It's All Too Much Read online

  Everybody wants to have the most up-to-date information, but come on, people! There are only about six original ideas in the world and magazine editors keep rotating them—they just change the photos to make you think it’s something new! If magazine clutter is your problem, there are some very straightforward ways of dealing with it.

  Limit subscriptions

  You should have no more than three monthly magazine subscriptions. This may sound tough, but I have yet to meet the person who can deal with the amount of reading material in three magazine subscriptions on top of busy work schedules, a family, the daily newspaper, competing media, and just plain living! It’s even harder if some of your favorite magazines are weeklies. Seriously assess how many of the magazines you are getting through each month and cut back accordingly. Don’t let your life be the vicarious experience of what others are doing in the glossies. Get out there and make your own news every day!

  Limit buildup

  Even if you cut back, they just keep coming, don’t they? Don’t tell yourself you’ll get to them one day. Only keep two past issues of any magazine. If you’ve fallen more than two issues behind—you will never catch up! And even if you did manage to get to those back issues, who wants to read or discuss last month’s news?

  It’s this simple—when the third issue of a magazine arrives, throw out the oldest copy. This discipline will help you stay on top of the magazines you have in your home and keep under control the number of back issues cluttering your space.

  Don’t save catalogs

  When you receive an interesting catalog in the mail, look through it immediately. Order anything that you need immediately, then recycle the catalog. If you can’t decide about a particular item, don’t buy it now and get rid of the catalog. If you’re very serious about the item, go to the company’s website and bookmark it. But even if you don’t go that far, believe me, another identical catalog is coming soon. You won’t miss your chance.

  Impose order

  Keep magazines in one designated spot, like a magazine rack, an in-box, or a coffee table, to ensure they can easily be located and don’t roam over the whole house. Magazines arranged in neat piles by title on a coffee table not only suggest order and calm, but also help you to easily see what you still have to read. Put some order into what you read and you’ll find yourself getting through a lot more material quicker than you ever have in the past.

  MAGAZINE EXCUSES

  Don’t try to tell me you need to hang on to that magazine. I’ve heard it all before:

  “But this is the greatest turkey gravy recipe I’ve ever seen—Martha is a genius—I am going to use it at Thanksgiving this year!”

  “I am definitely going to build this deck on the back of the house come spring.”

  “Johnny will probably do a project on Africa one day—I definitely need these copies of National Geographic.”

  “We will go to Southern California one day—I need this list of quaint bed-and-breakfast places.”

  If you absolutely must save an article, tear it out, get a scrapbook or a file, and keep it in there. Limit the number of tear-out pages you keep to either the size of the scrapbook or the capacity of the file folder (twenty articles maximum). When you get to twenty, don’t let yourself add another until you’ve thrown one away. Limits and routine—they work every time!

  Collectibles

  I have lost count of the times someone has looked me in the eye and said, “We can’t possibly get rid of those, they’re my collectibles!” I am not sure when we stepped into an era that believes plastic NFL sippy cups or NBA bobble heads produced by the millions are collectibles! The word “collectible” has been hijacked by the producers of mass-manufactured crapola. People use the word “collectible” kind of like a “get out of jail free” card—it’s become an excuse to hold on to whatever they want. My position is simple—calling a group of like things a “collection” does not automatically give it value or provide a reason for holding on to it.

  The line between collectible and clutter is razor thin. Last time I looked on eBay, there were close to one and a half million items for sale in their “collectibles” category alone! One and a half million! You call it collectible, I call it barely sellable. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure there’s a huge demand for a “RARE! Goebel Toucan Parrot, Tropical Bird Figurine SIGNED!” But what does “collectible” really mean? If you claim an item is a collectible, but it is covered in dust in a trash bag in the corner of the den, or in a water-damaged box in the garage, then I have a hard time believing that item is important to you.

  I constantly hear, “But it’ll be worth a lot of money one day!” Maybe, but maybe not. Many manufacturers of items labeled “collectibles” have a vested interest in convincing you that there is money to be made sometime in the future. It’s not a purchase, it’s an investment. Recently at a well-known college in Texas, the finance department received a fairly large box. Inside was a collection of about one hundred Beanie Babies and a letter. Part of the letter read: “My wife started collecting Beanie Babies in the 1980s and said that the profits from the collection would one day send our son through college. Please accept this box as part payment for my son’s tuition.” Not all investments pay dividends!

  Is your collection really worth keeping? Even when it’s impossible to sit in the family room because every chair is covered with Beanie Babies? Remember: How you keep and display your collection is as important as what you collect. Collectibles are deemed such not because of what they’re worth or who owns them, but because of the pleasure and joy and value they bring. In your mind you may be a collector, but in reality you may be a hoarder.

  REALITY CHECK—COLLECTIONS

  It’s a collection if:

  it’s displayed in a way that makes you proud and shows that you value and honor it.

  looking at it brings you pleasure.

  you enjoy showing it to others.

  it is not an obsession that is damaging your relationships.

  it is not buried under other clutter.

  it doesn’t get in the way of living the life you wish you had.

