21:05 – Stuff, stuff and more stuff!

It’s day five of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

You’ve been wondering if I’ve fallen of the face of the earth?

Naah! I’m still hanging around, and I have finally found my voice. No, no, I’m not talking writing voice, I’m talking voice voice 😉

Believe me, it’s been a few fun days, me squeaking like a new born baby bird. Truth be told, I’m sure the bird would have one up on me… sounding waaaay better 😉

This flu is being a stubborn one, and even though I can talk now without people rolling over laughing, I’m not out of the woods quite yet. But, I’m better, and better means I’m getting restless, restless to get back to my decluttering tasks 🙂

So I’m back, chipping away at it…. again!

THE RESULT?
102 Computer/phone related items

AND

47 DVD/craft related items

149 ITEMS OUT-THE-DOOR 🙂

Yayyy… go me!

That brings me past my goal of 231, and I’m “only” 5 days in! Yeah.. that’s a stretch, I know.. but what can I say? I am after all following MY rules of this particular 21 day challenge 😉

21:04 – A pile of magazines!

It’s day four of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

A few years back, I would buy a lot (a lot) of magazines every month. They were mostly interior/garden magazines, with a few technical ones thrown in. I have also been subscribing to a private economy magazine for years.

Around comes 2014 and I decided that one of the goals that year was to massively reduce the books/magazines I would buy. I did so well during 2014 that I continued in 2015 and also 2016. With the exception on the private economy magazine that I get 11 times a year, I think I have bought something like 3 maybe 4 magazines since the end of 2013.

As I love browsing through interior and garden magazines, I have kept a few of my old ones, all the ones that had good articles or was just fun to browse through for an home/garden “pick me up” 🙂

That was until a couple of day ago, when I decided it was time to let them go. Since some of the magazines still had some valid articles/photos, I decided to keep those particular ones.

What I have done over the years (every time I clear out my magazines) is to tear out stuff I would like to keep and I collect them all in a small magazine box.

When I need a interior/garden “hit”, I will sit down with my box and look through it all. If anything in the box no longer takes my fancy, I will get rid off it. This way my tear out magazines box never fills up.

So the last few days, I’ve been going through my favorite magazines, and torn out goodies 🙂

The result?
A small pile to keep, and 58 magazines out-the door!

21:03 – Bagorama!

It’s day three of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

And today it’s time for bags and backpacks.

You know how some people loves and collects purses? Uhu.. that’s not quite my cup of tea.

What is me, you’re asking?

I think I can clearly state, I’m a backpack kinda girl.

I’ve always been partial to backpacks, laptop bags, hip bags, travel bags and sport bags.

I’m not saying I don’t own any purses, because I do 😉

What I am saying is you’ll be finding more bags than purses in my home.

Well, that was, until today 😉

Today, I cut my “collection” almost in half.

I bet you are expecting to see this huge pile of bags on the floor, now, aren’t you?

Sorry.. have to disappoint you!

Since I have been downsizing my bag “collection” a bit the last few years (at least 22 out-the-door), this pile is relatively small.

Even so, I just about cut my current collection in half.

What I’m left with?
8 bags; backpacks, gym sack, duffel bag, laptop bag and shoulder bag.

Leaving the house?

1 Eddie Bauer laptop backpack
1 30 liter backpack
1 Crumpler laptop bag
2 gym sacks
1 Camelbak runners hip-pack
1 Eagle Creek waterproof hip-pack
2 suitcase straps
=
7 bags and 2 travel related items out-the-door

21:02 – All kinds of Purple!

It’s day two of this years first 21 day declutter challenge.

Sadly, Christmas is over, and all the Christmas stuff just got packed away 😦

Since this IS the year for getting rid off stuff, I thought it made sense to do a Christmas decoration review.

Most of my Christmas decoration is in the color of red and silver, but now and then I veer off into different color schemes. The last couple of years however, I’ve been going back to basic. So I figured it’s time to let some the other colors go.

As I have decluttered my Christmas decoration a few times before, I’m mostly left with a bunch of extras in the color of purple.

So here we are, a bunch of purples (yes, Melinda… sacrilegious.. I know) and others leaving the house.

