Monthly ArchiveOctober 2008
Home Organization & Organizing Tips Administrator on 29 Oct 2008
Conquer “Stuff” Addiction by Janice Russell
Most people associate the word “addict” with alcohol or drugs. Reality is that people can become addicted to either a substance or a behavior. As a professional organizer, I work with many clients who are addicted to stuff. What does this look like? Here are some of the signs:
- more stuff enters a space than leaves a space
- the urge to have the “latest and greatest” is strong
- shopping is used as a type of therapy
- although clutter may bother a person, it doesn’t affect the person enough to stop acquiring new items
So if you or someone you know is addicted to stuff, here are three ways to overcome these difficulties. Continue Reading »
Bathroom & Bedroom & Home Organization & Kitchen & Organizing Tips & Promotions Trish on 21 Oct 2008
Get Organized One Drawer At A Time
Spacesavers.com is having a Drawer Organizer Sale this week from October 22nd to Oct 28th. If you’ve been putting off getting your drawers in shape, now is your chance to get organized!
Kitchen: How many drawers do you have in your kitchen that are a mess of tools, flatware and “junk”? Do you have so much stuff tossed in there that making dinner is a bigger chore than it should be? Get organized!Something as simple as the popular one-piece flatware tray can make all the difference for you. Once you have your flatware straightened out, move on to the cooking utensils and the “miscellaneous” drawers. It’s a quick and painless process and you will love the results! Continue Reading »
Cleaning & Home Organization & Organizing Tips Administrator on 09 Oct 2008
Proactive Stuff De-emphasis by Janice Russell
We choose the amount of stuff we have. Argue with me all you want, but bottom-line is that we choose to keep lots of stuff. In the last newsletter, we talked about stuff deletion, curbing acquisition habits, and honoring your stuff. This month we are going to dig a little deeper in order to tackle stuff accumulation at its source.
In the book The Paradox of Choice, Why More Is Less: How the Culture of Abundance Robs Us of Satisfaction, Barry Schwartz gives a great example of how our stuff “unknowingly” amasses:
You buy a pair of shoes that turn out to be really uncomfortable. What will you do about them?…
- The more expensive they were, the more often you’ll try to wear them.
- Eventually, you’ll stop wearing them, but you won’t get rid of them. And the more you paid for them, the longer they’ll sit in the back of your closet.
- At some point, after the shoes have been fully “depreciated” psychologically, you will finally throw them away.
Is there anyone who does not have some item of clothing sitting unused (and never to be used) in a drawer or on a shelf?
Schwartz is addressing the psychological attachment to stuff. I think that you would agree that the strong connection we have to our stuff impacts our ability to have less stuff. So let’s look at two ways to tackle this issue at its roots. Continue Reading »