Moving On, Cleaning Out
Feb. 23rd, 2026 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerNow that my retirement started 11 days earlier than expected (my company walked me this morning in a fit of pique over me quitting) I've started the process of moving on. Mentally I was moving on— as in mentally checked-out— a few weeks ago. Today I've begun the physical parts of moving on. A lot of that means cleaning out.
Today I cleaned out my phone. I removed company email and calendars. Then I removed apps I only used for work: Slack, Google Meet, Expensify, Navan, and a few conference apps. I kept Zoom because I use it outside of work, too. Okay, so that's not physical cleanup; it's digital. But I felt lighter and less cluttered already.
The next steps in cleaning up will be physical. For example, I've got a bunch of technical books on a shelf near my desk plus a few stacked on the desk itself. There's no reason to keep them close to hand anymore. I can't bring myself to throw out books.... I'm thinking instead I'll move them to shelves in the crawlspace. I'll have to buy shelves for that. 😅
Then there's the bunch of trophies my company has sent me over the years for awards I've won. Several of the most meaningful I've set atop my desk and on a trophy shelf as pleasant reminders. The rest are still in their boxes, stacked in a pile beside my desk or shoved under my armchair. At this point I think I might just throw all of them in the trash. I simply don't care anymore. (I will give myself maybe a week to rethink that call before they go to the dumpster outside.)
Back on the digital side of things, one change I'm making here in Dreamwidth/LiveJournal is renaming my tag job to my last job.
Today I cleaned out my phone. I removed company email and calendars. Then I removed apps I only used for work: Slack, Google Meet, Expensify, Navan, and a few conference apps. I kept Zoom because I use it outside of work, too. Okay, so that's not physical cleanup; it's digital. But I felt lighter and less cluttered already.
The next steps in cleaning up will be physical. For example, I've got a bunch of technical books on a shelf near my desk plus a few stacked on the desk itself. There's no reason to keep them close to hand anymore. I can't bring myself to throw out books.... I'm thinking instead I'll move them to shelves in the crawlspace. I'll have to buy shelves for that. 😅
Then there's the bunch of trophies my company has sent me over the years for awards I've won. Several of the most meaningful I've set atop my desk and on a trophy shelf as pleasant reminders. The rest are still in their boxes, stacked in a pile beside my desk or shoved under my armchair. At this point I think I might just throw all of them in the trash. I simply don't care anymore. (I will give myself maybe a week to rethink that call before they go to the dumpster outside.)
Back on the digital side of things, one change I'm making here in Dreamwidth/LiveJournal is renaming my tag job to my last job.
