Let’s have some fun.

I have a confession – I have a number of secret organising fantasies.

Well, now that I’m telling the internets, it’s not-so-secret fantasies.

But look at this lovely cupboard.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

It actually houses an office. Yes, an office in a cupboard.

There are all these GORGEOUS offices on Pinterest and I’m not immune to the loveliness, trust me.

But my secret fantasy is to scale down to such an extent that everything fits inside a cupboard like this. Bliss!

What is your secret office organising fantasy?

Here’s a link to organise your home office

So, I’ve been going through stuff the last couple of weeks.

Not just going through stuff but throwing out quite a lot.

A pillow and a doormat

unnecessary plastics

tons of hangers and miscellaneous plastic things (the children took the plastic containers)

Look at all those lovely empty hangers

7 pairs of pants

What’s on your weekend organising to-do list?
Any special areas you need to declutter?

I’ve found that as more and more people know about my clutter-free philosophy, I get fewer physical gifts and more experience/ consumable gifts.

This is fantastic for me because my favourite gifts are

• gifts of time (I have one friend who takes me for supper every birthday – it’s great because we’re connecting and I’m eating ),
• consumable gifts (One friend bought me the MOST delicious scones for my birthday one year – I treasure the memory of those scones. Still another regularly buys me seasonal plants – I love that she knows I will kill them anyway ) and
• gifts in my passion (stationery and pretty things). Still another friend gave me personalised notecards and stickers for my birthday last year. I LOVED (love!) that gift and am already about a third of the way through that stash.

That said, of course I get other gifts that I just can’t use.

I don’t use perfume at all because I have allergic rhinitis and many scented body lotions/ shower gels also fall into this category.

I re-gift all those things if I can’t return them.

Do you re-gift?

Here are some of my feelings on the subject:

1. I think it’s perfectly okay to re-gift gifts. If someone gives something to you, the item is now yours and you are free to do with it as you wish.
2. Unless the giver says something like, “this is a family heirloom and this is why I’m giving it to you”. In that case, I would return it to the giver if there was a very good reason I no longer wanted it.
3. Sometimes we just get things that are not our style or that we would never in a million years use. There’s no point in hanging onto those things. Why not rather release them and make someone else happy?
4. My pastor said about a million years ago, “if it’s not a need, then it’s seed” and I remembered it. She was talking about how she often received boxes of chocolate and she doesn’t eat chocolate so she receives the gift gratefully but then passes it on immediately. (I also flinched because I am one of those people who had given her a box of chocolates!) I love this idea and try to think of someone who might need or like it more than I do.
5. So yes, I re-gift. I do only re-gift things if I feel they would be perfect for someone else otherwise I donate the gift.
6. I think this goes without saying but if you do re-gift, do remember (or make notes!) who gifted it to you as you don’t want to be in a situation where you give something back to the person who gave it to you. This happened to me recently and I told her, “Um, I actually gave you that. I have no problem with you giving it away but not back to me, okay?” – yes, it was a tad awkward!

Do you wait for a special occasion like someone’s birthday or Christmas to re-gift that item, or do you just do a random act of kindness?

I’m on a random act of kindness kick. Actually, I’ve been doing RAOK goals for about 18 months now and I must tell you, it’s FABULOUS to re-gift straight away. However if there’s a birthday coming up, I will wait.

Over to you.

What are your re-gifting philosophies?

Do you have an awkward re-gifting story to share?

Your goals form for Feb is ready over at my site. If you’re already signed up, you will have received the form this morning. Otherwise, when you sign up, it will be delivered to you in the welcome pack.

Happy planning

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On Saturday morning I tried to squeeze something into a cupboard and when it wouldn’t fit, I  just lost it.

I then chucked out stuff like crazy.

Why do I have four huge plastic salad bowls when I only ever use at most two at a time?

I use these ones for baking when it’s a 3 cups of flour or more recipe too, and of late, for my sweet and savoury snack mixes.

And that’s how it went.

I had a pile big enough for two grocery carrier bags on my table and told Nester (our cleaning lady) to please help herself to it all. Or otherwise, to toss!

