I've been working away at some things (in amongst having a kidney infection and gallivanting around the country with visiting friends) so I thought I'd revisit my list of bigger projects. Apologies for the two posts in one day - I promise not to have a dearth of posts I need to make up for again (unless I get another kidney infection, in which case all bets are off).

Unframing all my signed convention pictures. Done, and half the frames are now off to the charity shop (they're heavy!). I need to sort out my newer pictures now, too - they're waiting in a little project "to do" pile that I can do in front of the T.V..

Going through the stuff in the bottom of the spare room closet Half done - it's all out the cupboard and that's now resorted to how it will be, and I've got a box with a couple of things I still need to find homes for (I think the homes will end up being in places I haven't yet sorted out).


Going through my present drawer
Done, ish. I'm going to make a real effort to use the things in there and re-visit it again after Christmas


Removing Aged paperwork
Not started. I can do this one incrementally, but it feels like an enormous and slightly annoying job to start so I haven't.

Re-clearing my wardrobe
Done. I do, however, need to do it again because my shape's totally changed and I need to take that into better account - I've had rather too many encounters with things I've tried on and thought were good that then proved annoying when I was actually wearing them (when I have run across clothes like that I wash them and add them to the getting-rid pile so it is incrementally improving, however I really need to Gok myself and avoid having that kind of mild irritation in my day altogether).

Cataloguing the contents of my freezer
Sort-of done. I've certainly emptied it a lot more, which makes it easier to have a running total of what's in there.

Computer related decluttering
I need to have a real think about what I need to do and list it out.

So, not bad, all in all, enough that I feel that I've achieved something (and I've also improved my bookshelf organisation a bit whilst I've been at it) and some things that I can just pick up and go with when I want to do more but don't want to think about it.

Well, I'm at work so it's patently not actually perfect but it's gorgeous and sunny and bright but with a little cold bite to the wind that says summer's going and autumn's on its way. I love this time of year, I suspect because I was in formal education for so long (about twenty two years from starting nursery school to leaving university) - I associate autumn with new starts and the exciting prospect of things being different and I love this kind of weather the best (it's easy to dress for in light layers and scarves and not having to worry about the rain).

I make resolutions and plans at new year (I'm a Scot, Hogmanay is a big deal) - and in fact the weight loss journey I'm on at the moment started in January - but somehow this time of year seems even more like an opportunity to renew that I shouldn't miss. It's something about the smell of slightly damp, slightly warm, privet hedge harking back to first days at school, I think. Anyway, I'm currently feeling very motivated and very up and I intend to make the most of it which means projects (I am, infact, rubbing my hands together in the style of a Blue Peter presenter, except with less sticky backed plastic).

Bigger projects (things that will take at least an hour to make an appreciable dint in):

Unframing all my signed convention pictures.

I have a billion of these from a different point in my life (a very happy point, but one I'm no longer at) and the pictures are languishing in their clip frames in a box. If I unframe them and put them in individual poly pockets in a folder they'll take up substantially less space and they'll be much easier for me to look at and enjoy when I'm in the mood to do so. The frames can go to charity or friends who want them.

Going through the stuff in the bottom of the spare room closet

I have NO CLUE what some of that is. I know my graduation picture (which I loathe) is there and I suspect my degree certificate is, too, but other than that? clueless.

Going through my present drawer

I have a billion and six wee things in there, most of which I'm never going to give to anyone. I need to sort out what I wouldn't be embarrassed to give and donate the rest. And I need to move the gifts to a smaller drawer so I don't end up with a lot of junk again.

Removing Aged paperwork

I don't need mobile bills from 5 years ago or bank statements from 10 years ago. My paperwork's mostly consolidated by type into individual folders so I just need to go through them one at a time and cull (and then stick the papers in another box until I can borrow the good shredder from my parents!). If the folders are not over full then it'll be a lot easier to keep on top of filing the new stuff as it comes in.

Re-clearing my wardrobe

I did this about 3 months ago and it's come time to do it again (what a terrible shame!). I've already removed the Kriss Kross jeans but I know there are other things there that should also go and I may now be into some of the things that were too small the last time. This takes ages and is exhausting, but it's also a lot of fun so I think this may be sunday's job.

Cataloguing the contents of my freezer

I know vaguely what's in there, but I could really do with a list so I can meal-plan better.

I also have a bunch of computer-related projects I need to do (improving the design here not being the least of these, but mostly continuing on with the decluttering I started in my email and bookmarks and moving on to do the same with my files and photographs) but I'm feeling kind of energetic at the moment and that's a very sitty-downy kind of thing, so they'll hold for the moment (I have a working back up, it'll do).

