Here's why I need this blog!

Accckkk!  I haven't done a very good job of keeping up lately, have I?  Typical of me, though, and one of the main reasons I need this blog.  I need the accountability!  I need the sense of responsibility to whoever reads these entries!  When I stumble, I need to know that somebody, somewhere is watching and thinking, "Wow, it's been almost a month and she hasn't made any progress"!

So tonight, I made myself do two things to move forward:
1.  Clean off my computer room desk, and
2.  Empty one of the many boxes of "stuff" in the room.

Deep breath...Okay, here's a couple of "Before" shots of the area I chose to work on...

The desk, overtaken with stuff, piles, and stacks.

Such an inviting work area, eh?  (Sarcasm fully intended!)

 Another view of the desk.  Yes, that trash can IS overflowing into the floor!

The box I selected to empty out tonight...









Cleaning off the desk wasn't too hard, but some of the items in those piles and stacks needed an action taken: receipts to be entered into Quicken, appointments to go into my Outlook calendar, etc.

The box was a different story.  What a conglomeration of THINGS!  I found a cute Hello Kitty framed photo of Donnie and me from our cruise in March of this year; the book and accompanying journal for Joel Osteen's "Every Day a Friday" (which I'd intended to start studying earlier this year!); the title and owner's manual to my dad's vintage 1982 Honda Nighthawk 450 motorcycle; an unopened supply of small notepads (I had planned to buy a refresher set of these next week, 'cause I thought I was out!).

Some of the items are memorabilia I really do want to keep.  I've started a new banker's box just for those items. 

But some of them I just don't have much of an emotional connection to.  I chose to get rid of those things, but I took photos of each one to have an image of them without taking up space in my house.  I know it may sound kind of rude, but sometimes I get things as gifts or "happies", and they don't really have a personal meaning for me.  I find it pretty easy to part with those; I will try to find homes for them as Bingo prizes for our church's nursing home ministry, or to kids who might like a toy I picked up on a vacation whim, etc.

Anyway, in about an hour, I had picked out and evaluated every item in that box.  It ended up being not as horrible as I had been expecting!  LOL


And now I can proudly present my new clean work area:

 The desk.  I can see the surface again!  All that's out in view are things I used on a regular basis and a couple of "cute decor" items.

Left shelf is holding my study books.  I'm going to start the "Every Day a Friday" book over tomorrow.  Also in this little space is the book I'm using for an online study on our church blog (www.calodwc.blogspot.com), Joyce Meyer's "100 Ways to Simplify Your Life".

The right shelf holds just a few things that make me happy (a light-powered dancing flower from my mom, that cruise photo, a Willow Tree figure I got for Donnie and myself last year when our doggie Spike passed away, and a glass peacock photo holder that isn't holding anything right now...).

And what do you know, the trash can is EMPTY!!!!  No papers overflowing onto the floor! 








I'd forgotten how relaxing it is to work at a neat, orderly desk! 

My next challenge is to pull out a metal filing cabinet that is buried in a corner of this computer room.  I want to create a more logical and useful filing system than the random mess I have crammed into one small drawer right now.

But that's for next time!