600 Things

Oh yes, I’m still here and I’m still working towards my goal of only 600 Things!  Couple of updates: 

- I got the tax forms back from donating all my comic books and the grand total was $6400!  Wow!  That’s WAY better than if I had sold them! 

- My DVDs finally made it to SecondSpin.com a day ro so ago.  They promptly paid me the $230 my DVDs were worth (to them).  The only problem is they recommend sending the boxes Media Mail and it takes FOREVER for them to get there!  They took about two weeks to get from Burbank to their plant which is only a few miles away.  In the meantime Second Spin kept sending me e-mail updates saying they hadn’t received the DVDs.  So that’s a little annoying. 

- By the end of the weekend the last of my Muppet collection should be gone.  had to deal with more deadbeat bidders which lead to a discussion with my friend Michael on how now that EVERYONE uses eBay, people bid and don’t feel they need to follow through.  Kinda like how people create fake accounts on MySpace.  

- The reason web updates haven’t been more often is because of my work on a new project (which I’ll talk about soon) and my continued work on The Henson.com Podcast, Dr. Floyd and Grant’s Advent Calendar - www.ThrowingToasters.com/advent - This week should see some more progress towards the goal.  Reducing seems even more imperative now as I just found out my apartments are going to be sold and I’m about 99.9% sure that when they are sold, they will tear them down.  *snif*  I’ll have been there 10 years come December 31.

SecondSpin.com

Over 80 Auctions!

My ENTIRE Muppet Collection!

Search through to find the special 600THings.com Auction!!

Yes, there hasn’t been updates in awhile, as real life has intervened!  But this weekend the 600 Things Machine will return in full gear with one last big eBay sell off and a few updates!  Stay tuned!

Things have been going well and I’ve been sticking hard to my ‘bring something into the house find a place for it or get rid of it’ mentality!  But more on that this weekend! 

So the challenege has been answered!  Sean & Patrick Johnson of the AWESOME www.Swazzle.com found a box they are getting rid of! Check out this comment:

I thought you would like to know that Patrick and I spent all day yesterday cleaning our workshop. I filled my Honda Fit with items for The Salvation Army including a file cabinet that only had a handful of papers in it, a toaster oven, binders and more. We came across a box of old Mad and Star Wars Insider Magazines - we’re going to sell the whole box and split the cash (does that count for the challenge).

Yay! So now, dear reader, you must go visit the VERY AWESOME www.Swazzle.com. You’ll love it and, best of all, so will any younger humans you have near you! Thanks for the support Sean & Patrick!

Gah!  Sorry for the lack up updates.  Things have been nuts around here with shows, work on the Henson podcast, work on the Dr. Floyd podcast…yeah, yeah, yeah, excuses.

600 Things work has been accomplished though, dear reader!  Having more and more places clean in my house has pointed out to me a few of my “problems” and has lead me to some new rules for my life.  Behavior changes if you will. I get a lot of ’stuff’ when I’m out and about during the day.  Stuff I buy, stuff people give to me, stuff I get in the mail, etc..  What I tend to do is come into the house and just put this stuff down on the first clear spot I can find and there it sits.

For example…comic books.  This week an issue of Daredevil came out which I purchased on Wednesday.  I brought it home and read it sitting in the chair next to my computer.  When I was done I put it in the bag and board and then just put it down in the stack of papers in front  of my computer.  A day later and it was already 2 or 3 things down in that pile, under a Dr. Floyd script and a new car insurance bill and the empty envelope that said car insurance bill came in.

I have a college show in Missouri tonight and so last night I was running around getting things ready to go.  As part of my travel ‘ritual’ I always put a few DVDs in my backpack to watch on the plane and in the hotel room.  One of my ‘comfort’ things to watch on the road is the Rhino DVDs of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.  So last night I was swapping out the DVDs in my travel case when I realized that I couldn’t find one of them.  I know it’s somewhere in my house.  In a stack…somewhere.

I started looking for it in that stack in front of my computer.  While I’m digging through I find that Daredevil comic book and that’s when my ‘problem’ hit me.  I immediately got up and put the comic book in the Daredevil comic books box.  I then put the car insurance bill in my ‘bills’ tray on my desk (I have switched to paperless billing, this was my new premium statement, which they still send via paper I guess) and I threw the empty envelope away!

Anyway, so the new rule is ANYTHING I bring into the apartment must be put in it’s PROPER place IMMEDIATELY!  Not on the couch.  not in front of the computer.  It must go where it belongs.At the same time last night I was doing laundry.  Yeah, I have a washer and dryer in my apartment.  Don’t ask how they are hooked up.  Anyway, I took a load out of the dryer, dumped the clothes on my bed and folded the few items I needed for the trip and put them in my suitcase, then I zipped up my suitcase and put it by the door.  Then I went about packing up my backpack and busied myself with other ‘getting ready’ activities.

Have you realized what it is I did that is a ‘problem’?

I didn’t fold the rest of the laundry that I didn’t need for the trip.  I just left it on the bed.  Where it would have sat.  For weeks.  At the start of this project when I cleaned off my bed I found so many articles of clothing on my bed.  Once I realized this was part of my problem, I dropped everything and started folding the laundry and putting them away.

These are just small steps this week, but I think these new mindsets will help reduce the clutter overall.  I still have a long way to go though, but the end of November is the goal to have the LIST done and begin working towards the goal…

600 Things. 

And if you see a Prince of Space DVD anywhere out there, please let me know.

I’ve been swamped in (real) work, so progress has been slow.  The goal is to have a BIG, BIG, BIG weekend though.  In the meantime check out Chris McNaught’s blog.  Why?  He’s the guy who’s story inspired me to do this project!  You can see Chris’ blog at:

my500things.blogspot.com 

Welcome back to 600Things.com!  I was up in Northern California for a few days but am back and will continue towards the goal!  Couple of updates…

• No one took the Dump The Box Challenge.
• Ryan and Cassandra both took me to task for dumping the box of cables.  I didn’t know you could recycle cables and I SHOULD have looked into that before dumping the box I will try to be more aware of that in the future (though I have my own thoughts on recycling which I won’t go into here).
• And in a super huge surprise, I got back today to find out that Chirs McNaught, the man who inspired my 600 Things quest in his interview on The Story, stopped by and commented here on 600Things.com! Thanks for stopping by Chris and if you start your own blog please let me know and I’ll link to it!
• I have a heavy week of Podcast editing, but the plan is to get some work towards the goal of 600 done each day!  Progress updates will follow, I promise!  I’d love to start making THE LIST by next week and start PARING down!

Are you up to the challenge?

600 Things was featured on Single Of The Day!  Check it out… 

http://www.singleoftheday.com/2007/10/17/so-much-stuff-600-things/