4 medium ball ornaments
5 smaller ball ornaments
7 tiny ball ornaments
2 purple tinsel garlands
1 box of fake snow
27 small ball ornaments
1 Christmas star (window hanging version)
=
47 Christmas ornaments out-the-door

21:01 – Books

Yesterday I mentioned I was going to start a new 21 day declutter challenge, to kick start another declutter year. Guess what.. that makes this day ONE 🙂

And what better to start, but with the most difficult thing in the world to declutter… books!

Hold on.. did you say books?

Yepp.. your heard right.. I’m starting with books.

You have most likely all heard about KonMari and how you should keep only the things that brings you JOY!

Well.. if I’m am going to follow KonMari on this, I will be in big trouble, as ALL my books brings me joy. So I figured I will have to go about it differently.

LET’S BACKTRACK A LITTLE

Back in 2014, I started reading myself through my bookshelves, and called it my “Read a book program“. The idea was to read one of my books, grade it, and depending on the grade it got, either keep it or get rid of it.

When I started my “read a book program” I would sort the books into the following categories:

Books I love
Only books I love are keepers and deserve a place in my bookshelves. These are the ones that I will read over and over again, or they are part of a special collection, they have sentimental value, are an absolute keep for reference/work/hobby reasons or I just absolutely have to keep for one reason or another.

Books I like
Books I like, but which are not quite in the “I love” category, gets donated/tossed or sold. I did/do however check if they can be bought as Kindle e-books first.

Books that didn’t excite me
Out the door – either as donate/toss or sell.

HOW DID THIS GO?

I did really good during 2014 and 2015, getting rid of quite a few books (about 1/3 of my collection). 2016 however, I hardly read a book 😦

So I really think it’s time to start up my “Read a book program” again.

I have an overall goal when comes to my books.
My goal (sometime into the future) is to have most of my books as e-books (kindles)

There are two reasons for this,
1. My books will use less space in the house
2. It will be easy to bring my books with me when I travel the world (which is another dream of mine)

BACK TO DAY ONE AGAIN

To kick start the whole BOOK thing, I figured an initial run through my books might be a good idea. I’ve just taken a serious look at them, and lo and behold.. I DID find a few that I’m quite sure I wont be reading again anytime soon (if ever) 😉 I checked, and they are all on kindle, so here we are..

One run through my bookshelves = 22 books leaving the house

Since I’m picking up on my reading program again, with the intention of “emptying my shelves”, I’m sure you will see a few more books leaving this house in 2017 (at least I hope so).

I will keep some of my absolute LOVES (and some that I like and can’t get as e-books, yep, I have a few of those too), and in general follow my old rules.

What I do for all the books I handle is; I write down the title and author, the grade I have given them, can they be bought as kindle books? I do this regardless of if they are loved, liked or discarded. I’m thinking it will help me get rid of more books, and the grades will tell me if they are worth getting as kindles later.

Also, this time I will try to be a bit more ruthless than I have been in the past. Hopefully this will help me reach my 2017 goal, of 100 books out-the-door!

I know this is not a lot of books, but I told you the books brings me JOY, right? And since I have culled my bookshelves several times before (I mean.. seriously culled them over and over and over again), my bookshelves consists of pretty much only books that I love/like!

For now though – as a start – and on day one – 22 books out-the-door 🙂

This IS the year!

HAPPY 2017 EVERYONE!

I can’t believe we are two weeks into the new year already, it feels like it was only yesterday I was hanging out the window watching all the fireworks 😉

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, of which I’ll tell you more about later 🙂

I’m not really one for making a lot of new years resolutions, and I’m not about to make any big ones now either.

BUT, I have decided that 2017 is the year to get my s@!t done (pardon the french).

I tend to have all sorts off projects in the making, and never really getting them properly off the ground. Like my paper clutter scan and purge (that went belly up before Christmas), my photo collection scan and purge that I have been planning the last “few” years, my read a book program that I’m still not done with, and I could go on….

So I think it’s time I put some serious elbow grease into this, and get some of this stuff done, once and for all!!!

And I can’t think of any better way to get started, than kicking it off, with the earlier promised 21 day declutter challenge!

