About eighteen months ago now a good friend of mine opened a quilt shop. She had been involved in this hobby  for quite a while and had also worked in a quilt shop for several years before deciding to branch out and begin her own business.

Being the good friends that I am I naturally offered to help her get started. First of all helping out to set up the store and then she hired me to work in the shop one day every two weeks. I had never tried quilting before but have plenty of sewing skills so I decided I should take some lessons with her so I would be more knowledgeable for the customers seeking my assistance.

I have to admit that right from the start my heart really wasn’t in it. Knowing how much other hobby clutter I already had at home I really didn’t want to start something new that would require more equipment and I had no need for the finished product. Even back then my mind was on the minimising path.

Luckily my friend and I feel free to speak openly with each other and I had made it clear from the start that if she felt she didn’t require my services any more she was free to let me go. As it turned out her daughter was in need of some work hours and took over the days that I had been helping out.

It is a wonderful thing to have friends with whom you can be honest and open with. This situation left us both free to be who we are and do what is right for ourselves without upsetting the other. If ever she needs my help again I would be more than happy to oblige and I am sure she would be content in knowing she can always call on me.

Fortunately I did not accumulate much more than a few snippets of fabric during the time I was learning the craft which I happily gave to her to sell as remnants in the the store. All I have to do now is work through all those other craft supplies I still have.

ITEM 212 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This tote was an item I used during my scrapbooking phase even though it is meant for quilting I like to live outside the box and it was perfect for taking my projects to scrapbook classes. I decided to sell it recently and asked my friend if she would sell it in her quilt shop. It was a quick sale because she decided to buy it herself.  I made a fast $20.

My little girl (who is 21) is changing direction in her life and is deferring her studies to go into full time work. She is also planning on moving out into her own apartment for the first time. With this in mind I have decided to put a few items aside for her so there will be less for her to buy when all this takes place.

So instead of actual decluttering they are just being moved into a holding pattern in a box in the garage for when she needs them. I don’t really consider this decluttered until they have actually left my house but at least they aren’t staring at me unused from the shelf where they have sat for the last 3 years.

Rather than try to sell some of these items it will be a lot easier for me to just hand them over to her as I know she will need all the help she can get. Some time back we started a collection of household items for her which are already cluttering up the garage so when the time comes that she does move out there will be some nice open space on the garage shelves.

ITEM 211 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This is another of those items I am nut sure why my husband decluttered but mine is not to reason why. It sold for $20 on ebay.

I received a comment the other day from Stephanie who hadn’t contributed to the conversation before. I don’t know if you have noticed but I always like to jump over and check out the blogs of my new commenters to see what they have to say. Stephanie like me has begun decluttering an item a day and she is only at day seven but going well.

The object of my blog today is to ask you all to go over and have a look at Stephanie’s Blog renouncement.blogspot.com and give her some encouragement. Stephanie is not new to decluttering just reading her blog it seems she started in 2009. It would be nice if we could all get behind her and help spur her on.

I remember when I first started blogging about my challenge I am fairly sure I was writing to myself for the first few weeks at least and I really did wonder why I was bothering. Now I am at almost 100 subscriptions and I don’t know what my average daily reader count is at the moment but I think it was about 250 a month ago. It certainly keeps me going knowing there are so many people behind me wishing me well and encouraging me to keep going.

Today I just want to share the love and give Stephanie a reason to keep at it. So jump on over, leave a comment if you like and wish her well.

ITEM 210 OF 365 LESS THINGS

A few more kitchen items that are excess to my needs

Yesterday  was my son’s 19th birthday and what did I buy him? NOTHING. Yes that is right nothing at least not material things that linger around for years to come. Being a young person he is not rolling in cash so he received the one thing he needed, money.

You may be thinking “what kind of unthoughtful mother is she not even making an effort for her own son’s birthday”. Well I didn’t say I didn’t make an effort. Before I went to work I baked him a lovely chocolate cake with yummy chocolate ganache frosting. I don’t keep candles and that sort of stuff any more but I made a cute happy birthday sign out of some card stock and a rubber stamp and attached it with toothpicks. We also had take-out for dinner from his favourite Mexican restaurant.

