Cleaning House

I just spent the last hour (or two?) cleaning out my inbox. The problem with the number of jobs I have (today, 3) is that I have 4 email addresses. My personal address, lisa@lisabeach.com is like an old friend---we've been hanging out since 2006 or maybe 2005. Maybe it was 2004? Who knows, but it's been a while. I've had a few computers during that time too---and generally speaking, I've left thousands of emails in old inboxes, never having to clean them out before I stopped using the computer.

The desktop I'm using now has been really good to me---for the last 5+ years. Finally, over the last few weeks, it has been slowing down and telling me that it's full. I've filled the hard drive with parts of two degrees worth of homework and papers, three teaching jobs (or 4?), wellness coaching stuff, web design stuff, and lots of digital pics. I'm not so much of a hoarder in person---I often get rid of things (especially clothing) that I end up wishing I had later. But I'm messy, and messy people who want to be neat can't have a lot of stuff that lays around causing messiness. Someday, though, I'll post a pic of all my kitchen gadgets. It's obscene, and I won't tell you how much I spent on my blender.

I guess cleaning my inbox this evening, and paring down the number of messages present from 7000 to 1200, made me think about de-cluttering and how it can help productivity level (not to mention peace of mind). Like I said, I'm not a very cluttery person with physical stuff, but when my desk, computer, inbox, and other virtual clutter begins to reach a breaking point, it makes me less able to focus and be productive. I was going to clean my inbox when it reached 5000, but it seemed like such a long boring task...so I put it off.

The truth is, it wasn't so bad. I want to try and do that for other areas of my life too because then maybe having 3 jobs won't make me feel so scatterbrained (and it's soon to be 2 anyway). Maybe I'll sell stuff I don't use. Anyone want a pair of size 8 Uggs (they have laces and I'm too lazy for all that), a Garmin GPS watch for running (I tore my meniscus), or a dyson vacuum (apparently Joe hates it, and since he does all the vacuuming....)?

Did I mention I have no knick knacks? Wait, that's not true---I have these. Aside from the bowl, which just holds random junk, I'm quite fond of the others and paid way too much for two of them. Not as much as the blender though...