The Clutter Diet Blog

Lose Clutter, Gain Time, Reduce Stress

This blog is just a taste...if you like what you see here, check out the tons of multimedia content we have available on our flagship membership site at www.clutterdiet.com! We have helped thousands of people in nine countries with our affordable online consulting and our easy weekly project plans.

Here we have organizing tips and tricks for the public about 2-3x per week. We love your comments and participation, so please get our tips via our RSS feed, via e-mail (see left sidebar), or subscribe on the Amazon Kindle and check out what we have to offer! Find out why we've been a top Amazon Kindle blog bestseller since September 2008. Welcome!

- Lorie Marrero, CPO®
Creator of The Clutter Diet

Doing = Having: Why Being Busy Can Mean More Clutter

I was just telling a reporter that many of the people we serve in our Clutter Diet online program are women who are doing too much. They are working full- or part-time outside the home, volunteering at school or at church (or both), rearing children, sometimes homeschooling, caring for aging parents, running a small business on the side, managing a tight budget and trying to clip coupons and bake from scratch. (Sound familiar? Anyone?)

The reporter asked me, "Do you see a correlation between doing too much and having too much clutter?" Nobody's ever asked me that before. My answer was a resounding yes! Here's why:

• Almost any activity that you do involves stuff that goes with it. Committing to an activity means that "gear" will be involved-- ask any soccer mom! If you run a cosmetics business on the side, you will have LOTS of products, brochures, and samples you need to store in an accessible area. If you're doing crafts with your kids, you need to have the craft supplies and a space in which to work. The more activities, the more stuff in your life, and the more space it takes in your house.
• Excessive activities crowd out maintenance time. When you clutter your schedule, you clutter your space. Maintaining your home takes time and if you're never home, you can't do it. Clothes need folding, closets need straightening, kitchen counters need clearing. Stuff that has accumulated needs to be put away, thrown away, or given away. When are you doing that if you are only stopping at home to "reload?"
• Excessive activities take up your physical and mental energy required for maintenance. If you are constantly on-the-go and your time has been used up, your energy is often used up too. Maintaining the things in your home, whether it's repairing broken furniture or dealing with the paper piling up on your desk, requires your attention and energy. Even if you find an open expanse of time on a Saturday, if you don't have the energy, you're going to want to sink into the sofa rather than maintain your accumulating clutter.

This Labor Day weekend, take some of that extra time to catch up with your maintenance if you can, and if you don't have the energy, at least take some time to reflect upon which activities are really serving you, which are optional, and which are most important. What could you edit from your life that would free up some of your time and energy... and consequently, your space? Share in the comments! And see my previous post on "Overdoers Anonymous" with our suggested 12-step plan.

Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet

Don't Put It Off: Fight Procrastination NOW!

A couple of things to remind you of... first, before I put it off any longer, I wanted to let you know that tomorrow (Sept. 1) is "Fight Procrastination Day!" What dreaded task can you commit to doing? USA readers have a long weekend coming up for Labor Day-- here's my big question to you:

What could you accomplish with that extra time that would give you more energy and make you feel terrific for the rest of the month?

One suggestion for a great project is to bring your excess clothing and household items to Goodwill. Back-to-School is a fantastic time to go through your family's folded and hanging clothing, especially since you probably are buying the kids new school clothes. Your children will have outgrown quite a bit since you last went through this, and the items they don't need can provide someone else with meaningful work, job training, resume writing help, placement services, and other employment assistance.

Did you know that is Goodwill's entire mission-- to help put people to work? I am surprised how many people don't know this! As their national spokesperson I am hearing many people's comments and feedback, and I am shocked at how many people think Goodwill's services are limited to providing work in their own retail stores. Goodwill does everything from career counseling to assistance with transportation; from interview skills training to actual job placement within the community. Some Goodwill agencies even obtain large contracts for assembly work, landscaping, document imaging, and custodial services and actually make the jobs happen for those they serve.

If there's anything we need now more than ever, it's JOBS, and I am proud to help people understand that Goodwill contributes 84% of their collective revenues directly to support this mission! You can use our donation calculator at http://donate.goodwill.org to find out exactly what kind of impact your donation has on your community. For example, one sweater, 3 pairs of jeans, and a coat provides someone with an hour of on-the-job training services.

I also wanted to remind you that Family Circle magazine has a Back-to-School Clothing Drive going on right now through September 30th, 2010. Last year, they helped Goodwill collect 11 million pounds of clothing. (That's a lot of Clutter-Pounds® lost from people's homes, as our members know!) You can participate by bringing in your donations, or by setting up your own clothing drive in your neighborhood, school, or office. You can download a how-to guide here, and you can find a donation center near you here.

So, how about it, will you do something you've been dreading? Or at least clear some space in your house to help others in your community find work?  How will you celebrate "Fight Procrastination Day?" Share in the comments!

Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet

Fear Stinks: or Why I Prefer The Statue With More Clothes On

I believe that I am in the "personal change" business, and organizing is my topic. Organizing is a change in itself, and it's also a means to make other, bigger changes. Organizing yourself makes room for new things to come into your life and space.

Our biggest enemy in personal change of all kinds is FEAR. People are afraid to let go of things, afraid to say no to others, afraid to fail, and afraid to succeed. FEAR STINKS, and what's more infuriating about fear is that it's usually just a mirage. The things we fear rarely come to pass. So I made up my mind long ago not to let fear "be the boss of me."

Last week I attended an event that eWomen Network hosted for "Fearless Women Day." While I truly appreciate the spirit and intention of the event, I think the name is inaccurate. To me, the victory is in feeling the fear and acting in spite of it. I am not sure if it would be possible to be "fearless," nor would our victories taste so sweet.

