Spring cleaning?...

Would you believe it took 7 (seven) hours to clean my room today?

I do.

I re-arranged my bookshelves, so my sturdier ones were in a spot so I could safely display my antiques and figurines. I make it so my little Ushabti's can watch what i see on the computer. (They must get dreadfully bored just standing there all day...)

I went through all of my old files, looking for redundant papers that I could chuck.

I sifted and sorted through contless stacks of scratched CD's, game boxes, papers, notes, etc., and tossed them all out.

I folded ALL of my clothes, cleaned out my build-a-dresser so there was room, and PUT THEM ALL AWAY. Yeah, in the right places too.

I fished under my bed, desks, cabinets, shelves, drawers, cushions, nooks, crannies, and other areas, and dragged everything I touched out into the open.

I cleaned my desk. Now THAT'S scary...

I emptied a half-dozen tool boxes, chucked them out, and organized all my loose tools into my big mechanics tool chest.

I organized my books on my shelves. And I have a LOT of books...

Re-stacked, re-shelved, re-boxed, re-worked, and re-covered (lol) my room.

Eight (8) bags, the big black garbage bags, FULL. Full of old papers, slurpee cups, wrappers, ripped clothes, boxes, CD's, torn bags, empty cat-food tins, broken tools, SCRAP METAL (it was in my big tool chest), my broken Soft-Air guns, sticks, rocks, bottles (yeah, I didn't recycle...), an old backpack, smelly old work clothes, and a god-awful broken remote controlled truck that I never ever played with. Plus a table-top fountain, a table-top fish tank, a dead bee (or two), a belt sheath for a folding pocket knife (what a useless idea THAT was, a belt sheath for a POCKET KNIFE), an old radio holster, what used to be a shoe, and even more candy wrappers, chip bags, empty cups (coffee ones this time), and a rusty lock.

Phew.

Actually going through all of my books and files, and reading and deciding on what to keep was hard. I was keeping reciepts for rent, my monthly healthcare statements, useless papers like that. Organizing the dozens of dozens of roleplaying books of mine was hard too. Hard-covers with hard-covers, softies with softies, game with game, etc..

All this to find one thing.

The one and only piece of paper that has the absolutely exact starting AND quitting dates of all my last five jobs.

I found it.

Now, whenever I get an interview for my new job, I'll be able to say exactly how long I stayed with certain people, and when I quit and started.

For those who have never seen my room, picture this: Think of roughly an eight by eight foot cell, in a basement. The 'cell' is only defined as a separate room from the laundry room by my big hulking mass of a mechanics toolchest, serving as a room divider and wall. I have my computer desk flanked by a futon, which when folded up is the largest bed I'm able to cram in here to sleep on. The bed itself is wedged against the wall in a pocket formed from between my desk and a mountain of stackable plastic clothes drawers bought from Wal-Mart. These sit on an old coffee table, keeping the shelves off the concrete floor that once experienced a basement flood. Nestled at the foot of my bed, where the table and shelves are, is also a barstool I had bought from fancy a long time ago. It holds a stack of folded blankets that I only use in winter. Beside my stack of 'shelves' is a stack of tupperware bins. These bins hold extensive and valuable collections of trading cards and role-playing ooks that I don't have room to display. They also store old uniforms and clothes with sentimental value, along with photographs and a coin collection. My coffee table with it's many stacks of boxes and drawers fits right in with the three bookshelves that line the outside basement wall. They're all about the same height, reaching up to my basement roof. Right now my antique Porky the Pig cookie jar is staring at me with big cartoony eyes. Wedged on top of my bookshelves is my pellets rifle (in it's gun case of course) and a few freshly organized cardboard boxes full of train set parts and important paper files. The bookshelves actually go past my rooms boundaries, making what I call 'the sprawl', and bordering the mound of dirty clothes in the laundry room. I sit in the center of this organized hell. I sit in a 'ring', the desk and basement divider wall in front of me, bed and wall to the right, a wall and my bookshelves behind me, and just my mechanics toolchest to my left, leaving just a narrow walkway for me to leave and enter my room. It feels like I'm in a fancy cockpit, and all I have to do is literally turn my chair, and I can grab things off of my shelves behind me.

Heh, I'm not complaining. I don't LIVE in my room, I just sleep here. This is one of the reasons I like to go hiking nearly every day. It's a chance for me to S-T-R-E-T-C-H a little.

Well, I'm worn out. Now that I have this paper with all of my previous job dates on it, I can go to bed relaxed and pick up on my job hunting again tomorrow. If I'm REALLY desperate for cash, I am gauranteed a job where I get paid daily. I'll just go to Pro-Temp, a rent-a-labourer place where you go there as a dumb schmuck and they tell you to go to a job site and shovel dirt. Demeaning manual work for minimum wage, but hey. It's a daily paycheque. A last desperate option, one I may have to do a few times until I find a lasting job. No biggies.

That's it for this post. Later peeps!