organizing…

Getting down to business….

I have taken a few weeks  lately to chatter about other stuff. Let me stop and say thanks for all the comments regarding the music; interestingly I came across this little article about the Beach Boys this afternoon….seems to flow with my ideas a bit.

And for our anniversary good wishes, we thank you too!!! We took a mini vacation to Myrtle Beach for our anniversary, and that was, overall, a lot of fun!

But, now, back to the flinging. I am spending too much time, I think, worrying about the minutiae of this as an exercise, and missing the big picture. (This isn’t atypical for me—when I used to draw, I could get lost in the iris of an eye, and forget all about finding the shape of the face.) Being detail-oriented instead of looking at the overall scheme can be a failing sometimes! I have no problem planning, plotting and executing redecorating a space, but keeping the floor swept??

So, while I have been flinging, and divesting myself of things, I am still bringing things in. And I am not capable of getting rid of as much as is needed to really SEE a difference. (At least to me.)  After all, I still have clutter. I still have things that aren’t ‘necessary.’ And so, I stop —finding the will to continue fade,  seeing this as a never-ending battle between wants and needs. Basic economics 101, of the emotional sort, I suppose.

I am not looking for a minimalist lifestyle. I can admire that goal for others, but I do like my ‘things’.  And I ‘do’ too many types of art/crafts, have too many ‘interests’ if you would, that take from me the desire to spend non-work time cleaning, and divesting. I’d rather any day sit here and fiddle with Photoshop than organize a shelf!

As I said, I like my things. And that includes my clothes, even if they are mostly from Goodwill. I guess the best thing is to stay out of there, too!!  Truly, I end up wearing (when not at work) the same old same old. But I like to have my pretties, and after bringing down my summer clothes, find my hanger situation back where it was pre-fling!! This time is harder, because I LIKE everything left, and it FITS, it all seems to match/blend and is in good repair. The problem? I saw those empty hangers and found it acceptable to wander through Goodwill. I came up  with a few cute outfits, great colors, and they cost under $15. And no hangers to hang them on. Sigh.

Add to that the fact we had a “mega-blow out, I had no choice but to buy” paintbrush and acrylic paint extravaganza at work last week. I now have to figure out WHERE to store this bonanza, and more to the point, I need to finish this flinging and STICK with the tenets of some level of simplicity if I am ever to USE all my wonderful new toys….

So, into the studio I go. Holler for me on occasion, will you? Make sure I haven’t been buried alive under all my wonderful THINGS???

I foresee a great divesting, and a great pain. (Or simply a great failure to do anything.) It is impossible that I will ever ‘use’ all that I have here, and it is impossible that I will be able to avoid adding to it—there are too many wonderful colors and patterns and ideas in the world. Maybe I need to sell some things?  Etsy, here I come? With cute little packages and piles of pre-organized color and fun?? Can I do it?

I guess I need to start with a photo, huh? This is the view (somewhat already pulled apart….) of one corner of the studio…..DSCN0430

….complete with abandoned quilt challenge…..BIG SIGH…..

