Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom
Cindy
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 children were in their late teens when she began.
I moved into our current house with a two year old, and I was pregnant with my second child. The house never got fully organized. In addition, we did a lot of work on the house, so some area was always disrupted. When we finished all the work, the house looked fantastic, and I didn’t want the junk that was everywhere to make my beautiful house look ugly and cluttered. The inside of most cabinets were organized, but every surface was covered and there were laundry baskets of miscellaneous all over the house. By this time, I had one child in elementary school and one child in middle school.
What are your decluttering goals?
Different people declutter with a different goal in mind. Colleen thought she had too much stuff. I wanted my house to look nice, to be able to use my furniture and surfaces as intended, and I wanted to not be embarrassed to have guests.
Categories of clutter
Different people will have different sorts of clutter. I’m sure we all have a few toiletries we need to use up, some medicines that have expired, too many gadgets in the kitchen, some clothes we never wear. I think our trouble areas, however, are more specific to our interests, our psychology, and our personalities. Here are the main categories of clutter for all the members of my family:
Me – All sorts of household miscellanies, things I kept putting off making decisions about, craft supplies, office supplies, toys and games, books.
My husband – Books and papers leftover from college, books in his field (computers) that are now hopelessly outdated, hundreds of career-related magazines, electronic this-and-that, accumulated garage items.
The girls – Clothes and toys that they outgrew, art supplies, all sorts of tiny things that girls like to collect, unwanted birthday and Christmas gifts, art.
Some things you might have – Clothes, impulse purchases, decorative collectibles, books, magazines, newspapers, items you inherited, gadgets, excess food in your pantry or freezer, hobby items, crafts supplies, furniture, gardening tools and planters, stationery, incomplete projects, things that might be useful “someday”, love letters and photos that hurt you, souvenirs, things you have identified to declutter but haven’t actually gotten rid of.
How to begin
Beginning is usually easy once you decide to do it. You probably have an area that’s been bothering you. Take one thing from that area, put it in your discard box. Do not get it back out. Hurrah! You’re on your way.
Over time, you’ll find things that you would like to sell or need to give back to a friend, items that are harder for you to discard or need more thought. In the beginning, skip those and go for the low hanging fruit. You’ll make more progress and feel better about your accomplishments that way.
You’re on your way!
Today’s Mini Mission
Do you really need an alarm clock when your cell phone can carry out this task. Consider decluttering it.
Eco Tip for the Day
When packing items you have sold on eBay use recycled packaging materials when possible. I get used product boxes from my local hardware store.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
I decluttered half a garage yesterday until my bin was full and my car boot stuffed with stuff for the charity shops. I am feeling proud, but still have a house full to do. Onwards and upwards, I’ll do more tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow….
Thanks for the advice and the inspiration.
Fantastic for you! Dan and I need to do another sweep of our garage.
Yesterday I went through my spices and tossed some that had expiration dates in 1991!!! Yikes.
Hummm, not so flavorful any more!
Hi Cindy,
I enjoyed reading your fab post, re-post! Always seem to to see something else I had missed last time. My garage Uuuuggghhhhh!!! Still going, going, going. The good news is everything that is someone else’s will be on it’s way soon, my Mum will have her goods back, now the roof is fixed, and there is a ‘Swap Meet’ coming up on the weekend so I shall be filling the boot of my car for that.
Honestly, the stuff to go in this place is like dust, I just keep finding it no matter what! Thanks again and have a great day
🙂 🙂 🙂
Good post. I think it is fun to know what made people start decluttering. I started because I got tired of hauling it around when I was younger and moved a lot. Then when Mom moved in with me it became even worse and so I started the slow, slow process of helping her see that we really didn’t need an old, old toaster with the guts taken out and made into a planter, etc.
Hi Deb J, yes, a toaster with the guts taken out and made into a planter is a must have in every home!
Cheers
I think it’s amazing that this blog’s approach helps us wherever we start – whether it’s a garage filled to the brim or just a few too many knick knacks on some shelves and the longing for a more minimal look for our home.
