More than you ever wanted to hear from Jenny Crusie.

Office 11: 99 Boxes of Junk on the Floor, 99 Boxes of Junk . . .

I worked my butt off today–well, it seemed like 99 boxes–and now I’m down to one. One box to rule the world, or at least ruin my day. The Box I’ve been carting with me through three moves and five years. The Ur Box. As in “Ur, I don’t wanna.” One box and then I can go sort through all the books sitting on the floor in the hall.

One box:

Das Box

Das Box.

31 Comments so far

  1. Diane on September 15th, 2007 at 10:41 pm

    One box to go! Well done.

    I still have 8 to go and that’s just in my writing room. I hate to think of how many are still in the shed which have been sitting there since we moved March last year. Trouble is, my partner did all the packing so I can’t just throw out a box site unseen!

    But yesterday I decluttered my laptop. It was running painfully slow and showing only 2GB of memory available. I thought my photos and collages were the culprit. Bought an external hard drive, moved those folders and it only gave me 2GB extra.

    Turns out the culprit was on my partner’s side - a heap of video footage buried deep in one of his folders.

    The laptop is moving a lot faster now after reclaiming 16 more gigs of hard disk!

  2. DownUnderGal on September 15th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    And behold, one box remianed. And it was good.

    It was very, very good.

  3. RfP on September 15th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

    Oh dear. If it’s the Ur-box, you’d better not touch it. Everything since then depends on it. Might be safest to shove it in the attic as is.

    Unless you like the thought of the last 5 years rearranging themselves…. Hmm. That’s sort of tantalizing.

  4. Brandy on September 15th, 2007 at 10:51 pm

    You have done a fantastic job! I am in awe of the Power of Jenny Cleaning! *G*

  5. Carol on September 15th, 2007 at 11:10 pm

    What a gorgeous floor! :-)

  6. Yvonne Lindsay on September 15th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    Jenny, maybe you should give ‘Das Box’ a Viking funeral and just burn it.

    And yeah, I agree with Carol on the gorgeous floor. Of course now it’s visible you’ll have to clean it (darn, there’s always a downside.)

  7. Wendy Roberts on September 15th, 2007 at 11:44 pm

    Oh I am thoroughly impressed! Look’n gooood :)

    I don’t like to admit it but I’ve got a few (dozen) of boxes that look like Das Box *ugh*

  8. Mel on September 16th, 2007 at 3:32 am

    Definitely DAS BOX. But you can defeat it. Picture a perfectly clean floor. And use Krissie’s suggestion of watching movies while you do it, that’s what I do for big paper sorting missions.

    And now you have to update your office pic on The Cave : )

  9. Theresa on September 16th, 2007 at 4:16 am

    Woohoo! Way to vanquish those boxes!

    That last one though. It does look rather scary.

  10. Rachel Green on September 16th, 2007 at 4:44 am

    You’ve certainly impressed me!

  11. capreacula on September 16th, 2007 at 5:29 am

    What a gorgeous floor!

    What a lovely study of yours this room now has become (again). Envy!!! :-)

    What an accomplishment of yours to have worked through everything up to “only” the Ur-Box. I’m absolutely impressed and have loooved to read your daily update. I’m already sniffing that there’s only one day left. May we can have glimpses of you sorting through the books sitting on the floor in the hall?

    And btw, “Das Box” sounds absolutely cute. In real German it would be “Die Box” (because Box = Schachtel which is femine - and can also mean a batty old lady…), but with “Das Box” it has a personality of it’s own ;-)

  12. micki on September 16th, 2007 at 5:31 am

    That box is definitely scary.

    On the other hand, those dotted boxes are looking really fabulous, darling! I know we saw them in previous posts, and they looked good then, but with that rug . . . mahvelous!

  13. CathyS. on September 16th, 2007 at 7:36 am

    Congratulations! And I bet that you will find that after 5 years of not looking in das Box, it will easy to discard, or know exactly where to file each item without even having to think about it.

    Now, could you please come sort through the 20 years of old ironing piles I have cluttering up my closets? (My daughter is 21. I suspect that there are dresses in the bottom of some of those piles that she last wore when she was five!)

  14. Mary Stella on September 16th, 2007 at 9:10 am

    What a terrific “reveal” of your beautiful floor. Somewhere in that box, amid the five years of stuff, is a great metaphor. *g*

  15. Sherri Cornelius on September 16th, 2007 at 9:13 am

    What’s wrong with me that I wait in daily anticipation of more photos of a stranger’s office? This is fascinating!

