Desk Mess

My messy desk!

My messy office/desk area!

First, I clean off the top of all its clutter, dusted, wiped and put only items I want there!

The fronts are now stripped of their graffiti and paper clutter!  Sadly, I have not got to the insides, YET!

My much better looking and functioning desk area!

So now you see the area I call home when surfing the net, paying bills, filing and so on.  Can you see how I have come to such a state I could not function efficiently anymore?  Yeah, me too!  I still have the insides of the cabinet to do and the insides of my desk, but progress continues!  Baby steps!

So now begins the phase of rebuilding from the chaos here.  I have assembled binders for my important documents, my Master Gardeners Programs, my Medical Coding binders, etc.  Now I need probably about 2 hours to clean out the inside and restore order, so that all my needed info is at my finger tips and easily accessible!

If you look closely, you will also see 3 drawers on the hutch and they are full of various junk too!  So my plan is to give this valuable real estate good use.  That is still a work in progress.  I am thinking my small note pads (always looking for one!), pens and pencils maybe?  They are nice sized drawers, but shallow, so they do not hold a ton, but for making my life easier, I'm thinking that would work!

I shall ponder that for a bit and come up with a working solution for my problem area!

But for now, it is giving me a break from the last piles of papers and junk I have been going through.  For some reason, I have stalled and become resistant to continuing, except on a very limited basis.  I think I pushed through a little too hard, and too long and have just burned out to it!  Plus, we have had some serious medical things happening with some family members and I have devoted only 15 minutes each day and no more!

One of my foster children delivered her second child, a bouncing baby 9lbs 10 oz 21 inch boy!  And my brother was in the hospital ER with what he suspected was a stroke, but turned out to be Bells Palsy.  Just my lame excuses, but hey!  I'm still doing my 15 minutes!  All are doing fine, thank goodness! 

So anybody have any ideas to help me here?  Any thoughts?  Ideas?  Strategies?

Top shelf

The progress has slowed to a bit of a crawl, but that's okay.  As you can see from the photos below, my desk is a mess!  Tonight I decided to clear the top the very cluttered hutch.  Yup!  My goals are getting smaller now!  Anyways, I cleared off all the junk piled up there!  Records of the dogs, medication, a halogen light, boxes of pure junk and a vintage Rolodex.  I got out my ladder and dust began to rain down on me!  I got a damp rag and wiped to top, enough dust to make a whole grown bunny out of!  I wiped down the lamp, used the vacuum cleaner to get all the cobwebs off the walls.  Then I placed a locked little antique chest, the now cleaned vintage Rolodex, and a sewing box my Father (now passed) made for me as a child.  Much nicer!

Tomorrow, I am going to try and reduce all the visual clutter tucked into the edges between the glass and the doors that has become the equivalent of the kitchen fridge!  I am also making a new habit, each evening, before calling it quits for the night, I straighten up whatever new mess I have made, in what I have already finished, so that it stays clean.  So not only am I maintaining the spaces already claimed from the brink, I find a new one, however small, to work on next!

Messy, messy desk!

The now cleaned top of the hutch on my desk!

I feel much better, even though it is going slower, I am not getting over whelmed and I am not feeling like I am failing!  Just another baby step!  And I am enjoying my little fire place IMMENSELY!  It's such a sweet spot to sit, read, have my cappuccino and have company,  I am making notes of what needs to go, and hoping, maybe this weekend I can get some help with getting the massive cedar chest out of here!  But that's for another day!

Taming the paper clutter

The paper clutter seems to just keep coming.  Even though I have shredded literally boxes of paper into bags of trash, I still have plenty more to go through, but I have reached a stage of exhaustion with it!  So I am working on some other, more interesting things, like cleaning the floors.  I have tried various products to remove stains, scuffs, rust and just stuff I do not even know what it is.  Along the way, I have scrubbed baseboards, the walls, and even put up a curtain rod and curtain last night, just to give it a fresher look and feel on the windows.
I have also focused on removing as many pieces of furniture and items as I can (the living room is a problem right now, until some items are sold and picked up!).  But still, it is progress!  Also, I have started to think about items of furniture best put in the office to hold supplies, and that offer plenty of storage.
This has led to a freeing of space and spirit, and brought some more, much needed calm to the chaos!  Still, today, I find myself a bit discouraged and pissy, because it seems to be taking so long to transform, even this small space.  I think I need to work on some fun things today, and maybe just try and be patient!  This is where it is easy to get derailed, and I really do not want to give up!  It feels good to have some reclaimed space!
Now for a little insight into what I have been doing and using to help with the paper clutter!  I have a rolling filing cart that I purchased years ago.  It glides easily, holds legal and regular file folders.  Right now, I have a makeshift shelf on the bottom of it to hold things, as they collect.  I plan on having one made to fit by my helper friend Rick, along with additional shelves for some of my bookcases.  But for now, it works perfectly as I sort, shred and file.  Its easy glide wheels make it easy to pull where ever I need it and tucks in under the window and to the back, so I can swivel in my chair and immediately file papers from my desk when I am done with them!

