Leaving My House…yes it counts as a project

I know, this post is incredibly late, but worth it. I have been stuck in this house for years, only getting out for medical reasons or going shopping. I’d include family events but the…recent viral scare…shut most of those up. With no money to go anywhere, health concerns both mine and international, and no place to go if those weren’t issues I really haven’t gone much of anywhere lately.

Well Saturday was the first time since the aforementioned scare that we had a Christmas block party and I went to it. And boy did I need it. Right now I’m still really tired and I stubbed by toe because in an area near where I parked by car the brush hid the lack of road in one corner, I needed to get out of the house and be around people, even if I didn’t interact with anyone. I just needed the reminder that people still exist outside of my dad, the occasional visitor, the doctors and nurses, and those pixel-formed images on my screen. I didn’t go shopping or need my insides examined…I just went out and enjoyed myself.

So if nothing got done with my clutter this week, fine. I enjoyed myself for the first time in a long time and the only thing I really need is a good masseuse. My massage cushion will have to do but at least I feel relaxed. Ready to go to sleep, but relaxed. I so needed it.

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The Back-Up Drive Is Organized!

Well, it’s taken a few weeks but I finally took all the files, dumped the duplicates and other files I didn’t need, and put them all in an order where I can find them. Along the way I figured out an directory system I can use in the actual backing up (which I probably won’t waste your time with) that works for me and I can find stuff in. I used techniques I learned from physical record and media organizing, and some things I learned here will work in future stages of those projects.

Now I just need to do the same with my project drive, but that’s for the future. Additionally I managed to get myself to work on something that may not be the most interesting articles, and I apologize for that, but decluttering isn’t just about doing the pretty projects, or the parts of your home/office that you can see. While you don’t have to drive yourself mad with compulsive organizing, which also ruins any spontaneity and would be hard for the less rigid-minded types, a good system is a good thing to have. Just know that as times change and things are both acquired and unacquired, as the paths of your life take a new course, a new system may have to be created. My problem was lacking a good starting point to build off of. Now I have that so if anything changes in the future, hopefully I’m ready to change with it.

Next time I may be ready to do a more interesting project to discuss, but this was something that needed doing. If you stuck it out with me then thank you and I hope you learned something from this project like I did.

Quick Report> Still Learning From The Back-Up Clean-Up Project

I know, it’s still not exciting but this is about me getting the projects done and this is something long overdue. Today I tackled the images and downloads folders. I also did a bit of an archive of one of my older computers that was also on this drive. This is where I feel like using the program that came with this drive to back-up files was not as helpful as they intended. For example:

• When you change your directory set up on the actual computer the back-up drive program doesn’t know that. I ended up with a bunch of multiples from this alone.
• Also creating multiples was one of the programs itself, that seemed to create new images with every advertisement or install. I had like five or more folders just for the same set of images because they were under different numbers. It makes me wonder how many duplicates are on this computer now.
• Some of these were programs I don’t use anymore, or in the downloads they were older versions of new programs I can just get off the internet currently. In only a handful of cases are they programs that may or may not have a new version, while some I already have a newer version of on this computer.

I spent hours deleting the same pictures because they were duplicates of ones I have. In a way I’m lucky the program doesn’t work with Windows 10 because it did more harm than good and used up a lot of space. Lucky for me this is a huge drive so I had the room for it, but how much of that space was clogging up my hard drive space when it was on one of my older computers–and how many duplicates are doing that to this one–I can’t really say, and in the latter case I wouldn’t even be sure which ones I can delete, like all those images for software I’m using. I still have a bunch of folders left and remember this is only the first pass of organizing my old back-up files. If I can somehow squeeze in time during the week I’m going to see if I can speed this along but it’s not the only active project for me right now so we’ll have to see if I can get away with that plan or if it’s just going to be the usual Saturday project.

Quick Report> Back-Up Drive Documents

Not a whole lot new to add. This time I worked on my documents folder, possibly my biggest file set. There were a lot of links I moved to my links to try folder on my computer. I want to start going through those and deleting what I don’t want while just re-bookmarking them in the browser. Thanks to syncing I can have my bookmark list accessible on any computer provided they were included in the last sync up. So in the future I hopefully won’t have to save all my bookmarks and lose a site. I’m curious to see what sites I haven’t visited in years are still around.

Meanwhile the documents were sorted, some files were actually moved to a different folder I’ll be further sorting later on, and I got rid of a few duplicates, but I did keep some I want to double check later on. This one was a trip through the past, which was kind of fun. Except for some of the more saddening memories in hindsight, memories you cherish but remind you those people aren’t in  your life, or in some cases THIS life, anymore. You miss them but we have photos, videos, and writings that keep them with you forever, even if somewhere down the line they won’t mean anything to someone. They mean something to you and there’s nothing wrong with keeping them. You just have to organize them better so they aren’t as clutterful. Stuff you don’t need to remember can be done away with however.

Old documents, old images, old videos, stuff I kept from previous computers that I plan to eventually resort into the new system, manuals for things I use and some I don’t anymore…when I’m done it will be a lot cleaner system and I should be able to find stuff I want while having the extra room not cluttered by clutter. This is going to be a longer project that I thought but it’s one I really want to do before the inevitable computer issues and just stuff I didn’t get into the computer or “artputer” in the past. I’m glad I’m finally doing this.

