Day 21: Collect All The Digital Pictures

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 20: Unpacking the Paper Pile or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.

There is so much to say about organizing our digital lives that I barely know where to begin, except--I am grateful I don't have a phone. Sometimes I wish I had one--but most of the time I appreciate how much simpler my life is without one.

No, really.

This is one of those times. I take pictures with cameras which have SD cards. Pulling off my pictures is a simple matter of inserting an SD card into the computer, hooking up my external hard drive  and moving the files to their appropriate digital folders on the external hard drive directly. I never, ever want to have another hard drive failure like I did in early 2012. (I lost almost everything from 2011 because I'd been too lazy to transfer my pictures to my external hard drive.)

I had a bunch in this little keeper.

Then, I found a few more in a different drawer.

The worst one, of course, was the SD card actually in the camera. I had pictures going back to 2014 on it.

It took a while.

I organize my photos by year, then month. Within each month, I break things down into categories based on projects or the reason I took the photos. (Trees and sky, for example, or Emma's birthday, or closet.)

Exceptions are projects which span several months, like the "back hallway and stairs." I have sub-folders within, but I didn't fuss with those tonight. Tonight, I just got things roughly where they are supposed to go.

Good enough.

I've discovered some organizing guy named Andrew Mellon and watched a few videos. He was quite inspiring and helped me get some of my mojo back!  He reminded me that "like goes with like." So, I took all the SD cards I'm keeping and put them into this little storage thingy and put it in my drawer. (One was damaged, so I tossed it, another belonged to my son, so I gave it to him.)

And there.

Done.

Not quite the same thrill as decluttering something physical--but at least I know that all the cards are empty and the photos are transferred.

How about you?
Is this a daunting task--or is it easy for you to do?
Do tell!


Read the next entry in this series Day 22: Declutter Dvds, Cds, and other Media: Saying Goodbye to a Piece of Childhood.

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Day 20: Unpacking the Paper Pile.

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 19: Declutter the Desk Drawers or Surface or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.

This has been building for a long while.
Too long.

I collect my paper. First, it was here.

And then, sadly, also here:

It's a good system. I know where any given piece of paper is at any time.

(It works best, though, if there's only one collection spot. Case in point: my husband is taking the dog for grooming tomorrow and needs a record of his most recent vaccinations. Because I have two spots--I wasn't immediately sure where to look. Because he was vaccinated in April--he was near the bottom of the pile, too, so it took a while to find.)

I started with the older paper first. I tossed probably 70%. The rest I sorted on the desk.

Then, I dealt with it.

Some, I put away. Receipts. Tax info. Warranties and manuals. Paint schemes for the Exterior. Schedules, Insurance documents. Recipes--including one we had thought lost forever (Chocolate Oat Chippers). Etc.

I copied random notes I had made on scraps and bits of paper into my bullet journal. I recorded all my passwords and user ids for various sites so I could toss an agenda from 2013.

I took action on one piece immediately (a donation I've been wanting to make for ages).

This decluttering for 31 days has been good for me. I've had days where I really, really did not want to do it. I've had days where it was really hard to do it. Dealing with my paper is never, ever fun. It's tedious and boring--but it requires me to think, so it's not like I can watch TV or listen to a podcast. (I don't multitask well mentally.) So, I'm grateful for this series tonight--otherwise I would have always wondered if the Chocolate Oat Chipper recipe we'd found on-line was exactly like the one we had had.

Important stuff.

Here's what was at the bottom of the box.

How are things going for you? Are you happy with the progress you're making?
Remember, it all counts.


Read the next entry in this series Day 21: Collect All the Digital Pictures. 

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A Retrospective: 6. The Kitchen, 2007-2014

To celebrate my blog's eighth anniversary, we're taking a tour through time and looking at the changes I've made to our house over the years. This is the sixth in the series. The last area to be featured was The Dining Room, 2007- (early) 2015. If you'd like to start at the beginning, go here: The Front and Back Yards, 2007-2014. You can also catch all the retrospective posts under the Prairie Home Tour tab, above.

They say some people are kitchen people and others are living room people.

I am a kitchen people. 

When I moved in, my husband was living in the house with two room-mates. After we were married, I began lobbying for re-doing the kitchen. At that time, we were still paying the mortgage and we had only one room-mate. We had a son.

Please click through to read through. Sorry to truncate the post but it is mammoth. Not like the kitchen.

Day 19: Declutter the Desk Drawers or Surface

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 18: Letting Go of the Linens or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.

This decluttering project was a precursor to an organizing project. Actually, that's how my decluttering usually goes: I do it in the course of make a space more functional for us. In fact, until I became acquainted with minimalism, I rarely decluttered just to get rid of stuff. (By the by, I don't think of myself as a minimalist. I like to call my self an intentionalist. Do you think that'll catch on?)

