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nellorat on trying to get the house presentable enough for company. Go read that.
We are making terrific progress, though, I fear, the words I used to describe my cleaning work in my study last month keep echoing in my head: "I spent five hours on it, it's vastly better organized, but the changes are not visible to the human eye." Part of this is that much of the work we did today involved straightening up enough in our basement file room that we can move some shelving-units-on-wheels there, and then boxes will begin to disappear from the living room &supergee's study. But that disappearance isn't today, and it feels too much like cleaning and fury signifying little.
On the bright side, there's a pile of boxes in the middle of my study which should disappear first thing tomorrow, which will make a difference visible to the human eye.
And, of course, I'm tired, which makes it harder to be enthusiastic. I'm sure that tomorrow I'll be astounding by how much we've done. Intellectually, I'm there now; I'm just not emotionally connected to any sense of progress yet.
nellorat on trying to get the house presentable enough for company. Go read that. We are making terrific progress, though, I fear, the words I used to describe my cleaning work in my study last month keep echoing in my head: "I spent five hours on it, it's vastly better organized, but the changes are not visible to the human eye." Part of this is that much of the work we did today involved straightening up enough in our basement file room that we can move some shelving-units-on-wheels there, and then boxes will begin to disappear from the living room &
supergee's study. But that disappearance isn't today, and it feels too much like cleaning and fury signifying little. On the bright side, there's a pile of boxes in the middle of my study which should disappear first thing tomorrow, which will make a difference visible to the human eye.
And, of course, I'm tired, which makes it harder to be enthusiastic. I'm sure that tomorrow I'll be astounding by how much we've done. Intellectually, I'm there now; I'm just not emotionally connected to any sense of progress yet.
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Date: 2005-06-19 05:38 am (UTC)But it does sound like you are making definite progress. As you know, Bob, I have a house the Collyer brothers would want to tidy up. I have launched an all out attack, and I have two principles for judging progress. One is The Theory of Crap Drift, which is that as long as stuff is moving in the general direction of where it should end up (even if it can't go to an exact place yet), you're making progress. The Theory of Crap Drift helps to overcome that feeling of hopelessness when it seems like all you're doing is stirring things up and making them worse. The second great principle is The Theory of Conservation of Crap. OK, I didn't exactly make this one up. :) But the cheerful point is that as long as stuff is exiting--in trash bags, in recycling bags, in boxes for donation--then progress is indeed being made. Even if it is not visible to the human eye. I'm still LOL.