My 3 Mowers - Soon to be 1 :)

Problem. How on earth does one person collect three similar mowers to simply mow a yard when one is all that is needed?  What about you?  Do you have a threesome of something when one will do? Bear with me.  This is a long story, but think how many 'mowers' or items that fit into this category that you may have in your life?

Story.  Mower #1. The one in the upper right, I bought shortly after getting the house in the summer of 2002.  One or two seasons into using it, I had tilted it up and the oil got into the gas and I panicked.  Fearing a large mower repair bill, at the sight of oil coming out of the filter and the white smoke  (usually a sign of imminent death for a car from what I heard) ... the mower got the "some day I'll go get that fixed when I get time treatment".  It has been taking up space in the shed or outside creature and not getting used for the last 7 to 9 years.  Sad isn't it?  Poor mower...

Mower #2. A week later after seeing mower #1 on what I thought was it logical 'death bed' I see the rotary "no maintenance, will never need gas, what can go wrong, human powered mower green eco cool machine" at a box store on sale. I bought it.  Also, thinking about a radio garden guy clinic at the time saying that "With this kind of mower" ... my super simple human powered unit " it is better for saint augustine grass" which sealed the deal for me at the time and it seemed cheap at $120 or so.   I tried it, liked it, but it took more work to use to mow the yard instead of the gas powered mower to the right.  Instead of getting the good one fixed, I just keep using the human powered mower as it "took to much time to get the other fixed" and it "might be expensive to repair" season after season.  Ugh.  I now know I made a mistake in logic and reason year after year.

Mower #3. Fast forward three or four years.  My neighbor down the street was moving.  He was getting rid of stuff and said "Hey, I sell my mower for $40.00".  I bought it too.   Now for three years I have had three mowers.   My whole thing was with the first I did not want to take the time to go get mower #1 fixed and it was probably dead anyways.    It got easier to mow the yard with mower #3 and it took about 20 to 30 minutes less time on average with the grass mower than my "eco friendly" mower #2.  Sometimes using my echo friendly mower  would take an hour longer or two longer to mow the yard as result of having to go over the yard twice, as human powered mower #2 did poorly when grass was really tall -- being a couple inches over normal mow height.

Resolution. Well, with a buddy and his wife getting a new place and no lawn mower, I thought this would be a great impetus for me to get mower #1 fixed, which is the best most feature rich mower of the three addressed today and working.  The cost $65 to clean the carburator, air filters, drain oil and all done in less than 2.5 hours was well worth it.  That was it.  James the repair man also sharpened the blade and I had a new spark plug, that I had been holding on to for the last few years when I was "going to fix that mower fixed or send it to the grave".  Today, Mower #1 worked like a charm.  James simply said.  "Bud, oil coming out of the air filter is normal when the mower is turned to the side and the fluids mix up together".  All that stress, all that work for something I should have done long ago and the mower did not even need any kind of major overhaul or work ... it just needed some simple maintenance.

Realization.  My goofball, self also did not realize until today again how efficient having a bagger is.  Fast forward a bit to leaves falling right now.  You now it is easier to catch leaves in a bagger than it is to rake those stinkers up?... It is late June and my birch trees are already shedding leaves.   My yard is clean.  Now my project is to get rid of the two other mowers I really don't need.   The outcome of this is for me is to: 1) keep things simple,  2) fix what's broken 3) use what I have and consider the cost of storing a backup or backup to the backup when giving something away like two extra mowers away or sell is mutually beneficial.  There are so many things to this it is hard to fit in one page...

BTW, ironically enough last year I took an hour or two to change the mower blade out on the Mower #3 and probably would have been better served by getting Mower #1 fixed. :)

Blessings,
Steven

2 Gigs @ Work

The past two weeks, I have been preparing for a temporary move of stuff at work for new carpet to be laid. Usually, it is 15 minutes here or an hour there to remove and trash old work files, many times it was just scratch like documents that were part of a completed project or an idea that never really took off. As a result, I went from 14 gigs worth of files stored on a computer down to 2 gigs. Some of the keys were:

- use a fresh folder to only put in files in that are keepers.

