It's Time for Change, Rearrange...

Scrap Boxes, originally uploaded by annamariahorner.

Last night I began another phase of organizing the Gramercy Bunker: Operation Throw Out Furniture. Getting rid of furniture in a studio is like playing one huge game of Tetris: you have to move the couch one way in order to get the dresser past the bed, etc.

Last night I cleaned out and tossed a dresser that I'd had since I moved in in 2003. It was given to me by another tennant, along with a table for my television. That table is being tossed as well. In a way I was sad, since I'd had these things for so long. Was I tossing out a former version of myself? Probably, but I have much nicer things coming. Quite frankly I'm also tired of the place looking like a glorified dorm room. Bring on the dumpsters.

Before you can toss out furniture, you have to take all the junk out of it. I never realized that I owned about 20 bottles of half-empty scented body lotions. I also had a lot of my grandmother's scarves. I kept those. I tossed out all the old clothes, because if I haven't worn it in the past year, I don't see a reason to keep it. In the end, the contents of an entire dresser were broken down to a large shoe box. Not too shabby.

Tonight I have to toss out my bed, which is lumpy anyway, to make room for the new one. Then there is one more dresser to shove out into the hallway. I don't care where it goes from there. Once everything is shiny and perfect in the Bunker, I will post photos. Right now, though, everything is topsy-turvy and not a good reflection of my character.

Household tip of the day: Did you know that you can toss silk/satin shoes in the washing machine? I found three pairs of awesome satin heels in the back of my closet, but they were dusty and gross. I put them in the machine with a little Dreft, the detergent you use for babies, and let 'er rip. The shoes are perfect now and drying in my bathtub. I think I'll show them a good time once the weather is a little warmer.

Spring Cleaning at the Gramercy Bunker

The broom and the mop, originally uploaded by fluffballs.

There's some spring cleaning going on the Gramercy Bunker. I have some furniture coming in from a friend who has to turn her guest bedroom into...you guessed it...a nursery for her papoose. That said, I have a new bed, bookshelves and an armoire en route.

In order to welcome my new arrivals, I've been gutting the apartment. Like a liquidation sale at a sleazy electronics store, everything must go. The fake potted tree, the clothes that date back to 2001, the cheesey framed art whose origins I don't know. Even my lumpy mattresss...out the door.

My extensive collection of books is also being pruned, mostly because I woke up a few days ago and felt surrounded, outnumbered, if you will, by the written word. I packed up as many as I could and for the past few days I've been bringing sackfulls down to The Strand. I tried giving them to the local library, but they wouldn't take them. Something about not having enough space? So, off to The Strand they went, and in went money in my pocket. So far I've made $40 in pocket money, all for doing nothing. That's my kind of income.

The thing about getting rid of things, such as books, is that you remember where they came from. As I tossed a copy of James Joyce's Ulysses into the bag, I remembered when I bought it in 2000, thinking I would do something smart for my brain and actually read the thing. No such luck. I got rid of all the chick lit that was lingering, dusty, in the bookcases. There must someone who will appreciate them more than me.

Naturally, some books stayed. I kept all my books about diamonds, because I've been totally into them for the past year or so. (Le Doug knows all too well about this.) By diamonds, I don't mean what's new at Harry Winston, I mean the searching for and mining of diamonds. Blame Tom for this new interest. I kept all the media and news books, since I have to teach that subject. Any signed books also stayed, because they might be worth something someday.

One thing that is staying is my original A Chorus Line poster from the 1980s. You'll have to pry that my from cold, dead hands.

In case you'd like a video, and who wouldn't, here is selection of clips from one of my favorite shows, Clean House. It inspired me not to live, as Niecy Nash would say, in foolishness.