Ulog 7 A goal inspired by participating in @SteemitMamas and Monoch...

Somethings are just too shameful to share. There will be not be a photo documentary on this topic. Well maybe at the end of the project.

Secret surprises for the one you love can be a great deal of fun. The ones that are best are the ones that can be pulled off right under their very noses with their eyes wide open. Thanks to the Hive account@steemitmamas, I've been inspired to try to pull off one of these surprises.

Two weeks ago the #steemitmamas started a week long declutter. I really enjoyed it. Although about day four things at my house hit fatigue and weather frustrations. So they don't know I actually did do all of the getting things out and I even managed one of the digital de-clutters.

There's a beginning declutter challenge out on the webs for people who are considering minimalism. It starts out very simply. On day 1 you remove 1 item, day 2 you remove 2 items, day 3 - 3 items. and so forth for 30 days. Hive account@metzli took this idea and wrote each day's post while working within a 7 day limitation for the Hive account@steemitmamas challenge. She did a very good job of being inspirational.

Now, before you get all "what's the point?" let me point out that if you add just day 6 and 7 together you would be removing 13 items. If you're being judicious, that could be a really good amount of clutter removed. The whole 7 days totals 28 items. If you manage all 30 days (on your own), it would be 465 items removed.

I decided to focus on one disaster room. There's this room in the back of the house that's right by the back door. It has about 40 boxes in it that have never been unpacked (in 3 to 10 years depending on the box). This does not mean that they've remained unopened. Nor have they avoided being robbed of some goodies. So they're sitting around all topsy turvy in leaning stacks.

Then all this other stuff started accumulating on top of them because a lot of interesting stuff goes on outside that door. And then there's stuff that's accumulated because it's suppose to be my sewing and art room.

So, back to the Hive account@steemitmamas challenge. Day one I removed one huge box that had been sitting in there to be used as ground cover around some of our plants. Day two and three more gardening stuff left the room, out to their little storage building.

Day four, I was standing in the room looking about and all of a sudden it didn't look so daunting! I was actually standing there thinking, "Ok this corner has this in it, and that corner has that, and I need to call about those, so today, out goes more garden stuff."

Then I realized. I had been basically closing my eyes, running past it all, and telling myself it was too overwhelming. But with the challenge forcing me to stand still and look at it, it forced me to be logical about it.

So by day 7 I was thinking. "Hmm ... He hasn't noticed. He has no idea. And with so much of it already open, and with that tent spread out over almost half the room ... I bet I could work on this a very long time before he would ever catch on."

Then I started imagining what it could be like to send him off to work one day and then just move everything to exactly it's right spot, break down all the (by then) empty boxes and clean the room all beautiful.

So this is my goal: Carefully empty the boxes on the bottom and keep the top ones filled with stuff in such away as to keep the illusion just so, filled with disarray. I would like to finish it by July 31.

We will see. There's so much that's trying to percolate at our house. But these little percolating processes may also help with the cover. Actually, the more I think about it, the more these processes will probably require me to hurry with the surprise or lose the opportunity altogether. Things that actually belong in that room are becoming increasingly annoying and in the way in other parts of the house. So. There you have it.

And honestly, I must admit I don't know if this is going to be an intense declutter or an intense rescue. We shall see.

I must speak briefly about the digital declutter that Hive account@metzli encouraged. It broke my brain. Possibly my reaction broke her brain, too. Through the eyes of the SteemitMamas I came to realize that I handle and view data much differently than most people these days. "Old geek" is probably reason #1. "Wife of software developer who makes data sing and dance" is a good reason #2.

And reason #3 is probably due to the fact that it is much cheaper, for me, to just store old data. It's not worth my time and energy to decide, "do I want to keep this?" Just put it away, already.

I'll expound more on the digital gap between generations (probably a user generation issue verses an age generation) at some point in the near future.

I took the photo of these antique tins as they dried on my drying shelf. It runs above my sink and countertop. I'm in love with it.

The tins were rescued from the room and will soon hold art supplies.

I had planned to use it yesterday for Monochrome Monday by Hive account@old-guy-photos. Meh. I should have done it first thing, as we all know how last night went for STEEM.

AND now roll the credits ...

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