Joyfully Green: organize

What's the Story Behind Your Stuff? (Check all that apply!)

When I opened the curtains this morning, my gaze fell upon three very old glass bottles that I picked up at a local antique store a few months ago to use as vases. I wondered: Whose hands held these? What things have these bottles held? My favorite things are the ones with histories. Things that someone meticulously crafted. Things that have been passed down from one family to another. The exact opposite of brand-new things assembled on a conveyor belt in a factory that spews out smoke. This (partially) explains why I hate big box stores but am helplessly drawn to any old barn with an "Antiques" sign hanging on it.

I'm also drawn to any book that advises how to weed out stuff that has lost its sentimental value or use. The best book I've ever read on the topic of decluttering is Making Peace with the Things in Your Life: Why Your Papers, Books, Clothes, and Other Possessions Keep Overwhelming You--and What to Do About It by Cindy Glovinsky (which I wrote about a few years ago in Don't Fall Into the "Junk Trunk" Trap). Yes, I've read Marie Kondo's best-selling book (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, in case you've been in hibernation), but I couldn't get into all of the odd, touchy-feely stuff, like thanking my purse each night for its service. I did, however, LOVE her point about considering your gut reaction to each thing that's taking up space in your home. If something reminds you of an unpleasant experience, by all means, let it go!

Looking around my home this morning, I took a little "history tour", an inventory of sorts, jotting down some of the ways that various things have found their way into my home. How many of the following are true of your own belongings as you look around your rooms? Check all that apply:

A wedding gift
A child's craft project from school
A perfectly good thing picked up at the curb before the garbage men could take it away
A souvenir from a trip
A thing I ordered from a catalogue (I used to do that a lot, but not anymore)
A thing I bought to fix something else (when the mood strikes...HA!)
A thing I ordered from eBay
A thing I made years ago but am still proud of
A hand-me-down
A thing somebody forgot at last weekend's party
A thing outgrown by the kids, on the way to Goodwill
A thing I've carried from home to home to home (sentimental me!)
A thing the previous owners left behind on purpose
A thing I picked up on a morning walk (pretty stone)
A thing passed on to me by an uncle cleaning out his apartment
A thing I won at a school auction
A thing my sister-in-law just bought for my daughter for Hanukkah (how cool is this eco-friendly set of Jungle Crayons?!)
A thing I don't even remember how it got into my home (but I like it)

I'm happy to report that I don't have any of the following:

A useless thing I picked up at the store without even thinking about it. (I'm a tough customer!)
A thing I bought when I saw it on TV. (I skip all ads, and Neil Young has a funny song from way-back-when with the lyrics: "Saw it on the tube/Bought it on the phone/Now I got it home/It was a piece of crap/Piece of crap!" Neil Young is a wise man.)
A thing from Amazon.com bought within the last year. (See #5 in the list above.)
A garage sale thing. (Garage sales just aren't my thing. Maybe they should advertise them as "Antique Sales"?)

Okay, how 'bout you? Do you know where all your stuff is coming from, and can see you a pattern emerging? Chew on that for the weekend, and have a good one while you're at it!

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P.S. Something that takes up no space at all but will fill you up with goodness: My brand-new online photography course! Let's start off the new year together by creating more beauty, peace, and mindfulness in the world. All the lovely details are here: Soul Focus: Finding Peace Through Photography. If you're on Instagram, get a $10 discount on the e-course by clicking the link in my profile here.

© 2016 by Joy Sussman/JoyfullyGreen.com LLC. All rights reserved. All photos and text digitally fingerprinted and watermarked. Please do not use any photographs without asking me first for permission at [email protected] and then clearly linking back to this site with photo credits. Site licensed by Creative Commons.

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Posted on 01/05/2017 at 05:27 PM in declutter, minimalism, non-consumerism, organize | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Cindy Glovinsky, declutter, getting rid of stuff, Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo, Neil Young, too much stuff

25 Ways to Stop Making Your Life Harder Than It Needs to Be

Notice I didn't say "25 Ways to Simplify Your Life." Why is that? Because even if we crave simplicity, the truth of the matter is that many of the things we put on our daily to-do lists are just making our lives more complicated, busier for the sake of being busy, and less meaningful. Why, in our efforts to streamline, do we so often find ourselves in a tangle? Here are 25 things to consider. Think of it as a simplicity check, a reality check, or just a sanity check!

