished tech projects littering shelves.
As best I can figure, three things must occur in order for us to be able to return to the comfort of a clean house each night. Two are Events, and one is a regular occurrence.
1. Have another Dumpster Party.
We've done this twice before in the 8 years at this house. Usually it happens after a roomate change. As we lost a Sean and gained a Shawn, this qualifies (one roomate exchanged). This involves $250 towards the local disposal place who puts an actual debris dumpster in our driveway for one week. Each time we've managed to fill it. It's a great Purging Event, where we throw out broken furniture and built-up mess from years of not following through on cleaning. Our neighbors seem to love it, as each time they've raided our little pile of trash to gleefully haul away old technology that ends up in there.
2. Mass Reorganization
This is something I've wanted to do for years but never got around to. Once the dumpster party is over, we tend to have large spots in the house that are suddenly vacant. I want to use those spaces to empty all our shelves and storage nooks and such, sorting them out as if I were about to pack up for a move. Then, go to Storables or equivalent 'lots of nifty containers' places, and actually buy proper storage and filing systems for all the collected fiddlybits we've just been stacking around. Real shelves, proper boxes, hanging racks, you name it. The goal here is to end up with well-sorted, well-stored Stuff... not random piles of clutter.
3. Give in and hire a housecleaning service.
I'll call it that since I can't quite get over the other phrasing: "get a maid". It's surprisingly affordable, and we've proven that, as grown nerds, we are incapable of taking care of all the details proper cleaning requires. This past weekend was our own version of a "moment of clarity" when my roomate and I admitted to each other that we simply aren't good at detailed clean-up, and we don't want to be. We make decent money, and there's an industry here to serve that need... we might as well get past our upbringings and cave in. A good friend of mine who's moving up here from LA has had maid-service for at least a year now, and the difference it made in his life was amazing compared to the years prior back in his Valencia apartment. It works, we're going to use it.
All three steps will, of course, take money. They will also take time, which is a precious commodity of late. I think it'll be worth it. It's far preferable to that little nipping edge of depression that's started to follow me around as I get continually upset about the condition of my living-space. Such depression leads to being unmotivated/unable to do anything about it, creating a vicious cycle I've been caught in for a few months. This is a cycle that I'm determined to break.
--------------------
Oh, and in lighter/silly news... check the new LJ pic. I was reviewing previously taken shots on the watch's tiny screen while standing in front of the mirror. I snapped off this one mostly by accident in the process of fiddling with the buttons. The result was surprisingly good, so I kept it. I dislike most photos of me (as do most of the people I know), so the fact a self-portrait made me grin is a rare thing.
And yes, the wristwatch on me in that pic is the one that took the image.
My house is a pit.
I kept denying it. Oh, sure, I'll clean tomorrow. I have nothing else planned after work. Well, okay, maybe this weekend. Yeah, that's it. I'll use a saturday and clean the house. It sure needs it. Hmmm... spent all weekend trying to get things done that I couldn't all week because of work. Well, there's always monday. Nobody has plans on a monday, so it's perfect for cleaning, right? Take this behavior pattern and continue, for months.
My previous roomate
reality_fox would now and then get into a Mood and in a flurry of hyperactivity clean the house, and then grumble at us mightily that he had to do it. Now that he's gone and everybody who lives at the house is seriously over-busy with their day-jobs (it feels like dot-com days again, we're so busy sometimes) even those rare clean-it-all events don't happen. The only real clean-ups that occur are when either revar or I finally get so upset at having to walk over junk to get to the kitchen that we spend a half-hour surface cleaning a few floors. All the follow-through that makes a 'clean house' doesn't happen. The geek-house nature shows through strongly as well, with stacked boxes and computer parts and half-finished tech projects littering shelves.As best I can figure, three things must occur in order for us to be able to return to the comfort of a clean house each night. Two are Events, and one is a regular occurrence.
1. Have another Dumpster Party.
We've done this twice before in the 8 years at this house. Usually it happens after a roomate change. As we lost a Sean and gained a Shawn, this qualifies (one roomate exchanged). This involves $250 towards the local disposal place who puts an actual debris dumpster in our driveway for one week. Each time we've managed to fill it. It's a great Purging Event, where we throw out broken furniture and built-up mess from years of not following through on cleaning. Our neighbors seem to love it, as each time they've raided our little pile of trash to gleefully haul away old technology that ends up in there.
