The Blog

Assessing the Now: Have You Outgrown Your Clutter?

05/28/2014 By Nancy Borg With 1 comment

clutterLook around.  Room check.  Some of your spaces may be seemingly crowded. But imagine that there’s a chance that some of the clutter that’s hanging around just might be irrelevant to you now. Wouldn’t that make it easier to part with?

So let’s start there. It’s hard enough to manage and organize all the things that we are currently using, so let’s go the easy peasy route first.  Here’s the long and the short of it;

Assess the now. Time changes us and we continually evolve.  And so it would make sense that even the clutter should align with our current lifestyle and priorites.  Let go of those things that no longer provide value, any longer. Above all, don’t feel bad about it.  You can make space for new things to enjoy.

Recently inspired from a colleague’s interview with Erin Rooney Doland, author of Unclutter Your Life in One Week, I’ve realized that so many of us hold onto things we’ve outgrown. It’s simply there because, it just is.  Ignored, neglected, perhaps even invisible, but probably for good reason.  It’s just not that important to us anymore.

Here’s a great way to think about letting go of the insignificant. Erin refers to clutter like a bad book you don’t want to read anymore, it’s OK to let it go. Just because you bought it, that doesn’t mean you have to torture yourself to finish it. If it no longer interests you, no need to keep it. It’s just taking up unnecessary space and certainly not deserving of prime real-estate in your home.  Apply this simple thinking to all of your possessions.  Are they a good “match”?  Do they still “fit”?

My favorite depiction of how personal change impacts our values is in Erin’s claim that “one day, a pair of earrings can be your go-to piece of jewelry. You’re a little heartbroken if one earring goes missing from the pair. Two years later, the same pair of earrings is taking up space in your jewelry box and you wouldn’t even remember it was in there. The object hasn’t changed, but how you value it has.” How true. We are indeed capricious.

Time is the operative word for just about everything. Time can ‘manage’ us, time can ‘heal’ us, and time can also ‘change’ us. With the passage of time, we all evolve, and so our priorities shift along with us too. Hence, our clutter changes and so does its significance in our lives.

Have you checked your clutter lately? Ask yourself if it reflects who you are today.  We’ll talk about organizing it all another day, another blog 🙂

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The Shelf-Life of Hobbies: Love ’em or Leave ’em

04/23/2014 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

craft-office_optHobby\noun: a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.

By definition, a hobby is an activity we choose to engage in because it relaxes us.  It brings us immeasurable pleasure. Some hobbies live on forever because they are active and well-preserved.  For the most part,  I’ve seen them come and ‘go,’ in theory, but they rarely seem to actually exit the home.  They often remain in the home on a dusty shelf somewhere in the attic or buried in a box in the basement and/or garage.

During the organizing sessions with my clients, I often discover neglected hobbies.  Here’s how the conversation usually goes during the organizing process;

Organizer (me):  I notice you have an abundant yarn inventory, knitting needles, instruction manuals, etc.  Are you an avid knitter?

Client:  Well, I use to knit all the time many years ago, but I don’t anymore.  I rarely find the time and my interest has waned.

This is a tough one.  As life changes, our interests and passions change too. The longevity of our hobbies may be questionable.  ‘Letting go’ of a hobby once loved can be emotionally difficult. It’s bidding farewell to a piece of your past. Perhaps establishing some criteria would be helpful in the decision-making process.

If you have abandoned your old hobbies and they are strewn all over your house or living on dusty shelves, ask yourself;

  • How important is it in your life today?
  • When was the last time you paid it any attention?
  • Do you still love it and intend to return to it?
  • Does it have any monetary value?
  • What personal value does it serve you to hold onto it?

 

Clearly, if your hobby and its components are dated, in disrepair, or unusable, consider letting them go.  If they are no longer relevant in your life but can benefit someone else’s, think about donating it to those who will enjoy it. No need to clutter the home at all, albeit with a neglected hobby.

But if you have a hobby that still brings you continuous pleasure, whether it be crafts, painting, pottery, carpentry, books, coins, etc. designate a beautiful space for them. It is far more enticing to play and enjoy when you’ve created a proper home and can organize all the accompaniments.

Honor and respect your hobbies with “pride of place. ” If your hobby or hobbies are active, housing the hobby is an essential piece of its preservation.  These are some of the key elements to consider;

Storage is paramount.  It doesn’t have to be fancy or super high-tech, but a simple system will keep the hobby accessible, organized, and live in an exclusive place.  Things can be easily be retrieved and returned back to their proper home.  It’s important not to impede on other family common spaces.

