Clean all the things

New year, new program to declutter.

I've been off since the 23rd, with an ambitious plan to declutter.

Um, yeah.

But today I managed to take care of something that's been sitting on my to-do list (not to mention next to my desk) for about two years: emptying the Laundry Basket o'Papers (TM).

The LBoP is a green laundry basket with a few ribs broken and a tear in the handle. Used primarily as a receptacle for things I need to take up/downstairs, it was headed for the trash pile when it took on a new purpose: holder of things I did not have a immediate "home" for.

Not the actual LBoP, but you get
the idea.

These items ranged from the extra pieces and boxes from a new cell phone, to lab reports and water/sewer bills. At the old place, I used a four drawer file cabinet for the "keep me" paperwork (two drawers only - the other two held office supplies and a few other things). The cabinet came with me to the new place, but I wanted to empty it and simplify my life a bit. I added a two drawer cabinet to the mix - with a single file drawer. The theory is that if I keep on top of culling the paperwork, one drawer should be sufficient.

Theory. Doesn't always mix with real life.

Complicating things, the loft, where my office space lives, does not receive any direct sunlight except between sunrise and about 9:30 a.m. This condo was built without any overhead lighting except in the kitchen and dining rooms (and baths, naturally). The desk lamp and the floor lamp provide some light, but with a 16 foot back wall, the light dissipates and leaves a lot of gloom. Not ideal for sorting paper.

Now that I'm done attempting to justify my slovenly filing habits, I can tell you I finally emptied that basket today. What is left is half a dozen quilting magazines to go downstairs, a small stack of books and journals to be shelved, a three inch thick accordian file of papers to keep and a very lonely, beautifully empty laundry basket.

Time to break for a late lunch. I ate a large breakfast very early this morning at my favorite local dine-in restaurant; it's taken almost seven hours to feel hungry again. After lunch, who knows? Maybe I'll declutter the remaining file drawer.