January 1, 2023
by Brittney Morgan and Trisha Sprouse
from apartment therapy
Decluttering your home is just plain good for the soul. For starters, getting rid of any superfluous items tends to bring more harmony into your space, since it leaves you with a more curated collection of belongings that you know you need. But there’s a more meaningful benefit as well.
The end of December is an excellent time to do some decluttering and purging. Work is generally less frantic, and many folks take time off between Christmas and New Year’s. Some workplaces just close during that week and give everyone paid time off (lucky you)! Kids are home from school and can be recruited (read: bribed) to help out. Presents have been opened, possibly creating a need for something to be stored (e.g., a new kitchen gadget), as well as rendering duplicate, older, or not-working versions useless. Set up three bins or boxes, and label them DONATE, RECYCLE, and TOSS. You could spend 2-3 hours and do it all in one day. Or break it up into smaller, daily time increments spread out over the week. Once you’ve filled your bins and placed them in your car, your house will definitely feel less cluttered and you can begin 2023 with a lighter load!
Moving to a new house presents a perfect opportunity to remind yourself of what you have accumulated over time. Some people unknowingly accumulate several identical pairs of shoes, hoard unused clothes, or fill their closets with half-finished crafts. Basically, these items are non-essentials, and you shouldn’t take them to your new home. Unfortunately, because of the sentimental value of these items or other reasons, most people find difficulties choosing what can remain and what they should throw out.
by Terry Gross
December 4, 2019
on NPR.org
Author Adam Minter remembers two periods of grief after his mother died in 2015: the intense sadness of her death, followed by the challenge of sorting through what he calls “the material legacy of her life.”
by Susan Shain
from Mic Media
August 19, 2021
Picture your neighborhood garbage truck. Got it in your mind? Now picture 29,000 of them, lined up end to end, stretching from Sacramento to San Jose, California. Then, finally, picture all those trucks, brimming with trash and dumping it all in a landfill, every single day.
Cars begin lining up outside the Goodwill donation center in Seabrook, N.H., around 10 a.m. most mornings.
Well-intended patrons are here with truckloads full of treasures.
When Bill Gates said in the 80’s that his goal was “a computer on every desk and in every home” he may not have realized how prescient that would be. Fast forward to 2020, when the average U.S. home had approximately 10 connected devices. Think about that—computers, smartphones, tablets, e-readers, smart TVs, digital cameras, game consoles, smart watches, smart home hubs, etc. The list is endless when you add in the potential for smart light switches, garage door openers, speakers, virtual reality devices, GoPros, and wearable technology. Most of us love gadgets–technology has definitely made some parts of life so much easier. But don’t let your tech become your clutter problem. Here are some tips and tricks to keeping your devices organized and accounted for.
Did you know that 1 out of 3 U.S. households rent a storage unit? Be honest and think about the last time you needed to get something stored in your unit. Has it been three months, six months, or even a year? Chances are you could get rid of that storage unit and most of its contents, saving you about $132 a month (average price for a 10×10′ unit). If you rented the unit as a temporary storage solution, consider the “temporary” part and recall why you had to rent the unit in the first place. Was it to store overflow items before or after a move? Did you rent it after you downsized your home or an aging parent’s? Were you using it to store items for a future estate sale? Whatever the reason, it’s probably time to clean out and say goodbye to your storage unit.
Personal information security is a hot topic these days. Between news of identity theft, mass data breaches and social media personal data security, the subject is front and center in our minds. We all want out personal information to be safe, whether it is our financial information, medical records, or social media data. Each year, we handle hundreds of documents that entail sensitive information, physical paper, our personal and financial paperwork.
It can be confusing to figure out what documents we need to keep, how long, and what documents we can dispose of, and how. Some individuals are so anxious about identity theft that they do not dispose of any paperwork at all! That results in massive paper piles, making it nearly impossible to find important documents when you need them. These piles can become an overwhelming burden. Paperwork clutter is a common problem, and very tedious and time consuming to tackle.
