Organizing and tidying up

Almost a month ago I wrote about anxiety over changing to the new computer system:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2019/01/picking-pictures.html

I have actually done it now. There were a lot of false starts.

I uploaded files to Dropbox. I transferred the same files to a USB drive. I kept remembering other things that I had not thought about previously, like looking in the Downloads folder after checking both Documents folders. I suddenly remembered Bookmarks. Then I remembered that I should probably clear all of those documents and empty trash, just in case. Eventually there were no more false starts: I switched over and sent off a lot of e-waste.

The dead hard drive with all of my lost files is waiting in a sealed bag until I can afford a recovery attempt. I kept a few spare charging cables. I replaced the printer cable with a newer one after discovering that I had three printer cables, then let the other two go. I have accumulated so many extra cables over the years that it made sense to clear some out. As part of that, I accidentally discarded the power cable for the laptop I am keeping. That felt like a really boneheaded move for someone being so neurotically careful.

I have used one cable wrapper to protect the most prominent cables against cat chewing. It looks like they are willing to go behind and around things for good chewing, so I will probably deploy some more.

Overall it has gone okay, and that is reassuring.

I know that some of my paranoia about loss is not related to computers, and I am working on that. 

Otherwise, there is more space now, and I am working on organizing that space. It hasn't gone completely as planned.

There is a goal to reduce clutter. Part of that is making everything easy to find, especially things I want to be working on. Materials I want nearby are my mission journals, because I want to get back to transcribing them; my Spanish materials, because I want to up my tutoring game (it turns out the confidence-destroying teacher was better at transmitting knowledge that this current teacher); materials from the study I participated in (because I want to review in retrospect and re-evaluate); and it seemed reasonable to keep my bass books out because I am going to start practicing that sucker some day.

That may all be overly ambitious, but I do understand the value of proximity and ease of access. I want to get some of my art materials out too.

I feel like I should have made more progress by now, but I felt that way about the new computer for a long time. It arrived on Black Friday. From what my sister said I was only expecting a monitor, so I needed to make more of a mental shift, but still, I could have gotten switched over in December, probably, if I'd tried harder.

We are in line for Marie Kondo's book at the library. I was so thrilled that my sisters showed interest in a manga! They don't actually know it's a manga, but that's okay. Anyway, I have been seeing a lot of discussion on the book, and I think my goals generally work for me. If she has some tips to ease the path, I will take them.

I suspect, though, that a lot of my progress will relate more to the reading on death and grief that I am doing. Even if you suspect your anxiety about losing the cable is not really about the cable, the feeling is still there.