X350: Xmas Decoration Purge

Everything about this holiday makes me angry this year. I have a full box of Christmas decorations I am taking to the communal area. I don't even want to take a photo or make a joke about it.

I don't participate in Christmas any more and it is time to simply hand over this stuff to those who do.

The last few weeks I have failed to write about the purge items. Toiletries (so very few left) and Wardrobe were omitted. The wardrobe purge is going to work like the jewelry purge. At the beginning of 2009 I am putting all of my clothes except the grey and brown items into boxes. The ultimate decisions are not going to be made for another year. I want to be wearing neutrals for 2009. This will be a kind of uniform. I haven't fully decided if I will include black yet.

U332: Ulterior Motive Purge

Utensils, Dishes, Glasses are ostensibly the category of this purge. I did this purge prior to moving from Arizona. I confess this particular purge was on my list because I share this alphabetical purge outline in my community newsletter and I had this great idea to collect cast off dishes, flatware, etc. for our community events. I even have a discarded picnic basket to store these things in between parties, potlucks. We shall see. I just distributed the newsletter.

The following is a rant by Bruce Sterling about possessions that I found entertaining for the eloquence as much as anything. Via Treehugger . . .

What is "sustainability?" Sustainable practices navigate successfully through time and space, while others crack up and vanish. So basically, the sustainable is about time – time and space. You need to re-think your relationship to material possessions in terms of things that occupy your time. The things that are physically closest to you. Time and space.

In earlier, less technically advanced eras, this approach would have been far-fetched. Material goods were inherently difficult to produce, find, and ship. They were rare and precious. They were closely associated with social prestige. Without important material signifiers such as wedding china, family silver, portraits, a coach-house, a trousseau and so forth, you were advertising your lack of substance to your neighbors. If you failed to surround yourself with a thick material barrier, you were inviting social abuse and possible police suspicion. So it made pragmatic sense to cling to heirlooms, renew all major purchases promptly, and visibly keep up with the Joneses.

That era is dying. It's not only dying, but the assumptions behind that form of material culture are very dangerous. These objects can no longer protect you from want, from humiliation – in fact they are causes of humiliation, as anyone with a McMansion crammed with Chinese-made goods and an unsellable SUV has now learned at great cost.

Furthermore, many of these objects can damage you personally. The hours you waste stumbling over your piled debris, picking, washing, storing, re-storing, those are hours and spaces that you will never get back in a mortal lifetime. Basically, you have to curate these goods: heat them, cool them, protect them from humidity and vermin. Every moment you devote to them is lost to your children, your friends, your society, yourself.

It's not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.

This material culture of today is not sustainable. Most of the things you own are almost certainly made to 20th century standards, which are very bad. If we stick with the malignant possessions we already have, through some hairshirt notion of thrift, then we are going to be baling seawater. This will not do.

The emphasis is mine as this was the central theme for me in my own purges and my own sustainability challenge, even though I could never have written it so well.

Having said that, I confess to my fantasies of tabletop beauty. Just the other day I caught my breath when I saw this image. Fiesta china is something I longed for, for decades. And, I’d forgotten. I will even admit that I used to keep a clipping file of table décor ideas. Feeding the eyes, doing more than just feeding the body is such a personal view I value. I kept aside a small set of fiddlefern flatware for special.

Last year around the holidays I sent my mom a whole bunch of visually delicious table setting images. This delight was something we used to share. When I spoke to her later she told me that the family gatherings are no longer seated around tables. I guess lifestyle changes or something has happened in the intervening years. That seems like a loss.

If my particular path wasn’t one of living alone with austerity and minimalism, I would approach this purge differently. (And I don’t close the door on this aspect either . . .) Sharing meals together is such a wonderful thing to do. Eating is the most basic thing we do daily that doesn't demand privacy and eating food together is a ritual worth cherishing.

Fiesta photo

Post Script: I had so many fuck ups in trying to post this, one could get dizzy trying to read it as I was editing every few moments. Sorry.

S315: Sewing Box Purge

I am sitting on a bunch of sewing projects right now, so I am pulling out everything in that category to figure out what is being used or is useful and what isn’t. There is fabric I need decide about too.

Right after writing that paragraph and taking the photo, I lost the thread - so to speak. I cleared the table and set about finishing a couple of small bags for a neighbor’s camping gear. This is long overdue and I am guilty. Damn, then my sewing machine broke. The needle housing fell from the machine and I don’t know how to fix it. Also, just before that happened the attachment for threading the needle stopped working. It appears that part of it is broken too. I can’t see for shit – so this clever threading attachment is vital for me. I finally got the needle threaded by squinting and struggling; when I sewed for a bit, raised the needle and CLUNK, the housing fell apart.

Things like this make me want to yell - or cry. Doesn’t help that I have been nursing a depression for the last 5 weeks. So, I was feeling a glimmer of light within my little dark cloud . . . I went to my son and asked for a couple hours of his time to give me moral support, companionship and a strong hand in giving my place a thorough cleaning and reconfiguration. It isn’t that my tiny place is a physical challenge, it is just my mental / emotional fugue I need an assist with clearing. So, he agreed to help on Monday (today).

Last night I had a kind of giddy push to sew some things for my winter insulation strategy. I thought that if some of the curtains were done I could get help from the son to mount the hinges and drapery supports I have designed. Crapola! Now it might not work that way.

I have a couple of ideas for barter methods to get the machine fixed. I will have to pursue these today. Meanwhile, the sewing ideas are postponed and I am simply going to pull the fabrics I really don’t like from the box to donate to the Community Resource Center or Thrift store. The threads all came from a neighbor several weeks ago. I just need to repair the sewing box to house them all.

Finally, I have two neighbors who want to learn to sew. When my machine is fixed, I hope to have a little session with them. Sewing is one of the best skills to have in a resilient lifestyle. Just repairing garments is a really big thing. Sewing flat seams for curtains, toilet wipes, drapery, pillow covers, table cloths, duvets, window battens, grocery bags, produce bags, throw pillows, kitchen towels, etc. have all been projects I have done that saved me hundreds of dollars. Not one of these demanded any real skill in sewing.

