Every drawer in Akra Jr’s bedroom is full to the brim. Overflowing. To the point they jam and get stuck every time you open one to get something out.

It’s not that he has too many toys or too little storage. We’ve been careful with both. No, the problem is paper. Loads and loads of paper. Every scribble he’s drawn, every model he’s made is crunched into the back of a drawer, other stuff piled on top of it and then the drawer is shoved closed as best as it can be.

I have tried teaching him how to sort things out and only keep the very best, I have told him that drawers too tightly packed get toys damaged and lost, I have bought him a lovely A3 art folder and allocated a single drawer for 3D models, we have had big clear outs. It’s the same story – within a week it’s all come back again, filling up every available space (and most of the carpet too).

He is beyond the age where you can clear out half the stuff and have him not notice. At some point, I’m just going to have to accept that he’s a hoarder and that he’ll have to fight his way through every night to go to sleep in a nest of paper, aren’t I?

The problem with not writing a blog regularly is that you eventually find you have even less to say.

My brain no longer is in the mode of thinking “oh, I must blog about that” when something happens or I read something interesting during the day. I don’t feel the need to share every minutiae or my current interest of the day any more.

Blogging hasn’t been the only casualty of late, I haven’t picked up a camera in ages either, let alone posted to my Flickr or Fotonomy accounts on a regular basis.

It’s not that I feel they’ve come to a natural end. I miss them and the communities within them – but not so much that I have made any great efforts to increase their focus in my daily life, obviously. And the longer I go without making any contribution, the easier it is to let them slide further out of my life.

So how do you bounce back from non-participation? Are there bloggers who have returned from their hiatus willing to share what helped them to refocus?