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#26
Old 01-23-2016, 04:49 AM

Thank you so much for your support, Cherry Who?! :D <3 it did feel good to get rid of those things! The crumpled paper, I was considering keeping in case I needed to ship something in the near future, or maybe I needed some things to stuff into a bag to let it hold its shape while I was not using it... anyhow, I have realized that I do kind of make excuses to justify keeping things ^_^;

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#27
Old 01-24-2016, 09:04 PM

Cherry Who?: you might be interested in this article!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/fa...spark-joy.html

Cherry Who?
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#28
Old 01-25-2016, 07:08 PM

I didn't know she had written another book! That's nice. :)

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#29
Old 02-07-2016, 04:20 AM

I'd love to write a book someday :) not sure about what yet, but I think it would be cool.

Cleaning and decluttering progress for the day! I am happy to have started again with selling some of my old textbooks! I have probably mentioned them before, but I have stacks of them from high school and college (as well as magazines) just piled up next to my desk. So I am mailing / have mailed three textbooks to Amazon so far as part of their textbook buy back program, so hopefully those will go through -- after all, I keep my textbooks in beautiful condition -- and then they will credit my Amazon account with some monies! *nods in excitement* and yesterday, I sold my old iclicker (a device with A B C D E buttons that you can use during class to answer questions or for attendance purposes). And I have found a buyer for two other books and will be meeting them tomorrow since they live nearby! And I just recycled an old magazine that I literally just flipped through in under a minute to see the pictures. Small progress, but it's happening!

EDIT: I also made an account on half.com to maybe sell some textbooks through there...but I'm not very experienced with selling things online so I'm not sure how soon I will start using it on a regular basis. But I had a friend who's successfully sold almost 300 items using half.com / ebay, so I know it's a reliable online marketplace.

Last edited by salvete; 02-07-2016 at 04:23 AM..

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#30
Old 02-07-2016, 05:29 PM

Some things I did this morning!

I cleaned up the mess of DVDs on the TV stand into two neat stacks. They were DVD's I brought upstairs because I wanted to watch them, but I have not had the time to do so. So maybe I will just bring them all back downstairs later.

I threw away a ton of other magazines today, i.e. for recycling. I didn't read them, but I figured I never would, so no point in keeping them there. Now there is more floorspace in the house, yay!

There were about a dozen pens and highlighters spread across the coffee table for some reason, so I put those back into the pen cups on my desk. Yay for more coffee table space peeking through!

I put all the stuff I am selling (besides the big textbooks) into one big box! I will have to organize those eventually and update my spreadsheet.

I put a bunch of loose papers from the coffee table to the designated binders. I also recycled several odd bits of paper.

We bought three bottles of soda the other day that we just left on the kitchen floor. I have brought those downstairs to the basement pantry so it's not in our way and makes the kitchen floor seem more clear.

I threw away some used napkins on the dining room table that have been there for maybe a day.

And I swept the floor with my trusty dustpan.

Now it's time for lunch!

---------- Post added 02-07-2016 at 02:56 PM ----------

UPDATE: I met with the buyer and so have sold two textbooks off my large pile, yay!

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#31
Old 02-12-2016, 04:04 AM

Hooray, so I completed my first successful trade-in with Amazon! As I mentioned before, I have stacks of old textbooks that I have been wanting to sell, either to students or to Amazon. These textbooks cost a lot of money -- literally several thousands of dollars over the years -- so ideally, I could earn at least some of it back through selling, instead of just tossing them out. Anyway, Amazon gave me more than $50 for the first textbook I sent them! I received the maximum amount they offered, since my textbook was in almost perfect condition. I do take really good care of my books ^_^ <3 It is all given in Amazon credit, so it's great for buying even more textbooks, I guess...haha.

