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Topic: The Horrors of Neatness (JB Plans a Move) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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John Byrne
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 8:09am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I am contemplating moving! Yes, yes, I know. My leaving Stately Byrne Manor is actually mentioned in the Bible as one of the certain signs of the Apocalypse. But it's been 20 years, and it's time for a change. In fact, I have already found another, very different house in another town.

Not a done deal, yet, but fingers crossed!

The main downside of this, of course, is that I have to put my current domicile on the market, which means I have to let people in. People who don't know me. People who are not used to my lifestyle. Which means -- I have to tidy up.

Ten years of living like a bachelor. And not a very neat bachelor, at that! Bad enough prospective buyers will have to see my house with all its oddities -- "Yes, that is Robbie the Robot..." -- I cannot ask them to also "erase" all my detritus as they view the rooms.

Which means that this morning I started tidying. Which means that right now, several of the rooms are at that awful demoralizing halfway point where they actually look worse than when I started.

I used to say if I ever moved away from this house the only way I could deal with it would be to walk out the front door and toss a match over my shoulder as I went. Sounding better all the time!!

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Anthony J Lombardi
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Joined: 12 January 2005
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 8:24am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

My fingers are crossed for you Mr. Byrne
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Robert White
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 8:42am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Interesting choice JB. It seems you are going for the polar opposite of your current houses architectural style. Since it doesn't look like a manor to me, what are you thinking of calling it?

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Michael Norton
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Joined: 29 April 2004
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 8:47am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

 John Byrne wrote:

 
Which means that this morning I started tidying. Which means that right now, several of the rooms are at that awful demoralizing halfway point where they actually look worse than when I started.


My computer room is in that exact state as I type this. I think I will cram everything back into the closet and pretend I never started cleaning and organizing.

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Russ Webb
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 8:49am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Cross your fingers and finger your crosses.....

Russ
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Yvonne Christian
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 9:22am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

I have been living in my condo for 8 1/2 years now with two cats.  I have a hard time keeping it neat too.

Good luck, JB!  Moving can be overwhelming at times.  The new place looks great.  Very modern.  Was it built in the 1980s or later?  The building that my condo is in was originally a schoolhouse until it was renovated into condos during the 1980s.
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Andrew Hilsmann
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 9:25am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

It's a horrible feeling, isn't it, when you're almost afraid to invite women or strangers into your home because of your housekeeping. My apartment is beginning to look that way right now in fact. Thankfully, it's Sunday -- the day I accomplish all my housework through frantic multi-tasking -- cooking more than half my dinners for the next week, several loads of laundry, vacuuming and dusting every room while listening to the political talk shows on TV, and even (gasp!) cleaning the bathroom, which, if Psycho and Poltergeist are any indication, is always the scariest room in the house. Always. Just keep saying to yourself, "Things will be spotless by the end of the day....."

JB, do you find that you need a certain amount of controlled clutter in your immediate vicinity in order to create? I always found it an effective way of managing "the horror of the blank page." It only becomes a problem when I allow it to spread to the other rooms of the house.

Good luck on the new house. Change is good. Terrifying, yes, but good.

Edited by Andrew Hilsmann on 20 March 2005 at 9:27am
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Kevin Pierce
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 9:31am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Nice place when is the house warming party, [if you get it]
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John Byrne
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 9:49am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

JB, do you find that you need a certain amount of controlled clutter in your immediate vicinity in order to create?

****

I used to have a small sign on the corner of my drawingboard that read "A clean, tidy desk is a sign of a diseased mind." I do find that some degree of chaos is necessary for the creative mojo to work. I have never been much use in sterile working conditions.

(Which is one small thing that worries me about the new house, if I get it. It is very modern -- 1984 -- and very clean of line and space. Won't take me long to mess it up, of course, but for the first couple of weeks. . . )

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John Byrne
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 9:49am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Since it doesn't look like a manor to me, what are
you thinking of calling it?

****

Home?
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Marcus Kelligrew
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 9:55am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

It looks like someplace Niles Caulder would live. Very nice! Good Luck!



Edited by Marcus Kelligrew on 20 March 2005 at 9:55am
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Andrew Hilsmann
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Posted: 20 March 2005 at 9:57am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I was reading this poem last night and it came to mind when reading your reply. Shouldn't every fan of poetry have a copy of Philip Larkin's Collected Poems around the house? Just remember -- whatever Larkin's persona does, go the opposite direction....  

"The Poetry of Departures" http://plagiarist.com/poetry/4864/

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