Better Than Feng Shui

FUSSY DECORATING = CLUTTER (MAYBE)

2011-08-04T08:48:00.005-06:00

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.

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.

Too many books, carpets, pieces of furniture, paintings on the wall, and objets d'art cluttering up every surface. It's visually chaotic.

This book was a favorite:

And when I opened it up again yesterday, I quickly closed it and chose another book from my shelf.

And just a few years ago I admired that look of organized, neatly arranged abundance.

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.

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.

Have a blessed day!

CLUTTER FREE SOLDIER

2011-07-11T19:35:00.001-06:00

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.

Since the average American moves 14 times per lifetime, that gives us all many opportunities to declutter.

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.

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.

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 live; in fact, all the stuff is hindering 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!

REPLACEMENT TIME?

2011-06-18T14:18:00.002-06:00

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.

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."

But in our lives, we actually use 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 worth replacing.

The great secret is that most of the things the average person owns are not worth replacing.

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 all of it in the process of either deteriorating through age and exposure to air, dust, bugs, humidity, etc., or through actual use.

When you come across the next breaking/broken item in your life, think about whether or not you really want 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!"

A PATH FOR EVERYTHING

2011-06-04T00:31:00.002-06:00

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."

Let me show you an example of how this works.

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) task completion.

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.

But immediate task completion is not the most efficient route to take when decluttering. It wastes time, energy, and fractures the focus needed for decluttering effectively.

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.

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.

Michelle Passoff, a professional home organizer and author of Lighten Up! Free Yourself From Clutter, has the best phrase for this process: A path for everything and everything on its path*. I use it as a mantra when helping clients get organized. It keeps them focused, and saves enormous amounts of time and energy.

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 to the cleaners. A path for everything and everything on its path.

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. A path for everything, and everything on its path.

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.

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.

* Passoff, Michelle. Lighten Up! Free Yourself from Clutter. HarperPerennial. New York, 1998: pg. 57.

ALLERGIES AND YOUR STUFF

2011-05-29T17:28:00.002-06:00

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.

True.

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.

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.

For your health. It just might be making you sick.

Quite literally.

Now go get rid of some of it. You'll feel so much lighter and breathe freely when it's gone!

NIRVANA YOU CAN CARRY

2011-05-14T09:52:00.002-06:00

Last week we talked about how to declutter your handbag. Now let's get to organizing it.

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).

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:

1. It's lightweight.
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).
3. You can turn it so the pouches are either on the outside or on the inside. Love that feature!
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.
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.
6. I can still fit my make-up bag inside, along with everything else I carry.

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.

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.

Also, for the things you do carry, look for the lightest-weight alternatives, to lessen the strain on your shoulders and back.

Have fun organzing!

MAKING LIFE EASIER TO CARRY

2011-05-08T00:03:00.001-06:00

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?

I do it more frequently than I care to admit.

I'm still looking for the Perfect Handbag. Oh it's out there, somewhere. I just haven't quite found it yet.

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.

Elaine St. James, author of several books on simple living, states how she finally did away with carrying a purse at all.

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.

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.

So, what to do about what we need to carry?

Dejunk and organize! In that specific order.

This weekend, spend a few minutes sorting through the stuff you sling around all day:

1. Dump everything that's in your purse out on a clean, flat surface.

2. Pick out the obvious trash and get rid of it: candy wrappers, parking stubs, unneeded receipts, empty lip balm tubes.

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.

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.

5. Examine the bling on your bag: one of my favorite handbags had this huge shiny metal buckle that looked so chic. 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.

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).

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.

Have a great week!

A FEW OF MY NEW FAVORITE THINGS

2011-04-04T08:31:00.004-06:00

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?

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!

~ 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):
http://www.buildingresources.org/tumbled_glass.html

~ 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: http://tinyurl.com/3hv32ph.

~ Storage baskets, useful and pretty. Go here: http://tinyurl.com/prettybaskets

~ Hanging days of the week (or activity) organizer (your choice of two colors). This is brilliant, 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: http://tinyurl.com/tidykidz

~ 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: http://tinyurl.com/fancyspice

~ 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.

Happy shopping (or tumbling, or organizing, or tiny URL-ing)!

YOUR LEGACY, YOUR JUNK, WHOSE PROBLEM?

2011-03-21T08:12:00.000-06:00

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.

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.

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 done 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.

By this time, EVERYTHING is junk.

Why such a heavy topic for a Monday morning?

I want you to understand WHY decluttering an estate is so difficult: the original owners of this junk did not recycle, give away, or throw out enough stuff over their lifetimes. In short, THEY KEPT TOO MUCH.

And I want to prevent YOU from doing this to your loved ones.

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.

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.

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).

An easy way to begin?

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).

That is so simple: one thing comes in, one thing goes out.

You'll save your family and friends weeks of torture by this simple little habit.

May you live a long and blessed life filled with friendship, love, and happiness, not JUNK!

DIGITAL UPDATE AND MORE PAPER CLEARING IDEAS

2011-03-16T18:38:00.002-06:00

Have you tried any new suggestions on reducing your paper load by going digital?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Happy shredding!

GARAGE, SHED, AND OUTDOOR CLUTTER

2011-03-11T08:55:00.002-07:00

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?

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.

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.

You don't need to carry this burden around any longer. It's time to sort through this junk and lighten your load.

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.

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.

How can you free yourself from it all?

GET RID OF THIS JUNK.

"How?!" you cry. "There's too much of it, it's too bulky, I can't lift it myself, where do I start?"

Here are several quick and easy options for disposal:

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.

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).

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.

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 on craigslist a "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.

I hope you are now inspired to begin releasing the exterior junk around your home, and let in the clean fresh breezes of spring!

IS A PAPER-FREE LIFE IN YOUR FUTURE?

2011-02-22T16:59:00.002-07:00

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?

It's what we know, so it's comfortable.

It's convenient, so we do it.

And for some of us (like me), it's fun.

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?

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.

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!)

Some environments seem to 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 storage space. Day after day; year after year.

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?

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!

If you need a few ideas to start with, here are some I do or will begin doing this week:

~ Send as much correspondence via email as possible.

~ 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.)

~ Liberally use your bookmarks tab, rather than printing off all your favorite bits of info from websites you frequent.

~ Take advantage of on-line banking and pay your bills this way every month.

~ Request that your recurring monthly bill statements be sent via email to you.

~ 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!

~ 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.

~ 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.

~ Reply to emails with a quick, one or two lines. And standardize your signature to save time.

~ Use text messages as much as possible with personal correspondence. Quick, and even less formal than written letters OR emails.

~ Facebook and twitter will NOT simplify your life. They may reduce paper correspondence, but not life's complexity.

~ 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.

~ Digitize but do not destroy 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).

~ 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.

~ 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!

Enjoy your paperless (or a less paper) day!

STRETCH YOURSELF

2011-02-05T13:31:00.005-07:00

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.
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

a. I'm a homeowner and need to keep up a large home on my own.

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.

c. I'm frugal.

But at what cost do I keep these things? Here are some of the prices I pay to keep "useful things" (i.e. junk).

~ Less space in my home for actual living. Clutter consumes square footage, and I actually like my footage clear, thank you.

~ Not enough space to spread out and do paperwork, because I have "useful" things around my computer desk/work area.

~ It takes more time to find things, get them out of storage, and put them away with clutter around.

~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).

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?

We're risking making a mistake by throwing or giving away something that we might need someday.

Let's think about this. If we discover that we really need something again, something that we got rid of today, then we could

~ buy another one
~ borrow one from a friend, neighbor, or family member
~ rent it
~ figure out something else to replace it
~figure out a way to live without it.

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.

Should regret sweep over me, I have the funds to replace a five-month old copy of Traditional Home 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.

I'm taking the risk.

How about you?

Let's spend 20 minutes getting rid of more than feels comfortable to us. Come on, let's do it!

*Richardson, Cheryl. Life Makeovers. Broadway Books. New York. 2002. Pg. 78.

RESOLUTIONS, LOVE, AND ESSENTIALS

2011-01-06T21:12:00.004-07:00

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.

A great method for creating a better year this 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.

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.

Less clutter, more pretty (or scuba)!

My inspiration for this post came from the book, Lighten UP! 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.).

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.

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 effectively meet his needs on the trail.

I love it!

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.

This isn't a resolution, it's a suggestion. One small area. One year. You can do it.

Now I'm off to streamline my pretty blue hanging toiletries bag I take along when I travel.

Happy trails!

QUICK HELP FOR HOLIDAY MADNESS

2010-12-20T12:24:00.002-07:00

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.

The most important way to declutter your holiday stress is to spend time alone, in a quiet, calm, and uncluttered place.

If you do not have such a place in your own home, well it's time to create one.

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.

Determine your needs: a chair? a desk? a room?   your car?

Next, take a trash bag and spend only five minutes (yes, just five) picking up junk in this area. Take the trash out.

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.)

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).

You should now have a place of your very own in which to destress. And it smells pretty too.

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.

You can declutter your own space once the madness passes.

Have a blessed and Merry Christmas season!

CHRISTMAS TIPS 2010

2010-12-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

The hectic Christmas season has descended upon us, and I have a few tips to save you time and sanity this month.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Have a blessed pre-Christmas week!

WHAT'S HANGING OVER YOUR HEAD?

2010-11-28T20:36:00.004-07:00

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?

Next question: what are they full of? (You don't have to answer that out loud.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

What is my emotional state while I'm looking at that thing?

If you're not feeling any positive emotions, such as happiness, delight, refreshing anticipation, pleasant memories, or peace, then OUT IT GOES.

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! They're just stuff. Get 'em out of your life.

And if they're damaged in any way, well it just makes the decision even easier: OUT!

Here's a real life example:

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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?

I hope you are inspired to create the storage areas of your dreams, and clear out what's hanging over your head!

Many blessings on you!

CONSUMPTION AND THE RISE AND FALL OF JUNK

2010-11-15T11:41:00.001-07:00

Most people in developed nations never give much thought to the process of acquiring, using, and discarding.

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).

This is a three-step, unique process, not three separate processes. It's called consumption, and it includes these steps:

1. acquire
2. use
3. discard.

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."

Anyway, how does this relate to your clutter?

Clutter can occur at any 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.

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.)

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 use what you bought to be used!

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.).

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 need the textbook anymore). Therefore, you and you alone must carefully define "useful life" for every item in your possession.

At SOME POINT you must ask yourself, "What is this item's useful life for me? Has that point passed?"

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.

Acquire-use-discard. If you gum up one step in this cycle of consumption, the result is CLUTTER.

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?"

Whoa. This is way too heavy for a Monday.

Go throw away the gum wrappers from your purse. There. Less clutter.

Have a blessed week!

OPP

2010-10-26T13:31:00.001-06:00

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.)

THIS post has to do with other people's possessions, and how a person who is clutter-free (or getting there!) should respond to them.

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.

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?

Answer: You can't.

The only person whose behavior your have ultimate control over is your own.

And that is where to focus, in order to foster a change in your home environment.

"What?!" you're asking me, annoyed beyond belief. "Why do I have to look at my stuff and my propensity to clutter? Mr. Pack Rat here is the one with the problem!"

He is. And maybe you are too.

If you're reading this, it's likely you are either

a. a clutterer, or
b. a professional home organizer looking for help for your clients.

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.

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.

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 leave the relationship.

Those are your options.

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.

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:

1. clear up your own clutter
2. accept the junk and love them as they are
3. communicate your concern to the pack rat and hope s/he changes
4. terminate the relationship (do not attempt this with your kids!)
5. contact a psychologist trained in compulsive hoarding or anxiety disorders and arrange an intervention (in serious cases only).

Life is too short to argue over dirty laundry and yesterday's mail. Really.

Best wishes on getting your own junk cleaned up. Be prepared for the miracles that follow.

THE QUESTION

2010-09-20T07:14:00.003-06:00

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.

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:

"Is this what you really want?"

What a great question! We can all apply that question to not only decorative objects, but to anything in our lives, including

clothing
pots and pans
furniture
sports and hobby equipment
electronics
your car
your home itself
your job.

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.

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.

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!

Happy autumn!

GETTING PAST THE FUTURE

2010-09-15T16:40:00.003-06:00

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 someday."

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 they are detrimental to our sanity in 21st century living.

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.

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.

But it doesn't stop us from keeping them once we get them.

I propose a change.

Simple, really, but profound: stop saving things for "someday."

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.

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.

You don't need to keep things for "someday." Instead, enjoy the life you have today.

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.

Blessings on you this week!

EASIEST WAY TO GREEN YOUR ORGANIZING

2010-08-09T23:38:00.004-06:00

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.

With this same spirit, let me share with you the easiest way to green up your own organizing:

QUIT BUYING SO MUCH.

