Sunday Search: Rediscovering What Was Already Discovered

The early days... it was easy to keep organize with few files. 

My wife and I decided to dedicate this weekend to cleaning and our son finally let us get the much needed work done around the house. With the washing machine humming, sloshing, and twirling in the background, we went from room to room cleaning, organizing, sorting, and packing. It took the entire weekend to get most of the house done and by the time my wife went to bed on Sunday night the only two rooms remaining were our offices. This is a wholly different task altogether as we both have more paperwork than storage space and more books than shelves. It is going to be interesting but hugely satisfying when it is done.

With my wife and son asleep, I ventured down into the basement and began sifting through the rows upon rows of shelves. I went down there with the goal of filling one box of books that had little value to me at this moment. As someone who enjoys information and having resources readily available, this is not a very easy process… many of the books that I have collected over the years are those that contain information that has yet to be digitized. Contrary to what some people say, not everything can be found on the internet. After about 30 minutes, I actually was able to fill a box and clear a shelf for the binders of new research that was going to be added. It came down to a small sampling of books that I know I can find again when I have the space.

Once this part was done, I began flipping through the binders on the shelves and files stored in boxes. It really is amazing what you can find when you it down and sift through the boxes in your office… this is especially true when it comes to genealogy. While slowly flipping through the pages and pages of notes and photocopies, I rediscovered small details that I had written on a pieces of paper while pouring through volumes and volumes of material. They are the small details (like the fact that my great grandparents were brought together by their love of horses) that I had forgotten almost as quickly as I was able to record them.

It is the dilemma of disorganization. While many of the documents and facts have been sorted and organized for later, many of these details seem to get lost in the pages. At the same time, rediscovering these details was just as interesting as when I first read them. It was nice to feel that same way about finding ‘new’ information and it makes me wonder what other documents I have buried (most likely from a scanning / photocopying marathon). With the rest of the house in order, I am glad that I am now in a position to take on this task… at least until the files get moved again.

Not The Kind Of Day I Look Forward To Or Enjoy…

I had been dreading today for weeks now (i.e. procrastinating) and I have, unfortunately, done everything that I could to postpone, delay, and generally ignore the issue for too long. Of course, every time I did that things got a little worse with a little more dust collecting in the corners. Today, like many times before, we finally took the time to clean the apartment. Well, at least most of it as there is still about twenty five square feet that is still unusable as a result of the delays in getting the leak ‘fixed’. It’s only been about six weeks (or more).

Anyway, even with that section of the apartment out of commission, there was still plenty of areas that needed to be addressed and sorting projects that needed to be checked off the list. What was a little different this time was that we were both finally ready to get a handle on the problem so we were able to go back and forth getting small things done one after the other. Of course, I made sure that my wife had a few projects to do where she could sit at the dining table which was were much of the sorting took place.

As a result of this deep dive into the dust and unsorted mess, we found a number of things that we had both forgotten about as they were set aside for one reason or another to be dealt with at a later time. From books, to papers, to cloths, we had a variety of such discoveries and now they have been put back where they are supposed to be and where they are readily accessible. However, one of the things that is all too common is the realization of how much crap you have accumulated and how many things should have been thrown away but, for some reason, weren’t.

Between cleaning and sorting out the crap, I hauled nine trash bags to the dumpster throughout the day. Also, as is a natural result of our deep cleanings, we set aside a few bags of things that we will be giving away and a few items that we will be selling (mostly books and DVD’s). It was just one of those times when we realized that we hadn’t been missing them and haven’t taken them off the shelf for such a long time that it wasn’t worth the limited space to keep them. I am sure there will be more stuff once we are able to complete the cleaning and sorting (see roadblock above).

So now, after some sweeping, vacuuming, and dusting, I am finally taking the time to relax for the day knowing that this project is far from over. In addition to the things that we need to take care of in the main living space we still have piles of laundry to do and an entire office to sort. But, we made progress and the apartment does feel a lot better than when we got up this morning. Finally, there seems to be an end in sight.