Declutter #22 - my office

I'm not posting pictures this week (and I'm blogging early). 

 

To get ready for a family birthday party at our house on May 11, I cleared everything off the pool table and into a laundry basket. No one came downstairs or played pool, but having a fresh look is inspiring me. I've already started to make "priority piles" on the pool table. Since today is not highly scheduled, I plan to work on my highest priorities and clear some of the clutter!

One pile is for a baby shower I'm attending on Saturday. By wrapping gifts and writing cards (for grandparents as well as the young couple), I'll be relieving mental stress that comes from procrastinating. It will also be a mini-declutter of a kind.

I have so many items on my "to-do" list today, but by doing one thing at a time and completing it, I hope to have a less cluttered office by the time I go to my PCA job today.

Declutter #21 - books

I love books, but I have too many of them! It's getting easier to say goodbye to them - which is part of why I'm pushing myself to do these declutter blog entries. Motivation!

I've had the first book for several years. I used it on 5/21/23 as part of an illustration in church about missions. After church, I did a skim read. There's some good stuff in there, but I no longer identify with being "crazy busy." That isn't my life anymore!

I had started reading the Chabon book a long time ago. Seemed interesting and has great reviews. But only on page 48, I realized that I don't want to invest my time in reading it. Away it goes!

The third book is one I started to read several years ago. Besides being an award winner, it is compared to Shakespeare's King Lear thematically. But . . . I just didn't like it. I've thought about putting it on the top of my reading pile several times, but I decided to just donate it. Yay! All three of these will get dropped off at either a Better World Books drop or put into a Little Free Library.

The first three books are ones that have occupied space on my shelf for quite a while, but I've rarely ever accessed them. The fourth one I read and blogged about, so all of these were ready to find a new home. I brought them to The Recovery Church in St. Paul when I went for a Minnesota Quilters meeting. I want to be a blessing to others, not just get rid of my stuff! I hope someone digs deeper into God's Word or is inspired anew to build their relationship with the Lord.

Google Maps / Android Auto / Samsung phone

Ugh! I rely on Google maps much too heavily. It has become too easy to plug my phone in when I get in the car and have my route on the screen.

 

But after a recent phone software update, my Google maps showed me off track by a few blocks. It was so irritating! (It kept trying to get me to turn around to get on the road I was already on.)

 

I restarted my phone.  Maps still off.

I uninstalled and reinstalled Android Auto on my phone. Still off.

I "calibrated" my phone's GPS by going through the steps (waving it around, etc.). Still off.

At a family gathering, I asked one of my sons for advice. My husband told me to "Google it." I HAD Googled it! I had done all the steps I saw suggested!

I Googled it again and found one more suggestion I hadn't seen earlier. I went into the app settings on my phone and cleared the cache and ??? something else (Data?).

Settings / Apps / Maps (Under "M" instead of "G"oogle) / Usage / Storage / Clear Cache, Clear Data. 

 

I should have written about this immediately! It took me a while to re-find the route to do what I had to do to make the maps behave again.

It wouldn't surprise me if this happens again. The phone told me I needed to update, so I did. Then my Google Maps went to heck. It was frustrating, but now I've given myself a cheat sheet.

Declutter #20 - Scraps of paper

This isn't much, but it's something! I can sometimes clear the clutter quickly and other times I default to dithering about hanging on to stuff. This blog is motivating me to do SOMETHING each week. We have so. much. stuff. So much! I'm going to combine three short stories in these little scraps of paper.

I am NOT trying to throw anyone under the bus (and I typically just toss junk mail in the recycle bin), but this made me laugh. 

I LOVE my Chevy Volt. I can't imagine selling it unless someone were offering me 100x its dollar value. 

The "I need it now and I think you will be pleased with my aggressive offer." was too much for me! Aggressive offer? Seriously? Like a million dollars? I don't think so.

Less humorous were these notes I took at an AA meeting on 9/18/2017. Louie and I went to be supportive of someone. It was interesting, but I left feeling like "what can I do?" Looking at these notes, though, I really like the lines "I did not cause it. I can't control it. I can't fix it." Fixing things is such a temptation! But when it's someone else's life, there's really not much one can do.

Part of the reason this paper (and another with it) even saw the light of day is that I had filed a paper away in my filing cabinet. My rule is that if something goes in, something else has to come out. I don't want to take the time and energy to go through everything in the filing cabinet, so I just do it haphazardly when there's something else I want to hang on to. Hey. It works for me. And I love it when I go look for something and find it promptly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't remember where I heard this, but "Right now (2023) is as far from 1980 as 1980 is from 1937!" For some reason, that really blew my mind. 1980 brings some vivid memories for me. 1937 is my mom's childhood. Wild! I did the math and wondered what would be comparable for younger people. (2023 from 1990 is like 1957 . . . . 2023 from 2000 is like 1977.) Sometimes something like this makes me think about my skewed perspective of life and time!

 

This last scrap of paper was filled with almost five months of frustration and sadness. I need to let that clutter go, too! I had two lovely mittens on the morning of January 7th. When I got home, I only had one. 

I searched. I made this list so I wouldn't miss any of the places I'd gone.

Then when I contacted Brenda at MQ, I thought I was victorious!

Alas, I rejoiced too soon.

In switching offices, Deb had found the mitten and put it in the church's Lost and Found.

Brenda had not put my name on it or told her that it was claimed. 

I was so sad I almost started crying. Then I searched again in March and finally made this sign to put on the Lost and Found in April.

My mitten is gone. It was so soft and warm. It reminded me of Nick and Mari. I've paired another lone mitten with it - one that Betty had knitted years ago. But the yarn one isn't nearly as warm and water-shedding as this wool one. 

Oh well. Life is full of disappointments.

Declutter #19 - garage stuff!

I meant to write this a week ago! (And then some . . . )

I finally got Louie to go through the many containers of used oil / used antifreeze that were cluttering up the garage. I wanted to do this more than a month ago! Usually, I need to leave the garage stuff to him, but that space is super crowded and I have more time than he has to do stuff like stop at the Scott County Household Hazardous Waste site. I took a picture of the back of my Volt with all the containers of nasty stuff, the used oil filters, an electronic device, one box of random metal (not enough to try to get cash for), and one box of batteries and bulbs (not visible). Woohoo!

I donated a few items to the Minnesota Quilter's spring sale. It's not much, but one coffee mug and a baggie of charms are out of my house. They are items I did not want or need (and did not pay for in the first place).

I also loaded up two boxes of items to drop off at Jenifer's house for the Saving Grace Village spring sale. It felt good to get rid of stuff!