Posted on Thu - August 27, 2009

Cram It In!


In the works for the sanctum

Originally published as Refusing to Give In at
www.neowayland.com on August 18, 2009

I've been down the last few months. I didn't talk about it a lot because that is one of those behaviors that I am trying to break. It's not good for either of us if I keep doing the "poor little me" bit.

But it is a good idea if I tell you how I plan to break it.

So I was adding a pair of field tweezers to my #3 tool pouch and reading the online version of Popular Mechanics. It seems that the September 2009 issue will be a Mythbusters special, and I was reading about their favorite tools. As I was reading about Adam Savage's home workshop, it dawned on me that here was part of my problem.

You see, one of Adam's favorite tools is a suitcase shaped hardware organizer manufactured in Europe and not directly available in the United States. His home workshop is very small but very tightly organized. He has several of these organizers and each is carefully labeled, he keeps them under his workbench.

That reminded me of some behind-the-scenes footage I had seen of the very last Wallace & Ladmo Show. It was an Arizona institution when it was on (for more than 35 years), and Bill Thompson (Wallace) wrote most of the bits they did in longhand in a room that had floor to ceiling shelves stuffed with props, costumes, and old scripts.

The NeoDen, my sanctum, is the smallest room in my house. It's the front slice of what used to be a single car garage. It's also packed full of stuff, but not well organized. I have a old desk and workbench that I sort of "inherited" from my stepdad, two file cabinets, a keyboard stand, a large music stand, a toolcart, a small altar, and a drawing table that isn't unpacked yet. Oh, and a cast iron umbrella stand that holds my staves, a few canes, one umbrella, a yardstick, and a really obnoxious looking long green level.

Part of my problem is that it's not organized. When I get depressed, I don't stay on top of my filing. Plus I started putting all my books, music, and DVDs in Readerware, but I didn't finish. I planned to steal a page (pun intended) from the NYC Public Library. Instead of organizing my books, I'd put them in numbered plastic crates. I'd use Readerware to find the books or DVDs that I wanted and then go look in the appropriate crate. The crates would live in my Library, which used to be a combo office and library.

Yes, there's a point to all this, and we're getting there.

By having these stacks and work areas that weren't clear, I was probably contributing to my naturally occurring depression. The discipline of keeping everything not in use put away could help with my depression.

Conclusion, I don't have enough stuff packed in there yet. I need to attack the stacks. I need to finish organizing the electrical. I need to move my grandfather's old hat rack from the library to the study so I can enjoy my hat collection. I need to pack that room full except for the work areas on my desk and work bench and altar. I need to organize it.

I found a small apothecary cabinet, I figure two of them will just about fit under my altar table.

What I need is the discipline.

And the amazingly organized extremely private work area.

Who knows, I may even take pictures.

I've already started. By reorganizing a couple of drawers in my desk, I can find places for some of the clutter. I've found a place to store the program DVDs I use the most, and a place to store my personal sundries. Which in turn gave me an extra divider for my bottom left hand drawer. That's where my favorite tarot decks live, and the small box I use to store my pendents.

It's a start.

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