This is a day of extremes. New Year's day is always spend doing the same thing. It's the day I put away all of the Christmas decorations, and I spent the bulk of the day in the garage de-junking and making the commitment to toss more stuff (it almost always requires a special trash pickup call, and today is no exception).
This day is purifying, especially since I make it a point to be especially ruthless! If there are items that I have not touched once in the course of the year, they're pretty much goners (there are of course some exceptions, items that don't get used often, but are there for a purpose, such as paint, spare lightbulbs, etc, but in general, if it's in the same place I left it last year, its not likely to be there again at the end of today :).
Time to de-junk.
Updated: Decided on a different approach to some stuff. I went out and bought six medium to large sized laundry baskets. These now reside underneath the row of cabinets in the garage, and they all have the various often used items. This way, each seasonal or often used item has a simple totle to carry it wherever, get used, then get put back. What.s more important is that, as seasons change the contents can, too. My logic is to see what makes their way into the totes, and then I will know what is actuall ygetting used throughout the year, and it will help me be a better hatchet-man during the rest of the year as well. Now, if I could only find a permanent place for my big mixing board console and the lawnmower outside of the garage, I would have finally achieved one of my long term goals; the complete and total removal of the 2nd perimeter of stuff! I'm *SO* close :)! Even more exciting, I have access to my garage's work bench again. YEE HAW!!!
Showing posts with label Shedding of Innocent Stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shedding of Innocent Stuff. Show all posts
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Tools for Habitat for Humanity
It's been awhile since I've done a Shedding of Innocent Stuff entry :).
When we first bought our house back in 1999, I was convinced that I was going to be doing many of the repairs and updates to the house, and so it seemed only logical that I should outfit the house with all of the tools necessary to build and maintain a house. Thus getting a table saw, a router and router table, plus other attachments for each seemed to make sense.
Fast forward ten years, and the majority of these tools, plus a number of items that I purchased to support the making of Pinewood derby cars for my son's Cub Scout pack over the last decade now no longer being used for that purpose because, well, he's not a Cub Scout anymore, and what we have is a number of expensive tools that take up a lot of garage space and that just sit and collect dust. As an experiment on January 1st, I decided to gather all of the items that did not get used, or that I figured i would not use, and I put them all on a shelving unit in a corner of the garage. If I found that, in the course of a hear, i had any need for these items or if I used them during the course of the year, I could justify keeping them. If I did not use them during the course of the year, then it made sense for them to go to a new home.
Last weekend, I decided the experiment had run its course, so I took a table saw and support legs, a router and router table, various blades and attachments for the table saw, one of a number of sanders, a band saw, a scroll saw and the shelving unit that did nothing during the year but hold these tools, and I brought them over to Habitat for Humanity in Oakland. For those who are not familiar with habitat for Humanity, their mission is to help people build housing who otherwise might no9t be able to afford to buy or maintain a house. it was this spirit in which I decided to donate these tools to them. as I went down to drop off the equipment, I passed by a familiar landmark. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore center was just a few buildings away from what used to be Paradigm studios, the place where High Wire used to rehearse and store our gear. I was also gratified to see the look of surprise and happiness on the faces of the volunteers who took in the donation. they said that they knew these items would be placed quickly and be in use in short order by a grateful team of people who were in the process of doing re-work on houses in the area.
So now I have a fairly large section of garage that is now open and free of stuff that was collecting dust. This experiment also let me see which tools and items I actually used and which ones were important to keep. What's more, I had the opportunity to get a tax write off for items that I know will be helpful and useful to people to help them achieve and have a part of that American Dream that is owning and maintaining their own home.
When we first bought our house back in 1999, I was convinced that I was going to be doing many of the repairs and updates to the house, and so it seemed only logical that I should outfit the house with all of the tools necessary to build and maintain a house. Thus getting a table saw, a router and router table, plus other attachments for each seemed to make sense.
Fast forward ten years, and the majority of these tools, plus a number of items that I purchased to support the making of Pinewood derby cars for my son's Cub Scout pack over the last decade now no longer being used for that purpose because, well, he's not a Cub Scout anymore, and what we have is a number of expensive tools that take up a lot of garage space and that just sit and collect dust. As an experiment on January 1st, I decided to gather all of the items that did not get used, or that I figured i would not use, and I put them all on a shelving unit in a corner of the garage. If I found that, in the course of a hear, i had any need for these items or if I used them during the course of the year, I could justify keeping them. If I did not use them during the course of the year, then it made sense for them to go to a new home.
Last weekend, I decided the experiment had run its course, so I took a table saw and support legs, a router and router table, various blades and attachments for the table saw, one of a number of sanders, a band saw, a scroll saw and the shelving unit that did nothing during the year but hold these tools, and I brought them over to Habitat for Humanity in Oakland. For those who are not familiar with habitat for Humanity, their mission is to help people build housing who otherwise might no9t be able to afford to buy or maintain a house. it was this spirit in which I decided to donate these tools to them. as I went down to drop off the equipment, I passed by a familiar landmark. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore center was just a few buildings away from what used to be Paradigm studios, the place where High Wire used to rehearse and store our gear. I was also gratified to see the look of surprise and happiness on the faces of the volunteers who took in the donation. they said that they knew these items would be placed quickly and be in use in short order by a grateful team of people who were in the process of doing re-work on houses in the area.
So now I have a fairly large section of garage that is now open and free of stuff that was collecting dust. This experiment also let me see which tools and items I actually used and which ones were important to keep. What's more, I had the opportunity to get a tax write off for items that I know will be helpful and useful to people to help them achieve and have a part of that American Dream that is owning and maintaining their own home.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Paper by the Pounds
This is one of the most aggravating aspects of my reality; try as I might, paper always seems to find me. What's worse, it always seems to accumulate. Much of the time, the paper that accumulates is not of a high enough importance to actually keep it, but I get terrified when I try to decide if I should throw it away.
I woke up early this morning to try to get through what has amounted to reams and reams worth of paper related to certain areas of my life. There are household papers (receipts, warranties, manuals), there are mortgage papers (which we have paid off, but we need to keep a while longer just in case), there are financial papers (account statements, balances, accounts that no longer exist), tax papers (going back as long as Christina and I have been married, and I would really like to purge some of these years), and yes, the most egregious bulk of papers consuming my existence, Scouting papers. In fact, my Scouting paper is approximately 60% of the stuff I have accumulated, most of which is not relevant at this stage anyway (most of the papers are flyers related to events and activities with a moderate but not indefinite shelf life). I had hoped I would make a decent dent, but I was not completely successful. I did manage to vacate my office of all superfluous paper, but in the end, all I really did was bring it down to the garage and downsize it a little bit (There is so much more I still need to do).
Today, though, I have prepared myself for what shall be a merciless battle. Granted, all of the paper and items are in the garage, but that gives me one tremendous advantage... it's all in one place now! IN anticipation of this, I have hooked up the shredder, gotten out the multiple page protectors and clear cover binders, and tonight will be a massacre of unparalleled proportions. In short, I will not set foot into my house until the paper monster is drawn, quartered, beheaded, and the items in question given their due place:
1. Home papers in the filing cabinet in the appropriate slots.
2. Financial papers in their appropriate folders.
3. Tax papers in their associated binders (and likewise in the filing cabinet)
4. All Scout related paperwork put into binders and (gasp!) put into our Chartered Organizations Scout Closet!!!
Do I believe this will be a once and for all victory? Of course not, but I do believe, if I really approach this with the necessary effort, that it will go a long way towards resolving this issue. It will of course take diligent effort to stay on top of this, and make sure that it doesn't creep back up on me again.
I woke up early this morning to try to get through what has amounted to reams and reams worth of paper related to certain areas of my life. There are household papers (receipts, warranties, manuals), there are mortgage papers (which we have paid off, but we need to keep a while longer just in case), there are financial papers (account statements, balances, accounts that no longer exist), tax papers (going back as long as Christina and I have been married, and I would really like to purge some of these years), and yes, the most egregious bulk of papers consuming my existence, Scouting papers. In fact, my Scouting paper is approximately 60% of the stuff I have accumulated, most of which is not relevant at this stage anyway (most of the papers are flyers related to events and activities with a moderate but not indefinite shelf life). I had hoped I would make a decent dent, but I was not completely successful. I did manage to vacate my office of all superfluous paper, but in the end, all I really did was bring it down to the garage and downsize it a little bit (There is so much more I still need to do).
Today, though, I have prepared myself for what shall be a merciless battle. Granted, all of the paper and items are in the garage, but that gives me one tremendous advantage... it's all in one place now! IN anticipation of this, I have hooked up the shredder, gotten out the multiple page protectors and clear cover binders, and tonight will be a massacre of unparalleled proportions. In short, I will not set foot into my house until the paper monster is drawn, quartered, beheaded, and the items in question given their due place:
1. Home papers in the filing cabinet in the appropriate slots.
2. Financial papers in their appropriate folders.
3. Tax papers in their associated binders (and likewise in the filing cabinet)
4. All Scout related paperwork put into binders and (gasp!) put into our Chartered Organizations Scout Closet!!!
Do I believe this will be a once and for all victory? Of course not, but I do believe, if I really approach this with the necessary effort, that it will go a long way towards resolving this issue. It will of course take diligent effort to stay on top of this, and make sure that it doesn't creep back up on me again.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: A Life With No Habits?
It's taken me awhile to come to grips with this, but over the past several weeks, I've been reading a lot of Winget (don't worry, this is not a Larry Winget exercise per se, but it fits today's topic somewhat), and he's really big on changing habits and replacing bad habits with better ones. As I was looking at my various habits (and I have a few of them to say the least) I was struck by the fact that, actually, what I really suffer from is a overall lack of habits.
Over my life, I've known many people that are honest and serious creatures of habit. My wife Christina is one of them. This is by no means a put down, but for much of her life, she would have the same meals for breakfast for months or even years on end, she has a very solid routine of things that she does every single day, and this is part of the structure of her life. By contrast, my life is markedly without ingrained habits; most of what I do is what I refer to as "opportunity activities"; I do what I have to do when I have to do them, but there's generally no rhyme or reason to why or how. Take food, for example. When Christina and I go out to eat at a restaurant, it's generally a given that Christina will, depending on the restaurant, order something familiar that she likes (nothing wrong with that at all, it beats ordering something she hates). By contrast, I actually make it a point any time I go to a restaurant to almost never order the same thing twice, I always choose something I have never tried, if indeed there is an option I haven't tried. In some ways, I think this sense of "must be different" is about the only truly consistent habit I have.
In many ways, this feeds into my online life where, OK, I do have habits, and some of them not really all that good. I read sites that I enjoy probably way more often than I should (not because they are bad, but because they can be major time sucks when I need to be doing other things). Seems logical that I should say "OK, I will limit my time to viewing site [fillInTheBlank] between (time A) and (time B)". I have every intention to follow through with it, but I almost never do. The reason why? It would require me to submit to a scheduled habit, and I'm discovering that's a really difficult thing for me to do, silly as that may sound.
The point I'm trying to make is that we talk about the clutter in our lives and shedding of it so that things will be more orderly and tidy in our lives, but rarely do we consider that not having habits about certain things can be seen as "life clutter"; it's like a messy room with no organization (or very little, in any event).
To this end, I'm trying an experiment for the next 21 days. Why 21 days? Because that's the amount of time many psychologists believe it takes for a fledgling habit to actually become one. Thus, for the next 21 days, I have decided to put together a list of things that I know that I need to do on a regular basis, and I commit here and now to set aside time to deliberately do them, and make every attempt to do them on a schedule. You may think this would be obvious to many people, but I assure you, to me it isn't. This way, I'm hoping to make it so that many of the things in my life I keep saying I mean to do I will actually do in a more timely manner, and I will also hope to corral those things that threaten to suck away my time into specific areas and spaces where they can be prioritized and allowed to run free for their respective times, but once the time is up, that's it until the next day.
This is going to be a real challenge for me, so don't be surprised if this topic comes up often in the next few weeks (LOL!).
