The Past Week

Happy Sunday everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I've been busy this week; mostly with reading, running errands and grocery shopping, dealing with financial stuff, dealing with family needs, connecting with friends from far and administration concerning the community garden plot for summer 2023. 

Recently completed; all equally good.

In progress, a quirky but well written book.

Cooking always takes time as most of you know but I limit my cooking to one main meal a day and something lighter to start the day. Due to high food costs I'm trying to shop less and use what I have. In the past, I really did buy far too much and I need to use it up or give it away.

Saturday dinner was roast beef, broccoli and roasted potatoes and onions.

Sunday dinner was Chicken Cordon Bleu but covered in flour rather than bread crumbs. It was good but next time I'll try it with bread crumbs and use toothpicks since most of the cheese melted into the baking pan. Looking at the photos I see the dinners were too carb heavy so I need try and correct that but as I mentioned I'm trying to use up what I have and vegetables and fruits are always first to be used up.

I've got a lot of paperwork and tidying to do. So last night I decided to get started on some cleaning in my office area and get everything set up again but after I started reconnecting everything I discovered the modem wasn't working and that meant no television or internet services.

So today was an unexpected day of dealing with technology issues. I don't deal well with them at the best of times but since I had no communication services or television whatsoever I had no choice.  The only thing working was my landline.  I was fretting a bit because I have a very busy week ahead.  I was also anxious about how much time it was all going to take because the telecommunications company I deal with is notoriously slow to connect you with a live human being. They always want to direct you to online services and it is usually the online services that are giving me an issue. 

Thankfully once I connected to technical support I was able to get everything up and running again. I also asked to speak to someone about a new service plan. I had been trying off and on for a few months to do it myself but their system only let me see a deal that was not suitable for my needs. Again, I was able to get great customer service and get a deal for a much better price. My monthly bill will be $55 per month less ( for the exact same services ($660 savings for the year).  Plus they gave me a theme pack of news channels (3 channels) completely free for one year (savings of $95 Canadian).  Total savings is $756 Canadian in Year 1 and $ 660 in Year 2.  I only wanted one news channel for my DH but the channels come in packages so we now have 3 additional news channels.  I feel very blessed by the outcomes.

Altogether the time it took for getting things working and looking for monthly cost savings took about 2.5 hours of my time. Not too bad because I've sometimes waited that long just to talk to a live human being about an issue.  Overall I find it very frustrating dealing with the company when I need them so today was a nice surprise and a real blessing. The bonus is that I don't need to have a technician come to my home or wait for new equipment to be delivered because both of these scenarios would have resulted in loss of services for as long as it took to get help.

In related technology matters I'd been having problems in trying to access a Kenyan missionary's blog for some months. Try as we might we could not seem to find a way to give me access to read and comment on her blog.  Today we gave it one more try and thankfully it worked! That is another blessing because I love reading about her family's work and ministry in Kenya.  I've been reading about their work in Kenya for about 10 years.

My good day was topped off by my being able to connect my wireless printer and get it working.  I had been postponing the job due to internet and wi-fi issues which started a few weeks ago and culminated in lack of internet service last night.  Today was the right time and everything is now in working order. Whew!

I do have a few more outstanding technology issues.  My brother had installed extra drives in my old computer and instead of wiping them clean he will remove them and save them for me in a special case. I also backed everything up on a new external hard drive I bought late last year.  Fortunately I culled a lot of my old documents and photos before backing them up. A second issue is figuring out how to wipe the old printer clean. I didn't realize that I needed to do that otherwise I would have done so before disconnecting the old computer. Actually I hadn't even given the printer any thought as I was most concerned about the computer because the former one had been on it's 'last legs' for so long. Anyway it will all get done.  These things tend to take me time especially when I've got many projects on the go.   Everything moves at a snail's pace because my brain can only deal with one big thing at a time.  But there is a saying 'Strive for progress, not perfection' so I try to remember that.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm expecting delivery of an artificial tree for a spot in my living room. I hope it isn't too big. I did read the dimensions of the tree but it's a little hard to know how it looks and 'fits' until I put it in place. It will prevent me from wasting funds every year in buying a tropical plant that doesn't do well in my draughty home if it fits into the space I have for it. I have several appointments this week but I'm most looking forward to a visit from two cousins of mine, both of whom live out of town.

I hope you have some great plans for your week! Thank you for stopping by.

How I'm Dealing with Digital Clutter

I meant to post this last Friday but got busy.  It was another dry and beautiful, sunny day last Friday and I got busy with catching up to housework and I got carried away making this post more full some than I first meant to, all of which delayed the publishing.

I've been fearful for a few years now that my computer was going to give up the ghost.  Believe it or not my desktop is more than 12 years old!  My laptop (very slow to do anything) is a little bit newer but not much. Sometimes the desktop shuts itself down and other times it turns itself on. I've been told that it's because I usually only put the computer to sleep and don't shut it down completely each night.  I got into the habit of only putting the desktop to sleep because I started experiencing difficulties with starting it up again once it was turned off.  I was afraid that one day it just wouldn't turn on so I began putting it to sleep instead.  Anyway the computer issues have been going on for at least 5-6 years already.  Every now and then I'd copy files onto flash drives to save what I might really need in case the desktop died. I have countless photo and document files on the hard drive and a lot of unorganized files too. I was holding on to everything 'as is' until the visa process for my DH was completed. As of June 2022, that is all finished now when he received his PR card.  Since then I've also finally purchased a new computer. I decided to purchase a mini Mac computer at the suggestion of my brother who also has one and highly recommends it. I know they will be coming out with a new mini Mac 2 soon but I didn't want to wait until then to make the switch.

