Spiders, Sweaters, and (Possibly) Stupidity

God help me, my ass is tired. Mark and I spent most of the weekend shoveling out packing up our basement. Now, our basement was not a place in which we spent much time. Actually, it was not a place that we went at all without putting shoes on beforehand and washing our hands afterward. Frankly, the last couple of moves were done without a whole lot of purging, this house has not been big enough for some time, and apparently that basement is the ideal habitat for a whole bunch of spiders. There were boxes that hadn't been touched in years. Also a filing cabinet that we have moved two times without opening (still taped shut). Amongst other things, we found:

• all the books, swag, notebooks, and "awards" (such as the highly-cherished Who Moved My Cheese award) from my last cubicle
  
• every box from every piece of electronic equipment we've purchased in four years
• four computers, one monitor, three keyboards, and two Rubbermaids full of computer cables
• credit card statements, phone bills, and tax returns dating from 1994
• several BBQ accessories that our lovely children put away in the window well.

I knew it was bad down there; over the years that room has been a reliable source of low self-esteem for me. It's actually occurred to me that it would be absolutely mortifying if Mark and I died in some sudden tragic accident and family members saw all this pointless crap.

But it's all gone now, baby! There is a mountain of trash at the end of our driveway. And that's with taking out two loads to Goodwill and three boxes of to-be-shredded stuff (like those ancient statements). I actually thought about taking a picture for you, but frankly it's embarrassing enough that my neighbors can see it (same reason why there's no "before" shot). Here's what it looks like now, with probably one third of the stuff that was in there yesterday morning:

Please note the dead-spider-free floor. I still wouldn't eat off it, but I would now let my kids down there in bare feet.

Perhaps the most bizarre thing I found down there was this:

That, my friends, is a sweater. A cables-with-lacy-bits, blocked, shoulder-seamed, and almost freakin' finished sweater. That I vaguely recall working on while preparing for my wedding. In 1998.

The pattern is missing, but it took less than five minutes on Ravelry to figure out what exactly it was (it helped that I only really had Vogue Knitting magazines back then). But then everything is complete but the neck, so I could easily finish it even without the pattern. Except for one unfortunate fact: I did NOT find any more of the yarn. Trust me, we went through every box down there. It's a nice scratchy wool with lots of white flecky bits in it, so I suppose I could find another use for it if I have to. But it certainly would be nice to finish the thing, what with it being such a surprise and all. (And Jeezy Creezy, now I have another WIP).

But now that I've washed the cobwebs out of my hair and am sitting on my ass, I'm feeling pretty good. Our move date is still three weeks away (May 9th!), and our largest and most god-awful task is behind us.

On to the next bit of craziness: Mark and I decided to participate in TV Turnoff Week this year. That means no television for one week starting tomorrow. Mark had to think about it a bit but he's on board now, which I find funny since he's not the one home with the kids all day where it is highly tempting to put on a show just to get through one simple goddamn phone call.       Ahem.      Anyway, we're not cutting out computer time completely, but we will cut back and do the bulk of our surfing, blog-reading, emailing, and posting when the kids are asleep or very much occupied.

In preparation I got even more books from the library (like The Treasury of Family Games), we have lots more packing to do, and beautiful weather is forecast. I've promised to teach Liam to play checkers and he dragged a 1000-piece puzzle out of the basement. Olivia has a new pad of drawing paper and her very own box of crayons. And Mark has just got sucked into The Dangerous Book for Boys. It does worry me a little that more than half of the kids' toys are packed but, oddly, they don't seem to miss them much. Instead they've been into the dress-up box a lot, which has had new stuff added as I've sorted through things.

Why are we doing this now, you ask, just as we are preparing for a move and maybe more than a mite bit stressed? Did you read the title?

Sooooo, wish us luck! I expect to have a bunch of new ideas on how to entertain small children by the end of the week. Assuming we make it, that is. I MUST be strong.

(Pray for me.)

