It’s been awhile since I’ve had a 4-day weekend. As such, I made a big dent in my list of things to do that’s been piling up on me. One major thing is throwing out stuff I don’t need anymore… like magazines. Granted, some have some value in keeping if there are articles or something that you would realistically refer back to. Some things though, you definitely know you’ll never look at again. I also got rid of a lot of paperwork in my files from years ago. I’ve had my shredder running Enron-style all day today - even managing to jam it once and overheat it several times. Anyway, I can finally fit current things into my filing cabinets without having to wedge stuff in there like before the purge.
I went grocery shopping yesterday to restock my fridge and cupboards. I had them bag my stuff in paper instead of plastic for once. The nice thing is that all my items fit in 3 bags. If they used plastic, it probably would have taken almost 10 bags - no lie. Saved me a lot of time unloading when I got home. I recycle both paper AND plastic so I figure I’m going to use whatever makes my life easier.
Did I mention I got a GPS for my car a while back? I got a Garmin 530c. It works great. The only feature I wish it had that this particular model doesn’t have is the text to speech capability to announce street names. Getting that functionality would add a couple hundred bucks to the cost and I really didn’t feel that justified the extra cash. In shopping for a GPS, they put some strange features on some of them… MP3 players, picture viewers and Bluetooth. First off, I have a stereo so there’s no need for me to listen to music from my GPS speaker. Secondly, when would you be showing pictures to someone… on your GPS? Bluetooth on the unit I didn’t understand at first but it turns out that it’s usually implemented so the GPS functions as a hands-free speakerphone. I’ve got a Bluetooth earpiece so that doesn’t really matter to me either. Anyway, I got a wild hair to try out another slick-looking (and cheaper) GPS - the Navigon 2100. It’s got text to speech! It’s got cool little icons! AND it’s a pain in the hiney to use. It’s slow to respond to keypresses, the keys themselves are miniscule (and I have relatively small fingers) and the speaker sucks. The Garmin is really a much more “mature” unit in that it’s interface is miles ahead. I’m going to stick with that one. The Navigon went back to the store.
Back to the shredder.
By Kyle on Nov 25, 2007 | Reply
Sounds like you’ve been watching Oprah on the house cleaning thing. She did a special last week on “Hoarders”… people who keep stuff forever.
The featured couple lived in a 3,300 sq ft home and it took Oprah’s 100-man crew, 8 weeks to clean out everything from their home.
When it was said and done, they filled up a 10,000 sq ft storage facility with stuff from that couples house… including 3,000 purses, and 3,000 pairs of shoes… and something like 25 TVs.
In one scene we learned the husband had kept every single bank statement and credit card statement his entire life (They were like 50-something years old). He was sitting with stacks and stacks of paper in the driveway, shredding them in a little shredder one at a time. lol
The point to the story was, take 10-minutes each day and fill one bag with trash and one bag with “give aways to charity”. Then at the end of the week, get rid of the stuff to help keep down the clutter.
I thought that was a fantastic idea.
Wish you could have come over the AL AU game last night. I understand the low-hygiene day thing though. I went to work Fri without showering. Glad everyone was off. lol
K
By TC on Nov 26, 2007 | Reply
Four day weekends go soooooooo much faster than four day work weeks. Why is that/
By TC on Nov 26, 2007 | Reply
P.S. I’m a hoarder. Though I prefer the term “packrat.”