Frankly, that will save untold resources from being "consumed."

For inspiration, here are a few alternatives to purchasing things you want without having to rush out and buy them:

~ borrow from neighbor, family, library
~ rent tools, movies, wedding attire, sports equipment, musical instruments
~ look through your garage or storage shed to see if you already have one
~ 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.)
~ 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)
~ Clean and repair what you have, rather than drive over to Target or the mall to get what you think you need

Now see how much you can add to this list.

Have a blessed and green week!

ARE YOU STUCK?

2010-07-29T13:05:00.003-06:00

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?

Perhaps you're stuck.

I can help unstick you.

One of the reasons you may be stuck is that YOU HAVE TOO MUCH GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE.

"Well, duh!" you tell me.

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. Your schedule is creating clutter in your home.

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.

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.

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.

Blessings on you today!

MINI CLOSET PURGE

2010-07-18T18:48:00.004-06:00

Let's take a break from paper, and head to our clothes closet(s) and dressers.

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:

1. Look through your t-shirts and throw away any that are stained, faded, or are wearing along the neckband.

2. Throw away any and all swimsuits that are stretched out, too tight, or ride up on you.

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.

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!

IF THERE IS SOMETHING IN YOUR SUMMER WARDROBE THAT

A. YOU WOULDN'T LOAN TO MARTHA STEWART IF SHE CAME TO VISIT, or

B. YOU HATE,

then

GET RID OF IT.

Right now. No worries. That stuff is just STUFF, not a beloved friend or child or pet.

Pitch it.

Happy July!

HOW TO FILE, THE OFFICIAL BTFS POST

2010-07-06T12:36:00.004-06:00

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.

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.

There are people out there like this.

You and I aren't among them. (But we could be if we really wanted to. We just choose not to.)

We like to keep papers. And since we do like to keep papers, here's how to keep them without going crazy:

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).

Pick up the first paper in the folder and ask yourself:

1. What is this?
2. Why am I keeping it?
3. Can I get this information on-line?

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.

Repeat with every paper you have, filing like papers with like inside appropriately named folders.

For example:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Do what works for you.

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?

Go here: http://tinyurl.com/2vlahya

PAPER AGAIN

2010-06-14T17:51:00.005-06:00

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty with paper.

I am sharing with you the "secrets" that I share in seminars and with one-on-one clients. And these secrets WORK.

1. Copy the following text into a word document and print it out:

TO DO

TO FILE

TO PAY

TO READ

PENDING

OUT

--TRASH

--SHRED

--RECYCLE

--DELEGATE

2. Collect the following items in one area, within easy reach of a comfortable chair:

flat, clear surface to sort on (kitchen table works great, or set up a long folding table)

trash can

recycle bin

cross cut paper shredder (line it with a trash bag, plug it in, and set it right next to your chair)

box of 100 manilla file folders (third cut, cheapest you can find)

file cabinet

pencil and eraser

large, bold marker

your stacks, boxes, or bags of paper

3. Take six file folders, and on the front cover AND on the tab, write the following in bold marker (one phrase per folder): "to do, to file, to pay, to read, pending, delegate."

4. Arrange your six folders in front of you on your table. These will be where you start sorting your stacks of paper.

5. Take a small stack of paper (couple inches high), and start with the top paper. Ask yourself the following questions:

Is this paper necessary to keep me and my family warm, sheltered, safe, or employed?

Do I need to keep this paper for legal, tax, or financial reasons?

Is this paper precious to me?

6. Once you determine the answers to these questions, it will become glaringly obvious whether or not to keep it. If you decide to keep it, then put it in one of the six folders. If you decide NOT to keep it, then trash, shred, or recycle it.

7. Repeat until your little stack of papers is gone.

8. Repeat with another stack of paper, at another time. Don't spend all day processing an office-full of paper. You'll burn yourself out. Moderation in all things, including paper processing.

YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO PAPER HANDLING NIRVANA. Keep at it over the next few weeks until all your old papers have a file folder (make more as necessary).

I'll help you with how to file in another post (i.e. what categories to write on those little tabs).

Blessings on you!

PAPER CLUTTER AND SOME NEW IDEAS ON WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

2010-05-13T10:14:00.005-06:00

You have no doubt read articles in women's magazines on paper clutter and how you need to touch each piece of paper only once, set up a file system, get your name off mailing lists, purge old papers, save tax papers, yada yada yada. Sure you've done some of that, but you're still on the brink of a full-blown paper panic: the feeling of impending doom that sweeps over you when you throw your car keys down on the kitchen counter at the end of a hard day's work, and glance at the stack of today's mail, on top of yesterdays' mail, on top of who knows what else.

Do you want a simple and easy to use method to upgrade your paper handling skills? Here are three basic steps to reduce the piles on your counter and your stress level simultaneously:

1. USE THE SHREDDER. Shred anything with your name and address on it to deter identity thieves. Just rip off the small section and shred it. I shred envelopes too, that carry my banks' names on them, to leave no paper trail for identity thieves. The majority of identity thefts still occur with real paper, not on the internet.

2. USE THE RECYCLING BIN. Once you rip your name off catalogs and magazines and shred those little pieces, toss the rest of the catalog/magazine in the recycling bin.

3. USE THE TRASH. Whatever can not be recycled or does not need to be shredded, throw away. Yes, just do it.

THESE ARE NOT DIFFICULT OR TIME-CONSUMING STEPS.

If you follow these three steps each day, your paper processing stress will plummet, and your piles will shrink.

Want more specific ideas on what to do with the papers you choose to keep?

We'll get to that soon. But you GOTTA GETTA GRIP ON THE CURRENT MESS BEFORE SETTING UP A BETTER SYSTEM. Shredding, recycling, and trashing are the first three steps. So get practicing. It will only take a minute or two each day.

Just do it.

ARE YOU A HOARDER?

2010-05-01T19:18:00.004-06:00

Your garage is so packed it's difficult to squeeze your car in. The laundry basket is overflowing and has been for the past month. You're having trouble keeping up with the daily newspaper and have started a growing pile of unread papers by the recliner in the living room. And you're afraid to call me to help you.

At some point, with most every client I work with, usually while knee-deep in boxes and general household "stuff," I will hear the question, "Do you think I'm a hoarder?"

And for every case I have worked with--every case where the client him or herself contacted me--the answer is "No." Here's why:

Hoarders don't call me.

A spouse of a hoarder might call. A child of a hoarder might too. But as a general rule, hoarders themselves do not seek out the services of a professional home organizer.

Hoarders do not see their problem until it has grown to such an extent that authorities threaten to condemn their home, cite them for littering, nail an eviction notice to their front door, or remove their children (through child protective services) or themselves (through adult protective services) from their home.

It takes an outside agency or close family member or friend to see the mess first.

Hoarding is no longer believed to be the natural result of the behaviors of a lazy, good-for-nothing slob. Thanks to a growing body of psychological research, hoarding has finally been labeled a mental disorder, for which treatment is becoming more available and viable.

So don't worry; if you call me on your own accord, you are most likely NOT a hoarder.

GOOD, BETTER, BEST

2010-04-11T13:29:00.002-06:00

Are you saving things for a later time, for a more Special time?

Are you purposely NOT wearing a particular favorite pair of shoes because you don't want to get them dirty or wear them out too fast?

Are you saving that imported, leather-bound journal you received as a gift, waiting for the Perfect thing to write about?

Are you slouching around the house in a ratty pair of sweats while that brand new pair of yoga pants sit untouched in a dresser drawer?

Why are you doing this?

Why don't you USE the best things in your life? Why are you waiting for some Perfect Future for them and for you? Why not enjoy those things right now?

You probably have never stopped to ask yourself these questions. You may not even be conscious of your choices to keep the "best" things for later, while you limp along in the land of mediocre: using things that are good enough, but that don't really thrill you all that much to use.

I'm not talking about being a "thing snob," and refusing to purchase or put to use anything that is remotely imperfect. I'm talking about using the best things that you have, given your space and purchasing (financial) limitations, on a regular basis, rather than saving them for later.

Go ahead and wear those fancy shoes, or write in your imported journal, or set the table with your "best" china. Why not? Delight in the best that you have.

Don't let your best things become clutter. Use and enjoy them now!

God bless you today and every day.

GIVING UP OR MOVING UP

2010-03-17T14:47:00.002-06:00

The economy stinks.

And people are hurting because of it. People are losing their jobs, their homes, and their cars. If you have been so blessed to have avoided losing any of these thing in the past few years, then you know someone close to you who has lost something big. I'm not talking about loss as in death or other physical or emotional tragedy: I'm talking purely about the loss of "things."

And I'm here to help you (help them) to make the hurt sting less.

Whenever you face the loss of personal items for financial reasons, whether something as large as a home or as small as a favorite set of earrings, TRY TO REPLACE WHAT YOU'RE LOSING WITH SOMETHING THAT HAS A PERK.

"What are you talking about? How can being in foreclosure be a perk?!"

So you're losing your home, and you've done everything you can to prevent it from happening, but it's too late. You're moving next month, into a rental you have yet to find. Rather than wallow in the "woe is me" muck of self-pity, look for the perks. FIND SOMETHING IN THE REPLACEMENT THAT GIVES YOU A SENSE OF MOVING UP RATHER THAN GIVING UP.

Let's say your house in foreclosure was large and had great landscaping, but you've always wanted a pool. Rent an apartment that has a pool. Voila, a perk!

Or move closer to your job to cut commute time and gas expenses.

Or find a newer (albeit smaller) home with nicer closet space, or vaulted ceilings, or a gas fireplace, or a playground on site for the kids.

Look for the perks!

You have to give up your minivan with the hefty monthly payments, and make do with a very used compact car. Find one in the color you've always wanted, or with heated seats, or a sunroof. Perks!

You decide to eBay the set of pearls you never wear, in order to have enough to pay for the electric bill. Take some of your profit and spend a couple bucks on enlarging that photo of your vacation to Jamaica three years ago, and hang it up so you can daily be reminded of happy memories. A perk!

Losing things is not tragedy; they're just THINGS. Look for the perks in your situation, and be encouraged!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

2010-03-01T10:00:00.002-07:00

Well, maybe not technically, but it's a beautiful day out west, and the perfect time to go through your winter clothing and purge what you never bothered to wear in the past few months of cold weather.

You don't need to over-think this. Go to your closet and drawers and pull out any sweater you never wore, silk long johns that were a great idea at the time (but too much trouble to actually put on underneath your work blouses), long sleeved t's that you like having but don't like wearing, those droopy knee-high boots that hurt your toes, the parka fit for the Iditarod with the price tag still dangling from its sleeve, and the hand-crocheted scarf your best friend gave you for Christmas that looks like a pink poodle gone mad.

Really, it's perfectly FINE to get rid of those things. Hypothermia won't suddenly overtake you if you donate it all. Stuff them into a clean trash bag and call a charity thrift store to pick them up.

Make way for spring!

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

2010-02-12T11:02:00.002-07:00

Yes, we're going to address the Big Ones today: those things that are physically large and take up way too much space in your home, but that you don't want to talk about.

That too-heavy-to-lift desk from your self-employed brother-in-law whose business went belly up. It's sitting silently in the corner of your family room, piled with unused coats, DVD cases, your bicycle helmet, and books to return to the library.

The extra sofa you bought and are storing in the garage for your daughter who's away working on her graduate degree.

The four-wheeler parked out back that you haven't ridden in eight years.

The five-piece suitcase set stuffed in the spare bedroom closet. You used the carry-on bag once, but don't want to get rid of them all because you paid so much and "it's a set."

The piano you never play but bought for your son when he was taking lessons twelve years ago. He's a military man now.

The extra refrigerator you keep in the garage and plug in once a year when you host your family barbecue.

The chalkboard from your unsuccessful attempt at homeschooling.

The antique bed frame, in pieces, awaiting repair.

The rototiller.

The jogging stroller.

The tent trailer.

The sewing machine.

The kayak.

The pool table.

The wooden console tv.

These examples may not be your elephants, but if you mindfully walk around your home, garage, and property, you will instantly know your own elephants. If you're honest with yourself, you will admit you don't currently use any of those things, yet there they sit, taking up valuable floor and mind space, nagging at you to DO SOMETHING, to BE SOMETHING "better" than who you are: "Exercise! Travel! Take up music! Garden! Educate! Refinish! Camp! Quilt! Play! Watch!"

Listen to me friends: who you are is PRICELESS. You are enough, just as you are.

If any of your elephants can easily and safely be carried out to your car without hurting yourself, go do that. If your elephants are too bulky, heavy, or awkward, call a charity thrift store or a nearby church and offer to give them to whomever can move them (please be safe around people you don't know well). Donate those guilt-mongers to someone who loves to jog while pushing a baby stroller, refinish antiques, kayak, camp, stitch, or till up dirt.