Comments

[Nadine]

I swear we must be twins! I have the same basement, the same nightmares about people seeing it, the same electronics boxes, the same shoe rule, the same spiders, the same bbq accessories (there's not a kitchen drawer big enough for those freaky large utensils!), the same ancient files . . .

But I don't have an old pretty settee down there. I'm jealous! Of that and your Who Moved My Cheese Award. I'm going to get that started around my office pronto!

[Cathi]

Are you freaking kidding me? That was my first sweater! Knit with BS Cotton Fleece in Oatmeal. It has been frogged, long ago, but seriously. That's more than a little freaky.

Congrats on cleaning out the basement- I know what you mean, my garage is like that. Someday we'll clean it out enough to park in there again...

[Jody]

You are much, much braver than me. Good luck! And if it makes you feel any better, when we got married, we got a punch bowl that was cracked when we opened the box. When we moved a year and a half ago, I realized we still had it. It had moved from our first house to our second house and now to the third house. I'm still not sure I've thrown it away.

Really, good luck with the no-TV thing. I'm in awe.

[Holly Jo]

ARE YOU INSANE? You are moving! You NEED the TV! :) Just kidding. You can do it. Good luck.

Very, very impressive on the basement. Feels good doesn't it? My parents tease me about the "organizer's high". I am forever sorting and cleaning something looking for the better high. :)

[Jodi]

Good luck! While your basement clean-up effort sounds painful, sometimes organization is overrated. My parents have a painstakingly clean and organized house -- a little more mess and fun (and less time cleaning and picking up) would have been much appreciated.

[stefaneener]

Of COURSE you will be fine and get through the week. I finally, finally, finally persuaded spouse to go back to no TV. It's a good thing.

The sweater is lovely. Maybe the yarn name will pop into your head and you can score a bit more for the neck. What a nice gift!

The basement looks GREAT. What a nice present to give yourselves. I love eliminating clutter. It does make internal noise, just being there. Lovely for you all.

[Stacey]

God, doesn't cleaning and getting rid of all that crap just feel great?! It reminds me of Randy and I's move just a few months ago. We got rid of soooo much stuff. Loved it. It's nice to kind of take inventory of all you have to keep you from buying more too.
That sweater looks great...it's too bad you can't finish it! And I don't remember why, but I *did* stumble across your Ravelry queue the other day and yeah...you have a LOT of wip's! Now go get 'em! Tackle them like you did the basement! Especially if you aren't going to be watching tv this week ;)

[jen]

I can relate - I'm in purging mode myself; after my grandfather passed away, I spent half a week earlier this month helping to clean out his house -- it's taken 4 daughters, their husbands, and 10 grandkids (and some of their spouses) almost the full month of april to get everything cleaned out and up -- so now I'm going through everything I own ruthlessly (and I thought I'd done that when I moved LAST YEAR). Sadly, I'm not sure i could do the tv turnoff week - unless I could DVR Battlestar Galactica and Dr. who for next week -- would that stil count?

[sue]

Dear Kathy, Oh, I am sooo impressed! The basement! If it hadn't been for the 2 floods we had, the URGENT, WORK TO BE COMPLETED box from Halifax would still be there, taped shut (1983). As we haven't moved since that time,and as everyone has grown up now... I have much to face as well.Getting ready...
And congratulations for the screen decision- I've been write weekly articles in our newsletter about the topic...really important for kids and not as hard for your creative little minds as you might think!!Especially with the good weather.
Love,
Sue

[Cathi]

PS- I don't know if you consider this cheating, but if you tune into 87.7, they broadcast PBS kids (I think concurrently with Channel 6), so it's like listening to a book on tape (which were so awesome on a long car trip for us a few weeks back). Also AM 1690 is Radio Disney, which, while not my favorite, it's fairly harmless and kind of fun.

[Kristin]

Um...it's the hockey playoffs. Must have TV. But, maybe that's my issue... :)

I would definitely have bigger issues with it than Connor. And let's not even talk about giving up the net!