I received the following comment from Coonie on Tuesday and since this is the theme for this week's mini missions I thought I should slip in a post about it before the week is up. Coonie's Comment Hello! “Tiny stuff de-cluttering†is just what I needed. I am very organized and reduce clutter all the time, but “tiny†things elude me! All my tiny things are labeled and in containers (lol) I would love it if you could focus on this a while…name all the tiny things and what do you ask/tell yourself to reduce “the stash.†Help me know how many is too many and why not keep and store … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Preserving Memories or Creating Clutter?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom We just passed Thanksgiving (in the US) and are coming up on Christmas and Hanukkah, and I am willing to guess that December is the most heavily photographed month of the year. Well, last month, I spend an hour sorting through a huge box of photos and memorabilia. There were packets of organized photos from my college years, but beginning with my wedding (1997), nothing was organized, culled, etc. What a miserable experience! Here are the things I learned: If you don't sort through your photos when you get them, it will not get easier 14 years later. If … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ How do you store your books?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Books are a collecting weakness of many people. I know that in my early 20s I dreamed of having a library - ideally one with a rolling ladder. Then I moved every year for four or five years and put that foolish idea behind me. Books are heavy! I've been a library user my whole life. I remember when I was a girl going to a particularly library that kept the Nancy Drew novels separate from the rest of the books - heaven! And I have clear memories of Library Period in elementary school. Back then, I read biographies of famous females. Annie Oakley, Mary Todd … [Read more...]
The Big Freezer “Use it Up” Challenge
This is my freezer, not Dizzy's. As you can see it's not big enough to hold food clutter. Due to that fact the food in it is constantly being decluttered. Last week Dizzy informed me she was totally committed to Buy Nothing New November, a self imposed challenge as she was not able to comply during October. Not being one to do it the easy way Dizzy has committed to only buying milk and bread while feeding her whole family with just the contents of her Freezer for the whole month.  If I attempted that my family would stave to death due to the minuscule size of my freezer but that is a whole … [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...]
Greeting cards and other sentimental card clutter
I received an email last weekend which I will share with you now along with what was going to be my response but which turned into a post. Hi Colleen, I've been going back over the archives and couldn't find anything about the little notices you get at funeral homes. I have the one from when my mom died, but I also have several more I just don't know what to do with. I notice that sometimes when I leave the funeral some people just leave them on the chair but I feel bad so I just take mine. I thought maybe you would have a good idea what to do with them. Right now I just throw them in the box … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Decluttering the Pantry
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Last week, I discussed methods for cleaning and decluttering your refrigerator and freezer; this week we're onto what is usually a larger repository of items that should have moved along long ago, the pantry. Because things in the pantry don't usually spoil, they can sometimes hang around long enough to become honorary members of your household. It will probably be helpful to have a pen and paper with you when you start excavating your pantry, especially if you know it's... let's politely call it "a goldmine of uneaten potential." What do you have, how many do you … [Read more...]
How strong is your retail resistance
It has been some time since I dedicated a post to consumerism and how that affects our clutter situations. The generation of items that become redundant in our home is near to unavoidable especially if you have a growing family. Children outgrow everything, clothes, shoes, beds, toys, books... even us parents eventually, 'hopefully". Therefore so long as there are kids around there will always be maintenance decluttering to keep up with the things they grow out of. As for us adults, all going well, we will wear our clothes out rather than grow out of them. Other things we use will also become … [Read more...]
The pervasive effect of clutter on peace of mind.
We bring all this stuff into our lives little by little, bit by bit. It all seemed like a good idea at the time but then you need somewhere to keep it, some of it may require regular maintenance and most of it will require cleaning at least occasionally. Seasons come and seasons go, life changes and the next thing you know those things you once "couldn't live without" are just wasting space or worse still perishing from lack of use. It may seem like that stuff is doing you no harm and, you never know, you might need it someday. But someday never seems to come unlike now which is … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday ~ Before/After Handbag
No matter how organised I am the good old handbag always ends up with bits and pieces, mostly receipts, building up to outrageous proportions. This week it was time for a clean out and here is the result. There wasn't that much removed aside from those receipts I mentioned, but a good tidy up certainly put things back into order … [Read more...]