When I was a kid, I would go through accumulate and purge cycles, but I hadn’t been intentionally decluttering as an adult. After 5 years of marriage and living in one place, we started feeling oppressed by stuff sitting around, getting dusty, and feeling crowded. A lady on a podcast I listen to, her apartment flooded and her stuff was mostly destroyed, especially the boxes of stuff in her closet. I felt strongly that “I don’t want boxes of stuff sitting in my closet waiting to be destroyed.”
Then this year, we ended up hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I had to go on a cleaning and decluttering spree to fit the family in. Also, there is a good chance we’ll have to move this year; I don’t want to go through the pains of moving stuff we don’t use.
Rebecca J – I love how you describe it as accumulate and purge cycles – that was what happened with me, but the accumulate and purge didn’t equal and eventually it tilted heavy towards accumulated and the purges were only taking a skim off the top. And I couldn’t understand why it was happening! It parallels my yo-yo dieting – not saying they’re related but the same thing happened there too.
I wouldn’t doudt those to things are related. Different actions same reaction it would seem to me Moni.
Colleen – I think they’re related and my counsellor friend says she’d bet her bottom dollar they will be related, but was taking the PC route given not everyone would agree.
When I started decluttering, I thought it was just part of a cycle, but now I’d really like to keep on the gentle decluttering path. My husband is kinda hoping that I’m done now, but he does prefer a clean, tidy house, and most of the stuff we own isn’t his.
All good reasons to declutter Rebecca J. Being guest ready, the less you have if disaster were to strike to less you have to lose, and the ease of moving. Through in how easy it is to clean your home each week and freedom from that oppressing feeling of being weighed down by your clutter and you have more than enough reasons to have good purge.
Really good post Cindy. I started reading about living simply and decluttering WELL before I started doing anything about it (probably a good 2 years of thinking, and mulling things over in my brain!) My mum was a shocking hoarder – her house was neat and tidy on the surface but open any drawer or cupboard and oh boy! – and I didn’t want to be like that. Now 10 years later the house I’ve been living in for the past 4 months is usually fairly tidy and uncluttered, but because I got rid of a heap of furniture before we moved I could actually do with a couple of storage pieces (like a big buffet/cabinet) so things don’t get piled up on top of small surfaces! My husband works from home and doesn’t feel the need for an ‘office’/study room so the printer and his work files just live on the dining table and IT DRIVES ME CRAZY looking at them every day!!!
Do you have a room you can put him and his things? Maybe if you got rid of some of the furniture you don’t need, you could buy him a desk and a place for his printer and work files. I have found that guys just aren’t that interested in getting things set up, but once it is in the works they frequently come on board. He may really enjoy a place of his own, but doesn’t want to set it up. On the other hand, maybe he enjoys working where you are and in that case, figure out a win win way and be grateful he wants to be there where you are!
Spendwise, you’re right! He does like being in my general vicinity (he likes to offer his ‘input’ whatever I’m doing!) I do realise that I’m very fortunate to have him around so much; most of the women I know barely see their partners due to long office hours. I joke that we’re like a young retired couple; both at home, even though our kids are at school. He does go away for work every couple of weeks or so for a night so I get my uncluttered dining room then. See my comment to Moni for the reason I can’t get him a desk:-)
Loretta – I’m with Spendwisemom, quietly clear the room somewhere else in the house, bring in a desk and simply move him. And as a pre-emptive move to any complaints, invite for guests that night and set the table all nice with some flowers or candles or something to remind him of the real purpose of the dining room table. If he is anything like my guy, he is easily distracted by food. And if you want to be especially clever put something in his new office that he’ll like so he’s happy to go in there.
Thanks Moni, he’s happy for his ‘desk’ to be the most comfortable spot on the couch as he works from his phone and laptop. We actually converted the ‘study’ (ie ripped out the desk/shelving/wardrobes) into a guest bedroom! All the study furniture has been repurposed in the huge shed for the kids’ art/craft activities. I really think the solution is just getting a bigger attractive cabinet so he can stash his stuff at the end of the day. Doesn’t stop me from having a whinge though 🙂
Loretta – ok, here’s my next suggestion – when you get this cabinet, will the printer fit in the cabinet? And is the printer wireless?
My kids want me to get a wireless printer so they can hit ‘print’ from wherever in the house, from laptop or iPad and it just pops out of the printer, rather than crawling under my office desk to plug the lap top in and then printing.
Cause if you had one of those printers, the printer could stay out of sight while he wasn’t using it.
