May
16
Book Review: It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh
Filed Under Book Review, Reducing Clutter | Leave a Comment
Peter Walsh is the organization expert on TLC’s Clean Sweep and Oprah. Rather than writing another book that lists various organizational methods for different types of stuff, It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Rich Life gets into the psychology of stuff so you can part with it permanently, and then teaches you how to do it.
Clutter Problem: The Psychology of Stuff
If you’ve seen Peter Walsh on TV, then you know that he’s very concerned with the reasons we create clutter. Getting rid of it once is easy, but learning to part with it permanently is hard. His basic theory is that we create clutter because it either represents something we value, or represents our idea of who we are. As you read through the first section, he challenges the excuses you’re already making in your head. He helps you see the error of your ways through quizzes and the stories of other clients facing serious clutter problems.
For example, Walsh relates the story of the woman who wanted to create scrapbooks for her three children, but she had so much scrapbooking stuff that it was overwhelming. Rather than make the books, she avoided that area of the room. At the same time, she couldn’t part with the stuff because she needed it to make the scrapbooks. He helped her see how she was blocking herself from being who she truly was, but he also didn’t make her throw it all out. Instead he honored her desire to make the scrapbooks by placing limits on the amount of supplies she could have and creating an organized space in which to work.
Putting Clutter in Its Place
The next section focuses on learning to control the clutter. Walsh first asks if the stuff belongs to you. Many people have clutter that belongs to friends, neighbors, ex-spouses, or middle-aged children!
Next he asks you to find the true purpose of each room. To do this, you and your family members write down how you think each room should be used. If one of you wants to use the dining room to eat and the other wants to use it to make model airplanes, that’s a pretty big conflict of desires that’s creating clutter. Once you understand the true purpose of a room, it’s easier to clear the clutter.
If a room must have multiple uses, then Walsh recommends creating zones for each use, and limiting the activity storage to that space. He doesn’t say you shouldn’t buy storage boxes; he says you should reduce the stuff, and then buy boxes to fit the remainder and prevent it from outgrowing the boxes.
The Clutter Weekend
Walsh tells you how to recreate the Clean Sweep experience by designating a weekend to clear out the clutter and then get rid of it immediately via a garage sale or donation. Once the major work is done, you can slowly remove the rest of the clutter bit-by-bit.
Room-by-Room Clutter Clearing
Finally, Walsh gives a review of each room. He explains how clutter develops in each room and then provides strategies for discovering what you really need to keep and what you should part with.
The book is part inspirational, part hands-on advice. Walsh never makes you feel guilty about the clutter, but he does make you want to get rid of it. I read this book after cleaning out our office closet, and well after my clutter purge, but the book helped me realize the effect that had on me. Now that there’s less stuff in there, I don’t want to just toss stuff into it anymore. I always take a few more steps to put it back in its place. I also think carefully before adding new stuff to it.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t the book for you if you simply want another organization system. If you’re ready to truly tackle not only the clutter, but the psychology that causes you to create clutter, then this is an excellent start.
May
5
If you’ve read my post on clearing out clutter, you already know how to actually clean it out. Then you’re left with the question of what to do with everything you’ve put into the donation box. Here are a few tips for getting rid of the clutter, rather than finding a new place to store it.
Hold a Garage Sale
If you have the time, and can hold the garage sale within the next few weeks, then you might be able to make a few bucks off your clutter. All you need are stickers, a marking pen, a box for cash, a sign, and an ad on Craigslist. Be sure to price your clutter to move, not to make the highest profit. If you saw the hoarder on Oprah, then you know she made $13,000 from selling her clutter. Most of us can’t expect to make anything close to that, but you might come away with a couple hundred.
Visit a Nursing Home
If you have books, DVDs, and other entertainment items, bring them to a nursing home. You might also be able to donate CDs, but make sure it’s classical or big band. They probably won’t be interested in your 1990s rap CDs. You can also drop off gently used clothes that are fashionable for older women and men. Finally, consider bringing vases you no longer use. They can use them when well-meaning relatives bring flowers, but forget to bring a container for them.
Visit a Homeless Shelter or Battered Women’s Shelter
They’re always in need of clothes, personal care items, and children’s toys and books. Women’s shelters and family shelters also need household goods like sheets, pots and pans, and dishes if they help families establish new homes. Your clutter is their chance to build a new life.