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#32
Old 02-14-2016, 05:13 AM

February 14, 2016 - I didn't really do much cleaning or decluttering today. I dusted the floor again, did two loads of laundry -- light and dark. And I guess I have been trying open and use more stuff. Like I used a highlighter today that I never used before. And I opened a pack of two wite-out tape dispenser thingies. There is no point in keeping brand new sealed things there without using them. So I guess that is good. And I moved a big pack of Poland Spring water bottles from the playroom to the closet, so there is now a little bit more floor space in that room. And I also have three more textbooks that I am planning to send to Amazon as part of their trade in program, so that is three fewer books from the still gigantic stacks I have piling up next to my desk.

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#33
Old 02-14-2016, 11:29 PM

Yay, so I just threw up a lot of papers and mail that I did not even remember storing on my bookshelf. So, my bookshelf is cleaner now :) although there is still a ways to go. But every little bit of progress counts :)

I also need to remember to put things back after using them. I have a highlighter and wite-out tape next to me that I used today, but once I am done using them, I should put them back.

EDIT: wow I meant threw out, not threw up

Last edited by salvete; 04-26-2016 at 06:36 AM..

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#34
Old 02-15-2016, 06:49 PM

This morning, I went through a few boxes in my bedroom and found a ton of awesome crafts supplies that I completely forgot about! I also had a ton of loose items everywhere that I was able to put into the correct places, at least putting the same thingamajigs in the same place :) I took a bunch of photos of all the pretty things I found and will be posting them in my hobbies and crafting journal here: http://www.menewsha.com/forum/creati...g-journal.html

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#35
Old 02-16-2016, 05:30 PM

So I realized that I talk a lot about the decluttering aspect of the journal but not the cleaning part of things besides the usual dusting.

When I am in "my other room," I clean the sink almost every day with a foaming shower cleanser. I also wipe the top, bottom, and side edge of the toilet seat of the shared bathroom with alcohol before I ever sit on it. I definitely clean it more than everyone else who uses that bathroom, so it gets pretty disgusting sometimes. Thank goodness for them that they have me cleaning the toilet, haha.

Note that alcohol does not kill all the microbes that could be on the toilet seat. There are certain organisms such as the bacteria species Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium difficile, Clostridium tetani, and Clostridium botulinum that produce spores that are not killed by alcohol. Instead, a thorough wash with soap and water is needed to get rid of the spores, which could later germinate and produce toxins and cause all sorts of trouble if they get in the bloodstream.

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#36
Old 02-20-2016, 07:04 AM

So, just some things I did today that are related to cleaning and decluttering. I threw out two empty orange juice bottles that are to be recycled. I washed the dishes. I wiped some parts of the floor. I picked up some stray used tissues that I found hiding underneath my bed... Along with a turtleneck shirt that had gone missing before, I am glad that I found it,. I will certainly be putting that into the washing machine with the next load that I take care of. I also washed the dish rack that I put stuff in to dry after washing them. I wiped the toilet. There was a gigantic plastic bag filled with
garbage that was thrown out by the owner of that bag who was not me. There was a small container of ketchup that I had saved from my pre iOS meal in the refrigerator but it was becoming congealed and un appetizing looking so I threw that out. I threw out grapefruit and orange peels that I had been drying for potpourri. I threw out wrappers of foods that I ate such as a granola bar and chocolate chip cookie. Speaking of, I have a side pocket on my backpack that I out garbage items temporarily, like used tissues or Granola bar wrappers so I empty that out as often as I can.

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#37
Old 02-25-2016, 05:06 PM

I've been doing a very good job, if I do say so myself, of this new method I am using. I read about it somewhere -- I forget where -- but basically, it's to try to "touch everything once."

For example, my email inbox only has maybe 100 emails, and that's already too much in my opinion. The idea of "touching everything once" is to declutter my inbox effectively.

Let's say I open ("touch") an email. If I can finish the task quickly, I will do it right then and there instead of marking it unread to do later.

Or if I see ("touch") unwanted email in my inbox, I will immediately delete it. I also empty the trash in my email whenever I remember, to free up storage space on my account.

