Digital Declutter – March and April!

I know I’m a bit late to the party, posting my March sum-up being we’re in May and all… but here it is anyways 😉

As my shoulder wouldn’t allow me much time on the computer since the last March update, there isn’t really all that much to tell. So this one will be short and sweet 😉

E-mails:
Even though March decluttering was mostly about cleaning up my hard-drives. I couldn’t quite leave the e-mails alone 🙂

05.03.18 – 26.03.18 – Outlook file no 13 – From 10228 to 0 = 10228.

10 228 deleted e-mails – minus the emails that have ended up “permanently” in File no 1 (yeah, you have to read February’s update for this) which are 1527 added e-mails. That makes March/April = 8 701 decluttered e-mails

Hard-drive declutter:
Since my mid March update, I haven’t done much on the hard-drives either. You might remember I started out with about 1,001,766 files and 2,20 TB of data!

Today this is what my hard’drive is at:

That’ s 620 GB and 339 140 files deleted so far 🙂 Still way’s to go – but it’s gonna have to wait for a while.

Adding it up with this years total and we get:

Bookmarks – 1625
E-mails – 44 496
Files – 339 140 (620 GB)

That should make the total so far this year = 385 261 digital “items out-the-door”.

Yup, that’s it for this time.. told you it would be short 😉

Data Devices galore!

As you all know – or at least some of you know – I’m working my way through my digital life.

After having deleted 35 360 e-mails in February, I decided to put the e-mail decluttering on hold for the month of March.

At the beginning of the year I wrote a little piece about ALL the data I have 😦 Stored on 8 external hard drive’s, 11 memory sticks, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud, computers etc.

Since a lot of the data are backups and backups of backups… I know a lot of the information is the same.

I needed a game plan: So I decided to put most of the data onto one hard drive. I’m thinking that this might make it easier to consolidate and find duplicates.

And this is what I did earlier this month. I consolidated data from all my memory sticks, 6 of my external hard drives + my Dropbox and iCloud photo storage.

This is what I ended up with – one drive with:

Oh boy! That’s 1,001,766 files and 2,20 TB of data – and that isn’t even everything!!!! I think I need to lie down

You might notice I only consolidated 6 out of 8 hard drives.. the reason?

One of the extra hard drive which has about 201 774 files and 95 Gb of data – will in it’s entirely be deleted – so no reason to add it to everything else 😉
The other one has my 2 computers Factory Resets + Image backup from when I installed windows 10. So these files will stay… this is non generational as I will need them if anything (God forbid) should happen to my computers.

Over the last couple of weeks.. Iv’e been chugging along, deleting a little here and there… and I’m currently at:

That’ s 600 GB and 330 748 files deleted so far 🙂 But as you can see.. I have a long way yet to go, before I’m done (sad face).

At this pace it might be months before I’m done.. but hey! This is my ONE big project this year, to get my digital life somewhat in check 😉

How are you dealing with your digital life?

Digital Declutter – February

It’s time for another digital update.

I know I’ve been a bit MIA lately… but as some of you know.. I have limited time I can sit by my PC (health reasons). So guess what! My allotted computer time has been spent roaming through my digital clutter.

I have mentioned before that I have a shit load (pardon the french) of data to sort through. There are music, videos, documents, e-mails, bookmarks, software… you name it, I’ve got it.

Three weeks ago I decided to tackle some of the mountains of e-mails I have lurking around.

You see, not only do I have a lot of e-mail hanging around in my daily used e-mail accounts. But I also have a bunch of backups. Backups going back to when I first started using e-mails in the early 1990s. Not only do I have backups of my personal e-mail accounts, but I also have a few backups from my work mail account (as I had a bit of personal stuff going into my work mail).

Believe or not – my last count wielded about 34 backups equaling 12,8 GB of data. Yeah, that read tens of thousands of e-mail (probably more like around hundred thousand e-mails)

A lot of the backup files has the same e-mails… mostly because I did a poor job at deleting old backups when I made new ones 😦

I know there are software out there, that will let me consolidate and find duplicates. But I don’t have any of this type of software on my computer, so I’m going about it the old fashion way.

