Yesterday I was silent… mainly because I didn’t feel “worthy” of giving advice when I myself was being slovenly yesterday. However, a friend shared a quote today that I feel is totally appropriate, and good for all of us to realize about ourselves: Carl Sandburg said, “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.” This is SO true. As with my flexibility segment the other day, we all need to realize there will be days when we accomplish nothing. And that’s ok. Yesterday was my hippo day. Monday was an eagle day… and today, well, we’ll see what it turns out to be later on.
As for now, though – how to get the clutter out of your life. I subscribe to five or six magazines or maybe it’s seven. Plus I get catalogs from countless stores. They have a tendency to pile up. And, at one point I had stacks and stacks of magazines simply because there was something in them that I wanted to keep. That’s when I made a trip to Office Depot. I bought a large binder and plastic sleeves. And that day I did something that has revolutionized my life forever.
I started going through my magazines to see why I was keeping them. Many times there was a recipe or self-help article that I thought would be convenient later. Or, I’d kept a catalog because I wanted to find something similar for our new house. SO I made sections in my binder – for recipes, for self-help, for gardening, and for things I wanted in the new house. I even made a section for birthday and Christmas wishes. Now when I get a magazine, I go through it immediately and rip out the things I want to keep. They then go into the front of the binder, and every so often I take what’s in the front pocket and file it in sleeves behind the appropriate section. Then, when I want those adorable Easter recipes I saved last spring, I know right where they are. When we are ready to organize the kitchen, I know right where that picture is that shows how I want to arrange the pantry.
Now it’s easy to clean my desk and get rid of all that paper I don’t need and simply keep what I WILL use. Then every three or four months I go through the entire binder and see what I think I’ll actually use, and throw away some more. It’s a process of constantly re-evaluating. Often some recipe that I thought I would like I’ve tried and it wasn’t our favorite, or we hated it…. So it goes in the oval file. There is definitely no point in saving that much paper when I’m not going to use it.
Another idea instead of just tossing your magazines is to take them to a local school and donate them – you’d be amazed how many teachers are looking for magazines for craft projects and such. (Before I donate mine I make sure I rip out any suggestive pictures or pictures of alcohol ads or tobacco ads.) SO – someday when you feel like crap and you don’t feel like doing anything but reading a magazine, tackle that stack you’ve got tucked away… and then you’ll feel great when you are done because you’ll have tons of space for something else!!
Remember that it’s never a bad thing to keep things – it’s just a bad thing if you keep unnecessary things and in the process allow your life to get cluttered! SO keep what you want and will use, and THROW AWAY THE REST!
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