When I was growing up, school always started in early September, followed by a “Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up” week in which we and our families were urged to clean out unneeded “stuff,” and give our homes and yards a tune-up and face lift. Maybe that’s why my mind always turns to de-cluttering and … Read more
I haven’t always been a de-cluttering maven. In fact, I’m probably not much of a maven at all. The best laid plans of mice and men … and women. There is still clutter in my house and probably always will be. But I think I really cut my teeth on de-cluttering over the three years … Read more
Is your house full of clutter? Your office? Maybe you’ve made a New Year resolution to de-clutter your spaces. Think about this: A few years ago, someone told me that we are energetically connected to our “stuff.” It made perfect sense to me. The more “stuff” that is hanging around the house, the more physical, … Read more
The growing concern over environmental degradation has reached a tipping point. Every day, we witness the alarming effects of our consumption habits on the planet—from overflowing landfills to oceans choked with plastic waste. The environmental cost of our throwaway culture is not just a distant problem but a pressing issue that affects our health, wildlife, … Read more
How many e-mails do you get a day? How much time to you spend online other than for actual work? I’m sure you are getting an inkling about where I’m going with this: Online time clutters up your day and contributes to stress. Stress is an underlying cause of many physical ailments and it’s something … Read more
This is an excerpt from Kathleen Barnes’ book, Our Toxic World: A Survivor’s Guide What is it about the early parts of the year when I want to clean out clutter, sweep away old papers and cobwebs and get the house good and clean? Whatever it is, any time is a great time to have … Read more
I’ve always called it “eating the elephant one bite at a time,” but modern culture has now given it a name: Micro goals (as opposed to macro goals). Of course, it means the same thing: Break any big and daunting task or project into a lot of little achievable or bite-sized pieces. I talked about … Read more
You know one of them or maybe more: Their counters have no boxes of Cheerios and four different coffee containers. Their floors are spotless. Their desks have only a single sheet of paper and a pen on the surface. And, worst of all, there are no stacks of junk mail on every tabletop or baskets … Read more
True confession: I am a catalog addict. I’ll read any catalog, even if it’s for farm equipment or shipping materials, in which I have zero interest. Mind you, I rarely order anything from these catalogs. I just like to look at them. So when the latest catalog came from a national bedding store, I naturally … Read more