- save items if possible that can be in template form that are temporary instead of historical. Go one needed copy instead of 15x or so of the same thing for historical purposes of little value.

- use of a "-" designator on file folders to symbolize good files folders to keep.

- to only have to folders deep.

- much of the 14gigs was to video clips of a project two summers ago that I never really had

time to complete for the children's department.

In the process, I probably had 10 different file folders labeled "to sort" or miscellaneous of some kind or another. There were folders buried within folders and repeatedly. My next project is to do the same thing for the two boxes of documents that I can probably and realistically get down to about 10 inches worth of documents and probably in reality only need about 6 inches. It has been a challenge, and I wish I would have done this a while ago. I have made half hearted attempts. Now it is the challenge to say, "Do I really need such and such document even thou it was important say 5 or 7 years ago?". It is a liberating process to have less stuff at work!

Holiday Fun & Rest

It's the July 4th, and I have my to do list already set. Just like any other day, but I'm taking caution of not having it to full. How often do you put to many things on a to do list while on vacation?

My morning started out like most: reading the Bible, drinking coffee and scanning the headlines of the paper. Before I realized it, I had 8 things on my to do list: like paint, find my planner (missing for the last week), clean man cave (office area) and car, and plan for an evening possibly with friends and reply to an email. Of the number of things I'll actually do is going to be really small since I realized how long my to do list really is... ah the fun of not doing something so I can do something fun.

It is good to have those "stretch" goals, but it is also good to have those goals to do absolutely nothing. Last week Sunday, I was listening to my favorite AM Sunday Morning Sports show on ESPN radio (nationally syndicated show and I can't think of the name right now) driving to church. The guy was addressing the fact that so many people actually don't take a vacation while on vacation (he witnessed guys doing work things at a pool at a Disney theme park while kids splashed and had fun in the pool). I have been guilty of that! A vacation is a great time to re-charge, relax and have fun.

It is the Forth of July. Why work unless you have too.?.?.. I must give special brownie points to people who work on the forth like my wife who work today (but is getting extra goodies for doing so)…

Okay, what is my bottom line? There are 6 days of week for working hard, and a few holidays or a week or so in between for rest. Take those opportunities we are given for rest and use those!

Note: photo credit to John47kent

Electronic Goodies of a Day Gone By

It is time purge, sell or discard the electronic goodies of mine that are in excess that plug in, charge, turn on or run on batteries, connects via or cord or wirelessly or simply are no longer useful to me round up.  

Do you have a batch of electronic goodies that have at one time served a purpose, but no longer do? Usually, I think it is a great idea to stay focused in one room.  But for an electronic goodie cleanse, I have kind of thrown that rule out the window.  I found that sometimes cords, batteries, sound/tv cords end up on various devices and storage areas.   By putting all these goodies together, you can more easily spot the excess and later return things to their assigned storage spot.

After 20+ years of using this radio,
& not using it in last 5, a corroded battery
fix that did not work today, and a broken
antenna with a wire fix this
--  radio is getting pitched today.

Computers/device?

- Do you have a back up to your back up computer? (if so the back ups, not data backups, are probably good candidates for purging, selling, donating or trashing.

- How many USB or other cables do you really need? Old printers, peripherals, keyboards do you really need those when you have something better?  If it is cable or spare how many spares do you really need. One is generally enough. if it is big, such as an extra keyboard, as those tend to last for a long time and seldom become non-functional, I'm tossing my one extra 10 plus year old keyboard that went with a discarded computer out into the trash... 

Audio Sound Equipment?

- Do you have audio cables that no longer connect to any electronic device you own that is practical?  Toss the cables that don't have value. .

- Do you have radios or iPods that no longer work?  I have an iPod Nano, but since it does not have an AM radio tunner I still maintain an old Sony Walkman.  In reality that walkman could probably easily be pitched too based on my needs.

