Week 1: flow and walls
Tuesday 1. It's been a few months of decluttering. Since summer, my home office was the collection station for 2 full bookcases, a gift closet, and other items from a reworked guest room (cleared for a boarder who came for 6 months and moved out Sunday.) I quit my job 1 1/2 weeks ago and brought the office accumulation back into the house.
The boarder moved out Sunday and I got home late from a trip yesterday (Monday). Last night, I emptied the bookshelves of theology and W and I moved them back out of the office into the vacated guest room next door. The library card case went flat against the wall.
Early this morning, I fill the guest room shelves with art books and PhD binders and move the stacks of theology texts to the open office shelves. Lynn arrives as I begin to clear the center of the room. It looks absolute chaos without a 'before' snapshot :-) but I know how much is already done.
We did Step 1 of the room a few weeks ago, finding 4 key words that purposed the walls. We rework those and end up with: West - creativity (the art and bookcase wall "Free to explore"), North - authenticity (the mirrored closets "Who will play today?"), East - truth (the writing wall "What a privilege!"), and South - openness (the library cab. and window wing of the desk "I'm ready!").
Step 2: Lynn guides me to evaluate my time/energy flow when I have no pressures and only myself to please. We choose 4 words - gather, flit, engage, build. "When you find you've returned to gathering, you have finished that part of what you are doing, and you move on." As the day goes by, I marvel at how refreshing it is to give myself permission to 'flit' to small chores, between main tasks.
With index cards and Lynn's notes in hand, we headed upstairs to the home office. After standing in the middle of the room, we designate walls with their theme and a brief descriptive statement (above). Then we clear out the room and both closets. Unfortunately, the art supplies go into the closet next door where the gift supplies belong. This week, 1. I'll have to take everything out of the closet and put it into the hall. 2. Clear the middle of the room into the hall or onto the bed. Access to the storage drawers under the bed, where the overflow art supplies go, is blocked by gifts and misc. which belong in the closet. 3. I'll have to sort the art supplies from the hall into the pull-outs under the bed. 4. Put the gift supplies into the closet.
If we had taken a pause in the clearing process to think about the process, I'd have put things into their places ONCE. Now the stacks require sorting and restacking until everything's stowed. (I dislike moving things multiple times - it's inefficient and takes triple the work and time.) What a chore to move things around when the eventual landing place is blocked. Ugh.
********
After lunch and farewell to Lynn, I stand in the newly cleared office space and breathe in. Lovely! I read the flow cards and statements aloud. Plant my feet in the middle of the room and read the wall cards. They are congruent.
When W comes home from work, he unscrews the tray holders from the art table. Done: Assignments 1-3 of 6 this week. It will be good to move through the week with the tasks - and see how the feeling of the room changes.
When I enter late in the evening, I hate the thought of putting anything back. Clear space. Love it!
The boarder moved out Sunday and I got home late from a trip yesterday (Monday). Last night, I emptied the bookshelves of theology and W and I moved them back out of the office into the vacated guest room next door. The library card case went flat against the wall.
Early this morning, I fill the guest room shelves with art books and PhD binders and move the stacks of theology texts to the open office shelves. Lynn arrives as I begin to clear the center of the room. It looks absolute chaos without a 'before' snapshot :-) but I know how much is already done.
We did Step 1 of the room a few weeks ago, finding 4 key words that purposed the walls. We rework those and end up with: West - creativity (the art and bookcase wall "Free to explore"), North - authenticity (the mirrored closets "Who will play today?"), East - truth (the writing wall "What a privilege!"), and South - openness (the library cab. and window wing of the desk "I'm ready!").
Step 2: Lynn guides me to evaluate my time/energy flow when I have no pressures and only myself to please. We choose 4 words - gather, flit, engage, build. "When you find you've returned to gathering, you have finished that part of what you are doing, and you move on." As the day goes by, I marvel at how refreshing it is to give myself permission to 'flit' to small chores, between main tasks.
With index cards and Lynn's notes in hand, we headed upstairs to the home office. After standing in the middle of the room, we designate walls with their theme and a brief descriptive statement (above). Then we clear out the room and both closets. Unfortunately, the art supplies go into the closet next door where the gift supplies belong. This week, 1. I'll have to take everything out of the closet and put it into the hall. 2. Clear the middle of the room into the hall or onto the bed. Access to the storage drawers under the bed, where the overflow art supplies go, is blocked by gifts and misc. which belong in the closet. 3. I'll have to sort the art supplies from the hall into the pull-outs under the bed. 4. Put the gift supplies into the closet.
If we had taken a pause in the clearing process to think about the process, I'd have put things into their places ONCE. Now the stacks require sorting and restacking until everything's stowed. (I dislike moving things multiple times - it's inefficient and takes triple the work and time.) What a chore to move things around when the eventual landing place is blocked. Ugh.
********
After lunch and farewell to Lynn, I stand in the newly cleared office space and breathe in. Lovely! I read the flow cards and statements aloud. Plant my feet in the middle of the room and read the wall cards. They are congruent.
When W comes home from work, he unscrews the tray holders from the art table. Done: Assignments 1-3 of 6 this week. It will be good to move through the week with the tasks - and see how the feeling of the room changes.
When I enter late in the evening, I hate the thought of putting anything back. Clear space. Love it!