1) Don't make any appointments during morning or evening rush hours, or during lunch hours. You will be late, frustrated, and idling in traffic. Not a good mix.

2) Stop buying houseplants that are difficult to grow. I've given up on orchids (as pretty as they are), and anything that sheds leaves all over the house. (I'm looking at you, Ficus!) Peace Lilies are the way to go if you don't have a green thumb--they "faint" when they need water and then they bounce right back. Troopers!

3) No citrus trees, unless you live in California, Florida, or southern Europe. Thanks to an issue of O magazine, I thought it would be fun to raise a dwarf lemon tree, lime tree, and mandarin orange tree in our sunny foyer. In the three years since I bought them, we've gotten one meager lemon, two tiny limes, hundreds of sticky bugs called scale insects (gross!), two dead citrus trees, and one tree on the brink of death on our deck. Definitely not fun.

4) Stop running for the telephone whenever it rings. This is why answering machines were invented. Answer calls when it's convenient for you, not just for the caller. That includes cell phone calls. Let it go to voicemail if you're in the middle of something important (and that includes meditating, napping, or eating your lunch).

5) Grow your own cherry tomatoes and basil in summertime. They're effortless and you can add them to lots of easy dishes--salads, pizzas, pastas. (Or just enjoy them on their own, perhaps with a little mozzarella.)

6) Get a dry-erase board and use it daily instead of Post-It notes. It feels good to have a clean slate at the end of the day.

7) Keep your pantry organized by clearly dividing up the soups, pastas, sauces, beans, spices, condiments, and baking items. If you always keep the same things in the same places, you'll be able to take a quick glance to see what's missing when you make your weekly shopping list and avoid winding up with five bags of bread flour that go stale before you can use them.

8) Get your kids to eat the same meals that you're eating. Your house is not a restaurant and you are not a short-order cook. (If you need help here, read Bringing Up Bebe.)

9) Set up online banking for all of your monthly bills. Each Monday, make a note on your calendar to check what's due that week. You'll save on stamps and panicked runs to the post office.

10) Stop subscribing to newspapers. You'll never read all of those bulky sections, and all of those piles of paper just clutter up the house (never mind the tree issue, and the fact that paper recycling takes a LOT of water and energy resources). Get your news online instead, or read the paper at the library.

11) Recycle the junk mail as soon as you get it. Don't dare put it down on a flat surface. It will grow roots there.

12) Don't even open a mail-order catalog. Although the stores will try to convince you otherwise, you don't need anything that they're selling. (You've managed to survive this far without a double-ended spatula, haven't you?)

13) Carry a book with you wherever you go. You'll be less frustrated waiting in long lines and you'll finally get around to reading the books you've been meaning to read. J. K. Rowling once said in an interview that she never believed it when people said they didn't have any time to read, and gave this exact tip.

14) Consolidate your trips. Is the post office on the way to a friend's house? Is the library on the way to the grocery store? Don't make multiple trips in the same direction. Gas is expensive enough as it is.

15) You don't need a souvenir from every place you visit. (Chances are good that the gift shop trinkets were all made in China anyway.) Take pictures instead, or let the memories be the reward. You'll have less stuff to dust.

16) Stop saying "yes" to things that weigh heavily on you. No, you don't need to chair another school committee or run a bake sale this year. Make this "The Year of Saying 'No.'" Tell anyone who asks you to run something, "I'm sorry, but I just won't have the time this year to give it the attention it deserves." (And don't feel guilty about it!)

17) Go through your clothes (and your family's clothes) at the start of each season and clear out the closet. Anything out of season should get donated or stored. You shouldn't have to wade through your winter sweaters to get to a T-shirt when it's 90 degrees outside. When you can see what you already have, you'll stop buying clothes that you really don't need.

