Last, I know I have posted about Flylady before and I’ve done so because she has helped many folks to declutter. However, I appreciate that some of you may not be interested. However, do consider her upcoming Super Fling Boogie. A super fling boogie is part of the normal routines she encourages, but the one on her site occurs a few times a year when you decide to really once and for all let stuff go. It doesn’t matter if you give it away, trash it, or sell it. The point is it’s out of your life. The next Super Fling Boogie starts on Sept. 22 and at that time you’ll be able to go to this link and post the pounds you’ve gotten rid of. Let me tell you, this action is incredibly motivating. You can estimate the lbs or weigh smaller items on your scale. And, anything goes … from ancient stuff in your freezer to that junk car in your side yard. You only post the lbs, not the item descriptions, but she also collects emails about the weirdest things “flung” and they are hysterical (e.g., false teeth from a long dead relative, stuff that you have no idea what it is that came with your home, the pregnancy test kit strip from your child who is now 25). Just something to consider if you need motivation. I know I am thrilled to have this extra incentive to dig a little deeper on purging. I am getting ready to start a home business and I want to clear out even more that no longer has personal value to me.

http://flylady.net/pages/sfb_meter_1.asp

I can’t say I’m perfect at it – I love books and love keeping them around – but I think that some tips on preventing/breaking cluttering habits would be a great companion to this post.

We did this years ago and may be my #1 favorite personal finance tip. (Another favorite is only buying a new article of clothing if you donate an old one. Really cuts down on closet clutter, forces you do an inventory before you shop, and ask “do I really need another black skirt?”).

An additional advantage to the appliance fund is that when it comes time to replace a pricy machine (i.e. our 18+ year-old television for an HD), we can flash cash and get a deep discount. Or …. walk away. It’s positively liberating to be in control of a big purchase!

Keeping a lot of “stuff” is tantamount to hoarding, to my way of thinking. If I’m not using it, I very well may be depriving someone else from the joy or relief of having it. It really is a freeing experience to have your burden lifted by separating from so much stuff.

However, what about the things we collect that have little monetary value, but have associated memories or are irreplaceable. I am sure most of us have stuff like that – e.g. I have book collections of specific authors I like (like Stephen King, Asimov) most of which I purchased used at very low prices. I have had to move twice in the last 3 years and these books are still in cartons, so I’m tempted to simply donate to a library/sell them.

Would it be worth doing that for reducing clutter in my life? I won’t make any money doing so and I definitely can’t buy them back with what I’ll get (many are out of print). Thats what holding me back! I think I may just have to bite the bullet and just do it.

I prefer to get rid of excess crap by donating it, since I don’t often have spare actual cash to give to charity. But this strikes me as a FANTASTIC way to handle a packrat spouse whose reaction to throwing out mouse-gnawed bits of old string is “but what if we need it someday?!” Showing them that there is actual money to replace it someday, should it ever be needed, neatly takes care of that argument.

And then you can go onto the real argument, which is that it causes them great mental pain to throw things away. But it dispenses with the financial misdirection.

other than that, i think we’re at the leanest we’ve ever been. we had to sell things to pay bills, so putting the money away wasn’t an option. but we (particularly my husband, who’s attached to “stuff”) haven’t even had time to miss it.

Re selling books – I just recently came across: http://www.cash4books.net. You enter the ISBN and if they are buying they tell you how much they will give for it – AND they send a postage paid slip to you and you mail. You still have to buy the jiffy bags I suppose, but a good deal if you have a lot of books – and you get to skip the amazon hassle.

something to think about.

These aren’t entire runs on any series, maybe an issue or three picked up out of curiosity. I’ve found that these don’t sell as well on eBay and I’m thinking about listing some on Amazon…but we’re talking about a LOT of random comics.

One other tip that works well for me – I now have a “One In, One Out” rule for most items in my house. It not only keeps clutter at bay, but slows my purchasing. For instance, if I see a book I want to buy, I think, “OK, which book will I get rid of in its place?”.

“Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.

This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.

And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head.”

I have noticed the more I de-clutter surfaces in my home or clean out closets and other storage spaces the more I am opt to not purchase more “stuff”. I am truly sick of running down to the goodwill with bags of donations and I am sick of cleaning…I rather spend my time doing other things than cleaning up “stuff”, storing “stuff”, or maintaining “stuff”. I have almost 2 empty rooms in my house for guests instead of “stuff”. This is what I consider another quality of life decision, giving a friend a place to stay vs. spending time with junk.

My husband, also a reader, recently looked at the stacks of nonfiction books waiting to be shelved in my room. (The fiction library is in the living room.) “What are you doing to do with all of these?” he asked, knowing that I haven’t had much free time for reading lately.

“I’m saving up for my retirement!” I declared. “When I retire, I’ll have time to read them all.”

I’m thirty years old and work in an industry where people generally retire feet first. He and I both know this is a joke. But how do I choose which ones to dump, since it’s not about having the book you need handy so much as having the book you want handy? We’ve already got two overflowing giveaway boxes full of books we didn’t like much or accidentally acquired duplicates of; that’s not the problem. There are treasures that we reread frequently or like having handy to quote from and lend to friends; that’s not the problem either. The problem is the middle 80%, books I genuinely want to read or use for research Someday Soon but sit around gathering dust while waiting for Someday Soon to come.

At the very least I really ought to shelve some of them. The piles are getting to be a bit much.