Peace of Mind Organizing

Where to start decluttering

17 June 2013

Clutter overwhelms many people. Probably the most frequent thing I hear from clients who seek help decluttering is that they don’t know where to begin.

There are three things to look out for when figuring out where to start decluttering:

• Start with storage areas. You probably have stuff out on the surfaces of your living space and, naturally, you’re inclined to start there. But really, you’re better off starting with the storage areas. Here’s why: (1) The stuff moldering in the storage areas is probably less current than the stuff on the surfaces, and therefore easier to part with. (2) If you clear the storage areas first, you’ll have a place to store the stuff you keep that’s currently on the surfaces.

• Start small. Set yourself up for success and pick a small area that you can declutter in one short session. A single drawer, a cupboard, a shelf in a cupboard, a bin on a shelf. You get the idea.

• Make it high impact. If you have a space that you use daily but it’s so full it becomes annoying, that’s a great place to start. Once it’s decluttered, every day you’ll reap the benefit of your efforts. Maybe we’re talking about a crowded kitchen gadget drawer, or the basket where you drop your keys every day.

Remember that there’s no perfect place to start and really the important thing is to just get started. Once you get that momentum going, it’ll be easier to move on to the next thing. So pick a small defined space within a storage area that you use frequently and let the decluttering begin!

My genealogy blog's one year anniversary

14 June 2013

A year ago today, I posted my first post on Organize Your Family History. I’d purchased the domain some years before and finally figured what to do with it.

This was a DIY Wordpress blog, which turned out to be a little more challenging than I’d anticipated. But I was smart: I purchased the Site Setup Kit from Wendy Cholbi and Pamela Wilson and it stepped me through the process, gave guidance on issues like colors and fonts, and provided me with a choice of ten different pre-designed styles, one of which I adapted for Organize Your Family History. It also provides an online forum that I still have access to. For me, it was a great investment for under $300. (And right now, through June 19, they’re offering a $49 discount with the coupon code 49OFF.)

Anyway, the blog has been a really nice way for me to help give my genealogy research a higher priority. Today’s post, Happy Blogiversary to Me!, talks about a huge side benefit I’ve received from the blog: connection with cousins I’d never met.

If you have interest in family history research, I urge you to check it out!

Worth repeating: Don't give your mom clutter

12 June 2013

Father’s Day is on Sunday and it brought to mind my message about avoiding gifts that create clutter. I’ve been writing about that for years in terms of Mother’s Day gifts, but it’s just as true for Father’s Day. Your dad (or husband) probably doesn’t need another tie or bottle of after shave. I thought I’d repeat a post I created last year for Mother’s Day, which actually reprints a newsletter article I wrote in 2007. I’ll share a little secret (because my father doesn’t read my blog): I’ll be giving him cut flowers, like I have been for some years. They brighten his day and and he doesn’t have to find a permanent home for them.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Since moms tend to want to hang on to gifts their children give them, I urge you to consider giving her something that won’t become clutter.

Way back in 2007, in the very first edition of my monthly newsletter, I wrote about clutter-free gifts. I think the info bears repeating!

Clutter-Free Gift Giving

So many of my clients develop attachments to inanimate objects. Those attachments make it really hard for the client to part with the objects. And what happens? Clutter happens. I’ve found that clients who tend to get sentimental about stuff find it particularly difficult to part with gifts that have been given them.

This has certainly changed the way I think about gift giving. I personally believe that once I’ve given a gift, the recipient is free to do whatever he or she wants with it. My feelings won’t be hurt if the gift is given away or even thrown away. But I don’t want to clutter up anybody’s life. So I try to give gifts that won’t add to clutter. And I encourage you to think in the same way about gift giving, particularly if anyone on your gift list has a problem with clutter.

Here are some of my favorite ideas for clutter-free giving:

Fresh flowers. A beautiful arrangement of cut flowers livens up any room. After the flowers have died, they can be tossed guilt-free. I try to avoid including a vase with the gift—I’ve seen many a home cluttered by florists’ vases! An easy website for ordering flowers is 1-800-flowers. I’ve also used Proflowers with success. Sometimes I’ll call a local florist in the recipient’s town, if I know of a good one.

Pampering. If you have a friend who would enjoy a little pampering, consider a gift certificate for spa services. Many cities and even towns have day spas. A massage or facial (even for men!) might be something your gift recipient wouldn’t do for him or herself. To find a spa in your gift recipient’s community, try Spafinder.

Services. Give someone the gift of time by offering to perform some needed services for him or her. You could offer a few hours of babysitting, offer to shovel snow, rake leaves, walk dogs or even clean house. If you’re a gardener, offer to do some landscaping. If you’re good with computers, offer to set up a wireless network or make their computer more secure. These gifts are clutter-free and really very special. You can also give a gift certificate for organizing services if you’re sure that the recipient would love to work with a professional organizer.

Clutter-free subscriptions. Giving a magazine subscription is a nice year-long gift, but many people let magazines pile up. Instead, consider giving a subscription to a services like Netflix or Blockbuster Total Access, which send rental DVDs right to your recipient’s home. If your gift recipient likes to listen to the spoken word, a subscription to Audible might be just right.