I use Microsoft Outlook as my main e-mail program – and one of the finesses of that program, is that I can open old Microsoft Outlook backups (.pst files) within the program. Opening a .pst file as opposed to importing it.. means the file ads itself as a separate mail “account”. I like this because I can work on the attached file without mixing everything with my current daily e-mails.

To keep some sort of control this is how my process is:

I started out adding one file (File no 1) – cleaned the heck out of it (from 6687 down to 756).

Then I added a new file (File no 2) – cleaned that one down to what I wanted to keep. Then, since I knew some of the e-mail in file no 2, was the same as I already had in file no 1, I had to find a way to easily find the duplicates.

To find my duplicates – I do the following in the file I’m currently cleaning (e.g. File 2)

I mark all e-mails as unread
I mark all e-mails with a category color (red or blue or green….)
I change font color on unread e-mails to the color red.
This is how to do that; Go to View, View settings, Conditional formatting, “choose color/font style for your unread e-mails”, Click OK, and OK again. While you are still in the same view – go to Change View, Apply current view to other mail folders, Mark the outlook file(s) you want this to apply for, Mark of “Apply view to subfolders”, and Click OK – and presto all unread email is now the color and font style of your choice 🙂

When all the e-mail left in File no 2 was marked with the color of red and with a category color, I moved the e-mails from File no 2 to File no 1.

Since a lot of my e-mails was already organized in a folder structure, I moved it to the equivalent folder in File 1. Then all I needed to do was go to the respective folders, sorted it according to date, and I could easily compare File 2 mails with File 1 mails as File 2 mails was the color of red and marked with a category color. The duplicates then was deleted.

As you can see, it’s easy to find the duplicates according to e-mail topic and date.

I’m using File no 1 as my default catchall, and as I’m going through and “nulling” out mailboxes, I am moving the keepers (well at least the current keepers), to File no 1 for comparison. Since not all e-mails are duplicates, File no 1 is slowly growing in size. When I am done going through all the other backups and extra mailboxes, I will perform a final cleanup of File no 1 to get rid of the “trash”.

Decluttered e-mails:

Now that I’ve semi explained my process – it’s time to get back to how I’ve been doing with my e-mail decluttering:

14.02.18 – To ease into it I started with my G-mail account (which was in desperate need of decluttering) – deleted 2421
17.02.18 – 20.02.18 – Outlook file no 1 – From 6687 to 756 = 5931 (this is my default move and compare file)
20.02.18 – 21.02.18 – Outlook file no 2 – From 6786 to 0 = 6786
21.02.18 – 24.02.18 – Outlook file no 3 – From 5166 to 0 = 5166
24.02.18 – 24.02.18 – Outlook file no 4 – From 377 to 0 = 377
24.02.18 – 24.02.18 – Outlook file no 5 – From 238 to 0 = 238
24.02.18 – 24.02.18 – Outlook file no 6 – From 1707 to 1121 = 586 (really, really old stuff – I’ll leave the rest for later)
25.02.18 – 25.02.18 – Outlook file no 7 – From 441 to 0 = 441
25.02.18 – 25.02.18 – Outlook file no 8 – From 1464 to 0 = 1464
25.02.18 – 27.02.18 – Outlook file no 9 – From 7568 to 0 = 7568
27.02.18 – 27.02.18 – Outlook file no 10 – From 550 to 0 = 550
27.02.18 – 27.02.18 – Outlook file no 11 – From 279 to 0 = 279
27.02.18 – 27.02.18 – Outlook file no 12 – From 441 to 0 = 441
28.02.18 – 28.02.18 – Outlook file no 13 – From 14187 to 10228 = 3959 (had a break – I’ll dive right back tomorrow)

By my calculations that should be about : 36 207 deleted e-mails – except – I have to deduct the amount of e-mails that have ended up “permanently” in File no 1.

File no 1 – new total 1603 minus old total 756 = 847 added e-mail

Which brings my total for February to – 35 360 decluttered e-mails

Adding it up with January’s and we get:

Bookmarks – 1625
E-mails – 35795

That should make the total so far this year =37 420 digital “items out-the-door” 😉

Now – wish me luck as I dive right back into e-mail hell!!!

Digital Declutter – January

Happy Valentines, everybody!

I was thinking it was time to give you an update about how my digital declutter is going.

