The other day I actually needed the backup power cord for my backup laptop. Because I had already cleared out all the unidentified/obsolete cords and cables, and labeled some of what I had kept, I was able to find the thing when I went looking. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about - not keeping every single thing just in case you need it, nor getting rid of everything indiscriminately, but keeping the things you are most likely to need/want and being able to get to them when you do.
I found my national health insurance bills that I temporarily mislaid and paid the entire year’s worth at once. Had to take some money out of savings but it’s DONE and I can’t lose them again!!
I have also been doing 15 minutes a day of “stuff that never will have to be done again”. Today it was shredding three books of my husband’s that can’t just be chucked. Very satisfying.
Oh, absolutely! I declutter for birthday parties, bar and bat mitzvahs, and anniversaries. For a low extra fee, I juggle wads of invoices from 14 years ago and random cables from the junk drawer in the kitchen.
I managed to get a little more caught up (though still not back to the high watermark I set last month) over the weekend. I need praise and head pats now.
There are no dishes in the sink! The kitchen is (relatively) clean! Most of the downstairs has been de-cluttered and vacuumed this weekend. I made some headway in my daughter’s messy room.
Well, I was doing pretty good. Had one of those “I didn’t have to look for it!” moments when digging up paperwork to get our health insurance renewed because the papers are properly filed, then I went to look for the e-documents from last year, you know, the documents I scanned so they’d take up less room and then tossed the hardcopies, and…
First, I couldn’t find the back-up portable hard drive with the records.
Then, when I booted it up it read as EMPTY!
Instant trigger of every anxiety/nightmare about throwing out Something Extremely Valuable. Also screwed up my sleeping so I’m running on about 4 hours of shut-eye, but I can catch a nap later today if I have to.
Well, after MUCH anxiety and gibbering it seems to have been a matter of a loose cable. Paperwork for insurance completed and will be sent in today. Yay me. :rolleyes:
I know this is going to set me back for tossing other stuff. I think the only way I’ve restrained myself from printing out massive quantities of hard copies is a lack of paper for the printers (still have to go shopping this week). Engine failure in an airplane? NO PROBLEM! Tossing old paper? PANIC ATTACK! WTF is wrong with me?
On the upside - I have a friend coming to visit for a few days later this month and we usually spend some time doing some power purging. Every time we do that we make significant progress and I can maintain it once its done. I’m hoping that will get me back on track.
So now that my daughter has finished her packing and departed for her year of adventure and I’m no longer afraid that anything I touch will cause her elaborate packing plan to be confused I have started the year of declutter. We’re not moving til June 2014 but my goal is to finish with all the throwing out before we leave to meet said daughter next April.
This weekend I took on my bathroom and tossed a huge bag of half filled and expired soap type products that were cluttering every corner. Sometime this week I will assemble a new shoe shelf and sort all shoes and assign them locations that are not “kicked under the nearest table” That will be a huge improvement to my getting out of the door routine.
Rather than printing off paper copies, set up a backup strategy. Even if one set of media fails, you should have a backup somewhere else.
From my clutter perspective, I cleaned out my closet this weekend to get rid of more clothes that are now too big for me. Now, the entire contents of my closet are:
4 signed t-shirts from various celebs
6 t-shirts
1 golf shirt
4 pairs of jeans
1 dress
4 pairs of shorts
I swear it can echo in there now (I love it!)
Now, I need to attack the shoes that I have stored away in various areas of the house. Either there is room for them on the one rack I have in the basement or they are gone! I can’t wear heels anymore so I should just chuck them, DAMMIT!
Yes, well, it’s also on my list to burn some CD’s, but imagine my panic when the main drive seems empty when I’m finally ready to do that!
In truth, I do have CD backup from about 14 months ago so not ALL would be lost but at the moment I wasn’t thinking about that. Hey, that’s why they call it “panic”, right?
Oh, I want that!
Another closet purge is on my to-do list.
No, donate them. I can’t tell you how many women have brought me heels picked up at the Salvation Army or Goodwill for minor repairs/polishing so they’d have something to wear to a job interview. Personally, I’m a little squicked at the notion of wearing previously owned footwear, but hey, if that’s the only way to get the outfit you need to get a job I’m all for it.
Broomstick, I highly recommend Dropbox.com for offsite storage. Quick, easy, and free for the basic account that holds way, way more than you need, so long as you’re not storing tons of pictures and music.
No more panic over losing important digital stuff.
Seconded (and check out the Marketplace thread to get referral codes, you and the refer-er get extra storage that way).
We’re uploading things to Dropbox as we get them scanned, and it’s reassuring to know that they’re on the Dropbox servers, as well as on the 3 household computers that are linked to the account. I figure the odds of all of those going south at once are reasonably limited.
Space-wise: right now I have 52 meg used for the financial scans; assuming I wind up with 10 times that in use once we’re done, that’s 520 meg, or about 25% of the basic Dropbox free account. It’s extremely easy to get some extra free storage, and with a tad more effort you can get even more (e.g. if you have a smartphone, set it up to do auto-uploads of photos).
Anyone up for another round of encouraging decluttering?
Since the garden harvest is in, we haven’t had any more plumbing disasters, and the latest round of work craziness is over it looks like I’ll finally have some time to get some stuff done.
I think on this day off I’ll clean up the “third room” (it used to be the spouse’s laboratory/workroom but now its not. We haven’t come up with a good name for it yet.) I’ve been using it for a laundry and garden implement drop-off space, so I’ll do more of that, cleaning out more of the junk. The Master Plan is for it to be a combined storage and work room for me. If I can get the rest of the garden implements stored for the winter and get a little more space cleared for the spare blankets and linens that’ll be a good thing.
Here’s hoping we have no more invading raccoons or sudden need for ceiling repairs (it’s sort of amazing how absurdly eventful my life can be).
I’ll join in. Storage room is still a jumbled mess, as are under-the-sink areas. Throw in DH’s pending layoff (scheduled for end of June), and we have emotional clutter impeding efforts to deal with physical clutter.
Got a spot in the third room with the blankets and linens. Still have clean laundry to hang up, but it is my day off, I don’t have to do everything today, just make some progress. (I might resume putting that stuff away after dinner)
Also cleaned up the plant bed on the south side of the building. You can see the lawn/path lights again! Also get to the vehicles without battling plants. Yes, I consider my living space as a whole when I say “clean up”. Also, since the garden is a food production facility is in the spring/summer/fall it does require maintenance else it, too, becomes cluttered with dead stuff, weeds, and windblown trash. We won’t be getting many more 60 degree days until spring, I just had to take advantage of this one.
I’ve been mostly treading water in my attempts to get cleaned up. It’s like playing whack-a-mole. Get the kitchen clean, now the bathrooms are filthy. Get the bathrooms under control, now I’m behind on laundry. Get laundry caught up, now the kitchen’s a mess again. Sigh.
I took some stuff to Goodwill last week. Then on Friday, I had to open my sweater chest to find something else, and I finally got motivated to clean it out too. Now I have a new bag of stuff to go to Goodwill.
Baby steps are still steps.