The first assignment I have given the neighbors is to turn garments inside-out and just look at how things go together. One guy has a desire to sew something for his special someone . . . I said, “Do the laundry and fold the clothes. Take everything she wears and study it. Try to picture the sequence of how it went together.”

I figure he’ll at least get the laundry off of her list. Ahem.

Q298: Qualms About Photo Purge

Although I take digital photographs, scan old photographs and store all these on the computer. I also make a backup. What about keeping photos? Do you? As you can see, I have a metal box filled with photographs. These photos have all been scanned and organized. On the other hand, for this purge I emptied a cardboard box filled with snapshots. The first pass is done. But, I need to scan and decide what to do with the original photographs.

A part of me just wants to pack them away in another metal box and label both for my son. I had a similar category, termed 'legacy content', in the twin to this metal box. I wrote about the box (another family's legacy) and my cassette music stored in it for another partial purge that needs more attention.

For now, I will put whatever I have completed in my closet or shed because he has no room. I will also burn cd’s for him when I have finished scanning. He may choose to simply toss them. I was thinking that he may one day have children and grandchildren who might be fascinated by our primitive photographic records and our stories. If not, it doesn’t really matter. I get a kick out of the images, but I don’t need to touch them as some do.

I have a wall of family photographs and computer folders filled with them. But, the graduation photograph isn’t leaving the damn box.

P291: Paper Purge

This was to be power tool /manual tool purge. Change in plan as no tools are going anywhere. Paper is a constant purge this year. I am being ruthless with this purging of files. This shot was taken some months ago. I have repeated with piles equally high. More than a barrel's worth of old legal and financial records (including divorce files) got shredded for the class compost bins we built.

I also emptied out files from my white storage folders and magazines in July when I got rid of the television. I needed the rolling cart to be relocated to the kitchen - where I'd moved out the refrigerator.

I bring this up and include the photos because I am continually struck by everything being connected . . . by repurposing . . . repositioning . . . rethinking . . . and the kind of sickeningly corporate sounding word: reprioritizing.

I have experimented with making paper maché from junk mail, compost material, packing material and a centerpiece. More on that last one Wednesday. But, the down side of this purge of paper is that I have grown way too comfortable having a paper mess always out. Piles of paper need to be gone before the end of the year. You heard it here.

Now if I take on the magazine DIY project, I'll have that mess too. Oy.

I had a neat experience over the weekend when I hung out by the camp fire with neighbors Saturday night. One woman had a whole trash can filled with confidential files that she didn't want to hand feed into a shredder, so she fed the fire as we sat around laughing and talking that night. It was fun. She got her papers destroyed, we got some firelight and I get to put the ashes on the garden.

O282: Office Supplies Purge

Well, again I seem to have really intended a good cleaning, sorting session – rather than a transformative purge.

For the most part I have gradually been using up supplies bought quite a while ago. The pencil cup and file pedestal drawers have dried up pens, yellowed note pads, and other little silly crap that just needs to be tidied or tossed. It is tough to be very ruthless about items that only take up a square foot!

Five years ago I started my own business, but I was very cautious then about buying much. I am using up the last ream of paper (non-recycled), the last letter-sized envelopes and the last manila envelopes bought for the business. Lately I have started keeping envelopes that come inside junk mail. I will switch to these when I run out of the other. A bit of white glue and a hunk of paper can cover any printing. This might be a real art opportunity too.

Speaking of art and office supplies, I must pass along this link I stumbled on yesterday for Post-It Notes art. My mom will get a kick out of this I think. It is a massive understatement to say she is a really big fan. I used to buy her post it packs when new colors would come on the market. I never thought I would run out of the ubiquitous Post-It Notes – but I have. Hey, it is a kind of victory in some strange way, like running out of ketchup packets or plastic grocery bags. We are drowning in these products. Right?

My biggest office supply purchases (besides the computer equipment, camera and a used file cabinet) were hanging file folders and colored file folders. I find it kind of baffling now to think I bought these new. I wonder if these would ever need to be produced again if businesses (tiny like mine to giant like Exxon Mobile) simply didn’t waste. Trillions of file folders are filled and never, ever looked at again. And, how many offices (and homes) toss the folders along with the contents when purging?

In a few weeks I will be taking on the records purge in my file cabinet. I have decided that my style of working doesn’t lend itself to saving hard copies or turning to my files to search for information. I thought I’d do that many times in my adult life. In my work and at home I have started files in the last 40 years. Many, if not most, of those files were never used in any active way. I was really good about keeping folders for bills and marking my invoices with the date paid, amount paid and check number. I recently shredded years of these organized files. Why did I keep these files – obsessively I might add. I may try and answer that in my records purge post. At that time I will have many, many more hanging files, color file folders to add to my growing pile. So it seems that this is another purge category to be continued . . .

Flickr pencil cup photo
Post-It Note photo
Flickr files photo

N279: Nail, screws, fasterners - NO PURGE

This category is too valuable to get rid of much, if anything. Organizing is my only goal.

M270: make-a-(green)plan purging

First, this week is magazines and books. My primary aim is to prepare for an arts and crafts project. I wrote about these Waste Waste Baskets and I want to try it to make one (or more). So, that is this week’s task. I’d like to turn to a summary. I loves me some lists.

After a dozen weeks using the alphabet for this make-a-(green)plan purging approach of one category at a time, I am thinking this is something I might keep as a regular part of my life. That came off really wishy washy, didn’t it? I have to say, I am firm about one thing; the weight of a big monster purge task is gone from my psyche.

Oh, I should mention that I am within 90 days of my year long challenge ending. I thought it was time to organize some of my past experiences and bring any unfinished business to the forefront of this challenge.

This purging approach didn’t occur to me until halfway through this year. I got a little panicked in June when I realized I’d not touched so much I’d set out to purge. I wrote a post that laid out the following categories to alphabetize the process. I want to encourage lurkers to look at the list with an eye for his or her own peculiar themes. Hint, #1 and #5 are killer.

