Entries Tagged 'Decluttering' ↓

Home organization can give us the benefit of calmer surroundings and less stress, and it can also help us with our bottom line.  And who doesn’t want a better bottom line?  When we have too much stuff that turns into clutter is can cost us in a variety of ways:

• Emotionally it can be stressful and draining to be surrounded by clutter
• Financially we may be purchasing duplicate items which cost us money plus add to the clutter problem
• Relationship stress-clutter can cause friction between family members under the same roof

I’ve been reading a book called, “Making Peace with the Things in Your Life” by Cindy Glovinsky.  She had a very interesting example of the price of our clutter and I am going to quote word for word:

“Translate the space your Things take up into monetary terms:  divide your montly mortgage payment or rent by the number of square feet in your dwelling to calculate the cost per square foot; estimate the square footage occupied by a particular type of Thing-newspapers, for example-then multiply the cost per square foot by the square footage occupied to calculate the cost of housing the Things.  If your mortgage payment is $1000 per month for a dwelling of 1500 square feet, the cost per square foot is $.67.  If your newspapers take up nine square feet, you’re paying about $6 per month to house them.  If they take up a whole 10 x 14 foot basement, you’re paying $93 per month for them.”

OK-WOW; now that’s a good way to look at it and an eye opener!  So, is it worth it to keep holding on to so much stuff or is it time to free up some space and money with a good decluttering session?  Go for it!

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“Money, money, money, MONEY!”

Declutter my budget, what budget?  Where do you fall in the spectrum of  knowing how much money you have coming in vs. how much money you have going out?  Often times when people are disorganized they have a few different things going on:

• They are spending a lot of money on ’stuff’ that ends up causing clutter
• They don’t realize just how much money they are spending
• They may actually lose/misplace money such as checks & gift cards

It may be hard to set up a budget for yourself because it forces you to face reality.  And it might not be a reality you want to face because when you have to put limits on yourself  that’s not so fun.  But it’s part of being real and it’s part of being a grown-up, sometimes we have to tell ourselves ‘no’ for the greater good.  Sometimes we have to tell our family members ‘no’ for the greater good.

I encourage you to set up a budget with any program, piece of paper, ledger or system that is easy for you to keep up with.  Be honest about how much money you are bringing in every month.  It will take a while of keeping track of expenses to really realize how much is going out every month.  Write down everything!  Make categories, big or small.  Here are a few examples:

• Hair cuts
• Auto gas
• Auto insurance
• Gifts
• Entertainment
• Allowance for kids
• Groceries
• Meals eaten out
• Charity
• Cell phone
• Doctor co-pays/bills
• Credit card payments

There are many options that you may for your own categories.  The bottom line is, the incoming income needs to exceed or at least equal the outgoing expenses.  If that’s not the case, you’ve got some work to do to declutter your budget and see where you can eliminate or reduce your current expenses.  Some ideas:

• Reduce cable package
• Reduce meals eaten out
• Call around for new insurance quotes:  auto and home
• Reduce cell phone plan if you aren’t using your monthly minutes
• Cancel subscriptions you don’t use

Feel more in control of your finances and your life by decluttering your budget and being honest about where you are now.  All you can do is go up from here!

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Today is a great day to think about decluttering as well as reducing our current rates of consumption.  I recently checked out a library book called:  “Material World” by Peter Menzel.  The book is made up of photos from around the world with families standing outside surrounded by their possessions.  Some with very, very little and usually still a smile on their faces. The photo from the US was with a family from Texas; they took up the entire cul-de-sac with their many, many belongings. The title for the US was:  Moral Dilemma.  That’s kinda sad.  We do work hard and we do deserve to have nice things and be comfortable in our homes.  But there is such as thing as overdoing it, crossing the line and too much of a good thing. 

Let’s strive to strike a balance between too much and just enough.  Not only do we usually have what we need, but we have many duplicates of the same items.  This produces two things:  more money spent, more clutter.

So today, on Earth Day,  I would like to suggest a few things to help keep the balance:

• Declutter drawers, closets and shelves of extras, duplicates,  and things you don’t use and pass them on to someone who will.
• The next time you need something, see if you can borrow one before running out and buying one.
• Join Freecycle.com to engage in trades and giveaways instead of using the landfill to part with items.
• See if a substitute will work, like using a shoebox for a storage container instead of buying a plastic container.
• See if you can just make do without sometimes.

