13 Years of Clutter

New Location

2009-04-12T10:40:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, all three of you who read this, listen up:

This blog will now be published at 13yrsofclutter.blogspot.com - please note the spelling change.

It's extremely subtle, but it's simply because I wanted to consolidate a bunch of my accounts so I'm not constantly logging in and out. The content will be completely the same!

NOTE: I had to edit this post again. As of April 12 2009, the above URL is correct. :)

Updated labels

2009-04-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note with the purpose of directing your eyes to the right of the screen: I've finished de-cluttering my labels. I'm sure I might think of other stuff to put in that list, but for now this is a much better way of organizing the labels (tags) for my posts than what I had before. Now things are separated into clutter and life and stuff in between. Enjoy.

Snobisme

2009-03-31T17:55:00.001-07:00

The Old Library II
Originally uploaded by (Erik)

Sometimes I wonder where human beings get off critiquing the value of what other human beings do or create. Honestly, what right do we think we have to say that something is "good" or "bad" or "right" or "wrong" based on our own insignificant judgments of quality? How dare we think we can decide the value of something belonging to someone else - especially their thoughts?

I'm getting really fed up with arrogance lately, and surprisingly, it's not solely because of any personal injustice that I feel. It's just something I'm observing more and more of in this academic community, and online as well. I would like to think it exists to a less outrageous extent in other sectors of the world and life, but I'll be honest - I can't know that. I'm stuck in this little bubble of bullshit for the next year and a half, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it while I'm under the control of tests, papers, self-righteous professors and university administration. I'm just glad I'm in this situation at the same time that I'm in a place like New York, where it's relatively easy to "get away" from it all.

Some days I love the Internet every day

2009-03-27T19:17:00.001-07:00

Out of Reach
Originally uploaded by stephaniedan

Super awesome, thought-provoking link spam, for your everyday health. Some of these are via iCiNG, naturally.

♦ 1000 Awesome Things: Watching Something Download Really Fast. Remember the Internet in the 90s? If yes: Don't you love remembering the Internet in the 90s? If no: how fricking old are you anyway.

♦ In 10 Words. This is an interesting linguistic exercise. It reminds me of this book my French translation/"voices of the projects" prof told us about that was written in French and avoided use of the letter e. Language is amazing, if entirely frustrating*.

♦ More Music, Less Bullshit: Why Dudes Dress Bad. Hilarious and stylish. It also opened my eyes to the fact that, as a girl, I probably dress bad a lot out of laziness of the time too, without realizing it. Owning good clothes doesn't mean you are fashionable haha.

♦ Si Dawson: These Are Not Your Stories. For your own peace of mind, I'll let you read it for yourself, and decide if you agree or not. Sometimes it's hard to remember that, on the Internet and elsewhere, no matter how convicted people sound or how retarded they seem, they might be smarter or less astute than their words make them appear.

♦ jouez. Although a bit feminism- and politics-heavy for my taste, there are some really intelligent, debate-provoking things in this girl's blog. For the record, I don't know her.

♦ Fathering On. It may be creepy that I'm reading the blog of jouez's father, but whatever, I like his idea, and I find it a really interesting concept: a "solo" father (not single, per se) trying to enlighten society's ignorance of the dad's experience of single parenting. It's a really interesting sociological question that really is not treated in the media.

♦ CNN: Catcalling: creepy or a compliment? I've always felt uncontrollably offended when this happens to me, partly because of my upbringing, partly because of my own personal psychology, and apparently, partly because of a more general psychological female trend.

* - Another story for another day.

And there, ladies and gentlemen, goes my Friday night.

Dear members of my Education class group,

2009-03-22T18:44:00.001-07:00

Freedom
Originally uploaded by Em.A~

Dear members of my Education class group,

You all are so fucking irresponsible. You are supposed to be teachers-in-training, but you aren't even disciplined enough to do ten minutes' worth of measly research on the educational system in England? I hand-fed you instructions on what to research and what to send me, and I sent out a million e-mail reminders and tried to make shit easy for you. I know that maybe the million e-mails was too much, but is it really my fault in the end, when none of you even had the balls to stand up and take responsibility for this project, for the constant e-mailing that it required? I'm looking at the syllabus and this is one of the main components going into our grade.

I sincerely hope that that ambiguous line in the syllabus about "class members grading each other" means that our group gets to grade each of its members, because I'm going to give all of you very honest grades that reflect your amount of effort in this ridiculous dance of not e-mailing me back/being late for meetings/refusing to offer suggestions/utter laziness.

I can understand that, because we are future teachers, we are all busy. We are busier than anyone else could ever comprehend. I am not even a future teacher and I'm busy. But none of you are busier than me, and none of you should have ever gotten it into your head that my assuming the responsibility meant that I had to do all the work myself.

I'm sure I'm overreacting. In fact, I'm about 90% sure that this project is going to go down really well and be pretty well-received, because of our combined efforts. I am just extremely bitter and extremely pissed that I had to be the one constantly worrying about all our asses in this course that no one cares about, despite it being one of the most relevant and useful classes we will ever take. I don't judge any of you for not thinking it's valuable as a class, but I really wish you could see that everything you do has value, and everything you do affects other people.

In fact, that is what this class is about: EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION, bitches. Education is a social monster, life is a social monster, and you are all failing at it because all you're concerned with is managing your own lives instead of trying to interact with the people who have stumbled into it and are thus A PART OF IT, however minuscule and worthless, according to you.

Sincerely,
Bitter, Self-Designated Group Leader

One Fell Swoop

2009-03-21T20:38:00.001-07:00

Untitled
Originally uploaded by Sofia Ajram

I've discovered a great new method for superfast de-cluttering. Yes, I am getting cluttery at school. I blame it on my high levels of busyness and low levels of actually caring about stuff other than food and sleep.

Anyway, my desk looks pretty horrible right now. My camera's dead, otherwise I'd show you. The desk looks like a colorful, toddler copy-machine android vomited on it. It got to be too much, so I took everything unnecessary off of my desk and put it on the floor. (The bed would also work.) Now the clutter was in my path, and at least for me, I can't stand a messy floor, because I feel quite obligated to clear it up. So, it got cleared up!

For those of you who don't mind paths obstructed by clothes and confused papier-mache gone wrong, the bed really would work better. Just pick somewhere that you're going to need to clear to use in the near future, and put all your clutter on it so you're motivated to clean it up. My desk was not a good place for my clutter, because I could easily work around it. Find what works for you, as always.

Now, this may end up taking you in circles, as you find more and more places to relocate your clutter, and eventually end up sleeping in a dresser drawer and bathing in the neighbors' kitchen sink. But it works short-term, and that's really all you need, to start.

It's all been said before

2009-03-15T11:43:00.001-07:00

Magnificient
Originally uploaded by Puss.In.The.Hood

I decided a moment ago that I wanted to post something, but I realized that there was a slight flaw in my plan, because I didn't have anything to say.

Now, this isn't entirely true, because I have lots of things to say; there is a lot floating around the caverns of my mind, but none of it is focused, none of it is meaningful enough to share. And that is what we do here, on the Internet, we share. Often we share ad nauseam, and I really think that cheapens the experience sometimes. If you just shell out every last token of thought that zooms around your head, how do I know what I should take seriously?

In an ideal world, everything everyone says should be worthy of my attention, because individuals are unique and important. But however true that might be about individuals in principle, the reality is that I cannot know the worth behind what you say unless I know you as a person. Lately I'm learning that all my perfect, self-righteous idealistic theories are naive bubbles waiting to be popped by the society that says "ideal isn't real," the mantra I have ignored all my life because people said it too much. You see my problem?

I suppose now is as good a time as any to learn that the cliches and dead metaphors of life may have been used in earnest by past generations trying to show new generations their own lives' beauty and strife, but that no matter how many words you throw at me, I won't learn to see unless I open my own eyes.

Incidentally, this reminds me of a hilarious quote, heard at the movie theater in 2002, where a British child watching the spider scene in Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets wailed, "Mummy, close my eyes, I'm scared!" Oh the ignorance of youth.

Domino Mag Does Creative, Cheap Rentals

2009-03-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

Given the title of my blog, I think it's time I get back to its original purpose a little. Sure, people are flocking here cause they think it's the holy grail of the ever-enchanting Gramercy palace, but without my "clutter" purpose for writing, I think I'm getting a little off track. Don't get me wrong, I love thinking and digressing a whole stupid lot. But I also love projects like de-cluttering and finding cheap, creative solutions to doomed or even just mediocre living spaces.

Evidence: instead of studying for my midterm on bilingualism that I have tomorrow, I'm spending my time a) doing laundry, b) eating myself out of apartment and home, and c) rediscovering cool old bookmarks filed under "For 13YoC." Apparently Domino Magazine is shutting down soon, which is such a shame! The magazine is "the guide to living with style," and this article about decorating your rental place speaks a lot to their mission.

Relevance: we're in a recession, HI. I don't know that this fact necessarily affects me, because my family has always been pretty below-average, and then I became a college student, which automatically meant I became even poorer, as my friend S likes to remind us all, while she goes and gets herself temporarily suspended for protesting the cost of NYU.

But still Domino's slideshow appeals to me, because it applies to so many people right now, and they make cheap look awesome. I especially love their idea of lengthening the look of your sad little workspace, making it into something reminiscent of the tents at my epic 6th grade Greek & Roman activity day.

As a side note: I'm going to start de-cluttering (ha!) my tags, because somehow over the course of the past 9 months, this situation has turned really fruity and whimsical, with tags like "emotional" and "introspection" taking over. I'm just afraid that soon I'll be getting into tags like "existential rainbow speculation" if I don't end this soon.

Society and Brunhilde's Seriousness

2009-03-07T11:10:00.001-08:00

take [10]
Originally uploaded by KarensJilly

Lately I've been noticing a lot that people take themselves very seriously. Either that, or they realize that taking yourself seriously is kind of pointless (because people tend to judge you more on the external result: how you interact with others, than your own internal self-concept, which they obviously can't see) and resort to outwardly belittling the mere idea of taking themselves seriously.

Example, because I clearly cannot express myself properly:

Person X: let's call her Brunhilde because I love that name and it is the only one that doesn't really connote anyone I know who might be offended by this. Brunhilde thinks very seriously about life, which is awesome and definitely ideal. Thumbs up for Brunhilde. But Brunhilde knows that in Society Y (let's just call it Society for the sake of simplicity and truth), most people don't convey her ease for critical thought and heavy reflection.

It is certainly true that in Society, other people have Brunhilde's internal seriousness, but for whatever reason, in Society it is not so acceptable to just come out and say your honest thoughts about your serious views, at least in casual conversation. So, Brunhilde is considering the two routes most people in Society tend to take at this junction.

1. Accept that all is lost and that no one will ever appreciate your unique serious thoughts, so you turn to the totally un-serious side of life and get by on humor, drunkenness and superficiality. It works for some people, and they still have these serious, thoughtful thoughts, but they keep them to themselves or maybe one good friend.
2. Realize that Society will never change its narrow-minded ways but say "fuck them all" and just express every single serious thought without any regard for the ridiculous conventions of Society's non-serious ways.

However, both of these routes have their flaws. In 1 it's obvious: you keep yourself bottled up. In 2 you seem to be more liberated by expressing your serious thoughts, but then Brunhilde wonders: don't people just end up taking their own serious thoughts too seriously? And get boring? Just being serious all the time and having no fun with it?

What's a good compromise? Is there a way to balance Society's intolerance for uninhibited expression of critical thought without becoming serious to the extreme? I'm sure there is - countless renowned authors/artists/etc. have found it.

Am I making a huge, gross generalization? Probably. Prove me right or wrong. Bring me stories and advice, I know you have them. Then again, you may not want to share, because you take yourself too seriously. ?

Edit 7:53 p.m.: When I first wrote this, it was generally just a thoughtful, curious glob of snot dripping down my metaphoric nose. But actually there is serious mucous there and I'm realizing that people who take themselves too seriously actually really block up my sinuses.

Oh, the scattered contents of a college kid's brain

2009-03-03T16:43:00.001-08:00

lapalomafuelaquesecruzó
Originally uploaded by suprises

Lately I have been essentially consumed with two very different thoughts, and they alternate. One is a general sense of awe and overwhelmption (sure, why not) about the essence of life and how the main themes in my academic life are all colliding and exciting and blah blah blah. It's getting a little too pretentious even for me, I can tell you, so I can't imagine how annoyed the rest of the world is with me.

The other thought is a general, fretful feeling about how loud my CPU fan is on my laptop. :( I have this computer, a Vaio VGN SZ270P, to be exact. I even bought a can of pressurized air so that I could be all macho-nerdy and unscrew the back of my laptop and blow that canned air through the provided straw into my stupid fan. Anyway, I decided that when this computer completely dies, I would like the latest Macbook as a replacement. I'm sure there'll be a newer, more expensive version out by that time, but my point is that the Apple kingdom is really winning me over.

Anyway, I also wanted to share a lovely link with you fine people. It is called SelfAbsorbed.me and has provided me with many minutes of entertaining reading about real life written funnier. Also one of the writers apparently went to NYU, because I found the site by Googling the 11-person suite at the dorm I want to live at next year. Read the article in question here.

Late nights

2009-02-22T00:09:00.001-08:00

I can't sleep, because my sleep schedule is messed up, but also because tonight my roommate and I hosted a beautifully successful dinner party where the people didn't really know each other but clicked wonderfully. We had great food (lasagna by my roommate, cheese sticks by my good friend A, garlicky broccoli and vegan brownies by me, and numerous desserts brought by our friends) and, more importantly, great conversation. I love the human mind and the discussion of life and society and humor and old stuff and new stuff and... I like it all but it tires me out.

I wish my exhaustion could lead me to sleep, but I'm kept up by a racing mind and this song.

Take Back NYU's Sanity

2009-02-20T20:54:00.001-08:00

Take Back NYU
Originally uploaded by kmg334

I really have no more words that adequately describe my shame and disappointment at being connected with Take Back NYU. I read through a lot of the articles on their site, but while I can understand some of their demands and mission, I still think that they went about the "occupation" and "protest" in a very immature, inconsiderate and unorganized way. Basically, my sentiment is this:

You should not attempt such immature defiance (and in such small numbers) of an administration you chose to subordinate yourself to by attending this university.

Shark Tank

2009-02-20T11:18:00.001-08:00

On a pleasant misty morning,
Originally uploaded by *~\[ Yuga ☼ Sunshine ]/~*

While walking to an NYU dorm in the West Village last night, I was making my way down Morton Street when a bluish light from overhead in one of the apartments stopped me. I peered up at the third-floor loft with its huge windows and I could vaguely make out a large cube shape full of water. The blue light was bathing the inhabitants of this cube - nothing less than actual, live SHARKS. They were little ones, kind of like this...

JK. More like this. But still, I was amazed that people were rich enough and pompous enough to get sharks for their apartment. I was about to just walk on by, shaking my head, but I realized that I just wanted to stand there and look at the sharks a little longer.

In life, I don't think we do that enough. We don't stop to take things in. It's been said many times many ways (much like "Merry Christmas," bad joke) but still, people see something crazy as they live out their lives and simply furrow their brow while they walk on by. Sharks, I definitely cannot just walk on by those.

