Don’t you just love mixing up metaphors? (or in this case putting them through the blender)
I know the question on all of those lips out there, out in my vast arena of   Suzy fans. (OK ego trip over now) But I do hope you still want to know. What do you want to know? Well, of course, you want to know the answer to the last blogs cliffhanger ending. The subject of endless discussions around office water coolers and on building sites around the globe. How did she do it? How does she bring such order to such chaos? How is such genius contained within one person? (Sorry again, ego under control now. Promise)
So how did we do it? How did I manage to clear the up the space in those unused bedrooms, and still get to use most of what had been hermetically sealed into plastic crates and stored?
iTunes (and no, this is not an advert for any particular brand of software,  it’s simply a tool, please feel free to choose your own) solved the major problems. The files are stored, catalogued, and then accessed through the computer interface, and then played through the appropriate stereo/surround sound equipment, whether we are playing music, or watching a movie/TV series.
Just a note here, about copy-write or DRM (digital rights management) You are permitted, and always have been permitted, to make one backup copy of any movie/piece of music/TV show that you own, and have purchased. In other words, if (in your past life) you saved your pocket money up, and then raced down to your local record store to buy the latest single by*********** (insert name of favored teen idol here) then you were entitled to make a copy of said single. (if you had a cassette recorder, yes, I’m going back a ways here to make the point) You can do the same today (using easier more digital methods) What you cannot do is sell/give/or otherwise distribute the said copy. OK? ‘nuff said.
So, we used iTunes. But…..you may ask, what about the books? How do we access them? Surely iTunes can’t help out there?
Well, yes it can, it can deal with eBooks, but reading 365 books of varying lengths into a computer wasn’t a job that my partner was going to attempt (although he does have a great voice, and I did beg) So we did the next best thing. We used a great program that allowed us to catalogue every single one of them and log exactly where each one had been stored. If we need a book, we know where it is. (Again, the software is just a tool, you can use whichever suits you).
Now, if we want to listen/watch/read, all we have to do is click a mouse button. We have the space cleared, and we still get to enjoy what used to be clutter.
I think that’s neat.

Next blog, we’ll move onto more sweaty, practical stuff. Yes, that’s right, I’m going to clear the old computer room/office. Its going to get messy!

Cheers for now

SorterSuzy

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Here it is people, the blog you’ve all been waiting for, (you have been waiting haven’t you? You have been checking your RSS feed every day, if not hour/minute for the next installment? C’mon, ‘course you have! Oh, just go with it and humor me for now.) Anyhoo, Day ONE; Ground ZERO; Spare Bedroom Alpha, or, if you prefer, the previously mentioned Backwater.
So what do I tackle first? Ha! easy one, I’m an organiser; I organise things. This space is about to be organised to within an inch of it’s life.
Just to put you in the picture, like most typical spare bedrooms this one has long since ceased to perform the function of peaceful dormitory. Oh, there is a bed housed within it’s cube-like dimensions, but since we have few freinds/family that feel the need to stay with us (my once-a-year-visit from my US girlfriend excepted) and, my partner, being possessed of incredible good taste and discernment, still finds joy in sleeping alongside me, it rarely gets used.
So, like most spare rooms, it has become a storage space for THINGS. What are THINGS? Well in my case, THINGS are Compact Discs, (CDs) Digital Versatile Discs, (DVDs – bet you didn’t know what that  stood for) Large discs of Black Plastic (or LPs, or vinyl, or records, you know, the things you used to buy in record shops last century) and last but not least, row, upon row of Books (or, to make the tie-in with the title complete; long dead trees) Now, before you start to picture a chaotic disc and book induced wasteland, please remember; I’m an organiser. These objects were (for the most part) neatly stacked into and onto racks, shelves and cases. But, they were still taking up space. Not what I want. This is going to be my office. I want minimalist. I want order. I want these THINGS out!
Time to enlist the help of Partner. You see, he’s something of a problem solver. He sometimes manages to think laterally. So, I hit him with my dilemma.
It took him five minutes to solve it. It took him two weeks to fix it.

So, what was the great idea? Simply, technology.
All the CDs went onto a purpose bought hard drive, (Via iTunes) and then into a large container, sealed, and then stored.
All the DVDs went onto the same hard drive, via an extracting software, and then into iTunes. The physical discs came out of the cases, and into multi leaf wallets.
The LPs took a little longer (most of the two weeks) First they were digitised (played into the computer, then imported into; you guessed it; iTunes) LPs have to played in real time, and seeing as my partner has collected around 300 of them, you start to get an idea of the time involved.
Books; Ah, the books. the one thing out of the list that couldn’t fit onto the hard drive, well OK, they could, but not many people have the technology/patience to do this. So we had a good look at all the books we had. Then had a good think about how many of these books we had read – recently. Then we decided, that most of them could go into sealed containers (really sealed) and stored.
The really clever part of all this was that, although all of these items are now neatly stored away/digitised/sealed up, we know exactly where any one particular item is, and, what’s more, we can go to the right container and retrieve it.
And how we do that, how we achieved that piece of brilliant organisation ………is the subject of the next blog. Bye for now.
Sorter Suzy.

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OK, so this blog finds me in the middle of a redecorating our home. What? Home decorating? Doesn’t that sound like the most un-organised/un-decluttered/ (is that a word? Oh well, it is now) un-everything-I-try-to-be? (Now I know that’s word; I just hyphenated it!)
Well, yes, and then, most definitely and resoundingly

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