18) Limit your time on Facebook to 5-10 minutes in the morning and evening, tops, and don't play Facebook games. I'm just guessing, but on your deathbed, you probably will wish you hadn't played Candy Crush for hours upon hours upon hours upon hours...

19) Don't buy more storage bins. It's like throwing your stuff into a black hole. If your stuff is overflowing, it's time to declutter, donate, and have a yard sale, instead of buying more things to "organize" your stuff.

20) Figure out the bare minimum of makeup you need to feel good--for example, just concealer and eyeliner--and keep one extra set in your car or purse.

21) Stop taking thermal receipts from the gas station. They'll overrun your car and your wallet, and they're hazardous to your health (literally).

22) Keep the hobbies in check. Do you really have the time, room, and patience for scrapbooking?

23) Your kids do not need to have lessons for every sport and every musical instrument known to man. Make sure they have more free time than scheduled activities.

24) Buy plants for your garden and yard that are proven to do well in your regional area and in your particular yard. Bleeding Hearts grow great in the shady parts of our yard. Rhododendons do not.

25) Make space for silence. You don't need wall-to-wall sound throughout your day. Sometimes you just need to hear yourself think. Turn off the background music if it's just white noise, and turn off the TV that's just background noise.

Your turn: How many of these things are you already doing? What else simplifies your life? Let's hear it in the comment section!

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Before you go...

Less than two more weeks to sign up for my summer photography online course, "How to Take Better Photos of Nature and the World Around You." This is the last time I'll be offering this e-course until next year.

All digital cameras welcome (any type, including smart phones).
Even if you have a full-time job, you'll be able to take this course at your own pace.
Click here for all the details!

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© 2014 by Joy Sussman/JoyfullyGreen.com. All rights reserved. All photos and text digitally fingerprinted and watermarked. Please do not use any of my photographs without asking me first for permission at [email protected] and then clearly linking back to this site with photo credits. Site licensed by Creative Commons.

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Posted on 07/01/2014 at 09:51 PM in books, declutter, delicious, minimalism, non-consumerism, organize, simplify | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman, easy houseplants even if you're not a green thumb, Ficus tree dropping leaves, indoor citrus trees, limit social media time, minimalism, non-consumerism, Peace Lily, plant pests, scale insects, simple living tips, unplug, ways to simplify your life

Joyful Reads for the Weekend, Vol. 23: Less Stuff, More Living!

The older I get, the more I realize that I want less stuff, not more. There's a whole category on this blog (there it is, down there on your right!) called "Minimalism & Non-Consumerism" and every time I write one of those posts, I somehow feel lighter and freer. It's as if even thinking about having less stuff is liberating. Following are five posts that explore why less is most definitely more:

As I continue to trip over my kids' toys despite culling the piles regularly, I was awestruck by the Zen-like simplicity of Tricia at Little Eco Footprints--her daughter's well-loved toys fit into three compact suitcases: Why Less Is More

I loved this post from Kaley Ann that demonstrates you do not have to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff to create arts & crafts projects: Trash to Treasures
In this guest post at The Other Side of Complexity, Jen Burns smartly defines the different personality traits that stop us from decluttering our homes--which one fits you? How to Lose Your Clutter without Losing Your Soul
In this post from The Other Side of Ugly, Sheri explores why we try to fill our lives with stuff to create a sense of purpose: The Void Within
In last Friday's "Joyful Reads", I included one of my own early posts and was pleasantly surprised by how many new readers appreciated it. So, in keeping with this week's topic, here's another one you might have missed: How to Free Yourself from the Magical Spell of Catalogs

Here's to a weekend of less spending and more living!

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The photograph in this post (I call it "My Georgia O'Keefe Flower") is available as an art print (framed or unframed) in my Society6 shop.