I love clear organizing cubes for storing tiny crafts (buttons or beads)  http://ow.ly/w5OOl or for small hardware (nails, screws, hooks) http://ow.ly/w5P0d.  You can corral them all in one place and ‘see’ them.

Space matters.  Anticipate how your hobby may grow.  Too often, the original space is outgrown in a short period of time because it wasn’t designed for growth and change.

Lighting is also an integral component of happy hobby space. Poorly lit spaces emits negative energy, does not foster a high functioning environment, and can cause chronic eye strain.  It’s likely to discourage you from delving into the hobby and enjoying its space. If you are fortunate enough to be near natural lighting or directly adjacent to a window, that’s an ideal setting.  If not, there are multiple halogen lamps and specialty lighting available that provide superior indoor lighting.

Ergonomics of the hobby space is crucial. The hobby table should accompany all that you require in order efficiently work on the project.  Consider purchasing this flexible hobby table that can adjusts to your preferred height. Optimize vertical space with ample shelving to give you additional storage and easy accessibility.  Ditto to the chair, especially if you plan on sitting in it for countless hours.  It may or may not be critical for it to be on wheels, but it is important for it to be comfy. 🙂

So make your hobby or your kid’s hobby succeed and design with optimal functionality in mind.  Children’s Legos and jigsaw puzzles need happy homes too.  Think about it. Have you really invited your hobby into your home?

Don’t leave them out in the cold garage or dark corners of the basement.  Unattended hobbies generally find their way there. Invite them back in or send them on their merry way.  Love them or let them go.

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Are You Drowning in Paper?

04/01/2014 By Nancy Borg With 3 comments

paper mailIt is a fact that the number one violator of clutter, is paper. It is coming into our homes at a faster rate than we can sort it! The good news is that we have options now 🙂

 

 

We can choose to go paperless with our finances, bank statements, and bill-paying. We can opt out of the magazines that we know we are never going to read, catalogs and product solicitations, etc.   Visit www.catalogchoice.org and www.optoutprescreen.com.  Simply remove your name from pre-approved credit card lists and type in unsubscribe in the search bar.

But then there’s the other kind of clutter; the virtual culprits. By far, the best and newest e-mail manager is unroll.me.  Bye bye and so long to the countless unwanted e-mail subscriptions we receive that mercilessly clutter our inboxes daily. With this program, you can toss the junk mail with just one click. Once you unsubscribe, you can create your own “rollup” or digest of preferred and favorites, and schedule them to arrive any day you choose, all in one email.  How great is that?

As for the other incoming mail, try to create a nice consistent landing-place, so that the papers requiring your attention will be easily found. Having a mail sorter (simple but effective) is ideal to “catch” and separate different categories of paper coming into the home.  Weed through often and isolate the junk mail. Toss it, recycle it, or shred it…just get it out of the house. There is certainly enough paper that we must keep, we surely don’t need to hold on to paper we will never want or need. You may even want to do the junk mail sort at the mailbox and toss it before it even enters your home.

As for the mountains of other kinds of miscellaneous paper, you need to be honest with yourself. If there is literature that you haven’t referred to in a considerable amount of time, you need to let it go. If you are holding onto sentimental paper (like old greeting cards, invitations to old events, children’s art, etc.) evaluate carefully, select and store just a special few.

There are papers, however, that never should get tossed and should be kept indefinitely; vital records, tax returns, legal documents, etc. There are other records suggested to be kept for at least 7 years, like bank records, deductible receipts, credit records, any tax-related documents, etc. Since the IRS may go back 7 years to audit your tax returns, you should have those papers in order and organized. There are papers that can be tossed after 1 year, and those that can be tossed just after your payment is verified on the next bill.

What to keep and what to toss is a personal decision, but if you are overwhelmed with paper, it is time to manage it. Ask yourself how vital the information really is, and consider if it can be retrievable somewhere else, you can feel confident to toss it.  But if you’re in doubt, enlist advice from your accountant or financial advisor.  No need to go it alone, and no need to drown in paper. Having just a few organizational systems in place can be the ultimate rescue that will keep you afloat.

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The Impact of Happy Spaces in Your Home

11/07/2013 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

IMG_1890_opt

Inspired by the brilliant Fall colors around me, I set out today to cozy up my home with a little zest of Autumn. Fresh flowers, some red wine, and good nosh for guests were in my head and on my list.

