Box Day #3

The third box day turned out to be a one-person affair.

Ericka took the lead in sorting through some of the things that I’d brought up from the basement in my earlier efforts to make room for my weekly gaming night. These were mostly materials that were associated with the therapy she undertook for her lymphedema a few years ago.

A couple of big bins of assorted pieces of foam, and specialized bandages for wrapping were sorted, identified and re-packed for better storage. The therapy for lymphedema largely involves using these to turn Ericka into a bit of a mummy and having them sorted will make it easier to re-use these things when she needs to get mummified.

So huge props this week to Ericka taking charge and doing the big work of box day by herself!

Box day #2

Today’s box day went very well. I had some laundry to do and when I finished that, I brought up a box for Ericka and I to go through.

The photos below show the box at the beginning, the contents of the box mid-way through the process and the box at the end.

The start of the sorting was easy because the top o the box had some pieces of mail, newspaper clippings, and other paper things that could be easily discarded. A newsletter of events from 2004, for example. So those things went straight to the trash.

Once through those, however, we needed some more time. The rest of the box held various collections of greeting cards and some other office supplies. Ericka spends the vast majority of her time in bed, due to her medical disabilities and one of the ways she stays connected to the world is through making and sending cards to people. So these cards in the box represented something very important to her.

She was very brave, though and decided that some of these cards an envelopes could be thrown away. Some of them had suffered from poor storage and others simply didn’t have matching envelopes that would work. What was left was organized neatly in the box and Ericka plans to combine it with her existing stock of cards and choose those she most likes to keep. Extras will be dropped off at the nursing home where a friend if hers lives; they are always looking for cards and envelopes for the residents.

When we were done with the box, Ericka wanted to do more, thinking that this wasn’t enough. I showed her the pictures so she could see the results of our work. I also reiterated our plan to do a box a week so we wouldn’t get overwhelmed.

Later, some emotional issues came up for Ericka. She sees a lot of the things stored away in these boxes as hope. Hope that she’ll get better and be able to do more, that her current limitations will be overcome. I would like nothing more! So we talked a bit about these issues and got her to a place of calm. We talked about picking the best things to work with and about sticking with a simpler set of tools while one is still learning how to do something. At the end of it, she felt better.

Here are the photos of this week’s box:

Box day #1

The first box day was actually a week ago. I hope to keep these posts timely, but sometimes events are going to get in the way. That’s what this last week has been like.

First of all, the “box” we dealt with was a little bigger than average; it was our guest bedroom. We had a friend coming into town to stay with us for a week and the room was a disaster area. So box day was spent getting it under control.

Things were shoved into closets and things were stacked up against walls and a few things were tossed out. It wasn’t ideal, from a decluttering standpoint, but at least our friend had a place to sleep. It also served to inaugerate the day as one spent making our lives a little less cluttered.

The beginning of the idea

My partner Ericka and I moved into our house years ago. Still, the basement is cluttered with boxes. Boxes of fabric, boxes of books, boxes of clothes, boxes of office supplies. Boxes, boxes, boxes.

I recently had reason to clear up some of the basement to host a new gaming group that will be meeting weekly. Doing so showed me how much work was needed to do that big clean-up and how much there was left to do.

Still, I’d invested all that work and the basement is looking decent enough for having a few friends over. I don’t want to waste the effort or lose the momentum and so I came up with the idea for box day!

The idea is that every week, I will bring a box up from the basement and Ericka and I will go through it. Things we no longer want will be donated, given away, or thrown in the trash if they’ve out-lived their usefulness. Things we love and want to keep will be given homes outside of the box where we can use and appreciate them! In an ideal world, nothing will be left in the box.

This will be hard as we both have tendencies to gather objects, but even if we don’t meet this idealized goal, I think we can drastically reduce the amount of “stuff” that lives now only in boxes.

I’ll be updating this blog at least every week. I hope to include photos of what’s in the boxes, some tales of how we got through the box, and any lessons we learn along the way. I hope you’ll join us on our journey.