Happy New Year!

Happy National Organizing Month!

Sigh.

Mini-declutter? If you are like me, you have a resolution or intention to get better organized in 2019. If you are like me, you don’t have a weekend, or a day, to dive-in and do a deep declutter.

Solution: The Daily Mini-Declutter and Organize Minute (or Five).

Start with something simple and do-able: Declutter your wallet.

During the holidays my purse and wallet became crammed with shopping lists, receipts. snack wrappers, expired coupons and the business cards of long-forgotten people. This clutter in my wallet created chaos.

In frustration I pulled out my wallet and emptied it. Then I looked at the cards I had in there. I found cards that were three years old and useless. If you are like me you get new membership cards to AAA and your insurance annually. Usually I just cram the new cards on top of the old cards. Looking at them, I realized some of these cards I use infrequently or even rarely: Museum memberships and frequent shopper cards.

What I kept in the wallet: Driver’s license, AAA card, health insurance card, bank debit card, two major credit cards (one for business, one for personal expenses), and the frequent sipper card from my favorite coffee shop.

I have a separate card case in my make-up bag. It holds museum membership cards, and infrequent shopper cards. The make-up bag holds: my card case, earbuds, mini mints, tissue packet, nail file, small mirror, color swatches for shopping, and a single lipstick.

My gym pass and library card are on my keychain along with my grocery shopping card. (I wish I used my gym pass as often as my library and grocery cards.)

Then I grabbed scissors and cut up the expired and unused credit and membership cards.

My wallet is lighter, it closes more easily and I can find what I need – instantly. No fumbling around. No chaos. No frustration.

Inspired, I did another Mini-Declutter: My purse/bag. More miscellaneous clutter – gone. I just lost a pound! (or at least my purse did). That feels better.

My next mini-declutter project: decluttering a desk drawer. OK, I’ll be real, decluttering and organizing a single file folder. Doing this once-a-day will give me an organized file drawer in a month.

Baby steps get you to your goal and are often more sustainable than the big commitment event.

I hope this inspires you to do a mini-declutter of your wallet. Adapt what I have done (above) to what works for you. If you are too overwhelmed to do the kind of decluttering and organizing that Marie Kondo or Julie Morgenstern recommend, then do a series of mini-declutterings. Identify what will make your life easier, chunk it down into mini-declutter tasks and go for it. Build on your success. Keep going and you will improve your life and decrease your stress with every decluttering and organizing task you complete.

Let me know how decluttering your wallet worked for you in the comments below.

What mini-declutter project has worked for you?

Other articles on decluttering and organizing:

How your camera/phone helps you declutter

Chinese New Year is a great time for new beginnings

Family Heirlooms and Decluttering

Family heirlooms can make decluttering more complicated. While you are decluttering and simplifying your home and your life, you may be thinking who you want to leave what to: ________ to a child or grandchild, ____________ to a niece or nephew. (You get to fill in the blanks).

There is no need to wait until you are gone to leave them these family heirlooms.

There is an overlooked part of the book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Clearing: How to free yourself and your family from a life time of clutter by Margareta Magnusson. The author asked her children and grandchildren what they wanted from her home. She was surprised by some of their requests. Some simple things sparked powerful memories, while others had little emotional resonance for her family members. She then gave them these mementos and family heirlooms to enjoy now.

Margareta benefited from this strategy in several ways:

• She experienced the pleasure of giving them those treasures while she was alive, and witnessed the joy of their receiving them.
• She got notes, emails and photos of these things being enjoyed by her family and knowing these treasures had a new life.
• She was able to give the right thing to the right person, preventing anyone from getting well-intentioned but unwanted “stuff”.
• She avoided holding onto something (clutter for her) in the mistaken belief a family member wanted it.

This freed her to let go of things.

You can have the same benefits.

When you give family members mementoes of your family history, and extra touch is including a note with the gift. The note could tell the story of the item: who owned it, when and why they got it, and what it meant to them. This will keep memories alive.

Think of this as you declutter. Ask family members what they want. If someone asks for something you want to keep, just let them know they’ll have to wait.

Ideas for what to do with gifts and heirlooms you don’t give away – Click here!

One way to motivate yourself to declutter is to imagine the space you want to have when the clutter is gone. Want help envisioning the space you will love? And that works in the reality of the space you have? Contact me, today!

Photo by Nicholas Rhose on Unsplash

I recently moved. My previous kitchen was small. My new kitchen is tiny. Although I had decluttered and downsized before the move, I discovered there was not enough room for my dishes, glasses and flatware. Declutter use your best everyday.

My Solution: Declutter Use Your Best for Everyday

I donated my everyday tableware to Goodwill and am now using my “best” for everyday. My best happens to be sturdy and elegant Dansk plates and stainless flatware. I kept only four wine glasses. I have new attractive space-efficient rice bowls for soup, cereal and desserts. I rediscovered never-used porcelain Williams-Sonoma salad/dessert plates which are decorated with 18th century hot air balloons. They bring back memories of my Mother’s 80th birthday hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley.

Delusions of Entertaining

I let go of my delusions of entertaining with this downsizing and simplification. I never had big parties or dinners anyway. Now I have beautiful place settings for four people that I am proud to use. They are a combination of Dansk, Crate & Barrel and IKEA. This is the right size for my new space and my entertaining style.

One of the benefits of declutter use your best everyday is the pure pleasure of using these beautiful pieces for myself. They make even solo meals special.

If you have a cluttered kitchen or are using a motley collection of everyday dinnerware, this will drag down your energy. (Note photo above.) Shop your closets and cabinets. Claim your best for yourself instead of saving it for others, enjoyed only twice a year.

While you are looking at your best dinnerware:

Do you have serving pieces you received as presents and have not used in years?

• They may be more appropriate to a more formal style of entertaining rarely done today.
• They may be indicative of best intensions or delusions of entertaining
• They may be leftover from food fads of the past: fondue sets, hardboiled egg platters.

Are they cluttering your kitchen, dining room, basement or attic?
Donate them. You may think of selling them on eBay. Sadly young people aren’t interested in buying them. Donate them instead.

Let go of the gift and hold on to the good wishes it represents.

Declutter use your best everyday; let go of that heavy energy. Energize your kitchen and mealtimes with the pleasure of using your best. You deserve it. This is an example of the power of beauty to boost your personal energy.

A Bonus of My New Tiny Kitchen:
When I put the finishing touches on a dish for guests, I no longer disappear into the kitchen. Now I can see and talk with my guests and be part of the fun.

If you would like help in bringing beauty and good energy into your home or workplace, contact me.

See more about organizing for beauty and calm:

What to do with Gifts and Heirlooms
A Buddhist Parable about Clutter

What is the craziest kitchen/dinnerware object you found while decluttering? Please share with me in the comments below.