I bought some yummy trail mix of nuts, speckled with fresh cranberries to fill the decorative bowls on my coffee table, and unabashedly, added a tub of caramel popcorn clusters to my cart.

Purchased the red wine and then meandered through a home goods store. And there amidst all the fragrant scents of cinnamon and evergreen,  I was struck with this particular candle.  It got me thinking that while our homes are very personal and private spaces, they outwardly reflect bits of who we are.  Indeed, it is where our hearts live.

We all seek some sanctuary within our own homes. We need it.  Life is often stressful and so it’s important to have a place to kick off our shoes, and relax.

Do you have happy spaces in your home?  What does “happy” look like to you?

For each of us, it may look different. It could range from neat to messy, as well as adorned with (from few to abundant) chotkes. Too often, when busy hubs clash with the lack of time it requires to maintain them, chaos shortly ensues. But wouldn’t it be great to have some household space that feels happy, albeit if it’s just in one room?

Take a look around.  Do you like what you see?  Do you feel good in your favorite space?  Are you more inclined to hang out in your den, kitchen, office, or  bedroom?  Where is the heart of your home?

Chances are, whether in your den, bedroom, kitchen, office, or any other room in your home, if you aren’t enjoying the space, you won’t be inclined to spend much time in it.  Especially if it’s a disheveled room, it’s understandable that the negative energy can discourage frequent visits.

The danger zones that may be in your way of  “happy”:

If the once cozy den is now full of miscellaneous clutter, and a random mess is crowding the couch,  how cozy can it really be?

If your bedroom closet is a disaster mess, it’s probably very stressful to get dressed amongst the disarray and find what you’re looking for in a hurry.  It’s not only costing you time, it could potentially lead to a fashion ensemble nightmare of epic proportions. Heading out for the day in mismatched socks can be a dead giveaway for whats’s going on in your closet.

Ditto to the kitchen.  If your kitchen space is not working for you, you probably won’t enjoy cooking in it, and I would venture to guess that there won’t be sensational entrees coming out of there any time soon.

The home-office is no different.  If the work space is not efficient, it will not be enticing to pay bills in there. If there is a glitch in the filing system, it will impede on your paper organization, for sure.  You could be in danger of piling, instead of filing.

The truth of the matter is that happy spaces, convincingly, invite comfort and emit positive energy.  You can reclaim your favorite spaces again when you clear the excess clutter away, pare down, and remove items that simply don’t belong in that room. It doesn’t have to be a monumental change. Sometimes it’s just about the little things.  Add a little touch of “you” so that it feels good to hang out in that space.

Finding the heart of your home will help you find your happy.  Love your spaces and possessions with pride of place.  There just might be some small things you can change to make your spaces feel great.

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Is the Traffic in Your House Causing Chaos?

03/20/2013 By Nancy Borg With 2 comments

Granted, we all have individual busy hubs in our homes, but if I had to guess, I would presume the kitchen and family room/den are the most congested.  Whether or not these spaces are on the first floor, they’re still considered prime real estate in a typical home. Ask yourself if there are things living in these zones that don’t belong in those spaces?

These highly trafficked spaces do not merely accommodate people but multiple activities. As a result, they often end up looking more like a dumping ground than a manicured living space!

Think about it. The kid’s sports equipment, the newest toy, latest technology, all usually come along for the ride and invade the common spaces. Let’s not forget about the daily incoming piles of mail and magazines, and latest kitchen gadgets and supplies that you never got around to unpack.

So do your most active spaces look like a bomb hit it?

It’s understandable how easily it can happen. If there are no designated zones for all your things to return to, and if you’re not inclined to put them away ASAP, you will be left with highly cluttered areas. It’s unavoidable.  More importantly, if the incoming exceeds the outgoing, you will be living in a perpetual traffic jam.

So if we can’t control the pedestrian traffic, how do we manage our cluttered spaces?  What’s the secret?

Here’s my take.  First we need to determine the culprit. Evaluate your source of clutter;

  • Is it that you are over-acquired?
  • Is it that you have not assigned designated homes for your things?
  • Is it that you have no organized systems at all?
  • Are you a procrastinator?

 

Hey, you could be guilty of a combination of any one of these, you are not alone.  Admittedly, we all have a need to acquire new things. Of course, there are extreme cases of those who suffer with chronic disorders, but the rest of us are still struggling to discard the old stuff. Too much incoming, with little regard to significant outgoing.  In a culture that is drowning in possessions, our homes are overflowing with excess.

