This past weekend I attacked my paperwork. I found payslips from 1999 (my first real, paid job, as a short-term paralegal for a big city law firm); shredded a shoebox and a tote bag full of stuff that needed shredding, and then promptly re-filled the tote bag, to the brim, with MORE paperwork that needs to be shredded. I'm almost tempted to see if the cats would prefer shredded paper to their current litter. (Don't worry, I'm not going to do that.)
Dealing with the paperwork is something I've been needing to do for AGES. And not just because it included 21 year old payslips (although that's part of it). For a while I was really organised with my paperwork. I had yearly folders with all my statements, bills, tax paperwork etc. And then somewhere along the line I just... stopped keeping it all organised. These days, there's a lot less actual paper to deal with, and I can't just go back to the processes I used to use: but I also want to get back to having a sense of Being Organised - and not just with the paperwork.
I want to get myself, my house and my time organised - and I'm going to need some fake accountability to get it done.
Which is why I'm resurrecting this blog. As fake accountability. Or real accountability, if it turns out that anyone is actually out there reading this thing... In the meantime, I'll just write into the ether about my attempts at decluttering, coming up with routines, and things like that.
I'm hardly the first person to do this. Heck, I just finished reading Cait Flanders' The Year of Less, which started with a shopping ban that she documented on her blog. (I can't say I recommend the book, but I might write about why in a few days' time...) But fake accountability is still accountability, and let's see how this experiment goes.
I gave myself a goal this year to declutter at least 20 items from (most) rooms in the house. I've still got two and a bit months left to reach that goal - not entirely sure I'll make it, but then again, I still think it's possible. Honestly I think the question is mostly about just knuckling down and doing it. That's one of the things I want to record here. Another is just ongoing organising/cleaning/decluttering projects and my progress: again - maybe if I write down here that my goal for tomorrow is to finally tidy up and sort the Biographies bookshelf (one of those unfinished jobs from when we moved in over five years ago... when I kind of shoved some books in the bottom two shelves and gave up) then maybe I'll actually do it. Maybe? I might even provide Before/After photos. Maybe if I write down here that I want to do a serious clean out of my physical scrapbooking materials - see if I can sell some of them online, and commit to throwing out the rest - maybe I'll actually do that. To be quite honest - this whole thing is an experiment. I'm curious to see where it goes (if anywhere).
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