As you can see, it holds letter and legal size folders, and the makeshift shelf on the bottom is a holding area, for now.

If you take a look, you can see the floor mat for my chair and the now cleaned floor tiles and baseboards.  Once I get them all as clean as I can, I will wax them and that should help make it look as good as it can, until I can dig up another boatload of money!  These tiles are in better shape than the ones in my bedroom, which are the same, but lots of broken and missing tiles!  Not pretty!  But will have to do for now!

The window with a beautiful blue and white flower pattern that matches one of the vases.  Not perfection, but getting there!  The curtain was $1.99 at Salvation Army and I washed it and dried it and hung it on brackets I got from there also for $1.99 and the curtain Rod came from Ollies and was $4.99.  I am well under $50 for my redo!

So progress is being made, and just to prove it, I will show another before and after section, so you can play along with me!

Before

After

Want to see another section?  Might not be quite as glamorous, but it shows movement!

Piles and piles of paper!

Not complete, but still, a better feeling than when I started!

I could use a little inspiration.  Any body else struggling with this?  Any tips?  Ideas?  Transformations?  I would love to talk to others going through this, or have been through this, or those trying to dig out.  I think maybe we can help one another and have a little support and encouragement from one another.  After all, this can be a very lonely and isolating problem!
Hope every one is having a wonderful day!

Another day, another box

So things have been progressing, a box at a time now.  I have made considerable headway on the office, enough to show a few pictures of the progress so far.  Be gentle, I am still struggling!
I am now able to enjoy sitting by my little fireplace, safely, and have a cappuccino in the morning and decide what to do next, or even read a little bit.
I have decided on a few things that can come in and a few things to go out.  The things coming in include a container for my unread magazines, a small table for my magazine and cappuccino to sit on, and perhaps a SMALL ottoman.  The things that are going is a large cedar hope chest, filled with linens, a bookcase that I will swap out for a mortgage locker (it has all kinds of cubbies to hold my many office supplies , and the bookcase is thin enough to go in my kitchen to hold my spice....another area trouble spot!) and my large leather ottoman is going in the living room, where it belongs.  There is also a craftsman bookcase with glass doors that needs to go also.
Yes, still a work in progress, but at least its progress and not regress!  I have also come to realize, I can't be perfect.  It seems whenever I start to feel as if I am not attaining some sort of perfection, I start to lose heart, and that in turn seems to add to a feeling of being paralyzed.  Why?  I do not know.  It may go back to when I was younger, I always felt the need to be perfect, to get perfect grades, to do some project perfectly and if it wasn't, or I wasn't I wouldn't want to do it anymore.  But that seems silly when I actually say it.  Its something I wouldn't let any of the kids say about doing or not doing something.  I would say "Do your best and that is good enough!"  Not "do it good enough, not your best!"  So I know there is some perfectionism going on, maybe a little OCD, and then the feeling its not perfect, so why bother?!  Just silly, I know.  But it does 'catch' me.  Pushing through and just trying to do my best, whatever that is, that's what it is, at least I am trying, really should be the phrase that pays here, for now!
Kind of reminds me of this skit, I think it was on SNL, I think it was Al Franken playing Stuart Smalley, and he was some sort of non-licensed guru, and he would say "Gosh darn it, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and dog gone it, people like me!" while looking into a mirror on a show called Daily Affirmations.  It was hilarious and I sometimes felt like Stuart in my own dysfunctional family.  So thinking about that, makes me laugh, and brings a little reality to my misery and a little lift to my spirit.  Just sometimes you have to find the funny in a situation to carry on.  A break from the madness, so to speak!

My cozy spot.


My AFTER photo!

A little slice of Heaven!


I found a sweet little marble based lamp with a beautiful shade, a small table I had on the porch, and a lovely little foot stool.  I added the firescreen, but I think I may just keep it to the side, folded, but put it up when the dogs are out.  Bunnie Jo likes sticking her nose a little too close to the flames for my comfort.  Not that she burned her nose, but I want her to be safe from her curiosity!