I know a lot of you have started this years decluttering already, and I am a little late to the party, but you know what they say, better late than never 😉

Now for some “rules”:

Out-the-door – at least 231 items. Since this is a 21 day mini version of The Minimalists MinsGame, where the concept is day 1 = 1 item, day 2 = 2 items and so on up to day 21 = 21 items. 21 days makes for 231 items.
I will be jumbling the days, which means that some days I might be getting rid off a lot and some days there will be less. As long as the total is more that 231, I’m good 😉
As my health is still not quite up to par (as you probably have gathered from lack of postings lately), I will only be counting the days I actually do some decluttering. Which means MY 21 days challenge might take a week or three longer than everyone else’s. I hope that is OK with you all 😀

Well, now that the rules have been set, I’ll be kicking it all off… tomorrow!

That should give you guys ample time, to join in 😉

Just kidding, I know a few of you are already knee deep into this years declutter round, like Barb and John who are at 504 items already, and Jen who are 457 items this time around.

Now it’s up to the rest of us to catch up a little.. what do you say Melinda, are you in?

Anyone else? Let me know, and I’ll link to you as we move along

See you all tomorrow 🙂

21: – I think I jinxed it!

Last time I wrote to you all, I had high hopes for me being able to start back up with my 21 day paper challenge.

Well… I think I might have jinxed it (yes, Nancy, you were right, I tempted faith 😦 )

The day after my last post, I believe the universe decided to conspire against me, as a truck filled with hand grenades, blew up inside my head.. or maybe it was a small nuclear bomb… I’m not sure… whatever it was, it felt like it took my head off, it hurt like heck (and yes, there were tears) and I’ve been holding on for dear life ever since.

B and I seriously contemplated going to the emergency room, because this one, was a doozy, and it came on so sudden! But past experiences have taught us, that as soon as they hear I have migraine problems, they’ll assume it’s another attach, they’ll give me some medication (which is pretty much sugar pills compared to the stuff I have at home) and they’ll send me home.

I really didn’t feel like hanging around in the emergency room for hours, with a head threatening to fall off, for them to just send me home, so I took all the medication I dared to and went to bed. Hoping it would clear a little by next day. Thankfully it did! But only a little…

I had an appointment with my neurologist the day after this happened, and she thought I had had what they call a Thunderclap headache. During the appointment, I asked her, did she think it possibly could have been a blood related issue (like TIA), but she didn’t think so, as my latest scans hadn’t shown any potential problems.

Sadly, she didn’t mention how important it is to seek medical care should I ever experience this again, as a Thunderclap headache can be caused by artery bleeding (which I just found out from looking it up on the internet). If this ever happens again, there is no doubt.. you will find me at the emergency room, and I won’t let them send me home until they have given me a proper checkup!!!

Since Wednesdays attach, I have struggled… and sadly it might be time for me to give up my current paper challenge!

I am really sorry, this was not my plans, giving up halfway in.

You know… sometimes life just throws you lemons… but right now, it doesn’t seem to matter how much lemon tea I’m making

We are getting closer to Christmas, and any sane moments I might be having, I’ll be wanting to spend on the things that makes me happy… which means, I’m packing the paper challenge away.. for now!

It won’t be the the last you hear about the challenge, as I’m faaaar from finished, so I will mostly start it up again next year;-)

That’s if from me, right now! MY challenge is officially over…

Everyone else though, are still at it 🙂

– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, is on day 4 of her Paper Purgathon
– Viv, at GriefHappens, is working away at clearing the clutter, papers included 🙂
– Jena, at All Round Better me, has been getting some of her papers out of the way.
– Amy, at More time than money, joining with 60 minutes a week
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, joining too
– Barb, at Decluttering The Stuff, has done some paper stuff, but is staying away from the scanning part (and I can’t say I blame her..)
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, is working hard on the living room and front porch, and are filling bags of paper as she finds them, she might be with us now that Thanksgiving is over… sorting out some of the bags she has collected.

On the fence
– Gilly, at Anything Except Housework is no longer on the fence. She had to withdraw from this challenge. She is now full time care giver for her dad, and mum, after an operation. We’re here for you, Gilly!

21:xx – A DO OVER!

We are at day XX of our 21 day challenge, and I seriously want a DO OVER!

Who could have predicted I would be running into weeks of more than average hellish migraine when I started this challenge? Well I for one, did not! Had I known, I would have postponed this challenge until January or something.