1. Appliances, 7/7
2. Bedding, 7/14
3. Cleaning Supplies, 7/21
4. DVD's Disks, Music, 7/28
5. Equipment, 8/4
6. Furniture, 8/11
7. Garden Tools, 8/18
8. Hobby, holiday & Craft Stuff, 8/25
9. Interior Décor Items, 9/1
10. Jewelry, Shoes, & Bags, 9/8
11. Keys, 9/15
12. Lighting, 9/22

Wow, what a dramatic start with my Appliance Purge! The refrigerator being unplugged at the beginning of July is still the most radical change in this last half of the year. This giant step galvanized me. It helped me mid-year with a feeling of re-invigoration for what I was doing. I needed that kick in the butt.

Frankly, I’d planned some dramatic transformations. I had the plan for a deep cleaning of my spaces and small project completions to dramatically clear the decks. It didn’t happen and I was disheartened. I was able to switch gears with the cleaning of the interior of my home and the under-counter commercial refrigerator positioned in the living room corner – now doubling as a table base. Sometimes drama and changing the physical environment can be so stimulating.

Conversely, my 4th item with the computer zip disks and the music was something I had to put back into the metal box for another year. In an emotionally protective way, I felt I just couldn’t take that on now. I also lacked the focus required to wade through the computer zip disks. This is essentially my commercial interiors portfolio – that corporate world I am rejecting at every turn. Yet, wresting my professional identity versus my true identity is something I discovered I couldn’t do yet. Right now that dragon sleeps.

The week of the purge of jewelry, shoes, bags week was one I took off from blogging in general. I also didn’t touch the hobby, holiday or craft stuff. This last one was primarily because I had so much I was doing that week and so much piled in front of the storage boxes, I couldn’t get to it on several levels. Yet, even the tasks I didn’t do allowed me to scrutinize and think about all of these things in a different way. See, my not just wanting to be frugal and simple forces me to look at these things in terms of waste, re-purposing (favorite) recycling or replacement. It is a whole new set of variables to use in assessing ownership and STUFF.

One other emphatically life changing purge was the equipment purge. I got rid of the television. Halleluiah, praise Jebus! That is worthy of some sort of adoration from on high, or some fucking thing. That god damned tube caused me more soul deadening waste than anything I can contemplate in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I still watch live streaming – even some full episodes of network drama. I have a long row to hoe to get away from this completely. I am cultivating a life without technology-centeredness and I am very far from that right now.

But, I got rid of the most mind numbing shit that I’d been rationalizing for simply years. Here is an example, food network. Food network? I am sorry. I let these agribusiness apologists into my life and I am so glad I got them out. Whereas, I may choose to plug in my beautiful appliance, the commercial - glass door - glass side panels – under counter refrigerator. I may even take back my little Italian toaster oven. . . You can’t make me take back that fucking television. Don't try.
(Disclaimer: I am not attacking anyone who watches television. I struggled for a decade and have zero cause to be critical of others. Doesn't mean I won't speak against television viewing, I just don't condemn.)

One last major switch for the purge equipment category. I have almost eliminated the cell phone (getting one last missing ‘splitter’ for the Skype setup over the weekend) for the complete switchover this week.

What I am now thinking as I am closer to the end of my challenge is its worth addressing again next year. I like this make-a-(green)plan method. I think I may find categories that are missing or need to be revised. Fine. I just like the notion of keeping the challenge in manageable chunks. There are four categories here that are big, major themes, there are a couple that tools are a critical scrutiny issue, then some domestic items for comfort and lastly, the majority of categories pretty openly negotiable in my mind. A cleaning product or a purse is not a life critical decision. These are all categories though that I would recommend to anyone as a purge strategy towards a healthy sustainable plan. It pays to have the list written somewhere so you might organize around it when possible.

I haven’t even hit the last dozen categories . . .

L263: Lighting Purge

Six years ago a friend helped me in my home bathroom remodel by removing an ancient lighting fixture and installing a 3’ long fluorescent fixture I happened to have in the garage. The only thing was it was pretty ugly and I had to have him install it vertically in the tiny space. My idea was to find dozens and dozens of incandescent bulbs and to glue these bulbs (with silicone) to the outside of the fluorescent fixture. Well I searched high and low for some killer deal on incandescent bulbs with no luck. This was long before we were being told to get rid of our incandescent bulbs and to replace them with the compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs.

I have been thinking of this project again. It seems there should be so many incandescent bulbs lying around or burning out. I have 2 incandescent bulbs myself that I won’t be using and I figured my neighbors might have some too. I put a notice in the newsletter and a box for light bulb donations in the laundry room. I see that someone put some short fluorescent tubes so far. I have some of these too.

I’d like to try something like it for the ugly exterior fixtures at the driveway entrances to where I live. Or maybe for a mock chandelier outside my back door. I don’t have anything definitive in mind. I just love the idea of using up these cast-off light bulbs as a massing around a light source. I do have this image using the long fluorescent tubes. I may have to punt.

This whole project is dependent upon what comes my way both in bulbs and in inspiration. I welcome ideas for both in the comments.

I am envious of the Irish experience. A woman soon to be a new neighbor shared her story of living in Ireland when plastic bags had to be paid for and how this changed the Irish overnight into cloth carrying consumers. Related to light bulbs I read this:

In a bold and laudable move, Ireland has just announced plans to ban the sale of incandescent light-bulbs by the year 2009. This makes it the first European nation to outlaw the old energy hogging bulbs.

John Gormley, the Minister for the Department of the Environment states: “The aim of such a move will be to end the use of incandescent light bulbs in Ireland. These bulbs use technology invented during the age of the steam engine. By getting rid of these bulbs we will save 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year. It has been estimated that consumers will save €185 million in electricity costs every year as a result of the measure.”

All old incandescent light bulbs will be phased out of the Irish market starting in January 2009. As incandescent bulbs break, Irish citizens will have to replace them with more energy efficient options such as Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs.
GO IRELAND! Let’s step it up US!

