Can organizing help you declutter? The tidier your stuff is, the more you can pack into a small space, that's for sure. But we all know that's not the same as decluttering! Nonetheless, organizing can help you declutter in a number of useful ways: When you gather together like-with-like to organize it, it's easy to see and find your duplicate (triplicate!) items. You can either give one of them away or have a use it up challenge, whichever is appropriate. When you decide that all your books must fit on the bookshelf in the traditional up and down style, then you must declutter … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Clutter Hiding in Plain Sight
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Embarrassing but true stories: I have clutter hiding in plain sight in my house. Everyone else sees it, but I didn't, at least not until I knew that I had company coming for dinner. Than I realized that my bar, which we often use for serving when we have guests, was currently being used by the following do-no-belong items: 5 CDs and cases a German Christmas tree pyramid (currently listed for sale on Craigslist, but that doesn't mean it needs to be taking up a place of pride on the counter) a St. Francis medallion that fell off one of the animals' … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Is Your Clutter a Pile of “Should”?
My in-laws are visiting, and I was thinking about my father-in-law. He really likes to do home improvement projects, to work on his own vehicle, and he's done some truly outstanding woodworking projects. My husband is not really like his father. No one else I know works on their own car, my husband can only do the simplest of woodworking, and although he does home improvement projects, he doesn't love it. Yet at least some of his clutter reflects who he thinks he should be (see his Dad, above) and not who he really is. The fancy name for this is "aspirational clutter," but I'm going to call … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ How to Begin
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Several people have recently asked me how to begin decluttering, and someone confessed last week that she thought all of us were running to the thrift store every single day as we decluttered, so I decided that it was time for another review. Where Colleen and I started from For those of you who are newer readers, you may not know that Colleen and I started our decluttering journeys from very different places. (And we didn't know each other then, either.) Colleen's house was well organized and very tidy, but she realized that she simply had way too much stuff. Her … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ The Two Boxes
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom There are two boxes that I need to keep me organized and decluttered. Just two boxes. It's a simple system, and it might help keep you on the right path too. Box #1, which lives in the bottom of our least-used closet, is not actually one box, but an ever changing parade of boxes and paper bags, and is the Thrift Store Bag. Anything not needed, not wanted, etc. goes into this bag. I never make a sweep of the house looking for things to take to the thrift store; they just accumulate day after day, week after week. When the bag / box is full, I take it to my van. The … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Count the Mintues
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Last week, I wrote a post praising the wonderful feeling of getting old to-dos done. As I suspected, I was not alone in 1) having pletny of old to-dos that needed to be done and 2) in being overjoyed at how quickly many of them could be accomplished. That made me wonder: How long does (fill in the blank unpleasant chore) really take to do. Here are some of my results: 1 second - Time to put keys in the same place every time I enter the house. 7 seconds - Time to put shoes into shoe cubby and close closet door. 17 seconds - Time to hang sweater on hanger, with … [Read more...]
Saturday Extra ~ A reader would like your advice
I received a message on Facebook over the holiday break from a reader who would like some advice on decluttering journals. Here is her message :- "Hello I am a follower of your blog which I very much enjoy. I could use some help on one of my final decluttering projects. I have about 20 years worth of old journals which I never look at but can't seem to part with. I think I am ready to get rid of at least some, but I could use some suggestions as to how. I don't know if I should save them for my daughter to read (or if I would want her to!) Any suggestions you have would help! Thanks. … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Old To Dos
Recently I did something that made me so happy - I took care of two really, really old things that were on my to-do list. These things were so small that it's almost embarrassing to tell you what they were, but doing them made me so happy that I will. The first thing was taking the dogs' beds to the laundromat and washing them. I wash the covers at home regularly, but I can't put the whole bed into my washer, and they needed it. The other thing was taking two scented candles (same scent) that had burned down so far that neither would light any more, melting the wax, and pouring them together … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Constant Vigilance!
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom If you, or your children, are fans of the Harry Potter books, you are probably familiar with Mad Eye Moody and his admonishment - given freely to young and old wizards and witches - Constant Vigilance! Constant Vigilance! is what I need when I manage to clear an area that has previously been a black hole. (You know those - places where all things seem to gather and nothing ever leaves.) My desk has been giving me nothing but trouble for the longest time: Sometimes I can't even use it because the surface is so cluttered. I hate it! I finally did The Big Sweep and … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Procrastination
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom My mother is a famous procrastinator, at least according to my father. He once bought her a t-shirt with a letter printed on it that said, "Ken, I promise to stop procrastinating. Later. -Rosalie." Considering that I think my mother never stops moving and doing, I'm not really sure what he was talking about. Maybe's she's changed over time. I know that in terms of procrastination, I can change from week to week. What I find is that procrastination doesn't save time; it creates work, clutter, and distraction. Obviously we can't do every single thing we think needs to … [Read more...]