Steady as she goes

The phrase for the week is "Steady as she goes".  Mounds of paper and boxes have found new homes via the shredder and trash can, and other, more important documents have made their way into binders and files.  Office supplies abound and have been corralled into boxes, bins and shelves.  I have reached a small place of nirvana with a small rug, a chair, a cleaned fireplace hearth, a little ambiance to the fireplace, and some well deserved pats on the back!

I have to say, the rewards actually, have been many and the little spots of sunshine, a welcomed break from the tedious sorting, shredding, filing, and tossing.  It helps to keep me on task and focus on how important it is to have order develop out of the chaos!

I am including a few pictures of the highs and lows of my progress so far!

This little cabinet, freshly repaired and ready to hold pens, pencils, markers and other needed office supplies.

Found the knob, and promptly repaired it with my adhesive cement.  Just keeping that in my desk drawer helped to make a number of quick repairs!

One of several bags o files and paper shredded and boxes tossed!

Before shot of the fireplace-not so nice!

Fireplace cleaning.

Cleaned fireplace with "glowing embers" added and the andirons spruced up.  Looking better, no? 

My cozy little fireplace, free of boxes of papers, clutter and a sweet spot to sit and read and warm my feet and let the dogs warm their little hinnys.  The floors need to be redone, but for now, they will have to do, as there is no money in the tight budget to replace them, just yet!

Just a little screen shot of what has happened this week!  It may not seem like much, but the feeling is tremendous.  It feels lighter and airier in my little library/office.  The dust level has come down considerably and I can see the floor.  There is still much to do, but I feel good about my progress and I am not regretting anything I've tossed or gotten rid of.

My focus for the rest of the week, is to continue going through the boxes of paper (yes, there is still some to go through!), to start organizing the office supplies unearthed into an easy to maintain system, to pick a nice lamp for reading (I have many on hand to pick from!), and to start removing some of the larger furniture and perhaps exchanging a few pieces for ones that are more usable for my needs.

What do you think so far?

Cleaning, editing, shredding, packing, donating, keeping, tossing......

My program seems to be working so far.  And I have been addressing certain issues as they come up.  The main one seems to be, should I keep it, or let it go?  And now that I am reaching the stage of its not paper or items that can fit in a box, its getting a little more difficult since we are now getting to the big stuff, like furniture.
In this case, I have taken to....how useful is it?  In other words, does it function WHERE its located?  If not, where would it function best?  If the answer is, no where I can think of, it HAS to go!  If its possible it can go somewhere else and work, fine.  I get out my little measuring tape, measure it up and go right to the place I am thinking of and see if it will work in the spot I have picked out.  If not, then I go to Plan B.....rethink this Plan A.  My living room is full of no place to go, no use for it, or won't fit and have no Plan B.  These items I am trying to sell and am posting on Craigslist for a reasonable amount of money.  I clean them up and move them into the living room for an easy exit from the house, once purchased.
Having to look at them for a few days helps me to mentally be sure I am ready to let said item hit the skids!  This shift does help me to thin the herd and realize, that while I may THINK I need said item, or its too pretty to let go of, I have still not found a use or a spot for it!  Its also made me realize, some of my collections are also needing to go.
For instance, I have a ton of Hall, USA and like minded ceramic planters that I no longer use and are dust collectors I have tired of.  I have a little box collection and little colored bottle collection I would enjoy much more.  So the ceramics are being listed on EBAY and Craigslist and looking for new homes also!
The thing is, this is going to be a mess for a bit longer.  It took time to get this way, and its going to take time to get it back to a "normal" condition.  I say "normal", meaning what most people would consider safe and livable.  And while I may manage now, it is not without a lot of frustration and irritation on my part.  I am always looking for a lost paper, item, something I just bought or need to take care of.  But because there is so much stuff, even my usual organized self must throw up my hands at the craziness of it.
Which brings me to another thing mentally.  There is this part of me that seeks perfection and organization, something I used to take for granted, is now crippling me.  Because if I can't get immediate results, perfection in five minutes, organization in ten minutes, I have 'failed'.  I have had some 'losses' in my life that have added to this 'out of my control feeling'.  So trying to take it back is a slow struggle.  It seems easy for others to poke fun, show disgust, or think 'what is wrong with you?', but the reality is, I am broken.  Either mentally, physically, or emotionally, something is amiss.  I've stopped hiding it, stopped denying it and am just moving forward.  If someone isn't being supportive, then, for now, I have to not invite them over.  After all, making me feel bad doesn't fix anything!  What I need is patience, understanding and help.  Those are who I invite in to see my progress, to check my plans with, ask what they think.  Sure, its a bit of having people tell me what I want to hear, but it also is positive cheering on, its helping me, not undermining me and its also helped to see some brain games that are playing out.
And all the books and advice I have seen, read or heard, says the "touch it only once rule" should always apply, but for me, some items require a few more touches, before I can let go, or make a decision.  The thing I use, is once the box is full, I must deal with that box again!  File it, shred it, toss it, etc.  As I have said before, a few items had to go back into the box a few times before I could make a decision.  But that's okay!  It works for me.
It may take a bit longer, but I am able to use this method with success.  Anybody else working out from under a deluge of stuff?  What is working or not working for you?

