You can be well assured that when you post your junk for sale on Ebay or Craigslist and wonder, “Who on earth will buy this?” that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE is going to think it is just perfect.

And THIS is precisely why I typically don’t buy the things I see late at night online. I bookmark them, but then I have to wait until morning before I pull out my credit card or reply to an ad on Craigslist.

Online late at night is when I am at my most vulnerable to used furniture or something vintage, the most likely to say, “Gold flowers and butterflies? This will be perfect for my daughter’s room.”

And it will be. She will love it. But the time comes that you’ll receive the package that has been shipped to you with delivery confirmation, and you’ll wonder if spending $12 on wall art that no one else wanted was maybe a little crazy, or at least uncharacteristic.

Avoiding shopping online late at night and waiting until the morning to see if I still want to buy something is one way that I prevent clutter from coming into my house in the first place. It puts me in a better frame of mind to make sound decisions about what to buy, and most of the time I decide not to buy something after all.

This is the vintage butterfly art I bought, with the photo taken right before giving it a new coat of spray paint. I don’t regret buying this, but it does seem kind of random.

See the comments for this post: Clutter Prevention Tactics

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There was a time when I wanted more free stuff. In college when they ran a coupon in the school newspaper for a free bottle of soda, my roommate and I picked up ten copies. When they offered a free t-shirt in exchange for filling out a credit card application, I got the shirt.

Now I’m more likely to pass on the free stuff; I don’t need it. But the idea that I signed up for a credit card I didn’t want just to get a shirt I never wore makes me want to share advice with teenagers about finances and especially credit cards.

At Alpha Mom: What teens should know about credit cards before they go off to college. (1. It’s not extra money.)

More I’ve recently written at Alpha Mom:

Why I don’t spend precious babysitting hours on cleaning the house.

Crafts: what you can make with sculpey clay (it’s gluten-free!)

I don’t think I will buy more overly-posed school portraits. How you can take photos that really capture your kids.

See the comments for this post: What Teens Need to Know About Credit Cards

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Hi Rachel,
I have been married 23 years and have three teenage children and have accumulated A LOT of stuff. I love your idea of simplifying everything from wardrobe to Tupperware, but I have no idea where to begin! I need some guidelines, please!! -C

and this one too…

Hi Rachel,
I have four small children (ages 2, 4, 6, and 8), I homeschool (love it!), cook mostly from scratch for dietary and budgetary reasons, live on one small income in a little-ish house in the woods out of town, and have never been naturally organized or tidy. I want to devour everything in your blog, but I tend to start things with a bang and then fizzle out. So I was just wondering if you had one or two things you recommend starting with, what would it/they be? -J

If I had to think of one answer that could apply to everyone’s circumstances, it would be this: start by getting a cardboard box or a grocery bag, fill it up with some of your old stuff, and then donate it.

Otherwise you’ll spend most of your time moving your stuff around.

I don’t know what it is, but it’s more than symbolic; there’s something about getting rid of old stuff that works in a loosening, break-the-chains, release-the-baggage, make-space-to-breathe kind of way. Looking at something and being able to say, “I don’t need this anymore” can set you free. And focusing on sending stuff out of your house can help slow the incoming flow of stuff.

I know it’s tempting when you live with a spouse and kids to view them as the source of the clutter and ignore yours, but it’s better to start by cleaning out your own stuff. Focus on your closet or some general kitchen stuff instead of trying to control or change other people.

As you find stuff to donate, you might need a moment for a last look or a memory, but once it’s in the donation box, that brief hard part is over. Afterwards, you’ll like the stuff you decide to keep so much better. When you clean out your closet, you’ll feel like you just got a refreshed wardrobe. It’s practical and emotionally satisfying, all at the same time.

Rachel, HELP! I would love your suggestions. We just moved from a 2500 square foot house with good closet space to a 1800 square foot house with almost none. The furniture fits okay, but we are severly cramped. We have taken twelve boxes of stuff to Goodwill but still have too much stuff. My biggest problem is what to do with our clothes…the drawers are full, the closets are 99% full and we still have no place for our clothes. We also have no place to even put extra furniture to hold clothes. Under our beds have things like the leaves to the dining table and extra pictures that do not fit on the wall. Do you have any suggestions?? -D

It’s really normal to reach the point of, “I’ve given away so much, how is there so much left?”

If you’ve lost 700 square feet of living space, but you’ve only given away twelve boxes of stuff, two words:

Keep going.