Of course, there are inevitably emails that I have to, have to leave until later, which is fine. But as much as possible, I only want to "touch" each email once.

The same goes for messages and texts. I choose to either respond to them right then and there -- "touching" it once -- or not at all, in which case I remove it from my screen or inbox (which is also "touching it once").

I wonder if this method can be applied to other things. I will have to think about it.

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#38
Old 02-28-2016, 02:02 AM

I dusted the floors today. I have gotten into the habit of doing that at least once a week.

I have two more textbooks to sell back to Amazon, yay! But although the pile of textbooks is shrinking, there are just so many of them that the difference is still very small. There are other books I would like to sell back too, but the trade-in offer is only a few dollars for each book, and I spent hundreds of dollars on all of these...so I feel like keeping them because it is just not worth it to sell those back. Unfortunately, I waited too long and there are new editions of these textbooks, which is why the trade-in value is now so low.

There are also a lot of books that are unable to be traded in at all. I don't know what I will do with those books. I am still trying to sell them to local students, but have not received any responses recently so I don't know how that will go. It would be a shame to just throw away these educational materials, and I don't know anywhere these can even be donated since the library has been closed for a while (and who knows if there will be enough funding to re-open it anytime in the near future).

I also threw away and recycled a bunch of things. So many random things that it is difficult for me to remember exactly what they were to list them here.

Meanwhile, more and more stuff seems to enter the house while I am trying to get more things out of it.

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#39
Old 03-12-2016, 01:51 AM

Humdeedum. I kind of forgot to keep track of my cleaning and decluttering progress for the past few weeks. So there is a lot to cover.

Firstly, I really love Amazon's trade-in service that lets you sell back your textbooks, books, DVDs, and other items as long as they are in good condition. ^_^ I have received full payment for several orders already, and it was super easy to do! All you have to do is print out the packing slip thingamajig, put your item in a box, and get it to the UPS Store. And then they ship it to Amazon -- did I mention shipping is free -- and in about a week, you get Amazon credit in your account! That is real money you can spend on literally anything on Amazon, which is awesome! Of course I might end up spending it on more textbooks or something, but hey, it helps to get money back while decluttering my textbook pile so why not! :)

And today, I went to a supermarket with several bags of recyclable plastic bottles, water bottles, cans, et cetera. And it was so fun to use the recycling machines! You just put them in one by one and watch the machine calculate how much money you get back, which you had paid initially as part of your deposit when you bought the beverages in the first place. So it's technically not making money because you paid that money in the first place, but I can understand why I have seen some people collecting bottles and such on the street to make ends meet.

And then there are a lot of smaller things I did. Things like tossing out empty bottles that are recyclable but aren't accepted by those machines, and throwing away papers that weren't needed anymore, dusting the floors in my other room, a lot of dish washing... Some things just never seem to end. Like the dish washing and dusting to make sure things are clean. And then the decluttering seems to be at an equilibrium with the accumulation of more things. Once my exams are over, I will try to make a more drastic change, like figuring out other venues of selling away my piles of textbooks that aren't accepted by Amazon.

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#40
Old 03-20-2016, 02:58 AM

Yay for cleaning! As usual, the dusting of the floors, the throwing out of empty bottles, the cleaning of the sink and toilet, and the like. I also started to scrub the floor in my other room, but was stopped by my friends who insisted that they were perfectly comfortable with sitting on chairs. (I had wanted to get the floors cleaner so that they could sit comfortably on the floor instead, but it turned out great anyway.) And all four of my trade-in packages to Amazon have been accepted and paid in full.

Now that exams are over, I have a week, a pretty limited time, in which to maximize my cleaning and decluttering. But I am not sure how yet.

