How did you get on with last week’s Send it away Saturday challenge? I enjoyed seeing your pictures and hearing about your Holiday discards! This week, the challenge gets a little more specific but it’s still within the general umbrella of Holiday Clutter. See if you can find something to send away that you were…
Author: Joyful Surroundings LLC
Holiday Clutter Challenge
Mid-November through Mid-January is tough and expensive. It’s cold, often overcast and there are all those Holidays. There’s desire and pressure to buy gifts for anyone you can think of whether or not they want or need what you get them, cards to write and special meals to prepare. Even without Covid-19 restrictions in place,…
How To Decide
One of the most difficult things about decluttering is making decisions about your possessions. What stays and what goes? Here’s how I’d help you learn how to decide if we were working together and we realized you had five potato peelers. They’re small. No big deal if you keep them all, right? But the mountain…
Ask The Organizer: A Bad Smell In The Fridge
Dear Joyful Surroundings, There’s an odor in my fridge. I’ve got a new box of baking soda in there but it doesn’t seem to be working. Thanks for listening, M, Colorado Dear M, We have huge fridges these days, nothing like the small, sleek models of my youth a hundred years ago in England, when…
Organizing Your Bedroom
Remember when you were a kid and your room (or the bit of the bedroom you staked out as your territory) was the only place you had to keep everything? The bed, which doubled as your couch, was squashed in between the dresser and the table, all your books and toys and projects vying for…
Ignoring Clutter
My son likes snakes and I don’t. He would happily fill his room with cages full of carefully selected specimens and meet all their serpentine needs. I’d happily never see one again. Our compromise is that he has a couple of small pet snakes in his room and I tell myself if I can’t see…
How To Declutter When You Don’t Feel Like It
Some days you’re just not feeling it. You’re still sick of not being able to find anything, you still really want to have your grandkids stay over, you still want to get the car in the garage and have friends over. But you look at the living room and it’s just too much. Too much…
Organizing Case Study: Jason’s Story
“Want to give me the tour?” I asked as Jason stood in front of me, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. I’d seen photographs of his house already and we’d talked about his organizing goals but I could see how stressful it was for him to finally let someone into his…
Mindful Decluttering
When it comes to decluttering, the focus is usually on how things look. Look at that bedroom! I can’t see the bed! I don’t see how all those clothes can possibly fit in the closet. But we have five senses and they all come into play when deciding what to do with clutter. Paying attention…
The Importance of Clutter
from the archives: Sometimes clutter is vital and that’s why you’re keeping it. It’s not important because your house papers are in those piles somewhere, although that may well be the case. It’s important because it’s serving you well, cocooning you and saving you from having to face something you don’t care to deal with….
Showing Up Even When You’re Not Feeling It
I could try to put this in my own words for you…or you could just enjoy this beautiful post from the creator of Zen Habits while I work through the sleep restriction phase of CBTI. Back to regularly scheduled programming next Saturday! BY LEO BABAUTA Some days, you’re just not feeling it. It’s not that you’re…
The Simplest Clutter Challenge You’ll Find
As this pandemic drags on, I’m sure your inbox is as full as mine is with all sorts of improving suggestions about how to make the best use of our COVID time. If organization doesn’t come naturally to you, these challenges are all way too complicated. Here are three non-overwhelming decluttering suggestions you could try…