tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43722838801246779072024-02-07T23:25:58.328-07:00Better Than Feng ShuiClear Your Clutter for the Glory of GodMama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-7090185709153852082011-08-04T08:48:00.005-06:002011-08-04T08:51:51.361-06:00FUSSY DECORATING = CLUTTER (MAYBE)<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An interesting transformation has occurred over the past decade: the magazine photos and books I am drawn to--detailing rooms that I admire--have changed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's a subtle change, but I realize that the rooms that once wow-ed me contain too much busyness and I no longer admire them. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Too many books, carpets, pieces of furniture, paintings on the wall, and <i>objets d'art</i> cluttering up every surface. It's visually chaotic. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This book was a favorite:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="image"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Organized-Living-Clutter-Clearing-Strategies-Solutions/dp/1585743984/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1312468903&sr=8-10"> <img alt="Product Details" class="productImage" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515PRH0RH1L._AA115_.jpg" /></a> </div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And when I opened it up again yesterday, I quickly closed it and chose another book from my shelf.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And just a few years ago I admired that look of organized, neatly arranged abundance.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why the transformation? I believe that the busier a person becomes, the less she wants visual chaos around her. And as my life has increased in responsibilities, I realize I crave even fewer material things, not more, to care take.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What about you? Think about how your own life has increased in speed, responsibilities, activities, and things over the past five to ten years. Perhaps a heavy dose of decluttering might help quiet the visual chaos around you, and provide you a calm, peaceful environment in which you can manage your growing responsibilities with more grace and serenity.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have a blessed day!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-10023061390141587592011-07-11T19:35:00.001-06:002011-07-11T19:37:59.138-06:00CLUTTER FREE SOLDIER<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">New beginnings are the perfect time to pare down your possessions to the essential. Moving house is probably THE biggest and easiest time to let go of all that clutter, and to keep the barest of essentials for starting afresh.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since the average American moves 14 times per lifetime, that gives us all many opportunities to declutter.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Today, I had the privilege of helping my oldest son pack just the essentials for his cross-country move: he joined the Army and is shipping out for basic training.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since not every soldier's mother is a pro organizer, the Army gave all the new recruits a packing list for the next few days. What you see in the photo below are all the essentials with which my son will begin his new life: a small carry-on bag with a change of slacks, briefs, socks, a couple shirts, his shaving gear, toothbrush and paste, and deodorant. He also took with him his wallet with ID and bank card, some cash, a plaid flannel for the plane ride which might get cool, and a camouflage hat. He also carefully zipped his birth certificate inside the bag. And I threw in a bunch of granola bars, just in case. </span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ1-QnO6ApeweKR9_wPyINuY9dS8rLpmUdg2-bAVTtW9g4ROCVeW_KXlIGbvryTzFPLwuMP9xO5aaYG9ybO1I9ljHo3iyUBz3ydgc_JLu5TbjhNValXJuaYebrExSYbi_HOy1A96JLRqcz/s1600/Jerome+leaves+for+basic+training+July+11+2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ1-QnO6ApeweKR9_wPyINuY9dS8rLpmUdg2-bAVTtW9g4ROCVeW_KXlIGbvryTzFPLwuMP9xO5aaYG9ybO1I9ljHo3iyUBz3ydgc_JLu5TbjhNValXJuaYebrExSYbi_HOy1A96JLRqcz/s320/Jerome+leaves+for+basic+training+July+11+2011.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you're feeling wistful as you read this, longing for the freedom to pack a small bag and fly across the country on a Great Adventure, then I say to you, lighten your load! You don't need all the STUFF you've collected around you to <i>live</i>; in fact, all the stuff is <i>hindering</i> your life, slowing you down, and restricting you (yes, YOU!) from all the adventures you dream about experiencing "someday." Get rid of all the junk, and go live your dreams!</span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-45508243992816092802011-06-18T14:18:00.002-06:002011-06-18T14:20:31.541-06:00REPLACEMENT TIME?<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">All material things, whether homes, cars, garbage disposals, lamps, or shoes, eventually need to be repaired and/or (at some point in time) need to be replaced. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Sure, museums have specially-trained staff to help preserve documents, furnishings, and other artifacts, but those items are not USED, simply admired from a distance either behind glass or roped off with thick velvet cords and little signs saying "Do Not Touch." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But in our lives, we actually <i>use</i> our possessions, not admire them from a distance. So it's a good idea, then, to begin looking at your things as ultimately replaceable, and to decide whether or not some item, when its useful-to-you life is over, is actually <i>worth</i> replacing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The great secret is that <i>most of the things the average person owns are not worth replacing</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Possessions often hinder our living vibrantly and fully, simply because there are too many things around us that steal our time and attention away from doing what we most want to do with our lives. We slog through our days burdened by too much, and <u>all of it</u> in the process of either deteriorating through age and exposure to air, dust, bugs, humidity, etc., or through actual use.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When you come across the next breaking/broken item in your life, think about whether or not you really <i>want</i> to replace it. You just might surprise yourself and say, "No! Out it goes, and I don't want another one. I choose open space and a bright, clean, vibrant future!"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-31045548534097811552011-06-04T00:31:00.002-06:002011-06-04T00:34:37.678-06:00A PATH FOR EVERYTHING<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A quick and easy-to-learn technique for staying focused when confronted with a royal--or even just an everyday--mess is to say to yourself, "A path for everything and everything on its path."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let me show you an example of how this works.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Many of my clients are Type A's: high energy, high performance, and driven to succeed type people. They reached their level of success in business and in life by many methods, including hard work, tenacity, and (get this) <i>task completion.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So it is fitting that my Type A clients would attempt to complete every task we come across while decluttering their offices, homes, cars, and storage areas.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>But immediate task completion is not the most efficient route to take when decluttering.</i> It wastes time, energy, and fractures the focus needed for decluttering effectively.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One particular client could not stay focused. A high-powered sales woman, and parent of a hyperactive toddler, she darted here and there during our first visit, taking each item that we found out of place and running it across the house, up the stairs, or out to the garage or her car to its designated home.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I helped her refocus by teaching her to keep all items going to the same place together in "staging" areas, and then to make one trip to the garage, one trip to her car, one trip to the guest bedroom, and one trip to the kitchen to put away all the things we'd discovered out of place while decluttering the living room. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Michelle Passoff, a professional home organizer and author of <u>Lighten Up! Free Yourself From Clutter</u>, has the best phrase for this process: <i>A path for everything and everything on its path*. </i>I use it as a mantra when helping clients get organized. It keeps them focused, and saves enormous amounts of time and energy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You can use it too! Instead of ignoring the dry cleaning piling up on your closet floor because you don't have time to drop it off at the cleaners today, simply bag it up and put it in your car. You haven't taken the clothes to the cleaners yet, but they are one step further down the path <b><i>to</i></b> the cleaners. A<i> path for everything and everything on its path</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Or maybe you still have your Easter decorations out. Instead of procrastinating taking them down, packing them up, and hauling them back out to the garage or up to the attic, simply group them all together today, in an area closer to their final destination. Seeing them there tomorrow may inspire you to go get the boxes they belong in, and put them in the boxes. Perhaps the day after that, you'll be inspired to carry them to their final storage spot, and voila! Easter decorations put away. <i>A path for everything, and everything on its path.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You can apply this mantra to many areas of your life, not just cleaning, decluttering, and getting your stuffed Easter rabbits safely packed away in the attic.