Organizing Drawers the KonMarie Way

There's not much decluttering going on these days, but today I decided to finally try organizing my drawers the KonMarie way.

Most have probably heard of Marie Kondo by now, author of The Life Changing Magic of Cleaning Up. I read the book years ago and while I didn't follow it to the letter, it did inspire me to declutter even more.

One thing I didn't try at the time, but have been increasingly intrigued by is her method of folding clothing into small squares. With my drawers feeling increasingly stuffed, I finally decided to try it today. So I watched a few YouTube videos to fully understand folding method and dove in.

First I tackled my t-shirt drawer. I neglected to take a before photo, but here's my stack 'o shirts that filled the drawer.

It does take more time to fold the KonMarie way, but you quickly get the hang of it. Plus, I'll only have to fold the freshly laundered clothing each week.

Here's the after. I purged four shirts. While the 30 remaining shirts still fill the drawer, now I can easily see all of them instead of just the top three. Big improvement.

I'm even more pleased with the progress of the other drawers, which are much more shallow than the one above. The MarieKondo method works very well for these.. First up is a jam-packed drawer full of work shirts and sweaters. 

And the amazing after. Look at that empty space! I purged one top and moved a t-shirt to the t-shirt drawer, everything else is still here and completely visible.

My pajama drawer has always been a mess. I used to roll my PJ pants and tops, but they still barely fit in here.

And after, with lots of new empty space here too, which is truly amazing. I relocated a curling iron, but kept everything else. My hair straightener lives here, because I do my hair in the bedroom (with only one bathroom, ya gotta do some things differently). 

I also organized one of the half-size top drawers, which is full of work socks. I should probably purge everything on the right side of this drawer, because I hardly ever wear them, but for now I'm keeping them. Even so after refolding everything and tossing a few singles, there's empty space in here now and I was able to add a small box to store my extra Fitbit bands neatly.

I'm definitely a fan of all of this new space. In fact, I'm feeling inspired to tackle my remaining drawers and the closet next.

Do you use any special organizing or folding tricks on your clothing drawers?

Challenge Accepted: January Cure Week I

I decided to try Apartment Therapy's January Cure this month. I've done the full blown version before, which is quite the commitment. So far the one month version is much more my speed. Plus, what else is there to do when the high is 15F?

Day 1: Organize a drawer
The January Cure kicks off with an easy win: Pick a drawer and organize it. I picked one of several kitchen junk drawers and weeded and organized them. The one on the right wasn't in too bad of shape. For the "cat drawer" on the right I weeded out some expired treats and medical items and now things fit much more neatly. While on a roll, I also checked out our big junk drawer but it was in fairly good shape.

Lucy poses distractedly above the after.

Day 2: Make a project list

The task for the second day is to do a walk-through of your home and jot down areas of improvement. I stuck to the main floor for this and while there is less to do that there was in the past, I still have a big list. It's a combo of cleaning chores and projects. Then you narrow the list down to three to fives projects per room that you actually want to tackle this month. Several painting items and other jobs will have to wait until it's warmer, but I'm pasting the hole list below for future reference. I'm hoping to tackle the italicized items during the cure and am debating a few others. I'm trying to be somewhat realistic about my motivation!

Kitchen
1. Declutter cabinet under TV
2. Clean light fixtures
3. Add remaining cabinet hardware
4. Fix scuffs on cabinets over fridge
5. Clean kitchen roman blinds
6. Paint cabinet molding
7. Replace cabinet molding or patch cabinet by doorway
8. Repair third dining chair
9. Paint back door
10. Paint basement door

Living room
1. Fix fireplace wall & paint (weather dependent)
2. Clean cobwebs off ceiling
3. Paint fireplace floor
4. Clean curtains
5. Paint baseboard

Bathroom
1. Paint hallway side of door
2. Touch up backsplash paint
3. Sweep fan blades
4. Beadboard touch ups
5. Buy new hand towels

Bedroom
I'm not quite sure how far I want to go with this, hence the commitment to just one item so far.
1. Fix ceiling + paint touch ups
2. Redo over bed area
2. Paint doors
3. Paint moldings
4. New window treatments

Hallway
1. Fill and paint closet
2. Clean light
3. Paint baseboards
4. Hang art

The bedroom, looking cozy after cleaning, but pre-projects.

