Why is it so hard to clean house?

[cjsmith]

There are times in my past when I've looked at the enormous mound of useless crap I own and despaired. It's easier to find a bigger apartment than to clean out the junk. It's easier to MOVE all the junk across a continent than to face it and battle the monster; easier to run away than to take back my life.

These days, I'm doing somewhat better about useless crap. Not cured, just... well... "a recovering junkaholic", to steal a phrase. But now it's activities. Time. Everything on my schedule looks valuable, just like every piece of schtuff I used to own had some value. None of it is easy to part with. Yet I am again fighting for no less a prize than ownership of my life.

Running away seems easier, as usual. Rob's starting to noodle about moving out of the Bay Area, probably combined with a change of career for both of us. I must admit it's sounding awfully good. I just came back from the holiday weekend and now I have very little free time until September. But I know that running away does not solve the underlying problem. Whether we go or stay, I have to learn how to clean house.

Comments

[busysuzy.livejournal.com]

Naaaaaaah. Just hire someone else to do it!

;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*hee* tempting! :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

about moving out of the Bay Area

(selfish pout) But I don't even know you yet, really!

(ducking)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

No need to duck - I thank you for the compliment! :)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's an attractive trap to fall into, where you've committed all your time and don't have any left for impulsive stuff.

I find that it helps me if I budget time for myself, even if all I do is sit around and read a book when that time comes. I at least have the option of doing whatever the hell I want during that time. It's mine.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Maybe I need to make "me time" a bigger priority. Thing is, that's so hard... other things, prescheduled commitment type things, are so tempting.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Because cleaning house sucks. Bigtime. Take it from a two-year house-bitch. It's supposed to be my main job, and I still can't get it all done -- who the hell wants to spend all their time cleaning?

It *is* easier to keep things clean once you have less stuff -- but getting rid of the stuff is harder than cleaning, imo!!! Good luck to you, sounds like you're on the right track, eh?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, streamlining one's life is a tough job -- even though it makes many other things easier in the long run. I hafta hafta hafta learn to do this!

[tytso.livejournal.com]

If you're thinking about moving out of the Bay Area, may I point out that Boston has lots of attractive features. <grin>

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It sure does. Trees! Fall color! Things that are green in the summer! Snow! Hills! But... mosquitoes. Hmm. :-)

Boston

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, now that the mosquito genocide boxes
are mass-market (and as far as I can tell, just
pull out mosquitos from that niche, leaving
other bugs that don't bother people but are still
tasty to the birds...) it's a lot more possible
to "deal with" mosquitos at least locally.
(Dave+ruth have one, I'm considering one...)

But yeah, moving doesn't help - you spend years
with stuff still-in-boxes even if you have a
*lot* more space. After 2 years I have all the
boxes out of the main floor, but the downstairs
family room (ie. where the model railroad is
going :-) is still covered with boxes, and most
of it is surplus electronics, from an era when,
well, we weren't particularly *good* at them, so
they're not really useful for much, other than
teaching the evolution of circuitry (not a bad
cause, but maybe it shouldn't be mine :-)

It's nice to have the main floor clear for
"entertainment space" and to be able to at least
*think* that "someday, the rest will be that
organized." Realistic - perhaps not. Nice to
think so, though.
_Mark_