Good luck. I keep saying I won't buy any more yarn, but I still do.

Congratulations on your new space, but more importantly, I'm glad you're feeling better! I moved this summer myself and have been looking at the same (very few) still-packed boxes for two months now.... BUT, I'm happy to report that even as huge a packrat as I am, my stuff has NOT expanded into the new extra square feet. So if I can claim that, I totally believe there's hope for you. :)

Laurie, you are a yarn spinner :)

I find it more motivating to do the clearing out after moving. Everything is fresh and new and you just want it to feel that way too. I will be living where I'm at for another 10 years, but found that doing renovations accomplished the feel of a move. And many bags of stuff made it's way to the Sally Ann. I'm liking my new "minimalist" decorating style.

I set that rule with Scrapbooking stuff - no more unless i need it for a specific project i am currently working on, or will start promptly. Being newer to knitting/crochetting, my stash is manageable and most is for gifts i'm making for christmas.

And i have to give a shout out for Amazon's Preorder system. i'm all set to have your 2nd book delivered to me upon it's release!

I'm glad you are feeling better and getting settled into your new place! I have a shelf for unread books that I have been meaning to read, too. (and also possibly a large-ish stack on my bedside table.) It's nice to have stashes of books and yarn. It's comforting, you know?

Please tell us how the cats made the move. Any special acclimation required? I have to move to Mexico for 8 months for work and am a bit concerned about how my boys will adjust.

Does that weather graphic actually say
"Inland Empire"? Huh?

Wierd I got sick while I was moving a little over a week ago... I made a big dent in my boxes over this past weekend. Still a few more hanging around. I have thrown away a ton and given away another ton. I still have a storage space to go through. UGH! I am not buying anything else for a while. Don't need it! Did your kitties adjust well. Mine did great. I was amazed!

So there, all you negative "you can't do it" commenters! She can and she will!

Glad that you are feeling better! Being sick is stressful enough-adding in the move and unpacking would do many of us in!
My stash is embarrasingly ginormous. I also won't be buying any new yarn.

I totally understand the books and yarn....I had stopped buying books for a while and am pretty good about that one. I even used the library exclusively for a while. Yarn on the other hand is a whole different story. I have enough to last me way past June 2010!! Enjoy the new home.

Just wanted to say congratulations on your new place. It's weird - I hadn't popped onto your site in a while (since the garden massacre which made me so angry at the nastiness of it!) anyway, I checked in and my mouth dropped open that you had moved - I was so happy for you! Best of luck Laurie & enjoy your new shorter commute!

I am glad to hear you are feeling better. For some reason, since you said the cats are not out shopping while you are gone all I can think of is your cats pushing shopping carts around Target stocking up on random stuff. I don't have a cat and therefore no excuse why I recently discovered I had two nearly identical cheese planes.

I love my Dyson! Love it! It has reduced my fur stash immensely. My yarn stash may have to be reduced by hand. Too bad for me. ;)

Sorry you didn't get to enjoy your new space right away, bet it was nicer being sick in the new space than in the old though.

Dang!

I love that you photograph the weather report. It helps remind me that while I might hate the hot and muggy that I am not in 103 degrees right now. I think it would make me keel over!

ah, the NO BUYING YARN thing - i'm on the same train myself. i've got far too much yarn that i keep meaning to knit with, and after i went shopping for more this past weekend and found i had nowhere to store it, i drew a line in the sand.

i like that you gave yourself a concrete date - thus far, i've been more of a volume person. so when i've got it down to a set amount of storage, then i'm allowed to shop again.

good luck, sister!

Love hearing about your settling in! Love the long posts! Love the kitty photos! (blissful sigh)

@Karen..Yes..that does say Inland Empire..or as those of us that live there call it.."the IE baby"...hahaha..we are a crazy sort =}

Laurie, so glad you are in your new spot.

As for getting sick--while I'm very sorry you were sick and am very happy you are getting better, I'm not surprised. That always happens to DH and I. We get in a stress situation for days/weeks with no meals, no sleeps, stress/stress/stress and we're fine. Everything resolves/ends (usually for the better), we relax and BAM!! We both come down with colds/crud that make us wish we were dead. VERY annoying.. *sigh*

Anyway, glad you are settling in and feeling better. Congrats on your new space.
Phyllis
:)

Glad you're feeling better! Unpacking can be kind of fun - finding places for the things you know you want to keep, making piles of stuff to de-stuff your house with everything else.

