declutter your life

Now Do This

2010-03-22T17:09:00.003+11:00

I recently came across a recommendation for the website Now Do This. Rather than keeping your to do list on scraps of paper, go to this page, click "edit list", enter in all your tasks to do on a separate line and click "save", then click "done" as it tells you everything to do until everything is "all done!" No deciding, no clutter...

3 Decluttering Articles To Read

2010-03-21T12:32:00.004+11:00

Sorry that I'm late with this column this week. I've been quite disorganised due to interviewing for a new job, so here I am on a Sunday catching up on my to do list. Better late than never, right?

Times Online - The space in homes taken by possessions has doubled, survey finds: First up, an article that helps remind us why so many homes these days feel decluttered, and why it is a good idea to look at decluttering your's. An interesting find from the survey was also that more young people are concerned about creating space in their home. Do you think the amount of possessions in your home has increased in recent decades or years?

homelife - Install a pediment: One of the great things about moving into an old house is being able to use old architectural features such as the (boarded-up) fireplace for displaying items. If you want something similar but your house is too new, follow the instructions in this article for installing a pediment, whether above your bed or in a living area.

The House Diet Blog - What to do with hideous heirlooms?: Whilst you may not have had the issue of dealing with heirlooms and what to do with them, where you treasure them because of who they used to belong to but they aren't something that you want in your house, this discussion applies equally to all types of gifts. I like this quote: "gifts (including those bequeathed) should be given unconditionally, giving the recipient the right to decide for himself or herself whether they want to keep the gift, return it to the shop it came from, re-gift it or simply give it to charity. It is the act of giving that is important here." Do you agree?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and the upcoming week!

(images: homelife)

Inspiration: kikki.K Goal Book

2010-03-18T08:00:00.000+11:00

One of the best ways to stay inspired from day to day, whether it is in regards to your personal life, your financial plans or your home life (including your decluttering plans), is to write down your goals on paper so they are more concrete and you can refer back to them.

kikki.K have created a beautiful book, the Goal Book, to do just this, with tabs for different categories of goals. Additionally, rather than just allowing for the listing of high level goals, it also has space to break down the goals into multiple steps, with dates to achieve each step, meaning that you'll be more likely to achieve your goals.

(Unfortunately this product is not currently available online, but check it out when you are next in a kikki.K boutique.)

(image: kikki.K)

My Decluttering Challenges for the Week

2010-03-17T08:00:00.003+11:00

So, it's now been two weeks since I've moved into my new house and despite having gone to the trouble of transporting all these goods a fair distance to this place, not to mention carrying everything up the stairs, I've already decided to do some decluttering. It's a good idea to do this once you get settled and adjusted to your new home, and realise what you no longer need or no longer works in your new environment. So here are my two challenges:

Go through my boxes of "ornaments" and determine what I want to keep. I dislike having too much out on display, so usually have a stash of extra decoration items that I rotate amongst, however, these days I have far too much. I will have to determine what I still like and works for me, and the rest I will eBay or list on the local FreeCycle group.
After having spent a while travelling a lot and consciously not buying many new clothes, I'm getting tired of my wardrobe and need to freshen it up. I want to go through all my clothes and work out what I no longer like that much (at the moment I am finding it hard to let go of stuff that is not yet worn out), and then treat myself to a few new items.

Book Recommendation: 4 Organising Books to Read

2010-03-16T08:00:00.001+11:00

Back in January, I recommended the Australian organisation book Sorted! I recently found out that this book was a finalist in the 2010 Los Angeles Organizing Awards, held by the LA Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers, in the Best Organizing Book category. So, what other books were also finalists and merit checking out? (Note that I haven't been able to find these in Australian bookstores, so haven't been able to view them in person.)

The winner of the Best Organizing Book award was Organizing Outside the Box, by Hellen Buttigieg. This book focuses on determining your natural learning style and applying this to your methodology for organising, plus understanding the learning style of your family and co-workers when it comes to organising your house and office.

