Rebuilding the To-Do List

I wrapped up the previous iteration of my to-do list at the end of November, with a promise that when the new year arrived I would build a new version of the list. In the meantime, I have given a little thought to the best form for the list, and have settled on building it in phases, where I would expect to finish, or at least be well advanced, in one phase before moving on to the next one.

I expect this iteration of the to-do list to run through to the end of the Easter holiday, after which I'll wrap it up and take stock.

Already Done

We have already managed to tackle three of the tasks from the to-do list:

• I spent some time sorting through our accumulated documents, and disposed of a whole bunch that were no longer needed. (I also grouped other documents into annual bunches, meaning that next year's task will be one step easier. Which is nice.)
  
• As noted yesterday, we spent much of Saturday clearing out the kitchen.
  
• And, likewise, we rearranged the sideboard on Saturday.

Phase One
There are two tasks remaining in the first phase of the list:

• I've resumed my task of clearing out my old RPG papers. This mostly involves an awful lot of scanning and then shredding of the documents. It's proceeding apace, but is going to take several more months to get through, I think. (I don't intend to hold up phase two for the completion of this task!)
  
• There is one drawer I want to go through and clear out (again). This isn't a long job, but it's one that will bug me if I don't get it done. So that's my task for this weekend.

Phase Two
Once the last drawer has been cleared, we'll be in a position where we've finished our decluttering for the time being. This leaves us quite a lot of stuff that has been earmarked for disposal but which is still taking up space. Phase two, therefore, is to correct that:

• Take the books, clothes, and other useable stuff to the charity shop for donation.
  
• Take the boxes, appliances, and other junk to the tip for disposal.

I don't expect phase two to take very long, with the caveat that a couple of things are too heavy for me to lift by myself.
Phase Three
Once phases one and two are done (hopefully by mid-February), it will be time to move on to phase three, which consists largely of tasks that were deferred from last year...

• Digital Declutter: I started this last year when I re-catalogued my music. My intention is to do much the same with photos, videos, downloads, and documents on my PC - these should all be moved into a single, easily-backed-up location. Then I'll take a copy onto safe storage, and then go through the various files trying to find a better arrangement for them. The goal is to get everything into a state where it is easily found and accessed, where file names are help with the above, and to get rid of duplicate copies of the same document. (That last, of course, doesn't count backup copies, of course!)
  
• Re-fix the Wardrobe: As I mentioned at the time, I wasn't really happy with the end result of my 'fix' of the bedroom wardrobe. I therefore set myself the task to revisit that fix, which was deferred from the previous list. It's time to address this once again.
  
• Garden Plug: Likewise, my previous list had a task to remove and dispose of a concrete plug from the garden. This was deferred due to the winter, but will need to be tackled before too long.
  
• Redecorate Study: I mentioned this as one of my annual goals, and it's something I have pencilled in for the Easter holiday. The intention is to empty the room completely, remove some fastening plugs the previous owners left, fix the resulting holes in the wall, then repaint the room (changing the colour scheme). That done, we'll then put things back into the room, but take the opportunity to replace some of the furniture, rearrange some others, and generally make the room more pleasant to use.
  
• Repaint the Dining Room: Unfortunately, one of the consequences of the Christmas period is that the paintwork in the dining room has been damaged. Since it's not really possible to hide the damage, nor to find some paint to patch it in exactly the same colour, we'll need to redo the paintwork in this room. For the moment, my intent is to repaint the walls (only) in as close to the same colour as we can find. I'm not currently planning to redo the skirting boards or door frames, though this may well change.

And that's the list. As noted, I intend to run this one until the end of the Easter holidays, and I'm hopeful of completing eight of the nine items by then.

(Once we get past the Easter holidays, my suspicion is that I might end up without a to-do list at all - the lists have been getting progressively shorter with each iteration, so it might just be possible that we'll have reached the end, at least for the time being. But we'll see.)