All I Wanna Doo……….

Is have some fun. Or so the song goes. In Partner’s case, all he wanted to do was write a book. Another book. He’s already written one (no, not published, but thanks for showing interest, which, apparently was more than the lonely two publishers he sent the manuscript to did) Any-way, all Partner wanted to do, he said, was write.
Easy, I thought. Dead easy. We’ve cleaned out the computer room, providing the perfect space (that was the other spare room, if you’re keeping up – and why wouldn’t you be?) Hell, I’ll even let him chose the colour, as long as it’s not screaming scarlet or some form of khaki drab. No worries there, we agreed on a cosy mossy-green, that blended superbly with the existing carpet (lucky break!) Partner insisted that all he needed was a small corner desk, large enough to accommodate his laptop, so corner desk it was. We chose a really cool frosted glass circular segment (if you get my drift), which, by happy coincidence, happened to match my desk next-door (Partner referred to Witch-Craft, but he’s wrong, I left the coven months ago)
So there I was, mission accomplished, two redundant disaster areas, transformed, via my genius into integrated, de-cluttered, uber-cool work spaces.
I had a day. A whole day. 24 hours. ‘Twas but a short time to bask in the general well-being of a job well done. Then Partner (who, I might add, had not written a skerrick (ancient Aussie word meaning Nix, Nada, Zilch) in that time announces that he now feels the need to re-visit his bloody childhood. He wants a ‘hobby’. And what hobby does he want? Are you ready for this?
Radio Controlled Aircraft.
Not a video camera. Not gardening. Not even restoring old furniture. RC aircraft (I’ve been told never to call them ‘toys’ ……………..O………..kay)
Well, there goes my uncluttered space.
Well maybe
I have a plan!!
See ya next time, when I will reveal all!!!!
SorterSuzy.

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..’We Fade To Grey……’

Or, in this case (recycling the opening line from the last post – after all, we are apparently in a recession) blue. I like blue, I’ve always wanted a blue room, so the choice of colour for my new minimalist office was……blue.
For those that came in late, this entry is going to focus our attention back on the original spare room. (The bedroom backwater of the first post)
So, the walls are now blue (did I mention that I like blue – I even like the sound of the word.) I know, I know, I can see you flipping back to the other posts, I can see you scratching your head, wondering why I jumped from cruddy spare bedroom to cool blue walls. How did she do that? Where’s all the detail?
OK, detail. Gut the room, trash the hideous cheep sofa-bed/other stuff we don’t want, store the stuff we do want, prep the walls.
There, it’s in nice bold font, all the detail you could want. (I guess you see why I was going to miss it out altogether now, hunh?)
The room is blue (there I go again) for those readers that like specs, the colour is ……….. Now I need a desk/workspace/station. A place to contemplate my plans for world domination. (sorry, watched an old James Bond movie last night, you know, the one where the bad guy/mastermind is on the point of ridding the globe of Roger Moore, and he just has to stop and detail all of his hitherto secret plans. I’m sorry, but don’t you wish that once – just once – the bad guy would just pull the @#$$%^$#@# trigger?)
The desk, the desk! OK, what I wanted was a functional unit that would blend into the cool minimalist look I was going for. After all, why go to all that trouble creating a genuine wireless office if the furniture just cluttered it up again? So I chose a really funky frosted glass surface with slender charcoal legs that blend into the background. I teamed this with two matching shelves to give me an oh-so-chic return for that little extra space. And finally, I tracked down an office chair to die for. Cool, pale white leather (yes, I’m calling it pale white, you had to be there) and chrome, a triumph of modern engineering. (I mean, c’mon gas-strut height adjust? I know it’s been around for over a decade, but it’s still a bloody miracle)
There you have it; A gorgeous, minimal and above all clutter-free space, that just happens to be my office.
I’m loving it.

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Or, in this case, into a convenient cupboard/closet/wardrobe, that I just happened to have handy.
Please stop screaming. I know that you’re screaming. I even know what you’re screaming. You’re screaming something along the lies of
“Why in the name of (insert preferred deity here) does this (insert preferred term of abuse here) Woman always start these blogs with an obscure title, and an even more incomprehensible first sentence?”
Please, calm down, I know you want answers; I feel your pain.
I’m just not going to do anything about it.
It’s just the way I like to write, blame my teachers/upbringing/genes/jeans, whatever. If you have read this far, congratulations! You have proven yourself to be an individual of extreme patience and discerning taste. Please accept the Sorter Suzy Asterisk of merit *.
OK, now let’s get down to the sweaty stuff I mentioned in the last blog. We have a second spare bedroom. It’s spare because of a lack of offspring to occupy it. So, we did what any other DINK couple would do; we bought a whole lot of computer gear, told ourselves we were going to start a business, and proceeded to shovel/shoehorn the said gear into the room.
Several years down the track, my partner has discovered a modest skill for writing, and I’m going mad at the whole wire and cable bound mess that the computer room has devolved into.
One of the common myths about modern living is the idea of the ‘wireless’ office. Please, let me say, right here, right now, that I am not going to tell you what computer to buy. Never. Not ever. It’s not that sort of blog (although, If you happen to be a slave of certain operating system that the French might refer to as ‘funetre s’ you have my sympathy)
Anyhoo, we run Apple Macs. I like the design, and I like the simplicity of the system. What I don’t like is the fact every new device we get hold of has a wire attached to it. This wire has some various names USB/Firewire/network/power/display/ sometimes I even know what some of them mean. What this means, of course, is that in time, the so called ‘wireless’ office starts to rival ‘Charlotte’s Web’ without the cuteness. Oh, did I mention that both partner and I run laptops! We have even less excuse for this chaos.
Then one day, about a month ago, a light seemed to flicker briefly behind my partners eyes. It was a small light, no bigger than an LED. But I knew what it meant; He had had an IDEA.
And it was this.