I wanted to move the scrap paper which my husband brings home from work and which we use for 90% of our printing over from the right hand side of my "desk" to the left. That way people can just get paper for the printer without having to go through me, as it were.

But first, I wanted to look into each drawer and see what was in there. Ever since I got the ALEX drawer units to replace my old hand made desk drawers, I have had an abundance of drawer space--and I lose track of what I have.

This is the drawer with the paper (and other things).

For this assignment, I opened each drawer and decided whether it needed decluttering--and which one I could use for the scrap paper.

I settled on this one. The cards can go. I've had them for several years and even on the occasions when I could have used one, I haven't. So, out they go (finally). I brought home this big roll of label paper they were throwing out at work--and I've used maybe all of two inches of it in the last year. It can go, too.

Ta Da!

Yes, I found my secret stash of girl guide cookies. So secret, I'd forgotten I had them.

A real quick little decluttering and organizing to keep us humming along.

Nice.


Read the next entry in this series Day 20: Unpacking the Paper Pile .This is going to be a doozy.

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Day 18: Letting Go of the Linens

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 17: Clear Out the Coats or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


Like my mother, I love fabric.

I especially love fabric when it comes in the form of a blanket, or a duvet cover. Even sheets and pillowcases pile up because I can always, always use them.

Like my couch, I like to have a seasonal bed.

Summer:

Hmmm, I had to reach all the way back to 2013 to find a shot of the bed with the yellow duvet cover. Is that a clue to let it go?

Fall:

Winter:

Spring:

My kids are different. My daughter just wants one set of sheets and a duvet cover. My son wants two sets of sheets (one for winter, one for summer), one comforter cover and a favourite blanket for winter which I think I've tossed, unfortunately.

Like anyone in a small home, I have storage challenges.

This is the linen closet. This is on the second floor between the bedrooms.

This is also a linen "closet." It's in the basement between the pantry and the freezer.

When someone says to me: I can't declutter because I don't know what I need, I don't know what I want--I look at my blankets and throws and pillowcases and know exactly what they mean.  It's overwhelming and there's no criteria to make a decision.

Except: how much is enough?

Do I really need four duvet covers with coordinating pillowcases and throws for the bottom of the bed?

Maybe I do. Maybe you don't. Maybe you need room for 16 towels but I don't.

The only other question is then: do we have the room?


Read the next entry in this series Day 19: Declutter the Desk Drawers or Surface, Your Choice.

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Day 17: Clear out the Coats

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 16: Your Choice. My Choice: The Painting Things
or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


There are under-buyer and over-buyers.

 I am an underbuyer. I always thought it was because I was poor--but now that I am able to afford reasonably priced things, I find myself just unwilling to shop.

The coat closet is also home to the vacuum, the vacuum attachments, the mop, broom, dustpan, the feather duster, grocery bags and games.

I don't mind looking on-line--but to schlep from store to store just makes me tired. And I am not a fan of weaving and dodging the crowds in malls.

All this to say: I did not throw out my winter coat.

Some of these things are not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong. Well, OK, more than one. I asked my husband about each of the things he keeps here, too, and he was willing to part with one of his winter jackets. (It's torn and worn and stained.)

I should have.

The zipper doesn't work anymore. I've sewn each of the three buttons on more than once. In fact, some of them need to be reattached. The pockets are treacherous. (I finally found my car keys in the lining, once.) The cord for the hood was lost long ago.

 I should have bought a new coat last year.

 But, I haven't shopped for a new one yet--and as a plus size it is probably too late to find anything for this winter. Thank heavens I have use of a car to go back and forth to work. Last year, I relied on public transit and there were a few days I was colder than I wanted to be.

 So it stays. I'll wear it as I did last year as a layer over several other things.

Maybe I'll get a new winter coat.

 Next year.


Read the next entry in this series Day 18: Letting Go of the Linens. Oh, there are some hard choices to make there.

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Day 16: Your Choice. My Choice: The Painting Things

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 15: Simplify you Make-Up, Simplify your Life or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.


Regular reader of the blog will remember that I started working on my back hallway and stairwell back in July.

The end of July, to be sure, but still.

This weekend, yes, on Thanksgiving Monday, we finally finished painting the risers and trim on the stairs.

We still had one tiny detail to take care of--the second coat on the attic hatch.

This attic hatch.

It had never been painted before so it took a coat of primer and two of paint.

What I really, really wanted to do was clean up these paint supplies outside the bathroom door. I'd tripped on them a couple of times. (Not a fun place to trip, really).

But of course, I couldn't remove them without finishing the job, now could I?

So. There. Done.

We have to remove the tape from everything, wash everything and do touch ups. Just a couple of small projects yet--and then I'm done with the back hallway and stairwell.

Wait 'til you see.
It's awesome.

Read the next entry in this series Day 17: Clear Out the Coats.

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