21 Quick Clutter Fixes For Your Home

By Jessica Hoelzel

REDUCE the amount of STUFF you have and LIVE GREEN

Introducing a NEW blog series: 21 Quick Clutter Fixes. Keep your eye on Day to Day Feng Shui for 21 ways to lighten your load by cutting out clutter bit-by-bit throughout your home. Plus, solutions that keep the environment top-of-mind, so you keep your waste-impact down.

Less Clutter = Healthy Home

Less Waste = Healthy World


In the Living Area

8. Do SOMETHING with the photographs. A few days ago I wrote a post discussing ways to eliminate the clutter of too many or mismatched frames. That was regarding those photos that were lucky enough to get into a frame. We all have lots and lots of photos – whether they’re in one place or scattered in closets and cupboards throughout the house – that need “something” to be done with them.

The challenge is that maybe what we “think” needs to be done with them will take too much time. Time we don’t have, because organizing those photos is not a priority.

I’m here to say that anything undone in your space, even if it is hidden from view, still grabs for your attention. It’s all about energy. Subconsciously, you know you need to do something with those photos.

I recently took a few hours on a Saturday to get to my photos. I had “planned” to get them all in albums. Well I’m being realistic now, and I’m not going to take the time to do all that, for all photos. I got them to a place where I can relatively easily find what I might be looking for in the future. And now they’re going in photo boxes. Safe, sound and accessible.

There are so many different ways to organize photos these days, I can’t get to all of them here. But what I will recommend is that you do “something”. Something that works for you – your style and in your time parameters. Then schedule a time for it on your calendar and honor it.

From a living green angle, you’ll probably want to view and share photos electronically whenever possible. How many of us have stacks of prints that are no longer relevant to our lives? If it’s electronic, you can just delete the file when you look back and decide you DO NOT want to remember what freaky hairstyle you had in 1998, or how big that old boyfriend’s nose really was.

Favorite photo organizing resources:

Snapfish

Shutterfly

The Container Store

Michael’s

21 Quick Clutter Fixes For Your Home

By Jessica Hoelzel

REDUCE the amount of STUFF you have and LIVE GREEN

Introducing a NEW blog series: 21 Quick Clutter Fixes. Keep your eye on Day to Day Feng Shui for 21 ways to lighten your load by cutting out clutter bit-by-bit throughout your home. Plus, solutions that keep the environment top-of-mind, so you keep your waste-impact down.

Less Clutter = Healthy Home

Less Waste = Healthy World


In the Living Area

7. Pare down the knick-knacks. And stop yourself from buying any more. Plain and simple, knick-knacks are cluttery. Especially when spread around a room, on every shelf, tabletop or surface. If you have some precious items you like to keep on display because they lift your spirits, by all means honor them with a special place in your home. But if they are things you have collected over the years that are just there because they’re there, then they need to go.

Everything in your home should be loved, otherwise it’s not worth the space it’s taking up.

Having things you don’t love take up space in your home is like letting someone live rent-free in your home while you cook all their meals and pay the mortgage payment. Those things are creating a pull on your energy, draining you, and they’re never going to give you anything in return.


My rules for knick-knacks:

You’ve got to love it to keep it.

Even if it was a gift and you don’t love it, leave it.

Don’t buy knick-knacks for other people as gifts. Be mindful of what that person is going to DO with another THING.

Don’t buy things on impulse. Stop and ask yourself what it really is that you’re responding to about it. (Usually a feeling.) Do you NEED the THING to GET the FEELING?

Group collections together to display them attractively.

If you have a huge collection of things you adore and not enough room, store half of it so you can fully enjoy, then rotate your display after a while.

If you have collections of things that are worth money, sell them. Put the money towards debt, savings, retirement, a vacation, or donate it to charity to give love back to the world.


If things don’t have value to us, we don’t need to value them. The people we love and experiences that enrich us offer TRUE VALUE. We won’t be taking any stuff with us when we go. But we can leave knowing we lived our lives authentically.

21 Quick Clutter Fixes For Your Home

By Jessica Hoelzel

REDUCE the amount of STUFF you have and LIVE GREEN

NEW blog series: 21 Quick Clutter Fixes. Keep your eye on Day to Day Feng Shui for 21 ways to lighten your load by cutting out clutter bit-by-bit throughout your home. Plus, solutions that keep the environment top-of-mind, so you keep your waste-impact down.

Less Clutter = Healthy Home

Less Waste = Healthy World

In the Living Area

5. Get rid of magazines and catalogs. Conveniently store the ones you WILL read or refer to. Busy lives can create a lot of “someday” ideas. Someday I’ll read that/do that/get to that/organize that/look at that/deal with that. That’s how clutter breeds. Clutter is created by postponed decisions.

We tend to hold on to magazines and catalogs according to “someday” ideas. Well, if “someday” never comes, you’re still left with stacks of mag’s and cat’s.

Environmental considerations: these are printed on paper. The great majority of them non-recycled. They take resources to print and distribute. Take note of your impact on collecting these things – solicited or unsolicited. Then decide whether or not it’s worth it.


Lighten your load and ease the burden on the environment:

1. Recycle the magazines you no longer need/won’t get to reading, or donate to dentist's and doctor’s offices.

2. Go to your online account for companies you receive catalogs from. Unclick the check box or unsubscribe to paper catalogs and direct mail offers. The same information and offers can be obtained electronically.

3. Think twice before you subscribe to a periodical you receive through the mail. Ask yourself whether you have time to read it, and whether the information can be obtained elsewhere, such as via the web (published articles, RSS feed, enewsletter subscription, etc.). And whether you want it added to the already-overwhelming amount of paper received through the mail.

4. Store magazines you DO want to keep, but set a LIMIT for their accumulation. Links below include some handy magazine storage products:

Organize.com

ContainerStore.com

Target.com