Over my life, I've known many people that are honest and serious creatures of habit. My wife Christina is one of them. This is by no means a put down, but for much of her life, she would have the same meals for breakfast for months or even years on end, she has a very solid routine of things that she does every single day, and this is part of the structure of her life. By contrast, my life is markedly without ingrained habits; most of what I do is what I refer to as "opportunity activities"; I do what I have to do when I have to do them, but there's generally no rhyme or reason to why or how. Take food, for example. When Christina and I go out to eat at a restaurant, it's generally a given that Christina will, depending on the restaurant, order something familiar that she likes (nothing wrong with that at all, it beats ordering something she hates). By contrast, I actually make it a point any time I go to a restaurant to almost never order the same thing twice, I always choose something I have never tried, if indeed there is an option I haven't tried. In some ways, I think this sense of "must be different" is about the only truly consistent habit I have.
In many ways, this feeds into my online life where, OK, I do have habits, and some of them not really all that good. I read sites that I enjoy probably way more often than I should (not because they are bad, but because they can be major time sucks when I need to be doing other things). Seems logical that I should say "OK, I will limit my time to viewing site [fillInTheBlank] between (time A) and (time B)". I have every intention to follow through with it, but I almost never do. The reason why? It would require me to submit to a scheduled habit, and I'm discovering that's a really difficult thing for me to do, silly as that may sound.
The point I'm trying to make is that we talk about the clutter in our lives and shedding of it so that things will be more orderly and tidy in our lives, but rarely do we consider that not having habits about certain things can be seen as "life clutter"; it's like a messy room with no organization (or very little, in any event).
To this end, I'm trying an experiment for the next 21 days. Why 21 days? Because that's the amount of time many psychologists believe it takes for a fledgling habit to actually become one. Thus, for the next 21 days, I have decided to put together a list of things that I know that I need to do on a regular basis, and I commit here and now to set aside time to deliberately do them, and make every attempt to do them on a schedule. You may think this would be obvious to many people, but I assure you, to me it isn't. This way, I'm hoping to make it so that many of the things in my life I keep saying I mean to do I will actually do in a more timely manner, and I will also hope to corral those things that threaten to suck away my time into specific areas and spaces where they can be prioritized and allowed to run free for their respective times, but once the time is up, that's it until the next day.
This is going to be a real challenge for me, so don't be surprised if this topic comes up often in the next few weeks (LOL!).
Monday, July 13, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Video Tapes and Media
Do you ever find yourself in this situation? You have a cabinet that id dedicated to media that you have purchased (DVDs, VCR tapes, CDs, video games, what have you) and you think to yourself "am I ever really going to watch any of these again?" I'm going through this experience right now. I realized that we had a skewed sense of what we had and why we kept it when I realized that we had moved a storage cabinet into the 1/2 bath upstairs, and that the storage cabinet housed video games and DVDs. I wish I was kidding about that.
It helps to move back a little in time to where our heads were at regarding this. We knew that when we bought our house in 1999, its 1800 sq. feet was going to be a limitation eventually... and that's not a bad thing; if anything it forces us to be realistic about the stuff we have gotten over the years, though not realistic enough to realize that we have been doing an endless shuffle of stuff because of it. Now, for the record, I'm not going to go the George Carlin route... buying a bigger house so I can keep "more stuff"... we are very happy with the home that we have and we are not going to move in any time frame less than decades, seriously... but that still brings us to the point of "what do we do with the stuff we have in the space we have without buying more stuff to hold the stuff we already have (sorry, Carlin does it so much better (LOL!) ).
Anyway, one area that I keep looking at is our videotapes and DVDs. Frankly, I have just a few things I really like to keep and will hold onto indefinitely, but many other items are just strangely hanging around for years and years. Yes, I'll admit it, I have my top five movies as DVDs, I have a few classics, and I have some of my favorite anime series on DVD. We also have a bunch of videocassettes that we have held onto for the kids, yet I seriously wondered if they have bothered to look at any of these lately, and if they would actually miss them.
If you decide to be the "big meanie" and try this, here's my suggestion... take all of the VCR tapes and DVDs that you think might genuinely not be missed, put them in a box and put them someplace not obvious (but not someplace you would totally forget). Put a date on the box, say three to six months. Then wait... if you get one of your kids coming up to you saying "Dad, I can't find [fillInTheBlank]", then you know you have come across one that somehow matters to the kids. Go and get it, say that you found it, but don't divulge the hiding place of the other tapes (I don't know about the rest of you out there, but with my kids, anything that is suddenly in eye sight becomes indispensable, never mind the fact that they haven't watched or thought about it for close to two years prior !!!).
Right now I've gathered a good sized box of kids VCR tapes, most of them likely to never be watched again. Frankly, if I'm going to strike on this, I need to strike now, while VCR tapes are still a viable media. Five years from now, there may be no interest among friends for VCR tapes; they be about as coveted as 8 tracks (and yes, I am old enough to have owned 8 tracks, don't rub it in (LOL!) ). I would much rather see these go to people that have young kids that would enjoy seeing them than keep them floating around my house not being used, not being watched, and taking up space that is coming at a greater premium each year as the kids get older.
Thus we have begun a new experiment. I'll check back in October to tell you all what ultimately happened :).
It helps to move back a little in time to where our heads were at regarding this. We knew that when we bought our house in 1999, its 1800 sq. feet was going to be a limitation eventually... and that's not a bad thing; if anything it forces us to be realistic about the stuff we have gotten over the years, though not realistic enough to realize that we have been doing an endless shuffle of stuff because of it. Now, for the record, I'm not going to go the George Carlin route... buying a bigger house so I can keep "more stuff"... we are very happy with the home that we have and we are not going to move in any time frame less than decades, seriously... but that still brings us to the point of "what do we do with the stuff we have in the space we have without buying more stuff to hold the stuff we already have (sorry, Carlin does it so much better (LOL!) ).
Anyway, one area that I keep looking at is our videotapes and DVDs. Frankly, I have just a few things I really like to keep and will hold onto indefinitely, but many other items are just strangely hanging around for years and years. Yes, I'll admit it, I have my top five movies as DVDs, I have a few classics, and I have some of my favorite anime series on DVD. We also have a bunch of videocassettes that we have held onto for the kids, yet I seriously wondered if they have bothered to look at any of these lately, and if they would actually miss them.
If you decide to be the "big meanie" and try this, here's my suggestion... take all of the VCR tapes and DVDs that you think might genuinely not be missed, put them in a box and put them someplace not obvious (but not someplace you would totally forget). Put a date on the box, say three to six months. Then wait... if you get one of your kids coming up to you saying "Dad, I can't find [fillInTheBlank]", then you know you have come across one that somehow matters to the kids. Go and get it, say that you found it, but don't divulge the hiding place of the other tapes (I don't know about the rest of you out there, but with my kids, anything that is suddenly in eye sight becomes indispensable, never mind the fact that they haven't watched or thought about it for close to two years prior !!!).
Right now I've gathered a good sized box of kids VCR tapes, most of them likely to never be watched again. Frankly, if I'm going to strike on this, I need to strike now, while VCR tapes are still a viable media. Five years from now, there may be no interest among friends for VCR tapes; they be about as coveted as 8 tracks (and yes, I am old enough to have owned 8 tracks, don't rub it in (LOL!) ). I would much rather see these go to people that have young kids that would enjoy seeing them than keep them floating around my house not being used, not being watched, and taking up space that is coming at a greater premium each year as the kids get older.
Thus we have begun a new experiment. I'll check back in October to tell you all what ultimately happened :).
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: A Gym Warriors Rig
This would seem like the logical place for an “Ego Over Matter” post, but I’m not actually talking about working out this time, I’m talking about doing all of the stuff one needs to do to look like a presentable human being afterwards (LOL!).
As of late, I’ve upped the intensity on my workouts considerably. I used to just go in and lift weights for about half an hour or 45 minutes, then come back to work and call it a day. Cardio was, for the most part, nonexistent when it came to my working out. Since I am now in “T-minus 8 weeks until High Wire’s show on August 22nd” mode, my morning details have changed. For the last few weeks, my routine has me arriving at the gym early enough to allow for two hours of workout time and clean-up. I’m currently putting in at minimum one hour of cardio training, along with my regular daily workout. The net result is that I sweat a lot more when I train, and as such, showering is not just a nice thing to do, it’s totally mandatory.
A few months ago I posted about my home rig that I use for shaving. It’s fabulous for at home, but let’s face it, I’m not going to lug a scuttle, brush and Merkur 1904 with me everywhere I go. First, there’s not enough room for it, and second, I’d look like a total tool using up half the counter space at the gym. So in the mode of getting the best bang for the buck and minimal footprint (as well as minimal total time to use), I had to rethink my approach to those manly morning rituals when I’m out and about at the gym. Here’s what I came up with.
1. Shave in the shower. Now, for me, this is a really simple thing to do; I’m clean shaven both on the face and on the head, so really, I can do the whole thing blind. What I don’t want to do is use a DE in the shower; I’ve tried it and end up cutting myself more frequently than not (this may speak to my technique, and I may revisit this in the months ahead) but for now, I’ve backslid when I “road warrior” and I’ve resurrected the use of my Mach 3 and blades. There’s an interesting product that I use called King of Shaves, and it’s a low water gel that almost defies description… it almost feels like you are slathering on hair gel… but once you whip it up and rub it on your face and scalp, and then run the blade over it… wow, it’s close, quick and comfortable. Note, this is not what I would use for a luxurious at home shave, but for a quick five minute blast in the shower at the gym, it’s awesome :).
2. I keep a small bottle of Anti-plaque rinse, a tube of whatever toothpaste I have on hand (if given a choice, I like Tom’s of Maine, but I’m really not all that picky and I’ll get whatever is on sale more times than not) and my toothbrush in my toiletry bag (which has a neat little belt clip attachment that I can hang from the shower dividing rod). Rinse, brush, put away, all in a matter of minutes and all without leaving the shower (is this too much information for some of you (LOL!)?).
3. One of my best discoveries over the past year has been the ubiquitous and beneficial uses of Witch Hazel. It makes for the most effective after shave, skin cleanser, breakout protector, and it even helps with sore muscles at times. I keep a spray bottle in my bag full of witch hazel, and after the shower and shave, I spray it on and rub it in. Feels great, has a neutral scent, and it’s inexpensive enough in quantity to replace several other products, so it’s a money saver, too :).
4. The final item is a standard deodorant, but even this is close to being phased out as soon as I can find a good source of large alum block. Alum block serves two purposes. The first is that it’s an excellent hemostat for shaving nicks and cuts. What’s more, it’s also a terrific body deodorant (it’s not a true antiperspirant, but it hugely cuts down on the bacteria growth that causes odors).
All together, these items allow me to take care of business quickly and completely, and it takes very little room. As I get older and find my time compressed from many angles, I grow much more appreciative of ways that I can get more out of less in less time and with less effort. This constitutes what I consider to be a pretty good gym warriors rig. If you have other suggestions for doing more with less in similar circumstances, let me know :).
As of late, I’ve upped the intensity on my workouts considerably. I used to just go in and lift weights for about half an hour or 45 minutes, then come back to work and call it a day. Cardio was, for the most part, nonexistent when it came to my working out. Since I am now in “T-minus 8 weeks until High Wire’s show on August 22nd” mode, my morning details have changed. For the last few weeks, my routine has me arriving at the gym early enough to allow for two hours of workout time and clean-up. I’m currently putting in at minimum one hour of cardio training, along with my regular daily workout. The net result is that I sweat a lot more when I train, and as such, showering is not just a nice thing to do, it’s totally mandatory.
A few months ago I posted about my home rig that I use for shaving. It’s fabulous for at home, but let’s face it, I’m not going to lug a scuttle, brush and Merkur 1904 with me everywhere I go. First, there’s not enough room for it, and second, I’d look like a total tool using up half the counter space at the gym. So in the mode of getting the best bang for the buck and minimal footprint (as well as minimal total time to use), I had to rethink my approach to those manly morning rituals when I’m out and about at the gym. Here’s what I came up with.
1. Shave in the shower. Now, for me, this is a really simple thing to do; I’m clean shaven both on the face and on the head, so really, I can do the whole thing blind. What I don’t want to do is use a DE in the shower; I’ve tried it and end up cutting myself more frequently than not (this may speak to my technique, and I may revisit this in the months ahead) but for now, I’ve backslid when I “road warrior” and I’ve resurrected the use of my Mach 3 and blades. There’s an interesting product that I use called King of Shaves, and it’s a low water gel that almost defies description… it almost feels like you are slathering on hair gel… but once you whip it up and rub it on your face and scalp, and then run the blade over it… wow, it’s close, quick and comfortable. Note, this is not what I would use for a luxurious at home shave, but for a quick five minute blast in the shower at the gym, it’s awesome :).
