Spring Ahead - 15 Minute Declutter Session

Back in January I made a resolution to de-clutter my house. I made a really good start with my linen closet, see my Jan 14 post. Then I got distracted. In February I found a great pin from Clean & Scentsible for the Household Organization Diet. In just 15 minutes a day you can de-clutter your home in 31 days. Sounded good to me. I dove right in and de-cluttered the cabinet under the kitchen sink.

Doesn’t it look nice? Then well I got distracted… again. 

Today I got motivated and spent my 15 minute de-cluttering session on the kitchen cabinet that is reserved for the kitchen stuff that has no other home. That is going to change. The picnic odds and ends have a new home in the garage with the coolers and paper tablecloths. The miscellaneous water bottles have been pared down to two, one for me and one for dad. The cabinet has been re-purposed as a baking cabinet. 

Hmm, what shoud my next de-cluttering project be and how long before I get around to it? I'll let you know.

Today is National Organize Your Home Day

To Do List and key holder

Today is National Organize Your Home Day.  It is a good reminder of the importance of having an organized home and no it’s not to avoid shame if company drops in unexpectedly.  Rather, our home should be a place of refuge from the crazy world we live in. January is a great time to get your home in order; the weather outside is frightful so naturally we spend more time indoors and in our home. I bet like me de-cluttering, simplifying, or organizing made its way to your New Year’s resolution list.

Speaking of the New Year, have you pulled together last year’s financial records? I like to use a colored envelope for all my tax records (this year’s is blue). I went thru my files from last year, shredded the documents I don’t need to keep 7 years and put the rest in the envelope. When my W2 and 1099s show up, I’ll add them too. By early February I’ll be ready for my accountant.

If the cards you buy tend to be of the belated variety, try Send Out Cards. They will send real cards thru the mail to your friends and family for you. Simply upload your contacts and their birthdays, pick out a card or create your own, tell SOC to send the card on your friend’s birthday and forget about it. In one day, you can setup deliveries for the month or year!

We have photos galore and since I’ve been researching our family tree other family members keep gifting me their photos. So while it is hard to tell, I have made progress scanning picture as I try to reduce the actual photos in the house. I’ll keep plugging away at it in 2015; hopefully it will start to look like I’ve made progress soon.

The lack of visual confirmation of progress with the photos got me looking for a project that I could see more immediate results. The linen closet was my chosen target. Now that that is done, I will spend some time shredding some of the incredible amount of non-financial paper I seem to constantly accumulate, while I contemplate my next de-cluttering project.

Spring Cleaning Tasks

It Spring, time to enjoy the flowers and warm breezes. It's also time to clean the house to really enjoy those Spring breezes. I put together a list with the help of other blogs and am partially done with the work. I'm hoping posting it here will help motivate me to finish the tasks.

1. Clean vacuum cleaners & filters - check
2. Organize & purge medicine cabinet - check
3. Organize clothes closet. Donate unused clothes. Pitch un-wearable. Organize what’s left. – Check, check, check
4. Wipe down walls and baseboards – check
5. Clean & polish wood furniture – check 
6. Wash bedding – check
7. Clean stove top – check 
8. Clean out Dryer lint trap - check
9. Clean your washing machine – trying this right after Home Depot run
10. Clean your dishwasher.
11. Clean the inside of microwave.
12. Clean drains naturally – Home Depot run needed for snake
13. Clean inside of oven.
14. Clean inside of refrigerator – half done, Freezer complete.
15. Organize Spice Cabinet – buy that in cabinet spice rack I’ve been looking at.
16. Clean & sanitize the inside of all the garbage cans.
17. De-clutter the tough spots: (partially done)
• magazine clutter - check
• foyer closet - check
• home office – in progress   
• utensil drawer
• above the refrigerator 
18. Weed out bookcases – donate books to Friends of the Library
19. Vacuum the furniture.
20. Vacuum under the furniture. Add fix Roomba so IT can vacuum under the furniture.

How is your Spring Cleaning coming along?

Aha-Ha Moment

A conversation with a Lisa, a fellow book club member created a mini aha ha moment yesterday. This month my book club is reading “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. Disclosure: I haven’t read it yet as I’m still waiting for my copy from the library. The book has led many people to alter their lives for the better. Another one of our book club members wants the club to do a happiness project together. Since I haven’t read the book yet, Lisa gave me a quick rundown starting with the challenge to change 5 things in your life a month. My stomach started to clench with the stress of a) coming up with 5 things b) the upheaval in my life to change 5 things in a month and c) oh God I’ll have to come up with ANOTHER 5 things for the next month. With these thoughts swirling around in my head, I zoned out on the recap of the rest of the book. Then I tuned back in to hear Lisa admit how changing 5 things was beyond her at this point.

Wait a minute, what? This is a very organized and together lady we’re talking about. I’ve lost count at the number of self-help books and organizational blogs I read, while my life and house remain a mess. This is not a knock on any of the authors I’ve read, this is all about me. Why is it when I go in with such good intentions about implementing all the fabulous ideas, nothing happens. Oh a pile of stuff might be cleaned up or I create my affirmations list, then… I get overwhelmed and nada. Oh wait this was about her response not mine. Without guilt my friend said since 5 changes were to overwhelming, she decided to pick one thing to change a month to create more happiness in her life. Hmm, pick ONE thing to change in my life and do it for a month. Well yeah, that I should be able to manage. (As soon as I decide what that change should be). The aha-ha for me is I can take a piece from a self-help book or blog and just do that piece. AND thats OK! I don’t have to implement the entire process, just incorporate the part that really resonates with me. 

New Year, New Post

Yes, I've finally gotten around to updating this blog. It's been a tumultuousness few months. I went to Tina Sloan's NY premiere of "Changing Shoes", a wonderful show. If she's in your area, do go and see her one woman show. Tina kind enough to come to the Roxbury Library for a book signing. Thank you Tina!


My dad moved in with me. While preparing for the move, I had an accident which ended with me a little bloody and with both arms in slings. Luckily only the left elbow was broken, but I was fairly useless for most of the move. While dad is moved in, my car is still unhappily waiting to move back into my garage. 

The move necessitated a re-evaluation of my belongings. There have been endless trips to charity drops and the dumpster. God bless the Telenext dumpsters. There is something therapeutic about throwing junk in a dumpster, even more than the endorphin rush of donating to charity.  But let's face it we all have stuff that is worth money. Maybe not a lot, but something. Now I loved the video shop in Mendham that had an E-bay store on the side. I could just drop off my stuff, he'd sell it & I'd get a check or if it didn't sell, he'd give it to charity. Either way once it was at the shop, it was out of my life. Unfortunately not only has Netflix taken out Blockbuster, they forced my video store to close as well. So the search began for a new venue to sell my more valuable belongings. The whole Craigslist/E-bay world is confusing to me. The concept of having to pack & mail items gives me a headache and has me shying away E-bay. Craigslist proved challenging but I did sell the biggest pieces of furniture, so I consider it a success. I've still got a number of items I need to relocate from my home/storage. So, if you know of anyone looking to by dishes, I've got two sets of china and one everyday set I'm looking to sell. 

One of the fine china sets I'm looking to sell

Recycle Books at the Roxbury Library

Hooray - today has arrived. In my quest to de-clutter my home and life I have been tossing, selling and giving away un-needed items from around my house the past few months. I even took a pass at my book collection, amassing 5+ bags of books to be donated. And there they've sat in bags & boxes cluttering up a corner of my guest room rather than gathering dust on my shelves. 


Professional organizers recommend removing boxed items ASAP, so why have these books been around for months? Well, the Roxbury Twp Friends of the Library (where I serve as VP) only has book sales twice a year. This year do to the Jewish Holiday schedule are well known book sale has been pushed back from the usual 1st weekend after Labor Day to the end of September. Consequently we didn't open the doors for collection until today.


So today, the car gets packed and my books will be looking for a new home. Stop by the Roxbury Library Sept 23-26 and take home a few of my books.

Today's Successes

In my continuing quest to de-clutter my life, today I managed to sort my purses, added clothes to the donation pile, emptied 2 drawers and found a home for my parents’ photo albums. The purging netted 1 bag for donation and another for trash. Phew, I’m tired just reading through the list. I am beginning to feel the feng shui of de-cluttering beginning to take hold. A few weeks ago we brought my parents photo albums to my house to scan pictures for my Aunt’s party. Since then, they have been sitting on my coffee table, waiting for a home. Today while clearing out drawers in my guest room, the perfect place for the albums struck me. They now have a new home on a recently emptied shelf in my bookcase.

I really wish the video shop in Mendham was still in business. They had a great side business selling on Ebay.  You could drop off knick knacks and such; they’d handle all the details of transacting with Ebay. If the item sold, they mail the item to the new owner and a check to me. If it didn’t then they’d donate the item to charity. Either way, it was out of my house and hair. God bless them. Unfortunately they are no longer in business. So now I’ve got a bunch of collectables as well as other knick knacks that I’m sure would net a few $$ however, the thought of hassling with Ebay has the stash sitting in my house. If you know of anyone who loves to sell things on Ebay let me know.

De-cluttering my way

I made this vision board a few months back when the clutter in my life really began to irritate me.  It was very specific as to what I wanted and what needed to be done. I wanted to reclaim the organized person I was; to do that I needed to do A LOT of pruning. Monday morning I woke up bright & early itching to get rid of things. I spent an hour going through my book collection bagging books for an upcoming book sale. After that hour I had 4 bags of books for the sale.  On the way to work I dumped 4 boxes from my garage in the dumpster. Later that afternoon, I was able to collect 2 garbage bags full of junk.  This morning I dropped those off at the dumpster. God I love dumpsters, it’s so liberating to throw boxes & garbage bags into a non-judgmental receptacle. I spent another hour this afternoon clearing out notebooks and other useless stuff I’ve accumulated in other lives. Here’s a picture of this afternoons hall. I can’t wait until the garbage men get here tomorrow morning! Maybe I’ll even throw the bags in the garbage truck for good measure.

Organize Your Home Office Day

Today is Organize Your Home Office Day and to celebrate, I’m cleaning off my desk. That is my goal, whether I finish today or tomorrow, I will have a desktop that contains my laptop, printer, pens/pencils, current project folders and a notepad. From the before picture I’m sure it is obvious I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. The mess I have now is paralyzing me. The pile represents my past, present and future. There are the last vestiges of a business and contacts from the TV show now off the air. Then there are the tax receipts that need to go to my accountant and bills to be paid. Lastly there is my future lost in all that clutter, pieces of inspiration needing to be unearthed. So that is my task, dispose of the past, organize the present and find the dreams of the future. Wish me luck.

Snow Daze

In NJ, we are in day 2 of the snow in. So far there is over a foot of snow outside my home and it’s still coming down. I live in a townhome community with a strange parking lot/garage setup. Plowing our development requires not only the standard plows, but Mr. Dumptruck & Mr. Bulldozer to get our cars out of the development. It’s been several hours since I’ve heard any of the 3 attempting to remove any snow. My dad who lives up the hill a couple miles away in a senior community says he’s plow guys have given up for the duration. So here I am tucked into bed in my jammies watching the Women’s Olympic Curling Bronze Medal game. I am a Winter Olympics junkie and have been totally enjoying the 2010 Vancouver Games. Being snowed in with the Olympics has been wonderful. Even still, I am starting to get a little stir crazy. Luckily I’ve got a couple of magazines piled next to me. Both have articles on de-cluttering, a task I have been putting off for far to long. I see an afternoon of shredding paper & filling garbage bags full of unneeded and unwanted stuff. As a reward, there is that Toll House cookie dough in the fridge…