decluttering diary

The Vista on my laptop is behaving oddly since last weekend. I got most of my important data backed up, but some minor thing are either gone or archived away in an external HD. I’m not gonna put everything back in until I know it’s going to behave for more than one day. Or until I downgrade this sorry ass to XP.

I was looking for a stationary tray that I can put into a desk drawer. The reason being two mugs full of stationary on my desk is ridiculous. Okay, moving clutter into a different position doesn’t solve the problem of it being there, but I don’t want to get rid of it. They still work, and there are times when I actually need them.

Naturally, a stationary tray cannot be found whenever I venture into a nearby book store or the stationary department. Dangerous territory. Being in a book shop or stationary corner means all sorts of other things are trying to tempt me into taking them home. Like I really need a fancy wire office desktop set that doesn’t include the tray that I want.

Things turn up when you’re not looking for it, so I was not surprised to find it in one of the many cheap stores around town when I was there looking for a teapot.

Technically it’s a cutlery tray from the kitchenware section, but cutlery and stationary have the same basic configuration. Plus it came in a bright lime green that matches some of the other stuff I own.

Yes, you do see frogs in there.

The store I went to also had a surprising amount of stuff to organise your cable clutter, and for ridiculously cheap. I got two packs of cable ties (different lengths) for about a buck each. The section merits another visit when I’m in the mood to prospect for decluttering tools.

And I never did get my teapot.

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My weekend was pleasantly busy, as opposed to my usual weekend activity of doing as little as possible.

First of all, I re-potted two plants I bought at the Satok Market. Yes, I bought plants. No, the real Gette is not in at the moment. Please leave a message.

The one on the left is a spider plant. I call her Ms. Spider Plant. At some point, I’ll pick up a cactus and call him McPedro. Ms. Spider Plant will follow me to the office. I have no idea what kind of plant that is on the right. I bought it because the leaves were pretty.

Here’s another photo I snapped while out in the backyard today.

I have no idea what plant that is either. Our backyard is actually quite nice, especially in the late afternoon when the sun is on that side of the house. There were three Pied Fantails squabbling around as usual. I would have stuck around longer to get photos if it wasn’t for those savage mosquitoes.

Yesterday, I cleaned out one of my two the overhead closet spaces which I haven’t touched since they were given to me. Threw out three bags full of junk, saved a handful of things, including this watch.

An aunt gave it to me when I was a kid. It was too unusual for me to toss the first time, so I took it to the watch shop near my office today to see if it’s salvageable.The guy replaced the battery and it’s ticking again.

There is another closet space left to tackle, but I thought I’d leave it for this weekend, when I’m on leave and NOT going to RWMF.

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Gid wants to know how I store my books.

I have over 250 books and counting, but I think the number is more like 300+ because I haven’t catalogued all of them. It’s kinda like bailing out a sinking boat. Most of the books are collected over the span of years. I inherited (”rescued” would be more appropriate) a handful from parents and grandparents. Nobody reads them but they were too cool to throw away.

All photographs here are viewable in a larger format. Just click. If the Lightbox doesn’t work, you’ll still get the actual file.

The book stack above resides in a corner of the living room. I convinced my parents that it’s a valid decorating element. Every now and then, I’ll add another book somewhere into the stack or take away something I want to read.

This bookcase is on the landing upstairs. The phone and modem is on top (you can just see the phone). The two bottom shelves hold children’s books and other large format editions.

Most of the books here are either orphan trade paperbacks, and books I don’t read any more. Some are books I can’t leave downstairs, least my parents’s church friends drop by and notice that their godless daughter reads about magic, occultism, Harry Potter and 100 Ways to Cook Children.

And here is where most of the goods are. Nearly all my paperbacks and series are here. I try to keep my series together regardless of the editions, so some creative arrangement is necessary.

As you can see from the photo, I mainly store my books lying down. I get to store a lot more books this way, and because my bookcases are deep, I can double stack them and still have a strip of space left. Anyway, I’m not going to peruse my own library looking like this:

:-|

Some of the spaces in the lower half are not used for books, but I got no other place for them at the moment. There are some old school magazines that I want to keep, a couple of boxes of comic books my brother and I used to collect, a box file of my old artwork, a bagful of unused notebooks, and some other junk.

In theory, there’s plenty of space for another 100 books or so, as long as I find a home for all the other non-books.

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