*JUNE, WHAT WENT WRONG, REDUX, BEGIN AGAIN*
JUNE:
This is the basement as it looked last summer.
As I wrote in June, this is the first and most obvious source of embarrassment. This clean-up will not be easy or quick. There will hard decisions that I have to make, and time will be lost when I discover a box of stuff to go through. Also, despite my conservationist leanings, there will be some things that just won’t be disposed of properly.
JUNE:
This is the basement as it looked last summer.
As I wrote in June, this is the first and most obvious source of embarrassment. This clean-up will not be easy or quick. There will hard decisions that I have to make, and time will be lost when I discover a box of stuff to go through. Also, despite my conservationist leanings, there will be some things that just won’t be disposed of properly.
If I’m not back (like, you don’t see me on Facebook) in a day, send help. Something fell on me, or I’m curled up in a pile of my grandfather’s old shirts, sad.
WHAT WENT WRONG:
That was the beginning and immediate the end of my attempt to classify all this crap. Today, it currently looks the same if not worse. Why did I stop? First, for a variety of reasons, we ended up not moving. But that decision wasn't made until August. I started this in June, and by all accounts I really should have been packing the mess. However, I think I put in a good week and then quit. It really was overwhelming. Touching all these things—a splintered badminton racquet, a bottle of men’s after shave in a glass pinecone bottle, the (almost) complete collection of the Sesame Street Library, a whole box called “College”—just stirred up their energies and recharged their significance, which, for a long time had just been hidden in boxes in this pit of despair.
I begin again. I was largely inspired by Underwater New York’s recent collaborative effort with Significant Objects, a project in which a story is written about a found object or one purchased at a flea market thus giving a seemingly insignificant object meaning, something I do everyday. Significant Objects then auctions off the newly meaningful objects, donating the proceeds to charity, thus preying on those of us who have this disease of keeping! It’s a great experiment.
WHAT WENT WRONG:
That was the beginning and immediate the end of my attempt to classify all this crap. Today, it currently looks the same if not worse. Why did I stop? First, for a variety of reasons, we ended up not moving. But that decision wasn't made until August. I started this in June, and by all accounts I really should have been packing the mess. However, I think I put in a good week and then quit. It really was overwhelming. Touching all these things—a splintered badminton racquet, a bottle of men’s after shave in a glass pinecone bottle, the (almost) complete collection of the Sesame Street Library, a whole box called “College”—just stirred up their energies and recharged their significance, which, for a long time had just been hidden in boxes in this pit of despair.
I begin again. I was largely inspired by Underwater New York’s recent collaborative effort with Significant Objects, a project in which a story is written about a found object or one purchased at a flea market thus giving a seemingly insignificant object meaning, something I do everyday. Significant Objects then auctions off the newly meaningful objects, donating the proceeds to charity, thus preying on those of us who have this disease of keeping! It’s a great experiment.
But the problem for me is that once given meaning, I need to hold on to the object, love it, cherish it, put it in a box and be warm and happy knowing it’s there for me anytime I want to feel that way, not unlike Boxing Helena, right down to captive ridiculing captor. (You know that awful, soft-core porn movie with Sherilyn Fenn, directed by the bungling daughter of David Lynch?)
BEGIN AGAIN:
So, here goes my experiment. I don’t the rules yet, but I know I need to sort some stuff out, decide what to keep and what to get of, why this happened, and how to not let it happen again.
So, here goes my experiment. I don’t the rules yet, but I know I need to sort some stuff out, decide what to keep and what to get of, why this happened, and how to not let it happen again.
Posts
10 comments:
That's some good-looking stuff...
Hey! Thanks. I love your site!
I love this Professor Lee, I also have this habit of keeping things, from movie tickets to old clothes , borrowed items from loved ones, and of course gifts and things I wore on special occasions like prom, graduation...I guess it explains why I have so many personal pictures, and a lot of things my mom call junk and begs me to rid of...I just hold on until I see which of them stays with me the longest...I love this blog!
Ursula (from your class at shu)
Thanks Ursula! Updates coming soon! Stay tuned.
You have no idea what I had to go through at the tender age of sixteen to get that Elm Street sign. The sign stays. I don't really care about the rest of the stuff down in the basement.
"What if I didn't have this thing? How would I ever remember what it means? I'd better keep it. This anxiety has lead to the accumulation of way too many significant things" - That basically sums up my hoarding issues! My main problem is that I attribute too much value to an object - An object that, if someone was to discard it, I probably wouldn't notice it was gone. Mixed in with all that junk are the things I'll never throw away. However, the longer I keep the extra useless stuff, the more I think "That's part of my history now.I've had it for so long"! I knew I'd reached the point of no return when I got a treasure chest to keep the things for which I had no room but ran out of room in it. I now have Battlestar Galactica and Vincent Price DVDs sitting on top of the chest, as I couldn't squeeze them in.
I always think it would be nice to just have a suitcase and nothing else, a bit like Up in the Air actually. On the other hand, it's nice when objects give you memories and comfort!
Roisin, Me too! Everything becomes so valuable, part of my history. I would love to try to do a little "Up in the Air" too. Nothing but what fits inside a suitcase... (a huge suitcase?)
Note, I haven't continued with this project yet... I have good feeling for the summer though!
I think maybe you've inspired me...
I wonder if one can buy a suitcase as large as a house, therefore cheating the whole concept :)
Some people call it clutter, you and I call it memorabilia!
I cleaned out my collection. Finally.
I spent the past week cleaning one of my rooms and then remembered this blog today : )
It feels completely refreshing to know that I have discarded a lot...well, say, one third...of the random objects that I have collected when living in various locations around Ireland over the past few years. A lovely, relatively empty room and a surprisingly therapeutic cleaning process. I even threw away about 20 film magazines I had bought now and then (My excuse to myself had been that they were archived for reference) - I finally ran out of space and they had to go into the recycling bin.
I have to admit that I cheated the system a little and did box up some of the stuff and put it in the attic!
Hoarding is part of my personality and it means that I have almost 26 years of "stuff" (If I ever become a legendary icon (Ha), it'll be really easy to document my early life by looking at all these things I own).
There should really be a website for hoarding swaps - I give you 20 film magazines and you give me a..vintage...splintered badminton racket.
I hope your hoarding is going smoothly and that you have room to keep your film magazines!
Messy room stuff. It should be burned at all. Just kidding. Lol
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