A Declaration of Disorganization

I suppose you could say I’ve been suffering from writer’s block, only I have about 10,000 words of nonsense written down about it that no one is going to see—ever. Every night, I attempt to create a blog post that I would not mind showing to the world (not that the world reads my blog or anything). Night after night, my efforts fall short; my theme hijacks itself to another realm, and the post dwindles into an inchoate rant about something totally unrelated to what I intended to write about. I am hoping this post will not be yet another of the same in a long string of pointless verbiage.  After all, I am writing about my inability to write, aren’t I?

Cluttered House, Cluttered Mnd

My house should be on “Hoarders,” only circumstances prevent such an option in the land of next-door in-laws and the desire for a measure of privacy. So I resolve every morning to make a dent in “Mount Filthabachi,” as I call the stacks of boxes and tottering towers of books. Some days I actually get some organizing done, but there is a strong tendency towards distraction. I have daily chores that take up a large chunk of the morning and afternoon.  In the evening, my time is hijacked by my unofficial position as personal secretary to my husband (an unacknowledged time-eater) and from-scratch cooking maven. The in-laws are constant loose cannons, placing unpredictable demands on our time at short to no notice. Between all this and my dependence of late on narcotic painkillers for long-standing chronic pain problems, I have found coherent writing to be next to impossible.  I am looking for solutions. Writing this post is a step towards that goal. 

If I drink enough coffee will I magically be able to handle this mess?

Online Clutter: Social Networks and Startup Madness

As I have waded into the waters of Wahooly, a nascent “startup for startups” venture that promises to create a marketplace for social currency and reward social influencers with equity in startups, I find that there is a need on my part to consolidate and organize what social networks I now frequent. According to Klout , I wield sufficient influence to have rated the opportunity to participate in the Wahooly venture, but now I find that I am rather outclassed by my fellow Wahooligans in the realm of social networking savvy.  So naturally, I want to learn. 

There is soooo much to figure out though, and many signals cross over each other in my correspondences with my fellows. I find the demand on my time to be greater than what I have in any one time block. Social networking will expand to fill all available space if you let it. That should be an axiom, really. It is so true, even for a somewhat introverted geeky type like me.  So I downloaded a socialnetworking infographic and started bookmarking sites that aggregate interesting articles about social media and business. But somehow I’m still overwhelmed, as I have all my home responsibilities plus these online ones now. Oh yes, I forget to mention that I run an online bookstore on Amazon.com as well. That takes up those straggling moments of free time as well.

The secret is to organize it all. And for me, the hoarder’s wife, it is the Holy Grail, hard to see when there are 25 boxes in my immediate field of vision. As with all things, perseverance wins. At least I keep the food waste cleaned up and mice at bay. But that’s part of my basic housewife job description.

The Hardest Part About Trying to Clean in a Hoarder House

I'm married to a hoarder, albeit a hoarder with taste (well, sometimes). He collects everything if it is older than about 1975 or so. I have a huge 1950's furniture-grade television (nonworking) and a Victrola (working) in the living room. Today, I tried to organize the living room, and I had to move these monstrosities, along with a large set of metal shelves. The problem is that the house is full of crap! So, in order to move these three pieces of vintage/antique furniture, which took all of about 10 minutes total, I had to clear about 20 boxes, repack some of them, vacuum around and under many structures and wipe away the residual dust that didn't respond to the vacuum. The project took about 3 hours, but I can see floor space I haven't laid eyes on in over a year, and I got the HUGE Sentinel television in the corner where it belongs (until the unlikely event of its being fixed). The Victrola is now much more accessible, so I can listen to those many pre-1925 78 records that now sit next to the unit instead of underneath an intricate do-it-yourself clock kit and several items of discarded clothing.

I'm not a neat freak, which is probably helpful when one is married to a hoarder. In fact, I've found the tendency kind of wears off on me. I have far more items of oriental decor than I can ever display in this rather small, one-bedroom log cabin. But I work hard to keep the clutter at bay, and I almost never stop cleaning, unless of course I'm mowing the lawn. But then that's a form of cleaning too, isn't it?

I suppose I'm proud of myself today, because, for once, you can actually tell that I've been laboring all day to make the house look better. On normal days, my activities only succeed in keeping the kitchen free of food waste, the entryways relatively free of the grass, dirt and straw the dogs drag in from outside and the mildew out of the shower. Now I'm exhausted. Just for a small treat, here's a mostly unobstructed view of my now-visible Victrola!

Oh yeah, if you look behind the Victrola, there can be seen the Sentinel television in all its grand, vintage non-working beauty. It's a pretty piece of furniture, but it'd be nicer if it was a working television! For now, it is a lamp stand. Cheers y'all!