Category Archives: Clutter

Placing Things in Appropriate Spots

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Personal, Small-House Living Tagged , , ,

I had just woken up this morning and reached up into my closet for something when I accidentally bumped my jewelry box and brought it crashing to the ground, sending pierced earrings and other pieces of jewelry everywhere, and breaking the trim off the front of it.

Unfortunately, I have a bad knee and couldn’t kneel down to pick up that mess. Fortunately, I have a helpful husband. He came and picked up all the little shiny items, some of which had landed in my shoes or on the floor. He will also fix the box’s trim for me.

But what was the jewelry box doing way up in the closet? Well, I never found room for it on my dresser, and since I dress up very rarely these days, I put it up in the closet, squashed between two big plastic boxes of sheets (flannels for winter and cottons for summer).

I really should keep it on my dresser, where my perfume tray is. But I don’t have much space beyond the perfume tray, which is pretty large and covered with bottles, most of which I don’t use anymore but am emotionally attached to. Each one reminds me of a specific time in my life, so I rarely wear them, but I like the memory each brings back when I sniff one.

Clearly oversentimentality is at play here. I need to reduce the number of perfume bottles, put them on a smaller tray, and put that jewelry box on the dresser where it belongs. I will add that to my to-do list!

Will Clutter Accumulation Hit a Wall Soon?

By Claire Posted in Clutter Tagged , , , , ,

Since the pandemic began, we’ve spotted flocks of delivery vehicles in our neighborhood. Whether it’s the bright white and blue FedEx vans, the darker blue Amazon vans, the white USPS vans or the brown UPS vans, they traverse our streets constantly, even on Sunday. All of them bring my neighbors (and me) an increasing variety of goods.

Never has accumulation been so easy! Before the advance of Internet shopping, you had to drive your vehicle to each store to load it up and bring stuff home. That required some work. And if you lived in a walkable city, as I once did, the amount of things you bought was limited by how much you could carry on the train or bus home, or on your walk home. You might see many things you liked, but you were limited by your arm strength.

These days we sit in a comfy chair at home and click on our phones (or tablets or laptops or desktops), and the burden of lifting what we buy is on the delivery people. This makes it so much harder to keep our homes uncluttered when the things that appeal to us are just a click away, and the only limit is our credit limit.

For now, anyways. Reports are everywhere that our supply chains are being greatly affected by the pandemic, by vaccine mandates and by the inability of companies to find workers. As a result, we’re told to expect delays and shortages of consumer goods for the foreseeable future, including the 2021 Christmas season.

That could certainly limit the amount of clutter we accumulate in the coming months.

Finding Solutions That Don’t Add to Clutter

By Claire Posted in Clutter, My Books, Personal, Small-House Living Tagged , , ,

One of the ways I ended up with too much clutter is that when I replaced something, I usually kept the old one “just in case.” My parents grew up during the Great Depression, so were raised with a frugal mindset that they passed on to me. Having raised a large family on one income, it often served me well (until we had to move and deal with all that clutter. See my new book for the gory details!)

Now that I live in a small house, and there are only three of us here, it’s really not a useful concept anymore. If something needs to be replaced, I’m best off doing so and then donating or pitching the original item. There is little spare room for “just in case” items.

So I was left in a quandary recently when my husband complained that one of our two little bathroom rugs had lost its grip and kept skidding when he stepped on it. The top of the rug still looked just fine, but yes, that skidding became annoying very quickly, and was also a disaster waiting to happen. We don’t need any broken legs around here.

I shopped online and found a lovely set of matching rugs from a vendor known for high quality. They really didn’t look much better than what we have, but of course they wouldn’t skid. The pair cost $60 plus shipping.

I thought about what I would do with the old rugs. They looked just fine, and one of them was. But I’d have to pitch them both. I wasn’t going to donate bathroom rugs.

The thought of pitching something that looked good (not to mention spending over $60) kept me from immediately acting on the situation. Then something occurred to me.

When I sew, I keep small squares of ribbed plastic shelf liner under the pedals of my machines so they don’t slide when I’m sewing. I vaguely remember throwing out the rest of the shelf liner after cutting pieces for each pedal. But I also remembered where I found it in the first place: the Dollar Tree.

So I ran out and picked up another roll for a whole dollar. I cut out a rectangle just a bit smaller than the width of our bathroom rug and placed it under the rug. It’s been a few weeks now and guess what? No slippage. So I saved a lot of money and don’t have to decide where to pitch those good-looking bathroom rugs.

My parents would approve.

Life on the Road? Not for Me

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Personal, Retirement, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , ,

I’m still fascinated by women who are spending their retirement years hitting the road in a van or RV, or living in a tiny house with only the minimum of necessities. But I could never be one of them.

Why? I have too many interests. One of them is cooking and baking. I’ve been unable to break the habit of preparing large quantities of food after many years of feeding a large family. But I’ve found that cooking or baking in quantity lets me freeze things so I don’t have to cook or bake as often. However, it requires every bit of the small counter space I have to use my giant mixing bowl, my 11” X 15” baking pan, or my big crockpot; if I’m using two of those three, I could never live with less counter space than I have now. I couldn’t do what I do in a tiny home, much less an RV. No way!

I also love to sew and quilt. I have two sewing areas; the upstairs room is for sewing and serging, and for piecing quilts. The basement, with two large tables pushed together, is where I quilt my quilts, and also cut out clothes. How would I do that in an RV or tiny house? Not happening. There are some women who vacation in their RVs and also sew in them, but they prepare their projects ahead of time at home and just bring the cut pieces, a small iron and a sewing machine along. Waiting back home are their large stashes of fabric along with the areas where they cut everything out ahead of time.

Just about the only interest I have that would work with life on the road is reading. I can imagine filling my tablet with eBooks, which would hardly take up any space. But I’d get bored reading all day. I like a variety of activities each day, not just one.

Could you spend your life on the road, or in a tiny house? If you’ve wondered about it, check out YouTube for some fascinating stories of people who do just that.