DECLUTTERING

Linda — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The urge to purge (my home) hits me occasionally. I don’t know whether to wish it happened more often or less often. I managed to delay sorting and tossing until after the holidays. Maybe it was the gift wrap, the decorations, the packaging, the everything of the season that made me feel like I had to clean out cupboards.

From the blogs I’ve been reading it seems this is the time of year to tackle the job.

http://zenhabits.net/tackle-clutter/ gives many hints and even offers a course. No thanks. I know how to do it. I just have to get at it.

The fly lady http://flylady.net/ suggests starting with a clean, polished sink. Sounds good but I need to get far deeper than that.

I began with my office. Several times I’ve tried to organize my research material, my farm bookkeeping stuff, my stacks of papers, my magazines, etc. I have a small office so if I don’t keep on top of things, the things start to get on top of me. So I sorted and tossed.

Now that I’ve finished I feel like my imagination has room to roam.

I haven’t gone through the whole house yet and I probably won’t because I’ll get busy with something else.

Over the past weeks, I’ve been doing much the same with my writing…sorting and tossing and rearranging. Certain words have to be purged…words that filter like felt, wondered, watched or thought. It’s hard work but when I’m done I feel good. Like the story is cleaner.

Are you starting the new year by organizing your house, or your life? If so, good luck. If not, congratulations on being super organized or super content.

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

Linda — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

There must be something about this time of year. Perhaps it’s the cold weather that reminds me that for the next few months I will be happily cocooned at home. Yes, happily because I can concentrate on my writing instead of trying to cram it in between other things. Anyway, weather or not, I’ve been hit with a bug.
It started when I needed to lay my hands on a certain book to check a research fact. I knew I’d read it. It wasn’t on my shelves–which prompted me to sort my research books according to subject and/or era and get rid of the ones I will never use. However, I didn’t find it there. So I dug through one of the boxes of notes, clippings, bits of paper…. very frustrating.
I found it eventually although by that time I was dusty and ruffled. And I decided there had to be a better way. I consulted writing friends and got some good ideas and set to work.
First, on a computer file, I listed all the research books I had read, where they were (some were in the local library) and a little bit about the specfic information I could find in each book. That step was fairly simple.
Then I tackled the 3 boxes and foot high stack of clippings, printouts, pamphlets, etc. Following a suggestion from one of my consultants that I felt would fit my life style (simple but orderly) I slipped everything into plastic sleeves and sorted it all according to subject and/or era then popped everything into binders. I labeled the binders and voila. I am organized. See the proof. I know it doesn’t look like much but you should have seen the before mess which I was too embarassed to reveal.

I still want to organize the research books I have that haven’t been read by me. But that will come later.
I found lots of interesting little things. Like this:

organization – Linda Ford

DECLUTTERING

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF