Cindy

Just a short post today to tell you that my Christmas present finally got finished. My husband Dan and my friend Dan built a Little Free Library for me, out of scraps we had in our garages, and my friend Holly painted it to match our house. It only took contributions from a couple of people, and we were in business – the business of book exchanges.

Little Free Library was started by a Wisconsin man in 2009 as a way to honor his deceased mother, a teacher. Now there are thousands of Little Free Libraries in the United States, and some in other countries, as well. It’s really just a book exchange – in my front yard. I tell people “Take a book, leave a book. Take a book, return it later. Take a book. Leave a book.” We’ve had no trouble keeping it stocked, and we’ve had quite a few exchanges in our first week. It’s been so gratifying to see neighbors stop by or to receive an email from a neighbor I’d never met telling me what she’d taken and what she’d left. One neighbor even brought me some books and some cuttings for my garden after seeing my house on Google Maps.

I promoted the library on our neighborhood listserve, a Yahoo group that frankly, I think every neighborhood should have. It keeps us connected, lets us know what’s going on in the ‘hood, and is frequently the starting point for “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” swaps. The first day the library was finished, I listed all the titles we have on the listserve in an email titled “Need something good to read this weekend.” Most of the original books from that email have already been swapped.

I love it!

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you have any electronic equipment that no longer works or you just don’t use anymore. Perhaps it is time to sell it off or dispose of it appropriately.

Eco Tip For The Day

Don’t just throw old electronic equipment in the garbage. Investigate eWaste drop off’s sites or events in your area. You local government web site will usually carry this sort of information.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy

My youngest, Audra, made me laugh recently by saying that a friend had gotten a new wardrobe from IKEA but preferred to continue using “the floordrobe.”

Personally, I hate the floor. How does so much stuff wind up there? I have four animals, and they each seem to shed their bodies’ weight in fur every week. I don’t have any carpet to trap the fur, and that’s a good thing, but it also means that I have the tumbling tumbleweeds of hair every time we open the windows and a breeze gets going. Yuck. I hate a hairy floor.

I also hate to walk barefoot and have stuff stick to the bottom of my feet. I suppose if I had carpet, the hair and dirty things would sink into the fibers, but that’s not such a pretty picture either. I have only wood and tile flooring and a single 8×10 rug. I’ve told Dan that when the vacuum cleaner dies, I’m going to get rid of the rug rather than buy another vacuum. The rug is the only thing I use it for.

But more than hair and dirt, which are supposed to get on the floor, how do so many other things end up there as well? Looking around, I see two boxes of uniforms that I got down from the attic and have yet to return, a plastic Easter egg (the cat was playing with it), a dog booty (thrown off by the dog and left there for several days), a wash cloth (why?), a bow from a package (what gift? when?), and an insulated bag that’s supposed to be in the back of my van.

All that on the floor in the living room and kitchen, and I don’t even use my floor as a floordrobe! What if those items (which I notice primarily belong to animals….hmm, there could be a lesson here) were joined by clothes, books, magazines, old newspapers, stacks of mail, CDs, shoes, toys, and a pile of laundry to be folded? How about bags of never-opened bags from the store, craft projects, extra pillows, a life-size paper mache giraffe? Some people’s house look like this. Mine has. Yours might.

I once worked with a man named Scott. Scott’s desk was a foot high in papers from right to left, front to back. Worse, he used his floor as an extension: his floor was literally covered with stacks of papers. No one could enter without playing tip toe. I did that for a while, but then I got so irritated with his mess that I just stomped straight over anything on the floor. I figured if he didn’t care enough to keep it off the floor, I didn’t care enough to avoid stepping on it. Probably not what he would have preferred, but it worked for the two of us. But think about it: He had papers so “valuable” that he had to keep them out and available, but it was okay that I walked on them. What does that say about their true value?

The floor is only for a few things: a bit of dust, a drift of pet hair, your feet, the furniture, some lamps. You should be able to walk freely through your home without worrying that you might step or crash into something. It shouldn’t be used as a storage room, trash can, dresser or closet. It’s not your storage unit, and it’s not a library. Get it decluttered if you can’t even see it.

Do you have a floordrobe, or have you overcome one?

Today’s Mini Mission

Aside from all the picking up and wasted storage space, indulging your children with too many toys teaches them the habit of excess and can also stifle their imagination. Have your children choose three toys each to donate to charity this week.

Eco Tip For The Day

Clothes remain new looking for longer when laundered with care. Wash lights with lights, colours with colours and dark with dark. Now that my household is down to just two I wash our lights with our sheets to save on wash loads. The spare bed sheets are red so when needed I wash them with red or even black clothes.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy

Once your house is mostly decluttered, besides maintenance, the biggest thing you need to watch out for is accumulation. Everything you buy takes you back toward The Land of Clutter.

