I am a dragon, by birthdate, we are supposed to have a hoard of treasure. I'm sure that's how I seem to end up surrounded by piles of stuff, all kept in one special room. Unfortunately it's also my bedroom, work room, computer room and living room. All one room because I only have one room to myself in the house. It's also my storage room, but that's pretty obvious.

My family think I'm keeping too much stuff, that I'm just not putting things away, etc. They don't say the word, hoarder, but I do. Usually just to myself because no one wants to be a hoarder, especially not after seeing some of the worst case scenarios on TV.

I read that a couple of the signs that you may be a hoarder are having clutter around you in piles, especially paper things. Another sign is that you buy storage containers and other methods of storing things and yet you still have more stuff which you need to store. I do buy storage things and I use some of them. Some don't work out as I hoped but I don't take them back - they get added to the clutter cause I might find a use for them. To be fair, sometimes I do, but a lot of the time I don't.

Tidy Your Books and Reward Yourself with Bookends

Why Do We Keep Stuff?

We keep things we think we will need to use later. Or, things we plan to use later. But, later takes a long time to come, a bit too often.

We can't decide on what to keep, what to get rid of (or give away/ recycle) so we keep everything. Trying to be a perfectionist and have everything we could ever need for any reason.

We have a sentimental attachment to a thing or a memory from that thing and we don't want to let it go, in case we forget. (In this case I have learned to take a photo of it and post it on my blog, keep it on the computer hard drive or a DVD disk).

Stop Procrastinating - Start Motivating

Don't keep procrastinating. Find yourself some motivation and begin dealing with your hoard today. My motivation is that I'm just sick of dealing with all this stuff. It's taking over too much of my personal space and I'm really tired of moving stuff out of my way. There isn't much here that's really worth the frustration of dealing with it all every day.

Pick apart something smaller from the mass. Don't put pressure on yourself, expecting to succeed in dealing with all of it in one day.

The other day I tidied up my computer desk (just a bit late for Clean Off Your Desk Day) and the area around it. I got mostly everything moved off or out of the way but a lot of it really had no where to go from there. Some things were easy, like hair clips and a vitamin bottle. They have other places they can be put away.

Next up are clothes and the clothes closet. There are clothes I won't wear or don't fit (for size or style reasons) and I shouldn't be keeping them. It's not easy to make hard decisions about clothes, some of them have been around long enough that I remember something nice happening when I wore that sweater, etc. But, it's really just a sweater, with a few holes in it. I don't even want to wear it out any more.

That's my plan for the day. I'm going to stop writing now and get to it. When I finish writing this post I will (hopefully) have that much done and have given myself that much more space and breathing room (not to mention walking room).

Of course, the bigger job is still left... all that hoard of paper and books. But, that will be another day.

A Tidy Desk Can be Rewarded with a Desk Set

Keep the Hoard from Coming Back (or Ever Starting)

When Bringing Stuff In...

Before you even buy something new (or bring something new home) consider whether you really need it or just want it. Is it worth spending money on, do you have the money to spend on it? Are you going to use it, or just leave it somewhere and forget about it?

Get in to the habit of not bringing in more than you need. Don't bring in something new unless you have used up or finished with something old. You won't have a hoard if you keep a balance of stuff in and stuff out.

Put Your Stuff Away...

Don't leave things packed in bags when you bring them home. Begin using them (something like a replacement part) or put them away where they need to be right away, not later.

Put things away once they are used. Or, after they are washed from being used. Get into the habit of not leaving the small tidying up for later and it won't build into a much bigger job over time.

When you finish a job, like laundry, making and having dinner, home repairs, etc. don't consider the job to be finished until you have done the clean up and put away your tools. Don't leave the clean up for later - later might be later than you think.

Be sensible about putting things away. Things you use together can be put away together. Especially basics like shampoo, toothpaste - things you would use in the bathroom should be kept together in the bathroom. This will make everything easier to find and quicker for you to get things done without looking for the things you need (if they were scattered around in different places).

Don't use more than a minimum amount of space for storage. If you go over the space you have, make some decisions about the stuff you are storing. How much of it do you really need? When did you last actually use it? Could you use something else you already have instead?

Don't Keep Too Much Stuff...

Become a recycler. Live by the 3 R's: recycle, reuse and reduce. I also like the fourth R - repurpose. It's about using what you have to make what you need, usually changing it to suit a new purpose. With anything paper especially, recycle it - don't keep it longer than you really need it. Don't build up piles of paper into mountains of paper.

Keep a donation box or bag around, probably in a closet. Once a month, plan to donate books to the second hand bookstore, clothes to the thrift stores, unwanted gifts to a charity, etc. This is a great way to let you keep a balance of old things going out and new things coming in.

My adventure started with the plan to make myself a vision board for my home office.

A vision board is something you can decorate with your ideas, hopes, dreams and most of all, your goals. It's like creating a scrapbook of your future and displaying it where you can see it. This way you are never far from your goals, should you need fresh inspiration or encouragement. A vision board is a practical solution to self-support but it can also be creative and fun.

