Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff

"Imagination will take you everywhere," said Albert Einstein, and he was right.  As humans, we're limited in what we know and understand, but imagination transcends all of that. Unfortunately, we tend to bolster our fantasies by buying the props that go with them.  Francine Jay, author of  The Joy of Less  and  Lightly , calls this "aspirational stuff."  These are the things we buy to project a certain image, to impress others, or to help ourselves believe we're a certain type of person.   How my fantasies inspired shopping. I once imagined I was a great home cook, so I decided I needed a shelf full of celebrity cookbooks and drawers full of specialty gadgets.  With a little more imagination I might have decided I needed a professional six burner stove and a Sub-Zero refrigerator too. In reality, I don't enjoy multi-step cooking day after day.  I fix crock pot and one skillet meals, I use certain recipes often, and I've decided I don't have to

The days are longer, the birds are busy, the first buds and leaves have appeared.  Everything is energized and ready to begin, and you notice how heavy, tired, and even grubby your home is. Now, you can do deep cleaning and reorganization like your mother and grandmother did, or you can use this opportunity to do several other great things by decluttering. Decluttering is an essential step toward satisfaction and self-discovery. We you go beyond cleaning to decluttering, you: Learn about yourself.   Cleaning and rearranging may cause you to look at each of your possessions, but they don't require that you evaluate them, especially if you're just putting them in boxes and closing the lids.  In contrast, actually removing stuff from your home forces you to decide what's truly important to you.  Benefit others.   The possessions you rarely use sit on shelves or tables, or in a garage or closet or drawer, gathering dust.  Before you buy even one more storage container,

Decluttering is a process.  It's one step on the path toward a simpler, more intentional life. Less stuff means less maintenance, less cleaning, and less stress.  Removing excess brings you more space, more time, and more energy.  And you may want  all of that . But clutter didn't just appear one day.  It built up over time.   One way clutter grows Brooke McAlary, author of Slow: Simple Living For a Frantic World , calls clutter "deferred decisions" and "the physical manifestation of procrastination."   Fortunately, the process of decluttering builds your decision-making ability as you choose what to hold on to and what to remove.  Over time you gain more clarity and confidence about what's important to you. Asking these questions may help. 7 questions to help you decide to keep or remove 1.  Have you used this item in the past year?    Do you anticipate a specific use for it in the future (NOT "just in case")?  If not, why are you keeping

There's no one "right way" to declutter.  Over time, I'm sure I'll be writing about many decluttering strategies.  But for now, try one of these six entry points . 1.  Start with the most visible. Tackle stuff on counter tops or the floor, for example.  Leave closets and drawers for later.  You'll see obvious results from your decluttering efforts, which will make you feel more confident, energized, and inspired to continue. 2.  Start with one thing that will make your life easier. Are you always searching for your keys?  Put a hook for them near the door, or clear out your purse and designate one pocket for keys. Is the TV remote always buried?  Declutter some throw pillows, clear out a drawer to give it a "home," or clear off the coffee table and place a basket for it there. Do coats, backpacks, and shoes always end up on the kitchen table or strewn across the floor?  Declutter the front closet so there's plenty of room to hang coats, a

When someone lives with large amounts of clutter it is often the result of fear.   My mother's clutter was organized.  It was neatly packed away in storage containers, all clearly labeled and precisely arranged in every drawer, cupboard, closet, garage rafter area, and shed.  She could always find what she was looking for, even if piles and bins had to be shifted in order to get to it. Organized hoarding Mama would never have called herself a hoarder.  Her house was extremely clean and didn't look cluttered.  There were dozens of magazines in the family room, but they were in a magazine rack.  The books were on shelves.  The games were stowed in cupboards. Three sets of "everyday" dishes were stacked on clever racks in the kitchen cupboards, and the "good" china had its own cabinet, with bowls, platters, and pitchers carefully displayed.  Yet we had dinner guests only a few times a year. The linen closet held perfect piles of sheets and color-coord

Want to reduce clutter and gain financial freedom?  Stop buying so much.  Spend less than you earn. That's it.  The most important financial advice you'll ever receive.  (I know – I'm brilliant.) We know this, so why don't we do it? If you cut back on spending, you'll be able to pay off debt, build an emergency fund, start saving for college or retirement, give more generously.  Spending less could reduce your stress levels and improve your sleep.  It might even improve your marriage. Spend less enables us to do all of that.  But in a country where 78% of us live paycheck-to-paycheck and the average American has well over $7,000 of credit card debt , the message to spend less is clearly not getting through. Maybe it's a difficult step to take because the idea sounds unattractive to so many.  Buying less sounds like taking a step backward in life.  In a culture where success is often measured in terms of material possessions, spending less sounds boring, old-f

Sometimes it feels like we declutter nonstop, but we’re never finished.  Piles of mail, delivery boxes, and store bags bulging with our latest finds keep coming through our doors.  Collections of foot-stabbing little toys and glitter-covered art projects multiply.   Marie Kondo’s world-famous book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up , has sold millions of copies, yet it seems many of us are as engulfed by clutter as ever.  We talk about decluttering, but how many are getting clutter-free and staying that way? Kondo had a brilliant insight when she realized that if we declutter by category, rather than by location, we're able to grasp the overall volume of our belongings.  Once we make a pile of all of our clothes, all of our books, all of our kitchen items, or all of our hobby stuff, we're astounded by how much we own , which may make it far easier for us to declutter what is no longer useful or appropriate.  I agree with Kondo that recognizing what truly adds value to

You might think you're pretty good at organizing and arranging your possessions.  Sure, you own a lot, and you don't use all of it, but it's boxed or binned or shelved, not strewn down the hallway.  You've got a handle on all of it, or so you think. But according to decluttering guru Marie Kondo, storage experts like you are hoarders in disguise . Marie Kondo's best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up , is intended to help people do more than clean, organize, and store.  She advocates a one-time process of mindful decluttering, after which her clients end up surrounded entirely by things that enhance their lives , unburdened by stuff that is unwanted or unused.  Even her book, she says, should be passed along when it's no longer needed. Instead of decluttering room by room, Kondo tackles belongings by category, beginning with what she believes is easiest to part with.  Clothes, then books, documents, miscellany (including kitchen items, linens,

Clutter is something we laugh about, like our coffee or sugar addictions, our over-use of social media, or our binge-watching habits.  But none of those are actually funny, and for many of us clutter is much more serious than a couple of piles on the kitchen counter. Clutter lies to you.  Clutter tells you "It's not that big a deal" and "You'll get to it later."  But the piles grow.  And so many people just accept defeat in their homes and in how they live and enjoy life. Clutter isn't cute. We make excuses like "I'm just so busy" or "I'm just not organized."  But excuses aren't solutions.  Trying to make it cute, saying "I'm such a clutterbug," just lets you live with defeat. As a kid, I got used to having a lot of clutter neatly packed away in beautiful storage containers, nicely labeled, so it was clear which bin held which objects.  I would regularly go through my closets and drawers, sorting, decidin