Yes, they are finally here ... our school holdiays!!! can't tell you how much I have been looking forward to this litte break. It's no secret for anyone that knows me well that this year is proving to be a real struggle. I've been living in Stress City for many months now ... work-generated, I hasten to add.
I acknowledge that I'm a control freak, we all know that ... *smile* ... I've come to realize that part of my problem is I have no control over what happens in my work life, no way of fixing the enormous problems that I'm faced with on a daily basis, no glimmer of hope/relief in my immediate work future, and that is soul-destroying to face up to each day.
Regardless of this, at heart I'm a positive person, and I'm using these holidays to regroup. I'm pottering ... I'm taking deep breaths, literally ... I'm working at a slow, meditative pace, lots of deep-breathing ... and I'm decluttering my home. I'm doing a lot of reading online, finding lots of 'de-cluttering' advise and strategies. One of my favourite websites to date is called Unclutterer ... cool name, huh? I've been reading 'backwards' now for three or four days, and I'm only up to page 27. And I've talked before about being a big fan of Sorted! Today I typed up and printed off my mantra (which you will find on page 7 of the book Sorted!)
De-cluttering ... remove anything you don't love,
don't use and don't need.
And some more inspiration came from Jess's blog ... she is doing a massive de-cluttering job at her house, and is brave enough to post before, during and after photos! Me? Well, I might share 'after' photos, lol ... certainly photos of the books and clothes I have to take to our local charity. :)
Soooooooooo ... what do librarians do during their holidays? Any guesses, anyone, lol? Yes, we catalogue our home libraries!!! While reading Declutterer, I found a post on colour-coordinating their home libraries. While I can see it would work for visually-orientated people with small libraries, it certainly wouldn't work in our house ... we have 15 bookcases!!! One of my 'holiday tasks' I had planned was to cull some books from our over-abundance of bookcases. I found a comment recommending LibraryThing as a good place to create an online catalogue of your home library. Then I found another comment recommending LibraryThing, and then another, and yet another, so of course I had to check it out.
Total fun ... all you need to do is put in the ISBN number, and all the cataloguing details are there, plus front cover images, so super easy. You can load your own cover images, if you can't find the right one in their collection, and edit any details you want to change.
Why catalogue your library? Well, it's good to know what you have in your home library when you spend so much time in book stores as I do ... I have been known to buy duplicates of books in the past, lol. I can access my online library at LIbraryThing with my iphone. And of course, if we are unlucky enough to be have a burglar visit us, or fire/flood etc., then we have an off-line record of our collection. Not saying this is for everyone, but if you are interested, check out the link ... LibraryThing.
So I catalogued ... and I culled. I have many bags of books parked by the front door, waiting to find new homes. The girl got the cataloguing bug too, and has created her own library on LibraryThing too, and somewhere along the line, I'm going to tackle the boy's bookcases too.
But wait ... there's more!I worked through my WIR, and packed some bags of clothes too ... I finally have parted with my going-away dress, the dress you wear when you leave the reception at your wedding. I've carried it around with me for over 20 years, and seriously, why is this, do you think? I'm sure I can't fit into it any more, and I really don't want to, as it is an 80's special, lol, with padded shoulders and other lovely dated features. So into the bag it went ... and here's the only (very nasty) photo I have of it, and folks, it looked nicer in reality than it looks here.
Tomorrow ... well, tomorrow is another day. More cupboards to explore, more pottering, more deep breathing ... see you then. :)
Ooh, and electric blue dress!! What a stunner. I went for more of a powder blue! Some people catalog books on their holidays, others tag their digital kits. Same thing I guess! As for decluttering, I've NEVER been good at that AT ALL, but I think that now the kids are getting older and have their own stuff and distinctive tastes I'm finding it much easier to part with things. But I still have my wedding dress. Not parting with that!
Posted by: Esther | June 30, 2009 at 10:38 PM
LOVED reading about your decluttering - sounds like you're doing some great work :) I love the mantra too - have been trying to keep the very same thing in mind these last couple of weeks.
I can totally relate to that blue dress and carrying around clothing items that hold sentimental value - I'm not looking forward to the job I have ahead of me working on the upstairs and all of my clothes. It seems especially difficult right now when I'm in the extra special and hopefully never-needed-again pregnancy wardrobe. It's hard to know what I will want/need when this is all over. There are days when I just want to throw it all in bags and just start over from scratch :)
Oh - and one last thought...my husband would be sooo jealous to know about all of your bookcases! Right now we have the majority of our (and when I say our, I really mean 'his') book collection in boxes. Wil's dream is to have enough bookcases to display them all one day - our very own library.
Enjoy your holidays and decluttering - it's given me such a lighter and happier feeling and hope it does the same for you. I'm off to look at some of the websites you referenced...
Posted by: Jess | July 01, 2009 at 01:42 PM
I use LibraryThing! Although at the moment I have been a bit slack with adding things to it, but looking forward to finding some time and getting started again!
Posted by: Kylie | July 02, 2009 at 08:52 AM