2. I keep a small bottle of Anti-plaque rinse, a tube of whatever toothpaste I have on hand (if given a choice, I like Tom’s of Maine, but I’m really not all that picky and I’ll get whatever is on sale more times than not) and my toothbrush in my toiletry bag (which has a neat little belt clip attachment that I can hang from the shower dividing rod). Rinse, brush, put away, all in a matter of minutes and all without leaving the shower (is this too much information for some of you (LOL!)?).
3. One of my best discoveries over the past year has been the ubiquitous and beneficial uses of Witch Hazel. It makes for the most effective after shave, skin cleanser, breakout protector, and it even helps with sore muscles at times. I keep a spray bottle in my bag full of witch hazel, and after the shower and shave, I spray it on and rub it in. Feels great, has a neutral scent, and it’s inexpensive enough in quantity to replace several other products, so it’s a money saver, too :).
4. The final item is a standard deodorant, but even this is close to being phased out as soon as I can find a good source of large alum block. Alum block serves two purposes. The first is that it’s an excellent hemostat for shaving nicks and cuts. What’s more, it’s also a terrific body deodorant (it’s not a true antiperspirant, but it hugely cuts down on the bacteria growth that causes odors).
All together, these items allow me to take care of business quickly and completely, and it takes very little room. As I get older and find my time compressed from many angles, I grow much more appreciative of ways that I can get more out of less in less time and with less effort. This constitutes what I consider to be a pretty good gym warriors rig. If you have other suggestions for doing more with less in similar circumstances, let me know :).
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: The Kitchen Cleanout
On Saturday, I found that I was at home and had some free time to ponder and consider a few things regarding our kitchen. There are certain things that we do and certain rituals that surround our cooking, and because of those rituals, we have accumulated a small army of wares that, many times, do not get used or have just sort of piled into our cabinets. I think it was when I was looking to get a griddle out of our corner cabinet and having to fight all of the stuff surrounding it (and skinning my knuckles in the process), that I decided enough was enough, and that we really should take a look at what we have in here and why.
To be fair, I asked Christina if it was OK to embark on this particular journey, since this is one of those times when my decisions were going to have a possible radical effect on her life and reality, too. We both spend time in the kitchen, but it can be argued that she easily spends three or four times the amount I do there. Thus, I couldn’t just arbitrarily impose my ideas of what would work or why, it had to be something we would both agree to and with.
To this end, we went through all of our cupboards and drawers and we pulled out everything. We put these items on the kitchen table and we looked to see what we had. In the process, we discovered that we had two large nonstick cooking pans that were absolutely identical… and this totally baffled me. Why did we have two of the exact pans? Would we really have a need for two large pans like this at the same time for the same meal? We both decided that the answer was no, and we let one of them go.
We had a number of pots and pans that were holdovers from many years back when we still had an electric range. These items had thin walls and are really not suited for use on a gas range (you have to watch them like a hawk or the contents get scorched and then cleaning is a nightmare!). We decided to let most of these items finally go, but we kept one of them as an experiment. We jokingly refer to this as the Mac and Cheese pot, so we will see how often it gets used and see how many times we have to go to great efforts to clean it. If the answer is more than twice, then we will downsize it in favor of one of our other pots.
We found that we had a bunch of mismatched lids… they didn’t go with anything. Time for them to go.
Somehow, we had accumulated a copious amount of low grade plastic storage containers. Having storage containers in and of itself is not a problem, we just had way more than we would ever practically or realistically use, even if we were to fill the fridge and freezer with various dinners. Many of these are being repurposed rather than thrown away; Since they are clear, they make for great storage options for small items in the garage and in my upstairs closet.
A nice surprise was that we really hadn’t accumulated too many “unitaskers” over the years; though we had a few odd items that we decided just didn’t make sense to keep around, such as a small plunger operated chopper, the electric can opener, a bevy of manually operated can-openers that had just lost effectiveness over the years, and a slant type cooking device that looks surprisingly similar to a George Foreman Grill. We also have a salad spinner that, while I questioned if it was actually worth hanging onto, Christina swears she uses it every time lettuce is used for anything, so it’s cool, it stays :).
What we ultimately kept is as follows:
1 2 quart reduction Sauce Pan w/ lid (Viking)
1 2 quart Dutch Oven (Lodge)
1 3 quart Sauce Pan w/ lid (Viking)
1 3 quart “Mac and Cheese” Sauce Pan w/ lid (Revere)
1 6 quart Sauce Pot w/ lid (Lodge)
1 8 1/2 quart Sauce Pot w/ lid (Viking)
1 3 quart Saute Pan w/ lid (Viking)
1 11” Fry Pan w/ lid
1 3 quart Casserole Pan w/ Lid (Viking)
3 Pyrex casserole dishes (various sizes)
3 Corning Ware casserole dishes (various sizes)
2 bread pans (small and medium)
2 cookie sheets
3 muffin tins (2 small, 1 large)
1 13" Flat Bottom Cast Iron Wok
4 Stackable storage and mixing bowls with lids
A bunch of various plastic ware containers for storing leftovers (enough for about 6 full family meals)
1 Waffle iron
1 Griddle for pancakes and cooking bacon and eggs (we’ve had this thing forever and anticipate having it for just as long :) ).
1 food processor
1 rice cooker/steamer
1 blender
1 standard 2 slot toaster
1 toaster oven (honestly, I could see the day when we just kept the toaster oven and dropped the standalone toaster, but Christina is not seeing it that way at the moment (LOL!))
The great thing about doing this was that we liberated a lot of cabinet space that was not being used efficiently before, and we consolidated all of our regular use items into a simple to access area, and all right near the range where they can be of the greatest use. As always, it’s the pieces that actually get used that make the most sense to keep handy, the occasional items can be stored elsewhere, and if it’s really just occasionally, perhaps a case can be made that it shouldn’t be there at all. We’ll see how this more minimalist approach works for us (and truth be told, it’s still not all that minimalist, but it’s a lot better and easier to access than what we had before (LOL!).
To be fair, I asked Christina if it was OK to embark on this particular journey, since this is one of those times when my decisions were going to have a possible radical effect on her life and reality, too. We both spend time in the kitchen, but it can be argued that she easily spends three or four times the amount I do there. Thus, I couldn’t just arbitrarily impose my ideas of what would work or why, it had to be something we would both agree to and with.
To this end, we went through all of our cupboards and drawers and we pulled out everything. We put these items on the kitchen table and we looked to see what we had. In the process, we discovered that we had two large nonstick cooking pans that were absolutely identical… and this totally baffled me. Why did we have two of the exact pans? Would we really have a need for two large pans like this at the same time for the same meal? We both decided that the answer was no, and we let one of them go.
We had a number of pots and pans that were holdovers from many years back when we still had an electric range. These items had thin walls and are really not suited for use on a gas range (you have to watch them like a hawk or the contents get scorched and then cleaning is a nightmare!). We decided to let most of these items finally go, but we kept one of them as an experiment. We jokingly refer to this as the Mac and Cheese pot, so we will see how often it gets used and see how many times we have to go to great efforts to clean it. If the answer is more than twice, then we will downsize it in favor of one of our other pots.
We found that we had a bunch of mismatched lids… they didn’t go with anything. Time for them to go.
Somehow, we had accumulated a copious amount of low grade plastic storage containers. Having storage containers in and of itself is not a problem, we just had way more than we would ever practically or realistically use, even if we were to fill the fridge and freezer with various dinners. Many of these are being repurposed rather than thrown away; Since they are clear, they make for great storage options for small items in the garage and in my upstairs closet.
A nice surprise was that we really hadn’t accumulated too many “unitaskers” over the years; though we had a few odd items that we decided just didn’t make sense to keep around, such as a small plunger operated chopper, the electric can opener, a bevy of manually operated can-openers that had just lost effectiveness over the years, and a slant type cooking device that looks surprisingly similar to a George Foreman Grill. We also have a salad spinner that, while I questioned if it was actually worth hanging onto, Christina swears she uses it every time lettuce is used for anything, so it’s cool, it stays :).
What we ultimately kept is as follows:
1 2 quart reduction Sauce Pan w/ lid (Viking)
1 2 quart Dutch Oven (Lodge)
1 3 quart Sauce Pan w/ lid (Viking)
1 3 quart “Mac and Cheese” Sauce Pan w/ lid (Revere)
1 6 quart Sauce Pot w/ lid (Lodge)
1 8 1/2 quart Sauce Pot w/ lid (Viking)
1 3 quart Saute Pan w/ lid (Viking)
1 11” Fry Pan w/ lid
1 3 quart Casserole Pan w/ Lid (Viking)
3 Pyrex casserole dishes (various sizes)
3 Corning Ware casserole dishes (various sizes)
2 bread pans (small and medium)
2 cookie sheets
3 muffin tins (2 small, 1 large)
1 13" Flat Bottom Cast Iron Wok
4 Stackable storage and mixing bowls with lids
A bunch of various plastic ware containers for storing leftovers (enough for about 6 full family meals)
1 Waffle iron
1 Griddle for pancakes and cooking bacon and eggs (we’ve had this thing forever and anticipate having it for just as long :) ).
1 food processor
1 rice cooker/steamer
1 blender
1 standard 2 slot toaster
1 toaster oven (honestly, I could see the day when we just kept the toaster oven and dropped the standalone toaster, but Christina is not seeing it that way at the moment (LOL!))
The great thing about doing this was that we liberated a lot of cabinet space that was not being used efficiently before, and we consolidated all of our regular use items into a simple to access area, and all right near the range where they can be of the greatest use. As always, it’s the pieces that actually get used that make the most sense to keep handy, the occasional items can be stored elsewhere, and if it’s really just occasionally, perhaps a case can be made that it shouldn’t be there at all. We’ll see how this more minimalist approach works for us (and truth be told, it’s still not all that minimalist, but it’s a lot better and easier to access than what we had before (LOL!).
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Shedding Of Innocent Stuff: The Dreaded Room, Aftermath :)
PARCA came and took all of the extra stuff away (well, at least all I could bear to part with at this given point in time, that is :) ). So how does everything look now?
The closet that had three shelves of VCR tapes and DVD's? Cleared out. Now it's just clothes... and a Styrofoam head to hold my Wood Badge regalia and preferred scouting hat... OK, I admit it, that's a little weird (LOL!).
What to do with all of the various tchotchkis? I figured they'd look good on the window sill. Well, *I* like them there, anyway :).
The book shelf after a MAJORpurge. The Samurai swords and cedar flute now look like they actually belong there :). Plus, the bunch of white storage boxes that were sitting on the side table have been relocated and are no longer front and center (thank goodness). A cork board and accordion file now act as the place to catch papers and notices.
Notice that the behemoth computer armoire is now practically empty. When I bought this big piece of furniture almost ten years ago, it housed a massive 23" CRT monitor, a Sun SPARC class server and just about every computer item I ever owned. Needless to say, I've downsized my rig considerably since then... perhaps the desk should be downsized correspondingly (jury is out on that one at the moment :) ).
The other side of the closet. Having made enough room by liberating several pairs of pants out into the wild (wow, that almost sounds suggestive (LOL!) ), I determined that I had enough room to place the office chair when I'm not using it in there. Since the computer armoire has a retractable desk surface, and since it closes up, there's no simple place to put the computer chair. Having the ability (and the room) to tuck it away in the closet is a huge space win!
And here's the odd "over the stairs" closet. The white boxes that used to be out on the bookshelves and the side table have been repurposed and put in here. Moast items either have a designated shelf or area they now belong to, and most are immediately accessible now. Truth be told, I can probably do more with this, but all things considered, this is a major improvement over what was there before :).
The closet that had three shelves of VCR tapes and DVD's? Cleared out. Now it's just clothes... and a Styrofoam head to hold my Wood Badge regalia and preferred scouting hat... OK, I admit it, that's a little weird (LOL!).