Here's an idea for the yarn. Since you're not buying new yarn, you could do something similar to what you've done with your books - display your yarn somehow in a way that makes you more able to look through it, choose it, think of projects for it, want to knit with it. Maybe organize it by color, or by yarn weight, or by fiber or something, maybe in the same room as all your books so you can go book shopping and yarn shopping in your own home. That sounds like so much fun, I wish that I could do it. But we need to initiate a major de-stuffing first. :) Enjoy the new place and all that extra time for knitting what with the shorter commute and all.

Only in LA or Phoenix can 95 degrees be described as "cooling down"! :)

I also have enough books, yarn, and quilting fabric to last me till I die. Not to mention the other little crafty bits I seem to have acquired over the years. I sent a box of stuff to Iraq to the IBOL (Iraqi Bundles of Love) guy, but there's still a lot left.

Are the cats enjoying all the empty boxes? I've had a shipping box in my living room for nearly two weeks now. I can't bear to get rid of it, since the furballs are having so much fun jumping in and out of it (pictures on my Sept. 10 blog post, if you're interested).

Glad you're feeling better. Congrads on the big move. Also, thanks for reminding me that I have a never-ending stash o' yarn!!! I must check that before I go to the TAOS WOOL FESTIVAL next week!

I lerve Dallas Raines.

Good luck with the no yarn buying. I too have enough yarn on hand to last me at least a year! Hope you are 100% by the weekend. Happy Fall!!

Good job, Frankie, making sure Laurie does not over work herself and I'm glad you're feeling better, Laurie. I can't wait to cull my belongings when I move.

I'm trying to not buy any more art supplies until I really need it! Currently, I'm enamored of markers and I want to buy a bunch just in case I need that one special color. But no, I'm waiting until I have a composition drawn that needs that color.

Your post is a great reminder for me to not buy more!

Feel better soon.

You are not the only one who got sick after moving I had a flu like virus not the best. Hope you feel better soon. You are also not the only one "doing things in reverse". Once we moved it was time to get rid of a lot of "stuff" which we are still in the process of doing hmmmm....my husband still has to get rid of a bunch of his stuff, but the new place is looking so much better. We too have decided to adopt the one thing in one thing out rule. It just has to be done the new place is smaller so we need to get rid of stuff so we have room for us.
Take care and feel better soon.

Glad you're feeling better -- I read that while you're under stress, the extra adrenaline boosts your immune system, but as soon as the "threat" is gone, your adrenaline tanks, leaving your immune system under-functioning. So it's not a coincidence that it's right after a stressful period that we tend to get sick.

Once I got clever about organizing my yarn and put it in one of those hanging closet organizers, where I could see it all. This lasted about half a day, until my cats decided this was an interactive entertainment venue created just for them and they started pulling all the yarn out to drag around the house. Now it's all in boxes.

Feel better!

95 degrees = cooling off??? Whoa.

If you think you're bad, you should see my stash. It used to live in a wardrobe and a closet. Now it has colonized a corner of the master bedroom and parts of the guest room as well. I am getting better about buying only what I need (according to the same definition you use) but am still prey to occasional fits of random impulse buying. Especially sock yarn. I lurve sock yarn. And Rhinebeck is coming up... I am doomed.

You will expand to fill the space if you let it happen. But since you are all about not letting that happen, then your space will stay space. I'm with you, I value the empty spots as much as my home. If not more sometimes. It is lovely to open a kitchen cupboard and not have everything stacked high and falling over. I want to keep it that way.

This winter I'm going to cut the stuff stored in the guest closets in half. The trick is, family sees that I have space so they start bringing things to me to store for them. How sick is that?

I see Frankie is being as helpful as ever . Aren't cats grand? :D

The ways of the California are strange to me. Your forecast is for "Canyons?" With leafy green blobs between Tuesday and Wednesday?

We just get boring Midwestern stuff like the rains and the snows and the partly cloudies. (Although sometimes we get them all in the same day.)

I think more than the pharmaceuticals and sleep making you feel better, it was looking at Dallas!
By the way, did you happen to see Hoarders last night? One of the people they were trying to help was a woman whose children were taken from the home because it was unhealthy and dangerous. The organizer tried to help her and her husband, and they actually made the house "look" better, but you could tell that her heart wasn't in it. At the end of the show, they had the "writing on the screen" (I don't know what they call it) saying what happened to her. Well, the court didn't think that she was really changed and didn't return her children (they were staying with their grandparents). Her husband divorced her and got custody of the son and -- get this -- they said she had 14,000 boxes of clutter in storage!!! OMG. My apartment took a definite turn to looking better!!!

