As a child I was quietly confident that if there was actually a bogey man, he definitely couldn’t live under my bed or in my wardrobe. My mum liked a tidy house, but any storage space that could be kept from eyesight was fair game. So my wardrobe had boxes stacked from the floor up until the hems of my clothes hit them, and up each side of the wardrobe and in the storage area above the hanging rack. Under my bed was tightly packed with yet more boxes containing goodness knew what but it wasn’t anything that belonged to me personally. I even have memories of boxes being jammed so tightly … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ A Book Review
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom A Book Review of The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg What a fantastic book: so well researched, so easy to understand, so very interesting. Duhigg shows over and over again that most of what we do is habitual and that habits can be changed and manipulated - by ourselves and by others. My mother should be happy. This book validates her often-said phrase "When you do things outside the norm, that's when they go wrong." My Mom's not a pessimist or a stick in the mud; what she's saying is that when you lock your keys in the car, forget your purse, leave the burner … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ The Dreaded Black Hole
Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and "fun" for you to achieve some quick decluttering. Cindy's Weekly Wisdom last week mentioned those dreaded "clutter black holes" that most houses have. These phenomena suck in all sorts of stuff that you mean to do something with or haven't got a real home for. They lurk in numerous places, most people have at least one but some have many. For … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Going Cold Turkey
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Early last year, I wrote a post about The Black Hole. You probably have one in your house. It's the place where all clutter tends to accumulate . . . and never leave. Like the black hole in astronomy, it has such a strong gravitational force that even light cannot escape it. I confess, I too have a Black Hole in my house: my gigantic kitchen island. It doesn't look like a Black Hole, you may be thinking. You're right. It doesn't anymore. Anymore being the key word here. The half in the foreground seemed to always have a stray napkin, maybe a glass or two, and … [Read more...]
Keeping things becomes a habit
I received an email from Di last week which contained this passage... I’ve got to the deeper layers – it’s not just about clothes... and it’s quite hard. Jewellery (gifted and pretty – just too much – have managed to donate quite a bit), photos (out of 6 albums and a box and now ready to go and be scanned but have discovered loads of digital ones on a hard drive), digital clutter (hard cos it’s not so tangible and takes ages – currently doing a ‘folder’ a day), my christening shawl (beautiful and knitted by my gran but now going to a friend’s daughter who is having a … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Habit Clutter
Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and "fun" for you to achieve some quick decluttering. I suppose you are wondering what I mean by habit clutter and of course I am going to tell you. Habit clutter is any clutter that you either keep out of habit, you collected out of habit in the first place, items relating to former bad habits, or a habit of not putting things away causing mess or … [Read more...]
Freebies often equal clutter
Yesterday's mini mission got me thinking that it has been a while since I wrote a post on the subject of freebies and it's about time I did. Who can't resist a freebie? It isn't everyday that someone offers you something for nothing and it's like getting a gift right? Well unfortunately like many gifts the freebie is often something you don't really need and it soon becomes clutter. One advantage a freebie has over a gift though is that it isn't usually given to you by a loved one so refusing it isn't going to hurt anyones feelings. That being so, I would suggest doing just that, politely … [Read more...]
Decluttering Your Office – The Danger of the Paper Trail
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Offices seem to be the center of the vortex of flotsam in a house, particularly paperwork. If you work outside the home, your office probably still has files that were set up by the previous holder of your job - files you haven't looked at the entire time you've had the job. My desk and filing cabinet had "current" files that were five years old and notes that said "to file" on documents dating back to when the law firm was started. Why do we do this? Do the phrases "paper trail" or "for our records" ring any bells with you? Try to think how far back you really need … [Read more...]
Clothing???
On Saturday Jane requested for me to write a post based on "Clothing. Buying (and only keeping) clothing for the person /lifestyle I aspire to be verses the person/lifestyle I really am/have. I am intrigued with this suggestion, especially since she used the word aspire in it. I would always advise clothes shopping to stay within the guidelines of a style the person is comfortable with unless they are ready for a change. And even then I think I would ease myself into that change an outfit at a time. I would think it is a risk to step outside of ones comfort zone too hastily or you could end … [Read more...]
Mad if you don’t ~ Mad if you do?
Clutter is often the result of buying now rather than wisely. This can apply to all sorts of products for various reasons. Here are two common reasons for purchasing this way. The first being that the item has bargain price you'd would be mad to pass it up. And second, the item may not be available later so you would be mad not to grab it now while you have the chance, avoiding future regret. Sound familiar? Here are some examples... Scenario ~ Sally was at the thrift store and saw a microwave oven plate that exactly matched the one for her oven and it was only $2. She had recently broken … [Read more...]