Wish me luck, offer me encouragement and tales of success, will ya???

~~~The room is 10×10, it won’t get bigger. I won’t spread out into the house (hey, you need SOME limits, right?) I quilt, I ‘ahem’ scrapbook, I do some jewelry, some assemblage/mixed media paper art, and I am a photographer. It’s all in here. (As is cat #1 who has taken up refuge from cats 2 and 3 under the cutting table, and currently, a litter box to …well, you know….keep the rest of the house….well, how else to say it? P-free.)~~~

 

 

 

 

Slacking…

Yes, I am a slacker. My 27 thing fling verve and vigor have evaporated. I can talk the talk, but walking the walk—well, it is a hard row to hoe.

Mini-vacation time is popping up here with regularity. A quick weekend here, a few days there, add a holiday gathering out of state, and my days off seem to be travel days, not stay at home and putter days. Then, when  I do have some free time, it’s used editing photos, or reading a book, or doing basic household chores and simply NOT keeping up with my flinging.

Part of the reason is very obvious to me. The easy parts are semi-done. It is all hard from here on in. We are talking studio flinging time! Uugh.  I can see possibilities in almost everything that sits in this room.  There is even a sign–

  • “I am not a squanderer. I have what I have because I keep it and not because I save it. Why should I throw away that which was kind enough to reach my hands?” (Pablo Picasso).

And to me, it is true. I think I mentioned once before, how when my cousin lived with me, he loved that he could ask for anything, and I could go into my craft closet and pull it out, or pull something that could do the job. It saved me many a late night trip to the craft store when my daughter needed a project for school. But there are no children here, and no grandchildren on the horizon that would benefit from the overflow of things in this room. I have to own this stuff. It is MINE.

And I want it. All of it. So therefore the thought of flinging this room, abandoning the possibilities of so much– it has paralyzed me. I think that is why I have glossed over the actual counting in the last few flings. I have been subconsciously trying to forget I need to keep flinging! (Do I need to or just want to?? Why do I want to?)

I guess now is when I need you, the reader, to stay on top of me! Make me accountable! Tell me of your success stories, give me some encouragement and make me do this!!!

I do know that one thing I think I will try to do is also add a 27 minute clean to my routine. That’s less time than I get for my lunch hour, and it goes by fast enough then! In those 27 minutes I think that re-enforcing the previously flung areas, clearing surfaces, returning things to their homes– the kind of busy work that just has stopped being a part of my normal routine. Once upon a time, when I lived in a two-story home, the rule was don’t go up or down the stairs without taking something with you. Being in a ranch for 7 years, I have lost that habit. I am trying consciously to keep my hands full.

I believe that 27 minutes will be an amazing amount of time—if I don’t get sidetracked. I  don’t think I can do it while cooking dinner, for example. Unless it’s already in the oven and can be walked away from for 27 minutes. I guess I will have to set my stopwatch on my phone to keep me honest. That and the shuffle on the Ipod….

Cyber-flinging…

No, I don’t mean getting to hurl your computer across the room, no matter how much the idea appeals to you!

Let’s fling files, and junk mail and old, out of date folders. This could get messy, folks— make sure you are paying attention, because you don’t want to lose something important.

First, email. Junk mail, advertisements, message board memberships, forwarded jokes and the like.

Have more than one email address!! It doesn’t have to be with your internet service—Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail— there are plenty of places to open free accounts. Choose the one (or more) that works the way you like. Open a second or third account. You can make it easy on yourself and just call it “Firstname.LastName1” (Mary.Smith1, Mary.Smith2, etc) Why?

Because the next time you go to a store, or fill out some survey or buy online, you can use the address that you choose to be for marketing purposes. You want this to be different than the one you give to family and friends. You should check it often, for special sales and such, (and who doesn’t love a sale!!) but it won’t clutter your daily, personal email. If you are newly doing this, then every time you receive some sale message, IF YOU STILL WANT TO RECEIVE MAIL FROM THEM, go to their site and change your address.

Second, DO you still want to receive mail from them? You ordered a sweater for a gift from a company you don’t normally shop at, and now they bombard you daily? Unsubscribe!! Usually right at the bottom of the message, you have a link. (A low-impact way to do this is what I have been doing. Each day, at least ONE piece of marketing email is either unsubscribed or re-subscribed to a different box.)

If you are a member on a message board, can your Email program sort these messages into folders, so you can read at your leisure? If so, take the time to set them up properly. If not, consider changing programs!!!

Then, take a look at the message boards themselves. Are you not really involved in all of them? Remove your membership! Don’t be a slave to it. Choose those that fit best.

Now, onto the harder stuff.

(All the following assumes you have a good command of your computer, and I am unable to give precise direction as so many things are different….)

