Layla vs. Stuff; Stuff 1, Layla 0

[layla]

I was not really planning on spending this weekend cleaning, but that seems to be what's happening, because I started organizing the upstairs and suddenly I'm awash in a sea of comics I feel too guilty to throw out and random items of electronics that I haven't used since 1998. I can't see the floor, and since my desk is now covered with umpteen piles of stuff I'm trying to categorize (old Christmas cards over here, samples for portfolio over here, penciled pages of last year's Kismet over here...), I can't even find any of my art supplies, let alone use them. I guess I'm going to spend the whole weekend cleaning instead of finishing up the typesetting on the RC trade, which is what I was *planning* to do, because I have to go use the computer at work to do the cover and I don't want to spend half the day in town with the upstairs a horrific mess. I guess I could, but now that I've started, I'd like to finish.

Not just cleaning but, more importantly, ORGANIZING. It is coming to my attention that trying to keep ahead of my packrat nature is causing me to lose untold hours of work and/or playtime. I really need to do something about this. My hope is that when I finish this time, I will have much more open workspace and a place for everything, so I can keep things sorted and not let it get like this again.

...hahahaha. I wish.

My big problem is that so much of what I own defies categorization. Like a pair of bookends my grandmother gave me, which are sort of cool (they're shaped like globes with 1700s-era maps of the world on them) but none of my bookshelves lend themselves to the use of bookends at the moment. Do I put them away in a box in case I ever need them, or get rid of them? My dead dog's toys and dishes, which are too small for the dogs I have now (much tinier breed). A bajillion empty CD jewel cases; I just KNOW I'll need one as soon as I throw them all out. And so forth...

Also lost half the evening to this site, linked from Colleen Doran's forum. Damn you, Internet, sucking down my brain.

Comments

[arcana-j.livejournal.com]

I feel your pack rat pain. I spent today cleaning and reorganizing my room. I vacuumed up enough dog hair to knit a sled team.

Be ruthless. If you haven't used it in the last six months, think about dumping it. If you haven't used it in the last year, pitch the damned thing out.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

My big problem is that I feel so guilty about throwing out anything that might, theoretically, given the correct set of circumstances, come in handy someday. Like this one CD player that I've been carting around since college. I hate the thing; it's incredibly touchy (just shaking the floor a little bit causes the CD to skip), bulky and the speakers are free-standing so you have to unhook all the wires in order to move it. My computer does an infinitely better job of playing CDs (and most of my music is in iTunes these days anyway). And yet I'm haunted by the deep fear that if I do get rid of it, I'll have a sudden need to play CDs somewher away from my computer and I won't be able to do it.

[arcana-j.livejournal.com]

GAH! Stand firm woman! Give the CD player to charity and know that it will be useful to someone.

You can do it!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's how it went.

Me: I'm getting rid of that CD player upstairs.
Husband: You can't do that! It still works!
Me: I don't care. I hate it. I've always hated it. The only reason I ever owned it is because a friend sold it to me in college for $25.
Him: Put it in the living room, then.
Me: ???
Him: In the pile of electronic equipment.
Me: You mean the 13" TV I tried to throw away in Illinois, the broken VCR you picked up beside the road, and the 25-year-old cassette tape channel-mixer you picked up at the dump the other day.
Him: Yes. Just put it on top.
Me: You want the speakers too? They're tiny and crappy.
Him: Sure.

As you can see, not only am I not the only packrat in the house, I don't even think I'm the worst one.

[divalea.livejournal.com]

Wow. That was strangely depressing. The fanart, I mean.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

It is, isn't it? I have sort of a love-hate relationship with Internet snark. On the one hand, I laugh my ass off at this sort of thing. On the other hand, not only does it call attention to the sad sad state of fandom, but there's something a trifle mean-spirited about it, especially when the work they're snarking at is clearly that of kids. Crappiness does beget crappiness, and Internet fandom is in something of a downward spiral because of 11-year-olds seeing nothing but the half-assed work of other 11-year-olds and thinking that's how things are supposed to be. But even though I (guiltily) laugh at it, I'd feel lousy making fun of some kid's art where they could potentially read my comments. That's one of the reasons I stopped (for the most part) writing reviews for Sequential Tart. I just feel too bad ripping apart people's work in public.

On the other hand, I nearly died laughing at the pink Darth Maul surrounded by flowers (http://www.mangoat.net/archives/8023.jpg). PINK. With a BOW! And apparently no irony whatsoever.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Oh dear God, and then there's THIS (http://www7.plala.or.jp/swv/swpics/skipquiwall.html) (same artist). Maybe it *is* intentional after all. Nobody could draw Qui-Gon skipping on tippytoes through a field of flowers without at least some awareness of the absurdity of it all.

... I'm not getting a whole lot of cleaning done, am I?

[dewgeist.livejournal.com]

Up past your bedtime too:)

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

The garage construction crew (husband and father-in-law) are hard at work right outside the bedroom window, so it's not like I'd be able to sleep if I DID go to bed. ;)

I assume they have to knock off for bedtime eventually, although I'm starting to wonder.

[divalea.livejournal.com]

God, that's some funny art.

[dewgeist.livejournal.com]

Oh jeez, We just went through the mother of all clean-ups just to move here. I feel your "pack rat" pain too. One of our big challenges will be what to do with all of our books (books > shelf space) most of the old furniture didn't make the trip.

That was a "godawful" rabbit-hole to fall down. Thanks, I think...

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

We went and got some cheap shelving from Home Depot and be-shelved the walls of our upstairs. The books fit now. The comics are another story ... that's another of the problems I'm having right now. Too many comics, too little space!

[dewgeist.livejournal.com]

Well, I linked to the "skipping Qui" and now I'm afraid that I won't be able to sleep either...yeesh!