Hat tip Inhabitat

You know, I have the CFL bulbs in my home now, but I have been thinking about the following for awhile. I am selfishly going to cobble this product plug at the tail end of this post in hopes that I will remember where to find the information when I happen upon the several hundred dollars I’d need to replace everything with LED.

Description:

A bright way to be good to the Earth You want to be environmentally conscious, but doing so can be damned inconvenient. For example, replacing one of your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents can save about $30 of power over the lifetime of the bulb. Not bad, but fluorescents are dim, and they flicker. Plus, while they do last 10 times longer than incandescents, throwing them away is a pain in the neck due to the mercury content.

These new LED light bulbs are tons brighter, don't flicker, don't require special handling, and last fifty times longer than incandescents! What's more, they use even less energy than fluorescent bulbs. The Bright Star bulb puts out as much light as a 100 watt bulb, but uses only one-tenth the power. Plus, it can burn for 11 years! All told, factoring in the cost of bulbs, that's an estimated savings of $430 throughout the life of the bulb. Sure, they cost more than a normal bulb, but they last so long and save so much in electricity costs, they more than make up for it in less than a year's usage. Choose from the wide-range of bulbs we stock.
Highlights:
$49.99 - $119.99

Or for a little less expense option . . .

Description:

A great idea in lighting The light bulb is often used in cartoons to depict the formation of a great idea. We think that building LEDs into a bulb that can be screwed into a standard 120V light socket is a great idea. These LED Light Bulbs come in three different sizes with an output up to 120 Lumens.

The bulbs are also long-life and low power consumption. Vivid - This 18 LED light bulb makes an excellent high definition reading light. Perfect to help you not feel guilty about leaving an accent light on all night. Run it for twelve hours a day for a whole year at a cost of about 80 cents. Makes a great reading light. Vivid Plus - Turn any household lamp into a low cost, high-tech marvel by installing the Vivid Plus LED Light Bulb. This ultra-bright light bulb shares the energy efficiency of the Vivid and casts a broader array of light. Particularly well suited for reading. 36 LEDs. Spotlight - A money-saving LED bulb that fits your porch spotlights and the motion-sensor lights on your garage or roofline. Spotlight uses just 8 Watts of electricity to power 60 ultra-bright White LEDs.

The light is ideal in pitch-black conditions, and casts the signature blue-white light that's as soothing as it is bright. On average, it will cost you just $4.00 per year to run this LED Spotlight in your home or workplace. Fits PAR 38 sized fixtures. LED Light Bulbs also have these great features. * Long life - up to 10 years * Low power consumption (about 1/30th of a standard bulb) * Output: Vivid (31 Lumens), Vivid Plus (60 Lumens), Spotlight (120 Lumens) * Great in a directional lamp for reading, mood or porch light * These bulbs are generally not intended as a complete replacement for incandescents - these bulbs are lower output but more focused * 120V bulbs * Two-year warranty
Highlights:
$21.99 - $35.99

K255: Key Purge

“I need my keys!” This was the refrain of one mentally challenged man in a group home. He carried around a large key ring with dozens of keys. The man was a character played by Josh Mostel in a Broadway Play, The Boys Next Door, I saw many years ago with my sister. She worked for a company that produced the play and we had a thrilling opening night of that play that ended at Sardi’s. The play was so beautifully done (the review at the link describes this well) and reflected my own experiences as a ‘house mother’ working with six severe and profoundly retarded children when my son was an infant. To this day the word “keys” can trigger this bittersweet memory of the play’s love, joy, laughter and deep pain.

On a more practical note, the fact that keys reproduce in drawers is well known. It is almost as commonplace as the phenomenon of keys disappearing and reappearing during times of stress and urgency. This week’s purge is overdue. I have let my pile grow and it is time.

Here’s my pile. I am going to be ruthless! The only thing is . . . I am not going to get rid of them. I have a heating project planned for all the extra keys without a home. And, I have decided to put a call out to all my neighbors in the newsletter getting distributed later this week. I want all the odd keys.

About 10 years ago I put an email out for everyone’s spare, lost keys at the Architectural firm where I worked in Phoenix. It was wonderful to get piles and piles of keys. I made a lampshade at the time and gave it to my kid. He left it behind in a house he moved out of a few years ago. Funny, I thought it was priceless art. I guess I had an inflated notion of my work. Ya think?

It is not possible for me to end this post without a nod to the powerful icon the key is in our culture. The key is about entrée or opening, revealing or releasing (as in unlocking). Is it accidental that the black and white objects for our fingertips at the piano or the computer are called by the same name. With thoughts of community, I want to keep this concept close.

First image, Keys

P.S. A note about last Monday's Jewelry Purge . . . Didn't happen. As I suggested in my community newsletter, the jewelry box will be opened again next year and I will empty it. Before that time I might wear something, or think of an imaginative use for re-purposing. I adore re-purposed items. And these typewriter keys are what I am talking about . . .

I246: Interior Décor Purging

I have a silly confession. Okay, I haven't bought tissues for a few years now. I did though have a neighbor who bought me this box of tissues to gift me. I love that she saw in it the colors I used in my home. See, I used to buy this same brand and specific box for my home in Phoenix. I love the color. But, back to this particular box. It is empty. There is one tissue stuck in the top to make it appear full. I haven't thrown it in the recycle bin because I liked the color. Silly me.

Most of my décor has been purged pretty thoroughly. I have some pieces I have packed up and put in the shed, saving them because a friend gave them to me. The friend matters.

What I do have on this shelf is kind of bugging me. The more minimalist my life becomes, the more I am distracted by what used to please my senses.

Case in point, these colorful little pill boxes. I used to view them as eye candy and even collected a bunch of images from Flicker. I do use them for real storage and they are important in that way. It is just indicative of my perceptions changing.


Similarly, I am captivated by the wooden models of the human form. I have written about this before when I created my trash dummy. I have used these forms in my communication for some time. I believe I like the androgynous aspect (and age-less, race-less, etc.). It is funny that the shape, read: not fat, doesn't really seem to enter in to my sense of this figure. Odd that.

