Here's a fun idea to help you part with some of your excess stuff:
a good old-fashioned swap. The general idea is that you get together with a bunch of friends and/or neighbors and everyone brings things they don't want anymore but that are in good, usable condition. Then you all go "shopping" for each other's stuff!. You can host your own — make it a party! — or sign up for the August 18th event at East Providence's wonderful Fuller Creative Learning Center. If you decide to host a swap party, you can do it indoors or out, setting up tables or picnic blankets to display the wares. It can be a pure swap ("I'll give you this coat for two of your books.") or you can assign items a value or rating. Give each item a star rating and trade based on how many stars items "cost." For example, you could trade three one-star items for one 3-star piece. Your goal should be to end up going home with less than you brought, so choose to swap for smaller items or swap multiple items for one of something else. At the end of the swap, offer to load up your car and drive ALL the leftovers to a donation center. Bring items to the closest one (Search for "donation center near me.") or your favorite charity. Whatever you do, don't let that stuff back into your house! If you already decided you were ready to part with it, trust your instincts and stick with your decision.
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Many of you may know Gretchen Rubin who gave a “bonus keynote” address at the conference. She has some interesting ideas about personality types, but my favorite takeaway from her talk was about how we can declutter our clothes.
If you have trouble deciding whether or not to keep an article of clothing, see if it passes the “Ex-Factor” test. Imagine you are wearing that faded, tattered sweatshirt and you run into your ex. Would you be happy to be wearing that? Gretchen’s other insight about paring down clothes is that she noticed that people actually feel they have more to wear after getting rid of excess clothes. It sounds counterintuitive, but I experience this with my clients all the time. Once you weed out the excess, you feel more satisfied with what you have and experience a feeling of increased abundance. If your basement is used primarily for storage, one big issue to keep in mind is combatting moisture.
Store items in plastic bins so they are impervious to surface moisture on the floor. Raise the bins on garage-style shelving or pallets. Label the bins so the contents are easily recognizable. This month, I'm partnering with the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Knowledge is Power campaign to help people get organized and reduce stress.
The short month of February is more than half over, but there’s still time to clear the clutter and get more organized. According to an article in Psychology Today, “Messy homes and work spaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed.” So true! But where do you start? This quick 1-2-3 will make your space more serene. Do you need some help and motivation to get you to wrap your head around why decluttering will enhance your life?
Grab Amazon Kindle's Deal of the Day, Joshua Becker's book Simplify for only $0.99! Becker is one of the founders of the new Minimalist movement (check out his blog) and, even if you never desire to be a minimalist, his principles for simplifying your life by deemphasizing possessions so that you can focus on what you really value will change the way you look at your home and the way you live your life. Don't have a Kindle? You can read the book through the free app instead. Want to find out more about how a Kindle can help you be a more organized and productive reader? Check out these two blogs I wrote back in May: How to Avoid a Book Pile-Up An Organized Reader Yesterday, I did a spot for our local NBC-10 station about the latest organizing craze, Swedish Death Cleaning. Click here to read the article and click below to watch the video! As we transition into warmer weather, now is a good time to lighten up not only our wardrobes but also our makeup kits. Go through your makeup and nail polish and toss out anything that shows clear signs of being too old: oil separation, discoloration, cracking, or an odor that’s just not right.
If you can’t remember when you bought it (last year? last decade?), maybe that’s a sign you should toss it! Next time you buy new makeup, use a permanent marker to write the month and year of purchase on the bottom of the container (If it’s a black container, use a sticker or masking tape, then write on that.) Technically, makeup doesn’t have expiration dates like food does, but products become contaminated with bacteria over time, so it’s best for your skin’s health to keep things fresh. While time recommendations vary, you can use this simple list as a jumping off point and use your best judgment based on your own products.
Last week, I posted about my love of reading. Since I love books, you might think my bookshelves would be overflowing. Here are my strategies to keep the books from taking over my space.
e-books from the library!)
to return all the books. Designate a special tote bag for library books so you’ll have a handy way to carry them back and forth as well as a physical reminder to return the books. Nowadays, libraries give you a printed receipt of the books you’ve checked out. Keep that in the bag so you can check the list and make sure you’re returning all the books you borrowed.
be books that you truly love, books that you’ll read again, books that you want to pass down to your children (be selective!), books that are particularly beautiful (beloved art books), and books that you use (reference books such as cookbooks that you actually cook from). Other books, once read, should be considered consumed and ready to pass along to another reader. Stash books to be donated in a paper bag by your door and make a note of a handy donation center (like Savers, Salvation Army, Goodwill, or your local library) that is on your daily route. When the bag is full, bring it out to your car and to the donation center. If you prefer sharing books with friends, pass the book along as soon as you have finished it. Another fun way to redistribute books is through a Little Free Library. Find one in your neighborhood or start your own. Shelves of books can look warm and inviting in a home, but over-filled shelves and piles and stacks of books all over the place are just clutter. Books only have value when they are read*, so keep them circulating by passing them along to others who will read them! *Pick up Roger Duvoisin’s wonderful children’s book Petunia for a gloriously silly way to learn this lesson! On a recent trip to London, I came across this WWII era postcard in the gift shop of the Churchill War Rooms. How could I not write a blog post about it?!
It’s a question I frequently ask my clients to consider: Can I do without it? There are always tempting things we can buy and there are always tons of reasons to keep excess things we already have. This simple question is a good one for figuring out how valuable an item is to you and whether or not you really want to make a place for it in your home. After all, bringing something home from a store and giving it a place in your house means that you are committed to caring for it, cleaning it, using it, storing it, and looking at it for quite a long time. Is it worth it? Can you do with out it? For one month, try asking yourself this question (when you’re in a store and when you’re looking around your house) and see how many times you can say, “Yes, I can do without it.” At the end of the month, maybe you’ll find yourself with a smaller credit card bill from things you didn’t buy and a big bag of things you now can do without and want to donate. The weather here in New England is finally warmer, which means it’s time for the winter-to-summer wardrobe switch! Even if you took my advice and set yourself up with a year-round closet that doesn’t require the semi-annual switch, it’s still a good idea to check your wardrobe a couple of times a year to weed out old items and keep your clothes in good condition.
This year, find some inspiration and motivation from this vintage WWII postcard that I found at the Churchill War Rooms on a recent trip to London. In those days, people were trying to conserve all the resources they could for the war effort. Today, we have an interest in being thrifty and conserving for financial and environmental reasons. |
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