Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Are you hanging on to old boyfriend /old  girlfriend / ex-wife / ex-husband clutter? Breakin' up is hard to do, and breaking' up with the ex's stuff can be even harder. Some of the things you may have that remind you of him or her: fancy underclothes photos greeting cards and letters jewelry vacation souvenirs music (what do they call mix-tapes in the days of CDs and iTunes?) toiletries food that he/she preferred debt from outings or vacation that you took together or from his/her bad spending habits. a phone or texting bill that went way over … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday – Is There Money in Your Decluttering Future?
I almost wouldn't not believe these stories of decluttering financial windfall if I had not been personally involved in every one of them. Story One is my own. Last year I was tidying up my fireproof safe that contains my most important papers (birth certificates, wills, passports, etc.) and discovered an envelope containing $500. I was shocked for about 30 seconds before I remembered that I had put that money in there after Hurricane Rita, which affected the Gulf Coast, about five hours from where I live, and the giant city of Houston. In the mass exodus, many locations did not have … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Are You Hanging on to Too Many Papers?
According to a survey I saw recently, 67% of people said that paper clutter is their hardest area to deal with. Who knows if this is truly accurate, but I'm going to assume that it means that a lot of people, possibly including you, are having trouble dealing with paper. I think there are a couple of fundamental mistakes that people make regarding paper: Believing that every piece of paper is important or has the potential to be important Believing that if a piece of paper was important at one time, it's important forever Not intentionally minimizing the amount of paper that … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Assess Before You Add
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom I bet I'm not the only one who has had conversations like this: Doing laundry, husband says: "Look at these socks. I think I need to throw them away. In fact, I think I need to get rid a lot of my socks." Me: "Looks like it." "When you go to the mall, can you get me some new socks?" "What colors do you need?" "Oh, IÂ don't know. Just get some blue, black, tan, and brown. I'll get rid of the ones that are getting holey later." Not said: Hold it right there buddy! You'll declutter after I buy new? Said instead: "Most of the socks are in the laundry. I can … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Sentimental to Whom?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Recently my in-laws were in town. They went to their storage unit and returned to my house with a glass pitcher that they thought we might like ~ it had belonged to my mother-in-law's great grandmother. My husband seemed eager (or at least politely accepting), and I had broken one of our two glass pitchers a while back, so I wasn't opposed to having it. It was not fancy or heirloom quality, just a pressed glass pitcher with a duck scene molded onto it, something that would be the equivalent of a Wal-Mart purchase today. I used it a few days later and proudly showed my … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday – Complete the Circle
A Simple Saturday Post by Cindy The thrift store has been quite the topic of conversation this week, hasn't it? Today I want to look at it from another perspective - completing the circle. If you only donate to the thrift store, and never shop there, you are not completing the circle. Now, for those of you who already like to shop in thrift stores, this is not permission to run out and purchase willy-nilly "because Cindy says it's a good idea." No, no, no! The idea behind my list is to give you an idea of all the really great stuff there is available in this world that you can purchase used, … [Read more...]
Organizing Your Recipes for a Clutter Free Life
I'm sure that some of you have all your recipes on-line and (could it be?) don't have a cookbook of any sort in your house. Most of you, I know, have from some to many cookbooks plus a personal recipe file or binder. As I wrote last week, I have a couple of cookbooks, and I have a rather large recipe binder, which I use almost exclusively. My binder is not a thing of beauty; however, it suits me perfectly. I made it from a 4" binder, plastic sleeves, dividers, and colored paper, all of which I had in our office supply cupboard. My divisions are Poultry Beef Pork Vegetarian … [Read more...]
Are You a Cook or a Cookbook Collector?
You may love to cook or you may hate it. No matter how you feel about cooking, I bet you have at least 6 cookbooks, and I'm certain that someone reading this blog today has at least sixty cookbooks. They're fun to look at, fun to collect, fun to page through and dream with. But let's be realistic: they're also expensive, easy to ignore, and hard to declutter. Prior to December 2009, I probably had two dozen cookbooks, and I don't think I'd ever gotten rid of one that I owned. I just added to the pile; I loved them. When we remodeled our kitchen, I had a special bookshelf made just for … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ 2012: The Year You Get Control of Your Clutter
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Welcome to my first post of 2012. I assume we have a crop of new readers and people who have vowed that this is the year they'll get organized. Welcome, I say! If you're new here, I highly recommend that you read Colleen's guidelines for decluttering. Typically I write a long post, but today I just want to give you hope on your decluttering journey. No matter what your circumstances, no matter who you live with, no matter how many children or pets or elderly parents you have, you can declutter a thing a day, one day at a time. In 2011, I decluttered 1888 things, and I … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ My New Year’s Challenge to You
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom I love New year's resolutions, don't you? Ok, most people really don't love them, but I do. Because of them, I have (finally!) learned how to use chopsticks, and I (finally!) had a charity party that I'd been intending to have for 4 or 5 years. And I have one for you this year: Less trash. It makes me crazy to drive through my neighborhood and see people's trash cans literally bursting out the top with trash. The City of Austin provides a choice of 3 cart sizes: 32 gallons, 64 gallons, and 96 gallons; each is more expensive than the size before it, although even the … [Read more...]