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#41
Old 03-20-2016, 07:21 PM

Hey...I just stumbled onto this thread...
I think this is a great way to keep one's self motivated and accountable when it comes to keeping a tidy abode!
And the before and after picture idea is a great idea, also...having a physical image of the progress one has made can really boost the self confidence and pride in a job well done...a job that nobody else did but YOU!

If I didn't live with my BF, I would probably be a Neat Freak, keeping everything organized and having a proper place for everything...
But, the BF is...a SLOB!
He has no ability to put anything back where he got it from...even the peanut butter jar gets left on the counter, only a foot away from where it belongs, along with the crumbs that were created when he made himself a sandwich (and ONLY him a sandwich, btw!).
I have developed a system where, if I am headed to the other side of the house, I try to take notice of any things I might be able to pick up along the way, to be deposited in their proper places...then I do the same thing on the return trip.
This keeps me from making numerous trips to put things away...getting the majority of it all in just a couple passes through the house.
My 3 year old granddaughter also lives with me, so the quantity of disarray has more than doubled...keeping me busy trying to keep a clear path to walk in.
I horde strange stuff that is difficult to part with...an ongoing skulls collection, my kids's school paintings and report cards, concert ticket stubs...but I totally enjoy organizing stuff and keeping things tidy...I call it Tetris-izing! Lol!
But, when it comes to actual CLEANING, I procrastinate until it becomes unavoidable!
It's bad enough that I have no dishwasher and standing at the sink to wash dishes leaves my back aching...
And the fact that I wash nearly 85 percent of our dirty laundry, by hand, in a bucket in the bathtub...
When it comes to things like washing walls and cleaning the toilet...I have a hard time finding the desire to muster up the energy!
We use well water, and it leaves mineral deposits in the toilet...making it look dirty....
I recently discovered that if I dump a goodly amount of vinegar into the toilet and let it sit for a while, the ugly mineral stains brush right off!
That makes that chore just a little easier and less time consuming, at least!
The only room in our house that isn't covered with carpet is the bathroom...so it is fortunate that I enjoy vacuuming...
I vacuum nearly every day...due to the grandkid dropping crumbs and the fact that we have a cat that sheds EVERYWHERE!
My favorite cleaning chores are folding laundry and vacuuming...and if I weren't stuck at home, caring for my adult, disabled daughter, I would hire myself out to other folks who don't like to do laundry and vacuuming!
But, my place seems to be at home...picking up after my own folks! Lol!

(I actually enjoyed reading this whole thread, btw...I can see where this journal has helped you to make some routines that help you continue to make progress. Cool beans!!)

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#42
Old 03-21-2016, 04:31 PM

Thank you so much, Inzanebraned! <3 Haha I love that term, Tetrisizing! I might just start using that term with a slightly different definition because I love playing Tetris, and I often tell my friends and family that fitting all the new groceries into the fridge is like playing real-life Tetris! So that's a perfect word! That is a good idea, to take things with you if you are going to another room or something anyway *nods* I don't have a dishwasher either, so I have hand-washed all my dishes my entire life.

That is good that you enjoy folding laundry and vacuuming! I used to not like doing laundry much, because the way our system was set up was such that we had to watch the washing machine every time we put in a load. Because the pipe that empties out the washing machine goes into our sink, which is pretty shallow, and if you don't watch it, then a ton of water could potentially overflow everywhere.

But luckily, we got a new washing machine pretty recently, which is one of those eco-friendly ones that conserves water. So now, doing the laundry is great and easy! Because the amount of water that comes out is small enough that the sink will never overflow unless the drain is clogged or something. We didn't buy this particular machine with that intention, but it worked out great for us. I am doing my third load of the day right now, actually. First, I washed all the light-colored clothing and bed linings. Second, I washed the bath and hand towels. And now, I am washing the socks. There are still dark-colored items left to wash, but the clotheslines are running out of space! So I guess I will wash those tomorrow.

Just as an aside - it was a ton of multi-tasking this morning! In between loading the washing machine and hanging things on the clothesline, I was running back and forth to the kitchen where I was cooking noodles and sausages, reheating some beef stew, and poaching eggs for lunch. I also got some new dresses that I was trying on.

