Re-evaluating the Self via Decluttering the Bedroom.

The course leader, Joshua Becker likes to approach decluttering room by room. This week we're in the bedroom. The assignment (#4):

remove everything and anything that does not contribute to the two main purposes of the room: sleep and intimacy. 

Of course, it's also where I get dressed, so holding items necessary for that is important too--but we'll sort that later when our wardrobes get an entire week to themselves.

Like last week, my shelves gave me grief.

Those white boxes at the top are cassette tapes. Back in the day when I put 1,000 miles a month on my little Toyota, those tunes kept me company--and sane. I was able to get rid of about 1/2.

As I went through them, I got rid of anything I knew I wouldn't likely listen to again, (Sorry, New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band.) Anything easily replaceable, (Miles Davis' greatest hits) but I kept really precious ones (Nirvana), and personal ones (mixed tapes from long-ago friends).

I need to revisit these and decide what I am going to do with what's left. But I still have my cassette player, so I can choose to listen to them from time to time, too.

Then, my journals.

I opened one of them at random. It was from the months I'd just started Journalism school in London, Ontario. I wrote at great length about my plans and frustrations with trying to sew slipcovers for my couch cushions--and a chair. I was in love with something called "that flower fabric." There I am....starting a new school--a new career--and there's barely a word about my classes or what I'm learning. It's all about my decorating plan for my new apartment--and I knew I was only going to be there a year. Yet nothing was more important to me.

I picked up another. The one that covers the months surrounding my daughter's birth. I started reading. This one, I realised, this one is one I keep.

And so I am not ready to part with the Journals, just yet. A part of me just wants to burn them. Let that past go. Purify it with flame. Become someone who has left the past behind, utterly.

Yet that's rather dramatic for what's mostly a laundry list of things I did and planned to do. Heart pourings about people and my wooden headedness. I would like to revisit them at leisure and read through them, thank you very much. And then I'll know what to do with them.

For some, these shelves would not contribute to the two main purposes of the room: rest and intimacy. I thought about removing the shelves completely when, as I was going through two old binders that were on those shelves, binders holding many, many of my thoughts about my home and decorating plans and swatches and what not, I found a few pages talking about my bedroom. I wish I had the pages to quote right now, but I'd said something along the lines of "my books mean home to me. They comfort me. I need to put shelves up in my bedroom." So, there we are! Several years ago, I was quite deliberate about it--and the books there are the most meaningful to me.

Books still mean "home" to me--though, if I ever get the chance to move to my little dream cottage near the sea on Vancouver Island, all of it would be gone-- in a flash.

Joshua encourages us to touch every single item as we're decluttering. I did that as I dusted.

Decluttering makes room for us, as people, to change. It seems odd, but a lot of our self-identity is wrapped up in our possessions--the person we tell ourselves we are, is a person, often, who has this, but not that--who does this sort of thing over here--but not that. That's what this bookshelf in the basement held. The boxes are full of homeschooling books and scrapbooking things.

Two past selves.

And I want to move forward--and give myself room to breathe--to let go of my old self--and embrace whatever the future has in store. Not to become someone new, but renewed. Evolved.

I actually started to cry when I opened the boxes of homeschooling stuff. So many memories! So many dreams that weren't quite fulfilled. We were never quite that homeschooling family I'd hoped we be--and these books were both a reminder and a remonstrance. And I realised that it really was time to let them go. Emma starts Grade 12 next year. Ben will start University.

I also ran around the house and collected any audio recordings we still had on hand. Turned out Ben still had quite a few.

Joshua Becker encouraged me to donate these precious items--and so I've put out feelers to home school groups to see if there is a family who might benefit from these last four boxes. I hope we find someone who will take it all.

I've decided that I will make a donation run every Friday while the course is on.


This was the pile collected Thursday night:

And this was the pile the next morning:

I'd gone to bed thinking about all the things I hadn't touched. I collected it in about 1/2 an hour--before coffee!

Our next assignment is our closets (and drawers) and the bathrooms. I wonder if my husband will be willing to part with any of his clothes?

I'd like to paint the closet, too.

Decluttering and Tidying

Assignment 3: Declutter the living room, the car, and one other shared space.