Googlin' Gramercy

2009-02-11T18:49:00.001-08:00

Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.
Originally uploaded by Em.A~

So I notice a lot of you are coming here from Googling something along the lines of "Gramercy Green NYU housing pictures show me show me show me." I do not mind so much. In fact, I enjoy seeing that people come here looking for Gramercy but stay a little while longer, presumably to read my rambling would-be existential thoughts. I just think it's funny that my blog is the third link on the Google lists when I only have one post about the search terms in question, and the post isn't even that informative.

Here is what I will say about Gramercy:

- It is luxury. Marble countertops, touch-screen microwaves, dishwashers, enormous fridges, talking elevators, seven or so lounges (2 with TVs) throughout the building, upscale subcellar gym and study lounges, a game room, and a great community.
- It is expensive. At almost $13,000 per school year, we are all paying out the ass for this, and you still have to sign non-NYU people in for a max of 3 consecutive nights.
- It is in a great location. Duane Reade is on our ground floor, we're across the street from Starbucks (doesn't take dining dollars unfortunately), blocks away from Chipotle (#1 priority), the Flatiron building, Madison Square Park, the Blender Theater, the Epiphany branch of the NY Public Library, thrift shops galore, and lots of old people. (Don't worry, Baruch, School of Visual Arts or whatever, and plenty of bars are also nearby. You can solve that equation.) It normally takes fast walkers 20 minutes to get to the NYU campus downtown, and 25 for me cause I never learned to walk good.

- I am leaving it for off-campus housing next year, which terrifies me and really makes me not want to talk about it on this blog, which I like to think I save for thoughts of prettiness and intellectualism. What I like to think and what is actually true, of course, are a bit like gold and silver: very good but also quite different. That was a simile.

I'm done.

Think Me

2009-02-05T20:31:00.000-08:00

I wish I weren't already behind in schoolwork, because I find that not being on the same page as the professor hinders my ability to think critically in a progressive manner from day to day. Nevertheless, I am really enjoying the path along which my thoughts have been taking me lately.

Somehow, all my subjects seem to be connected to each other this semester. A class on the French ghetto recalls my Education reading about a Lower East Side school in the projects during the 70s and 80s. The social factors of education wind around each other and into the topic of bilingualism, another class I'm taking. I test and question my own degree of bilingualism in a French translation course while also wondering about the pedagogy and teachability of translation. Then there's my class entitled Metaphors of Modern Theater, where we read and discuss plays of the absurd, which kind of zooms back out onto life in general.

It's kind of silly how it has taken me five semesters already to get into the groove of college, but now because of that, I'm getting scared of releasing the pinched opening of the balloon that is my safe little college life, because that will mean I'm going to get flung out into the real world, zigzagging who knows where with no ideas of my future....alkafdlkjg

Un-isolated

2009-01-19T14:35:00.001-08:00

Originally uploaded by randi brusokas!

Although I didn't really think about it while I was home, I spent a lot of my winter break pretty isolated. I kind of intended that, though; I intended to do a lot of thinking, which I did, and it was healthy I think. But when I look back at the past month, after being back at school and seeing some of my good friends again, I realized just how much I isolated myself.

Sure, I hung out with people at home. We had some really good times, and I spent some quality time with my friends, which I love. But at the end of the day, I was kind of alone with my thoughts, in a house where, although another person lived with me, I was literally separated from her by having my own room.

Now A is back and I enjoy our intermittent bursts of conversation. I chatted with L today, caught up on The Office with C yesterday, and went to the Met with S on Saturday. I'm excited to be around people again, as weird and recovering-sociopath-like that sounds.

However, I am not excited for the levels of stress this semester promises to bring. So much work lies ahead of me that I think I'm going to sit here and eat chocolate-hazelnut ice cream to let my mind drift.

Lyrical

2009-01-10T23:38:00.001-08:00

I'm lost
Originally uploaded by Puss.In.The.Hood

I never really listen to music lyrics. Well, rarely. When the explosion of my music tastes occurred mid-high school and I bought a lot of CDs, I would make a point of sitting down to listen through the full albums with the jacket lyrics in front of me, so I could more easily memorize the words. But most of the time it became just that - memorization, and I hardly knew the stories and creations I was singing along to.

But lately I've been listening. I notice awe-inspiring metaphors, instead of just aurally pleasing cadences and chords. Don't get me wrong; the music part of music has and always will attract me. But I think I've been sadly blind to the lyrical potential of this beauty.

I am very grateful that Gala once linked these monthly mixes on Livejournal (you have to have an account and join the LJmixtape community to see and download, but it's worth it, if really only for this one girl's mixes). I love grand themes like that, and her musical mélanges are so wonderful. Here are some songs from her and some that, in general, are making me think lately.

Unusual - Stacy Clark
[lyrics]

Wheels - John Mayer
[lyrics]

Black and gold radio1 live lounge - Sam Sparro
[lyrics]

Realities

2009-01-05T19:31:00.001-08:00

The magic umbrella
Originally uploaded by KarensJilly

It's funny how every day can have a different character. Sometimes we don't see it, because we let monotony get the best of us, but I think I'm noticing it more now that I don't have many responsibilities to worry about, because of break.

For example, yesterday I didn't shower and didn't get dressed all day. I was generally feeling like a disgusting, dirty human being because of this and because my friends are all leaving me to go back to school. Not to mention PMS. (Yay TMI!) But the entire quality of my day changed when I looked at my phone around 5:30 - the first time I had bothered to do so all day - and had a text from my friend L (who I had thought was already back at school) asking if I wanted to get Chipotle for dinner. I was elated by a) the idea of getting out of the house and b) the surprise of knowing she was still in town when I thought I was all alone! I called her back and we had a very adventurous dinner time eating our burrito bols up at a makeout point at Tilden Park haha. There was a great view, a wild fox, and some creepy guys smoking pot who tried to get us to roll down the window to talk to them, but we left at that point...

Today has been a pretty relaxed day, in comparison. I've spent some time thinking about how silly it is to separate the ideas of a fun, frivolous life and the mundane parts of life like worrying madly about money (which I am actually doing, unfortunately). "Real life" tends to be what I call that mundane part of my existence, and the fun, introspective side is too often deemed unrealistic. But both are real, sometimes too much so.

For example, I went to my grandfather's house today, where a piano lives, to try my hand at the keys after what is surely years of not playing seriously. I just played. I played arpeggios and old pieces, and my motor memory strained pathetically to re-create the chords and phrases. It was good for me, but very frustrating, very real.

2009

2009-01-01T14:59:00.000-08:00

Waiting from RhiannonDaire

As the new year begins and I return from a cozy party with friends, I click through a bunch of blogs. They catalog resolutions, antiestablishmentarian rejection of resolutions, self-help strategies, and a slew of advice that, when taken in all at once, is pretty useless. But through it all, an especially warm-hearted, apparently timeless old sentiment from Neil Gaiman stands out to me:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Benjamin Button

2008-12-30T22:11:00.000-08:00

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from Even Lin

Tonight I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with a friend. Incidentally, I once said that I wanted to start alienating this particular friend for various reasons, but I am glad I never went through with that plan, because we've both grown up. Despite our infrequent get-togethers, I enjoy my time with her and I was pleased to see, today, that we can have mature conversation mixed in with a smattering of laughter. That's really all I need in a friendship, to start.

The film was beautiful but very long (by the 2-hour mark I was wistfully recalling the cautionary words of A, who said that to watch a movie is to invest a considerable amount of time and sometimes mental energy). Because of its beauty, I was distracted from the general theme of death until the very end, by which point I was surprised to have been so blind to the abundance of depressing themes.

To my movie-going companion I bemoaned the fact that the film's enlightening, insightful messages about life were so subtle. They were there, to be sure, but the story seemed so very plot-driven that these poignant insights were skated over and left back in the too-short moments of the story's greatest emotional depth.

Nevertheless, it made me think about time and cherishing life. I have so loved, in the past few weeks, encountering these grand themes in such salient forms; the world seems to be telling me something beautiful.

Blogging

2008-12-29T15:09:00.001-08:00

flowers in december by °°k°°.

Blogging, all of a sudden, has as many strange quirks and customs as the real world. There are "right" ways to blog and "wrong" ways, and there even seem to be formulas for how to become rich and successful while blogging. It's kind of silly and kind of maddening. You're supposed to have a theme for your blog if you want to attract more visitors and readers, apparently. You've got to be organized and to only just divulge enough of your life to be enticing but safe.

I guess my problem with blogging "success" (aside from my gratuitous use of unnecessary quotes) is that I always thought of it as a personal journal that happened to be open to the public. That was all. And a personal journal doesn't necessarily have a theme. I mean, perhaps posthumously, with some knowledge about the author, you could summarize the thing sort of generally, like with Anne Frank. She was a girl who matured very quickly during an extremely arduous period both historically and personally. But when I blog or journal, it's generally not with these sort of themes in mind. 13 Years of Clutter was definitely the exception, because I had a specific project to document. But otherwise, my thought process does not work in a way conducive to these themes.

However, I do very much admire people who can channel their intriguing thoughts into this format and garner attention and well-deserved praise for it. With that, here are some of the blogs and sites I have been admiring lately. Some may be repeats, but let's just say it's for the purpose of list-making.

iCiNG: Inspirational, fashionable and upbeat, Gala Darling's site is everything I could ever want lately. She always links amazing things/people and has a lot of optimism to share.

Project: Happily Ever After: This lady has decided to create a "project" for the things in her life that cause unhappiness. I like this approach a lot, and the idea that you can consciously change what you don't like about life is appealing to my current mindset.

Debauchette: NSFW, generally. There is a lot of sex writing in this call-girl/"courtesan"'s blog, but the mystery woman is truly intelligent and sees the world in such an interesting way that I do recommend it, in spite of its inherent controversy. Judge her all you want, judge me for valuing her writing - if you shed your expectations for this blog you may find some really hard-hitting insight about human nature and society.

Decorating Nature: Less a blog than a quick collection of some amazing, creative photographs. :)

an aesthetic feast: Fashionable and food-loving, this girl posts such cute things and has a strangely captivating writing voice.

The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks: Just for fun. :) I love hilarity and irony.

Salon

2008-12-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

De-cluttering is slow going. Mostly because I'm afraid of incurring my mother's wrath if I should throw away something she hasn't approved. I continue to be overwhelmed by how much crap - namely, storage bins and boxes - can fill this place and how little it will be possible to shut it all away for the purposes of a streamlined home look.

Anyway, my biggest plan for the break, other than de-cluttering, was thinking and reflection. I have indeed been doing a lot of that, but ironically enough, it's been mindless in form. I sit and read articles and the occasional blog online all day, pause to read a bit of a book or two, then eat awful food. So I thought I would share, over the next few posts (if I can be bothered to stay invested enough in the theme for that long), the links I've been frequenting.

Salon.

I'm not entirely sure what I enjoy most about this online mag thing called Salon. It could be the Life section dominated largely by advice from Cary Tennis. Or maybe their end-of-year book recap that has left me with plentiful new literary recommendations, ones I will probably never have the time to finish. Their movies section is also getting a lot of traffic from me because I'm real into the ideas of lots of movies right now. That was a dumb sentence.

Anyway the article that really made me interested in Salon was "What your loneliness is telling you," not because of any particular home-hitting value in the article, but because it is intelligently written and reminded me, in the second-to last paragraph, of the very thing I am striving to do this winter.

One of the things that our culture really tries to discourage is thinking, reflection, seriousness. I think that we have to have more confidence in our ability to be thoughtful people.

Home again, home again

2008-12-23T00:16:00.001-08:00

I'm home for winter break! My break is always unreasonably long (ha ha, I'm not gloating) and my friends usually return to school before me, so I think I may very well be continuing my de-cluttering project over the next month.

Returning home has already been somewhat stressful. Even aside from all the traveling (I was en route for almost 12 hours yesterday, which doesn't sound bad, but it was real bad), I came home to find that my mother needs $1,000 from me to pay off her old University of Phoenix debts or something. It really depresses me and troubles me that my mother needs so much financial help to me, even though I'm only twenty years old and don't even have my own stable source of income besides the work study that I do to support my educational finances.

Discovering that she needed to borrow from me today put me in quite a bad mood, but then I spent some time with my best friends here at home and had such a good time that it relieved some stress. They are the one constant that I can rely on for smiles and good memories - the real reason I come home, honestly. I would say that I come home to see my family, but actually my family stresses me out. I think this is true for a lot of people. (Is it?)

So in order to avoid family woes as much as possible, I am planning on devoting my time to things that make me happy over this break:

De-cluttering. The house looks rather worse than I think I left it, despite my mother's claims that it is better. But de-cluttering always gives me a strong sense of satisfaction that I intend to re-invoke while I'm back.

Reading. A new guy friend of mine has inspired me to be more thoughtful. I have been a fan of the library since the end of high school (it sounds weird to say that - maybe I'm a late library-bloomer?), and I'm thinking of getting some Umberto Eco and perhaps Oscar Wilde to curl up with.

Being creative. The same friend has inspired me to be more creative with my time. All of my past breaks from school have involved relaxing via mind-numbing intake of non-enriching media. But I do love music, and I love the prospect of writing (the act itself is a slightly different story). There are several projects in these arenas that I want to throw myself back into.

Spending time with my friends. Friendship is one of the most beautiful things I have right now, and that may sound cliched, but only because the truth about friendship has already been discovered millions of times over. I love my friends.

Denying Responsibility

2008-12-06T13:37:00.001-08:00

It sure is annoying how a boy can make you think about him constantly even when you no longer want to, isn't it? I'm actually pretty pissed at him, but we don't need to go into that.

This excerpt about the subversive nature of love is pretty interesting. Despite having never been in love, it makes a lot of sense to me, because of the way I imagine love to be.

Here in the dorms it seems like love and relationships are the only things on the girls' minds. How bittersweet, seeing as we'll be leaving for a long break in about two weeks.

TiLT

2008-12-02T11:47:00.001-08:00

Things i Love Today:

- the guy who brushed his fingertips along the Christmas trees lining Astor Place between Lafayette and Broadway, smiling to himself
- fallen leaves on the ground that look like paper stars when the light catches them and I see them out of the corner of my eye
- hearing two guys singing this song in unison as I walked down Washington Place
- getting an 88 on the Human Development test I thought I failed and then getting it raised to a 92
- when my entire German class exclaims in upset unison about getting a recent test back. Those kids are too much haha.

"Rabbit rabbit"

2008-12-01T17:34:00.001-08:00

Happy December! I have not been posting much, not for lack of exciting material. Thanksgiving was a really great break for me. I went to D.C. and had a very cathartic, enlightening conversation with my good friend S on the bus back to New York at 10 p.m. Saturday. The two of us discovered, among other things, that the present does not exist - only the past and future - and felt very wise/deep.

But the most valuable thing I took away from the conversation was something S imparted to me while we were discussing our respective, overwhelming levels of stress. She said, and it is so simple: Thinking about the things that stress you out is not going to help you. I told you, simple! But it's something that has helped me immensely in the past few days to control my stress level. For the first time, I am really taking things one step at a time. This morning, I woke up with that familiarly vague sense of panic that my day ahead was going to bring chaos and stress, but I murmured, "First things first. Get up and eat breakfast." And it soothed me.

