Decluttering

“Cut Out The Paper Clutter” eBook

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It’s finally arrived! The eBook “Cut Out The Paper Clutter” and it’s companion workbook are now available. You will be able to learn how to finally get control over those piles and piles of papers, magazines, junk mail, and lots more.3Debook_Clutter8 3dWorkbook_fixed5

You can read more of what’s in the books here.

Over the years I learned many ways to reduce the incoming papers. I have also learned how to keep the important papers organized. It’s taken a lot of hard work but is well worth it.

The past few months have been a real challenge for me. Due to my mother having a stoke this past May I have had to manage not only my own papers but also my mother’s papers and finances. Although she has a computer she had not set up any of her bills to be on auto-pay. Nor had she done any online banking. These are two ways to simplify bill paying plus cut down on some of the paper clutter.

I’ve slowly been setting up auto-pay on many of the monthly bills plus paying online. That reduces the checks (paper) I have to write, reduces the envelopes (paper) I have to address, plus saves money on stamps. All these steps helps me spend less time on bill paying and more time on other things.

So check out what’s in the eBook “Cut Out The Paper Clutter“. I’ve listed the table of contents so you can see the different chapters that will have solutions for your problem areas.

Janice

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://twitter.com/jlscissors

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Starting Over & Over & Over

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Have you ever cleaned up your home for company and then promised yourself you will keep it that way…always? Then daily life gets in the way and before you know it the house is a mess with clutter again.

You beat yourself up for not keeping your promise. You tell yourself you are a failure. You feel you can never get the house under control and keep it that way.

Then you get angry and decide you’re going to clean up the house once and for all and keep it that way. So you start over again with hopes, dreams, and determination to get it right this time.

Here’s a a quote to think about when you find yourself in the above situation.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”

When you start over to clean up the clutter in your home for yet another time, stop and think of “why” it got this way again, not the “how”. We all the “how” – we simply did not put things away. It’s when you figure out the “why” then you can start doing something different and guess what – you’ll get different results.

  1. Why didn’t things get put away?
  2. Why do you keep purchasing more items? (Do you really need them? Do you buy without planning first?)
  3. Why don’t you have a place or “home” for each item in your home? (Too many items? Not enough or the right kind of storage?)
  4. Why don’t you have a routine to follow to keep the house cleaned up? (Never wrote out a plan? The old routine never works? )

We all have weaknesses and it’s easy to come up with excuses. We all have strengths too. Maybe you keep you desk at work clean and organized. Or your craft project is organized and ready to work on. Or maybe you’re great at organizing your childrens school parties, etc. Take a look at what you do well no matter how large or small it may be and try to apply some of those techniques to what you are not good at.

“Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well, you can do a bigger thing well too.” ~ Storey

“It’s not how many times you fall that matters; it’s how many times you get up.” ~ Anon

Janice

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://twitter.com/jlscissors

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Selling Your Family on Decluttering

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Benefits of Decluttering

(Post Updated February 2020)

Last night I was reading the book “The One Minute Sales Person” by Spencer Johnson. It says the best way to sell anything is to help the person get what they want from the product, idea, or service.

So what does this have to do with decluttering and organizing? Actually plenty!  When it comes to decluttering, we not only have to “sell” ourselves on the idea, we also have to “sell” our family members on it.

We can work on keeping our own things cleaned up. However, if our spouses and/or children leave things laying around we’ll become frustrated and discouraged.  Begging them to help usually doesn’t work in the long run.

 

Selling the Benefits

We have to figure out how to convince them that decluttering and organizing helps everyone in the household. That is where the “selling” comes in. They need to know how they will benefit from getting rid of the old things and organizing what is left.

The specific benefits may different for each person but here are some basic benefits of decluttering and organizing that applies to all of us.

  1. Fewer things laying around (toys, electronics, etc.) makes it easier to find and put away the ones we really use and enjoy.
  2. Putting dirty clothes in the proper designated place makes it easier to keep the laundry up. That means they will have clean clothes when they need them.
  3. Putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher or washing them by hand instead of leaving them all around will allow you to use clean dishes instead of paper ones. That’s better for the environment and today’s children are learning to take pride in protecting the environment for their own future.
  4. Keeping track of how much money is spent on “things” and if they are “wants” or “needs” will help save money and keep the clutter from building up around the house. I call this conscious buying and it benefits everyone.

More Ideas to Help

I looked through some old blog posts and found ones that may help inspire you to find the benefits for you and your family.

Wants vs Needs
Mindfulness in the Home 
Things Can Be Freeloaders
Time To Get Off Autopilot
Mistakes As Clutter 

 

How do you “sell” yourself and/or your family members on the benefits of decluttering and organizing? Please let me know by leaving a comment so I can share these ideas with all my readers. Thanks.

 

To a lighter load along the way.
Janice Scissors

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Ran Over By A Bulldozer

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I haven’t blogged for awhile. Below is this week’s newsletter explaining why.

 

Cut Clutter With Scissors Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 18
May 2, 2010

 

It’s been awhile since I wrote a newsletter. Sometimes life throws you a few lemons and sometimes you feel like you’ve been run over by a bulldozer. The last four weeks have felt like the latter. My mother had surgery on May 3 that ended up with multiple complications, the most serious being a stroke. She is now on her road to a slow recovery which gives me a chance to settle into a “new” routine.


Both of my sisters live out of town so I’m the one handling most of the legal, financial, medical, and household issues. Fortunately my mother was the “born organized” one. I’m still wondering where my SHEness (sidetracked home executive aka Sidetrack Sisters & Flylady) came from. My name is on her checking account and her Power of Attorney/Living Will was easy to find. Actually, since her stroke did not effect her memory she was able to tell me where it was.

Ironically right before her surgery I was putting the finishing touches on my new ebook, “Cut Out The Paper Clutter”. Because I’ve been following many of the ideas in the book regarding the organizing of financial papers it wasn’t too difficult to take over her bill paying and still keep my own under control. Most of my bills are on autopay and the rest are paid with online banking. I have spent several years using many of the tips that I share in the ebook to reduce the junk mail so it takes little time to sort my mail. I hope to have the ebook up for sale by next week.

My mother hasn’t embraced all the electronic bill paying yet but we had planned on doing it during her surgery recovery time. I will take the next few weeks to slowly get most of her bills on autopay and set up online banking. This way it will be much easier for her to handle her own bills when she gets back home from rehab. I will also start using some of the tips/websites listed in the ebook to get her name off of the junk mail lists. See below for a link to the blog post that list the websites.

As much as I have learned through research, first hand experience is still the greatest teacher. We all know the importance of setting up our financial papers so our spouse or children could easily take over the responsibility if necessary yet this is one area many people put off. Clearing out the paper clutter and organizing our finances can go a long way to reduce the worry. The stress that comes with disorganization and procrastination will get worse with age. Whether you are in your 20’s, 40’s, 60’s or older, now is the time to get rid of the paper clutter so you can free up your time and energy to spend on the more important and fun things in life.

My goal is to get back to the weekly newsletters (or as often as possible) and blog posts. Although I will be focusing a lot on paper clutter I also will share tips on traveling and garage sales. After all, it’s summer time and that’s what people do during this time of year.

If you have any questions, tips, or suggestions please reply to this email or post a comment on my current blog posts at: http://organizebythemonth.com. I’m always happy to help you with tips to declutter your home or life. I also love it when I can learn new things from you and then share it with all my readers. Thank you.


To a lighter load along the way.
Janice Scissors

Please pass this newsletter along to friends and family who want to declutter and organize their lives. When they sign up at https://cutclutterwithscissors.com, they will receive a free ebook filled with decluttering and organizing tips.

Blog Posts

How to Declutter Junk Mail http://organizebythemonth.com/?p=245


Stay Connected
https://cutclutterwithscissors.com
http://organizebythemonth.com (blog)
http://twitter.com/jlscissors
email: janice@cutclutterwithscissors.com

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Organizing Resources

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Over the years I have relied on the experience and expertise of many people to help me learn how to control clutter. Although I’ve never hired a professional organizer I have read many of their books and articles. There are other people such as Marla Cilley, aka Flylady, who have shared their own experiences to help others.

I plan on sharing these resources with you every Wednesday. These posts may include links to websites with lots of information and inspiration. They may be reviewing a book I have read on organizing. Please check out this blog every Weds. If you want, you can sign up on the right sidebar or here to receive new blog posts in your email.

I mentioned Marla Cilley above. She is know as Flylady. I first read about her eight years ago in an article in Woman’s Day magazine. I’ve use many of her tips and tools over the years.

Check her out at: http://www.flylady.net/

Marilyn Bohn is a Professional Organizer in Utah. She has lots of articles on her website and blog. She recently published the book, “Go Organize! Conquer Clutter In 3 Simple Steps.” You can read my review of the book here.

Check out her website and blog: http://www.marilynbohn.com/

Jacquie Ross is also a Professional Organizer. I recently met her through Twitter and now we correspond through email and phone calls. She also writes a lot of articles on organizing plus has a newsletter and ebook.

Check her out at: http://www.castawaytheclutter.com/index.html

There are so many ways to declutter and get organized. Sometimes it is trial and error until you find what works for you. Life is journey but you can lighten your load along the way.

Janice

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://Twitter.com/jlscissors (Look for my almost daily mini Cut Clutter Tips.)

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