Janice

Deadlines Help With Decluttering

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Have you ever had a deadline help you with decluttering? I know I have. Think about this for a moment.

Remember when you were having the family over for a holiday dinner or birthday party? How did you prepare for it? If you’re like most people you planned the food/menu for the dinner or party. Hopefully you shopped for most of the stuff ahead of time leaving just a few perishable items to buy last minute.

But what about cleaning the house? I always find it amazing that when I’m preparing for company I notice all the clutter laying around. I know the stack of magazines has been there for awhile. But now it looks real messy. The DVD’s and video games are overflowing the shelf under the TV.  How long have they been a chaotic mess? And when did the empty cups and dishes start accumulating on the coffee table and end tables? I didn’t realize the cat and dog (or kids) had so many toys laying around.

You get the picture. We become blind to everyday clutter until we know company is coming over. Then we start looking at our house through their eyes. 

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Vacation Home Mindset

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Do you ever wish your home felt like it was a vacation home? No clutter laying around. Simple furniture and decor. Clean, fresh, easy to sit back and relax in.

That does sound nice doesn’t it!

 

Weekend Vacation Home

Recently a friend told me how nice her daughter’s weekend home was. It’s in a rural area about two hours or so from the city. She kept telling me how relaxed she felt during a recent visit. It really hit home for my friend about how nice it felt to sit around in a simply decorated, non cluttered space.

Since this was a weekend home, her daughter basically started from scratch to furnish it. New and used furniture along with minimal decorating created the new environment. She didn’t have years of accumulated  stuff to clutter the house up.

(Thank you to my friend and her daughter for the use of this photo. It’s a picture of the daughter’s weekend vacation home.)

 

As my friend and I talked, we kept wondering how can we get our own homes to always have that simple relaxed feeling. It’s not easy but it’s also not impossible. …

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The Pause and the Shift

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Dear Reader,

I haven’t been blogging for a while again. With all that is going on in the world I seemed to have hit the proverbial writing block when trying to write about decluttering.

This block actually started way before the pandemic hit the United States. I’ve been going through a mindset shift for the past year.  But once the the lockdown started, this shift really came to the forefront. Lots of questions started coming up.

My Personal Questions

  1. What is important to me at this point in my life?
  2. Do I want to keep writing my blog?
  3. Do I want to keep the website or close it down?
  4. What do I do going forward?
  5. Is anyone even interested in my life stories and lessons learned about decluttering?

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Tools to Control Paper Clutter – Part 3

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In this three-part blog series I’ve covered many of the tools I use to help me control the paper clutter. Setting up a system with the right tools will make the difference between being organized or having paper piles all over the place.

In Part 1, I talked about how I use folders and a mail organizer.

Then in Part 2, I talked about how I use file drawers and file boxes to contain the folders full of papers. In other words, I containerized them.

Now in Part 3, I’m going to show you the tools I use to actually reduce the amount of papers I save for those file folders.

 

Printer/Scanner

Printer/scanner      Printer/scanner

 

You don’t have to have a printer/scanner to save digital copies but I find it much easier than taking a photo of a paper. A flatbed scanner works best because it allows you to scan different size papers. You can scan a business card, copy of a check,  or multiple receipts. …

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