Halloween Trinkets and Blow-Up Sculptures

Trinkets...you know, the little goodies sold along with Halloween costumes like jack-o-lantern flashlights, scary buckets, glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets, toys, etc.  Gone are the days of throwing a sheet with eye holes over your head and carrying a pillowcase for candy.  We buy lots of stuff for holidays.  Before you buy, think about how you will store those little goodies after Halloween.

Another thing that blows my simplifying brain is blow-up characters outside people's homes for Halloween or any other holiday.  Usually there's not just one.  They are cute and all, but my thought is, "Where do they keep all that stuff the rest of the year?"

If you are a target for holiday marketing of trinkets or blow-up sculptures in your front yard, be forewarned.  They will take up space in your home for storage.  If you don't have space for such frivolity, perhaps just enjoy your neighbor's displays.

Magazines

How old are your magazines or catalogs?  Sometimes they stay in a rack for many moons and we just get numb to the pile in the living room.  Purge some older catalogs today and sort through magazines you have finished.  It gives the room a less cluttered look to have fewer lying around.

Boxes

Sometimes empty boxes cause clutter.  We hang onto boxes just in case we need to return items.  With all the shipping done by Amazon.com and other online shopping, boxes are something we must deal with more than when we shopped locally for everything.

Today I am breaking down a couple boxes that have been sitting around.  They are the outer boxes protecting the inner boxes of products we ordered.

Old Diaries, Journals

This topic is a tough one.  I love history and if everyone in the past had decluttered their diaries, we would have lost valuable insight into life in those times.  One option is to at least organize your past journals and diaries into a central location, a single shelf or box.  You could type the info into a computer to save, but the historian in me recoils at that.  Some would say to scan the pages so the handwriting can be seen.

I don't have an answer except I know I have discarded some of my past because what I wrote was dumb and I didn't want others to read it.  Others are being kept, at least for now.

Experience Birthday Gifts

Those of us who want to simplify our lives, especially from clutter, have a hard time with receiving gifts.  If you really don't need it, but it comes from a loved one, you want to hold onto it because you love them, yet...

My family has become really good at choosing gifts that aren't the "sit around on the shelf" type.  They are generous with things I'll use up or wear.  Recently, my kids gave me "experience" gifts.  These gifts were to spend time with each adult child going to some event in which we were both interested.  One was a cookie tour throughout a historic area's bakeries.  The other was a day at a  cooking convention with vendors, how-to sessions, and a Food Network star cooking demonstration.  I loved spending one-on-one time with my adult children,  the memories made, and all we learned! Plus, nothing with those took up space.

Consider your gift giving this year.  Can you give an experience to someone?  How about a service like babysitting or car washing?  Could you donate to a charity in their honor?  If asked for your wish list, offer those suggestions.

School Pictures

What do you do with leftover school pictures?  Those of us who are teachers receive a complimentary  pack of 24 photos of ourselves about this time each year.  I want to say, "Mom, how many do you want?"  When we were kids, we used to trade photos with friends and collect as many as we could before our stash ran out.  Sometimes our character was tested when the unpopular kids wanted to trade photos with us.  That doesn't seem to be a trend now, at least with my students.  So where to the zillions of mini photos go?

As a parent, do you hold onto the extras?  I would advocate not keeping them.  With all the easy access to digital photography, it's unlikely you will lack any of your child at this age.  Just throw them away.  I do.

Recycling Days

Our county has designated days to help us declutter:

1.  Hazardous Waste Day:  we can take all the half used bug sprays, paint, car waxes, old oil to the recycling center and they will deal with it all!

2.  Electronics Recycling Day:  all those old computer components, PDAs of old, TV's, boom boxes, etc. that are outdated can be dropped off.  I'm very excited for this one.

3.  Shredding Day:  people can take bags full of old papers to be shredded and then recycled.

Check out your local government website or the waste management link to find out about these opportunities to unload unwanted stuff in a safe way.

Deep Thoughts on a Lack of Clutter

I'll admit it.  I subscribe to "Tiny House Newsletter."  Almost daily I receive links to photos of amazingly small, efficient spaces people have created for their homes.  A girl can dream.

Last week, one site expounded on the benefits of living with less.  I'd like to share those deeper thoughts because I think they are often true.

The less unused clutter that sits around me the more powerful and focused I become. When I get rid of something that’s no longer serving me, it creates a magnetic effect towards what I really desire.

Read more at http://tinyhousetalk.com/turning-less-to-more/#skQIiTfybA76f6Kt.99

Winter Wardrobe

It is time to get out the winter wardrobe.  Layers are needed now that we have consistent brisk temperatures.  I store my seasonal clothing since we have a small closet, so opening the bin always brings a nice surprise as I've forgotten about favorite clothing pieces.

If you are switching over to warmer clothing now, sort the items immediately.  Ask yourself questions:

1.  Did I like this last year?
2.  Did I wear this much last year?
3.  Does this fit well?

Feel free to separate those items that don't make the cut and put them in the donation bin.  Keep what you love and enjoy wearing.  There's no need to keep those outliers taking up space in your closet or drawers.

Be the Natural Disaster or Thief

Do you ever wish the piles would just go away and you wouldn't have to make a decision on where to put it or even if you should keep it?  I've daydreamed about a thief stealing the entire room of stuff.  Would I be sad and shocked or secretly relieved?  If a fire, tornado, or flood destroyed everything in the basement, again...would I think, "Well good.  Now I don't have to sort through it all."

