Stuff & Clutter – Ready for the Garage

It’s been a good few weeks since my last post on my stuff-shedding project. I planned for this hiatus but it’s still a bit of work to get back into the right headspace to write down my thoughts.

I have one main target remaining in the house: the garage. I’m planning a trip to both the recycling facility as well as the hazardous waste facility. Happy Earth Day? It’s not as bad as it may sound, it’s just the appropriate way to get rid of the latex paint that’s been out there for years and isn’t even a color that lives inside our home.

Alongside the shed project is a parallel initiative of limiting the amount of things that come in. It’s the genesis of the shed ratio. Looking back at the numbers, I’m quite happy with the slow pace of things coming “in” to the house. I still intend to get a post out for anyone interested in what qualified for “in” and “out” as it may be useful to someone embarking on this same journey.

Stuff & Clutter: Week 11 Recap

Week 11 is where I have slowed down. I definitely fell short of the weekly targets I’ve been able to maintain. Why, you might ask? My time this week was not my own in the way it typically is. Even in a busy work week I’m typically able to make time for my personal projects. However this week was definitely not the typical case.

I was at Microsoft Convergence, a business conference held in Atlanta, all week. Most of the things that fall into my “self improvement” category took a back seat during the week. Then my priority during the weekend was catching up on things for the upcoming work week, more so than catching up on things to sharpen the saw. Not a habit I want to get (back) into but sometimes it has to be done.

This week’s going to be a doozy as well, unfortunately, but I’m taking measures to make sure the scale isn’t tipped quite so unevenly. One of those measures includes a reprieve from the shed project this upcoming week as well as the following week. The goal during this time will be to target a Net Shed of 0, effectively making sure I don’t undo the work to date, but at the same time recognizing that I’m still well ahead of my original targets and this is a place where I can ease up to get other things in line.

I’m adding a couple of data points to the table below to show a little more of the overall progress, rather than just the weeklies. Looking at the progress below leaves me feeling happy about the journey so far.

Looking Forward

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 10 Target	28	25
Week 10 Actual	11	11
Week 11 Target	—	0
Project-to-Date Target	248	211
Project-to-date Actual	307	277
Total in Excess of Target	59	66

Stuff & Clutter: Week 10 Recap

10 weeks down of this project down and still going strong. Wow. I expected the pace to drop off before now but I’m still finding stuff to shed. Not to say it’s as easy as the first couple of weeks, but now that I’m in more of a habit I’m sticking with the pace.

The inaugural chiminea fire comes early this year. You can see stormie’s eyes shimmering as she stares at it.

This whole last week has brought amazing weather. Temperatures in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and for some parts of MN the 70’s! Practically no snow remains. We started out the weekend with a woodfire pizza party (hosted by our longtime friends Dan and Kelly of WildEarth Woodfired). Good times and great pizza as usual. Saturday night we got a fire going in our chiminea. We stayed nice and warm as the sun set and temperatures got down into the 40’s again.

With all of the nice weather, I got out into the garage to get a sense for the upcoming spring projects that await. Some good shedding opportunity. I’m looking at you: paint cans for colors painted over long ago…why are you sitting there so smugly?

We also took the opportunity to walk over to a nearby new-construction house that’s part of the Twin Cities Parade of Homes. We were more impressed than we expected to be. New houses are usually “nice” and all, but the floor plan had some nice variations and it had a great feel to it. The price tag, however, also exceeded what we had expected it to be (not that we’re looking to move).

Looking Forward

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 10 Target	28	25
Week 10 Actual	28	25
Week 11 Target	28	25

Stuff & Clutter: Week 9 Recap

Week 9 is now in the past and it’s another week on target for the project. This weekend brought some 45 degree weather (maybe higher, the highest I saw on my phone was 45). Great, springlike, walking weather and good golly did our dog enjoy it.

While we were out and about on Saturday, we made a big drop-off of the last few weeks’ shed items at Goodwill. Jess was excited to get it out of our staging area in the basement. The collection down there was getting pretty big and I found out (after we made the donation) that it was starting to stress her out.

This led to a conversation around the difference between simply “getting rid of stuff” and “sending things to where they are more likely to be used.” Plenty of the things that we’re passing along are quality items and very serviceable, and it would be a waste if they were simply sent out with the trash. Hopefully some of our earlier donations have already found good homes.

Looking Forward

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 9 Target	28	28
Week 9 Actual	28	25
Week 10 Target	28	25

Stuff & Clutter: Week 8 Recap

Exceeded the target this week thanks to Jess’ large contribution. This week marks a couple of notable items departing. One is my original XBOX. Well, actually it was my second XBOX but that’s just being technical. This is the one that I had a high schooler mod back in the mid 2000’s with classic game emulators and the XBMC (XBOX Media Center) platform.

The other is Jess’ original PS2 (her actual original one). We talked about how big it was, especially considering the lack of hard drive inside.

It’s funny, we thought these had already been sold/donated but sure enough they were in a box on a shelf in the basement. They’re “donate” items. The original NES and TurboGrafx16, with games and controllers for each, will be target items to sell here in the coming weeks.

Looking Forward

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 8 Target	28	25
Week 8 Actual	30	29
Week 9 Target	28	25

Stuff & Clutter: Week 7 Recap

This week was a bit tougher. Instead of simply looking around for some lesser-used stuff, I actually had to go to the basement to the storage room and choose some stuff to go through. This is a notable milestone because this means the low-hanging fruit has been picked and now we’re having to search and gather. That said we still hit the target this week.

What did I decide to dive into you might ask? Two boxes of cords, cables, connectors, dongles, wires, power strips and extension cords. Mind you, these are the extra ones that sit in boxes nearby “just in case” we might need them. This happens maybe once every 3 months. The process involved dumping all of them out and finding:

• Multiples of the same thing – how many extra USB cables do we really need?
• Extraneous cables – why are we still saving firewire cords?

