Organizing Clutter

I haven't come out and publicly listed my resolutions for the year because I guess I figure they're actually lifestyle changes that I need to work on ALL the time, not just because its a new year. Plus it seems like they would be the same as last year -

1. lose weight (15 lbs) and win the battle with the evil scale

2. get all our groceries and household supplies for free using coupons, rolling gift cards and rebates

3. become more minimalist by getting by with less stuff

As the middle of the first month approaches, I've been dieting and have lost 5 lbs so far, unfortunately I continue to battle the weekend habits of drinking beer and eating chicken wings which makes me gain what I lost. So my NET LOSS is only 2 lbs. Its an ugly pattern that probably will always be my monkey, so I'm going to avoid the reality by just weighing myself once a week - forget that daily yo-yo crap. I think I'll pick Fridays to weigh in - should be a good day after biking and walking all week, but before the weekend splurge on wings and beer. Or I could give up wings. But that wouldn't be fun and I want life to be fun so forget it.

 

Anyway, my next resolution to get free groceries is off to a great start since we've only spent $42 in cash and have gotten all our $800 in groceries free, and $60 in gift cards already, so we're well on our way. We did it last year so its not going to be hard to do again.

 

The hardest thing for me to do is to become minimalist. I love the idea and the result (my new kitchen and bathrooms are there already!), but its really hard to organize and get rid of stuff. I just bought another PC last week (like I really needed it?!) so I needed to rearrange my computer station - it just can't handle 5 computers, a couple monitors and a couple printers, plus all the peripherals like speakers, webcams, external drives, itune chargers and other usb stuff. So as luck would have it, there was a cheap computer L shaped desk for sale on craigslist in our neighborhood and I got it. I've already spent hours cleaning off the desk, moving all the units, cleaning, putting up the desk and setting up the new area.

 

However, there is a pile of boxes in the middle of the room with all the papers that were in the file cabinet I had to move. I figured I might be able to just throw away all the paper in the cabinet and fill it up with the stuff from the bookshelf, and move that into the spare room for more stockpile space. So here's my criteria to review and toss

1. Do I need it? (This is the hard question - some things I want. If that's the case it needs to be either beautiful or functional and maybe I'll set it aside to decide later in the process.

2. Is it still relevant? (Easy one, if I don't own the equipment, or I already took the trip, or paid the bill its tossed) 

3. Can I get this information on the internet?

4. Do I need the original? If not scan it and put it on the computer.

5. Keep it if it meets all criteria.

I'm sure there will be stuff I WANT but don't NEED. Like do I need all the race numbers from all my 10K and Marathon runs with my time and place noted on the back? No, but it will be tough to toss them. It just wouldn't be the same to scan it and have it on the computer. Anyway, its my big challenge of the next couple days to get all those boxes emptied and the new area straightened out, then you can see the picture. The picture of the desk above is my current cubby hole corner - which is a mess, at least my box of coupons on the floor there is neat and tidy.