The night before his birthday was officially the start of his “birthday week” which means  two things…

1. I do all his chores for the week. So far I have taken out the trash and recycling and put the bins on the street and brought them back in, emptied the dishwasher and  picked up after him a few times. Quite frankly it is easier work than nagging him to do it which is the usual routine.
2. He also gets to make a few “reasonable requests” throughout the week which I can either choose to comply with or not. For instance today he asked for some money to go out and buy lunch. No biggy, so I gave him a few dollars and he was a happy young man. I am sure he will milk this for all it is worth before the week is up but that is OK, I did say “if I choose to comply”.

So it is possible to be non-materialistic for someone’s birthday even a nineteen year old boy. There is no pressure to find just the right gift and everyone is happy.

ITEM 209 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This donation if off to it’s third owner. I got it second hand and now I am passing it on to someone else. It may have had more owners than that even, because who know how many hands it went through before it got to me.

For the last 207 days finding things to declutter has been a reasonably simple task due to the sheer volume of stuff that needed to go. Now it is time to tackle the tricky stuff. The stuff that so far I have avoided simply because I didn’t want to make the hard decisions.

Things like…

• Those craft items that I keep telling myself I will eventually use one day but after years that day has never arrived.
• Some of the sentimental items that deep down I know are just clutter that no one but me would ever want.
• Items that I know I don’t want but have been struggling whether I should give away or sell.
• Even some items I should sell on ebay but am getting a little tired of dealing with pricing, photographing, describing, watching, mailing and just taking the gamble as to whether they will sell or not.

You know, I feel better just having admitted these things to myself and I am now eager to get started. I am tired of this stuff sitting around taunting me with the guilt of having wasted the money on it in the first place. Other stuff that  I must admit I have been too lazy to deal with so far. Realising that I can risk a few eBay insertion fees because we have done well enough on eBay so far it won’t matter if the odd thing doesn’t sell.

It is amazing how even though I declutter and write about decluttering every day I can still manage to forget the rules. Still manage to fall into the psychological pitfalls that I advise everyone else to be wary of. Well luckily I caught myself before I was too far gone. Maybe now I am getting a little melodramatic but you get the idea sometimes a person needs to stop and take a good look around them and at themselves and get back on track.

If you are off track with your decluttering stop and think what is worse, the task at hand or the bad feelings generated day in and day out by being surrounded by the clutter. Do yourself a favour just get rid of it.

ITEM 208 OF 365 LESS THINGS

On refection maybe I should have kept this dream catcher and hung it over my bed. Maybe it would have done it’s job of filtering out the bad dreams and only letting the good ones through like the dream of a clutter free home.

After reading Deb j’s write-up in yesterday’s post Hiring a Professional Organizer I got to thinking about the useless spaces that are in many homes. It makes a whole lot more sense to think outside the box and start utilizing these spaces for something more practical that suits our individual lives.

So often we conform with the norm and furnish our homes according to the original framework intended by the designer. When in actual fact it would be far more practical to turn a barely used room like a formal dining room into an area more suited to our own lifestyle like a craft room, an office, a playroom for the kids or even a gym. I knew a couple once that turned their formal lounge and dining rooms into an entertainment area. They included a 6 x 3 pool table and a digital movie projector with a big white screen and a couple of comfy sofas. What had just been an area of their home collecting dust was transformed into a place for pure enjoyment that was shared with friends and family.

Use the space you have wisely or if you don’t need the space downsize to a dwelling that leaves a smaller footprint on the planet. Something that emits less pollution to keep warm in winter and cool in summer. Something that best suits your lifestyle and personality not just a status symbol that is fundamentally impractical. Having not long done just this I am very pleased with the result and would never consider reversing this trend for our family.

ITEM 207 OF 365 LESS THINGS

More items my daughter no longer needs I gave them to a friends granddaughter.

Recently I received an email from Deb J in which she revealed the fact that she has worked as a professional organizer. Not being one to let a chance go by I asked Deb if she would be kind enough to share her insight with us on hiring a professional organizer. She has written a very thorough post for me giving us lots of detail as to what we should expect. So set a little time aside especially if you are considering getting professional help and have a good read and I am sure you will find all the information you  need on this subject.