We try to manage our things, but life gets busy. And  if space permits, we don’t have to deal with it immediately, right?  We can avoid bidding farewell to the old, we can just “move stuff around.”

Finding proper and permanent homes for things will reduce your urge to move things around to accommodate the new item.  This will help to eliminate owning multiples of the same item.  I’m not talking about duplicate office supplies because I love the idea of keeping extra scissors, tape, pens that write, reading glasses, etc. in more than one room.  But the real baffling question, (myself included) why do we all have so many extra staple removers, lol? I don’t know how that happens.  But this I do know…there’s only room for one new printer, PC monitor, keyboard, video camera, et al,  not all that came before it.

So if your home is crowded with people, things, and clutter, consider moving the mess by either removing it altogether, i.e. by donating,tossing, or organizing and creating consistent places for them.  Don’t just move your stuff around. Trust me, you will eventually run out of room.

Seriously,  heed this advice and you can control the chaos.  It’s viable solution, and it works!  I’m not just messin’ with ya.

 

 

 

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Are You Getting a Sustainable Return on Your Savings?

01/09/2013 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

Nope, I’m not talking about the green stuff in the bank. I’m talking about the “other“ stuff you are saving;  the stuff you are holding onto because you can’t seem to let it go.

If you are thinking about saving things that you might use one day, or holding onto clothing you might wear someday…think again, it’s not happening.

Someone else can certainly benefit from them now, so let them go. Be philanthropic and donate to a charity of your choice.

If you are a parent and you’re thinking about saving stuff for your kids, thinking they might want it…think again. Generally speaking, (and I don’t mean to offend the exception to the rule), chances are great that your adult children don’t want your old stuff, they have their own.

Trust me, I’ve learned from personal experience, and I’m just passing on the harsh reality. I too, had been guilty of  justifying hanging on to random clutter that served no one. So do yourself a favor and evaluate your savings.

Are you enjoying them? Are you reaping any great rewards from them?

If your treasures are sitting in a box on an inaccessible shelf somewhere, or buried in a drawer, or tucked away in a dusty attic, how valuable are they really?

Let’s say you have old cherished items that cannot necessarily be used, but still give you significant pleasure when you look at them. Viewing them daily can bring you great joy, so display them with pride.  If it’s frame-able, frame it.  If not, “think outside the frame.” There are so many creative ways to re-purpose sentimental memorabilia.

Let go of the hobby that never sustained the passion and toss its stuff.  If you still have… an assortment of dried up paint and hardened brushes; rusty tools; or crafts sets lacking key components; old puzzles that may be missing pieces (who’s got the time to count?); time to bid them farewell too.

Or better yet, while weeding through your life’s clutter, perhaps you’ll make a new discovery and be inspired to “re-invest” in that old dream. Maybe you forgot you even had some good usable stuff.  Imagine re-activating the old clutter into a new enjoyable active pastime! Now that would be a great save with a unique twist, don’t you think?

Either way, save the stuff that brings you joy as you live your life TODAY.

Take the time to check out what’s hiding in your closets, attic, basement, or garage and evaluate the “why” of saving it.  Don’t save the old stuff unless the returns are great. Discriminate trash from treasure. The old roller skates are obsolete now, and you know that no one in your family will ever use them or want them.  So take a pic, and let them go.

Love your stuff that matters now. Don’t box it, enjoy it. Go for the sustainable rewards of keeping it.  Now that’s what I call a priceless investment.  But that’s just me.  What about you?

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The ABC’s of Organizing: Simple But Not Easy

11/27/2012 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

At one time or another, everyone will organize something.  In theory, it sounds like a pretty simple thing to do.  But it’s actually not so easy, especially if your intentions are to restore order to a really disorganized space.

First, you must make the real distinction between merely “straightening up,” and the methodical process of emptying a space entirely.  Huge difference.  It’s far simpler a task to just skim the surface of a drawer or clear a section of the floor, than to thoroughly deconstruct a complete space and re-organize it. I’m talking about space-altering organization.  Yep, that kind of organizing is another animal indeed.

If you’ve reached that point that you can no longer find anything in your cluttered spaces, it might be time to consider a space make-over. But before you toy with the idea of being more organized, you might first consider these ABC’s prior to undertaking any of the spaces in your home.  This will help you put thought to action.

