Category Archives: De-Cluttering Your Genealogy Lessons

Hello challengers!  I hope you all have been working hard at de-cluttering your genealogy (or atleast attempting to de-clutter your genealogy – during this time of year everyone gets an A+ for effort!)

Welcome back to part 3 of our De-clutter Your Genealogy Challenge.  I hope you guys have been doing well so far in the challenge.  (If you haven’t been doing too well – that’s okay too.  Just try to catch up)

Welcome to part 2 of our get organized challenge. I have some more tasks for you – all of which focus on getting your desk/research area nice and ready to do some research in. You can’t do research if you don’t have the proper supplies, and part of being organized is having all the supplies you need at your fingertips.
So here are your tasks:

1.) Make sure that you have all of those office supplies that you need to do your research and make sure that they are stored nearby your desk so you can easily have access to them. Also, make sure you buy one of those cheap desk organizers (either the containers that go on top of your desk to hold pens and such, or the kind that go into your desk to keep everything in a separate compartment). Some of the supplies that I would suggest would be pens, pencils, computer paper and ink, a thumb drive (sometimes called a jump drive), file folders or binders with dividers (depending on which system of organization you use to keep your paper files organized), etc.

2.) Make sure your computer area is comfortable and easy to move around in. That means, make sure that your desk is big enough to fit your computer and still have a little room so that you can write something down if you want. Make sure that your chair is comfy, because nothing will hurt your back if you are sitting in a bad chair for hours on end. Bottom line: Just make sure the area feels comfortable to your tastes.

3.) If you haven’t done this already, figure out a system to organize your papers. This is one thing that I will not be going over in detail, because I’ve done it many, many times before. You can check out my videos on Youtube (www.youtube.com/elyses90505) and my other blog entries on it.

4.) If you haven’t done this already, find a computer program that will organize all of your data. The only real requirement on this one is that it can read, import, and export GEDCOM files (GEDCOM is the file type that is used for storing family trees).

5.) For now, put all of your pictures into big manila envelopes. Separate these pictures into categories such as “Mom as a baby”, “Trip to Disney World 1996″, etc. Label each envelop with the category and put all of these envelopes aside. We will deal with these slowly so that we don’t overwhelm ourselves. Trust me.

Good luck everyone, and I hope you guys are all doing well. Stay tuned because I am planning on making a video to show you my successes!

P.S: I am back to having internet at home on a consistent basis. Feel free to email me (GenealogistElyse@gmail.com) or comment on these blog entries. I would love to hear from you.

With the new year right around the corner, it is time to think about de-cluttering your life. In particular, I am talking about de-cluttering your family history. And I’m not just talking about that filing cabinet you have full of records – I’m talking everything from your computer genealogy program, that family website, your email inbox full of correspondence, the piles next to your computer, your accounts at genealogy websites, your contact list, etc., etc. Everything needs a good cleaning out once in a while!

By de-cluttering, I mean make your family history organized, efficient, to-do list ready, and presentable. Now, for some of you – this task may be HUGE and seem incredibly daunting. For others of you, this may seem like a good yearly clean-out. Whatever side of the fence you are on, I urge you not to panic, but to take some baby-steps towards achieving beautiful results with your family history.

The way I am going to conduct this de-cluttering task is by presenting smaller tasks. By breaking one big task up into smaller tasks, we will be able to feel some achievement even before we are done.

Now, I know that most of my work won’t be completed by the New Year – but, I am going to get a good start. I will have lots of time to work on my genealogy during the rest of December and January and I am definitely going to need it. The point is to get the ball rolling, and if it means having to keep de-cluttering through next year, then so be it. Remember, baby steps is all you have to take.