Hiring a Professional Organizer

By Deb J

Cost:

I have not worked for 5 years due to disability so am not sure what the pricing structure for Professional Organizer is in today’s market.  Today’s market is highly liquid with charges varying widely by area and by the organizers expertise.  My charges were based on a sliding scale depending upon the size of home, what the client wanted organized, and the amount of organizing needed (how unorganized/cluttered).  My prices were between $65-$120 per hour.  I also had a cost sheet that broke down costs so a client could pick and if that fit their budget better.  Occasionally I would give a price per job if I felt that I could accurately estimate the time needed.  This was usually based upon what took place in my Initial Consultation which took 1-2 hours at no-cost to the potential client.   My prices did not include any furniture/containers/implements that might be needed.

Initial Consultation:

At my initial consultation I looked for:

1.     What the client wanted organized

2.     The amount of clutter/disorganization

3.     The personality & lifestyle of the client(s)

4.     The amount of participation by the client

5.     Whether there would be a need for additional personnel

6.     The amount of access per day to the home/office/building

During this initial consultation I would first sit with them and discuss their expectations and what had led them to contacting me.  Then I would have them show me what they wanted organized.  I would pick a small area or drawer that we could organize just to see how long it took them to make decisions, their style of decision making, and their ease with making decisions.  I also needed to know who else would be involved in decision making and whether they would be present or would have to be consulted between any suggestions and the actual work.  The one thing no organizer wants to have happen is to estimate a job based on the initial consultation and later find that there are four people in the family who all want input, there is a supervisor who has to okay expenditures or there is some other way that the job hours can be expended because of unexpected input.

At the end of the initial consultation if the proposed job length and fee was accepted I would get a signed contract and leave a “homework” packet and would also take pictures of each room.  If the decision was not made at that time, I would leave the contract and estimate with the understanding I would call after a certain amount of days (usually 10 working days) for an answer.  If the contract was then accepted I would either deliver the “homework” packet or mail it with 2-day delivery.

Homework Packet:

The Homework Packet contained the following:

1.     A brochure about choices, room usage, lifestyles, and decluttering.

2.     A list of room types with space for writing.  On this the client was asked to write about how a particular room is used and what it contains.

3.     A list of various items found in a home. With a place to check those the client owns and extra lines for those things not listed.

4.     Diary pages on which to write about their daily life.  On this the client would write down for several days everything they did that day.  I asked that it be very detailed.  The only thing I didn’t ask them to tell me was those private things like using the toilet or having sex.

5.     A request list of items I would like to have before starting the job.  This included things like a 8-1/2X11 copy of the house floor plan, a list of the occupants with ages and interests in the case of a private home or suite of offices, a list of furniture the client wanted to retain, any other information the seemed to be needed for that particular client or which the client thought I needed.

The client must either mail or deliver this packet back to me within one week.  I would then go read over the information before the first day on the job.

The Actual Work

What happened on the first day of the job depended upon the size of the job.  Since most clients were individual home owners, I will give that as my example.

First Day

Most home owners have no real idea of how they use and abuse their homes.  We tend to live at such a fast pace and with so many different items and schedules pulling at us that we just live.  We have neither the time nor, in most cases, the interest in figuring out how to better utilize our time or our possessions.  Life is just too full of the immediate.  If a client is able to accept the “invasion of privacy” it seems to be, I like to spend a day just observing the clients in the home.   There has never yet been a client who could give me a good explanation of how they use the particular rooms in their home.  I am usually shown a room and told “this is the ______ room where we ________.”   After a day of observing the client/family I discovered that the dining room was used occasionally for a dining room but all the time as a place to work on homework, pay the bills, make crafts, work jigsaw puzzles, and drop off the mail.  Or maybe the family room was where they ate (at the coffee table or tray tables), talked on the phone, braided the daughter’s hair every morning and scrapbooked as well as watched TV, listened to music, and entertained friends.   Having a day to observe the client(s) can make the job go much faster.

