i spent most of the day yesterday cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, putting little things into place, and sorting more. little areas are starting to become settled, and just feel *right*. it's as if the things in our house are finding the place that they want to live in, where they feel most at home. just like me, in some ways. the longer i am here, the better i am starting to feel about living here in san francisco. having a home, a little nest to feather and make my/our own, helps with this tremendously.
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of course, there's still much to do. after scrubbing both bathrooms in our tiny apartment (yes, inexplicably, we have TWO bathrooms in a one bedroom. it's curious. but one is really for guests, i suppose), vacuuming, sweeping, and the like, i leaned over the kitchen counter, took out a diminutive green steno pad, grabbed the nearest ball-point pen, and started to jot down a list of the things we need and want for the apartment, until the page was nearly bursting with my chicken scratch. it was filled with everything from the mundane ("need more toilet bowl cleaner") to the sorely needed ("coffee table!") to the dreamy ("still want to get those eames chairs for the living room"). i barely have any room to add anything else to the page.
each item on that page is something i have been and intend to keep carefully considered. i want to keep thinking about how much i really want or need ANYTHING that comes into my home. after getting rid of so much junk in the past few weeks that we've accumulated over the years...it just seems like the right thing to do. sometimes i buy things, or have bought things, because they enamored or delighted some part of me at the time, but they were just *things* and they didn't always REALLY suit me, the real me. the editing process is really so important. i feel that as an artist and creator, one needs to know themselves well, and be able to pick and choose and edit the RIGHT materials and objects in their world to say what they need and want to say, visually and emotionally. this is a skill that must be learned...and i believe that we all collect things, somewhat indiscriminately, at times. it's so easy in western culture, it seems...in our product and THING-FILLED world. of course, the hunt is SO MUCH FUN, but often the booty can threaten to bury us if we don't hone the skill of editing those finds. i admit that i have to force myself to edit when i need to edit (in my art, in my closet, in my home, in my LIFE), but in the end, when it's all over, it feels so good to let go and let what remains really shine and make a statement.
and of course, confession time: i find it curious that the only part of my house that hasn't been honestly, thoroughly scoured and arranged to a tee is my little desk and studio area. i keep meaning to do something about it, but it keeps taking lowest priority. i MUST organize that bit in the early days of this week, if not today! i suppose i am avoiding it because the task seems so daunting, and the list of projects i want to work on and dig into is so large at this point, it's almost overwhelming. i almost don't know what i want to do first, and part of me doesn't want to choose at all (avoiding the editing process even here). alas, i must start somewhere, i suppose.... :)