You are enough, just as you are.

NEEDS, WANTS, AND JUNK

2010-02-03T09:06:00.003-07:00

Think for a minute about your BASIC HUMAN NEEDS. Not wants, but needs. Shelter, food and water, clothing, and medical attention when necessary. That's it. EVERYTHING ELSE YOU OWN IS OPTIONAL.

Look around wherever you're at right now. All the things you see, unless they are sustaining your very life, are not necessary. You do not need an eight piece living room set in order to stay alive. You do not need a hybrid in your garage. You do not need forty three pair of shoes. You don't need a laptop. You don't need three hundred music CD's. You might want all these things, but you do not need them to sustain your life.

Every purchase you make can be easily classified into one of three categories:

1. life-supporting
2. life-enhancing
3. life-draining.

Basic human needs are life-supporting. Those purchases are necessary and are NOT (usually) clutter. The home you're buying, the food in your shopping cart, the shoes to protect your feet, the blood pressure medication you require. NONE OF THESE PURCHASES ARE CLUTTER.

The objects that bring you joy and delight are life-enhancing. Maybe you love music so much that your collection of 300 CD's is not clutter to you, because music enhances your life. You don't need them to sustain life, but you desire them for the joy and pleasure they bring to you. The living room furniture enhances your life by it's beauty and usefulness to you, your friends, and family. The nail polish collection in your bathroom makes you happy and smile because it's FUN for you. NONE OF THESE PURCHASES ARE CLUTTER, although as your interests change and you grow and bloom into a more authentic version of you, some or all of what you currently enjoy may become clutter.

The objects that do nothing to sustain or enhance your life are life-draining. The bridesmaid dress hanging in your closet, the baby clothes from your youngest child who's now nine and playing little league, the bulky computer monitor you don't know what to do with, the boxes of left-over supplies from your attempt at direct sales, the ab cruncher machine (like anyone uses those), blue eye liner you wore once last year, files full of papers you don't know if you should keep, mismatched mugs in your kitchen that you use but don't really like. ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE CLUTTER.

And you can get rid of them, right now.

MOVE IT OUT!

2010-01-11T11:08:00.004-07:00

Are you deep into the winter doldrums? Are the overcast skies and dark mornings creating a blah-ness that permeates not only your mood but your home?

Well, shake it off with a 10 minute trash purge!

Take a fresh 13 gallon garbage bag (not the flimsy little ones you get at the grocery store) and turn up some fast music that makes you dance.

Start in your bathroom medicine cabinet and collect all lotions, facial scrubs, spot treatments, and eye wrinkle creams that you haven't used in three months. NOW THROW THEM OUT.

Next, pull back the shower curtain or open the shower doors and look at all the bottles and tubes you have amassed there. THROW OUT THINGS YOU ARE TRYING TO USE UP BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE THEM. Who said you have to use something you don't like? Pitch 'em.

Now go to your sock and pantyhose drawer. ANYTHING WITH HOLES BELONGS IN THE TRASH. Do it. Toe holes do not bring a smile to your face. All they do is pull you down further by nagging you to either use them up 'til they fall apart, or go buy new ones. Well save yourself 50% of that stress by throwing them away. And schedule a shopping trip to replace your socks and hose. Do it this week,

Pilled and faded sweaters depress you. The little metal shavers don't work. Re-dying clothing is too much trouble. THROW THOSE OLD CLOTHES AWAY. The charity thrift stores would have to do it for you if you donated those sweaters to them. They don't sell junk, and you shouldn't have to wear it, or keep it either. You would be taking money away from your favorite charity if you donate pilled and faded sweaters because they have to pay for disposal costs for unwanted or un-salable merchandise. Why pass the cost of disposing of your trash onto charities?

Throw those sweaters in the bag.

And if you still have that live evergreen wreath hanging on your front door, take it down NOW and pitch it. It is NOT "the holiday season" anymore. It's January, and spring is just around the corner.

OK, 10 minutes are up. Tie that bag and take it out to the trash cans/dumpster/trash chute. That wasn't difficult! And I bet you feel better now, too.

These mini-purging sessions are addictive. We'll do more soon. In the mean time, keep warm and keep smiling!

NEW DECADE, NEW JUNK

2010-01-03T20:06:00.002-07:00

Happy 2010!

Is your Christmas tree still up? Is there a holiday wreath on your door? Did you take down the inflatable Santa?

If not, don't beat yourself up.

Most people who are not professional home organizers still have most if not all of their decorations still out and up and decking their halls.

My halls are ready for spring. Before January 1st, I un-trimmed my tree, de-wreathed my door, packed away the silk poinsettias, and boxed up the stockings. And it took less than 30 minutes to do.

Time yourself this year when you take down your decorations and pack them away. You might be surprised at how little time it actually takes to clear out the old year to make way for the new one.

While you're at it, GET RID of at least ONE decoration that has seen better days, that you really don't like anymore, or that brings sad memories to you.

You deserve to live in a home that brings joy to your heart, at every season of the year!

STORED JUNK

2009-12-27T18:43:00.005-07:00

Your life is stuffed with useful things, and you have run out of places to put everything away.

The new cell phone your brother gave you for Christmas isn't junk, but you save the box it came in, in case you need to refer to it sometime. The sweater you bought on sale at Macy's isn't junk, but you had to take a cardigan off your closet shelf and cram it into your t-shirt drawer in order to make space for the new sweater. The fake poinsettias you bought (see previous post) are lovely, but now you're faced with sorting through previous years' Christmas decor hidden in eight boxes in the garage and weed through them in order to make room for the poinsettias.

Most all of what you have on shelves, in closets, stacked in the garage, piled in the basement are useful things: electronics boxes, sweaters, Christmas decor. But are they useful to you RIGHT NOW?

If all that stuff you have stored away was useful to you, right now, then you would be USING IT right now.

But you're not.

For your own peace of mind, admit that those things aren't being used by you, and let them go to someone who will gladly put them to use right now.

This isn't brain surgery, and you're too overwhelmed with the after-Christmas stuff-glut to read a longer post anyway, so just GET RID OF THE JUNK!

Contact one of the charities below and arrange to have them haul off all that excess you've got stashed away. You will bless others in need, you will gain extra space for what you use on a daily basis, plus, you'll receive a tax-deductible receipt for what you give away!

Goodwill Industries: www.goodwill.org

Salvation Army: www.salvationarmyusa.org

St. Vincent de Paul: www.svdpusa.org

Many blessings to you!

HOLIDAY DECOR: REAL OR FAKE

2009-12-11T12:23:00.005-07:00

I love "real" Christmas trees. As a child, my family received the most delicately scented pine trees from a retired university professor who lived across the street. The trees he gave us were carefully thinned from his acreage up the mountain. My Dad would cut the bottom few inches off the trunk and wrestle the tree inside, where us kids would descend upon it with strings of colored lights, family decorations, paper chains, and tinsel, carefully separated strand by strand and hung one piece per branch.

As an adult, I continued this tradition of using cut, live Christmas trees. I still recall the winter I was six months pregnant, trudging up a snow-covered mountain with my husband and two sons, ages five and four, looking for the perfect Christmas tree to thin and bring home to decorate. Other years we bought live Douglass fir trees from the Rite Aid a few hundred yards from our back door. I loved the whole idea of our family using a new, live Christmas tree each year.

Until a few years ago when my schedule, budget, location, and good sense overcame nostalgia: I no longer lived across the street from a retired professor with wooded acres to thin nor behind a Rite Aid. The cost of purchasing a tree from a grower's lot every year became an expense I was no longer willing to keep in my budget. And I no longer had the desire to drive an hour to the mountains with a forest service tree tag in hand, hike two miles in the cold and snow, find a suitable tree growing less than three feet from another tree, cut the sucker down, bind the branches close to the trunk, drag it to the car, scratch the paint and my cheek with it as I hoist it onto the roof, lash it down, and bring it home where it needs to be watered and vacuumed around every day like a high-maintenance pup.

I bought an artificial tree.

This tree is easy to put up and easy to store. It looks real. It never drops needles and needs no water. It will still be around long after I am gone; my kids can inherit the thing. I don't need help roping it to the top of my car or shoving it in the trunk. I don't need to saw the bottom few inches off the trunk. I don't need to freeze my boots with a two mile hike up a snowy mountain to chop the sucker down. Nor do I worry that the price at the lot down the street was cheaper than what I paid for it at Rite Aid. And I will never pay another cent of my money for a decoration that will only last one month.

I finally did the same thing with poinsettias: bought fake ones. They look real, they don't need water, I don't need to worry about kids or guests knocking them over and spilling the soil across the carpet, they can't poison my cat, and I will never pay another cent of my money for plants that only look good for one month.

But not everyone feels the same way I do about artificial decorations. Both real and artificial decorations have benefits and drawbacks. Neither is the better choice for everyone. But think about this: one choice may be better for you at this season of your life. If you don't have the storage space for a bulky artificial tree or poinsettias, then a "real" tree and live plants would be the more practical, clutter-free way to go.

You'd be nuts to suggest that I purchase a live tree and poinsettias at this season of my life. My artificial tree is up and decorated, with very little effort or time expended for the SAME EFFECT, with most of the SAME DECORATIONS as I hung on that hiked-for, hand-cut tree all those years ago.

I'm not at the point of wanting a "real" tree. I'm not at the point of willingness to support the idea of high-maintenance decorations.

But 12 years ago I was. And I could return to that point next December. I don't know.

Life's situations change. Our perceptions, goals, dreams, and schedules vary year by year. Our personal energy levels wax and wane. Our health may be robust one year and so-so the next. Our kids' and grandkids' needs change too. Heck, even the addition of a house cat can sway your decorating decisions.

Last year, as usual, I wanted to decorate everything just so, including the gingerbread men cookies. I fussed over the way the lights and garland looked on our artificial tree. I hand-made a dozen ornaments. No way this year. I'm a divorced mom of three. I'm learning to delegate and let go of my need to control where the decorations go. My kids did most of it, and the tree looks pretty good, considering it was decorated by an 11 year-old tom boy and her two autistic teen-age brothers.

Where are YOU at on your life's journey? Are you at the point of adoring the thought of searching out and cutting down your own Christmas tree? Or are you at the point of pulling a fake one out of its box in the garage and calling it good enough?

Whatever your path, be kind to yourself. Honor yourself by acknowledging where you're at in life RIGHT NOW. Allow yourself freedom from guilt over not decorating "good enough." Or allow yourself the freedom from guilt over storing boxes of decorations in the garage that you only use one month per year. Do what you want this year. And decorate because you want to, in the way you want to.

May you be richly blessed this holy season. Merry Christmas!

HOW TO GIVE BLESSINGS, NOT CLUTTER

2009-11-21T16:28:00.004-07:00

'Tis the season to shop for useless gifts that the recipients will pretend to like and hide in a high closet shelf once the holidays are over.

That about sums up America's holiday gift-giving frenzy, which officially kicks off in six days.

But it doesn't have to be that way this year...or ever again, as far are you are concerned. It's time to declutter your gift-giving, starting this season. Here are some great ideas for giving smashing gifts the recipients will adore:

1. Ask them what they want! This is by far the easiest way to ensure that the recipient loves the gift you give her. After all, she picked it out.

2. Look at their hobbies and interests for clues. If your best friend loves the cinema, give her a gift card to her favorite cinema and one for a coffee shop afterward. If your mother collects bells, pick one up to add to her collection. Basic idea, but it's amazing how few people actually follow this anymore because it seems so boring or predictable: The old "give dad a tie" kind of gift. Hey, if your dad wears ties, what's wrong with giving him another one?

3. Give gifts to honor their values. Make a donation in her name to her favorite charitable cause. No clutter, much love, and the world becomes a better place instead of a more cluttered one.

4. Give the gift of time spent together. Take a child to go ice skating or to the zoo. Bring a friend to see The Nutcracker. Take an angst-y teen to a movie and buy him the huge bucket of popcorn and an extra-large soda. Take an elderly person to see the ice sculpture contest or garden Christmas light display. Drive the carpool for a bunch of friends to attend a craft show and bring along a few mugs of hot cocoa and iced sugar cookies.

5. Give a disposable or consumable gift. Things such as cut flowers, a plate of gingerbread cookies, a tin of fudge you made yourself, a poinsettia, a jar of exotic preserves or jelly, or a fresh evergreen door wreath will still honor the recipient and leave no trace of clutter after the holidays.