We’ve talked about shopping because you’re angry, bored, lonely. Because it’s social or habitual for you. One thing we haven’t talked about is the dangers of drinking, lonliness, boredom, and TV shopping.

A woman I know drinks a lot of wine every night, and she shops. The Home Shopping Network seems to be her favorite. Slightly tipsy, she orders jewelry, knick knacks, and shiny things that catch her eye while she relaxing with her wine. I became of aware of this because of the amount of stuff she was returning, but there’s no way she’s returning it all. Slowly but surely, night by night, she’s accumulating more and more stuff to add to her already very full apartment. She’s drinking and shopping – her inhibitions are down, and all those pretty things on the TV are calling her name.

That got me thinking about my friend’s mother. A shut in and grouchy recluse, she had little company but the TV and those friendly faces on the shopping channels. When he had to move her into assisted living, her home was full of gadgets, what-nots, small appliances, and cheap jewelry – a lot of it still in boxes – that she has acquired from TV shopping.

Those TV shopping channels are almost predatory. People whose lives are full and busy don’t sit around at home waiting for something interesting to buy. But the lonely, sad, drunk, bored are all potential victims.

Has TV shopping ever been a downfall for you?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some items of clothing that are shabby, no longer fit or you realise are unflattering.

Eco Tip of the Day

Buying secondhand is better for the environment than buying new. However buying secondhand just for fun of it not only clutters up your home but could be depriving someone else of something that they need who then is forced to buy new.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy

This morning, I heard an interesting article on time use and efficiency on the local public radio station. You can read the article here. The gist of it was that of the 8 hours most Americans are at work each day, only 5 of it is spend in productive work. Various guests had different solutions for this perceived problem. My favorite was from Teresa Amabile, a Harvard Business School professor. She said that “documenting progress on work, no matter how minor, is by far the most effective tool [to increase productivity].” Just staying motivated, she says, is still the best way to get work done.

Of course, I tried to imagine how this information could be applied to decluttering.

It seems to me that those of you who keep lists of the things you are decluttering, which I did for the first two years, are off to a great start. Every day when you record what you’ve decluttered, you are documenting your progress.

Also I find that making a list of what I want to accomplish each day keeps me focused on those tasks. Crossing off after a job is done is another documentation of progress.

Taking before and after photographs of a cluttered, then uncluttered, space definitely creates motivation and documents progress.

Successfully selling your decluttered items and keeping a record of the money you’ve earned is another doubly positive form of documentation.

Is there some way that you document your progress so that you stay motivated?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an unwanted gift ~ No explanation necessary, sell, donate or regift it.

Eco Tip For The Day

Eat at home more often. The food has to be cooked either way but going out to eat usually required driving which wastes fuel.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy

Even for me, some jobs are just too daunting. There is something about the art closet, for example, that terrifies and mocks me. My own desk is another source of terror. (How ironic is that?) My children’s closets are rooms of mystery and wonder. The garage is, well, really big and definitely not all mine.

How do I manage? Just like the Beatles sang in 1967, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”

The art closet is used primarily by Audra and me. Clara keeps her art supplies in her room (smart girl). Because the job is daunting to both of us, I set the timer for the 15 minutes, and we slammed the door behind us the moment that timer rings. Nonetheless, a few 15 minute sessions later, and a couple of “I’ll just decide about one item” later, and the closet, while not complete, is in much better shape.

When we remodeled, I packed everything from my desk into a laundry basket. Now that I have a desk, I have unpacked the crucial items, but the basket still seems full. What else could possibly be in there? Every time I look, I see a mixture of unneeded items and good stuff, but some how I just can’t bring myself to deal with it. Again, Audra to the rescue. She’s perfectly willing to help me out, and she loves to arrange and organize the drawers. All I have to do is ask.

The girls’ closets not only hold their clothes but also all manner of both treasurers and junk. How am I to know which is which? Fortunately for me, both of the girls seem to think that cleaning out their closets with my help is fun and not a chore at all. They look forward to moving their too-small clothes along to some other girl, knowing that they can’t ever get anything new (actually, typically used) until the closet is purged. While we’re in there, I generally pull out a few old art projects or other memorabilia for them to “nay or yea” as well.

