A Forest of Paper....

[3113]

...was finally removed from my home today! Ack! In the on-going attempt to de-clutter the home, the husband and I gave ten boxes loaded to the brim with paper to the ;Shred-It" guys who turned old notebooks, forms, bills, and a lot of very old stories and half-finished novels into confetti and then hauled said confetti away for recycling.

When I say old stories, I mean ancient. We're talking about stories or bits of stories so old I don't remember writing them. We're talking stories written with quill they're so old. We're talking stories where the science fiction features a brand new moonbase with the latest computer gaming technology: Pong! (Computer games will be the wave of the future...wait and see!)

Have you filing cabinets, shelves, drawers and boxes filled with a forest of half-finished notes, stories, epic poems, etc. that haven't seen the light of day since before that snotty young playwrite, Shakespeare, stole all your cool ideas? Is it time for you to--painfully and tearfully--part with those embarrassing tales that God-knows you never, ever want your great-grandkids to find in the attic and post on their blogs? Is there a story you can't even remember writing which is loooooooong past due to be fed into the shredder? Tell us all about it....

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Ain't downsizing fun? We're still dealing with moving from a four-bedroom, 3000 sq ft house with lots of starage space to a three-bedrom 2100 foot place with VERY little.

This weekend saw the departure of my Apple IIc computer along with the original word processor I used, HomeWord. In that same load was the IBM PC Jr. we bought for the first-born back when it (the computer, not the first-born) was discontinued by IBM.

As for paper, I'm still debating on some of my college notebooks.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[scheherazade_79]

I'm jealous of your Shred It guys...

I had a huge throwing out session a few months back that involved lots of pieces of paper that needed to be shredded.

And no one told me that you can only shred for 30 seconds at a time, so I ended up breaking my mother's shredder quite dramatically

 

[TxRad]

Luckily I'm not a paper freak. Of everything I've written very little of it has ever seen paper. I'm talking a teeny tiny portion. A half dozen stories and my one finished book.

Now lets talk about floppy disks.... I hope some of the youngsters around here have seen them. 3 1/2 inch floppies. Thousands of them. I have half that many 5 1/2 inch disks. There's even some 9 inch ones around here somewhere. I have a walk in closet that I can't get into because of floppy disks.

They remind me of Tribles....... Oh shit, that reference is older than God but Trekkies will understand.... Do they still have those?

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

I've got several but not all 300 + submissions on paper. I got a brilliant idea to print out my stories one time... I filled a 3 prong 2 inch deep binder, then said... This is taking too long. I still have that binder, but I don't print out the stories anymore. . . though I've considered it. I just have too many.

BTW... I'm still stalking you... You are everywhere this morning.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I'm jealous of your Shred It guys...

I had a huge throwing out session a few months back that involved lots of pieces of paper that needed to be shredded.

And no one told me that you can only shred for 30 seconds at a time, so I ended up breaking my mother's shredder quite dramatically

We need to change your name to, SHREDDERZADE.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[rgraham666]

Nope. I do all my writing on my computer. I can keep everything I've written for the last decade on a memory stick I keep on my key chain.

 

[galaxygoddess]

Starting September 1, my husband and I are having our cable and internet cut off.


Why? Because from September 1, to October 1 we are cleaning. Well I'm cleaning, he's just going to haul stuff for me.

The internet has made me a lazy sack of crap. It's slowed my brain function and it has resulted in my house being sickening. We will spend the ENTIRE month of September cleaning, organizing our finances, and even training our dog.

I'm taking before and after pictures of my house. Probably even a few "during". I'll even post them in a super secret spot.


Shall we compete?


I fear my closet most of all o.0;; It is literally boob deep. I haven't seen the floor of my closet in over a year. I wonder what color carpet is under there o.0;; Sad when my dog climbs the garbage in the closet and can now look me in the eye o.0;;;

 

[BlackShanglan]

Did someone say ...

http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/72446/tribble.jpg

?

I finally gave in and cleaned out my bedroom closet a week ago. I hauled out three trashbags of trash, clutter, old clothing, and broken luggage.

Most alarming, however, was the matter of the hangers. I had been noticing for some time that the clothing was getting more and more packed, and it baffled me because I didn't think I had all that much. When I set all of the spare wire hangers aside together, I learned why. Nearly an entire bar of hanging space was occupied by empty hangers.

I now have two cardboard boxes (handily taken from the floor of the closet) filled with hangers. I hope that the local drycleaner might be willing to take them and re-use them. If not, does anyone know of any other source likely to want them? I'd like to do something more eco-friendly than tossing them in the bin.

 

[christabelll]

Egads - Being the paper fiend that I am its really really hard to get rid of any...
I have become quite the expert in throwing or giving shit away.
I managed to recreate a home from 5 suitcases (three of which were my childrens) and one shoulderbag of stuff - and now I have too much stuff again...

Craigslist and some communities have free boxes where you can take your excess life to become someone elses excess.


But - somethings I will not part with - like my box of writings pre marriage -pre anything remotely resembling life....(Luckily my sister had those or they would be long gone with my innocence and dreams of the perfect life)... I will not part with my artwork again either...