Edibles. Give something perishable to eat and you know it won’t linger in your gift recipient’s home. You can make homemade goodies, or send a gift package from a place like Wolferman’s, which sells English muffins and specialty breads, or Harry & David for fruit or other editbles. In 2006 Food and Wine published a terrific article on giving edible gifts.

A side benefit to giving an intangible gift is that you don’t have to go out shopping! Let your fingers do the shopping online. And give yourself (and your gift recipient) the peace of mind of not adding clutter to a cluttered world.

Mindful shopping: The ultimate test

10 June 2013

I gave a talk about organizing and decluttering last Thursday and I ended the talk by suggesting that people shop mindfully. I advised the audience to ask themselves the following questions before buying something:

• Do I love it?
• Will I use it?
• Does purchasing this item add to my vision for my space?
• Where will I store it?

Immediately after the talk, I paid a visit to the south St. Louis county Office Depot store, which I knew was having a closing sale, with deep reductions. I was hoping to pick up some packing supplies I knew I’d be needing for a client.

Turns out most of the packing supplies were gone. And I found myself surrounded by office supplies at a deep discount. That’s my version of being a kid in a candy store.

Honestly, I think if I hadn’t just given that talk I might have bought a lot more. it was really hard to walk away from pens marked down 60 percent. But I knew I didn’t need any pens and I didn’t know if I’d even like those particular pens. I walked away from a set of See Jane Work stacking letter trays, marked down by half. So pretty, but I didn’t need them.

It’s not like I walked away empty handed, though. Here’s a photo of my haul:

All this stuff for only $125!

I got a bunch of bargains, including three sizes of Post-It® Big Pads (largest size: 15 × 15”), a USB headset that retails for $65, an iPhone cover for a friend who needs one (regular price $35), and something that about once a year I get a hankering for: 8.5 × 11 full-sheet Avery labels. Those labels retail for $40, so I’ve never bought any. But I was willing to pay $20 and I figure they’ll last me for the rest of my life.

My spent a total of $125 for that haul. And I’m very happy. And proud of what I passed up—I feel no regret for not pouncing on those items while I could.

It’s nice when life gives me such a pointed reminder to practice what I preach!

Worth repeating: Just let it be easy

5 June 2013

Last summer, I created this blog post. I think the message is worth repeating.

I have a little mantra I’ve mentioned here before.

I think it speaks for itself.

Next time you get twisted in knots over the details of a project or you’re grappling with some sort of conundrum, maybe you can keep it in mind.

I find it helps!

Hydration solution

3 June 2013

I started working at at Smart Studio a fitness studio near my house back in October. Ever since, I’ve been faced with challenges surrounding staying hydrated during the workout. There are water coolers and plastic cups, but I wanted to bring my own bottle to fill from the cooler, since the cups are small and I didn’t want to create that waste.

I was using my Life Factory 22-ounce glass water bottle, but I found opening it and drinking from its wide mouth while on the elliptical machine to be a real challenge that frequently ended up with me spilling water on myself. I bought a flip-top cap for it, but that didn’t really help. The flip top just kept annoying me by hitting me in the nose.

Then in my daily email from The Grommet a few weeks ago I saw Cuppow. It’s a plastic cover that turns a wide-mouth mason jar into a sippy cup. Now I love a sippy cup, so this makes me very happy. (The Cuppow folks call it a “to go lid” rather than using the term “sippy cup,” for what it’s worth.)

Here’s a picture of my Cuppow on a mason jar I happened to own.

This is a pint-sized jar, but I’m going to get my hands on a quart jar so I don’t have refill it as often during a workout. It will also be easier to grab in the machines’ cup holders.

For me, it’s a simple solution. It may not terribly chic, but I’m certainly not chic when I’m at the gym. Thank you Cuppow and The Grommet!

P.S. I now see that Cuppow is available on Amazon sized for both wide and regular mouthed jars.

A little focused attention

31 May 2013

Our old house has two full baths and there’s one that’s primarily my domain. I shower there and get ready for my day. My husband rarely steps foot in it.

So I have no one to blame but myself that the bathroom closet was a nightmare. For something like ten years, items went in and seldom came out.

I look in that closet pretty much daily. And each time I’d wince a little and say to myself, “I need to deal with that closet.” I think part of the problem is that I open that bathroom closet primarily when I’m getting ready to go and can’t act on the impulse.

But last weekend, finally, I decided to do something about it. I think the fact that were having a houseguest (the fabulous Margaret Lukens) helped motivate me to take action.

The first step was to take a few embarrassing before pictures (please don’t judge):

Then I started with the floor, throwing away obvious trash as I came to it and putting the other stuff on a 6-foot folding table to sort. I sorted items from one shelf at a time and within a couple of quite painless hours, the job was done. I threw away a whole lot of expired, unloved, and unused stuff. (I found some collars of now-departed dogs and put those in a marked bin in the basement.) And I organized what I kept, using Itso bins from Target primarily and, of course, my handy labelmaker.

It is amazing what a big difference a little focused attention can make! Here are the after pictures.

I now smile when I open that closet and I have no problem finding anything I need. Why did I turn a blind eye for so long?

I’m now ready to tackle another space in my house. I just need to decide which of the many options I’ll pursue!