Peace of Mind Organizing

Q&A with author Leah Ingram

23 February 2011

I’ve been acquainted with Leah Ingram, author of the new book,Toss, Keep, Sell!: The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Cleaning Out the Clutter and Cashing In, for going on fifteen years. We were members of the same professional association for writers back when I was a freelance writer and both still belong to the online writing community, Freelance Success. Leah’s created a name for herself as an expert in saving money, thanks to her popular Suddenly Frugal blog and her book of the same name. When I became aware of the topic of her newest book. I couldn’t resist asking her to do a Q&A for my blog.

Who will benefit most from your book?

Recovering spendthrifts—people who use to spend, shop, and dine out freely, and then when the economy tanked, suddenly needed to live frugally. I know from being one of those recovering spendthrifts that, thanks to my “shopper-tainment” days, when I went shopping when I was bored. I had more stuff than I needed so plenty of clutter to clear out.

What prompted you to write it?

I wanted this new book to serve a dual purpose: to help people get their homes organized, and discover ways that they could get cash for their clutter. This book grew out of my earlier book Suddenly Frugal: How to Live Happier and Healthier for Less, which grew out of my blog Suddenly Frugal. The secret to living frugally is to continually reevaluate your spending and saving, and find ways that you can cut back on daily or regular expenses. But when there’s nothing left to cut, you’ve got to find ways to bring in more money. I’m lucky, in that I’m a self-employed writer and I can always take on additional assignments to bring in more income. But most people don’t have the time to get a second job. Hopefully, Toss, Keep, Sell! will help them figure out ways to put more cash back in their wallets.

In researching your book, what was the most surprising or impressive way you uncovered that people can make money be getting rid of their excess stuff?

The person who held an “estate” sale in her suburban tract home. Truthfully, I thought only rich people with mansions had estate sales, but this person was able to pull it off—she basically turned her entire house into a “department store,” and walked away with $4,000.

What’s your favorite place to sell stuff?

I’m really into consigning my clothes these days. I try to consign twice a year—once for warm weather clothing and once for cold weather clothing—and knowing that this is on my “schedule,” it keeps me on track for thinning my wardrobe on a regular basis. Also, once my clothes are bagged up, if the consignment store rejects them, then I just drive to my local Goodwill and donate them. That’s win-win for me, my wallet, my closet, and people who could use new clothes.

One of the categories of stuff that I find that many of my clients have difficulty parting with are items given to them as gifts. Do you have any advice that would help them let go of unwanted gifts?

I call it gift guilt, and I definitely address this in Toss, Keep, Sell! Simply put I suggest that readers do a 180 on the situation and ask themselves, “Do I expect everyone I give a gift to to keep that gift indefinitely, even if they can’t use it or don’t like it?” Most people realize that the pressure that they put on themselves to keep and display gifts that they don’t really love they would never put on most other people. And usually that frees them up to add it to their yard sale box, list it on eBay, or just get rid of it.

Author Leah Ingram

What do you think is the secret to keeping a home clutter-free, after the decluttering is accomplished?

Keeping a home clutter-free is exactly like keeping off weight after you’ve reached your goal. It’s all about maintenance. You can’t go back to your old habits and expect everything to stay the same. While I’m not always good about cleaning up each room of my house every single day, you can bet that the main areas of my house are tidied before we go to bed at night or at least once during the day. Just this morning my kitchen was a disaster area from the kids having breakfast before school, me packing lunches, and no one getting around to loading and unloading the dishwasher. So the sink was full. Rather than stomp away in disgust, after everyone had left this morning—and before I took my dog for a walk (part of my morning exercise routine)—I set the timer on my stove for 15 minutes and “challenged” myself to get the kitchen back in order before the timer went off. Not only did I clear off all the counters, load and unload the dishwasher, and wipe down the table, but I did a quick (albeit not perfect) mopping of the floor. Then I could leave to walk my dog with a free mind and a clean kitchen welcomed me when I got back later.

What’s your favorite bit of decluttering advice?

See above, especially given how much you can get done in 15 minutes. I write in the book that you might not finish a project or decluttering or organizing in 15 minutes, but you will be surprised to discover how much of a dent you can make.

In your book’s introduction you write, “There’s no reason to pay anywhere from $50 to $100 an hour to hire a professional organizer…I believe you can do it all by yourself.” That makes me curious: have you ever worked with a professional organizer? While I agree that many people can declutter on their own—and they are the audience for your book—as a professional organizer I can say with confidence that there are many people who have very good reasons to hire a PO (and benefit greatly). Do you care to comment?

I’m sorry if that comment offended you. Yes, I have worked with a professional organizer, and maybe the problem was that she wasn’t a very good one. She came in two or three times and told us how to make her system for getting organized work rather than looking at the nature of our lifestyle and helping us design a system that worked for us. I did take a few tips away from her, such as dumping all of my kids crayons in one Rubbermaid container, the markers in another, and that way I didn’t have random writing utensils floating around my house. So while a professional organizers didn’t work for me, eventually I came up with my own systems, which I’m hoping will work for my readers who would like to take the DIY approach to getting organized and getting cash for their clutter.

Tagged with: decluttering, disposal, leah ingram, money

Comments