My vision board was going to be a magnetic white board I could write on and stick things onto (with magnets). This way it could double as a calendar for events I didn't want to forget. Seemed like a good combination for my mini home office.

I bought one of those magnetic whiteboards. I found one which was priced for my budget, seemed sturdy enough, came with accessories (like dragonfly magnets) and looked the right size for what I wanted. I would have liked bigger but space was an issue. (My home office is one half of my bedroom).

I unpackaged my whiteboard. It came with stickers to attach it to the wall. The claim was the stickers would mount the board without leaving a sticky mess if you wanted to move the board later. Well... they were right about one part of that. The board did not leave a sticky mess any of the four times it fell off the wall. The first time I had to look around to figure out what had made the noise. I found the board on the floor, one dragonfly magnet missing, and not yet found.

Nothing bonked into the board on the wall. I don't have pets or children. The whiteboard just falls off the wall, all on it's own. I would stick it up again, adding extra pressure to the sticking points and yet... down it would fall a couple of days later.

This was not what I wanted. You can't see your vision board if it keeps falling off the wall and losing parts.

Eventually, the board was left down then moved around from one bookshelf to the dresser to somewhere else when it got in the way. The great whiteboard vision board quest seemed like a bust. Well, not every adventure goes as planned. I pretty much forgot the whiteboard for awhile. One day I moved the dresser and only noticed the whiteboard when it fell in behind the dresser. It has been there since, giving the dust bunnies visions of whatever dust bunnies dream up. Dust bunny world domination?

Then I got the idea... another idea for the vision board plan.

Why not mount it on a standing display? Like an artist easel, a drafting or craft table, something like that! I found very nice easels... some which were cheaper and seemed to be too cheap (flimsy) and others looked great but were far over my vision board budget. I found my dream vision board on eBay! It was so perfect and yet so very, very impractical. It could double as a room divider and would take me until next year to pay off on the credit card. So the easel idea was not seeming to work out so well. I did try a few other searches and found a few other options which I ruled out due to budget, flimsiness or made for children and looked it!

You may be looking up at the top of this post and see the magazine rack up there. THAT was my solution! Not only sturdy enough to hold something the weight of a few magazines, but open ended so my whiteboard would fit right in there. True it won't be freestanding on the floor or nailed to the wall and out of the way. But, it won't be lost behind the dresser, part of the dust bunny world domination plot either.

So I am ordering the magazine rack which this post shows at the top. I found you could get a lot of magazine racks which were not open at the ends. This would be fine if you measured your whiteboard and knew it could fit inside. I'm not even going to try that. I like the open ends because it will be easy to slip the board out and add new dreams, goals and visions to it. The magazine rack will keep it standing upright without requiring hardware or hammering nails into my walls. I can set it on my desk or give it space on a bookshelf or the top of my dresser.

So, the adventure will all work out. You could also use a letter holder. I do have one of those but it is already stuffed with stuff-to-do.

I wish I could say I have some gorgeous, luxurious home office set up... but I don't. It's mostly a collection of what I could afford and what I needed at the time. But, even though my computer desk is not glamorous and decadent (as my ideal home office would be) it is functional and affordable. It actually looks similar to this one from Amazon. But, mine is showing the odd sign of age now. I could dust it a bit more too.

These days I could call my computer desk, which is the focus of my home office, bohemian. I like bohemian, it gives me some slack for not being especially clean or tidy. Bohemian allows some clutter (in a fashionable way) and even the dust bunnies fit into the Bohemian lifestyle. At least that's how I see it.

I have an assortment of stuff scattered over my desk. My old mousepad has now become the coffee cup coaster. Beside that I have a back scratcher because I don't really have another good place to put it and, I got a bit lazy last night and did not move it somewhere else. I also have the two remotes for the TV because I like to have it on, babbling away in the background. Some people work to music, I work to random conversations it seems. I've got assorted tubes and bottles of cream for my face and hand sanitizer which I squirt over my hands and the computer mouse too. I have my new hand-held scanner which I need to buy a micro SD card for still and I have my old photo scanner which is much loved but does not like my new computer well enough to stay plugged in to it. The rest is clutter I have to admit. You might think some of the above it clutter too... and you could be right.

Yes, I would love a hardwood desk for my home office. I can see it in my mind, lots of drawers and cubby holes. Heavy and dense, the sort of desk it would take several men and perhaps at least one horse too, just to move it into my room. A dark wood in colour but maybe a stain like cherry wood to make it look less serious. Curved lines on some of the drawers because I don't like a lot of squares and unrelieved straight lines. A romantic, almost shabby chic look to it. Likely some fabric somewhere, maybe a desk skirt, if that wouldn't be going too far. A desk like that should have some mystery to it too, not be just girly looking.

It would be a great desk... but I've got my bohemian computer desk right now, in the real world that is my life. I like it and I'm going to keep it. After all, it puts up with me and all my stuff.

