Distractable Downsizer: Distraction - Outer Things

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Distraction - Outer Things

Right in front of me is a Costco sales brochure for February. It's short enough that I can look at every item and decide whether or not to buy it. But it's long enough to take 5-10 minutes. Then there is a newsletter from a social group I belong to. I can look at it and decide what events to attend; 15 minutes. I actually also have to write an article for next month's newsletter because I am the Chair of a committee for the group; 30 minutes. That's close to an hour just for today's mail. And there was actually more mail...

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Daily Downsizer - What I Learned Today

Just because they don't make stuff the way they used to doesn't mean that the new ways aren't equally valuable, if different; especially digital stuff.
The younger generation really isn't interested in the old collectibles the baby boomers all hope to sell for high prices.
Boxes take up a lot of space, but they can help you cope with stuff in many ways - saving stuff, separating stuff into batches to work on later, storing stuff that is worth storing, or even packing up shredded paper to recycle when you clean out your old paper files.
If you try on a pair of jeans and they fit, buy them! Some people would say buy 2 pair.
Craig's List is a wonderful community resource. In spite of a few bad apples, most of the millions who trade on Craig's List are good people.
Selling or even giving something you used to love directly to a stranger involves 2 possibilities: either you will feel really good to see someone getting pleasure from acquiring an item you enjoyed or you will feel creepy thinking of your impression of this person you don't know using your stuff.
You can find someone to take most anything off your hands if you post in "free stuff" on Craig's List. Post during the day. People sneak a peak at "free stuff" while they're at work!
A dog does not clutter a home so much as create movement and energy within.
After getting your carpet steam-cleaned, the carpet takes much longer to dry than the cleaning company leads you to believe. It is a good idea to keep heavy furniture off the carpet without anything under the legs until the carpet dries, as occasionally stain from wooden furniture can stain the wet carpet. Give it 24 hours - license to procrastinate
Once you have thoroughly cleaned your closet, you can keep it under control by just getting rid of a few things now and then, as you uncover them and realize you are finished with them. As long as you feel good about your clothes when you encounter them in their natural habitat, then it's working for you.
If you are looking for freeware or shareware, a good way to find what you want is to search it on Lifehacker.com. There you'll find the choice programs plus comments about them. On the search engines, you might find the programs that have finessed getting placed high on the search engine list rather than the best programs.
If you are having trouble deciding whether you really want to keep something, think about selling it. If you automatically know what price you want for it, you don't want to keep it!
If you are going to do home repairs, keep the future in mind. Will there be ramifications when you sell the house?
Magazines - News magazines almost always should be recycled rather than kept! Cut out an article and put it in a folder in your filing cabinet if you think you'll remember it and want to refer to it later.
An old invoice from your dentist or doctor may have the doc's social security number on it (and, of course, yours)!