2. Mass Reorganization
This is something I've wanted to do for years but never got around to. Once the dumpster party is over, we tend to have large spots in the house that are suddenly vacant. I want to use those spaces to empty all our shelves and storage nooks and such, sorting them out as if I were about to pack up for a move. Then, go to Storables or equivalent 'lots of nifty containers' places, and actually buy proper storage and filing systems for all the collected fiddlybits we've just been stacking around. Real shelves, proper boxes, hanging racks, you name it. The goal here is to end up with well-sorted, well-stored Stuff... not random piles of clutter.
3. Give in and hire a housecleaning service.
I'll call it that since I can't quite get over the other phrasing: "get a maid". It's surprisingly affordable, and we've proven that, as grown nerds, we are incapable of taking care of all the details proper cleaning requires. This past weekend was our own version of a "moment of clarity" when my roomate and I admitted to each other that we simply aren't good at detailed clean-up, and we don't want to be. We make decent money, and there's an industry here to serve that need... we might as well get past our upbringings and cave in. A good friend of mine who's moving up here from LA has had maid-service for at least a year now, and the difference it made in his life was amazing compared to the years prior back in his Valencia apartment. It works, we're going to use it.
All three steps will, of course, take money. They will also take time, which is a precious commodity of late. I think it'll be worth it. It's far preferable to that little nipping edge of depression that's started to follow me around as I get continually upset about the condition of my living-space. Such depression leads to being unmotivated/unable to do anything about it, creating a vicious cycle I've been caught in for a few months. This is a cycle that I'm determined to break.
--------------------
Oh, and in lighter/silly news... check the new LJ pic. I was reviewing previously taken shots on the watch's tiny screen while standing in front of the mirror. I snapped off this one mostly by accident in the process of fiddling with the buttons. The result was surprisingly good, so I kept it. I dislike most photos of me (as do most of the people I know), so the fact a self-portrait made me grin is a rare thing.
And yes, the wristwatch on me in that pic is the one that took the image.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-06-18 12:04 pm (UTC)As cheesy as the site (and system) is, try http://www.flylady.net for cleaning/decluttering stuff. Its been making a lot of differences in people's lives, including here on LJ. (I even maintain
Its a little bit at a time sort of thing, that if you keep up daily (and not a lot daily, I swear!) will keep your house relatively neat. Its just written by someone who is so cheery you want to smack her, and does things like explain what LOL means. You might just want to dig around the site, get the general idea, and not sign up for the mailing list. (It emails you throughout the day with your assignments.) Its good motivation and keeps you from being overwhelmed (a problem I had).
Cleaning service is worth the money in a houseful of people with jobs. I used to do that when it was both of us working full time. Just once every 3 weeks or so was enough.
I really dig that camera -- but no no, should spend on Dimage toys, not on more cameras! :)
no subject
Date: 2002-06-18 03:03 pm (UTC)And if you want help dumping and purging, just to have an extra setof hand to go 'Here, take this away from me before I think twice (three times, five times) and stick it in the dumpster' please let me know.
no subject
Date: 2002-06-18 05:02 pm (UTC)Chaos Girl speaks.
I can't do anything at the moment, but I will be happy to help keep things spiffed up or even be a 'housecleaning service' because I am pretty good at it. Also at organizing stuff that is non-virtual (hardware, books, records, clothes).
And my suggestion for the day is, switch off helping each other with your stuff. Tug, tell Revar what Revar should get rid of; Revar, tell the new guy (is that him up there?) what he should get rid of, and the new guy gets to tell Tugrik what he should get rid of. It's a lot easier to look through a pile to be thrown away and say, Ok, not this one and this one; rather than go through a pile of stuff that you have to prioritize all by yourself.
Myself, I'm going to use Kibbles' suggestion. I will tell you how it works out.
no subject
Date: 2002-06-18 09:42 pm (UTC)All I know is that if I don't have this place fixed up by the end of this year, I'm going to shoot myself and have them bury me in the piles of junk in the backyard.