sanding, bamboo, ongoing decluttering

Today I managed to get done 30 minutes of sanding on the windows, bringing the total number of hours on the windows to 209. Each coat of shellac has to be sanded with 0000 ("4 aught" or quadruple zero) steel wool. It's the finest grade of steel wool and takes the shine of the shellac down.

I also trimmed the bamboo on the side yard and did a terrible job because I changed my mind halfway through. I started off just topping off the really tall ones and decided to keep going and trim anything hanging over the walkway. It left big holes and a really uneven trim. Good thing it grows fast and reliably.

I also spent time on my ongoing decluttering. I do 15 minutes almost every day. It's much easier and less overwelming to do it this way then to do marathon sessions every so often. I treat it like regular maintenance or an ongoing task like laundry. Much of our stuff has been packed away for almost years (we moved in May 2006) so some of it is really easy to get rid of. Some of the stuff made sense to keep when I packed it but doesn't make sense now. For example, I packed away some documentation I used in the job I had recently left. It made sense at the time because that was valuable documentation it had taken me many years to compile. But now, it is out of date from lack of use so most of it was pitched. I not very cluttery, but we are in a worse state than I am accustomed to due to not doing any decluttering for the first few years of the remodel.