It remains to be seen whether this attitude is a false sense of security about all the stressful things I still have to accomplish. But whatever it is, it's a quick fix that seems to be working.

Anyway, here is a really cool song that LJ user binsybaby, a very talented artist, posted today. It's a 8-bit Nintendo version of You Can't Hurry Love. !! I loved that song already, but this makes it even more awesome.

You Cant Hurry Love - MISA SUGIYAMA

Looking back, as usual

2008-11-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

I am such a sucker for nostalgia. It amazes me in a lot of ways. Mainly in the way that, as I am making all these memories, I think nothing of them. But then, when I get in that mood - that warm, excited mood that comes with reliving the good parts of my past - they all flood back in a kind of sepia-tinted rush. Memories and colors fill my head andI feel a very particular sensation of good old times.

I was looking through my folder of saved e-mail correspondences, and I found one I kept in 2004 with a guy who read my blog. I was taking Latin over the summer at Berkeley, and I think I linked to his site, having followed the bread crumbs of other ATDP (Berkeley's Academic Talent Development Program) blogs to find it. He was very encouraging, complimenting me on my maturity and writing style, which sounds so child molesty and suspicious, but it was completely harmless. We definitely had similar ways of thinking, and it interests me so much to look back at the person I was when writing those e-mails back and forth, and to think about how much he has probably changed too. (I don't read his members-only blog anymore, for fear of finding a less idealized version of him than the one I knew back then through our e-mails. Silly, I know.)

Knowing this fixation on my own pathetic autobiography is so present worries me a little. Maybe I'm too stuck in the past. The present certainly never seems like much while I'm living it.

...Well, that's not entirely what I mean.

What I mean is that, while I'm in the present, I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything. And that is a very pessimistic, very me way of seeing things. Because surely I am accomplishing things all the time. I won't try to instill this reflection with any silly, self-comforting pride, but things do happen in my life, and whether they are huge, impressive awards or epiphanies or not, they are part of my progressing life. I don't need to feel held back or unaccomplished just because I am not making the great strides that others take pride in.

This may be turning into a grand glorification of laziness.

I guess the thing that this all relates to is Paris, Je T'Aime. I watched it for the first time today, and I felt a strange connection with the woman in the short film about falling in love with Paris. She speaks French with sort of an endearingly terrible accent and is quite a simple person, all things said and done. And all she wants is someone to share things with, someone to share Paris with. She doesn't find someone in the five minutes of the film; it's not really that kind of optimism. The optimism of the short film though, comes at the end, when she realizes, sitting alone on a bench eating a sandwich in a comfortably busy park, that she and Paris are falling in love. That's the kind of person I think I am.

I Am Angel Deverell...

2008-11-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I went to see Angel, and it was kind of good that I didn't make it into a date of any kind, but I liked it. The over-the-top satirical romance was a little aggravating at times, but what I really enjoyed about the movie were the assorted moments where color, music and mood rushed together to create beautiful, comfortably almost-nostalgic images for my romantic appreciation. I'm not sure how to better describe them, but they took me back to more innocent days of idealized love that I'd created in my head, in settings built solely for the depiction of that dream. I suppose I really need an escape, lately, and Angel was good for that.

Now, however, I am back to procrastinating work and waking up guilty and stressed about my mess of a life.

Early Christmas Spirit

2008-11-11T20:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I successfully got myself in over my head with Christmas mood preparyness. My friend C and I ate her homemade (vegan!) apple-peach pie, soy chocolate ice cream, warm apple cider with a hint of cinnamon, and delighted in the Christmas joy that is Love Actually. Can I just say that that movie brings out the romantic in me? It does. Not only because Karl is immeasurably beautiful, but because the stories are all around pretty romantic and sweet. Except the ones that are heartbreaking. But you know.

I have been singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" like a broken record, and it is finally getting pretty cold outside, so guess what guys! CHRISTMAS IS COMING!! But don't tell that to my pessimistic friend from Human Development class, who insists that this crazy thing called Thanksgiving has to come first. WHATEVER, Thanksgiving. I mock you and your birds and your corn and your thanks. Christmas will not be defeated.

This weekend, a friend from home is coming to visit, and I am planning to drag her out to Brooklyn so we can see Angel, an allegedly riotously sappy, romantic movie. There is snow in the poster photo, and that makes me happy. I just wish I had someone romantical to go with me to see it on a date. Yes a date. I have never dated in my life. But that would be a cute date and I would get us lost in deep dark Brooklyn but we would find a cozy little cafe with hardwood floors and crimson couches and smile at each other a lot, and kisses would probably be involved.

Continuing the De-clutter Saga

2008-10-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

Just an update, to let you guys know that I haven't altogether given up de-cluttering just because I'm on the other side of the country. I've been amassing a large Duane Reade bag full of clothes that I don't like anymore. It's been sitting rather unattractively in the corner of my side of the room, so I finally took it to Goodwill today! I am so pleased that there's a Goodwill right on 23rd St., not even a block away from my dorm.

I didn't have time to do any shopping though, despite REALLY wanting to. It's too bad, because I could really use some new clothes to fill the space of the ones I didn't like anymore. I also want some things to decorate our apartment with, because it turns out I will not be studying abroad in Paris next semester like I thought I would. Luckily I was prepared for this possibility, and I'm now looking into summer study abroad programs. Don't worry. Anyway, it was a productive day today. :)

Sites I Like #8: Des meubles de cuisine à petits prix

2008-10-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Something I've noticed since spending lots of time in my new dream dorm is that, no matter how pretty and clean a place is when it's brand new, it takes a certain amount of effort to keep it looking nice and comfortable. Our kitchen is one place where our filthiness likes to manifest itself. Neither my roommate nor I do the dishes on a regular basis. Unless you could call "whenever we run out of dishes and decide to do them all in one fell swoop" regular. I'm kind of a hypocrite, because of my history with de-cluttering and my manic need for things to be organized in my California home but not in New York. But I feel like I'm allowed to be messy since I'm in college.

Whatever my excuse, our kitchen gets dirty. It's still pretty, but if you actually look at the floors and run a hand along the granite counter top, you might just recoil in disgust. And, instead of cleaning or doing the reading I need to do for Francophone Literature (in which I have an impossible-sounding midterm on Wednesday), I thought I would present you with this wonderful link to pictures of Low-Cost Kitchen Furniture. Enjoy! It's in French, but I mean... all you really need are the pictures. Maybe someday I will translate the blurbs as an exercise for myself, since I'm taking Translation now, but for now... I don't wanna learn. I do what I want! A lot like Mindy Kaling and Cartman.

NYU: Walking the Walk

2008-10-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

So aside from feeling guilty that a) I haven't done any homework yet this long weekend (we have today and tomorrow off for "fall break" - HA) and b) I just spent a total of about $267 on a new coat and boots for myself (I actually feel kind of wretched and nervous, but I need these things! I essentially deconstructed my old coat because the cheap snaps fell off and I tried to re-sew them numerous times to utter failure), I would say I've had a pretty good weekend.

I went with C and her friend M to Prospect Park yesterday. It's in Brooklyn, for those who don't know. We had a lovely picnic, which resulted in the glorious gift of my having guacamole which now desperately needs some chips to go with it. We saw cute children on boats, many many wedding crews taking pictures, and the beginnings of fall colors. We also visited the zoo at the park and had a lot of fun randomly talking about and cooing over the animals.

After that we went on a tour of the Tenement Museum, which was very interesting! I'm not usually a history person, but I can take it in short bits like this; the tour was about an hour long. We learned that sometimes in the garment workers' working areas it would get to be 120 degrees! I thought that was unbelievable; I'm amazed anyone survived those conditions.

Right near the Tenement Museum is a vegan/gluten-free etc. bakery called Babycakes, where I got this crazy, cute cookie sandwich thing. It's a teeny tiny bit expensive, but pretty impressive for not using animal byproducts!

It's been a good couple of days. Now it's time to creep ashamedly back to reality on all fours, head bowed and ready to work. I'm getting kind of worried that I don't take my work seriously anymore. I think I overcompensated with enthusiasm at the beginning of the year.

NYU: Faux-pas

2008-10-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Relationships seem so complicated to me. Especially the beginnings. Not only the romantic ones, even though I think that I may be on the brink of one? but just with all people. There's this weird sense that you don't know anything about the other person, and it's true to some extent; people often fall into your life seemingly from out of nowhere. Then there's a process of learning all about them, what their beliefs and memories are, and how they see the world. I'm making it sound tedious, like I don't enjoy it, but I do enjoy it. It's just that there are all these weird social norms and subtleties to the art of befriending a new person. (I can't imagine having to abide by all the superfluous rules of something like Victorian society.) It's probably not all that, but I guess my problem lies in how to act friendly without being annoying or clingy.

Lately, I've been discovering that I'm kind of a rude person. By "lately" I don't even mean "lately;" I mean "the past four months or so." Realizing this makes me very grateful to have the friends I do, because they understand that my sense of humor involves a lot of insincere insults that are really meant in the most affectionate of ways. My upbringing was strange, in that my family has never been a particularly affectionate one in the physical sense. It is true that, probably because of this, I have a high sense of respect for other people's personal space. But maybe too much so.

Dorm Delightfulness on the Cheap

2008-10-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

Katherine of BackGarage sent me this really cool article from the New York Times about the creative ingenuity of college students in their dorms. Some of the ideas these people dream up are amazing!

The only thing that makes me cluck a bit at the article is that a lot of the students showcased go to design schools! I mean, obviously they're going to be amazing and put all the rest of us to shame. I wish I had the cleverness they did. But I do think there's something to be said for discovering frugality during the college years.

Personally, I have been spending more money than I'd like to lately. But a lot of it is on necessities like food and shampoo, stuff like that. So I'm not really stretching my budget, per se. However, I can hardly dream of spending anything on design-ish things right now, because I'm all about function over fanciness haha. Make no mistake, though, I would love to have a more personalized dorm space. My current room, as you probably noticed in my post on Gramercy, features two measly posters and a lot of blank wall. I'm just cheap. Furthermore, NYU doesn't allow us (technically) to bring in outside furniture. Whatever, I'm making excuses for my lack of creativity.

For now it's nice to look at the pretty pictures in the article and be jealous of the creativity of others! Thanks so much for the link Katherine!

Positivity

2008-09-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

I was just about to write a moany, bad mood sort of post about fashion in New York and at NYU, and how I feel inadequate and poor. But then my brain, already having jumped into procrastination mode, told me to check iCiNG and lo! She has written an article (or a "reminder" as she titles it) about not comparing yourself to others in a negative sense. I'm so happy I found her site; I think I stumbled upon it over the summer, and it is wonderful. I highly recommend it. I may even start "Things I Love Thursday" on this blog, because I think it is a very positive way of looking at your life, and that is something I do far too seldom.

NYU: Study Abroad Apps and Political Woes

2008-09-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

So much to do and such a little memory to remember it all with! A lot of my friends have been asking me lately, "When do you find out about study abroad in Paris for next semester? Yay for you and yay for study abroad!" And, wisely, I have answered them with, "Oh, that deadline hasn't come up yet." Because I knew that there were at least two deadlines. BUT. I just checked tonight and found that I missed the first one and that the second of the two recommended deadlines (i.e. everything after #2 means "you may regret your propensity for procrastination for the rest of your life") is in about two weeks.

So I finally began putting into action the epic plan I have had since May of weaseling my way into friendship with my Translation professor from last semester. I sent her an e-mail asking to bother her at her office hours, and I really hope she responds, because I need her to sign forms for me confirming my proficiency at French. (This is so that I can do the more immersion-geared program.) Don't worry, I'm not going to make her sign the form the first time I see her for this year. I will save that for weasely meeting no. 2. I have it all worked out. I just hope it... you know, works out.

***

In other news, I watched the presidential debate tonight and was very intimidated by the knowledge of my peer college-goers on all the issues being debated. I didn't really understand a lot of the debate, because they kept talking over it, which is understandable, but I have decided to educate myself by reading up online. Sadly, I am so averse to politics that I have found a multitude of things to do online in the past hour rather than read about the candidates' stances. I'm probably a bad person. What did you think about the debate?

NYU: Remembering

2008-09-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Last night, when A and I got back from dinner and grocery shopping (and, unintentionally, waiting for the bus for a half hour), there was a sheet of paper on our entryway floor. We overlooked it at first, but later when I was turning off the hall light, I noticed it and saw that it had a lot of text on it. All those words signified either big trouble or big news to me. When I picked it up to read it, I found that it really meant both.

A boy from our building was struck by a car and killed the other night, walking along the road after partying in Brooklyn. It was shocking to read this horrible news, because he was only a sophomore. I didn't know him, but it brought up a lot of thoughts about similar incidents. I'm not very emotional about people I don't personally know, but I did experience a brief but intense wave of what I guess was anger when I read about this boy's unfortunate passing. How completely unnecessary and unfair it is, and how sudden.

NYU is known for its high suicide rate. I was not aware of this gruesome fact until I came here, but it is definitely part of our school culture, as awful as that is. The school even rigged all dorm windows to open a mere three inches when suicides spiked a few years ago. Last Fall, there were about four suicides within the first month, if I remember correctly. The details were obviously and wisely concealed, but everyone speculated that it was the classic reactions of freshmen unaccustomed to the one-small-face-in-a-huge-crowd atmosphere of NYU. It is hard to make yourself seen or heard here. And it is hard to grow into yourself when the community is so spread out - NYU stretches from the Financial District up to Gramercy and Murray Hill now, and it can be hard to find friends in this housing situation, not to mention in the multiple schools of NYU. But there is no sense in generalizing these insignificant facts to the lives and deaths of such unique students.

NYU tries a lot of things to bring this enormous community together and offer year-round emotional support for those who need it, but there are a lot of variables they simply can't control. This latest death has really accentuated such limitations - the accident occurred in a totally different borough, and it was not connected with NYU or academics at all.

I just hope the boy from Gramercy Green was able to do the things he wanted and enjoyed in the short time he lived on this earth, and that maybe this unfortunate event will inspire others to make the most of their experiences, not just at NYU but in life.

Thanks to Wikimedia for the image.

NYU: Music Movie and Musings

2008-09-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to see a free pre-screening of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Lots of free screenings lately, I know. I love my school. But anyway, I went to see it with A, C, and J. If we made a band, our acronym could be JACA. Or CAJA. Caha! Haha.

The movie was really good, but it was funny to realize that the movie's typical teenage portrayal of romance and true love was what I once believed to be absolute and invariable. I thought that was how it happened to everyone and how it would happen to me. Meet across a room, go on some crazy adventure in one night, have a connection/sex, then be in love forever once the credits rolled and life went on.

I like to think I am more emotionally and psychologically experienced now, and that my relationships with people are so comfortably mature that I can brush off the expectancy of that teenagery little stereotype. But it is nice to imagine having that sort of cute and fun love with someone. Michael Cera is adorable, after all. As some of our fellow moviegoers were talking about though, he does get typecast something awful.

***

In actual New York and NYU news, I had a Harvey Dent sort of day yesterday. Let me explain, even though I already know you know I mean two-faced.

Long story short, the first half of my day was great - research topics in my language change seminar, cute baby video in Human Development, fun awkward times in German, blah blah blah nobody cares. But after work I had my first session for a French-English translation class. I'm taking it for this translation certificate. IT SUCKS. We are starting off with legal translation, and I don't even know legal terminology in English!! I am so worried about this class that I am seriously considering dropping it, which I've never EVER done before, or taking the online version, taught by a (hopefully) better teacher.