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Posted on 04/17/2014 at 09:02 PM in declutter, Joyful Reads, minimalism, non-consumerism, organize, simplify | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Tags: creating a sense of purpose, decluttering our homes, Georgia O'Keefe flower, less stuff, minimalism and non-consumerism, more living, nature photography e-course, spending less, why less is more

How to Free Yourself from the Magical Spell of Catalogs

"Who is rich? One who is satisfied with what he has."-- Ben Zoma

When I was a child, pretty typically for a middle-class American kid, the Christmas season was a very big deal. As soon as the holly wreath was hung on the front door, I'd be studiously poring through the Sears catalog (as thick as the fall issue of Vogue), composing my wish list for Santa, scribbling down all of the bright, shiny toys that were calling out my name. The list was always long and I certainly did not get everything I asked for, but I did get a fair share of it (also typically American, no?). An Easy-Bake Oven, Color Forms, a giant Barbie "beauty salon" (which consisted of just her head and neck, yet somehow, it was not grisly), on which I could apply sparkly blue eyeshadow and frosty pink lipstick, and curl her almost-realistic blonde hair. I always wanted the game Operation (otherwise known as "electrocuting the patient"?), but for some reason, it never made the cut. Instead, I got Ants in the Pants and Madame Alexander dolls. And I was quite satisfied--grateful, even. Until the next holiday or birthday rolled around, and an all-new wish list could be conjured up with a catalog.

As we grow older, a great many of us continue to keep a running wish list. Like squirrels hoarding nuts in October, we're on a crazed and continuous search for MORE. When does this hamster wheel of wanting and buying come to a halt? I'll tell you what has worked wonders for me: Just like I fast-forward through TV commercials, I avoid catalogs like the plague. I treat them like germ-covered, poison-ivy-ish things--touching them as little as possible on their way to the recycling center.

Getting yourself removed from catalog lists is a job in itself--I've officially opted out through Catalog Choice. It does work, but it's also more labor-intensive than I thought it would be, searching for and separately listing every single catalog I wanted to stop receiving. And, I'm sorry to have to break this news to you, but here it is: Junk mail will never stop vomiting into your mailbox. (Sorry, too graphic?) When you opt out of mailing lists, some catalogs will disappear for a year or so, but then, they will sneak back into your home, insidiously joining the other catalogs that never took a hiatus. (Sigh...)

So, here's my advice: Do not, for one second, open a catalog. I guarantee that you will find something in there that you will want, but most likely, do not need. (Remember the Thneed in The Lorax by Dr. Seuss?) And once you order something, you're right back in the database. Captured again.

Further advice: Do not use catalogs as reading matter to "fill up" spare minutes, waiting for the water to boil or guests to arrive. Aren't there slews of real books you've been meaning to read? Have a stack of books at the ready, and have a conveniently placed recycling bin for the catalogs. If it's too tempting to take a quick peek at them, put the recycling bin in the garage and toss in the catalogs on the way back from the mailbox. Don't even give them a chance. Mentally opt-out. Free yourself of catalogs and you'll find your life richer--not just financially.

Your turn: How do you handle catalogs? Like hot potatoes, time-fillers, or pleasure-reading? Are you ever excited to receive a particular catalog? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com and you can leave a comment at the original post.

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Your turn: In the immortal words of Pat Benatar (I know, I know...I'm showing my age), "Hit me with your best shot!" Please link to your favorite photo in the Comments section below--the photo that fills you with beaming, giddy pride and makes all of your friends enviously say, "WOW! You took THAT?" If you're feeling a tad humble, submit one that simply makes you smile. (Fellow bloggers, this is your chance to plug your blog, so for goodness' sake, have at it!) If you are reading this post via email subscription, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com and you can leave a comment at the original post.

Reader's Note: See the sidebar on the main page for some truly spectacular photography books.

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If you enjoyed reading this post, please support this blog...

Click HERE to like Joyfully Green on Facebook, where you'll receive new posts first, plus the latest green news.
Click HERE to follow Joyfully Green on Twitter.
Click HERE to follow Joyfully Green on Pinterest.
Subscribe via RSS reader or email (under "Categories").
If you choose to purchase any of the items linked on this site from Amazon, please click through the link to do it.

Thanks for reading Joyfully Green!

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Reader's Note: See the sidebar on the main page for some truly spectacular photography books.

*************************************************************************************************************************

If you enjoyed reading this post, please support this blog...