Yep, got a wireless printer. I’m going to suggest moving it upstairs (the room is unused). I told him how his work stuff was annoying me this morning so he’s moved everything else! Progress!!
What got me started was the frustration caused by the amount of time spent every single day chasing down the things my spouse mislaid – keys, wallet, hearing aids, keys, reading glasses, sunglasses, keys. Did I mention keys??? Once we got rid of the Keys To Nothing, the glasses “I don’t wear because….” and all the empty glasses cases, etc. it made it so much easier to organize the rest and keep track of it. He’s now on side with the decluttering process and we occasionally have to search for something we haven’t used in a while, but the daily panic has disappeared. That alone has been worth it for me.
There is nothing like the time waster of chasing down things that should be in the same place every time.
Cindy – thank you for sharing your story, I remember a before and after photo post you did once and it was an amazing transformation and you must be proud of your work. I never imagined Colleen was ever a clutterbug of any discription – what must go thru her mind hearing our stories!
Me, stuff just kept accummulating and I focused on organising. I prided myself on being ‘well resourced’ but felt constantly stressed at home and couldn’t figure out why. Working spaces were always covered and there were little baskets of stuff everywhere, usually beside sofas and in corners, ends of beds, so on and so on. Now it is easy to maintain tidiness – actually, if someone leaves something out, it is really noticeable.
Yep, little baskets of stuff everywhere, that was me too! Although my husband referred to them as piles of s@^&! They still do occur occasionally, when I’m feeling stressed:-)
I mentioned previously that before I moved into the home I am in now, I lived in a rental home for about 6-7 months without the majority of my stuff. That alone was a big eye opener. I survived just fine without most of it. When I initially moved (prior to the rental home) there was little time to really decide what would stay or go, so lots of useless stuff got packed up. I decided that most of the things that was waiting in boxes, to be delivered once we had bought a home, would not make the cut. I was always good about making sure that I purged the kid’s rooms about twice a year, but I never dealt with all of the stuff that I owned that really served no useful purpose. I also did not want to deal with it anymore and I really like the look of clean lines/surfaces and open, airy rooms. I am not there yet, but I don’t have anything in containers (except for seasonal decorations), now I just have to work through it one day at a time. I am also controlling the amount that is coming through my door into my home. If something does come in, something goes out.
This was a good post, Cindy. Everyone’s moment of clarity is different or their reasoning behind starting the declutter process. Mostly, I think that people want to control their homes and not have their homes, and everything in it, control them. I want to be able to focus on more important things in life and spend my time doing something other than dealing with my stuff. The less stuff I have the easier that is becoming. I also turned 40, I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or not, but about that time, I looked up decluttering on the internet and found this site. It has truly made a difference. Everyone does have their own specific type of clutter. Mine is paper and reading material (books, magazines, etc.). I ordered two magazine subscriptions. Out of two subscriptions, instead of two magazines, I started getting five magazines a month. Three from one and two from the other (all different but apparently the same companies). I only ordered for a year but it is not set to expire until three years. I didn’t have to pay for it, but how does that happen!!?
Anyway, I was thinking today about some people I know who lived in hurricane prone areas. They have told me that have had to evacuate many times. Maybe they would be given a few days notice or maybe not. Nevertheless, it became old hat for them to pack up the truck and go. I think about whether or not I could do that. Would I be able to find quickly those important papers and essential items if I was given a few days notice? What about in true emergencies, where I had less time? That is also what I am working toward, making things just easier for myself all around.
Hi Jen – I’m about to turn 40 next month and I think there’s some programme that downloads in our brains at 39!
We had to evacuate once and it is true, you certainly can decide in a hurry what is and isn’t important. I didn’t have any problems finding our papers as we had them in the filing cabinet, but now I have one of the accordian files and its actually easier as it has a handle and it holds pretty much everything including a flash drive.
So often you hear of people who have had to store their stuff and didn’t miss it. I have heard of someone who as an exercise dragged everything into the garage and then only brought back what they required as they required it. Obviously they didn’t move the beds or the fridge or the dinning table. I think they only left one sofa in place. But anyway, only a quarter of the stuff actually filtered back into the house after six months. She lived quite uncluttered to begin with too. For example her set of chef’s knives – only two came back in instead of the whole set. Perhaps if I ever declare my home completely decluttered, I might do this.
