It has always been one of my life-long dreams to be more organized. My home is not a big pile of magazines and papers from years gone by…I’m not a hoarder…and it probably looks quite clean and tidy to most people, but I always seem to hang onto my right to have at least one drawer, half of the large kitchen table, one cupboard, one closet and one room that I can just throw or pile stuff in or on for now and clean it out properly later.
That doesn’t seem like too much, does it…doesn’t everyone have a junk drawer?…a “stuff you don’t have a place for” cupboard?…a pile on the kitchen table?…a closet that no one really looks in? And aren’t basements for sticking that stuff that you should throw out but haven’t got the time for it right now?
This way of life has suited me fine, until now. I want to see if there is another way…and now with only one child at home and all this new found time from neglecting my friends on facebook, it is the right time!
I was whining to Lucas (child unit #3) about my inbox with 1300 emails in it, because since the wedding (March) and now the summer and two weeks offline…well it just built up. It was going to be a chore to wade through it. The urgent ones got addressed but what about all those emails I wanted to keep but didn’t have a place for it?
Lucas told me gently that’s why we have folders…the drawers of the cyber world. He had a system whereby he immediately puts emails into a folder after reading them…so his inbox only had eight emails in it! I had folders already but never really used them, but now this form of disorganization was mucking up my brain. I went folder-crazy. This process was assisted also by an accidental deleting of about 1000 old emails. Oops.
I now have eighteen folders…but this needs revision. Some of them are old “closets” that are too vague, with names like “stuff to keep” or “temporary stuff to keep” Plus…I anticipate that I will need to clean out these folders at some point so it’s not exactly maintainance free, but…I have 0 emails in my inbox. 0!
Crap…now I have five…wait a second…(brief pause) okay I’m back and it’s 0 again. I delete or read…then reply if needed…then delete or file… I LOVE this!!!
The drawers and closets will have to wait for winter weather though…