I realize all these scenarios are terrible usually, yet getting rid of a lot of clutter in one swoop has its merits.  Can you be a tornado?  Can you be a thief in your own home?  What is to stop you from getting boxes and just packing up everything sitting on the floor?

Consider taking a strong approach to cleaning up.  Just box up everything in the way and put it out of sight for 6 months.  If you still want to look through it after that, go ahead, but I think you will decide to let your excess go.

Tripping Over Stuff

Every day we fumble over stuff looking for something else.  Most of the things we stumble or fumble over are in the wrong spot or just don't need to be in our homes.  This is a small thing, but it saved me time when I realized what was going on.  For a LONG time, I've had an empty rouge compact in my make-up bag, waiting until it's refilled.  There's also been a rogue container of brown eye shadow I never use floating around in there.  When I'm in a hurry, digging through to find the tiny eye shadow brush, I'm fumbling over those unnecessary items blocking my view.  I threw away the old, brown eye shadow and put the empty-waiting-for-a-refill-compact somewhere else.  Now it's easier to find what I need.

Simple fixes of decluttering give you more time.  Pay attention today to the places you fumble or stumble over things searching for what you need.  It will make your routines more streamlined to remove those stumbling blocks.

Minimalist Wardrobe

For our closet decluttering week, I've attached an article on achieving a minimalist wardrobe.

http://dallas.citymomsblog.com/why-i-got-rid-of-my-wardrobe-capsule-wardrobe/


The interesting piece is that the writer felt she ended up with more outfits, not less.  I've begun trying this method with a base color and then having more variety in tops, accessories, etc.  It really does give you more outfits with fewer pieces in your closet because everything can be interchanged!

In case you don't have time to read the entire article, here are the main points from her blog:

I started to read about wardrobe capsules. Caroline, the Austin-based blogger of Unfancy (who is currently on hiatus), describes a wardrobe capsule as

a mini-wardrobe made up of really versatile pieces that you totally LOVE to wear.

She advocates for maintaining a 37 piece wardrobe: 15 tops, 9 bottoms, 9 pairs of shoes, 2 dresses, and 2 jackets.

It didn’t take long to make my move. After bedtime one night, armed with a couple of giant garbage bags and equally giant glasses of wine (for bravery) I completely emptied my closet. I donated most of it. I kept a few of the nicer things and sold them online, which helped to fund the rest of the pieces I needed to complete my wardrobe capsule.

Pre-capsule, my wardrobe was like the Cheesecake Factory menu. It went on for days, was disorganized, and overwhelming. The majority of my options didn’t fit right, didn’t look right, or I just plain didn’t like. On the other hand, my capsule wardrobe is like a fine-dining restaurant. I have fewer choices. However, the decision is easier to make, and I can be sure that all of the choices will be amazing.

Shoes in Your Closet

This is a touchy subject.  Many women love shoes!  I read a Huffington Post article where they polled women on the number of shoes they owned.  The average was 20 pairs per woman.  That didn't seem terrible to me.  The kicker statistic they brought out, however, was that most of those women only had 5 pairs in their every day rotation.  They gave reasons for why they didn't wear the other 15 pairs:

1.  Too uncomfortable
2.  Difficult to match with an outfit
3.  Scared to damage/shoes very expensive
4.  Were given as a gift and didn't like them
5.  Didn't like them as much when I got them home

I'm sure you know my next question...Why are they keeping shoes you don't ever wear?

I'm going to look closely at my shoes in the next couple of days.  I KNOW I have a pair or two that fit into one of those five excuses for not using them.  My goal is to declutter some to give more space in my closet.  Even if you count your shoes, that might be enough to set the decluttering wheel rolling in  your closet!

Clothes Stashed Away

I have a few formal dresses stashed in our spare closets.  They don't need to live in the closet I use daily because these gowns are worn maybe once a year.  I do know where they are, however, and every once in awhile still review their usefulness to me.

Do you have stashing places for extra clothing?  If it's been while since you've examined those outliers, try that soon.  Decide if you really need those out-of-sight, out-of-mind clothes.  Just because we have extra closets in our home doesn't mean they need to be full.

Belts

Since we're in closets decluttering this week, I thought I'd steer you to belts.  True, they don't take up that much space, but we simply don't need extra stuff to store!

Some thoughts on belts:

• With waist height changing constantly for slacks and jeans, you most likely have some belts that only fit around your waist but not on any low-rise jeans.  Hip hugger belts won't fit around a waist.  You may need to keep both, especially if they are quality belts that will last a long time, in anticipation for the next style change.  I think low-rise is going away and high waist pants are back from what I'm seeing in catalogs and magazines.
• Many dresses come with little matching belts.  Do you still have the belt but not the dress?  If it doesn't go with anything else, put it in the donation bin.
• Sadly, our waistlines aren't what they were in our 20's.  Relinquish those glory days belts to make space for ones that actually fit.
• Multiples can be examined.  If you have four brown wide belts, perhaps you don't need all of them.

So, in closing, please donate any belts you don't use anymore.  There is a generation of teenage boys who seem to be unable to locate good belts to keep their pants up.  Maybe your belt can make a difference.