And right now lets just NOT discuss my closet LOLOL

anyway - there are some simple rules when it comes to pitching out stuff
seen it, used it, touched it, thought about it, in one year or less you get to keep it... The rest can go right on out the door.

 

[galaxygoddess]

Did someone say ...

http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/72446/tribble.jpg

?

I finally gave in and cleaned out my bedroom closet a week ago. I hauled out three trashbags of trash, clutter, old clothing, and broken luggage.

Most alarming, however, was the matter of the hangers. I had been noticing for some time that the clothing was getting more and more packed, and it baffled me because I didn't think I had all that much. When I set all of the spare wire hangers aside together, I learned why. Nearly an entire bar of hanging space was occupied by empty hangers.

I now have two cardboard boxes (handily taken from the floor of the closet) filled with hangers. I hope that the local drycleaner might be willing to take them and re-use them. If not, does anyone know of any other source likely to want them? I'd like to do something more eco-friendly than tossing them in the bin.

DUH!!!

Bend it all together and sell it as art!

Make giant wire animals! all kinds of fun stuff XD

 

[NymzanSusauren]

I tried that once...only once.

Now lets talk about floppy disks.... I hope some of the youngsters around here have seen them. 3 1/2 inch floppies. Thousands of them. I have half that many 5 1/2 inch disks. There's even some 9 inch ones around here somewhere. I have a walk in closet that I can't get into because of floppy disks.

I actually started doing that when my parents upgraded the dern Commodor 64 to a REAL computer...Or I should say, real for then...Computers these days are so good the software sits up and says "damn! where's the 'puter?"

My mother took all of my little diskettes and burned them because she read a sex scene and thought: shape-shifter/vampires/wizards=devil worshiping children. I lost so much story line that I nearly had heart failure and was depressed for half a year before I attempted to start writing again.

P.S. She destroyed the computer's programming to delete it from the hard drive's backup also. It had to be completely replaced. The people who held the warranty couldn't even erase and reprogram!

P.P.S. I move far too often to keep track of something so small now. It would get mangled! Or heat damaged! My 28 Notebook binders of Writing (that hasn't been stolen by well-meaning friends) stays with me WHEREVER I go now and gets priority seating when I travel...

J.K.

 

[_Lynn_]

I don't keep anything that isn't needed. Everything is organized and reorganized and then done again. Closets are gone through at least monthly. My desk that I just bought a month ago has been changed around at least ten times already to make it more efficient. I don't just sit at the desk and think, I am always putting things back and sorting.

The only paperwork I have around is old tax forms and only as many years back as they recommend. If something has no value, isn't an heirloom or isn't being used it's gone.

I never just open a closet and get something to wear. While I look I straighten things hanging or refold shirts or see something I haven't worn and take it out. When I go to a dresser or get shoes it's the same thing.

And yes the towels are all matching and folded the same way.

 

[3113]

My mother took all of my little diskettes and burned them because she read a sex scene and thought: shape-shifter/vampires/wizards=devil worshiping children. I lost so much story line that I nearly had heart failure and was depressed for half a year before I attempted to start writing again.

P.S. She destroyed the computer's programming to delete it from the hard drive's backup also. It had to be completely replaced. The people who held the warranty couldn't even erase and reprogram!

So, um, is Mom still alive or buried in a shallow, unmarked grave? Come on, you can tell us, we're part of your Satan-worshiping cult

 

[SeaCat]

LOLOLOL

I live in a Mobile Home.

When I moved in here I ran into the problem of space.

I did however have a cure, I just had to get into the mood for it.

The easy part was sorting through the books and getting them under 500.

The hard part was the personal paperwork. This had to be destroyed, after sorting of course.

The books were boxed and donated to the hospital where we work.

The paperwork was destroyed completely. Yes destroyed. I not only have a shredder, I also have a burner.

Paperwork was put through the shredder then placed into the burner.

The burner is an old Beer Keg fitted with a propane burner in the bottom, air vents and a cap.

Like I said, the paper work was run through the shredder then the remains were dumped into the burner. The remains of what had filled several boxes could had filled a paper cup.

The amazing part was I had several boxes filled with Floppy Discs. These were also tossed into the burner and just plain vanished.

Now how can I get rid of all the VHS Tapes without losing the movies?

Cat

 

[cloudy]

I now have two cardboard boxes (handily taken from the floor of the closet) filled with hangers. I hope that the local drycleaner might be willing to take them and re-use them. If not, does anyone know of any other source likely to want them? I'd like to do something more eco-friendly than tossing them in the bin.

Shang, try the local goodwill or thrift stores. Bet they'd love to have them.

 

[Bizkit_Writer]

Luckily I'm not a paper freak. Of everything I've written very little of it has ever seen paper. I'm talking a teeny tiny portion. A half dozen stories and my one finished book.

Now lets talk about floppy disks.... I hope some of the youngsters around here have seen them. 3 1/2 inch floppies. Thousands of them. I have half that many 5 1/2 inch disks. There's even some 9 inch ones around here somewhere. I have a walk in closet that I can't get into because of floppy disks.

They remind me of Tribles....... Oh shit, that reference is older than God but Trekkies will understand.... Do they still have those?

I remember floppies! the big ones! They were huge and always got scratched or ripped!