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...]
Simple Saturday ~ Book Review – The Overspent American
The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer by Juliet B. Schor was published in 1998, but the information seems as relevant today as it did more than a decade ago. The book is geared toward middle and upper-income families, who seem to be caught up in a never-ending cycle of keeping up with the Joneses, no matter who the Joneses are. "The Joneses" are our first error, according to Dr. Schor. In the past, our Joneses (or reference group) would be our neighbors, who all lived in houses about like ours, drove cars similar to ours, and likely had two adults and only one … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Gift Buying Traps – Don’t Fall In!
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Perhaps you're rushing about, buying some last minute gifts and stretching your brain to figure out what to purchase. Beware! There are gift buying pitfalls that you should avoid. They're the route to clutter for the recipient and likely a waste of money for you. Read before you buy! Trap One: Here Comes Another One, Just Like the Other One Susie enjoys her subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, so she'd surely enjoy a subscription to Good Housekeeping as well. Leslie has a life-figures drawing book that she really enjoys. Surely she'll enjoy another book and maybe … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday – Cindy’s Cord Control
Cindy's simple solution to cords and chargers out of control and either tangled on the desk top or snarled in the drawer. A great use for the over-abundance of plastic containers wasting space in your kitchen. … [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 ~ Don’t Be Fooled into Buying for Charity
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom What do all these things have in common? Buy (Red): 10 to 50% of the proceeds of which go to eliminating AIDS in Africa. Book Sale: 20% proceeds go to your child's school! Would you like to buy some wrapping paper to support our band trip? How about a beautiful $200 beaded bracelets that supports JDRF? An undisclosed portion of the proceeds are donated to the organization. Rubber bracelets for sale for every cause possible. Typically $1 each. Obviously, these are all ways of coaxing a donation out of you; that is, providing a rationalization for a … [Read more...]