6. Make something. We have become a nation of consumers instead of producers. This year, try making just one of the gifts you give. There are so many ideas out there, and more inside that creative brain of yours. Here are just a few ideas to get your creative gears in motion: a set of six handmade greeting cards, a small scrapbook, pumpkin bread, fresh salsa, a quilted wall hanging, a wreath from trimmings in your yard, a plant you started from a cutting, a beaded necklace, a silk screened scarf, a photo you took and framed yourself, a hand-bound journal, pressed and framed botanicals, felt beret, knitted or crocheted scarf, hand-poured candles, a CD of photos, a wind chime, a 12-month calendar you designed on your computer, and a bird house you hammered together yourself.

7. Subscribe. Purchase a year's subscription to a periodical based on the recipient's interests (bass fishing, gardening, simplicity). There are thousands of periodicals in this country covering almost every conceivable topic. Or purchase a subscription to a magazine you BOTH enjoy, and that will give you more to talk about each time you see eachother.

8. Give a service. Pay to have your brother's house cleaned since the arrival of his first child this year. Arrange a massage, pedicure, or hair cut and style for your best friend. Repot all your mother's scraggly plants. Take your husband's car to get the oil changed (not very romantic, but most busy men will secretly love the fact that they don't have to crawl under their car and do it themselves for a change).

9. Give a party. Truly, the easiest way to celebrate your friends' presence in your lives is to give them a holiday party. Make it an open house on a Saturday like I do, and people can drop by when it's convenient for them. Serve hot cider and cocoa, gingerbread cookies, crudites, and some savory little treats, and bless all your friends in one delightful afternoon.

This holiday season, give gifts of blessings, not clutter! Merry Christmas!

WHAT ORGANIZATION CAN DO FOR YOUR KIDS

2009-11-11T09:49:00.002-07:00

Maintaining an organized home has many benefits for you and your children: less stress over misplaced items, less rushing in the mornings to locate clean socks and math notebooks, and family dinners around a cleared-off dining table.

But there are even more benefits to living in an orderly home environment: a strong correlation exists between household cleanliness and organization AND early reading ability.

Did you get that?! The way you maintain your home affects your school-aged child's reading ability. In a study by the National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College in New York City, household order proved to be MORE IMPORTANT to fostering a child's reading ability than how frequently a child was read to.*

Surprise! Taking out the trash, keeping your kitchen counters clean, organizing the pantry, folding bath towels, and hanging up clothing are more important to your child's literacy than sitting down and reading to them. That's not to say you should stop reading aloud to your children--sharing stories and time together is very important--but isn't it amazing that the way you keep your home affects their reading skills more than books do?

Why not include your children in organizing and cleaning your home, and read a book together afterward? You'll get the best of both worlds.

*"Order Helps Readers," WORKING MOTHER Magazine, November 2009: Pg. 68

FREE PROFESSIONAL HOME ORGANIZATION

2009-10-07T14:47:00.002-06:00

Professional home organization and decluttering services can be free for many unique and amazing reasons. Most of these examples below can also MAKE you money, in fact, so much money that you could pay for my services for yourself AND for twelve of your friends too!

1. A professional organizer helps you declutter and donate the things you no longer want or use. If you itemize on your federal income taxes, you can deduct all your charitable donations up to a certain GENEROUS limit. See your tax advisor for the most recent updates on this limit.
2. On Idaho state taxes, you can deduct half of the cost of your donations to specific charities, up to $400 (thus a $200 state income tax deduction).
3. Decluttering can make your need for off-site storage obsolete, saving you the monthly rental fee, every month, for as long as you live. That’s no small change!
4. You may never need to buy a bigger home due to running out of space.
5. I can help you arrange to sell many of your discards, and you could earn back in sales every penny of fees you pay me. Oftentimes, even more!
6. If you own a business (home-business too), my services are tax-deductible as a business expense. Plus, any charitable donations made by your business are also tax deductible! Ask your business tax advisor for details.
7. During decluttering sessions, I often find gift cards, gift certificates, receipts for items to be returned to a store, and cold hard CASH for my clients in their homes and cars.
8. I can help you set up a bill payment system so that you will never pay a late fee for an overdue bill again.
9. An organized pantry reduces loss of money due to boxes and cans of food being buried and forgotten before their expiration dates. Pantry organization saves you money every week.
10. Housekeeping will take less time: if you pay to have your house cleaned professionally, an organized home saves money every visit: it’s cheaper to pay for one hour of housekeeping services rather than three hours. You may also be able to reduce the frequency of housekeeping services, to once every two or three weeks instead of every week.
11. Lost medical records can be expensive. If you owe a medical office or a hospital a large sum due to a procedure that your insurance refused to cover, you may be able to challenge the charge. But you need PROOF. I can help you find it!
12. Cleaning up the clutter uncovers potential home maintenance issues that could be extremely costly if not addressed: vermin infestation, mold, dry rot, pipe leaks. These issues are low-cost to fix at the outset, and extremely expensive to address when they have been allowed to continue growing for months or years.
13. Decluttering can reveal potential health hazards. Unsafe electrical appliances, broken windows, boxes stacked too high, piles of flammable papers, expired medications, and hazardous waste are all potential dangers. An emergency room visit can run into the thousands of dollars; a home fire can kill.
14. A work-related move can cost many thousands of dollars. Most if not all of your moving expenses can be tax deductible, including the services of a professional home organizer to coordinate the move. See your tax advisor for details.
15. A professional home organizer can help your move cost less, too! Most commercial moving companies charge by the distance between your old and new homes, plus the total weight of your household goods. A pro organizer can help you declutter so that you have less weight to move, saving you big money. For cross-town moves, professional organizers charge less per hour to box up your possessions than professional movers charge.
16. Duplicates! Oftentimes my clients purchase an item over and over because they can’t find it in the mess. Getting rid of the junk and organizing what is left will allow you to KNOW what you have, and WHERE to find it when you need it. This will eliminate needless spending on duplicates.
17. Elder moves and clearing out the family home are not only heart-rending experiences, but often require the oversight and coordination of a family member who lives across the country. Many times, valuable possessions are tossed into rented Dumpsters by overwhelmed family members working on a tight schedule as they frantically prepare the family home for sale. A professional organizer can coordinate all aspects of estate liquidation to prepare the home for a quick and profitable sale, saving not only time, but money lost in the form of Dumpster rental fees and useable goods thrown out rather than donated or sold. Plus, a professional organizer can arrange for yard clean up, household repairs, interior or exterior painting, move-out cleaning, and home staging to optimize and increase the home’s resale value.
18. If you itemize, you need to keep receipts for every deductible expense. I can help you set up a system to organize all your receipts so that you may claim every legitimate tax deduction you are entitled to take. Since the average worker’s greatest annual expense is taxes, this one move could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your working career.

What are you waiting for?! Contact me today and stimulate your own personal economy now and for years to come!

THE SALVATION OF YOUR CRAFT ROOM

2009-09-20T14:54:00.002-06:00

Are you the crafty or artsy type? Do you imagine someday refinishing the antique dresser you bought at a flea market (which is now taking up much-needed room in your cramped garage)? Do you have boxes of assorted fabric waiting in the coat closet to be quilted or crafted into something amazing? Do you keep chipped china and ratty wool sweaters in the hopes of recycling them into mosaic table tops and stuffed bears? Do you buy industrial size packages of hot glue sticks? Are there boxes of salvaged picture frames collecting dust in the spare bedroom? Do you buy and keep rolls of ribbon, packs of beads, skeins of silk floss in every color imaginable, and reams of scrapbooking paper, just waiting for your creative mind to transform these raw materials into works of art?

Me too.

And I'm learning to get over it.

Why? Because somewhere between potential crafts and the finished products lie vast wastelands of clutter. And clutter messes up your home, steals your time, drains your mental energy, and crowds out room for things you really want and need in your life.

Now wait a minutes before you get in my face and tell me about your need for artistic expression: I agree that creative expression is a vital part of life, and it's a vital part of my life too. What I'm saying is that these unfinished craft and art projects may be cluttering up your life, and it might be time to let them go.

Have you ever browsed on amazon.com for craft books? Try it sometime and see HOW MANY different forms of artistic expression you have available to you. If you worked at it, during every free moment you have, you could probably complete about one-millionth of the possibilities out there in your lifetime, not taking into account your own creativity and sense of design, in which case you're looking at AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF POSSIBLE ARTS AND CRAFTS PROJECTS.

Humans are finite creatures, with finite lifespans. We do not have the TIME to complete every beautiful and worthwhile craft project we dream of or imagine. There isn't enough time in a million lifetimes to do it.

And truly, if these craft projects were so important to you, then you would be cross-stitching or hot-gluing during your free time, not crashing on the sofa watching "Friends" reruns.

I love to quilt. I finished one almost a year ago, and I haven't quilted since. My current life is very full with raising kids, including two with special needs. I have little time to cut and craft and stitch and glue. In my free time, I prefer to read, journal, blog, walk, or spend time with friends and family. IF QUILTING WERE A PRIORITY IN MY LIFE, I WOULD MAKE TIME FOR IT. It isn't a priority at this season in my life. I love to quilt, but not enough to let go of reading, journaling, blogging, walking, or spending time with friends and family. There is only so much time in my life, and I am choosing to spend it in other forms of expression rather than in fabric right now.

What about you? Where are you at in your life? Are you ready to let go of some of these projects and just ADMIT that scrapbooking or decoupage or knitting are not priorities for you right now?

You may feel guilty about letting go of the supplies for these projects. Let me remind you: you are not Jesus. You can not rescue these inanimate objects. You can not be the savior of a box of picture frames or a roll-top antique desk in need of restaining. Quit playing Jesus to a bunch of THINGS. If you're currently spending your leisure time at the gym or volunteering at the senior center, then THOSE ACTIVITIES ARE YOUR PRIORITIES, not gluing sea shells to photo frames or scraping the paint off of the curves of a desk leg.

Let the crafty stuff go. LET IT GO! Reclaim your closet space, the "craft room," and your mind for the things you actually WANT AND NEED in your life right now.

Blessings!

Hidden Clutter

2009-08-13T10:36:00.002-06:00

When you see something every day, you no longer see it.

Think about it: you hang a framed photo of your family in the entryway, and since you pass it every day, it begins to blend into the wall. It becomes one with the wallpaper.

Familiarity breeds forgetfulness.

But take that photo off the wall, and look at it again, and you will see it in a completely different light: "Oh, little Kyle still had braces. Wow, glad I switched hairdressers since then. Ugh, look at that funky blouse; well, that was the style."

In removing the photo from its native environment, so to speak, you see it differently. And once you see it differently, you can determine if it has become clutter to you, or is something you want to keep.

Much of the clutter in our homes is hidden from us in plain sight, like that framed photograph. We pass it every day, sometimes many times a day, camouflaged by its long-standing presence. It has become so familiar that we forget it's sitting there on the wall, or the shelf, or in the corner of the room. It blends in with the surroundings.

Look around the room you're in right now, and find the clutter hiding in plain sight.

JUNK IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

2009-07-13T13:25:00.003-06:00

You have too much stuff in your house!

And it's causing all kinds of problems in your life.

Lack of time (because you spend time shopping for, arranging, cleaning, storing, and tripping over it).
Money troubles (because you spend money that could be going towards debt repayment, retirement account, or a new car fund on buying junk). Also, the increase in junk you own may lead you to think you need a bigger home or off-site storage, both of which are extremely expensive.
Health concerns (because time and money issues lead to increased stress, and stress taxes the immune system, which in turn leaves your body less able to fight off infections. Plus, chronic stress can lead to chronic health issues.)
Arguments with housemates such as your spouse, kids, or roomate (because you don't want them borrowing or moving or in any way touching your junk, or vice versa).

Anything that causes that level of trouble in your life deserves to be called a four-letter word.

Today, spend a few minutes getting some of that "junk" out of your life. Throw away or recycle

four magazines
four pair of socks you don't like or that are getting old and ratty
four pens or pencils you never use
four dated books (think of computer manuals, phone books, dusty college textbooks, pulp fiction)
four CD's you will never listen to again (pass them on to a co-worker, neighbor, or friend)
four BIGGER things in your garage, attic, basement, or storage shed (cracked terra cotta planter, bent artificial Christmas tree, non-working weed-eater, bookcase you've been meaning to refinish for the past five years, leaf rake with a broken handle, boxes of maternity clothes, "extra" box of plastic drinking cups, bag of baby shower decorations you haven't used since your best friend was pregnant SIX YEARS AGO)
four pair of shoes.

This will give you some relief from that junk.

Blessings!

Discipline Is Not a Four-Letter Word

2009-07-05T23:11:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure how the term discipline has fallen out of favor, but I have not seen it written ONCE in any of the women's magazines I've read over the past three decades. We seem to have degenerated into a society of people who desire an organized home (there are "get rid of your clutter!" articles in almost every issue of the leading women's magazines), but who are unwilling to do anything remotely difficult or sacrificial in order to create what we want. But discipline* is a key ingredient in creating an organized, clutter-free home and life.

