A previous entry showed the beginning of my current theme of organising and boxing up of things. Frances told me it’s just an obsession that will soon fade, as the others have. However, why have I started this?

I have a phrase in mind that goes “the way I want it”. I am saying that I like my environment to be clean and well organised. It certainly does not currently measure up. I have used the idea of ‘micro-tidy’ and that is happening on a daily basis. It has influenced how I put clothes away. They are folded and tucked. Socks are rolled into fist-sized balls and serried into Ikea white boxes. Trousers are hung, jeans and chinos are folded and piled. I have a new way of folding jeans as well. Folded laundered pocket handkerchiefs are stacked inside their own Ikea box.

This ‘ordering’ of my environment is something I find pleasing. I have also changed the orientation of this iMac on my desk. When I was studying, I had it at an angle to give more desk space for taking written notes. Now it sits square on the desk at right angles to the window. I have space for taking written notes but will need to clear box files of policies/correspondence/invoices.

I think it might be something to do with changing the scene around me. It involves conscious decisions about where things are, and why they are where they are. I am also harking back to the start of the 1990s when I lived alone and began to design a lifestyle. Such things as furniture, soft furnishings, and artwork. There was initial friction with Frances when I moved into Heston Road because I felt that ambition/control had to end because I was in another’s designed space. I have been consulted on choices of decor, especially in the 2018 redecorating. Frances knows what she does not like, and has used that to object or demur when I have suggested recent changes to living room furniture and colour scheme. The front room sofa has come to the end of its natural life and I have been told to have a look in John Lewis for replacement. It appears that Frances wants to see what is available, rather than have a ‘look’ in mind. I am beginning with a range of colours and shelving and then looking how to source and how much it will cost. I should give myself a budget to work towards

I am being drawn into scrolling through interior design feeds in Instagram and various magazines. Mostly of millionaires homes. The greatest design change I can make is to de-clutter and keep it clean. And to take it at my own pace, and deal with the emotions that go with ejecting artefacts from a place they have occupied for a long time. Books, for example. I still want to read new books and have run out of bookshelf space. I could apply an academic discipline to my books and give myself a given time and reading list to complete and take notes/make summaries. Using the LSBU academic calendar, the Summer Term began on 24 April and ends on 2 June.