Digital declutter

Every so often, I go through a decluttering phase that sees me attempt to purge some of the stuff I have accumulated. It usually happens after I reach a tipping point of sorts - something that is hard to define but I always know once I'm there. I feel like I'm currently at a digital tipping point. Something has to happen.

Much like cleaning up your home, there are lots of tips available for digital decluttering. However, I think they pretty much involve the same strategy: do it slowly but surely - and be firm.

A couple of years ago I unsubscribed to a whole pile of daily deal sites and it felt great! However, they have slowly but surely crept up again and the daily assault on my junk mail inbox was starting to spiral out of control. 17 emails with unmissable deals by lunch time, most of which I instantly delete? No thanks! So, during the past week or so I've started unsubscribing and removing myself from mailing lists all over the place. A few are precariously hanging in there until I make a final decision about whether or not they can stay. Some are proving harder to remove than others; they send me "are you sure?" messages then confirmations that they have received my confirmation. Enough, already!

My Feedly blogroll has also been included in this digital declutter. Sorry to all those who haven't updated their blogs in more than a year, but you're most likely off my list now! I am less brutal than I'd like to be with Twitter and Facebook, though. Every attempt at unfollowing or defriending usually nets just a few casualties at a time, coupled with more guilty pangs than any grown up should realistically be feeling. Digital zen is harder to achieve than it looks.

A day at the fair

Our extended family is growing and now there are more birthdays and occasions that require gifts than ever before. We have a shelf at the top of the wardrobe where we stock up on gifts during the year (online shopping is great!), but this week's birthday has cleared out the present cupboard. Time to go shopping!

It is a beautiful summer's day, which is perfect for the annual Petone Rotary Fair. Living a stone's throw away from Jackson Street means we don't have to tussle for parking in and out of the side streets and can be in among the action within minutes. It is tempting to pimp out our driveway for profit on days like these ... today, it was occupied by a friend who was thankful she could bypass all the commotion and drive straight into a guaranteed car park.

The fair featured the usual assortment of stalls and entertainment as well as all the Jackson Street shops open for business. There were possibly fewer this year as the street seemed less crowded and more pleasant to wander through. We went in search of the usual fair grub (coffee, fair fudge - sadly, chop suey was nowhere to be seen this time) and enjoyed fresh spring rolls, dim sum and roti with peanut sauce from various street vendors. I picked up a few gifts for family members (I'm great at shopping for others), including some gorgeous wooden toys and this adorable set of book ends for the newest reader in our family.

How could any new reader resist these book ends?

Further up the street, there was a stall I'd never seen before. I don't recall the name of the company, but couldn't miss the product they were selling: coffins. Now, I know there's no reason why we shouldn't demystify death and it's probably very practical to think of these things in advance. I just didn't expect to see coffin samples nestled in among baby clothing and colourful children's toys at an event like this. We didn't linger.

A day at the fair is a great way to celebrate and support local businesses and crafty people from all around the region. I was thrilled to start restocking our present cupboard again but will say no to a buying a coffin for now.

Daily deal overload

I used to be quite a fan of daily deal sites. They certainly help deal to my fear and loathing for shopping. There are dozens of them around and more springing up as we speak. Each new site launches with a hiss and a roar, offering great bargains on products or deals for restaurants that I actually use with the sole intention of filling up my inbox each morning. Yes, I know there are sites which syndicate all of New Zealand's daily deals in one place, and you can also follow a whole bunch of them on Twitter. My point is that after the initial fireworks they inevitably settle into a rut of canvas photo blocks, dental checkups and bikini waxes. That's not to mention all the sites that recycle their same deals (or try to repackage them in weekend 'marathons') or offer a 'last chance' for four days in Phuket every day of the week ... enough already!

Today, I unsubscribed from most of my daily deal email subscriptions. A few which I use regularly (and have had great service from) remain, but the rest have gone. Disappeared. Vanished! I notice that one sale site I unsubscribed on Saturday is still sending me notifications; I hope that stops today.

Here's to a zen inbox!

Gift vouchers

So, Christmas has well and truly come and gone and some people are back at work before the New Year holiday weekend. I briefly found myself in a shopping mall this morning. It’s not like I set out to buy anything, but I still have Farmers vouchers burning a hole in my handbag that I got for Christmas last year (or was it two birthdays ago?). Looking back through my blog, I see I was trying to spend these same vouchers a year ago. Poor me. :-/

They say that vouchers are the perfect gift if you don’t know what to buy for someone. Just choose a shop they like, or a store with several departments, or even a mall and voila, your gift buying problems are solved! For me, that works very well in theory. The reality is somewhat different because here we are more than a year later with vouchers still in my handbag and very little to show for the ones I've spent. My sweetie is the opposite; vouchers burn a hole in his pocket and are disposed of almost immediately or very quickly after he receives them. I know others who are like that, too.

Thankfully, I didn’t receive any gift vouchers this Christmas. Actually, I begged and pleaded with my family to not give me any. I suspect they think I’m kidding when I say I simply can’t spend them. Even I don't explain it very well.

