Yesterday felt like my first "OK, now what?" day. It was the first day that I allowed myself to expand into the possibilities of what comes next. It's hard for me to change routines. I've developed a lot of muscle memory and comfort around those routines and now I feel I need to upend them to move to where my passions really are. It's taking some practice but I think I managed to do that pretty well yesterday. We'll see how today progresses.

The bulk of yesterday was me decluttering my file folders. It's been a project that's been on my lists for a long time and it's high time that it get addressed. Part of it is that it'll give some space for the boxes of files in the basement (old stuff that should never have made the cut of getting put into a box, but whatever). So yesterday afternoon I pulled out items from the top drawer and either shredded / recycled them. A few highlights:

• Manuals from stuff that we had already put together from IKEA. (Toss)
• Manuals for Logitech devices I no longer had. (Toss)
• The entire kit of renewal documents from 2016 for my driver's license. (Shred and toss)
• Stuff from college (fliers for dances, fliers for our radio shows, etc.). (Scan and shred)
• Business cards, membership cards, library cards, and stuff from organizations long departed. (Scan and shred)
• Certificate from when I took Japanese as a continuing education class. (Scan and shred)
• Manuals, manuals, manuals. (Kept the ones I couldn't find PDFs for, recycled the rest).
• Medical records for visits and insurance from 2019 and prior. (Shred)

The strange thing is I wondered how most of this stuff had managed to survive for so long in my file drawers. Perhaps it's more my mood now (I want everything as digital as possible) and my purchasing a large shredder (honestly if I could afford the one that shreds an entire filing cabinet at one go I'd be all over that) but it is what it is.

What comes next is sorting and shredding the boxes in the basement of documents. This will give some extra space for the ones that make the cut to be filed appropriately in the filing cabinet. That's the main goal of the exercise. I was actually looking up shelves on Amazon to put more Banker's Boxes and realized that was unnecessary if I managed to make the space otherwise.

The goal isn't to make more space to store things, the goal is to store less stuff. The space will take care of itself.

It might not be my most passionate work right now but it's the one that is helping me to clear my mind and put these thoughts to rest.

I can't wait to see what I'll uncover in the bottom drawer.