  • “A”-  Assess:  Take a look around and see if you can identify the trouble spots.  What is not working for you?  Where does the bulk of your clutter seem to land?  How long has it been like this?  Has any specific life event contributed to this neglected mess?

 

  •  “B”-  Be the Change:  Consider your options.  We can all agree that if you don’t change the way you think about things, then essential nothing will really ever change.  Implementing new organization to your life could be a game changer.  So ask yourself, are you ready to make significant changes in your life and what are the consequences of remaining disorganized?

 

  • “C”-  Commit:  Once you’ve decide to change your old habits, you must committo the actual process.  Junk in drawers, clothing piles in closets, paper towers on desktops, or cluttered counter tops are not going to miraculously vanish by themselves. You must do the work. In order to tackle the project, you must schedule it to happen. Think about how much time you will need to carve out of your day or weekend to begin the process. The challenge is, of course, to stay committed until the task is completed.

 

The next step is how to begin.  Where do you start? What to keep or toss? When do you pause? No matter which room or small space you choose, (or whether it be things or paper), the basic principles of organizing are the same.  They are easy to comprehend but are often difficult to execute by yourself.  Here’s the simplified and very abridged version.

  1. Bundle “like” items with “like” items to evaluate the inventory. Eliminate overabundance.
  2. Sort items you want to keep into categories.
  3. Toss the broken or unusable into trash or recycle.
  4. Donate those items that no longer serve a purpose in your life.
  5. Then and only then, decide how you want to store and containerize your wanted items for easier retrieval.

 

If you become overwhelmed with this method and get stuck in the decision-making process, you will most likely lose the drive to continue. Very often, because it is so difficult to measure what is too much, or discern how much sentimental clutter to let go of, you don’t let any of it go.

Don’t feel the need to go it alone.  Seek out a  Professional Organizer who has the expertise to guide and provide you with the strategies to help complete the process.  Trust in the organizing process because it works.  But don’t underestimate it either, it can be daunting.

So before you begin, get your ABC’s in place, and perhaps a trained professional can coach you the rest of the way through. A simple solution for a not so simple task. If only it could be as easy as 1-2-3.

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Decide Who Rules Your Home: You or Your Stuff?

09/30/2012 By Nancy Borg With 2 comments

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with the amount of stuff in your home?  Most of us have obviously have more things living in our homes than people, but when does it become too much?

For starters, it could be when you’re continually tripping over your things; kid’s toys, shoes, neglected clothing, magazine piles, or unopened delivery boxes.  Or maybe it’s when you can no longer sit down on the comfy couch because of all the random stuff strewn all over it?

Now that’s an interesting rethink; if your stuff has a place but YOU don’t, ask yourself, “who’s really the boss?”

Deciding what to keep and what to let go of is not a simple task.  But realize that any decision is better than no decision at all.  So decide to decide. Sharpening your decision-making skills will allow you to reclaim your spaces. This step is not an easy one, but perhaps these questions will instigate the process:

  •  
    • Are you surrounding yourself with the things you actually use and enjoy? Acknowledge the changes in your habits and  lifestyles through the years and make your home a reflection of who you are today.
    • Do you accumulate new stuff but still keep the old?
    • Do you have an exit strategy?  So many of hang on to things we no longer use and never got around to tossing or giving away. Set limits on the incoming and create an outgoing. If you can donate your undesirables to charities, or recycle conscientiously, everyone benefits. This ONE decision will create a noticeable change and will eliminate needless clutter.

 

So many of us are still living with a historical trail of our outdated technology; old printers, TV’s, computers, cameras, and cell phones find their way more readily to basements, attics, and garages than they do out the door.  We continue to invite new pieces of furniture, lamps, and bedding into our homes, and yet we have trouble letting go of the old things we don’t even like anymore.  We tend to hang onto things.  Just in case.

If this sounds like you, no need to be embarrassed, it’s more common than you think.

Make your home a haven for living your life, not storing it. Don’t let the stuff take over any longer.  People vs. things.  Choose. Decide who rules the roost.

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The Junk Drawer Epidemic

09/20/2012 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

junk-drawer_optYou are not alone.  Don’t beat yourself up for having a junk drawer,  everybody has one.  But fess up, how many do you actually have?  You know that drawer.  It’s the infamous miscellaneous drawer filled with random stuff.  It’s the drawer you throw everything into that doesn’t have a home.  It might be where you keep your collection of pens, batteries, flashlights, spare keys, matches, instruction manuals, bills, receipts, and much more.

