Decluttering The Devers- August 2010

Alright, so now that September is almost over (yes, I have completely neglected my precious Dever Dish and only provided Wordless Wednesday posts for the past three weeks), I guess it is time to finally post my August decluttering project, that I must admit, is still a work-in-progress.  August would prove to be a big month for me.  I decided to quit my job at UNC and take a job working from home.  I had worked at UNC for 8 years and had come to mix my personal life with my work life (i.e. - I used my work computer as my personal computer, too - I'll never make that mistake AGAIN).  My email address had been the same for 8 years and switching over to a Gmail account has been a big change. But even more daunting than an email switch, was the process of transferring information from my work computers.

In April, my work computer crashed (kind of!!), it actually got a really bad virus.  I could still get in and get stuff off the computer, but couldn't use it.  My IT guy was nice enough to save it for me, so I could get all my personal information off the hard drive.  It sat at home for the longest time while I used my new work computer but since I was leaving, it had to be dealt with and so I started the process of going through my files.

My new work computer had everything from our server on it, but being the OCD person that I am.  I wanted to go through document-by-document, picture-by-picture and see if they all matched up.  So, I took on the enormous task of making sure 8 years worth of data matched from one computer to the other.  After many late nights, I was successful in transferring/matching data and I could then just deal with my new work computer and hand my old, corrupted computer back into my IT guy at work.

About a week before I was to leave my job, I started dealing with taking my documents and pictures off my new work computer and putting them on a hard drive, along with transferring all my email to a .pst file.  Once I was sure I had everything, I brought it home and began the process of moving everything onto our house desktop.  A big task, yet again!!  The two biggest concerns here were my pictures and my Outlook email files; both transferred/matched successfully!!!  I turned my new work computer in with confidence that I had all my data either on my home computer or on a hard drive.  I'm not going to say it is completely organized, but it's at least in one of two places.

And, because my new motto is not to mix my personal and work computers EVER AGAIN.  Danny surprised me during tax-free weekend in August with a new toy.  I now have my own personal laptop to do my photo editing, emailing, surfing the web, etc.  I must admit, in the thick of changing jobs and starting a new one,  I haven't had much time to play around with my Mac yet.  I need some pointers, but I am slowly learning.  I think once I get the hang of it, I am going to love it (already do).  I also purchased Lightroom, a software for photo editing and organization.  I was able to get a staff discount from UNC and purchase it for 1/3 of the cost from Adobe.  My last perk at UNC before leaving!!  I can't wait to start playing and experimenting. 

The daunting process!!!

So, although some of you might think August's Decluttering wasn't really a declutter, I will certainly say it was.  I have also added my new position's computer to the mix, but I am being very careful not to mix in any personal stuff there.  I am keeping it strictly business!!

Quick side note: Not sure why I called myself Mommy in all these pictures..seems odd that I wouldn't just say Brooke, since the post had nothing to do with Emerson.  I guess I call myself Mommy more than I realize!!