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Weekend Update Does a Bit of Tidying Up
Jul. 12th, 2014 07:51 pmI'd been meaning to do a bit of spring cleaning in regards to my collection of writing--mainly because I was looking for a few Mendaihu Universe outtakes some time ago and had no idea where they were--and realized it was high time I got things in order again.
For starters, I have a crapload of empty notebooks (some never used, but many where I only used maybe less than a quarter of the pages), and figured it was high time to start culling. Some of them I'll keep as I can still use them, but the older ones that I've had for over a decade and are looking a bit tatty are going to head to the recycling bin. Yes, I know it's wasteful, but I'd rather make a clean sweep of it rather than hang onto notebooks I know I'll never use again.
I've also divvied up the various projects so everything is in its right place--all the Mendaihu Universe books and their predecessors (including True Faith and The Phoenix Effect) are now in one pile. The Walk in Silence pile includes all its outtakes, the Belief in Fate and Decline and Fall stories, and so on. The music-related stuff is together, all the artwork and the poetry and the maps I've created over the years. There's a slightly smaller pile I need to go through that's a mixed bag of various dead-end projects, and a pile of to-be-sorted, much of which will probably get shredded or recycled. I believe there's also a few things elsewhere that need to be dug through and divvied up as well, and I really need to do that before I can get any serious culling done.
This is probably a much bigger undertaking than I expected, but I'm willing to go through with it because it needs it. We've been at this address longer than we've been at our old one in North Beach, and much of this stuff has only been sorted maybe once or twice since then, even when I attempted to scan some of this stuff. And to be honest, this is a hell of a lot less stuff than when I moved out of my parents' house...I spent a good couple of weeks there just digging through all the notebooks and whatnot and doing some serious shredding and recycling. I did so again after we moved to San Francisco, when I shredded a lot of my superfluous manuscripts (stuff I still had digitally, so it seemed silly to have old and useless inkjet copies taking up space).
[Update: I just dug out everything that's in that bookcase partially hidden by the loveseat--there's a lot of crap I can get rid of there, which will give me even more room to put stuff I know I won't need to look at any time soon! I'm also tempted to dig through the four Ikea file boxes I have next to the window bookcase, as I know there's a lot of crap in there as well that can go. I also have a few boxes lying around that I can use as temporary filing until the stuff gets shredded. Anything that can be recycled will of course head straight downstairs to the big blue bin.]
I'd say I could probably use a filing cabinet, but I really don't have any room for one in Spare Oom, as every available spot is taken up by something else. As it stands, most of this is stuff has been on the tall black bookshelf next to the desk. That's getting a major rearrangement as well...all the reference books are together now, and I'm planning on rearranging the bottom two shelves so every project has its own specific spot.
Lastly, and somewhat related, I'm tempted to buy a new printer, maybe a three-in-one this time out, and while doing some shopping at Best Buy today and I saw this printer/scanner there that I'm tempted to buy. My current printer works but the power button is starting to get wonky (I've had it for probably five years already--I got it while still at our old place), and I fear my scanner isn't working properly. It's somewhat bigger than my current printer, so I'm thinking it may end up going elsewhere--which isn't a bad thing, because that would free up more bookshelf space. I'm probably going to hold off until after our London trip, though, as it's not desperately needed at present. Just something I'd like to get, really.
*whew* Okay, back to the cleaning I go!
For starters, I have a crapload of empty notebooks (some never used, but many where I only used maybe less than a quarter of the pages), and figured it was high time to start culling. Some of them I'll keep as I can still use them, but the older ones that I've had for over a decade and are looking a bit tatty are going to head to the recycling bin. Yes, I know it's wasteful, but I'd rather make a clean sweep of it rather than hang onto notebooks I know I'll never use again.
I've also divvied up the various projects so everything is in its right place--all the Mendaihu Universe books and their predecessors (including True Faith and The Phoenix Effect) are now in one pile. The Walk in Silence pile includes all its outtakes, the Belief in Fate and Decline and Fall stories, and so on. The music-related stuff is together, all the artwork and the poetry and the maps I've created over the years. There's a slightly smaller pile I need to go through that's a mixed bag of various dead-end projects, and a pile of to-be-sorted, much of which will probably get shredded or recycled. I believe there's also a few things elsewhere that need to be dug through and divvied up as well, and I really need to do that before I can get any serious culling done.
This is probably a much bigger undertaking than I expected, but I'm willing to go through with it because it needs it. We've been at this address longer than we've been at our old one in North Beach, and much of this stuff has only been sorted maybe once or twice since then, even when I attempted to scan some of this stuff. And to be honest, this is a hell of a lot less stuff than when I moved out of my parents' house...I spent a good couple of weeks there just digging through all the notebooks and whatnot and doing some serious shredding and recycling. I did so again after we moved to San Francisco, when I shredded a lot of my superfluous manuscripts (stuff I still had digitally, so it seemed silly to have old and useless inkjet copies taking up space).
[Update: I just dug out everything that's in that bookcase partially hidden by the loveseat--there's a lot of crap I can get rid of there, which will give me even more room to put stuff I know I won't need to look at any time soon! I'm also tempted to dig through the four Ikea file boxes I have next to the window bookcase, as I know there's a lot of crap in there as well that can go. I also have a few boxes lying around that I can use as temporary filing until the stuff gets shredded. Anything that can be recycled will of course head straight downstairs to the big blue bin.]
I'd say I could probably use a filing cabinet, but I really don't have any room for one in Spare Oom, as every available spot is taken up by something else. As it stands, most of this is stuff has been on the tall black bookshelf next to the desk. That's getting a major rearrangement as well...all the reference books are together now, and I'm planning on rearranging the bottom two shelves so every project has its own specific spot.
Lastly, and somewhat related, I'm tempted to buy a new printer, maybe a three-in-one this time out, and while doing some shopping at Best Buy today and I saw this printer/scanner there that I'm tempted to buy. My current printer works but the power button is starting to get wonky (I've had it for probably five years already--I got it while still at our old place), and I fear my scanner isn't working properly. It's somewhat bigger than my current printer, so I'm thinking it may end up going elsewhere--which isn't a bad thing, because that would free up more bookshelf space. I'm probably going to hold off until after our London trip, though, as it's not desperately needed at present. Just something I'd like to get, really.
*whew* Okay, back to the cleaning I go!
