Having a hard time discarding items? Repurpose them. Send leftovers home with guests on a dinner plate you don’t expect returned… pick fresh flowers for those accumulated vases and cheer up a friend.
Make a JUICE box – Just Unused Inputs, Cords and Electricals… then this stuff doesn’t clog drawers and outlets. Ship a lot of gifts? Shred those piles of paper and use the shreds for packing.
“Firefighters say piles of debris made the attempt to rescue the victim riskier and more difficult…” sad but true headline. Don’t let this happen to you!
A house lined with towers of magazines and newspapers makes it nearly impossible for rescuers to access victims and firefighters are encountering this often. Homes choked with excessive contents hinder their work! Typically a fire doubles in size every two minutes, but in a space chock full of things, fires mushroom every 30 seconds.
A clutter-filled house is a dangerous house, but: “A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul.” – Phillip Moffitt
It starts with one box. Because that box is handy, you stack another one on top of it. The magazines and catalogs land there, then some unopened mail. Some letters and cards fall to the floor, hidden by a shopping bag set down just for the moment, in a hurry, so much on your mind. That bag falls behind other bags. Every day there’s mail. Craft projects cover the dining room table, you know this isn’t right, but where do you begin now?
Next weekend’s chores turn into next month’s and then a year has passed. Floors, counters, tables disappear beneath every good intention. Once it was just a clutter nest and now it is an overwhelming albatross!
You need these things, all of them… for your hobbies, the dog, the future… That box is here someplace!
This isn’t hoarding… yet. This is typical of a busy life. Don’t be embarrassed by the mess, call a professional for help and regain control of your life.
Do I need this item?
Do I use this item?
Does this item work?
Does this item fit into my plan?
Do I want to continue to have to organize, clear, maintain and manage this item?
Do I really want this item?
A “no” to any of these questions means “go”.
Are you an entry way dumper? Does your kitchen table become a landfill, piles everywhere with car keys and sunglasses buried under those piles? Put the wall of your entry way into service. Install decorative hooks to hold coats and handbags. Install a shelf above the hooks to hold other essentials. Purchase an attractive tray to hold mail, flyers, keys and sunglasses.
If you have a closet in your entry way, transform it into a drop zone with kid-friendly lockers or cubbies that can hold all your come & go items. A bench with storage is a great way to sit, take off your shoes and tuck them away as well as a convenient space for the sports stuff.
Store two sets of sheets for each bed in the closet. Save a few sets of older sheets for protecting plants, paint projects, etc. but don’t store them in the linen closet. Fold towels and sheets so the folded edge shows on the shelf. Now you might have room on a shelf for your bathroom pantry… purchase an open container for these items so they don’t tip over and fall creating a mess, simply pull down the container and choose the item you need. Simple.
“The beauty of the house is order. The blessing of the house is contentment. The glory of the house is hospitality.”
“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer the house allows one to dream in peace.”
“We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.”
“Home interprets heaven: home is heaven for beginners…is yours?”
“A comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience.”
“A thousand days at home are a pleasure; an hour away from home is a trial.” Can you say this about your home?
From piles to peace…
Where were you when you made your big life plans? Perhaps in college surrounded by friends discussing hopes and dreams… the possibilities were endless and exciting! Where might we live? Would we get married? O! the career plans, families and adventures that awaited!
I think it’s safe to assume none of us ever said “I hope I have a big house full of things that I bought just because they were on sale.” We never talked about our intentions to own so much stuff that we would spend our free time trying to organize it all. No one said, “I hope my future kids have so many toys that they can’t pick them up because there is nowhere to put them!”
Why do we trade in our hopes, dreams, goals and plans for things that will eventually end up in a garage sale, consignment store or landfill? We pull this baggage behind us as we go through life thinking about the next thing we can add to it! Stop doing that!
I still love shoes and handbags, kitchen gadgets that slice and dice… but I don’t like the idea that someone would trade in special hopes and dreams for something that can be bought. I like my stuff but I am SO OVER IT!
Give me passion, pursuits, wholeness, healing, compassion, audacious goals, love, grace, kindness… give me those instead, and let me not be distracted by anything less.
We work all our life to buy some stuff. Then we realize we have too much stuff.
When we go on vacation we have to take stuff along, but most of our stuff we leave at home, and then we worry about someone taking our stuff.
We go to all kinds of sales to look for stuff. At garage sales we buy stuff that we usually end up putting in the next garage sale, so others can buy the stuff!
The price of stuff keeps going up and we don’t get much stuff for our money anymore. Advertisers encourage us to buy all their stuff. Storage units are stuffed with stuff.
One more thing about stuff… we can’t take it with us when we leave this world… I think I have enough stuff, but sometimes I would like some different stuff, wouldn’t you?
71 Percentage who say their quality of life would improve if they were better organized.
65 Percentage who described their home as at least moderately disorganized.
27 Percentage who agree disorder keeps them from being effective at work.