I won't go into it much more, but at least now there is bloggular evidence that I do dislike some things about my life right now... lame I know

NYU: Environments

2008-09-11T21:14:00.001-07:00

Today I've had an awful migraine. It affected me even at work, because the after-school elementary crowd decided to play "run around and scream and fall down and be totally insane," which is a game I would never ever recommend to anyone. Unless maybe you are homeless and you do that kind of thing to be an awesome spectacle for city folk.

In spite of my headache, I actually had a really great day. I love my Tuesday-Thursday classes, and I am so pleased with the choices I've made during my college career thus far. Blah blah blah I am the most annoying person you have ever met! Anyway, I also saw a free pre-screening of Burn After Reading, with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John Malkovich et al. It was amazing; the Coen brothers are my new favorite (late on the bandwagon, I know), and my friends A, J and I laughed a whole lot. Brad Pitt is so adorable in it.

Today I also thought a bit about my mindset this year, comparing it to last year's. I definitely think that my living situation has a lot to do with my level of happiness. Last year, I was depressed about my view and my suitemate (my roommate S, on the other hand, was the best). I didn't like the neighborhood, because the main Canal Street area of Chinatown is absolutely horrid.

This year, I love so much more about where I am. I have a great apartment, with a wonderful roommate; I know some awesome people on my floor; the floor is planning a lot of great activities; and the neighborhood is much more peaceful but also culturally rich. Did I ever mention I had Sri Lankan food when my mom was here? Another painfully huge highlight of the area is the Blender Theater at Gramercy (photo via that link), which is literally two blocks away. In November, my favorite band ever, Jack's Mannequin, is playing there, and I am looking forward to the ticket sales opening!! (When the presale sold out, I thought it was the regular sale and I was really sad.)

Things are slowly but surely getting back into the swing of the Fall semester, and I'm really looking forward to it. This is not the last of the great news for this year!

NYU: Gramercy Green

2008-09-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

4/15/2009 NOTICE
Pictures fixed. ALSO - If you clicked here from Google, please be aware that this blog has now moved to 13yrsofclutter.blogspot.com and that before the housing lottery begins, I will be posting a semi-complete floorplan there with details about room types from my own knowledge. Keep your eyes peeled!!

Here they are, the long-awaited photos of my apartment-style dorm at Gramercy Green. I am in room 1101, which is a 2-person studio on the inner, south-facing side of Gramercy, which is shaped like a U. Click the photos for bigger versions.

	Here is our door. Entrez, si vous l'osez! My mom made that tulip welcome sign for A when she was bored.
	Our entryway is kind of bare still. I want to get some affordable framed paintings or photos from the street fair next time it rolls around to our street.
	Our kitchen is positively glorious for living in student housing. (The building was previously going to be luxury condos, so we lucked out. :P) At least in my opinion. The only problem is that all the smoke detectors in the building are extremely sensitive and they are located right past the archway near the stove haha. We've had about 9 fire drills now, because people have burnt eggs and such (and then "resolve" it by opening their front doors, successfully spreading the smoke to the main sensors).
	Our small dining area and the view from our large windows. I confess, I've spied many a neighbor from here. NYU students have no shame haha. Jk. Maybe.
	Backtracking a bit, toward the kitchen again and turning left, we have the bathroom. I love so many things about it; for example, the separate light in the shower area is pretty sweet.
	More of the bathroom. Weird tiling, eh? Our ceiling in here is weirdly tall. But the resulting enormous cabinets are a nice plus.
	This is my side of the room (left of the windows). It's pretty messy and currently rather sparsely decorated, because I'm stingy. But I decided this is not clutter since I know the exact location of all my belongings at school. :P
	Uhhh that's not my super messy desk area... :O
	A's side! I did ask her for permission to post this and the part of the door earlier. I'm not a horrible roommate, I swear.
	The lights I fashioned to be a pretty heart over the archway. My mom suggested this when she was here, so our neighbors could see the masterpiece haha.
	Closet. Kinda ugly.
	Our view. We face kind of southwest and it's much better than last year! So much ♥ ♥ ♥

P.S. I changed the layout of the blog, because I was getting tired of the dots. I think this looks more professional. It's still not my own design, it's Blogger's, but what do you think? Like/no like?

New York: IOU

2008-08-30T10:23:00.001-07:00

I wanted my second post from New York to have pictures of my apartment-style dorm (the photo on the left is Madison Square Park and the MetLife tower, not my dorm!), but I haven't gotten around to taking the photos, and I have also been kind of busy. I had three interviews for internships, two of which were crappy, and the third of which I scored but then lost because of my hectic schedule. I'm kind of upset about that, because they were offering $15/hr. But it would have made my life hell to have that job and my other job (I was planning to work both), plus classes, music and the AAWA (I'm on the E-board :3).

So this is just a quick post to tide you over until I can prepare a feast of fabulous photos for your face. In fact, here's an interesting New York related article for you to read in the meantime: Secrets of a Hipster Hooker. Warning for content, language and sex talk. I thought it was really interesting, but of course I would never consider living that life for myself. The article is via iCiNG, which I'm really starting to love.

The girl who writes iCiNG, Gala, is from New Zealand and she spent some time in New York. Her enthusiasm for this place really makes me appreciate it more. I honestly think she has helped me change my attitude from the typical NYU state of mind - "Oh I'm going to a super rich school in New York and I'm so awesome I should never smile or be useful" - to my own pleasant state of mind - "I really like where I am, and I enjoy all these people being around me in this fantastic setting."

Thanks to IGoUGo for the photo. :)

New York: Settling In

2008-08-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

As I sit here listening to the goodbye mix my friend L made me, I can't help missing my friends from back home in California. There are so many things here that I want to be able to share with them in person. For example, I know they would love the fact that I passed a restaurant called Teriyaki Boy this morning on my way to help the new freshmen move in. In fact, I wish any of my friends were here - CA or NYU - so I could be out exploring! Most people at NYU are moving in this week. It's nice having my mom here, but she is "elderly" (apparently this is the PC term?? she's not elderly though) and tires easily. However, I am very proud of her because she has made a lot of progress with her health and fitness since last time she was here, and we have done a lot of walking so far!

Today we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Turner exhibit. My mother remembered studying him in her college art history courses, and I recalled the name from the Rufus Wainwright song "The Art Teacher" (lyrics), which I love. So we saw it, and it was fascinating! My favorite was Fisherman at Sea. The moonlight caught my attention right away, and I love the movement of the waves under it. All of his paintings are captivating.

My roommate A is moving in tomorrow! But I have three internship interviews throughout the day, so who knows when I'll get to meet her. I spoke to her on the phone the other night, and it turns out she grinds her teeth at night like me! How awesome are we. Oh God.

A New Day

2008-08-23T19:54:00.001-07:00

SO! I'm moved in. It's great. I love it.

There are several sad things about being here, though. Primarily, I can't de-clutter. I am kind of disappointed in myself that I didn't finish the project over the summer. There were definitely times that I told myself, "I've been hanging out a lot with my friends. I love them so much, and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world!! Oh. Should I be de-cluttering?" As a matter of fact, there were a lot of times I told myself, "I'm sitting around doing nothing... I should probably be de-cluttering... but instead I want to watch this Schnappi video again." God I love Schnappi. Wo ist die Gabel?? (Where is the fork??) But that is all my own fault.

We did make a LOT of progress though. My friends agreed, and I hope you agree, from the few pictures you have seen! It was a great feeling to come home and not be angry at the horrible state of every room! I will definitely be continuing the project when I come home in December for winter break. I wanted to have my mother continue the project and update on the blog while I'm away, but she does not have a camera, and I don't think she would enjoy the project by herself. So our current situation will have to do until I return.

In the meantime, I am situated in my gorgeous 2-person studio in Gramercy Green at NYU. I think that I will continue writing for 13 Years of Clutter while I am in New York for the semester, but the topic will be on my adventures in New York! I looked at a couple of the student blogs for the Steinhardt School of blah blah and blah (it's seriously a super long name), which is where I will be declaring my minor in education this Fall. The blogs were very interesting, and it was totally like playing 6 degrees when I saw the links. (Ex: One of the bloggers is the roommate of my friend from high school who attends NYU.) I liked the idea of a blog related to NYU, since it is such a big dream school, and I know I love it. So I want to share. :)

Speaking of Gramercy, I have been getting a lot of referrals to 13YoC from Google searches about the dorm! Everyone is speculating and envying, so I hope my chronicles of this semester will help ease and also heighten the excitement. I really want to start doing vlogs, but my honest little angel side keeps reminding me that I got an official packet saying "NO FILMING IN HERE YOU NARCISSISTIC COLLEGE HO-BAGS," where HERE is Gramercy Green. Any ideas for creative alternatives to vlogs? Or any unabashed rule-breakers willing to convince me I'm above the law?

P.S. I do still have some content and links saved up for on-topic 13YoC posts, so look out for those too!

Poll

2008-08-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

Take the poll

Free Poll by Blog Flux

For me, in this personal project, I like the visuals of my progress. The visuals really stimulate my anticipation of a clean and comfortable home. I'm so glad we have the before pictures (and even some afters now)! For other projects that I follow, I am surprised and glad to find that I have something in common emotionally with other "children of hoarders" for example. Before this whole project, I had no idea other people were experiencing the same thing I was.

Please share your thoughts through the poll and/or comments!

I am leaving for New York tomorrow night, but I'm trying to think of a video to film now and post once I arrive in the city. Any brainstorming ideas before Thursday night would be appreciated and credited. :) I'm aiming for simple shots with an expository voiceover, but what should it be about? Hmm...

Bathroom Before and After

2008-08-12T23:27:00.001-07:00

A very legit before and after post invites you to feast your eyes on it a mere few lines ahead! Unfortunately, the before pictures aren't very revealing. I thought it was interesting to realize that, when I was taking the before pictures, there were a lot of messy issues that didn't even register in my mind as important to document. We'll talk about that as we go, though. Now, here is our bathroom! Click the photos for larger versions (some are grainy, sorry).

BEFORE

AFTER

It may not look like a lot has changed, but that's because I didn't take pictures of the inside of cabinets and drawers. I decided my reason is confidentiality, when in fact that is a lame reason and the real reason is forgetfulness.

Look closely at the linoleum behind the toilet. Notice how normal in cleanliness it looks? Prior to this it was absolutely caked with dust. 13 years' worth, I daresay. The main thing that prompted me to clean back there was actually pretty gross. I'll let you guess. If you need a hint: that area IS near the toilet...

This ridiculous cart was probably the thing that bothered me most. Why oh why were there FOUR bottles of mouthwash sitting there before? Overall, this cart is just annoying and tacky. I would much much prefer something like this Ikea cabinet, but I think it's a tad too big for the space. Oh yeah, the toothbrushes on the right are mine; I have three because I sometimes forget mine when I go to stay with friends, and they graciously provide me with toothbrushing tools.

You can see in this picture that our manager did some re-caulking of the shower tiles, but he didn't finish. He's kind of a bum. But hopefully he'll finish someday, and our shower will be beautiful.

Tada! Other changes that went down in this de-cluttering adventure: overhaul cleaning of entire floor (including blue rugs that my mom insists on using to cover the whole floor); moving my hamper from the bathroom to my closet; discarding an old radiator that was just wasting space; having our manager come over to fix the drippy faucet and messed up pipes; and clearing out the sink cabinet, medicine cabinet and cart and reorganizing the contents.

It feels nice to have a clean room in the house!

Yard Sale

2008-08-09T18:21:00.001-07:00

I am so glad that my grandmother suggested a yard sale at her home this summer! We would never have been able to do it at our apartments, and her yard/garage is a very nice, peaceful space. In fact, our customers kept commenting about it! We had our first sale last Saturday, but we only had 42 customers in 6 hours, and while my grandma and her husband (not my grandfather - long story sorta) made about $40, my mom and I only made $17!

So we tried again today, with cleverer advertising. My step-grandfather put out several signs on the street yesterday morning (last time my grandma insisted the signs not go out till the morning of). 83 customers and 6 hours later, my mom and I had $86 more for our collection, and my grandmother made $177! I did not take pictures today, because I was in a bad mood this morning (I woke up late). But here are some from last weekend! Click photos for larger versions (the ones with our faces don't get bigger cause I'm paranoid).

My mom setting up at 7:30 a.m.!

My childhood dresses. These didn't sell so well either day, I think because they're so out of date (they're from the 90s). After our sale today, we took all the leftover items to Goodwill.

Oddly enough, neither of these items sold! The doll house went from $40 to $20 and finally $15, but nobody wanted it. Just as well, since the roof was missing. I was in love with that table as a child, though! It is kinda crappy looking though, perhaps.

Some old dolls and Thomas the Tank Engine stuff in my rickety old bassinet. Hmm, funny that the pictures I have from last week represent a lot of stuff we did NOT sell! Trust me, though, we sold some good stuff. Today I sacrificed my PlayStation1 and all my games. We got $25 for it all from a young couple with a 3-month-old baby. They got a lot of stuff and there was some confusion with their transaction, but I do know for sure that they paid for the PS1!

High chair and baby dresses. These all sold, actually! Haha finally a good photo.

Some glassware and books. My grandmother had so much glassware; it didn't all sell, unfortunately.

That trapezoid just right of center is "The Music Maker," a harpsichord-like instrument that I tuned after it being out of use for 10 years! Everyone had fun giving it a try with the pick (included) that we set out next to it.

Me and some baby fashion.

This was such a satisfying endeavor, despite the frustration with my grandmother throughout and the occasional boredom. However, as my step-grandfather put it, yard sale customers sure are funny. They buy the craziest stuff, they're friendly, and they love to talk. They really made everything worthwhile! :) What a great relief to get some cash for our clutter!

Promises

2008-08-08T21:01:00.001-07:00

I'm so sorry to not be posting very much lately. I can assure you, it's not for lack of de-cluttering. Problems with our bathroom sink and plumbing gave me an excuse to clean out our bathroom, which was already the cleanest room in our house, even though it was pretty gross. Before and after pictures to come soon!

But before that...

I'm having a yard sale with my grandma, her husband, and my mom tomorrow at my grandma's house! We did one last weekend, but we didn't advertise, so the turnout wasn't great (42 people in 6 hours - I made a couple high scores on my phone's Diner Dash game, make no mistake). So we put out some ads for tomorrow and hope to sell everything! I took pictures last time and will take more tomorrow, so those will be coming forthwith! Dang that is an old fogey word.

Sorry to be all teasy and such and not even give a picture on this entry!

Garbage Disposal

2008-07-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

My mother's wrist puncture wounds got infected, so that means she now has a huge splint on her left forearm and has to wear a sling. This also means that I have to do most of the housework. I just spent about 75 minutes doing dishes and I noticed, the same as I did a couple days ago when doing dishes, that the black rubber of our garbage disposal opening is a nasty yellow color. I Dawn'd it up and wiped off the crap with a wet paper towel. Much to my disgust, it was filthy!! Not just old (what kind of black fades to yellow anyway?). Feeling very un-green but determined to get the nastiness away from where we clean our dishes, I used many paper towels in the same way to get under the rubber surface, too.

