The January Cure, part 3

Thanks to RSI I'm failing with my PhD plan for the moment... but I can tackle stints of housework and typing up a sentence here and there for the blog. My index fingers appear to be unaffected - but it is tedious when one is used to typing with all fingers! So while I get frustrated with only being able to write one or two sentences for uni work (I'm limiting myself to emails only), I don't mind that much with blogging. Probably because I don't value blogging thought processes as much as PhD ones!

The Australia Day long weekend also helped me really catch up on the January Cure, especially given the lack of PhD work! And I had written most of the text to posts before the RSI set in, so blogging hasn't been too difficult to maintain... I just needed to do the cleaning and decluttering to go with it!

It's been another "week" of this decluttering and reorganising and I'm really thinking about how much more fun I could have with this if I knew I was going to be here longer than September. I also wish I could hang things now that I've realised I have at least one Glory Wall - the wall behind the sofa. Some abstract art or a nature scene would be lovely, especially in afternoons when the sun starts to shine through that window. But, I need to keep focussed on what I can change (without moving furniture as my wrists and fingers are not only crap at typing, but also lifting heavy items).

Activity 9: Create a Landing Strip

It was bothering me that I had picked the bookshelf as my project for the month once I had realised that my hallway dumping space and bicycle storage issues existed. I was very tempted to buy a 2x2 Expedit unit - has holes for my three kit bags and the top surface could become a dumping ground landing strip. However buying things is not necessarily the most cost-effective way of dealing with the issue - so I made space on my printer cabinet.

Activity 10: Work on the Goal Project (i.e. the Bookshelf)
 + Activity 12: Declutter Books and Media (i.e. the TV unit)

I soon realised that I couldn't just get my landing strip, goal project and kit bags sorted by tackling the tasks individually - which is how the January Cure generally works! There were three main changes:

1. I moved the colour printer (which I can access wirelessly) to the bookshelf in order to make space on the printer cabinet.
2. I decluttered both the TV unit and the bookshelf in order to spread items across both.
3. Found space for the kit bags on the bookshelf, and now debating if I want to spend $40 on doors to cover the kit bag mess up. Alternately I could spend $60 on drawers for the kit bag mess to live in. The cheapest option is just letting it be, but I suspect I'll get annoyed with dust getting into these bags and will probably go with the drawers.

So I have now got a couple of boxes for storage full of paperbacks I had already read (there are plenty that I haven't read still on the shelves!), and old uni notes I don't need for the thesis. Not sure where these boxes will go, but I'll figure that out eventually. 

Activity 11: A Media Fast

This was interesting - while I knew that I should be writing, I was more than happy to forgo a night of attempting to work, to just chillout and do something that didn't use my hands for a while. I wanted to cross-stitch, and persevered for about an hour but my fingers weren't happy about it... so after a little daydreaming (evening-dreaming), I went to bed early and got back into Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, which is one part regular "real" fiction and one part ridiculous nonsense in an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland way.  I love Alice, so that's why I tried Fforde!

Activity 13: Flowers and the Bedroom

Opted for some orange lilies this week - I almost got some yellow roses again, but I really should mix things up! I really like orange in the apartment, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for functional orange things in the future.

The bedroom was fairly easy to get in order - I had started to sort out my headboard when dealing with the bookshelf and TV unit as I can keep a few books in the headboard. I then moved onto my closet and drawers - I pulled out everything that didn't fit or that I didn't like, and tried to match up my spare buttons with items in my wardrobe (I now have three packages of buttons: Sydney, Melbourne and other!)

I've decided to "relegate" my two suits as I brought them up with me from Melbourne but never sought part-time engineering work. They're now at the dry cleaners', and will go back home to Melbourne when they next can. A quick spruce up of the rest of the room and my only annoyance is the chair I keep in there - it matches with the dining table (white) and sofa (green) but I don't usually need both chairs at the table, and so it goes to my room for my handbag and clothes to... ah, "rest" on. I would love to have a dark brown chair in there to go with the drawers (long story why I bought dark brown drawers but a white bed). I'd also get a red cushion or two!