All Over Albany

Interesting in 2008: Naomi Seldin

One of the best things about working on AOA this past year is that we've had the chance to meet a lot of interesting people. We'll be highlighting a handful of them between now and the start of 2009.

You might have done well in 2008, but Naomi Seldin cleaned up.

Naomi, an editor at the TU, started a blog this year chronicling her efforts to de-clutter her life -- which sounds simple until, well, the time comes to actually get rid of stuff.

As Naomi found out, the process can can be an emotional experience. We sometimes form attachments to the strangest things. And it really can be as simple as throwing something out or hitting "delete."

Naomi passed a lot of her things on to other people who could make use of them -- and it was fun to see what they did with some of the stuff.

It sounds like Naomi has big de-cluttering plans for 2009. Here's what she emailed us this week:

The decluttering will definitely continue. I'm planning on launching a "100 Days of Giveaways" on Jan. 1. I'm going to give away something every weekday for 100 days. Most will be books or CDs. My goal is to keep 100 of my favorites (50 CDs and 50 books) and give the rest away. If I do it quickly, I won't have time to talk myself into keeping things I don't really need.

I'm also looking into ways I can help other people get rid of the kinds of things that pile up, like wire hangers and the glass vases flowers come in. I'd like to do something like a "wire hanger drive" if I can find a recycling center or dry cleaner willing to accept hundreds of them at a time.

Also planned: more posts about useful resources and profiles of good places in the Capital Region to donate to (like the bookshop at the Saratoga Springs Public Library).

And she still has her totem pole.

photo: Naomi Seldin