  16. Lynn on September 16th, 2007 at 9:39 am

    Warm up your shredder for the lone remaining box! Sitting amongst my own clutter, I am absurdly jealous of your organzing accomplishments.

    I think I’ll go shopping and clutter my closets even more. Outlet nearby, coupons in hand, and no football of interest this afternoon. Deal.

  17. Office Wench Cherry on September 16th, 2007 at 1:12 pm

    Are you going to let one stinking little box defeat you after all you’ve accomplished?

    I don’t think so.

    It’s just plastic and paper. Go kick some box butt… er, bottom. Side? Heck, put on some runners and just kick it. It will make you feel better.

  18. Kristen on September 16th, 2007 at 1:16 pm

    Congrats on getting all of that done! However, the view beyond the bookcase concerns me a bit…

  19. RSS on September 16th, 2007 at 2:46 pm

    Das Box VS The Cherry with Inner Peach. No contest. Das Box is well on the way to being KO’d.

  20. inkgrrl on September 16th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

    Woot! Can you just toss it without looking at the contents at all? If it’s been five years, likely not much in there is crucial to life as you know it.

  21. zeldaz on September 16th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

    A clean office … looks like you’re ready for a new year …

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!!!

  22. RfP on September 16th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

    Happy birthday? Seriously? What an AWESOME birthday present to yourself! Now I’m that much more impressed with your office. “Cuz yer worth it, babe.”

  23. Shawn, Cherry Beach on September 16th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

    Haven’t been by in a while, so had the fun of reading all the days of the office in one fell swoop. My mouth kept watering as you referred to all those bits of writing notes you were finding. Have you ever thought of auctioning off some of that stuff? You could give the monies to your favorite charity. Or something.

  24. robena grant on September 16th, 2007 at 5:43 pm

    Well, I’m back from the concrete jungle and ultra impressed with your progress. Fantastic!!

    I know you’re a Virgo, so maybe ZaZa has the info and this is THE day. If so, many happy’s, if not, apply message to actual day. Happy birthday, Jenny!

  25. Jenny on September 16th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

    Nope, it’s tomorrow. And Terry Pratchett’s new book doesn’t come out until Tuesday, so I’m celebrating by reading Going Postal again tomorrow with chocolate and then grabbing Making Money in whatever store I can find it in on Tuesday. With chocolate.

    I’m tossing the notes. They’re really not very interesting. More fun were the e-mails Bob and I send during DLD, but many of those are not fit for public consumption–neither of us is a particularly well-behaved fighter–so it’s a good thing I lost those, too. If I don’t need it right now, it’s going.

    So it worked out nicely that this will all be done in time for my birthday. Which wasn’t planned, it just worked out that way. And the mess in the hall is stacks of books from the library after I moved 2/3 of the bookcases somewhere else. But I have a plan for that, too. No, I’m not going to do it here. Jeez, twelve days of hearing me bitch about boxes is more than enough. Besides, I know what it’s there: books. Nothing to discover aside from some titles I probably forgot I had.

  26. McB on September 16th, 2007 at 7:42 pm

    Don’t toss those notes! You just need to find them a good home. I’ve always wanted to adopt someone’s notes and would be happy to take care of GROB for you. No thanks are necessary.

  27. Jill on September 16th, 2007 at 9:19 pm

    Is that pile of stuff in the dark beyond the books that are in the hall ? Good Luck !
    You have done a super job of organizing and it looks it. Have you come across anything that twelve days ago you knew where it was and now you odn’t ?

  28. Shoshana on September 16th, 2007 at 10:45 pm

    My youngest sister has an absolutely marvelous honest-to-goodness hourglass (it does vary somewhat but it’s very close to an hour) that I drool over every time I see it.
    Maybe you could get yourself a quarter-hour-glass for your birthday?
    Of course, you’ll be finished by then, it seems. Congratulations!

  29. Shoshana on September 16th, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    … that I drool over every time I see?
    What’s the rule there?
    Where’s our Mole? She’d set us straight…

  30. RfP on September 16th, 2007 at 10:57 pm

    it.

  31. Yvonne Lindsay on September 17th, 2007 at 1:15 am

    Many happies for the 17th Jenny! If you spend any time during your birthday in your office you can do so with a very glad heart. Congratulations!

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