My thoughtful human form has appeared in a bunch of my posts. I love this form and how much it conveys through such spare lines.

I think that living in a small space contributes to this asceticism. I have grown more and more at ease with the idea that if I don't use it, I should lose it. Culling through things five years ago and again when I moved to California three years ago has made this process less wrenching and more gratifying. I have found that there are two areas so far where I had to postpone my purging. The music purge /computer disk purge and the hobby/holiday purge. Mostly this postponement is due to my inability to bring the required focus to decision making. The second reason was just wrestling the stuff out to deal with it. Oh, and might I just mention that I never was good at doing highly scheduled tasks. I used to rely on the spirit moving me. Now I seem to have a foot planted in both worlds, habit and heartfelt.

One last observation . . . The park's big yard sale this last weekend turned out to be a success. I am so happy with the colored pencil fence getting a celebration of sorts for the unveiling. I helped with placing ads on Craig's list and writing about the sale in the newsletter, but I told the people who were active in organizing that I don't do yard sales. I absolutely hate them after having plenty in my life. It is painful to me to sit there and know I can't leave. I could never do craft fairs with the leather journals I used to make because of this distaste of being captive. So, I think that the neighbors understood this, but I'm never sure. Whispering is a favored M.O. around here. What I did discover about myself is that it was very uncomfortable to be around piles and piles of stuff. This revulsion was visceral. So, I took a few photos and took off. Very powerful experience for me . . .

H238: Hobby & Craft Purge

I haven't finished this post - UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

I have been painting outside all day- big push to get the place all spanking fresh and colorful for the big yard sale Saturday and the town's Art Walk on Sunday.

G230: Garden Tool Purge

I’m not sure what I imagined I had when I named this category back in January. I do know I got rid of a garden hose full of holes and tossed a broom that broke since then. But this is the sorry state of my garden tools. Not shown in the photo is one spade and one hand trowel. The hand trowel was given to me by a neighbor last year. I use it in the worm bin. The spade is something I brought on my move from Phoenix. But, when I moved I gave all my garden tools but this spade to a building inspector. Ha! Sounds like a bribe. As it turned out, this guy was a neighbor, a fellow progressive amongst the neighborhood association conservatives and a generally wonderful guy (and his wife was a wonderfully talented artist, educator). He’d help me by doing some repairs to make my home ready for selling. In return he got the electric weed whacker, pruning sheers, hand tools, rakes and hoses. I don’t regret it.

Where I live now I find I can borrow from neighbors or the park for the miniscule bit of tool related tasks. The sorry line-up in the photo is part of future art projects. At the far right you can barely see the broken, rusty pitch fork. Keeping it for no reason besides my being rust loving. The two beat up brooms will be transformed into over-sized artist brushes. The 2 larger rakes are actually antiques and will be used as supports in a future landscape/garden project. I have no idea how they were designed to be used, because they suck as leaf rakes. The small rake is so pathetic, but for raking up the light weight pine needles all over my place it works a treat. That last phrase is one I read from one of our favorite Aussie blogs. It cracked me up, so I’m happy I found a use for it (like the rake).

This continuation of the over-sized pencil theme is something my park manager suggested. Once the really big posts go to the new fence (scheduled for next weekend) I want to continue with the concept. She suggested the smaller tool handles as pencils or brushes. So, for now I am gathering them. So much for my purge . . .

F221: Furniture Purge

Having moved from Phoenix four years ago, from a house into a mobile home . . . my furniture purge actually was all but complete. I got all of my belongings in 2 loads of my little Nissan truck.

I whittled down a few more pieces since then. Even so, I recently became the repository for some of my son’s things. He is rearranging his place and didn’t know what to do with a small dining room table and four chairs. He wasn't sure he wanted to get rid of the table and chairs. I told him to bring them to my driveway for the time being.

Well now there is the community yard sale coming up at the end of the month, so maybe all can be sold.

I have to hand it to a neighbor of mine, he is hauling out so much stuff from his place. I complimented him, but cautioned him to be vigilant. My own experience shows that a big purge can create a vacuum that a person inevitably fills up again. I believe it is human nature and one has to really watch out. Sure enough, he has been visiting all of the local thrift shops looking for more. *sigh*

I found this wonderful image at Moments of Grace titled, Doris Salcedo installation for the Istanbul Biennal, 2003. Curious I looked up some background and found that Doris Salcedo is a Columbian born sculptor who makes political statements through her work. (My favorite kind of art, though she states that all art is political.) She is well known for her installation, a statement about racism, at the London Tate Modern, titled Shibboleth. The following is from a Tate press release.

In 2002 over the course of two days Salcedo lowered 280 chairs down the façade of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá to pay homage to those killed here in a failed guerrilla coup seventeen years earlier. Blurring the lines between performance and sculpture this extraordinary spectacle publicly confronted memories of this traumatic event for the first time. The following year, at the Istanbul Biennial 2003, Salcedo filled a derelict building plot with 1,550 wooden chairs. These were piled house-high and made flush with the facades of the buildings either side, evoking the masses of faceless migrants who underpin our globalised economy.

E211: Equipment Purge

This is the image I have in my mind’s eye. I have a digital camera, computer, router, scanner & printer. I am not that geeky, come to find out. When I have been in the big box electronic stores I am stupefied by the vastness of this technology market.

Last year at this time I thought I was going to be doing an at home bookkeeping business for 3 of my neighbors’ small businesses. I bought a new black and white Samsung printer and a digital camera, both to replace the broken versions of each I’d bought four years ago. As it turns out, I am not doing the Quickbooks bookkeeping because 1) these small businesses can’t really afford the cost to have someone else do the books and 2) I hated it. I tried to convince myself it was expanding my skills to learn the software and the whole accounting mentality. Gah. I wanted a shower after trying to read IRS style report generating procedures. It made me miserable. So, this make-a-plan venture = FAIL.

Having said that, I am not willing to give up my computer equipment, scanner, printer, router or camera. I do have visions of a slim notebook, the peripherals tucked away for the infrequent use and a solar panel to run this biggest energy hog within my energy footprint. I don’t doubt this capability and the cost will make this a reality at some point, but not right now.