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#43
Old 04-10-2016, 04:58 PM

Oh I did so much cleaning the other day...I would say it was about two days ago. I dusted so many surfaces with my handy dandy swiffer duster. And I sweeped up so many crumbs and such with my handy pan and duster. I even moved the big out from against the wall and sweeped up all the dust -- a shockingly thick layer -- that had been hiding under there. I found a hairclip in the process.

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#44
Old 04-25-2016, 02:34 PM

Okay I really want to do a big overhaul in the way my room is organized right now.

So currently, I have a desk with a hutch, a chest of drawers, a closet, a tiny shelf, and a bed in my room. Oh, and two long plastic storage boxes under my bed. My room is pretty small, so that's kind of all I have in there besides little things.

All my clothes are either hanging nicely in the closet, folded neatly in the chest of drawers, of which there are five drawers, or in a gigantic pile on the floor right now because I did laundry and can't fit them all into my closet or chest of drawers anymore ahhhhh o.o I didn't realize I had so much clothing!

My desk has three decently sized drawers, but I have random things in them right now. I guess I will have to go through those.

So my plan is to empty out one of the desk drawers so I can fill it up with things like scarves and such, which are currently taking up some of the space in my chest of drawers And then I can hopefully fit more clothing into the chest of drawers.

Also, I wonder if I can spare one of the plastic storage bins under my bed for something. But right now, a lot of my plush toys are in them. I like to keep them in there so they are safe from getting dusty. But we will see.

I have also been trying to clear the tiny shelf in my room. It is tiny in that it is very shallow, but I successfully cleared some of it to put several packs of feminine products on there for storage. This shelf is behind the door so it's perfect in my opinion for those kinds of things. I used to store them on the very top shelf in my closet, but it made them quite hard to reach when I needed them.

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#45
Old 04-26-2016, 06:43 AM

I recently found out that I could make folders on my iPad to group apps together. This is great because I was able to declutter the screen and make the more important apps more visible. There are lots of apps that the device comes with that I cannot delete, so I put a bunch of the, into a single folder and voila, more screen space! I also realized that you can move the apps around on the screen, including to other pages and to the bottom as permanent fixtures. So yay l did some reorganization and am proud to be able to prioritize my apps and my device better as a result of my recent discovery.

The iPad is very good, it seems, at detecting what apps do what when I try to group some together. I now have folders called extras, games, productivity, and art. The art folder has three apps, inkist and you doodle and another one whose name I somehow forgot. Neko atsume and snapchat are among the apps in the games folder. Oh and I think I put groupme in there too. As for the productivity folder, I have things like Dropbox app, google sheets, Google drive, Google maps, and other such kinds of apps.

Also an update on the two plastic bins under my bed, they are both filled to the brim with toys. So I guess I cannot really use the, for anything unless I throw out toys, which is something I do not want to have to do right now. I do think however that it will be possible to empty out one of the drawers in my desk in order to put more clothing in there. We'll by empty I mean more like combine two drawers contents together into the Sam drawer. I mean same srawee. Same drawer. I am on mobile so it is quite hard to go back and fix typos on this device...

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#46
Old 04-26-2016, 06:47 AM

Oh my goodness I typed out a while thing and then delegation deleted it, my goodness...

---------- Post added 04-26-2016 at 02:49 AM ----------

I can't even remember what I had typed but it was something along the lines of this

One of my magazine subscriptions is finAlly coming to an end. Coming to an end means no more adding additional magazines I don't even have get time to read onto the already existing gigantic pile in my living room. I Think I will just toss them all out without reading them at is point honestly because they are just taking up precious space

---------- Post added 04-26-2016 at 02:52 AM ----------

Oh before I accidentally deleted, I had also typed this

That I am getting much better at the touch everything once rule. So just like how I will no longer be receiving those magazine subscriptions that I don't even have time to read, I am also unsubscribing from a lot of email lists serves. I am so surprised sometimes by how much junk email I receive that I don't even read. I literally just delete it from my inbox when I see it, which is ridiculous. So I am unsubscribing from as many as I can to avoid getting their emails in the first place.