There was a moment a few days ago that I thought I had turned a corner, well… that was… until I had a shoulder/neck treatment which knocked me for a loop, and sadly not in a good way 😦

I should really be used to this by now, I have after all been ~~nurturing~~ hanging out with a 24/7 headache the last 6 years… still… when I get these rounds of elevated strength migraines, they completely knock my socks off, over and over again (seriously, if you tripped and fell… your inn for a super soft landing with all the socks lying around).

All I can do is hang on for dear life… and spend my days “nicely” tucked in a cocoon. You know, eat my pills, sleep a lot, sit there quietly and do nothing, absolutely nothing 😢 except maybe watch TV and possibly read 5 minutes here and there, but outside of that… nothing!

I get so little done that my house hasn’t even seen the vacuum machine for ages! Eh… well… that’s not strictly true as I’m sitting here looking at it as we speak, so we have SEEN it. Lately the rubble in my house has been getting so bad, I’ve been considering rock climbing classes just to get to my front door. Maybe it’s time, to make the vacuum earn it’s keep 😉

Beside contemplating cleaning my house, there has been next to no energy to tackle things like.. say…. my paper monster.

This migraine has seriously stopped my paper declutter challenge, dead in the tracks!

And it’s making me want a

I know it’s not really all that fair, to everyone else, who has already been working hard at it, me chickening out this way. But I’m thinking maybe I have a legitimate excuse?

So this is what I’ve been thinking. I’m not going to do a complete do-over, starting from scratch. But I am slowing everything down, so much so, that I will only be counting the days I am actually getting something done. Which means that since I have done absolutely nothing since day 11, my next one will be day 12 (as opposed to day 19 or 20 or whatever we would be at in real life).

I’m sorry, I’m messing this up like this! I could off course throw in the towel right away, but I don’t really want to have to do that, which is why I’m changing things up, to see if that makes it possible for me to complete this challenge.

I hope you all don’t mind to much!

And everyone else, how is that going?

– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, is on day 2 of her Paper Purgathon
– Viv, at GriefHappens, said she needed to be on this “like an over-sugared kid in a bouncy house”, and are joining with 30 minutes a day 🙂
– Jena, at All Round Better me, is easing into this.. slowly 😉
– Amy, at More time than money, joining with 60 minutes a week
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, joining too
– Barb, at Decluttering The Stuff, has gone through some of her papers as well.. but is staying far away from the scanning part (and I don’t blame her..)
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, is working hard on the living room and front porch, and are filling bags of paper as she finds them, she might be with us now that Thanksgiving is over… sorting out some of the bags she has collected.

Still sitting on the fence
– Gilly, at Anything Except Housework is no longer on the fence. She had to withdraw from this challenge. She is now full time care giver for her dad, and mum, after an operation. We’re here for moral support, Gilly!

21:11- An update!

Here we are… oh gosh.. at day 11 of our 21 day challenge. I can’t believe it’s day eleven already.

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stand you guys up for such a long time. Seriously, standing anyone up for even a few minutes is pretty bad manners, and here I am, a week later, before you hear from me 😦

I know I have promised you an write up of the importance of shredding your papers. On the why’s, how’s and where’s. But I’m sorry to say, it will have to wait a few more days. You see, I’m monitoring my computer time. Any prolonged time hanging out in front of my PC is not helping my headache much, so for right now, I’m pacing myself.

I’m sure you guys can hold of the big shredding party a few more days.. right? 😉

So, since you aren’t giving us the know-how of shredding, you got any other updates for us?

Well, yes.. as a matter of fact I do 😉 A very, very small, update!

Since I’ve been out, there have been a few days, where I didn’t get much (nothing… actually) done. Even so, there is slow (excruciating slow mind you) progress.

I’ve done a little bit of sorting, a tiny bit of scanning and my pile has moved up from 6 inches to 7 (yeah.. I know.. I told you it was dismally slow going).

Now hopefully, since it seems like I’m perking up some, and I have already sorted some of my future scans, there might? be a tiny, tiny hope of me getting something done over the next few day.

All I can say is.. I have this huge pile of things to scan.. I’m only about 1 fourth there.. it will be done… just might not be in 21 days, as there is only 10 days left 😦 (I did tell you it’s excruciating slow.. right? )

And how are everyone else faring at this challenge?

– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, is starting up her Paper Purgathon oh yeah.. and it seems like I’m still a queen 🙂
– Viv, at GriefHappens, said she needed to be on this “like an over-sugared kid in a bouncy house”, and are joining with 30 minutes a day 🙂
– Jena, at All Round Better me, is easing into this.. slowly 😉
– Amy, at More time than money, joining with 60 minutes a week
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, joining too
– Barb, at Decluttering The Stuff, has gone through some of her papers as well.. but is staying far away from the scanning part (and I don’t blame her..)
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, is working hard on the living room and front porch, and are filling bags of paper as she finds them, she might be with us now that Thanksgiving is over… sorting out some of the bags she has collected.

Still sitting on the fence
– Gilly, at Anything Except Housework is waiting to see if we survive it all 😉

21:03 – The trial and error of scanning!

Here we are at day three of our 21 day challenge, and I guess it’s time for a quick update on how this is going.

As I have sorted through my papers over and over again the last couple of years, I find that most everything I’ve collected is stuff I need and want to scan, which means there are a lot, a lot of scanning to do 😦

I bought a new printer earlier this year, mostly for the sake of having a proper scanning device. This particular printer will scan double sided documents as well as single sided ones, and as it has a automatic document feeder it will do bulk scanning.

So how is this printer/scanner working out?

After a bit of trial and error, I have found that I need to be a little careful about putting to many pages in the document feeder at a time. The automatic document feeder can hold 30 pages, but unless the the paper is completely prisine, I have found that everything runs just a little smoother if I don’t fill it to the top of it’s capasity.

I’ve also found that it sometimes, mind you not all the time, but sometimes, is a bit temperamental when it comes to paper quality. Curled corners, tear or two, or mixed sized paper, does not always seem to agree with the scanner. This has resultet in me having to do a few re-scans to get everything right.

I am finally starting to get the hang of it, and I now know a bit more about how to proceed, to get things running more smoothly. Hopefully this will speed up the process, because, until now, it’s been a bit slow going for my pacience

When I scan my documents, I mostly use the scan to PDF function on my printer. I alternate between duplex or single side scanning, all depending on what’s in the document. Now unfortunately I can’t mix the two in one session, so I have to decide up front what I want.

As I do not yet have any good software for editing my pdf files, I have to be a bit “crafty” when I scan my documents.

If there is only one or two double sided page(s), within a large document, I will copy the “second” page, add it to the pile and scan everything as single sided pages. If there are more double sided pages than single sided, I will scan everything as double sided, and just live with the blank pages in the file.

If you guys have any experience with a good, and cheap, PDF editing software. Please let me know, so I can check it out. And if I come accross one, that doen’t cost an arm and a leg, I will off course let you know.

Now that we have talked about the scanner, is there any progress on that pile?

Well as you can see from the picture below, my work-space is a mess (yes, that’s my dining room table 😉 ), the piles are still all over my livingroom floor, and my pile of done and scanned stuff, is only about 6 inches high.. even thought I am working on it, as we speak 😉

My next post

After a comment from tigerofmyheart, on her already having a bag ready to go, but no shredder in sight. I was thinking about doing a small piece on the importance of shredding your papers. On why, how and where you can have this done for you.

Stay tuned.. that’s what’s next on this page!

JOINING IN

There is a saying “The more the merrier”, and so far there are a few of us who will be attacking the paper piles. And I for one, can’t wait to see what stacks we all will shed!

– Melinda, at PurpleSlobinRecovery, is joining with about 15 minutes a day
– Viv, at GriefHappens, said she needed to be on this “like an over-sugared kid in a bouncy house”, and are joining with 30 minutes a day 🙂
– Jena, at All Round Better me, is in for 60 minutes a week
– Amy, at More time than money, also joining with 60 minutes a week
– Grace, at The CFO MOM Blog, just told me she is joining, woohoo

Sitting on the fence
– Gilly, at Anything Except Housework is waiting to see if we survive it all 😉
– Jen, at The Hidden Hoarder, is hard at work on her front porch, and haven’t quuuuite decided yet 😉

Anyone else want to jump in? Let me know, and I’ll ad you to the list 🙂

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