The Clutter Diet, is by Lorie Marrero, who also writes The Clutter Diet Blog, which I've previously linked to. It looks like a very comprehensive book on decluttering and organization, and a free chapter download is available from the website.

Organizing A to Z, by Lisa Lelas, is somewhat different in that it is a book aimed at children, taking the format of a children's organising alphabet.

Finally, Organizing for a Living, by Jackie Tiani, is a book for professional organisers, which Lissanne Oliver (author of Sorted!) described in a newsletter as being "comprehensive and well written".

(images: We Organize U, The Clutter Diet, Life Styling Success Seminars)

3 Decluttering Articles To Read

2010-03-12T10:33:00.003+11:00

When deciding to declutter your life, you can take so many different approaches. One approach is to regular declutter and be more organised, but then there's also the opposite approach of simplification and having less clutter through owning less. The articles I've found for you today reflect these different approaches...

Unclutterer - 10 more uncluttering things to do every day: I really love these approach, or doing lots of small incremental decluttering, which means it's easy to fit into your everyday life. I challenge you to select one new thing to do from this list and see what a difference it makes to your life.

Lifehack - 5 Types of Emails You Should Be Automatically Filtering: This week I switched off nearly all of my email notifications for Facebook. I regularly use Facebook already, so unless it's a change of event date and time (for just in case I need to know before I next log in), there's no reason I need to receive email notifications as well as see the notifications in Facebook (sometimes before I get the email). They were simply clogging up by email box unless I immediately deleted them. Another approach (although unsubscribing from notifications is often a good idea) is to filter types of email like this out into special folders. This article will take you through the steps of doing that, and getting your email inbox back under control.

My Year Without Spending: Finally, this is a blog that I came across recently. Whilst Angela doesn't completely go without any spending (hello, food anyone?) (see her first post here and the list of exceptions here), she does place a lot of restrictions upon her expenditure. Regular posts include Thrifty Threads, Meatless Monday and Food Waste Friday, plus she recently posted about How to generate less trash. Lots of ideas for other people wanting to adopt at least some of her approaches to reducing unnecessary spending and wastage.

Have a wonderful weekend (I'm going away on a road trip) and I'll be back with more posts next week.

Susuharai

2010-03-08T09:54:00.003+11:00

I came across a reference the other day to the Japanese tradition of "susuharai". Basically, it's their equivalent of spring-cleaning, but it takes place at the end of the calendar year, before the start of the next year. And it's more than just a physical cleaning out of the house, there is also the intention to be spiritually cleansed. When you clean out your house and attempt to declutter, do you just concentrate on the physical or do you also see it as something more, as a new beginning?

For more information on this and other Japanese traditions, see here.

(image: NeoShinka)

Setting Up My New Room

2010-03-08T09:33:00.007+11:00

Well, I moved house this week and I've gradually set up most of my new room, although still want to make some more changes. It's great to finally be somewhere more permanent after spending most of the last year travelling, staying at my parent's and house-sitting, and this means I can bring you more photos.

It's an old terrace house and I have the front room on the second story, complete with a balcony and two sets of doors onto it, so it's lovely and airy. It's also good old fashioned features such as a fireplace, ceiling roses, high skirting boards and high ceilings, although it has been carpeted.

(image: Shandos Cleaver)

3 Decluttering Articles To Read

2010-03-05T11:48:00.005+11:00

It's been a busy week, due to moving house and looking for a job, so I promise I'll write more posts next week than I have this week. But, it's time for Friday, which means three new articles that I've recently found for you to read. Here goes...

Real Simple - Fix the top 6 causes of clutter: This is an oldie but a goodie, that concentrates on the emotional and psychological aspects of decluttering. For example, the first obstacle examined is "if I get rid of this wedding vase, I'll feel guilty." Who hasn't felt guilt about getting rid of stuff, even if you don't use it or like it?

O, The Oprah Magazine - Oprah's Great Closet Cleanout: Another magazine article, and something you may have already heard about as it's about Oprah, of course. This goes to show that it's not just us mere mortals who have issues with clutter, but celebrities do, too. (I mean, look at all the free stuff most of them receive!) Oprah, putting the trendiness into decluttering.

