domesticdownsizing.com » Ask Organise Me http://domesticdownsizing.com Tue, 27 Jan 2015 04:44:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 Clutter Challenge: How do I organise my collection of books – I have so many! http://domesticdownsizing.com/clutter-challenge-how-do-i-organise-my-collection-of-books-i-have-so-many http://domesticdownsizing.com/clutter-challenge-how-do-i-organise-my-collection-of-books-i-have-so-many#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:35:09 +0000 Kerri Rodley http://organiseme.wordpress.com/?p=928

So many books - so little time to read!

Do you have a book fetish?

Do you find yourself buying new books that you have absolutely no time to read because you think you will “one day” or that it will look good on your bookshelf? I do.

But I also have one golden rule – once I have read a book that I really love, I need to pass it on to someone else whose life will also be enriched by the story. Why have it sitting there unloved and cluttering up my bookshelf?

And remember the golden rule, letting go of the old will make room for the new!  Here are some other golden rules when it comes to decluttering and organising your bookshelves:

  • Instead of starting to read new books, re-read some old favourites.
  • Let go of books you know you won’t re-read.
  • Put it in a “three months to re-read it” pile. Write in on your calendar and then pass it one if it isn’t re-read.
  • Donate your surplus of books to your local library or school.
  • Keep current reference books if they are as up-to-date and are more accurate or specific than what you might find online.
  • Keep at least one dictionary and thesaurus – especially for Scrabble!
  • Keep handy regularly accessed cookbooks – but if you use it less than once a month you might want to consider giving it away.
  • Only have a reasonable pile of books you plan to read and don’t over commit. Any more than that and your unread books may start to overwhelm the bookcase and it will stress you out that you don’t have time to read them.

Read the remaining tips here: http://www.atcbiz.com.au/ems/archives.php?n=edru7syrbw&c=3tgsczjemf

]]> http://domesticdownsizing.com/clutter-challenge-how-do-i-organise-my-collection-of-books-i-have-so-many/feed 0 How to part with a cherished item that has been broken http://domesticdownsizing.com/how-to-part-with-a-cherished-item-that-has-been-broken http://domesticdownsizing.com/how-to-part-with-a-cherished-item-that-has-been-broken#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:32:59 +0000 Kerri Rodley http://organiseme.wordpress.com/?p=907 A reader recently submitted the following at Unclutterer.com and as this is such a common question I get from many of my clients I thought I would share it too:

Make a memory box...

“I have something that I love that recently broke by accident. It has sentimental value (passed to me from an aunt), it is aesthetically my style, it was useful, and it made me smile whenever I saw it. It is still all those things, except that it can no longer be safely used (nor repurposed). It’s also not reparable, and I don’t know where I could get another one to replace it. How do I get rid of it? Any other object like this would go in the trash, but I love it so much. There’s really nothing that can be done with it even if I did save it—it would be clutter. How do I walk myself through this process of getting rid of it? Seems silly to be grieving such a simple object, but I am.”

Response: When accidents happen to objects we used faithfully and loved, it can be difficult to let them go. It’s certainly not easy for me. The objects feel like trusted friends who were there for you when you needed them.

I think the first thing you need to do is thank the object for its service. You could literally say something aloud to it, or you could just spend a minute or two thinking about all the good times you shared. It seems a little silly, but it helps to have the formal goodbye.

Once you’ve acknowledged its service, you can decide how to proceed. Obviously, you can just dispose of the object and be done with it. However, you might need a little more than this to help ease the pain.

You can make a visual tribute to it. Get a shadow box and decorate it with pictures of you and your aunt using the item and maybe a piece of the actual item that broke. Hang the tribute on the wall as long as you need to until your time of grieving has past.

If you’re a journal keeper, you could also glue a picture of it in your journal and then write down the things you thought about it in your formal goodbye.

Since you don’t say exactly what the item is, it’s hard for me to know if you sincerely can’t repurpose it. My guess is that you could break off a chunk of it, drill a hole into it, and make a small piece of it into a bauble on your key ring. If it’s soft, you might be able to sew a piece of it onto a quilt or something else that you use in your home.

Read the original article and readers comments here: http://unclutterer.com/2012/01/20/ask-unclutterer-parting-with-a-cherished-item-that-has-been-broken/

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