Please help, still need a place to stay

Hello friends, will you help me with something?
I live in Tacoma and commute to Redmond almost every day for school. To reduce the commute, I've been looking for a place to stay in Redmond during the week. But it's really hard to find a place with a budget of less than $350/mo.

This is where you come in. 

I have a 28' trailer at my disposal (Thanks Dad!) with amenities like: king size bed, propane head, cook stove and oven, refrigerator, bathroom with septic system. I am looking for somewhere safe in or near to Redmond to park it for around $200 a month (with an electrical hookup/extension-cord preferred). 

Do you know someone with property that could use a little extra cash? Please pass this along.

You know what would be even better than a parking spot? Somewhere indoors to sleep 4 nights a week! I don't need a lot of space. Just a bed (I can provide that). I won't be bringing a bunch of furniture or pets... I don't need to worry about permanence, don't need to sign a lease, and probably only need the place for a few months. I won't even be there most of the week. Just evenings Mon-Thurs. I can afford $250/mo on my current budget. And once I'm in Redmond more often I can work more hours which means I could pay more.

Starting Jan 6, I'm going to be commuting 5 days a week, often through the worst time of day for traffic. If it takes me 1 1/2 hours to commute one way, that's 3 hours commute per trip (plus $10 gas). At that rate, I'm wasting 15 hours sitting in my car each week. That's more than the homework load for 2 classes!
I've been doing this commute (3-4 days a week) for 2 years now. I'm hoping to work something out so I don't waste so much time and money.

Please do what you can to help. Heck, even a couch to sleep on once a week would be an improvement.
Thank you for your time, and please share this post.

You can contact me through my profile at facebook.com/MaeflowerJ
or by email at maeflower (at) gmail (dot) com

Next Steps

I will continue to work on finding a place to park my trailer or to find a room I can rent in Redmond. I will need it more than ever once classes start next semester.

If asking friends for help does not produce results, I will consider posting on Craigslist. I’ve saved this as a last resort because I am hesitant in dealing with strangers.

I will also continue to organize the remaining boxes. Now it shouldn’t be so daunting with a smaller stack, plus I know what’s in them and that it’s all worth keeping. The hard part is over.

Keeping the house clean is going to be an ongoing struggle, especially because it’s not just me living here. I’ve asked Thad for help in keeping it tidy. We’ve instituted a few rules to help, like doing the dishes each day and taking turns doing them. 

A Look Back

What I learned from the project and how my personal alignment factored in:

The project itself was born out of my alignment. Self care was telling me that I was not happy at home. And being an introvert, home is where I am usually the happiest. This was a problem.

I decided that instead of doing yet another art project, what I really needed was to clean my house and work on making my life easier by having somewhere in Redmond to stay during the week.

By taking care of my home, I was taking care of myself. And the process of going through all of my old things and getting rid of it was very cathartic and I needed that.  By letting go of objects, I was also letting go of experiences and their hold on me.

After changing my alignment to beauty, I started beautifying parts of the house. Those are now my favorite parts. I love how my desk looks now and I don’t feel so chained to it anymore when I’m working long hours.

I’ve also started focusing more on beauty in my artwork, not just on getting it done.

The #1 thing I’ve learned is that it feels good to give things away to people who want them. Sending a box off to GoodWill is one thing, but holding a “Free garage sale” is much more rewarding. I like to see people happy to have my old things.

Some of the things I gave away

2 DVD players

2 fish bowls

Swag from PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) and GDC (Game Developer's Conference)

Lots of jewelry

100 gel pens

2 bluetooth headsets

A digital camera

A set of rechargeable batteries

A voice recorder

A portable CD player

A Sony Playstation 2

A Sony PSP Case

A box full of books including Photoshop textbooks, comics, novels, and more

A box of toys

A box of arts/crafts materials

Lots of candles and candle holders

A Graphics Tablet

…and much more!

Process

—Here's what I wrote in the final turn-in about my process. Some of this may be helpful to anyone in a similar situation. 

I started with the kitchen, getting it as close to a finish as could be done in a day. The effect of having a clean portion of the house quickly spread and before I knew it I was cleaning both of the livingrooms. I removed everything from the floor and packed all of the extra things on my desktop into a box (it actually took 3 boxes). Once I had a clean workspace, it made doing my other work easier. But it was only temporary.

— Gradually, I grabbed things I needed out of the boxes and brought them back onto my desk. After I had a good idea of what I was actually using, it was easy to go through the boxes and get rid of some of the excess, and find a new place for the other stuff to go. I quickly narrowed it down to one box of things that need to be organized.

—To help keep the floor clear of dog toys, I took a wooden crate and filled it with toys. Then any time we find one that’s not being used, we know where it belongs. It wasn’t difficult for the dogs to figure out where we kept the toys.

—The new shoe rack also helps in maintaining a clean floor.

—Once I removed some of the extra storage boxes, we could get to our coat rack, so that helped to keep our coats off the couch. It only takes a minute to clean the livingroom now, since everything has a proper place that’s easily accessible.

—Most of the semester, I had been focusing on the house and what is visible, with the pile of boxes safely out of sight and out of mind.

—Occasionally, when I had a presentation, I would go to storage, and pick out a box full of items to give away. As a result, it was a lot of the more obvious stuff that was easy to get rid of. 

—But now with the house clean, I turned my attention to storage.

—I went box by box and started by throwing away whatever wasn’t worth keeping or giving away. I threw away a full garbage bag.

—Then I went through each box in turn and emptied it onto the floor. I decided the fate of each item, whether I kept it or it went away.

—When all the boxes were sorted, I had a stack of boxes of things to keep (to be organized and put away later) and 6 boxes of stuff to give away.

—I then sorted through the give-away and selected the best things to bring to the final presentation. Of the 6 boxes, I had 4 boxes worth that was good enough. The other two went straight to GoodWill.

—Out of all of that, there was ONE item that I felt was too valuable to give away. I asked $20 for my slim Playstation 2 I don’t use anymore. In the end though, I gave it to someone who really wanted it, and had helped me a lot throughout the semester. I feel good about sending it off, versus feeling bad about seeing it sitting in a box forever. 

—It was hard to start giving things away, but if you start with the easy stuff the other stuff will get easier. 

It’s especially easier when you see that the person it’s going to is happy about it. Giving away things in class helped with this. 

Class Over - Project Continues

I've made a lot of progress.
The house is still clean, which is amazing.
I've gone through the pile of boxes and gotten rid of anything worth giving away, and threw away what wasn't. I ended up with a pile of empty boxes, and about 6 boxes of stuff to give away. Whew!

All empty!

I still have a small pile of boxes full of stuff to organize and put away, but it's a much more manageable stack (here's what it looked like before) and I already know what's in them and that it's worth keeping. 

The leftover boxes

The hard part is over. Now I just need to decide what gets unpacked and put away in the house, and what gets saved away as keepsakes.
Some of my keepsakes are things I don't necessarily need but they hold some sentimental value. So, I'll be giving some of it to my niece. I have a whole box of stuff to give to her for Christmas. Lots of stuffed animals, a jewelry box, a lamp from my Grandma, and a few other things I think she'd appreciate.