Peace of Mind Organizing

Worth repeating: 10 things you can throw away right now

14 May 2024

10 years ago (almost to the day!) I wrote this post which I think offers sound advice. I’m happy to say that I’ve heeded this advice over the last decade, making my current downsizing project easier than it otherwise would be. Now seems like a good time to run this again!

It’s basement season for my business. I’ve been in a lot of basements recently and my teams have helped make them much more enjoyable and functional spaces. I keep seeing the same sorts of items, so I decided to a create a quick list of items that I frequently see people unnecessarily hanging onto in basements (and other parts of the house).

Are any of these items cluttering up your home?

1. Empty boxes for items you’ve had over three months (possible exception: the box your giant TV came in)
2. Packing peanuts and air pillows if you haven’t used any in six months or more
3. Paid bills (non-tax-related) that are more than a year or two old (if that)
4. Supporting paperwork for taxes filed more than seven years ago
5. Clothing that doesn’t fit you or you don’t feel fabulous in
6. Supplies for pets you no longer own
7. Outgrown games and toys
8. Supplies for hobbies or crafts you no longer do (or never actually did)
9. Expired over-the-counter medications or beauty/personal hygiene products
10. Leftover holiday cards from years gone by—especially dated ones

Do a quick sweep of your house this week. If you spot any of the above items, consider letting them go!

Here are some ideas for disposing of these items:

• Take the old paperwork to a commercial shredding service (the big-box office supplies stores offer this service as well)
• Donate clothing, toys and craft supplies. Consider using the app iDonatedIt to keep track of donations for tax purposes.
• Give your unneeded pet supplies to a local animal shelter
• Take the unwanted packing material to a UPS Store (or similar establishment) for reuse

The longer I do this work, the more I believe that less stuff = more happiness. A good place to start is with these no-brainers!

Photo by alan.stoddard via flickr.

Should you have a yard sale?

13 May 2024

Our yard sale was in the basement.

For years, I’ve discouraged clients who said they wanted to hold a yard sale. I always told them that it was a whole lot of work for not a lot of reward and it would be easier to just donate the stuff they were ready to let go of. If the client insisted they wanted to try a yard sale, I’d extract a promise that they would have a charity pickup scheduled for the day of or the day after the sale.

That was before I’d held a yard sale. I just had one and guess what? My advice hasn’t changed. We’re getting ready to move and we’re letting go of a lot of stuff. We decided to participate in our neighborhood-wide yard sale because the timing was excellent. Since about 50 homes were participating in the sale (the neighborhood association put out a map of the homes having sales), we thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

The sale was May 4 and I organized it in our big, empty unfinished basement, rather than in the yard. My guess is that we had 80 to 100 people come through. And, I’m happy to say, we netted almost $1000. But it was a lot of work. And I didn’t heed my own advice and didn’t schedule a charity pickup. Probably half the stuff sold but the other half still needs to find a home. I still have to deal with that.

There were some benefits: I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed seeing people buy my stuff at bargain prices. It was nice to know the stuff was getting a new life. The timing of our sale lit a fire under us to go through our stuff (at least the stuff that seemed like it might sell), which is giving us a bit of a head start on our July move.

But would I do it again? No. But that’s partly because of my stage of life and because I won’t have a yard after we move.

Should you have a yard sale? I’d say it depends:

• Are you letting go of enough stuff that it would be worth your time to organize the sale?
• Are you willing to let go of the stuff that doesn’t sell? (Please don’t bring it back in the house!)
• Do you live in an area where you’d get a lot of shoppers?

In my view, a yard sale doesn’t tend to bring in enough money to make the effort worthwhile. People expect low, low prices. (I wish I’d priced some of my things lower or slashed prices in the afternoon.) Your time might be better spend trying to sell the larger-ticket items on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

But if you do have a yard sale, do yourself a favor and schedule a charity pickup at the end of the day.

Downsizing bingo update

26 April 2024

I received some great feedback on the idea of using a bingo card to make downsizing easier. I’m so glad it struck a chord!

I used a bingo card for a few days last week and then realized that the strategy wasn’t going to be effective for my particular downsizing project. While I was motivated to do five minutes of decluttering at a time, striving for the bingo didn’t help because my projects are scattered all over my big house. So now I’ve reverted to a more traditional approach of working in one area of the house at a time until I run out of time for that particular session.

A huge success of the bingo project for me, though, was lowering the time criterion (to cross something off the bingo card) from 15 minutes to five minutes. What I discovered was that it allowed to do something (rather than nothing) and I could actually get quite a bit accomplished in only five minutes!

I signed up for the Tower Grove East Neighborhood Association’s community-wide yard sale, which is on May 4, so I’m focusing my efforts on areas that will produce discards I can sell and saving non-salable stuff (like paperwork) for later. That May 4 deadline is breathing down my neck since I still need to figure out pricing and organize the stuff for the sale. We’re going to have it in our large, bright, unfinished basement, so we have lots of room and I can organize it in advance. (If you happen to live in St. Louis, email me for the address! The sale will start at 9.)