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Try it and see how much time you save, and how good it feels to move things forward along the path to their ultimate destination.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span>* <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Passoff, Michelle. Lighten Up! Free Yourself from Clutter. HarperPerennial. New York, 1998: pg. 57.</span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-18333285560808026472011-05-29T17:28:00.002-06:002011-06-18T13:49:29.671-06:00ALLERGIES AND YOUR STUFF<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I'm no doctor, but I know a few things about people's clutter: it makes people (including me) sneeze, itch, and sometimes BREAK OUT in a rash.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">True.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I see it almost every time I help a client declutter: we start moving boxes out of the guest room or pulling dozens of hangers-full of clothes out of the master bedroom closet. "Aaaaachoooo!" Sniffle sniffle. Scratch scratch.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you're not using something often enough so that it takes up storage space and does nothing for you but gather dust, attract bugs and mice, mold, mildew, and rust, then IT'S TIME TO LET IT GO.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">For your health. It just might be making you sick.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Quite literally.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now go get rid of some of it. You'll feel so much lighter and breathe freely when it's gone!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-77942644629948422662011-05-14T09:52:00.002-06:002011-05-14T09:57:25.708-06:00NIRVANA YOU CAN CARRY<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Last week we talked about how to declutter your handbag. Now let's get to organizing it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A great way to keep your bag organized is to use mini purses inside it. For example, I have a small zippered bag inside my main handbag with essential make-up in it. You can do this for anything your lifestyle dictates that you carry: contact solution and lens case, medication, mini first aid kit (if you're a mom of little ones or if you're a grandma), coupon sorter, eyeglass case and cleaning cloth, camera, notepad and pen, other office supplies (for years I carried a mini stapler around in my pencil case, and used it almost daily too), and snacks (a must if you work out of your car, of if you're a college student, diabetic, or a mom).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And the best way to organize it all? Purse to Go! I received mine this week and I LOVE it. It's a liner with side pockets and a large central pouch for your purse. Here's why I love it so much:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">1. It's lightweight.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">2. Mine is a light color so I can see inside my dark-lined purse much better (you can also get dark colors, but I love lighter ones as liners).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">3. You can turn it so the pouches are either on the outside or on the inside. Love that feature!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">4. Mine has velcro on it (not all of them do, but I wanted this feature) so I can shorten the length so that it can fit in smaller purses.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">5. It keeps my handbag much neater and I'm saving time searching for my cell phone and keys. It also has two small loops where you could attach your keys, but I keep mine in one of the side pockets of the Purse to Go.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">6. I can still fit my make-up bag inside, along with everything else I carry.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You can get them on ebay, like I did, or go straight to this seller's site: www.pursebling.com. I'm not affiliated with the site, other than being a customer of pursebling thru ebay; but it will save the owner of the company ebay fees if you buy directly from her website. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Obviously the best way to organize something is to not have to organize it at all, so really work on reducing the volume of things you carry around with you FIRST, and THEN organize the rest. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also, for the things you do carry, look for the lightest-weight alternatives, to lessen the strain on your shoulders and back. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Have fun organzing!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-79391722881896674242011-05-08T00:03:00.001-06:002011-05-08T00:08:30.845-06:00MAKING LIFE EASIER TO CARRY<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Have you ever stumbled along with a daily irritation--perhaps a stubborn zipper on your jacket or a bottomless-pit handbag that looks stylish but causes you frustration every time you reach to retrieve your car keys or cell phone?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I do it more frequently than I care to admit. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm still looking for the Perfect Handbag. Oh it's out there, somewhere. I just haven't quite found it yet.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the meantime, I have decided that I'm going to test drive different purse-esque ideas in an effort to determine the most effective stuff-carrier out there.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Elaine St. James, author of several books on simple living, states how she finally did away with carrying a purse at all.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I had no purse as a young college student: I carried my student ID and a some cash in a slim wallet in my pocket.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That doesn't really work for me anymore. I'm super busy--just like you--with huge responsibilities. My chosen lifestyle requires that I tote around more gear than just an ID and a couple 20's like I used to do.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, what to do about what we need to carry? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Dejunk and organize! In that specific order.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This weekend, spend a few minutes sorting through the stuff you sling around all day:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1. Dump everything that's in your purse out on a clean, flat surface.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">2. Pick out the obvious trash and get rid of it: candy wrappers, parking stubs, unneeded receipts, empty lip balm tubes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">3. See if you are carrying duplicates and downsize to just one: comb or hairbrush, credit card, packages of gum or breath mints, lipstick, pen.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">4. Stop carrying your checkbook if you pay for most purchases with cash or a debit card. Leave it at home and save toting around that extra weight.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">5. Examine the bling on your bag: one of my favorite handbags had this huge shiny metal buckle that looked so <i>chic</i>. It also added unnecessary weight to the heavy load I was already carrying. So I switched to a lighter-weight but less bling-y bag. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">6. If your kids are old enough and strong enough to swing a softball bat, they're strong enough to carry their own gear. Do NOT tote around their DS Lite game system, MP3 player, eyeglasses, or school books (yes, my handbag is large enough to carry these). Kids can learn to carry their own load, or learn to leave it at home (or in the car, or in their school locker).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Whew! You've done the dejunking. Next time, we'll do the organizing. And by then I'll be able to give you the low-down on my newest handbag organizing purchase: I just ordered a large Purse to Go organizer. It's a great idea; we'll see how it holds up in real life. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Have a great week!</span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-48451198190000993882011-04-04T08:31:00.004-06:002011-04-04T08:36:30.915-06:00A FEW OF MY NEW FAVORITE THINGS<div class="slideImg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Recycled ceramic flooring" height="200" src="http://img4.sunset.com/i/2010/08/broken-plate-patio-0810-l.jpg?400:400" width="200" /></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Isn't it fun to stumble upon some new idea or product or system that transforms junk into something useful, makes your life easier, less cluttered, more beautiful?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Here are a few of my recent stumblings. I hope you enjoy this list as much as I did creating it. Remember: none of these things are "must-haves," just unique or creative or downright useful. Enjoy!