Manic Thursday

I had a really manic day on Thursday.

This week has been my first child free week since the school holidays and I have been driven to work hard on all the things I have not had time to do.

I painted heaps of the fence, cleared a path for myself along the fence line (through the undergrowth and the tree branches).

I hadn't made any attempt to clean up the house and it had been driving me crazy so I just went through each room and tried to tackle something that needed doing (and preferably something that had been needing attention for some time).

This plan of attack worked well because there was no pressure to tidy everything in every room (which would be way too much to ask), but it did mean that there was a noticeable improvement in each room.

I think I remember reading about this house cleaning tip on one of the helpful websites I visit ... it was something along the lines of set a timer for x amount of time and just tidy for that amount of time only ... so my plan was a variation on this theme.

Apart from clearing some space on the floor in the lounge room, I also went through and got rid of a lot of older artworks. My art box is full to overflowing and I had 6 months worth of paintings piled up in there.

Our big bins had just been emptied so I got rid of a fair bit of stuff (while still being very sentimental and keeping about three quarters of the original stack).

I won't clear out any more artworks until I have photographed them ... and of course until next fortnight after our bin pickup ... I have to leave some room for our other waste.

I also started to tackle the reorganization of all of our digital photos so I can back them up onto DVD disk in date order and keep them safe.

Now that we have a fully functional computer I can do that and have been reunited with all the old videos I have taken over the past 6 years but have not been able to view on my previous computer due to a malfunction with the quick time application.

I am surprised to see how much changes in 6 years ... and equally surprised to find that I have taken (and kept) approximately 6000 photos in that time.... an average of 1000 per year!!!!

I have been playing with Kodak Easy share, Picasa 3 and Windows Photo Gallery/Pictures to try and decide which is the best way to sort and store and process my photos. There are pros and cons for each ... some have overlapping features and I am trying to learn them all in depth and record information about them so that I don't forget what I have discovered. In the space of only a few days I have learnt quite a lot.

I am also very happy that I did some study in word, excel etc (this study is yet to be completed) as I am much more familiar with tricks and strategies to get things done. The kind of things that work in many different applications ... like Control A = select all, control v, control x, control c and also selecting multiple things with Control click etc.

I am very tired though, as each day I have been getting up early and going to bed later and later as the week progresses.

Finished the day with a massive headache ... but feeling very accomplished!!!

organization

I am being driven mad by the amount of stuff we have in and around our house. I spend hours outside tidying and prettying up the garden because I know that my efforts there will not be destroyed by a kougra hurricane every day.

This week though I got stuck into action ... enough is enough.

Kougra is home with me and we are both sick but I am determined to sort our house out one step at a time.

I have been trying to reuse and recycle and not waste things ... but it has meant that I have ended up with piles of bottles and useful containers of all shapes and sizes in assorted piles around the house.

I cleaned up a big 90L box that used to hold rainwater ... but developed a split in the bottom, and I am now using that as my useful box. Anything that I plan to keep for artworks or recycling into something else, will go in here but once I have a couple of each type of container ... or once the box gets full I will be throwing out any excess I have.

I have also started throwing out bits and peices of Kougra's things the minute I think they are no longer required.

We have also started a tidying game in the evening ... it was slow to take off but has increased in popularity now that both of us and a timer are involved.

What happens is I set Kougra a task and she gets to choose how many minutes she thinks it will take her. I set the timer and if she finishes first - she "wins". I then set her two more tasks ... ones that will have the most impact as far as tidying the loungeroom is concerned.

Then Kougra chooses 3 tasks for me to do in a certain amount of time ... and between us ... we get the living areas of the house looking pretty respectable!

I have also got piles of different things that I need to deal with, either putting things away or deciding what to do with them... I started by clearing a few of my downstairs piles and am encouraged by my success so far.