Subsequent days

I arrive at the home with tables, boxes, packing tape, packing paper, and various garbage bags.  I pick a room to use as our work room and set up tables marked Keep, Sell and Give.  Going through a room at a time, we take everything out of the room except the furniture.  For each item the client must decide whether to keep it, sell it or give it away.  It is then placed on the appropriate table.  Anything that is trash is placed in a large garbage bag.  Anything that needs to be shredded is placed in a kitchen size garbage bag.  Once a room has been cleared out, the client goes back over each table to make sure that the right decision has been made.  I always recommend that if an item hasn’t been used in the last couple of months it should be removed unless it is a seasonal type of item.  Many times a client will struggle with making a decision about some items.  People many times have emotional attachments to items for various reasons.  There can be some psychology experience needed to help clients discover the reasons behind their attachments and whether the attachment can be removed.  For some items having a good photograph is enough to satisfy the attachment.  For others the attachment requires the item to be kept.  Then there are times when once the client understands why they have the attachment they no longer need the item and will let it go.  I try to not push a client to let go of an item.  Instead, I try to walk the client through the process of discovering the reason behind keeping the item so that they are assured that their decision is for the right reasons.

Once a room has gone through the decluttering process we look at the furniture in the room.  The decision process for furniture is the same as used on the contents with the additional option of using the furniture in another room.  After sorting the furniture we place the remaining furniture appropriately around the room and then begin the process of returning the other contents.  This process takes into consideration how the item is used, where best to place it for ease of use, and if there is a need for further storage or display products.  In some cases the client may decide that a piece of furniture is not the appropriate product for the items and we will need to purchase or locate elsewhere in the home something that will be more useful.  There are usually items found that should actually be stored or used elsewhere in the home.  These remain on the Keep table until we start to process the appropriate room.  As each room is finished, I take the time to wrap, label and box the items to be sold or given away.  These boxes are then stored underneath the tables or in another place the client chooses.  If the items to be given away are going to a relative or friend we prepare it for shipping and I take them to the shipping store.  If the items are to be given to a charity, I try to deliver them that day.  The more we remove that day the less we have to deal with as we are processing the remainder of the home.

Once the home has been completely processed we go back through to make sure that the client is completely satisfied with what has been done.  There are times when after completion of the processing the client will discover they would like to make some tweaks.  I also recommend that the client settle into the home for a week or two and then call me with any changes that need to be made.  It is not unusual for a client to discover that a few items may need to be moved or removed once life in the new design resumes.  In many cases the client will call only to report they have used what they have learned to make a few small changes themselves.  My goal is that the client will see the process and find it something they can repeat over and over on their own as lifestyles and occupants change.

What to Look For in an Organizer

An organizer needs to be someone you feel very comfortable with.  This person is going to see everything there is to see about your home.  She needs to see the way you really live in order to give you the best for your money.  That means you need to “let it all hang out.”  If you don’t feel you can do that with a particular organizer don’t hire him.

I always recommend they be a Certified Professional Organizer and member of the National Association of Professional Organizers.  I also recommend that you check them out with the Better Business Bureau.  Ask for references (at least 4) and make sure to call the references and ask for their input.  Asking the reference to see their home is okay but they may not be agreeable.  A recommendation from a personal friend or a business associate you trust is always a plus.

The organizer should give you a contract that outlines exactly what you will be receiving for the money you are paying.  You should be asked for a deposit of ¼-1/3 of the total cost with the remainder being paid on completion of the work.  You should be able to pay by check or credit card.  I would not recommend paying in cash.  All personnel hired by the organizer to help with the contract (building storage, moving or removing furniture, etc) should be also be license and bonded.

I recommend meeting with several organizers before making a decision.

Thanks so much Deb for your help with this. I am sure your information will come in very useful to those considering the option of professional help. I even think that  the processes you explain will also be helpful the those of us attempting to do this on our own.

ITEM 206 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Just one more of my daughters unwanted items

Well who’d have thought that my little rant on Day 203 would get such a reaction. Luckily that means we have had some very helpful readers comment with some useful information on how we can combat the waste of unwanted phone books. Some had the details we need to cancel delivery so we avoid receiving them in the future and others had some novel approaches on other uses for them. Di in particular was being very resourceful and cheeky at the same time.

I know quite of lot of my readers also read the comments so have probably already read this information but I know I don’t always follow through that well with the blogs I read (simply because I don’t have the time) so I have put it to the front as today’s post in case anyone missed it.

Here are some reader responses

Rachel

For Canceling phone book delivery in the US……(copied from the Yellow Pages website)

visit http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org to opt out of unsolicited phone book deliveries.
YellowPagesGoesGreen.org hopes to have 1 million people signed up to opt out of unsolicited phone book delivery by the end of the year. You can help them reach that goal by encouraging your friends and family to sign up.

