Cindy's Weekly Wisdom You can't push a string... Different people have different styles, styles of gift giving being no exception. In my family, specific (extremely specific) gift requests aren't considered out of line. In my husband's family, many gifts, all surprises, are the norm. Well, we all know what happens when people you rarely see or talk to give you "surprise" gifts, right? It took me years of interacting with my in-laws before I realized that I could not control them, I could only control myself. (Some very obvious lessons are nonetheless hard to learn.)Â I started announcing in … [Read more...]
Stumbling Blocks to Success
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom We all want to succeed. We all want a clutter-free, clean, and peaceful home. Yet sometimes we struggle. What are some of the stumbling blocks to success? Making Excuses Instead Starting "I'd like to start." "I'll get around to it soon." "When things settle down, I'll declutter." Those are excuses, and if you're using them, they're getting in the way of your success. One of the beauties of one-thing-a-day decluttering is that it hardly takes any time, especially in the beginning. In the beginning (which is when excuses are their strongest) nearly anything you touch … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday ~ Scary Halloween
The October issue of Real Simple magazine reveals a grim statistic: 6,250 tons of landfill waste “could be avoided if half the kids in America traded Halloween costumes instead of buying new ones.†That the equivalent to the the weight of more than 3,000 mid-sized cars! Be sure and swap, sell or donate this year's costume. Did you know there's an official Halloween costume swap day? Of course it's already passed, but you can mark your calendar for next year's swap. … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Observations on the Church Garage Sale
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom A couple of weeks ago, my church had a huge garage sale, which netted us $6000. I worked Friday putting toys out and pricing them and Saturday afternoon as the sale was winding down, increasingly slashing prices in order to unload the rest of the items before the end of the sale when the Salvation Army truck would swoop down and take the remainder away. On Friday, while I was pricing toys, I was almost weak in the knees when a truck pulled up with trash bag after trash bag of the nicest toys you can imagine. The woman who was unloading them explained that they were from … [Read more...]
Buy Nothing New October Wrap Up
How did you do with Buy Nothing New October? Colleen ~ I was hoping to say that I bought nothing new this October and personally I feel that I have done that. I have bought nothing that I wanted to buy that's for sure. Unfortunately though the air conditioner in my car failed on me, and I had to have the compressor and the condenser replaced. I feel rather bitter and twisted about this for a number of reasons that I won't bore you with. Technically the compressor was replace under warranty but who's quibbling: it's new, and it's now mine. Although it doesn't count because it isn't new, I did … [Read more...]
How Can You Have MORE to Declutter?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom I took a hiatus of a couple weeks from my decluttering. When I started back up, I found this comment on my Facebook page, "How can you have MORE to declutter?" Three other friends "liked" this comment, which means that probably even more people than those four are wondering why I'm not sitting around on the floor with no clothes on by now, like this fellow. (I'll wait while you check it out.) How can I have more to declutter? Easy. According to the TED video featuring Graham Hill that Colleen posted on Saturday, the average American house is now three times larger than … [Read more...]
Eight Year’s Storage
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom My Grandfather passed almost exactly eight years ago, a few years after the passing of my Grandmother. They had lived on the same farm their whole married life - 64 years - although a few decades ago they built a new house steps from the old, drafty one, and knocked the old house down. Sixty-four years worth of living and six now adults kids' worth of memories in that house. My cousins, who already had a houseful, were moving in. I helped my family try to organize the house and to make room for the cousins' belongings. At the end of my time in Iowa, I had a small pile … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Have Storage Will Clutter, part 2
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom When Colleen wrote Have Storage Will Clutter, I assumed it would be about storage units, which exist all over the US, some row after row of garages, and others (literally) high rise buildings with full heating and air conditioning services. Some people's junk in the US lives better than many citizens. Recently I was  at a class with my eldest daughter and was telling one of the fathers about the blog. He immediately told me that his chore for that day was cleaning out the garage. The coach then approached and asked if we were talking about cleaning out a storage … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Point of Use Storage
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom I believe strongly in storing things where you use them. I think that failure to store things where they are used leads to clutter, and it's certainly less convenient. While your first thought may be "Of course I store things where I use them," I bet you will be able to find examples in your house where this isn't true, especially after we walk through my morning. Let's think of how you begin your day. You get up, probably make your bed, use the toilet, brush your teeth, take a shower, get dressed, and everything you need for those tasks is probably close at hand. Then … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Visual Clutter
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Imagine a big city, a huge, bustling city with no advertising, anywhere. The Brazilian city of São Paulo turned this imagining into reality in 2007. According to the Major: "The Clean City Law came from a necessity to combat pollution … pollution of water, sound, air, and the visual. We decided that we should start combating pollution with the most conspicuous sector – visual pollution." Visual pollution, considered equal in importance to the physical pollutants of water and air. Amazing. A Brazilian reporter noted that with the advertisements down, all sorts of … [Read more...]