Janice

“Clutter’s Last Stand” Book Recommendation

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I purchased the book “Clutter’s Last Stand” by Don Aslet in the mid 1980’s when I was trying to get control of my bad habits of disorganization and clutter collecting. I still have my original copy and read it when I need some motivation to jump start a decluttering session. To me it’s the gold standard of books on decluttering.

Don Aslett’s humor and writing makes you question why you’ve kept the junk to begin with. When you realize how silly some reasons for keeping things are it becomes easier to let go of them.

When I need motivation on dealing with paper clutter I’ll read the chapter on “Taming the Paper Tiger…”. Or if I’m having trouble letting go of items that I never liked but were gifts, I’ll read the chapter on “Those Personal Treasures”. I don’t want to hurt the giver’s feelings if they find out I gave their gift away but at the same time why is the giver’s feelings more important than mine? Don helps me see that it’s the thought that counts.

If you have a particular clutter problem this book probably has touched base on it. You can read it over and over again to help you declutter your home no matter what is going on in your life at the moment. Life is always changing and so are we. There’s things such as moving, traveling, lifestyle changes, and children growing up.

Check this book out to see if it can help motivate you to clear out the clutter.

(Disclosure: Amazon Affiliate link)

 

To a lighter load along the way.

Janice Scissors

 

 

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The Biggest Clutter Maker

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You have a lot to do everyday. Many times you feel overwhelmed. So when your are finished using something, does it go back in it’s home? Or do you put it on the counter or table to put it away later?

The biggest clutter maker isn’t an item, it’s the habit of “putting it here for now”. You’re too busy to put it away immediately or you’re not sure where it should go so you establish a convenient area to put it until you have more time or can figure out where it’s home should be. You have good intentions to take care of it later but that doesn’t usually happen, at least not until it’s become a mountain of clutter.

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The “putting it here for now” habit is partly caused by the misguided notion that it takes too long to put the items in their home. Our concept of time gets distorted when we always feel rushed and overwhelmed. To break this habit you have to catch yourself doing the “for now” thing and stop it in it’s track. Take the 30 seconds to put the purchases from the discount store away. Take the 10 seconds to put the tape, scissors, markers, etc. that you needed to cut out coupons and make your grocery list. Take the 15 seconds to put the groceries in the pantry instead of leaving them on the counter. Take the 5 seconds to put the dog brush away or the hats in the closet. IMGP1726_edited-1

Sometimes they pile up anyway, but before a mountain of clutter builds too large set a timer for 5 minutes and clean it up.

Most of the time we overestimate the time it takes to put something away. Of course it is vital that the item has a place to go. The other reason the habit “putting it here for now” gets established is because we bring items into the house without having a place to store them. We put them in the pile for later (decisions postponed) because it takes too much time (at least in our minds) to figure out where to store the items.

The best way to break this cause of the habit is to think about where you are going to store that item before you purchase it. If you don’t know where you’re going to put it then you probably should not purchase it yet.

If we become more conscious of why we are doing something then it becomes easier to break the bad habits and create new and better habits.

Janice

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://twitter.com/jlscissors

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Decluttering Your Recipes

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I love to cut recipes from magazines and print out ones from the internet. I have good intentions of expanding my culinary skills with mouth watering new recipes. The pictures look so good. I love to bake but I have very little family in town to bake for.

Since my children have grown and moved out of town I find I cook the same old recipes each week. Because my husband doesn’t have a sweet tooth (a real oddity) I don’t have anyone to bake for besides myself (I do have a sweet tooth). Controlling my weight is a problem so not baking is a good thing in the long run. It’s just not much fun when looking at those recipes for cookies (my big weakness) and other sweets in the magazines.

My local grocery store puts out a bi-monthly brochure filled with recipes for the upcoming season. Autumn is just around the corner so recipes for those sweets are catching my eye.IMGP0384_edited-1 But what about all those recipes I already have collected but never tried? It’s time to do some decluttering of the old so I can start collecting the new. The key is to be very discriminating about the criteria for keeping a recipe, whether old or new.

So I am now going through my old recipes in the evening while watching the baseball games (Go Cardinals!) on TV. Here are a few questions I am asking myself with each recipe. I hope you find these questions helpful when decluttering some of your unused recipes.

1. Is this a recipe my family would like, not just me?

2. Are the ingredients ones I have on hand?

3. If I need a special ingredient is it hard to find, expensive, and will it be used up? Is it worth it if I only use a small amount and the the rest gets wasted?

4. Is the recipe time consuming and would I ever want to spend that amount of time on it? I love baking bread and don’t mind the time but other recipes are not worth it to me.

5. Is it a recipe that can be cut down for fewer servings? Rarely do I cook for more than two and my husband isn’t good about most leftovers from the freezer.

6. Is it a recipe where leftovers or extras freeze well? Cookies freeze great but I love them frozen. Not a good thing when watching my weight.

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7. Is it a healthy low fat recipe for everyday? Special occasion recipes don’t need to meet this criteria.

Do you have other criteria for keeping recipes to try? Please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Janice

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://twitter.com/jlscissors (please follow me on twitter)

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Clean House

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Most of the time I don’t turn on the TV during the day while I’m working. It is too distracting. But today while taking a lunch break I turned on Style TV and started watching the show “Clean House”. They were showing the messiest homes in America.

When I watch these kinds of shows I become motivated to tackle some of the cluttered area’s I have been putting off. Although the show has a whole team of workers to tackle the clutter in a short period of time (unrealistic for the rest of us) it is helpful to see the before and after pictures.

You can do the same by taking pictures of your cluttered area. Print it out and put in a place you will see it each day to motivate you to take action. Even 15 minutes per day of decluttering will eventually clean it up. Take a picture after the area is cleaned up and put it next to the before picture.

You could even create a scrapbook of before and after pictures. Sort of a brag book of how far you have come!

Janice

https://cutclutterwithscissors.com

http://twitter.com/jlscissors

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Organizing Children’s School Papers

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My decluttering tip week in my newsletter is about organizing and controlling children’s school papers. I have listed several links with more information for you. Check it out at: http://www.aweber.com/b/1emGI

In my research for the links I have found a website that is very helpful with many areas of decluttering and organization. It is written by Marilyn Bohn, a professional organizer. Check it out at: http://www.marilynbohn.com/

If you have a good way to control and organize the huge load of school papers that come into our homes each year, I would love to hear about it. Please leave a comment.

Janice

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