Tag: organizing

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Remember a time when: you were ready for a change. How did you know? What did you do first?

As usual, it varies on how I get started. But my biggest changes had one thing in common:

I got fed up.

It was too exhausting, or repetitive, or I was confronted with the fact that something wasn’t good for me anymore and it was pissing me off.

I didn’t like it.

I had an itch to do better.

An opportunity presented itself and I took it.

With stackable shelving, I finally have my books presentable and clutter contained!

A woman surrounded by various stackable organizational containers.

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First: Donate

I should go through said books and donate ones that I never got around to reading, outgrew, or just plain don’t want anymore. Or, it’s time I pass a book on for someone else to carry for awhile. I’ve done that before.

Same for my office and bath/beauty supplies. I tend to double up; I need to take better stock of what I have and use that up first. If I have anything unopened, I’ll donate those too.

Then: Trash

But… My biggest weakness? Paper and Trinkets and Free Stuff from Events. I have a whole self dedicated to business cards, mail, posters, news papers, random literature, magazines, and comics I haven’t sorted to their boxes yet. I collect things to read later. I grab stickers, bookmarks, cool napkins.

Occasionally I sort through my stack of papers to see what I need, and what I can convert digitally. Cool things go in the scrapbook. Everything else is recycled.

My closet is… a mess. I need to dedicate a weekend just going through everything.

Also: Upkeep

We use the Tody app to keep track of chores. On Sundays (the start of the week!) I set aside time for that task and do it, even if it’s for a few minutes. And when I Spring Clean about once-a-year, I do some serious decluttering.

Magpie-like, I have an acrylic shelf dedicated to rocks, more stickers, curios, meaningful whatevers, and what have you. I like having containers for everything, and everything has a place.

And: For Fun?

If I’m feeling really ambitious, I go through my Downloads folder on my computer. Clean out and backup Documents and Projects. Take a peek in the cloud storage, and the backup, and the backup’s backup. I’ve been particularly bad at this; I’ve had downloads hanging around from 5 years ago. On top of that, pruning your online accounts is a good idea. And your blog drafts…