Quick Report: The Back-Up Hard Drive Organizing’s Bonus Benefits

Nobody’s commented on the gag folders. Either I’m that uninteresting or nobody caught them. Or maybe the image is too small. I don’t know.

In this week’s chapter in the back-up drive reorganizing project I came up with a good idea. Every unorganized folder is marked with a plus, meaning I still need to do those. I only have to do this on the main list of my computer’s backups so I know which folder to do next. The plan with each project is to do at least one of these main folders a week, more if possible. The ones already organized were left without the plus sign and the ones I do from here out will have it removed. This makes it easier for me to remember what I’ve done and how much further I have to go.

This week it was the files tied to my other website, BW Media Spotlight. All of my banners, comics, and other images were resorted, duplicates or no longer needed files removed, and some other files put in completely different files that I’ll be sorting in the future. Further sorting may occur later, since I’m doing what I do with physical paperwork: larger organizing, sub category organizing, and so on until I only have what I need better sorted without a headache. Longer time but worth it in the end if I can put future stuff right into the proper sub category. It’s all about getting my files straight, and I may use the new system when reorganizing the files on my computer once this is all done and the actual new backing up begins.

I know these may not be the most interesting projects but letting these larger projects go has been a big mistake and the source of my disorganized…nearly everything. That’s why Operation: A Place For Everything exists and in a way this is an extension of that. Every file in a proper place so I can access it later and lose the files I don’t need. That clears up a lot of virtual space just as the other projects I’ve done has cleared up physical space in my living area. The battle continues, and I’m actually learning from this project how to go forward with other projects just as some of the past projects have taught me tricks for this one. So I’m cleaning AND learning. Neat!

Quick Report: DVRed Again

So this week I was supposed to get more dusting done. It seems the universe continues to hold me back whenever possible and using my media addictions against me. We ordered a new DVR box from the cable company but that means losing all the recordings we have. So I’ve had to push through what I can versus what won’t repeat again and can’t find online. Even then there are movies and shows I’m not going to finish. It’s annoying but since our current box won’t record or pause live video…you know, the reasons you get a DVR box in the first place, there’s not much I can do about that. Our old cable company (seen above because I don’t have pictures of the current company’s boxes in the media library for this site) stored on the cloud, which is better for us, probably not for the cable company.

So I guess that’s a bit of clutter gone whether I want it to or not. Less distraction. Now if I could just get caught up on everything else.

Reorganizing The Clothes Drawer…Again

This week is another easy project and one that will have some extra steps over time, possibly even before this post goes live. The goal for this project was to redo the clothes in my dresser, in the hopes of making things easier to find and not shove everything in. I’ll get into why that part wasn’t quite successful this time but will over the next few weeks.

This will be a short one to go over. I will say I didn’t take any picks of the socks and underwear drawer because I’d rather not show my undies to the internet. It’s really the same thing I did with the rest of the project so what I do here I did there as well, just not alongside the other clothes.

Quick Report: Trying To Bust The YouTube Backlog

My YouTube backlog is becoming a distraction. Being as sick as I’ve been this year has kept me from keeping up since if I was home I was still too tired to keep on it. Add to that running a website and trying to get other projects done, including this de-cluttering project and it’s just getting to be a bit much. So this week the goal was to cut through the backlog with the must-watch shows. I should also be taking stock at what is just curiosities and lightening my load that way. Just keeping up with what I want to see has been hard enough.

As it is I’ve only gotten as far as mid-September, and I’m posting this in early November. That’s how bad it is so I’m doing the best I can. This year my best hasn’t been good enough but factors keep getting in the way. Short version: I hate this year. I need to figure out how to get caught up, some of these channels used as research for the other site, not only with this backlog but what’s on the DVR. I’m trying to figure out how other reviewers and creators have time to do anything because I certainly don’t know the trick.

More Small Projects

Last time we discussed a project it was a series of smaller projects rather than one big project, something to try to start me off again after taking so much time off for Christmas and illness, the latter being unplanned. Getting sick numerous times in February and March was a huge problem and basically threw off a lot of my intended plans. It’s tough to take a mental break from projects for both my sites when I’ve lost so much time not being able to do much of anything. I hate getting sick.

This week I had a few more short projects I decided to focus on because they needed to be done so why not use the de-clutter day of my week to do them, what with the distractions this week?

Quick Report: Gathering Software

Not much to report this week. With all the sick leave I’ve had to take I’ve been going through a series of doctor-prescribed tests to figure out what’s going on. Friday I had to get a colonoscopy, and thanks to a doctor calling out they were really busy. I didn’t get to eat or drink anything until afterwards, and that turned out to be most of the day. With the anesthesia I ended up taking a nap when I got home because the best way to overcome a fake nap is with a real one. Point is Saturday I needed to rest.

I did however take some time to go over my software and gather together all the art programs, clip art, fonts, and the like that I plan to put onto the “artputer”, making it my go-to machine in my art corner for doing digital artwork. Hopefully next week (possibly over the next week but I’ll still hoping for an open appointment to get my first Covid shot and I need to make an appointment to see my regular doctor for a check-up among other chores) I’ll be able to start installing it and making this a proper digital art-making machine.

The sooner this is done the sooner I get back to proper clutter maintenance and the reports and reviews y’all come here for.