Visit a Food Bank
If you cleaned out your pantry, bring the non-perishables to your local food bank for distribution to needy families.
Visit the Hospital
Many hospitals are establishing “trauma closets” for patients whose clothes are destroyed in the accident or at the hospital. A trauma closet is designed to give them something other than a hospital gown to wear home. The hospital is also a good place to deliver children’s books and toys, as well as vases.
Visit an Animal Shelter or Local Veterinary Hospital
Vets, animal shelters, and animal hospitals are often need soft blankets, towels, and t-shirts to line cages and beds for injured animals. Because the items will be used as bedding, this is the place to bring your soft goods that aren’t quite good enough to donate to people. Even if it’s torn, an animal will find an old bed sheet quite comfy. You can also donate food and other pet care items if your pet has passed away.
Give Them to a Needy Friend
In my clutter post, commenter Jimmie Sue suggests giving the extra you get from buy-one-get-one-free deals to a less-fortunate friend. You can give friends food, personal care items, clothes, and even home décor items like candles. It’s always been a tradition to hand-down children’s clothing, but there’s no reason you can’t continue the tradition with other items.
Donate Them to Your Church
Churches often hold food drives, or drives to help specific families dealing with a major illness, job loss, or other personal disaster. If you’re in the process of clearing clutter, why not donate personal care items, toys, and other household goods to the drive? Several people use their CVS freebies as gifts for needy families in their church or neighborhood.
Whatever you do with your clutter, do not return it to your home. Don’t put it in the garage to deal with later. Don’t put it in storage until you can find a place for it. Make a plan to deal with it this week. Once you’ve got a plan, it’s easier to avoid re-cluttering your home.
Do you have other ideas for getting rid of clutter? Tell me in the comments.
Apr
22
Celebrate Earth Day – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (and Save Money)
Filed Under Frugal, Reducing Clutter, Saving Money | 2 Comments
The credit series will resume tomorrow, after this brief interruption for Earth Day.
A lot of people are looking for ways to save money these days. Although they don’t intend it, their newfound frugality may also be good for the environment. However, it also helps to be intentionally eco-conscious when making frugal choices. Here are ten tips to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. As a bonus, you’ll probably save money. If frugality doesn’t motivate you, discovering your carbon footprint might.
Carry Canvas Grocery Sacks
But won’t you have to buy a grocery sack first? You might not! If you dig deep into your closets, chances are you’ll find a treasure trove of canvas bags from conferences, events, gifts, and donations. I have several in various sizes – small ones that are perfect for walking up to the store for one item and big ones that are great for my full weekend shop. Even if you do have to buy them, you can usually get them for $1 and they last a long time.
Make Reusable Produce Bags
Once you start using canvas grocery bags, you won’t want to fill them with plastic bags. You can make cheap reusable produce bags to load all your produce in. You could also buy them, but making produce bags would be more frugal if you have a sewing machine or a friend you can borrow one from. Here’s a third produce bag to give you another idea.
Reuse Ziptop Bags
This one grosses some people out, but it’s really not that bad. I reuse my plastic lunch baggies for four days, which means I go through a total of about seven a week (I bring my snacks to work, too.) You can either rinse them out, or just use the same bag for the same item each day. I also have a permanent lunch sack made from nylon.
Reuse Glass Jars
When I buy something in a glass jar, I inspect the lid. Even if I have to spend twenty cents more, I might do it if it means getting a glass jar with a screw-on lid that I can reuse later on. Do that a few times and soon you have your very own free jar collection. They’re great for storing leftover sauce or making crème fraiche.
Stop Junk Mail
Stopping junk mail not only reduces your urge to get another credit card or buy something for a catalog, it also reduces the amount of wasted paper. That’s good for everyone! Since signing up with Catalog Choice and the DMA no-junk list, I’ve reduced my pile of junk mail to ¼ its original size. Some days the mailbox is empty.
Reduce Energy Use
We reduce our energy use through careful control of the heater and air-conditioner, through the wise use of window blinds, and by installing CFLs in most of our lamps. There are a few that the bulbs won’t fit into, so we’re looking for replacement lamps that will fit them.
Eat Local, Grass-Fed Meat
I recently read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and no longer feel comfortable eating corn-fed beef and pork. Fortunately, a farmer sells grass-fed beef and pork at my nearby farmer’s market. It’s only marginally more expensive, but greatly reduces the impact on the earth. I know we could cut red meat entirely, but my diet is already so limited that I hate to cut more items!
