January - Clean Slate Month

 Has it been nearly a month since I've made an appearance?!  

Well, I'm still alive.  Even if I haven't been around in a bit.

Things have been very busy, both at home and at work.

That work project, I told you about here continues - and, as I expected, the number of emails that need to be sent out, continues to ratchet up, up, up.  Two weeks ago, I was hit with 244!  

As you can imagine, that spun me out.  So, I've been on the hunt for a way to make this task more manageable.  Luckily, I have found a work around, last week - but it was still onerous.  But now that I know it works, I can make a few tweaks and it should be fairly less onerous when I get hit later this week.

And I'll just leave it at that - because, despite the fact that I am over the moon to have found a way to make my life a bit easier; I also know that no one wants the details.  As evidenced by my husband's eyes glazing over every time I broached the topic with him as I was trying to figure out how to make it work for me.

But I will say, if you ever find yourself in a spot where you need to do a specific email merge to different individuals, different carbon copies, blind copies and specific-to-each-person attachments - hit me up...I now know the secret.

The home front has been equally busy.  

As in the entire month of January's mantra has been clean and declutter.  Which all commenced when I rearranged our bedroom in order to determine once and for all if we could fit a bigger bed into that room.  We can and did.

The dust bunnies the size of dinosaurs hiding behind the bed is what kicked off the whole cleaning and decluttering spree.  I was horrified.  I mean, rationally, I knew there would be dust - but you never really picture it until you see it.

Currently, my "dressing room" (aka the extra bedroom) has actually become a room and not a catchall - because I finally forced myself to look at all the stuff that had been dropped in there when we moved in (however many years ago now) to be dealt with later.  Even if I still liked the whatever (and I liked most of it) - I figured if it wasn't being used, didn't have a specific home, or I didn't want to dust it anymore, it needed to go.  Now, it's an absolute delight to walk into the room and actually "see" what I have; since it's not crowded with things.

Same for the spare room/office.  All that's left to do in there is get S to come and get a few things OUT.  I don't mind storing some of his things (that are all tucked away in the upper reaches of the closet); but all the Giant paraphernalia needs to go and now he has a garage where he can keep it; as I'm sure his wife (I can't even believe I just typed that) won't want it hanging in their house.

The only room that hasn't been given a thorough going over yet is the kitchen - but it's in my sights.  Hopefully, soon.

For the sake of my own sanity, I am ignoring the fact that we have a bonus room upstairs.  It needs attention to be sure.  But it also needs a plan, a lot of sweat equity and money.  So, for now, it doesn't exist as I don't have a plan or time.

Because, going back to the office, in addition to all the cleaning and decluttering at home; the same has been going on at the office as we prepare to move next month.

An edict came down about two weeks ago that we needed to start clearing up our workspace.  And we were informed that we would receive ONE box (a very small box it turns out) to pack up what is to go.  And tucked away in that little memo was a glimpse of what was to come. The words "clean desk policy."  *shudder*

It's been whispered that we will only be allowed one personal photo.  Somehow, I don't think that will be the case; I think it will be more likely there will be no room for "extras."  I've seen a prototype of what our work areas are going to look like and they look tiny.  I guess I will see for myself when I head over to the new space for "technology training" for the conference rooms on Wednesday.

So even though I didn't plan for the month of January to be a clean slate; it does feel good knowing that we are starting off a clean and decluttered year.