Moni, I agree about the turning 40 bit, something triggers around that age. I can’t remember if Colleen has discussed that on this blog or not, but I have read about many people boxing up their stuff purposely, just to see what they are truly not using. Although I did unpack every item, it is a great exercise and would help make the purge even easier.
Wow! Now that’s an interesting concept, clearing everything out and then letting it filter back. Hum! Maybe I should suggest that to S.
Deb J – maybe suggest just one room to S at this stage. How is it going with S by the way?
S is here right now (on the phone for the moment) and we were talking today about what to do next. She has a friend who she is paying for doing a deep clean of her house room by room. Once they are done everything in drawers and closets, etc. is going to be moved into the garage. Then she is going to go through one box a day. She is really excited.
Wow – you and S don’t muck around do you? I just hope she doesn’t get overwhelmed with it all laid out, but on the plus side it will be the opportunity to group like with like and perhaps get a better over-view of quantities. I’m always surprised how things end up tucked away somewhere there they shouldn’t – and how does that happen? and, darn, it missed the most recent cull.
I’ve run out of the number of replies that I can do under this thread, do you want to introduce it to today’s comments? I’m interested to hear the masterplan
Love this. I feel like I’m getting a jump on Spring cleaning of my computer. Although I do consider myself to be an organizer I find that sometimes I am my own best client. I have just taken the time to organize the files on my computer; deleting, updating, merging, etc. Pretty much the same thing one would do when organizing a physical space. I love reading tips and advice on organizing, so much so that I created a website about everything one would want to know about organizing @ http://www.TheOrganizationIndex.com Thanks for your tips.
I loved reading about the psychology of your family’s clutter. I have decluttered many times and downsized but I like interiors so there’s usually too many home magazines lying around. I’ve got much better at making decisions about what to lose but it can take me several weeks before the clutter physically leaves our house. Today’s mini-mission for me is to empty the car boot and under the bed of collected unwanted clutter and get them to the charity shop. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Great post Cindy! I always find it inspiring/ comforting to read how others started their decluttering journey. Myself i have decluttered for various reasons. Like Moni I used to think of myself as ‘well resoursed’and organised, but it started to bother me more and more that I always had to move something to get to the thing I needed.
Actuallly my declutering journey has had several stages being:
fase 1- not liking to put things away as I had to carefully move something else to put said thing away. Which resulted in things not being put away. So I declutterd to the point where I did not have stuff hiding behind other stuff, except seasonal stuff.
fase 2-We wanted to move but the housing markte just crashed. So I researched how to make the chanches of selling better and thus did some tweaking of the interior (floor to ceiling curtains anyone?) and decluttered. I did realise at that time that we had too much stuff for our little house so we rented a storage unit (it was only 3m³, but shame on me!)
fase 3- We moved and I had to pack everything up . a lot of double things went then ( we moved in together 5 years before that)
fase 4- new home but as I had just finished uni i was unemployed for a few months. first weeks I spend walking through our new home town and shopping. then we decided we didn’t like out rental and looked for a smaller appartment. it occured to me we would not be able to fit our stuff so i decided to declutter some more. this was when i started to use the box method (put it in a box, and it you dont use it donate the box and contents). And to work on my shopping habbits.
Fase 5- we moved into our new appartment before we were finished with the renovations, so a lot of things sat in their boxes for months. I wondered what was in those boxes, decluttered some more.
fase 6- I became pregnant and we had to make space for some neccesary babythings, I gave up some aspirational hobbies for which i don’t have time anyway. I also decided I wanted a different home for my baby that I had growing up . My parents are great cluttereres (surfaces are mostly ok, but the cupboards and storage areas!) And growing up I was often asahamed of our house in comparisson to that of my friends.
fase7- again preparing for a move, this time more costly as we are going to move to a different country. so now I ask the question, do I want to pay for moving this.
I suppose I will go a more stages a s life progresses, but I h ope to never stop decluttering. I already like the results and I hope i will give my daughter a home she will not be ashamed off.
Fascinating. You’ve written a whole post Hunter. I love it.
hunter_xs, you have a great story. What country will you be moving to? I bet this move will be much easier than any you have ever made before. Much easier to get things in place afterward too. Good luck with your move.
