weekend check-in

[rmc28]

Hi all and welcome to the weekend check-in. Last week I set myself an ambitious to-do list and er, managed three of them. But that's three more than none!

This week, in a flashback to January, I have tested positive from covid, am isolating from my family in my room, don't have any symptoms, and am considering applying the Dana K. White 5-step decluttering to the places I didn't get to in January. (For one room that I didn't think was that messy, I didn't get around all of it in January, and I pulled out a LOT of rubbish / recycling from the places I did tackle.)

One thing I have managed to keep up since January is keeping the places I decluttered free of new accumulating rubbish. I do a little pick up in here most days, usually when I get an hourly movement reminder from my fitbit. But there are plenty of shelves and stacks to go through still.

Share your challenges and successes in the comments!

Comments

[adair]

Impressive. It had not occurred to me to use a fitbit to nag me into decluttering. I still use a step counter, but it does not nag unless I look at it. Also impressive is keeping cleared spaces cleared. A regular pickup will do wonders, if it gets done. I have to do a major clearing of various household surfaces where more stuff accumulated, mostly because I do not make decisions. Getting well and decluttering together - again, impressive.

[rmc28]

The fitbit nags me ten minutes before the end of every hour if I haven't done 250 steps that hour. I can just march on the spot, but I try to make my movement break do something useful if possible. Is it tidy this room? Is it walk around the house and find dirty dishes and take them to the kitchen? Is it move the laundry on a step (from wash to dry to fold to put away)?

The Dana K. White method is quite useful because it minimises hard decisions. (Basically: pull out everything that's actual rubbish/recycling and bin it, that has a home elsewhere and take it there, or that you actually want to give away and have a donation box to fill. Often, that's enough to make it easy to sort out what's left, but if not, there's a couple of further questions to ask yourself.

I am half-assing this because I'm just piling things up to go to the recycling bin / donation box / home elsewhere in this house (I have rehomed things where the home is in this room, at least), but it's quite satisfying and it is pretty decision-light.

As for getting well: at the moment I'm not ill. I only know I have covid because I tested before going to see a friend who's very high risk from covid, and the test result was an unpleasant surprise. If I start feeling at all ill, I'm going to rest up, but in the mean time I guess I feel like if I'm stuck in here I might as well do something other than read fanfic.