Category: Spring Cleaning

The Office

This is my day two of getting organized. Yesterday, I took items in the office, not in their correct place, and piled them around a chair in the middle of the office.

I got the furniture Polish and wiped down all the newly freed tabletops and other services within the room. Now came a moment of thinking. I had books, papers, and many other items in this vast pile. I had to plan the most efficient way to place everything within my office and know what I did not need so I could get rid of it.

Books and a few nick-knacks go on the bookshelves. Clutter does not. All the professional books for my work go in one section. The blogging book is not a mystery and does not belong on the fiction shelf.

Anything that cannot be easily seen, such as files and items stored on the computer, should be listed or cataloged in a notebook. This saves missing deadlines because you could not find what you wanted to submit.

Consider donating things you haven’t used in a while to a charity or giving to someone who could use it. Think of all the things you now use the computer or other technology for, and what is obsolete.

This is your room. Take a look as you get your office, studio, or space to the working way it should be. Is it really what you had in mind? If not, make a few changes until you are happy. Once you have the room set, also set a schedule to pick up and dust weekly. It may save having to do the whole thing again.

Want to know more? Send me your name and email, and I will put you on our mailing list. No spam, just things you can use and learn from. Mikeb@reveille.rocks

The Time Is Now

I believe this title is as old as time itself. I can see the caveman looking around his lair strewn with bones and animal skin, dirt and heaps of whatever attracting flies. I wonder who was the first to say, “this is it. I can’t take it anymore. We’re cleaning this pigsty up.”

I am taking my motto to task. ‘New Day – Better Way.’ The opening salvos of cleaning have already struck.

In a lightning blitz, all paperwork left out gathered in one large box with field orders to be sorted and put away before the end of the day.

Items that are too plentiful or do not fit current needs shall prepare for embarkation to the local Goodwill. 

Once known as the family lawn, the ‘Jungle Of No Return’ is set for massive cutting and pruning in the dawn’s early light (tomorrow.)

A White glove inspection is now set for Sunday, providing the white gloves can be found in time.

What do you do when your wonderful, tidy home gets away from you on an epic scale?

Spring Cleaning

When I retired from the Air Force, I bought a house and settled down. I have not made a permanent move since. For somebody who’s spent his entire life moving first with his dad in the Army, and then with the Air Force, I had some things I had to learn. Some of these things took almost 25 years for me to realize. The fact that if you don’t do spring cleanings things just pile up for 25 years was one of those real shockers. I had many others along the way, and it made me realize a few things.

If you had fun using something in the past, and you have moved on from that thing, you probably are not going to return and use it again. The more time grows between the last use and now, the less likely it is going to be used. The higher the likelihood you should give it to somebody who will use it, or just get rid of it. I believe civilians call it ‘Spring Cleaning.’ I used to call it a ‘Permanent Change of Station (PCS)’ move. They would usually happen every three or four years and were an excellent reason to close old chapters and get rid of items no longer being used.

Spring cleaning is not just for material things. It is good to lay those mental worries and problems that we seem to carry with us to rest. If we can’t change it, and we can’t. Is time to focus on the now, and how now helps to propel us to where we would like to go in the future.

I do not want to seem glib and make it look as it is easy as just putting it out of your mind. Because it rarely is that easy. So, here is an idea on how to do it. For those who actually read my work, I know you have read this before. Please bear with me.

Start by getting an empty wastepaper basket. Put the wastepaper basket in the middle of your table or desk or some other elevated flat surface. I want you to go to a position in front of the wastepaper basket and order all negative thoughts out of yourself, and stuff them into that wastepaper basket. Do not endanger yourself in removing the thoughts.  Just will them into your hands. Be sure to stuff them in the waste-paper basket down tight so that they can’t get back out. Then take the wastepaper basket outside and dump its contents in the trashcan. If you need to repeat this a couple times to get it all out, do so.

If you live in a place without trash cans, you can do the same thing with the bathroom toilet by filling it with all those old thoughts that haunt you, and flushing. Do not stick any part of yourself into the toilet. This too may need to be accomplished from time to time as old thoughts try to creep back into the memory.

Does it really work? It depends on whether or not you allow it to work or not. I have used this technique with many people I have worked with, and many teams I have led. And yes, it will work, you just have to let it.

Don’t take my word for it, try it.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

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