Update: Tuesday, December 30

For the past several days, I have been working on sorting my huge collection of magazines. To begin, I wanted to sort through all the Tennis Magazines which I have--dating back to 1966. While I do not have every single issue, it is useful to be able to go to them when I am working on an article about tennis, especially since I cannot always find such articles in Library research databases. Yesterday, I filed 6 bag-a-boxes full of magazines that filled 2 file drawers. Today, I sorted and filed 6 more bag-a-boxes that filled two more file drawers. I am now about mid-1990s and still have quite a few more magazines to go. I would like to finish organizing them by tomorrow. Then I still have a ton of other magazines that need to be filed--ESPN: The Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and many more.

Kitchen table covered with books

These two photos reflect the dilemma in my kitchen. The table is covered with books that I have used in writing the last several chapters on which I worked. But it has been several weeks since I finished the last one, and yet the stacks of books, note cards and other materials remain. The book case was filled before I started writing--containing books that I planned to use for the writing that I was doing. About half of the books were from the library, so I should be able to return some of those, rather than waiting until May and needing a shopping cart to return them.

For today, my assignment from Mary Jo is to spend 20 minutes cleaning and organizing a book case. So, I have chosen the above to do that. When I have finished, I will post the AFTER shot below this entry. It should look somewhat different (hopefully the table will as well!). Here goes:-)

Cluttered Counter: November 30, 2008

The above picture captures a shot of my cluttered counter in the kitchen. I took the photo while I was riding my exercise bike. It reveals where I need to begin to clear away the clutter. When I sent a copy to Mary Jo, she asked: how do you work in such clutter? I wrote back to say that I do not work IN it, I work AROUND it. That is how I have been doing it for a long time. But, that has obviously not worked so well. I started this blog well over a year ago, but I am returning to it in the hope that I can write more regularly and perhaps make progress, even if it is a little bit at a time.

I have found that I watch a lot of show on HGTV, like Clean House, and Clean Sweep. Part of my fascination with them is that I wish that someone would come in and help me to get organized--albeit I am not sure I am that committed to throwing things out, as people are required to do. I think I also rationalize that at least my house isn't as bad as some of those shown on the "messiest house in the country." But, as can be seen above, I do have a long way to go. I thought I might begin tonight but then got involved with grading papers--another thing that I really need to do. So, another day passes without making appreciable progress. So, hopefully tomorrow (which is now later today), I will try to spend at least 15 minutes working on that counter. Perhaps by the end of that time, I will be able to actually see the counter. That will be my goal for tomorrow.