Well, the book is out. The blogging has petered off, I'm in full speed preparation toward the Romantic Times Booksellers Convention and...I'm tackling my clutter situation with the help of a specialist.
First step? Accept you have a problem you can't handle on your own. Yup, I'm there. Been there for a whole lot of months...likely nearly a year.
Second step? Be ready to do what it takes, surrender to it. And call for help.
It was strange, having Casey come into the house. First time we'd had any company in the house in a long, long time. Sure, we had some new kitchen stuff done and we had new windows put in. That was years ago and the clutter was pretty much confined to two very bad rooms and some closets that were so full nothing else fit.
Sigh.
So, I figured Casey would check the whole house out. Make notes, maybe take pictures... Instead, she asked what room was first and we started with that one. She didn't even look at the rest of the house.
Husband's clutter room first. The front room, the room the front door opens to. Used to be a gargage at some point point before we bought the house. Which now has no garage and no shed... Which means the front room has all the tools from the garage and shed we once had. Plus the big desk and all the paperwork, the washer/dryer, my bike and a ton of assorted stuff.
Our first assignment, from Casey? An hour a day and big projects on weekends. It's only been four days but we've already made a lot of progress. Bags of stuff to Goodwill, bunch of stuff to trash, another load of electronics to be recyclyed. Since the majority of the room is huband's territory, I've been given permission to spend time at the other end of the house. My clutter room. Full of craft projects, books, sewing stuff, work out stuff, convention stuff, knick knacks, collectibles, costume this and that, music books, college papers... Sigh.
She says we'll have that room back by the end of March.
I'll be ready for it!
On the promotion tour this week? It's a light week. I'm at Castles&Guns on Tuesday. The Daily Dose of Decadence on Wednesday and Thursday. And I'm holding court at my local RWA meeting on Saturday here at home.
The Romance Writers Revenge is guesting Margaret Rowe on Friday, do stop by! She's always a charming visitor.
That sounds like great progress! And maybe not as scary as you'd thought, so that's nice too. I think an hour a day is doable. We can scare ourselves when we think we have to do something for several hours in a row so then we don't do anything. LOL Very inspiring. :)
Posted by: Donna Cummings | 02/27/2011 at 05:07 AM
True, I had this vision of spending hours and hours and hours working on this. And that is what we'll need to do, just one hour at a time. We're getting rid of a lot of stuff, but I'm still a bit freaked about where we'll put the stuff we want to keep so we can get to it without returning to the spread and search method we've been using!
Posted by: Maureen | 02/27/2011 at 10:50 AM
I could have sworn I left a comment yesterday. Alas, I must have gotten sidetracked. LOL!
I really need to organize my new house. It's not quite a crazy mess, but it's not "finished" and I can't find anything. There's a good chance furniture will be moved this weekend (if I can find the furniture coasters!) and shelves and artwork will finally make it on the walls.
Then it's organizing the office stuff. I hate not being able to find stuff.
Posted by: Terri Osburn | 03/04/2011 at 08:02 AM
It's been one of those weeks, Terri!
It was when I realized how many things I'd lost track of and couldn't put my hands on without a massive search that I knew I needed help.
Well, that was one of the things that told me I needed help!
I'm hoping it will be fun and exciting to find things I thought were gone. I already found a blouse in my closet I'd forgotten I bought! And it will be perfect for RT!
Posted by: Maureen | 03/04/2011 at 09:01 AM