My general every-day goals are doing pretty well at the moment:


1.Drink more water.
I'm calling this one so good I'm taking it off the list - it's habit now so I don't need to keep monitoring it.


2.Drink less diet coke.
Success, eventually, after a bit of fiddling around to see what works best for me. Swapping cokes for coffees (which, because I drink lattes, have some nutrional value) and barring it after 1 except in company (I usually don't have lunch until 1, so with the latte in the morning I'm just not having it at all) means that it's I'm definitely losing the habit for it and because I allow myself to have it in company I don't have any associated guilt (which would tend to make me rebel and drink more). I may revisit in future to see if I can cut it down even further but it's no longer a physiological habit and it's not a daily psychological habit either. It's coming off the list for now as a success.


3.Excercise more.
3.1.Unless it is pouring I will walk my 30minute lunchbreak around the river. It is pretty.
Repeated epic fail. I got out of the habit when I went on vacation and I just cannot get my head back in the game. My headphones are a bit broken, so that gives me a constant excuse (a rotten excuse, but still an excuse) not to do it, and I'm trying to avoid the shops right now, but still, it's all excuses and I need to work out a better way to self-motivate to do something at lunchtime.


3.2.Unless it there is a specific reason why not, I will get the train home to the further away station and walk up the hill.
This is a success, definitely. I get home faster and often on a nicer train (and I pass a half-decent supermarket on the way so I can pick up last-minute things at a reasonable price if I need to). Taking it off the list as I've got this one in the bag

3.3.Get the train into work from the further away station. Not a hope (unless I'm late and miss my regular train) - I know how long it takes me and I have an up to date timetable, I'm just in a lazy headspace about it because I know how hot and knackered it used to make me. I need to get better about it. Perhaps designating one day a week and working up might help.

3.4.Investigate "bingo wing busters" on the internet.
I'm so unmotivated to do these. I'm not sure if I need to completely reevaluate this goal.

4.Continue with SW
4.1.As I am - keep mixing it up, keep sticking to it.
Done. Successfully - meal planning is helping me keep it in balance and more economical (no more last minute bagged salads!) and, really, the eating is just a way of life now. I'm going to take this one off as a success but I'll change it up for a new eating goal - maintaining menu planning or upping veggie intake, something positive.



More ephemeral goals
More groomed.
I'm good with the jewelry (thank you decluttered dressing table) and scarf (because I have an addiction to them anyway) and my skin has never looked better but I'm still rotten at putting on makeup and I still tend to whack my hair up in a bun about half the week. I need to call this goal a good 'un but develop some new ones regarding hair and makeup in particular.

Better body skin
I have almost got rid of my allergy, and actually my upper arms have been benefitting from me regularly moisturising them with the aloe I've been using to counter the allergy in my armpits. I'm going to continue on what I'm doing there and revisit properly when the allergy's completely clear (probably September).

House keeping routine.
Having so many visitors in such a small amount of time's totalyl thrown this for a loop. The house is okay - not spotless, but I could have my Mum turn up at the door and not be ashamed of it - but I feel like it's only a step away from chaos. The only thing I feel that I've got under control is my laundry.

stop wasting all weekend sleeping and slothing.
I'm calling this good and taking it off the list. Having people to stay's not helped me with this but my mind-set is different; the time I feel it's reasonable to get up (rather than look at the clock and roll back over) is earlier and I have a lot more energy than I used to so I'm just automatically less likely to sloth (I can't just sit the same way that I used to. I'm going to change this up for a goal about better sleeping habits altogether.


Wow. That's a bit of a long post... I'll be revisiting it in sections, but I thought I'd better take advantage of the weather-induced headspace whilst I could.

I'm wearing reclaimed jeans today - they've made it through 3 house moves (including 9 months in storage) over about twelve years and I haven't fitted into them for any of that. I'm pretty sure I've wasted enough money on them that I could have just got rid of them right back at the start and replaced them with new ones and come out even, but anyway, I hauled them about, stored them and am now wearing them comfortably (yay, go me). I will not be wearing them again.

This morning's been an exercise in being hit around the head with a cluebat imprinted with the words "jeans go out of style" every single time I catch a glimpse of myself in a window. They are not flattering, there is a lot of extra fabric around my legs, the waist band seems strangely deep, and most of all I feel like I'm auditioning to be in a Kriss Kross video (I did, at least, manage to put my jeans on the right way round).

They're in really good nick, so they should definitely be in the donate pile but I can't help feeling that inflicting these jeans on anyone else would be a bit karmically unfortunate.


I've kept a lot of clothes that I've been too fat for. It's been useful - 50lbs in seven months is a lot to lose and it would have been a frustrating exercise in buying new clothes to see me fleetingly through a stage and discard, but I'm definitely getting to a stage now where I'm back into the 90s of hopeful clothing (things I bought but never fitted into) rather than more recent, less dated things.

It isexpensive to keep buying a new wardrobe, however, so I'm going to have to keep on wearing things that make me look like a relic from the decade of hypercolor t-shirts or that are 4 sizes too big and make me look like I'm wearing a bag. I'm aiming on emerging, swan-like, from this shell of satorial distress in some lovely (regularly re-worn) fitted outfit once I get down to target (I am dreaming of it, in fact) and in the meantime I'll just make the best of things (I suspect I may need to rethink my dressing to include more skirts as they're less obviously baggy when worn with tights that do actually fit).

The Kriss Kross jeans are still going as soon as I get home though.

...with my pretty pale pink nails mostly, so Thursday is the Treat Day that keeps on giving this week.

I've been decluttering my home like a demon recently (my mother visited a couple of weeks ago and proclaimed that she didn't know what I'd done with her daughter...it really wasn't that messy before, honestly) and I'm really enjoying the peacefulness that having less stuff lying around, and having a place for things to go, is bringing me. I still have a list of projects - small spaces that need going through, boxes that I've put away for the time being, things that need taken to the tip or charity shop - but all my remaining clutter is at least contained and out of sight and I know that I can work on it in short bursts as time and mood allow without it taking back over (does anyone else get those hormonal peaks and troughs of what is probably a mild form of nesting? Just me? They can be very useful for bigger projects or deep cleaning). The extra energy that I have because I'm eating better and carrying less weight is having a huge, unforseen, affect on my life - I haven't exactly turned into a paragon of virtue or anything, but it's easier to be this organised person than it used to be.

Anyway, I was catching up on some of my internet sites on Monday night and one of the main ones I use was inaccessible so I found myself with a couple of hours blocked off for internet use and only about thirty minutes of catching up to do (I had visitors who were catching up on a show that they watch and I don't, I was sociably sitting in the same room on my netbook) and I came to the realisation that my virtual life is more cluttered than my real life ever was. I get a bunch of emails every day that aren't spam but that I always delete unread, my bookmarks are all over the place and I can't find anything when I want it and my twitter feed's full of people I skip over without a thought.

What a waste of my time.

Photo by Michelle Meiklejohn

So, I spent the remaining hour and a bit of internet time I had on sunday night organising my bookmarks (deleting things that were no longer relevant, making more comprehensible folders for those that were - I keep a lot of links for tech support purposes) and syncing them all up (I use Xmarks to backup my bookmarks and keep them straight between my netbook and desktop). I suspect I still need to purge a fair number but at least I can now find things without just giving up, googling for it and then realising I already have it when I try to bookmark it again. If I ever have another spare hour when I want to sit on my rear end and do very little I'll have another go over them but much like my contained real life clutter, things are at a stage now where they're not significantly impinging on my life.

I'm handling the email issue a little bit differently - not least because I don't know what I need to unsubscribe from until I receive it - I'm going little by little; clicking unsubscribe links from legitimate email newsletters (and ignoring the ones I need to email for now - 1 click's my limit), clicking "spam" on the unsolicited ones (the unsubscribe button on those is sometimes a phishing exercise so it's better to train the spam filter) and checking the accounts of anything that has an email-for-points type deal (I used to do a LOT of those in a previous tech support job as there was often significant downtime between calls. Now I'm too busy so they need to go). I discovered I had enough points to apply for a £10 M&S voucher on one of those accounts which was a nice surprise and I've gone through the rest I've received (so far) and made the decision to either totally delete my account or merely unsub from the email and keep an account and a bookmark to the site based on how many points I have there already and if there's a time limit on them. I've been doing this for three days and I'm already seeing a difference in the volume of pointless email I'm getting.

My next step with email is to set up auto filtering so that emails I want to read, but not RIGHT now bypass the inbox and go into their own folder so I can read them at a time that's more convienent to me (rather than during the 5 minute dash I have first thing in the morning). I already do this with the majority of emails pertaining to my voluntary job and the difference it makes is incredible. I don't need to see Jillian Michael's latest tip right away, but I do want to read it and see if it's something that I can apply to me, so I think this will work - I just need to decide if they need a folder per subject or just a "read it later" tag (and if any of the emails just stack up in there, then that's a reasonable indication that they need purged, too).

I haven't yet decided what to do with my Twitter feed. I'm considering lists for some of the accounts, or following from a secondary account, but I haven't worked out what will work best for me. I'll get there, this decluttering malarkey's an ongoing journey.

I'm linking up this post at A Slob Comes Clean's Decluttering Roundup for July because it's the only decluttering I've actually blogged about...