In my continuing effort to reclaim my house, I have named the process the No Clutter Campaign. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. This week the No Clutter Campaign has moved into my office out of necessity. I have to get my tax stuff organized for my accountant. I’ve made good progress. Not enough to take any “after” photos, but enough that I have a clear table top for sorting receipts. I’m drawing inspiration from several friends who have either recently moved or are in the process of moving. If I were moving, would I take this item with me? If the answer is “yes,” the item stays. If the answer is “no,” it gets tossed, put in the flea market/Craig’s List bin, or goes to Good Will. For me, this mindset works better than the old “will I use it/do I love it” question. It’s too easy to think I might have a use for some gadget. I’m too sentimental about too many little inanimate objects. But the idea of packing and moving to a new home is daunting. Do I “love” that chipped coffee ...

Happy Halloween. We get zilch in the way of trick-or-treaters around here. In fact, the only time we EVER had trick-or-treaters was when my cousin lived next door and her kids were little. Often, though, I’ve purchased candy JUST IN CASE. Which means I have to eat it all myself. Darn. But not this year. Lately, writing time battles with treadmill time, and the writing time is winning. So no bag of miniature Reese’s Cups for me. Instead of focusing on Halloween, I’m thinking of this as Nanowrimo Eve. Originally, I’d planned to spend it getting a jump-start on my page count. And since I’m doing my own revision version of Nano, and since I’m making up my own rules for it, starting early would not be deemed cheating. However, I’ve decided NOT to cheat anyway. Instead, I intend to spend the day cleaning house. Boy, do I know how to have fun or what? Seriously, the house needs it. I’ve been letting things pile up (literally) for months now while using the revisions excuse. “I have ...

Last week’s episode of CSI freaked me out. It was about a hoarder. The house was jam packed with everything single idem that had ever come into it. Floor to ceiling. And, being CSI, there was a decomposing body and several skeletons. Let me just say, I am not a hoarder. But I do have a few areas of clutter. Some days I have to clear a space on the kitchen table in order to eat. Stuff just seems to get dumped there, waiting to be sorted and tossed or placed in a file. Newspapers tend to collect on the old wooden chest that serves as my coffee table. After watching Thursday’s episode, I immediately cleared both those spots. It took maybe ten minutes. This weekend, I tackled a much more serious clutter hotspot: my office. Kensi keeps me somewhat in control here. She loves to climb on piles of papers and send them avalanching to the floor. But I had a couple of bins where papers kept getting stashed until I had time to look at them. And there were a couple of piles of manuscripts… Okay, my...