So I'd like to share with you something new that really inspires me when I am facing fears. I recently went to Italy on vacation for the first time, and I got to see two different statues of David-- one, the famous Michelangelo statue in Florence, and the other, in Rome at the Galleria Borghese, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

While Michelangelo's David is classic and beautiful, he is posed and still. Bernini's David is in ACTION, and he is captured in the moment of confronting his fear. I love his face! His expression is one of determination, courage, and focus. (click on any of these photos for a larger view)

In remembering the old story of fighting the giant Goliath, it reminds me of our own challenges that seem to loom large and are then often surprisingly conquered easily given courage and action. As an entrepreneur I feel like I have to do something scary almost every day!

And our Clutter Diet members share their journeys with us in our member message boards, where we occasionally hear about their organizing goals in terms of the bigger stories that both motivate and scare them as they face what needs to be done. Organizing is about more than just closets and garages and the stuff within them-- the projects sometimes represent situations like aging parents, estranged family members, grief-stricken parents, and brave people winning battles with depression.

Whatever your situation, don't let fear stop you from doing what must be done. May we all have the same intensity as Bernini's David as we approach our projects, big or small!

What do you think of David's fierce and inspiring face? How have you learned to face your fears, and what inspires you? Share in the comments!

Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet

(photo credits: Michelangelo's David from istockphoto.com. Bernini's David, full view, from Creative Commons license here.  Bernini's David, face, found here.)

What Are Your "Back to School Resolutions?"

One of our Clutter Diet members posted this yesterday in our member message boards: 

"The new school year to me is like setting new year's resolutions."

Yes, it is! It's a fresh start, just like a brand new calendar year. What will you do differently?

Here are some suggestions of small things you can change that will make a huge difference in your school year and how organized you feel:

• Create a lunch-making station in your kitchen, with storage for lunch boxes, plastic bags, food containers, thermal containers, plasticware, and common lunch treats all within easy reach of the fridge and/or pantry. Think about how easy it would be to make a peanut butter sandwich in your kitchen and adjust accordingly.
• Start a habit of making lunches the night before. Better yet, have the young 'uns start packing their own. Give them some guidance on appropriate menus and combinations and keep your supplies stocked for them.
• Find out if your school has automated reminders that e-mail you when your child's lunch money account is below a certain dollar amount. (Ours does and I didn't know that until the end of last year!)
• Get up earlier. Get ahead of the rest of the family, get your workout done, get a shower, or just get some quiet time to yourself before the whole day's wild rumpus begins.
• Do your "Sunday Planning"-- just 10-15 minutes a week could change everything! We explain exactly how and what this entails in our free report, "30 Ways to Find Time to Get Organized", available here.
• Set up family policies for homework time, snack time, and how much screen time the kids can have on weekdays and weekends. Agree to these policies together along with the consequences for violating them, and even have the kids sign an official paper about it. Eliminate arguments and constant policing!
• Make an effort to organize a carpool arrangement with at least one other family. It saves everyone immense amounts of time and is good for the environment too.

What are your "Back to School Resolutions?" Share in the comments!

Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet

Facing the Giant Mail Pile

I just went on vacation for two weeks (to ITALY!), then returned home, repacked my suitcase, and was gone another week speaking for Goodwill in Atlanta and going to several days of meetings in San Diego. Whew! Glad to be home! And what did I find upon my return?

THE GIANT VACATION MAIL PILE.

You've all seen it yourselves... one of your neighbors was kind enough to put all of the mail into a big box for you while you were gone, and when your tanned and relaxed self sees it, your heart skips a beat and you try not to audibly gasp. Here's how to approach the pile and conquer it quickly:

• Set aside all reading material. If you want to separate magazines from catalogs that's fine too. You'll find that reading material makes up the bulk of the pile. Recycle what you know you won't read (remember, there is hardly ever such a thing as "catch up on your reading time"). Seeing how much smaller the pile looks should have you feeling very relieved already.
• Sort the rest, without opening envelopes yet. Opening the envelopes is very time consuming, and you can usually anticipate what many things are without opening them. That will come later. Here are the categories that will usually result, based on our Action-Reference-Trash (ART) method:
• ACTION (things you need to do something with):

- Mail to give to someone else in your family
- Bills you need to review and pay
- Other envelopes that are likely to require filling out forms or making calls
- Coupons you'd like to review and possibly use
- Items you are uncertain about and need to open and review

• REFERENCE (things you need to file for later, no action needed):

- Statements or correspondence you need to file away or scan
- Other envelopes that obviously contain reference information that needs filing

• TRASH (garbage, recycling, or shredding):

- Obvious junk mail
- Other mail you know you don't want or need

• Next, distribute what you've sorted.

- Give family members their own mail
- Put reading material where people will read it (basket, coffee table, etc.)
- Recycle and shred as needed
- Take Action and Reference items to a desk or table where you can process them.

• Open the Action items first (use a letter opener to make it easier). Bills are most important to open first, then other known actionable letters, then the "unknown" pile. Save coupon packs and the Reference items for last.
• Once you've opened everything and sorted it, you should end up with:

- A few small stacks of various types of things you actually need to do
- Items to file, either for your "To File" basket, to scan, or to put directly in your file folders
- Items that need to be delegated or just given to someone else
- A stack of things that need to be distributed (trash, shredding, recycling, coupons)

There, now, do you feel better? All of that bulk can really get reduced to a few small DO-ABLE stacks in about an hour if you put your decision-making hat on and focus.

This process can also be used for any accumulation of mail, regardless of whether you went on vacation. I know many people have trouble processing their mail regularly and I have gone through it with them during our work. There are many ways to do it, but this is effective for lots of situations.

What do you think? How do you make your mail pile seem less scary? Share in the comments!

Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet