My daughter is home for a ten day visit and according to plan I have her decluttering the stuff she left behind when she went off to university four years ago. Â She is being very cooperative and I am grateful for that. Knowing me as she does she was fully expecting to have to comply with some decluttering tasks before she even arrived. I haven't bombarded her with stuff, just every now and again I will pull out some things and hold up for her to adjudicate on. A quick "keep" or "no" is all it takes. She has done well so far eliminating quite a few items, making it possible for what is left … [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...]
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...]
At first you think “I will never declutter that” but then…
When I first took on the challenge to declutter an item a day for an entire year I had my doubts whether we would even have enough items to last a year of decluttering. Two years later I am still at it. Now don't think for one minute that I am frustated with the idea that I am still decluttering after such a long time, far from it. Back at the start of 2010 there were many items I would not have even considered decluttering that are now long gone form my home. Items that someone in the home was not ready to part with for one reason or another whether that be sentimental or otherwise. The … [Read more...]
Decluttering with a little help from a friend
Back on the 18th Nov Sabine left a comment about how her friend Debbie had helped her with an emotionally difficult declutter job on memorabilia that was cluttering up her garage. I asked her if she would be kind enough to write a blog post to share with us all. She gladly accepted the challenge and the post below is the result of her effort. I am sure you will all enjoy it and feel free to leave comments and questions for Sabine because she would love your feedback. Let me also say thank you to her friend Debbie for being there for her when the going got tough. Decluttering isn't always … [Read more...]
Keepsake Clutter
With all the talk last week of leaving endless clutter behind for a loved one to deal with when you die, I was inspired to finally make a start on my keepsake clutter. I have been ignoring this task in preference for getting rid of the more obvious clutter that is taking up more space. To be honest I have also been avoiding the tediousness of the task. So I decided to practice what I preach and focus on dealing with a little at a time rather than dwelling on the entirety of the task. This sort of clutter takes up a lot less space than it does time to sort through. Therefore I started on the … [Read more...]
Day 243 Memory Clutter Revisited
In a comment this week Dizzy suggested I republish this post because she thought it was an oldie but a goodie. And since I seem to be having a hard time getting my act together this week after being away all weekend I thought I would comply to her suggestion. I actually enjoyed it when I reread it and thought you might all enjoy it too. So without further ado here it is. Day 243 Memory clutter There is one thing or actually a big group of things in my home that are looking down the barrel of being decluttered before the 365 days are up. The group in question are my old sports trophies. I … [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...]
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...]