Your C drive—is it sluggish and slow? Do you have folder after folder of writing, memos, and other files just cluttered here and there? Do you NEED them any longer? (Itinerary for a trip taken two years back? At best, print it and store with your photos and other souvenirs. You haven’t printed the photos yet? Store the file in a folder labeled Archives-Various.)

Remember, use the folders to your advantage, just like a real filing cabinet. Make the categories relevant and useful to YOU, and FLING the stuff that is out of date!

CAVAETS:

  1. Do not go digging into places you shouldn’t be. Be careful that your flinging doesn’t go so overboard that you need to call in the computer repair person of your choice to put you back together!!!! (While MY computer repair person seems to think nothing of 11PM house calls, yours may not…)
  2. PHOTOS. Don’t just fling. And, by the way, this could take TIME!!!! Take a break. Work a bit at a time. It didn’t get this way in a week, you probably can’t undo it in a week.

PHOTOS: Make sure all your photos are in one folder on C.

Then, make additional folders and label by year (2010, 2009, etc).

Inside each year folder, make a month folder ( 2009-JAN, 2009-FEB, etc)

Gather all photos that are on C, sort by DATE TAKEN. Select all images taken in Feb of 2009 and move to C:Pictures/2009/2009-FEB. (At this moment we are sorting; you don’t need to look at images for whether they are worth keeping. That can come later. Once you have established a system, however, you shouldn’t put ‘bad’ photos in it.)

Do this for all the photos you have. Make a file for photos others have sent you/things you have collected online, etc.

If you find that in May of 2009 you went to cousin Jim’s wedding and took a lot of photos, you can make a folder called 2009-MAY_JimWedding and put those photos in there ( C:Pictures/2009/2009-MAY/2009-MAY_JimWedding) The rest of the photos taken in May will simply stay in C:Pictures/2009/2009-MAY. You can do this for any special occasion, vacation, etc, where you have a good number of photos of a particular subject (that cutie pie grandchild for example!)

Continue until all photos are in folders, by year and month.

Using your photo viewer, (of whatever type you use, I can’t give specific direction) look at everything, and do this,folder by slow folder:

Fling any photo that is obviously out of focus, dark, blurry, or otherwise an epic fail. If it is with the subjects eyes closed, and the photo following has their eyes open. If the group shot was taken 13 times, save the 2 or 3 that are ok. Do you have images that are really meant for the recycle bin? Then FLING them. Right into the recycle bin. If someone’s expression is good only for blackmail, either blackmail them already or fling it. Not so quickly, however, with photos of YOU. Don’t edit yourself out of the family by being overly critical of images of yourself. Your grandchildren will thank you.

The only reason to save a really bad image is—IT IS THE ONLY PHOTOGRAPH YOU HAVE OF THE EVENT OR THE PERSON. AND IT HAS GREAT HISTORIC SIGNIFANCE. See, that eliminates most of the reasons for saving the bad ones.

Now, Rename the images you have saved. Select all images, and sort by date taken. Find your select all/rename option and call all the images you just sorted through and found worthy: 2009-MAY_JimWedding The program will add a number to the end of that for you automatically.

Next, do photo editing if you do such a thing, burn CD, order prints, send to family, BACK UP images.

Is there any image you would like to print?  Print them. Order prints. Today. Sign up for Kodak Gallery, or Shutterfly, or Snapfish or load them back onto a card and take them to Target or to wherever, but get them PRINTED. After all, WHY did you take the picture in the first place?

Burn a CD. Back up in some fashion. Create a second set of these images. Grab a fine point sharpie, LABEL the CD in the center, 2010-JAN, photos. 1 of … . Put the CD into a jewel case, and create a spot to store it. Important images? Maybe  burn a CD that will stay in someone else’s home as well.

Also, create offsite storage online for additional backup protection. Use the online gallery at Kodak (about $20 a year IF you don’t order photos from them) or whichever place floats your boat… Smugmug is my choice. I am thrilled with all the options I have there. My account is at the pro level, but you can purchase lower level accounts (less bells and whistles, but still same storage facilities and ability to print.) Use this coupon code  and save $5.00 if you choose to go with them. PMfvFGKyQzxgg

Whatever you do, don’t trust the fact that you have never had a computer crash. In this age of digital cameras, and every moment being recorded, we have a true opportunity to end up with no images if we are cavalier about their care and storage. Old negatives may be shoved into the backs of dresser drawers, and get scratched and stick together, but they can still be printed. A file, lost in the computer, if not backed up, no longer exists if you haven’t at least printed it, or emailed it to someone or burned a CD/DVD or backed it up in cyber-space.

Now, a quick note about access, then I will leave you alone. Images you have shot belong to YOU. You possess the COPYRIGHT and control whether other people may print it or borrow it, or put it up on their blog. Just as you go to my photo account, you will find you can’t right click and save. Those images are MINE.

Be careful if you are storing/backing up your images someplace like Flickr/Picassa Web/Photobucket/Facebook—the more descriptors you put on the images, the more opportunities you provide for someone to steal your images. You don’t want someone’s innocent child to have photos taken and used in ways that are not appropriate. Choosing a place that has passwords, and that the general public can’t just peer around in is something to consider.

Oh, and by the way? You need to do this to ALL your computers. Good luck!