Last edited by salvete; 04-27-2016 at 01:07 PM..

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#47
Old 04-27-2016, 01:07 PM

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - I did two loads of laundry today. The first load was all socks, of which there were a lot to wash. The second load was dark clothing with cool tones. So anything blue, purple, and grey went in the wash together. I also swept the floors, which are forever accumulating dust and random crumbs and whatnot. And I washed a bit load of dishes as well.

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#48
Old 05-17-2016, 08:33 PM

I did so much cleaning!!!

First off, I vacuumed the entire first and second floors. And in order to do so, I had to tidy up quite a bit to be able to reach the floor and not accidentally vacuum in any small items! When I moved back home from the dorms and finished doing the laundry, I had so much clothing that it no longer fit in my drawers and closet. So, I had them in a gigantic pile on the floor.

Well, not anymore! I folded everything neatly and put everything in the drawers or…get this! I have a small bookshelf behind my door that used to be full of stuff. Well, I have since moved a lot of that stuff off so now I have folded all my hoodies and placed them on two shelfs. And on the top of the shelf, I have two neatly folded piles of t-shirts and such. I was very happy to be able to vacuum the entire floor a lot easier with that pile of clothing out of the way! I still do have things on the floor but much less than before. Oh, and I also had a ton of dresses that wouldn’t wrinkle if folded, so I have a very neat bag of dresses and skirts on my floor currently.

I also had to clean up the first floor in order to vacuum. There used to be piles of stuff underneath the coffee table, and I also had a huge pile of magazines. Well I finally made the decision to just get rid of most of them! Two even came in the mail today and I put them both in the recycling pile almost immediately. I wish the magazines would stop coming for the sake of cleanliness but the subscriptions haven’t ended yet. Some of my sibling’s things were in two piles on the floor as well, and they are now in their bedroom instead. I also had two cardboard boxes of stuff in the living room but now it’s down to one. At least, of my own boxes.

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#49
Old 05-17-2016, 08:33 PM

And as usual, the dusting of the floors every once in a while because crumbs somehow always end up on the dining room floor.

Oh! Also, I have a bookcase on the first floor that I have cleared out a ton of papers from! A whole shelf full of papers, old magazines, old school advertisement mail, and more to be exact! For example, there were some school magazines from back in high school I thought were witty, but they are no longer relevant and I’ve since learned there are other things far wittier. And I kept some of them just for the sudoku puzzles since I loved doing those back then. And I tried to solve them for a bit but then decided to stop and just get rid of them. And now it is super clean-looking, and I have been able to fit all of my new textbooks on it, hooray!

Speaking of textbooks…I do still have the piles of old textbooks that I still am trying to sell. I might end up just tossing out the older ones but I do feel kind of bad throwing away textbooks I spent quite a lot of money on and that could benefit a younger student if they had it. And I will double check amazon to see if they will accept them for trade-in. Sometimes it changes.

I also cleared most of the photos I had saved on my mobile device. I send them to myself, then delete them from the device because I have limited space. I also transferred a ton of stuff from my computer to a flash drive because I was running out of storage space on my computer as well. I went from only 2 free gigabytes to almost 25 free gigabytes, hooray! And there is more I can delete or transfer off. So I won’t have to worry as much about not having enough space to download what I need to.

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#50
Old 05-19-2016, 06:25 AM

I deleted and archived, deleted and archived in my email inbox and now I am back down to only 15 emails, woohoo!

---------- Post added 05-19-2016 at 02:40 AM ----------

I also transferred more files from my computer to my flashdrive or to google drive to free up memory space.

 


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