Iris, The trestle table sounds useful. It's so nice to have a view- I can see the bluebird box from the table! our table is round and larger than I would prefer, but I then have lots of space to spread out!!! Not always a good thing!
Iris, The trestle table sounds useful. It's so nice to have a view- I can see the bluebird box from the table! our table is round and larger than I would prefer, but I then have lots of space to spread out!!! Not always a good thing!
Hmm ... a trestle table. I actually don't like our dining room table that much. I'll have to ponder.
Today, I sent an hour clipping the wildly overgrown tomato plants in our raised beds and doing some weeding there. They look so much better now! I was motivated by the fact that some guys are coming on Saturday to put a drip irrigation system into the beds as well as in some flower beds we have in the front in front of our gate facing the street. A deadline is so helpful.
New total: 29.
30 more minutes today doing some decluttering in the dining room and kitchen. New total: 29.5.
I have backslid a bit in terms of staying on top of paper this year and returned to my old bad habit of just throwing things into boxes when guests are coming rather than actually filing things or recycling them. Today, I put in 4 hours and 3 of those were tackling the 5 boxes I have stacked in a corner of my dining room. I only got through 1.5 of them, but I did recycle 3 grocery bags of paper.
As I go, I'm setting up a better filing system so that it will be easier to file things away when I need to.
It's embarrassing to admit I'm still dealing with boxes of clutter, but I'm glad I'm facing them before more accumulate.
New total: 33.5.
About filing the paper: just make sure that what you’re filing really MUST be kept and filed. So much of our lives are digital these days. Life is much easier when you go into it with an idea this paper doesn’t need to be saved it all goes to recycle and you have one big recycle bin that you dump it intoQuote:
Originally Posted by ejchase
I’ll leave it up to you to make sure that your failing is necessary, but I would think only a small percentage of the stuff that comes to your home needs to be filed.
I don’t even even open about 70% of the mail that comes with my name on it. It goes immediately into the trash. It’s junk mail. I will admit DH does a presort of our mail and he takes all the items he thinks are important and keeps them. I think he keeps too much. That’s fine, he gets to keep it, sort it, and file it away.
be ruthless in what you keep
Do you NEED to have all this paper? Are you getting your bills via mail or electronically?Quote:
Originally Posted by ejchase
That's great advice, Iris Lilies. I suspect you're right that some of what I'm filing I don't need to keep. But I find I have to do this decluttering in stages. Yesterday, I had a lot of stuff that was easy to get rid of - junk mail, old papers I don't need for one reason or another. After I get through that layer, it's easier for me to start culling the seemingly more important stuff. My system is not as efficient as it could be, but there's an irrational emotional piece that I just have to cope with as best I can. Getting rid of stuff I "might" need in the future is still scary - I have to work up to it.
Despite that, there *are* still days when the junk mail doesn't even make it into the house because I take it directly from the mailbox to the recycling bin.
Tradd - no, I certainly don't need to have all this paper. Most of my bills are electronic now. For various reasons, when life gets busy, I simply don't stay on top of recycling junk mail as it comes in or dealing with other paper appropriately. But like I said, I'm setting up a new filing system that should make some of that easier, especially if I take into account Iris Lilies' advice too.
Thanks to you both for your support.
I did another hour today. New total: 34.5.
I don’t have a paper filing system because I don’t keep anything paper that needs to be filed. I don’t have a printer at home anymore. Junk gets tossed. Anything else gets scanned with my iPad/iPhone. Important stuff gets saved two places. I do my darndest to not get any paper at all.
Here’s an example of paper we no longer keep for a long periods. I’m not even sure DH is keeping any of it now. Our city provides all of our utilities. I called down to City Hall to ask them if they could provide past statements if I needed them. They Said they could provide a year worth maybe a little more. I convinced she did not need to keep utility bill, and keep in mind. Our bills are so simple because water sewer – garbage – it’s all on one bill.
Iris Lilies, I aspire to get to that point!
I've been so-o-o busy at work, but I did do an hour today, clearing out spaces so our once-a-month house cleaner could do her thing. I took a lot to the recycling bin, which felt good. Total: 35.5.