As for the garage, I’m eager to get it decluttered. We have what is quite possibly the ugliest and most decrepit shed imaginable, and I have finally persuaded Dan that we need to shift all shed stuff into the garage and pull the shed down. He thinks it’s not all going to fit, but I know that it can. (The wheelbarrow and lawnmower would present a fit challenge if we had more than one car, but since we don’t, it should all be fine.) I promised that we could build another shed if we find we must have one, but I’m betting that after the adjustment period, we won’t miss it at all, and I can use the slab that it’s sitting on for something much more interesting. I have a raised fish pond in mind.

In every case, I am tackling my hard challenges with the help of someone else. While I’m using family members, I’ve also paid for help from Amy and Susan at The Clutter Consultants and gotten assistance my friend Holly, whom I, in turn, helped out. Not everyone is the right candidate to help, but many people are happy to assist. After all, cleaning and rooting through someone else’s stuff isn’t ever as daunting as cleaning your own. If you’ll repay the favor, that’s even better!

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an Aspirational item. Something you aspire to getting around to using or trying one day.

Eco Tip For The Day

Buying a new pair of shoes and decluttering two pair in their place will reduce your clutter. However being satisfied with the shoes you own and wearing them until they are worn out is better for the environment.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy

Friday was mine and Dan’s 16th wedding anniversary. Sixteen years of relatively smooth sailing. Not bad. We’ve gone from two working adults with two dogs and two cars in a 1000 square foot home with a beautiful garden to one full-time and one part-time job with two children (13 and 10), five animals (too many), one car and a 2600 square foot home with a beautiful garden.

A couple weeks ago, Colleen reprinted this post from The Happiness Project.  I’ll wait while you review it.

Certainly it got me thinking about Dan and me. When we were first married, I remember quarreling about “who did more” and it made me crazy that on Saturday – housecleaning day – Dan didn’t necessarily feel like cleaning at the same time I did. I was deeply annoyed to be bustling around while he was reading the newspaper and enjoying coffee.

Now those quarrels make me laugh. I could do all that work with my eyes closed and still have time to take a 5 mile hike with the dogs, get an hour-long massage, and go to the movies. I hardly knew what was coming my way!

As Gretchen says, it’s easy to think that your work is more and harder and to undervalue the contributions of others. I do appreciate that Dan is good at his job and makes a salary that allows us to live very comfortably. But I think I do more – work part time, take care of the kids, manage the household finances, make appointments, grocery shop and prepare food. But what do I have that Dan doesn’t have? Freedom and flexibility is a big one. A condition of my employment was that I would take off whenever necessary and that I would only work three days a week. If Dan and I switched places, we’d both be in trouble: he’s no good at the stuff I do and would dreadfully miss his work, and we’d be living a radically different lifestyle based on the salary I made while working. So is my work “better” “more” or “more important”? Or is it just different and part of an overall picture that makes our family and our marriage successful? Even if my work was better and more important, does it benefit me or my family to think that way, or will it just create resentment and a feeling of self-entitlement? I can tell you that if Dan started strutting around thinking that his contributions were so much more important than mine, I’d slap that notion down in a heartbeat.

Decluttering can be about so much more than just your stuff. It can be about attitudes that don’t help you and don’t move you closer to your goals. Decluttering animosity, anger, and resentment so that you can be your best self and do your best work will free you to accomplish so much. If decluttering is your goal, sure it would be lovely if your spouse got on board, but it’s your goal. Act on it. Change your attitude and you can change your life.

Today’s Mini Mission

Round-up and declutter stationery ~ Keep a pen in each room of the house if that makes your life easy but the bulk of your stationary items will be more easily found if they are all stored together. If you don’t have a desk or set of drawers for this task why not use that spare shelf you have cleared in the linen closet during your last towel and sheet declutter.

Eco Tip For The Day

Aluminium can be recycled so be sure to recycle all items made from it including aluminium foil when cooking.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy

“If you’re going to do something, do it right.” vs. “Something is better than nothing.” Isn’t it amazing how, for every piece of folk wisdom, there is an opposite piece of wisdom? I think for decluttering, “something is better than nothing” should rule the day.

This weekend, I wanted to take the box of Easter decorations up to the attic and bring down the boxes of camping equipment. I didn’t do those things – any of them. Even though all the Easter stuff wasn’t together (the girls are still eating treats out of their baskets), I could have brought the camping equipment down. I don’t have to take one thing up before I bring another thing down. Something would have been better than nothing.

True, I’m annoyed that a certain small person made a mess on the dining room table and is now skillfully ignoring it, but there was still something I could do without feeling like I capitulated and cleaned her mess for her. The newspapers could be gathered and put into the recycling, and those towels on the table were put there by some large person doing the laundry (me) and not by some short person making a mess (her). Something would be better than the nothing that got done.