I need to put the computer files in better order before I plug in the new Mac and transfer files.  I'm terrible at keeping digital files organized as I create or use them but I hope to do better going forward.  I've gone through about 4 rounds of digital clutter clean up over the past year (computer drives, email, cell phones, deleting many online subscriptions, reducing the photos I take and the blogs I post until I get things the way I like).  Things are looking much better than they have in years.  In the latest digital declutter session I eliminated close to 5000 files and reorganized many more, most of which were photo files.  As I mentioned, I blog far less than the early years of blogging. It's because I've been trying to slow down the rate at which I create more digital clutter. Once I'm better organized I hope to take a more disciplined approach to dealing with photo files for blogging and/or other purposes and be more selective with other digital files.

So to answer the question implied in the title heading, I am deleting excess digital files and keeping only what is essential. This is a multi-step process and has to be done with a view to what is needed for blogging purposes and family purposes.  I guess I also need to plan for how these things should be deal with at End of Life (EOL). Most of us have digital footprints all over the world wide web and need to think about what we have and what we would like done with it when we go.  I try to keep my personal output (photos and other ID) to the minimum. Not just for EOL reasons but also for security reasons. (Click on infographics to enlarge. Please note I did not create these graphics myself but found them on the internet).

Decluttering is such a long and more complicated process than one thinks of at first blush. I never realized how many issues it would bring up as I started on the journey of serious decluttering. These few thoughts are specific to digital declutter but they could be extrapolated to clutter in general.

Some examples of significant issues that might arise for you include:

1) what do you get rid of and why? There are some things that obviously need to be saved: important documents, family papers, tax information, etc. but there are other items that perhaps are not so obvious. For example, patterns for various hobbies.  These days so many patterns you buy are only available in digital files and a lot of new things one wants to learn are also in digital files.

2) what do you keep and why? Some things we keep for legal reasons, work reasons, family and so on. It's good to consider what you no longer need to keep. In my case I can get rid of a lot of duplicates of  digital historical family documents and photos. I have so many bad photos or photos I will never use or even ever look at again so the 'delete' button has been and will continue to be, in regular use.

3) is there a way to declutter but still keep sentimental items? For example instead of keeping the item/s your loved ones have could you keep a photo of the item?  You may want to print it as a hard copy rather than have a simple digital photo. It really depends how best you would enjoy it.I first learned of this tip from one of the decluttering gurus. I think it was Peter Walsh, organizing guru from Australia. He is one organizer who really resonates with me and makes so much sense. He gets right to the heart of issues and simplifies things that seem difficult.

4) how much clutter should you leave at EOL for someone else to deal with? Have you identified someone who is also agreeable to deal with your belongings, including your digital footprint (Facebook, Google photos, blogs, Instagram, LinkedIn, websites, etc.) after you're gone?  Is there anything you need or want to get rid of before that time comes or is it okay for someone else to see everything? Do you have a place where your assigned person can access all your passwords and given thought to specific instructions you might have? For example, you may want to have your various profiles deleted or you may want them kept for your loved ones to look back on. The problem is that others may not know you have passed on if you leave everything 'as is'.

5) have you thought about why you may have so much stuff to deal with in the first place? For example, some of us were responsible for disposing of items belonging to loved ones.  It takes a lot of time to deal with it all and in the meantime you need to store it somewhere.  How much can you deal with if you yourself develop health issues or if you are elderly and no longer have energy and physical ability to deal with the 'stuff '. Even digital clutter takes energy to deal with though it has the benefit of not being physical heavy for you to go through and action.

6) do the things you own add to your joy as Marie Kondo, organizing expert would ask? do the things you own make your life more enjoyable or less enjoyable? In my case, without keeping on top of filing in a way I can go back and find things later, I find it takes away my enjoyment of digital files and is also time consuming, frustrating and anxiety producing. When I delete excess files and focus more on the things I want and can organize, I enjoy going through and looking at digital files much more.

A few resources you might like

These resource links  might be helpful to you both for general clutter and digital clutter.

Colleen Hammond, Business Consultant gives tips for learning to let go of things that have sentimental value. Is it clutter?   

Joshua Becker, minimalist guru offers some ideas about how to minimize sentimental things

Peter Walsh, organizing guru, has this to say about what your clutter says about you.

 The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning:  How to Free Yourself and Your Family From a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson 

Decluttering Memorabilia - How a Professional Organizer Guides a Client Through the Process

Dealing with digital clutter: What it is and 6 places to practise digital minimalism

Declutter Your Digital Life 

How to Execute  Digital Declutter Like a Boss: 8 Steps 

 

 

Conclusion

It feels good to get rid of clutter in general and that includes digital clutter. It frees up space and more space gives us a feeling of freedom from having disorganized possessions and freedom from the anxiety of not dealing with things in a better way. I'm on a journey and although the journey of decluttering never really ends, the tasks do shift and the amount of stuff we go through in any season of life also changes.  It just depends on how much we have to begin with, how much we accumulate along the way and how much we want to, or are able to declutter. For each of us it will be a  unique journey.

I'd love to hear where you are with your decluttering journey and whether you have included digital decluttering in the plan.

Thank you for stopping by and extra thanks to those who take time to comment and share their thoughts.