Buy Produce at the Farmer’s Market
We’re also buying as much produce as we can at the farmer’s market. Most of it is grown without pesticides on local farms, which reduces the impact on the earth from food transport and pesticide production/waste. It does mean eating more seasonally, but the improved taste is definitely worth it.
Use Old Socks and T-Shirts for Rags
My mom still uses my old cloth diapers as dust rags. That’s over thirty years of reusing one item! They’re not hard to wash, and it’s cheaper than paper towels or wasteful disposable cleaning wipes. I love to use old socks to polish silver and brass because the soft cotton doesn’t scratch them.
Use Cloth Napkins and Dish Towels
We switched to cloth napkins and dishtowels a few years ago in order to reduce our use of paper towels and napkins. Not only has it saved us a bundle on paper products, but we create less trash.
As our awareness of the environment and our determination to save money have increased, we’ve started to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as possible. We’ve definitely seen an impact on our energy and household expenses bills. Hopefully we’ll see a reduction in our food bills, too.
How do you reduce, reuse, or recycle? Tell me in the comments.
Mar
31
Last fall I went on a cleaning binge. It wasn’t simply a matter of dusting or vacuuming; I felt a need to clean out the clutter in my life. Since that time, I haven’t felt the urge to replace the stuff, but I have been more aware of the value of the money that bought that stuff.
The Clutter Theory
I read in Suze Orman’s The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom that holding onto clutter actually reduces our prosperity. Her theory is that by holding onto items we no longer value, we aren’t making room for new things that we value more (like money).
You probably also heard this same theory if you watched Oprah’s hoaders episode or ever watched Clean Sweep. I won’t get into the psychological theories here, but I can see the truth in the statement.
How I Cleaned out the Clutter
I started under the bathroom sink - a pretty easy place to clean out clutter. From there, I continued through the closets, kitchen, and home office. I produced 8 bags of trash and 3 bags of clothes to give away.
In addition to tossing expired medications and makeup, used up cleaning supplies, and worn out clothes, I also took a hard look at my books, CDs, videos, and DVDs. I ended up throwing out at least a dozen old videotapes and selling numerous books. Most of the CDs and DVDs belong to my husband, and he wasn’t yet ready to part with them.
The Result of My Clutter Purge
Now that I’ve gotten rid of so much stuff, I can actually see what I have and make use of it. I tossed out about half my supply of candles and vases, and now make a point of using the rest. I tossed out several pairs of shoes, so now I can see which shoes I have and want to use. I got rid of old clothes, which means now I can find the clothes I do want to wear and that still fit me.
In the kitchen, I found food that had long since expired, or food we no longer eat. The good food went to a food drive. The bad food we tossed, and now I can actually find stuff in the cupboard.
Since my purge, I haven’t felt an urge to replace that stuff. Instead I’d rather use up the stuff I already have. I also think more carefully before buying something new. I confirm that it is something I will actually use, not something I think might be nice to have but don’t have an immediate use for. It certainly made my Christmas list much shorter last year! I just didn’t feel the need to get more stuff.
I can’t say that it’s directly related, but our debt has declined significantly since I completed the purge. I can say that uncluttering my life made me feel freer and happier. It also makes me much happier when I opened the linen closet or reached under the cabinet for a new bottle of shampoo. And sometimes, it’s the little things that matter the most.
How to Clean Out the Clutter
If you want to purge, start with one small section of your home. Set aside an hour, or maybe just fifteen minutes, to clean. Bring two trash bags: trash and donate. I suggest starting under the bathroom counter or the medicine cabinet, a place where most of the items have an expiration date. It’s pretty easy to toss a box of cold medicine that expired a year ago. It gets easier as you go. If you find something that’s still good, but will never use, then put it in the donate box. Shelters often need personal care items.
For serious clutter, you’ll also need a keep pile. Remove everything from the closet or room, and then sort it into one of the piles. Once you’re done, take a second look at the keep pile. Make sure everything you’ve decided to keep has a use. If it’s an heirloom, find a place to use it or display it. If you can’t, pass it on to a family member who can.