No doubt, there are endless categories but the problem is, there is not endless space.

It happens so organically, doesn’t it? An overlycluttered drawer that barely closes  leads you to shove new things into other drawers.  And before you know it, like  creeping crud, the junk is spreading like wildfire into multiple drawers!

Your intentions were good initially, I’m sure.  You probably started out monitoring the junk drawer, but eventually it was invaded with random loose change, crumpled post-it notes with scribbled phone #’s on them, newspaper clippings, coupons, phone chargers,  Tylenol, and all sorts of new junk. With no free time, and little regard for designated landing places for these things, you were doomed.

I know life is hectic and it’s much easier to just tuck the clutter away inside a drawer. Everything “appears” neat on the outside.

But unfortunately,  this only results in time wasting consequences.  You’ll likely be spending valuable time opening too many drawers, digging through all the clutter and not finding what you need, when you need it. This would be the wake-up call time to organize and get some control back.

Sort through the junk and consolidate items into “like” categories.  Create designated spaces and consistent homes for items.  No need to tangle your rubber bands with band-aids, paper clips, or old pieces of chewing gum.

When you sort like with like items, you will be able to retrieve and return them with greater ease, efficiently evaluate your inventory, thereby minimizing duplicate purchases. Separate office supplies, clip receipts together, and store medications in a safe and exclusice space. Create a grab and go area for sunglasses and keys.

Stay on top of that drawer and weed often.  Don’t let the junk takeover.  If you let it, it can potentially live in every drawer.  Uh-oh, T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

You can reclaim order in your home by starting small,  one drawer at a time. 🙂

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What Your Stuff Says About You (If Only Your Stuff Could Talk)

01/04/2012 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

Well, that all depends how much stuff you have.  If you have a lot of stuff, then that’s a lot of conversation.

The late George Carlin will always be fondly remembered for his insightful comedic bit on stuff.  He was right about how particular we are about our stuff.  But, stuff is just stuff. It is made up of a bunch of material acquisitions, not living things. They can certainly bring you immeasurable joy but they won’t hug you back, and hopefully possessing them, won’t define you. They are merely things, not people.

Admittedly, we all have stuff…but when does it become clutter?

First question you might want to ask yourself is, “am I enjoying my stuff?” or better yet, “am I using my stuff?”

Here’s an interesting thought…

If your stuff had human feelings, and if they could only talk, this is what some of them might be thinking;

Clothes:  “You have 12 green sweaters, and wear only 2, the other 10 of us are wondering why we’re not good enough to ever get worn. We’re tired of screaming,  pick me, pick me!  And you never do, you pass us by and always pick the newest ones.  We’re just taking up space in your closet for no reason. Some of us aren’t even hung up on hangers, we are strewn in piles on the floor with little or no regard for our well-being.”

Cars:  “We have been pushed out of our rightful home, and left out to rot in the cold.  We have been replaced by towers of stacked boxes of clutter that you never use.  You drive us everyday.  Who’s more important, the useless clutter or the valuable car?

Memorabilia:  “If we are so treasured and sacred, then why did you put us on a inaccessible dusty shelf in the attic, and never visit?”

Books:  “You never read us anymore, nor pay us any attention.  Some of us are tattered and torn.  Let us go, a library will love us more.”

Old instruments:  “We used to be your favorite pastime, but you never want to play with us anymore, where’s the pleasure in holding on to us? We are music that you have silenced.  We have a voice and want to be heard.”

Shoes:  “We just want to remind you that you only have two feet and you own more shoes than you can wear in a lifetime. We never feel special among the countless other pair of black shoes. Do you know that there are millions of  less fortunate people who walk barefoot?  We want to take a walk with those who need and appreciate us.”

Junk:  ” You throw us all in one drawer together, we like to be with our like selves so we can find each other.  We like to hang out together so you can find us when you need us. Must you keep us all mixed together with the gum, keys, pens, glasses, and crumpled receipts?  We are always lost and never found.  Please organize us by creating each of us a special home.”

Here’s the takeaway…

Use your stuff.  Honor, respect, and enjoy what you own. It should reflect who you are today, and above all, know where it is.  More importantly,  holding on to stuff that is no longer used, or no longer relevant in your life, is pointless. Use it or donate it.  Share what is overabundant.

Are you a good caregiver to your stuff? Hope so, ’cause they’ll never tell.

 

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