3-in-30 February Recap

I am a new fan of setting small goals. I LOVED having one three things to get done in February. When I had a free moment, I looked at my short little list and knew exactly how I should be spending my time.

1. Simplify
   The biggest thing I did to simplify in February was to take the month off from editing pictures and blogging. It was GREAT! I also cleaned out my Google Reader and at any moment can sit down and read through all of the unread blog post in less than 20 minutes.
   
   
2. Unpack Boxes
   The house looks great. The spare bedroom has a full closet, but it was cleaned out enough for an air mattress for Lynn's visit this weekend. Now, the garage, on the other hand, has become the collect-all for things I don't know what to do with, so can you guess what one of my March goals is going to be?!
   
   
3. Back-Up Computers
   Finances are not quite in place for backing up to the cloud yet, but I did discover that I won't be backing up to Mozy due to their new, more expensive plans. We'll probably use BackBlaze because you can back up an unlimited amount of data for one price.
   
   I also spent a significant amount of time cleaning and backing up our computers up to external hard drives. You can read most of the details below if you're interested.

---------------------------------

During the great ice/snow storm of 2011 I snuggled on the couch and cleaned up Danny's laptop (meanwhile, mine was still crashed and not working in the corner).  Here is what I did to get it up to speed and running:

1. Installed AppCleaner to help remove all unwanted software, and then went through finder deleting all old, unused and useless applications.
   
2. Installed LastPass to help create better online passwords.
   
3. Backed up the computer to Danny's partitioned external hard drive using Time Machine. (For information on setting up an external hard drive, see this article on Lifehacker.)
   
4. Installed Carbon Copy Cloner and used it to create a bootable back up of Danny's computer on the second partition of his external hard drive.
   
5. Repaired Disk Permissions to clean up little things here and there.
   
6. Ran through most of the things in this article, "Clean Up and Revive Your Bloated, Sluggish Mac" from Lifehacker to tidy up all loose ends.

Things I did to clean up my desktop computer:

• I bought some new hard drives and totally revamped my storage of media. This is what the inside of my computer looks like:

1. 500 GB Hard Drive - runs my computer/applications
2. 1 TB Hard Drive - holds all of my pictures, videos, music, and documents
3. 2 TB Hard Drive - has two partitions. Time machine backs up to one partition and SilverKeeper automatically backs up my pictures, videos, music and documents to the second partition every night.

Now, when we can afford to back everything up to BackBlaze our computers will be ready!

Usefull articles I referenced during this process:

• Resolved: How to Keep Your Computer Safe, Clean and Backed Up in 2011 on Lifehacker
• Clean Up And Revive Your Bloated Sluggish Mac on Lifehacker