You’re going to need to make several more trips to Goodwill over the next year. The good news is that the number of trips eventually decreases, as long as you don’t buy a bunch of new stuff to replace it. When I was living in an apartment I would make a donation run to Goodwill four times a year or more; now I probably do it once or twice a year, and it’s not because I have a house with more space, I just don’t buy as many clothes as I used to, or other stuff.

I sympathize about not having closet space though. Perhaps you will find some storage ideas here: 7 Ways to Add More Storage Space to Your Home.

For more ideas:

• 10 Ways to Simplify Without Becoming a Minimalist
• Undo the Mess (nearly 100 good ideas in the comments)

See the comments for this post: Want to Simplify? Start Here.

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Have you ever dropped an eyeshadow, blush, or powder compact and had the powder go everywhere? I’ve done it, but I don’t like wasting makeup, so here is how to fix your broken powder makeup to make it good as new:

1. Add a few drops of rubbing alcohol to the powder and let it soak in. (Use a dropper to control the amount.)
2. Press the powder in place using the back of a spoon.
3. Let it dry for a day or two.

That’s all you have to do! No more loose powder all over your makeup bag.

See the comments for this post: How to Fix Broken Powder Makeup

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Pantry Clutter: 

When your pantry is full of food, but you look in there and decide “you have nothing to eat.”

When your pantry is full of food that you would rather not eat as long as there are other choices available.

When your pantry is full of food that is “good to have,” but your family doesn’t eat it, and you won’t use it in a normal week.

As we clear the clutter, this week we’re focusing on pantry space. When you look inside the cabinet where you store your food, you don’t want that organized space to be taken up by food that you don’t eat. Think of ways you can incorporate some of that food into your meals this week.

If you have an excess of food, save yourself grocery money this week and use up some of what you have. We’ve been trying to see if we can make it for one more day before a trip to the grocery store each week, so we can reduce some of the food that’s been sitting in the pantry for a while. I don’t know why we have so many canned goods; we don’t use them very often, but they’ve been around for a couple of months already. We’re also using up some of the ingredients that I bought when I was trying to get creative at the grocery store.

The idea for a pantry is that you will be ready to cook dinner, you’ll save money, and you’ll save yourself from last-minute trips to the grocery store. It works better when it’s organized and everything is used regularly.

I use serving platters and bowls to organize my pantry, instead of storing them away and only using them for parties. Try consolidating packaged snacks into a snack basket, and clearing out the almost-empty boxes. The canned goods are on a lazy susan so I can access all of them. (more pictures)

Some people use a pantry as food storage for emergencies. When I showed how my fridge gets rather empty before I go grocery shopping, some expressed concern about what we would do in emergencies. I don’t store emergency food in the fridge or freezer. If the power goes out, it would all be lost! I count more on dry or shelf-stable foods that we normally eat such as dried fruits, nuts, beans, rice, pasta, and peanut butter as part of my back-up plan for emergencies.

I think the foods you plan for emergencies should reflect your grocery list. This way you’ll use them regularly instead of storing them all year and letting them go to waste. So yes, in case of a blizzard, the food storage in my pantry usually looks more like peanut butter, wine, beans, and cereal, not MRE’s.

May is the beginning of moving season, so if your house is on the market or you’re moving soon, definitely straighten up the shelves and use what you have instead of moving it.

If you stock up on sales, take a week off from shopping and use what you have so you can fully realize those savings. If you’ve bought extra to have some to share and donate, drop off those canned goods and clear up some room.

See the comments for this post: Use Up the Pantry Clutter

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“How do you stay motivated to do all of these home improvement projects? There are sooo many things I want to do to improve our home, like painting and cleaning, but the thought of it all puts me off and kills my motivation.”

“You won’t do as much work on the house after you move in,” a friend warned us after we bought our house, a complete fixer-upper. He was right, but we knew we wanted to get projects done, so we remained optimistic.

We wanted to fix up our house, make it the way we wanted it, and then move on so we could focus on other things. We didn’t want to live in an ongoing project.

We spent several weeks looking for which house to buy, and then an intense six weeks on initial changes to the floors, kitchen, and walls before we moved in. I honestly thought we could finish most of it in a few months if we could maintain that strong pace, but we had to get back to real life. There was work to be done to pay the bills, plus there were holidays, illnesses, and events. We couldn’t spend so much time focused on the house.

I guess I was hoping for a miracle that would enable us to finish this home renovation as quickly as it looks on television (“And now we’re back, and the entire room was transformed during commercials…and it was so easy!”) It’s actually more like every week we try to do one more thing, even though we’re really busy with kids and work projects.