May you have what you need, enjoy what you have and have a happy Earth Day!

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We all end up with make-up that we’ve had for a long time and we aren’t using tucked away in the drawer or make-up bag.  Maybe it was a color that didn’t work out, maybe we got some free samples at the mall.  Just like many areas of our home, we just plain end up with excess.  Not only will it make it easier to get ready in the morning when you have what you really like and need, but using old make-up can actually put your health at risk.  I insist (I have to get tough here) that you to part with old make-up and spring for replacements.  The time and money it will cost you if you you end up at the doctor’s office with an eye infection will be worse than paying to replace old stuff in the first place.  And you’ll still have to throw out the old products caused the infection in the first place anyway.  Here are a few general guidelines for how long you should keep make-up:

• Blush 18-24 months
• Foundation up to 18 months-throw out sooner if a watery top layer forms
• Make-up around the eyes is a sensitive place where bacteria can form:  mascara after only 3 months, liquid liner up to 6 months, eyeshadow about 1 year

Be sure to toss anything that has had a change in color, smell or consistency no matter how long you’ve had it.  Take a few minutes today to declutter and give the old stuff the heave ho so you can both look and feel good in the make-up that you do love!

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What’s THE best way to declutter?  What’s a surefire way to keep clutter from making you crazy?   Shut it down before it ever enters your home.  Bolt the door!  Don’t even peek.  Just be very, very quiet and back away slowly….Really, stay on top of the game by blocking clutter in the following five ways:

1. Don’t be a storage facility for others.  If they don’t live there, neither should their stuff.  When someone moves out, make sure they take everything with them.  If it’s really that important to them, they shouldn’t be leaving it behind anyway.
2. Pass by that “awesome” sale, that super “good deal.”  We often get sucked into bringing home something that we didn’t need just because the price is low.  Remember, the price on your sanity is high if clutter is causing you stress. 
3. When birthdays and holidays roll around, ask people not to give you gifts of stuff.  Instead, ask for gifts of time and entertainment.  Go to coffee together, go out for lunch, go to a movie, ask for season tickets to the zoo.
4. Curb garage sale shopping.  Don’t spend your Saturday going through other people’s stuff and bringing home things that you didn’t need in the first place.  If you really must hit the garage sales, then make a list of things that you truly need and make it a scavenger hunt to find what you need.
5. Online/TV Shopping:  If you are sitting down ordering items that you don’t need as a past time because you are bored and unhappy, then it’s time to find an interest or hobby that will keep you busy, get you out of the house or help others.  You don’t need that stuff to make you happy.

Bar the door.  Lock it and throw away the key.  Just keep clutter out so you don’t even have to declutter and you’ll be A-OK!

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What a great mom moment I got to enjoy the other day.  And when you are a mom, you really do have to appreciate those moments!  They are often fleeting.  I had a good reminder that kids really can learn how to declutter and organize too.  It’s not going to happen overnight.  It’s going to take a lot of patience.  It’s going to take being a good example.  It’s going to take making it as easy as possible for them to succeed.

I have a folding table from Costco in my office for projects that I am working on and for items that are on their way to leaving our house.  Under that table I keep a big bin available at all times for donation items.  The other day, I was in my office and I noticed a couple of shirts had been placed in the bag from one of my kids. Granted, not actually in the bag, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.  What was great about it was that I realized my daughter had come across a couple of things that weren’t working for her anymore and automatically placed them in/on the bag to part with them.  She was decluttering on her own!  No lecture from mom; woo hoo!

If you make it easy and you stay consistent, you can teach your kids how to let go of items to make room for new items and to create space.  Does this mean my kids have perfect rooms?  OH HECK NO!  But they are learning lessons that they can take with them into adulthood and use in their own homes at their comfort level.  Don’t give up, kids can learn to organize too!

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So, how did I end up with this kicky little black summer dress after my closet clean out?  You may have read my last blog post about the day the new jammies came home to live and the unused and unloved clothes had to pack up and go.  But where did they go?  First, I started out with a big pile on my closet floor as I tried clothes on and found out which ones weren’t working out. 