I’m still a big believer in using Bingo Baker to make a bingo card to help make decluttering or daily tasks fun. I just had to abandon the approach for my current large-scale downsizing project.

Using bingo to make downsizing easier

15 April 2024

My husband, Barry, and I decided last week to sell our house and move into an apartment. We have rented an apartment starting in July, which gives me a couple of months to go through our accumulated belongings and figure out what we want to move and what to do with the rest of the stuff.

I love managing clients’ moves, but it definitely feels more overwhelming when it’s my own move I’m managing!

We have lived in this home 23 years and we’re cutting our living space in about half, so I have my work cut out for me. I really want to avoid procrastinating on the decluttering. So I’ve set up a little challenge for myself.

In an effort to make it as fun as possible, I’m going to start the decluttering process with a bingo board. At Bingo Baker I was able to generate bingo cards that are randomized. I created 30 areas/projects and Bingo Baker randomized them to include 25 on a bingo card. My plan is to mark the project on my card if I spend at least 15 five minutes on it. (I originally thought I would require spending 15 minutes before being able to mark a space but I discovered that it was an overly large barrier for entry. So I’ve reduced it to five minutes, which I hope will allow me to get the ball rolling on a project.) I know from To-Do List Bingo days that trying to get a bingo is a big motivator for me. Here’s a picture of today’s card.

Here’s a picture of today’s card.

If you’d like to join me in the challenge, let me know in the comments. You can create your own cards at Bingo Baker and decide on your own criteria for covering a space. My plan is to post my finished cards every Friday. This kind of public accountability will help me stick with it (I hope)!

Wish me luck!

Read my advice on GQ.com

9 April 2024

I was delighted to be asked to be part of an article on GQ’s website titled, 6 Ways to Create a Healthier Home Routine This Spring. The article details six different ways you can introduce new, healthier habits into your life. I was interviewed along with four other experts in various arenas. I especially love item #4, with advice from Michael Easter, to remove barriers to getting exercise so that you make it easy to integrate exercise into your life.

It’s a great, short read with some terrific advice. Check it out!

No excuses series (part 3): "It was a gift"

1 April 2024

This is the third in a three-part series of posts debunking the three excuses we hear most frequently from clients for wanting to keep items they no longer use or love. The series originally ran in January and February 2017 and I rerun it periodically. Part 1 (I might need it some day ) was published on March 18 and Part 2 (I paid a lot for that) appeared March 25.

The third common excuse we hear for keeping an unloved or unused item is that it was a gift. This is a tough one. People tend to have a difficult time parting with items that were given to them. (As an aside, this has completely changed how I give gifts, knowing that my gift may some day become clutter for the recipient.)

What do I say to clients who tell me they can’t let go of something because it was a gift? The first question I ask is:

• Do you think the gift giver would really want you to keep something you don’t use, just because they gave it to you? If they knew you were investing time and money in paring down your belongings and getting organized, would they care if you let it go?

Usually that’s enough to help the client release it. If that doesn’t do the trick, I might ask:

• Is there another family member you can pass this on to who would love it?

That can be very helpful, especially when the gift giver has passed away. (I’m the thrilled recipient of some paintings that my grandmother painted, given to me by her nieces when they were decluttering.)

Really, what I find is that often the client just needs permission to let gifts go. So let me do that for you right now: You are not obligated to keep an item you don’t use or love just because it was a gift. I give you permission to re-gift it or donate it. Don’t stash it in a closet. And try not to worry that the giver will ever ask about it. Chances are they won’t.

No excuses series (part 2): "I paid a lot for that"

25 March 2024

This is the second in a three-part series of posts debunking the three excuses we hear most frequently from clients for wanting to keep items they no longer use or love. The series originally ran in January and February 2017 and I periodically run it again. Part 1 (I might need it some day) appeared last week. Stay tuned for part 3 next week.

The second most common excuse we hear from clients who want to keep something they don’t use of love is that they paid a lot for that item. I get it. It feels terrible to let go of an expensive item that turned out to be a foolhardy purchase. But you know what? Keeping it doesn’t make you feel any better. In fact, when you see the item, it just makes you feel worse.

There are two important things to remember when you’re tempted to keep an item you don’t use or love just because you paid a lot for it:

1. The money is spent. Keeping it won’t bring it back. Selling it will get you some of the money. And donating might get you a tax deduction. Keeping it doesn’t help.
2. There’s a cost associated with keeping items that you don’t use or love, especially if clutter is an issue in your life. There’s an emotional cost (that reminder of your bad purchasing decision); there can be a physical cost if the item contributes to clutter that poses a tripping hazard or you’re unable to clean because there’s so much clutter; and there can be a financial cost if there’s so much clutter that you have to rent a storage unit or you can’t make repairs or do maintenance in your home.

For those expensive items you don’t use or love, I suggest pulling off the Band-aid. Take a deep breath and decide to let it go. If it’s easy to sell it, do so. Otherwise, donate it or make yourself feel better by giving it to someone you love. I’m pretty sure it will be a relief to get that thing out of your home!