Friday Report

[adair]

I've taken first unclutter steps into the new year. I took 10 books from my house to Books to Prisoners yesterday, and today I laid out a pair of corduroy trousers to shorten. They had been in my mending pile for months. Since they are cords and it is January and chill they seemed like the best first choice to emptying the mending pile. I've done nothing with them yet, but once I make the first cut to shorten them I will carry on to the finish. It's that first cut, the commitment to the work, and the unchangeable cut that requires thought, and measurement, that seems to make me hesitate to start. Why this should be so I do not know. I have shortened other pants; I usually have to do that to any that I buy, but I am always slow to do it.

More of the mending pile is actual mending. I am going to try to fix one item each week until the pile is empty, or I decide that the item is not worth the effort. I think one item a week should let me actually do some work rather than looking at the pile and turning away because it looks like it will take so long to complete.

On the paper front I have 4 areas where stuff accumulates; the desktop computer desk, the side table next to it, the other desk across from it (this has heaps of stuff and is where things get deposited, and the kitchen table by my laptop. The desktop desk and kitchen table are in fairly good order. I am trying to look them over every day. The side table gets used for a lot of daily work - bill paying and the like, and needs regular attention. The other desk will need to be a big project in itself, but i am trying to establish a habit of clearing the other three areas regularly.

Comments

[tanaqui]

That's a great start to this year's book project! And it sounds like doing a little every day with the paper accumulation areas is paying off, so good luck with making that a habit. :-) And ha, yes, I understand the hesitation about the "unchangeable cut". Best wishes for being able to seize the moment -- and the scissors -- and making a start!

My project in the second half of the week was to deal with a tangle of power cords plugged into an extension block. Things got added and removed over the course of the year and it had become an annoying mess. So I unplugged everything, took some things away that were better plugged in elsewhere, moved the extension block a short distance, and plugged everything back in much more tidily. Nothing going out of the house, but it's all much more functional!

[redsixwing]

Yay for improved function! It's amazing how little space improvements can add up over time.