Monday, March 21, 2011

YOUR LEGACY, YOUR JUNK, WHOSE PROBLEM?

Have you ever been called upon to clean up the family home of an aging or departed loved one?  If so, you understand what this process entails, and have observed the unbelievable amounts of JUNK that people accumulate over their lifetimes.

If you have not yet had this experience, let me briefly summarize the process:   a loved one needs to move into an assisted living facility for medical reasons (or she/he has passed on).  The actual clean-out of this person's home begins with a few family and friends going through the house searching for "treasures," i.e. junk they either want to keep or think they can sell for big bucks.

Then they begin to clear out the remaining household goods and personal effects.  And clear out.  And clear out some more, over weeks and sometimes months, until finally, in desperation to be done with the mess, the relatives and friends shackled with this chore pitch the remaining household items into trash bags without further thought on their usefulness or sentimental value.

By this time, EVERYTHING is junk.

Why such a heavy topic for a Monday morning?

I want you to understand WHY decluttering an estate is so difficult:  the original owners of this junk did not recycle, give away, or throw out enough stuff over their lifetimes.   In short, THEY KEPT TOO MUCH.

And I want to prevent YOU from doing this to your loved ones.  

Truly, leaving a legacy of junk is slapping your family and friends in the face.  Sure, you may be only 28 (or 36, or 55, or 72) right now, but if you can't motivate yourself to clean up your junk FOR yourself, at least do it for the people you care about, so that they won't be left with the fallout of a lifetime's worth of your lack of self-management.

NOW is the time to begin creating the habits of uncluttered living: throwing out genuine trash, recycling what can be recycled, giving things away you're no longer using, and keeping up with regular maintenance of your possessions. 

These small jobs are part of LIFE.  But when people ignore them (and frankly, most people do ignore them), stuff piles up, and a lifetime's worth of accumulation is sheer torture for family and friends to have to process at an already  stressful time in their lives (losing you, or placing you in assisted living).

An easy way to begin?

When you bring home a new purchase, get rid of something in your home approximately the same size, that takes up the same space.  The "one in, one out" rule.  If you bring home a new pair of slacks, throw away a ripped one (or donate one that has "shrunk" and no longer fits).

That is so simple: one thing comes in, one thing goes out.

You'll save your family and friends weeks of torture by this simple little habit.

May you live a long and blessed life filled with friendship, love, and happiness, not JUNK!
 

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

DIGITAL UPDATE AND MORE PAPER CLEARING IDEAS

Have you tried any new suggestions on reducing your paper load by going digital?

I bought my first Kindle for PC book on amazon.com, and instantly downloaded a book on (what else?) getting rid of clutter!  Although I am not a Kindle Reader kind of person, I AM a PC Kindle one, so this is wonderful. 

I also made a dedicated attempt to use Google calendar, and finally concluded that it's really not for me:  I still prefer a paper calendar (week-at-a-glance) system.  

Regarding all the paper we still keep, I want to encourage you (and myself too!) to shred or recycle as much as possible, rather than file it.  

I currently am trying to avoid the purchase of a four-drawer file cabinet by shredding or recycling 300 pieces of paper per month, from my already full file cabinet and archive file boxes.  Why 300?  Last month was 200, and helped a little.  But I need to continue this process in order to not have to purchase another cabinet, and I need to be able to accomplish this paper reduction in short time slots.  Setting a measurable goal (300 pages) with a time line (this month), provides me a great and achievable target.  I end up shredding 25 to 50 pages at a time, spread out over the month. 

Why not try setting a paper disposal goal this week?  Maybe 25 or 30 old papers from the back of your file cabinet?  That will take just a few scant minutes to do.  And you'll feel uplifted by getting rid of a bit of paper clutter.

Happy shredding!

Friday, March 11, 2011

GARAGE, SHED, AND OUTDOOR CLUTTER

What kind of junk do you have lurking around your home, just outside your front (or back, or side) door?  What things are you storing in your garage, the shed, the barn, the kids' playhouse, under the porch, on the patio, or stacked along the open edge of the carport?  

Exterior storage can be both a blessing and a curse:  exterior storage keeps big, bulky, and potentially greasy things (think lawn mower and weed-eater) away from your interior living spaces, but these spaces quickly become holding grounds for things you have no better place to store or haven't figured out yet if you should keep.

In my experience, the typical exterior storage space contains yard and landscaping tools and supplies, athletic and sports gear (rarely or never used anymore), boxes of holiday decorations, household chemicals (cleaning solutions, paint, pest sprays, fertilizer, empty plant pots, assorted tools, baby gear (strollers, rockers, cribs, tubs, you name it), and countless other objects in varying states of decay: leaking air mattress, luggage with broken locks or handles, studded snow tires that fit the car you traded in three years ago, bikes and bike parts, wooden chairs you think you want to refinish, pool toys, pet supplies, and countless Rubbermaid storage bins holding mounds of who knows what in their color-coordinated, water-resistant plasticity.

You don't need to carry this burden around any longer.  It's time to sort through this junk and lighten your load.

Every item in your possession--whether inside or outside of your home--consumes brain space (nice phrase, eh?) in remembering you have the thing, inspires guilt because you don't use the object or it's dirty or broken, makes you feel obligated because you think you need to fix it up and use it, or obligates you because someone you love gave it to you or used it at one time.

Really, you can free your brain for higher thoughts than how to get the ancient grime-covered rototiller to start, in order to justify owning it.

How can you free yourself from it all?

GET RID OF THIS JUNK.

"How?!"  you cry.  "There's too much of it, it's too bulky, I can't lift it myself, where do I start?"

Here are several quick and easy options for disposal:

Most municipal trash pick-up services offer free pick up of large and bulky items like sofas and water heaters (you would be surprised how many of these two things are hanging around your neighbor's garages); simply call your trash service and schedule a time.  Ask a muscle-y neighbor or friend to help drag it to the curb.

Also, many cities offer unlimited trash pick up during certain times of the year, such as fall leaf pick up, Christmas tree recycling, and spring cleaning.  My city has two weeks of spring cleaning coming up, and you better believe I'll take advantage of that (my junk is mostly yard waste; I have a good-size corner lot that previous owners over-planted in a huge way).

List bigger, still useful items on craigslist and make a few dollars off your junk.  A neighbor listed his broken bicycle on craigslist this week and made $20 on its still useful parts.  He prevented all that metal and rubber from going to a landfill, and provided a bike enthusiast with a good frame and spare parts for cheap.

You can also list items for free on freecycle.org or also on craigslist.org.  I prefer craigslist because you don't have to sign up for annoying emails.  You can list almost anything useful, such as older but working electronic equipment (computers, VHS players and tapes, kitchen appliances), yard tools that look old but still work, boxes of holiday decorations you don't want to sort, remodeling left-overs (wood, sheet rock, carpet remnants, etc.),and--get this--clean, empty cardboard boxes for moving. I recently listed on craigslist a "free to a good home" box filled with packing peanuts, and someone came by and hauled it away within 30 minutes.  I listed my address but no phone number in the short description, set the box in my driveway, and taped a small "free" sign on it.  I've done the same with an old antenna, garden stepping stones, and a dated computer monitor.  These bulky and heavy items are difficult to donate to charity, but a "free to the first one here" ad on craigslist is the easiest way in my neighborhood to share and recycle bulky things I no longer need.

I hope you are now inspired to begin releasing the exterior junk around your home, and let in the clean fresh breezes of spring!