It’s taken me a while to post this January status, due to my head playing up again. When my headaches gets bad, I tend to cut down on my computer time, as hanging around the computer makes it worse. Which means I pretty much haven’t been on my computer, since… yep, you’ve guessed it, since last time you heard from me.

I had all these elaborate plans for showing you pictures of before and after for each bullet below… but for the sake of getting this post out there, I’m going to take a cue from John and Barb, at Decluttering the stuff and just write it all out.

- - E-mails – I’ve got a ton of emails to go through (thousands of emails) as I have a bunch of e-mail backup files (more on this later). For now however I’m just going to be digging into one of my everyday accounts, my main account. I started out with 2065, and are now at 1630. That’s 2065 minus 1630 = 435 e-mails decluttered.
- - Bookmarks – Deleting bookmarks turned out to be a bit of a pain –
    I started out with almost 3000 bookmarks! I chipped away at it a little every day, and after a good week I was down on the 1200 level – and then – a hiccup!
    Something went wrong with a synchronization between iCloud, Google and Internet Explorer.. and suddenly I had 3332 bookmarks in my Favourites folder. Noooooo!!! Guess who had to start over 😦
    Thankfully I remembered some of the major deletes, so within a short time I was down to a more manageable number to chip away at.Today I’ve got 1375 bookmarks sitting nicely in my Favourites folder. So I guess that makes 3000 minus 1375 = 1625 bookmarks decluttered (decluttered twice.. mind you 😉 )

I have to admit, it’s been kinda fun cleaning up old bookmarks. It’s been fun, because the bookmarks shows where my interest and focus has been. I’ve been roaming through topics like cars, IT user equipment, minimalist wallets, DIY sheds, house stuff (for when I was building my house), travel, golf ++ just to mention a few. It’s almost like looking at old photos.. it takes you down memory line 😉

So here you have it – total decluttered =2060 digital “items”

Digital Corner – Bookmarks/Favorites!

Last week I talked about cleaning up the Desktop. This week, we will be dealing with Bookmarks/Favorites.

I don’t know about you, but I seem to amass bookmarks left right and center. Between two PC’s, several different internet browsers, iPhone and iPad, I can’t keep track of them all.

You know the drill… You bookmarked a site – it had a really cool video, and you want to show it to your friends! But when you pull out your phone to show it, you just can’t seem to find it, regardless of how hard you try, it’s just not there… and your friends are getting sick of waiting for you to search your phone for it… and then it hit’s you – the darn link is on your computer at home!

I have run into this scenario once or twice 😉 And this year I’m all about getting my digital life sorted. So cleaning up my bookmarks, is definitely on the agenda.

The last couple of days I have consolidated all my bookmarks, into one big list.

I use Chrome as my main browser on my computer, but most of my old bookmarks are from the time I used Internet Explorer (IE) as my browser. So for this particular cleanup job, I’ll be running everything through Internet Explorer.

Since my old bookmarks backups are from different “sources”, I have had to use a couple of different ways to consolidate them.

Through Windows File Explorer:
Most of my old IE bookmark backups were copies of old Favourites folders – and all I needed to do was use copy/paste or move, from old backup media to current Favourites folder (which is located here: Local disk C:\user\{username}\Favorites )

Be aware that on Windows 10, it’s only IE bookmarks that are located in the Favourites folder. Browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge store their bookmarks in a database format, which means you can’t do much directly through File Explorer.
.
Using the Import and export function in Internet Explorer:
Some of my bookmark backups are in a “.html” file format, and the best way to add these, is to use the import function in Internet Explorer. How to import: Go to Internet Explorer – Favorites – Add to Favorites (down-arrow) – Import and Export – Import from a file, Next – Check Favorites check box, Next – Browse, select your file, Next – Select folder where you want to put the imported bookmarks, click Import – Finish. You will find similar functions i other browsers.

After an initial quick cleanup (removing around 1100 or so), it was time to add some of my newer bookmarks.

The last few years, I have moved over to using iPad (and iPhone) for most of my internet surfing. And as will happen, I’ve racked up quite an impressive amount of bookmarks on these devices as well.

Since I’m doing a proper bookmarks declutter, I wanted to add the iPhone/iPad ones, and the best way to consolidate them all, was for me to install iCloud for Windows on my machine. With iCloud for Windows, it’s easy to synchronize photos, videos, mail, calendar and files between your iPad/iPhone and Windows PC. Installation is really easy.

So now I have all my bookmarks under the same umbrella, all located in my Favourites folder on my computer. It’s time to clean up for real 🙂

And this is after I have removed around 1100 !!!!

One of the biggest issues with old bookmark links, is that some of them don’t work anymore. Since there is no way, I’m going to individually click on 2982 bookmarks to find out if they work!!! I needed to find a software that would test this for me!

I looked online, and most of the recommendations seemed to gravitate towards a program called: AM-DeadLink – this software will find your duplicates, check your links and mark all broken ones with the color of red and error code.

Unfortunately on it’s latest version it is no longer possible to delete broken links directly from within the program. Even so, I’ve found this software really useful as it will do most of what I want. It lets me sort my links by folder, by error code, by name and so on.

Even though it no longer will let you delete directly inside the software, it gives a clear idea about where I need to go in Windows File Explorer\Favourites or on Internet Explorer/Favourites to find the broken link.

The way I have done it so far (for the first 1100), is to have one open window, with the bookmark checker program, on one side of the screen, and one open window, with Internet Explorer or File Explorer, on the other side of the screen. It’s made the hunt for broken links easier.

I’m sure there are other programs out there that will help you, and I might (depending on how tedious this is) try another software.. but for now, I’ll give this one a try. If you should have any such program to recommend, please let me know. I need all the help I can get 🙂

Since I’m linking to 3 party software I’m just going to go ahead and add a disclaimer: I am no way affiliated with, nor am I receiving any benefits from links in this posting. I can not guarantee the software’s will do what you want/expect. Nor can I guarantee that they are 100% safe to use. All I can say, is that I have had no trouble with the software’s so far. All information are my own, I am not a professional, any action you take upon this information is at your own risk.

Now that that’s out of the way 😉 It’s time for me to get on with it, after all, I have 2982 bookmarks to go through 😉

THIS WEEK’s task:

consolidate all bookmarks
clean them up
sort the keepers into a sensible folder structure for easy lookup later

Digital Corner – Desktop clutter!

I mentioned yesterday that this year my main focus will be to get control over my digital clutter. Rather than just forge ahead and only give you guys updates on what I’m reducing, I thought that maybe I should write a piece here and there about what areas that might be an idea to declutter. Just in case someone else wants to join along.

Today I want to talk about PC/MAC Desktop clutter.

A lot of people store files directly on their Windows/Mac desktop, instead of saving them to some sort of document folder, (e.g. My Documents etc) as it makes things easy to reach.

Unfortunately what often happens, is that the desktop becomes cluttered, difficult to navigate and sometimes even distracting. Distracting, because all the icons can remind you of other things you need or want to do, and before you know it.. you’ve wasted time… not working on what you turned on the computer to do in the first place!

You should not underestimate the power of a clean desktop. Just like a messy room can make you anxious and stressed, so can a messy desktop.

A clean desktop is kinda like having a clean room. It can make your mind calm, clear and focused.

Yes, this is mine, and no, I did not clean it, it’s always like this. If you want to see cluttered ones – these gives me anxiety

There are also a couple of technical reasons for why you should not use your desktop as storage:

In the text that follows, I’m talking about Microsoft Windows operating system (OS), since this is what I have. I do not know if it is the same on MAC OS. Regardless of OS, I think this is a valid consideration to take.

On Microsoft Windows versions older than Windows 8, your Desktop is not protected.

There are no file protection – mentioned on PC World, some directories, like example “My Documents” are not affected by System Restore. Files stored on the desktop on the other hand, are affected by System Restore, which can result in files disappearing.

and no file backup as default – A lot of file backup programs ignore desktop by default. Most backup programs will however allow you to change the settings to include it, but you have to actually do this.

On Microsoft Windows versions 8 and 10, backups are handled a little different than before, and I’m not sure, but I think maybe these newer OS backs up the desktop file as a default (that is, when you actually do a backup). But again, I’m not sure! To eer on the side of caution, I’m following the old time rule of not storing documents/programs/videos etc directly to the desktop.

What I do, if I want quick access, is to use links instead. I create an icon which links to where the document is stored on the PC.