Day 3: Set up an outbox

The outbox is a holding space for items you may want to part. The thought is that by leaving them there for a couple of weeks some of your attachment will lessen. I set up a bag in the spare room closet and filled it with several items.

Day 4: Floors & Flowers

I was dreading this weekend assignment which challenges curers to first do something sweet by buying flowers or a plant for your home, then vacuuming and mopping all of your floors. Since all of the main floor can technically be mopped, that's a big job!

I vacuumed everything and mopped the kitchen and bathroom -- two rooms that definitely needed it. The floors in the living room, two bedrooms and hallway are all wood, so they can be mopped too, but the finish is old and not waterproof so I use very little water and wash a small section then immediately dry it. It's a big hands-on-your-needs job and since we don't wear shoes in the house (or aren't supposed to at least) I only did the living room and bedroom. I did a lot of scrubbing! They do look better now and I'm happy I did more than the minimum. But I didn't move major pieces of furniture like the sofa and entertainment center because it just didn't seem worth it. Under my bed is already spic and span since I cleaned it in December when my new mattress was delivered. This project makes me wonder how often others clean their wood floors? I do it very, very infrequently. Ike embarrassingly infrequently.

I haven't bought flowers yet, maybe something will catch my eye when we grocery shop tomorrow. If not, I'll count the candles I bought last weekend because in this wicked winter weather they are certainly making the space feel cozy.

So week one ends on a positive note and I'm feeling quite accomplished! We're only one week in, so there's still plenty of time to join the January Cure!

Declutter Backslide

The house has been feeling very full, too full really, and as I looked around I mostly attributed it to the boy and home renovations. But looking in my stuffed cabinets and drawers over the weekend finally made me realize that I've been backsliding. Falling into old habits of stocking up during sales until I eventually end up with more than I can use in a reasonable time frame.

It started innocently enough. There were a few things I needed before heading to Alaska for a dual wedding/vacation trip: dresses for the wedding and rehearsal dinner, official hiking pants, natch (for all those hikes I don't do anywhere else but Alaska), some toiletries were looking low and heaven forbid I run out and pay Alaska prices! Plus my t-shirt collection was pretty thin, so I added four to it. I thought I needed a new parka, but the prices and lackluster selection made me decide I could live with my 16-year-old Columbia after all. Good thing, because in the end I didn't take or need it as Anchorage was experiencing record high temps this May.

Then I returned home to the middle of a total bathroom remodel (much more to come on that later!) which necessitated the purchase of some supplies, new accessories and the like.

Our last working smoke detector went on the blitz, so buying new ones became urgent. My hairdryer died. I needed body wash. Then Bath & Body Works was having a sale so of course I had to stock up on candles, body wash and plug-in air fresheners (my weaknesses).

When those latest purchases would barely fit in the cabinet at home I realized how much I had returned to old habits without even noticing and I didn't love the results. I'd be far too embarrassed to show you all the beauty products I have hidden away now! It's amazing how quickly and easily that can happen.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not at hoarder status yet. Unless you opened cabinets and drawers you'd likely never know. But I know and I really have having to move stuff to get to other stuff.

So it's back to the old ways. Time to use it or lose it, to think before I buy and to get back to the happy medium of not too much that I prefer.

How do you combat falling back into old bad habits?

Clean-spiration

As I've mentioned before, I don't mind cleaning. In fact, I find it kind of relaxing. And I really, really enjoy it when the house is clean.

Plus, one of the bonuses of living in a small house is that it takes a lot less time to clean.

Sure, sometimes I go for my lighter cleaning routine (vacuum, dust, and clean the kitchen and bathrooms only) versus a full-on deep cleaning, but I rarely skip cleaning entirely.

Even though I'm in the minority of people who don't completely loathe cleaning, I still often need some inspiration to stop my relaxing-drinking-coffee-and-surfing-the-internets Saturday routine and start cleaning instead.

That inspiration comes in the form of cleaning and decluttering shows. There's just something about seeing people clear out, clean and fix up a dirty, cluttered home that really makes me want to clean.

First it was Clean Sweep on TLC. Then came Sell This House and Sell This House Extreme on A&E (yes, that was a real estate show, but it still involved clearing out the crap, as well fixing and tidying up things, so it worked for me). Then after both those shows stopped being syndicated, I found Clean House on Netflix.

