I just spent the day cleaning out my mom's house to prepare it to sell. While my sister and I worked hard all day, and some parts of the house look pretty good, we barely made a dent in the sheer amount of stuff that still needs to find a new home. It's definitely inspiring me to clean out my own house, as soon as I have more energy.

One of the things I have been meaning to do for a while is to write a list of what I'm grateful for. My sister has started doing this recently, and as I sit here nursing an early spring cold, I'm thinking that would be a good idea. So here goes.

1. Rain. After living in Oregon for several years, I love the rain, especially the sound of the rain as it falls on the trees. I also like to drink water, and rain can be especially helpful in that regard.

2. My wee kitty. He loves to sit on my lap, and he shows so much appreciation just for my presence. It doesn't take much to make him happy. If only I could get him to stop shedding so much... And my other kitty as well, whose favorite activity is to sleep on my bed. Or my sweater. Or whatever else I leave lying around that smells like me.

3. Never having to take another exam again. After passing the last exam to fulfill my career goals, I will only be taking exams if I want to, and right now I can't even think of anything I want to do that requires an exam. Hooray!

4. Living in such a diverse place. I love having lots of non-chain shops and restaurants to choose from, and I love being able to walk or bike to most of them quite easily. I also have a natural foods co-op and my community garden plot (and historic Sutter's Fort, which I have never visited) within easy walking/biking distance of my home. If I ever leave Sacramento, I'll definitely miss that.

5. The means to go to those shops and restaurants every once in a while for a little splurge. While I'm definitely not as well off as the rest of my friends, I have a steady job that pays me enough to go out and splurge once in a while, which is great when I'm so tired that even the thought of cooking is exhausting.

Well, I'm not sure that helped me as much as it helps my sister, but perhaps I'll get in the swing of it soon. But I'm glad to be back and posting!

Stuff, stuff everywhere, and not a drop to...

So one of the constants in my life recently is an overabundance of not-quite-useful objects that I just can't bring myself to get rid of for whatever reason. I remember the day when I moved to Hawaii without even one piece of furniture to my name, and everything fit into two suitcases, or when I moved to Oregon and everything fit into two sedans. These days, I'm lucky if I can squeeze everything into a medium-sized moving truck. My one-bedroom apartment is bursting at the seams. Where did all this stuff come from? And why can't I get rid of it?

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a gear junkie, a book-lover, and a pack-rat, and those don't always go well together in terms of making space. I also have only one closet in my entire apartment, which means my clothes and shoes are stored together with my christmas tree, climbing gear, camping and backpacking gear, snowboarding and snowshoeing gear, craft supplies, sewing supplies, tools, extra bathroom and desk supplies, biking gear, old mementos, musical instruments, random sports equipment, ice skates (!), and other assorted accoutrements of daily living.

It can be noted at this point that I often have more than one of any given thing - two tents, two internal frame backpacks, three pairs of snowboarding boots, myriad backpacks, and far too many shoes to actually wear. If I was actually setting out to acquire all of this stuff, I would never buy so much of it, but alas, it has somehow made its way into my home, and pack-rat that I am, it's difficult to dislodge it. I mean, what if someday I wanted to go ice skating? I would kick myself for getting rid of those ice skates that I haven't used in 8 years.

So where am I going with all of this? I'm trying to create incentive to actually sort through and get rid of stuff, in as earth-friendly a way as possible. It's silly to throw away perfectly good, useful items, but it's also silly to keep them around to clutter up my house when someone else could be getting some use out of them. But I really need to get some motivation and some tips in how to actually sort and organize so much random stuff. Sigh. And I need to convince the people in my life to stop buying me random things, especially if they happen to be purple.