There Are No U-Hauls Behind a Hearse

Welcome to my final post on getting rid of your clutter.

You've all heard the phrase, "you can't take it with you".  So what happens to all your stuff once you are gone?  As a professional organizer I can tell you that other people do not love your stuff as much as you do.

Right now I have a client whose aunt passed away eight months ago and left him everything.  He lives in another country.  He did a quick walk through the house when he was here and took what he wanted but everything else is being left for me to dispose of.  Whether it is garbage, or something to be donated or even something to be auctioned off, it will mostly be my decision.  I had never met this man's aunt and I have no idea if the ugly china that I deemed something to donate is something from this lady's grandmother or just some cheap china she picked up from a garage sale.  Maybe it was a gift from her in-laws and she hated it too!

That old top hat that I found, was it this lady's father's or was it just some Halloween costume that her children once wore?  I have no sentimental attachment to anything in her home.  All I know is that it all has to go somewhere because the house is being sold.


Who will look after your stuff if something should suddenly happen to you?  Will you be burdening your already grieving family with a monumental task of cleaning up your stuff?  Will they know what is truly important?

I have a small teacup collection.  There is only about a dozen teacups and none are worth much except one that was made in 1600's and even then it's certainly not worth a fortune.  However, nestled in among the other teacups is one that I received from my grandmother.  I can remember seeing Grandma's collection of cups and her saying that one of these days she was going to write down the names of each of her granddaughters on pieces of paper and drop one into each cup so that when she was gone we could each have one of her cups.  She never did get around to putting those pieces of paper in the cups but they were divided between her granddaughters anyway after she passed away.  Someone going through my teacup collection after I am gone may not know that this may be something worth passing along to my own grandchildren (should I have some someday in the great distant future!).

Family members that are already distraught over losing you can easily become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff that needs to be sorted through.  At those times they tend to just toss things out randomly because it's easier.  Later, many regret getting rid of certain items that, at the time, they did not even consider keeping.  There were just too many decisions to make.

Start sorting through your stuff now so that, should anything ever happen to you, your family will know that the only things left are treasures.  Consider placing small post-it notes under family heirlooms so that others will know where they came from.  They may still decide to get rid of it but at least they can make an informed decision.

Here is another idea that I love.  If you or a loved one has an unusual collection that you know no one else would want to take over, try placing that collection on a table at the funeral service asking guests to please take one as a remembrance of the dearly departed.  This could be teacups, salt and pepper shakers, those silver spoons that people buy when travelling, a Beanie baby collection or perhaps even a collection of elephant themed items.  I think that this is a great way to honour not only the person but also the love that this person had for whatever it was that they collected.  And no one ends up with 35 stuffed elephants at the end of it all!

As I said at the beginning of the post this is my final post in the series about getting rid of clutter.  My blog posts are going to be quite sporadic for the next few months as I deal with several work related items.  If you follow me on Facebook I will try to link some wonderful articles from some of the great organizing bloggers that I follow.  I will still post occasionally but I know that my free time is going to be quite limited until at least June.  I want to thank everyone who comes to read my blog.  I am always surprised at the number of page views each post gets!  I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you joining me here.  You guys are the greatest!

Commercial De-Cluttering

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Have you ever heard of the term "commercial cleaning"?  No it's not when you hire someone to come in and clean your whole house!  It's when you get up and clean during the commercials of your favourite television programs.

I have to tell you that I am not a big TV watcher but the one thing that truly helped me get my whole home de-cluttered was that I did a lot of it in front of the television set.  If the junk drawer needed to be cleared out, I would pull the whole drawer out and carry it to in front of the TV and start sorting.

Over 10 years ago Mr. P took over the family plumbing business.  With that came 20 bankers boxes filled with papers from the previous 20 years that company had been in business.  There were 3 filing cabinets filled with papers, 2 tall 5-drawer ones and a small 2-drawer one.  Slowly I began to go through all those papers.  While 99.9% of them could be shredded, I still had to make sure that I kept certain ones for tax purposes.

I would sit myself down in front of the television with a shredder and some recycling bags and I would start to sort.  While the TV show was on I would sort and I would shred during the commercials.  What worked nicely with this is that, by giving the shredder a rest while the program was on, I could continue to shred papers longer because it had time to cool down between uses.

