Hat tip to The Lioness.There has been a lot of activity here at SavtaDotty Central, and some rearranging, but absolutely no progress whatsoever. Entropy wins. I'm hoping that by posting a picture I will shame myself into making the machsan (storage room) into a "Before" and "After" project, but I'm afraid my life has got stalled in the "Before" stage.
Q: What kind of a person keeps a broken fax machine that someone gave her, for nothing, in working condition twelve years ago, which is too old and too heavy (now that she is carless and elderly) to take to the repair shop but for which she still has a huge box full of rolls of not-yet-used disappearing ink paper?
A: The same kind of person who saves an 18-year-old Panasonic telephone with a defective connector in the hopes that giving it a rest in the machsan will cause another magical recuperation as happened once before.
And the clothes! SavtaDotty is waiting for them to decide whether they need to be a) hung up, b) repaired and then hung up, c) given away (to whom?), d) thrown away (on the bench outside, where nighttime scavengers make them disappear within hours).
11 comments:
Very brave of you (and Lioness) to post those photos and words. BTW other people have whole apartments that look like that (cough cough). Good luck with the Afters.
commenter john said: "if you haven't used it in 6 months then toss it out"
Do they throw out their winter clothes in the fall and buy new ones one month later? Same for summer clothes in the spring? Those people on tv make a lot of money and can afford to buy new stuff every six months.
If you are blogging you don't need a fax machine. Put it on the bench.
You can repair the phone connector yourself, they sell kits at the hardware store.
Ok, remember how we all came together for your 'Cut a Rug' party?
Well, let's do a 'clean up the machsan' party.
You can give us soup and we can go through stuff and put it into piles of 'things that must go', 'things that ought to go', and 'things that won't go because you're too attached to them'.
You will supervise, of course.
Then, you can turn it into a studio, spare bedroom, or 20-person hottub, depending on your preference.
I'm going to suggest we do it when the weather cools down a little - I can still recall the olympic pool of sweat that I generated during the 'cut a rug' fiesta.
Thank you all for your practical and scary advice. The very idea of tackling this room gives me the shakes. I used to watch those clean-up your mess shows with morbid curiosity, wondering whether I could survive the Tough Love.
As for the "clean-up" party, NC you know I can't resist an offer like that, but I will have to steel myself (and those volunteers who won't fit into the room) with Hizbollitas first. I'll take the "During" photos. By the time we get to "After," I'll be passed out on the kitchen floor.
The idea of a drawing studio is definitely the goal to visualize. Thanks!
Helloooo! A voice from the past (I know, I've been awful about keeping in touch). Your machsan project mirrors my Clean Up the House project, which started in August and must be completed by August 2007. I'm doing room by room, cabinet by cabinet. Sometimes I order myself to work, other times I'm looking for something and just clear out the junk as I go. So far we've donated/given away, thrown away or recycled a ton of stuff - and that's just the first room.
Don't think about the whole machsan at once. Start in one corner, one drawer, one shelf, one box - whatever. Go through it, make your decisions, and get stuff out. Get someone to help you with the heavy stuff, but for goodness sakes get it out of your way! You'll feel alot better once you just start. Good luck! I know you can do it. :o)
And for a reward, when you're ready - there's an American style yarn shop just opened in Ra'anana, The Gourmet Yarn Shop. Huge fabulous selection, English-speaking, knitting, owner, lots of light, chairs to sit down, magazines and more. It's at 111 Ahuza Street, right next to a cafe. There's a photo on my blog.
Take care and good luck again with the machsan. Remember, baby steps!
Messy? Heck, that looks like my kids' room on a good day.
Greetings Savta, and welcome to my world. Maximum entrophy. Minimum energy. I feel your pain.
Bad Savtadotty! Shame!
There, now I'm done guilt-tripping you as to make you more motivated to clean.
I've always wanted to see a fax machine dropped from a very high window but I would never give you such an evil idea.
It looks messy yet organized into categories of mess. That makes me suspicious.
Recently (for the past week) I have been forcing myself to clean out ONE DRAWER at a time and I am sick of it but I do feel somewhat more organized now that I have culled and thrown out. I still have a long way to go.
Many years ago I bought a book called "Getting Organized" thinking this would have some pertinant tips to help me as I am not an organized person by nature.
I lost the book :)
I swear, I looked and looked and could not fine it anywhere.
You are so brave! I only take photos of my place when it's tidy, which might be quite misleading since I am terribly messy.
I tend to keep useless old stuff, just like you, but when I decide to throw things away, I go all the way and often get rid of important things.
I too have rolls of useless fax paper, totally useless. Why don't I throw it away?
That was definitely a fun post!
Golden Lucy, Sir Barrett, Amy, Fred, Chancy, Claude: Here it is, more than a week later, and nothing has changed in there. I'm afraid photographing that scene has made it into a shrine.
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