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Decorative mulch from tumbled-smooth bits of broken terra cotta pots, glass bottles, mirrors, tile, or dinner plates. An artful way of recycling what others discard! Go here to buy in bulk, or use a tumbler to create your own (can also be used in funky jewelry design): </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">http://www.buildingresources.org/tumbled_glass.html</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Mesh desk organizer for holding current files and projects. The most usable one, in my opinion. Spray paint it a sunny yellow, sage green, or whatever color you prefer, to match your desk accessories. Or leave it classic black. Go here: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">http://tinyurl.com/3hv32ph</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: large;">~ Storage baskets, useful and pretty. Go here: </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">http://tinyurl.com/prettybaskets</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Hanging days of the week (or activity) organizer (your choice of two colors). This is <b><i>brilliant</i></b>, especially for ADD/ADHD kids. Wish I would have had this when my boys were young! Velcro this handy hanging shelf system onto the rod of your kid's closet, and voila! Instant order. Well, almost. Kids can organize outfits for school by days of the week, or they can change the labels on the shelves to match their activities, and store related gear on the shelves, such as karate uniform, sheet music for lessons, even "things to take to Grandma's house." Go here: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">http://tinyurl.com/tidykidz</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Love this spice rack. Sadly, my spices are no longer in matching containers, as I outgrew my previous wooden rack and now contain the jars in two plastic storage baskets in my baking cupboard. But this classy design will fill most any decor, and looks almost big enough for a spice nut like me. Go here: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">http://tinyurl.com/fancyspice</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ If you're wondering how to declutter loooong URL's to share with friends in emails or on your blog, well get thee to tinyurl.com. Simply cut and paste the long URL and the site reduces it to one much smaller. You can even customize the name, like I did with "tidykids" for the hanging organizer, and "fancyspice" for the spice rack. </span></span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Happy shopping (or tumbling, or organizing, or tiny URL-ing)! </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div><div class="slideImg"></div>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-29038981673327903072011-03-21T08:12:00.000-06:002011-03-21T08:12:36.838-06:00YOUR LEGACY, YOUR JUNK, WHOSE PROBLEM?<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Have you ever been called upon to clean up the family home of an aging or departed loved one? If so, you understand what this process entails, and have observed the unbelievable amounts of JUNK that people accumulate over their lifetimes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you have not yet had this experience, let me briefly summarize the process: a loved one needs to move into an assisted living facility for medical reasons (or she/he has passed on). The actual clean-out of this person's home begins with a few family and friends going through the house searching for "treasures," i.e. junk they either want to keep or think they can sell for big bucks.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then they begin to clear out the remaining household goods and personal effects. And clear out. And clear out some more, over weeks and sometimes months, until finally, in desperation to be <i>done</i> with the mess, the relatives and friends shackled with this chore pitch the remaining household items into trash bags without further thought on their usefulness or sentimental value.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">By this time, EVERYTHING is junk.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why such a heavy topic for a Monday morning?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I want you to understand WHY decluttering an estate is so difficult: <i>the original owners of this junk did not recycle, give away, or throw out enough stuff over their lifetimes</i>. In short, THEY KEPT TOO MUCH.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And I want to prevent YOU from doing this to your loved ones. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Truly, leaving a legacy of junk is slapping your family and friends in the face. Sure, you may be only 28 (or 36, or 55, or 72) right now, but if you can't motivate yourself to clean up your junk FOR yourself, at least do it for the people you care about, so that they won't be left with the fallout of a lifetime's worth of your lack of self-management.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">NOW is the time to begin creating the habits of uncluttered living: throwing out genuine trash, recycling what can be recycled, giving things away you're no longer using, and keeping up with regular maintenance of your possessions. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">These small jobs are part of LIFE. But when people ignore them (and frankly, most people do ignore them), stuff piles up, and a lifetime's worth of accumulation is sheer torture for family and friends to have to process at an already stressful time in their lives (losing you, or placing you in assisted living).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">An easy way to begin?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When you bring home a new purchase, get rid of something in your home approximately the same size, that takes up the same space. The "one in, one out" rule. If you bring home a new pair of slacks, throw away a ripped one (or donate one that has "shrunk" and no longer fits).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">That is so simple: one thing comes in, one thing goes out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You'll save your family and friends weeks of torture by this simple little habit.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">May you live a long and blessed life filled with friendship, love, and happiness, not JUNK!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-56352698943319703322011-03-16T18:38:00.002-06:002011-03-16T18:46:50.184-06:00DIGITAL UPDATE AND MORE PAPER CLEARING IDEAS<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Have you tried any new suggestions on reducing your paper load by going digital?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I bought my first Kindle for PC book on amazon.com, and instantly downloaded a book on (what else?) getting rid of clutter! Although I am not a Kindle Reader kind of person, I AM a PC Kindle one, so this is wonderful. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I also made a dedicated attempt to use Google calendar, and finally concluded that it's really not for me: I still prefer a paper calendar (week-at-a-glance) system. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Regarding all the paper we still keep, I want to encourage you (and myself too!) to shred or recycle as much as possible, rather than file it. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I currently am trying to avoid the purchase of a four-drawer file cabinet by shredding or recycling 300 pieces of paper per month, from my already full file cabinet and archive file boxes. Why 300? Last month was 200, and helped a little. But I need to continue this process in order to not have to purchase another cabinet, and I need to be able to accomplish this paper reduction in short time slots. Setting a measurable goal (300 pages) with a time line (this month), provides me a great and achievable target. I end up shredding 25 to 50 pages at a time, spread out over the month. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Why not try setting a paper disposal goal this week? Maybe 25 or 30 old papers from the back of your file cabinet? That will take just a few scant minutes to do. And you'll feel uplifted by getting rid of a bit of paper clutter.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Happy shredding!</span></span><br />
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</span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-44370254819317667352011-03-11T08:55:00.002-07:002011-03-11T08:57:47.140-07:00GARAGE, SHED, AND OUTDOOR CLUTTER<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What kind of junk do you have lurking around your home, just outside your front (or back, or side) door? What things are you storing in your garage, the shed, the barn, the kids' playhouse, under the porch, on the patio, or stacked along the open edge of the carport? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Exterior storage can be both a blessing and a curse: exterior storage keeps big, bulky, and potentially greasy things (think lawn mower and weed-eater) away from your interior living spaces, but these spaces quickly become holding grounds for things you have no better place to store or haven't figured out yet if you should keep.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In my experience, the typical exterior storage space contains yard and landscaping tools and supplies, athletic and sports gear (rarely or never used anymore), boxes of holiday decorations, household chemicals (cleaning solutions, paint, pest sprays, fertilizer, empty plant pots, assorted tools, baby gear (strollers, rockers, cribs, tubs, you name it), and countless other objects in varying states of decay: leaking air mattress, luggage with broken locks or handles, studded snow tires that fit the car you traded in three years ago, bikes and bike parts, wooden chairs you think you want to refinish, pool toys, pet supplies, and countless Rubbermaid storage bins holding mounds of who knows what in their color-coordinated, water-resistant plasticity.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">You don't need to carry this burden around any longer. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It's time to sort through this junk and lighten your load.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Every item in your possession--whether inside or outside of your home--consumes brain space (nice phrase, eh?) in remembering you have the thing, inspires guilt because you don't use the object or it's dirty or broken, makes you feel obligated because you think you need to fix it up and use it, or obligates you because someone you love gave it to you or used it at one time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Really, you can free your brain for higher thoughts than how to get the ancient grime-covered rototiller to start, in order to justify owning it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">How can you free yourself from it all?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">GET RID OF THIS JUNK.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"How?!" you cry. "There's too much of it, it's too bulky, I can't lift it myself, where do I start?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Here are several quick and easy options for disposal:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Most municipal trash pick-up services offer free pick up of large and bulky items like sofas and water heaters (you would be surprised how many of these two things are hanging around your neighbor's garages); simply call your trash service and schedule a time. Ask a muscle-y neighbor or friend to help drag it to the curb.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Also, many cities offer unlimited trash pick up during certain times of the year, such as fall leaf pick up, Christmas tree recycling, and spring cleaning. My city has two weeks of spring cleaning coming up, and you better believe I'll take advantage of that (my junk is mostly yard waste; I have a good-size corner lot that previous owners over-planted in a huge way).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">List bigger, still useful items on craigslist and make a few dollars off your junk. A neighbor listed his broken bicycle on craigslist this week and made $20 on its still useful parts. He prevented all that metal and rubber from going to a landfill, and provided a bike enthusiast with a good frame and spare parts for cheap.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">You can also list items for free on freecycle.org or also on craigslist.org. I prefer craigslist because you don't have to sign up for annoying emails. You can list almost anything useful, such as older but working electronic equipment (computers, VHS players and tapes, kitchen appliances), yard tools that look old but still work, boxes of holiday decorations you don't want to sort, remodeling left-overs (wood, sheet rock, carpet remnants, etc.),and--get this--clean, empty cardboard boxes for moving. I recently listed </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">on craigslist a </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"free to a good home" box filled with packing peanuts, and someone came by and hauled it away within 30 minutes. I listed my address but no phone number in the short description, set the box in my driveway, and taped a small "free" sign on it. I've done the same with an old antenna, garden stepping stones, and a dated computer monitor. These bulky and heavy items are difficult to donate to charity, but a "free to the first one here" ad on craigslist is the easiest way in my neighborhood to share and recycle bulky things I no longer need.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I hope you are now inspired to begin releasing the exterior junk around your home, and let in the clean fresh breezes of spring!</span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-42500374557632570212011-02-22T16:59:00.002-07:002011-02-22T17:09:44.484-07:00IS A PAPER-FREE LIFE IN YOUR FUTURE?<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We have the technology to create paper-free lifestyles and work spaces. So why do we continue to use, send, pile, file, and keep indefinitely all this pulp?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It's what we know, so it's comfortable. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It's convenient, so we do it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And for some of us (like me), it's fun. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But what if we were to make digital "paperwork" comfortable. What if we were to make digital paperwork convenient, so convenient in fact that even post it notes wouldn't be in such demand?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I am mulling over the idea of taking my partially-digital life up to a new level. I am not yet considering a Kindle (you can buy ebooks on amazon.com and read them on your PC, so I would not use a Kindle at this point), but I am seriously thinking that paper processing, retrieval, and storage takes up a chunk of every day, and I have better things to do with my time. And frankly, processing paper is not as fun as it used to be: there's just too much of it, much more than even a decade ago, in my experience.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Heck, the amount of paperwork in my own life has doubled in the past 12 months, and that is why I'm considering increasing and improving how I take advantage of technology to "declutter" paper processing. But I still am not a Kindle person. (Wink!)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Some environments <i>seem to</i> require paper, such as medical offices, schools, law, property management, and government (ugh!). However, my former family physician's office went almost completely digital a few short years back. Aside from the initial learning curve of the office staff, it works. They save time, money, and <i>storage space. </i>Day after day; year after year<i>.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Well who among us wouldn't like to have more time, more cash, and more room in our offices and homes for working and living? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If you are a manager or business owner, you could be the catalyst for paper-reduction at work. And regardless of your employment status, you can definitely begin to reduce the amount of paper you keep in your personal life; it's totally under your control! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If you need a few ideas to start with, here are some I do or will begin doing this week:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Send as much correspondence via email as possible.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Scan and email documents that require your signature, if possible. (Oops! I just snail mailed one today that I could have scanned and emailed back.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Liberally use your bookmarks tab, rather than printing off all your favorite bits of info from websites you frequent.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Take advantage of on-line banking and pay your bills this way every month.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Request that your recurring monthly bill statements be sent via email to you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Most of the businesses you frequent on-line will keep your account info available on their websites, so you don't have to print off a receipt every time you make a purchase on-line. If it's the first time you're ordering from a particular site, you may want to copy and paste your receipt info into a Word document, and save it digitally in a temporary file until you receive the product. But quit printing out receipts unless you're currently being audited by the IRS. It's a waste!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ For every paper you DO decide to keep, recycle or shred one you have filed. At least this way you won't be adding more to your paper stash.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ If you still file your tax returns via snail mail, STOP IT. It's a total waste of time. File digitally this year. There is great tax software out there for cheap or even free. Just do it; you'll never go back to pushing tax papers. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Reply to emails with a quick, one or two lines. And standardize your signature to save time.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Use text messages as much as possible with personal correspondence. Quick, and even less formal than written letters OR emails.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Facebook and twitter will NOT simplify your life. They may reduce paper correspondence, but not life's complexity.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Use a digital calendar, like google calendar. Just try it. Even though I am a die-hard paper planner/calendar gal, I plan to at least TRY it. I suspect I may not like it. But who knows?! I never imagined I'd use internet banking, but I LOVE it now.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Digitize <i>but do not destroy</i> original or certified copies of marriage and birth certificates, death certificates, passports, social security cards, immunization records, military discharge records, proof of disabilities, insurance policies, titles to real property (land, homes, vehicles), investments, and diplomas (but get rid of the "certificates of attendance" for things like that rah-rah self-esteem through juggling class your manager made you and your team sit through last year).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ If your hard drive seems to be getting full and your file cabinet less full, you could buy an external hard drive and save your stuff on it. Or save your files to disk, or a flash drive. Or the best way: email scanned copies of certain vital documents to yourself. You'll always have access to them, as long as you have internet connection, no matter where you are in the world. This tip is great for the business traveler. And there is nothing (no external hard drive, no disks, no flash drives) to physically store, dust, or keep track of! Uncluttered digital living at its best.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Many books are available free online, especially the classics and books whose copyrights have expired. To see if the book you want is available digitally and free, type in the book title in Google, then search "books." You can read thousands of books online, and you don't have to store them on your book shelf. Just use the "Bookmarks" tab on your browser when you feel the urge to jump up and juggle for your self esteem, and it will save your spot!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Enjoy your paperless (or a less paper) day! <i> </i></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-22979925971489110772011-02-05T13:31:00.005-07:002011-02-09T17:24:45.299-07:00STRETCH YOURSELF<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'm writing to see if you want to go along with my experiment today: I'm going to take Cheryl Richardson's advice* and throw away (or give away) more than feels comfortable to get rid of.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I have a modest amount of possessions, and I run an uncluttered home, but I keep some "useful" things (that I'm not currently using) because</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">a. I'm a homeowner and need to keep up a large home on my own.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">b. I'm a parent of kids under 18 and I never know when one of them will need a _____________ (fill in the blank) for a school project, or art project, or any project.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">c. I'm frugal.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">But at what cost do I keep these things? Here are some of the prices I pay to keep "useful things" (i.e. junk).