Weekend Status Reports - For the clutter-busting actions, several major advances were made this weekend. My roomie wanted to bust the fabric stash and craft supplies in the front room. We scheduled Saturday morning to work together, since we each had evening commitments and Sunday plans. First, I moved all my house-guest's boxes into my room, pledging to deal with my room later. Then one by one I opened my boxes of fabric and started making decisions. Both of use would ask, "Am I *REALLY* ever going to use this?" Keeping in mind the notion of "Love it or Lose it," we were ruthless with our materials. Very few items swapped hands, we only rarely snagged something from each other's cast-offs. The final count: Four boxes and six bags of trash tossed out; two boxes, four bags, and a body form donated to the thrift store.

Here's how it looked when I was done: http://twitpic.com/15y81h - The new living room look!

After the huge Saturday clutter reduction project, Saturday night I was performing in the Purim shpiel down at my synagogue, where I sang, acted, and even played my flute in the play. Purim is the holiday during which we are most silly and ridiculous, and so the play was filled with campy melodrama and over-acting. It was a blast.

Then I headed up the coast to Amy's second wine-tasting party. I arrived around 10:30 PM, three of us changed into swimsuits and soaked in the hot-tub around 1 AM, and everyone who was crashing there was asleep by around 3 AM. But by 7 AM, my feet were so cold I couldn't sleep anymore, so I got up for a hot shower just to warm up even with only four hours sleep. I enjoyed some do-it-yourself TV with Amy's parents until everyone was finally awake, had brunch with Amy and Saul, then headed home. I browsed IKEA for a bit (to take a break from the driving), and day-dreamed about some of the organizers and boxes they sell. But I limited myself to mostly "window-shopping" and only came home with a desk lamp and some bright yellow towels.

My own bedroom disaster was a different project all in itself. Sunday evening was taken up with massive busting in the bedroom, just so I could find the couch, my desk, the floor, or create a path through the room. I dug out one hap hazard pile in front of the bookcases, and finally found some lost SCA accessories. Once the boxes were stacked neatly, it actually took up less room on the floor. Then I started emptying out two bookbags and two bags of paperwork I brought home from work, recycling and/or shredding an entire large box of paperwork. I uncovered all my tax paperwork, several treasures misplaced, a few photos I didn't remember I had, and generally gained several layers of sanity back again. In the process, I had some thoughts about my weekend:

Reducing Clutter is Not Cleaning or Organizing - You can clean simply by running the vacuum cleaner or washing the dishes. You can organize simply by putting all those papers into a box and putting the box on the shelf. But reducing clutter is entirely different. You open the box of papers, and get rid of most of them. You fill the recycling bin, shred old bills, throw away things that cannot be recycled or donated. And although Reducing Clutter is a major effort in my life right now, I cannot ignore the cleaning and organizing while clutter-busting.

Deadlines Still Loom - The major damper to my feelings of success right now hinge entirely on being behind on several deadlines. On the one hand, now I can actually FIND my desk, my paperwork, my supplies, my calendars, etc. On the other hand, because I spent the weekend shoveling myself out from under an avalanche, it's hard to feel like I'm a success because so many deadlines are looming or have been slipping day by day.

Somehow I Need More Sleep - I'm exhausted, all the time lately. I don't know how to get more sleep when I'm trying to get even more things done. But I have to get up by 4 AM, and ideally I should go to sleep around 9 PM. I have no idea how I'm going to get everything done at work and everything done "in my spare time" at home, and still manage to sleep and stop being so ridiculously tired. But that's something else I'll have to do.

It's hard to feel successful and appreciate that so many friends are telling me that I'm an inspiration for them and their own clutter-busting efforts, when I'm feeling exhausted and a failure at deadlines. And I feel like I wasn't even home this weekend, because I didn't get to spend hours at my computer getting things done. It was almost like I wasn't home at all. And I hate disappointing people by being home but NOT being online getting things done. They don't care that I finally found my taxes or my bills or tossed out 5 boxes and 11 bags of things. They just see my missed commitments. *heavy sigh*

So, please forgive me when I'm not bouncy and proud of my efforts so far. It's going to take me a while, burning the candle at both ends, to feel successful.

Time to switch gears for a moment. Instead of just feeling exhausted, frustrated, over-committed, and like I'm letting people down, it's time to think of a blessing I'm thankful for. Hmm. That's a good habit, I'm glad I've built for myself: Always ending these posts with a thankfulness moment.

* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Amy helped me find a fuzzy blanket at Big Lots just like one of hers. It's perfect.