We have a wireless network box/thingy (I’ll use ‘thingy’ when I don’t know the techo term – OK?)
Both our laptops have wireless cards installed.

This means that we can access the internet and network the system anywhere in the house – you guessed it – wirelessly.
Our network box/thingy has a USB outlet/thingy on it. This, according to the info sheet, can run printers and external/backup hard drive/thingys

If, you’ve been following these posts, you’ll recall that we just finished putting all of audio/visual material onto a program called iTunes. We ran this from an old computer that has to connect to the network via cable. But that was pretty much the only thing we used it for – so……
Everything that involved a cable could be set up in that convenient cupboard/closet/wardrobe (See? I get back to that obscure opening line eventually.)

So now, when we close the cupboard door, all you see, in what will become my partner’s cosy writing retreat, is one lonely, solitary, teeny tiny white power cable threading it’s way neatly under the door (we’re getting a dedicated GPO installed, then even the cable will go)
Just to clarify; the cupboard contains
the network/cable modem box/thingy,
Three external hard drive/thingys.
Our old iMac, enjoying an easy retirement running iTunes,
a USB hub/thingy.
Two printers,
a scanner (shared via the network, partner knows about this stuff)
And all those @#$#@%^&&% power bricks and cables. All out of sight. All neat and organised.
I am set up in my new office. The only thing on my desk is my laptop. The only cable you see is the power to my laptop.
At last. The truly wireless office.
And it’s all mine
Bliss!

Previous Article in Series

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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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  Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great transition and that you’re  sticking to your resolutions! HUH? yep those things that we get all worked up about but seem to fizzle out after a short while, some in days others weeks or months. Was ‘getting organized’ one your resolutions, maybe in just one part of your life? Perhaps just your office or your time management or certain rooms in your house.

It’s certainly the prime time of year for this kind of big sorting and organzing to happen or get started. Where the problem often lies is in the planning that precedes it or more to the point doesn’t precede it and hence ultimate failure. Planning is of course a type of organising in itself and it that isn’t our strong point then you run into trouble right from the get go.

One of the most common ways to do so is to make lists. Now for the less linear oriented thinkers mindmaps are the perfect alternative where it looks more like a drawing with things grouped together in related bunches on the page. Whatever works best  for you, don’t just slavishly follow a recommended techniques if it doesn’t jag with you.

You could start by just doing a list of everything you can think of at the moment that you need to do or get done or want to do this year. These can be anything from ballroom dancing lessons to patching the hole in the kitchen ceiling. As a way of prompting your memory take a wander around your house and list things to be done in each room. Next you can then break the list up into various categories that make sense to you.

Such things as Self/Personal, House, Family, Finances and so forth. Next prioritise each task in each list from most important to least important. Finally go through each task a look into what’s required to make that goal happen – if it’s to patch the ceiling then step 1 might be to ringing a number of repairmen to come out and quote etc.

Now you have a to do list that has some very logical and sequential steps in it for you to follow in order to achieve your goals.

Next time; How to put this list into your weekly schedule.

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I’m starting this blog with a dream that just a few days ago I finally dared to even consider! Still now as I write this, particularly BECAUSE I’m writing it – it scares the hell out of me. I’m so far from this at the moment, living day by day, taking action but constantly wondering ‘am I doing enough?’ and ‘what am I doing wrong that things seem to be going so slowly, what am I not getting about ‘the law of attraction’ that seems like I’m not having all those serendipitious moments the gurus talk about’.

I’m constantly trying to hear my intuition about the very loud babble of ‘do this do that do more’ mind chatter. So what’s the dream, honestly I just don’t know if I have the guts to put it out here and frankly does anyone really care? OK so I’m thinking of the stories where people have ‘put it out there’ and it all started to happen for them soooo……  let me get a little inspiration first.

So if Roger Bannister can bust through a huge social mindset about running a mile in 4 minutes, surely I can bust through my own limitations about creating something big, like a company, a business with

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