But then, horror of horrors, Netflix dropped Clean House from its instant streaming service. And Hoarders never really worked for me because those shows seem to be less about helping people clean up and more about finding the grossest houses possible.

I began procrastinating my Saturday morning/afternoon cleaning into the evening and beyond.

Luckily, I found a nice stash of episodes of How Clean Is Your House on YouTube so I can get my fill, for now.

But sometimes I wonder, how come decluttering shows aren't as popular as they once were in America? Are they just passe or could it be that it's easier to get sponsors for shows that encourage people, directly or indirectly, to buy a new home, remodel or go vacation shopping, rather than encouraging people to pare down and use what they have?

Am I the only one who uses these type of shows as clean-spiration? And, if not, how do you get your fix?

Serial Decluttering

Magazines are cheap, published monthly and designed for limited use, so why do I and many others hang on to so many?

In the age of blogs and online decorating sites, does anyone even need  to keep magazines anyway? Yet, there is something I enjoy about a shiny new decor mag.

I've decluttered my magazine collection many times, maybe more than any other item, yet I still count 48 magazines in my current collection. I've culled my magazine subscriptions down to zero, then added a subscription or two that I missed back in. I've tried getting my magazine fix at the library only, which I found to be more trouble than it's worth.

First, the non-negotiables. I have 27 issues of the discontinued Domino (25) and Cottage Living (2) magazines that I'm still not able to part with. At one point those Dominos were almost worth their cover price on ebay, although prices seem to have peaked and dropped like a rock since then.

endtable magazine storage

I find the "William Morris criteria" (That is, Morris' famous quote to "Have nothing in you home that you do not that find to be useful or know to be beautiful"), to be helpful for deciding what to cull or keep. Accordingly, I should probably declutter them all, as I don't really look at the magazines often or consider them particularly useful. But, I'm not willing to do so. I don't need the space they take up and I like having them, for whatever reason. Maybe outing myself on the blog will change this as it has before, but for now, they stay.

That still leaves 21 magazines up for grabs. After one last flip through 3/4 of them I let 12 go, which is enough to eliminate one stack under the coffee table. A 25% reduction isn't too bad, I guess.

Do you find it hard to let go of magazines or have another decluttering weakspot?

Do You Declutter to De-stress?

Thanks to the fourth of July holiday, I had a lovely four-day weekend with plenty of time to squeeze in some DIY project work. But alas, it's been raining for two straight weeks, so while people out west might kill for a little rain, it put a damper on doing the one project around here that really needs to be done, namely, the cabinet painting project (no mom, it's still not done yet).

before

But what the rain taketh, the rain also giveth back in the form of time to work on a project that sounds a little bit fun and an excuse to avoid something I should do, but don't wanna (hello cabinets!). I decided this weekend was a perfect time to engage in a little therapeutic decluttering.

I know I'm not the only one who derives a sick sense of satisfaction from decluttering and organizing, especially when I'm super stressed. So after watching an episode or two of Consumed online for inspiration (which my fellow Americans can enjoy via YouTube despite HGTV Canada's non-sharing), I decided to tackle my closet. Again. I don't even buy that many clothes, certainly not in comparison to the average Western woman, and yet my closet continues to attract clutter. Actually, it was kind of fun to have stuff to purge again, since I haven't been in the mood to declutter much lately.

after: sweet, sweet empty space

After the closet I moved on to my makeup drawer, another major clutter area and turned it back into a manageable storage spot.

In the end I filled another sack, plus a duvet, for the charity shop, which I packed up and dropped off on Sunday.

And it still feels so good.

Now I just need to figure out how to keep these spaces uncluttered.

gratuitous Mikko shot with reflection!

What have you decluttered lately?

Stuff Check: Shoes

I am not a shoe woman. Never have been. Shoe shopping has always been more torture than treat. It can't be helped really, with clod-hoppers like mine. Shoes that look completely cute in a size six or eight, looks absolutely hideous when blown up to size-11 proportions.

So imagine my surprise when I finally photographed my shoe collection, as the Center for the New American Dream's blog invited readers to do, and found out that I'm really downright average on the shoe ownership scale. In fact, I own more than the average 19 pairs per American (broken down by gender its 27 pairs for women and 12 for men) since I own three more pair than the 19 pictured above for a total of 22 pairs. 22!

