COVID 19 #30 - USING YOUR TIME STUCK AT HOME TO WORK ON ORGANIZING

 Welcome to 2022.  

2020 and 2021 have not been easy years for any of us.  We all hoped that by now life would be back to close to normal, if not fully normal.  But we seem to be mostly starting over – again.  

So how have you been using your time at home?  Have you been working on decluttering and organizing your home – or your life or you have been sitting and watching things on your TV?  

I have been trying to catch up on decluttering.  I am close to finishing a project to scan instruction  manuals, warranty papers, travel information, etc. onto flash stick drives to use in my computer.  (We keep all data on same not on our hard drives.)  I back up daily and weekly onto other flash stick drives and monthly onto an external hard drive – just in case. I did go through the travel brochures, old travel ticket stubs, and maps when I started this project.  I kept very few - I consulted with my husband about many of these items.  I scanned items (not maps – except some of those handout maps from various communities we visit often) we decided to keep onto the flash drive I take with us when traveling (can be used in our laptops while traveling).  In a number of cases we checked to see if the attraction that the brochure was for still existed – a very nice restaurant in a community towards the western side of Virginia that we had been to a couple of times – decades ago – still exists, menu is different (it was in the brochure) and the prices are higher – so it was scanned and kept as we hope to head in that direction again. Three hanging folders emptied and the papers recycled.

I have been working on instruction manuals/papers and warranties more recently.  I had one overstuffed hanging folder just for same for our RV.  I have scanned this onto a special stick flash drive so they can be taken with us when we travel – something we could not do with the large number of manuals and warranty papers themselves (it is a VERY small RV.)  I am almost finished with this project.  I will then go back to see what else I can scan and toss or just toss from the drawer.  

In addition to getting rid of all of these physical papers it is now much easier to actually find the item needed.  Before I would I open the filing drawer – bottom of two – and have to lean down to see in the drawer – when I do this my eyeglasses swing forward (and sometimes fall off) so I have to grab them and hold them where they help me see what is the file drawer.  Now I just put the flash drive in a computer – if none are running, turn on the computer and I can quickly find the needed information – and if the print is too small (especially for husband if he is the one looking) I can make it larger and easier to read.  

Of course some instruction manuals are just TOO BIG for this and are being kept in the drawer they were in.  

You do have a scanner for your computer – don't you?  One of the best things to help organize papers.  I wrote about same way back in October 2016  to see the article -

 http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/10/scanners-and-printers-and-how-to-use.html

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

What projects have you been working on while home?  Have you been using your time wisely or just wasting it?