Category Archives: Clutter

Use It or Lose It, Procrastinators

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

Have you ever been called a hoarder? It’s possible that you aren’t exactly a hoarder, but you’re a procrastinator.

Procrastinators have a hard time making decisions. They’re afraid they’ll regret getting rid of something, so they just let it sit. Do that enough times and your house begins to look like a hoarder’s home.

If you’re a procrastinator, have you considered that by not making a decision about whether to keep something, you’re actually punishing yourself? You’re preventing yourself from either enjoying the item, or enjoying the extra space you’ll claim by getting rid of it. Plus you have to deal with that internal struggle every time you see it.

If you really used the item, you wouldn’t be debating with yourself about whether to keep it or not; you would keep it and use it. If you never used the item, it would be easier to just let it go, unless something is preventing you from doing just that.

That “something,” most likely, is that you’re worried about whether you or someone you’re close to might need it “Someday,” that mysterious time in the future. Let me tell you now, if you’re keeping it because your kids might need it someday, forget it. When we made our big decluttering effort, I kept certain special things for my kids. As it turned out, none of them wanted what I saved for them! They’re a different generation and they like different things than I do. Plus they aren’t nearly as sentimental as I am so they have no desire to keep things just because Mom saved them.

All of my kids live in larger homes than I do, and none of them keep a lot of clutter. In fact, one is a dedicated minimalist. I’ve learned that anything I give that one’s children is destined for the donation pile before long. I just hope the kids have fun with it before their mom sends it along to the Goodwill.

So I don’t think my kids have the procrastination problem, and I know I’ve mostly conquered mine. If you have this problem, I hope you conquer it, too. There’s enough stress in this world without adding to it by having an internal debate about things, mere things, that we can’t decide whether to keep or not.

A Stash Like No Other

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

I read a lot of sewing blogs, and one thing I’ve noticed is that during the lockdown, sewists have been working hard to reduce their fabric stashes.

A fabric stash isn’t like an overstock of mugs in your cupboard or too many towels in your linen closet. Those things are easy to get rid of and easily replaced. Fabric is not as easy to replace, and it costs a lot more money to do so.

Sewists who primarily sew clothes usually have pieces of 2-6 yards in their fabric stash. With quality fabric now costing as much as $15-25 a yard, we’re talking quite an investment. So it’s in a sewist’s best interest to make something from their stash rather than let it just sit there and rot (many fabrics fade and even rot over time).

Some sewists keep a running total of how many yards they’ve bought and how many they’ve used each year. This year the total bought is usually lower because many fabric merchants have been shut down or slowed down by the Covid lockdown. So some sewists’ outgo has exceeded purchases by quite a bit. In fact, many are using up 10-20 yards a month. Thus they are steadily reducing their fabric stashes and regaining space in the process.

Food, supply and fabric stashes are probably the only ones I encourage. Everything else should be reduced down to just what you need if you want to enjoy having an uncluttered home.

Second Thoughts About Decluttering

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Simpler Living Tagged , , , , ,

Yes, I know I said this time of lockdown is a good opportunity for decluttering, even though most thrift stores are closed and there’s nowhere to donate our unwanted clutter. But some items in the news have given me second thoughts.

JC Penney’s has been in bad shape for quite a while and now they are shutting down. Ditto for Neiman Marcus.  Yes, you can buy clothes online, but thanks to the virus, supply lines are down and inventory has been greatly affected. Even appliances aren’t always easy to find now. For instance, people have been buying up freezers to store meat; at the local chain appliance store, there is not a freezer to be found under $2,500.

So I’m thinking we shouldn’t get rid of things unless we already have their replacements. The virus has changed everything and we don’t know what to expect. So let’s hang on to things we might need down the road until we see how things shake out.

What Does a Minimalist Do in Self-Isolation?

By Claire Posted in Clutter Tagged , , ,

I recently saw this comment on a forum: “Being stuck inside for weeks like this makes me so glad I have such a huge yarn stash.”

And it got me thinking: if you’ve achieved a full minimalist state, with no excess clutter lying around anywhere, what are you doing to pass the time in self-isolation?

At first, I decided that someone with no clutter lying around is probably regretting their decision to pare down to almost nothing. But then I realized that just because your yarn stash is gone, doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do:

  • You can read ebooks.
  • You can listen to music you’ve stored on your device.
  • You can exercise.
  • You can cook.
  • You can stay in contact with family and friends online.
  • You can watch movies (streamed, not DVDs).
  • And, of course, you can buy yarn online if you simply must knit or crochet to keep your sanity.

So all is not lost! On the other hand, if you’re awash in clutter, and have supplies for every craft project you ever wanted to make, you’d better dig that stuff out of your piles, dust it off and get cracking, because you’re never going to have this much free time again.