I would do this until I had filled a rather good sized shredder 3 times or until it started to feel warm.  I have to admit that it took a long time to finally get rid of all those papers but it was rather painless since I did it all while watching TV.

There are so many things that can be done while watching TV.  I regularly sort my filing and even file a lot of if because I made sure that my files are portable.  I have emptied a drawer in the bedroom into a laundry basket and sorted through the clothes.  I have taken boxes of odds and ends in the basement and sorted them in front of the TV.  I organized all of our DVDs and other movies while watching some of them.  I've organized my photos and my online photos while watching movies and 3 weeks ago I organized my Pinterest boards while watching a Lord of the Rings marathon with my family.

Now this may not work if you are organizing sentimental items or things that are very difficult for you to let go of, but it works well for those mindless tasks that take a lot of time.

Start with organizing your coffee table so that you have room to work.  Dedicate the first half hour of a program to sorting something and then put things away where they belong during the commercials of the second half hour.

At this point I almost never watch TV without having some other task in front of me.  Being stuck somewhere else in the house organizing or cleaning something while the rest of my family was watching their favourite TV program was not fun.  By bringing my work in front of the TV I was able to spend time with my family and the job I was doing didn't seem so much like work any more.

Sorting Your Stuff

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Welcome back to my series on clearing out your clutter.  Today I am going to give you some questions to ask yourself as you deal with each item in your home.  But before I do that, you will need to have the proper supplies in front of you in order to make the process of de-cluttering easier.

You will need 3 containers in front of you - one for donations, one for trash and one for things that need to be put away somewhere else in the house.  If it's paper that you are de-cluttering then you will need a container for recycled paper, one for documents that need to be shredded, one for paper that needs to be filed and a spot for an Action File (those papers that require you to do something).

These containers can vary with whatever you have on hand.  Obviously a trash bag for trash and you could use a box or a clear plastic bag for donations.  One tip that I have is to never use a trash bag for anything but trash.  It is just too easy for donations to be mistaken for garbage and set out at the curb (trust me on this!).  Personally I use two pop-up leaf bags to hold a trash bag and a clear plastic bag for donations.  I bought them at Lee Valley.  Laundry baskets are great for your put-away pile.  They are easy to carry from room to room as you put items away.

You will notice that there is no container for items you are not sure about.  I don't believe in a "maybe pile".  Think of the term OHIO (Only Handle It Once).  It's too easy to make a maybe pile that you never get to later.  You are wasting your valuable time going over things again and again.  Make a firm decision, even if it takes you a little longer.

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Another thing that I am not a big fan of is yard sales.  I find that they are a lot of work for the amount of money that you actually make.  However, if you insist on having a yard sale then the best time to price your items is while you are sorting them.  Nothing will make you put that yard sale off more than a garage full of items waiting to be priced by you.  By having a pen and some stickers in front of you you can save some time and sanity.

Now here is a list of questions that you can ask yourself as you decide whether or not an item is worth keeping.

I love these questions, especially the last one.  Here are a couple more questions you could ask yourself.
Does it have a home? - Everything in your house should have a home.  If it doesn't then you either need to make a home for it if it is important or it needs to go.
Would this mean anything to my children if I died tomorrow? - This question was suggested by a reader and I love it.  Especially for those whose children are older and may be faced with handling all of your stuff some day.

Next week I am going to share with you the number one tip that I have for finding the time to de-clutter your home.  It made a huge difference for me and I hope that it helps you too.

Time To Dream

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Welcome to my series about how to get rid of your clutter.

For today's task I want you to dream.  I want you to really think about how you want to use the spaces in   your home.  For instance, if you are planning on de-cluttering the living room, stop and think about what activities you see you and your family doing in this room.  Will you entertain friends and family in here?  Is this where your children play most of the time?  Will the kids do homework in here?  Is this room mostly for watching TV?

By knowing how you intend to use the room it will help you decide what stays in that room and what has to go.  You may find that it just doesn't work having the kids do their homework in there because the TV is too big of a distraction.  Perhaps moving the desk elsewhere will open up a spot for more seating for when you entertain.

