Eco In Black's Good Goth Keeping Challenge 1

“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In my stumbling through the interwebs, I have been lucky enough to happen across the blog "Eco in Black." Among the various, lovely posts is a New-Samhain resolution of "Good Goth Keeping"- a series of tips and tricks to help Goths come to terms with famous Delphic instruction "Know Thyself!"

Though this lacks a post to itself, the first principle of self-knowledge is shared between the Greeks and the Neo-Aristocrats. If your interior world is unmapped, then you stumble blind through the world- victim to your emotions, whims, and biases. So, it is wonderful when we can find other travelers down the road to self discovery. After looking through some of the tips, I've decided to follow down the path of Good Goth Keeping and post how my process is going.

The first tip was: Assess your physical baggage and the psychological will follow.

I have a lot of clutter. Is this because as a grad student the contents of 23 years of life are shoved into one room? Or because I really do have clutter. Either way, I followed Eco's suggestion of assessing my room and have come up with several lists. First, what the clutter is comprised of:

~ The floor of my closet where my shoes and laundry reside.

~ Papers- be they letters to be sent, written, read or filed. Be they school work, research work, or random scribbling.

~ Clothing- at the moment, it is very bad since today is laundry day, the winter closet has to be packed away and my summer wardrobe is yet to be properly sorted away.

~ Various craft projects, unfinished or un-started ideas, odds and ends for sewing or knitting. Etc.

~ Books. Since starting my new summer reading goal, I've returned from the library with 18 new books to read. Between these, my school books, and my already owned books I am slightly drowning in piles of books.

~ Tea supplies. Pots, cups, and a ridiculous number of actual tea.

Next, where do these piles accumulate? Where are the very messiest parts?

~ Bottom of my closet.

~ Lower level of my dresser

~ To the side of my work desk/ book shelf.

~ Next to my radiator.

Further investigation has revealed a set of practical goals to finish by the end of this summer to clear away mess and create better, less mess creating habits.

~ Find a new way of storing my shoes rather than a large box. (This will help with clothes and the bottom of my closet.)

~ Use up, pass along, or throw away tea that I don't really like. I have a lot of half empty tins of tea that I'm saving for some inexplicable reason. It might take about a week to finish off the last few crumbs and cut the tea paraphernalia by half. (Helps with lower level of dresser and tea)

~ Create a several new storage boxes from cardboard and cloth for filing and holding other objects. (Helps with papers- if I could have all my letters in one nice place- and finishes up project I've been waiting on.)

~ Organize my crafts: make a list of projects I want to create, materials I need, bag materials together, throw away away useless scraps, package everything else up and store in the basement. Actually finish those projects that I want to make.

~ Be on the look out for cheap bookshelves or innovative storage methods for everything else. Possibly shelves on the wall.

Such for the physical clutter. The psychic clearing will come once I actually begin to do these projects, rather than just have them there. This was a good exercise. It's given me a good set of goals for the summer and made me aware of problem areas. Not quite the same effect as Eco's decluttering process- but very useful never the less.

Over the summer, I'll continue to comment on and try to apply the Good Goth Keeping challenges and the progression of these projects should any interesting revelations arise.

What have other people discovered when looking at the clutter they accumulate?