Most of us know this already; we may just need reminding now and then.

I define discipline as doing what I know needs to be done, when it needs to be done (or sooner), whether or not I feel like doing it.

For example, I process the mail each day, down to throwing out the trash and shredding unneeded but sensitive documents. I discipline myself to do this task, doing it when it needs to be done (daily), whether or not I feel like opening it up, sorting, shredding, and filing.

I never have mail lying around, ever. There is no mail clutter in my life because I discipline myself to deal with it every day.

The only way your home will begin to look organized and clutter-free is when you embrace discipline and apply a little of it to your life: simply DO the jobs that need to be done, whether or not you "feel" like completing them.

If your house is a wreck right now, apply discipline in small doses and work on a small area (one drawer, one shelf in the closet, one storage box) at a time, while keeping up with daily tasks such as doing the dishes, making your bed, and taking out the trash.

You will be amazed at how much you can accomplish!

*Many women work full-time outside the home, and others go to school full-time. If either of these situations apply to you, then you are ALREADY applying discipline to your life in order to work or study. You have my admiration. Ignore this post and hire a housekeeper. If you're a stay-at-home mom and live in a royal mess, read every post in this blog and learn how to bring order to the tremendous blessing you've been given. There are thousands of single working moms out there who would trade places with you in a heartbeat.

Evaluate Your Purchases

2009-06-19T16:22:00.004-06:00

The clutter in your life is a direct result of YOU allowing it into your house. You are responsible for your living environment, no matter if you own your home, rent an apartment, or share a dorm room with a classmate.

You are also responsible for taking credit for the good buys you have made. You and I have many objects in our homes that are NOT clutter to us. They are good purchases--things we are glad we spent money on.

For inspiration, here is a short list of some of my good purchases:

computer
cell phone
Shabby Chic comforter
high-quality cross-training shoes (make me sound so athletic don't they?)
portable DVD player for my kids to take on car trips
favorite blue jeans
slow cooker

I happen to know three people for whom my list of good purchases would be total clutter. But their lists may be clutter to someone else.

Take a few minutes and list ten of your good purchases, and why you consider them good. Congratulate yourself on buying those things. See? Not everything around you is junk!

ENOUGH

2009-06-09T08:37:00.004-06:00

No one likes being told what to do. We stand up for our rights to independent thoughts, beliefs, and actions: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We are quick to exert ourselves when someone interferes with these rights. We refuse to bow to any other human who tries to usurp our blood-bought rights to all our personal and national freedoms.

However, there are two situations in which we voluntarily surrender our rights:

1. We voluntarily allow THINGS to get in the way of our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

2. We don't set limits on our own desires, our acquiring habits, or our keeping habits.

We CHOOSE what we allow into our homes: no one is holding you at gunpoint to keep the unused espresso machine or two closets full of clothing. No one is forcing you to keep your garage in a constant state of chaos. No one guides your hands in the discount store as you pile stuff and more stuff into your cart, then bring all that junk home. No one forces you to sign the 90 days same as cash contract for the bedroom furniture you bought but didn't really need (your old set worked and looked just fine).

Don Aslett, the Grandfather of the dejunking movement, said in his book, Not For Packrats Only, "By the time we emerge from the innocence of childhood, we firmly believe that things make us happy*." He continues to explain how we believe that, "things will even somehow change something inside of us," making us better, more beautiful, stronger, smarter, healthier. We want others to approve of us, to look up to us, to want to BE us. We want to be "cool."

THINGS DO NOT MAKE US HAPPY. Things are enhancements and supports for living out the life Christ died to give you! Who you are, and especially your happiness, will never depend upon anything you can purchase.

Which brings us to the second point: we don't (or haven't) set limits on ourselves.

If we wish to live a genuine life, vital, dynamic, always learning, always seeking growth, pursuing happiness as we define it for ourselves, then we must set limits on our desires and our habits as they relate to stuff. We can not allow what we own to define our sense of SELF, or our WORTH in this world.

Who we are has nothing to do with stuff. It never has, and it never will. Only when you GET IT--that who you are is never defined by material possessions--will you permanently free yourself from the bondage of thinking your happiness depends upon having, or acquiring, or keeping some material object.

You are enough, just as you are. You don't need any THING to determine your value. You are priceless.

You have been limiting your growth and happiness by trying to buy and acquire your way into feeling happy and worthwhile. Instead of limiting your growth and happiness, set limits on how much you want to buy, how much you do buy, and how much you keep. Get comfortable with "enough" instead of "more! more! more!"

"Enough" is a huge step towards true personal freedom and contentment.

* Aslett, Don. Not For Packrats Only. Plume Books. New York, NY: 1991. Pg.8.

CALM

2009-05-25T20:12:00.005-06:00

Calm is the opposite of chaos.

Which way do you want to live?

Which way are you currently living?

You don't have to live with stuff everywhere. You don't have to live with mess and disorder and an endless tidal wave of things spilling out from every closet, drawer, cupboard, and tabletop.

You can create a calm atmosphere, a sense of serenity, peace, beauty.

"HOW?!" you ask. "I work full-time. My house is a mess. I have too many commitments. I can't keep up with it all!"

You are absolutely right: you can't keep up with it all. Humans were not made to withstand constant stress. You know instinctively that clutter causes stress. So today, you are going to GET RID OF SOME STRESS.

Three is an easy number to remember, so search for and THROW AWAY three of the following items. (You can copy and paste this list into a Word document and use it as a checklist for yourself. Then THROW AWAY THE LIST WHEN YOU'RE DONE. You don't need more paper clutter.) Go get a big trash bag.

Start in the bathroom. Throw away:

three bottles of things you never use anymore
three expired cosmetics
three ratty washcloths

Now to your bedroom. Throw away:

three pairs of ratty underwear
three pairs of worn socks
three T-shirts you haven't worn in over a year
three pairs of shoes that look grimy (think worn out flip flops, tired running shoes, sandals you've had since junior high)

To the kitchen. Throw away:

three stupid refrigerator magnets you thought were cool at the time
three expired boxes or cans of food (you have some, so LOOK!)
three chipped plates or cups
three phone books or catalogs (you know you have some on the counter or stashed in a drawer somewhere)
three disgusting rags or sponges underneath the sink

To the living room. Throw away:

three magazines
three catalogs
three pet or kid toys that never get played with anymore
three dead or dying plants or flower arrangements

To a closet (pick one). Throw away:

three gift bags you'll never re-use
three empty boxes you're saving to use to send Christmas presents
three stupid things (you have more, but limit it to three)

Now tie up that trash bag, and take it out of your home.

Don't you feel better already?

"OK, I do, but now I have momentum and I want to do more."

Great! So now that you have a burst of energy, put it to good use and CLEAR OFF AS MANY FLAT SURFACES AS POSSIBLE. Long stretches of uncluttered flat surfaces create a sense of calm, even if the floor needs mopping or the frig needs cleaning out. That's my biggest housekeeping secret.

So go make your bed quickly. Don't make hospital corners, just make it up so it looks nice.

Wipe down and put away the toaster, blender, coffee pot, and KitchenAid that are sitting on your counters.

Clear off the coffee table and put three things back on it.

Now relax and experience a little CALM in your mind and spirit today!

The Hard Stuff

2009-05-01T17:24:00.003-06:00

Some things are easy to let go of: old newspapers, expired medications, dried out pens, fossilized dish sponges, jeans with holes in the knees. Getting rid of these things is a no-brainer.

But what about the hard stuff? What about those objects that you have such a tremendous emotional attachment to, that you don't want to think about at all? You don't want to see or use them, but you don't want to get rid of them. This is the hard stuff.

Your wedding dress (from your first marriage).
The dated artwork you bought with your very first royalty check.
The necklace your ex-boyfriend bought you for your birthday 12 years ago.
The fancy paperweight your boss gave you at your first "professional" job.
Your maternity clothes (your youngest is finishing up her bachelor's degree).
Camping gear you don't use anymore (but used every summer for 9 years).
China your grandmother gave you.
A piano your childhood mentor willed to you.
The clothes your late husband wore.
The baby crib and car seat from your child who died of SIDS.

This is the hard stuff.

These things represent a lost dream, a treasured relationship, a milestone along your path in this world. Such emotional ties BIND you to these objects. It's all really just STUFF you need to get rid of. But it's very difficult to do. You're not sure you're ready to let it go.

You know what? YOU CAN DO DIFFICULT THINGS. You already have:

It was difficult to file the divorce after years of suffering his abuse.
It was difficult to write that book over the course of 14 months.
It was difficult to walk with dignity once your boyfriend left you for someone else.
It was difficult to spend four years working on your degree and then land that coveted job.
It was darn difficult to bear and raise your daughter, and to put her through college.
It was difficult to take four kids camping every summer, but you knew it was good for them.
It was difficult to watch your grandmother slowly succumb to Alzheimer's.
It was difficult to learn piano from that grumpy teacher who loved you like his own child.
It was beyond difficult to merely get out of bed that first year after your husband's death.
It was beyond anything imaginable to bury your infant and leave her grave site.

You might feel that you need permission to let it all go, to know that it's OK for you to let it go, and to know that you will HEAL faster if you let it go. Getting rid of these hard things will open up room for the future and present, and can be a wonderful, cathartic closure to that difficult time you experienced. And you will NOT show disrespect to the departed by getting rid of the things they left behind: you are showing disrespect to their memory and to yourself by keeping things you don't like and preventing someone alive RIGHT NOW from using and enjoying those things.

Honor the memory of the departed, honor the memories of your past, honor your accomplishments by choosing to let go of the things you don't use or love. Give those things away so that they may be used and enjoyed once again.

You can even create some ceremony around getting rid of the hard stuff. You might want to ask a friend over for coffee and support as you pack up the baby gear. You might wish to journal about what you're letting go of, how you feel, what it represents. Write a poem: no one has to read it except you, and it doesn't have to rhyme. Go for a long hike in the woods. Don't be embarrassed by whatever ceremony you feel you need in order to let go of what's holding you back. I prayed for the next bride who would wear my hand-sewn-by-me wedding dress, and I was finally able to let it go.

And you know what? You will become stronger with each difficult thing you are able to release.

YOU HAVE DONE DIFFICULT THINGS IN THE PAST AND THEY HAVEN'T DESTROYED YOU. Don't think that a box of china or an old piano are too hard for you to handle today.

Dealing with the hard stuff will strengthen your soul, honor your past, and free you to experience the abundant life you were created to live!

Vanity Clutter

2009-04-06T00:14:00.004-06:00

I wonder... how many bottles and tubes of partially used lotions, body washes, special creams, hair products, perfumes, make up, and those "miracle in a jar" impulse purchases you have in each bathroom in your home.

Probably more than you need or use. We ALL do.

You, like all of us, have a few favorites that you use on a daily basis: perhaps a favorite shampoo, a nice foundation, a good eye cream, a perfect shade of lipstick. You enjoy these products every day, and bypass dozens more that you bought but don't completely like.

I want to encourage you to GET RID OF THE PRODUCTS YOU DON'T LIKE OR USE.

It's OK to just toss them in the trash. You are not obligated to use every last drop of the conditioner that doesn't really work, or the perfume your sister gave you three Christmases ago. Just because something is in your house doesn't mean you have to USE it up.

You don't sin by throwing away an almost-full tube of lipstick that isn't really your color (but came free with your department store foundation). It isn't wrong to get rid of personal care products you neither like or use.

For the products you have tried and don't want to use again, just throw them in the trash.

For the brand new products you know you will never use, gather them up in a bag and drop them off at a homeless shelter or a domestic violence center. Or take them to a food bank to distribute (yes, a food bank).

If you are unemployed and are in dire need of extra money, sell those brand new products on ebay, or take them back to the stores for full refunds, if you still have the receipts.

Next time you're shopping and want to add another hand lotion or eye shadow to your basket, ask yourself if it will become clutter to you within a week: unless it's a tried and true favorite of yours, most of these "vanity" purchases end up as clutter. When in doubt, don't buy it. Or, if you think you'll enjoy it now but may get tired of it after a short time, then buy a small travel or sample size.

Happy Spring!

The Art of Pruning

2009-03-06T12:32:00.006-07:00

I love to prune. While other people enjoy mowing their lawns, planting bulbs, and plotting the placement of their flowering annuals, I yearn for a sharp pair of pruning shears. It's terribly refreshing to clip old twigs off my grapevines, or attack my numerous rosebushes, dreaming of the flowers they will soon produce. Having a yard of my own is the culmination of years of wishing I knew the art of bonsai. Now I practice my own brand of bonsai: taming and shaping a yard instead of a tiny potted juniper.

My late father loved his chain saw, which enabled him to prune with abandon, and on an even larger scale than I can accomplish with pruning shears. I remember when Dad first attacked the yard of my childhood home. He cut back bushes along our property line next to the vacant lot. The owner of that lot then decided it looked big enough to move a little house in there (which he did).