I do have a make-a-plan success story. I decided some time last year that I would be done with my television service by this time this year. It is now officially 10 years and a week since I went to the dark side with digital cable television. My success is that I beat this make-a-plan strategy by pulling the plug 4 months early. Yea me! This is what I am left with as equipment to purge.

Television Sets – I have two television sets that I would like to pass along. One was given to me by a neighbor and it supposedly has a DVD player and VCR built into it. Sadly, the DVD player doesn’t work on newer DVD’s. I received a free DVD player from a neighbor on Sunday, so I don’t see a reason to keep the big set in my little house. The truth is it reminds me of my zombie life and it annoys me. The shed has a small Motorola I used in Arizona for my office / bedroom. In addition to these sets there are the two DirecTV converter boxes and remote controls. Oy. These are not costs, but they are trashy – as far as symbols.

Our mobile home park is having a community yard sale at the end of this month. I think I may put these items and come of the zip disks from last week’s purge into the sale. After that, it’s freecycle.

D203: Disk Purge

DVD’s, CD’s, Zip Disks, Floppy Disks and Cassette Tapes

Seven years ago I copied all of my valuable drawing files and personal files onto zip drives, five years ago I got rid of all my videos, five years before that I found a great metal box to store all of my cassette tapes from 20 years in the past. I recently gave my only DVD movie to my son. This pile is all there is left.

Now don't laugh at me, but I need to make a confession. I have only purchased 1 music CD in my life. I bought Deep Forest in the early '90's to give to someone. I never bought a CD player and have never been interested. Okay, I'm done with the confession. The happy part is I don't have a pile of those to purge too (or the CD player, Equipment Purge coming next week).

Okay I lied. Some of the CD’s are computer software I need to keep as back up along with my CD backup of files. I have 2 DVD’s, one for yoga and one for belly dancing. Don’t ask me why I keep them. Maybe I will gift them to someone – or figure out what is needed on my computer to play DVD’s – without spending any money. Otherwise it is all techno trash I think. I haven’t seen any reuse projects that appeal to me, so it is trash. Or do people take these to thrift stores? Feel free to educate me in the comments.

Did I leave out a step? I think so. I believe I should look through this pile. There may be some important files on the zip drive disks. And, I think I need to play the cassette tapes and decide if they should be tossed. I do have this handy metal box after all. It is from a past era when a kid would mail his laundry to his mother from prep school for $.59 and she would mail it back. Well, that is what I surmise from the postage and the addresses on the label.

This might take some time, and possibly some tears. *Sigh* Music does that to me.

Update: Just read about the demise of the cassette tape in the publishing business in an article, Say So Long to an Old Companion: Cassette Tapes. This is where I got this apt quote.

“I bet you would be hard pressed to find a household in the U.S. that doesn’t have at least a couple cassette tapes hanging around,” said Shawn DuBravac, an economist with the Consumer Electronics Association. Even if publishers of music and audio books stopped using cassettes entirely, people would still shop for tape players because of “the huge libraries of legacy content consumers have kept,” he said.

As long as people keep mix tapes from a high-school sweetheart up in the attic, Mr. DuBravac said, there will still be the urge to hear them. “People have a tremendous amount of installed content and an innate curiosity when coming across a box of tapes to say, ‘Hey, what’s on these?’ ” he said.

C196: Cleaning Product Purge

This is really just a placeholder for my series on purging. I named the category long before I'd eliminated most all my cleaning products that were filled with chemicals I didn't want in my home or the environment any longer.

Last week I did go to the local healthy store and bought some environmentally gentle dish soap. I haven't been feeling my dishes were getting clean. This new soap isn't sudsy and I admit I miss the suds, but the dishes feel clean. I think it is cutting grease better too.

I also have some environmentally gentle detergent I picked up when I'd forgotten the soap nuts. I decided to buy a green version of my favorite brand of toothpaste for sensitive teeth. I occasionally use baking soda just to make it last longer.

This is as good a spot as any to acknowledge that I am just not as interested in cleaning as I was before the challenge. I believe it is partly due to my hyper-consciousness of the water use in cleaning and the hyper-consumerist anxiety over dirt and germs. This last is something that goes way beyond health and hygine in this culture. This is blatant manipulation over decades and decades to create consumers a bit obsessive about cleanliness in order to sell products we don't really need.

For me a perfect example was my elimination of shampoo and conditioner. I clean my head and hair with water and the occasional bit of baking soda. After the first month or two I never looked back. What a waste of money and resources.

Funny I now think of cleaning products for the house and my body in the same category. Again, I think the distinction is a marketing one rather than a rational distinction.

B188: Bedding Purge

This sounds like a project, but it is frightfully simple. Here is a fuzzy photograph taken a couple years ago of my neighbor, Sunshine. She loved to sit on my daybed and make a nest of the pillows. There are several heavier fabric pillow covers I use to stuff my bed pillows and quilt in each morning. I also am able to store oversized towels in one too. This way by daybreak my bed doubles as a couch with these pillows acting as bolsters and cushions. I also have one set of spare sheets that lays flat under the mattress, ready to use when I wash the current set of sheets.

When I decided bed linens should be a category to purge my pile was larger. I had a big comforter I’d made out of a sleeping bag and fabric I’d bought and sewed into a duvet, a set of ripped black flannel sheets and a blue neck pillow from a past Christmas exchange. Now, those things have been given away, repurposed or tossed.

The comforter went to my son’s place for when he has company. This week I have it back to re-sew the hem. My ex-MIL who was Lebanese used to use a running stitch to sew sheets to quilts or comforters and she called it a mul-haff-ee. With these sheet covers there was no need for a top sheet. Some years ago this was the inspiration, along with the European duvet concept that I was able to use an ugly but warm and inexpensive comforter and beautify it with the fabric I also found on sale. I put a panel down the center that matched the curtains I’d sewed for the room. The room had been my son's back then in Arizona, so it was fitting I give it to him with my purge.

