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

[rmc28]

Well, I decided I couldn't deal with the app flaking on me again, so I put on a 30-minute BBC Sounds (Sara Cox's half-wower) alternating feeding the shredder, and pulling things out of the mystery boxes. I had a good nap after the first half hour, and then I did a second half hour, at the end of which I had finished the shredding, been through three mystery boxes and the shelf behind, and requested the vacuum cleaner from my spouse by text message.

So I've now vacuumed up all the dust lurking on the shelf and around the boxes on the floor, and put everything back on the shelf that is a harder decision than rubbish / lives elsewhere / give away. Two of the boxes are empty and the third now contains only toys & lego. Plus I have a giant pile of paper recycling, a bag full of shredded paper, a bag of rubbish, and a pile of things to give away. My mug for holding pens is overflowing, but at this point I feel like the solution is commandeering another mug from the kitchen (yes, I know Dana K. White would say decide which pens to get rid of, but for now I have space for another mug and that's easier than making more decisions).

That is a satisfying point to get to today.

[wychwood]

yes, I know Dana K. White would say decide which pens to get rid of, but for now I have space for another mug and that's easier than making more decisions

Haha, yes! It's OK, she says that you can keep extra containers if you have space for them. Although in the long-term it is of course worth thinking about how many pens you really do actually need / want / use - I have a huge pencil-case full and in all honestly only spend about ten minutes a week writing... probably most of them should go...

[rmc28]

I probably never need to buy another pen again, but er, I like having them around. See also notebooks, postcards, and other stationery. I am slowly collecting all the stationery of different types together as part of the decluttering progress around the house, eventually I will have it all in one place and then it will be very easy to remind myself that I don't need to buy anything new.

I do take a lot of handwritten notes if I want to remember stuff - for some reason writing the notes by hand seems to help fix things in my head. I did attempt formal bullet-journalling for a while but I mostly default back to "take notes, make lists" in whatever notebook is at hand.

[wychwood]

Then that is legitimate! The point of decluttering is to have space for the things you actually want to keep, and if the desire of your heart is to have three thousand pens, then go for it :D

I have way more books than any organiser person would approve of, but that is what I want space for. So I try to make sure I'm not keeping books for the sake of it, and am otherwise entirely at peace with my seven full bookcases. But my pens are just sitting there taking up space I could be using for something else, so I do want to go through them at some point. It's all entirely personal, isn't it.

[tanaqui]

Sorry to hear you're in Covid isolation again, but that all sounds like some very impressive progress and you're certainly making constructive use of an annoying situation.

I seem to remember Dana K. White says to test pens and make sure they're working before you keep them. :-) So, if you haven't done that, it may be an easy way to reduce the numbers a bit.

[rmc28]

I have been testing every pen before it goes in the mug! I also try to remember to bin pens if I try to use them and they don't work.

(I just really like pens, they tend to be my go-to souvenir from anywhere I visit.)

[tanaqui]

Well, if you have space in the "container" (and I think that means the shelf where mugs of pens can go, not a single mug?), then I'm pretty sure Dana K. White would say keeping them is fine! Especially if they bring up nice memories of when/where you bought them when you use them. :-)