Then I went and counted all the boyfriend's shoes and he only has 20 pairs. I complain about how many pairs he has (many of which he never wears), and it turns out that he has less than me. Ouch. I guess appearances are deceiving since more of my shoes are hidden away and his are out in the open.

Maybe owning 22 pairs of shoes would be okay if I loved and wore them all, but of course I don't. Out of the 22 pairs I own,  I regularly wear five. There are 7 pairs I have worn less than five times. And out of those seven, there are four pairs I've never worn. Ugh. Apparently not being a shoe person does not exempt me from making impulse shoe buys. Plus there are three pairs that should really be pitched, but for some inexplicable reason I keep hanging on to them.

It's time to cull my collection. I've already put two pairs in the donation pile and I'm giving myself six months to either wear or get rid of any unworn shoes in my closet. I'm going to shoot for 18 pairs or less by November.

How many pairs of shoes do you own? And is that number too many, too few or just right?

How to Fall in Love with Your Home Again

I've had some extensive time off during the holidays and one of the things I've been doing too much of is watching TV, namely HGTV. It doesn't take many episode of House Hunters and the like before I want to smack someone upside the head and show them that their current home, or the smaller home they dismissed out of hand, could be perfectly fine with just a few small adjustments.

I shouldn't be so hard on those poor House Hunters participants; falling out of love with your home happens to most of us at one time or another. Remember when you first saw your current home? When you first fell in love with, or were at least perfectly satisfied, with your home? Remember when it was new (to you at least), exciting and full of possibilities? But eventually that newness wears off and we begin to take our homes for granted. Maybe they put on a few pounds, perhaps they haven't kept themselves up like they used to, perhaps old age is taking its toll. Eventually homes can begin to seem a bit sad, cluttered and neglected and the siren song of moving up to a bigger, newer, shinier, better home might begin to appeal to you. But before you start packing, you might want to try a few easy tips to fall in love with your home again.

1. Clean up - Sounds too simple to work? Perhaps, but a clean, tidy home is much easier to love. Whenever I'm feeling especially down on my house I give it a good scrubbing and inevitably it always looks vastly improved afterwards.
   
   
2. Declutter - You've heard it before and you'll hear it again, because it's true. Decluttered spaces feel and look larger. So put your house on a diet and get rid of some of the crap you no longer use or love, and see what a difference it can make in your home. Visit the clutter busters category of this blog for more decluttering inspiration.
   
   
   

   

   this corner cabinet is one of my favorite areas to rearrange

3. Rearrange - I'm not a serial rearranger, but I am always impressed with how happy rearranging things in my home can make me feel about the space. First we get used to our surroundings and then we get bored with them. By simply rearranging some of your trinkets and decor, you can make your space feel fresh and new again. You can go hard-core and rearrange the furniture (if you have the space), but even changing out pictures or changing a shelf arrangement can make a big impact.
   
   
4. Fix it! - Most homes having something that needs fixing. Whether it's a nail hole that needs patching (ahem, like in my living room), a messy space that needs an intervention (hello, basement!), fixing something that has been bugging you not only gets a nagging item off the to-do list, it can make you feel better about your home as well.
   
   
5. Add a little something - If you've completed the first three tips and your home still doesn't make you smile buying one or more new, strategic pieces can make a big difference. Whether it's new pillows that really pop for your couch, or a new throw for your bed, the right small touch can make a big difference. You don't have to spend a lot of money to achieve a new look either, shop a sale, use a coupon, buy used (via thrift stores, garage sales, Craigslist, etc.) or make something.
   
   
6. Paint - I am continually amazed at what a big difference a new coat of paint can make (example 1, ex. 2, ex.3, ex. 4, ex. 5). Compared to most remodeling jobs, painting a piece of furniture, room, trim, etc. can make a big difference in how you feel about your home. Paint can also help you live with something that is less than ideal while you save up for what you really want (I'm looking a you, fake tile walls).
   

What tips and tricks help make you fall back in love with your home?

Attacking My Clutter Hot Spot

This post on Small Notebook inspired me to attack one of our clutter hot spots: the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Go ahead and go check it out, I'll wait. Have you ever seen such a sparse under-the-sink area? I haven't.

My own under-the-sink cabinet is just slightly more cluttered.