  Don’t make excuses to keep your collections. Don’t hold on to things that you don’t love in the hope that they will appreciate in monetary value. Some do, others (generally those mass-produced by the millions) don’t. Choose your collection wisely. Or, better yet, “collect” the money instead. In a mutual fund. It’s a much wiser way to get that child through college!

  Above all, if you have a collection of items, make sure it adds to your happiness. If it’s truly meaningful to you, it should be displayed, honored, and respected.

  REALITY CHECK—eBAY

  More than a marketplace to sell used goods, eBay is one of the best reality checks out there when you’re having trouble letting go of something because you think it’s worth a lot of money. Going on to eBay tells you exactly what your possessions are worth on the open market. If that “valuable” figurine you inherited from your grandmother is selling for $9.99 on eBay, then it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.

  FYI—TRADING ASSISTANTS

  There are now companies that will sell your stuff on eBay for you. They’re called trading assistants and can be found at www.ebay.com/ta. If you’re not tech-savvy or you never seem to find the time to sell things on eBay, it’s worth paying the commission to let these folks handle your goods. They take your stuff (gone!), photograph it, sell it online for you, ship it, and send you a check less their commission. No more hoarding boxes and packing materials in anticipation of an eBay selling spree that never happens. No matter how little it turns out your stuff is worth, it’s found money: the icing on the cake of your newly clutter-free existence.

  Sentimental items

  The things we own have incredible power to evoke a memory, to re-create a moment from the past long gone, or to stir up emotions from a previous time. We often hold on to items because they have these strong memories attached. When we have trouble lett
ing go of an object, it’s usually the memory, rather than the item itself, that we are frightened of losing. You may not be able to articulate this fear, but in your heart you know that the power the item has over you is profound. This situation is not at all unusual. When clutter is sentimental, you need to figure out two things: first, how to separate the memory from the item, and second, how to preserve the memory in a way that honors and respects it. This process takes the power away from the object in a way that is really liberating and enables you to live your life without the sense of fear and worry of future loss.

  Darlene, the mother of three children ages five, eight, and twelve, still had their baby crib in the master bedroom. She was unable to let go of it because it represented so many wonderful memories for her. Here’s how I helped her reframe her attitude to the crib.

  Step 1: We talked about her kids, and how the best memories weren’t limited to the past. They had big milestones ahead. New memories—big birthdays, puberty, graduations, and transformations were down the road for all of them. Once she grasped this idea, it was easier for her to let go of some of the past. She was able to look forward to an exciting future of great new memories and experiences with her children.

  Step 2: We talked about what she could do with the crib. It turned out she had a neighbor who was not very well off and was adopting a child from China. When Darlene offered her neighbor the crib, she gladly accepted it. She also promised to give Darlene a photo of the adopted child in the crib. Darlene found a whole new source of pleasure from the crib—the pleasure of knowing that it would go to a good home, be put to great use, and be valued by someone else who was building a family.

  DEAR PETER:

  When my grandmother died, my mother sent me all her china. It arrived carefully packed in six huge boxes. I knew I wouldn’t use it (we love our wedding china), so it sat in our garage, still packaged, awaiting our next move. I finally unpacked it—it was taking up so much space—so then it was taking up space in our dining room. But we still never used it. Every time I looked at it, I resented the space it was taking up, but it was my grandmother’s wedding china! Finally I called my mother and told her I didn’t like it and didn’t want to keep it. To my surprise, she didn’t care at all! I took it to an eBay trading assistant, and they said it wasn’t worth enough to sell. My grandmother’s beloved china—worthless! When I picked it up at the trading assistant storefront, I looked at it and imagined my life without it. Nothing would be different. I drove straight to Goodwill and never looked back. I just told myself what I’ve heard you say a million times: The thing isn’t the person. The china wasn’t my grandmother, or her memory. It was just some old, cheap china.

  Remembering without saving

  How can you let go of a physical item while still honoring the memory?

  Textile memories. Are you having trouble letting go of your grandmother’s mildewed wedding dress or grandfather’s moth-eaten army uniform? Cut a piece of the material and frame it next to a photo of your grandparent wearing the article. Write out a memory of your grandparent to include in the frame.

  Family photos. Face it, nobody wants to look at your family photos. We all take photos, but few of us are photographers. You’re lucky if a tenth of the photos you take are quality photos. So here’s what you do: Get a nice photo album and for every event you go to—wedding, family outing, weekend getaway—pick the best photo of the lot and put it in the album. Next to it, on a piece of paper, write a paragraph about the event. Put the album in a public, prominent place in your home. That album becomes a greatest hits collection, a CliffsNotes chronology of important events. An album like this is a pleasure to look through, for you, and for your visitors. Of course, if you can go digital, by all means do so. You’ll quickly see how infrequently you actually bother to look at your photos, even when they’re right there on your computer taking up so little space.

