Monday! And the beginning of a new year :)
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group gives Kossacks a safe place to check in, a daily diary where we can let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, earthquakes, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It also allows us to find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, earthquakes etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a Kosmail and ask to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
We do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday:
BadKitties
Tuesday:
ejoanna
Wednesday:
Caedy
Thursday:
art ah zen
Friday:
FloridaSNMOM
Saturday:
Most Awesome Nana
Sunday:
loggersbrat
I have decided, finally, to REALLY declutter. I have made attempts in the past, but I am sentimental and tend to make excuses as to why I should keep things. Also, I'm from a family of practical Yankees. If we can fix it, we do, rather than running out and buying a new one. That just seems like a waste of money.
I am doing one room at a time, and when I finally get to my closets and dressers, one drawer or rack at a time.
I need to start with the living room. There are just too many family pictures on the tables. They are in lovely gilded frames, but still. There are old copies of Hamptons Magazine stacked on the bottom of one end table--I probably saved them for recipes, pictures of friends, or decorating ideas that will never come to fruition. Out they go. The other end table has copies of the Social Register, books on gnomes, Paris, and Tutankhamen, a book on the great houses of Britain, a book on the history of the New York Athletic Club, and a New Yorker book of cartoons. Not sure whether to divide the books between the two tables, or put a couple on the coffee table. Or move them all to the basement library shelves. But something will be done :)
I'm going to donate a bunch of glass snack plates that I have never used to a thrift store. Somehow, I always ended up having cocktail parties instead of tea parties :) Then I can put a couple of the decanters that are crowded on a shelf in the cabinet. Most were my grandparents', beautiful, heavy, lead crystal. I rarely use them, but I picture them on the bar cart in their apartment, filled with liquor and with silver labels around their necks. I have some of the labels, too. Lead crystal is safe if you don't store the liquor in it, but just decant for a party, I think. This is a perfect example of how I make excuses: They belonged to my grandparents! They're beautiful! They're valuable! (Maybe.)
I need to be ruthless. Not only will my life be changing a great deal in 2015 (I'm losing 240 pounds, although I only weigh around 135 myself), but I want to start a business with a dear friend, and I need my house to look impeccable. I'm looking forward to lovely, intimate dinner parties for six, friends visiting from New York and other places, trunk shows, martini parties, and general peacefulness. When you have clutter, it owns you. Clutter has to be dusted and polished. Less clutter, less dusting. Simple. Most of the pictures displayed in the living room are of my father at various stages in his life, from babyhood to youth to the military to pictures that were published in newspapers. Not the clippings, but prints. He was an extraordinary man, and I miss him dearly.
Decluttering is...freeing. I have an obsession with pillows. I frequently change the ones on the sofas. But I really have too many damn pillows in the storage closet in the basement. Luckily, I joined a couple of local online decorating garage sale groups on Facebook, and I can sell some of the pillows on there. I might even sell the sofas, just to get rid of the ugly green pillows that came with them. I have camel microsuede slipcovers on them, but always planned to replace the sofas. Nobody ever sits on them except cops and the occasional new couple or nursing mother, usually. Maybe DH will take them. I doubt it, though.
My bedroom is cluttered. The dressing table has jewelry in progress, on a beading board with various bags and containers of beads piled on top. My night table has bottles of pills, books, a flashlight, a bottle of aromatherapy spray for sudden bad DH smells, a silver bowl for my jewelry, a clock, a tissue box in a cover, and leg cramp cream. I dream of a table with just an orchid plant, the jewelry bowl, the clock, and my Kindle. There are boxes of shoes stacked next to the TV. This is bad. I really need to divest myself of some shoes, but I have bigger feet than all my friends, and a predilection for VERY high heels. I do have a cousin with equally big feet, but she only wears flats or kitten heels. I will probably replace the night table with a three-drawer one, when I eventually downsize the bed. The reading lights are mounted on the wall.
So...this will be a catharsis for me. I'm excited about this. It's just STUFF. I need to think...what do I REALLY need? Not ten sets of sheets. For my new bed, two or three will be sufficient. I used to change all the bedding with the seasons, because I could. Now, I'll just stick with one duvet cover and swap out blankets. I'd like to do the bedroom in light blue and silver. Seems restful. I'll have to paint it myself. Blue walls, silver bedding and maybe I'll paint the dresser silver, too. Might go with white if I can't find silver, or make the bedding myself.
I was terrified of these changes, but I'm not anymore. This will be a tough year, but decluttering both my house and my mind will set me free.
Onward and forward! Ugggh. I can do it. Has anyone else? My mother did, when my father died, but she's always been ruthless and hates clutter.