Paper! Paper! Paper!

I’ve been busy with an assortment of things lately, so I neglected to keep on top of the stuff left on the kitchen table each day. And within a few weeks, I had one of those dreaded piles, large enough to tip over.

Most of it was accumulated mail. Throw in some receipts that we need to keep for taxes, some paperwork from purchases that I need to save, and a mess of drawings from adorable grandchildren, and I had paperwork falling onto placemats. Not good come dinnertime. We’ve been pushing them out of our way for days so we can eat.

There’s no room on the first floor for any kind of file system, so I have one in the basement. Rather than run up and down the steps all the time, I keep a plastic accordion file in one of the drawers in the kitchen, near my calendar, and that’s where I put any bit of paper that needs to be filed.

I love that accordion file! I’ve had it for years. It has pockets for the checkbook and receipts for each bank account (three). It has pockets for the gas company, the internet provider, the insurance company, etc. This year the gross incompetence of the postal service forced me to pay bills online, but I still keep a paper trail of all payments because I fear that someday something is going to take down the Internet and I want to still have a paper trail. Isn’t that silly?

Once that file gets full, I move all the papers downstairs. I generally do this in the summer and at the end of the year. I had neglected to do it over New Year’s so I actually had two messes of paper to deal with as the accordion file was stuffed.

Today, I completed that task! It feels so good. I don’t know why I procrastinate about these things, because getting them done is such a positive feeling. Just looking at my clear kitchen table gives me a lift.

This is a good time to get your paperwork organized. Tax time is just around the corner. Organize your files and make your paperwork piles disappear now. You’ll be so glad you did.

Making Something Old New Again

I’ve long lamented the influx of fast fashion, made with inferior fabric that will not hold up long. Proponents only need the fabric to last as long as the fad lasts, but those of us who treasure well-made clothes out of beautiful fabrics cringe when we hear that sentiment expressed. Our love of high-quality garments and fabrics explains why we may own pieces that are 20 or 30 years old (or older).

Recently I’ve been reading about sewing bloggers who search thrift stores for older garments made of beautiful fabrics in any size. Then they remake the garments to fit. If the garments are too small, which is often the case since people have gotten bigger over the last 40 years, they combine fabrics that go well together so that two old garments turn into one “new” garment made of high-quality fabric.

I love this idea! I suspect estate sales would be another good source of older garments made of great fabrics. I think between estate sales and thrift shops, I may soon develop a new hobby!

Middletons’ Grocery Store

If you’re a minimalist, you might not like this post.

I’m going to advocate keeping a large supply of things you don’t need right now but may need in the future.

As I’ve mentioned before, problems with supply lines have caused certain products to be in short supply. We’ve seen this at our local grocery stores, where certain products have just disappeared.

Case in point: our son who lives with us has some digestive problems. One of the things that keep his system on an even keel is a daily small glass of prune juice. But we haven’t been able to find prune juice for several weeks now. I hate to think of how his system will react and how he will feel if we run out of prune juice.

Fortunately, we have quite a few bottles of prune juice because we’ve been squirreling it away for months. They aren’t the only things we’ve been stocking up on, either. We have two large 6’ tall shelves in our basement packed full of non-perishables including coffee, tea, and canned goods like meats, fish and vegetables. These are joined by large packages of paper goods nearby.

This makes an imposing sight; it looks like we have our own little grocery store downstairs. It certainly breaks all the decluttering and minimalist rules I’ve ever heard of. But in these times, it makes sense. Not only does it keep us from running out of things we can’t find, but it also stretches our dollars during a time of high inflation.

If this offends your minimalist sensibilities, I’m sorry. But I don’t want my son to go without his prune juice, or my husband to go without his coffee….or me to go without my tea!

A High Price for Decluttering

A friend told me the story of someone she knows who decided to move out of his condo and to another country. His condo sold as soon as it hit the market, which he was not expecting. So now he had to get rid of everything quickly. He pulled out the items that would go into climate-controlled storage. But that’s not inexpensive, so he had to be very selective. That left an awful lot of stuff in his condo, and not enough time to hire someone to do a living estate sale.

So he called one of those junk dealers you hear advertised on the radio. True to their ads, they came over right away and cleaned that condo out completely, so that he was already on his way out of the country when his condo sale closed and the new owner moved into a completely empty condo.

A happy ending? It depends on your perspective. The company that took out all his “junk” charged him $3500. That’s right, $3500. Clutter can be very expensive!