Clutter-free Environment

Since moving to Fairfax in November, I have had the chance think and do something about the clutter of years worth of accumulated clothes, knick knacks, 'collectibles', tools and more.

And now that my daughter is moving, she will have to deal with the issue for multiple reasons: selling the house, moving to a new house, not repeating past mistakes, etc. My son-in-law lived with a roommate for years before hooking up with my daughter. The first time I went to visit his apartment, he did not want to let me in because of the mountains of clutter stewn about the house. To be fair, his roommate shared in the guilt. My kids mother, Patricia, comes from a household of unrelenting clutter. My two kids were mostly raised in that environment, so they are more used to it. I was raised in a house where my mother pretty much single-handedly kept the place neat and the clothes clean and folded most of the time. So, although I have sustained various degrees of clutter as a bachelor for many years, I was never comfortable in it. But my upbringing trained me to expect help in that department from the female of the house, and I was rarely home long enough to stew in it so I could do what it took to get it under control.

Anyway, since I was moving, it was an excellent opportunity to separate the riff from the raff. I donated much clutter to the Salvation Army. This included collectibles that I bought for the purpose of ... collecting? A crockpot I bought at the Salvation army. I could not stand to just throw away something that I thought someone might want, so I donated it, including clothes, toy cars, McDonald happy meal toys, Kitchen appliances sitting in cabinets for year, books collecting dust, housewares, stoneware and maybe even an underwear! Ties. Pants. Shirts. Teeth molds.

But it wasn't enough. At the new house, Suzanne suggested that ALL the boxes (except for a few obvious ones), be put in a single unused bedroom in the basement. I had the movers put all the boxes in there in rows separated with enough space so I could walk between them and examine them any one at will. I could then unpack them piecemeal when time allowed, or a particular item or box was needed. This worked out pretty well.

Some books I felt I could not just throw out so I tried opening a seller's account on Amazon to see if anyone would want to buy any of them. Surprisingly, I sold one the very first night that I put it up. I have since sold another. I have many more I could list, but that takes time, although listing is fairly easy. (I smell a procrastination blog in my future). I think I will set up a rule, that if not sold within 60 days, I will de-list and donate. If you are interested in selling though Amazon, click here. To see the books I have listed, click here. Free delivery to the metro DC area. :-)

Unbelievably, my house is currently clutter-free in the all the living areas. Kitchen, LR, DR, bedrooms, family room (home office needs some work). I was even able to take out my entire Coco-Cola collection that I actively pursued back in the 1990s that have been in boxes in my previous home since 1999! They are all proudly displayed in the large basement family room in some glass-front shelves that are built into the wall!

With all this in mind, I found this article that motivated me to write this blog, that I will share with whoever is interested:

The Minimalist’s Guide to Fighting (and Beating) Clutter Entropy

By the way, there are still about 40 boxes in that basement bedroom that I am in no hurry to add them to my living environment. About a year ago, I actually started a site called slobsanonymous.org to help people with this problem. The background picture is actually of my home desk as it looked at the time. Michelle even wrote an article for my site newsletter I had planned. But, my procrastination tendencies got the best of me, and there the website sits as you see it since September of 2006.

Here is Michelle's article:

Confessions of a Slob

Happy decluttering.

7-7-7

As many of you know, youtube had a big gathering in New York this past weekend on 7/7/07.
Here are a couple of youtube videos that came out of the event as it was upcoming and during.

Diet Must Matter

There is a guy here at work named Hartman that just had a heart attack while on vacation. He's in the hospital getting a balloon put it. Today, those are all unremarkable facts. But here is an interesting aspect to the story. He is an avid bicycler. He says he was in the Olympic biking team in 1984. He lives in Rockville and occasionally rides his bike to work on Fridays 25 miles each way. He enters races where they routinely race 60 miles in a day. So, how can one that exercises that much get a heart attack at the age of 49? Well, maybe it's the fact that he goes to McDonald's for lunch every single day! That's right, every day he goes off to Micky D's and eats alone and reads a book while eating that gar-boj.

So, the lesson here is diet matters, even if you exercise or are skinny.

Peace, and don't forget to use olive oil in your diet!

Rag Tag Game

7 Random facts

Sometimes I enjoy watching old movies because it gives me a glimpse of another time when it seemed the roles of men and women were more clearly defined. Also, I look for the old guys in the movies and then think "wow, that guy was probably like 75 in 1940, that means he was born in the 1860s! He probably knew people that fought in the Civil War." I feel like I can learn something about the history of our culture through the living characters on the screen.

My favorite shows on TV are the Office and the Apprentice. I like to see the dynamics of successful people in the Apprentice. The office is pretty funny but you can't miss a minute of it or you will not get some of the subtle humor.

My first car was the family car I inherited when I was 16 years old. A 1965 beige Rambler American station wagon. I called it the Mirmobile. Since I was mostly a year older than my school peers (started 1st grade when I was 7), I drove several friends to Cardinal Dougherty HS every morning in exchange for some gas money. Gas was only about 29-32 cents a gallon in 1971.