Eek!

the quality control team inspects the rejects

Despite what it may have looked like, the sink was mostly cluttered with bags, dirty cleaning cloths and a few items that belong in the basement. Once I cleared out those items, and did a quick cleaning of the crumbs and whatnot, it looked much better.

Voila! Although my cabinet will never be as empty as the one featured on Small Notebook, it looks much better with empty space and organized items. Now it makes me happy every time I open the cabinet.

What are your clutter hot spots and when did you last attack them?

But It's a Collectors Item!

This barely used VHS copy of the Lion King would have been purged months ago, except for one little phrase that stopped me from adding it to the garage sale pile with the rest of my tapes.

"You'll make more money if you sell it on eBay. It's Disney! It's a collector's item!"

My trusty advisors had me at "more money." So back in the keep pile it went. And if the Lion King on VHS is worth more money, then surely the complete collection of Tori Amos videos was worth a mint! Into the keep pile it followed.

Several months (or has it been years? Time flies when you're decluttering!) later I finally got around to checking the completed listings section of eBay to see exactly how much of a windfall I could expect from my valuable tape collection. Afterall, it's value would only increase as more time goes by, right? As the search results loaded I held my breath in anticipation. Finally, the page loaded: $0.99 per tape. If they sold. Many didn't.

Doh!

I was shocked. You mean people aren't lining up to buy used copies of 17 year-old movies on VHS? How could it be?

This paltry sum is hardly worth the aggravation of selling something on eBay. The listing, the packing, the trip to the post office. No thanks. So, once again, my preferred method of donate it and forget it turns out to be the best for decluttering. I should have known. The value of collectors items goes way down as soon as I purchase them.

This isn't even the first time I've had this experience. There was the DVD stand I refused to sell for $5 at the garage sale and instead kept to sell for more on Craigslist. It was finally donated months later. I really showed that bargain hunter!

What are you hanging onto because it's worth big bucks? Are you sure it's really valuable?

Declutter Fix

I finally got back on a decluttering kick a few weekends ago. I've probably mentioned this before, but I've become addicted to decluttering. But I haven't been able to get my fix around here. The easy stuff is pretty much gone and searching for a hour or more and coming up with just an item does not satisfy. So I've had to satisfy myself by watching Hoarders and reading about other people's decluttering. As you can imagine this doesn't quite cut it.

Easy target: The catch all cabinet. And yes, those
are my stuffed animals, thank you for noticing.

Reading this post provided some much needed inspiration and I finally went to work. First I hit this catch-all cabinet in the basement and found 22 items that could go. I've been there many times before, yet I always seem to find more. Then I went upstairs to the attic. This should be more easy pickings, but again I've been there before. This time I found a snowman tealight holder, a vase, some t-shirts I'm never going to wear and a stuffed bear I'm finally ready to part with. I added a few more items from the closet.

In total I ended up with a full box to donate and a total of 30 items gone. Mmm, mmm that's some good decluttering.

 Tell me, am I the only decluttering addict around here? How do you get your fix? 

Quick Tip: Decluttering Christmas

The title of this post might be a little grandiose, but if you haven't packed away the holiday decorations yet, take a few moments to go through your decorations and see if there are any you no longer love.

I used to feel like I should hold on to all of the decorations I had in case I ever wanted to use them again, since I had the storage space. But now my thinking has changed. Unused, unloved decorations take up space, time and effort the same as any other clutter. Ask yourself when you last used the items you're storing but didn't put out this year. Has your color scheme or tastes changed? Are there items you no longer love? Isn't it time to let them go?

Why Did I Save That?

gratuitous shot of one o' my zinnias

Have you visited the 100 Things 100 Days blog? I love it, and am also completely jealous of Christine's ability to make each clutter clearing post entertaining. That is a gift! Then there's the fact that she counts each piece of clutter. I wish I'd done that and kept track of exactly how many items I've purged, though I doubt I'd ever make it to 10,000 even if I counted every single piece of paper purged. I tried to track this with the dearly decluttered list, but alas I lost the motivation to update it.

I keep trying to do what to me is a massive purge of 100 items in a single day, but find it pretty much impossible. Unless I attack two categories of my items that are still rather massive: paper and photos. So Sunday, after spending a few days away, I came home and did exactly that.