You guys, it looked like FECES. :(

I looked online for ways to thoroughly clean garbage disposals and came upon AskTheBuilder.com. Tim Carter's article primarily offers solutions for smelly garbage disposals, but the ideas are great for everyday switch-flippin'-water-runnin'-food-crushin' fun. He says, in a nutshell:

Grind up the garbage with the water running into the disposal. Then, when it's finished, turn off disposal and stop it up. Fill the sink 2/3 of the way up with water, then add soap generously; finally, let the soapy water run into the disposal and turn the disposal on. The blades will swirl it around, effectively cleaning up that nasty poo-maker. (Ok those two are my words, not his.) There are many more great suggestions at Thrifty Fun.

Thanks to AboutAppliance for today's image.

Housesitting

2008-07-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

This past week, I house-sat for a family I've also been babysitting for. The family went on vacation to Disneyland for the younger daughter's 4th birthday and asked me to care for their 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 rats. It was an interesting experience... culminating, on the last day, with the dogs running away and my mother's wrists being punctured by one of them as we tried to lead them back home. She had to get stitches, and it was very traumatizing, but she'll be ok.

I learned a lot from observing their house. Keep in mind that it's a pretty busy household, but here is what I noticed:

Box clutter: We had this problem at our apartment, too, of keeping enormous boxes for no reason. And I've talked about it a lot. :) This family had a four-foot tall empty box from a portable air conditioner just sitting in the master bedroom - they got the AC unit two weeks ago, around when I started babysitting! I know that they might want to keep it for the two little girls to play with, but big boxes should have a proper home, either in someone's play area, the garage or in the recycling.

Clothes: I have a feeling the little girls are a tad spoiled. I love them to death! But they haven't yet learned the value of picking up after themselves. Ok, fine, they are four and eight, but still! Keep those adorable hampers accessible, not jammed in an already-bursting closet. I do like their dresser system, though, when they use it! The eight-year-old has categories for each drawer, and the "star drawer" is specially for pajamas.

Garbage: It was difficult for me to find a trash can in most rooms of the house. The kitchen didn't even have one! So I used some Safeway bags that I assume were for that purpose. Even more sad, the recycling was hard to find as well. I admit, it may be because I'm not used to their system and they don't need/use labels. But I've found in my own living spaces that having a trash and recycling in each room (or at least most rooms) makes things a lot easier. It's funny how lazy we can be if the recycling is even one room away!

I tidied up as best I could (and as much as I dared, for fear of seeming rude), but I was depressed to see that all my work had been erased when I went back two days later to babysit. Toys and food all over the floor! Kitchen table hardly visible! I guess I shouldn't try to change them if all they're paying me for is animal care and babysitting...

Thanks to Housesitting for the photo. :)

Sites I Like #7: Children of Hoarders

2008-07-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

I guess I never realized how ashamed I should have been (by society's standards) of the state of my house. I'm still not ashamed, because I know that it's not entirely my responsibility. But I found an interesting site for the community of children of hoarders.

Today's site: Children of Hoarders

The subtitle of the site says "for the adult children of compulsive hoarders," but I think it's useful for anyone connected to a compulsive hoarder. There are numerous videos on the site, including "Possessed," which I posted about before, showcasing the long-term emotional turmoil that clutter brings with it. The site is just full of resources, and I think it's great that this exists just like communities exist for children of Alzheimer's patients and alcoholics.

There is a well-run forum, too, so you get the full experience of empathy and support. One board in the forum mentions P.I.S.S., which stands for Post-Intervention Stress Syndrome, an unofficial disorder discussed by the COH community. "P.I.S.S." was coined by a COH member and is brought on by the significant anti-climax that comes at the end of a de-cluttering undertaking. Interesting, and what a catchy acronym...

For me, the fact that I couldn't invite people over during my childhood wasn't embarrassing; it was just something that was. It was a fact of life: all my friends could have me over, but having people over at my apartment just wasn't done after about third grade. My friends were all polite about it, but I'm sure they sensed that something bad was the reason they never saw the inside of my home.

And now, the main trouble of having clutter is the tension between my mother and me. It's hard to actually de-clutter without having a fight most times. But now I know I'm not the only one who has had this experience!

Be Even More Greener

2008-07-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Things you may do to be green but may not do the most efficiently:

RECYCLE
In this age of the green trend, more and more Americans are recycling. This is definitely a good thing! But old habits still die hard - you may still choose the wastebasket over the recycling bag out of laziness. I'm certainly guilty of this! But just remember that there are so many things you can recycle! Jewel cases, styrofoam (just find the right service!), many plastics, and the traditional paper/plastic/glass/aluminum. Depending on your location, you might even be able to get money for these things! Think twice about our rising landfills when you want to throw non-biodegradables in that garbage!

SPRING CLEANING
Many people have a great routine set every year for spring cleaning, which I truly admire! But you can always do better. :) Instead of viewing it as a horrible chore that you have to tackle on your own because no one else around the house helps, make it a fun family event! Make a game out of organizing and cleaning out for the kids, and devise rewards for the grown-ups. The outings to Goodwill etc. can be fun mini road trips, too.

SHOPPING GREEN
Shopping green is the best kind of shopping. You feel great about your purchases and can sometimes save money, like when you buy local at the farmer's market. But make sure you get the most out of your experience. Don't buy fancy green products unless you NEED them and will USE them! Otherwise it's just more clutter and a waste of money. For example: knickknacks made of reused plastic bags are great, but are they going to clutter up your home more/will they get any use? Also, try re-using the produce bags when you shop at the farmer's market. I have more about plastic bags if you're interested. :)

Anything I left out?

Thanks to Tales at Twilight for the image.

Safeway is King

2008-07-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my mom and I did a buttload of errands. Some de-cluttering, some not. We were all over the place! The best part of the day was finding the recycling center back behind a nearby Safeway that recycles lots of stuff and offers CRV (California Refund Value). They even take #6 styrofoam (those huge annoying blocks)!!! It was a bit ironic that we found out about the styrofoam though, because we had just tossed a huge collection of styrofoam blocks, after coming up short on recycling resources. (Waste Management told us it counts as garbage in this area so we could throw it out. My mom says they were just trying to steer business their way, which sucks because throwing out styrofoam is SO BAD for the environment!)

Moral of the story: your city probably has some amazing resources that are hidden behind random grocery stores or other weird places! Do some hunting and find these great places.

Anyway, things are looking better every day! I drew up some ideas I had for floorplans when we're ready to move stuff around. I have one for my room and one for the living room. Maybe I'll post them tomorrow! In the meantime, my friend L and I are hosting a hillbilly hootenanny birthday party for ourselves tonight, so I might not post till late tomorrow. :P

Quick Tips

2008-07-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I didn't post for a few days because the traffic was really low and it bummed me out. But here's a short and sweet update with some tips:

A lot of our clutter was huge empty boxes! I don't know how we amassed them, but I think it was the whole "this could come in handy someday" idea. I was kind of relieved that most of the boxes were empty, because it was so easy to just break them down and recycle them. Try ridding yourself of these space Napoleons (=coup d'etat, really bad joke, etc.) today and see how much more open you can make your home.

Always be careful about letting clutter pile up again once you clear it away. Make sure everything has a place and that things go there! A lot! All the time even! If you don't do this, you might end up using every possible flat surface as storage, like we did, and it can get ugly.

ARGH BOXES! I'm still bothered by the topic. Let's discuss. Even despite and during this whole process, our living room is still full of boxes, but it's not empty stereo boxes or empty shoe boxes. It's boxes of the things found while de-cluttering that are marked "to keep." Problem is, they're those awful white cardboard boxes with handles that people use for cleaning out their cubicles when it's time to move on. This won't do. I'm thinking of switching them out with something like this in something bright - green or red maybe.

The whole box thing has resurfaced because I'm making big progress on our front closet. I mentioned that earlier but I'm still really happy because hopefully soon we will have somewhere to put the boxes so that visitors won't be appalled and affronted by them.

Flashback

2008-07-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

I've become very fond of seeing the dirt and dust washing off my hands after I take a break from de-cluttering. It's some sort of weird relief, like seeing the burden of the clutter just flowing down the drain.

Today I was working on our front closet, and it made for my favorite kind of de-cluttering: old photo discoveries! It's so weird to see my own face grinning up at me from over ten (and sometimes over fifteen) years ago! I was a cute little butt head. Here are some of my favorite photos so far! Check back later and there might be "after" photos haha. Probably not.

My treasured stuffed tiger. I could never decide on its gender, but s/he is still with me today. Ragged and sad.

Don't blame me, it was the 90s.

"No wonder Clark was such a weird cat." - My mom.

Not a morning person. Even on my birthday. Or maybe I was just irritated at photo time.

That's a shark on my face. I don't know why.

I would put dates to these faces, but a) some don't have them, and b) laziness! Always laziness.

Wishlist #4: LCD TV

2008-07-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hey hey it's that time again! That time that hasn't come around for a while because I kind of forgot about it or stopped being greedy. Probably the first, though, since I'm greedy 24/7/52/12/365-6. Anyway, the pictures would all look the same since I'm specifically wishing for a standard flat-screen LCD TV for my fancy apartment dorm in the fall. So I'm just listing my favorite one.

And, to sate your eternal desire for visual aids, I'm listing the top 3 craziest/most awesome TVs I found on the internet today at the bottom of this post. So scroll to your heart's content.

1. Sharp LC19SB24U 19" LCD HDTV - $270

I don't know much about researching these big purchases, but I do know this:

I have a good, solid, bulky cube of a Sharp 13" TV that has worked pretty well for 8 of the past 9 years I've owned it. So I kind of trust Sharp as a brand.

I want 19" because my roommate and I have had a disappointingly small TV (similar in bulky cubeness to mine) for two years that makes TV gatherings frustrating. College kids: does this happen to you?? In fact, the two of us talked seriously about getting a new TV for next year. Funny since now we'll be living in the most expensive dorm and neither of us can really afford a new TV but whateva!

I have spoken. I want this TV. Grey's, 30 Rock and The Office will be oh so much more awesome. I might even start watching House with this glorious TV, who knows. I keep meaning to, but gosh, my TVs right now are just so subpar.

And now! These are not as crazy as I planned! Mostly they are childish! But I know you skipped down here to see what they are, so I present to you: weird TVs!

a. High School Musical TV

Oh HSM. How terrible your actors are. How catchy and stupid your music is. How slutty your stars are. Yet no one can resist you. This TV is kind of awesome, if only for the clever locker storage design and the many brain cells it will suck out of a generation of kids. We can't have them turning out smarter than us, after all. We know only too well how helpless the baby boomers seem in comparison to their kids. What do I click to get Internet? Anyway, there's also an iPod dock.

b. "The Japanese Crazy TVs"

These aren't all that crazy; in fact they're really cute. But I always wonder about the practicality of stuff like this, which you kind of outgrow past oh, twelve, and have to either throw out or declare "quirky" when it's really not. Or I don't know, maybe it is but I don't get it. I could see either of the two TVs on this link in something like Toy Story though. (Incidentally, I hope they don't do any more of those, because I've lost all faith in sequels/etc.)

c. Dynatron

I am so confused by the post stemming from this image, but the caption says that it is "the most expensive TV set manufactured in Britain. Assembled by thousands of highly trained paramecia in 1948, it was called a ‘Dynatron Ether Sovereign’." I enjoy the name and its ridiculous size, so I bestow it on you and your eyes. Maybe you can make some sense out of the link.

Clutter Personality

2008-07-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

I've noticed a pattern or two as I've been slogging through the living room. Today, as I was starting to clear off the third of three sitting spaces (1: couch, 2: love seat, and 3: big chair that goes with the couch), I thought to myself, "There is SO MUCH PAPER here." That reminded me of this article I read on clutter personalities.

I revisited the article today and decided that, out of the five personality types listed there, my mother must embody at least four, these being: the hoarder ("This might come in hand someday!"), the deferrer ("I'll think about that tomorrow!"), the perfectionist ("Next week, I'll organize everything--perfectly!"), and the sentimentalist ("Oh, the little darling!"). The fifth is the rebel, who's still bitter about mom's nagging to clean that room.

This melee of personality types may make it sound pretty bad, and it is, but I do acknowledge that it could be a lot worse, like those people in the video I posted a couple days ago. But I think the combination of all these deadly personality types makes me understand a bit better just how much my mom needs someone else to take initiative in de-cluttering.

The paper-pileup is definitely a byproduct of her hoarding personality. She brought me up to always consider that something might be useful later and to never get rid of anything if you can help it. But this is only sensible to a point. There were receipts up the wazoo on the chair I was cleaning today, from Jack-in-the-Box nine months ago (that depressed me a lot) to endless printouts from online. I really don't think proof of your Junior Bacon with Cheese is going to come in handy soon OR later. About.com has some nice tips on how to eliminate paper clutter.

Think carefully about what kind of clutter personality you have, then take the appropriate steps to de-clutter yourself! This is a very important step that I'm feeling the weight of right now.

Thank to this site for the image.

P.S. I hope the people who have found this blog with similar projects underway are finding my tips and progress helpful/inspiring in some way! Always feel welcome to post comments about your own progress and projects. :)

Gramercy Green

2008-07-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Oh man!!!!!! I just got an e-mail saying that my room change request to be in this dorm of insane perfection for next year went through! I'm on the 11th floor and I'm so excited. Expect dorm room posts soon (it's relevant I swear!)...

You don't understand the adrenaline and the screaming that is happening right now... at 9:30 a.m.

Edit: Sorry I don't think I conveyed my excitement adequately in this post...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YYYYYYYESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS O. M. G. O. M. G. O.M.G. O.M.G. OMG OMG OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG GRAMERCYYYYYYYYYY HALLELUJAH PRAISE JOHN SEXTON? HOUSING GODS THY WILLS BE DONE IN THE NAME OF THE IRISH YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS THIS IS GETTING BLASPHEMOUS BUT I HAVE GOOD HOUSINGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

Do It Yourself

2008-07-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a busy past few days! Not only with de-cluttering, but with birthdays and hanging out with my best friends for summertime fun and trying to get myself a job. I did de-clutter one of our couches in the living room. However, I sat down on it today and realized it's a depressing spot! It receives almost no light, even though it is about five feet from the window. Of course, this is because one of our bookshelves is placed illogically and uglily between the two! Hmm. I can't wait to start the re-arranging part of our project. In the spirit of DIY thinking*, here's a fun link about how to fuse plastic bags to make stuff! Just don't inhale those hot plastic fumes, kids.

Via Curbly.com

* Ok that's kind of a stretch, from my progress to "DIY" but I don't have much to write about...

"Possessed" Short Documentary

2008-06-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a very emotionally charged video made by Martin Hampton about people and their clutter. I almost wish it were longer.

POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.

Via BackGarage

What are your reactions? For those of you not affected by such clutter in your own lives, what were your thoughts as you saw and then heard about these people's struggles (assuming you watched it :P)? For those of you with clutter, did it hit home at all?

Search and Destroy

2008-06-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Or: Search and De-clutter. That might work better for our purposes. Anyway, here's a technique I've found that helps me a lot in de-cluttering. I never really formed it as a complete thought until somebody posted about clutter in the Livejournal community ourbedrooms.