Congrats...sorry you were sick.

I too have a monster collection of yarn AND cloth. knitting and quilting. Books of both breeds.

In order to pear down, I went through my books with a "real" vision of what I "wanted" to knit/quilt and made a box of what I didn't "want". I have sold on amazon and also traded on paperbackswap.com - building "credits" for when I do want to get some new books.

For ME it is a win/win...no money is expended for new books and I am pearing my collection

oh, me too. I have to require myself to use. what. I. have!
I'd love to see pictures of your place when you're ready. I like taking a peek into other people's spaces and getting an idea of how they live.
and welcome back from the brink of death. I'm sure, had you died, beautiful Frankie would've protected you from Soba. :)

Holy Crap! LA is hotter than Vegas??? We're enjoying 89 today, but back into the 90s for the rest of the week. Its lovely and cool and I slept with the windows open last night. Tonight the low is GASP 68 degrees!!! Its officially sweater weather in the Valley!!!

whoot!
Glad you are settling in - slow is good. A place for everything and everything in its place.

I moved my yarn stash over the weekend, and vowed that I will not buy any yarn until I learn the gender of the Impending Grandchild - then I shall buy yarn for grandchild things, if I can't do it from the stash. I also realized I have kid-friendly yarns to make two cheerful primary color blankets, and will make them "to grow into".

I also have the shelf of books to be read, and I buy books for the same reason (that, and our library system really sucks).

Glad you are feeling better! Aren't kitties the best when you're feeling yucky? They are the best!

Yikes. Moving and then sick. Its like my own personal nightmare. May it all improve soon.

(I've been trying to read from the home "library" for some time now. I can't figure out how it magically gets larger.)

Flash your stash! Flash your stash! :)

I was feeling a tad bit guilty about my stash, but I've finally accepted myself for who I am--a yarn addict. It feels good to just give in.

Glad you're feeling better.

I've always thought yarn never looks better than when it is loose in the skein. Darn it! I have too many skeins. I resolve not to buy any more until at least half of it is used up. As to your new place, fill it, don't fill it. It is yours to do with exactly as you please. Surround yourself with what you love. :o)

Frankie is beautiful, just beautiful.

So glad you are feeling a little better, Laurie - does *not* sound like much fun. Hope the settling in continues to go well :)

It sounds like you have not yet reached a SABLE (stash acquisition beyond life expectancy). You're fine.

I moved at speed too and then had to deal with the stuff that I moved with me, most of which I didn't need or want! I am about to get all the stuff out of storage which was in the house I shared with my ex-husband. I am strong enough to deal with the majority of it now, and feel it will be a cathartic experience letting go of almost all of it.

If you are on a yarn diet, beware fiber-festivals! About a month ago, after listing 95% of my stash on Ravelry, I wrote a blog post stating that I was not going to buy more yarn. [Cough!] And, it's true, I wasn't planning to. There was no need to. I have plenty.

Then I went to the I-Knit-London weekend and got talking to the lovely ladies from Blacker Designs. [Cough! Cough!] 14 balls of their 4-ply Blue Faced Leicester miraculously landed in my stash. So did 5 skeins of Fiberspates Scrumptious (but I can blame Annie Modesitt's influence for that. She's lovely, but she is a yarn pusher).

There is another craft festival here next month. If I go with my best friend (a manic cross-stitcher), I should be able to avoid a repeat of my little binge.

- Pam (hanging head in shame)

There must be something about moving that makes you ill. I have had this (irratatingly scratchy) viral cough since I found out I was goinbg to be moving and I don't think its going to have gone away until I am all settled in.

Also, although I did my clear-out the 'correct' way (mostly because I am moving to a 2nd floor apartment with no elevator and I had no intention of moving the stuff that I didn't want anymore), I am certainly not planning to buy any extra things for the new, bigger apartment except maybe storage (and maybe yarn since my stash only fills 5 boxes now).

Your new apartment looks very nice, I wish you happiness there.

Moving is so wearing. Glad you are in the de-packing stage. Are you drinking your smoothies? All that vitamin rich goodness to keep up your strength. Take heed of the cats and don't work too hard.