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Less space in my home for actual living. Clutter consumes square footage, and I actually like my footage clear, thank you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ Not enough space to spread out and do paperwork, because I have "useful" things around my computer desk/work area.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ It takes more time to find things, get them out of storage, and put them away with clutter around.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~More time cleaning (ugh! the more clutter, the longer it takes to maneuver around it to clean, and I also have to clean the actual clutter too).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So I'm going to take 20 minutes and get rid of more than feels comfortable. Want to try it with me? Let's do it, and risk...well, what are we risking, exactly?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>We're risking making a mistake by throwing or giving away something that we might need someday</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Let's think about this. If we discover that we really need something again, something that we got rid of today, then we could</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ buy another one</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ borrow one from a friend, neighbor, or family member</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ rent it</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~ figure out something else to replace it</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~figure out a way to <i>live without it</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I can live with that. We're not talking about throwing or giving away expensive or truly loved or really useful items, just things that have become (or always were!) clutter. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Should regret sweep over me, I have the funds to replace a five-month old copy of <i>Traditional Home</i> magazine, a turtleneck whose neck doesn't fold right, and a half-used bottle of facial toner. I could easily replace these things, if I truly regret getting rid of them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'm taking the risk.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">How about you?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Let's spend 20 minutes getting rid of more than feels comfortable to us. Come on, let's do it! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*Richardson, Cheryl. <i>Life Makeovers</i>. Broadway Books. New York. 2002. Pg. 78.</span></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-92112880343070369292011-01-06T21:12:00.004-07:002011-01-06T21:18:20.564-07:00RESOLUTIONS, LOVE, AND ESSENTIALS<span style="font-size: large;">Happy 2011 friends! I love a fresh new year. A new beginning, a new calendar, and the positive expectation that this year will be better than the one before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A great method for creating a better year <i>this</i> year is to pick one area of your life and focus on eliminating everything but the things you love OR that are essential in that area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let's say you decide to focus on your beauty products (or your footwear, your dish collection, your pet supplies, or your scuba gear). Throughout this year, be mindful of ways to eliminate the things you don't like, use, or need. Then streamline the products and possessions you eventually decide are keepers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Less clutter, more pretty (or scuba)!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My inspiration for this post came from the book, <i><b>Lighten UP!</b></i> by Don Ladigin. Don is an extreme backpacker, has decades of experience, and has streamlined his pack so that the total weight he carries for most excursions is (get this) 12 pounds. (In case you're as unimpressed as my cat was when I exclaimed, "TWELVE POUNDS?!," the average weight of a fully-packed aluminum frame backback for a serious packer is usually 35-40 lbs.).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don's 12 pound pack includes the weight of his bedroll, sleeping pad, shelter, water, extra clothing, first aid kit, hygiene and grooming needs,and gear repair kit. He has also been know to pull Halloween candy from his tiny lightweight pack.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What he has done over the years is WEIGH EVERYTHING he's going to take with him, and then search until he finds the lightest weight object that will still <i>effectively</i> meet his needs on the trail. <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I love it! <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The ultimate decluttered backpack is no different than the ultimate decluttered make-up drawer (file cabinet, tool box, DVD cabinet). The process to get to lightweight and streamlined is the same, whether it's a backpack we're talking about, or your bookshelf: weigh everything (not like Don does by using an actual postal scale, but weigh it by how much you use, love, need it, etc. See my previous posts for dozens of ideas for judging whether or not something is a keeper or a tosser). Then throughout this new year, streamline down to the things in your chosen area that exactly meet your needs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This isn't a resolution, it's a suggestion. One small area. One year. You can do it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now I'm off to streamline my pretty blue hanging toiletries bag I take along when I travel. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Happy trails!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-83067799092464682312010-12-20T12:24:00.002-07:002010-12-20T12:26:59.317-07:00QUICK HELP FOR HOLIDAY MADNESS<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With just a few days until The Holiday Weekend, you are probably going slightly insane. Travel plans, or major entertaining plans, or big party-going plans, or big Kahuna of a Christmas program plans rapidly approaching, like a (almost) head-on collision.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The most important way to declutter your holiday stress is to spend time alone, in a quiet, calm, and uncluttered place. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you do not have such a place in your own home, well it's time to create one.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some people simply need a soft chair facing a peaceful scene (poster, painting, window). Others, living with noisy or needy people, may require an entire room to themselves. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Determine your needs: a chair? a desk? a room? your car?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Next, take a trash bag and spend only five minutes (yes, just five) picking up junk in this area. Take the trash out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Follow that up with a clutter purge: take another trash bag or cardboard box and declutter things that are getting in the way of your peace. Old notebooks, carton of oil paints you never use, jar of candy you won at the white elephant exchange at work last week, a spare phonebook (how many does one household need? ONE PHONEBOOK!), stack of Christmas CD's you haven't gotten around to listening to, or the parka you spent too much money on that you haven't worn since you bought it four years ago. Out they go. (Try to donate, recycle, or give away to someone else before you just trash those things.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Finally, take a damp microfiber cloth and clean off the hard surfaces in your special place. Sweep or vacuum the floor. Light a scented candle or spray room deodorizer in it (one or two sprays won't kill you).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You should now have a place of your very own in which to destress. And it smells pretty too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If there is too much clutter in there, or you truly have no time to do anything I suggested, then simply find a quiet church and spend a half hour sitting still in the sanctuary, absorbing the peace around you.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You can declutter your own space once the madness passes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have a blessed and Merry Christmas season!</span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-54335075958293916762010-12-08T15:26:00.000-07:002010-12-08T15:26:24.515-07:00CHRISTMAS TIPS 2010<span style="font-size: large;">The hectic Christmas season has descended upon us, and I have a few tips to save you time and sanity this month.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Instead of winding your Christmas tree lights around and around the tree, visually cut your tree in half vertically, and wind the lights from bottom to top, covering only the left side first, then the right side. (What a cool tip! I didn't invent it; I just heard about it.) Saves time and frustration, especially if you have a big tree. Or don't put up a tree this year and just enjoy everyone else's for a change. You can skip a year (or two, or twenty). You can still celebrate the birth of Christ without a decorated tree, you know.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. If you haven't stored your summer clothes yet, and if you live where it's cold and snowy (like me), now is the time to throw out the worn, torn, dirty, or ratty summer items, and then store the remaining warm weather clothes somewhere away from your cold weather clothes. This will make room in your closet and dresser(s) for winter clothes and boots. More room means fewer wrinkled clothes, without your typical morning tug-of-war as you aggressively extract a long sleeve blouse from the crammed clothes hanging rod. Plus, you'll have more room for hiding Christmas presents in your closet.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Don't give clutter. Clutter is stuff that won't be used or enjoyed by the recipient. That pretty much describes 90% of the stuff on your shopping list. Pitch the list in the trash and start over. Think of only NON-CLUTTERING gifts: consumable gifts, really useful gifts, and things the recipients have actually expressed a desire to own.