Can’t declutter your whole wardrobe today? Just declutter the shirts. Or just the short sleeve shirts. Or just the belts. Something is better than nothing.

Don’t have time to examine and deeply think about every book you might be ready to say good bye to? Make a quick trip through the shelves and pull out the books you know you’re done with. Something is better than nothing.

Know that your yard needs attention and is starting to be a cluttered landscape? Bring in one or two toys the kids have scattered or trim up one bush if that’s all you have time for. Something is better than nothing. (Then puts your tools away – you don’t need to replace one kind of clutter with another.)

Something. It is better than nothing. And something then something else then something else will eventually lead you to a decluttered house.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter and tidy your medicine cabinet or similar storage.

Eco Tip For The Day

Save electricity close off rooms that don’t require heating or cooling. If you have a ducted system only heat or cool the rooms that need it.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

 

Cindy

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 all the books that you cannot fit onto the shelves. If you decide to display some sentimental trinkets (that you love, find beautiful, hold dear, etc.) on your bookshelves as well, then you’ll have to reduce your books further.
• The same can be said for your linen closet, food pantry, or wardrobe  If you decide that everything must fit in that space, you’ll declutter until it does fit.
• While organizing your items, it’s a good time to consider their placement. Do rarely needed coats really need to be in the front door closet? Maybe that’s a better space for pool bags, towels, and extra sunblock (something I think you almost cannot have too much of because you never want to run out  – at least not if you’re as fair as my family). If you never wear belts, why do you have a special holder for them on the door of your closet? Are your most frequently used kitchen spoons in a convenient location, or is the plastic wrap that you hardly ever use holding court in the easiest to reach drawer?

To me, organizing doesn’t mean buying a whole bunch of boxes and clever “solutions” so that I can jam more stuff into each square inch of space. It means culling and cultivating my collection (of clothes, jewelry, books, kitchen utensils  gardening tools) so that everything is useful, easy-to-location, in good working order, and appropriate for my lifestyle. Is there anything you could organize today?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something made from paper.

Eco Tip for the Day

Instead of giving lots of sugar laden, foil wrapped Easter treats do what I did. Only buy ten little eggs attach $1 or $2 coins to them and arrange a Riddle Easter Hunt. Hide each egg with its coin separately with a riddle attached leading to the next egg. You can also skip the chocolate eggs altogether and just hide the money with the riddle. I used to recycle those plastic eggs year after year and hide the money and riddle inside them. It is fun to watch the kids trying to figure out the riddles, making them harder and harder each year.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

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 something vague like “trying to cut back on alcohol,” think realistically about whether that’s going to be the lifestyle change that you need to reduce.

Next, if the clothes are hanging in your closet, the same closet that you use for your clothes that actually fit you, it’s time to move them out. Pull them all out and box them up, but before you do, think seriously: Do I really love this outfit? Did it ever fit me well? Did I wear it frequently? Am I realistically going to want to wear it again in the future? If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, don’t box it away, take it directly to the thrift store.

If the clothes are in the attic, hiding under the bed, or tucked away elsewhere, now’s the time to pay them a visit. What sizes are there? When did you last wear that size? Do you like what you’re looking at? Would you wear it again? Do you even recognize this item? Sort through and only keep the clothes that you genuinely would like to wear again. The rest need to go to the thrift store, pronto.

Before you put your now sorted – but still unwearable – clothes back into storage, ask yourself again: What am I doing to lose weight so that I can wear these clothes again in the future? If you’re still determined to hang onto them, mark your boxes with today’s date and these words “This box was last opened on XX/XX/XXXX.” Now you can put your “to be stored until later” clothes back into their long-term storage location. When you revisit them next, you’ll now how long they’ve been put away and think again about whether they deserve the space you’re devoting to them.

Today’s Mini Mission

Scan your home for an item that has become so much a part of the scenery that you haven’t even realised it isn’t useful to you anymore.

Eco Tip for the Day

Do not throw out your toxic household wastes, such as paint, paint thinner and car fluids, in the garbage or down the drain. Check with your local facilities for proper disposal and avoid these products in the future. (Tip curtesy of Greenpeace USA)

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

 

Cindy

“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 highly processed, packaged foods including roast beef dinners, macaroni and cheese, and just-add-water scalloped potatoes. She finally strikes up a conversation with the women and hears the confession that the woman does not know how to cook, at all. From this, Kathleen gets the idea to open the Kitchen Counter Cooking School: She finds nine women who all confess to not knowing how to cook, and she trains them over the course of several months. Along the way, Kathleen talks about food politics, food waste, processed foods, sustainability, as well as how to wield a knife and other kitchen basics.