I've been reading about dead technology, things like wind-up watches, letter writing and typewriters. Then I found a link to people who collect typewriter ribbon tins. This got me thinking, it's not just the technology or industry itself which dies but all the little things that go along with it.

I had an old typewriter, or my family did anyway. I can remember the smell of the ribbon and the tinny smell of the old typewriter itself. The ribbon was wound around two spools and would gradually wind back and forth between them until someone decided the ink had become too faded and replaced it with a new ribbon. That's where the fancy ribbon case would come in. It would hold the fresh ribbon and spool.

Flickr: Typewriter Ribbon Tin Menagerie

As products go, what could be more banal than the lowly typewriter ribbon? In an effort to stand out from the crowd, ribbon manufacturers covered their products' tins with colorful type and graphic elements. Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Mid-century Modern graphic design are all well represented. Some tins feature fanciful illustrations having absolutely nothing to do with typewriters, ribbons, writing, business or anything remotely connected with typing. As the industrialized culture of international business spread throughout the 1960s and 70s, soulless, bland graphics and cheap cardboard packaging took over. The tin was no more.

Collecting Typewriter Ribbon Tins -- Site by Darryl C. Rehr

Uppercase Collection of Typewriter Ribbon Tins on Flickr.

"Life's more fun if you tilt things now and then. " -- Elizabeth Spatz

I had an online friend, Laura (which is also my own name), who loved floaty pens. Like so many people you meet online in chats, forums and various other virtual places, I lost track of her after the group fell apart/ faded away. Without turning this post into a tell all true confessions thing, I will say that I really liked Laura but (at the time) I was shocked to find out she was having an affair with one of the married men in the group. She was also married. I've become a little jaded or seasoned since those early days, back when we talked on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and used mIRC.

Anyway, Laura had begun to create a site for her floaty pen collection. She shared the link with me. But, that was probably ten years ago. I don't have the link and so far I don't think I've found it. Many of the personal collection floaty pen sites I've found are pretty neglected/ forgotten. Not all, some are as active as this year, pretty good for a small niche hobby page/ site.

I do have a couple of floaty pens buried away in the stuff I haven't unpacked. I have been something of a vagabond, moving every 5 to ten years. Unpacking wears thin. One of my floaty pens came from my Grandmother's trip to London, UK. Another I had bought myself with my allowance money on a family trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario. A third pen is from the CN Tower here in Toronto, another family trip though we had arrived on a foggy day and never did go up to the observation deck to try looking for our house.

There is a recent pen, pink for breast cancer awareness. It's not as fun as watching London bridge rise and fall or the elevator go up and down the length of the CN Tower but it is pretty in pink, with the pink ribbon floating along a line of women standing together. I bought it at Zellers, when I was still working there as a cashier.

• StyloMotion -- A place to discuss floaty pens.
• Susan and Russell's Floaty Pen Museum
• Floating Around the World
• Float About
• Debbie's Floaty Emporium
• The Floaty Pen Zone
• Flickr: Floaty Pens
• Mary Mc's Floaty Pen Page
• Personal Floaty Pen site and collection.

Happy Worker: Custom Floating Action Pens

History of Floaty Pens
In the 1950s, Esso (now Exxon Mobil) approached Peder Eskesen, a one-time baker and the owner of a small acrylic factory in Denmark. Eskesen had been working on a pen that contained mineral oil, and Esso wanted to have an original ballpoint pen made with a small oil drum floating in oil. Buoyed by this first floating success, in the decades that followed Eskesen produced numerous corporate and tourist souvenir floaty pens. A later standout invention was the famous (or infamous) tip 'n strip pen. Long a staple of dorm rooms and source for teenage snickering, these x-rated pens featured scantily clad female or male strippers whose black-colored underwear vanish completely with a simple tip of the pen. Of course, the mechanism behind these conceal & reveal pens have also been put to good use with other, less controversial corporate messages.

Float Art Design: History of Float Pens

Over 63 Years of Float Pen History
Typical Danish-made Eskesen floating pens create a detailed miniature scene inside the confines of a 16×80 millimeter translucent tube, and inside the tube, some object (a plane, a car, etc.) always floats by. The liquid inside the pen is not water but rather mineral oil, which allows the floating objects to float smoothly and slowly across the scene.

Eskesen was not the first company to attempt floating pens. Other styles had been created over the years. But inventors had been plagued by the problem of leaking mineral oil. In 1946, Peder Eskesen, a Danish baker, developed a method of effectively sealing the oil-filled tubes, launching him quickly in front of his competitors. Eskesen has continued on to become the leader in float pen technology, and the company's sealing process is still a carefully-guarded secret.

Early Eskesen pens often held 3-dimensional floating objects, such as the mermaid pen (below). There were many mechanical pencils made, and many of the parts were metal. In the 1960's, however, it became difficult to find workers willing to hand paint the 3-D floating objects, and the metal parts became too expensive to be profitable.

Eskesen's first pen order was for Esso (now Exxon) and contained a bobbing oil drum. Soon the company was marketing the pens worldwide.