Remember my desire to accomplish a bunch of decluttering goals this summer? Ha ha ha. So, I’ve only accomplished a dozen of them. Literally, 12 things. Out of 51 things. Pffft. Today I accomplished three of them, all office related. This morning when I woke up I immediately headed downstairs into the office with the goal of cleaning out part of the office.
I first tackled the areas behind the french door – that’s where we keep old keyboards and computer mice that no longer work or are no longer needed. For years – YEARS – I’ve had a random box sitting in the office, the contents of which were unknown. All this time, I assumed it was old paperwork just waiting to catch on fire some day. Once I cleared out the keyboards and mice, I pulled out the box and opened it to find – books. Books that clearly weren’t mind. Suddenly I remember many years ago a friend was moving out of state and had boxes and boxes of books she didn’t want to move. She was doing a “box giveaway” where she’d just give a box of random books to anyone that wanted one. I took one, put it in the office, and there it has sat. And once I saw the books, I remembered why – she and I did NOT read the same kind of books at all. I think my goal was to take that box to Goodwill, but it never happened.
Well, it’s happening today. Also going out the door are three keyboards, two computer mice, an old wireless phone, a broken digital antenna cable box, a bag of trash, various small empty boxes, and an over-stuffed bag of shredded paper. I cleaned out one of our file drawers and organized all the kids’ school paperwork that we’ve kept over the years. By clearing out that corner, the office feels a bit more open. Am I done in the room? No. We have another file cabinet that needs to be addressed, as well as all of Denis’s old real estate paperwork from both NJ and SC. But I got the floor cleared up enough that I was able to come in and steam clean part of the carpet – a long overdue task.
Speaking of steamcleaners, I think ours is broken. It’ll wash the carpets, but it won’t pick up the water from the carpet unless you put your foot on the vacuum section to create pressure to pull out the water. That started happening earlier this week when I steamcleaned the dining room rug and noticed that the used water reservoir was not filling up even as the cleaning water was going out.
But hey, this post is about celebrating the fact that today alone I tackled three items on my summer declutter list and took my total up to 12! I’m 23% done and my end date is only 3 weeks away. I can totally tackle the remaining 39 items by then…