One area I've had a major breakthrough this year is sentimental clutter. I used to save every scrap of paper that reminded me of big trips, major milestones, etc. I had dozens of letters received while I was an exchange student, many of whom from my fellow exchange student friends I haven't spoken to since. When I read them again, which was rather boring, I couldn't remember why I'd ever kept them in the first place.

And photos, oh the photos. I used to keep two shoeboxes crammed full of extra photos in addition to the photo albums full, now I'm down to less than one shoebox, and I even decluttered one of the albums. It wasn't painful at all to toss the duplicates, the poor-quality shots, and the shots of people/places I don't feel the need to keep forever. Photos I wanted to keep but didn't necessarily need in paper form have been scanned before tossing.

Here's what I decluttered Sunday evening:

• 40 letters from my exchange student days eons ago
• 9 cards
• 87 photos
• 1 red plastic notebook which housed said letters

Recognizing Enough

When I bought my little 742 square foot house I considered it a starter home. Since it was the height of the housing bubble (not that I realized it at the time), and I refused to leave my current neighborhood, I knew I was going to have to buy small. My little 1940s ranch is definitely small, the living area has a kitchen, living room, one tiny, tiny bathroom and two bedrooms. Yes, you read that right, there's no dining room and no coveted half-bath.

my teeny, tiny bathroom

There are some bonuses though. Half of the basement is finished, thanks to the boyfriend's drywall and ceiling installation skills. There's also a walk-up attic, so storage is not an issue. My mortgage payment is the same price as my former rent on a (cheap) townhouse.

There are some definite drawbacks as well. There's only room for a maximum of three people at the kitchen table, and that's pushing it. There's room for an office or a guest room, but not both. There are two closets on the main floor, and both of them combined are not able to accommodate an average American-size wardrobe. And did I mention I'd kill for an extra half-bath?

I always planned on upsizing to one of the numerous cute cape cods in my hood. Something that has a dining room, an extra bathroom, a third bedroom, and a large upstairs master. But those bigger houses have a huge drawback: more bucks for the mortgage and utilities, more time spent cleaning, more house to maintain etc.

After a few years of slowly culling some of the extra stuff from our lives, I came to what was first a surprising conclusion. My starter home has more than enough space for two adults and three cats to live in comfortably. Even more surprising, the boyfriend agreed with me.

Realizing this is enough, did require letting go of some previous notions, including:

• I don't need an office; I end up sitting on the couch to use my laptop anyway.
  
  
• I'm not the dinner-party-hosting type, and I rarely used a dining room when I had it anyway.
  
  
• While having an extra bathroom would be devine, we're surviving quite fine without it.
  
  
• Once I got rid of all the extra stuff cluttering my house, and the extra clothes cluttering the closet, the rooms didn't feel so tiny anymore.
  
  

I wouldn't want a smaller home either. While I find tiny homes charming, I don't think they'd be comfortable for me in my present lifestyle. Somehow I managed to pick just enough space on my first try.

How much living space is enough for you?

Sacred Clutter: Books

I find it intriguing that even many minimalists and declutter enthusiasts have a holy grail of items that they mutually consider untouchable: books. Even Dave Bruno, creator of the 100 Things Challenge, excludes books from his list of 100 things.

Why are books so untouchable? I mean, I get it. I love books and reading. I haven't made the leap to a Kindle or Nook or any other e-reader because I prefer to curl up with a paperback at the end of a long day of staring at a screen. I read so much in fact, that I'd hate to have to pay the bill to buy all of the books I go through in a year, let alone a lifetime. That's why the vast majority of my books come from our wonderful public library. I'm lucky enough to live in a large city with one of the top-rated public library systems in the world, so finding the books I want to read for free is easy.

Even I, avid library user that I am, own books. Sentimental books from my childhood and beyond, a few classics (Jane Austen, anyone?), and books purchased to take on vacation or when I couldn't wait for my turn to read a popular title from the library.

In fact I was surprised to discover that I owned 212 books when I counted them earlier this year. Since then I've purged quite a few especially after the boy agreed we could lose the extra bookcase in the spare room is I shared some space in the large bookcase, which I had previously considered untouchable. So I did.

I don't consider books untouchable, in fact, the library is like our collective free storage space for all the books we're only going to read once, or once every few years. Why take up space in my home to house those copies?