Dad took down the ancient, non-producing apricot tree in the side yard. He ripped into the towering silver birch in the front yard, and he took out the blue spruce in the back. That opened up the yard and let in more light to our home. And the spider count inside the house dropped drastically, too.

As a child, I felt sad at some of the pruning my Dad undertook. Removing the bushes and spruce tree made the backyard open and less private. Of course the neighbor moved that little house next door, which didn't help. There were fewer leaves to rake into a huge pile and jump into in the fall without the birch tree out front. But the absence of the birch tree enabled me to see, unobstructed, the bright Christmas star on top of the grain silo across town from my second-story bedroom window. A fine trade indeed. And birch leaves are small anyway; we had plenty of maple leaves left to enjoy.

As a grown-up homeowner, I appreciate the many reasons my Dad pruned around my childhood home. The biggest reason, which is just as delightful as the sheer excitement of pruning, is that THERE ARE NOW FEWER PLANTS TO TAKE CARE OF. In pruning the whole yard, my Dad eliminated hours and hours of yard work per year.

Multiply that number by the 30+ years since his first chain saw rampage, and that's a tremendous amount of time and personal energy he saved for himself and my mother over a lifetime of home ownership.

Decluttering your yard is more that just raking leaves and sweeping up pine needles: It's deciding if removing particularly high-maintenance plants would be a better way of cleaning up your yard, permanently, freeing up hours of your LIFE in the process.

During this budding spring season, please consider the areas of your yard that could use a good pruning. Ripping out that miserable-looking shrub, or digging up the non-producing butterfly bush will open up space and leave more room for the plants you love.

Go ahead. Call the arborist to come remove that aging pine tree in your backyard, which has dropped sharp little brown needles and cones all over your lawn for decades. Call the wrecking yard to haul away the '78 Chevy sitting broken and forlorn, dripping oil in the driveway, which you have to clean up every few months. You don't need that stuff taking up your life. Get out your pruning shears! What a great sense of relief and openness you will feel!

A New Definition of You

2009-01-26T18:46:00.005-07:00

Perhaps you've carried a vision of yourself year after year, a vision of being messy. Your childhood bedroom was trashed from the time you graduated from a crib to a twin, and the only time it was totally clean was the day you left for college, carrying your clutter with you in your old beater car.

You have lived through a messy messy house no matter where you have lived, and you dream of the next house you will move to, knowing somehow that MORE space is all you really need to get your clutter cleaned up.

It's a LIE.

Clutter is a symptom; living messy is a behavior. And behaviors can change in an instant. All it takes is personal choice and a decision that YOU AREN'T GOING TO LIVE LIKE THIS ANYMORE.

Go ahead and get mad enough to change: make that decision to change right now!

Here are a few steps to help you change your behavior right now, this instant. YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIVE WITH CLUTTER FOREVER!

1. Always, always, every morning, make your bed. It takes me one minute to make my bed. If your bed takes longer to make, then simplify the coverings. Get rid of some of the fancy frou-frou pillows and wrinkle-free shams.

2. If you don't like some object, and it's yours (not your child's, your roommate's, or your spouse's), then THROW IT AWAY. Get over the guilt; you aren't ruining the environment! Go here and read how your trash can be turned into CLEAN energy. http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garbage?page=1

3. Keep your car washed and free from trash. I can't tell you how keeping your car washed on the outside and the fast food fallout picked up on the inside will give you a daily lift. A car is much easier to keep tidy than a home (smaller square footage). So it's a great place to start learning new behaviors.

4. Quit buying so much. The super stores are the worst culprits for aiding and abetting the shopping clutterer. It's so easy to add one extra little thing (funky bath mat, rice cooker, game for the kids, DVD) to your cart during the weekly grocery shopping trip. Cut down on those little purchases and you will have less clutter.

Following these tips will help you begin to permanently change the behaviors that cause the clutter in your home. Blessings on you today!

New Year In, Old Clutter Out!

2009-01-02T22:31:00.002-07:00

Every new year, since the mid-1990's, I have spent part of December 31 and January 1 getting rid of junk in my home. I love this annual ritual: making space for the future while honoring and releasing the past. I go through almost every possession in my home and life and decide if it has fulfilled its usefulness to me. If it has, I either throw it away, recycle it, or place it in a bag to donate to a charity thrift store.

I am always amazed at how much I have to donate, and I'm not a compulsive shopper! It's amazing the volume of things that enter the average American's life in a year's time. I declutter as I go about living my life during the year, but still I can always find things to let go of as the new year rolls in.

Why not pick an area of your home right now, perhaps the coat closet or your Christmas CD collection, and make some room for 2009? You will feel rejuvenated!

Christmas

2008-12-25T13:32:00.003-07:00

Merry Christmas!

To keep your home from becoming overrun with holiday gifts, do the following today:

1. Empty the trash as soon as it's ALMOST full. Don't wait until it's overflowing with wrinkled gift wrap and plastic packaging.

2. With each new gift you receive, get rid of some other thing in your home that's approximately the same size. Go put those things in a plastic bag NOW and put them in your car to donate to a thrift store on your way to work tomorrow.

3. Restrain yourself at the after Christmas sales. You don't need any more stuff to store for the next 12 months.

Blessings on you this holy season!

Micromanagement

2008-12-14T16:27:00.005-07:00

Christmas brings out the micromanager in me like nothing else. I want to be the one to wind the glittering garlands around the tree. I want to hang each decoration just so. I want to cut out the gingerbread cookies. And I want to wrap all the gifts.

I have three kids and well-honed delegation skills, but there are things I do just because I enjoy doing them.

Some people feel this way with disposing of their junk.

If you enjoy micromanaging your junk, great! Have a ball. But if you're looking for efficient and quick disposal of your stuff, simplify your life by having two or three final destinations for your cast-offs.

For supreme decluttering efficiency, consider these three:

1. trash
2. recycling center
3. charity thrift store

Any additional options and you're complicating the issue, making more work for yourself, and cutting into your gingerbread-cookie-decorating time.

With my first client, a highly intelligent and motivated business owner, we chose three options for where to move her discards: the trash, a thrift store, and family members. Limiting the number of destinations for junk enabled us to completely declutter her three-story home in about 48 working hours. Had my client micromanaged the disposal of her cast-offs, the time it took to declutter her home would have DOUBLED.

Hear me loud and clear: micromanagement is rarely the most efficient use of either time or money. Unless you enjoy the micromanagement of your things, make disposal of your stuff quick and easy. Save your time and money to deck your halls with O.C.D.-esque perfection.

Dejunking Small Home Projects

2008-12-02T16:44:00.009-07:00

I am in the process of renovating several rooms in my home. The delight and relief I feel as I make one small improvement after the other has me contemplating just how much unfinished home improvement projects DRAIN our energy.

My ex-husband left me with several unfinished home improvement projects in five (yes, five) rooms of my large-ish house. When we moved into this house, the home was in excellent shape with a few dated elements, most of which we could live with (dark paneling in four rooms, air vents of many colors, dated but quaint wallpaper in the entry), and a few which we had to change (dark paisley wallpaper in the master bedroom and bath, green patterned carpet in the master bath, walls in need of paint in the family room and guest bedroom, just for starters).

The scope of my renovation projects began to overwhelm me. I decided to take them on a little at a time, and they are now being completed bit by bit. I have hired a local handyman to complete the work I can't do myself (and work that he can do 10 times more quickly than I can, like painting walls and ceilings), and he and I have accomplished so much it amazes me. Here are a few things I have done myself, the simple things that most anyone can do. Repairing and upgrading and fixing things around my home feels BETTER THAN FENG SHUI.

THE LITTLE THINGS I DID:

Spray painted most of the heating vents so that they actually match the flooring and each other. I used Rust-Oleum Hammered Finish spray paint, in silver/gray. Looks wonderful.
Removed several decorative hinges and a lock from my pantry doors. It looked too busy before, and now it looks clean and simple. I used a screwdriver, that's it.
Replaced many almond colored light switch plates and outlet covers with white ones to update my walls.
Spray painted my master bath cabinet and drawer hardware. Looks brand new!
Hung three framed pieces of art in my daughter's room (her newly painted walls had been bare for several weeks).
Removed at least half a dozen shelves that were screwed to the walls in my enclosed breezeway.
Removed so much trash that my ex had saved that I am sure my garbage men think I'm running a demolition business on the side. It's still not done! I'm doing it the slow but no-cost way. Sure, I could call 1-800-GOT-JUNK, but they would have charged me around $2000-3000 for the amount of stuff I have been able to set out at my curb. In my city, there is no limit to how much trash residential customers set out. I did have to break up pieces of sheet rock to get it to fit into the garbage cans. My garbage collection service doesn't take large appliances or bulky junk. I have to call ahead to arrange large, bulky item disposal.
Spackled the small holes in all my kitchen cupboards, from previous owners' renovation project.
Rehung many framed pictures. My ex had hammered the nails and hung them when we had first moved to this house, and, as he has never read anything written by Alexandra Stoddard, hung them waaay too high. I spackled the old nail holes.
Re-glued baseboards that were falling off in my rental apartment, which is connected to my house. I was going to have my handyman do it, but I got creative and USED MY BRAIN: "What do I have in the house already that can fix a baseboard?" I have a high-quality craft adhesive in my cupboard that worked great.
Greased my sliding closet door tracks and squeaking kitchen drawers.
Re-nailed a fence board.
Fixed about a half-dozen drawer guides using a hammer and nails.
Repaired a floorboard.

These are not difficult things to do, and they made such a HUGE difference in the quality of my daily life that I urge you, FIX UP THE SMALL THINGS YOU CAN and hire out the bigger jobs. It gives you the same magnificent feeling that dejunking does, and your life will WORK so much better with all these nagging little projects completed.

God bless you today!

Better and Faster Decisions

2008-11-13T20:02:00.009-07:00

The way to make better decisions about what to let go of and what to keep is to understand who you are in Jesus Christ, and to put possessions in their place.

In a healthy Christian's life, priorities are book-ended by the following:

1. Jesus first
2. Possessions last.

Reading your Bible, going to work to support yourself and your children or spouse (or ailing mother-in-law), raking your neighbor's yard, smiling at the toddler whining in the check-out line, praying, taking dinner to your friend who just lost her job, and going to church are a few actions that you take to show that Jesus is first in your life.

Spending every Saturday shopping at the mall, never donating your stacks of magazines to a charity, keeping your skinny clothes rather than taking them down to the battered women's shelter, buying your grandkids toys every month (or week), keeping every VHS and DVD you have ever purchased, and yelling at your kids when they accidentally break a drinking glass or dinner plate proves that possessions are your idol: "things" rather than God are first in your life.

When God is first in your life, you will be able to make fast decisions about what to keep: anything that you love and that supports your specific and current priorities in life is something to keep.

When you trust God as your Source for all things, you will be able to easily let go of the stack of extra blankets in your closet rather than hoard them for some unknown disaster.

When Jesus takes the center stage in your heart, there is no room for irrational attachments to "things." You won't waste your precious time determining a possible need in your future for the bread maker that has sat, unused, for four years in your kitchen.

However, when possessions are first in your life and heart, decluttering your home will take so much longer. You will consider the future usefulness and need of every item than crosses your path, and you will overthink how to dispose of each thing until you overwhelm and exhaust yourself.

Possessions, when held up as idols in your heart, will rob you of time for yourself, your family, your hobbies, your friends, and the people and causes that desperately need the gifts you bring to this world.

To make fast decisions on whether to keep or let go of something, ask yourself two questions:

1. "Will I die if I get rid of this thing?"
2. "Do I have faith enough in God and in myself--for I am made in His image--to be able to replace this object if I determine I need it later? (And if I can't replace it later, can I figure out a way to do without it, to improvise? For I am very creative, just as God the Father is Creative.)"

The more you think in this way, the quicker you will make decisions about your things, and the easier decluttering will become. Blessings on you today!

Hazards in Your Home

2008-11-09T13:57:00.005-07:00

Yesterday, my 16 year old son and I spent almost two hours collecting and disposing of hazardous household waste, much of it contained in my ex-husband's two shops.

Every home contains some hazardous waste; it's dangerous to you, your family, your house guests, your neighbors, and your pets. Dejunking your life and home of these hazards is a great gift to the safety and well-being of the people and animals you love.

Here's what to do:

1. Call your city or county sanitation department to ask where you can drop off household hazardous waste. There should be no fee for dropping it off at a safe collection site.

2. Schedule a time in your planner that works for you.

3. Line the trunk of your car with a tarp or flattened (clean) trash bags.

4. Line cardboard boxes or plastic storage bins with contractor trash bags. These are ultra heavy, black plastic bags that you can find in most grocery stores and hardware stores. (None of the waste spilled, but I took this precaution anyway.)