What to do with all of the various tchotchkis? I figured they'd look good on the window sill. Well, *I* like them there, anyway :).
The book shelf after a MAJORpurge. The Samurai swords and cedar flute now look like they actually belong there :). Plus, the bunch of white storage boxes that were sitting on the side table have been relocated and are no longer front and center (thank goodness). A cork board and accordion file now act as the place to catch papers and notices.
Notice that the behemoth computer armoire is now practically empty. When I bought this big piece of furniture almost ten years ago, it housed a massive 23" CRT monitor, a Sun SPARC class server and just about every computer item I ever owned. Needless to say, I've downsized my rig considerably since then... perhaps the desk should be downsized correspondingly (jury is out on that one at the moment :) ).
The other side of the closet. Having made enough room by liberating several pairs of pants out into the wild (wow, that almost sounds suggestive (LOL!) ), I determined that I had enough room to place the office chair when I'm not using it in there. Since the computer armoire has a retractable desk surface, and since it closes up, there's no simple place to put the computer chair. Having the ability (and the room) to tuck it away in the closet is a huge space win!
And here's the odd "over the stairs" closet. The white boxes that used to be out on the bookshelves and the side table have been repurposed and put in here. Moast items either have a designated shelf or area they now belong to, and most are immediately accessible now. Truth be told, I can probably do more with this, but all things considered, this is a major improvement over what was there before :).
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: The Dreaded Room, Take 2
It’s rare for me to post a Shedding entry two days in a row, but I figured it was time to give an update. Yesterday, I wrote about how I was up at 3:00 AM trying to get a handle on this. Well, yesterday when I got home, I decided to keep doing what I was in the process of doing.
I am one who finds that the best way to bring order to chaos is to jump in and go for the jugular. To that end, I decided to pull out all of the items in the closets (and I mean all of the items). Christina was overjoyed to see the office in the state it was in this morning, so she was noticeably dismayed when she say everything spread out on the family room floor and futon once again.
What were items found? Here’s some of the gems:
• a large set of videotapes from the Standard Deviants that covered mathematics from Algebra through Calculus (out of date and now available in their entirety through the San Bruno Library)
• some DVD’s covering “Learning to Skateboard” Volumes 1 and 2
• some old VCR tapes of "Snowboard Porn" (no, not really... that's what all of us snowboarders call the videos where riders are doing insane tricks and leaping off of massive cornices and riding sheer cliffs... it's all of the stuff of snowboarding fantasies, and us everyday guys just staring... and drooling.... and wishing we could be doing what we are seeing... OK, maybe porn is the correct term (LOL!) ). Anyway, I decided to keep my three favorite videos, and I let the others go.
• several music VCR collections that I had not seen since we moved into our house back in 1999 (obviously not all that important (LOL!) )
• about 50 cassette tapes that I really want to make sure I keep… and about 300 that I have not listened to in any meaningful way in 15-25 years. Seriously.
• two large format coffee table books that I’d read cover to cover, and really didn’t see myself reading or referencing again
• some clothes that I had decided had seen their day in my wardrobe, and was time to let someone else have a crack at them
• items associated with the dance team regalia making process. There’s a dedicated cabinet in the garage for all of these items now, thus they were easily relocated.
• lots and Lots and LOTS and ***LOTS*** of PAPER, from just about every imaginable source.
The paper is, without a doubt, the number 1 biggest challenge to keeping any semblance or order in this room. All of the financial transactions that relate to our house, our retirement and any investments we make is stored in here. Likewise, anything having to do with Scouting is also kept here. I confess, I’m paranoid about any financial transactions falling through the cracks, and I want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to Scouting activities and responsibilities, so these are my all time worst offenders when it comes to “pack rat” tendencies. Still, I have found that there are good ways of tackling this stuff, and here’s what I’m currently doing.
I have a bunch of “Red” file folders. This translates to “Hot” or “This needs to be acted upon and soon". I have a large accordion folder in my office on a side table, and this is the landing area for all papers (well, ideally it is; sadly, that doesn’t happen as neatly and nicely as I’d like it to), and the Red folders stand out and get a daily perusing to see what I need to do “that day”.
I have a bunch of standard Manila colored folders, and these are my general purpose folders, i.e. active accounts and stuff that’s happening soon, but not urgent.
Finally, I have a bunch of “Blue” folders. These are my reference and my “pack rat” folders, where any data that is historical that I may need someday (perish the thought I should ever have to have an audit), they are there. My ultimate goal with the blue folders is to scan them and store off the contents onto a DVD (save the files that require a signature or otherwise).
Net result… I was up until 2:00 AM clearing all of this stuff out, and I have a cloth shopping bag full of papers that need to be sorted and dealt with. The good news is that I have an hour each day on the train to dig through these and junk the stuff that I don’t need (and though my paranoia is rampant, I am getting better about what to throw away).
Oh, one other cool thing I discovered through this process… the monster of an armoire desk that I have, while it is very nice and elaborate and closes off everything terrifically… is an absolute beast for the size of the room. What’s more, with the changes I’ve made, all that’s being used in it is the top surface to hold the laptop, an external drive and a wireless mouse and keyboard. In short, the humongous armoire desk may itself be a candidate for finding a new home.
Pictures coming soon :).
I am one who finds that the best way to bring order to chaos is to jump in and go for the jugular. To that end, I decided to pull out all of the items in the closets (and I mean all of the items). Christina was overjoyed to see the office in the state it was in this morning, so she was noticeably dismayed when she say everything spread out on the family room floor and futon once again.
What were items found? Here’s some of the gems:
• a large set of videotapes from the Standard Deviants that covered mathematics from Algebra through Calculus (out of date and now available in their entirety through the San Bruno Library)
• some DVD’s covering “Learning to Skateboard” Volumes 1 and 2
• some old VCR tapes of "Snowboard Porn" (no, not really... that's what all of us snowboarders call the videos where riders are doing insane tricks and leaping off of massive cornices and riding sheer cliffs... it's all of the stuff of snowboarding fantasies, and us everyday guys just staring... and drooling.... and wishing we could be doing what we are seeing... OK, maybe porn is the correct term (LOL!) ). Anyway, I decided to keep my three favorite videos, and I let the others go.
• several music VCR collections that I had not seen since we moved into our house back in 1999 (obviously not all that important (LOL!) )
• about 50 cassette tapes that I really want to make sure I keep… and about 300 that I have not listened to in any meaningful way in 15-25 years. Seriously.
• two large format coffee table books that I’d read cover to cover, and really didn’t see myself reading or referencing again
• some clothes that I had decided had seen their day in my wardrobe, and was time to let someone else have a crack at them
• items associated with the dance team regalia making process. There’s a dedicated cabinet in the garage for all of these items now, thus they were easily relocated.
• lots and Lots and LOTS and ***LOTS*** of PAPER, from just about every imaginable source.
The paper is, without a doubt, the number 1 biggest challenge to keeping any semblance or order in this room. All of the financial transactions that relate to our house, our retirement and any investments we make is stored in here. Likewise, anything having to do with Scouting is also kept here. I confess, I’m paranoid about any financial transactions falling through the cracks, and I want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to Scouting activities and responsibilities, so these are my all time worst offenders when it comes to “pack rat” tendencies. Still, I have found that there are good ways of tackling this stuff, and here’s what I’m currently doing.
I have a bunch of “Red” file folders. This translates to “Hot” or “This needs to be acted upon and soon". I have a large accordion folder in my office on a side table, and this is the landing area for all papers (well, ideally it is; sadly, that doesn’t happen as neatly and nicely as I’d like it to), and the Red folders stand out and get a daily perusing to see what I need to do “that day”.
I have a bunch of standard Manila colored folders, and these are my general purpose folders, i.e. active accounts and stuff that’s happening soon, but not urgent.
Finally, I have a bunch of “Blue” folders. These are my reference and my “pack rat” folders, where any data that is historical that I may need someday (perish the thought I should ever have to have an audit), they are there. My ultimate goal with the blue folders is to scan them and store off the contents onto a DVD (save the files that require a signature or otherwise).
Net result… I was up until 2:00 AM clearing all of this stuff out, and I have a cloth shopping bag full of papers that need to be sorted and dealt with. The good news is that I have an hour each day on the train to dig through these and junk the stuff that I don’t need (and though my paranoia is rampant, I am getting better about what to throw away).
Oh, one other cool thing I discovered through this process… the monster of an armoire desk that I have, while it is very nice and elaborate and closes off everything terrifically… is an absolute beast for the size of the room. What’s more, with the changes I’ve made, all that’s being used in it is the top surface to hold the laptop, an external drive and a wireless mouse and keyboard. In short, the humongous armoire desk may itself be a candidate for finding a new home.
Pictures coming soon :).
Monday, January 12, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Tackling the "Dreaded" Room
I think it's safe to say that we all have a spot in our lives that we either:
a. allow to be chaotic and messy to keep everything else together
or
b. one place just ends up being chaotic no matter how hard we try
In my life, there are two places that fit this bill. The first is (and has always been) the garage, but we have taken steps to rectify that. The second place in our house is the one that is much more troubling and more difficult to deal with. However, it's the one that gets to the point where it must be dealt with much more quickly than the garage. This is our "4th Bedroom", AKA my office.
Now, if this room were truly "just" an office, then it might be easier to deal with. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Due to some oddities in the way that our house was added on to by previous owners, the upstairs is a little unusual. The room itself has an odd shape. It's about 10' wide and about 12' feet deep, not counting the standard two door closet (which itself is about 5 1'2' wide and two feet deep). Add to that the fact that there is a bump-out that is four feet deep on both sides (to accommodate the staircase that leads upstairs to the addition), and you soon realize that this is a room that doesn't have a lot of options when it comes to actual floor and wall space. The bump-out does have an advantage, in that it has an extra single door closet space, but the floor of this closet begins two feet off the ground (again, because it needs to accommodate the stairway underneath, and having an angle in the room would have just plain looked odd).
Back when we first bought this house, this room served two purposes and two purposes only. It was my office, and it was where my music equipment went. It wasn't meant to be anything more than that. However, as our family grew and space for other items was needed, the closet became not just my closet for my clothes, but it also became storage for kids toys, family photos, video equipment, and all of the other things that families aren't sure what to do with. This of course spilled out into other closets, shelves, drawers, etc. Add to that fact that, at the end of the day, it just seems there's no place to put [fill in the blank], and it somehow ends up in here. Thus this room's life cycle is like an ocean wave, where the clutter and disorganization build up to the point where it forces action, and a flurry of activity cleans it out, but never 100%, because there's always something that needs to be taken care of and there's just never enough energy or time to completely take care of it, and then other areas of life intervene, and the room gets piled up again, and the cycle keeps repeating.
I actually woke up at 3:00 AM this morning with an urgent anxiety... I have to get a handle on this. It's ridiculous for there to be an entire room in a house that gets this treatment as often as this one does, but why is that the case? It's because of the multi-purpose and undefined notion of this room. It's an office, it's my closet, it's my personal library, it's storage for media, it's storage for scouting stuff, it's a spare bedroom/guest room... it's all of these things, but because we allow it to be all of that, often times it's none of those things, and more times than I care to admit, it becomes "that room where the door is never open, and the stuff is allowed to accumulate until we can't take it any more". Whenever people come over to our house and wonder that it is so clean, I always chuckle a little bit under my breath and think "just don't ask to see my office."
So how am I going to handle it differently this time? Here's my strategy:
1. I have a closet that is set up for clothes, and thus, I have decided that, if it is not clothing related, it does not belong in there. Somehow an entire three shelves have become dedicated to DVDs and VCR tapes, because we have no place else to put them.
2. There are a bunch of items in the odd closet over the stairs, and their relationship to each other is very questionable. This closet is going to be designated as the "office closet", meaning office supplies and work related materials ONLY will stay in here. All other items will need to be relocated or liquidated.
3. There is a large futon in this office that often ends up being a holding place for [FILL IN THE BLANK]. The futon is not all that comfortable a place to sit, and it doesn't make for all that good a bed when it's folded out. On top of that, it's also rather bulky in its overall size for the room, but it's been of good utility when we have needed a place for someone to sleep (be it when a kid is sick or a parent is sick). thus, for the time being, the futon stays, but it needs to be designated as a couch or a bed, not a clothes rack, filing cabinet or some other purpose.