:mnmlist - Wash your bowl - Finally, going to the other end of the spectrum and a website I recommended recently, here's an interesting article taken from a famous Zen story that gives the advice "Have you eaten your rice porridge? Then you had better wash your bowl." Basically, finish cleaning up what you're doing after you finish doing something, without thinking. So, put things away, throw out rubbish, tidy up after yourself - start doing it automatically and you'll find a lot of your small clutter issues will go away.

(images: CNN.com/living, O, The Oprah Magazine)

Clean Up The Great Outdoors

2010-03-03T08:00:00.001+11:00

Don't forget that this Sunday 7th March 2010 will be Clean Up Australia Day - in fact it will be the 20th anniversary. This is your chance to get outside into the environment and help "declutter" it from unnecessary garbage. At the same time, it should help make you more aware of the effect of rubbish and littering on our surroundings. If you're not in Australia, check out the global initiative Clean Up The World.

(image: Clean Up Australia Day)

3 Decluttering Articles To Read

2010-02-26T08:00:00.001+11:00

I always find so many wonderful decluttering and organisation articles scattered around the internet, so from now on, on each Friday I will aim to post a list of three recent (or maybe not so recent) articles for you to read and inspire you to declutter. So, here is my first selection:

The Everyday Minimalist - The small space test: Have you ever examined whether you really need all your furniture? Yes, your furniture could be clutter, too! This article will make you think about what you really need, and guide you through removing what you don't. Check out the room below and consider whether all the furniture is really necessary.

MSN Money - 10 things not to buy in 2010: If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I believe that digitalisation can help you reduce clutter around your house. This list of consumer products becoming obsolete mainly covers items that you can replace with digital versions (such as DVDs and newspaper subscriptions), plus some energy-inefficient options.

homelife - Organise your jewellery: Originally published in the January 2010 issue of Notebook: magazine, this article has six ideas on beautiful ways to store your jewellery, such as using lots of delicate boxes, as above.

(images: The Everyday Minimalist, homelife)

Moving House

2010-02-25T08:05:00.001+11:00

Next week I will be moving into a new house. As it is a sharehouse, I will just be moving items into my new bedroom, leaving the rest of my furniture stored at my parent's house (or to be sold). However, it will be nice to, firstly, decorate a whole room for the first time in a long time (I lived in my last apartment for five years, and although I made gradual changes, it's different starting with an empty room) and, secondly, to be permamently settled somewhere for awhile (the last few months I've been house-sitting, travelling and temporarily staying at my parent's house). It's a lovely big bedroom with a balcony, so I will be taking some photos once I'm settled.

What is Minimalism?

2010-02-24T08:00:00.000+11:00

Becoming a minimalist is not the same as decluttering. Decluttering may just be applied to parts of your home and lifestyle, on an as-needed basis, whilst minimalism takes decluttering and simplification to a whole new level. For a good definition on minimalism, head to :mnmlist (a website that is the epitome of minimalism design-wise) and check out this short 50 word definition.

Are you a minimalist, or do you just declutter? Can you see yourself becoming a minimalist?

Cutting the Clutter from Doing as well as Having

2010-02-23T08:00:00.000+11:00

I came across the article 42 Essential Ways to Take Action Against Your Clutter at Clutter Cubed and was pleasently surprised to find that it covered ways to cut the clutter from what you do, not just what you have. So for example, number 1 is "Stop doing something that means nothing to you", whilst number 29 is "Stop whining about what you can't get." I believe that this is as important as decluttering your wardrobe or desk, and hope that this article also inspires you to cut out what is not important in your life.