Also a very cluttered desktop will slow down a computers startup time. Which means, cleaning it up, can help speed up your computer boot up time!

TODAY’s task:

Delete and clear away items/icons on your Desktop that are no longer relevant or important.
Save items you want to keep, to folders like “My Documents”, “My Pictures” and so on – To save: Open the document, press File, Save as – give it a name and put it in the relevant place.
Only keep icons that starts up software programs, or that links to documents/videos/photos etc that is stored on your computer hard drive.

Hello 2018!

It’s amazing how fast time goes… 2017 went by in a whirl… and here we are, 2018!

I know a lot of people make elaborate new years resolutions, and they make a long list of plans for what they will be filling the new year with. Me, I have only a few things on my list;

Outside of my health, my goals are to travel and get my digital “life” under control!

My health I seem to have absolutely no control over! Even so.. I’m forever trying to figure it all out, and off course, that won’t stop, regardless of what year we are in!

Since I got sick, I’ve had to put a lot of my travel wish list, on hold. This year (health permitted) I am planning on checking off a couple of boxes on that list. More on this later 😉

The one task I probably have the most control over, is sorting out my digital life/clutter.

In today’s society there is so much that is going on in a digital form. There are social medias, emails, internet banking, different memberships, blogs, you name it.. it’s there!

A lot of us store files in some sorts of Cloud storage and some of us have a lot of data stored at home on physical media.

Over the next weeks and months, I will talk about the different digital areas, that some of us might want to minimize.

Today however I want to talk about the data I have stored at home… I have a mountain of it!

Between two (or really three, old one I don’t use anymore) PCs, eight external hard drive’s, 11 memory sticks, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud and three different email accounts, I have tons, and tons of files.

Not only are there thousands of files, but I have backups and backups of backups, I’m sure there are even backups of backups of backups… you get the drift.

I have several hundred thousand different files like; software programs, videos, photos, documents, emails and more. I did a count… you won’t believe me.. but there are around 1.155.825 files, and that’s only my external hard drives. I’m not even taking into account what’s on my computers, in my cloud storage’s and individual emails… I think I’m gonna cry 😢

I have singles, duplicates, triplicates and I’m sure, even some quadruplicate versions of files, documents, photos, videos, you name it, floating around.

I think it’s time to get it all under control 😉

On those before mentioned hard drives, the ones that totaled up 1.155.825 individual files…. there are 2217 GB (gigabyte) of data. Now add my PC’s, memory sticks and cloud storage’s – we are talking something around the border of 2350 GB, and I’m sure something else I forgot is gonna pop up somewhere.

I have a large goal for this clean up.. and I’m almost hesitant to tell you all about it, because I’m not even sure it’s achievable, considering I have a lot of music, videos and photos I want to keep… but I’m gonna throw it out there anyways.

OK.. here goes…

Hang on a minute…

“Taking a deep breath..”

OK…

No wait!

OK.. I’m ready…

My goal is to get down to 500 GB or less.

I know for some this doesn’t sound like it should be hard at all.. but for me.. this is huge.. I have decluttered my data before and removed a lot of stuff, so this is not my first time around.

And I can’t be heavy handed either, when deleting stuff, as I have to be careful about not throwing out important documents that I need to keep, like files related to my health, insurances, work ++

The thing, I think will be the most tedious part, is when I start consolidating files, to make sure I only have one copy instead of a gazillion copies.. it’s going to take forever! But this I’m sure you will hear more about when I get to it.

So there we have it.. reduce my digital stuff down to 1/5 of what I have today!

Oh boy.. this is gonna be hard.. good thing I have a full year 😉

And guess when I’ll be starting this? Yep.. there is no time like tomorrow!

See you then… 🙂

A “little” bit of help…

When you last heard from me, I mentioned that we had been working a bit at my stepmoms place as she wanted underfloor heating installed.

My plan was to make a blog-post about it as soon as we were done, but something came up and B and I had to jump on a plane to England to help out my mum (nothing serious.. she just needed a little help). We came home a couple of weeks ago, with a little gift… the flu 😦

Not only had we been infected by someone on the plane… but unfortunately we managed to give it to my mum as well, which she really didn’t need.. poor girl 😦

It’s taken a while, and I’m still sniffling like crazy.. but at last.. I’m back on the computer, so I thought it was time for that blog post about the work we have been doing 😉

My stepmom lives in a building with several condominiums, it’s an older building and when it was built, it was not common to install heating cables in the floors. Today however, underfloor heating is pretty much the norm here in Norway (it gets cold you know 😉 )

As my stepmom was getting tired of freezing here little feet off, she decided she wanted to have underfloor heating installed.