I had just managed to find this site myself when Rachels response came through. Thank you Rachel this is particularly helpful.

Loretta (from Australia)

I just cancelled my Yellow and White Pages this week!
Call 1800 008 292, and they will do it, no problems.
This is an Australian 1800 number and won’t work anywhere else.

This one was particularly useful to me because I also live in Australia

Reggie

Hey Colleen… Hm, maybe you can use old phone books to feed your fire place if you have one? I also know some people who use the pages in the phone book to put into their mulch. I don’t know too much about landscaping but it’s just an option! If I think of any other ideas, I’ll let you know.

I suggested to Reggie that the pages could also be used under mulch to act as a weed mat. I know I could use a little help with weeds. To bad clover and dandelion aren’t good in a salad otherwise I could start a cottage garden business at the moment.

Di

We recently returned from a trip through South Dakota and on a very beautiful country road with no people or cars in sight for miles around was a small rest area under some trees with an outhouse. It contained a roll of very soft TP and also a large phone book that showed obvious use hanging from a chain. Just an alternative to sending it out for recycling. lol

Di you are such a funny one. I am all for protecting the environment but I am not sure I am prepared to go that far.

Rebecca the Greeniac

I canceled ours about a year ago. There was some little hidden link on the Qwest Dex website that let me do it online. Now we just get a little door hanger saying “are you SURE you don’t want phone books?” that goes on and on about how they’re made from recycled paper yada yada yada…

It was this hint from Rebecca that had me searching for the information that Rachel also came up with.

What would I do without my wonderful readers and the helpful information they have to share with us all. Thank you again everyone who contributed. We have all learned a new way to pre-empt the necessity to recycle phone books. One less thing to declutter every year.

ITEM 205 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This was one of those impulse buys of my daughter that has sat unused in a drawer for years. It going to the thrift store with a bunch of other stuff next week. Hopefully someone will find it useful.

Today I received a comment from Hannah asking for help with a decision on what to do with old diaries/journals.

Here is what Hannah wrote…

I have just found a box full of the journals/diaries I have kept over the years! What to do! I don’t think I’ll ever read them again, and I don’t know if I want anyone else reading them either, although if I’m dead, who cares?! I think I actually know the answer for me as much as I don”t want to face it, but would be interested in your thoughts, and those of your readers.

Well Hannah, there are a couple of things you might want to take into account here. These journals are a record of your life. You may think now that you will never want to read them again and maybe you never will who knows. I used to do a bit of genealogy research and I would have loved to have had some old journals from relatives that have passed just to get an insight as to what they were like. So maybe it would be nice to keep them for when you are gone.

The upside to this is that the words are what counts not whether or not you have the original copies. I personally would scan them and save digital copies and throw the originals away. If you are not fond of the idea of someone accessing them at this point in time put a security password on the file. If you have a will keep the password with that.

I am sure some of my other readers will have an opinion on this so I will leave it up to them to comment and provide you with other ideas.

When I read your request I actually fished and old Abundance Journal out of the bin that I had thrown away earlier today. I wasn’t going to bother recording it on my blog but under the circumstances I thought twice about it. This journal only records five things a day I was grateful for back in 1998 and it really wasn’t riveting reading so I don’t think anyone ealse is likely to want to read it. I had no qualms about tossing it in the bin which is where it was returned to immediately after I took the following photo.

ITEM 204 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This of course is the journal mentioned in today’s post

I am giving you a reprieve today and keeping my post short.

I opened my front door the other day to find a pile of recycling sitting on my door step. One would think that in the 21st century that the company that publishes and distributes phone books would find a way of determining whether you wish to take possession of them before they drop them uninvited on your front porch.

I know that there are still plenty of people out their who aren’t computer literate and still have a need for these massive tomes.  I however am not one of them, I can easily look up what I want on-line should I find it necessary.

After a search to see if there was a phone number to call with information on how to return them I gave up in disgust and threw them into the recycling bin. I know they will be pulped and reused for something else but as I pointed out in my post  on Day 200 all this processing is not good for the environment. I will have to investigate if there is something I can do to avoid the same thing happening next year.

ITEM 203 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Talking of recycling, I have been slowly working through the stuff in the garage that my daughter decluttered from her room and this pile of a school notebook pages was the thing to get thrown out today.