Tip: If your project seems overwhelming, take it one step at a time. This seems so basic, and it's hard to actually put into practice because you see the mess every day, and every time you think about it, it seems like this monster undertaking that could never possibly get done by doing small pieces of it. However, I find that I make a lot of progress by identifying a single area in a room that has been bothering me in particular, and tackling it.

For example, we couldn't open our front door all the way, like I mentioned the other day. That bugged me a lot. The door was blocked by my mom's wire shelving unit where we stored paper products. I looked around the living room, which has been my main de-cluttering project lately, to find a place I could relocate the shelves to. I cleared out a spot, then made the change. At the same time, I was organizing and not simply moving the clutter around, because I dumped all the paper stuff out and reordered it based on category.

Now our lovely door gets the swing space it needs and, while it still doesn't open all the way, it's a really nice and refreshing change. A helpful one, too, since I don't have to do acrobatics to get all my trash/recycling out the door anymore!

So try the "this bugs me" method and see how far you get! If you have any of your own techniques, feel free to comment and tell me about them!

Wall-E

2008-06-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight I saw Wall-E! I wish I could say everything about it that I want to, but I don't want to spoil it. Especially since I highly recommend it and I want you to see it for yourself! It was heart-wrenching in ways I did not expect, and, from my nerdy linguistic perspective, possibly involved some fun phonology and voice-recognition research on the sound guys' parts. Phonology is so far my least favorite sub-field because it makes no sense and all the experts on it seem to disagree, but voice-recognition is super interesting.

Anyway, for reasons I won't give away, the movie got me thinking about downward spirals.

Not only is it painfully easy to get into a rut with clutter, but it's even easier to dig yourself deeper into it as the problem gets worse. You delude yourself and run away from the problem whatever way you can - the movie has a very interesting portrayal of escapism - whether it's psychologically acclimating to the messy home or just physically spending less time in what should be your safe haven. Or, sometimes, despair wiggles its way in and masquerades as your solution, causing you to lose all hope and just live in a completely and unacceptably unhealthy situation.

For me, I suppose, this threat of impending hopelessness is what drives me to make my life better. I wish I could have something different to motivate me, something more positive, but it is what it is. And after all, if it gets me to clear out closets, clean under the bed, and pawn off my possessions to strangers, that's something.

Watch the trailer for Wall-E here.

Update on Freecycle

2008-06-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

Lookee here for yesterday's post on Freecycle.

So today I released three of my clunky possessions to the wind that is one Ms. R.L., who had responded last night to my Freecycle post. And now I have one experience with Freecycle! Here is what I think.

I'm definitely glad that the Yahoo group has rules set down and tips for your freecycling needs. They're very concerned about your safety, which is great, considering that things are picked up from you by strangers and it's all done through the Internet up to that point. In fact, I felt a little relieved when R.L. e-mailed, because I recognized her last name as that of someone who currently goes to my old high school.

The community is the perfect size. There are about 5,000 members in my area, the East San Francisco Bay Area, so that's just enough to get a solid number of responses, but not too many that it's not overwhelming. I think I got a total of 6 or 7 offers to take the ab machine off my hands, and 2 for the pillows. Perfect! Also, I got absolutely no unsolicited e-mails from anyone about stupid, irrelevant things. I can't say the same for Craigslist, where I posted my resume the other day. :(

I expected the worst: a) R.L would be late/not show up; b) she would not be R.L. at all but a homicidal maniac who had been planning to kidnap me for months and was finally going to succeed; or c) some other bad thing. So I made sure to keep in contact with her (she was an hour late) over the phone (we only exchanged numbers over e-mail when the deal was confirmed), saying that I wanted to reschedule if she was going to be by after dark. Luckily, she arrived around 6:15, and it was not dark. Of course, it was smoky, but certainly light.
She was a little weird, with a van packed full of clutter (see point below), some of which she had just bought. Her demeanor was friendly but definitely odd, and she struck up a conversation with me about her need to exercise, and whether I, since I'm "small" (I'm not), liked this little black PJ top she had just gotten. I scurried away and thanked her for taking the stuff off my hands. o.o

When I was telling my friend (tommykat39) about the site and deal this morning, she thought it wasn't a good idea because it essentially meant that clutter was just being passed around and around. I said that it wasn't the offerers' problem, just the takers' problem. Interesting that I got a fellow clutterer my first time. What do you think? Should transactions be better screened so that hoarders don't do themselves worse? Or is it solely their problem for indulging in more clutter?

Sites I Like #6: Freecycle.org

2008-06-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ok I know I like JUST did a Site I Like, but this one is actually helping me in my progress! I'm giddy right now.

Today's site: FreeCycle.org

This is a .org site, but the part of it that I'm making the best use out of is the Yahoo group for my area. Basically, it's a very well-run organization of people pawning off the crap they don't want, and for free. There's no trading, no adult themes, and no money involved. Also, there's no worries about clogging those landfills or making some epic trek to a specialty recycling center. If you've got something that works but that you no longer want, you send an e-mail to the list serve (with title tags such as OFFER, WANTED [they prefer you don't use this one much], TAKEN [for completed "offer" transactions], and RECEIVED [for completed "wanted" transactions]) and interested parties e-mail you back.

Around 5 p.m. today, I put up two posts: one offering this stupid old floor ab machine (like the one at the bottom of this picture), and one offering two body pillows I don't want anymore. By the time I got home from a crepe outing tonight at 9:30, I had four replies - one for both posts, two more for the ab machine, and one for the pillows (it read: "i am interested in your pillows." Nothing more.). As I type here, I'm simultaneously making arrangements with the first woman who replied to have the items picked up. She's the one who wanted everything, and I suspect she is a compulsive/impulsive shopper, but that is fine with me, since it gets rid of my stuff for me haha.

We'll see how it goes! I'm excited to get rid of more crap and brighten somebody else's day. :)

Important News Break

2008-06-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Today: huge progress.

Front door opens all the way.

Almost.

But more than before. !

Living room is looking better and better. Excited to have after pictures soon.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

/totallyunoriginal

Sites I Like #5: Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse

2008-06-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

As with most of the links I absorb into my bookmarks, I can't remember how I found this one. But the URL (www.messiemother.com) is extremely endearing, it's relevant, and it has a flash game!

Today's site: Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse

So one of the things I like about this is that it's German. The end! No, I'm just kidding. :) But German things really do entice me. Anyway this is the site for a documentary made by Thomas Haemmerli about his mother's death and the clutter at her house that he and his brother had to wade through in the ensuing month.

There are several things I particularly enjoy about the site:

The dumpster flash game (or muldenspiel)! I found it too hard because they make you take the wind direction into account! F that. But give it a try when you're taking a break from de-cluttering your own home. That guy down below makes a funny angry noise.

The family history twist of the film. The brothers find so many amazing relics of their family's past throughout their project; it's inspiring. I'd really like to see the film, and this aspect is actually more intriguing to me than the de-cluttering. I love finding old photos of my mom's past when I'm cleaning. They're like decades-old Easter eggs that don't smell half bad.

The film's relevance to my own fears. I sporadically get this feeling of dread that of my mother will let the clutter consume her again when I leave home for good and go make a life for myself. I don't want her to die alone in a sea of carelessness and disorder, despite how much I can dislike her (in times like this week, when she refuses to talk to me because of things I've said to her out of frustration and callousness brought on by the project).

As far as our own progress, we're a bit past the one-month mark and things are going ok, but not as good as those deutsche Brudern. We can actually sit (well, one of us can sit) on our couch in the living room! The ottoman has space to lie flat! WE USED THE CORNER OF THE COFFEE TABLE TO PLAY SCRABBLE (and I won 3/3). Contented sigh. Also, even in the face of our tiff (which is still going on because my mom is 5), my mother managed to cart off a carload of stuff to our standbys (Goodwill, Books for the Barrios, and her favorite used book store, Hooked on Books).

The Cluttering Blogosphere

2008-06-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

So after a little jaunt to ProBlogger.com (which I believe I found through iCiNG, my newly budding obsession), I decided to take action in my blogging. ACTION! I gotta participate on other blogs, do some online bloggy networking and generally be a bit more awesomer. I warmed up by Googling "clutter blog" and found a slew of good stuff.

Here's what I noticed:

There are a lot of blogs out there done by professional organizers. Remember when I insulted them unintentionally? Well it's really too bad that I'll be remembered for that thoughtless phrase of mine because I really do respect them (and I have respected them! I never meant to insult anyone! I can tell I'll be apologizing for this for a while), especially now that I've seen some of their sites. There are really good tips out there, and I also found out you have to be certified to be part of the NAPO. Dang. Anyway there are a lot of sites I like which I may profile in a future Sites I Like post but for now here's a teaser, from a woman who commented on my controversial post: Clutter Diet Blog. She looks like a friendly lady. Shoot now I feel even more horrible for offending people.

There are, likewise, a lot of before and after photos online. But as I perused them, I found myself thinking many times, "Psh! They should see my apartment." And after a few instances of that, I realized, "Ferk I guess that's nothing to be proud of." But this means my before and after pictures will rock the internetzzz. Oh yeah. Expect it.

They're good at blogging but they get no props! I see very few comments on these clutter-related blogs but next to no comments. It's lurkers Batman!! I myself am guilty so whateva, we be changing that soon/already.

There are few (as in I haven't seen any yet but then again I'm only on the first page of Google results still so that doesn't really mean anything) blogs about people undertaking the de-cluttering process on their own. Maybe I win! Maybe people will discover me and someday I can make six figures blogging. Curse you Darren Rowse.

Expectations

2008-06-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Things I expected for today while attacking the living room anew:
- to get rid of the hideous bunny puzzle that's been sitting under the air conditioner for years (check)
- to find amusing tidbits from my childhood (double check)

Things I did not expect during the same period:
- SPIDER, whose filthy abdomen I heard go crunch beneath my Kleenex on the living room curtains. Sorry pal but u is gross (chchchchcheck)
- Sorta sad tidbits from my childhood (sad check):

From "My Autobiography" (by Xandi, age 6)
GLAD
*This makes me smile: Funny telivision shows. Presents. My Birthday Party.

SAD
*I feel like crying when: my mom yells at me. When pepole call me names. When I get hurt. When I trip. When my mom leaves for work. When I am all alone.

Depressing how many more there are for sad, don't you think? Poor Xandi.

Lifestyle

2008-06-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Something I find interesting about decluttering is that it's not simply a case of spring cleaning. It's a way to actually change your lifestyle in an attempt to lead a healthier and happier existence. That must be why it feels so good when you succeed at a project (for example, when I reorganized our linen closet - I guess that's the first thing I've really completed, but it was definitely rewarding!).

As much as I complain and whine about goings-on around my household, I think that my mother and I are taking some very healthy steps toward attaining this sort of happier lifestyle. Not only have we started decluttering and taking it seriously, but we have gotten gym memberships and, although we don't go every day, we do take advantage of the classes and equipment at the gym (we use 24Hour Fitness). Beginning last year, when we realized I would have to cook for myself at school because I would be in a dorm with a kitchen, we made a conscious effort to eat more nutritiously.

I think there are still some deep emotional and psychological problems in our family, and even though I reason that that's true for all families, to some extent, I think that taking these small steps in different areas will do a lot of necessary good. I've been reading through iCiNG, and the concept of living as someone truly happy with themself has struck me in the brain. On the surface, Gala Darling's site looks like a girly fashion blog, but it's actually very inspirational, positive and friendly. If you want to sample some of her best articles, she made a handy list of them here.

Wishlist #three: Wallpaper

2008-06-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, living in an apartment, we are not allowed to do much in the ways of decorating. Consequently, all our rooms feature plain white walls and rather nondescript beige carpets. The kitchen and bathroom have totally fug yellowish-white-and-brown tiles. Bleh. Anyway, I found these awesome wallpapers linked from other sites and I would love to have them to ease the bore factor in our apartment, if we could afford luxuries like prettiness.

1. Heat-Sensitive Wallpaper by Shi Yuan. $?.??

This would be so pretty in a kitchen or bedroom! In fact, I think it would spark some good conversation in any room. The paint is sensitive to heat and gets progressively more colorful with hotter temperatures, "blooming" at 95ºF. I don't think it's on the market yet; it's just an idea by Shi Yuan, a creative and inspired designer, from the looks of that personal site. I think enough people online have expressed interest that it should definitely be considered as a consumer-geared product! I don't know the right term for that. My point is that I would buy it.

2. grow house grow! Christopher pattern in Cornflower. $150/roll.

These wallpapers are so cute! There are only a few options for sale on the site (which is also extremely cute), but they are all perfect. I can just picture them in my room, lending a quiet, subdued splash of color just detailed enough to catch the eye of visitors. The company is based in Brooklyn, which I really want to get to know more when I go back to New York, because it is definitely just as culture-rich as Manhattan but less hectic, at least to the outside observer's point of view.

Ok well my mind got sidetracked thinking about going back to New York, instead of about wallpaper, and these were really the only two links I had (wallpaper ain't that exciting, really), so the end!

Quick Update

2008-06-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my trip! My friend and I drove to Monterey and had lots of fun kayaking and looking at otters (in the sea AND at the aquarium :D) and, for me, not worrying about decluttering.

Before I left, I put post-its on the boxes that had managed to stack up in my room during the decluttering process. On the post-its I wrote where I wanted the items to be donated, and asked my mom to take them to each place. I was pleasantly surprised when half the boxes were gone today when I returned.

However, it still gets me down that she acts like she has an excuse to not work on our apartment. Her reasoning is always, "You don't know what I'm going through psychologically and physically, so you need to stop talking about [decluttering]." Yeah, she actually emphasizes that I can't even talk about it. That's ridiculous, right? Even more so because she is not good at communicating and doesn't make an effort to tell me about her psychological problems (although she feels perfectly free to complain about the physical part). I think this is just because she wants to continue using her problems as an excuse and to keep saying I don't know "what she's going through." Telling me about it - making me understand - would make her excuse completely null, and that would suck, wouldn't it?

Oh well. I have a busy week this week (still not working... sigh) but I'm going to try to do some cleaning and continue posting of course! My next goal is to get rid of this horrid, dusty old puzzle of a rabbit OUT! Out out out because it's been sitting in the corner of the living room for about seven years and it's an eyesore.

Sites I Like #4: FlyLady.net

2008-06-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

I just thought about it, and the idea of self-help is kind of interesting, in a way I never thought about before. The idea is that you help yourself, but the term itself implies/connotes that you're getting help for that from someone else. It's ingenious, really; stubborn as we are, how would we humans ever get anywhere if we didn't have that extra nudge? I found a site that embodies the general self-help message in several ways, so it's today's site I like!

Today's site: FlyLady.net

This site has so many resources and tools that it's a little overwhelming at first! From what I understand, a main message throughout the site is "start by shining your sink." There is even a little motivational video about it here (it's a little touchy-feely for my taste at the end, but it sends a good basic message: if you can keep your sink clean every day, you're off to a good start with keeping your life in line).

Another interesting part of the site is the concept of "baby steps" for beginners. They have full months planned out for you and things you can try to start to become more organized and healthy. For example, day one is shine your sink (naturally), day 15 is make your bed, and day 30 is check your calendar for next month's events. The emphasis in this monthly plan is to establish a routine, doing a new thing every day plus the things that came before it. I like that idea a lot, and what makes it really helpful is that the tips themselves stress that you're taking baby steps. I.e. don't wash every single duvet in your home, just make your bed. Simple!