I’ve been seriously decluttering and organising for just over 6 years now, as long as we’ve been in this house and it was my stinginess that started it.

I actually considered getting a kitchen cupboard built to house all my extra stuff and when they quoted me R5000-odd in those days, I nearly fainted.

But I did have an aha – those things I wanted stored weren’t nearly worth R5000 so why would I pay for storage to house rubbish that I probably wasn’t using anyway.

Let that be some inspiration for you!

What do you need to clear out this week?

PS Organise your home will help kick-start your decluttering journey.

I’ve been teaching my children to pack their own toys away, put things away before they take out new toys, and so on since they were about 12 – 13 months.

Well, I thought it was time to teach them decluttering.

Who would ever have thought I’d say something like they have too many books but they really did.

They had foam books, thick board books and even plastic bath books and material books. Lots of the books have been chewed on and are not looking great at the moment.

So I told them to go through their books and take away the ones they don’t read so I could give it to other kids who don’t have books

They decluttered these four plus two of their absolute favourites, Daniel and David.

I will admit that I was heartbroken when they tossed Daniel and David into the mix. Quite honestly I didn’t think they’d thought it through properly so the books have been in my study.

The next night Kendra asked Dion to read David. They looked through the pile and he said, “did you not give David to the other kids?”

Her little lip started to quiver and this is where I encountered a totally new experience – I have never before had a client cry for things they tossed out.

Then again, this little one is my daughter and I did have the book.

You should have seen the joy on her face when I produced David.

Of course a day or two later Connor asked for Daniel and I whipped it out straight away because I certainly don’t want to hear all that screaming.

These four books will now go because it’s been about 3 – 4 weeks and they haven’t even asked for any of them.

Poor Poppy Cat. This was one of their favourite books when they first started “reading” but I think I miss her more than they do LOL

I think holding onto the books for just a little while may be a good thing to do for kids who may not be fully aware that donate = gone for good.

Do you teach your kids to declutter?

What do you do when you want to hang onto something but they want to toss it?

Organise your home will help you declutter and get your home organised for the new year.

     Rachel R. says

1. How do you stay motivated when the junk you box up to send away never seems to get gone? (I don’t drive, nobody comes out this far) and I’m the only one who seems to care whether or not it leaves, or that something as bad or worse takes its place.

2. Also, ideas for keeping a flighty teen on task – she’s got to learn to do it for herself in her rapidly approaching adult days.

My answers

1. What works for us is as soon as I have a packet or box of something ready, I take it to our cars and put it in the boot there and then.

We donate the kids clothes to an orphanage our church supports and as soon as a bag is ready (big or small) I take it to my husband’s car boot (we always use his car on Sundays.

For things that are miscellaneous (I had a box of old books recently that a friend wanted), I give a deadline and say “if it’s not fetched by such-and-such date (I’m not unreasonable – I give a few weeks), I’m dropping it off at the church”. I think people know I’m serious so they come fetch when they say they will.

An idea for Rachel – keep a post-it note on your door so if anybody comes out your way, you have a visual reminder to ask them to drop your stuff off at the nearest collection place.

2. I am a strong believer in natural consequences. It’s worked for me (when I would sleep longer than I was supposed to in my youth…) and I just believe that the quickest way to get “flighty teens” to stay on task is to let the laws of natural consequences take effect.

When no-one bails you out, you get responsible very quickly!

What do you think? How would you answer Rachel?

PS what do you think of my button?

Two quick reminders for you:

1. Have you registered for Spring into Organising yet?
2. My talk next week Monday at the church is on the 3 Ps of time management – perfectionism, procrastination and people-pleasing.

What are your questions about the 3 Ps? Share in the comments so I can address them.

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This week’s inspiring space is from our favourite organising junkie, Laura.

Laura recently posted how she got ruthless and got rid of three HUGE bags of clothes.

 Pic from Laura’s post

I am inspired because:

• she’s already organised so this took some doing and
• I love how she did the first round and decluttered one bag … and then went at it again and decluttered another two bags.

Now that’s inspiration.

