How To Organize Your Messy Windows Desktop (And Keep It That Way)

How To Organize Your Messy Windows Desktop (And Keep It That Way)

Discipline of Organizing PDFs

The http://disciplineoforganizing.org/ website was mentioned in an LinkedIn discussion about how to organize content. When I went to the website, I learned that there are chapters available to read for free. I want to ensure that for both my disaster recovery project and my Knowledge Management project, the content is organized in both a logical taxonomy and a useful to the end-user taxonomy. Here are those links:

• Chapter 1 — Foundations for Organizing Systems
• Chapter 2 — Activities in Organizing Systems
• Chapter 3 — Resources in Organizing Systems
• Chapter 4 — Resource Description and Metadata
• Chapter 6 — Categorization: Describing Resource Classes and Types

Editor's Note: Yes, "taxonomy" is being used in the correct way.

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Taking Inventory

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the information below about my drives. I feel like I need a plan for how to get all of my files organized. With the purchase of the 4 TB EHD (drive G), I think I now have plenty of total space. I don't think I will need to purchase another EHD until at least May 20, 2018, which is 6 months from today. I also hope that by that date, I have consolidated all of the following drive information into an organized system for backing up my files.

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I would also love to remove drive A - the 3.5" floppy drive - from the Windows 10 tower. It makes a lot of noise when I am doing work unrelated to it. I suppose a case could be made for hoarding when I think about that drive. I went quite a few years without having any computer with a 3.5" floppy drive and, during those years, I purged my collection of 3.5" floppy drives. I didn't see the point in keeping them when I had no way to access the data on them. Now, they are in the landfill or someplace other than the den.

Clawed Out of a Pit

The pictures say 10,000 words, don't they?

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Coming out of the PIT

Not a mosh pit, a pit of chaos.

We moved into our house in December 2004. We have two storage rooms. The larger of the two has our furnace (and my drums) in it; the smaller of the two has our sump pump (and my journals dating from 1989 - the mid-2000s) in it. Neither storage room has EVER been a model to follow when it comes to 'organization' in my eyes. Sure, there have been times when they looked good but that was usually after a major organization effort due to not being able to find something. Fast-forward to 2017. Even before taking that organization class at Kirkwood, I had the drive to tackle our furnace room in an effort to find a way to make it 'permanently' organized. Knowing that Karen would be on her Women's Weekend Away in Wisconsin this weekend - she left on Friday - I felt it was the right time to do this project. Thus, here is how I worked on it:

• On Friday, when I got home from work, I went to the furnace storage room and started taking our stuff out. I started to figure out how to take down the wood cabinets I had hung in the storage room, but went to bed without getting them down.
• On Saturday, when I got up, a lot happened. 
• I asked Tom, my neighbor, if he could help me with the cabinets. He said "yes" and in the time between asking him to help me and when he actually got over to my house after eating breakfast, I had managed to get the cabinets down. It was almost like asking for someone to help me was a kick in the ass I needed to figure out how to proceed. 
• When Tom came over, we ended up talking in a wide-ranging conversation about life, religion, politics, writing, organizing our stuff, and external hard drive crashes - I have found a kindred spirit in Tom. 
• After Tom left and before the Iowa v. Wisconsin football game at 2:30, I went to Lowe's and purchased 2 x 5 shelf metal shelves. Each shelf set weighed 104 pounds. I assure you I cannot lift 104 pounds for an extended period of time but I managed to get them down the stairs by myself. 
• I also went to Wal-Mart to purchase Speed Stick & a LG Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer to fulfill the idea I mentioned the other day about ripping CDs to MP3 faster. 
• When I got home from my shopping trip, and with Iowa losing to Wisconsin in the background on TV (they eventually did lose the game, with the defense scoring their only 2 touchdowns!), I began putting the shelves together. I got stuck and sent a picture of what the box said I could do to Matthew, who then offered to come over and help me through my trouble spot, which without Matthew's help, I'd still be staring at the picture on the box so I am indebted to Matthew for his help. Instead of two five shelf structures, he helped me configure the shelves into a 3 shelf and a 2 shelf configuration. 
• I also hooked up the LG Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer to the Toshiba laptop and set Windows 7 to look at it as the default CD drive. I began ripping CDs with the Toshiba as well as with the Windows 10 tower. 
• I played drums at 5:15 Mass - there were three baptisms!
• After Mass, I went to Falbo's and purchased a double pepperoni / Italian sausage Calzone, which I then ate when I got home.
• After eating, I resumed working on putting our stuff back into the furnace room. As I began putting the stuff back in, it became apparent I needed to have 2 x 5 shelf structures. I had too many existing boxes that putting on a shelf was not the right choice.
• On Sunday, when I got up, I started putting more of our stuff back in the furnace room. 
• Quick update on the CD ripping. I have ripped enough CDs to create 325 files on the Toshiba and enough CDs on the Windows 10 tower to create 170 files. Obviously, the Toshiba & the LG Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer are kicking ass!
• I took a break to write this post, but I need to get back to it. It's 9:49 AM now and there is still a lot of work to be done prior to Karen returning home later this afternoon.

