Home Inventory Software.

I am currently searching for a software to catalogue all my stuff. Now that I'm going to be moving in a few months I have to keep track of all my things.

I'm currently deciding between Home Inventory Software and Bento.

Hmmm.

Productive First Day of 2010

Checked in at Century Park Sheraton with my family last night. Swam in the hotel pool with my nephews and nieces on Dec. 31 then had a massage this morning.

Got home at around 3 plus pm, and spent some time reorganizing storage space. I've always had plenty of hair care, body care, etc. products -- mostly gifts from my aunt in the States. And yet I've never actually bothered to check what stuff I have in stock so I sometimes end up buying doubles. Never again. Check out my LABELED drawers and storage boxes. LOL.

Labels read (top to bottom, left to right):

• Facial care - this includes skincare products and cosmetics
• Dental - toothpaste, spare toothbrush, etc.
• Hands - hand sanitizers, liquid handwashes
• Perfumes and colognes
• Body-Bath - stuff used during a bath like soaps, body washes, scrubs, etc.
• Body-After Bath - stuff used after a bath like lotion, deodorant, etc.
• Incense and Candles - these are home aromatherapy thingies mostly
• Cards and Letters - stuff from friends over the years

And these last two photographs have drawers that are labeled:

• Hair Care - Shampoos, conditioners, other hair products
• Recipes - I have got a drawerful of recipes I've collected over the years. Weird since I don't really cook much.
• Photographs - some day I need to sort through this. These are my mostly my mom's and are photographs of me and my siblings when we were children.

I feel very accomplished on this first day of the new year. LOL

Dilemmas in having a clutter free life.

I started my organizing bout yesterday. Cleared out two big boxes. Here's some stuff that I kept:

• An old grade school trophy, where I was 5th Honorable Mention upon graduation
• Old letters from pen pals I've lost touch with.
• Souvenirs (little shot glasses) from my travels back in the late 80s and 90s
• An old pink porcelain piggy bank
• A box of little trinkets that I'll sort on another day
• Some college and graduate school notes and readings

I threw away a lot of my college and graduate school notes, but these ones I wanted to sift through on another day. I even have some of my answers in modern history under Father Leonard back in Ateneo. He passed away several years ago but he was always one of my favorite professors.

I don't think I'm supposed to keep college and graduate school stuff, except if I want a trip down memory lane. The handouts will be out of date already, but there's something comforting about having my notes and graded essays with me. Hmm. Where will I keep these stuff? They are 2 feet high.

I've also decided to sell some of my really nice shoes. I haven't worn most of them except maybe once or twice. Others are already too small for me. Anybody want knee high boots? They're really cool.

I'll post photos later, gotta work now.

Clutter-clearing on a grand scale.

I'm planning to streamline a lot of things this year. I already want to sell off a lot of my stuff -- clothes, shoes, books, CDs, DVDs, maybe some games as well. I intend to sell some of them and give some of them away. I also want to move around some furniture in my condo, change the drapes, switch color schemes for my bathroom, and buy a second bookshelf.

Part of this desire to clear out stuff and change things is knowing it's about time to be more selective about what stuff I should own. They have to reflect who I am right now. I am at that stage where everything feels right -- I'm making enough money that I can afford to buy some really nice stuff, I have my own space where I can go about my days and nights the way I want to, and it's simply time to stop procrastinating about this.

Must be the New Year bug. Incidentally, the last day of the lunar year is January 25, as January 26 is the first day of the Chinese New Year. Must be my Chinese-ness coming out but for me, that really is the start of the New Year. I rather like it that way. The whole of December for me felt hectic, even though the holidays were fun since I traveled to Hong Kong with my family. For me, the passing of the old year should be peaceful (very un-Chinese, actually, no fireworks for me), and a time for introversions (oh, gee, goes well with my blog title, yes?). I need the breathing space after December.

So let's do this properly. I'd have a to do list every day about some small stuff at home that I need to clear and post it here on my blog. Nothing big, just small doable stuff that I can do once I get home. After all, there's 24 hours in a day. Assuming I have to work 9 hours a day during weekdays, sleep 7 hours, I still have 8 hours where I can do practically anything I want.

First up on my to do list today: bring up one of the three big boxes in my car. My trusty Mitsubishi Adventure has been serving as storage for a lot of my stuff that I got from my dad's place. Need to clear those out first.

Book Cataloguing Progress.

I haven't been this motivated to fix my stuff since, oh, I can't remember.

Every time I come home from work and after I finish my dinner, I proceed to cataloguing. I think I only skipped one day this week. I have already finished cataloguing all the books I'm selling that are already with me, here at my home. Tomorrow, I've arranged to get the rest of my books that are still at my dad's. I'd have to sort through what I want to keep and what I want to sell.

So far I've catalogued that I'm selling 74 of my own books, and 97 of my ex-boyfriend's books. I'm selling some of my Stephen King books, and a lot of the books that I've enjoyed as a teen. My friend Jinky already reserved my Anne of Green Gables series. I'm also selling my Chronicles of Narnia, and a couple of Little House books, among others. Incredibly, I've discovered that I have a first edition among my stuff. The book was a gift, and hardcover, but the cover is slightly careworn already. I may have to re-bind it once I'm done with cataloguing. I was going to sell the book but changed my mind.

Why am I selling so many books that I love, you may ask? Well, I will be leaving for Canada soon (maybe by next year), and I can't really afford to bring all these books with me. I've also chosen to sell those that are paperback and very worn already (main reason why I'm selling some at one to five pesos a pop). Someday when I have my own place and have settled down (I'm not referring to marriage here, ok? I'm talking about settling down at a place bought with my own money, not a rental like I have now), I want a really nice library and all my books will be replaced with hardcover editions. A Stephen King collection in hardcover -- a thought that had never even crossed my mind when I was buying the books as a teenager. I would so love that.

Ok. I'm hungry. What's for dinner? Hmmm.

Progress with Bookpedia.

I bought all of the Pedia software this weekend, and have just started to catalogue my books.

So first thing I did is sort my books into piles -- the ones I'm keeping go to the back of my bookshelf, and the ones I'm selling stay in the front, so it would be easier to take them out for scanning. Then I start sorting those I'm trying to sell into genres.

I'm starting first with the books I'm trying to sell, so that I can quickly put them into a box once I finished scanning and entering their info into Bookpedia.

I've beginning with the romances first -- Mills & Boon, Silhouette, and Harlequin romances. These aren't all mine as my ex-boyfriend once found out my sisters love to read these books so he took all his sister's old romance novels that they left behind (they were married and out of the house already by then) and gave them to me. I must have about five hundred of these.

So far for today I've only scanned 51 books. I'm going slower than normal because a lot of the books that I intend to sell are old (1980s and early 1990s books) so they don't have a book jacket online. This means I have to capture their covers with my iSight webcam. Then, I type in the summary in the appropriate field, because I want to send my "to sell" list out to some of my friends first. They might be interested in some of these trashy and fun novels that I'll be selling for P1 to P5 a pop, and if so, I need to provide them with a summary of the book. I know if I was the one choosing, I would want one.

My speed? About 5 minutes a book -- mostly because of the typing of the summary (I copy the whole back cover). Capturing a photo with my webcam is very easy, and the search feature of Bookpedia is ok; it's really just my OC'ness that's keeping things slow. So, yes, I've been at this for about 4 hours and more this afternoon. It's so weird but I'm having fun!

And putting the books in a box -- cathartic!

My target is to finish my "for sale" lists by the end of two weeks. I hope that's realistic, but if not, it's ok, too. I'll update my progress on this blog. :-)