How about the dining room?  When you were shopping for your dining room table (or kitchen table if you don't have a dining room) did you purchase this table with the idea of it holding old bills, junk mail, craft supplies, 3 dead batteries and a couple of broken candles?  Or did you envision warm gatherings of friends and family all enjoying fabulous food that you cooked from scratch?

Figuring out how you want to use the space is the first step in de-cluttering.  It is also one of the most crucial.  It's surprising how many people miss this step completely but if you don't know what your goal is, how do you know when you reach it?

Don't Buy Stuff.

This is the first post in my series on getting rid of your clutter.  My first rule is to don't buy more stuff!

There is actually two parts to this.  The first one is quite simple; don't spend all week purging items from your home if you are only going to spend all weekend shopping and filling it up again.

Now I understand that this rule is not as easy as it sounds.  When my boys were young I was a stay-at-home mom and I couldn't wait to get out of my cluttered house on the weekends with Mr. P and the boys.  Many a weekend was spent wandering around a shopping mall buying things we really didn't need.  Those things only exacerbated the clutter problem in my home.  It became a vicious circle where the more my home was cluttered the more I wanted to go shopping to escape.  The more I shopped the more cluttered my home became.  I realized I needed to find other things to do with the family and I needed to make my home a place that I wanted to spend time in.

By de-cluttering your home you can actually make that circle work in reverse.  When you start getting rid of all those things that you spent your time buying you begin to realize how much money you were actually wasting.  It makes you be more particular about what you bring into your home.

Your home also becomes more inviting.  You will actually want to spend time there when you don't have to look around at all the work that you still have to do.

And for all you bargain hunters out there, it's not a bargain if you don't really need it.  I know people who, when they find a $75 sweater on sale for $25, they will buy 4 of them in different colours.  They will proudly tell me that they saved $200.   They don't see it the other way around, that they actually wasted $100 on sweaters that won't even fit into their already overcrowded closet and in a couple of colours that don't even look good on them.

The second part of this Don't Buy Stuff post is about containers.  Don't run out to buy a bunch of organizing containers because you are planning on de-cluttering your home.  Buying containers is part of the process but it actually comes next to last on the de-cluttering how-to list.  You need to know how much stuff you have to house and where it needs to be stored before you should buy any containers.  Otherwise the containers themselves will end up as clutter.  And many times you will find that you have perfectly good containers already in your home.

Too Much Stuff!

Yesterday I held an informal poll on my Facebook page asking my followers to click "like" if they thought they had too much stuff.  It was one of the most liked posts on my page ever!

Clearly too many of us are living with clutter.  We have bigger homes than ever before and yet we have less space for our things.  Expensive cars are left parked in the laneway to make room to store inexpensive junk in the garage.  To say the self-storage industry is booming would be an understatement.

The United States alone now has over 2.3 billion square feet of self-storage space.  That's more than 7 square feet for every man, woman and child.  There are 7 times more storage facilities than there are Starbucks in the country.  "Human laziness has always been a big friend of self-storage operators", says Derek Naylor, president of the consultant group Storage Marketing Solutions.  "Because once they're in, nobody likes to spend all day moving stuff out of storage.  As long as they can afford it, and feel psychologically that they can afford it, they leave that stuff in there forever."

And it's not just the stuff that's hidden away in storage facilities.  Many people could be considered tidy packrats.  Mr. P's grandparents emigrated from Holland in the late 1940's.  They were in Holland during the war and learned to "waste not, want not".  Every little thing was kept "just in case" and yet, Oma kept an immaculate home.  It wasn't until we went through the closets, basement, garage and various out-buildings that we became aware of just how much stuff was saved.  Their clutter was hidden away where no one could see it.

Even if your stuff is out in the open or hidden away, you can get rid of it.  It's not going to be easy and it's not going to happen overnight but it will be so worth it!  It has been scientifically proven that people living in clutter and disarray also have increased stress.  My next few blog posts will geared to showing you how you can get rid of the clutter for good.  Our homes should be a place of refuge from the outside world not yet another thing that causes you more stress.

"Cockroaches may or may not last through a nuclear winter, but that old crib will survive forever hidden behind your furnace." - Thane Burnett, writer for the Toronto Sun

What Did You Accomplish In 2012?

