Clear the clutter - find the gems

I spent the entire day yesterday filing. Well I was waiting for someone to come and talk to me about some gardening work that I want doing (he didn't come round BTW). So whilst I waited, I cleaned the two desks that I use - one is the general computer and office and that's where I dump all the home based correspondence. The other space is my writing desk - away from MSN and other Internet distractions.

What I found was amazing. No checks, but discs - lots of them. Do you remember those small plastic things that you could get a whole 2 MB on it. Well I had a couple of dozen, and what they contained - my entire short story collection. A book I thought I had lost and pictures, lots of pictures. So I spent a fair bit of time going through this treasure trove of material and uploaded them onto my external hard drive. Why were they on discs? Well I have had several computer upgrades over the years, and the only way I could move them was via discs....
 
If you clear the clutter from your life, what gems will you find lurking?

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Comments

[Ralph Lovuolo]

Clearing clutter is an everyday task. It is true that if you do it daily you will never lose anything. Sure you might misplace an item now and then, but losing things becomes a long memory.
Here is an action item that might help. Every night, clear off your desk. Put everything on it away in a drawer, cabinet or the like. Then every morning, take everything out again and go through it as if you just got your job. That way, you will know where everything is and what needs to be done with it.
Additionally, studies have proven that "hoarding", as I call it, the art of compiling, retaining, piling up, keeping till it is needed, is best defeated by taking half an hour every three months and “throwing away” anything not used in the past 3 months. If you find something that you have not used in the last 3 months, anywhere in or around your desk, get rid of it. I promise, you don't and won't need it.
By the way, if you practice the daily task above, you’ll find the 3 months task will take only 15 minutes.

[Elle]

Thanks Ralph, I do exactly what you describe...for papers. My problem was that I had had several computer upgrades, and made backups of backups....and then stored them. Now I have a neat 60gb external hard drive, and have been able to re-load everything, clean the discs and ....

found some amazing gems i thought i'd lost.

Another comment from a reader, said - inviting someone to your home can be a great motivator to clean also.