Sunday, December 30, 2007

Dust & Polish Day

Out with the old! Old dust that is. It's dust day here... or more correctly, a dusty day. The living room has stayed clean. The kitchen is good. The paper pile in my dining room still stands, but it's noticeably weaker now. The only room that hasn't seen a dramatic change since Rogier's leaving is my own bedroom.

Primarily employed for sleeping purposes, it's also the last great bastion of organized dust armies. And today I've started to do something about that. Although it will be a multi-day process. A multi-multi-day process.

I have to admit, my redecorating plans feel more like a chess game than moving. I need to buy a dresser for my bedroom. Then I can transfer the clothes from the bookshelf I'm currently using as a dresser. The bookshelf is needed in the dining room, to accept books and such from the overburdened table. Keeping in mind of course that I intend to paint the table and bookshelves. So the bookshelves will get moved from the bedroom, then painted, then loaded with stuff from the table, then the table can be painted. But before I put a dresser in my new bedroom, the floor needs cleaning and polishing. It goes on like that in a nearly infinite circle of little tasks.

Not that dragging a 30 kg wooden unit onto the balcony and painting it in January is a "little task". But it's an example.

A multi-multi-multi day process.

But in the mean time, every day brings progress, and I love that. Today I took all the clothes off my bookshelf. I sorted them, checked the socks for holes and removed everything that hadn't been worn in a year. The result was a halving of my wardrobe. Or at least a halving of my storage requirements. Nothing I normally wear, or even might wear, has been removed.

After such work, my allergies leave me only one option... open the window wide and flee the room. I need a low dust option now. Thankfully, the pile of old socks I'm throwing out have reminded me that they could be used as rags to polish the floor before they go. It hurts my knees just to think about, but it does appear to be (1) a dust-free activity, and (2) next on the list.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Morgan, when you finish at your place, Hawaii awaits ....

I Dive At Night said...

Quilly, yeah I'd clean for room and board. But I doubt you'll throw in the airfare, so I'm stuck here for a while.

Anonymous said...

I don't know ... how many years are you willing to clean to work it off? Hmmmmmmmmm?

Anonymous said...

Oh! Happy New Year! I hope 2008 finds you and well, happy and over your head in sea water (tanks full of course).

Minka said...

wow...I am exhausted reading your list. My room looks like a tornado just went through. I bought so many clothes in teh States and I had too little closet place to begin with...it's a pcikle. Two weeks away from home...and dust solonies have migrated over here. If i weren't jet-legged and on a tough work scedule I'd consider getting up the energy and asking Mom to clean my room :)
Good luck with it!

Considering it is the first of 2008 and you haven't posted, I take it the dust broom got you :)

Happy new year, you goof!

I Dive At Night said...

Happy New Year Quilly! If you can afford to keep full-time cleaning staff, I'll consider applying.

Happy New Year elfish Minka! Do you need a hand cleaning up too? Turns out I'm good at sorting clothes.

Minka said...

Morgan, you bet. Do you have any use for tiny t-shirts during my pink phase? Boy, what was I thinking?!

I Dive At Night said...

Minka, thanks for the mental image! I'm thinking you were probably really pretty in pink.

I'm in the process of waxing the apartment floor... so yes please send the shirts for use as rags. And any photos from your "pink phase".

Charline said...

Hey Mo! Happy New Year! Looks like you're starting it off on a clean (dust free) and shinny foot!

Didn't know people still waxed floors..go figure!

Doug The Una said...

So, you wear book jackets?

I Dive At Night said...

Charline, it's been painting and waxing day... so instead of dust its fumes.

Doug, huh? Do you recommend it?

Doug The Una said...

Well, in my case the atlas, but I was puzzled by clothes on a bookshelf. Book jackets were the simplest explanation, Ockham's razor and whatnot.

I Dive At Night said...

Ah yes, it all makes sense now, in the daylight. Book jackets.

But my jackets are on the coat rack. And my coats usually get thrown on the floor. Or on the table with the books. So it is really so weird to keep my t-shirts on a shelf?

This was my first apartment in Europe that wasn't rented as furnished. After 3 years I'm finally buying some essentials, like a wardrobe.