Moni, first let me say congrats on getting rid of the last bookcase. WooHoo!!!! Good for you.
I can’t remember if I said anything on here about having an asthma attack in late November or not. It was caused by cat hair at S’s and really gave me fits for quite some time. S was appalled as she thought all the cat hair was gone. She was gone for almost 5 weeks between Christmas with her mother and then a funeral in Colorado. When she got back she was tired so it was a couple of weeks ago that she hired this friend of ours to come over and start to clean the house and shampoo the carpets. In doing so they have found lots of cat hair in the bedrooms and closets so I can’t go over there until it is all cleaned up. They still have two bedrooms with closets and the husband’s office to clean before I can go back. In the meantime, all the things that were moved into those rooms in order to get the craft room set up have to go somewhere. I suggested that she box them up and move everything to the garage. Once the house is all clean and stuff then we can go through the house and decide what storage she has and what kinds of things need to go there. Then she will take one box at a time from the garage and decide what to do with it. I will help her if I can but since there are boxes out there already that have been there 15 years I’m not sure I will be able to be there around it all. Cat hair and dust are both bad asthma triggers for me. Anyway, today she came over and I taught her how to read her medical explanations of benefits and how to organize them so that at the end of the year they are ready for her to figure them into her taxes. We found things that had arrived back in November that should have been taken care of but were just shoved in a sack because she didn’t understand them. So I think we now have that taken care of but she has a sack of things to go through to organize and make sure they are replied to if need be. There are times when I wish I could just do it for her but she really does need to learn to do things. I have now shown her how to handle most of the paperwork that comes into the house. We have set up a filing system for everything and I think she will now have a handle on it all. Once she has it all organized into the files instead of various grocery bags I think she will be able to keep it up-to-date. The more I see of what has gone on the more I understand why she is overwhelmed.
Deb J – I probably did hear you had a big asthma attack but didn’t put the two together.
If there are already boxes out there that have been there 15 years………………you might need to keep nudging her along in case these end up permanent residence. I do like the idea of using a garage though, often it is the first step to seperating, I found in the past that once something had been out of sight for a while it seemed to lose its emotional attachment. I do appreciate that S needs her home straightened up so she can function comfortably, but a little bit worried that she could simply turn a blind eye now that everything is nicely stacked in the garage. Or set up some sort of numbering system and register for the boxes so you can keep an eye on progress. You know her better of course.
I’m wondering if you should be setting it up as a decluttering factory – a table with boxes underneath marked goodwill, rubbish, books for charity, recycling. While I was recently doing some sorting in my garage (everyone seems to dump stuff there that they don’t want anymore – plus stuff from the bookcase) even though it would have been only 1% of what it was at its worst, even then I found it overwhelming as I’d pick up something to deal with and then I didn’t know where to put it or what to do with it. In the end I had an “aha” moment and grabbed some boxes from the supermarket while I was out and then things happened more purposefully. Also the great thing about boxes is that you can’t see thru them and change your mind.
I know someone who had to sort out her grandmother’s house after she passed away and my friend had to wear a dust mask it was so bad. She opened boxes of clothes directly into the washing machine and didn’t even think of sorting until they’d gone thru the wash. Not that she was expecting to find anything she wanted – it was her Nana’s clothes afterall – and it may have seemed like she was generating extra work, but there was stuff that was worthy of going to goodwill and at least it was clean. May I never leave that much stuff and in that sort of condition for my children and grandchildren to deal with.
Mind you, a year or so ago, my husband sent our son to his room to clean it and half an hour later J was still standing there looking overwhelmed so we pitched in to help – we heard a voice from Dayna from down the hall “you might want to put a bio hazard suit on”. She probably wasn’t that far wrong, as I discovered where all the missing lunch boxes had gone………….
Moni, I think that S is motivated enough to get things done. She sat here yesterday and talked and talked about what needed to be done and asked for ideas of how to best do it. One of her comments was, “I don’t want to keep moving this stuff from room to room while trying to get the house sorted.” That’s when I suggested she put it all in the garage and then use it as a place to sort things. She was more open around Mom than she has ever been about how things bother her and overwhelm her. Mom told her that was a big part of the depression she was carrying. It was a very productive & eye-opening day for S. She wants it over but she also knows that she doesn’t have the energy to get it done right away. Once our friend has everything out in the garage and the inside all cleaned I will go back over and just be an encouragement. Right now I have to do it from afar and she is really missing having me there to bounce ideas off of and get my opinion on things. I’m just so proud of her for realizing that the house needed this complete cleaning and things gone through.
