Scary Cleaning Jag

I’ve gone insane. I have thrown out furniture. I have enlisted neighbors to haul shit out of my apartment. Some of them have taken home items I do not want. Filing cabinet, chair, etc. My apartment is too small, and frankly I have tooooo many books. But the books must not be thrown out. The FURNITURE MUST GO. I’m also giving my desk to my hot Latin super – tomorrow we will heave it down to her basement apartment. She speaks nary a word of English. I barely speak any Spanish. Yet we were able to make our arrangements quite easily, with hand gestures, as well as mime-esque movements connoting “you want desk?” “Yes I want desk.” Once that desk is out of my apartment I am going to weep tears of joy because of the added space. Of course it will IMMEDIATELY be filled by the Barrister bookcase coming my way (yay!) – and eventually I need to get a big plush arm chair – and then who the hell knows where THAT will go … but I will find a way.

I am still halfway done with the Great Purge and so my apartment looks absolutely nuts – like a crazy person lives here – piles of crap EVERYWHERE – and this will be a project lasting a couple of days so I will tolerate the chaos until the day comes when all will be in order. I need to hang pictures – I still have a couple framed prints I haven’t gotten around to putting up (my painting or – etching – or whatever it is – of Sarah Bernhardt!) – and there needs to be Swiffer action but I can’t begin that until the Purging part is done, because it would be pointless.

I have moved one of the bookcases in my kitchen (uhm, there were 3 in there – it just was way too crowded) over near the bathroom in the front hall – there WAS a bookcase there, a small one – but I moved that one into the main room – (why am I telling my blog this?) – and eventually I may get rid of it, once Barrister gets here. But I shuffled the book collection around – and now the bookcase by the bathroom has all of my biographies and memoirs in it. It thrills me to look at it. I have had to move all the kids books elsewhere – which I was able to do by moving other crap around … but the main thing has been; getting rid of that damn chair (which passed as an armchair, but – bah – I’m sick of it) – and my giant filing cabinet which was just gathering dust. I don’t need it. I kind of just needed it for the SURFACE of it – because I put my printer on it – but seriously – that’s a rather large piece of furniture to keep for the TOP of it.

Hmm. What else. I even considered getting a single bed – just to make more space – but I figured, no. Might as well remain optimistic. However, the last time I had a boyfriend, I had a single bed. So perhaps it’s a sign??

I am having a manic episode. It is hard to keep feng shui in mind. But I am trying. I think I have too many books to be orthodox feng shui. But at least I’m clearing out some serious space. And once that desk is out – I can just … revel in that empty wall … the world map high up on the wall … and nothing else beneath it. Clean and open. The desk has not been sat at or used in over a year. And definitely not since I became a Mac person. I sit with the ol’ laptop in the bed (the DOUBLE BED) … and that is how I prefer it. I feel much more like working when I’m in bed. (Hm. That somehow doesn’t sound right.)

But the sun is shining through my newly Windexed windows, the ceiling fan is going, it was 70 degrees here yesterday and it’s gotta be in the 60s today (which, frankly, pisses me off … I want snow and cold. Thanks.) … but while the weather lasts, I will keep going. The Purge shall continue.

My friend Beth is coming down next weekend – for Christmas shopping, beers, and frenzied conversation … so I am determined to get all of this done by the time she arrives.

Update: I put Sarah Bernhardt up. She looks BEAUTIFUL. I put some other pictures up too which have been leaning against the damn wall in the closet … they look so pretty!

Okay. Gotta go. More to do, more to do.

Update:

Blurry camera phone shots of pictures hung:

Here’s a horrible photo of Sarah – but I’m just so pleased that I found a nice spot for it, and I think she looks really nice. I had bought this really cool frame for her a while back and I just love the look of it.

AND – I moved my Varitek painting from the shadowy indistinct spot where it once was to a much better and more prominent spot on the dingy paint-peeling falling-apart kitchen wall. No, but seriously. I just LOVE where he is now. I gloat at him proudly.

You can see my heating pipe sticking out into the middle of the room … which has, at times, been the bane of my existence since it gets literally SMOKIN’ hot in the winter … but oh well. What can ya do.

Oh, and here are my two Irish pictures: One is a copy of the original 1916 Proclamation and one is a page from the Book of Kells. Bought both of these at the Trinity Library in Dublin. I just love the look of these two as well. Oh, and you can kinda see the dark brown paisley curtains my mom made me over to the left. She made those for me, uhm, 2 years ago? And I’m still not over being grateful for them, and appreciating them aesthetically.

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13 Responses to Scary Cleaning Jag

  1. RTG says:

    Oh yeah, I’ve done that. There are few feelings as totally triumphant and smug as the day you get your place absolutely cleaned up and ordered.

  2. red says:

    I wonder if I will have room for an elliptical??? ha!

    It’s great – I’m psyched to get it all done.

  3. PatrickP says:

    Sheila, I’m laughing because I’m hosting the entire planning division for cocktails before our holiday dinner this month and I want my place to be perfect. I still haven’t been able to convince myself that I don’t need to clean the carpet.

  4. tracey says:

    I love that you stop The Purge to TELL us of The Purge. Because a purge without stopping is no longer a purge; it’s hell.

  5. mere says:

    it feels so good to purge like that sometimes. And I’m glad you told your blog this-because I know exactly how your apt looked and what you got rid of.

  6. just1beth says:

    Mere-I know about being able to envision the apartment!!! And, yes, I am going. (Note to blog-readers: I was waffling for a while, whether or not to go this weekend, not because I don’t WANT to go, but because there are so many things I SHOULD be doing.) Basically, I had a conversation with Jen D. about a couple of posts you’ve made this last week, Sheila. One was about Louisa May Alcott and one was about connecting with movies. And all these people were making comments about movies and books that changed their lives, and I literally could NOT think of ONE. I have gone numb. I am stuck in overdrive. I can’t remember the last book I have read. SO, I was telling this to Jen and she blurts out, “Where the Red Fern Grows. 5th grade. My teacher was reading it out loud to us, and the book was so amazing, and I loved my teacher so much. I decided right then that I would be a teacher and read that book to my class when I grew up.” Don’t you know she teaches-fifth grade- and reads the book to her class. She then said to me-“Beth- you have to go to New York next weekend”. ummm- you think???

  7. red says:

    Ohhhh Beth – I love that!!!

    Mere – wish you could join us this time … next time! Perhaps you could levitate your way down here. (like the dream you had??)

  8. mere says:

    I so wish I could levitate down there!!

  9. PatrickP says:

    It looks very tidy, Sheila. You hang pictures like I do. Centered, balanced, even. You know what bugs me? Like, bugs me to the point that I want to ignore all social propriety and rehang someone’s pictures? It bugs me when people hang pictures in a sort of stair step; two pictures right next to each other, but one hung higher than the other. Where does that come from? Anyway, it all looks nice.

  10. just1beth says:

    Patrick- I also hate when people hang their art work too high. It ends up looking like highwater pants. ewww.

  11. Chai-rista says:

    Wow – you have walls! I always imagined your place as lined in 7 foot bookshelves . . . even around the corners! Like there would even be books shelved above the toilet. Wait a minute . . . I think I’m talking about my house . . .
    ;)

  12. red says:

    Chai-rista – HA!!

    Yes – walls!! It’s hard to believe. If i stay there much longer – I have a feeling all of that will have to change. The floor will collapse under the weight of the books!

  13. Scaramouche says:

    This makes me want to PURGE! My wife says I am a minimalist. She’s right–my dream is to have books, DVDs of old movies, CDs, three or four changes of clothes, two pairs of shoes, and no furniture but a futon. But she doesn’t hold with that approach, unfortunately.

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