4. This room needs to have a "perimeter sweep". Just like the garage, if an item stands in front of another item, it's not in a good place and needs to either be relocated or liquidated. As this cycle repeats, I realize that "liquidation" is often the most appropriate action, but boy is it tough sometimes to actually do that.
And thus, the never-ending struggle with this room continues. Since I do so much better with things when I somehow "bare my wounds" for the world to see, this room will now be the focus of "Shedding of Innocent Stuff" until it is purged. Do I think this will be the final time? Unlikely, as I have said this too many times to count, but I know that with public recognition of a problem, action follows. Stay tuned for further developments ;).
Friday, January 2, 2009
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: The Garage Deep Clean
New Year's Day was spent in a flurry of activity, and it was perhaps a little more intense than I truly intended it to be. I woke up at 6:00 AM and went into the garage. With the exception of having dinner at my wife's parents place, the garage is where I pretty much stayed, all day. That, and going in and out of the living room and kitchen area to pack up all of the Christmas items we had out.
My goal was simple. There had been a creeping and growing amount of boxes and items making a second perimeter around the garage. I wanted to see how much of this stuff I could get rid of. Here's what I determined:
* We purchased a bunch of really fragile glass ornaments about ten years ago. We've been way too paranoid to put them up on the tree in the past, but this year we decided to give it a try. Since they are just plain gold, silver and burgundy balls, and since we liked the more eclectic mix of ornaments we've gathered over the years better, we decided it was time to let these ones go. In the process, we reclaimed a whole storage box worth of space.
* We have various totes and boxes that have made their way into the garage, most without lids, and most just end up on the floor as "dumping areas" to be dealt with later. This is an example where too much organizational media can actually lead to disorganization. I realize it sounds weird to say "we're getting rid of a bunch of organization stuff to get better organized", but in this case, it's true. Plus, with the added factor of not always having the fall back of putting things in a random container, one must go through the effort of actually putting things where they genuinely belong (shocking, I know (LOL!) ).
* I have an external frame backpack that I haven't used in close to four years. The internal frame pack is what I now use for outings, and my son has one that's best sized for him. This isn't needed by me anymore, so I'm giving it to the troop.
* I have a bunch of vinyl albums that I have not played in close to 10 years. It's a pretty good bet they will never get played. Gone.
* Somehow, a lot of scouting paraphernalia has made its way to my garage. It needs to go back to the troop closet at church and not be in my house.
* I have a table router that I bought when we first bought the house for all of the projects I would do. I've used it three times in ten years. time for it to find a new home.
* I have a number of items that I purchased from back in the days when my garage was Pinewood Derby central. Some of the tools are useful and definitely needed. Others I will likely never use again.
* I have a lot of stuff that is used by the Native American Dance tram that I help advise and support. Much of this stuff is in great shape, but having it packed all the time makes it bulky and hard to maneuver. By taking the items out, hanging them in see through bags from the hanging rack in the garage, I can stow the big trunk they usually go in up on the high shelf over the workbench, and use it when it is appropriate. Large scale floor reclaim :).
* There's paint that is the old color of rooms that are no longer that color. Why am I keeping this?
* I have three folding tables that were a big part of my Cub Scout teaching curriculum when the house was Cub Scout central. Now that my son has moved on and we use the church for most of our activities, I'm a little torn on what to do with these. Do I need all three? Not likely, but I can definitely see keeping two of them. The question is, which one to get rid of?
* There's a lot of sporting goods gear that has been worn by my kids through their growing years, and the smallest of the gear now needs to be given a new home. I have some serious emotions about the "Lion" snowboard that is now too small to be ridden by anyone... that board has now been part of the family for almost ten years, and every one of my kids learned to ride on it. Still, its time to let another family take advantage of it now.
Fourteen hours, four trash bags, three donation bags, and a lot of equipment that needs a loving home. My goal for this new year (remember, no resolutions :) ) is to commit to taking a really hard look at the items that come into the garage. It took a really long time to clean up this dumping ground, and I really don't want to do it again (LOL!).
My goal was simple. There had been a creeping and growing amount of boxes and items making a second perimeter around the garage. I wanted to see how much of this stuff I could get rid of. Here's what I determined:
* We purchased a bunch of really fragile glass ornaments about ten years ago. We've been way too paranoid to put them up on the tree in the past, but this year we decided to give it a try. Since they are just plain gold, silver and burgundy balls, and since we liked the more eclectic mix of ornaments we've gathered over the years better, we decided it was time to let these ones go. In the process, we reclaimed a whole storage box worth of space.
* We have various totes and boxes that have made their way into the garage, most without lids, and most just end up on the floor as "dumping areas" to be dealt with later. This is an example where too much organizational media can actually lead to disorganization. I realize it sounds weird to say "we're getting rid of a bunch of organization stuff to get better organized", but in this case, it's true. Plus, with the added factor of not always having the fall back of putting things in a random container, one must go through the effort of actually putting things where they genuinely belong (shocking, I know (LOL!) ).
* I have an external frame backpack that I haven't used in close to four years. The internal frame pack is what I now use for outings, and my son has one that's best sized for him. This isn't needed by me anymore, so I'm giving it to the troop.
* I have a bunch of vinyl albums that I have not played in close to 10 years. It's a pretty good bet they will never get played. Gone.
* Somehow, a lot of scouting paraphernalia has made its way to my garage. It needs to go back to the troop closet at church and not be in my house.
* I have a table router that I bought when we first bought the house for all of the projects I would do. I've used it three times in ten years. time for it to find a new home.
* I have a number of items that I purchased from back in the days when my garage was Pinewood Derby central. Some of the tools are useful and definitely needed. Others I will likely never use again.
* I have a lot of stuff that is used by the Native American Dance tram that I help advise and support. Much of this stuff is in great shape, but having it packed all the time makes it bulky and hard to maneuver. By taking the items out, hanging them in see through bags from the hanging rack in the garage, I can stow the big trunk they usually go in up on the high shelf over the workbench, and use it when it is appropriate. Large scale floor reclaim :).
* There's paint that is the old color of rooms that are no longer that color. Why am I keeping this?
* I have three folding tables that were a big part of my Cub Scout teaching curriculum when the house was Cub Scout central. Now that my son has moved on and we use the church for most of our activities, I'm a little torn on what to do with these. Do I need all three? Not likely, but I can definitely see keeping two of them. The question is, which one to get rid of?
* There's a lot of sporting goods gear that has been worn by my kids through their growing years, and the smallest of the gear now needs to be given a new home. I have some serious emotions about the "Lion" snowboard that is now too small to be ridden by anyone... that board has now been part of the family for almost ten years, and every one of my kids learned to ride on it. Still, its time to let another family take advantage of it now.
Fourteen hours, four trash bags, three donation bags, and a lot of equipment that needs a loving home. My goal for this new year (remember, no resolutions :) ) is to commit to taking a really hard look at the items that come into the garage. It took a really long time to clean up this dumping ground, and I really don't want to do it again (LOL!).
Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Year’s Winter Cleaning
First, to anyone who reads this, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and a happy and productive 2009.
As many of you know, I do not believe in New Year’s Resolution. Instead, I believe in making concrete goals and a way to have an action plan to achieve them. Resolutions are just wishes unless they have a concrete game plan, and that game plan is actually followed. At that point, it’s not a resolution, it’s a goal. It’s with this mind set that I offer the following.
Every New Year’s Day, literally starting with the official start of the New Year, I make it a point to stay home and do a deep cleaning of our house. This is also in conjunction with our putting away all of the Christmas decorations (always done on January 1st in our house) and in that process, we always go through and move everything, vacuum every thing, scrub everything, dust everything, you name it. In the process, we also take out a notebook and we make notes on all areas that need work, or are of concern, or otherwise just become pet peeves. From these notes, we set action plans for the areas we can do something about, make projections for the areas we can’t immediately, but would like to, and then set a long term plan for items that will be further down the road.
For 2009, we have determined that the following areas are critical and need to be addressed somewhat immediately:
The garage is overloaded. We have cabinets, shelves, and shelving units that surround the garage. In addition, we have a number of trunks and other items of a random nature that perimeter the cabinets, making it virtually impossible to get into the cabinets without moving the items. When we first moved into this house, we had, arguably, the best organized and cleanest garage in the neighborhood. We most certainly cannot say that now. This is a key area where a concerted dejunking, reallocating of needed items, and deciding exactly why we are holding onto certain things must be done. It always amazes me that every time I do this, no matter how many times I do it, I always seem to determine that there’s still something else that can be downsized. Perhaps it comes from the fact that each time I go through the process, I learn a little bit more about what I actually use and what I don’t. Plus, when you start to let go of things, it becomes easier to let go of other things, too.
My office is the catch-all room. It’s the dirty secret in our house that the house is immaculate except for two places, the garage and my office. Both suffer from the same issue, and that’s overload. We did a massive downsizing of old books and other items, but somehow keeping this room uncluttered is just a royal pain. I also have a longer term goal going forward… I’m looking at the possibility of either converting this room to a genuine guest room, or potentially a bedroom for one of the girls (they currently share a room). To make that conversion, I have to reach the point where the contents of that room are either considerably downsized, or otherwise reallocated. Three key areas make up the bulk of the clutter in this room, and that is media (meaning CD's, DVD, VCR tapes and computer media), craft supplies (mostly associated with my work regarding the White Otter Dancers) and Scouting. My plan is to utilize used media places and sites like mediabuyback.com. In addition, papers that are not essential to be kept in their paper form will either be scanned and stored electronically, or gotten rid of entirely.
We have three fruit trees that produce a good quantity of Peaches, Nectarines and Apples. During 2009, I plan to use some techniques I’ve picked up on the web to set up a square foot garden in our back yard to expand the capacity of that garden space. I’m not gutsy enough to tear up the lawn and make that a garden patch (at least not yet), but the terrace boxes are totally fair game. This will require some observation and determining which areas get the best sunlight, as well as revamping the sprinkler system and adding some heads.
That should keep us busy for the next few months. Expect to see updates on all of these projects right here :).
As many of you know, I do not believe in New Year’s Resolution. Instead, I believe in making concrete goals and a way to have an action plan to achieve them. Resolutions are just wishes unless they have a concrete game plan, and that game plan is actually followed. At that point, it’s not a resolution, it’s a goal. It’s with this mind set that I offer the following.
Every New Year’s Day, literally starting with the official start of the New Year, I make it a point to stay home and do a deep cleaning of our house. This is also in conjunction with our putting away all of the Christmas decorations (always done on January 1st in our house) and in that process, we always go through and move everything, vacuum every thing, scrub everything, dust everything, you name it. In the process, we also take out a notebook and we make notes on all areas that need work, or are of concern, or otherwise just become pet peeves. From these notes, we set action plans for the areas we can do something about, make projections for the areas we can’t immediately, but would like to, and then set a long term plan for items that will be further down the road.
For 2009, we have determined that the following areas are critical and need to be addressed somewhat immediately:
The garage is overloaded. We have cabinets, shelves, and shelving units that surround the garage. In addition, we have a number of trunks and other items of a random nature that perimeter the cabinets, making it virtually impossible to get into the cabinets without moving the items. When we first moved into this house, we had, arguably, the best organized and cleanest garage in the neighborhood. We most certainly cannot say that now. This is a key area where a concerted dejunking, reallocating of needed items, and deciding exactly why we are holding onto certain things must be done. It always amazes me that every time I do this, no matter how many times I do it, I always seem to determine that there’s still something else that can be downsized. Perhaps it comes from the fact that each time I go through the process, I learn a little bit more about what I actually use and what I don’t. Plus, when you start to let go of things, it becomes easier to let go of other things, too.
My office is the catch-all room. It’s the dirty secret in our house that the house is immaculate except for two places, the garage and my office. Both suffer from the same issue, and that’s overload. We did a massive downsizing of old books and other items, but somehow keeping this room uncluttered is just a royal pain. I also have a longer term goal going forward… I’m looking at the possibility of either converting this room to a genuine guest room, or potentially a bedroom for one of the girls (they currently share a room). To make that conversion, I have to reach the point where the contents of that room are either considerably downsized, or otherwise reallocated. Three key areas make up the bulk of the clutter in this room, and that is media (meaning CD's, DVD, VCR tapes and computer media), craft supplies (mostly associated with my work regarding the White Otter Dancers) and Scouting. My plan is to utilize used media places and sites like mediabuyback.com. In addition, papers that are not essential to be kept in their paper form will either be scanned and stored electronically, or gotten rid of entirely.
