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.
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!
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!