This is how we keep a steady pace of improvements even after the “new” has worn off our home renovation project:

1. Take “before” pictures to see how far you’ve come. It’s easy for me to see what still needs to be done, but how easily I forget where we started from. It wasn’t very long ago that I had a pile of bricks and rubble in my living room, carpet in the bathroom, and a kitchen straight out of 1970. My photos help me to see the work differently. (Click.)

2. Go for progress. Try to make at least one visible change a week, even if it’s small. Maybe all you will do is hang a mirror on a wall, but that helps you feel accomplished and keep momentum. If you don’t have the time or energy to paint the front door, replacing the doorbell takes ten minutes.

3. Learn to make decisions quickly. Everything we accomplished so far was the result of making fast decisions. It takes a lot of time to shop for and compare products, tools, and materials. A lot of time, especially if you are trying to save money while maintaining quality. Indecision will slow down your progress to a grinding halt. If you are doing a major project, you don’t have time to study the smallest options. Learn to trust your decisions.

4. When you run out of money, the work can still continue. Don’t let a lack of funds give you excuses. Limits inspire creativity. Maybe you can’t go out and buy supplies for your latest idea, but I bet you’ve already got supplies from other projects sitting around waiting for you. Cleaning, getting rid of junk, and reorganizing are always free.

5. Just start.  I don’t always feel like getting started on a house project at eight o’clock at night, but sometimes that’s the only time I’ve got. It’s also hard when trying something new. I’m not always super productive, but to me, in general, getting something done and crossing it off my list is more satisfying than doing nothing or watching TV. If you think you’re going to do it before you sell the house, go ahead and do it so you will have time to enjoy the results.

6. Don’t wait for someone else. – You can do some of the work by yourself. If you’re working with a partner, you can’t wait for him or her to feel motivated at the same exact time as you. What will probably happen is you will start working, and that motivation will rub off, or else they’ll feel sorry for you looking so ridiculous trying to do it by yourself that they’ll give in and help you.

7. Set a deadline goal, but don’t get frustrated if you don’t meet your goals. Still invite your friends over, even when you haven’t finished that project; they won’t mind.

See the comments for this post: 7 Tips to Stay Motivated for House Projects

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“You should write about how to organize all of these plastic food containers,” my dad suggested as he stacked up the lids in his kitchen cabinet.

“I can’t write about that.”

“Why not?”

“The whole article would only be two lines long.”

I don’t know a list of ways to keep all of those plastic containers nicely organized in neat stacks or the lids from getting lost, especially all the little ones, but I can show you an alternative instead: have fewer empty containers, and reuse what you already have in your kitchen in new ways.

I used to have two small Tupperware containers, but I lost them in the move, and then I realized I didn’t need to replace them. I decided to make do and repurpose what I have.

I most often make my two glass baking dishes (pictured above) pull double-duty to hold leftovers. The glass lids don’t provide an air-tight seal, but they do fine in the fridge for two or three days.

I also have a set of pyrex with two small containers that nest inside the larger dish (photo below). I’ve used this small set for years; it was perfect when my family lived in a one-bedroom apartment. I didn’t have space in my kitchen for storing a surplus of empty containers. Now I have so much space that some of my kitchen cabinets are empty, but I still don’t need more containers. I like that the glass doesn’t get stained, though I heard sunlight will bleach tomato sauce stains from plastic.

I have an open kitchen pantry with glass jars to hold all the ingredients we buy from the bulk aisles, and I use an extra jar to store soup in the fridge. (I make soup once a week and then eat it for lunches all week long.)

Jars are useful when I take soup to people: a quart size is enough for one person, and the half-gallon is more of a family size. They’re inexpensive or free, so I don’t have to worry about getting them returned. Canning jars can be found at Ace Hardware stores and certain grocery stores. The quart sizes cost about a dollar, and the half-gallon jars are about two dollars each, sold in sets of six or twelve.

You can freeze soup or stock in glass jars, but leave off the lid until it’s completely frozen, and don’t fill it up all the way or the jar will crack. I haven’t been freezing food as much as I used to. We try to eat up leftovers in the next day or two instead of freezing them.

If I really need an extra jar to hold a little something for a snack later, my glass tumblers come with matching lids. The tumblers are normally our drinking glasses, and the lids go in the utensil drawer. (These are from Crate and Barrel, but the lids are not microwave safe.)

