Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Uncluttering all the clutter

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I'm sitting here waiting for new furniture or perhaps just a winter itch but I'm really trying to pare things down both in my mind and my life.

I recently decided I was more or less done with facebook. I had over three hundered friends, I think, and every day I felt like I had to read my "wall", I got to thinking "Is it really important to know what a friend of a friend that I met once is up to?", no not really. But I realized it was more about giving up people than giving up facebook. I purged my facebook friends, gone are the friends of friends, the friends I haven't spoken to in years, the "friends" that have not kept in touch and have left me feeling burned, and remind me of such each time I see them on my "wall". Now, all that is left are my real friends, those that I still keep in touch with and most that I see on a monthly basis, though really I'd like to up that to a bi-weekly basis. As well as family, though family for me is extended because my immediate family is so small.

My family has always been more about my extended family than anything. My parents each only have one brother and I have one cousin, that's it. But, my parent's each have many aunts and uncles and to many cousins to count, who of course have kids, who are starting to have kids. Growing up we spent one holiday a year with my dad's dad's side, and even less with his mom's side. I'd like to change that. It seems we only see each other at funerals and it would be nice to actually get to know these people that are linked to my past. We shall see.

As for stuff, my fiance has moved a chunk of his stuff from his parents house into our house. He hasn't seen or dealt with some of this stuff in close to ten years I'd bet, and it would be nice to have him purge a bit. He and I are both huge book fans and seeing my mothers house, also a book lover, I'm trying to keep my house differently. Books can be found in every one of my parents rooms, it's starting to be that way in my own home as well. I think it might be nice just to have one room devoted to books, sadly with three rooms currently housing us that's not an option. I've thrown around the idea of making a wall of bookcases in our bedroom, and as I type, I'm starting to think that perhaps our living room is where it's at. Seeing as how we really don't read in the bedroom aside from before bed. Hmmm, an idea to throw around. We also have a ton of cd's and dvd's and I don't remember the last time we watched any of them or even listened to the cd's. I would like to spend more time with the things we have, or what is the point of having them right?

We sit in front of the television every night watching something or other, it's mindless really I don't mind in the moment but whenever I think about it, about how much television we watch, about how little we get done around the house because of our lack of doing anything but tv watching, it upsets me. We only just moved into our condo and I have so many projects I would love to tackle. But when you get home and plop in front of the couch it's impossible to get them done. I'd love to get my fiance on board but I'm not sure that's possible. I know he wants me to think he's not lazy but in reality, well, I'm not so sure. Last week I caught him coming home, turning on the tv in the living room and immediately going into the kitchen. Now, if he just went into the kitchen to put things on the kitchen table, or get a snack that would be fine, but often times I'm noticing the television on with no one in front of it. That's not how I want to live my life and that's definitely not how I want to raise my children. My parents spend their nights in front of the television, as do his parents, and I want something more for us. Projects don't need to be relegated to the weekends. Weekends should be for fun, not just chores. I could live with enjoying one show a night the problem is by the time we get home, make dinner, and sit in front of the tv to eat while we watch said show, when the show's over it's time for bed. I'm not much better I have more time at home during the week than he does and could very well work on all kinds of projects while I'm home. I feel like, and perhaps this is simply an excuse, I wouldn't be surprised, but I feel like I need his okay on things. I don't much want to surprise him with a brown wall when he comes home. Is this silly? Perhaps, I should probably bring this up with him. Another issue I have is our furniture. We have these two unweildy, ugly ass pieces of crap wooden boxes that I now wish I had never picked off the side of the road. They have become our go to furniture and my heart aches for real furniture.

I am in awe of the fact that in only a few hours time I will have real live furniture, furniture no one else has owned before but me. Furniture that doesn't need to be slipcovered. Sure, I didn't find it on the side of the road, but you know what I don't care.

Back to my wooden boxes. One holds our tv on top and our games, both board and video underneath. Our board games have begun to overflow and I would love to get rid of some. I have a few in mind however, they are games that my Nana bought and were given to me shortly after she passed and though I haven't played them, never knew of them before I got them, I am still finding it hard to part with them. I think that's true of everything. If it has any sort of sentimentality to it I can't seem to part with it. I hate that.