Small Project Empty update

[darkemeralds]

Lest my friends think I have abandoned Project Empty at the 70% mark: not a jot!

It's true that I've cleared the biggest and most visible hoards o' crap, replacing them with either blessed emptiness or very tidy, clean-lined articles of furniture. I've already published the most dramatic before-and-after photos.

It's also true that my house is now astonishingly neat (for me), and stays that way with an ease that just four months ago would have seemed like a dream. So yeah, my motivation to keep clearing is waning a little. Law of diminishing returns and all that.

But I've continued to muck out little areas as the mood strikes me or the need arises, and the project is still alive and kicking.



Remaining, in descending order of how much I don't want to deal with them, are:

• Basement: Clothes Rack (I just hate going into my basement)
• Bedroom: Linen cupboard (where a significant number of items from other areas have wound up)
• Bedroom: Storage bins under my bed
• Kitchen: Chimney space (a sort of vertical crawlspace with lumber-room leanings)
• Outdoors: Back yard (it's been too cold and rainy)
• Outdoors: Interhouse space behind the bathroom (ditto the cold and rain, plus I really don't like my neighbors on that side)
• Kitchen: shelf over west window (which contains only one item that I just don't want to deal with--hey! maybe I could put it in the linen closet!)
• Kitchen: Refrigerator (ick!)
• Kitchen: Freezer (a sense of terrible waste)

I see a pattern here: many of the slices I'm avoiding are in dark, cold, hidden, spidery, or otherwise completely ignorable spaces.

Some of the less-nasty remaining slices, however, could be done in mere moments, so here's the deal: I'm going to go clear a couple of them before I even post this.

...

Okay, that's that. Thank you for waiting. Six more very-small slices are now clear (is it possible that my standards are dropping ever so slightly?), including my freezer and the front porch steps. While I was at it, I noticed three slices that I somehow completely overlooked before, plus one that I've created anew, and honestly has compelled me to add them to the map.

So, Project Empty now stands at 65 of 83 areas cleared, for a declutter rate of 78%. Woo hoo!

Comments

[serenity-valley.livejournal.com]

Impressive! What a life-changing experience this has been and you've been such an inspiration to all of us reading about your progress. Just 18 areas left to go and when you're ready, you'll tackle those dark, cold spaces just as you have with everything else (and probably once you get started, you'll get that same drive to finish it up).

And I understand the waning motivation -- it's so tempting when you're working on a project to slow down once the biggest work is finished and the details are all that's left. The most dangerous part of the project, in my experience, especially because detail work is a surprisingly big portion of the project when taken together.

Like, when we were working on the attic, by the time the room was drywalled, textured, and painted and the floors were done, we were ready to be done with it. After all, we only had a few things left, right? After gutting the attic and rewiring, drywalling and refinishing the floor and all the work of cutting the paneling for the closets, this stuff is all small potatoes, we can knock it out in no time. The baseboards to cut and install -- just an afternoon, surely? Oh, and we'll need to nail up those window trim pieces now that they're painted...well that should only be a few hours. Oh, and all those switchplates and outlet covers -- need to remember to put those back on. But they do need to be painted first. Well, we can knock those out after work tomorrow, no need to deal with that today. Of course, there are those lights to install in the closets, but those can wait -- I want to get the bedroom stuff moved into the attic and start decorating! The windows still need those curtains I was going to make for them -- why oh why can't I find anything suitable at Target? -- but they're simple tab tops, and I do have all the stuff I need for them, so no need to hold everything up for those, I'll get to them next week.

We did manage to address most of those details in a (relatively) timely manner, but we could've finished much quicker if we hadn't been so impatient to be done with the project and procrastinated on the finish work. We're putting that lesson to better use on this project, sticking with it until we absolutely do have those finish details completed, but sitting here at the tail end of it, it's taking a lot of willpower to do that. Something about the perception of the size of it (touch-up painting?), vs. the size of what you've done before (scraping 600 square feet of trim??), contributes to that lack of motivation, I think.

I'm curious what the one object is on the kitchen shelf (if it's not prying to ask) and what area you created anew and why.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

In my experience on projects at work, it's always The Punchlist--the things that are covered under the "and other items as required by the owner and agreed to by the contractor" clause of the contract--that threatens to remain undone forever.

I haven't crossed over into the territory yet where The Perfect Is The Enemy of the Good [Enough], but if I feel like I'm getting there, I'm certainly willing to lower my standards and call 90% a win.

Your project has quite a lot in common with mine, doesn't it? Mine's cheaper and less hard on the hands and knees, but I think there are some very similar outcomes in terms of personal growth.

[roseambr.livejournal.com]

I think it's true that the hardest parts of any project is getting started and finishing the details. My family has a ancestral habit of always stopping on a project before it's completed. The detail stuff just gets over-looked. My husband, on the other hand, finishes everything, in record time. Never procrastinates about it, doesn't even begin to think a project is done until it IS. He has helped motivate and inspire me to complete things a little more often. As a matter of fact, he has inspired my father to try and complete projects. Now THERE is a miracle!

You are making great progress in my book! I tend to need some space between chapters in this project myself. Some rest time, some time on other things, then back to it. I haven't even decided what my next area is going to be on the de-clutter project but I'm sure it will be showing itself again soon...

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Thank you for helping me realize two things with this post: first, that I do know when this project is complete: I have a list and when everything's checked off it, this project is done, and other things that may arise belong in a different project. I was having a feeling that it was never-ending and therefore unfinishable.

And second, that I cam get it done. I suspect that part of the reason Mr. Roseambr is good at finishing things to the last detail is that he sticks to a plan and doesn't get a lot of new ideas and "scope-creep" while he works.