Even though I am apparently so not cool, my oldest child gave me the benefit of the doubt that I might have some things she might like to wear.  So, a few things were passed on to her.  Maybe I do have a little bit of cool in there somewhere; naw, I’m sure she’ll never admit to it.  A large majority of items went into a big, black bag for a future donation drop off.  Then, there were a few select or name brand pieces that I thought I should at least have a local consignment shop give a go at.  So, I hung those items back up on hangers and headed to the consignment shop in the next town over. 

Right away I spotted some cute earrings and then, well, I love dresses!  So, I thumbed through the dress rack and had a handful of items to try on.  By the time I was done, I had credit for a few of my items which I used toward a skirt, those cute earrings and the above sassy little dress.  The rest of the items that were not accepted, I just left with the store owner for her to donate.  So, was that ok for me to bring new items back home?  Of course!  I organized my closet and parted with way more items then I brought in; it’s all good!

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the sock drawer, the sock drawer is connected to the shirts, the shirts are connected to the jeans….That’s what happened the day I unintentionally kicked off a closet decluttering session after a recent shopping trip.  It started out innocently enough, I just needed some new jammies.  I was wearing the same pair of Aeropostale pj pants over and over-enough already, comfy or not!  So I excitedly came home to load up my dresser drawer with my new goods.  To make room, I needed to let go of the old pajamas that I wasn’t wearing.  Why keep them if they weren’t being used and enjoyed; am I right?  Yes, I’m right.

So, once I finished the jammie drawer, I moved on over to the shirts and on through every article of clothing, coats, shoes that I own.  I was honest about what I really wanted, liked and needed.  Did it have a stain I was overlooking?  Out.  Was it too small?  Out.  Did I ever really wear it?  Out.  Was the zipper broken?  Out.  I tried things on too-that’s a great way to really confirm whether or not you like the way something looks and feels on you. 

So, now I feel like I hardly have any long  sleeve shirts left.  But the way I see it, why have long sleeve shirts hanging there just to hang there if I’m not going to wear them anyway?  I will just wait and deal with adding a few new pieces next fall when it starts getting chilly again.  It feels good to declutter your closet because you will feel good about any of the choices you have left in there each morning !  Find out what I did next, coming soon…..

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Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you don’t have a few excess belongings or, gasp, maybe even some clutter!  If we take an honest look at what we have in drawers, cupboards and the tops of closets, we all have something that we could get rid of!  So look around the house today with fresh eyes and really see what you are storing.  Let’s look at some different areas that you should be sure to check out:

• The laundry room:  How are you doing on cleaning and laundry products that you are storing?  Do you have only what you need or have you accumulated various products, some of which you don’t like and won’t use?  Most of us don’t have very large laundry areas so this is a great place to make the most of your storage space by decluttering!
• Linen closet:  This is often an area that is stuffed to the brim.   Make sure you keep all your sheets together in one area and only keep sheets that are a complete set and that you know you will use on the bed.  If you’ve changed your decor and you won’t use these sheets any longer, it’s ok to let them go. 
• Tops of closets:  It’s common to toss things up on the top shelf of our closets, never to look at them again.  What’s really up there anyway?  Today, really take a look and see what’s up there.  See if there are items that you haven’t used in a long time and make a decision to either use them now or let them go.

We all have a little room for improvement when it comes to decluttering some of those extra items that find a way of living in our homes.  And I know as a professional organizer, my own house is loaded to the brim with waaaay too much stuff-APRIL FOOLS!

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Professional organizers have to declutter too!  When I first started my organizing business, I stocked up on certain organizing products that I believed I might need to show clients some day so they could see firsthand what I was talking about.  So, I stored these items either in bins that I would take with me to appointments or I left them in my garage with my supplies in case I needed them some day.  There’s that “maybe some day” again!   Maybe some day is really never a good thing!

My bins were starting to get difficult to pack up when I would leave a client appointment-it was starting to be a puzzle that had to be put back together.  And how good is a professional organizer who can’t put her own stuff together in front of a client!  As for the stuff left back in my garage, I was afraid I would forget it at some point.  I started realizing there were products I never actually showed clients or they were easily described without needing them on the spot. 

So, I started taking a hard look at what I really needed to have on hand at an appointment, what I never actually showed anyone and what items I could just get by without.   Some of those items were even just bins that didn’t fit well inside of  other bins.  It felt great to let some things go, repack by bins and feel like I really had what I needed on hand.  When you declutter at home, you do the same thing.  Let go of the excess stuff that you really don’t need so you can enjoy the belongings that you do need and love!

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