Welcome to My Parlour
I think I've mentioned that we're slobs.
Really, if it wasn't for shows like Hoarders putting the fear of life into me, I think we'd be living in chest-deep piles of old newspapers, boxes, old bills (just in case!), and broken appliances. Fortunately, I've seen enough episodes that every new months I go on a tear getting rid of crap we don't use or need.
The city's giveaway weekends have been gold: you can put out anything and someone will take it, eventually. The only thing we've ever had not nabbed on the giveaway weekend was last year (when Bella got out), and we'd put out six or eight old CRT monitors that had been collecting dust. Even then, we moved them to the alley and someone came by a few days later to collect them for the metal inside.
Anyway, this spring I decided to clean off the front porch. I hauled all manner of detritus off the porch and onto the tree lawn: old kites, curtain rods, miscellaneous toys that we'd forgotten we'd had, etc. It all went. In fact, I had a crowd on the street a few times looking over what we put out. By the end of the day the porch was almost empty.
It had made a huge dent, and I poked at it a few more times during the summer. Last week we bought a chair and footstool at IKEA, and this past weekend I finally got a chance to enjoy the fruits of my labour. Here's the view from here right now:
There is a cool breeze coming in through the windows, there is a cat keeping me company, and my drink is within easy reach on the windowsill. This nook could use a lamp, and a cushion for the chair (and maybe for the footstool, too), and we discussed getting a second chair (since these stack, so we won't totally fill the porch with chairs)... But other than that, this is great.
Also... hello from Windows 10. The upgrade was pretty painless (one hour, mostly with me glancing at the screen while I read a book), and so far it seems pretty ok. I decided to upgrade my tablet before upgrading my desktop... I think I'll need a stiff drink at hand before going for the upgrade on my main machine. :P
Really, if it wasn't for shows like Hoarders putting the fear of life into me, I think we'd be living in chest-deep piles of old newspapers, boxes, old bills (just in case!), and broken appliances. Fortunately, I've seen enough episodes that every new months I go on a tear getting rid of crap we don't use or need.
The city's giveaway weekends have been gold: you can put out anything and someone will take it, eventually. The only thing we've ever had not nabbed on the giveaway weekend was last year (when Bella got out), and we'd put out six or eight old CRT monitors that had been collecting dust. Even then, we moved them to the alley and someone came by a few days later to collect them for the metal inside.
Anyway, this spring I decided to clean off the front porch. I hauled all manner of detritus off the porch and onto the tree lawn: old kites, curtain rods, miscellaneous toys that we'd forgotten we'd had, etc. It all went. In fact, I had a crowd on the street a few times looking over what we put out. By the end of the day the porch was almost empty.
It had made a huge dent, and I poked at it a few more times during the summer. Last week we bought a chair and footstool at IKEA, and this past weekend I finally got a chance to enjoy the fruits of my labour. Here's the view from here right now:
There is a cool breeze coming in through the windows, there is a cat keeping me company, and my drink is within easy reach on the windowsill. This nook could use a lamp, and a cushion for the chair (and maybe for the footstool, too), and we discussed getting a second chair (since these stack, so we won't totally fill the porch with chairs)... But other than that, this is great.
Also... hello from Windows 10. The upgrade was pretty painless (one hour, mostly with me glancing at the screen while I read a book), and so far it seems pretty ok. I decided to upgrade my tablet before upgrading my desktop... I think I'll need a stiff drink at hand before going for the upgrade on my main machine. :P