  Photos of children and children’s artwork. Choose a few easy-to-use frames. Hang them in a prominent spot in your home. Fill them with your current favorite snapshot or piece of art. Every few months, swap in a new photo or painting. Move the retired favorite to an album. You can do the same thing by slipping photos under Plexiglas on your desk.

  Any of the above. Gather all the items you are keeping for the memories, but never plan to use. Set up a video camera on a tripod. Hold up the items, one at a time, while talking to the camera. When your kids are older you can give them this video journal as an enduring record of what’s most important—the memories, not the stuff.

  REALITY CHECK—MORE CLUTTER-FREE STRATEGIES FOR HONORING MEMORIES

  Talk about the item—without touching it—and tell the most memorable story you have of it. Celebrate the memory attached to the item.

  Take a photo of the item (or a clipping of the fabric if appropriate) and place it in a scrapbook with a short narrative telling the story of that item or the strongest memory you associate with it.

  Make a pillow out of sentimental fabric, or use the fabric to cover an album that you fill with photos of the person who wore the item.

  Use shadow boxes or picture frames to display important sentimental items.

  Pass items to someone who you know will use them and needs them more than you do—another family member, a charity, a neighbor. (Just be careful not to pass on the burden of unwanted clutter.)

  Room 4

  Home Office

  THE HOME OFFICE has become a standard area of our homes. Many people use this space to work from home, to handle the day-to-day business of running a household, to answer mail and pay bills, and as a place for their computers. While we’d all like the home office to be a model of efficiency, for many it seems to be a special kind of magnet that attracts every conceivable piece of paper that comes into the home: books, magazines, bills, receipts, tax necessities, product warranties, letters, files, and reams of personal must-keep data that have no clear home other than on a desk, chair, or floor in the corner of the room.

  Think It Through

  Office clutter is almost always a paper problem. What’s amazing is that if you think about the paper that fills your office—the books, magazines, files, and mail—you’ll realize that most of it is stuff you’ll never use again. As we work on the paper problem areas, you’ll learn to assess how much of that paper to keep and how it is best kept.

  Set It Up

  Refer to your Room Function Chart and have everyone sign on.

  Establish zones for the different activities that take place in the home office.

  Remove what doesn’t belong in the room.

  Make It Happen

  Create “zones” in your home office for paperwork

  We’ve already done this for other rooms in your home and now it’s time to do it in your home office. Make sure that you have designated places for the main types of paper that live in this space:

  Mail—unopened or needing some response

  Magazine storage

  Bills and receipts

  Important personal information and files

  Mail and bill-paying should be located close together. Envelopes, stamps, your checkbook, and other items that you need on a frequent basis should be close at hand. Having clear zones means more efficient work and a clear home for all like items.

  FYI—ORGANIZING YOUR CREDIT CARDS

  All credit cards have emergency contact numbers on their reverse side—however, this is not much use if you lose the card or if it is stolen. Place all your credit cards on a photocopying machine and make copies of the front and rear of the cards. Place the copies in a safe place. If your cards are lost or stolen you have a complete record of their numbers.

  Keep all horizontal surfaces clear

  The way you feel about a space is set the moment you step into it. Set the mood for an efficient workspace and keep your office uncluttered by ensuring that any desk surface, countertop, or table is kept clear of paperwork and clutter. If you don’t start piles, they can’t grow.

&n
bsp; Work efficiently

  Have the right tools for the job! Invest in a great desk chair. Make sure that your desk is the right height, your lighting is adequate, and you have a notebook and pen next to the phone. Simple things count—and increase your productivity.

  Embrace the digital world

  In this age of computers and the Internet, be sure to use both software and hardware to your best advantage. Organize your files clearly, delete old computer files regularly, back up your important files, and, wherever possible, use the Internet to conduct business, pay bills, and so on. Online banking and bill paying can help reduce paper clutter and remove some of the end-of-month stress from your life.

  Paper

  I recently worked with Dean, a financial consultant with more than twenty years of experience who knows more about money and investments than anyone I know. He came to me because he needed help organizing his “financial articles,” as he put it. It turned out that Dean had amassed more than ten thousand industry-related articles over the course of his career. Although he clipped and put aside as many as twenty articles a week, he never managed to read more than a third of them. When Dean saw that collecting the articles was more about his fear of missing important information than anything else, he was able to reduce the number of articles he clipped without feeling constantly stressed about what he might be missing. And the side benefit was since he spent less time clipping, he had more time to spend reading the articles that really mattered!

  Remember when we were told that the advent of the computer would mark the beginning of a paperless society? Wouldn’t you like to get your hands on the guy who made that prediction? Like it or not, paper is here to stay. The home office is a breeding ground for flammable clutter: paperwork, files, family records, books. Paper has a habit of sitting around, waiting for you to do something with it. It’s either waiting to be read, or waiting to be paid, or waiting to be filed. Although paper comes in many different forms, one thing is definitely true—the secret is managing the paper before the paper starts managing you!