FUSSY DECORATING = CLUTTER (MAYBE)

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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!