- Do you have a duplicate iPod, maybe it is time to get rid of the old?

TV and Video Equipment?

- How many extra remotes, cables or tv related nick nacks do you have? My thought is if it takes up a lot of space, is a duplicate and or does not function well than it needs to be sold, given away or tossed.  

- If it is a TV cable and a spare how many spares do you really need?  Generally one spare is plenty. 

Excess Cord Toss Decision?

If a decision comes down to two cables, equal in quality, and I'm trying to decide which extra to get rid of -- I generally keep the long -- and toss the short.  Reason being longer cables cost more.  

Bottom line in my quest.  Currently I have about two shoe boxes worth of tv, audio and computer cables and equipment (not counting mine or my wife's computer or printer).   What is going to get tossed here at home: 3 old hard drives I thought I could fix or re-purpose by running spinrite or other software, but have not been able to; extra cables (7) in total, and one dead radio.   I also have one iPod that I'm going to get repaird and one I'll probably give away or trash. The oldest of the two (mostly due to being run through the washing machine) just is stuck on playing podcasts menu and fix the newer that has a broken click wheel (also as a result of being run thru the washing machine). 

Keepsake Documents : Keep, Scan and or Toss

Maybe there is a need to balance your stuff so you can think more about relationships by clearing the cob webs of the past and the things that clutter the present.   Lately, I have been trying to get rid of so much stuff in my study area, hence this blog,  to create more free time in other areas of my life and help others...

Photo Credit: Velvo Steve via Flickr

Things that I found interesting are: I can't believe I have saved so much stuff.  If your middle aged and and a collector of things it is easy to grow your paper tiger.

For example, over the last 25 years or so, each year I have saved about 2 inches of papers including trip documents, photo's and odd stuff. So my stack of stuff is about 6 to 9 feet long if the stuff is laying down in a line of boxes.  So far, I found things I have not looked at in 20 years.  But in all honesty, I can't wait to shrink the boxes dramatically down to TWO by: scanning most, tossing 90 percent of the stuff and saving just about 10 percent of it.  It is amazingly a slow process going thru four filing boxes of papers...  It has been taking a couple of hours to scan just a few inches of worthy items into the computer.   Sometimes I think why in the heck did I save a 1990 science fair project release form for human subjects as a science fair project.  Ironically, I did win first place in the Medicine in Health Science Fair part in that high school competition, but not the grand prize award.  Other times, although not to often, I look back on some scout outing with friends and a document about it, note or letter recalling the event with fondness.

Scan or Toss Rules of Thumb:
- Is it worth taking time to scan or take a picture of? If it is not worth your time to capture it in photo or pdf form than it is a possible document or photo to discard...
- Class yearbooks - your school maybe have a scanned archive of yearbooks where and when you attended the school.  Where I went to college they have most of the years scanned in; however, they stopped scanning yearbooks for the year before I started school there, but they are adding more soon to the online collection.  If you have lots of signatures and notes in your yearbook it might be good to capture those, but otherwise a copy may already be online somewhere...
- Scanning itineraries is great when available for a vacation keepsake... Arline tickets or cruise guides are some that come to mind.  You can build interesting things around your trip records and toss the rest...

Using Three Piles: 
-1)  Originals box -- stuff I'm working to purge;
-2)  Scanned doc box -- throwing away as soon as scanned documents are saved in two places;
-3)  Trash box -- documents not worth even scanning;

Ultimately, do you spend more energy outside of work thinking about your 1) next party, family time or vacation OR 2) work?  Of the (6) boxes of stuff I have purged so far, I might have accidentally thrown away the micro usb cord to my camera.  That is it so far. I have not found the cord.  Maybe it will still show up.  Stay tuned, but getting rid of so much stuff at the expense of losing one thing I do need -- it is worth it in my book.