The cats may not be out shopping all day while you are at work, but I wouldn't leave your credit card anywhere near the computer in case Sobakowa learns how to order online.

Laurie, you've been a great role model for me in decluttering. I've only purchased three books this year and two were at the KGOA/CGOA conference during an autograph signing by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss, so how could I resist?

Tonight I am giving my polymer clay stash to a friend and her daughter who do polymer clay and live in a large house, not me in a one-bedroom apartment. But don't think I'm so virtuous - I don't have that yarn diet thing down yet.

PS. Hope you are all better and my best to that cute Bob.

I was recently at IKnit London Weekender and spent far too much money on yarn. I really must get rid of yarn that I know that I will not knit anytime soon. I love the RAK group on Ravelry for these occasions!

SABLE. Heh heh.

I'm so sorry to hear that you were sick! I'm very happy that the cats did not eat you.

You can totally control the yarn stash! I hear the call of new yarn myself pretty often, but I have it controlled to just one box of wool and one box of cotton choices for things to knit for my Etsy shop. :)

Congrats on the pretty new place! Sorry you were so sick, I'm happy to read that you're feeling better.

LOL @ the stash problem! Do you still have any Patons Up Country in there? How many balls did you buy of that stuff? ( I bought a ton of Patons SWS when I first started knitting, like 50 balls or so. ooops)

I'm glad you survived your move. (Love the ceiling details and the windows.) It's not surprising you got sick after all that stress. But I'm sure all the kitty love you received helped you heal. (Those sweeties would eat yarn before they ever had a thought of eating you!!)

Also, add me to the list of fans who've already preordered your next book from Amazon.

Sorry you were sick. I am fighting off the 'tireds' and if I don't slow down soon will be sick. I am not surprised you caught a bug after your move.

I have confidence you can put yourself on a yarn diet. You have displayed amazing self control in other areas, I expect you will be able to do it with this one.

I like the details of the appartment I can see beyond the cats. I like privacy, myself, especially when I am sick. I do hope to do a stash review this weekend. That always helps me not purchase. That and not going to yarn stores!

please photograph your stash so I don't feel so bad about
mine!

Love the picture of Frankie! What a doll. I'm with you on the yarn diet. I could knit for six months on what I have on hand and still have a significant stash left over. A lot of it is leftovers from other projects, but still. I think I see a few Crazy Aunt Purl Roll-Brim Hats in my future - great for getting rid of stray balls here and there.

You're such an enabler - I also am now craving pot roast.

I'm glad you're on the mend and getting situated in your new place.

Those highs, those are ridiculous. Funny though how our lows are about the same here in Ohio.

Friday: Cooling down--95 degrees
Saturday: Sunny Hot!--95 degress

Great stuff

* oops, spelled degrees wrong

I do the same when I move; pack everything up and as I unpack I find it's easier to get rid of things. Don't want to mess up the new place. However I've been in this house for 12 years now and the thought of moving is scary!

No new yarn?? EVER?!?!! Ok that might be scarier!

Hi Laurie, I am sorry that you were sick. That stinks. But glad you are getting settled into your new home. I laughed about your comment on your "book and yarn stash". I have books all around the house and my unread books are on a bookshelf in my bedroom and that shelf is OFF LIMITS to everyone but me.Once I have read a book it is available to anyone. There is something about the feel of opening a brand new, untouched book, and settling in to read. I love it. As for the yarn, I have accumulated an embarrassingly large stash. A year ago, when my home went on the market, I packed up everything, even my yarn, china, crystal etc. Well a year later, the market remains tanked and I haven't sold it yet. So slowly my beloved possessions that were packed up are making it back into my house. My yarn now occupies my china cabinet! Every square inch of it. No crystal, no china,no fancy foo-foo bowls just yarn in gorgeous piles. Looks kind of unusual and my grown daughters are shaking their heads at my quirkiness but you know, it looks great in there. I have moved a comfy chair, a small side table and an Ott lamp in there by the window and I have spent more time in the dining room in the 6 months than I have in 12 years of owning the house!Have a great weekend.

Hi, Laurie. Please don't let the opinions of those who don't deserve to be a blip on your life radar cause you to turn off the commenting ability on your blog. Most of your website friends enjoy being able to freely share with you and everyone in such a way and reading and learning from everyone else's comments has always been something to look forward to. Your site is and always has been awesome and I will continue to read it regardless but I love the comments section. Please bring it back in spite of the loser posters who piss you off. We love you, CAP! :)