William Morris Experiment , Week 9

I'm still working in the living room/dining room combination. Last night I had friends over for dinner, which meant I had to clean and shift things for them. Easier than it would have been a month ago, no doubt: everything could be tucked neatly into the downstairs closet--which now has room. A quick vacuum and dust, and I was good to go.

This week, I am focusing on the bookshelves and media. I'll take a first pass through all my bookshelves (6 of them) with the goal of removing one of the small, not-go-great ones at the end.

I'll be culling my various media in this order:

• Books: hardcoover, paperback, and cookbooks (an entirely separate category)
• Cassette tapes
• CDs
• DVDs
• Magazines (I've got a new stack, about 8 high)

I'll do two passes through each area, simply because I ahve realzied I never get all the books I want to give away the first time. Sometimes I just don't see them, sometimes I dither about giving them away, sometimes I think I'll read them again... soon. Wrong!

I realize that everything but the books will be relatively easy. I don't mind having a lot of books in my house, including those I've read some time ago, loved, and want to hang onto forever. But I have useless books.

This is a task I can take on while I do something else, like watch my Netflix films or listen to Pandora.

Again,my end goal is to remove one of the smaller bookscases entirely from my house.

Once I am done wiht that, I'll tak on these relatively smaller tasks:

• find a basket for the tapestry pillows
• get the basket chair out of the house to a friend
• transform videos to DVDs
• buy and hang new curtains in living room (hate the ones I have) 

I am getting close to the end-in-sight of not having to do a monthly Goodwill run, to being comfortably within a "clutter-free" zone. Then I can start on the study in all seriousness, since that is the last, great, final clutter zone in my apartment.