Deb J – I kind of know how S feels because I have tried dragging Adrian along, if nothing for a bit of company, while I sort stuff out or just want to hear someone else say “freecycle it” or “give it to goodwill” or to agree or disagree with my opinion just to speed up the decision process. He assures me that I would do a much better job than what he could ever do and best to leave me to it. 🙂 Men!
He looked very pleased with himself and came up with the argument that he didn’t buy or bring into the house all the stuff that has had to be or is being decluttered (this even includes his clothes, the furniture, kitchen stuff, everyone’s stuff, and of course, STUFF) – so I came back with, I do all the grocery shopping, does that mean I am the only person allowed to eat?
Let’s just say that S has a husband who does nothing, won’t help and wants to keep thing he never uses and hasn’t for 35 years. She has to pay someone to come and fix almost everything. It has become very discouraging for her.
You know, the way to give a little dig to Adrian is to do like you said. If he didn’t bring it in–groceries, linen, even the TV if it was delivered–he can’t use it. Boy would that change the picture quickly. Men are just funny–and I don’t mean Ha Ha funny either. Grin.
Oops! Forgot to mention your son and his room. I think that’s so typical of some boys/men. My brother used to be that way. When we had company Mom would just open his door and say “This is my son’s garbage pit. Someday he will learn to clean it.” She had learned that it was a lost cause. Every once in a while he would get on a cleaning jag and tended to just pick it all up and throw it out. He’s a neat nick now.
I’ve been living with tons of stuff that are not ours, for about 10 months. We will likely move out of the house soon to a small, EMPTY apartment. It will be interesting to see how much stuff we have accumulated during the time -after having to get rid of everything due to the mold issue we had in the old apartment. The only piece of furniture we have is our daughter’s bed, which she doesn’t sleep in. I’m thinking we could use it in lieu of a couch! Just put a bunch of pillows on it. I recently ordered a wide futon mattress which will be our bed. (My dad’s old spring mattress is pretty bad, and since DD is sleeping with us still, it gets crowded..) I’m thinking of taking the desk and chair I use, and perhaps this old arm chair I like. Obviously we’ll need a kitchen table and chairs. What about the small stuff then? I wonder how many moving boxes we’ll manage to fill. I’ll take some of the stuff that was in this house, as it would be redundant to my dad and his fiance anyway. But nothing extra. The apartment is small, a bit under 600 sf. I have to say I’m excited about the prospect of being free from all this stuff I just got with the house… For the first time our possessions will be intentional. 10 months is not enough time to accumulate lots of useless clutter. Though I’m sure there is some that need to be weeded out, too small clothes and shoes and some of my daughter’s junk.. a couple of books.. but it shouldn’t be too much because I’ve tried to be very mindful about not buying useless stuff.
I can just imagine how excited you are to be able to start fresh. I’d love to do that.
Reading all these stories really makes me feel like a slacker! I have been sick for 2 weeks with a terrible cold and my husband is just recovering from his bout with it as well. I had so many plans the before I got sick and so need to regroup and make new plans for tossing paper and plastic ware. This last week I have been working longer hours to prepare for a 3 day training and review session in my office which began today. I arrived at work this morning at 6:45 to set up and will not get home until late tonight and tomorrow. Dinners both nights after the meetings so now that I am feeling better will be too tired to do much at home.
So, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, this week, I want to jump back on my program and get more paper put in the recycling bin. And remind myself, Do Not Print, because I don’t take the time to read it or make it when I get home. If I don’t print, I don’t have to find a place for it and it won’t clutter up some corner. My March goal: No printing. Read it and forget it. I’ve done pretty well with not buying anything miscellaneous in Feb (my Feb goal) although I did take my daughter to the grocery store while we were visiting but otherwise, no extra purchases. Tempted but did not buy. So, will continue this plan in March along with my No Printing goal. Let’s see how that goes.