Permission granted

I'm passing my magic sword over your head, tapping you lightly on each shoulder and granting you permission.

Now:
You may donate the ugly sweater your mother in law gave you.
You may toss the dried up bottles of nail polish.
You may let go of the clothes that are two sizes to big
and two sizes too small 

that you've been keeping for Justin Case.

You may recycle all the empty boxes from 

every small appliance you've purchased
in the past five years.
You may say good by to your collection of unfinished craft projects, scrap book supplies and 

files of potential kid art projects 

(your kids are twenty five now...).
You may give away the linens you have to iron, 

the tea cups you'll never use and
the platter for the thirty pound turkey.

Lightning won't strike, 

your great aunt's ghost will not haunt you, 

you'll have other great ideas for art projects, 

and you're still a nice person.

Holding onto items out of guilt or obligation,
dragging too much of your past into your present,
and shoulding on yourself are forms of mental clutter.
And often then manifest as physical clutter.

Let go.
Make some space.
Live life on your terms.

Do the math

If you take out your trash once a week,
that's a total of about 52 bags a year.
That means that box of 200 trash bags from the box store is a four year supply...

And that's just one example.

Bulk buying may be a good idea for some things,
under some circumstances.
But sometimes it's merely bulk!
(as in bulky, space hogging)

No matter the size of your home,
you have a limited amount of square footage.
Your home and garage do not need to be warehouses.
Let your retailer have that job.
Let them store items until you need them,
and then buy an appropriate size for your needs.

Bigger isn't always better.
And sometimes more is just more.

Like with like

One of the most helpful tricks in keeping your home and life organized is to:
Keep like with like.

Store all your cold medicines on the same shelf.
Gather all your gardening supplies into one area in the garage.
Arrange all the pasta together in the pantry.
File all your important documents in one folder.
Hang long sleeve shirts in one section of the closet.
Put all the winter hats and gloves in one container.

You get the idea.

Bonus points:
Store the items where you use them.

If like items are organized together and stored where you need and use them,
you spend less time looking for things you know you have.
Seeing how much of something you have keeps you from buying duplicates.
Keeping things in the area where you use them simplifies tasks.

Spend less time looking for your stuff,
and more time doing what you love
with the people you care about.

Unjunking the junk drawer

Ah, the junk drawer.
Filled with random, but sometimes necessary bits, that one likes to have close at hand.

The problem is when the drawer becomes a dumping ground, or a disorganized mess.

Today’s challenge is to make the drawer functional.

First, clear a space on the table.
Upend the drawer on to said space.

Wipe out and clean the drawer then put it back in place.

Ah……a clean empty drawer.
Tempting to just leave it that way I know....
Enough dreaming.
Have your garbage and recycle cans close by.

Start sorting.
It’s easy to pick out the trash, the 2” pencils,
the broken rubber bands, the lonely screws.
Toss the dried up pens, the hard glue, the
dusty birthday candles and the random receipts.

Once the obvious throw away and recycle bits
have been cleaned out; start grabbing like items and
grouping them together.
All the keys, all the batteries, all the matches, all the
thumb drives, coins, chip clips, tools. You get the idea.
(Yes, I have been peeking in your drawers)

Keep sorting and tossing.
And setting things aside that actually have homes somewhere else in your house.

Once you’ve sorted through everything, and you have piles of like with like, decide how many is enough?
Really, one pair of scissors accessible is a great idea.
Three pair in the drawer? A bit of overkill.
A couple pens but not ten.
One small flashlight, not three.

Now that you’ve narrowed it down to the keepers,
consider how you might corral like items within the drawer.
Do you have some plastic containers that you could repurpose for storage in the drawer?
Could part of an egg carton hold small random, 

but like things?
Look in your stash of small gift boxes and see if you can use some of them.

Think creatively.
Trying shopping your home before you go out and purchase containers.

If there’s nothing in the house you can use; measure the drawer,
measure what you’re going to put in the drawer and only
buy something that fits the space and the need.

Arrange the drawer so that the items you need most are the easiest to access.
Keep like items together.
Don’t overfill the space.

It isn't junk if you know what's in there, and you need and use those items to make your house a home.

Getting enough

There are two ways to get enough:
One is to continue to accumulate more and more.
The other is to desire less. G.K. Chesterton