Demolition Women

[darkemeralds]

My sister came by today and used her superpowers to pull out the last of the earthquake-proof closet.




Three weeks ago


Today


De-nailing the lumber for donation

She still owns a motor vehicle, so we loaded up all the 2x4s, plus large plywood shelves, trim and closet doors, and she drove off to donate it to the Rebuilding Center.

Other not-strictly-garbage stuff magically disappears if I leave it out on the curb for the scrappers.



There are a few things left in the bedroom--including my bed--that still have to come out before flooring can commence. My living room, kitchen, and porch are already heaped high, so the next order of business is a choice: rent a storage pod or just jettison a bunch of stuff.

I'm leaning heavily towards jettisoning. It's a lot simpler.

Comments

[tehomet]

Crikey! That's a big change.

You and your sister don't mess around!

I'd jettison stuff, too, if you can bear it. :)

[darkemeralds]

My sister is Wonder Woman. She actually worked in deconstruction for a while, and she's very strong and energetic. Me, I'm more the tortoise than the hare, but I'm happy to say that little by little I pried most of the closet out before my sis came by with the experience and the extra tools.

I'm going to unload a good half of what was stored up in that closet. It's a bit like one of those sliding number puzzles in here right now, and getting donations out to the porch is going to involve several moves. Tomorrow, I think. It will feel good.

[ranunculus]

YAY for extra tools!
I know all about storing those extra tools... :)

Jettesoning the things you can is sure a good way to go forward. Sometimes I wish I were demolishing a closet. On the other hand, I've been doing taxes which seems to involve getting rid of a lot of magazines.

[darkemeralds]

Is getting rid of magazines a euphemism for something? Or are you just procrastinating?

[ranunculus]

No, sadly there are magazines all over this house. We over subscribed to several things that we have not had time to read, or haven't read enough of to discard. I didn't renew most of the them this year, but the last year has been, well, torrential. While doing my taxes I've been cleaning up, both as a side effect of procrastination and to find a couple of papers that had wandered off into magazine land. It doesn't take much in this flat, we have about 800 sq ft and one room of that we attempt to keep clear for guests. Almost no wall room either as the roof comes down to about 5'6" on the longer side walls. In doing my taxes I've also cleaned up a big pile of paper that had slowly grown on my really tiny desk.

Over the years I've learned to clean up when I have the desire to do so. Other times all I want to do is to get out and -do- something. Working on paperwork if I want to be outside often just results in mistakes. Makes for an untidy existence.

[darkemeralds]

Yep. I've found that life goes along more productively and is more satisfying when I major in what I actually feel like doing.

[ranunculus]

It feels good to get this far into being cleaned up. I have a couple of things left to do for taxes, both very minor so that is definately a big plus! Our taxes are complex since we itemize. Looking at the spreadsheet this year it occured to me that the turkey hunter, much as I like him, only brings in about $100 per year once I assign him his share of the taxes and insurance!

[darkemeralds]

Turkey hunter?

[ranunculus]

"Wild" turkeys were not native to California. They were introduced into our area about 3 years ago and spread rapidly. By rapid I mean that the population that was introduced 15 miles to the south of us reached our ranch 4 to 5 years later. Not long after that we began seeing huge flocks, some as big as 70 individuals. Somewhere along about 25 years ago a young turkey hunting guide contracted with us to hunt on our property. He's still doing so, guiding a variety of people and removing a few turkeys each year. Most years we only see him occasionally.

Hunting is one of the ways a rancher can make money on land. There really aren't very many ways to pay the bills. Hunting, grazing, cutting wood are the main ones.

[darkemeralds]

I honestly was not expecting the answer to be literal turkey hunting. Interesting!

[cookiemom6067]

Jettisoning would be more work in the short term but more satisfying in the long term, I would think. You probably aren't gOing to have as much energy for decluttering when you're done with the remodel than you are now, but I know that when you have a lot of energy for a specific project it's irritating to focus on something else, so you may not want to get into it right now. I think it's a "pain now, or pain later" question. If it were me, I would hate to deal with putting all the old stuff in the new space. I'd want it cleared out. Since you're not doing all the work yourself, it might be that you'll have time for discarding the flotsam and jetsom in the meantime

[darkemeralds]

You are so right! And I know from experience that when a project is done, it's done--whether it's all complete or not--and everything tends to fossilize very quickly right where I left it.

I'm going to have to keep plodding along letting the project and my space limitations (and my patience) drive the giving-away process. I appreciate your perspective though, because you remind me how important it is to take care of the "pain" now so that I can really enjoy the outcome later without any little niggling leftover undone things.