Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Did you know?
-Monthly Mission – Home Filing System
-Check Out These Pages! – Relevant pages and new site additions
-Buying Clutter Online

Introduction

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy working on kids school projects, house improvement projects and just general busy life. In the meantime, trying to also keep the house in some sort of order. It can certainly be a challenge. And once again, I’m right there in the trenches with all of you, striving for a more organized home.

I think that busy times like these prove the most how important it is to have routines and systems in place to keep things organized. It also shows how just 15 minutes a day can help keep things from getting totally out of hand. The kids are on their spring break and we just did a 30 minute cleaning frenzy of the living room and it looks pretty darned good! (They move a bit slower, so I gave them that extra 15 minutes.) I am going to start using my timer again to refresh my memory about just how much I can get done in that short time. I can stress about something for days, or deal with it in less time than I thought. I hope you agree to pull out your timer and test yourself to see just how much you can accomplish in 15 minutes!

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Did you know…

In 2012 the book “Life At Home In The 21st Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors” was released. It was based on several years of research and going into the homes of regular people to see how they lived. One of the conclusions is that the average family owns far too much stuff. Here is a great article about that study and the book that talks about our stuff and consumerism, and it includes photos of these families homes. (Who doesn’t like to take a peek at how other people live?) Read more at Article “Overstuffed: Clutter, consumption and the study that shows how possessions shape us”

Papers, papers, papers. The mailman keeps bring them, and you should know what to do with them and when. To learn how to put together a home filing system for April’s monthly mission, click here.

If you’re in a hurry to put some order back into your home, perhaps Mimi Tanner's unique method will give you that jumpstart. Check out her method at Declutter Fast: How To Get Your Home In Order Almost Immediately.

Here are some pertinent pages on the website you may have missed along with any new pages.

Home Filing System - Keep all your paperwork in order so you can find what you need at a moments notice, and learn what to keep and what to toss.

Living Room Storage Make-over - See how we re-organized our living room (play room) with a new Ikea wall unit that's great for storing lots of stuff.

Closet Organizing Products - Suggestions for products to use when decluttering and organizing your closets.

Organizing Your Day - Suggestions on how to better organize your day so you can get more done in less time and with less stress.

Garage Makeover - before and after photos of my personal garage makeover. See how we tackled the problems and ended up with a functional garage.

Streamline Your Morning Routine - Ideas to help you get out the door in the morning and be on time for work or school.

Buying Clutter Online

One of the other problems I’m noticing with buying things we don’t need, which become clutter in our homes, is with online shopping.

Anyone who shops on Amazon.com knows that they just recently raised their free shipping minimum purchase from $25 to $35. That is, if you buy $35 worth of qualifying items, your order ships free. That’s still a great deal because shipping can be costly and make a good deal no deal. BUT, the problem comes when you fill your online shopping cart with stuff you don’t need in order to reach that minimum. And with Amazon, now it’s an extra $10 of stuff you need to find to purchase. Have you filled your cart with stuff you didn’t really need?

Other websites have similar deals, for example, free shipping with a $75 purchase. Well, you were buying $50 worth of stuff, why not buy another $25 of something, even if you don’t really need it right now. I’ve certainly done it. Depending on the website, I like to buy extra clothes for my kids because I know they will continue to grow out of what they have.

The other problem with online shopping is that it’s just so EASY!!! If you want something, you can find it online. You put it in your shopping cart and with just a few clicks, it’s on its way to you. And once you’re there, often times you buy extra things you see. It’s easy to shop without pausing to ask yourself if you really need this thing in your home.

I’m no psychologist, but I understand the psychological draw online shopping can have. Auction sites like eBay can give you that extra thrill, encouraging you to bid on and buy things you may not truly need in your home.

Let’s be aware of this issue and see if we can pause and think about our online purchases a little bit more. Do we really need that item right now? Can we wait until we NEED enough items to fill our cart to the free shipping minimum without adding clutter? Is it really a deal to add $25 worth of stuff we don’t need to get that free shipping? Do we really need to bid on that item that reminds us of our high school days?

I’ll be there right along with you. I love getting packages in the mail!! But is it always worth it?

Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com