She figured the smart way to handle that project, was to give the task to me, and then jump on a plane to Spain for the fall season 😉

It wasn’t really a difficult project as it mostly meant organizing people to come over to do the work. But even so, it turns out B and I spent a lot of hours on this.

So lets get on with it shall we?

As the main part of the house was being “torn up”, we had to pack everything away into one bedroom. I feel sooooo sorry for that bedroom, we filled it to the brink, and you could hardly get in the door, by the time we had emptied the living room/dining room/kitchen area. It took us two days to empty it all (yeah.. we (read: me) wear out easy).

As the engineered wood floors she had before was only about three years old, our plan was to reuse the flooring if possible.

When we had it all cleared and ready, the hardwood floor people came over to remove the old flooring. To make sure we kept the budged, B and I helped as much as we could. It was kinda cool, because I learned a thing or two about removing old flooring your want to keep. And, guess what.. we managed to salvage all of the floor.

Turned out the were old linoleum underneath, which B and I tore out on our own…. and oh boy… was it dusty… but sooooo much fun 😉

When it was all torn up, we found that the concrete floor underneath it all, wasn’t all that even 😦 After a bit of discussion with the electrician and the floor people, we concluded that the only way the end result would be half decent, was to have the floor leveled. Which happily was something the floorers could help us do.

They took of to get their floor leveling gear, while B and I got rid of the old linoleum at the recycle plant. And then met back up a couple of hours later.

I helped with priming the floor while B helped carry all the bags of self leveling compound/concrete (yeah.. heavy work.. which I was staying well away from 😉 )

Day four was dedicated to mixing and leveling the floor. We helped with the mixing of concrete, but left the leveling to the experts.

Day five was a follow up day to level off the last bits and pieces.. and then all we could do for a few days was to leave it all to dry.

I am so impressed with the products they have today. They give you the opportunity to add heating to the floors without having to put down heavy cables.

The electricians needed only one day, first they put down some underfloor mats (0,6mm) that keeps the heat from going into the concrete below (the green you see). Then they added the super thin underfloor heating film which is only a few millimeters thick. On top they put a thin layer of plastic, and then it was time to put the wooden floors back in.

After the floor was all done, the electrician came back to test that all was OK with the floor, and to finish the rest of his work. (yeah we had a little list for him 😉 )

And then it was time.. to clean it all up and put the house back together again!

Funny thing.. it almost took us longer to put it back together again, that it took to take it apart.. strange how that is 😉

So now it’s back as good as we can get it… I’m sure my stepmom has to rearrange a book or two… but hey… we gotta leave a little for her to do.. wouldn’t you say?

Now the kicker… when you walk in today it looks exactly the way it did a few months back.. the only difference is an tiny thermostat on the wall. Good thing I’m adding some pictures here, it’s the only proof we’ve been up to anything at all, lol 🙂

21:19-21 – The end… finally!

Well, I’m finally here, at the end of my 21 day declutter challenge. Yeah I know, a shocker isn’t it!

How on earth could I have known, when I started my 21 day challenge in January, that it would take me 8 months to kick this “challenge” out of the park. It’s quite ridiculously, how this has gone on and on and on… 😉

But happily.. it’s all over, finally!!! And since I’m sticking to my current 3 day write-ups, you get all the dirt in one go!

As I have mentioned a few times before, I tend to use my guest room as my catch all when I declutter.
This is just a small portion to show how crazy it can get.A mess, I know, why don’t I clean it up for you, a little 😉

Day 19 – Stuff,

I used to have an tiny apartment/condominium in town before I moved out to where I am now, and in my bedroom I had a wall decorated with odd items from around the world.

Since I moved to my current home, I haven’t kept up my wall of weird. And today I’m sending off among other things, two of the last reminiscences of that wall, my wooden masks.

