from gowalla back to foursquare

Last December, Nung convinced me to try FourSquare. I had been using Yelp! to try and find places I was not familiar with. I admit, I did get hooked on FourSquare. I liked checking into places to keep track of where I had been. It was part of a daily diary especially when I used Momento to collect the data. And the competitive person in me really liked earning points and becoming "mayor."

Then I heard about Gowalla from a podcast. I decided to try it out. I liked it right away. The interface was nicer and no longer did I feel the need to log in just to earn a "mayorship." And I liked collecting thinks like found objects and special pins for visiting DisneyWorld. I do not go out much and socialize, I did not miss FourSquare's ability to help people connect. Gowalla also seemed to connect faster than FourSquare.

The Gowalla made a big change. No longer did you just check in, you now started "stories." Huh? I wasn't happy with the change but figured I would get used to it. Then I found that Momento was no longer registering my check-ins. I disconnected and when I tried to reconnect, I could no longer do it. I saw I wasn't the only one. I thought about waiting it out but decided to go back to FourSquare. Right away, I am back to checking my points. Ugh! I just want to keep track. I do not need to compete!

Gowalla, is listening to the complaints and we will see what they do with them. I may be back. Or not.

25 september 2011

I think my back pain is from my bed. It needs to be flipped/rotated. A bit of a conundrum as I can move the heavy mattress with the pain, but the pain will continue until I move the mattress.

I met my goals and did an hour each of scanning, filing, and shredding. I feel like I am filing making a small dent in those piles. I did about 3 hours of work in the scrap area. If I stick with the October 8 date, I have two weeks to get a lot more done.

Goals this week:

• Three hours of organizing in the scrap room/office.

• One hour of scanning documents

• One hour of shredding documents

• One hour of filing documents

reading

I have been trying to catch up on my reading. I belong to Goodreads and joined the 2011 reading challenge. I challenged myself to read 52 books this year. Fifty two books which I will admit to reading.

I finished one tonight, Watch Your Mouth by Daniel Handler. I have had this book since 2002. I am also trying to read the physical books before I buy anymore eBooks. I really enjoyed Handler's other books, the ones he wrote as Lemony Snicket. But Watch Your Mouth left me confused and perplexed. I just didn't see the humor. I did not enjoy it.

17 september 2011

Progress continued but a bit slower as I started having back pain. I felt a bit better after going to the chiropractor but the pain started coming back at the end of the week.

I worked in the office about 3 hours. I got more supplies yesterday so I can continue next week.

I scanned and filed about an hour. I did this in 15 minute sessions.

I uncovered the shredder and started shredding. I did not do an hour of shredding, it doesn't take that long to shred an hour's worth of scanning. I did shredding some very old files without scanning.

Goals this week:

• Organize one shelving unit of embellishments. (I completed two half shelves.)

• One hour of scanning documents

• One hour of shredding documents (Completed about 45 minutes of shredding.)

• One hour of filing documents

The boys have school photos on Wednesday and I am going to try to volunteer.

There might be a CBI for Andy on Thursday. Andy finally got info about a school dance after school on Thursday.

My goals for next week:

• Two hours of organizing in the "store."

• One hour of scanning documents

• One hour of shredding documents

• One hour of filing documents

As of today, there are 99 days until Christmas. I spent some time working on my gift list. If you want to play along, here are three sites:

100 Days to Christmas

Organized Home Christmas Countdown

Real Simple Ultimate Christmas Countdown

14 september 2011

1. Happy Birthday Arlyn!

2. Andy went bowling today for special Olympics. This is the first event of the school year. Most of his class went to a local bowling alley, play two games, eat lunch, and go back to school. In the past, it has been crazy and chaotic as there are loads of schools coming and going. This year, things seemed less crowded and ran more smoothly. Andy had only one other boy in his lane so the games did not drag on. And once we learned that Andy needed 30 points in each game to qualify for the next round, he had incentivtive to do well. Andy finished with 44 points in the first game, and 57 points in the second game. We were done before noon. Andy got a second place ribbon.

The one part that did not get better was the food line. The small grill can not handle all of the kids. It was taking 20-30 minutes to get a personal pizza. Andy did not want to eat at the bowling alley. He wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A. We stopped at the produce stand on the way.

11 september 2011

I made a small dent in my scrap goods. I managed to package 300 paper packs this week. Now I am out of clear bags and will have to order more. Until I can get more bags, I will have to concentrate on the embellishments. I have avoided them as there are so many and such a variety. How much should I charge? How should I organize them. Paper is standard and easy.