This is just my personal opinion, but because I am not an extremely emotional person and have unearthed a lot of internal negativity in my own "motivational" encounters, I find the positivity of the site a little distracting. But I understand that that helps a lot of people, my mom in particular, who has found a very helpful community on SparkPeople.com to get on track with her health. FlyLady is a very nice lady, of course, and joining the site is free. So every opportunity like this is left up to you, if you want to take it or not. "FLY" stands for Finally Loving Yourself, so check out the site to see if it might be just what you need or if it's too much gush for your jaded self (i.e. me).

P.S. I'm going out of town for a couple days so I probably won't post till Tuesday or Wednesday. In the meantime, I encourage bored people to go to JakeandAmir.com (ages 13+ for language I guess) because it is hilarious and I am obsessed with it. My favorite video on the site is New Apartment, but start with Cookies or Math and you'll probably be hooked. Ok this P.S. is like practically as long as the real entry, so I'm going to go pack.

Rollercoasters

2008-06-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

For some strange reason, I get really tempted to post every time my mother goes crazy bipolar on me and freaks out about something decluttering-related. But if I posted every time that happened, well, it would be a lot.

Today is just one of those days that makes me think a lot. Not in any sort of poignant way, but a lot of things have sparked thoughts in my head today, and I don't like the trains they've become. Ideas like the ones I've been reflecting on today take me to a very depressed feeling, and while I can blame the stressful state of our apartment, because it's easy, unfortunately I think it's more my fault than anything else.

It's weird that I spent a lot of time laughing with friends in the middle of today but that the rest of the day has so far been bookended by irritability and sadness.

Fancy Box How-To

2008-06-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

After charging my camera batteries for around 815 hours, I have photos ready for a little tutorial. Keep in mind that I am only slightly creative at best, and my execution is kind of horrible. But the idea is what really counts: taking ugly old moving boxes from when you moved 13 years ago (hey hey) and making them look semi-decent so you can use them as storage anywhere in your house! This project is also good if you have over 50 rolls of wrapping paper that you need to use for something. Click the photos for bigger versions.

1. The box.

This is what my bedroom closet looked like before I cleared it out - I de-boxed the top shelf and I de-clothed about half the clothes rack, and I de-crapped the floor. The boxes were still hanging around after all that, somehow, so I came up with the project I will now demonstrate via pictures.

2. Wrap it like a present.

I estimate my boxes to be around 8x13x8, so the wrapping paper didn't quite fit perfectly on each side (you'll see this more in later pictures). But you can start by just laying the box on top of the unfurled roll and cutting it so that the paper covers each of the wide sides. I then folded the extra paper onto the inside of the box and taped it there.

3. Cut diagonally at the box corners for easy folding.

Just make little snippies at the inside corners of the box, so when you fold the paper up over the remaining sides of the box, you don't get paper bunchies. Have some yummies as a snack, maybe rub your tummy, listen to your munchies go crunchy. K I'm stopping.

4. Now fold the new extra paper in like before.

The remaining two sides of your box should now look like this on the inside. Keep in mind you can also use a square box or any other shaped box if that's what you have on hand and want to fancify.

5. When you fold up those two remaining sides of the paper, you should get a triangle-like shape down at the bottom.

This is a little tricky to explain, but hopefully you can use your present-wrapping skills, along with the photo, to figure out what I mean. If you need to, go back to where we made those snippies at the corners. Now pick up the tips of the paper that's hanging off the side of the box and bring them in to meet the center of the box side. Folding over the paper onto the inside, with the help of our snippied part, tape that extra paper down to secure it. Now smooth out the doors of paper you just made against the box; you should get something like the triangle I have here. If you're better at wrapping presents, then you'll get well I don't know what you'll get, just move on, you queen of present wrapping. Whateva.

6. Fold up that triangle.

Easy as pie. Now just tape that pie slice (the triangle) up to the side of the box. Smooth out any weird paper waves.

7. Be "creative" and cover any mistakes you made.

Since I'm not the queen of present or box wrapping, I had an ugly strip of my old box showing, and the triangle was shorter than I expected. So I took out some old poster board I've had since high school and made this little strip. I did it on both sides because I like symmetry. You don't have to like symmetry, but you also don't have to call me up in the middle of the night when your ugly box is haunting you from the closet.

8. Wrap the box top.

Pretty self-explanatory. I just barely had enough paper left on this dying roll to do each short side of the box top. My creativity knows no bounds, so for the top...

9. ...Be creative. Always.

I used more of that same poster paper to cover up the still-hideous top of the box. Got many different paper media used up that day! Success.

10. Labels!!

Labeling is important, as I've said before. So do something sorta makeshift or whateva. You can see how laughable my own writing and labeling is here (I didn't have enough room for the word "contents" so I cheated in a very erudite manner by making it French - "contenu"). Do your own thing. Or copy mine. Better, though. Of course.

Tell me your project ideas! And link me to photos (completed projects or incomplete, doesn't matter) if you want. I may even try them for myself. Better, though. Of course.

Panties in a Bunch

2008-06-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

So, I originally wrote a very dry and sarcastic response to the comments on my previous post about professional organizers. But, since I decided I didn't want to anger anyone else via my supposed apology, I thought I'd be a little more polite.

I truly apologize if anyone found my phrasing or treatment of the organizing profession offensive. I hope you can re-read my post and find that I actually do support and praise those who offer their time and skills to de-clutter entire households, because clearly those people can do it better than I ever could.

But to be perfectly honest, the reason, other than finances, that we don't hire a professional is that this blog would have much less meat to it. I tried to make something fun out of our project, and I'm sorry if people who aren't accustomed to my sense of humor found it disparaging. I invite everyone to sample some of my other, hopefully less-offensive posts, rather than zeroing in on the one where I made a faux-pas.

P.S. iamanorganizer, the term you found offensive is really just my unfortunately put way of making a play on words. I apologize.

The Professional Organizer Dilemma

2008-06-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

Before this project, I had no idea there was such a thing as a professional organizer. It almost makes me want to choose that as my career, since I like organizing things, and it seems pretty lucrative. I mean, look at how happy this woman from GetOrganizedAndMore is. But I was browsing around a bunch of these people's sites, and while a lot of the tips were good, and they're good at selling themselves, just like any good decluttering prostitute should be, I started thinking about how much work my mom and I are actually taking on by ourselves like this.

One site said that it's basically pointless to attempt to declutter by yourself, because you're so invested in all the crap that needs to go that you'll never make any progress. Another good point was that third parties are a lot more objective and can also play the part of sympathizers where I, as the unfeeling child of the woman who owns most of the clutter, can hardly ever sympathize. Mostly I get impatient and angry faced. >:(

I'm sure that's all part of the professional organizer's clever ploys at money-getting, but it makes sense. The sites themselves are very convincing, as well. Look at the amazing before and after photos on this one! They truly give me hope.

However, the real problem is money, in that we have nay enough to afford such a professional. So we'll have to undergo this entire transformation on our own, and I get the feeling it will take months, especially with my mother's still-semi-mysterious-to-me health condition and unwillingness to put much effort into things I suggest. That could definitely be the old-person temperament that I chose to subject myself to in all this, but it sure is discouraging.

Thanks to:
- JakeandAmir.com (catchy dialectical negation. Fans will understand.)

Compulsive Hoarding on Wikipedia

2008-06-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Stupid stuff I found on Wikipedia! Everyone's favorite work cited.

This article on compulsive hoarding is actually seriously interesting. I would have never guessed that cluttering habits could be part of a bigger psychological disorder. Not that I'm one to diagnose based on the very limited perspective I get from online medical articles, but this would explain a lot about our family and household. I'm just saying.

Anyway, the disorder seems to be linked to OCD, and has real physiological effects to the brain. Stress, obviously, also plays a part in both the psychological and physiological elements of the disorder.

Keep in mind that this is Wikipedia, but I just thought it might be of interest.

Wishlist #two: Coffee Tables

2008-06-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I was going to post a how-to tutorial on the wrapping paper box I made at 10 last night, but my frickin camera batteries are dead again. So instead, I will do another wishlist. Keep in mind that I dream these up pretty much on the spot as I noodle around the interwebs.

We currently can't even see our coffee table, but what I remember of it is that it's black and low, with a glass surface, and I don't like it much. None of the furniture in our apartment matches or goes with any sort of theme, so lately I've been dreaming up color schemes and themes for when we're organized enough to have them. I'm thinking black furnishings to complement our dirty-cream sofa (read: dirty and once-cream-colored sofa) and chairs in the living room.

1. Ikea Ramvik Coffee Table. $129.

Last time, the first item was the one to inspire the entire post. This time, this was just the most affordable/realistic item I happened upon first. Ikea always wins my heart. I like this black color and the rather inconspicuous design. It also has drawers and space inside for all the crap we would inevitably need to hide in it. (Given open surfaces, we tend to make chaos. You'll see when I post about the kitchen someday.) Plus, that little space on the bottom could be a nice spot for some well thought-out shelf design-ness, like trinkets or something kitschy like that. The only thing I don't like about it is its bulk, especially compared with some of the next few items.

2. Room and Board Nelson Bench. $629-$764.

I love this! Room and Board was the sponsor of Apartment Therapy's "Small is Cool" contest that I mentioned last time, and the winners received prizes from them, which is so so lucky. I think this "bench" coffee table is a little too cutting edge for our apartment's motif, but I still love it, and would love to ogle it in someone else's house, even. That's how selfless I am! I accept the fact that I can't afford (both stylistically and financially) certain things, but I allow others to purchase them so I can admire the dreams I gave up.

3. Room and Board Halo Cocktail Table. $330-$1479.

First I have to wtf at their listed price. How does that variance happen? I may be confused by the fact that this link lists the item as the "base" of the table, but still. Anyway, I think glass always looks classy (if done right I guess), and tends to go with whatever decor you already have. Honestly I have no idea what I'm saying; I've never furnished a home. Don't listen to me. I just think this Halo table is really pretty, and I love the name. It's like angels are resting their heads beneath your living room floor. And who doesn't want that? Unless you've got some real assfaces living downstairs.

4. Spacify Arena Coffe Table. $1870.

Annnd absurd item of the post. This beautiful cylindery table is just so... shiny. It comes in black, too, but I couldn't find a picture. This price is so insane, though! Do people really spend that much on a big white slab of table? I guess they do if they're concerned with buying products that are made in Italy. Italy is sooo romantic blah blah blah. It's a table! It doesn't know where it was born! I could put my butt on it and it wouldn't care! Is that really worth $1870? Whateva. The point is, I actually really want this piece of crap.

Thanks to:
- DesignBloggers (Arena)

Sites I Like #3: Apartment Therapy "Small is Cool"

2008-06-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

For many eons (at least 24 months - hey, you gotta admit, that's a lot of months) I've been unearthing an interior design fetish of mine. I prowl the internets in search of what a friend of mine once accurately dubbed "real estate p." You can guess what the "p" means. Google cannot. Take that, dirty old men on the internet at work.

Anyway, I somehow came across this gem, our Site I Like #3.

Today's site: Apartment Therapy's "Small is Cool" Contest 2008

All my obsessing is a little on the easy-to-decipher side if we're talking Freudian: clearly, these spaces inspire me and my grand plans for the day that I am rich enough to move out and live in a real-estate-candy big city like San Francisco (home to the insane kitchen at right, here) or New York. Ok, maybe I'm just biased in favor of those two cities. But to be fair, Apartment Therapy's contest site has some great entries from all across the nation, all respectable and even drool-worthy.

The main idea of the site's contest was to show just how much you can do with a small place. It gives me hope, because our apartment is definitely the definition of that. And some of these people have risen to the challenge of such small quarters in ridiculous, awesome ways. Look at this incredibly ace loft from Seattle. I don't know about you guys, but I've wanted a loft ever since I knew what it was. Maybe I'm naive, but I think it would be so fun.

I do understand that it takes patience and a plan to decorate and design the way these people do, but I'm hoping to steal some inspiration from their lovely, Internet-published homes and make ours just as great. It's certainly going to be a lot of work, since my mom hasn't done a whole lot of her own part around her for several days. Guys, you should all understand that this is a very difficult task. It's easy enough to start a blog and say that, but to look around at your messy digs every day and know that you and one other person have to undo all the years of laziness you put on yourself... that is tough.

Luckily, I spend all my time gazing at photos of beautiful homes for inspiration. Shoot. Back to work...

Bay Area Awesomeness

2008-06-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Alameda County Computer Resource Center to drop off a box of jewel cases. I am proud to say I now have no more commercial jewel cases in my room (by that I mean cases that came with CDs I purchased; I have a few of the slim ones for CDs I'm going to use to back up my computer before we take its half-dead self into the Geek Squad)! Next is to donate our now-superfluous CD storage.

I've had the site for the jewel case recycling place up here on my "resources list" since the first day, but we hadn't made the trek out there till today. Turns out they take much more than jewel cases; just check out the site. I'm very pleased in general that it's so easy to find sustainable solutions around the Bay Area. Maybe it's because I haven't lived in New York long enough to understand all their environmental workings, but it seems like a less progressive place than the Bay. I constantly see people in New York toting their plastic bags, often throwing them out, and the littering is a huge problem, even though it's improved a lot over the past decade (I hear). San Francisco, on the other hand, made the decision last year to ban non-biodegradable plastic bags, which I appreciate. When I'm home, I love the fact that I see so many people whip out their canvas or other eco-friendly bags, not only at the grocery store, but many other places too.

This past year, after my suitemates and I quickly amassed a collection of plastic bags by the end of the first month of school, I grew to hate the plastic bag. But I found a way to take advantage of it: Tip: Keep one plastic bag in each of your purses or bags (yes men you can do it, too), so that when you're out and buy crap on an impulse, you don't have to consume more plastic bags and realize later you have no idea what to do with them. Another nice option for around the home is the Cole Hardware Biobag (an SF-based company :D), which my mom told me about.

Thanks to Art.com for today's image. You can buy the print, by artist Daniel Menchaca, at that link. P.S. for the non-natives, that's the Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate. :)

All Quiet on the Wrapping Paper Front

2008-06-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

I had an idea for the wrapping paper that was so controversial in our house before. I'm beginning to free up space in my bedroom closet (we left Barbie Double Skatin' Fun in the capable hands of Books for the Barrios today - I don't know if that's the kind of toy they want, but it's the kind of toy they got today), and I want to start migrating the crap from my bedroom itself in there.

The problem is, the boxes I have to store my stuff are mostly horrible old moving boxes - cardboardy and belabeled (now incorrectly) in bright red marker. So I was thinking of how I could make my closet storage prettier. While I first thought of buying some classy boxes like these ones from Ikea (in red, because I think it looks so impressive and bold, and I'm formulating a color scheme plan for my room involving white, brown and red), I had a better, more sustainable idea.

Since my good friend, who has been posting very helpful suggestions and feedback here, reminded me of the importance of reusing, I thought I would take some of our wrapping paper and use it to cover my moving boxes. I'm thinking I'll use one paper for a few boxes on the floor of my closet, and maybe a couple different ones for the boxes that will sit on the top shelf I have. Labeling is of course necessary, so I think I'll concoct some sort of handwritten, concise labels out of paper lying around, backed perhaps by construction paper. I do enjoy construction paper (it makes me feel like the kindergarteners I work with during the school year :D)! I'll be sure to post photos when they're completed. (Sadly, there are no real before pictures of my closet, because my stinking rechargeable batteries die if I don't use them within 24 hours of charging them. Any tips?)