5. Wearing safety goggles and heavy gloves, put your waste inside the lined boxes and bins, and carry to your car trunk. Leave any liquids in their original containers to help waste site personnel identify the contents. Most sites, however, accept mystery waste. Better it end up at a safe collection center than at the landfill and leaching into our drinking water.

6. Drive to the collection site, and unload the waste. Wear goggles and gloves. Note that some sites may not allow you to exit your vehicle, but will require collection site personnel to unload the waste from your vehicle themselves.

7. Breathe a huge sigh of relief when you have disposed of these dangerous substances responsibly.

Here's what we hauled away to the collection site:

fluorescent light bulbs
C batteries
mercury from a broken thermostat (found rolling around in beads all over the counter in my ex's shop)
LCD monitor from an old computer
keyboard
hard drives
two obsolete computers
broken mini-DVD player
gallons of paint we found when we moved into this house
dangerous weed-killers and fertilizers we found when we moved into this house (I only use child- and pet-safe fertilizers on my plants and yard.)
mineral oil
AC adapters
ancient fuel tanks from blow torches
two old fire extinguishers
a variety of wood stains
spray paint (too many cans to count)
car wax (Who does this? Drive through a car wash and get the wax sprayed on your car. Save 52 hours a YEAR and your manicure.)
anti-freeze (I have a great auto shop and they take care of all my car maintenance.)
windshied wiper fluid (Ditto.)
mystery goo in an empty coffee can (dark colored like used motor oil, smelled like gasoline)
many varieties of heavy equipment lubricants
roof tar from our previous home, which we left over eight years ago
spray adhesive
spray-on ceiling texture
brass polish
lighter fluid

We completely filled my mid-size sedan's trunk and back seat floor with all this. I feel grateful that there is a safe place to dispose of these useless-to-me and potentially dangerous items.

The hazardous waste collection site also accepts unused medications. Don't dump expired medications down the drain or flush the pills. It's safer for pets and aquatic life if you take them to the hazardous waste collection site.

Make plans to find and visit the site in your neighborhood before the holidays. It's a healthy way to declutter for safety's sake!

Thanksgiving Meal Preparation

2008-11-07T00:31:00.004-07:00

Need help preparing for the feast? Here are a few tips to make this special day easier for the hostess.

1. Don't cook a whole turkey. There is ALWAYS too much bird, too many side dishes, and too many leftovers. Cook a turkey breast and drumstick in a slow cooker instead. Or why not cook a ham? Easy clean up, and NO chance of food poisoning from improperly cooked turkey stuffing.

2. Make it a pot luck. Most guests ask what they can bring. TAKE THEM UP ON THEIR OFFERS and suggest easy things: Rolls, cranberry sauce, veggie platter, a pie, whipped cream, and apple cider are easy contributions for guests to make, plus it takes pressure off you to remember those things on the big day. Also, if you have guests who are always "fashionably late," you won't have a ruined meal because of the missing mashed potatoes and gravy. You prepare the key staples, guests bring the extras.

3. Keep the dog outside. OUTSIDE, in a kennel, and tied up. It's only for a few hours.

4. Do not forget to give your ADHD son his meds the morning of the big day. Only mothers of ADHD kids fully grasp the significance and necessity of this reminder.

5. A folding table covered with a tablecloth is a perfectly fine way to accommodate guests. Do not buy an extra oak dining set just for this occasion. It will become clutter the day after. But a folding table is a necessary asset to any hostess. The table folds flat and slides into a closet or up against a garage wall or under a bed for storage. I have a long one that I can lift and set up myself, and I use it while sewing, scrapbooking, and for setting up a gingerbread men decorating station for my Christmas party each year.

6. Beware of unnecessary upgrading. I have fallen victim to this malady in the past, many times right before a large gathering: I prepare the house and take a final look around and start thinking, "It's not fancy enough, not festive enough, not impressive enough for the guests I've invited." So off I run to purchase another flower arrangement, or a new doormat, or seasonal hand towels for the powder room, or fancier dinner napkins. STOP. The desire to impress others can rob you of money, time, and peace of mind. Don't complicate the issue; complexity clutters your home, mind, and credit card with unnecessary spending.

7. Improvise. Much clutter arises from people making purchases for a one-time event, with the idea that they will use it for the next holiday. If you want 12 matching plates for your holiday dinner, and buy a set of turkey plates, they will look great and be used for exactly ONE meal this year, and take up lots of space the rest of the year. Why not use the white plates you already have and ask your kids to make turkey place cards instead? Or, rather than buy that tiered pie stand, why not CLEAR THE TABLE OF TURKEY AND THE REST OF THE DINNER FIRST, then set the pies right on the table? How often do you serve three pies at one time? Probably as often as you use turkey plates: for one meal a year. Improvisation stops clutter in its tracks.

8. You are not Martha Stewart. You do not have a staff of 12 to help you create the perfect Thanksgiving photo shoot. You do not have to wax the light fixture before your guests arrive or gold plate the bathroom fixtures. Focus on keeping the kitchen safely clean, food hot or cold as necessary, and loving your guests with warmth and thankfulness for their presence in your life.

Turkey Clutter

2008-11-06T23:45:00.003-07:00

I love Thanksgiving: a holiday devoted solely to gratitude, family and friends, and eating. Makes for the perfect combination, in my book. It also makes for the perfect time to FREAK OUT about the state of your home if you are the hostess of this year's gathering.

Here are a few tips to help you cope with the pre-holiday cleaning frenzy. The next post will cover planning and preparing for the actual meal.

To begin cleaning up your home, start with visually LARGE messes and tone them down or eliminate them completely. For example, if your entryway table is piled high with mail, school papers, your son's sweatshirt, the cat's toy, a purchase you're waiting to return to the mall, and a handful of business cards you haven't entered into your electronic organizer yet, then focus on moving those items off that table and permanently keeping it clear. Spend just THREE MINUTES working on it today. Call your son out of his room and instruct him to take his sweatshirt to his closet. Take the business cards and move them onto your desk (or into the trash if you know in your heart you're not ever going to call or email those people). Shred just two pieces of junk mail. Take the cat's toy and put it where it belongs. Take the "to return" item and put it in your car, right now. That's not so hard. It doesn't take long after all.

If one, three minute session isn't enough, do another one tomorrow morning while you're waiting for the coffee to brew.

MANY TASKS SEEM OVERWHELMING IN OUR MINDS, WHEN IN FACT THEY ARE SMALL AND TAKE VERY LITTLE TIME TO FINISH.

Once that table is cleared off, put a pretty fall-themed centerpiece on it, such as a silk or real floral arrangement, a candle, a small decorative box or figure that you enjoy looking at. Now that eyesore is part of your decor.

What about a bigger mess, such as the family room being well trashed by your two elementary school kids and your sticky-palmed three year old? I have great advice for you, if you will take it. Are you ready?

GET RID OF 95 % OF WHAT'S IN THAT ROOM, INCLUDING EXCESS FURNITURE.

Look, I have three kids of my own, I used to own a day care center, and I have a college degree in education. I have learned what kids need: constructive play, lots of love, and LIMITS. You need to set limits on how much they are allowed to own as well as limits on how many toys they are allowed to spread out across the floor at one time. If you dont' teach them, who will?

An aquaintance of mine had a large gathering at his modest home, and went to great lengths to clean it up before the guests arrived. While the carpets were vacuumed and the pictures on the walls dusted, the family room was unbelieveable. He cleaned HALF of it. He pushed two sofas up against the sound system and desk, leaving an area in front of the tv vacant and vacuumed. Plastic toys for his three kids were jammed behind the sofas, and their huge DVD and video collections cluttered the rest of the space.

I felt totally smothered being in that room. The man was a SLAVE to his children's desires for more toys, and he obviously could not set limits on them or himself: that room could comfortably hold one loveseat, the tv, and maybe a desk. That's it.

Perhaps that's your problem too: not setting limits on yourself or others.

YOU are 100% responsible for the state of your home. You can clean it up NOW and have a lovely space to host your Thanksgiving meal.

You can call Goodwill or the ARC and donate that extra sofa (or two). You can limit the number of videos and DVD's your kids own (20 is more than enough!). You can throw out the shelves of placemats from the early 80's; you can let go of the boxes of computer manuals from two systems ago. You can set the Christmas popcorn tins out for recycling, you can donate the baby crib that has quietly sat gathering dust in the corner of your family room now that your youngest grandchild is six.

You can do this NOW, today! You can find three minutes to look up Goodwill's phone number in the directory and make the call to schedule a pick up. There is a life of beauty waiting for you, and YOU ARE THE ARTIST TO CREATE IT FOR YOURSELF.

Here's a photo of a fall centerpiece I created last year, to inspire you. Blessings!

Get rid of summer clutter!

2008-10-13T12:02:00.004-06:00

Now is the perfect time to get rid of the wilted and faded summer living gear. Take a few minutes to clear out the following items from your cupboards, closets, and living spaces:

faded pool towels (donate to animal shelter)
scuffed plastic picnic ware (donate or recycle)
half-used sunblock (throw away: buy fresh sunblock each spring)
inflatable pool chairs, inner tubes, or beach balls that have a leak (it's not worth trying to find the leak!! recycle these)
broken folding or stacking chairs (trash)
swimsuits that are losing their elasticity (trash)
sunglasses you never wore (if you keep all your receipts in a photo storage or recycled shoe box, then sort thru them and return the glasses)
three strings of patio lights you never got around to putting up (donate: why keep things you don't use?)
the sprinkler that stopped working in July (trash or return to store if you have the receipt)
any summer clothing that you've had for more than two summers and still didn't wear this summer (donate)
the barbecue that has sat on your deck for three summers, unused (donate)

Clearing out summer's worn and faded will make way for the joys of autumn's crisp and rich delights. Enjoy each new season as it comes. Blessings!

Yard Junk

2008-06-29T12:32:00.002-06:00

Yard junk is often more difficult to let go of than indoor junk, mostly because outdoor junk gets dirty faster and is usually heavier than indoor junk. Most of us don't like to literally get ourselves dirty while decluttering, and many outdoor (this includes garage contents) junk needs two muscle-men to get rid of it (or two muscle-ladies). Ever tried to heave a wheelbarrow onto the flat bed of a truck by yourself?

A workable plan for yard junk is a family work day: set aside a few hours one day this summer, arrange for someone with a truck to help you load and haul away junk, purchase leather work gloves and safety glasses for every helper, and begin. Here's how:

1. Pick a small, specific area of your yard to start with, such as around the back patio or the tool shed. All helpers works at that location until it's clean and organized.

2. Then move on to another area.

3. Do this until your yard junk is gone.

Doesn't that sound easy?

That's what happens in fairy-land.

So here's a different plan for reality.

1. Spend 10 minutes the night before your neighborhood trash pick up day loading lighter-weight yard junk into your trash cans. Dead plants, bent tools, decorative things that have seen better days.

2. List larger, heavier junk on Craig's List (free for you to list, free for someone to come cart your junk away). Please stay safe and use caution when giving out your address, especially if you are a woman living alone.

3. You need a dry, clean place to store yard and garden tools. A nice new shed may be just what you need to maintain order. Or perhaps a locking cabinet to store fertilizer and sharp tools away from children and pets.

4. When you buy anything new for your yard (furniture, tools, plants, decor), get rid of something else, to keep it uncluttered.

5. Repeat until your yard isn't junked up anymore.

Two Major Steps to Decluttering

2008-06-17T14:03:00.003-06:00

The following is the most important key to creating and maintaining a clutter-free life, and it only has two steps.

First, decide upon your goals in life. Second, decide what possessions you need to support you in reaching those goals (you get rid of the rest of the stuff).

That is so easy.

What makes us stumble? Deciding upon our life's goals, and determining what to keep and get rid of.

So it's the DECISION-MAKING that is the hard part of decluttering. Figure out how to make better (and quicker) decisions, and welcome yourself home to a clutter-free lifestyle.

"So......how do I make better decisions?"
That's a long story. More to come later!

Easy money for clearing clutter

2008-06-05T17:02:00.003-06:00

Clearing clutter can be profitable, in more ways than one.

In fact, here are eight ways that getting rid of junk and clutter will bring in real money. The first few are "ho-hum, I've heard that before" ideas, but there's a few in here that might surprise you (and make you richer).