After purging the books I didn't love, wasn't going to read again, or could easily borrow from the library, I find I'm left with 120 books. Once I finish reading my large collection of unread books even more will go.

Do you want to purge some of your book collection? Tips that helped me:

• Be realistic about your book collection. If you're not going to re-read or refer to a title let it go.
  
  
• On the fence about purging a book? Check and see if your local library has it, that way you can borrow it whenever you get the urge! Checking this is simple; most library catalogs are searchable online.
  
  
• Stop the inflow of books, borrow books from the library instead of buying them. You'll save money and avoid future clutter.

The Things We Keep

photo by Saturnism

I live in one of the many states experiencing a heat wave last week (this week it's a mere 88-90) and have little motivation to leave the comfort of AC. We did manage to get up early enough Sunday morning to go for a bike ride and have breakfast outside with friends, but other than that I've been hiding out in the cool inside air.

This weather is perfect for inside decluttering, which continues, albeit slowly. I managed to add the following to my outbox: a large glass bowl, a decorative cup I've had since junior high (sad I know), three books, four pins and a magnet. I also spent a few hours last weekend scanning papers and photos and purged over two pounds of paper from my files. Although dealing with paper clutter takes forever, it's amazing how far I've come.

My decluttering has slowed because I've already purged most, if not all of the easy stuff. You know, the stuff you're not really attached to that you can get rid of without a second thought. I had been mulling over the idea that maybe I was actually done decluttering; maybe I've reached my enough. But I didn't feel done. This post by Brooks Palmer confirmed this, especially this bit

Where do I feel the most out of sorts in my home? What areas do I avoid? In the same way you would notice some tension in your body, you're focusing your attention on, "Where's the tension in my home?"

Where do I feel tension is an excellent question to ask myself. While none of the rooms in min hus make me tense right now (except perhaps the attic, and manland depending on how messy the Boy lets it get), there are still hidden areas that bother me, whether it's a drawer, a closet, a cabinet, etc.

There are also certain items that I can't manage to make myself part with yet, even though I feel like I should. These are all items that still have a sentimental hold on me, even if they no longer serve a purpose, or that I spent a lot of money on at one time and may still use...someday.

Things like:

why yes, these are my actual childhood toys that I still have, pathetic, I know!

• Old toys (Barbies, dolls, stuffed animals) - Doesn't every thirty-something still have a toy or two lying around? Whaddya mean no?!?
  
  
• Video games (PS2 and original gameboy, I'm looking at you!)
  
  
• Clothes that are a little too big or too small - My size has been changing so much lately that I feel the need to hang on to a variety of size options if I really like the clothes in the first place
  
  
• Old Domino magazines
  
  
• Books I haven't read yet, but want to read before passing them on (except that new books from the library look way more interesting)
  
  
• Movies I haven't watched yet, that really don't look all that appealing at this point

What items are lurking in your home that you no longer love or use but can't quite get rid of yet? Or if you did manage to part with those tough items, how did you do it?

Quick Tip: Photograph Your Mags

Once again my trusty digital camera is proving itself to be the best decluttering tool ever. Not only does it allow me to avoid having paper copies of photos, but it's also great for snapping shots of sentimental items before you purge them, for those who prefer to keep a reminder of special items. Now I've found another use for my camera.

Over the last few years I've gone from keeping every issue of every magazine I ever subscribed to, to a single stack of Domino mags plus a few random issues. I was quickly able to purge eight more mags today by using a quick tip I picked up at Hei Astrid: take a digital photo of the pages that inspire you, then purge the magazine.

I've scanned inspirational pages in the past, but it took forever. And patience is not my strong suit. Taking a quick pic or two is much, much faster. Though the picture quality isn't as great as a scan, it's perfectly fine for a simple inspiration reminder.

Tips:

1. Be honest, how often do you refer to old magazines anyway? If it's seldom to never, keep the inspiration you like and purge the rest.
   
   
2. Shoot twice: If you're not the world's best photographer (like me), take a couple shots of each page to ensure you end up with at least one great one. Keep the best shot of each page and delete the rest.
   