The car was easy--and fun. I emptied out the glove compartment and that "box" between the seats. Didn't find anything useful. It was mostly filled with stuff my Mother had had there before she gave me the car two years ago. (shhhh). I returned some things and got a $24 gift card from Home Depot--nice! I have a few things which I want to return to my mother left in it: but soon it will be empty and clear for my groceries which will be fabulous.

The living room, on the other hand, was not fun.

I went through the boxes on the TV stand

and came up with a few CDs and DVDs.

(Yes, LOST! I don't think I'll want them in the nursing home--the next time I think I'd actually watch it. I put them up for sale. And a toy flip phone. I've hung onto that for years. The kids loved it.)

Mostly, the room just needed some tidying and a whole lot of straightening.

But these shelves, flanking the fireplace, are causing me a bit of grief.

I mean, they aren't the sort of thing that belongs in a minimalist household, now are they? There are meaningful things --and things which are not--but I still like them immensely and think they add a lot to the coziness of the room. 

And it occurred to me, not for the first time, to wonder why I am in this course. First, I am really enjoying all the energy from my fellow participants--it's so positive and encouraging. But, as I listened to our Webinar Thursday night, it occurred to me that perhaps I am taking this course to settle in my mind, once and for all, that perhaps I really am done minimizing-- (at least as far as our living spaces re concerned. I don't think the basement will ever be "done.") and I can move on with my life, in some other way. I don't know. I am going to continue to mull it over.

For my third communal area, I decided to tidy up the area immediately outside the bathroom.(Which is coming along, by the way. The toilet tank is giving us a great deal of trouble with leaks and such. The mirror is also on hold for a bit.)

We were not able to access the only two closets we have on this floor for all this stuff piled in front of them. Again, it was a case of taking the time to truck everything down to the basement and just put things away. I also got about two small shopping bags of garbage. I kept back the supplies we need for the last few projects.

I am so relieved.

Next up: The bedroom. 

Plucking the Low Hanging Fruit.

Assignment #2.

Go through the rooms of your house with a trash bag and just remove items you know you do not want. Sort the bag (or bags) into donate/trash/recycling when you are done. (paraphrased)

This is an excellent assignment. I have given it to my Mom several times--though I may have limited the scope to one room--or, when it comes to her basement, whatever she can reach.

As the main living spaces of my home are pretty well sorted, (though an absolute mess due to the One Room Challenge), I will be doing this assignment in my basement.

At the bottom of the stairs, this is what you see:

To the left (and most of what you see) is the stroage area (yeah, I know). To the right is the workshop. 

Looking at the Wall of Shelves:

(To the left in the floor plan above.)

This is the main area which needs work. But the other areas are pretty bad, too.

Game room and furnace:

Laundry Room and Pantry:

I never photograph the workshop (at my husband's request) and though it needs a clean out--it is not my domain!

But this area by the stairs (to the right of the drawer unit above) is certainly within my purview:

I just dashed through the basement...looking for anything I no longer wanted, just grabbing it quickly, looking for a quick win. I was on fire. I only spent about an hour down there. Here's the haul I took to Value Village.

There's more for the Eco-Station (batteries, inks, CFLs, and the like) and the animal shelter. I'll do that before the week is out.

A good start, I think.

ORC 6: Disaster

The worst possible thing has happened.

It has been quite the ride. Ever since jumping in late, this ORC has not gone well. I decided to "freshen up" our problematic main bath and try to make it look like it belonged to the rest of my house. Plagued with moisture and storage problems, I'd sort of given up on it.

So, when the ORC coincided with my little spruce up (new paint, cleaning the tile, and remediating the mold) I decided to give it the full on ORC treatment.

Chronicles of the One Room Challenge, Spring 2017, to date:

ORC 2: Jumping in Relunctantly.
ORC 2a: Evaluating the Bathroom
ORC 3: Using Inspiration to Solve a Bathroom Design Dilemma
ORC 3a: Progress Report
ORC 4: Yellow Alert! Yellow Alert!
ORC 5: Tick Tock

And just what is the full on ORC treatment?

That is me, living a fantasy where I'm a designer, a decorator and DIYer extraordinaire--where I belong with all the brilliant designers hand picked by Linda for the ORC. In reality, it's me working feverishly along with my husband (this time) and my mom (other times, and sometimes, but rarely, both) to decorate a room as best I can according to my vision--and budget (usually blown).

I think I am far too ambitious for the resources I have available to me. For the entire five weeks, I am STRESSED.

And then, when things happen--like you discover the light fixture you based an entire design around is too big (and the only other option --to make the ORC deadline-- is to buy another and spray paint it), or the fabric you chose is nothing like it appeared on-line and is much too dark, and the plumbing part is wrong, and you need a work around for a part you don't have--and then when the pipes are installed and they leak, and you fix them, and they leak somewhere else, and you fix that, and when they leak again and again--and you are about to fix them for the fifth time and you decide to level the sink because your husband has just put down the new floor (and made mistakes because he was tired and fixed them but it meant a quick trip to Home Depot for the third time that day to get a new threshold)--and then you get home dead tired, ready to level the sink and get the legs in their final position so you can fix that damn leak

and then,

while you're holding the sink up so your hubby can screw in the front legs,

you both hear a gigantic CRACK

and you say, "what's that?" thinking the pipes have snapped apart--

but no....

it's the ancient bracket holding your ancient beloved sink.

Gone.

Just like that.

And when that happens, I just want to give up and never, ever decorate again. (I have been tearing up all day.)

I called around, I went to several places, including Architectural Clearing House which is just what it sounds like---and he has a thousand and one parts, even a one hundred year old hanger for a wall mounted sink--but not my "very old and very rare" sink bracket.

the elusive bracket, still intact on the right side of the sink.

And all you can think is.....of course.

It's the ORC and what can go wrong, will go wrong. Not to whine--but nothing has gone without a hitch. Nothing.

I don't know when we'll be done. I am gutted I don't have a reveal. It kills me I won't be linking up with a finished room....not unless all the stars align and Linda keeps the linky open for a good while.

So, we'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, do check out all the others who have transformed their rooms in these five brief weeks. Amazingness abounds.

The chosen participants.
The guest participants.

They deserve all the praises.

ORC 5: Tick tock

Oh migoodness.

doesn't every body have a chop saw set up in the kitchen?

I will say this: if it were not for the  One Room Challenge-- this little bathroom face lift would have taken me a lot longer. And I don't think I could have survived it.

ALSO--It definitely would not look as fabulous as I hope it will in just one short week.
One week.
Actually less, given it has to be photographed and the post written.

Eeeek.

Here's where we are now:

Here's the vision (partly):

Here's how we got here:

ORC 2: Jumping in Relunctantly.
ORC 2a: Evaluating the Bathroom
ORC 3: Using Inspiration to Solve a Bathroom Design Dilemma
ORC 3a: Progress Report
ORC 4: Yellow Alert! Yellow Alert!

And finally, here's the progress on our various little projects.


PAINTING

I got two coats of my Hague Blue on the upper part of the walls when I noticed some horrible spots that needed smoothing. So, less than an hour after the second coat, Chris had the sander out.

Then we removed the old light (not as difficult a job as we'd feared. It came out quite easily.) and discovered at least fifty years of crusty paint build up. So, that got sanded, too. There was a sizeable chunk missing from the wall--and the new light would not be covering that up, so I repaired it.

I used wet and set. After it dried, it was spackled and sanded until it was all smooth.

And we sanded, spackled and painted for another four days. ("We" means my husband. Man, am I grateful he's so patient.) The Hague Blue is in semi-gloss--so it shows every dang spot and ding. But where it is smooth --oh my-- it's like a still, deep, magical pool. Gorgeous.

I'm now in the process of painting the window.

Yay--green grass! That's the first we've seen it since last year.

WAINSCOTING
All the horizontal boards are in. Working on the verticals.

INSTALL NEW BATH FAN
I've learned more about bath fans and venting than you'd probably ever want to know this past week.

We had quite the time installing the new bath fan. I'd picked it up at Lowe's about a week ago. But when we went to install it Monday, Chris noticed that the flap in the duct housing did not close all the way. I jumped online but I couldn't figure out whether it was all that important or not, but we hopped in the car and ran to Lowe's for another one anyway.

In my research I had discovered that flexible hose venting --like we had-- can reduce the efficiency of the fan by 50% Good grief. We also discovered that we really need to lop off about two inches off the bottom of the door so the fan can draw air when the door is closed. So, we will do that.

It took all day Monday to install the fan. After our trip to Lowe's, Chris replaced the flimsy mounting board with something substantial. He had the housing  up --but fortunately had not attached anything to it -- when I noticed it wasn't centered. He graciously took it down and remounted it for me. Then we had to figure out the ducting. He solved it most elegantly with an elbow he had lying around in the garage.

