Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Let's see a show of hands: Who has a box (or more) of clothes saved for the day when you lose 10, 20, or 50 pounds? Or, perhaps worse, who is clogging their closet with these reminders of days gone by? Let's get serious here, people. Do you have a plan that you are implementing to lose weight? When was the last time you wore this size (these sizes)? Do you know what's in this box (these boxes)? Can you actually name even 3 or 4 of the items? Here's my challenge for you. First of all, what are you doing to lose weight? If the answer is nothing, or … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Food Clutter
 "Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: 'I'm saving food!' Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: 'I'm saving my life!'" - George Carlin, comedian I just finished reading the book The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn. Briefly, Kathleen is a former restaurant and food critic who earns a degree at Le Cordon Bleu. One evening, back in the United States, she is grocery shopping and starts following a woman who is filling her cart only with … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Could You Live Like My In-Laws?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom My in-laws have recently visited us, and like a light bulb coming on over my head, I realized that my in-laws are living like minimalists. I've talked about my in-laws here before from a different perspective - as owners of several storage units. While they live in California, the majority of their stuff lives in storage, in Texas. Each time they visit my family, they also make a couple trips to the storage units.  Over time, they have reduced what is being stored there, and last year, they arranged a Salvation Army to truck take away a large amount of stuff, … [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 ~ Making Do
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Advertising or a trip to The Container Store may convince you that there is a perfect, purchasable solution for every one of your problems, needs, and desires. But before you rush out and make a purchase, stretch your brain to think: do I already have something that will serve my purpose? The following are some things in my house that we have made do with very satisfactorily, no special purchase necessary. Stuff A cardboard box with a few large and small holes cut out of it for the cats to play in. They love their cardboard box, and it certainly works as well as … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Resistance Is NOT Futile
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Any fan of Star Trek or American pop culture has heard the phrase "Resistance is futile." It was popularized on the TV show Star Trek when the Borg (human-machine hybrids) were about to assimilate (i.e., suck in, take over, and destroy) a new race of beings. This phrase popped into my mind yesterday when I was perusing the sales flier for the big box discount store Costco. Costco and its competitor Sam's sell items in bulk - big bulk - in a warehouse setting and at discounted prices, often significantly discounted. Not only can you buy food in bulk, more than … [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...]