S I M P L I F Y

Monday, January 14, 2008 at 11:48 am (Cottage Industry)
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The “simplify” mantra has become so popular, and it’s easy to see why. Now that the Christmas decorations are down and the house is more or less back to normal, it actually looks a little stark. Which, if you know me, you know I have tons of chatchkes and collectibles and so does Mike, so for the status quo to look “stark,” you can imagine the holiday excess.

But it’s so refreshing. The house feels like it has breathing space. And I actually got Mike to help me load up the car with several boxes, bags of clothes, and some unused tables to donate to the local Christian Laymen’s organization. It felt so great to get rid of stuff I’ve had packed up for probably a year (how embarrassing). Now I want to do more!

The problem is a genetic predisposition to hoard. My mother grew up during the Depression; times were hard and the family had very little; as a result, she throws nothing away (the attic and basement in our family home are downright scary). Her brother was the same way. My cousins tell of cleaning out my uncle’s things after he died and coming upon a bucket filled with the little nozzles from spray cans. I guess you just never know when you might need one — or a thousand. As a result, my sisters and I are fascinated by stories about people who hoard — we can see those same traits in ourselves.

My friends coined a good name for this need to simplify — CRaP (Consolidate, Reduce, and Plan). Some things I’m wrestling with in my own CRaP efforts:

  • Cookbooks. Aside from a few favorites I can’t part with, I have probably 10 others I never open. The Web is always my go-to source for recipes these days…so surely some of the cookbooks can go?
  • Books in general. I don’t have anything like an extensive library, but we have a few shelves in the attic of novels and a few textbooks, and I have some work-related business topical books (that I never look at). I don’t know, I have visions of someday having a little library and time to sit down with a good book in front of a roaring fire. But I’ve read all these…keep ’em anyway?
  • Collectibles. I have a lot of stuff, including a large collection of china and nowhere to even display it all. I have a couple boxes of really lovely things all packed up. There’s not really a market for them anymore, even on eBay — I acquired them over time and many were gifts, but I’m at a loss. I suspect these will have to stay in their boxes for a while longer.
  • Clothes. Having worked from home these last 9 years, my wardrobe is a joke — a few go-to outfits for business meetings and the occasional event, and a lot of stuff that looks 10-15 years out of date. And dressy clothes I haven’t worn since the long-ago days of office Christmas parties. I know at least another garbage bag full can go, along with a couple coats.
  • Housewares. I have many things tucked away in cedar chests and such — curtains, drapes, throw rugs, comforters — things I can’t use here, but I always think “someday?” (On HGTV shows, they’re always raiding people’s closets and pulling out “treasures” like this to redo spaces — what are the odds a designer is going to come and do that for me?)
  • Work samples. I have a couple underbed boxes filled with old print samples of projects I worked on 10 or 15 years ago (back in the days when companies actually printed materials instead of just posting them on the Web.) These are tough to part with for historical reasons, but I haven’t looked at them in years and I do have some portfolio binders as well in case a prospective client wants to see samples.

Oh the burden of our possessions. Tastes change, spaces change, styles change, sizes change, but our stuff stays the same. I do feel the load, particularly since I’ve moved more than most people and know what it feels like to have to pack it all up, haul it somewhere else, and deal with it there. Oh, and you have to love all the paper — 7+ years of income tax records, bank statements, and such — forced clutter. Along with project papers that “I just might need.”

But, now that the S I M P L I F Y mood is upon me, I want to keep going. To feel lighter and less burdened. To make room for new ideas, new ways of looking at things, and yes, maybe some new possessions more in tune with how I feel and what I want now. It sounds so S I M P L E — why is it so, so H A R D?

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away
such parts of the marble block as are not needed –
it is a process of elimination. 
                                                ~ Elbert Hubbard

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Though the weather outside is frightful…

Monday, December 10, 2007 at 11:55 am (Cottage Industry)
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16 degrees last week, and windy too. But oh so pretty with the snow covering the branches just so. 

frontporch.jpg  Over the past couple weeks, I’d just taken to leaving my coat on when I came in, as real winter started to set in and my feet and nose and hands couldn’t take it. Now though, especially because I was so harsh on living in boiler world (See Bubble, Bubble, Toil & Trouble), it’s only fair that I report some return to normal body temperature.

…the fire is so delightful.
No, radiator heat is not redeemed, we’ve simply circumvented it by purchasing a vent-free gas stove (wow, the price went up from 2 weeks ago) to fit into our living room fireplace, after seeing my brother’s. Unfortunately, I didn’t win the battle to get one as cute and petite as his — ours is bigger and more powerful (read: too damn hot). But it sure does cozy up the room. And at 98% efficiency or some such, it should be better for the gas bill than the 68% efficient boiler and more effective than the little electric space heaters. It’s a huge improvement over the gas logs some previous owner had stuck in the decorative tile opening — an open flame, mind you. We tried them once and promptly said, “never again.”

This one doesn’t get two thumbs up yet — it’s still burning off that “new smell” (akin to drying varnish or some other awful chemicals) that was supposed to go away after a few hours (it hasn’t), and it’s too powerful for my tastes, even though we have a big room that’s open to the hall, stairway, etc. (We may have to replace the pretty lighting fixture we installed with a ceiling fan.)

But that said, warmth counts for a lot when it’s something-teen outside. Maybe I’ll expand my winter entertaining menu to include toast-your-own marshmallows on a stick (you decide how black). Or a luau theme. Feel free to wear shorts…

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,
for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for home. 
                                              ~ Edith Sitwell

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Do I have a sign on my back?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 12:21 pm (Cottage Industry)
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And does it read, “Contractors, ignore me!”?

Or maybe it’s more direct: “Screw these people!”?

Or maybe it’s just this:

 target

Why is it that no one wants to work on our house? (OK, I don’t really want to work on it either, but no one has offered to pay me to.)

  1. There’s the plumber who won’t call us back — week and a half. (This is plumber #2: plumber #1 came once, gave us an estimate, and never came back when we called, so we got #2 to do that work (bathroom). Now #2’s not calling back to finish the project he started a few months ago that just needs a final hook-up so we can have heat in our kitchen again.)
  2. There’s the porte cochere pier/garage contractor whom we lined up in May, who started in September, who took 2 months to do a 2-week job, who repeatedly fails to show up when he says he will, and who’s left us with a pile of rubble in the driveway that I’m quite certain will stay there unless Mike calls and bitches to him. Even then, it might stay there until we haul it away.
  3. There’s the landscape company who did such a beautiful job on our neighbor’s retaining wall in record time. I called them last week to give us an estimate, and they assured me they’d be out then, even earned points by calling me back when they couldn’t make it last week, and said they’d be here first thing this week. It’s now Tuesday, and I’ve not heard a word.
  4. There’s the kitchen countertop installers who would have completely mismeasured had Mike not been there to guide them and who still had to come back twice when the sink countertop was wrong (and it still wasn’t quite right but we couldn’t bear it and left it be).

It’s no wonder we’ve ended up doing so much work on our own. Yes, it saves money, but most of all it’s the only way we can get anything done.

I really don’t understand it. Being in business for myself, I know what hoops I jump through for my clients. How is it that the standards essential in the corporate world go out the window in the contracting/trades world? Is it a case of demand trumping supply? Is it that even less-than-stellar people can get all the work they need? Is it that the work is just too hard and there’s more than enough easy pickins to go around?

Or do I just need to get that darn sign off my back?

One only needs two tools in life: 
WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop. 
                                                        ~ G.M. Weilacher

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