Back in June, I wrote a post about wanting to simplify my life, and to enjoy life more.

I've made progress in some areas, not so much in other areas. Last summer I ended up pretty burned out, and I feel like I'm just starting to get caught up on a lot of things. So, here's a quick report on how I did, and what I'm planning on doing next.

Jay has also been on a similar quest.

So, one the plus side:

• Get a job that's exciting and places fewer demands on my family time. Done.
• Get the final inspection done on our ski place, and stop paying King County $500 each year to renew the permit.
• Sell the motorcycles. Done.
• Cancel some magazines. Done.

Work in progress:

• Get my investments in order. We have a mismash of different accounts - multiple IRAs, CDs, and various investment accounts. I've opened a Scottrade account that has most of my stock investments, but I still have too much money in underperforming accounts. I also own some MS ESPP stock that I need to sell. On the other hand, I've done fairly well in the stocks that I've purchased.
• Be more "there" for my family. I've been better here - I spend much less time on email, but my Halo2 time has been a little too much. I need to limit this to times when I really want to play, rather than just doing it because I can't find anything else to do. Of course, I do have a level 10 small team ranking to show for it.
• Cook more. Not "heat up", but "cook". I really haven't done much of this, and have settled for making more pedestrian meals. I need to find a cuisine to work on, or a new type of dish. Suggestions welcome.
• Remodelling. Well, this is probably going to be an ongoing project for a long time. I've gotten a few things done and a few others planned, but I just need to get off my butt and get them started.

Another project is "add storage to the house". It's somewhat paradoxical, but I've found that having good storage is a good forcing function to get you to go through things and get rid of stuff that you don't need any more. If a room is always cluttered even if you cleaned things up, it's easy for things to get out of shape.

I now have four 36 x 24 x 80" Ikea pantry cabinets in the garage, and three more that will go in our laundry room as soon as we get a floor down. They hold a considerable amount of stuff, and my garage is moving towards clean and organized.

What have you done to make your life simpler and more organized?