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4. It's kinda late to start early, so don't beat yourself up about not being so organized this Christmas, with your card list, or gift list, or (lack of) twelve dozen cookies cooling on your countertops. The traditions that Americans have created to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ are astoundingly complex. And most of them were set when women stayed home all day, caring for kids and (a small) home, without working outside jobs, commuting in maddening traffic, battling the daily onslaught of advertising messages to "buy buy BUY!,"or having to deal with the insanely complex life we call "the new millennium." Meh. Let it go. Jesus is more concerned with the state of your heart and spirit than with the state of your door wreath or gift list. Time to declutter your life of unreasonable expectations: the ones you have of yourself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Have a blessed pre-Christmas week!</span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-84724323177030010252010-11-28T20:36:00.004-07:002010-11-29T06:06:38.275-07:00WHAT'S HANGING OVER YOUR HEAD?<span style="font-size: large;">How many storage areas do you have? Aside from closet spaces, do you have a garage, attic, off-site rented storage unit, barn, outbuilding, tool shed, old van packed to the headliner with junk, a nice little detached potting shed, or an "office" perhaps?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Next question: what are they full of? (You don't have to answer that out loud.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Whatever the contents of your storage, much of the stuff you have stuffed in there is there for one reason: you are not currently using it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Certainly, every household, except the most extremely minimalistic ones, requires storage for things used at different seasons ("seasonal storage"). Tents, coolers, float tubes, and waterproof radios are definitely summer time gear. Christmas lights, evergreen garlands from the craft store, and jingle bell door hangers sit in boxes in the garage until it's time to ring in the holiday season. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Those are seasonal "fun" items that simply need to be stored until the right time of the year rolls around for their use and enjoyment. But most of the stuff in storage is not being used, and it probably won't be. At least by you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The real question to ask yourself about the things in your storage area(s) is: do I like this stuff enough to justify keeping it all year? Hard question to answer because you have a bunch of conflicting emotions and reasons for keeping all those items.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Do you know how to tell if you like something well enough to keep it? Simple. Pick one item in storage, and really look at it. Now ask yourself:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is my emotional state while I'm looking at that thing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>If you're <u>not</u> feeling any positive emotions, such as happiness, delight, refreshing anticipation, pleasant memories, or peace, then OUT IT GOES.</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The things in our lives should bring us only positive emotions, not negative ones. You don't have to keep things that you don't want! <i>They're just stuff</i>. Get 'em out of your life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And if they're damaged in any way, well it just makes the decision even easier: OUT!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here's a real life example:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A reader recently asked me what to do with the following items in her attic: bedding for out of town guests (used two to three times per year), travel mementos to be scrapbooked (she doesn't like to scrapbook), craft supplies she likes but rarely uses, and artwork that she likes but tires of after a few months.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">She can now apply the above question to each of these items, and determine her emotional state when looking at each one. We all intuitively know what we like and what we don't like; our reasoning just gets in the way sometimes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If my insightful new technique is not enough to REALLY get you motivated to deal with your stuff in storage, here are a few ways I would personally handle the things in my reader's attic, if I were her. (And consider the symbolism of stuff stored in the attic: hanging over your head, oppressing you with undone tasks, heavy burdens on your brain.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the futons, I would invite my guests to sleep on my sofa rather than clutter up my precious storage space with rarely used futons. Donate the futons to a battered woman's shelter. Or buy an air mattress that comes with its own electric air pump. They take up very little space in storage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Throw a scrapbooking party for myself and ask my friends to help me make a travel scrapbook. I can share my adventures with friends while they help me do something I don't like to do, but that I want done. Friends make anything fun. Two hours later and it's finished! (And you'll think fondly of not only your travels but of the friends who helped you put the pages together each time you look through your scrap books.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Or pay a stay-at-home mom turned scrapbook consultant to do it for you. Any scrapbooking store owner will have a list of people willing to help. It might cost a couple hundred dollars, but the results will be worth it, and you'll be helping a local family stay afloat in these tough economic times. Or buy pre-made travel scrapbook pages on ebay, and just paste the mementos in. Easy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For craft supplies, as long as I love the things and use them (even once a year!), I would get rid of all the other stuff in storage that I don't like. Then I would make lots of room for the crafty things I do like. I would make sure that I have all the necessary tools and supports to enjoy my craft supplies, such as proper lighting, sufficient work areas/tables, and cute storage shelves, bins, and baskets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Finally, for artwork I tire of, I would rotate not only the wall art every few months, but its placement in my home. One month the print from Provence would be in the dining room, the next month I might move it to the foyer or spare bedroom, and the third month I might put it in the attic until next year. And if I got really sick of it, I would use the frame for something else, or give it to a friend who helped me put my scrapbooks together, or repaint the frame, or donate the print and buy new artwork. Hey, we buy fresh flowers every so often, why not fresh artwork?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I hope you are inspired to create the storage areas of your dreams, and clear out what's hanging over your head!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Many blessings on you! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-70205497849943456652010-11-15T11:41:00.001-07:002010-11-15T11:44:31.003-07:00CONSUMPTION AND THE RISE AND FALL OF JUNK<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Most people in developed nations never give much thought to the process of acquiring, using, and discarding. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We give ample thought--too much time and energy--into just buying stuff, the "acquiring" piece. We give a little thought to "using" stuff, as long as whatever it is we bought does the job we bought it for, and even less thought to getting rid of the darn thing once we no longer use it (the "discard" piece).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is a three-step, unique process, not three separate processes. It's called <i>consumption</i>, and it includes these steps: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1. acquire</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">2. use</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">3. discard.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Although for many of us, the discard piece is often, "Quick! Throw it in the garage (shed, attic, spare bedroom) because company's coming!" Which technically isn't "discard," it's "hide and deal with it later."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Anyway, how does this relate to your clutter?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Clutter can occur at <i>any</i> step in the consumption process. So in order to get a handle on your clutter, you must figure out at which step or steps you have the most trouble, and work to solve that problem.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For example, if you shop every day for things that are not food, then you obviously have an "acquiring" problem. Solve that problem by purchasing fewing things. Voila, less clutter. (I know I'm simplifying this step, but acquiring is not primarily the focus of today's post. Keep reading.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Or perhaps you have a large amount of useful things--things you YOURSELF know you will use--but for some reason you aren't using them. You're saving them for some special occasion in the far off, nebulous future. This is easy to solve: start using your stash of useful stuff (pens, dishes, towels, knitting wool, fishing lures). Don't keep these things for some future event or perfect time. Now is the perfect time to <i>use</i> what you bought to be used! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And then we have the discard issue. This is where most everyone has difficulty. Americans still retain so much of the pioneer spirit, to such a degree that we have great difficulty letting things go after their useful life has passed, because "you never know when you might need this ________________ " (stripped bike pedal, faded T-shirt, clock that doesn't tell time anymore, pet food dishes you don't use, second-best skis, etc.). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Part of an item's useful life is determined not only by its physical state (faded, ripped, moldy, broken beyond repair, outdated, etc.), but by its owner's real or perceived NEED of this item (i.e. you passed college chemistry; you don't <i>need</i> the textbook anymore). Therefore, </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">you and you alone must carefully define "useful life" for every item in your possession. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">At SOME POINT you must ask yourself, "What is this item's useful life for me? Has that point passed?" </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If an item has passed its useful life (in your eyes), then it's time to discard it. And discard can mean recycle, sell (as in the chemistry textbook), give to someone who wants it, compost it, or dozens of other options other than pitching it into the trash can.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Acquire-use-discard. If you gum up one step in this cycle of consumption, the result is CLUTTER.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A good exercise would be to start at the acquiring phase, and ask yourself, "Am I really going to USE this thing?" And then ask yourself, "How will I know when its useful life is over for me?" "And when it's life is over, how will I discard it?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Whoa. This is way too heavy for a Monday.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Go throw away the gum wrappers from your purse. There. Less clutter.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Have a blessed week!</span></span><br />
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</span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-61724759691729015182010-10-26T13:31:00.001-06:002010-10-26T13:38:20.166-06:00OPP<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you recall the hip hop song of the 90's by this same title, I'm truly sorry. This post has nothing to do with the content of THAT song. (And if you aren't familiar with that song, for heaven's sake don't Google it. Trust me.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">THIS post has to do with <u>o</u>ther <u>p</u>eople's <u>p</u>ossessions, and how a person who is clutter-free (or getting there!) should respond to them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Let's say your spouse has been displaying his pack rat tendencies since you met him in college. What you thought was simple bachelor-like mess (dirty clothes thrown around his apartment, eight weeks' worth of mail burying his kitchen table (i.e. a card table with a wobbly leg borrowed from his parent's garage), textbooks piled randomly next to the stereo, greasy bike parts on the bathroom counter), has become full-blown chronic clutter. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">What do you do to help him mend his cluttering ways? How can you change this cluttering behavior that has become so ingrained in him? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Answer: You can't.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The only person whose behavior your have ultimate control over is your own.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">And <u>that</u> is where to focus, in order to foster a change in your home environment.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"What?!" you're asking me, annoyed beyond belief. "Why do <u><b>I</b></u> have to look at my stuff and my propensity to clutter? Mr. Pack Rat here is the one with the problem!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">He is. And maybe you are too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you're reading this, it's likely you are either </span></span><br />
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</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">a. a clutterer, or</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">b. a professional home organizer looking for help for your clients.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The focus of your attention should not lie on your husband's mess, but on your own. Oftentimes--but not always--when one spouse dejunks, it encourages the other to throw stuff out too.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now, this is not to say that if you are absolutely completely clutter-free that all the people around you will be the same (I'm living this as we speak, with two very messy kids at home). But too often we focus on changing other people to try to align their actions/behaviors to what WE think is best for them, or how WE want them to behave so that WE can get and stay happy. This is a mostly a control issue.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Look, you can either change yourself, accept the situation, have a heart to heart with your husband (wife, son, daughter, roommate, tenant, etc.), or (in cases of extreme hoarding behavior) stage an intervention or </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">leave the relationship</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Those are your options. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Entire books have been written on how to handle other people's possessions, and a few of them are helpful in order to understand the pack rat's behavior. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">But some people just like keeping junk. THEY JUST DO. You can burn yourself out trying to change them, or you can do what I suggested:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">1. clear up your own clutter</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">2. accept the junk and love them as they are</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">3. communicate your concern to the pack rat and hope s/he changes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">4. terminate the relationship (do not attempt this with your kids!)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">5. contact a psychologist trained in compulsive hoarding or anxiety disorders and arrange an intervention (in serious cases only).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Life is too short to argue over dirty laundry and yesterday's mail. Really. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Best wishes on getting your own junk cleaned up. Be prepared for the miracles that follow. </span></span><br />
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</span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-32653116472581800182010-09-20T07:14:00.003-06:002010-09-20T07:32:32.970-06:00THE QUESTION<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Today is the day I will pull out my two boxes of fall decor and transition from summer colors to autumn tones around my home. Yes, I know I still have a couple more days until it's officially fall, but I can't wait. It's my favorite season.<br /><br />While I'm elbow deep in boxes of silk flowers and ceramic pumpkins, I have determined to ask myself the following question, to help me weed out the decorative items I no longer care for:<br /><br />"Is this what you <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> want?"<br /><br />What a great question! We can all apply that question to not only decorative objects, but to <span style="font-style: italic;">anything</span> in our lives, including<br /><br />clothing<br />pots and pans<br />furniture<br />sports and hobby equipment<br />electronics<br />your car<br />your home itself<br />your job.<br /><br />If you determine that what you're holding onto isn't what you want any more (maybe it never was something you wanted to begin with), take some small action today to transform your possessions and your life into something more in line with what you really want.<br /><br />Throw away the lopsided pumpkin spice pillar candle. Pack a small shopping bag with a couple handbags you don't want anymore and take them into work this week to share with your office mates. Take the softball bats and balls that you never use to the neighbor kids down the street. Browse through employment listings in your local newspaper, or sign up at your local job service to look on-line for a different job. <br /><br />You don't have to take massive, sweeping action today to make changes in your home and life. Small actions build on each other, and the little things you do today will put you in a place to do a little something more tomorrow, then the next day, and the next. Before you know it, your life will look more like what you really want it to look like!<br /><br />Happy autumn!<br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-19851682330069433092010-09-15T16:40:00.003-06:002010-09-15T17:18:13.890-06:00GETTING PAST THE FUTURE<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">One of my biggest challenges in decluttering, and one of the biggest challenges that almost every one of my clients face, is overcoming the future: someday. As in, "I might need this <span style="font-style: italic;">someday</span>."<br /><br />We are careful, prudent people who dislike waste. We plan for the future. We can think of creative and useful ideas for every and any object in our paths. These skills and character traits are admirable, but <span style="font-style: italic;">they are detrimental to our sanity in 21st century living.</span><br /><br />The skills our parents and grandparents needed to stay alive are very different from the skills we require today. Our parents and their parents kept useful things because often there were not enough possessions or money available to meet their very basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter during the Depression and during the lean years of World War II.<br /><br />Life has greatly changed since then. Keeping parts of useful things, re-using mayonnaise jars, hoarding scraps of fabric, keeping a garage or shed or even a junk room full of things that "may come in handy someday" is no longer necessary for about 90% of us. We have access to hardware stores, clothing stores, secondhand stores, and superstores (plus adequate transportation to get us to these places) that were mostly absent from our country a generation or two ago. The access we have to rent power washers and tile cutters and folding chairs for a wedding reception precludes the need we have to buy and save all those things ourselves.<br /><br />But it doesn't stop us from keeping them once we get them.<br /><br />I propose a change.