The net result was that we could cut down to about half the stuff that fit into 1/3 of the container space. I wish we could get rid of more but I’ve had a fair share of cables need to be replaced for one reason or another so at least here we have slimmed it down.

Grade This Week: A

Still on target.

Overall Grade: A

Feeling good about how this is going.

Looking Forward

We’ll be in town this week and it’s looking like it will be cold outside (actual MN cold). Stay warm 🙂

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 7 Target	28	25
Week 7 Actual	28	25
Week 8 Target	28	25

Stuff & Clutter: Week 6 Recap

So far most of the 2014-2015 winter has been pretty forgiving. Reasonable temperatures, a fair amount of snow without a ton of ice, and some good sunshine. This week, however, was cold, snowy*, and cloud-covered. You’d think that this would mean a chance to really focus in and get rid of some stuff. Instead the week disappeared and by the weekend I thought the week’s goal was out of reach. Fortunately, Jess came through big time this week with the majority of the stuff that is now destined for Goodwill.

A couple of notable big ticket items went out the door this week: my 5-string bass and my “big” bass amp and cabinet. These are now at a local music shop where they’re being sold on consignment. I’m absolutely keeping my 4-string bass and gigging amp setup so nobody start worrying about that. Find our upcoming shows at bourbonrenewalband.com.

I picked up the 5-string about three years ago when I was in a country rock cover band that played several songs in dropped D and even a couple that needed a low-C. It was a great instrument for me but I’ve probably only picked it up 3-4 times in the last year (compared to my 4-string that I play weekly). The amp and cabinet are “extras” that would come in really handy in case I play an outdoor festival that doesn’t have a PA…which is not coming up any time in the near future.

Grade This Week: A

Right on target for net goal.

Overall Grade: A

We’re still well ahead of pace.

Looking Forward

It’s taking more focus to find stuff to get rid of. In only a few more weeks here we’ll likely need to lower our target. The plan this upcoming week is to head to the basement and go things like the box of miscellaneous cables and box of mish-mash. Who knows what I might find!

*Note that the “snowy” weather this week was really only meagerly snowy for MN at this time of year.

Stuff & Clutter: Week 5 Recap

I spent most of the week in Seattle this week where all of the locals were feeling down about the Seahawks loss to the Patriots over the weekend in the Super Bowl 49. From a project standpoint this meant a lot less time to make progress…yet once again we surpassed our goal!

I focused some time going through my office while I was on calls at the end of the week. I found books, extra office supplies, and knickknacks.

Grade This Week: A

The bar was raised once again this last week and we exceeded the weekly goal.

Overall Grade: A

We’re well ahead of pace.

Looking Forward

Because of the over-achievement in shed so far we’re going to keep pushing up each week until we don’t hit the shed target. At that point we’ll scale back.

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 5 Target	28	25
Week 5 Actual	41	39
Week 6 Target	33	30

Stuff & Clutter: Week 4 Recap

This last week was spent in town–with nice weather to boot. Mid to high 30’s makes for an amazing late-January temperature here in Minny.

Our new entertainment center arrived at Schneiderman’s Furniture, so we were able to pick it up Friday and got it all set up before friends came over Saturday. We used the opportunity to shed some stuff that was in the old one that didn’t make sense to hang on to.

We also went through the kitchen cupboard to thin out the supply of extra mugs and glasses. While we’re still probably hanging on to too many, we found a good dozen we were willing to part with.

Grade This Week: A

The bar was raised this last week and we continue to exceed the weekly goal.

Overall Grade: A

We’re still ahead of pace.

Thoughts After 4 Weeks

It’s been a solid 4 weeks of getting rid of stuff we’re at 250% of our goal (which we raised part way through January). We’ve averaged almost four things out per day (net). Jess and I talked about how despite the fact that we’ve shed a bunch of stuff, we can’t really feel a difference or big loss in the things we’ve let go. This feels like good confirmation that we’re spending time on a worthwhile project: If we’re shedding this much stuff and barely feeling effects from it then we definitely needed to thin things out.

Looking Forward

We’re taking our average weekly shed rate from the last four weeks and using that as our week 5 target. I’m going to keep my foot on the gas but I definitely know that this high rate won’t be sustainable.

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 4 Target	20	15
Week 4 Actual	23	21
Week 5 Target	28	25

Stuff & Clutter: Week 3 Recap

I had my birthday this last week which was pretty great. Brunch with the fam and got a handful of gifts (stuff on the “in” side of the equation). I got a new game (Pandemic: The Cure), a much-needed fairway wood, a great shirt, and a workbook to work on my cursive handwriting. All things considered it was a reasonable collection of things coming in. In fact, I had planned for more stuff to be coming in this week.

On the flip side, this fueled a big push this week to get rid of even more stuff. We blew away our number by over three times the shed we targeted. I’m quite surprised at how easy it’s been to find this quantity of stuff to lose. Still it goes a long way to validate the entire effort.

In fact we had enough stuff to warrant another trip to Goodwill. A shorter line this week, but we waited first in line for quite a while. We got a decent little show while the unloading crew played a game of Tetris with six chairs that didn’t really want to fit into THIS woman’s SUV.

Grade This Week: A

Despite a busy week filled with travel and demos, we still found some time to dig in and find a ton of stuff.

Overall Grade: B

We’re ahead of pace right now. More has come in than anticipated, but the overall in/out is tipped well in the right direction.

Thoughts on the metrics

No new thoughts this week.

Looking Forward

No work travel scheduled. The gross and net shed are moving north this week.

	Gross Shed	Net Shed
Week 3 Target	14	7
Week 3 Actual	48	40
Week 4 Target	20	15