I’m quite good about decluttering my clothes but there are still one or two pants and skirt suits I’m hanging onto once I lose my last 3 kgs

How easy is it for you to declutter your clothes?

When you write a blog like this one, it’s very much a labour of love.

And when you get very little feedback from people you sometimes think you’re not impacting anyone.

After all, there are so many blogs with more perfect pics, tons of comments, better this and that, and whatnot.

(okay, that’s not all hypothetical – that’s all me)

So imagine my sheer pleasure when I received a lovely email today about how a post I wrote last week is making a difference in this lady’s life.

Here is her email:

I want to thank you today for all the inspirational blog posts you do. And not even just those, just being inspirational yourself.

(I considered editing this first paragraph out but darn it, I need some encouragement so in it stays!)

Last night I came home and cracked. I cracked because of how cluttered my home is. I am the only one at home who tries to keep everything organized all the time. When everyone comes home, everyone is always too tired for anything and I have to pick up everything and tidy up. So I cracked.

I realized that the only way to make life simpler for myself at home, is to declutter. The post you did about magazine boundaries came to mind immediately.

“When things get too much, I need to declutter” You said this in that post

So I knew right there and then what I needed to do. I took a number of refuse bags and started with the children’s rooms. Every little toy that was broken was thrown into that bag. Every toy they don’t play with was thrown in another one which I delivered this morning to the nursery school.

I also went through every cabinet in my home and threw away so much stuff that was either broken or things we never used. It felt so great, Marcia. It felt as if a huge stone was rolled off my shoulders. I can breathe again.

This morning my house was so much more organized, clean and calm.

Thanks for being inspirational.

Blackhuff
Jhb, South Africa

She is TOTAL inspiration in the way she just went for it, isn’t she?

And I love the way she describes how she can breathe now that her house is more organised.

Which feelings does an organised space evoke in you?

When you take off just one day from reading blogs and your previously empty reader goes to 120 unread items, you know it’s time to start decluttering.

Well, that’s how I know it’s time to start decluttering.

The thing is…

I typically have a problem letting go. I’d say that on the scale of 1 – 10, where 1 is terrible and 10 is great, I’m about a 3.

• What if they post something super-awesome and I miss it?
• What if there’s the PERFECT organising tip and I don’t see it?
• What if there’s the best crafty idea ever?
• What if I just miss out?

(clearly I think too much)

But I’m going to set myself mini goals.

I already started. From 116 subscriptions I’m already down to 98.

I’m telling myself that somehow, somewhere, if something is meant to find its way back to me (!), I’ll either see it featured on a blog I still read or on Pinterest.

How’s that for positive self-talk?

So how good are you at letting go?

And more importantly, how many do you have in your reader?

Computer clutter has exactly the same effect as physical clutter – it drains your energy, paralyses you and makes you feel overwhelmed and stuck.

Not only that but it also makes your computer run slow so you should schedule regular time (weekly or more frequently) to declutter your computer, even if only for 15 minutes at a time.

Photos

Now that we’ve all gone digital, it’s so easy to snap, snap, snap and then snap some more.

Download pictures regularly (I aim for once a week), delete the bad ones there and then, and save the rest to CD or DVD regularly to free up some space on your computer.

I only print beautiful photos so if I wouldn’t want to print it, I don’t keep it on my computer. If I want to use pics on my blog, I compress them immediately so that they take up 50KB as opposed to 1MB. And I name them meaningfully so I can find them afterwards with just a few clicks.

Blogs

How many blogs are you following in your Google Reader or other feed reader?

Do you know how long you take to read all of those blogs every day?

Take some time to go through your feeds and declutter those you tend to skim over, especially if you do this 3 or more times every week.

Get to know your comfort number. Mine is around 40 – 50 and yet I currently have closer to 100 in my Google Reader.

I know when I start adding more and more blogs without deleting any, I start feeling more and more overwhelmed at the sight of all those unread items so yes, I’m busy decluttering my blogs right alongside you.

My coaching challenge to you

1. Print out this post.
2. Tackle one of these sections every week until they’re all done.
3. Let me know when you do them.

Happy Organising.