I’ve heard every form of ‘sympathy’. “You can give them to me if you don’t want to spend them.” Yeah, right. “You should go shopping with someone who likes to shop and then you’ll spend them easily.” Nope, hasn’t worked. “Wait for a big sale – then you’ll find something.” Wrong again; there are sales almost every weekend and I still have $50 left to spend. “You don’t have to buy clothes. Go to another department and spend it there.” Still not working. I just end up winding myself up, getting extremely stressed then going home grumpy at having not bought anything again. Stop laughing - it's true!

This morning's brief foray into Westfield mall ended ok. I still have vouchers to spend but am proud to report no tantrums, whining or tears (so far). It seems a shame to have not bought discounted items during this week's big sale, but there will be another one, right?

Oh, and don't get me started on what I do once I've actually bought something - you'd be amazed at how long it takes me to use new items, but that is another blog post!

What are your thoughts about giving and receiving vouchers?

An offline wilderness

I am terrible at spending gift vouchers. Actually, I'm not a great shopper at all, but I can easily spend months pondering what to spend a gift voucher on and more often than not redeem them close to their expiry date. I have been carrying around $170 of Farmers vouchers for about six months now, a couple of $10 Westfield vouchers, and $20 credit at the iTunes Store. I finally used $60 in last week's Farmers sale (still more to go - actually, some of that came from trading in airpoints that were about to expire, lol), but the Westfield vouchers remain in my wallet.

While I generally like the idea of vouchers as gifts, either giving or receiving, it takes me more time than almost anyone else to research all my possible spending options before finally redeeming them, usually during some kind of sale or when I'm in desperate need of an item. I've always been like that; I'm not sure why spending is so hard for me when others seem to love it!

Next week, we are going away to a place with no cell phone coverage, no Internet access (I don't credit 13 KB dial-up as being 'Internet'), and very cautious use of electricity and water. Some would call that bliss; I call it cold turkey. I'll surgically remove my laptop from my side and switch off my cell phone before we leave, but have already collected a supply of books to read and a backup: my trusty iPod touch. Up until now, this prize has been an occasional toy; next week it will be my lifeline in a non-digital world! (Am I exaggerating? Not sure ...)

I have spent some time today preparing my iPod touch. My 60GB iPod holds my entire music collection but will be left behind; 16GB is a struggle for me, especially when sharing the available space with other applications, so I have put together some basic playlists to see me through the week. I also went shopping at the iTunes Store and almost spent all of my $20 voucher. Almost.

What did I buy? A few games that I've been playing the lite versions of, some more expensive than I would have bought myself (well, all of them really - I've only played freebies so far):

• Diner Dash - I would consider this a living nightmare in real life, but I've just signed up for 50 virtual levels and can't wait!
  
• Cooking Dash - ditto
• Fling - it's fun flinging things around on an iPod touch
  
• Fuzzle - strangely addictive
• Moonlight Mahjong - I've only ever played mahjong online and this is quite a cool version
• SimCity - I used to love playing this on my PC, so I'll see if I can achieve the same results on a 3.5" screen.

So, I'm nearly ready for my big week offline without email, Facebook, Twitter, blogging (although I might be able to prepare posts on my touch). Anyone would think I was heading for the depths of a jungle wilderness! I am looking forward to going away, really!

The system is down

I was at Warehouse Stationery this afternoon looking to buy a diary for 2010. A few people were already waiting at the counter so I browsed for a while before hearing those dreaded words: "your card has been declined". An embarrassed customer asked to try again with another card and promptly received the same response from the machine. Another customer tried to use their card - same thing. The queues lengthened, then the ubiquitous verdict was declared by two counter staff: "The system is down".

The tension started to rise. One customer left her purchases behind, another decided to wait for a while and try again. It didn't help things that a staff member at another counter declared loudly that her EFTPOS terminal was working just fine and perhaps they had just done something wrong when processing the sale, or should have hit F7, or something. She was promptly hushed when her system also started declining transactions.

Having only intended to buy a diary with a 25% discount, I offered to pay cash. I was immediately ushered to the front of the queue and my $4.50 transaction was processed by a relieved cashier: a successful sale! But almost everyone else was cashless. I walked out, diary in hand, and pondered the growing mayhem inside.

A couple of weeks ago, a similar thing happened at my local doctor's surgery when I went to pick up a prescription. The queue at reception grew. When asked by a receptionist, "who's waiting?", about four people replied, "we all are!". Oh no: the system was down! Invoices were promised and manual transactions attempted. I offered to pay cash and was told by the now-flustered receptionist, "no, sorry, you can't: our system is down". It took her a moment to relax a bit after I laughingly pointed out that things must be really bad if she couldn't accept a $10 note. There were giggles all round as I left everyone to sort out their payments.

As we increasingly move towards becoming a cashless society, I can't help but wonder what is Plan B for when the system is down and people no longer carry even small amounts of cash?