<br /><br />Simple, really, but profound: <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">stop saving things for "someday." </span><br /><br />Have faith in the infrastructure of our great country, which will assure that you will have access to what you need when you need it. Have faith in your neighbors and friends to loan you extra dinner plates or a couple camping cots when you have out of town visitors. Have faith in your own capable self, to be able to rise to the occasion when faced with a lack of supplies, gear, or materials to do a particular job or task. Have faith that you will be able to earn the $1.99 for a new crochet hook, and will be able to drive to the craft store yourself, if you EVER decide to take up crocheting again.<br /><br />Have faith that you will be able to find a box in which to send your Mother her Christmas present. And if you can't find a used one, get a brand new one for free from the post office. They will even deliver priority mail cardboard boxes or envelopes to your door, for free. And you can order them online. You don't need to keep a closet full of used cardboard boxes any longer. Recycle them and reclaim some closet space.<br /><br />You don't need to keep things for "someday." Instead, <span style="font-style: italic;">enjoy the life you have today</span>.<br /><br />Retain all those excellent character traits and useful skills such as thrift and prudence and creative re-purposing, to be sure! But refrain from cluttering up your home and storage spaces with things you can easily buy or rent when you need them at Home Depot, Joann Fabric, U-haul, or the post office.<br /><br />Blessings on you this week!<br /><br /><br /></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-34147204697900131262010-08-09T23:38:00.004-06:002010-08-09T23:57:43.759-06:00EASIEST WAY TO GREEN YOUR ORGANIZING<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Have you noticed that everyone and their little brother is going green? I think that's terrific. It's vital that we take care of the earth, and quit wasting so many of its resources.<br /><br />With this same spirit, let me share with you the easiest way to green up your own organizing:<br /><br />QUIT BUYING SO MUCH.<br /><br />Frankly, that will save untold resources from being "consumed."<br /><br />For inspiration, here are a few alternatives to purchasing things you want without having to rush out and buy them:<br /><br />~ borrow from neighbor, family, library<br />~ rent tools, movies, wedding attire, sports equipment, musical instruments<br />~ look through your garage or storage shed to see if you already have one<br />~ use something else in its place (shampoo instead of liquid hand soap refill, cat litter bucket in place of new bucket, contractor trash bag instead of tarp under your picnic blanket, etc.)<br />~ Entertain yourself at home with all the great things you've purchased over the years (craft supplies, complete tv series on DVD, your music collection, books, hobby supplies, collections)<br />~ Clean and repair what you have, rather than drive over to Target or the mall to get what you think you need<br /><br />Now see how much you can add to this list.<br /><br />Have a blessed and green week!<br /><br /><br /></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-55517093798805589812010-07-29T13:05:00.003-06:002010-07-29T13:23:11.021-06:00ARE YOU STUCK?<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Do you find yourself staring at the growing stack of magazines on your coffee table and don't move any of them to the recycle bin? Do you drive into your garage every day after work and silently tell yourself, "I can't deal with this mess today" ? Are you constantly fumbling around your medicine cabinet looking for your allergy medicine, a pair of tweezers that actually work, or the bottle of Advil?<br /><br />Perhaps you're stuck.<br /><br />I can help unstick you.<br /><br />One of the reasons you may be stuck is that YOU HAVE TOO MUCH GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE.<br /><br />"Well, duh!" you tell me.<br /><br />If you don't have time (or energy) to do simple little jobs like recycling magazines or cleaning up your medicine cabinet, then YOU ARE TAKING ON TOO MANY COMMITMENTS. <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Your schedule is creating clutter in your home.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">YOU and only you can make changes in your schedule so that you DO have time to recycle magazines, sort through a box of Christmas decorations in the garage, and clean out a shelf in your medicine cabinet.<br /><br />For today, take one small step to getting unstuck: look at your calendar, and see what one event or commitment you can change or cancel that won't adversely affect your health, job, or family life.<br /><br />Use that freed up time to make one small improvement to your living space. When you're done, take the time to admire and enjoy the clear and organized space you created, no matter how small it may be.<br /><br />Blessings on you today!<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-64239150691873878032010-07-18T18:48:00.004-06:002010-07-18T19:01:15.430-06:00MINI CLOSET PURGE<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Let's take a break from paper, and head to our clothes closet(s) and dressers.<br /><br />Sweltering weather has descended upon the West, and even lil mis "I hate snow" (that's me) is cocooning inside my air conditioned home. It's a perfect day to go through summer clothes! Why not join me for a short and easy clothes purge:<br /><br />1. Look through your t-shirts and throw away any that are stained, faded, or are wearing along the neckband. <br /><br />2. Throw away any and all swimsuits that are stretched out, too tight, or ride up on you.<br /><br />3. How many pairs of flip-flops does one person need? You decide on a number that works for you, then get rid of the rest. <br /><br />4. Shorts and capris so opaque that your panty color shows through have got to go. So do any that are too tight. Your skin needs to breathe!<br /><br />IF THERE IS SOMETHING IN YOUR SUMMER WARDROBE THAT<br /><br />A. YOU WOULDN'T LOAN TO MARTHA STEWART IF SHE CAME TO VISIT, or<br /><br />B. YOU HATE,<br /><br />then<br /><br />GET RID OF IT.<br /><br />Right now. No worries. That stuff is just STUFF, not a beloved friend or child or pet. <br /><br />Pitch it.<br /><br />Happy July!<br /><br /></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4372283880124677907.post-64619814812452413552010-07-06T12:36:00.004-06:002010-07-06T13:14:10.451-06:00HOW TO FILE, THE OFFICIAL BTFS POST<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So, now that you have caught up with your old papers and have a system in place to deal with incoming mail, let's move onto HOW to actually file the papers you wish to save.<br /><br />First, understand that SOME (successful!) PEOPLE DO NOT FILE PAPERS. They go to school, grow up, find jobs, keeps jobs, get married, have kids, raise kids, send their kids to college, retire, and move into assisted living ALL without keeping file folders full of paper.<br /><br />There are people out there like this.<br /><br />You and I aren't among them. (But we could be if we really wanted to. We just choose not to.)<br /><br />We like to keep papers. And since we do like to keep papers, here's how to keep them without going crazy:<br /><br />Take those bulging folders full of "to file" papers that you gleaned by following the instructions in my previous posts. Take a stack of third-cut manilla file folders and a pen (skip the fancy label maker that Real Simple and Martha Stewart insist you must have: making perfectly uniform labels slows you down and creates much more work for you in the long run).<br /><br />Pick up the first paper in the folder and ask yourself:<br /><br />1. What is this?<br />2. Why am I keeping it?<br />3. Can I get this information on-line?<br /><br />If you determine you STILL want to keep it, think of a title for the file folder that would make retrieving that paper easiest for YOU. Write that title on a file folder and stick the paper inside.<br /><br />Repeat with every paper you have, filing like papers with like inside appropriately named folders.<br /><br />For example:<br /><br />You rip out articles from various magazines and newspapers about decorating ideas. Put all of them in one folder. If that folder starts bursting at the seams, THEN separate your articles into categories such as "kitchens, gardens, bedrooms, home office ideas" etc. Too many categories too soon with slow you down and is too nit-picky to maintain in our busy lives.<br /><br />When your "to file" folders are empty and you have a stack of labeled files folders, file those file folders into hanging files and put them in a file drawer in broad categories. You can find inexpensive ones that aren't ugly at target.com or at any office supply store.<br /><br />If this is too much work for you, and you still have a pulse and a job, then pat yourself on the back and say, "I am a successful person even WITHOUT filing all my papers! I don't need another system!" Now go outside and forget about this paper mess.<br /><br />If you're still reading, you must like papers, but you may hate file folders. I have a few ideas that work for many people: use three-ring binders.<br /><br />Three-hold punch those papers, or stick them inside sheet protectors, and make binders for your areas of interest, such as financial papers, medical papers, home upkeep and ownership papers, personal documents (social security cards, birth certificates, marriage license, diplomas, awards, special letters, etc.), etc. I use file folders for most everything, but I also have several binders of things I print off the internet and read for personal enjoyment (I am not a Kindle kind of person).<br /><br />Do what works for you.<br /><br />And if you only have a few papers you want and need to keep, here's a cute file that can hold everything necessary to life and liberty, and you can get it on amazon.com too. Maybe someday I'll reduce all my papers to just the amount that can fit into this tote, but I suspect not, since I still love my paper. But isn't this file tote cute?<br /><br />Go here: </span></span></span><b><a href="http://tinyurl.com/2vlahya">http://tinyurl.com/2vlahya </a><br /><br /></b><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span></span></span>Mama Teresa, The Saint of Clutter-Free Livinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820462344607217487noreply@blogger.com