I have been reading Unstuff Your Life. It has pretty great customer reviews on amazon.com; I sort of bought it on a whim when I re-ignited my interest in clutter clearing and began considering minimalism for the first time, about a month ago.
At first I felt like it was too rudimentary for me: I already have an effective "home" for my keys and purse, and I get too little mail to apply the author's sorting system.
The next section is about the kitchen. I pretty much had a "lightbulb" moment reading that chapter: We organized our kitchen backwards when we moved in! The food is on the same side as the stove, and the cookware opposite! DUH! All we do is go back & forth moving things from one side to the other! Plus our microwave took up the largest section of usable counter space, while no-mans-land areas underneath corner cabinets were empty. Last night I began the reversal. I switched the microwave and the espresso machine. It looks amazing! It looks so good! I can't even believe what a difference it makes!
Soooooo, if this book can allow me to look at all of my rooms in this manner...it's totally worth dragging through instructions on how to create a habit of putting your keys in a dish. I really like the dish we keep our keys in (by the front door), it's a pink vintage saucer with gold trim. Which totally doesn't sound like me; maybe that's why I like it so much.
I have also gotten rid of a TON more stuff, and I'm just all-around thrilled. More to get-rid-of this weekend! Hopefully the animal shelter will be open so we can donate old towels! We had like 12. For 2 people. Absurd! I'm also getting rid of a film-camera (got some old film out of it! Can't wait to see what it is!), some kitchen utensils, some more clothes (everything that requires ironing), a working vacuum cleaner that no one seems to want even for free...
Maybe I'll take pictures some day. I got a new haircut almost a month ago and haven't taken *any* pictures of it yet!
Friday, March 4, 2011
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3 comments:
Hurray! You fixed your commenting settings!
I haven't read Unstuff Your Life, but it sounds like an interesting book. My kitchen isn't cluttered, but I've never really paid attention to how efficient the placement of my cookware and such is.
Well, first I need to get my son's clutter under control, and then I'll look at whether moving things around will make my life easier!
Hi
It's amazing how de-cluttering your stuff contributes to de-cluttering your life. I had so much stuff around me that I couldn't really see my life in any useful way. Now when something comes up I have space to deal with it.
Keep going
Deb
www.lifebeyondstuff.com
Jenny & Deb, thanks for the comments!
Jenny, Unstuff Your Life is not my favorite book I've read on decluttering; it focuses more on organization rather than the changes that can happen in your whole life when you declutter (and that's my favorite part!). The exercises are very useful, even though I find myself dragging my feet due to the author's "my way or the high way" attitude!
Deb, you are so right. It's not only physical space but all kinds of space that is created when you declutter!
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