The sections on food waste caught my eye as it relates to clutter. Please bear with me as I quote some big sections of the book.

“Even as we bemoan food prices, American consumers are generally unaware that they spend less of their wages on food than any other country in the world; just under 10 percent of their paychecks. Compare that to 1900, when 40 percent of wages went toward food. Around 1960, the first time the amount spent on food was no longer the biggest expenditure, the figure was about 25 percent. The declining cost comes with the rise of the industrialization of farming practices and the shift of everything we eat – from pigs and cows to orange juice – into mass produced merchandise.”

“Perhaps it’s the lack of investment that leads to a cavalier attitude toward food. We may give thanks for the bounty once a year [Thanksgiving in the US], but then as a country we collectively waste about 40 percent of the food produced for consumption the rest of the time. Anthropologist Timothy Jones spent more than a decade studying food waste. His research finds that some crops sit abandoned or unharvested in the fields where they’re grown. Supermarkets or suppliers discard another few percent dismissed as too imperfect for retail. The rest – about 25 to 30 percent – we throw away at home. That food goes into landfills to rot, where it emits clouds of methane, a greenhouse gas more toxic and damaging than carbon monoxide.

” ‘By treating edibles as a disposable commodity, we teach our children not to value food,’ says Jonathan Bloom… He puts the figure on what we waste at more than $100 billion annually. This jived with what I found in the interviews with the volunteers and the kitchen visits [to her student’s homes before the lessons began] and what I observed in my own house and in the homes of friends. A few of the volunteers agreed to keep a journal of what they bought, ate, and threw out for two week. The result? They reported less waste due to the guilt they felt knowing they had to write it down, but even then, an average of 18 percent of their grocery bills went into the trash.

“But why do we waste so much? Both Jones and Bloom offer some interesting insights.

“First people often shop for the life they aspire to, not their real one. [Aspirational clutter!] Everyone knows that they’re supposed to eat fruit and vegetables, so we stock up on perishables. Since most people don’t plan meals for the week, those beets or greens that looked so great at the farmers’ market sit untouched as we end up eating convenience foods. [Impulse purchases!] With proper planning, buying in bulk or loading up on two-for-one deals can be a genuine money saver; without a plan, it’s just a recipe for double or triple the amount of food tossed away.

“Dr. Trubek from the University of Vermont has studied the activities of home cooks for years… ‘Planning menus is the greatest skill that we’ve collectively lost,’ she said. ‘That, and what to do with leftovers.’

Various chefs and food experts offer their ideas on how to eliminate food waste:

• Participate in an “eating down the fridge” challenge where you avoid buying groceries for a week and intentionally eat down your pantry and refrigerator.  [Use it up challenge!]
• Put a photo you like at the back of your refrigerator. Your fridge shouldn’t be so full that you can’t see it.
• Use up old products first, which is known as rotation in the restaurant world.
• Buy a realistic amount of produce. In our family, when I buy bananas, I just get four, not an entire bunch. Pears go bad quickly, and I usually buy only two of those – a half for each person.
• Especially in the United States and Europe, you can let the grocery store be your pantry: There will be more bananas  pears, cereal, flank steak next time you shop. Just because you can buy something doesn’t mean that you should.
• Don’t be afraid to substitute. If  you need a zucchini for a recipe but only have a green pepper, use that instead. No Panko? Use regular bread crumbs as a substitute. [Use it up challenge!]
• Don’t give up too easily on your food. Peel away the dent or the brown spot rather than throwing the whole thing away.
• Bought too much? Try IQF, individually quick frozen. Spread the extra berries or veggies on a baking sheet and freeze them. When frozen, sweep them into a plastic bag. (And don’t forget to use them!)
• Clean our your condiment shelf by taking some similar flavors and combine them into a marinade. There are sites on the web that will help you to know what flavors work well with what if you’re struggling with this idea. Here’s one possible helper.
• Soup is the great user of all-things-leftover.
• Don’t try to reinvent the culinary wheel for every meal. Develop a stable of recipes that you enjoy and know how to make, and lean on those for the majority of your meals.
• Take leftovers to work and pack them in your kid’s lunches.

On a different note, thank you to everyone who searched the Internet for the blog post I was looking for. It was found on Small Notebook, and here it is.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from your pantry that isn’t healthy for you even though most people stock it. The best way to avoid unhealthy food is to not keep it in your home. ~ Examples:- White sugar, pasta, sweet sauces, white rice, white flours, candy…

Eco Tip for the Day

 No need for a tip today as there are plenty in Cindy’s post above.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow