Over the past few weeks, I’ve been on both a physical and digital cleaning spree. It was long overdue, and honestly, it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
Winterizing everything
Technically, fall just started a week ago. But in the Northeast, “fall” can mean anything from 80-degree afternoons to an early snowstorm. With school and sports in full swing, the pool had seen its last swim of the season, which meant it was time to close things up. Along with that came the annual migration of tropical plants into the house for the winter.
Before I could even get there, though, my storage shed and garage were in desperate need of a purge. Ten contractor bags later, I finally had the space to neatly store the things that actually matter.
With that newfound space came the itch to reorganize. I moved a few items from the garage to the shed, built out some shelves and lofts, and—of course—came up with a dozen new project ideas, like adding a ramp to the shed. Luckily, I reined in the scope creep and wrapped things up neatly for winter.
Digital Destruction
On the digital front, I’d been putting off a project for a while: decommissioning my local Active Directory domain. The only reason I had one in the first place was to make managing Windows servers easier. But as I’ve shifted to Proxmox and Kubernetes clusters, the need for Active Directory dropped off pretty quickly.
Most of my DNS had already moved to my Unifi Gateway. The only holdup was that a few personal machines were still joined to the domain, meaning I had to migrate user profiles. Not difficult—just tedious.
In full cleanup mode, I finally bit the bullet. After an hour or so per machine, everything was running on local profiles, disconnected from the domain. With that, I shut down the AD servers and haven’t looked back.
Streamlining
I’m happy with where things landed. While I don’t have a centralized user directory anymore, I’ve gained flexibility—and peace of mind. My AD domain was running on “lab-grade” hardware, so losing it would’ve been a headache. Now, I don’t have to worry.
Nearly everything powering my home automation has already been moved off the lab gear, except for a single NodeRed instance. I haven’t decided where to run it yet, but it’ll be migrated soon.
With this cleanup, I’ve officially decommissioned my last two Windows servers—the domain controllers. My home lab is now fully containerized, and my garage and shed are finally ready for winter.
In short: a fall purge on both fronts—physical and digital—left me with more space, less clutter, and a lot more breathing room.