We have three fruit trees that produce a good quantity of Peaches, Nectarines and Apples. During 2009, I plan to use some techniques I’ve picked up on the web to set up a square foot garden in our back yard to expand the capacity of that garden space. I’m not gutsy enough to tear up the lawn and make that a garden patch (at least not yet), but the terrace boxes are totally fair game. This will require some observation and determining which areas get the best sunlight, as well as revamping the sprinkler system and adding some heads.
That should keep us busy for the next few months. Expect to see updates on all of these projects right here :).
Saturday, December 27, 2008
The Shedding of Innocent Stuff: After Christmas Edition
One of the rules that we put into place last year to hopefully overcome the intense crowding of our garage, closets and other things was that this year we would make a very concerted effort to send a lot of different items to other people to do with what they will. After a day of going through closets, gathering up old clothes, books, and other items that could either be donated or junked, we came down to the requisite after Christmas Goodyear run and special pickup for the garbage company.
This year, we have a larger than normal sweep because we really made an emphasis on out with old, in with new wherever possible. We got the kids on the program with this early and they were down with it originally, but amazingly, come the day after Christmas, that resolve gave way in a hurry (LOL!). Still, after making a strong push, we managed to get to the point where there was a full car for donations:
Things that didn't quite make it (along with a fairly large amount of yard cast-offs after the deck repair and repainting of the house):
While it makes a rather large dent in the garage and elsewhere, it amazes me that there's *still* so much stuff that I know I could legitimately downsize and probably not be any worse for wear for doing so. Still, I know we have a long way to gountil we are completely clutter free, but dang it, we're sure trying (LOL!).
This year, we have a larger than normal sweep because we really made an emphasis on out with old, in with new wherever possible. We got the kids on the program with this early and they were down with it originally, but amazingly, come the day after Christmas, that resolve gave way in a hurry (LOL!). Still, after making a strong push, we managed to get to the point where there was a full car for donations:
Things that didn't quite make it (along with a fairly large amount of yard cast-offs after the deck repair and repainting of the house):
While it makes a rather large dent in the garage and elsewhere, it amazes me that there's *still* so much stuff that I know I could legitimately downsize and probably not be any worse for wear for doing so. Still, I know we have a long way to gountil we are completely clutter free, but dang it, we're sure trying (LOL!).
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Releasing More Captive Books
When I went through the process a couple of months ago to find books that Powell's wanted, I had a large stack of books that they *didn't* want (to be expected), but part of me wasn't sure what I wanted to do with these books. I decided to try a little experiment (an "In sight, sort of in mind" process). I took all of the books and I stacked them next to the bookshelf in our family room, but in a way that was not going to block any one's way or get in the way of anything... and I lest them sit there for an extended period. My goals was to see how many of the books I pulled from, for any reason. If I pulled a book, it went back on the shelf, since it meant there was a value to having it after all (i.e. I'd actually referenced it or decided I wanted to read through it again).
The grand total of books that I pulled? Eight. The total number of books not touched in any way, shape or form? Close to 100. Now on to the next step.
This weekend, the goal is to find one of three places:
1. local used book store(s)
2. The public library
3. Salvation Army and Goodwill
At the end of the day this Saturday, it's my hope to see all of the books find new homes, outside of my humble abode.
What was the point of the exercise? It was my way to see if I would reconsider any of the items. For the most part, there were few books that, on further reflection, I was going to re-reference. Most of them were out of date, or otherwise had been transplanted with different interests and goals. For those that didn't fit that category, I had discovered that much of the information on any of the topics that I wanted to keep and hold on to was readily available on the Internet, and often in a much more easy to access manner (as well as much more up to date).
Again,I don't wish to appear the total Philistine... I do enjoy reading, and I enjoy having good books. I've decided, however, that the best way to reinfoce my love of reading, keep in the habit of finding new books, and not overcrowding our living space is to let the public library be my source of reading material. I do pay for it, after all (it's one of those things that my dutifully paid property taxes goes towards supporting :) ). Thus, while I shall see the tomes of days goner by leave my premises, I know that, for many of them, I can easily see them again. for the others, well, I haven't looked at them for this length of time, I'm pretty confident my life will go on without them there ;).
The grand total of books that I pulled? Eight. The total number of books not touched in any way, shape or form? Close to 100. Now on to the next step.
This weekend, the goal is to find one of three places:
1. local used book store(s)
2. The public library
3. Salvation Army and Goodwill
At the end of the day this Saturday, it's my hope to see all of the books find new homes, outside of my humble abode.
What was the point of the exercise? It was my way to see if I would reconsider any of the items. For the most part, there were few books that, on further reflection, I was going to re-reference. Most of them were out of date, or otherwise had been transplanted with different interests and goals. For those that didn't fit that category, I had discovered that much of the information on any of the topics that I wanted to keep and hold on to was readily available on the Internet, and often in a much more easy to access manner (as well as much more up to date).
Again,I don't wish to appear the total Philistine... I do enjoy reading, and I enjoy having good books. I've decided, however, that the best way to reinfoce my love of reading, keep in the habit of finding new books, and not overcrowding our living space is to let the public library be my source of reading material. I do pay for it, after all (it's one of those things that my dutifully paid property taxes goes towards supporting :) ). Thus, while I shall see the tomes of days goner by leave my premises, I know that, for many of them, I can easily see them again. for the others, well, I haven't looked at them for this length of time, I'm pretty confident my life will go on without them there ;).
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Mixer and Peripherals Find a Home
Well, it’s been a few weeks and I felt it only proper that I give an update. On the piecing out of the dreams that are Dreamtank:
The bass rig went up as a whole unit a few weeks ago. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get any takers for the whole rig. However, I did get some bites for the GK head and the SansAmp emulator, but no firm commitments or sales. Lesson learned: don’t try to see a bass rig as a full unit. Bass players are a picky lot, and they tend to like to piece out their own dream gear. This rig was my dream; it’s not likely to appeal 100% to anyone else :).
Thus a new tactic is underway this time around. I received a neat “presentation wall” from my company; they were getting rid of some older marketing materials and decided that it was either going to be thrown away or someone could grab it. I figured this was something I could use as both a backdrop for photos as well as a scrim and presentation wall for the White Otter Dancers and Singers. Thus it’s not clutter, it’s presentation material (wow, justify much (LOL!)?). Anyway, the backdrop will be well suited for photographing the individual pieces and this way I can possibly get a better hit rate for the items in question.
This past week, as I was discussing where and why I might actually keep or use the mixer and power amp set-up that I have, it became painfully obvious that I have limited use for these items in their current state or their current bulk at my house. Still, I did use them from time to time for Boy Scout or Cub Scout presentations, and they were always well received additions to the various Ward activities at my church. What was the common denominator? It was the church building itself. Who were the primary users or beneficiaries of the equipment? They were the people who met in the church. Thus with this ironclad logic, I approached the Bishop of my Ward and suggested a charitable contribution. I donate the mixer, patch bay, power amp box, cables and speakers to the Ward, and he gives me a letter saying I’ve done exactly that, with an approximate value of the materials donated. After mulling over the possibility for a week or so, he came back to me and said “yes, we’d love to have the equipment!” HOO-RAY!!!
In a way, this is a “cake and eat it, too” scenario, in the fact that I can donate the equipment to those who can use it, and for certain events that take place in the building, I can then requisition it again for when I actually need it (provided it’s in the building itself, which would be about 95% of the time).
Thus I can now cross off a good sized rolling box and a pair of reference monitors off of my list, and feel happy in the knowledge that these items have found a good home.
The bass rig went up as a whole unit a few weeks ago. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get any takers for the whole rig. However, I did get some bites for the GK head and the SansAmp emulator, but no firm commitments or sales. Lesson learned: don’t try to see a bass rig as a full unit. Bass players are a picky lot, and they tend to like to piece out their own dream gear. This rig was my dream; it’s not likely to appeal 100% to anyone else :).
Thus a new tactic is underway this time around. I received a neat “presentation wall” from my company; they were getting rid of some older marketing materials and decided that it was either going to be thrown away or someone could grab it. I figured this was something I could use as both a backdrop for photos as well as a scrim and presentation wall for the White Otter Dancers and Singers. Thus it’s not clutter, it’s presentation material (wow, justify much (LOL!)?). Anyway, the backdrop will be well suited for photographing the individual pieces and this way I can possibly get a better hit rate for the items in question.
This past week, as I was discussing where and why I might actually keep or use the mixer and power amp set-up that I have, it became painfully obvious that I have limited use for these items in their current state or their current bulk at my house. Still, I did use them from time to time for Boy Scout or Cub Scout presentations, and they were always well received additions to the various Ward activities at my church. What was the common denominator? It was the church building itself. Who were the primary users or beneficiaries of the equipment? They were the people who met in the church. Thus with this ironclad logic, I approached the Bishop of my Ward and suggested a charitable contribution. I donate the mixer, patch bay, power amp box, cables and speakers to the Ward, and he gives me a letter saying I’ve done exactly that, with an approximate value of the materials donated. After mulling over the possibility for a week or so, he came back to me and said “yes, we’d love to have the equipment!” HOO-RAY!!!
In a way, this is a “cake and eat it, too” scenario, in the fact that I can donate the equipment to those who can use it, and for certain events that take place in the building, I can then requisition it again for when I actually need it (provided it’s in the building itself, which would be about 95% of the time).
Thus I can now cross off a good sized rolling box and a pair of reference monitors off of my list, and feel happy in the knowledge that these items have found a good home.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Releasing Captive Books Back Out Into The Wild
The stack for consideration to be downsized.
The ones that Powell's actually wants.
This is a hard post for me to write, it really is. My books are a reflection of my personality, and I think it's safe to say that for many people, there is a certain connection that they have to the various books that they have accumulated over the years. Jerry Seinfeld did a riff on this a decade or so ago where he poked fun at people holding onto books as though they were big game trophies. I laughed at the comparison for two reasons. First is because it's funny, but second... is because it's so painfully true.
We live in a modest sized house that is considered large for the area where we live (I thought it was quite small when I first viewed it, but then I grew up in Danville, CA where the average house is somewhere around 3000 sq. ft.). Having come off of living in San Francisco for several years, though, we were definitely stepping up in total house and land space. Still, with an active family of five, space comes at a premium. The choices are to expand the house to store stuff, or find a way to let the stuff back out into the wild. Those who follow this feature know I'm dedicated to the latter :). More to the point, I'm trying to practice an ethic of either library borrowing of books (hey, my tax dollars go to support a fantastic library in my town, so shouldn't I take advantage of it?!), or the notion of "if I like something enough to keep it, i need to like it enough to be willing to let something else go".
When I decided to tackle this particular demon, I figured the best way to handle it was to get every single book that we owned in the house out on the floor, This very act is a huge catalyst, because it forces you to take action. Every single book was up for consideration, nothing was sacred... OK, that's not entirely true. Each family member has their own scripture quad. Those are considered sacred and those will not be parted with. The several BYU Religion course manuals that I own will also not be parted with. The collections related to the teachings of the Presidents of the Church... I have all of them, and they will not be gotten rid of, and certain key commentary books that I love, such as James E. Talmage's Jesus the Christ, Le Grand Richards A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, Neal A. Maxwell's All these Things Shall Give Thee Experience shall always have a place in my home. I'm old enough now where I actually know people who have written books, and they have either given them to me with personal inscriptions, or I have a few older titles signed by the author. Those, of course, stay. Just about everything else, though, was fair game :). After I put everything out on the floor, I sorted on topic and grouping of titles. After sorting, I applied my "Pillars of Stuffitis" with some unique caveatrs this time:
1. Were the books that I had up to date and accurate?
2. Were they books that I actively read or considered likely I would actively read them in the next two years?
3. Were there more comprehensive and up to date details about the topic available online and from better sources than the books I owned?
4. Was there really and truly a likelihood that any of these titles would be something my children would be looking to read in the next two to three years?
