Tag: decluttering
Various Musings and Observations
- As
ellipticcurve has already noted, today our company is conducting emergency preparedness exercises in our building. This means we have humanoid dummies in various stages of injury (e.g., with bookcases toppled onto them with feet sticking out), employees acting wounded in various stages of makeup with signs indicating their injuries, signs on various parts of the building indicating damage, and a whole triage setup outside. I do commend the company for this preparedness; I will feel safer for the day this building collapses :-).
The triage setup outside is what really caught my attention. There are four tarps: black (morgue), green (minor), yellow (delayed), and red (immediate). The first thought that came to mind upon seeing it was: Clean Sweep. I mapped the piles to: keep, donate, toss. Sigh. I guess I watch too much TLC!
- I’m on the way to sinus surgery. I did receive email back from Dr. Persky, my ENT, instructing me to call the surgery scheduler. She’s out today, but I have left a message. I’m going to try to schedule it for Monday, 5/2 (I would have preferred Friday, but the doctor will be out that day). Hopefully, recovery will be quick, as I’m scheduled to fly cross-country on 5/16.
- Working with the trainer last night was hard. I think she’s making the exercise harder. Still, I did get 80 crunches and 30 pushups done, which is good for me. I’m slowly getting back into shape.
gf_guruilla found a pretty-good deal on a climate-controlled storage area not that far from our house. I think the price was $139 for a 7’x9′ unit. This will allow us to start decluttering and prepare our current house for either rental or showing, depending on what we decide.
- I’m much more awake today, only dealing with a slight headache. This is a good thing.
Two Steps to George McGovern
Normally, in the morning, I read yesterday’s paper (because, when I get up, today’s paper hasn’t arrived yet). So, this morning, I read yesterday’s Daily News. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Jeanne Londe, who was my co-chair of Social Action when I was at Kol Tikvah, is good friends with George McGovern! I also learned that George McGovern likes Peter, Paul, and Mary and has a Newfoundland dog (just like ixixlix). Neat.
In other news, yesterday went well (other than another headache). I spent the day reorganizing my games into some new storage bins—I created bins for word games, trivia games, party games, and 6-8 hour games, and moved a batch of “old games that I likely won’t play but want to keep” to the garage. This freed up a batch of space, resulting in some cascade rearrangements. This is a good thing. The evening was the Tu B’Shevat seder at Temple Beth Hillel. The seder was the model of efficiency (Rabbi Jim starts and ends on time), but I found myself missing some aspects of TBT‘s seder. The TBH seder focuses on specific products from trees and their significance (figs, olives, pomegranates, dates, and almonds), whereas TBT‘s focused more on characteristics (eat the entire fruit, edible skin, inedible skin-edible fruit, eat the seeds, etc.). Thus, we really didn’t eat what we think of as fruit at TBH [except, perhaps, the figs] (i.e., kumquats, tangerines, apples, apricots). At least I was able to be a sycophant, giving a fig to my daughter.
[This post is illustrating a new user picture that was derived from a characture of me drawn for the 1993 ACSAC in Orlando.]
Busy, Busy, Busy
[First, a birthday callout to underpope, whose birthday is tomorrow. I’m sure you know the song by now… “Put another candle on your birthday cake…”]
Yet another day doing stuff around the house. The day started out in the garage, where I straightened out my work bench, and cleaned the area around the donate pile so as to distinguish it from the rest of the junk in the garage. Of course, since there was space, I had to fill it up, so…
I then went out and picked up a third CD storage unit. Now we have three units all the same on the wall, and it looks real nice. The old units have been added to the donate pile, unless they get rescued. I then spent the rest of the afternoon listing a bunch of CDs on Amazon Marketplace to sell. Some stuff wasn’t worth listing: why list something for 1 cent when Amazon has a 99 cent commission? I guess some folks don’t think.
I also got the last part of my Amazon shipments: Ben Franklin in Paris, Hallelujah Baby, and Pinchus and the Pig.
Tomorrow is our New Years Eve Gaming Party. It looks like it is going to be a small group. So it goes.
Right now, though, I’m tired, so I think I’ll go lie down for a bit, and then clean the kitchen.
Another Long Day…
While the wife and daughter mostly rested, being down with mild colds, I was busy, busy, busy.
After taking care of some financial stuff that had backed up while I was in Mission Viejo, I then turned to other business. First, I scanned some out of print Speed Circuit tracks for a fellow in France. These have been shipped off on a CD, and hopefully I’ll get a game back in trade: either Tigris and Euphrates or Modern Art. Yet again, Board Game Geek comes through. I then went off to the post office to mail the CD, thence to Trader Joes to do some grocery shopping. Those of you that don’t have the pleasure of a Trader Joes are really missing something.