How-To: Straighten Your Linen Cupboard

2010-02-19T08:00:00.000+11:00

When I one day own a house, I hope to have a linen cupboard. All of the places so far that I've rented (mainly apartments) have, unfortunately, not had one, so I've usually just stored my sheets, pillowcases, towels and face washers in the top of my wardrobe. And more that just a linen cupboard, I want to have a beautiful looking linen cupboard. Follow these steps to straighten up your linen cupboard:

Remove all the items out of it and clean the shelves.
Go through everything and see if anything is threadbare and should be chucked. I don't know about you, but I like my towels to be nice and fluffy, not old and worn. I usually move old towels and sheets to the garage to use when moving stuff in the car, camping or just when working in the garage. (Alternatively, pet shelters may appreciate donations.)
Start dividing everything up into sets. I generally like storing sets together, rather than towels with towels, etc, but you may prefer to do the opposite.
Look at how many sets you have and check whether you really need everything. I have previously blogged about how you only really need two sets of towels for each member of your household, plus one set for guests. Consider taking any items you don't really need (including ones you've never liked) to a charity bin.
Learn properly how to fold towels and sheets, especially fitted sheets. Go here for a tutorial on fitted sheets. Note that there are a few variations, but it is worth while practicing folding fitted sheets a few times until you have the technique memorised, so that they don't look messy in your linen cupboard.
Finally, return everything to your linen cupboard. Consider adding some fragranced satchels to keep everything smelling beautifully, or pieces of cedar wood to deter moths.

(image: Notebook: Magazine)

Site Design Changes

2010-02-18T17:42:00.002+11:00

You may have already noticed that I changed the look-and-feel of this blog today, to more closely match the visual image I want for this blog. I will continue to make some tweaks here and there, although not too many more major changes, and hope that you like the new look.

Getting Through Your Decluttering To-Do List

2010-02-18T08:00:00.001+11:00

I recently came across a great article on reducing the size of your to-do list, Sprint Through the Small Stuff. It mentions the more obvious approaches of being wary about adding too much to your to-do list, regularly purging your to-do list of items you no longer need to do, and just simply steadily working through your to-do list so it doesn't get too big, but it mainly focuses on the wonderful approach of periodically doing a whole bunch of the smaller items on your to-do list in a set time limit (i.e. sprinting through the small stuff, timer optional!)

This article may help you get through all the decluttering plans that you have building up. (I know that getting started can often be the hardest part of decluttering.) Choose some of the simpler areas you want to declutter and declutter them first, with a time limit on how long to spend, and use this to build up your confidence to approach the bigger chores.

Advice on How Long to Keep Skincare

2010-02-17T08:00:00.003+11:00

I previously discussed how long to keep beauty products from in How-To: Declutter Your Beauty Products. The article How Old is Your Skincare? at shesaid goes into more detail on this topic, with their main tip to ensuring your skincare range isn't past its expiry date being to stick to a regime, which will also ensure your skin is looking its best.

Tips for Storage in the Kitchen

2010-02-17T08:00:00.002+11:00

I found a very comprehensive article on kitchen storage over at homelife. Originally appearing in the November 2008 issue of Notebook:, Top Tips for Better Kitchen Storage starts off by asking questions about what you want from kitchen storage, and includes an excellent, extensive list of storage ideas.

(image: homelife)

Stop Clutter: Wrap-Up

2010-02-16T15:04:00.003+11:00

I hope you've enjoyed my stop clutter series that has been running since the start of the year. If you've missed any of the posts, here is a full listing of all the posts in the series:

Make Smart Wardrobe Choices

Organised Grocery Shopping

Banish Paper

Doing Rather Than Shopping

More Help to Stop Shopping Needlessly

Storage, Storage and More Storage

Borrow Not Buy

Strategies to Stop Shopping

Let me know of any other areas you want me to create a series around (or if you want me to delve more into stopping clutter)!

