Decluttering

Clear Out The Clutter On Snowy Days

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The news today said that at least one third of the nation (USA) will experience some of this huge winter storm. I know here in St. Louis we are under a Blizzard warning. I don’t ever remember being under that kind of warning before.

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Because of this storm many people will find themselves stuck in their homes for at least a couple of days, maybe even longer. If you have children that means they are out of school and will either be glued to the TV watching movies, reruns, or cartoons, on the computer playing games, or be bored out of their minds and driving you crazy.

So take advantage of this time stuck in the house to do so decluttering and organizing with your children. Of course, if you don’t have children at home you can still do some of the projects listed below. A lot of these ideas are from Chapter 4 (Paper Memories) in the eBook “Cut Out The Paper Clutter”.

  1. Go through your boxes of photos and throw away the bad shots. These may include ones with the heads cut off, blurred shots that are unidentifiable, too dark or too light, or duplicates.
  2. While going through the photos be sure to write any information about them on the back. It’s best to use a photo safe pen if you have one. If you’re doing this with your children then take the time to talk about the photos. They probably will find it a lot more interesting than reruns on the TV.
  3. Pull out those boxes of your children’s saved papers from past school years (or your own). Go down memory lane with them and then get rid of as many as possible. Usually when you do this you’ll be asking yourself, “Why did I keep this?”. When time loosens the hold these items have on you or your children, take advantage of it and let them go.
  4. Snowy days are also a good time to go through the overstuffed bookshelves and all those DVD’s or even VHS tapes if you have them. Pull out any you know you’ll never read or watch again. Put them in a box or bag to take to your local charity next time you run errands. You’ll be giving other children or adults a chance to read those books or watch the DVD’s.
  5. This is also a good time to pull out some of those craft supplies and get creative. When supplies sit there unused for long periods of time they can become clutter. But if they are used in the process of a creative project, they are not clutter!

If you are one of those stuck at home due to the weather don’t sit around and waste the time. Have fun going through things and clear out some of the clutter at the same time. You won’t regret it!

Janice

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://twitter.com/jlscissors

Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/99D10k

If you have piles of paper clutter then you need to get my eBook, “Cut Out The Paper Clutter”. It can help you clear out those piles and organize the important papers.

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http://organizebythemonth.com/CutOutThePaperClutter.html

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Big Resolutions vs. Little Changes

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It’s that time of year where most people make New Years resolutions to improve or change some aspect of their life. After all, we recognize that we aren’t perfect, yet we believe we should be. It’s the all or nothing attitude that makes us feel like we have to make sweeping changes to our lives or else everyone including ourselves will see us as failures.

It’s time to stop this destructive thinking. So this year instead of big resolutions I propose we all think about the little things we can do to make our lives better.

At first glance the little things don’t seem to add up to much. I found this poem, which many of you may be familiar with, that can help put the little things into perspective.

 

Little Drops of Water

Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean,
And the beauteous land.

Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above.

And the little moments,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages,
Of eternity.

by Mrs. J. A. Carney (1845)

So this year I’m making a resolution to focus on the little things I can do to declutter my home and life. It could be each time I go in a room I’ll take a moment to stop and look around to see what 5 things I can put away, throw away, or give away.

I will focus on drinking a glass of water instead of grabbing a piece of candy or cookie in the middle of the afternoon. If I’m truly hungry I’ll have one piece of fruit. As I keep adding more small changes I know the extra pounds will slowly go away.

These “little” changes, like the little drops of water or little grains of sand are what will add up to make our lives more of what we want them to be.

So what little change can you make today, and tomorrow, and the next day? Please share the changes you want to make. Your ideas may be that little deed of kindness that can help someone get out of the “all or nothing” destructive way of thinking.

Janice

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Sharing Your Abundance

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Christmas is less than two weeks away. Maybe you have already bought some or all of the gifts for your children. Or maybe you’re one of those last minute shoppers and haven’t even begun. Either way, you are probably wondering where all the new gifts and toys are going to go when there are already so many other items and toys filling the house.

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If you are in this dilemma with too many things then feel fortunate and count your blessings. There are so many families today that are struggling. There are also many children who know they may not get much or even anything for Christmas.

Now is a good time to go through some of the old toys, clothes, and other items that are outgrown or not used but are still in real good shape. Donate them to a local charity, women’s shelter, or homeless shelter. Many churches and synagogues have new or slightly used toy and clothing drives also.

You’ll be sharing your abundance with those less fortunate. You’ll be making their Christmas special. Be sure to include your children in the decluttering of their items so they can learn how good it feels to bless others. After all, isn’t that what the spirit of the season is all about!

Janice

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Computer Crash–Safety Back-ups

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I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I enjoyed having my sons and daughter-in-law visiting during the week. I didn’t have much time to write any blog posts nor did my newsletter make it out last week. It really wasn’t because of visitors as much as it was because my computer crashed.

If you’ve ever had a computer crash then you know how frustrating it can be. I was having withdrawal symptoms all week. I was able to check emails on an old slow laptop but even that got frustrating. Fortunately my younger son is an IT guy and was able to save my computer. I have an external hard drive for back-ups so that helped.

Which brings me to the point of this post – do you have a back-up system in place? Whether you save important information on paper or electronically or both you should have some sort of back-up system. There are lots of ways to do this but it will take a little work on your part. Here are a few suggestions.

Important papers:

1. Keep the originals in a safe-deposit box and copies at home.

2. If you don’t have a safe-deposit box then keep the originals at home and copies with a trusted family member.

3. Make electronic copies and keep in the safe-deposit box or with family member.

Electronic (computer) information:

1. Make sure you back up information on an external hard drive, flash drive, or CD on at least a weekly basis.

2. Taxes, financial, photos, and any other vital information should be backed up on two separate back-up devices. Each time I back up my Quicken I alternate two CD’s plus it’s automatically backed up on the external hard drive each week.

3. A second copy of the information should be stored in a safe-deposit box or with a trusted family member. In case of a fire, storm damage, etc. you want to be able to reconstruct the lost information without a huge nightmare.

I still haven’t loaded all my programs back on the computer but each day I’ll take care of a few more. My son was able to restore all of my stored info on the new hard drive. I think I’ll take some of my own advice and buy some flash drives to keep an extra copy in the safe-deposit box.

We’re so dependent on these computers now. You just don’t know when they may crash! Good back-up systems can keep the panic level down to a manageable point.

Janice

P.S. I now have a Facebook page. Please become a fan to get more tips on decluttering and organizing. http://bit.ly/99D10k

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://twitter.com/jlscissors

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Lighten Up Your Perfectionism

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We all want to be perfect. We are told from a young age that “practice makes perfect”. So we grow up believing that if we try hard enough and practice enough times we should be successful in what we set out to do.

Well, reality sets in that we are not perfect. No matter how hard we try the results are not always “perfect”. So then we start doubting ourselves. We feel like failures. After all, there are winners or there are losers. How you play the game doesn’t seem to matter much anymore.

In this strive for perfectionism it’s hard to laugh at ourselves for being human. We’ve become obsessed about:

  • always wanting our homes to be “magazine perfect”
  • always sending the “perfect” thank-you note and sending it on time
  • always cooking the gourmet meal even when our family prefers the boxed mac & cheese
  • always responding to that email, twitter or facebook post right away even when there are more important things to do

These are just some of the things our perfectionism causes us to think “failure” instead of laughing at our human imperfections.

Perfectionism is the striving to reach a destination that doesn’t exist. So why even try to go there. Lighten up on yourself and start enjoying the journey. The journey should consist of:

  • Sending the thank-you note on a plain piece of paper if necessary.
  • Setting a timer and work a little each day at decluttering. Enjoy the process.
  • Reply to that email 2 weeks, even 2 months later. Apologize and move on.
  • If it’s something that needs a timely response (email, phone call, etc.) just respond the best you can. Don’t worry about what the person on the other end might think, that’s their problem.

We worry too much about making ourselves look “perfect” in other people’s eyes. If they expect us to be perfect then they have a BIG problem. If we didn’t worry so much about what others think then we just might enjoy life more. We could learn to laugh at our faults. Once we learn to laugh at ourselves we can come up with clever ways to compensate for those “imperfections”. Compensating doesn’t mean we are working to eliminate our faults. It means accepting our imperfections and working around them to achieve our goals. We will work at being the best we can be and that will be good enough.

Janice

 

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