With that, any books that passed at least two of the four tests above were returned to the shelves. What remained were titles I'd need to consider carefully:
Scouting publications: Generally speaking, I keep all up to date publications and purge any that are out of date. My lone exception is my Order of the Arrow handbook. That's the one that I got when I first joined O.A., and I refuse to update it or part with it. Also, general purpose externally published scouting books I will keep, no matter the age.
Native American Studies: Many of the books that I have are redundant, woefully out of date and/or are missing up to date information. Also, I'm doing away with books that reinforce old stereotypes. Plus, with so many great sites online dedicated to this purpose, I want to support their efforts. Still, I kept a number of books related to anthropology and essays about life among the various tribes from first hand account, as well as artwork books from artists such as George Caitlin, Karl Bodmer, photographic work by Edward Curtis, and contemporary artists such as James Bama and William Terpening. I also kept a couple of books that were collections of projects for Pow Wow craftwork. The rest I decided to let go of.
Music books: These are of two flavors, those with very "faddy" concepts and those with "timeless" content. I opted for the timeless ones in most cases, and purged the fads. Also, with sites like Guitar Alliance and other music specific sites that use media for their presentation, many of the printed books are becoming redundant. I'd much rather see a school music program make use of these than have them just collecting dust on my shelves.
Computer Books: This has been one of the bigger paradigm shifts for me. Due to sites like W3 Schools and others devoted to specific topics in computing, programming, systems and network administration, and having access to the O'Reilly Network for general content books online, the days of needing shelves of books to reference has become less necessary. As a matter of course, I still keep a certain number of books I consider essential, but they have shrunk *way* down from what I used to hang onto.
General Reference: A handful of good titles related to things like home repair, gardening, and various art and craft techniques, but a lot of repetition in what I had made it easy to shed a few of them. In addition, much of this content is much more up to date and relevant through online sites.
Children's Books: This isn't too hard for us, as we regularly purge books that will never be looked at again once the kids outgrow them. We hang onto some classics simply because they are all time favorites, but that's just a handful of titles.
The Classics: Here's where I'm going to be seen as a total "Philistine", but I'll say it... this was an area where we did a lot of pruning. I have come to the conclusion that, if I really want to read a Jane Austin novel or something from Alexandre Dumas, the library shelves are *overflowing* with these books. You practically trip over the number of copies of Herman Melville's Moby Dick that are on the shelves. Also, due to the fact that many schools assign these books for reading and make them available through school, it pretty much negates my being required to have them at home. I can just hear the people shouting "For shame, no Iliad or Oddysey or Aeneid?! No Cicero, Seneca, Plato or Socrates? No Shakespeare? No Milton? No Voltaire? No Hugo?" As of this past weekend, the answer is "no". Not because I don't find the books valuable, but because I decided that I will more than happily check the book out of the library if I get a major itch to get my Greek on (or fill in your language of choice).
College Textbooks: Really, no, I'm not likely going to be opening these again. Even if I do, there is typically better available writing on the subject available in many different resource locations. College textbooks are the real big game trophy hunting titles. Seeing as I was *not* a Math wiz as a kid, and seeing as I had to work my tail off for four straight semesters to bring my skill level up enough to complete Calculus, I absolutely kept that book on my shelf for all the world to see. "Why yes, I did make it through Calculus, why do you ask? Oh, I see, you are admiring my 800 page volume of Discrete Calculus of a Single Variable. Yes indeed, quite a ground breaking work... can I interest you in a vintage copy of Tindall's America, per chance?"... c'mon already (LOL!). News flash, by the time the kids are in their classes, they'll have their own textbooks to work through, and they'll be considerably more up to date than the dusty tomes I'm holding onto for swagger rights. Let it go and roam free. It's deserves it. What's more, it may still be relevant to another poor late teen or early adult that might find benefit from that particular title.
So some may ask, what was the final outcome of many of these tomes? A number of books went home with a good friend of mine to reinforce her home schooling curriculum for her kids. She was all over the collection of Lost Civilization books that I had; she saw them and just said "I'll take them all!", as well as some young reader titles that I had and the kids had fully outgrown. A number of books will be making their way to my favorite online used bookstore, Powell's in Portland, Oregon. What I love about Powells is that you can use their online interface, punch in the ISBN numbers, and within seconds, you will know which books they want and which ones they don't (yep, the don't pile is still pretty full, and the "wanted" list from Powells, while not massive, was certainly interesting). The small collection of books up top were the ones they wanted. The larger collection were books they didn't. Powells sends you a mailing slip where they pay the postage, and then they give you a store credit for titles that you want to get at a later date (I've already used their service a number of times in the past and found some terrific titles I might have passed on in other venues or purchasing them new).
Thus it's time for a plan B for a number of the books that were not claimed by my friend or by Powell's. Where they will ultimately go, that's hard to say. Once thing is for sure, these books will not be stuffed back into a closet, or thrown away (that's something I just can't do; it feels like I'm puting a beloved pet down). They wil find their way into the hands of readers who want to read them, at least if I have anything to say about it :).
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: The Bass Rig: What's It Worth?
OK, it's been a week since I have put the bass rig on the market. So far, no hits for the full rig, but questions for the various pieces have been coming in.
So what's everything worth? Truthfully, it's worth whatever someone wants to pay for any of the items. However, thanks to my perusing similar offers and opportunities on my trusty three sites, provided everything is in good working order, clean and ready to sell, I've come up with a fair market value as follows:
* Carvin BR-410 Cabinet: $250.00
* Carvin BR-115 cabinet: $250.00
* Gallien-Krueger 400RB Bass Head: $150.00
* ART FXR Elite Multi-Effect Processor: $100.00
* Tech 21 SansAmp RackMount Tube Amp Emulator: $100.00
* Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter: $75.00
* Signal Flex Power Distributor/Rack Light: $100.00
* Ozite covered 6 space rack box: $25.00
* Miscellaneous patch cables: $25.00
or some kind soul could take the whole thing off my hands for $1,000.00 even (or best offer, of course ;) ). Hasn't happened yet, but hey, I can dare to dream :).
So what's everything worth? Truthfully, it's worth whatever someone wants to pay for any of the items. However, thanks to my perusing similar offers and opportunities on my trusty three sites, provided everything is in good working order, clean and ready to sell, I've come up with a fair market value as follows:
* Carvin BR-410 Cabinet: $250.00
* Carvin BR-115 cabinet: $250.00
* Gallien-Krueger 400RB Bass Head: $150.00
* ART FXR Elite Multi-Effect Processor: $100.00
* Tech 21 SansAmp RackMount Tube Amp Emulator: $100.00
* Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter: $75.00
* Signal Flex Power Distributor/Rack Light: $100.00
* Ozite covered 6 space rack box: $25.00
* Miscellaneous patch cables: $25.00
or some kind soul could take the whole thing off my hands for $1,000.00 even (or best offer, of course ;) ). Hasn't happened yet, but hey, I can dare to dream :).
Monday, October 13, 2008
First Up: The Bass Rig
As I have ruminated on which equipment deserves the first push and effort to shed, I have decided to try out the following "Pillars of Shedding". All it takes is one pillar to remain standing, and the justification to keep the item is met.
The Pillars of Shedding are:
1. The item is actively being used by the principal owner.
2. The device has a specific place where it can be used and enjoyed by the principle owner.
3. There is more than a passing chance in the next year that the item in question will be of actual utility to the principal owner.
I have found the item that most readily fails the Pillar Test, and thus, my first concerted effort towards letting go and Shedding of Innocent Stuff will be applied to...:
THE BEHEMOTH BASS RIG
OK, here's some true confession time. Back in 2001, I joined a cover band for what would be three months of rehearsals and one gig played. I was so excited about the idea of going back and playing my original instrument again (for those that don't know, I was a bass player before I was a front man), I figured it would be nice to get a rig so I could play bass with a band again. And while I was at it, I might as well get a rig that I could play the Oakland Coliseum with... stands to reason, right?!
Thus, for this small company get-together I would be playing for, I went and bought:
* a Carvin BR-115 (1x15") bass cabinet
* a Carvin BR-410 (4x10") bass cabinet
* a Gallien-Krueger 400RB bass head
* a Tech21 SansAmp Tube Amp emulator (OK, to be fair, I already owned this)
* a SignalFlex Power Distributor and Rack Light
* an ART FXR Elite MultiEffect unit
* an Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter
* a rack box to hold it all in
* and a Sampson Wireless transceiver, because, you know, using a 20 foot cable would have been *so* ridiculously sensible for the reception hall we ultimately played in (LOL!).
Three weeks after this gig, I was laid off from the company I was working at, which ultimately meant I was laid off from the band, too (since it was made up of people who worked for the company). Well, that's OK; I have this totally awesome rig that I would be able to play in any band, in any place, at any time.
Fast forward seven and a half years... I have not played another gig with it, I have not joined another band as a bass player, I have honestly not even fired this entire sucker up in over four years. Truthfully, honestly, soberly, and with much reflection, this is the most eligible candidate for Shedding. It is time. We must follow through.
But dude, how will you get your most excellent groove on? Are you willing to totally sacrifice your bass? Nope, I never said I'd sacrifice the bass itself, just the arena rocking rig.
A funny thing has happened over the last 10 years or so... the electronics industry has done a lot with the miniaturization of gear, and now, there's an absolutely awesome direct line box that I can plug into any amp or PA system or, heck, into a pair of headphones if I want to. It's called a KORG Pandora, and yep, I own one :).
So what's the next step? Do I try to sell it in one fell swoop? Do I try to piece it out and sell the individual parts? What's a guy to do?
The first thing I need to do is try to find out ultimately what I want to do with these items. In the case of the bass rig, I have a good feeling that these items, because of their durability and the need for bass players to exist in modern rock music and other genres, will actually find a buyer. Since I'm looking at a sale up front, I next need to determine an approximate value for the items I want to sell. For this purpose, there are three fabulous resources:
Craigslist
eBay
The Starving Musician
Craigslist is my all time favorite selling interface, because I can deal with local people and have the local people check things out and not have to deal with having to ship to parts unknown (plus it gives me the opportunity to examine cash up front). Also, it’s a quick and easy interface to update and keep current, with little hassle.
eBay is great because it lets you see if other items have been posted and it can give you a general idea as to how much they might be worth today in other parts of the country (of course, an item is really only worth what someone else is willing to pay it for, but I digress). Down side is that it’s not real helpful when you have an item that’s not already being offered by someone else.
The Starving Musician is, quite possibly, the best place to get used gear that is up to spec and has been cleaned, checked out and confirmed to be working when you get it out the door. I have a long standing relationship with The Starving Musician shop down in Santa Clara, CA; many items over the years have made their way to me through them, so of course they are also a prime source to determine approximate value of an item.
Next step, checking everything and making sure it all behaves itself before offering it for sale (let's face it, it would suck if I went through all the effort only to find out something is broken). From there, I will make the decision whether or not to try to sell the whole rig, or sell individual pieces. I'd rather sell the whole rig, to tell the truth, but that requires someone willing to buy the whole rig. I guess we'll just have to throw out the line and see who bites :).
The Pillars of Shedding are:
1. The item is actively being used by the principal owner.
2. The device has a specific place where it can be used and enjoyed by the principle owner.
3. There is more than a passing chance in the next year that the item in question will be of actual utility to the principal owner.
I have found the item that most readily fails the Pillar Test, and thus, my first concerted effort towards letting go and Shedding of Innocent Stuff will be applied to...:
THE BEHEMOTH BASS RIG
OK, here's some true confession time. Back in 2001, I joined a cover band for what would be three months of rehearsals and one gig played. I was so excited about the idea of going back and playing my original instrument again (for those that don't know, I was a bass player before I was a front man), I figured it would be nice to get a rig so I could play bass with a band again. And while I was at it, I might as well get a rig that I could play the Oakland Coliseum with... stands to reason, right?!
Thus, for this small company get-together I would be playing for, I went and bought:
* a Carvin BR-115 (1x15") bass cabinet
* a Carvin BR-410 (4x10") bass cabinet
* a Gallien-Krueger 400RB bass head
* a Tech21 SansAmp Tube Amp emulator (OK, to be fair, I already owned this)
* a SignalFlex Power Distributor and Rack Light
* an ART FXR Elite MultiEffect unit
* an Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter
* a rack box to hold it all in
* and a Sampson Wireless transceiver, because, you know, using a 20 foot cable would have been *so* ridiculously sensible for the reception hall we ultimately played in (LOL!).
