Spring cleaning
Posted on May 25, 2008
I’m a bit of a slob when it comes to my apartment. This is nothing new. Even as a kid, I’ve always had messy rooms. It’s not to say that I hate cleaning, it’s just that I’ve always found something that I would rather do than clean, such as read, watch TV, or surf the net for hours.
This summer, since I don’t have to worry about classes or homework in the evening, I started working on my mess of an apartment. I’m also a bit of a pack rat, which probably makes things worse. I have a hard time getting rid of things. With computer parts, you never know when they might be useful again. For books, you never know when they might be read again, and so on for other things.
Computer parts won’t be too hard to give up since there is abundance in the apartment and in the office. I cleaned my office at work earlier this year and tried to limit the inventory of cables to two or three of each common type. I ended up sending a very full box of various cables to surplus. At home, I’ll try to limit myself to what I think I will realistically need.
Many articles of clothing will be easy to give up, as well. If I haven’t work a shirt in five years, it’s a good time to get rid of it. The apartment doesn’t have the much closet space, so it’s better to limit what needs to be put in them. On the other hand, I’ve got a couple of suits and some ties I’ll keep, just in case.
Books are a weakness. There are more books than shelves to put them on. It will be hard to get rid of them, but some older computer books (like “Windows 98 Registry”) are probably okay to pitch.
Rather than doing it all at once, I’m working on the apartment in stages. I started a week or so ago with the bathroom; cleaning the tub and the toilet, mopping the floor, and doing three loads of laundry. Friday was the entry hallway. It’s not very big, but I’ve got a couple of bikes there and it tends to accumulate a lot of dirt since it’s the only way in and out of the apartment. I moved the bikes, vacuumed the floor, and dusted off the CDs.
The apartment is a studio apartment. Basically it’s one large room as a combined living room, dining room, and bedroom, plus two smaller rooms for the kitchen and bath. It’s right around 500 sq. ft. Yesterday, I started on the “bedroom” area. I got rid of an old box fan that squeaked annoyingly and an LCD monitor that got fried last year. I put the dirty laundry in the hamper, moved around some books, then vacuumed the floor. I also bought a shredder in anticipation of getting rid of pay stubs and other stuff from several years ago. The only thing I’ve done today is replace some fluorescent light bulbs in the kitchen.
There’s still a long way to go in the cleaning, but it’s nice to make progress. About 1/3 is done so far.
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