2 wooden masks (I’ve kept my favorite one.. you never know, I might start another wall 😉 )
1 humidifier – it kept spitting water all over my floor 😦
1 wine bottle cooler
1 bathroom rug
1 green golf mat (for indoor practice)
3 candles
1 silver plate

= 10 items

Day 20 – stuff,

It’s funny what pops up when you go through your stuff, this all… serves no purpose anymore.

A couple of things like the cards and the dog show medals, are sentimental items. But it’s time. I took a picture of the medals and I have cards that means more to me from the same people.

The rest? That’s just junk… now!

Some cards, count as 5
1 toiletry bag
1 box of letters and numbers for crafts
1 green box
3 dog show medals
1 clipboard
Bunch of random junk, count as 20
8 sets of post-it notes
Bunch of random papers, count as 5
1 bag of shower curtain holders
3 plastic bottles
1 box of clothing wax
3 packs of hooks
1 Vin’in bag (when you want to travel with bottles)
1 pouch of rocks
1 bottle of hairspray
1 alarm clock
1 pump
Bunch of plastic, count as 3
Medical and sport items, count as 7
2 storage nets

= 70 items

Day 21 – and more stuff 😉

And as we weren’t’ done with random stuff… here is some more for you 😉

20 hangers
2 – 3D puzzles (really cool puzzles that I have done several times over the last 25 years)
3 chargers (2 broken, one with UK plug)
1 lantern for candles
1 blue box
1 very worn out kitchen aid blender (I had to get a new one)
2 pictures with frame

= 30 items

I’m sure there were stuff I missed counting in the chaos, and the numbers should really be more, but I’m sticking with this for my last three days!

Day 19, 20 and 21 = 110 items

Which brings my new grand total for 2017 to 945 🙂

PS… there are actually more that has gone out the house, but (in the spirit of keeping it short and sweet) that will have to wait for another day.

Oh, yeah.. and one of my TV channels are having a Star Trek movie run every night this week, and today’s is starting in a few minutes… I’m sure you all understand… 😉

21:16-18 We are moving on!

I’m rolling up the last few days of my 21 day declutter challenge, I kinda liked the three day write-up so here is part two 😉

Day 16 – Flower decoration

I used to have a habit of buying single flowers like a single rose or a tulip or two, and I would take that single flower and put it in a vase with a little bit of decoration. To bling it up, so to speak.

Over the years I’ve gotten out of this habit for all sorts of reasons, and I’ve been working on downsizing my flower decorating box since I started this blog. There really isn’t a good reason why I should hold on to it all.

As with everything else, a little here a little there, and eventually I’ll get there and today another handful is ready to leave the house.

Flower decoration pieces
Bunch of ribbons of silver tread – count as 3 as there are three different types of threads
2 rolls of pink and green tread
I bag of small rock
5 small pink/purple bulbs??

= 11 items

Day 17 – Golf and…

I haven’t been on the golf course (to play) for almost 8 years now. I didn’t play much when I was in the US and within a year from coming home from Houston my health issues started. You might say I have kinda quit the whole thing. Even so… I’m not quite ready to get rid of my golf clubs (it’s a mental thing.. I’m not ready to give up the idea I one day will be able to get back to swinging some clubs) but hoarding a bunch off goofballs .. well that’s just silly now.

These last few years, I have given away a lot of golf balls to friends (I had a drawer full). But I think it’s time to use that drawer for something else. A week ago, I packed a few balls away in my golf bag, the rest, I took down to my local golf course and offered them to the first person I saw. And yep, you’ve guessed it, she took them all 🙂

20 packs + 5 single (65 golf balls) – count as 25
1 glove
1 golf cap

= 27 items

Day 18 – More sports items

In addition to the golf stuff, I went ahead and cleared that drawer all together of sport items (with the exception of my diving mask and snorkel) and here is the rest of the stuff from the picture above.

2 zumba whatchamacallit
1 bottle of diving glass defogger
1 rock climber talcum bag
1 tube lotion to be used on cycling shorts/pants (no chafing)

= 5 items

In the spirit of keeping this short and simple, this is it for today!

Before I go… here is my yearly tally!

Day 16, 17 and 18 = 43 items, which brings my new grand total for 2017 to 835

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Happy Valentines, everybody!

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)

Like it? You are welcome to share it :)