For educators, back-to-school is the real start of a new year. It's a natural time for starting fresh, reorganizing, re-prioritizing. Educators in Florida head back to school early, as in now. So I'm getting myself pumped up, psyched, and ready to rise to new challenges!

Last August I challenged myself to get rid of 365 things in 365 days. I amazed myself with my success! I not only unloaded more than 365 items; I am also routinely purging as I bring new items into the home. The scent of success is sweetly satisfying. 

It's also temporary.

Every time I boot up the computer, I'm confronted with files sorted into files sorted into more files. Many of my images, documents, and photos are stored in multiple places: hard drive, flash drive, cloud, camera. How is this better than multiple file cabinets (which I've pared down to notebooks, one file box and two file bins,) or shoe boxes of unsorted photographs (of which I have many)? To add further insult, paper still accumulates on our table and counter tops, then gets piled willy-nilly into baskets or bins when we need to tidy up for an occasion. I confess: I often won't go through those piles for months. They're just too daunting.

So here is (drumroll please!) my new challenge for 2014-15: 

• SORT
• SELECT
• SYSTEMIZE. 
  

It's brilliant! By this time next year I will have sorted through all our papers, files, and photos. I will have selected what needs saving. I will have created a system for housing and retrieving. I will be facing a future of never being overwhelmed by files and photos again!

I am off to an amazing start. I've identified a problem. I've begun pinning anti-clutter and organizational ideas and inspirations. I started an accountability page. I've written this blog entry.  My job this month is done...

#clutter, #digitalclutter, #organizing, #resolutions

I recently had a revolting revelation: I have not changed much since my teens.

The rude awakening happened while digging through a box of paper memories in search of information related to high school friends.  Among my amateur artistic endeavors, autograph books, newspaper clippings, and old letters were several diaries and journals with sporadic entries spanning the 70s and early 80s. When I flipped one open, the first passage I saw was  A typical "Tina-type-day." I accomplished nothing. WHAT?

With the exception of referring to myself as Tina, I could make that same observation about many of my days now. Worse, the reasons - reading magazines, watching television, yakking with friends - still apply! True, the magazines I read and shows I watch are different from when I was a teen, and a lot of my current yakking is done via text and Facebook, but the bottom line remains. I have in 40 years absolutely failed to master the arts of less procrastinating and more productivity.

I might feel better if use of my time was the only issue. Apparently I made a lot of lists in my youth (as I do now) in an effort to define myself and set goals. Weight, eating/not eating certain foods, exercising, getting slimmer, and having a wardrobe filled with clothes I really like are among the recurring themes. There are lists of things I like (dancing, writing, food, giving gifts, autumn, easy listening music) and things I don't (being overweight, ruffles and frills, hypocrites, boring people, uncertainty.) Scattered among the entries are also prayers I'm still praying:  please God help me be kinder, less judgmental, more cooperative, more productive...

My young self also longed for the kind of perfect romantic love that books and media (even back then) mislead teen girls into thinking is waiting for them just around the corner. I wrote pages of angst over the guys who did not call, and lists of male names who were less-than-perfect probabilities, those who were possibilities (long shots,) and those who-would-be-perfect-but-didn't-know-I-existed. It probably would not have been much consolation to know back then that my "perfect" guy wasn't going to show up for nearly two decades.   

Eventually I grew into my given name and left Tina behind. Sort of. She is in my hard-wiring, and it's likely a tendency to avoid doing important tasks until the last minute, as well as other common likes, dislikes, and prayers, will continue on into future decades. Happily, though, we've parted ways when it comes to love and romance, as I was reminded yesterday. My guy was out power-washing the sidewalk and called me to come out to see his artwork:

Tina would have loved it.