5 Twitter Accounts to Follow

2010-02-14T21:50:00.003+11:00

I use Twitter regularly (@scleaver) and find it's a great way to come across new articles to read, whether they're written by the person you're following or they're just items they have come across. So if you're looking for new ideas on decluttering, follow some of the following Twitter accounts:

@un_clutter: Uncluttering the way to happyness: useful resources and tips about decluttering, organizing, minimalism and simple living
@TexasOrganizer: All about being a Houston mom and Gigi, organizing others and simplifying life
@metrozing: Hoardologist ☺ Professional Organizer. Disorder Specialist. I help the disorganized transform their homes from Casa de Chaos to Casa de Calm.
@OrganizeLife: Creator of Tips to Organize Life, the website that provides shortcuts, tips and tricks to help you feel more efficient and less overwhelmed
@RecoveringSlob: Inveterate slob, tortured perfectionist, food voyeur, cat-loving knitter, potato expert, once and future bassoonist. Constantly switching addictions.

I've also created a list with all of these accounts being followed to make it easy for you to view them all together (@scleaver/declutter).

How-To: Declutter Your Living Room

2010-02-12T08:00:00.005+11:00

Your living room, along with your kitchen, is the room in the house that your visitors are most likely to see. And keeping in mind the stress of having unexpected visitors, it helps to keep this key room looking presentable and decluttered. Take a look around your living room now and work out what is creating clutter (CDs, DVDs, magazines, toys?) then consider the following ideas to spruce it up:

Avoid having CDs and DVDs visibly on display, unless you can display them neatly. Many entertainment units will have space to store these away, out of sight, underneath your TV and DVD.
If your collection is larger, consider a wall unit with a spot for your TV that takes up a whole wall, with enough room for everyone in your family to have a section.
Minimise the number of magazines and newspapers left lying around. Regularly clear them away, and if you want to keep copies, consider finding somewhere special to store them, such as magazine holders to go on shelves or on the floor.
If you don't use your TV that often, consider hiding it away behind a curtain (which could be quite neutral or a decorative touch to the room) or inside a storage unit with sliding panels. This means your living room becomes a space that is about more than just watching TV.
Try to have a coffee table with a second shelf. This means that you can store things on it without cluttering the top surface.
Another coffee table alternative is to use a large wooden chest. With plenty of storage inside, this is a great option if you have children that sometimes play in the room, meaning there's a great place to store their toys and games afterwards.
Some lounges these days have special under-seat storage to store bulky items such as vacuum cleaners - definitely something different to consider! (Try King Furniture.)

(image: Freedom)

What's Your Clutter Personality?

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000+11:00

Remember how you used to do quizzes in magazines when you were growing up, that were meant to show what type of guy you were into, what movie star you were most like, and so much more?? Well, this is a slightly more grown up quiz, and there's no multiple choice answers to add up, but it will help you work out what type of clutter personality you have. Organized Home have an article on What's Your Clutter Personality? Are you a Hoarder, Deferrer, Rebel or Perfectionist? Read the article to find out.

Join Febusave

2010-02-10T08:00:00.001+11:00

I know this is off-topic, but I keep on hearing about ANZ's FebuSave promotion and wanted to share it with any fellow Australian women out there. The aim is to set a personal savings goal (perhaps related to not shopping for new unnecessary items?) for the month of February and register on the website, where you can also find tips, tools and calculators. You can also enter the competition to win a $5000 account at the end of the month (only opened to Australian residents 18 years and over, check the t&c). So, get saving!

Product Recommendation: Listography

2010-02-09T08:00:00.001+11:00

I recently recommended the kikki.K Daily Notes Notebook, which unfortunately is only available at kikki.K stores in Australia, unless you order it over the internet and fork out the overseas p&h. However, someone recently recommended to me a similar product, albeit focusing on lists: the Listography books. Available in the USA (at a wide variety of stores, including Borders) and many other countries (try to search online first), in addition to the original guided journal there are a range of speciality editions, including Friends, Music and Love.

And then there's the part that really got me excited... On the website, there's also the ability to create your own set of lists online. Simply signup, click "create list", select a category and title for the list, and get started. There's even the ability to click "generate a list topic" for the site to suggest a list for you to create, if you're feeling stuck about what to list. Just keep in mind that the lists you create are publicly viewable, unless you create them in the private folder.

(image: Listography)