As I re-read some of mys post, I realized they were DEPRESSING. Yup, plain old DEPRESSING. Time for a more upbeat post. While I am going through this process I've been reading a ton of other blogs, and the theme I keep seeing this week is about de-cluttering your life.
All in all, I think de-cluttering is a good thing. I live in a really small house it is 476 sf, yup thats 476 sf of tiny. No garage, no attic, no basement, one very small garden shed outback. When I pick up and organize I feel so much better, in control, able to face the day. Some of these tips may make me sound like your mother, but so be it, they work.
1) Put away your clothes. I'm serious, fold your laundry and put it away (closet, dresser, wardrobe). I spent two weeks looking at my laundry basket of clothes to be ironed. I spent an hour ironin my clothes and put them away. One less pile to stare at and I know I have something clean to wear at work.
2) Do a clothes purge. Go through your closet and look at what you have in it. Be ruthless, do you really need all those pants, shirts, tops? If they are in decent shape you can sell them on
e-bay, give to a consignment shop, donate to goodwill or post on freecycle or craigslist, or have a clothing swap with friends. This way you will have room in your closet to put away your clothes.
3) Take a couple hours one evening and clean off your desk or bill paying area. Don't do this after a couple glasses of wine, have the wine after. I'm a bit of an organization freak and part of what drove me to bankruptcy was allowing myself to become un-organized, seriously, I lost control of my life. Get either one of those expandable files or a set of file folders if you have a filing cabinet and organize your bills. If you are computer literate, sign up for electronic bills, save them to your computer and "file" the monthly statement. Even your power company may send you an e-bill. Having a clean desk is not the sign of an unproductive mind it is the sign of someone who knows whats going on in their life. This is also handy for planning your budgets (more on those later)
4) Sign up for the do not call list and eliminate the junk mail from your life as well. By spending about 10-20 minutes on line, you can drastically reducde the amount of unwanted e-mail, phone solicitations, etc in your life. I use a PO box for most my mail and when I pick up my mail at the Post Office, the junk mail is immediatley put into the recycle bin. I find the mail I pick up at my mail box will sit on my desk for days until I actually get around to dumping the junk mail.
5) Get rid of your old magazines, newspapers, books, etc as well. Books you can donate to the local library. I sell some on half.com .
6) Now this one may sound really wierd, but clean out your refridgerator. I like to cook and I have a bunch of half opened jars of all sorts of condiments, sauces and things just sitting in the fridge. I grabbed the garbage can and went through everything. If I did not use it in the past 3 months, out it went, check those expiry dates, salad cream with an expiration date of October 2006~ Dump it. I also wiped down the shelves, etc. I have less garbage in my fridge, not less food. And less chance of giving myself food poisioning. :)
Now you may say, why the cleaning frenzy? It's all about getting and giving yourself some space and clarity in your life. I tend to feel very overwhelmed when I look at my un-organized desk. Even just putting my bills in files, dusting, making neat piles of paper allows me to tackle one project at a time and not feel like I'm tripping all over myself.
Putting my laundry away means one less pile of "stuff" to look at. Giving away or selling things I no longer need,use,want, wonder why the hell I bought it means these items will go to someone who can actually use a fondue pot (yup I had a fondue pot and never used it, it moved with me 3 times in 8 years).
AND at the end of the night, yes I did treat myself to a nice large glass of wine.
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