Hat on Top, Coat Below
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Out with the Old
December 27, 2007
I had to update some software on my work PC today; between prompts from the install programs I cleaned out one of my desk drawers and found almost everything in it could go right into the secure document disposal bin in the hall. Reports printed by a customer from their legacy system in 2004—out with you! Samples of check stock that may no longer even be in use—gone! Database diagrams I can reproduce if I need them—good bye! Now I have a place to put my purse other than the floor or the top of my desk. Excellent.
Building on that success, I started to weed out my planner, too. As I think I mentioned recently, I no longer use the calendar part; I record all my appointments online (and on sticky notes put on the bathroom mirror when necessary). Yet I still had calendar pages in my binder—from 2005. Yes, they were pretty, but still, they should have been out of there a long time ago. Now they are. I also ditched things like a note written on the back of a Boston Market receipt (from my birthday in 2006) which makes no sense to me now: pears/dk background/heavy silver/lt. silver/shiny black/scrolls, blk/tan/grey, gold. Was that an idea for a quilt? A fabric I wanted to buy? No idea. I copied phone numbers from the loose scraps of paper I’d shoved in between the pages into the pages behind the Telephone tab.
I got bogged down when I got to the lists. I haven’t looked at or added to some of these lists in ages but I didn’t want to toss them. For instance, I might start doing artist dates again; those ideas could come in handy. I did take out a few pages, like the record of vacation days I took the first few years I worked at Purple Systems which has been superseded by a spreadsheet. Maybe I’ll take out a few more the next time I go through, but for now I think the level of mess in that section is okay. I can find what I want; the binder rings aren’t in any danger of popping open. I do need to better organize the password hints for all the various websites and systems I’ve gotten into, but that’s a project for another day.