Organization Recap

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As a follow-up to the Kirkwood class on 10/23, I liked it. I liked Jennifer and Jenny, the teachers, and I can envision taking them up on their offer to come to my house and look at what I have in the den and to offer suggestions. I learned a lot in the class and I won't regurgitate all the content of the class here - attend the class if you are in the Iowa City area - but I will say, one thing that came from attending is that I should have the disposition that I have a specific amount of space and when that space is full, I don't get any additional space.

I have broken that rule. I know I cannot abide by that rule.Why? Well, I have some plans.

• the current 10 Year Project is due to conclude on 12/31/2021. I'll be 52 when it ends.
• after I finish that 10 Year Project, I have a vision of embarking on yet another 10 Year Project, which would begin on 1/1/2022 and conclude on 12/31/2031 - I'd be 62 when it ends.
• after I finish that 10 Year Project, I have a vision of embarking on yet another 10 Year Project, which would begin on 1/1/2032 and conclude on 12/31/2041 - I'd be 72 when it ends.

Each of the 10 Year Projects after my current 10 Year Project involves purchasing 24 x 200 page spiral notebooks - so I have 48 more notebooks to purchase - which means I will have 72 notebooks, if I follow through with the plans above on 12/31/2041. I should also mention I currently have Rubbermaids in the sump pump storage room that contain my journals from 1989 on. I don't really look at them often, but it comforts me to know I can go back and look at them. I have reread my college-era journals in the past. There was a period of time after Karen and I were married when I used my "journal" to Scotch tape drafts of songs I wrote and (I think) returned college term papers / assignments in my journals at the expense of not writing about what was happening. If I could go back in time, I'd tell myself to NOT stop writing about 'life' at the expense of doing what I was doing. It's kind of a black hole as I know there were many things happening in life that I could have wrote about but, because I didn't, I cheated myself.

The other part of that equation is that I was drinking booze from when Karen and I married on 8/7/1993 until 12/31/2010. I had a couple of false starts on journals during those 6355 days (17 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 3 days), but there wasn't anything like what I am doing now. I remember I did intend to have a 40 year project, that would last from 1/1/1995 - 1/1/2035. I had figured out there were 14600 days, if I multiplied 40 x 200 even though, in reality, there are 14610 days. I had a vision that I would write a single page every day for those years. I would purchase 73 x 200 spiral notebooks and number the pages as I do in my current 10 Year Project, which is, for my current volume / section, there are 78 pages, so it is numbered "1-77" and the back of that page is numbered "2-76" all the way to the end of the section. The last 'front' page is numbered "77-1" and the back of that page is my "Epilogue" page, which has been numbered as "78-0". The idea is I would start at "1-14599" on page 1 of that 40 Year Project and that, on 12/31/2034, I would be writing on page "14599-1" as that project concluded.

As just mentioned, that 40 Year Project became using Scotch tape to capture my past instead of writing about my future.

This is the logic in my head that prevents me from believing I will be able to abide by the rule that you only get a specific amount of space for storing your things. Currently, in the den, there is not room to store 48 x 200 page spiral notebooks. Currently, in the den, there is not room to store the notebooks I used from 1989, through college, and the first years of our marriage. If I did have that room in the den, I wouldn't have those notebooks in Rubbermaids in the sump pump storage room!

Getting Organized

I signed up for a 2 hour class tonight (Monday, 10/23/2017) at Kirkwood Community College. It is called "Digital De-Cluttering and Taming the Paper Monster". I hope it will help me with the den, the storage rooms, my dresser, my closet, and the

33 ADHD-Friendly Ways to Get Organized
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_76.htm