Another option is to place a plate on top of a bowl as a lid.  This way you don’t need to transfer food to a plastic container or use saran wrap or foil, but your food will stay covered in the fridge.

See the comments for this post: An Alternative to Organizing the Tupperware Cabinet

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There are a few possible reasons your towels might be getting that musty, mildewed smell:

1. Too much detergent. Solution: Check the directions on the detergent bottle and make sure you’re using less than the recommended amount. Too much detergent leaves a residue, especially when you have a high-efficiency washer that uses less water. I never use fabric softener on towels; it coats towels with a residue which makes them less absorbent.

2. Clean towels aren’t completely dry when they’re folded and put away. Solution: make sure they’re totally dry, not just hot.

3. It’s coming from the washing machine. Solution: Leave the washer door open after every load to let it dry. Once every few months run a cleaning cycle on your washer to remove mildew, soap scum, and hard water deposits. To do this, add either a cup of bleach or two cups of white vinegar to the washing machine and run a hot-water wash cycle while it’s empty.

4. The towels aren’t drying quickly enough after using them. This was my problem a few weeks ago. I had towels that every week smelled a little less fresh, and I realized those towels are always hung on hooks. Solution: Hang wet towels on towel bars or spread across two hooks until they’re dry.

So what do you do to remove the mildew smell from towels?

Wash the towels using a regular amount of detergent and add a booster such as non-chlorine bleach, borax, or baking soda. Use hot water. Add one cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle. Dry the towels in the sun (if it’s rainy or the middle of winter, you can use the dryer).

See the comments for this post: How to Remove a Mildew Smell from Towels

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Photo by Joelk75

Carlie asks,

“I was wondering if you had any advice on how to simplify or recycle award ribbons, athletic trophies, and plaques. I was big in athletics from childhood through high school, and have acquired quite a lot of things over the years. All they do now is take up space and collect dust. I feel bad throwing them away, but don’t want them hanging around in boxes forever.”

It is okay if you decide you don’t want to keep your old trophies and awards. I threw away mine a few years ago. I had trophies from dance and piano, and my mom stored them for me. It surprised her when I went through and tossed out the old stuff, but I said, “Look, they’re just made of plastic.”

The biggest accomplishments of my life will not be represented by gold-painted plastic trophies.

The experience you gained is valuable, not the trophy. The trophy was a token for the moment.

It’s also okay to throw away ribbons and recycle certificates. I had a certificate from high school that told me I was “worthy of joining the Learning & Liberty Wall of Fame.” What does that even mean?

Here is how you can judge whether you can get rid of something that could be sentimental: If as the years go by, you care about something less and less, then let it go. You won’t regret it.

With a quick Google search you might find a local organization that wants to reuse your trophies, but if not, put them on the curb. If saving one makes you happy, choose something small such as a ribbon that can be tucked away in an album.

Photo by SDASM Archives

If you have a silver trophy cup, that I would keep so I could put flowers in it.

See the comments for this post: It’s Safe to Get Rid of Old Trophies

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I bought this ceiling medallion on Craigslist three years ago, before I had a place for it. I moved it three times to different homes; I let it take up space by leaning it against the wall, but I never used it. I’ve finally found a place for it in my office, and the wait was worth it.

My office is quite bare; it doesn’t even have curtains yet. (But bare is better than a project dumping ground, which is what it was before.)

I have things lined up in the garage waiting to get spray painted. I have curtains to make and hang, other light fixtures to replace, and hundreds more projects waiting to be finished. Instead of focusing on one room, we’re redoing all of the rooms in this house at once. Progress seems slow until I look back at our original house photos.

It is insanely gratifying to have finished something with big impact. This is the kind of project that you notice the difference with less than an hour of work.

Ceiling medallions can be made with heavy plaster, but this one is lightweight polyurethane. If you need to give it a fresh coat of paint, use spray paint for even coverage.

Apply Liquid Nails or other construction adhesive and glue it to the ceiling.

Now this is where other normal people would tap in a couple of nails to hold it to the ceiling while the adhesive dries, but we were reluctant to put holes in it. We propped it up with boards and old pillows. Naturally.

You’ll want to go around the edge with caulk to make it seamless with the ceiling.

The vintage chandelier was a gift from my neighbor who lives down the street.  I found the ceiling medallion on Craigslist, but if you buy it new, this one is almost just like it.

The room’s ceiling height is the standard eight feet, but that didn’t stop me from using this oversized medallion. It makes the ceiling look higher.

This project feels like real progress.

See the comments for this post: Install a Ceiling Medallion

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