The black flannel sheets with holes were used to create my cloth wipes. I cut these into 8” squares and hemmed the edges using a zigzag stitch. The limp, synthetic neck pillow just needed to be tossed. It lived for 4 years and that is long enough.

I used to think of curtains and drapery as part of this category, but I no longer have extra curtains, drapery or blinds. This might be a category for some, but it isn't one for me right now. I might add window coverings next winter as a sort of batten or insulation, but I don't have anything like that now.

Today’s project was to take two of my goose down pillows and combine them into one case. My method was to use a big plastic barrel for my transfer place. Not bad as I’d expected a bigger mess.

I then put the pillow out in the sun to let solar power zap dust mites and other microscopic life. I put these into a zippered case and I will stitch this shut to avoid an potential feather storm from accidentally unzipping the case. I may wait a night or so as I have a third limp feather pillow that might fit in this case. I need to give it the sleep test.

Don't let any retail marketer tell you need a whole closet just for linens or that you need more than one change of sheets per bed. It isn't true. This is ever the struggle of needs versus desires (especially the corporate induced desires).

A182: Appliance Purge

A great deal of what's in your fridge absolutely does NOT need to be there. If you're interested in trying this, just start by taking all these things out of your fridge, and putting them in a pantry type situation:

butter/margarine - shelf life about 2 weeks
eggs -shelf life at least a week
cheese - keep covered, shelf life variable- taste when unrefrigerated hugely better
ketchup/mustard - shelf life - forever
honey - shelf life - forever
onions/garlic - shelf life - 2 weeks
tomatoes - shelf life - 4 days
cabbage - shelf life - 1 week
cooking oil - shelf life - months
peanut butter - shelf life - months

Ok, long enough list for now, though of course there's more. Some of you are saying "he's crazy, I never keep cooking oil in the fridge!" True, I'm sure; but I know plenty of people who do; just to "be safe". And every time they take it out to cook dinner- the bottle warms up, the door is opened twice, and somewhere, some coal is burned to re-cool it when it goes back in.

I read that last year at Little Blog in the Big Woods and decided I would make giving up my refrigerator a part of my sustainable living challenge. I was attracted to this because living without a refrigerator represents a startling concept. I’d first read about unplugging the refrigerator from Colin, No Impact Man almost exactly a year ago. Later Vanessa at Green as a Thistle unplugged her refrigerator. Mostly though, any person I might meet would say this is an impossible way to live. I believe it is as foreign a concept to American lifestyles as no toilet paper. If I had to live off the grid or in primitive surroundings, I can rest assured I know how to survive. This self-awareness of my own patterns of behavior, my adaptability is an indication of my growing flexibility. This alone empowers me and makes a sustainability challenge worthwhile.

In January I took my first step at the beginning of this challenge by taking appliances out of my home and putting them in my shed. I began by saying I wouldn’t actually get rid of my hand held hair dryer because of needing it to remove decals on my truck. I have since decided I needn’t hold on to it. Here was the list from the first of the year: waffle iron, iron, toaster, hand mixer, curling iron and a popcorn popper. All but the first of these were given to me or I found for free or at a thrift store. If you are counting, there are now half a dozen small appliances I won’t be living with this year.

Now, at this halfway point of the year I have decided to get rid of all of these appliances. In fact I have written about this appliance purge in my neighborhood newsletter and invited all of the tenants of this mobile home park to join me in the giant appliance purge.

Next is the list in that original appliance purge make-a-(green) plan post where I had qualifiers. I have noted the changes I have made since January.

This leaves the following appliances in my home, and I may re-think my use of these as well.

1. Microwave – I believe this is non-negotiable as I use it frequently and I’d argue for its effectiveness.
2. Induction Cook Plate – I love, love, love this technology that cooks with magnetic waves. This is my primary cooking method and I’ve found that it cooks faster than any other method I’ve used before. (Note, sadly this great appliance died in February and I replaced it with a cheap electric hot plate. I don’t have the money to replace it now).
3. Toaster Oven – This isn’t used much when I eat healthy. When I am eating crap I use it a lot. (Update: I’m not going to use it anymore because it uses so much electricity. Out to the shed!)
4. Coffee Maker – I found my coffee maker at the Community Thrift for $2. I brew and put in a carafe to be conscientious. So, this is no real biggie.
5. Food Processor – As I mentioned yesterday with my Arugula Pesto recipe, I make hummus most weeks. I am not ready to mash, chop and blend by hand. It could happen.
6. Space Heater – From December to March I use this about an hour or two a day to keep my daytime air temperature 62 degrees and nighttime 50 degrees.
7. Fan – I usually have a fan going non-stop all summer. Sometimes I am not sure if it is the air movement or the white noise I am addicted to here.

Note: I failed to mention my crock pot and I will keep this as a viable alternative to solar oven (on grey days), hot plate (if it craps out) or microwave (not a great way to cook much). I also didn’t include my countertop ice machine in this small appliance category where it belongs. I am keeping this as a kind of substitute for the refrigerator running 24/7. I can make some ice in a half hour to throw in a cooler if I must keep something cold.

Whoops. I think I buried the lede. Good thing I am not a paid journalist. (On second thought, that wouldn’t even be noticed in the corporate press these days. It is done all the time.) Aaaanyway . . . I DID IT! I freed myself from my television set and my refrigerator, my two major appliances. For me, this is HUGE!

I am excited to see what kind of energy savings comes from this big step. One commenter in that original post from Greenpa made this point about energy use.

Well, I did some digging and calculations (maybe I'll post those links here later), and determined that the fridge costs us about $3/month to run.

Pretty cheap, yeah? Especially out of a $30 bill. Not going to subsidize a whole lot of fresh vegetable purchases. But the generation and transmission related components of the bill (those are the ones actually having to do with the amount of electricity used) add up to only $9. Yup, on average about 1/3 of the electricity in that apartment goes to the fridge. The electricity is artificially cheap, but the energy consumption is really substantial.

I am not following this logic at all, but will pay close attention to next month’s electrical bill.