Whew.

LIGHTING
Worried it won't fit!

DRAIN PIPE PROJECT

The drain pipe from the wall: it shall not be moved.

I've had an awful time with the plumbing. In short, in order to get this drain pipe in the wall to attach to my pretty chrome drain pipe, I have to use an ugly thing called a compression fitting. I thought I'd found something to hide the ugly thing--- but just as I was about to spend $50 US to ship a $12 plumbing part--- I discovered that the part was not, in fact, the dimensions I thought it was--but something entirely different and hopelessly inadequate! So, so glad I discovered that before pulling out the credit card! I think I've come up with an acceptable work around. I'll be doing up a whole post on it later, when the ORC is over.



FLOORING
It's here. Waiting.


TOILET
Ordered. Waiting for us to pick it up!

WINDOW TREATMENT
My fabric from Tonic Living arrived. I ordered it Thursday and I got it Monday. Amazing. But it was not AT ALL what I was expecting. It's not as vibrant as it looked on my computer screen. I am disappointed, but it is still pretty and it will do.


THE MIRROR
It is going to be so wonderful!

I played around with the pieces today and realised I was making it far too complicated. It'll be easy. I just have to cut a gazillion little half chevrons (anybody remember what those are called? parallelograms?), stain them and then glue the whole shebang. I am going to wait until I have the actual mirror before I glue it. Oh --and then I actually have to hang it-- as a door!

I should have the glass in my hands Friday.


I feel like I should be panicking, but I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's just because I'm so tired I haven't the energy to be anxious? Mostly, I'm just having fun and enjoying spending time with my husband as we work on this together.

As it should be, I think.

Do check out the other participants: especially the select 20 which Linda hand-picked to wow us with their designs. Some are very close to the wire. Here's the link via Linda's site, Calling it Home.

Then there are those, like me, the guest participants. So exciting to catch up on a handful each week. See them all here.

Next week: the reveal!

But until then....

Uncluttered--The Course

I've signed up for Joshua Becker's 12 week course Uncluttered.

I am not entirely sure why.

I've been decluttering the house, off and on, for years. I am fairly satisfied with the decisions I've made and the amount of stuff we have--on the main floors, at least. The basement is a whole 'nother beast.

I still do not have the tidying and cleaning routines I want in place to help me keep the house looking its best. I think the course deals with that, somewhat.

One of the things Becker --and other minimalists-- say is that decluttering is not the goal. Having fewer possessions is not the goal. Owning less is merely the means to something else--and it is that something else which is your "why", your reason for decluttering.

But, honestly? I think there's a good case to be made for decluttering for its own sake:

Fewer things means a house that is easier to clean and tidy.
I want a house that is easier to tidy and clean.
Apparently, getting rid of clutter would eliminate 40% of housework. (source) It stands to reason,

I want to be able to find things, easily.
That's intuitive, right? If I only have three sheets of sandpaper, say, it is easier to see whether I have that 220 grit I need --rather than trying to go through two large boxes of scraps. Right? (Of course, as my husband would argue, it reduces the likelihood that I'll actually have it, necessitating a gas guzzling and time consuming trip to the store, so....there's that.) But I certainly do not need two can openers. Or a food processor that doesn't work....

I want my mind clear. 
Princeton scientists discovered that

When your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus. The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process information. source

As Erin Doland says, clutter is like a toddler standing at your side,

repeating, “candy, candy, candy, candy, I want candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy, candy …”  

Most of all, I want to unstick my life. At the moment, I just feel stuck. Nothing is happening. (Well, OK, we are doing a mini-renovation of the main bathroom, but other than that...) With Chris' lay off "sometime this summer" looming over us, so much is uncertain that I feel paralyzed.

All that other stuff-- less debt, better relationships, more time for whatever I want to do (including service to others) --that's all good. Nothing wrong with that. But this promised la-la land after decluttering may manifest--and it may not. It reminds me a lot of the promises of weight loss. And, like weight loss, there's no reason to put off having the kind of life you want because your body--or your house--isn't quite what it could be. Unless, of course, you want to run a marathon or host a wedding. Then losing the extra weight whether from the the body or the house is an excellent plan. Respectively speaking, of course.


*these photos were taken just before dear blog reader Marie came by for a too short visit. She was passing through town, on her way to visit friends.