As each new year rolls around many of us take the time to look back on the past year and reflect on what we would like to change in the coming year.  If you are anything like me, most of that reflection is negative.  I should have exercised more, I should have cooked healthier meals, I should have invited friends over more often, etc.  But maybe we need to look back and see just how much we actually accomplished in a year.

As you decide what you want to do differently this year, take a look at what you got right last year.  Try making an Accomplished List.  What did you get done last year?

2012 was a big year for me.  Here are some of the things that I accomplished:

1.  I quit my job as a waitress and started my own Professional Organizing business, Power Home Solutions.  I took several courses in order to become a member of Professional Organizers in Canada and have made many friends by attending chapter meetings where I learn something new each and every time.

2. I started a blog!  This was also huge for me, especially if you understand how very computer illiterate I really am.  My friend Ana was amazing at helping me navigate my way through blogger.  I could not have done it without her!

3. I got a large portion of my own house organized.  My kitchen, bedroom, TV room, laundry room, J's room, mudroom and office are now organized.  In J's room we also drywalled over the existing plaster and painted the entire room.

4. I set up an entire new accounting system for Mr. P's plumbing business.  It had been so long since we last updated our software that the old files would not just transfer over.  It all had to be done manually and was an incredible amount of work.

5. I was able to be available to friends and family when they needed me.  I was able to take some to doctor's appointments, move my mother-in-law into her new home and been someone to lean on during the loss of a loved one.

6. I have become more active in my community volunteering my time and taking on certain issues with my local government.

All in all, it was actually a pretty good year!

What did you accomplish in 2012?

Be One Of The 8% Who Keeps Their Resolution

Above is a list of the top ten New Year's resolutions.  Number one is to "lose weight" and number two is to "get organized".

For years my resolution was to lose weight and after failing at that so many times I decided that I would try and get organized instead.  But it got me wondering, why is it that these two things are numbers one and two each and every year?  It could be because only 8% of people actually stick to their resolution for the entire year.  Many don't even last the first month!

If you think about it, losing weight and getting organized are kind of similar.  They both require discipline, motivation and certain lifestyle changes in order to make them happen.  They also have a tendency to elicit unrealistic expectations (I am going to look like Cindy Crawford when I'm done or my house is going to look like Martha Stewart lives here.)  And if results cannot be seen immediately people become frustrated and quite often give up.

Another problem with these two resolutions is that they are too vague.  A goal must be specific, time-limited, actionable, measurable and reasonable.  How will you know when you've lost enough weight or when you are organized enough?

Drastic lifestyle changes almost never work.  Instead of making a New Year's resolution try making a New Week resolution.  Every Monday make one small change that will help you accomplish your goal. For instance, if your resolution is to lose weight try committing to drinking 2 extra glasses of water each day.  At the end of the week you would continue with that habit and then add another like exercising for 15 minutes each day.

If your resolution is to get more organized then make the commitment to putting your purse away every day instead of leaving it on the kitchen table.  Try that for a week and then add in 15 minutes of decluttering every day.  Keep the changes small and each of these small accomplishments will add up to huge rewards at the end of the year.

Don't forget to evaluate how you did at the end of the week.  Did you only put your purse away twice?  Why?  Perhaps the closet is too far away from the entrance.  Maybe you need to place a hook closer to the door.  Was drinking that water too difficult because you hate the way water tastes?  Try adding some lemon or a little fruit juice to make it go down easier.  Maybe the goal was too big and only adding one glass of water a day is more doable.

Please don't think that you failed when you find that you did not accomplish the goal you set out for the week!  Think of it as a learning experience.  Ask yourself why it didn't work and try to come up with a solution.

"It's not about perfect.  It's about effort.  When you bring that effort every single day that's where transformation happens.  That's how change occurs." - Jillian Michaels

Did you make any New Year's resolutions?

My Home For Christmas

We finally got some snow in my part of the woods and it has put me in the Christmas spirit!  Thought I would dash out in the middle of a storm to take photos of the house lit up for Christmas!

I had said in an earlier post that I would share photos of how I decorate the house for the holidays.  So today's post is mostly photos.  Enjoy!