1. Sell your junk on eBay, Craigs list, or via an ad in your local newspaper.
2. Have a yard sale.
3. If there's a lot of antiques, call in an antiques dealer or estate auction company.
4. Sell DVDs, video games, jewelry, electronic equipment, and gaming systems to a pawn shop.
5. Sell used books at a used book store, or to Hastings. Hastings also buys used DVD's, music, and video games.
6. Sell used clothing, sports equipment, and baby equipment to a consignment store.
7. Donate usable clutter to a non-profit thrift store, and keep careful records of what you donated. Next year at tax time, if you itemize deductions, you will probably make more in tax savings than you would if you sold most of the stuff piece by piece at a yard sale.
8. RETURN UNUSED MERCHANDISE. Almost everyone has something around the house that they bought and never used. Gather up all the unused products cluttering up your home and return them. Many stores have generous return policies, and you may not need your original receipt if you paid with a credit or debit card.

Transform that clutter around the house into cash in your wallet (or a credit into your bank account).

2008-05-23T14:00:00.004-06:00

Attics are the handiest places to store seasonal decorations, winter (or summer) clothes, luggage, large (but rarely needed) kitchen pots, and Grandma's ceramic serving platter.

Attics are terrible places for storing things that heat damages, such as photos, candles, crayon drawings, books, and anything containing adhesives. Attics are miserable places for storing heavy things, such as chairs, folding tables, artificial Christmas trees, and baby strollers, which are awkward or heavy to move up and down narrow stairs.

To help you clean up your attic, collect a few medium sized moving boxes (for give-aways), a trash can, and a few cleaning rags. Select one small area at a time, such as one shelf, one box, or one stuffed corner. Touch each item and ask yourself:

Do I like this enough to justify keeping it?
Will I honestly use it within the next 12 months?
Why am I really keeping this?
Does someone else have a greater need of it?

These questions will help you determine what to do with (keep, trash/recycle, give away) every thing in your attic.

2008-05-23T12:34:00.003-06:00

"What do I do with all this paper?!"

There are only six options for handling a piece of paper:

1. To do
2. To file
3. To pay
4. To read
5. Pending
6. Trash

For #1-5, you can create file folders for those actions ("To Read" could also include a tray or decorative shelf or box to include books). For "Trash," you can put paper in a trash can, recycle bin, or you can shred it.

That's it.

Anything more is complicating the issue.

I will go over additional ideas for processing paper in upcoming posts, but for right now, start with these 6 ideas.

2008-05-16T19:44:00.003-06:00

Oftentimes, when your life changes, you don't consider that your organizational needs have changed as well.

When you move to a new home, when you start a new job, when you marry, when you have a child, when your last child leaves for college or military service, when you need to make room for an ailing relative, when chronic illness strikes, when you start a home business, even when you bring home a new pet: all these situations require re-evaluation of your organizational needs.

For example, when I moved into our current home from a much smaller house, I did not consider that I would need to alter my storage systems. My newer home was almost twice the size of the former house, so surely I wouldn't need to worry about storage. But the bedroom closet shelves in my new home were much narrower than in the home we left, and the things I stored there would not fit on the narrow shelves.

My carefully thought out storage system, which worked brilliantly at my former home, fell apart. I put the large bulky items in a separate storage area, which was inconvenient and disorderly. I struggled along for over a year, thinking I simply owned too much, when in fact I hadn't sat down and considered the best places for the things that were formerly stored in deep closet shelves.

Perhaps that is one of your struggles: moving on to a new phase of your life without sitting down and figuring out how those changes impact your organization.

Sit down with paper and pen, and think about the previous 12-24 months. What major changes have occurred in your life during this time? Write them down.

Now think about how those changes have impacted you at home. Perhaps you need some creative thinking to bring your current home and its organization in line with your life's current needs.

2008-05-09T22:03:00.004-06:00

I can give you practical tips and theories 'til Jesus comes back, but without understanding why you are cluttered in the first place AND MAKING PROFOUND CHANGES in your actions, your home will continue to look cluttered and you'll think my tips don't work.

There are many reasons why people become and remain cluttered, and I discuss those in my upcoming book. One example is shopping for pleasure. Shopping can be an enjoyable and stress-relieving hobby. The problem I see with shopping as recreation lies in the results of shopping: the clutter in your home. If you continue to shop for recreation and bring your purchases home with you, your home will continue to stay cluttered, no matter how many handy tips I give you.

If shopping as recreation is one of the reasons your home is cluttered, then you can set limits on what you allow yourself to buy and bring home if you want to live a clutter-free life.

The easiest limit to set in regards to shopping is the "one item in, one item out" rule. When you purchase something new, get rid of (trash, recycle, or share) a similar item. When you buy a new book (CD, pair of flip flops, bottle of perfume, pair of sunglasses), let go of an old one. This way you will never add clutter to your home.

Another alternative for recreational shoppers is to buy things to immediately give away. You will still enjoy shopping, your purchases with be used and appreciated, and you will feel happier by giving. A great sale on winter gloves and hats? Buy some to donate to the homeless shelter. Found a like-new baby stroller at a yard sale? Purchase it to give to a single mom. Found a clearance on good, Christian books? Buy them and donate to your church's library.

You don't need to give up a cluttering habit or hobby; figure out how to enjoy it without adding clutter to your life.

2008-05-09T15:15:00.002-06:00

There are whole groups of material possessions that you don't need to buy. You probably have enough as it is, and adding more of these things to your home may not be in your best interest. They add clutter to an already full home. Here's a short list of things that most people already have enough of:

file cabinets
yard art
kitchen knives
coffee mugs
pencils
DVD's or videos (movies)
shoes
coats
umbrellas

Instead of adding more of these things to your life, try giving a few away.

2008-05-08T19:53:00.002-06:00

How do you determine whether or not something you own is junk?

The things you love and use are easy to identify. For example, your favorite pair of earrings, your child's baby book, the CD you listen to twice a week, the teapot you use daily are not junk. They are loved and/or used frequently. You don't have to explain to yourself or to others WHY you want to keep them.

The things you really dislike, too, are easy to identify. Out-of-style clothes, a too-heavy dutch oven, that TV your ex-boyfriend bought for you on your 20th birthday. You can easily get rid of those things when you have your supplies (trash bags, donation boxes) handy and a way to conveniently get them out of your home (a donation truck scheduled to drop by, you neighbor's garage sale next week-end, your own scheduled trip to drop off donations at a thrift store, etc.).

Those maybes are the tricky things. How do you determine whether or not to keep them?

A simple test is this: if you have to spend any length of time justifying why you own a particular object, then it's probably junk. If I were standing next to you helping you declutter, and we came across the needlepoint pillow your cousin gave you (which you don't like), you would probably try to justify why you've kept it for twelve years and how hard your cousin worked on it and that you and your cousin were best friends for years, blah blah blah.

If you have to explain why you are keeping it, when in your heart you don't like it, then it's junk.

Quit wasting your precious time reminding yourself why you should keep it. You shouldn't keep it. Trash it, recycle it, or share it.

2008-05-08T17:32:00.002-06:00

Do You Live with a Clutterer?

I do.

I won't give names because she's reading over my shoulder as I type, but some little person who lives in my home likes to collect many diverse and interesting things, and keep them all in her room.

She's learning to throw away, share, and organize her things year by year. She is developing a growing understanding of the place that material possessions are to have in a Christian's life.

She's a Christian too, and has this to say about things:

"Sometimes things can overwhelm you by distracting you and taking you away from God. It's hard to get rid of stuff when you're attached to it. I know that I can never get rid of 10 of my toys because they're so special to me. Don't hold too tight to things, because they're just things. If you get rid of one thing, you may lose something you want to keep, but if you donate it, some other person will have the joy of having it too. "

Tremendous insight from my little daughter.

Now just don't peak into her room this week. It needs "loads of work," as she says.

An easy way to help kids learn to declutter is to do it WITH, not FOR, them (once they are around age 8 or 9). Kids know which toys and books and clothes they no longer want to keep. Don't hinder them; encourage them.

Bring in a huge garbage bag for trash, several give away boxes, and some disinfecting wipes to clean things off as you go. My daughter made up sounds as to which item to keep and which to get rid of. She whistles to keep it, and makes a reject buzzer sound to indicate "out it goes." Her invented sounds makes the process more like a game for both of us. And I can't think of an activity I enjoy more than helping people free themselves of unnecessary burdens, sound effects included.

2008-05-08T16:18:00.003-06:00

Possession Theory

The things you own are not yours. They aren't. They belong to the Lord! You are His steward, and can use things you "own" for your own benefit, for your family's benefit, and for the benefit of others unrelated to you.

I discuss this further in my book, Better Than Feng Shui, but I want to throw this out and get you thinking along these lines now.

When you steward something, it is yours to manage, not to hoard or fret about. If there are things in your life that are causing you stress, then GET RID OF THEM. They are not worth the strain they are causing you.

I don't care if the thing is a brand new car or an uncomfortable turtleneck. If something causes you stress, it doesn't belong anywhere near you. That stress-producing object is taking your eyes off of serving the Lord and enjoying the life He died to give you.

Perhaps the things that cause you stress are stressful because there are too many of them (as in too many clothes, too many books, too many magazine subscriptions, too many scrapbooking supplies, too many cleaning supplies, too many pets, too many framed pictures to dust, too many drinking glasses). JUST BECAUSE YOU OWN SOMETHING DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO USE IT OR KEEP IT.

If you are a steward over these things, then let them go to bless someone else. Get rid of the things that are cluttering up your life. You don't have to use something up or wear it out just because you own it. Let someone else enjoy it. Bless them and free yourself from unnecessary burdens!

2008-05-08T16:11:00.002-06:00

Donations

Donating things that you no longer use will bless you in many ways. You will have more space in your home. You will feel more happiness when you consider that those unwanted things are enriching someone else's life. You will love the freedom you feel in NOT living as a slave to material possessions!

I have a shelf in my hall closet that I reserve for donations. There seems to always be a few things ready to share with others: a magazine I've just finished reading, a jacket my daughter outgrew, a nice gift a friend gave me, which isn't quite "me," a book I've enjoyed but don't want to keep in my personal library.

You might like to try this: think about a place in your home where you can always keep things to share. This way, you'll have a place to put things the minute you decide to share them.

This works best once your home is already decluttered, but it's good practice to start using it now. There will always be much to share!

2008-05-08T15:57:00.003-06:00

Did you take out the trash?

Great!

An important skill you need to learn to keep your life from becoming cluttered is throwing away (or recycling) things that are truly garbage.

Here's a short list of things that you can get rid of this week. These things are trash and are burdens to you. Get rid of them:

newspapers (recycle)
chipped dinner plates (trash)
socks with holes (I recycle them into one-time use rags)
hand or body lotion with a scent you dislike (throw in trash if over 1 year old; otherwise, see if your co-workers want them)
pens that don't write (trash)
scissors that don't cut (trash)
glue that's dried out (trash)
expired medications (trash--you may be able to recycle the bottles. Keep pets and kids safe! Don't let them get into medications and cleaning supplies!)
eye makeup older than 6 months (trash)
computer manual from 2 computers ago (might be recyclable--check around)
more than two current phone books (recycle)
broken video or computer game controller (trash)
scratched CD's that you tried to repair (trash)
CD scratch remover gadget that didn't work (trash)

There's a short little list. See if you have a few of those things hanging around and get rid of them. You are un-burdening your life!

2008-05-08T15:41:00.003-06:00

First lesson: You own too much.

Yes, you do.

If you are an American living in an apartment, home, condo, RV, or houseboat, you own too much.

"Too much" is the nature of life in America. For many reasons (which I discuss in my book, Better Than Feng Shui, to be released this year!), we buy, keep, collect, give (yes, give) and own too much stuff.

I am into theory. But I am more into the practical side of living, which is why I aim to give you as much practical help as I can.

Your first assignment is very simple: go to your closet and select one pair of shoes that hurt your feet. You don't ever wear them because they hurt your feet. You won't miss them when they're out of your life. Take that pair of shoes and put them in a bag to drop off at a homeless shelter, a charity thrift store, or an abused women's ministry office.

Share your excess, for the glory of God.

If this assignment is too complicated for the cluttered state of your entire life, here's a different assignment that anyone can do, and it takes only a few minutes. TAKE OUT THE TRASH. Yes, very simple. I want you to empty every trash can in your home and take it out (where ever "out" is to you--the covered garbage cans, the Dumpster at your apartment, the trash chute down the hall).

When you take out the garbage, you have opened up your life to potential change. It's very difficult to get rid of more garbage if all your trash cans are full.

Go do it.

2008-05-08T15:13:00.001-06:00

Hello and welcome to Better Than Feng Shui, where you'll learn how to free yourself from clutter the Christian way!

My goal in life is to help people free themselves from unnecessary burdens, for the glory of God.

I believe that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is a necessary first step in releasing burdens of all kinds. We are set free from sin and death by His death on the cross and by His resurrection! He lives!!

And you may live, too, freed from burdens of all kinds!

I'm here to help you with the burdens of the physical kind: stuff!

Bienvenue!