I then toddled off to Best Buy to pick up some new CD Storage Units. These puppies are wonderful, soaking up gadzillions (well, up to 756) CDs. I got two units; I’ll probably be getting one more tomorrow to make a more uniform look. This is allowing us to get rid of a batch of mismatched CD and Videotape storage units. ellipticcurve may be the beneficiary for some of these. I spent the afternoon and evening loading these up. With what, you ask? I came back from Mission Viejo with a load of CDs that were my dads that didn’t fit with my stepmother’s musical tastes. Some didn’t fit with mine either; I’ll be putting those up on Amazon Marketplace.
I also had to fold in the shipment that came in from Amazon. This shipment included On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen for gf_guruilla; Follies (1971 OBC Highlights); Side by Side by Sondheim (1976 OLC); Sweeney Todd (1979 OBC); The Best of Randy Newman; How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (1961 OBC); Sherry (2004 Studio Cast); and Lucky Stiff (2003 OOBC). It also included the DVD of The Great Race—now I can introduce ellipticcurve to this movie. Push the button, Max.
We were able to get the roof repaired today. Looks like we’ll need to put on a new roof (2nd layer) this summer. Today’s roofer gave a verbal estimate of $5K with 30-year shingles. I don’t think we need 30-year shingles. Our 20-year shingles lasted 15 years (I don’t understand it either), and I can’t see being here another 15 years… plus they would be a 2nd layer. We’ll get some more bids as the spring comes.
Time to finish another mug of tea, and then go to bed. If the weather is better, perhaps tomorrow I’ll organize the donate pile in the middle of the garage so we can call National Council of Jewish Women for a pickup; alas, I don’t think it will happen before the end of the year. Can you tell I’m the son of an accountant?
We’re done here, for now
I think we’re done organizing, for this trip. I think I’ve left the office in good shape: I’ve gotten garbage out of the files (and left five empty drawers in the process), organized the desk, labelled appropriately, and left my stepmother a functional office with up-to-date financial records in Quicken. Hopefully, she’ll use it.
We found the original insurance policies last night… of course, after we had put the stuff in the mail to the companies indicating we couldn’t find them. They were buried in the garage in a file cabinet. I was surprised at the age of the polices—one of them was issued in 1953 (whole life). None of them were that big. I’m bringing the notebook of them home with me, and I’ll write to all of them in there just in case they were paid up and still in effect.
My dad has loads and loads of photo albums. I can’t even start to bring them home. I think this is bringing home the fact that sometime in the next year or two we’re going to have to move. It’s not the moving (i.e., finding a new house) that bothers me, but the whole process of packing and getting the current house ready to show. That’s something to think about in a month or two as things settle down, and we start seeing what is really here. Somehow, I sense we’re going to have loads of trips down here to Orange County.
My daughter tuckered out my stepmother yesterday. S&F’s Chanukah gift was a day of shopping with her grandmother. It turned out the amount wasn’t the critical thing for her (she didn’t even spend what was budgeted), but the day shopping. They walked back and forth all over South Coast Plaza and Crystal Court, looking at clothes and all sorts of stuff (but buying little). I do think that the events of the last two months have brought them together, and that’s a real good thing. Everyone came home, and enjoyed the delightful soup that I made.
I’ve got a business teleconference this morning, and then we’ll be packing up the car. I’m not looking forward to that, as it is raining down here (and in the Valley), and we’ve got lots of loading to do. We’ll back up the cars to the garage to load; we’ve left the garage in reasonable shape, with distinct piles of donate and shred. My stepmother will call National Council of Jewish Women for the donations, and my dad’s accountant will help coordinate the shredding.
I’ve been looking at the binders in my dad’s office this morning. I’ve found a really neat list (see here) of Playbills from shows. I’ve found photo albums from all sorts of years that must have had special significance: navy years, early years with my mom, recent trips, pictures of family. I’ve found his letters where he courted my stepmother, which showed me some depths to the relationship there that I never realized. There are the binders from Plan Hold, where he was the original secretary/treasurer. Loads of books where he was trying to learn the computer. I’ve really gotten a better sense of the man; something I never got the opportunity to do with my mother—for various reasons, including the fact that we really we’re speaking as people at the time she died (we were speaking as mother and “son-who-is-obliged-to-call” at the time). I’m really glad I had the extra time to get to restore and rebuild the relationship with my father, and to get to know the man. He was a pretty neat guy. I think that even if we weren’t related, we would have been friends.
Tonight we go home. I’m looking forward to it, especially our own bed! I’ll then get to unpack, and perhaps do some work on the house. Curses for the current rain, however, as I had planned to straighten out the garage, which is a royal mess, but I can’t really do that in the rain as it involved unloading and reloading it. However, I think I’ll have my hands full integrating what I’m bringing up here into the stuff at home.