Scanning Keepsake Documents - File Naming Convention

Scanning documents can be a slow process...  Sometimes, it is easy to get distracted listening to the radio or doing other things.  However, I see my pile of stuff shrinking at starts and stops.   Some items may generate such thoughts as  "Why do I have duplicates of the same 1995 goals and vision statement for myself?" or why did I save this receipt in the first place?  It is good to set time aside to do this, but not to much (an limit to a few hours).  

2 Philosophical Thoughts:

Chip Ingram in a recent "Good to Great in God's Eyes - Empower Great People (2 Part  talk)" talked about how in the past people would celebrate various feasts or weddings for extended celebrations such as 6 days.  What is even more amazing is the mindset, for those in a 'production' or 'perfection' mode of thinking that we should live to party and NOT work so that we can then party.  

Are you capturing your keepsakes to remember those party like events or for 'work' purposes of just building a resume of vacation trips so to speak?

Saving Documents by Name Tip:

A good naming scheme for documents is starting a file off with the year the document was created, person (and or place) and then substance descriptor of the document.  Here is the reasoning for using this name scheme.

Year - the document your scanning will not have a year behind in the file only the date it was scanned. Try searching for a document on a time say a 1984 trip itinerary when you don't have that year in the file date saved on the hard drive or usb stick?.  That is the reasoning for putting the year first in the file name.  If your not certain of the date try for example 1990 Circa or the closest decade marker.   Pick something that works for you. 

Person - what is the tie in of the keepsake document being scanned and who is it related to -- such as a family member or family in general.  

Substance Descriptor - Such things a driver's license photo, funny birthday card with a very special note, graduation diploma, vacation itinerary or journal.  

Bottom line.  With a date descriptor first it helps group like documents when sort by date computer together and then eliminate duplicates by deleting files and picking the best scanned image.   Ultimately with keepsakes your only going to have a limited number by each year anyway.  Using a date scheme will also help visually identify duplicates for deletion and create a nice timeline. As noted above in the illustration, my own naming scheme is not perfect and only the date is what I rigidly hold on to as everything else generally follows the set naming convention. 

Keepsake Documents

How many old Christmas letters, travel postcards or love notes do you have stored away? Maybe it is to many to be practical. Scanning and then tossing these items can be a solution. For example, I am only holding on to a handful of documents for each year including documents that relate to: great vacations, graduations, family passings or major milestones.

On my 16th birthday, a group of very
close friends gave this card to me.
a happy thought :)
-----------------------------------

Preparation

- If you can use a scanner that can save a file directly to a usb stick it is much faster (not waiting on wifi connection or large hard drive to write to disk).

- Use an empty USB stick if possible.

- Find a cleared off space to work. Work with just one box. This is a slow process. Weed those items that you realize are not worth taking time to scan. Just a simple show box can take the afternoon.

- Be mindful of copyright or intellectual property of scanning greeting cards if content goes openly or inadvertently on the web. I maybe pushing the edge a bit, but is a ~20 year old birthday card such as the one illustrated going to cause a publisher lose sales?

Scanning

- Use a newer scanner if possible made in the last couple of years.

- About 300 dots per inch or DPI setting was a good scan for me. I don't have the patients to do a higher resolution scan and this seemed to work well.

- Most scanners will start with and run a countering scheme. Use it. I would run about 50 documents and then backup stick to computer. I was repeating the process every so often.

- Get to know the option on your scanner, hopefully it has an add to PDF page function. Ultimately you want to avoid new file for each new page scanned.

- On documents, PDF file type format works great.

- On pictures JPG format is great and website friendly too.

- Use a consistent file naming scheme such as "1989 birthday cards steven.pdf". I prefer year first then description to create timelines easily.

Finally, of all these cards, christmas letters, and notes, I bet only a small percentage maybe meaningful to me in 20 years, but for one thing, there are 150+ documents that are going out the door and in the trash today, but will carry on on my hard rive and backup device.

Yeah. I'm closer to my goals. A whole box of letters and memories is just taking up 151 Megabytes or about 2 % of my 8 gigs of space but -- 0 -- physical space on a bookshelf.

Edited: 6/1/2012 an error in the original file type of scanning a document was corrected.