Last November when I started sleeping at our new house, I still kept my clothes at the old house and still did my bathroom business there. All the stuff in the new house are immaculately clean and new, I didn't want to ruin it. Every morning, I had to tread my way in pajamas just to get my clothes for work. Sometimes, some stuff that I thought I had in my new room were still in the old house. In short, I've become slightly unorganized.
Christmas came and New Year came, practically my room was still bare. I only bought a black IKEA lampshade as my only accessory. I have a couple of new books on the desk, my bags, my shoes and my clothes, which I gradually transferred, cleanly kept in my cabinets. But apart from that, my room lacked life and character. The guest room even looked cozier and edgy than mine.
After the holidays, I decided to finally allot some time to fix my room. I mentally took note of picture frames that I wanted to buy and put up. I also reminded myself of the glaring mountain of books I left at the other house, which are slowly collecting dust. But work became pretty hectic that domestic matters were put on the very end of the back seat. My parents weren't complaining that I've began to relish my workaholic days, but they were complaining how my room pathetically looked and how much "junk" I left at the old house. I told them, my weekend is always allotted at focusing on something else that I feel are more important. The only way that I could finally do it was to file for at least a day of vacation leave.
That was what I did last Friday and it worked. March 27th I took a leave from work only to fix my room. I got the first phase of book transferring done in the morning and I was able to go to Makati and shop for plastic covers after which I watched a movie with friends. Not entirely the list of activities that I planned to do with my entire day, but nevertheless it was productive. The important thing is, I got my plan in motion and I was able to transfer the first wave of books to our new house.
Doing that made me realize a couple of things:
1. I NEED EXERCISE
I believe I badly need to exercise because I quickly get tired and burned out on simple tasks like this. Books might be heavy, but the fact that my arms always hurt and I would always feel faint at a short distance of walking made me totally pathetic. I was not doing it as fast as I could and I would immediately get cranky and lose my cool. I was not singing a tune while doing this.
2. DISADVANTAGES
A lot of people say that it's more stress-free transferring from one house to the other when its proximity is very near (just across) and that you are not pressured by anyone to move. True. We didn't hire any overhaul company to transfer our stuff anymore. We weren't pressured to just transfer everything just because we're running out of time and we're playing overhaul companies by the hour. We transfer stuff at our own pace. Some men who were still working at that time helped us transfer boxes from the other house with utmost convenience.
Although the advantages are there, there is also a psychological disadvantage to the picture. With the convenience and accessibility, I wasn't able to prioritize the transfer. I felt I could do it anytime I want so I began focusing on other activities in my life. That is cool, but only that I wasn't able to do it until March. And by the time I was doing it, I was completely alone.
3. TRANSFER IS NOTHING, SORTING IS A DIFFERENT THING
Last March 27, it took me half day to transfer wave 1 books from our old house to the new. I didn't care if they were not categorized yet. I just put them all in the box to be taken to the other house. That was the primary goal. This morning, I did that too on my last wave of books, only that I used a luggage with wheels for convenience. Right now, our parking area resembles a Book Fair bazaar and my room resembles a wizard's quarters where books are on the floor, on my desk, on my drawer and soon will be on my bed once I get the other books upstairs.
After the painstaking physical labor of transferring my books, I took a break and immediately figured out the next game plan. Phase 2 involves sorting, which is the "hell part." I have to sort books according to their genre. Sorting, compared to transferring, is more work. It involves auditing and making sure every book is plastic covered before finally storing it in my new shelf. I have to do an electronic encoding of books to make sure that I "finally" maintain a more sophisticated database. Based from my initial scanning, I'm more or less missing 50 books and I hope I find it today or I'll would have to do the inevitable. Release a bitch fit.
Well, I was supposed to go to work today, but due to some bad condition and looming domestic responsibility, I decided to take a "break" and knock myself out organizing my books once and for all. It took me more or less 6 months to finally start this, and I would finish it in less than a month's time. *Hopefully*
*Phase 1 (Transferring)
Wave 1 (Books on ground shelf)
Update: Done on Phase 1 with a total of 3 more waves.
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