Besides the simple elimination of unnecessary ‘stuff’ and the reduction in electricity consumption, why do I want to purge my appliances? For myself and for others, I want to experience life without these things. I absolutely agree with Sharon of Casaubon's Book in the passage below. The hysterical myth that loss of electricity means certain chaos and deprivation needs to be debunked.

electricity is not the defining characteristic of our beings, merely of our economy
[ . . .]
The part of this that I find most troubling is the offensive notion that living without all the above-listed goodies makes life completely untenable. Because that implies that the lives of our great-grandparents, and the billions of lives that don’t have electricity are an unmitigated hell, a place we wouldn’t even be willing to visit, that all that is “civilized” about our lives began in 19-freakin’-30. If our past, and the lives of the world’s ordinary poor are utter doom, we are doomed. But what if they aren’t? Let us acknowledge a vast and difficult transition, and a great deal of potential and probably real trouble and misery a’coming. But let us not start with the assumption that “modern industrial civilization” is equivalent to “civilization” itself. And let us not separate ourselves from everything that came before us and everyone now who lacks what we have as though some barrier keeps us from reaching out to them.

Amen

Design observation. The aesthetics of my place have really changed since January 3rd. Now I have ‘visual’ space freed up with no refrigerator, no television and no toaster oven. The footprint for the refrigerator and the television on a cart is exactly the same, but removing the television and opening up the kitchen corner appears to removed much more. The cart now holds what appliances remain (on a power strip). I have made food rather than machines the primary aesthetic by removed appliances from the eye level shelves. The photo makes it still look jammed up. This is because I have a full pantry of fresh food, so it is overflowing.

The unplugged refrigerator now serves as the bar height base to my marble table top in my living room. Not shown is how wide open the center of my space is now that the table has been moved to this corner. That will be an image for another day. I plan to make a table cloth out of my ubiquitous beige fabric ($15 bolt bought a decade ago), but for now it has a length of that fabric and another cloth to cover it. This table by my front window offers a place to read, to dine – away from my computer. Imagine that.

Another huge advantage to the refrigerator being gone is how quiet it is. This restaurant style under counter refrigerator had a commercial motor and was noisy. Hey, I live adjacent to railroad tracks with 50 trains a day and I'm next to a frontage road and state highway. Noisy is relative. But, it is amazingly still in the night without the refrigerator. I first noticed this quieter world when I stopped listening to talk radio during the day and with breaking my all night television habit this spring. Silence is scary at first, but adaptation and flexibility are my criteria for moving out of the comfort zone.

Check me the fuck out. I am living lightly.

U135: Unfinished or Stacked = the Look

In preparation for the Keystone Cox, I completely cleared my desk area to clean thoroughly around my CPU, cords, monitor and peripherals. I decided it was also a great opportunity to examine all the items from this zone for things to purge. Well, I got sidetracked and the stacks of things are all still piled high on my table.

So, imagine my surprise when I see Michael Cannell’s post at the Dwell blog pointing out what might be a new design trend. Stacked objects.

Are stacked objects a design trend?

One of the most photographed works at the Milan Furniture Fair last month was a tower of drawers (below), by Shay Alkalay, a young Israeli designer.

I noticed the inkling of a pattern when Marc Sadler installed a series of undulating stacks of lit shades (above) at the Republic of Fritz Hansen showroom in SoHo during the International Contemporary Furniture Fair this weekend.

So why stacked? Here’s my theory: one of the current themes is for designers is to produce objects that could be considered works in progress, as if passing them off for completion to somebody else. Both of the stacks shown here conform to that idea by suggesting unfinished assemblage, like children’s blocks piled haphazardly.

That works for me. I wouldn’t want to rush my great work of sorting, cleaning, purging would I?

Update: I realized this theme of unfinished sorting and the stacking is something I have actually been thinking about for some time and hadn’t made the connections until I posted this short piece. This picture captivated me a couple years ago. I liked the frugal idea of being able to store a great many disparate things in a unified way without needing to purchase storage systems. The orange boxes could be any small boxes all painted to match. Using the ties just give the concept a real panache. I even marveled at how pottery might be better utilized for food storage (adapted with cork closers and discrete labels on the back) while keeping the look of a collection intact. Just one wall could thereby be transformed into massive storage for a urban dweller or those of us with tiny homes.

While my internet was down the past few days I worked on a plan for the second half of this year, approaching rapidly. Besides devoting my Wednesday post to the subject of local food, I want to incorporate a purge day every Monday for the last half of the year. This evolved from my review of my initial posts about the categories of things I needed to purge. There happened to be 26 categories, so I did a few name changes to follow my alphabetical format for this list.

Appliances 7/7
Bed Linens & Curtains7/14
Cleaning Supplies 7/21
DVD’s, Music 7/28
Equipment 8/4
Furniture Purging 8/11
Garden Tools & Materials 8/18
Hobby & Craft Stuff 8/25
Interior Décor Items and Plants 9/1
Jewelry, Shoes, Purses & Bags 9/8
Kitchen Linens: Napkins, Placemats Towels & Cloths 9/15
Lighting 9/22
Magazines and Books 9/29
Nails, Screws, Manual Tools & Fasteners 10/6
Office Supplies 10/13
Power Tools 10/20
Qualms about Framed Pictures & Photos 10/27
Records: Receipts, Files & Tax 11/3
Sewing Machine, Fabric & Sewing Box 11/10
Toiletries, Medicine, Cosmetics & Hair Products 11/17
Utensils, Dishes, Glasses, Cups & Flatware 11/24
Varied Materials : Wood, Stone, Cork, Hardware, etc. 12/1
Wardrobe 12/8
X-tra - Food Pantry 12/15
Yet more Bakeware, Pans 12/22
Zillion Bits of Paint, Plaster, etc. 12/29

I decided that even if I got antsy and purged any category prior to the date for posting, I would keep before and after photos for the sake of discussion. I will be checking back on Chile's Cut the Crap for tips I might use. Between now and the Summer Solstice I plan to Spring Clean and to fix things long put off. This will stretch to 4th of July if I get behind.