Progress......slowly, but surely

Well, I now have some small areas cleared out, and have made enough progress to have room in from of the fireplace, so that I may sit and enjoy the fire burning.  Sad thing is, I accidentally blew out the pilot light, while vacuuming and cleaning around it.  Yes, I blew it out!  I have braved a few attempts to re-light it, but so far, no luck.  For now, it can wait.  Besides, perhaps its better to wait until the papers are all filed or shredded, just for safety!
Good thing is, it is looking much better and I have even come up with some more items and furniture to let go of!  (Doing the Happy Dance here!)  There is still a lot to do, but I am happy with the progress, and am looking forward to a nice little rug on the floor, so the dogs can enjoy the fire too!
In the meantime, I have located a lovely old clock in my library, now if I can find the key to wind it with!  The van is holding steady with no new junk, although the birds seem to have found it as a good potty spot!  Stupid birds!
I started pulling in a box or two from the dining room of papers, and have set to pruning them down also.  After all, they do not belong in my dining room.  It feels good just knowing I am making a dent in things, even if I am not moving at break neck speed, it is slow but steady!
Today, I worked on cleaning the fireplace hearth and making a little "catch" for the "glowing embers" I ordered and picked up from Home Depot this week.  Took a lot of elbow grease and a bit of artistic flair to get it all just right, but I am very happy with the results so far.  No wood burning smell, despite buying a candle called "Warm Crackling Campfire" by Better Homes and Gardens.  It has a light scent, but not the one I was hoping for.  And it doesn't crackle either!  I may have to keep searching!
I've included a few picture of the process and items used to make the 'catch' for the "Glowing Embers" and some pictures of my fireplace, before and after!

The tools, a container of water, some old scissors, some tongs for placing the "glowing embers", tin snips, "glowing embers", a brush for cleaning and 2 metal grates that I cut up to hold the "glowing embers".

This candle neither crackles, nor smells like a wood burning fire, campfire or other.

Much cleaning with everything I could think of, cream of tarter, baking soda, vinegar, peroxide, Bar Keepers Friend, oven cleaner, and orange oil cleaner.  Not all at once, but one by one, with lots of rinsing and even some fine wet/dry sandpaper.  It looks better, but not as good as I had hope!

Now, after all this effort, and creativity, I got the fireplace cleaner, the grates shaped and placed, and about 1/4 of the "glowing embers" bag used.  A little finessing and WAH LA....here's the finished make over!

This is the cleaned hearth and the embers and gas fireplace going in the light!

This is what it looks like with the lights off.  Can you see the "glowing embers"?  Its hard to capture the true look of it, but this gives you an idea!

I am very happy to have progressed enough in my little office to be able to use my fireplace without fear of it taking the whole house with it, glad to have gotten some order in here.  I still have more to do, but I feel like I am finally making some progress that I can see, and that is manageable!
Also, I was able to let go of many old files from my real estate days, that I had put off for far too long.  I was very careful, as lots of peoples information was contained in the files and I wanted to be sure that they were safely destroyed, so no one need worry.
On a side note, it also reminded me of how many people had trusted me with very personal things of theirs.  Many people had handed me the keys to their most precious belongings, their homes, their SS#'s, their financial information.  It was a very humbling experience to feel that trust once again.  So, yes, I shredded, mixed up files, shredded, and even put water in the bags and mixed them up some more.  Good thing was, the inks ran easily, the papers shredded nicely and I know there is no way anyone needs to worry about their stuff, me included.  I did come across a batch of old checks from accounts closed years ago, and debated, should I shred them too?  I gather them all up and am going to take them to my bank for shredding.  They have a special shredder just for this, but I have to find out what branch it is at!  Because shredding all those checks is just plain going to be tiresome!
I do have more to do in the office, before its complete, but I will post more pictures this week, just so you can keep up with my progress!
If you have any comments, I would appreciate any input you may have!