Looking Around

I was talking with a friend about the prep I've been doing for the move, and she asked if I can see the difference when I look around. It's an interesting question, really.

I can, in a sense, but it's not a huge, obvious change: I just know what used to be there that isn't now. I don't think that anyone who wasn't familiar with what it looked like before would come in and say, hey, you don't have much, do you? I still have plenty of "stuff," after all (especially books, though I estimate I've cleared out around 25% of the book shelves, which I'm pretty proud of).

But part of my focus has been on hidden areas, the junk drawers and other collection spots for that "miscellaneous" category you want to go through before you start packing. Mostly, that doesn't show on the looking-around check, but it is going to help a lot down the road.

I have started my kitchen planning; this is a category that always surprises me in the time-it-takes-to-pack-up, so I really want to be sure I give it attention now. I have a cabinet that goes in along the sink, so it goes way back, which is useful for the things I don't use often, but bad for the part about forgetting what's back there.

See? Straight in:

But way back.

So even though I'm not ready to start packing it yet, I took everything out of there, so I could assess what I own, and decide what I can get rid of before moving. I haven't actually made all the decisions yet (I only got rid of a few small things for now), but I've started a list of what I have, and just started the process of deciding what to keep. It's complicated this time in a different way than before, since at least to start, I won't be setting up my whole kitchen. It is possible that either my mother or I will decide that living together is not what we want, so I don't want to just get rid of everything, but it's also possible that we'll like it fine, in which case I won't need everything I have now.

The process is manageable, but complicated, is all. I feel good that at least I've started thinking about it.

I've made a few tweaks to the new office setup. First, I got rid of the office chair, which was either possessed or just not a good design for me*. When it catapulted me knee-first into the desk for the nth time, I threatened that it was going in the trash, but in fact I took it to Savers on Sunday. Let someone else exorcise it; I'm done. (Then I pitched the nasty little rug that I got to protect the floor from the rolling chair. It felt good to get that out.) For now, I'm using one of the kitchen chairs, though I need to get a cushion for it. It's slightly low and not very cushy, so both of those should be easy to fix with a good cushion.
*No matter how much I tried to convert to being a "roll back and then stand" person, it turns out that I'm really a "stand and push the chair back" person instead.

I'm also done, just done, with the side desk that never fit into the space right. I've tried to give it away and no one wants it* enough to come take it, so I'm just going to have to get rid of it myself. I have friends coming over for dinner in a couple of weeks, so hopefully one of them will help me get it down the stairs and into the car (I brought it in myself, so it can be done by one person, but believe me, two will be easier). Meanwhile, even though it will be in my way until then, I couldn't stand it any more, and switched it out with a smaller bookcase, which at 12 inches deep is so much better than the 18-inch deep desk. Amazing.
*Update: Actually, one of my friends may want it, now, but either way, it's going.

So this is what we have now:

And that, unfortunately, will be there, or underfoot in the kitchen, for the next fortnight.

I can live with it.