Clearing the Clutter
A few weeks ago, I moved back into my office. But I was determined to not move back in fully until I had cleared some of the accumulated clutter. I thought getting rid of some of the mess might help me think more clearly. But it also had some unintended benefits.
1) Deal With It
The biggest thing I tackled was 12 years of files. It all started because I wanted to move a filing cabinet into the closet, but it was so heavy, we couldn’t move it. So I emptied all of the drawers onto the floor. I could no longer ignore them. I had to deal with the mess. There were three stacks of files that came up past my waist.
Dealing with it didn’t happen overnight. It took several evenings for me to sort through this. The picture is taken halfway through the sorting process. I made a stack of items with personal information on it to shred, a stack of items to throw away, and a stack to file. I was proud that the stack to file was the smallest stack.
2) Let Things Emerge from the Purge
I purged all kinds of outdated things. If I had a copy of it on my computer, saved to Dropbox, I threw it away. I purged as much as I could. But I also noticed some interesting things emerge from the piles.
I found story ideas I’d forgotten about. I found queries I’d forgotten I’d written. I found lots of story starts that never made it anywhere.
What I realized is that I’ve come a long way. I finish more things now. Purging helped me realize more about the journey.
3) Save the Surprising
In the mess, I found 12 years worth of notes from critiquers, professors, editors. Most of them offered advice for fixing, but also many words of encouragement. In fact, more than I remembered. Those notes are probably what kept me writing when I wasn’t making much progress.
I saved all of those notes.
I feel better after the purge. Cleansed. Uncluttered. I thought clearing the clutter would be stressful. But it was interesting, encouraging, surprising.
Is there any area of your writing life that needs to be de-cluttered? Time? Social media? Paper?
2 Comments
Sandra Stiles
We just moved a month ago. Since school endeda week ago I decided to unpack and unclutter. For me it is not file folders but notebooks. They come in all sizes. I spent a large part of this morning working on three of them. I took out the items I didn’t need. Typed all of those loose ideas I had scattered throughout the notebooks into a file I keep on my computer. It is a slow process but one that I intend to complete by the end of the week. When I feel disorganized I can’t write. Making a to-do list and checking off what I must do to get organized is the way I deal with it.
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Sandra, I’m glad I’m not the only one. I can’t write when things are disorganized either!!! And notebooks. I didn’t even post about notebooks. Mostly, I just reorganized all of them, but I think your idea of typing things up is a great one–mining the notebooks. 🙂