Three weeks after this gig, I was laid off from the company I was working at, which ultimately meant I was laid off from the band, too (since it was made up of people who worked for the company). Well, that's OK; I have this totally awesome rig that I would be able to play in any band, in any place, at any time.
Fast forward seven and a half years... I have not played another gig with it, I have not joined another band as a bass player, I have honestly not even fired this entire sucker up in over four years. Truthfully, honestly, soberly, and with much reflection, this is the most eligible candidate for Shedding. It is time. We must follow through.
But dude, how will you get your most excellent groove on? Are you willing to totally sacrifice your bass? Nope, I never said I'd sacrifice the bass itself, just the arena rocking rig.
A funny thing has happened over the last 10 years or so... the electronics industry has done a lot with the miniaturization of gear, and now, there's an absolutely awesome direct line box that I can plug into any amp or PA system or, heck, into a pair of headphones if I want to. It's called a KORG Pandora, and yep, I own one :).
So what's the next step? Do I try to sell it in one fell swoop? Do I try to piece it out and sell the individual parts? What's a guy to do?
The first thing I need to do is try to find out ultimately what I want to do with these items. In the case of the bass rig, I have a good feeling that these items, because of their durability and the need for bass players to exist in modern rock music and other genres, will actually find a buyer. Since I'm looking at a sale up front, I next need to determine an approximate value for the items I want to sell. For this purpose, there are three fabulous resources:
Craigslist
eBay
The Starving Musician
Craigslist is my all time favorite selling interface, because I can deal with local people and have the local people check things out and not have to deal with having to ship to parts unknown (plus it gives me the opportunity to examine cash up front). Also, it’s a quick and easy interface to update and keep current, with little hassle.
eBay is great because it lets you see if other items have been posted and it can give you a general idea as to how much they might be worth today in other parts of the country (of course, an item is really only worth what someone else is willing to pay it for, but I digress). Down side is that it’s not real helpful when you have an item that’s not already being offered by someone else.
The Starving Musician is, quite possibly, the best place to get used gear that is up to spec and has been cleaned, checked out and confirmed to be working when you get it out the door. I have a long standing relationship with The Starving Musician shop down in Santa Clara, CA; many items over the years have made their way to me through them, so of course they are also a prime source to determine approximate value of an item.
Next step, checking everything and making sure it all behaves itself before offering it for sale (let's face it, it would suck if I went through all the effort only to find out something is broken). From there, I will make the decision whether or not to try to sell the whole rig, or sell individual pieces. I'd rather sell the whole rig, to tell the truth, but that requires someone willing to buy the whole rig. I guess we'll just have to throw out the line and see who bites :).
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Shedding of Innocent Stuff: The Most Sacred of my Sacred Cows
It would be impossible for me to talk about the Shedding of Innocent Stuff without attacking my first and foremost "Exhibit A" of Stuffitis.
What you see here are the remnants of Dreamtank, the name of my former production company and the pieces of what were my life as a musician, in one form or another over the years. Believe me when I say there is no greater monument to the excesses of my ego, my need for stuff, and to my former obsessive compulsive self as exists in the remnants of equipment here. What is also very telling about all of these items is the fact that a large part of what you see here are the components of my major debt that I incurred many years ago. I think part of me hangs on to a lot of this gear simply because it is so intertwined with such a key period of my life.
Here's a shot of everything as it currently exists. What you see is what is left of all of the musical equipment that I have owned over the years (and this isn't even half of what I used to have!).
This strange stand-up item is my drum set, an electronic and MIDI amalgamation of pieces I've gathered over the years. The guitar hanging from the kit is my solid-body electric guitar, a 'black-tie" Fender Telecaster. The red instrument you can see just a little of to the right is my acoustic/electric hollowbody guitar, also from Fender, called a Telecoustic. The two buckets are full of various patch cables, MIDI cables, and connector cables of all stripes and kinds. There's probably about $1,000 worth of cables in those buckets.
The Omnirax table houses mostly synthesizer gear, including a Roland JD-800 synth, an E-mu Proteus-1 w/ Orchestral Synth device, an old Peavy SP Sampler, a Peavy SX-II Sampler front end (yep, they're separate; no idea why, really, other than that was the way Peavey made them back then), a Peavy MIDI-Master II MIDI Patch Bay, a ProCo Patch bay for swapping cable connections, a Roland DEP-5 multi-effect unit, an Alesis D-4 Drum brain for the drum set, and in the box below the table... my workhorse Mackie CR-1604 Mixer.
The oddly colored speakers are a pair of Alesis Monitor One reference monitors, with a small Fender Practice amp between them, as well as a Studiomaster MIDI diagnostic box, a MIDIman USB MIDI interface for any computer (eaiser to have all the equiment and swapout the computer rather than tailor the studio to the computer instead), a Roland USB Sound Module controller (for the same reason), and my cool little jam session controller, a Korg Pandora's Box. On top of all that is a nylon string classical guitar.
Here is the behemoth, a bass rig I could play any venue anywhere with. Yes, it's excessive, ridiculous and complete overkill, but man does it sound amazing! The rig is made up of a Carvin 1x15" cabinet, a Carvin 4x10" cabinet, a Gallien-Krueger bass head, an Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limitor, A SansAmp Rackmount module that can mimic just about any amp sound on earth, an ART MultiVerb effects unit, and a rack mount power manager, all in a nice rack-box. The bass is a Fender "Black-Tie" black and white Precision Bass.
Another shot of the Mackie mixer and my oldest still running piece of equipment, a SUNN SPL 7000 power amp that has been in active service since 1986.
Now, to be honest, I know for a fact that I wil not be parting with *all* of this, but much of it is fair game. We shall see what the future brings.
What you see here are the remnants of Dreamtank, the name of my former production company and the pieces of what were my life as a musician, in one form or another over the years. Believe me when I say there is no greater monument to the excesses of my ego, my need for stuff, and to my former obsessive compulsive self as exists in the remnants of equipment here. What is also very telling about all of these items is the fact that a large part of what you see here are the components of my major debt that I incurred many years ago. I think part of me hangs on to a lot of this gear simply because it is so intertwined with such a key period of my life.
Here's a shot of everything as it currently exists. What you see is what is left of all of the musical equipment that I have owned over the years (and this isn't even half of what I used to have!).
This strange stand-up item is my drum set, an electronic and MIDI amalgamation of pieces I've gathered over the years. The guitar hanging from the kit is my solid-body electric guitar, a 'black-tie" Fender Telecaster. The red instrument you can see just a little of to the right is my acoustic/electric hollowbody guitar, also from Fender, called a Telecoustic. The two buckets are full of various patch cables, MIDI cables, and connector cables of all stripes and kinds. There's probably about $1,000 worth of cables in those buckets.
The Omnirax table houses mostly synthesizer gear, including a Roland JD-800 synth, an E-mu Proteus-1 w/ Orchestral Synth device, an old Peavy SP Sampler, a Peavy SX-II Sampler front end (yep, they're separate; no idea why, really, other than that was the way Peavey made them back then), a Peavy MIDI-Master II MIDI Patch Bay, a ProCo Patch bay for swapping cable connections, a Roland DEP-5 multi-effect unit, an Alesis D-4 Drum brain for the drum set, and in the box below the table... my workhorse Mackie CR-1604 Mixer.
The oddly colored speakers are a pair of Alesis Monitor One reference monitors, with a small Fender Practice amp between them, as well as a Studiomaster MIDI diagnostic box, a MIDIman USB MIDI interface for any computer (eaiser to have all the equiment and swapout the computer rather than tailor the studio to the computer instead), a Roland USB Sound Module controller (for the same reason), and my cool little jam session controller, a Korg Pandora's Box. On top of all that is a nylon string classical guitar.
Here is the behemoth, a bass rig I could play any venue anywhere with. Yes, it's excessive, ridiculous and complete overkill, but man does it sound amazing! The rig is made up of a Carvin 1x15" cabinet, a Carvin 4x10" cabinet, a Gallien-Krueger bass head, an Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limitor, A SansAmp Rackmount module that can mimic just about any amp sound on earth, an ART MultiVerb effects unit, and a rack mount power manager, all in a nice rack-box. The bass is a Fender "Black-Tie" black and white Precision Bass.
Another shot of the Mackie mixer and my oldest still running piece of equipment, a SUNN SPL 7000 power amp that has been in active service since 1986.
Now, to be honest, I know for a fact that I wil not be parting with *all* of this, but much of it is fair game. We shall see what the future brings.
The Shedding of Innocent Stuff: Prologue
It's interesting to see what prompts certain people to finally step up and take charge of certain areas of their lives. For me, I have been looking for an extended period at the various areas of my house, going backwards and forwards, and wondering to myself "is there anything here I could get rid of?" The answer is an emphatic "yes" in so many areas, yet I always come up on the short end when I say "OK, great, but what am I going to *DO* about it?!"
I've decided that, much like my weight loss of last year, and the focus on training this year, that there needs to be a way to publicly shame myself into taking action. Therefore, I've created a new category to my blog called "The Shedding of Innocent Stuff". This will be an effort to chronicle my desire to rid myself of a disease I have had for many years called "Stuffitis". Now, to be fair, it's one thing to have an item (or two, or twenty) that one really enjoys and uses regularly, and I'll dmit that there's a level of connection to certain things that go into sentimental, but this new feature is meant to poke fun at my need to keep certain things well beyond their usefulness, objective purpose, and to say "OK, Dude, really... why on earth do you have this?!"
More to the point, this process will be a way to see what I ultimately decide to do with this stuff... and here's where you, dear readers, have a chance to chime in! If you see anything that looks moderately interesting, intriguing, disturbing, or just downright funny, let me know. Better yet, help me find a home for it, meaning outside of mine (LOL!). Needless to say, Craigslist or Ebay is about to see some increased traffic (or perhaps Salvation Army, Goodwill or friends... hey, don't knock it, a friend liberated me of an Olympic weight set, bench and power cage, so I know it's possible (LOL!)).
A note to those who may be concerned... this is not being prompted by any financial strain. It *is*, however, being prompted by the fact that I have chosen to do things differently going forward, and I am embracing an attitude of a more "voluntary simplicity" that doesn't require so much "stuff". Call it a breaking with the past, call it regaining space in my house, call it what you will, but I hope to present it as a somewhat amusing view into my reality and what I hope to do with it and about it.
Regardless of the method, if it gets posted, expect to see it gone and a report of how it ultimately gets gone :).
I've decided that, much like my weight loss of last year, and the focus on training this year, that there needs to be a way to publicly shame myself into taking action. Therefore, I've created a new category to my blog called "The Shedding of Innocent Stuff". This will be an effort to chronicle my desire to rid myself of a disease I have had for many years called "Stuffitis". Now, to be fair, it's one thing to have an item (or two, or twenty) that one really enjoys and uses regularly, and I'll dmit that there's a level of connection to certain things that go into sentimental, but this new feature is meant to poke fun at my need to keep certain things well beyond their usefulness, objective purpose, and to say "OK, Dude, really... why on earth do you have this?!"
More to the point, this process will be a way to see what I ultimately decide to do with this stuff... and here's where you, dear readers, have a chance to chime in! If you see anything that looks moderately interesting, intriguing, disturbing, or just downright funny, let me know. Better yet, help me find a home for it, meaning outside of mine (LOL!). Needless to say, Craigslist or Ebay is about to see some increased traffic (or perhaps Salvation Army, Goodwill or friends... hey, don't knock it, a friend liberated me of an Olympic weight set, bench and power cage, so I know it's possible (LOL!)).
A note to those who may be concerned... this is not being prompted by any financial strain. It *is*, however, being prompted by the fact that I have chosen to do things differently going forward, and I am embracing an attitude of a more "voluntary simplicity" that doesn't require so much "stuff". Call it a breaking with the past, call it regaining space in my house, call it what you will, but I hope to present it as a somewhat amusing view into my reality and what I hope to do with it and about it.
Regardless of the method, if it gets posted, expect to see it gone and a report of how it ultimately gets gone :).
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