We still don’t have a lot of folks for the gaming party on New Years Eve. As I’ve said before: If you’re reading this list, and might be interested in board gaming on New Years Eve, please drop me a comment.
Whew! Long Day!
It’s been a long, long day. While my daughter and stepmother have been out shopping all day (a day shopping with Grandma, buying mostly windows, was S&F’s Chanukah present–and yes, there was a spending limit), and my wife has been traisping around buying windows as well (I hope), I’ve been busy.
The day started by preparing a leftover soup. Brisket, some spaghetti sauce with chicken, baby squash, celery, onions, greens, carrots… all in the slow cooker. Smells great.
Next, I met with one of my dad’s brokers. A very nice lady. I learned a lot about trusts, and how they work. Most importantly, I learned why I need to setup a trust and get my wills done. I checked with a few lawyers, and boy, are they expensive. One is $250/hr, and $1500 to set up the trusts and wills. The other is $275/hr, and didn’t send me (in email) the will/trust price. As before, recommendations in the Los Angeles area are welcome.
I then met with my dad’s accountant. Mostly, this was to see what I could throw out. There are now 8 boxes in the garage pending shredding. This doesn’t count my dad’s daily journals that date back to the 1950s, which I haven’t even touched yet! I also know what I’ll need to prepare with respect to a summary of assets, but it doesn’t look like we’ll reach the limit where an Estate Tax return will be triggered (which is a good thing).
Something tells me this will be a complicated tax return year coming up. Good thing I’m not my accountant!
One thing I’ll need to do is figure out what to do with a large collection of masonic and shrine materials my dad collected. For a long time, he was an active mason (32°) and later a shriner, but within the last 10 years, he demitted his membership. I’m trying to contact some folks from his old lodge to see if there are some leads on this.
I think we need a bumper sticker: Children: Don’t let your parents grow up to be packrats. Of course, one book on his bookshelf is a book on dealing with clutter.
Tomorrow, I’ll actually do some work-work from here, and then we (whew) go home! Friday night is our New Years Eve Board Gaming Party!
Memorabilia and Debris
I’m sitting here in my dad’s office, looking around at all the binders, and thinking about all the stuff I’ve run into. For example, I’ve found a ledger detailing his daily living expenses between 1953 and 1960. Some examples:
Mar 18 1953: 1 pr White Sneakers (Sears Roebuck): $3.74
July 10 1953: 1 pr Black Pedal Pushers: $2.98
Apr 30 1957: 1 Cashmere Sweater: $16.59
Nov 11 1955: 1 21″ TV Set: $159.95
I’ve found family holiday letters dating back to 1980. I’ve found the correspondence between my father and his 1st wives’ friends relating to her hospitalization and their divorce. Of course, I’ve got tax files for his accounting firm dating back to the mid-1980s. I’ve got loads of Navy pictures and recollections, and of course, loads and loads of Al Jolson memorabilia. I’ve written before about the mini-Office Depot. Looking in the supply closet, I can see 17 staplers, 12 calculators, 15 hole-punches of various types, boxes and boxes of staples and ACCO fasteners, multiple Dymo/Rotex labellers, numerous transistor radios, and so on.
I’ve been able to see the evolution of the man, from his younger self to the man I got to know as I was an adult (for we really don’t get to know our parents as people when we are children). I’ve seen the evidence of the times he was scared, when he had to look for work, of the trials in his life. I’m glad that I got to know him, but now that I’ve learned his past, I wish he was here so we could talk about it.
This is something I never got to see with my mother. Because of her nature, we weren’t talking much at the time she died, and so my dad did most of the cleanup of her stuff. Thus, I never really got to know the person: I rejected knowing her when I was an adult because of our personality clashes; I didn’t know her as a child. I don’t really know her story: her trials, her successes. She really didn’t keep memoriabilia, or at least not that I know of.
My question is this: Why do we keep this stuff? What does this memorabilia (and the stuff we keep) say about us and our lives? Do we keep the stuff from the good times, the times we want to relive? I’ve found very little from the late 1960s and early 1970s, which is when my brother was older and up to his death. Was that a time my dad was trying to forget? Are all the office supplies an expression of growing up during the depression?
What does what we have at home say about our lives? When my daughter, in 50 years, has to do a dig through my stuff, what will she think? I know I have very little from my college days, although I do have stuff from the UCLA Computer Club. I have lots of stuff from camp, but practically nothing from High School. I have photos and stuff from the early days of my marriage, but little career correspondence.
We seem to carry with us a lot of debris. I’ve begun to learn that the debris only serves to slow us down. It can make it harder to move on in ones life (I think one of the reasons I don’t want to change houses is that this would mean I’d have to pack up stuff). Yet, when we throw it away, do we make it harder for our children to learn about us as people?
So: What debris and memorabilia do you have? What story would it tell? Do you find yourself consciously keeping less debris from the bad times, from your missspent youth?