New Years Luck

There are many traditions surrounding New Years from partying hardy to First Night Watch.  One I have followed faithfully for years because it feels right to me is the idea that cleaning something out on New Years Day brings you good luck for the year--an out with the old, in with the new which feels good. Usually this actually starts in the getting-ready-for-Christmas period at my house.  I start to see stored things that really don't need to continue to live at my house and either get pitched or donated.  This year's plan actually emerged from a long term renovation of a renovation of my study. When I retired from professorhood in 2005 I got rid of hundreds of academic books and their bookcases as well as a two wall desk. This was replaced by a smaller desk made of filing cabinets and plywood.

Here I have already started removing stuff from the top of the desk in anticipation of the renovation. The chair by the way is Mr P's and came from his study in Dallas when we moved his stuff in 1990. Actually the whole re-enovation was prompted by two things: my retiring from the nonprofit as executive director in Spring 2010 and the purchase of an HP notebook somewhere along the line.  I also got a neat desk from pottery barn that lived in the bedroom.  I found that I simply did not use the computer in the the way I had when I worked. I used to spend hours in the study. Now only in the morning for meditation and prayer. 
It had become filled with left over office stuff and files from two careers that were just sitting around. In the fall I started going through filing cabinets and ditching--mostly recycling-- what really we no longer needed.  I also had moved my old laptop, etc up to the upstairs bedroom. Finally at Lutyens bench I had bought for the front porch was wintering in the study. There was definitely a stuff overload.
Soooo, New Years morning was do it day.  First I moved the oak filing cabinets that were empty out of the study and into the livingroom to move into storage where they can store stuff.

The next step was getting all the crap off the rest of the desk. The old printer is in the trunk of my car to be donated. Some stuff is already set aside for burning (has SS# on it), some in trash, and some in recycle but alot will have to be sorted through piece by piece. So the next step was getting rid of the other plywood desk top. The remaining two oak filing cabinets are still full and I had decided to leave them for now was end tables

The white shelf in the forground was also holding up plywood and needs to be sorted and put somewhere. Needs a wood top as well. Once the last piece of plywood was out the vacuuming could begin. There was a lot of stuff as well that had lived under and behind the desk which got stacked around like old brief cases.

Here is the final product. A whole new seating area. No you can't see the rest of the study. It looks terrible. But each day I though more stuff which gets pitched, donated, recycled, or reused. What I like about this tradition is if you keep it up you do not show up on Lifetime's Hoarders.

By the way, I told Mr P that I had taken apart the desk down in the study. He laughed and said "Again." I sat there and thought about it what he meant and then realized he was talking about seven, yes, seven years ago. His desk has been there over 20 years. It may have the original dust on some parts. Just ask CDuckster.