De-cluttered, finally February 19, 2008 ~ 10:52 am
Posted by Julie in : Random Insanity , trackbackFor the first time in I have no idea how long, my home office space doesn’t look like a trash heap. It took all weekend to get to that point, but it was totally worth it. See, I hate filing, and it didn’t help that I hadn’t updated my filing system since 1999. So rather than filing, I was putting all paid bills, taxes, etc., into an inbox of sorts. I had been doing that since I moved into my old basement apartment four years ago. This weekend, in an attempt to “red up” in case I do start freelance grant writing and actually need a functional office, I went on an office decluttering mission.
I went through everything in the inbox and shredded all bills over a year old. I got rid of crap that I didn’t need. I went through my filing cabinet and did the same (which meant I got rid of virtually everything since I hadn’t filed anything in there in four years), got rid of all the stuff left over from grad school that I didn’t need anymore, and generally reclaimed the space. The shredder broke halfway through this (it was old and sad and had done well in its time), so I manually shredded for three hours. But it is effectively done - all that’s left is the filing of things from the past year (a very small pile), and cleaning out the cart beside my desk that houses all my old computer programs. Now I want to buy some organizational stuff and a replacement shredder (tax write-offs, my accountant tells me), and the office will be an actual office instead of just “that paper-strewn place over in the corner where I play on the internet.” Yay!
Now I just have to call the artistic director at the theater and talk to her about the grant writing. Cross your fingers, people.
Comments
Now that you have done such an excellent job, how ’bout coming here and doing the same thing - you won’t even have to “manually” shred!
3 hours of manual shredding? Ouch. But congrats on the clean office space!
Sounds like your office is ready for a beautious new MacBook Pro.
I try to go through the filing cabinet once a year. However, I don’t bother shredding any more. We have certified destruct bins at work. I just throw them in there.
Vince~That is my hope.
We have shred bins at work, but I don’t want anyone in my office seeing my bills.
Grace~Thank you. Now I just have to clean the rest of the house.
Seamus~I’m buying myself a new shredder so that I never have to shred manually again. But unless you can afford really high wages per hour and travel expenses, I can’t come clean your office.
HURUMPH!!!!
I hear this one! My desk is stacked with stuff to deal with–seems like it’s taking me forever to settle into this place. But I’m doing my best to keep up so I’ll have to be happy with that.