Do you have trouble with procrastination? Is “later” always the perfect time to do something? Are you stressed, missing deadlines, and constantly playing catch-up? Well…..hello! It’s so nice to meet a kindred spirit! Procrastination has always been one of my worst habits. But I recently finished an online course in “Learning How to Learn” (www.coursera.org) that has taught me something new about procrastination. Brain researchers have discovered that when we dread doing an activity, the thought registers in the same physical area of our brain where pain registers. So naturally, we do the same Continue reading
Habits ~ A guest post by Wendy F
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I was fortunate to meet up and become friends with Colleen after starting reading her blog. She has 'enlightened ' me greatly and we laugh a lot. I will try and keep it simple, this is just my take on a bit of my declutter journey. HABITS The Habits I have changed over the last few years and the new ones I have embraced in my declutter journey. No Junk Mail. A simple sign that attached to my mailbox avoids my house being filled with free newspapers and catalogues from every store in town. Result ~ massive clutter saver and removes any temptation to go and purchase items in Continue reading
“A change is as good as a holiday.”
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Anyone who has been following my blog for a while knows that I don't talk much about organising. It is my experience that getting rid of a bunch of unused stuff makes it easier to organise the useful stuff left behind, so I focus on the decluttering side of organising. However rearranging an area in your home can be a great catalyst to letting go of the stuff that doesn't fit with what you expect as the end result of this task. Being bogged down in the same old, same old can be energy sapping and blind you to the stuff laying unused everyday right under your nose. When I was a child it was Continue reading
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ The Shortage Is Only in Your Mind
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I went to high school with a girl named Helen, who was extremely petite and wore a very tiny shoe size, 5 I believe. In college, Helen and I lived in the same dorm. Her room was remarkable because it contained the largest shoe collection in the dorm, probably in the entire school. Why did Helen own so many shoes? Because she wore a tiny shoe, many stores would only get one in her size when they ordered a style. Helen was constantly afraid that she wouldn't be able to find shoes that fit. As a result, she bought every shoe she found in her size. Clearly, the idea that there was a shortage of Continue reading
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Efficiency
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I have been thinking a lot about efficiency recently. We are constantly told by ourselves, our friends, and the media that we don't have enough time. Is this true, or are we just deeply inefficient and distracted? In my house, during down times, I have notices that all four of us have our "go to" strategies, none of which are very productive: I check my email and Facebook for the millionth time; Clara listens to music and plays solitaire; Audra watches TV; Dan fools around on his computer. All electronic, all non-productive. My girlfriend Sherri addressed this on Facebook recently. (Okay, I Continue reading
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Don’t Over Buy (revisited)
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This post first appeared in September 2012. Since I am in the thick of plowing through the Lost and Found and checking the cleanliness of all the uniforms from the uniform exchange closet, it seemed like a good time to reprint it. At the end of every school year, I volunteer to take home all the lost and found from my daughters’ school. I look through it, sort it, wash it, fold it, and give it to charity. The amount of lost and found (or as the Head of School calls it, “Lost and Sometimes Found”) is absolutely amazing. At the end of this school year, I had 20 expensive metal water bottles Continue reading
Change
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Decluttering is all about change. Changing the way you think about stuff: It isn't important. It can trigger memories but doesn't contain them. It usually becomes clutter eventually no matter how excited you were at acquiring it in the first place. It doesn't raise peoples' opinions of you. It doesn't make you happy in the long term. You have to work to acquire it, which may rob you of precious time spent taking care of those and that which are actually important to you. Changing long formed ideas and habits: You are not obliged to keep stuff no matter how it was acquired ~ gifts, Continue reading
Keeping the strangest of things ~ By Moni
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I shudder at the idea of going back to my old ways of having stuff, more stuff, stored stuff, collected stuff and yet more stuff.....and then being very surprised that the house is full of stuff! But in spite of all that, I still keep the strangest of things. I don't know why, there is no logic to it, but I have difficulties getting rid of empty cardboard boxes and shopping bags, especially if they are from particularly nice clothes store or from a surf wear shop. There is a wee corner of my brain that insists cardboard boxes are useful. Maybe they are, maybe they're not, but I can get as Continue reading
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Constant Vigilance!
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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 Continue reading
