Multiversal Musing -- Deborah Harmes, Ph.D. » purge

Fully Engaged

Deborah — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:05:02 +0000

I have engaged in the battle — truly. But after months of nibbling at the ELEPHANT that is my staggeringly large mound of possessions to purge myself of, I find myself with weak knees some days realising just how much MORE there is to shift out of our house, our studio, and our two horse barns.

Perhaps the cooler and rainier days will keep me tucked up inside simply staring at the problem and I will stay enthused about the lightening-up process. Just this past week I have strengthened the savings account a smidgeon and freshened up one tiny segment of my office with the help of both Ebay (bless them) and the bored shoppers who were trapped in the house in front of their computers over the long Easter weekend.

This week it is BAGS–BAGS–BAGS on sale and I would like to know just HOW in the world we managed to accumulate so many pieces of luggage in the last 15-plus years together!

Just too darned many BAGS!

Out they go and off to some good new home where happy little travellers can board their planes safe in the knowledge that they have saved a bit off the luggage bill and perhaps that will fund a croissant and cafe creme or deux in Paris. (sigh!) Don’t even get me started on how much I would personally love to be back in Paris right now!

And photo editing — I am seriously behind on photo editing. And there are at least three magazine articles to submit proposals for to editors.

So yes — I am fully engaged in life and tasks and sorting and more. But my body feels better already simply due to the downshift in temperatures. Ahhhh!

Now where was that cashmere cardigan to ward off the evening chill? Guess it is time to sort out the closets, too!

The Purge Progress

Deborah — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:01:49 +0000

DVDs by the Dozen go Bye-Bye!

It has been an intensely busy time for the last few weeks. Out of the cabinets, bookshelves, and boxes have come dozens of movies to list online. I know I’m a movie buff, but how in the WORLD did we end up with so many of them — and some still in their cellophane wrapper?

I will be finished with the DVD listings (3 dozen so far!) this week and next week starts the really big BOOK PURGE! Our darling cottage is far to small for 850 books to be atop groaning shelves. Now they will find new homes elsewhere!

Happily, I can also report that I’ve already hauled several loads of household items off to the charity shops.

My dear friend K said to me the other day — “What’s happened to your musings? People miss it when you don’t post your musings!”

Give my poor little hand a chance to recover from the repetitive stress of holding a computer mouse whilst cropping and editing photos — and I’ll be back!

One Load Down, Many More To Go

Deborah — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:13:19 +0000

Progress HAS been made — but there is still so much more to do! Happily though, the first load of donations has filled the back of my station wagon and is ready to go off to the Salvation Army tomorrow afternoon.

Entire back of station wagon is FULL!

It has been a bit startling over the last 3 days to open up box after box and find untold amounts of clothing, shoes, bedding, and decorative items — but those are all now things that someone else will be able to use. There are dozens more boxes to go through and I plan to stay on task until I have thinned out at least 2/3 of the contents of the studio and we can actually use it for the purpose that it was built!

Baby Ginger sometimes accompanies me on these little daytime adventures, but he just gave me a look this morning when I asked him if he wanted to go to the studio. He does understand what I am talking about and knows those words well since that’s where he sleeps every night. But here is the look that he gave me…

You're kidding - right? You want me to get OUT of bed again?

and then he drifted straight off to sleep in his little bed — a recycled French wine box.

Baby Ginger asleep in his French wine-box bed

Lighten up!

Deborah — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:37:25 +0000

“Get the camera out of my face,Mum — I’m too hot and grumpy to cope!”

The expression on the face of Baby Ginger aka ‘Bouf Boy’ said it all. It was suddenly quite hot and, oddly for Victoria, quite sticky-humid.

Baby was still heavily furry — his winter coat hanging on a bit longer than usual since we were still having night time temps down to 8C (48F) up until a few days ago — so I spent a half an hour last night briskly brushing and brushing. The amount of fur that came off in wads was enough to spin into yarn and knit a kitten-sized sweater.

Time to lighten up in several other ways, too — need to get inside some of the those boxes that have been stored in the studio ever since we moved to the country from Melbourne 3 years ago. If I haven’t seen those things in all of these years — do I really need them?

Paperwork, artwork and clothing notwithstanding — looks like it’s time to lighten up via a big purge in the coming weeks.

And I’ll need to do it when Sweetie is off at work. I used to think I had an issue with keeping things that were long past their use-by date due to sentimental attachment, but my ‘issues with stuff’ are minor league compared to him!

So, is it ebay singing to me? A well-advertised garage sale perhaps? Donations galore to the charity shops?

Keep you posted — and I may get brave and document the process in photos!