Listening to the House

Remember how I said I was going to sorta-kinda participate in the great junk-ousting of 2009? I did indeed start a Flickr set, which currently has one photo, a collage comprised of several small photos so as not to spam my Flickr stream with junk:

out 01.06.2009

More interesting (to me, at least) than what I've thrown out so far is how my house seems to be telling me what the weeding project of the evening will be. I'm actually excited to get home tonight (I'm working at Indy Hall today; more on that in another post, later) to see what the house will suggest.

The weeding pictured in the photo above was precipitated by a simple act: I wanted to put my new reusable mugs next to the basket holding my keys and other random stuff I take on my morning walks (film cameras, sunglasses, etc.). The basket was overflowing, leaving no room for the mugs. So I cleaned it out, removing expired coupons for film developing, coins that should have gone into the coin cup instead, random ribbons and receipts, a couple rubber bands, and a button about banned books that had fallen off an old backpack that Al uses more than I do these days.

I didn't want to throw out the button, so I moved it to the old "stroller station" in the storage room... and that's when the house Spoke To Me.

It said, "What the F*&^ are you doing? What's so important about this button? And WHY DO YOU HAVE A STROLLER STATION WHEN YOU HAVE NO STROLLER?" I promptly set about cleaning out and dismantling the stroller station and photographing all the detritus I found while doing so, resulting in the photo above.

Last night's cleaning was precipitated by a similar event: I wanted my new This Is Not a Paper Cup (suggested by Shani in a recent comment) with the other reusable mugs near the front door, but it didn't fit on the shelf with the others. I decided to clean off the top shelf, which had all kinds of random crap on it and was dusty to boot.

I removed the random crap, and then I dove under the kitchen sink in search of counter wipes to mop up the dust, vermiculite, and needles from the cactus that fell on me in 2007. What I discovered was that the bottle of Clorox wipes was sitting in a container of fetid water that had apparently leaked from the garbage disposal at some point in the probably-not-so-recent past. And the house spoke: HERE'S TONIGHT'S PROJECT!

I ended up pulling everything out from under the kitchen sink and throwing away about a third of it, scrubbing and disinfecting the cabinet, cleaning off the garbage disposal unit, vacuuming the kitchen, and then mopping the floor (because I'd dripped some of the fetid goo on it) in addition to cleaning the shelf by the front door.

I didn't take any photos of what I threw out from under the sink (or of the cabinet), but I did take what I hope to be one of 52 weekly Polaroids—of the vacuum cleaner—after I'd finished the project. I'll scan and post it tonight or tomorrow, when I'm back in front of my scanner.

I'm seriously giddy thinking about what tonight's cleaning/weeding project will be... and I'll find out soon—my Go Home alarm just went off.

Posted by Lori in around the house at 4:48 PM on January 8, 2009

Comments (1)

I did a lot of this sort of thing over the holiday. I started out wanting to get into the corner cabinet that should really have a lazy-susan in it. From there it went under the sink, into the pantry, into the closet in the dining room, under the TV in the living room, the shed behind the house, the entry to the house, the laundry room, the bedroom closet and drawers, and my office. I'm still stuck in my office because the file cabinet is in here and it's scary.

I took before and after pictures of some of it, but not of the stuff I got rid of. Isn't it a lovely feeling, though? Like clean water over toes that have been stuck in shoes too long. I love it. :)

Good luck on your next project!!

Comments

I did a lot of this sort of thing over the holiday. I started out wanting to get into the corner cabinet that should really have a lazy-susan in it. From there it went under the sink, into the pantry, into the closet in the dining room, under the TV in the living room, the shed behind the house, the entry to the house, the laundry room, the bedroom closet and drawers, and my office. I'm still stuck in my office because the file cabinet is in here and it's scary.

I took before and after pictures of some of it, but not of the stuff I got rid of. Isn't it a lovely feeling, though? Like clean water over toes that have been stuck in shoes too long. I love it. :)

Good luck on your next project!!

Posted by: Kylene at January 8, 2009 8:20 PM

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