I completed my purge in an afternoon, but I have an apartment. If you have a big home or a lot of stuff, allow yourself more time to work through it all. At first, purging is hard. Once you get on a clutter-clearing roll, you won’t want to stop and the freedom you’ll feel is amazing.
Dec
27
Stop Catalogs to Save Money
Filed Under Frugal, Reducing Clutter, Saving Money | Leave a Comment
I think at one point I was receiving a
Choose Your Catalogs
That’s why I was so thrilled to discover Catalog Choice. Many major catalog retailers participate in their FREE program. Now my catalogs make a stop at my desk before hitting the recycling bin. I go to the Catalog Choice website, find the catalog in the list, enter the info from the address label, and then toss the catalog. Catalog Choice then contacts the mailer to stop the catalogs I no longer want. You can do this with all of the catalogs you receive, or you can choose to only stop a few.
If you stop junk mail from the DMA service I mentioned yesterday, that will include many of the catalogs, but it may be faster to use Catalog Choice.
Unfortunately, not all catalogs participate in Catalog Choice, so you might still have to make a few phone calls to stop all your catalogs, but this will save you at least some of the hassle, and help you resist the shopping temptation they create so well.
Dec
26
Stop Junk Mail to Save Money
Filed Under Frugal, Reducing Clutter, Saving Money | Leave a Comment
At this point, the bulk of the mail I receive is junk mail. I switched to online billing, which means all those letters I receive from my banks are annoying balance transfer or cash advance checks and loan offers. I also receive numerous offers for new magazines, credit cards, and clubs.
As I see it, junk mail is intended solely to part me from my money. Those bank checks come with hefty fees and interest rates. The loans are rarely good offers. I don’t need more magazines or another credit card. I’ve tried book and music clubs and they’re always more hassle than their worth.
So I said stop! Going into the new year, I’m writing to the services to stop my junk mail. I just don’t need it in my life. If I want a balance transfer, I know how to find one online. If I’m interested in a new magazine, I’ll buy a copy and send in one of the 600 reply cards inside. If I want to buy a book, I’ll get it from the library.
If you want to stop junk mail, here are the steps you should take:
- Contact the Direct Marketing Association . Complete the form and pay $1 to be removed from most catalog and junk mailing lists. This will stop 75% of your non-banking junk mail.
- Credit bureaus are also happy to sell your data. Stop those credit offers (which are a source of identity theft), by contacting Opt Out Prescreen or by calling 1-800-5OptOut. This service is free and operated by the three major credit bureaus.
- Don’t submit warranty cards. Most of the time, it’s unnecessary to have one on file to make a warranty claim. Most companies also use those cards to add you to mailing lists.
- When you move, update your address with the two above services because filing a permanent change of address form triggers junk mail. If possible, don’t fill out the form. Instead, email an address update to your friends and relatives and contact companies you do business with to change your address directly.
- It won’t stop junk mail, but also place yourself on the Do Not Call list or by calling 888.382.1222. It will stop most marketing calls, but remember that charities, political groups, and companies you’ve done business with in the last 18 months can still call you. If you’d like those calls to stop, ask to be removed from their list when they contact you.
- Some email advertisers have also agreed to use the Direct Marketing Association to avoid unwanted contact. Join the Email Preference Service to stop some junk email, but remember that most spammers don’t use it. Hitting those “remove me from your mailing list” buttons often result in you being placed on MORE lists, so you should only use them for stores you recognize.
- Return privacy notices. All your creditors are now required to send you an annual privacy notice. Many include a reply form in which you can indicate you preference. Be sure to send it back with the appropriate box marked.
- Don’t enter online sweepstakes. Most of those companies will harvest your information. If there’s a box instructing them not to send you offers, it may be safe, but don’t be surprised if new junk mail starts to arrive.
Now you may be wondering how stopping junk mail will save you money. It’s simple - you won’t be tempted by offers you receive in the mail. Most of the services who advertise by mail cost more than the services you could find yourself. If you are in need of a service, call and ask if they’re offering any specials. The answer will nearly always be “yes.”
You also won’t be tempted to use those convenience checks, and you won’t risk someone else using them to steal your identity.
I can’t wait to stop receiving junk mail. When I was a little girl, I always looked forward to getting the mail, but now that I’m an adult, it’s annoying to open a full box only to find a bunch of mail I have to recycle or shred. Just think of all the paper we would save, and the energy required to recycle it all, if we stopped junk mail altogether!