The Foyer - This was once the Receiving Room where ladies would sit to have tea and chat.

View from front entrance

View from the stairs

Fireplace

Our main Christmas tree

Our tree is covered with photos of family and friends

Dollar Store frames with ribbon attached to the back (this is me in the photo)

Our Nativity Set

The Living Room

Looking in from the foyer

From another angle

An ornament from Mr. P's grandmother that came over from Holland

Another ornament that came from Holland.  It actually makes a noise when blown into.

The Dining Room

I kept the dining room table simple

A simple swag and wreath in the window of the dining room

My Office - I have a fireplace in my office with shelving on either side.  It is decorated with our Victorian Village.

Jax loves the fireplace!

This is the down town portion of the village.

The residential area

The park

In my opinion there's nothing prettier than an old Victorian home decorated for Christmas.

I'll be taking some time off to spend with my family but I will be back in the new year with some exciting organizing ideas and maybe even a new recipe or two to share.  In the mean time let me wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

America has 3.1% of the world's children and 40% of the world's toys!

America has 3.1% of the world's children and 40% of the world's toys.  That's a pretty sobering statistic!  Here's a few more.

- Each year America spends $18.8 billion dollars on toys for children.
- Only $0.4 billion of that $18.8 billion is spent on educational toys.
- Barbie Doll manufacturing alone is a $2.5 billion dollar a year industry.
- Clothes for Barbie and friends have consumed more than 105 million yards of fabric, making Mattel on of the world's largest apparel manufacturers.
- If all Barbies and kin sold since 1959 were lined up head-to-toe, they would circle the planet more than seven times.
- Each new child in a household leads to a 30% increase in the family's inventory of possessions during the preschool years alone.

*All above statistics come from the book Life At Home In The Twenty-first Century and are for the mid-2000's.

More than ever before toys are now spilling out of children's regular play areas (bedroom and den) and have made their way into the areas of the home that were intended for more adult activities (living room and kitchen).  All this clutter stresses out the whole family.  Bedroom floors are rarely seen and parents simply don't have the time to deal with the material aftermath of kid's activities.

Before making your list and checking it twice, try to come up with some clutter-free ideas for the children in your life.  Like some of these:

- tickets for a family bowling night
- movie passes
- tickets to the zoo
- tickets to an amusement park
- dance lessons
- musical instrument lessons
- cooking lessons
- if you live far away, make a tape of yourself reading them their favourite books
- a home-made coupon for a day of sledding (or we have tube slides in our area)
- ski passes with ski rental
- concert tickets
- sporting event tickets

The point is to do something with them rather than just buy more stuff that will add to the clutter.  Give them an experience rather than something physical.

Here is another idea that I love to help children ask for less stuff from Santa.  Provide them with this pre-printed list and have them fill in the blanks.

Do you have any other clutter-free gift ideas for children?

How Much Do You Hate Polishing Silver?!

I absolutely hate to polish silver!  There is so much work involved what with smearing on an awful smelling paste and  rubbing each piece until my fingers ached.  There are fancy dips that I have used but, besides not being very good for your silver,  also requires a gas mask just to stand the fumes!  So when I saw one of those Pinterest tricks for polishing silver I pinned it immediately.  In fact, I pinned it twice!  A few months ago I gave it a try and I could not believe how easy it was!

Line a sink with tin foil.

Add a 1/2 cup of baking soda.

Then add a 1/2 cup of salt.

Fill the sink with warm water.

Now the instructions said to let silver soak in the sink for 30 minutes but I can tell you that it really doesn't take that long at all.  Each piece that I did only soaked for 10 minutes or less.

Here is a cream and sugar set that I found in a small china cabinet.  They are being donated to charity since I never used them but I decided to clean them up before I donated them.  I don't think they have ever been polished before.

I soaked the creamer first for about 5 minutes and this is what it looked like after!

It's hard to see the difference in this picture but here is one with both of them done.

Give everything a really good rinse after finishing because a salt film on the silver can be very corrosive.

I have to say that I will never use another way to polish silver again!

Here is the original link for the Pintrest post.

PS I absolutely love the quote at the top of the link.

If your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet her with, “who could have done this? We have no enemies.”  - Phyllis Diller