   
3. Download your pics and check them before you get rid of the magazine.
   
   
4. Be ruthless about which pages you'll really want to see again and only shoot those.
   
   
5. Try again: If at first you can't bring yourself to purge some issues, cut yourself some slack and try again later. (Provided you have a place to keep them, of course, and they're not piled on your floor or something. No hoarding kiddies!) This is worked for me with everything but my preciousssss Dominos....I know it's stupid, but I can't quite let them go yet.

Use It or Lose It Update

my medicine cabinet is already looking pretty minimal

My Use It or Lose It Challenge is going fairly well so far. Just seeing the picture of my messy bathroom cabinet was enough inspiration for me to do some decluttering and lose a few duplicates products and toss others that were almost empty, but I was apparently never going to finish.

I say fairly well instead of great because, confession time, I caved on the whole not-going-to-the-library idea. A book (Simple Prosperity) that I had placed on hold was ready for pick up and, as usual, once I was in the library it was impossible for me to leave with only one book. I find it hard to feel too badly about this though, because (1) I didn't purchase anything new and (2) I can't ever think of reading more books as a bad thing, and I borrowed non-fiction for heaven's sake, and (3) I've already decluttered quite a few books (details coming soon). So I'm scrapping the whole no-library part of the challenge, although I still plan to make a concentrated effort to read the unread books in my collection.

I also bought a bar of honey soap at the farmer's market yesterday, but I don't feel bad about that either since it was benefiting a farmer instead of a box store chain.

More importantly, we also avoided a large purchase. Yesterday we spent a good deal of time discussing changing the queen bed that is currently in the office/spare room. The existing bed is sitting on the floor because we don't have a bed frame for it, and we've thought about replacing it with a new daybed, complete with trundle, that would take up less space. But what would that extra space be used for?

We shopped online at every outlet we could think of, but I didn't really love any of the daybed options. After talking to my mom who raved about how comfortable the current mattress set is, I decided it was silly to buy a new bed frame, mattresses, sheets, etc. just to make the office look more spacious. So instead we're going to buy a simple metal frame for the existing mattress and call it a day. This result isn't necessarily because of the challenge per se, but all the decluttering I've done over the last few years, along with trying to avoid unnecessary purchases, makes the idea of buying something new that might not get much use very painful, especially when there's an alternative solution.

Use It or Lose It Challenge

The last time I bought soap I found four new bars I had completely forgotten about hidden away in the bathroom and linen closet. I don't even want to tell you how many bottles of perfume I own, or how many bottles of shampoo I have in the shower (although, I've been working on that particular area). I keep buying new my favorite body wash (Tom's of Maine lavender, if you're curious) instead of using any of the perfectly good unopened bottles I already own.

Every time I try to declutter my linen cabinet or my half of the bathroom cabinets, I find "perfectly good" personal care items I just haven't finished or even gotten around to trying yet.

It's time to stop the insanity.

That's why I'm putting myself on a use it or lose it challenge, starting now.

The rules:

1. No buying more personal care products when you have perfectly good, unused versions at home.

2. If I don't like a product, I don't have to finish it (I'm not the suffer in silence type, as the Boyfriend will attest), but I do have to pitch it. No more keeping items around "just in case."

While I'm mainly concentrating on personal care products for this challenge, I'm also going to extend it to books. I want to downsize my book collection, but there's so many I haven't gotten around to reading yet. Instead, I find much more interesting reading material when I visit the library. So same rules apply to books, no buying or bringing home new books from the library until I read or donate the unread books I already own. And this starts today since I just hit the library again yesterday. Doh! Ouch, it hurts just typing the no more bringing books home from the library bit.

Declutter Inspiration and Other Good Links

Some favorite links I've come across this week:

• 100things100days - If like me you can't get enough of reading about OPP (other people's purging) then you need to head over to this new-to-me blog. I'm in awe of Christine who is on a quest to, you probably guessed it, purge 100 things each day for 100 days. Impressive and interesting!
  
  
• Secrets of Money and Life Success - Great reminders, especially for all those recent grads.
  
  
• 320 Square Foot Home - The video tour of this 320-square-foot home has made the rounds, but maybe like me, you didn't discover the blog right away. I'm not sure I'd ever want to live in a place this tiny, but I find the lifestyle fascinating.
  
  
• How to Stage Your Home for Living - I couldn't have said this better myself. It's never made sense to me that our homes usually look their very best right before we leave them. Reading this article was a good reminder for me to finish the unfinished projects around min hus.