Tag: declutter

Use Your Extra Hour to Declutter

Posted on by Jordank

First proposed by Benjamin Franklin as a way for Parisians to save money on candles, daylight saving time became ingrained in American society as a way for farmers to make the most of longer days. In the 1970s, daylight time justified itself as a solution to trim energy usage. Today, those long summer nights are still coveted for leisure activities.

Daylight time comes to an end this weekend, so people in most of the nation (except for those in Arizona and Hawaii, which do not observe it) will turn their clocks back an hour on Sunday morning before dawn. And while it may be disheartening to see darkness fall before dinner, you can use that extra hour in your schedule.

Many Americans see the extra hour in the middle of the night as a bonus hour for sleep. However, few will actually take advantage of the extra hour of rest, the Harvard Health Blog says. Since most people’s bodies have become accustomed to rising at a particular hour, regardless of what the clock says, it will take several days to adjust.

If you’re up early, however, you can use the extra hour to do something you’ve been meaning to do anyway. Follow Simply Designing’s advice and do an hour of decluttering every day starting with the kitchen, and your home will be cleaner and more clutter-free in just seven days.

Be More With Less suggests getting rid of 100 things in a “decluttering burst” that lasts only an hour. Grab a box for donations and a bag for trash, set the timer, and eliminate 10 things from the junk drawer. Then move on systematically to the kitchen, car, closets, bedroom, and so on. When the bell rings, you’ll be amazed at how quickly the eliminated items have piled up!

Sound impossible? It isn’t. In every one of those rooms, there are products that have expired or failed to live up to their promise. “Just in case” items are the worst kind of clutter, the blog says, because “just in case means never.” Get rid of them, and you will be able to “stop living in fear of not having enough.”

Once you’ve used the extra hour that daylight time’s end has provided to get rid of a few things, contact ClothingDonations.org for a donation pickup; it’s another time-saver in your ongoing decluttering quest that helps veterans nationwide. Then, take solace in the fact that you’ll be spending five months of wintry darkness in a newly clutter-free home.

Declutter Your Garden for the Fall Season

Posted on by Jordank

Now that it’s fall, you should #declutter your garden so that it can encourage healthy growth next year. Remove any spent plants; if they are free of insects and diseases, till them under or compost them to replenish the soil, says Earth Easy. Remove any invasive plants and weeds and dispose of them, since they can re-establish themselves in garden plots even after composting. Trim perennials such as fennel, rosemary and rhubarb, and divide and redistribute bulbs so that your flower garden will sport fresh blooms all year long when spring arrives.

Congratulations, Graduates

Posted on by Jordank

Now that those Memorial Day cookouts are safely under their belts, many parents are already planning another seasonal celebration: the graduation party. It’s a final rite of passage among the many that high school offers, and a great chance to celebrate one’s child’s accomplishment.

Graduation parties tend to take the form of open houses, and many families schedule them on weekend days. Collaborate with your graduate on the guest list, and consider dedicating specific hours of the afternoon to family and friends, since, as the Huffington Post points out, they will likely enjoy different kinds of activities.

Party and craft stores will have plenty of ready-made decorations available; you may wish to go with a simple graduation year theme or emphasize school spirit based on the high school attended or the college that awaits. If you want to go beyond the typical themes, HGTV offers plenty of ways to put one’s own creative spin on the event.

Remember that thrift stores can be a valuable resource in preparing for a graduation party. They often stock lots of lightly used apparel from area schools, as well as extra party gear that people just didn’t get the chance to use. And since many thrifts are supplied by donations to ClothingDonations.org, buying from them helps fund valuable veterans’ programs.

For a good graduation nosh, pick items that can sit on a buffet table for a few hours; with an open house, they should be ready whenever the guests drop in. And don’t forget the congratulatory sheet cake! It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it’s almost as much of an expectation as a wedding cake is at a wedding.

If your graduate is going off to college, this is an excellent time to prepare them (and your home) for the next stages in life. After the party is over and the graduation gifts are opened, sit your teen down and discuss an action plan to organize their space for that time in the not-too-distant future when they no longer use it on a day-to-day basis.

They have just 10 to 12 weeks to declutter that space and pick out what they want to keep and/or take with them as they move into campus life, adulthood and ultimately, their own homes. Donate whatever doesn’t make the cut by scheduling a pickup with ClothingDonations.org, and you’ll be able to reclaim some square footage in your home.

Mayday! The Clutter Must Go

Posted on by Jordank

In medieval times, May Day began as a celebration of the return of spring. People would weave floral garlands, crown a local May king and queen, and decorate and dance around a May tree or maypole to ensure fertility for their crops. In the late 1800s, though, May Day became associated with the labor movement. Workers’ rights groups designated May 1 as a holiday to commemorate Chicago’s Haymarket Riot.

In these relatively prosperous times, you may instead recall the old distress signal, “Mayday, Mayday!” This expression, it turns out, has nothing to do with the May 1; it is borrowed from the French “m’aidé,” or “Help me.” And people who have too much stuff know all too well the helpless feelings it can produce.

Psychology Today says that physical clutter — which it defines as more knickknacks, paperwork and other junk than can comfortably fit into the space — can have an adverse effect on a person’s ability to move and think. Multiple studies say that streamlining one’s space can reduce stress and improve one’s life satisfaction, physical health and cognitive capabilities.

Physical clutter (and now, digital clutter such as email) competes for your attention, LifeHacker says; it takes away from the tasks at hand and robs people of creativity. In order to think effectively, you must eliminate it. Unfortunately, getting rid of stuff that has emotional value produces a pain response in the brain. It may actually be easier to apply constraints to the things you bring into the home than get rid of the things that are already there.

In addition to increasing stress, clutter can affect your diet, produce respiratory distress, harm relationships, encourage poor spending habits and bring on a host of other problems, the Huffington Post says. And when you have boxes of extra stuff stacked in your bedrooms, overflowing closets and stacks of dusty papers in your office, clutter has reached a crisis level. You need help! (M’aidé!)

Take a deep breath. Designate a place in your home where you can stage a major decluttering (perhaps the garage, where you can also stage a sale). Set up boxes and bags for the stuff you’re going to keep, trash, and sell or donate. Schedule a donation pickup with ClothingDonations.org and start sorting. Decluttering will get easier — and once you start, you’ll feel better in so many ways that you may make it a habit.

Make a Kondo-Quality Outdoor Space

Posted on by Jordank

Take a cue from celebrated declutterer Marie Kondo to bring order to your outdoor space. Set aside time to examine each category of goods populating the patio, yard and shed — tools, furniture, plants, etc. — and ask yourself Kondo’s quintessential question as you encounter each item: “Does this spark joy?” If it doesn’t, get rid of it. In doing so, you’ll free your mind of the need to make everything somehow fit into a perfect scheme. “Let go of the ‘what-ifs’ and ‘somedays,’” says the Houzz blog. “Toss that half-dead plant into the compost bin and tidy up the debris of an unfinished garden project.”