I also want to work more on my office space. I need to start working on the paper clutter. Years of receipts need to filed or scanned or shredded. Another overwhelming task that I tend to avoid.

Goals this week:
• Organize one shelving unit of embellishments.
• One hour of scanning documents
• One hour of shredding documents
• One hour of filing documents

07 september 2011

Another grey day and I wasn't feeling the motivation. But I still got some stuff done.

• Loaded the van with boxes to donate

• Dropped off the majority of the boxes at Goodwill. I had towels for the animal shelter but didn't feel like making the drive. Goodwill took the towels. I still have the 2 boxes of books in my van because the library was not open. I will drop them off another day.

• Worked for an hour making paper packs for the garage sale.

06 september 2011

Clearing out the clutter.

I used to be organized. I used to pay my bills on time and file everything right away.

I had kids and my priorities changed daily. I paid my bills but filing did not get done often. I discovered message boards and scrap booking and more of my routines fell away.

I opened an online store and just about everything non-essential got shoved aside. Things and crap and clutter accumulated.

Three years ago, I cleaned up the house and boxed a lot of crap I didn't have time to deal with.

I have time now and I want to get rid of it. But it is time consuming. And overwhelming.

I tried an online workshop to get me started. It was helpful in that it gave me small tasks to accomplish daily. This fueled my desire to do more and I did do more.

I would love to sign up for another workshop, one more in depth, but the money is just not available. Other workshops I would like to take are Organize Your Paper Clutter & Simplify Your Life With Habits & Routines

I purchased Unclutter Your Life in One Week. It had been in my wish list since it first came out. I started reading it while taking the workshop. I had decided to start doing those tasks when I finished the workshop. The workshop ends today and I have changed my mind. As much as I want to clean out my closet, I think I need to work on my office/living room. I need to have a garage sale so this takes priority over an area only I see.

This blog will be the journey as I get rid of the crap and find my house underneath it all.

I was productive today. I worked for about an hour laking paper collections. I cleaned up most of the laundry area and part of the pantry. I have 3 more boxes to give away.

03 september 2011

The boys had colds earlier in the week. They successfully got over them by giving them to me. Thursday was a icky throat, Friday was coughing. I am still coughing today and will probably sleep in the chair tonight.

I drove the boys to school Monday through Thursday. The bus showed up Friday morning at 7:55. They even made it to school on time.

I spent my week playing with Lego for my photo of the day. I also did more uncluttering. I took a few boxes to Goodwill and have started more. I like the accountability of the online workshop but realized that I don't need to spend money I don't have and can do this on my own.

I have also been working through 2009 photos. With the larger hard drives, this isn't as urgent but it is a good habit to purge those photos I will never use.

The boys got haircuts on Wednesday. Andy picked out One Fish Two Fish. Ryan brought 2 books. I checked the prices on amazon and told him he could only get one book. He would get the other book for his birthday. He was OK with that and put one book back.

I waited for the boys and Ryan came with a third book. "I just found this!" I could see it was a Peanuts book. One that I had preordered and was sitting at home. That series is much cheaper through amazon. I told him to put it back that he could wait until his birthday. He went back muttering that he could not wait.

When he came back, I told him he could choose which book he got today. He picked the Peanuts book and was OK to wait until he got home. Then in the car, he went to pick up the book he had chosen first. He thought he could "preview" it. But I told him he had to have patience and wait.

When we got home, he had forgotten about it until I was telling poppa about it. Then he went looking for the package. He was happy and spent the rest of the evening in his room giggling.

I had lunch with Doyle yesterday at Tijuana Flats. I love Mexican food.

Andy finally started eating again. He ate 4 full bagels for breakfast this morning.

30 august 2011

The boys are back in school and it is time to unlcutter this house. I am taking a workshop at simplify 101. It is not that I need the help, I need the accountability. If I pay for a workshop, they I will guilt if I don't participate. It is working OK. Each day, Aby gives us a daily challenge. The problem is that some of these I cannot so just yet, or some I have already completed. I still try to do something decluttering for about 15 minutes or more. I cleared off a shelf in my bedroom to house a Lego set. I threw away the letters from Jim Allen.

While waiting for the bus, I filled my van full of boxes for Goodwill.

I finally purchased Unclutter Your Life in One Week. Now I just have to do those tasks. The author says to start in the closet. My problem with the closet is some of the crap I am keeping that was Gail's. I wish I could get rid of the baseball cards. They are not worth much at all. But there are other items I can decide on like my old ski gear. I am not going skiing anytime soon.

I do not expect to get done in just week. I just need to push to tell me where to start first.