Wishlist #one: Bookcases

2008-06-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

I have big dreams. Big dreams of my dream house. Dreamy dreams about my dream house of dreams. Since that's a pretty big dream, I often settle for having small dreams, too. Things I want include storage units, aesthetically pleasing decorative objects, and better, sleeker appliances/electronics. I guess when you add all that up, it turns into just another big fat dream. Whatever! Here's a book storage wishlist.

1. Bruno Rainaldi Sapen Bookcase, Design Within Reach. $220 small, $330 large.

I saw this in a post on OurBedrooms, a Livejournal community, and it looked so amazing that I knew I had to have it. One day my vertebral book heaven will come. When you fill it up completely, the shelf seems to be invisible, and it looks like you just stacked all your books (up to 70) all neat and tidy on your own. Very impressive. I definitely prefer this over my current bedroom bookcase situation: a white two-shelfer as old as I am, in an ugly white plastic-feeling adfljlkj I need to stop describing it because it sounds as awful as it is.

2. Brave Space Tetrad Bamboo Set. $1,000 for 5-piece set; $2,000 for 10-piece set.

This one is completely unrealistic for me, but everyone loves Tetris. And, most people like books (maybe the two exceptions are struggling Kindergarteners and the boy from my high school who listed his favorite books as "I don't like to read" on Facebook). So what better idea than to combine them? The z-shaped ones seem a little impractical to me, but I bet books look awesome in them. You can stack the individual shapes however you like!

3. Ikea Linnarp Glass Door Bookcase. $100 per 2-piece set. Black, red, or pine.

Ikea - affordable, chic sellers of home furnishings and hot dogs. I like this style for many reasons other than the price: it keeps your books dust free while also hiding them slightly (books are still visible) from the sight of critical dinner guests. Also, I just find this incredibly classy - I picture a sophisticated British surgeon opening the Linnarp bookcase in a white sitting room, looking over his wire-rimmed glasses to find Gray's Anatomy, shutting the door with a gallant click, and raising his finger, ready to explain the workings of the liver. Yummy.

4. Nils Holger Moormann Bookinist book chair. 2.187€ (about $3,407 and yes I used the European currency notation used in France and Germany. I think.)

I wanted to slap on a completely tacky bookcase as the final item in my list, but ~~Google kind of failed me~~ people are probably too embarrassed to post such things on the Internet, and everything I found while searching for "tacky bookcase" was utterly awesome. This thing looks horribly uncomfortable, but it has a wheel for reclining (label: "Not for highway use" - those Germans crack me up) and a place to store your Moleskine! So freaking European. I love it.

Thanks to:
- Design*Sponge book storage roundup (Sapien, Tetrad)
- BoingBoing archives (Bookinist)

Reasons It's Hard

2008-06-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

It's funny how "cleaning out the closet" can stir up so much nostalgia. Today it was a file cabinet, rather than a closet, that did it for me. I was rifling through a bunch of random papers and came across all my old college application documents. Essay drafts, pamphlets and acceptance letters (with that one nasty rejection letter, but we don't think about that one). They really made me think for a while, about whether or not I regretted my decision to attend NYU. I decided I don't regret it, but it took some convincing myself.

I think the nostalgia is a big part of why decluttering is so hard. Maybe for some people it's not hard at all, but maybe those people are heartless jerks. Because I'll tell you, I kept all those letters, even the rejection one, because it was a big part of my life. I'll never forget slaving away on endless paperwork and paying stupid application fees and pouring out my manufactured soul to these colleges like I was worth something more awesome than they could ever dream. So yeah, for the memories, I'll keep those papers. But the important part of going through all the past that has piled up over the years is to draw the line between milestones and mess.

I think my mom and I both have a problem recognizing that line, and the only reason we're getting so much done is that I've become sufficiently more heartless than I used to be, so my cold, bitter tendencies to re-cycle rather than re-member have cleared us of a lot of our paper weight. And I do admit that I'm heartless for some of it! My mom, though, has said that it's been very difficult to let go of my childhood toys and stuffed animals and some of the books I donated.

But in the end, when all's said and done, there's a time when you need to just get rid of your shit.

Sites I Like #2: Green Upgrader

2008-06-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

Something I've been thinking about lately is the recycling chain. We've recycled a lot of things in our project, and it's felt really good. But that twingey guilt still sets in occasionally. Why? I think it's because I realized that, to actually be green, we need to complete the circle - not only should we recycle, but we should, as consumers, buy green materials. For example, we're doing ok (but not awesome) if we recycle our old paper and then buy new paper that was created from recently killed trees. Buying recycled paper is really the way to go, even if it's a little more expensive.

Being green is a big part of our changing lifestyle here at the house of declutter-in-progress. A great site that's green is today's Site I Like!

Today's site: greenUPGRADER

This site is amazing. They post helpful links about everything environmental, ranging from "return to waster" junk mail stamps (I never realized just how much paper those stupid companies are wasting!) to scientific articles on global warming and green inventions. This graphic about the world "greendex" shows the alarmingly bad habits of the U.S. in comparison to 13 other countries. It's pretty much horrifying.

The site has a great organization and navigation, with sections from DIY Green projects to a fun and games section with comics and videos. From the DIY section, I love this idea of an invisible book shelf! That might segue nicely into a post I'll do later on book storage. :)

Credit to today's picture, oddly enough, to Alternativechannel.tv, not our featured site.

Decluttering is Happy Business

2008-06-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty low-key day on the decluttering front. My mom and I had a bunch of other stuff to do (one of which we thought was going to be coming home to an empty carport where our old decrepit second car usually sits - it was supposed to be finally towed, but whatever), but we did manage to procure for ourselves some fresh juicy apartment air by getting rid of stuff. Dang that was so many words I just wrote.

Anyway, I found this place ERecycle On Us through a Google search (Lord I love Google!), and it was so close to our apartment it was tickling us. Anyway, they take all e-waste you could think of but just no appliances. Luckily the e-waste part was what we needed, so we loaded up with VHS tapes, taking two trips when that darned Mercury wasn't gone the first time (the tow notice said 12 noon, come on tow guys! Forget your bootless pastrami, there's TOWING TO BE DONE). The staff wasn't in the office when we arrived, but they had friendly notes and a great big box for our dumping pleasure. What? Either way, out went our tapes and memories of my irrational admiration of the 90s Mickey Mouseketeers.

My mom was so happy that we had found a close place like this that she gushed about it in that gleeful old person way (no offense Mom!) and I was glad too. Google saves the earth! In roundabout, sorta indirect ways like this and probably others!

So my unabashed promotion of Google and finding local resources for your decluttering needs continues! I probably could have skipped the story to wiggle out that public announcement, but who cares! You're entertained! I love laughing.

I'll try not to post about irrelevant life details most of the time, but can I just say it is ridiculous trying to find a summer job right now?! It's always hard, but I went to five places in downtown Walnut Creek today and only one even offered me an application. Guess I'll make my millions elsehow.

And since you're probably still wondering: yeah, I said bootless. Dictionary it!

Linen Closet - Before and After!

2008-06-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today I started on my closet goal! I'm so proud. My mom said she wanted me to start with the linen closet, which disappointed me because I thought it was the one that needed the least work. But ohoho was I wrong. Man.

Since we have such little space around here, the linen closet hosted not only linens but a lot of random toiletries like TP, tissues, little paper cups, bars of soap, uhh girly things (we ARE girls after all), and laundry supplies. I found no less than 9 boxes of Kleenex, to give you an idea of what went on in that disaster of a closet! So I spent a good amount of time rooting through all the duplicates of things we had in the closet and reorganizing/folding our towels and bedding.

I realized that one big problem we have as pack rats is that all the mess gets so hidden by the rest of the new messes that are constantly piling up, that we often profess things we can't find as lost forever and just buy new ones. The Kleenex for instance. So think of it this way, if you're facing a massive decluttering and just can't get yourself started: you may save money! Tip: Organize your supplies, whatever they may be, in a way that helps you see all of them all the time. That way, there's never any confusion about what you have enough of.

All in all, I'm still sure we have way too many freaking towels (most of them pink - why??), and in retrospect I didn't follow my own advice about stuff's visibility, but here are the before and afters anyway! Since this is an ongoing project, I'll probably redo everything later; this is just the first step. Also, keep in mind that I did this one on my own! So it's not neat as a pin, per se. The before pictures are inaccurate, because I forgot to take them before I started! They were taken about halfway through, when I had thrown a bunch of crap out into the hallway.

Click each photo to view a much bigger version.

Before:

After:

As you can tell, I ended up a little pressed for space in the end. My Space Bags have holes in them. :( So I couldn't vacuum the linens up to save space like my mom suggested. Hopefully the comforters crammed at the top of this closet can go somewhere else once we, uh, have space somewhere else.

Sites I Like #1: Clutter Busting

2008-05-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

The Internet is a big place. Surprise! Haha, I'm sure you knew that. But it hit me the other day when I installed the StumbleUpon add-on for my browser that there are so many things out on the interwebs that I've never even dreamed of. Cheesy, yeah, I know. But I also discovered that there are a lot of sites relevant to my own blog project. So I'll introduce you to my favorites by blogging about them!

Today's site: Betty Kramer's Clutter Busting column

Perfect relevance, right? This woman lost everything she owned in a fire and started her life anew sans clutter. She's a professional organizer, too, with a business called Professional Organizing Services. If my mom and I had the money, I think she would be perfect for cleaning up our place. At this point, though, I think we're invested in this as a DIY project. :)

Kramer's main column has lots of neat little how-to articles, including a recent one that I think has worked well for my mom and me: using a timer (image thanks to Kramer's site) to make sure you get in some time every day to work on the de-cluttering process. In fact, my mom came up with pretty much the same idea (and even a little better) on her own without the Kramer lady's help!

Tip: My mom's suggestion is even green-minded: take at least one waking hour out of your day to not use electricity. Naturally, for us, that hour is what we spend to work on de-cluttering. Generally, we take it during the afternoon, when we can get good light from the now unblocked balcony window area. This time period is also good because it's peak time, when electricity costs are high and everyone is using their computers, etc.

Wrapping Paper Row*

2008-05-30T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute and witty cartoon that somewhat pertains to this whole project. Click the image to see a larger version on the original site, BasicInstructions.net. (If it doesn't work, try this.)

Yesterday afternoon was an event. Bored with yet another jobless afternoon, I decided to clear the clutter in the doorway between our kitchen and living room, where a large box of wrapping paper rolls has overflowed for years. I started unrolling one of the wrapping paper rolls, when my mom came over and demanded to know what I was doing.

A short spat ensued, with Camp Mom arguing for keeping the paper, and Camp Alex arguing that it never gets used and that it needs to be cleaned up. Eventually, her being the mom, I backed off and started on the bookshelves instead. I was a little annoyed, because arguments like this happen rather often when there are questions of what to donate or recycle or whatever. This time, like all other times, I was sure I was right, since there were numerous wrapping papers that we so seldom use, and it would take forever to get through using them all. Wouldn't it just be better for everyone if we recycled the majority and kept only the useful ones?

But in talking with my good friend (who is so conveniently an objective eye to this project), an environmental studies major and green enthusiast, I discovered I would have to admit defeat and ignorance. Her advice was this:

The order is reduce, REUSE, recycle!

I had never even thought there could be a reason for the word order in that old adage! But it makes perfect sense. My friend elaborated further, reasoning that recycling the old wrapping paper would be like buying something then discarding it. It's completely true. Now I feel a little guilty about recycling a lot of my old blank notebooks. Tip: Research organizations in your area to see if there's something like my good old standby, Books for the Barrios, that takes old school supplies in addition to the traditional stuff. Try to think of ways you can donate or reuse your stuff before you just chuck it. Tossing stuff is the easy way out!! Too easy...

So basically, doooon't follow the cartoon 100%. "Throw away" should be "recycle," and you should have a fourth pile for "reuse"!

* - Apparently the word "row," when used to mean "a quarrel," is pronounced to rhyme with "cow"!

Up To Now

2008-05-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned, I'm starting this blog a bit in the middle of things. We have actually made some progress in the past couple weeks, since I've come home from New York. So I thought I would catch you up.

I started with our fridge, which was chaos! Expiration dates going back to 2003. Scary. A big problem we had was the shelving - the top and bottom sections were reasonable sizes, but for some reason we had the middle shelf at only one rung tall! Fixing that fixed our entire fridge. Tip: It's getting a little crazy in there again, so I'm planning to organize it differently - top for drinks and jars of food; middle for leftovers and favorites, and bottom for the short or special stuff. What's your fridge system?

Then we took to the living room, a HUGE mess. It looked a bit like the room on the right - you can't even tell what room it's supposed to be! (Image courtesy this site.) My mother and I each went through loads of papers and knickknacks, relics of our pasts really. We recycled nearly all of the enormous, useless cardboard boxes that were blocking our window out to the balcony. Now you can see our couch! (A friend of mine whom I've joked with about this for ages was very impressed when I showed her the couch corner from the front door the other day. No one is allowed inside, you see, until the project is done.)

Once we had separated the "donate" piles from the "save" pile (which I pestered my mom to make smaller until I was satisfied that we weren't keeping any more crap), we took our things to the proper organizations. Goodwill has been a favorite for our clothing. Our local one sometimes gets filled up fast, though. Luckily, there's a Salvation Army right next door!

Today we made our second trip to Books for the Barrios, a local organization that takes toys, books, and school supplies, among other things, to donate to poor schools in the Philippines. I think it's a fantastic cause. Some of my childhood has left us for good, but I'm ok with that if it means a cleaner apartment!

My goal for next week: open and de-clutter the two closets we haven't peeked into for over two years!

First Post

2008-05-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

I'm sure no one is reading this at the actual beginning, preferring instead to read back in the archives after I've had this up a few months. Or maybe I'm just too hopeful and no one is reading!

In any case, this is the beginning. It was more or less spontaneous, since I'm home for the summer and still without a job. So instead, my job so far has been helping my mother catch up on thirteen years of spring cleaning. Here's the backstory:

My mother and I, a compact nuclear family, moved to our current apartment when I was seven - thirteen years ago now. It was pretty cozy for a while, since my mother had a good job and a comfortable home is very necessary for such a working woman and her young daughter. However, clutter amassed over the years. I couldn't invite people over anymore because you couldn't see the couch. Or the floor. Or the spaces between the couch, the floor, and everything else. Walking through our already-small apartment became a daily challenge.

But, because school and work took up our time, we never bothered to clean. So it got worse and worse. Currently, my mom is unemployed (previously on disability) and has been for about a year. I'm attending NYU during the school year.

I'm starting this blog a little late in the game, since we started our project over winter break when I was home. But I plan to document the rest of our progress, via blogs about our ideas, what we do with our old crap, daily projects, and before and after photos. (Those won't come till the after photos are ready, because I want to keep the blog pretty for now!)

Feel free to post comments, ideas, and your own resources as we go along. And here's to a clutter-free lifestyle in the coming thirteen months. Maybe. :)