The Great Stuff-Shuffle

The weekend began Friday night with a necessary mowing of the lawn and a clean up of all these pieces of wood.

I'm sure my neighbors must wonder about me.

Well, this had to be done. The trunk was fed up with all of these circles, cylinders and blocks inhabiting its space, and the only place for them to go from there was in the house, and they weren't coming in without a good cleaning first. They were caked with grit and grime. 

Looks like fun, huh? Like a little city of wood or a child's block collection strewn out the front door. I know, you wish you could spend your Friday nights doing tasks most would consider odd and tedious. Tedium, rote and repetitive chores are something to which I am not only accustomed, but in which I find some sort of strange enjoyment. Probably because there are no decisions involved. It's a task to be done, I know what to do and I just have to do it. I like that in a project. 

Most of these wood pieces had been in my trunk in these rusty wire baskets since back in July. The wood came with the baskets. The guy wanted it gone, so I took it thinking I might as well since I could certainly do something with it, right? Since the baskets with the wood in them were only 25 cents each, I figured "why not?" I could always throw the wood away if I didn't want it. Yeah, as if that would happen. The trunk space has been needed on many an occasion since then, but there was never any room with all of this inside. Finally, I mustered the fortitude to tackle the problem, er, I mean the project.

After that, I moved onto another time consuming project the next morning...taking apart the light inserts on the big black letters I got at the auction. I told you I was a sucker for this stuff. There were huge screws sticking out the back. Once I succumbed to the realization I would have to sacrifice my fingerprints to get them off, I committed myself to the process and got that done. The lights didn't need to stay inside of the letters since most were broken anyway.

So I disassembled them for the parts. And there were lots of parts. Quite a process. I saved everything but the copper wire that held the lightbulbs on. I started to save them because I can always find a use for a small piece of wire, but I quickly gave that up. I've got plenty of wire. Thank goodness for glimmering nanoseconds of sanity. I did, however, save the broken bulbs, all but one. The shapes are still intact since most broke on an end. Not sure what I'll do with them, but they look cool. Three of the letters had bulbs that didn't break. I left those inside their respective letters and just removed the big daggarlike screws, where I could.

Yesterday was to be my daunting attempt at reorganizing as much as I could of all the junk that's been accumulating. The loft room has been sort of overwhelmed with stuff ever since the garage sale leftovers came home, and since the last time people came over. I had crammed everything I could back there and in the bathroom to get it out of the way. I needed somewhere to put things so we weren't climbing over them in the main part of the house, and so any hoarder ambiance was diminished to the untrained eye. This tiny loft room is supposed to be my sewing room, but it has become a closet. A closet in massive disarray.

Somehow today, through a day-long pile-shuffling and rearranging session, I managed to move that pile around and over and disperse it here and there through gazillions of trips back and forth through the house. I even managed to find a way to add this desk (this weekend's curbside find) to the hodge podge of stuff in that tiny room. 

Have I come unhinged? It is a distinct possibility.

I didn't want to bring another bulky piece of furniture home, but some folks were just putting this to the curb when I drove by on my way to another garage sale. I couldn't fit it into the backseat, so I took the drawers figuring that would keep someone else from wanting the desk until I could arrange for pickup. I figured if I couldn't get it, at least I'd have a bunch of great wood drawers to use for something. Thankfully, my friends, Paul and Lynette, were kind enough to stop and get it while they were out, and they delivered it to me. The desk had been refinished with a pretty durable paint in a swirly design. It has chipped off in a few places, but I'm not sure I want to tackle a redo unless I can paint over it, or unless I know someone wants it for sure. It's a great desk made of solid wood. All those drawers sure would come in handy for storage. Haven't figured out what I'll do with it yet because while it is in the room, it likely won't stay there unless I ditch a lot of other stuff. I did however clean it well so it could come inside, since the drawers had rat poop in them and there were roach eggs attached here and there.  Oh, the joys of junk!

The chair I paired with the desk is the one I found at a garage sale for $1 a couple of weekends ago and it seems to kind of fit with the desk. The little thingamabob holder ($1 at a sale this weekend and already full of thingamabobs when I bought it) got set on top. It had to go somewhere!

Looks like there is space to maneuver now. But that's a myth. Just outside of this shot, the pile hovers, and I believe it multiplies as I sleep.

This area did get cleaned up a bit. See how some of the black letters are being used at the moment. DINE was the most home-decor-appropriate word I could get out of the letters I got at the auction, so they are adorning the table in the Florida room.

During the clean up and "great stuff-shuffle", I decided to come up with something to do with these little shutters my neighbor let me have one day earlier this Summer from a pile of junk he had going. I tried them on the table by the front door but then broke a glass bottle while moving them around. Prudence challenged me to place them here instead, where they will remain for a time.

It was a big day in the world of cleaning and junk rearrangement. There's more to show, but it will have to wait. Work calls on Monday mornings like clockwork. That's a good thing. I need a paycheck. I don't mind combing the trash for chairs and such, but food is another story altogether. I prefer not to have to get that from a dumpster.

So off to work I go and gladly, but not without bags under my eyes, an aching back and stiff fingers from my weekend endeavors.

All I ask is that the keyboard, my office chair and the clients be kind today.

Oh, and may the telemarketers be few. Is that asking too much?

Yeah, that might be pushing it.

Metamorphosis Monday @ BNOTP
Mop It Up Monday @ I Should Be Mopping The Floor
Nifty Thrifty Sunday @ Nifty Thrifty Things
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage
Inspiration Friday @ At the Picket Fence
Clever Chicks Blog Hop @ The Chicken Chick
Treasure Hunt Thursday @ From My Front Porch to Yours
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style
Cowgirl Up @ Cedar Hill Ranch
Knick of Time Tuesday  @ Knick of Time
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm