Spares

Buying up spare items is only good if they are consumable, not perishable.  Spare items must fit in your space.  If you have a tiny apartment, you won't be able to purchase the value packs unless you find a space elsewhere.  I did read of a woman who had a high bed and stored extra bargains in bins under the bed to make good use of unused space. 

One spare item is often enough.  When you take the spare to use, write the item on your list to buy the replacement.  Remember that a bargain is not a bargain if you won't use it. 

Too much of a good thing = clutter

A Cluttered Home

I am a teacher.  There are certain students whose homes are places of no return for notes, assignments, repaid lunch money, coats, shoes, etc.  I'm taking a guess that their homes are messes.  I cringe to think what goes on.  From a teacher's perspective, here are three bits of advice:
1.  Get into a habit of organizing anything to do with school.  Check the child's backpack nightly for notes, flyers, etc.  Write dates on the calendar.
2.  If you have trouble with clutter and organizing, at least try to help train your child to be responsible with his/her things. 
3.  Continue to declutter each day.  A clean home lends itself to more organized children.

Garages

What is the purpose of a garage?  A friend posted a poster on Facebook over the weekend that read,

Only in America:
do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

We don't have a garage, but I know this to be true just driving around neighborhoods.  What a great gift it could be to your spouse to clear out the junk in the garage so he or she could park in there during the cold winter!  Consider making the garage decluttering your December goal.  (Take out one BOX a day!!)  Remember, if the items haven't been used in several years, they are junk and you really won't need them.  Of course, let me add this caveat:  do not, I repeat, DO NOT get rid of any of your husband's tools without his permission.  I don't want to be the instigator of divorce proceedings.  Perhaps create a wall mounting system for tools and sports equipment to get it up off the floor.

Think about this.  It's a huge undertaking, but so worth your time!

Refrigerator

Go through the refrigerator today and throw out anything with expired dates or any leftovers you won't eat.

Magazine Racks

If you have a magazine rack, try to have it not be too big.  Store your magazines and catalogs in it.  When it fills, use that as a cue to sort through those you don't need anymore.   Having a rack, box, or basket for periodicals is good so they don't pile up on coffee tables or end tables. 

With the influx of Christmas catalogs bombarding our homes, just glance through them.  If you see something you might want to buy, rip out the page and recycle the rest.  The website or phone number is practically on every page, so you will know where to place your order.

Another Perspective

A British international student is staying with us the week of Thanksgiving on his break.  He and my son met when my son was studying abroad last spring.  We love hearing his accent and phrases he uses.  The vocabulary sounds so much more proper and intellectual than ours!

Hearing a few stories about his life at dinner last evening gave me a different perspective.  Americans aren't the only ones with clutter, but we do seem to have more accumulated stuff than many in the world.  I'm assuming it's because we are one of the wealthiest countries.  As we celebrate Thanksgiving, let's be thankful for our lifestyle and for the ability to help others with our stuff that we declutter and our money.

Trash Can Placement

Having well placed trash cans can cut down on clutter and mess.  Many of us do not have one in the family room where everyone congregates to eat pizza, watch movies, etc.  What happens?  Often paper plates, wadded up napkins, or empty soda cans are left lying around.  Along with that mess, unneeded homework papers are left, popsicle sticks, etc.  You get the point.  Having a trash can close by can eliminate much of the daily clean up. 

Today, do a walk through in your home.  Do you have enough trash cans in highly used areas?

Frequency

In our arsenal of decluttering tips should be the words "frequency of use."  The quesadilla maker that was so coveted and finally obtained....how often is that used for the amount of space it takes in a cupboard?  How frequently do you bake, or is everything store-bought? 

If you cannot remember the last time you used your breadmaker, dehydrator, waffle iron, etc., think long and hard about whether you need to keep it.

Coupons

I recently read someone's opinion that seemed almost sacrilegious! 

THROW AWAY COUPONS!

My first reaction was, "Are you crazy?  Don't you want to save money?"  Her reasoning was that they clutter things up, people forget to use them and store the coupons long after the expiration dates, and often they are for products you don't really use.

I began examining my own practice with coupons.  I found what she said to be true for me.  Most of my regular purchases never are seen in coupons.  It's a pain to store and retrieve them at the right time.  If I put them out in a place to remember to use them, it's cluttering my counter or refrigerator, and I still forget. 

I'm not giving it up totally, but last night I just tossed an entire coupon mailer without even looking at it.  I felt rather free! 

Guest Rooms

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, some of us will be having guests or even college age children returning.  As you change the sheets, dust, and vacuum to prepare the rooms, look around for clutter.  Is there anything in there that can be given away?  When not in use, we sometimes stash things in guest rooms.  Is what is in storage there necessary?  Think long and hard about it.  Try to simplify your guest room (s) this week!

Bathroom Organization

As cold and flu season approach, it's time to organize your medications.

1.  Check expiration dates and toss (wisely) any expired medications
2.  Lori Morero of clutterdiet.com offers the tip to sort medications by symptom or person:  cough, fever, vitamins
3.  She suggested that keeping medications in the bathroom may not be the most efficient.  The kitchen has  easier access to drinks of water.  We keep ours in a kitchen cabinet in a bin. 

Christmas Shopping

I am a bad Christmas shopper.  Rarely do I see something I know someone will love.  Two, no three,  things inhibit me. 

One: why buy gifts for people who have what they need while others have so little?
Two:  I too often think, "Will this add clutter or be helpful to them and bring some joy?"
Three:  funds

Once, one of my student's donated $ to the Red Cross in my name.  That meant a lot.  I love charities like Heifer International that give people animals to improve their income opportunities.  Salvation Army does so much for others, World Vision, Lottie Moon offering, etc.  You can honor your loved ones at holiday times while helping those in need. 

I think our Christmas gift giving sometimes gets out of hand in the US.  We're giving to the wrong people. 

Thankfully, my husband is very good at finding gifts so I'm not ousted from the family.  It is something I struggle with.  Anyone else have ideas?

Laundry Area

Look around the laundry area today.  Simplify by getting rid of something unnecessary!

Greeting Cards

Do you have an organizer for greeting cards you buy ahead or make?  It's terribly frustrating when the event draws near, you KNOW you have the perfect card, and you cannot find it.  The boxes are available at stores like Wal-Mart or Target.  Dividers are included, so you can customize it for yourself: months or types of events (birthdays, children birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, etc.)  This allows for you to have a place for the cards you get ahead, and then be able to locate them easily.

Wallets

I went through a phase where I found a cute wallet to match each purse (it's wasn't a big deal...I have maybe four purses).  This changing out of the credit cards, license, money, photos, etc. into a new wallet flew in the face of simplifying my life.  It takes too much time, and invariably, I forget to transfer something important.  The same wallet can float between purses.   Today I am putting a wallet in the Goodwill bin.

Paper Piles

This comes up frequently, but attack your paper piles today.  They accumulate and become part of the decor after awhile as we pass them each day and forget about them.  File the items to keep, throw away extra envelopes, etc., get rid of outdated catalogs or ones you won't buy from.  Free up that space!

Old Coats

This is the time of year to assess our coats.  Do they fit?  Do we use them?  Go to your coat closet and see if there are any in there you can give away.  If you've gained or lost weight in the past year, you may need to just go shop for a new coat and get rid of the old.  Your old coat will help someone else!

In our home, we are getting rid of several ill fitting coats. 

Permission to Shop

Once you have sorted through ill fitting jeans vs. good fitting ones (see our last two posts), depending on how many you give away, you now have permission to shop for those that will fit well.  Now, remember, no one needs fifteen pair, so evaluate how many you really need and keep it to that number. 

And, as you are going through your jeans, sort through your other clothing as well.  Donate apparrel that is outdated, unused, or doesn't fit.

Cut out the Tags

With our jeans series, taken from Weight Watchers Magazine (Jan/Feb. 2011),  the next bit of decluttering advice is to take scissors to your jeans.  Cut out the tags. 

Try on all your jeans, one by one.  Use the criteria below to evaluate whether or not you can simplify your stash:

Get rid of your jeans:

1.  if your jeans are so snug you can see panty lines or skin bulges over the waist band.
2.  if they are baggy in the seat or drooping in the crotch or hips.
3.  if you have to wear a bulky shirt and tuck it in to hold your jeans up
4.  if you want to tuck in a shirt but can't because the waist is too snug
5.  if you have to use a belt to keep the waist from gapping.

Jeans

Jeans are one of those measuring sticks we use to determine our self-worth and beauty.   "Maybe if I hang onto these too tight ones, I'll be able to lose the weight and get back into them." 

Weight Watchers magazine (Jan/Feb. 2011) had a good article on jeans.  Here are some statistics they published:

31% refuse to go up a size to find jeans that fit well
50% hold onto their "skinny jeans," hoping that they'll squeeze into them again
62% rely on their jeans as a measure of whether they need to lose weight

Something to keep in mind is "There's no standard sizing in the apparel industry --every brand uses different techniques and measurements to create their sizing scale."  (Sarah Hodge of MyTrueFit.com)

This week will highlight more thoughts on jeans and how to get rid of some!

The "Unlikes" of Halloween Candy

In general, anything chocolate in the Halloween bag is a favorite at my house.  All the hard candies are not enjoyed as much.  Rather than keep all the candy around for months, I saved the hard stuff and used it at Christmas time to decorate a gingerbread house with my kids.  It decluttered the cabinet, and provided a fun activity.