Must organize my life

posted by Jeff | Sunday, April 29, 2007, 8:33 PM | comments: 7

Something has been nagging at me for a couple of weeks, and I haven't been able to precisely figure out what it is. I'm not depressed or anything, just... stagnant.

I have some ideas about what that might be, but I'm not willing to admit to any of them. In the mean time, I feel like I need to make some organizational stride and work to simplify some things. As I mentioned earlier, I want to relocate my office to the downstairs room.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are some psychological advantages to this arrangement relative to how I feel about the space of my home. Parts of it feel empty, and I don't like that. The plan, then, is to consolidate some of that emptiness, while giving myself some room to stretch out. The office still feels a little empty because there's a desk missing, while the downstairs room is missing, well, pretty much everything. The office is also small, and on the north side of the house, so it never gets any sun.

The downstairs room has three giant eight-foot windows on the south side of the house and is very open because you can see into the kitchen from it. In fact, the entire lower floor of my house is very open and comfortable. The stairs create a kind of barrier that sort of keeps me from using the upstairs for anything but sleeping and showering, and I think bringing all day-time functionality together encourages day-time activity. I mean, it often takes a week for a bank statement to make it from my kitchen table up to the office.

The byproduct of this arrangement is that I'll have to clean everything, and throw away things I don't need. My filing cabinet probably has electric bills from five years ago. I'm pretty sure I don't need those anymore.

When I was a kid in a high school, I had a routine in the morning in the kitchen that helped me make the most out of my time. I knew exactly what order to do things so that the cereal never got soggy and the toast was hot. It sounds really anal now that I think about it, but the thing I like about that memory is that I still got to school early, I wasn't hungry, and I had time in the morning to do what I wanted. I think making adjustments like that are what I need to do to fit more into my life, like more "me" time and exercise.


Comments

Carrie

April 30, 2007, 12:54 AM #

I am with you, I think, at least as far as what you have shared. I've been thinking about the layout of my bedroom and the need I have for change there. I'm not sure I can completely initiate myself to the beliefs of feng shui, but more and more I am thinking the layout of my bedroom is extremely important for sound sleep. Could be the same is true for your office and work/creative brainstorming.

Catherine

April 30, 2007, 1:07 PM #

Just be sure you're not trying to run from an emotional issue by turning it into a physical space issue. I know that organizing and doing anal retentive things is comfortable for you. why? because it's familiar. For me, the chaos is my protection from my emotions. For you, maybe it's buying toys, filling up "dead" space with things.

Jeff

April 30, 2007, 3:30 PM #

There's nothing familiar about changing things around. I'm just trying to make the space more functional. Anything to get my ass off the couch.

Catherine

April 30, 2007, 8:47 PM #

Just make sure that when you actually DO make the move, it actually does result in the afforementioned ass getting-offing. I wrote more in my comment, but YOUR website cut it off again.... UGH!!!!

Jeff

April 30, 2007, 9:16 PM #

Are you using the Yahoo toolbar or something in your browser? It has never happened to me in four years, so I don't think it's the site. :)

Catherine

May 1, 2007, 2:23 AM #

oh, how do I get rid of the yahoo toolbar! is it bad or evil!?

Jeff

May 1, 2007, 4:57 AM #

The testers at work have problems with it. I think you turn it off by unchecking it in the view menu or something.


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