Click HERE to like Joyfully Green on Facebook, where you'll receive new posts first, plus the latest green news.
Click HERE to follow Joyfully Green on Twitter.
Click HERE to follow Joyfully Green on Pinterest.
Subscribe via RSS reader or email (under "Categories").
If you choose to purchase any of the items linked on this site from Amazon, please click through the link to do it.

Thanks for reading Joyfully Green!

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Posted on 07/16/2013 at 08:21 AM in declutter, dogs, eco-friendly, minimalism, non-consumerism, organize, perspective | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Tags: a richer life, advertising, Catalog Choice, Dr. Seuss, getting off catalog mailing lists, having less stuff, junk mail, minimalism, reducing clutter, The Lorax, Thneed

Don't Fall Into the "Junk Trunk" Trap

When my family was relocating a few years ago, we needed to do the prerequisite sprucing-up-and-clearing-out drill before putting our house on the market. At that time, we had a toddler with a lot of toys and baby gear, plus our own snowballing amount of baggage that we'd toted from college to first apartment to next apartment to last apartment to first house. Instead of making the big decisions necessary to clear it out and find new homes for it, we took the quicker route of purchasing eight "junk trunks" of various sizes--big plastic bins that we could stow the stuff in and stack in the basement while the house was on the market.

The junk trunks worked--the house looked remarkably neat and tidy. We had two prospective buyers battling it out, and we sold the house above the asking price after two weeks and a day. (Mind you, this was before the real estate market crashed.) One of the realtors touring the house even took me aside and whispered, "Your closets look like something out of Real Simple magazine--you're the most organized person I've ever seen!"

But in reality, instead of having a clutter-free home, all of that stuff was just tucked away, "out of sight, out of mind." And the junk trunks came with us to our new house, the contents pretty much untouched since. That's the trouble with "deep storage" systems. Once the stuff is in, it rarely comes back out. It becomes a massive undertaking to dig through it all. Also, since you've either forgotten about the stuff or can't easily get to it, you end up buying more of the same stuff to replace it. It's a very slippery slope. So, my advice is to avoid the container stores altogether. Instead of buying more things to contain your stuff (especially big plastic things that take a toll on the environment from cradle to grave), declutter first, and then get off the shopping treadmill.

I read a lot of blog headlines every day, but this recent one from Treehugger has to be my very favorite one ever: "Family Cleans House, Finds Pet Tortoise Missing Since 1982." That's right; for three decades, a family did not deal with their stuff in storage, and one unbelievably resilient tortoise lived to tell about it. We can all collectively shake our heads at the sheer ridiculousness of it, but how many of us also thought (with tiny, nervous voices), "I wonder what's hiding in my closet?"

As I said in My Green Year in Review, this is the year I'm finding new homes for old things. It will be a spring cleaning to end all spring cleanings, with the goal of ending the year with less stuff than I have now. To keep me on track, I'm going back to two of the very best books I've ever read on organizing and decluttering, both by the same author, Cindy Glovinsky (a certified psychotherapist and professional organizer): Making Peace with the Things in Your Life and One Thing at a Time: 100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter-Free Every Day. Although I'm not yet clutterless, Cindy Glovinsky has been a godsend to me, changing the way I view acquiring things and storing them. Probably the most important lesson she taught me was to stop tearing out magazine and newspaper articles, because any of the information I think I'll need someday is available on the internet (just search the publication's online archive). She even cured me of my magazine-buying addiction--I don't subscribe to anything anymore; I get magazines from the library and read newspapers online. This has cut waaaaaay down on papers scattered around the house.

But back to the junk trunks. Glovinsky recommends purging deep storage areas first. Yes, it will be tedious and time-consuming--she even coined the term "Thing Nausea" to describe that feeling you get when you're thoroughly disgusted with all of your stuff--but I will deal with the junk trunks head-on, Thing Nausea and all, and I will conquer them. Because I'm not buying more stuff unless it's essential, and the junk trunks are just a hindrance to being truly clutter-free. I want to have lots of free space...and no hidden tortoises.

What's your Achilles' Heel when it comes to shopping? Shoes? Books? Toys? Can you tame the beast and stop the endless buying cycle? What's your biggest roadblock to getting your house decluttered and organized?

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