Growing up, I never had pets until my brother Delio left us with his German Shorthaired Pointer he named Rommel after the German Field Marshall from WWII. Rommel always escaped from the backyard and people would report sightings of him blocks and blocks away from where we lived. He was hit by a car a couple of times, but survived. Delio eventually released him in some farm in Pennsylvania. I always wondered what happened to him.

I am grateful that my son and daughter have settled into positive productive lives with their spouse after a rocky HS and have brought such great grandchildren into the world that I can enjoy into my retirement years.

I own 5 homes and half of my mother's condo in Miami as well as 5 cheap acres of land in Costilla County in southern Colorado. I have been dabbling in real estate investing since 1997.

I got my first gray hair when I was 26 and it seems like only yesterday.

Some Neat Links

Sometimes Neatorama.com has some really cool links. If you think you are a good cake maker, check out these Russian cakes:
Intricate Russian Cakes
Example:

I also love to see the latest headlines of real news as made up by users of fark.com.

My best friend growing up in Philly was Ukrainian. His dad made the most awesome intricate Easter eggs around. Check out this site of some of the design types I remember growing up seeing. Or learn how to make them yourself.

Leading Noise Hitchhiker

On my way to the Nestled Pines Chalet to finalize the hot tub installation, I picked up a native American hitchhiker on I-70. He looked like a classic American Indian from a reservation. A big guy with two very long braided pigtails and few randomly missing teeth in the front due, I'm sure, to the poor conditions of life on an Indian Reservation. Here is a summary of what I found out about him while we rode together for about 20 miles:

• He is from the Munsee Delaware tribe
  
• he is hitchhiking from Miami back to Detroit, his home, because he split up with his girlfriend.
  
• In Miami, he was mostly picked up by Spanish speaking people and they assumed he spoke Spanish too. He would just say to them "no Indio" to let them know he is "Indian".
  
• he was working as a laborer for peanuts (around $7/hour).
  
• I told him about how local community colleges can teach you Construction Trades and he could learn to be a plumber, HVAC, carpenter, etc... And I'm sure he could get financial aid.
  
• His 'Indian Name' is Leading Noise. He's not sure why but maybe it was because he made a lot of noise when he came into the world.
  

Before I dropped him off at the I70/I-68 split I gave him a roll of Ritz crackers and couple of bucks to help him along his way with a reminder to check out the Community college when he gets back. He was appreciative and happy to see the I-68 split only 1/2 mile away and said he will check out the college courses.

I'll get back to the hot tub when I get more pictures ready.
Peace

Pero Mira Que Cosa Tiene Ese Muchacho!

Estoy trabajando y practicando mi espanol. Hasta luego muchachitos y muchachitas.

HOT TUB UPDATE!!!
After talking with the deck guy. It would cost too much to reinforce the front deck for the hot tub. Also, the electric setup would be a lot more expensive since it is so far from the electric panel. So, the hot tub will now go on a specially built platform in the back of the house under the back deck on the slab. This has the advantages of being closer to the electric panel, and since there is a bathroom in the basement, it is more convenient to dry off or wash before and after the hot tub use if needed.

Did I mention it has 44 jets, seats six people and has mood lighting? NPC

Hot tub Placement

Drove to Berkeley Springs to check out placement for the Hot Tub coming this Thursday. I stopped at Home Depot to get some pavers I thought of putting under the hot tub. The guy convinced me that is a bad idea. The pavers may break apart under the exteme weight of a hot tub. So, I just bought 15 of them and will probably use them at home in the back. I decided that the best place for the hot tub will be on the front deck. I hope to get it reinforced before then!

Here is a shout out to Sammie, Enoch's brother. Michelle, for success on her fairly new blogger blog, and all the other bloggers on her site.

Peace out.

Starting out simple. Today I ate leftover pizza for lunch that I made with whole wheat pizza dough I bought at Trader Joe's last week. It's Good Friday the 6th (not to be confused with Bad Friday the 13th which is next week!)

Plans for next week include installation of a Hot Tub at the Nestled Pines chalet I am still not sure whether to put in on the Front deck in front of the screen porch or below the back deck outside the basement. Anyone who has a suggestion on this topic is welcome. More pictures here:
NPC

last night I Picked up the Bible and read Genesis. I can't believe this is taken literally by so many people. I will continue reading it, I'm sure it gets better. (Born Again note: don't read too much into this). I was thinking about Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam), who converted to Islam while he was at the top of his pop music career. I saw an article once where he said when he read the Quran he thought it was so beautuful that it must be of God. That caused him to convert. That's what got me going on picking up the Bible. Although, I'd like to see what he was talking about with the other book.

Note to would-be bloggers: This takes longer than you think because of spelling, grammar and content errors that are constantly updated.

I found this blog after I started reading riverbendblog's fascinating first-hand account of life in Iraq. So, now I created my own ID and am not sure what I will be doing with it at this point.