It seems that a few years ago storage facilities were rarely seen. Now you can’t drive anywhere without seeing one every few miles. Sometimes I wonder what this says about our generation. Do we really need so much “stuff” that we are forced to rent a storage facility to keep it? And if we need to rent to store the “stuff”, when will we use it if we don’t remember we have it? Are our insecurities about never having enough getting to us to the point where we keep too much “stuff”?

I know many people who have no idea what they have in their homes, let alone in a rented warehouse! The question I ask them is, “Do you really need this, and if so, when was the last time you used it, or when do you plan to use it next?” We have to be real with ourselves and simplify, simplify, simplify!

We are inundated every day with information that we have to deal with, whether it is on the computer, coming in the form of newspapers and magazines, not to mention the tons of spam we receive every day! The first step in ordering our lives is to consider how we handle this information as it arrives. Again, it is important to be realistic about whether we will need the information in the future.

Don’t subscribe to dozens of magazines if you don’t have time to read them! It’s not just a waste of our precious natural resources, but you work hard for your money, don’t throw it in the recycling bin! I carry the current magazine with me for free time reading: waiting at a doctor’s office, waiting for someone to be late for an appointment, etc. While reading a magazine, I tear out what I want to save to read when I have more time and use those pages as a bookmark so I know the last page I read. When I finish the magazine and have read the articles, I file the articles I want to keep in folders according to subject; whether it be a home advice column or information on how to plant a garden or some other information that I will find useful in the future. Then the magazine is recycled and I look forward to next month’s issue with a clear desk!

A general rule of thumb I have with incoming mail is to open and separate in the trash, shred, recycle, or archive. Do not handle any paper more than once. Opening my mail is usually reserved for dinner prep time: while things cook on the stove, the mail is opened on the counter and separated into piles that I quickly distribute to areas for filing, recycling, etc. . The baskets are a great container for papers waiting to be filed, recycled or shredded; They are not only functional, but can also be very decorative.

Email can also be overwhelming for most of us these days. I recently read a fact that several years ago we spent about an hour a day on email and it is predicted that by the year 2003 most people will spend an average of 3-4 hours a day reading and managing their email. We received not only important information, but also jokes and now that you have got rid of the papers
mail – you have to deal with email spam! Check your email quickly by deleting items you don’t want to check, viewing items that can be handled quickly, and setting up folders to hold information you’ll need in the future.

What about all that other stuff? If you have clothes in your closets and dressers that you can’t remember the last time you wore them, then why are they there? Another general rule of thumb for these items: If you haven’t used them for a year, what are the chances you’ll use them? Why not donate it and receive a tax deduction! Do you really need to keep every stuffed animal or toy your child has ever received? Children who are taught early to clean up and donate old items to the less fortunate learn to be more generous and kind adults, and in the process also learn to be better organized and less messy. How many plastic containers are in your kitchen cabinets and when was the last time you saw what was in the back of those cabinets?

If you don’t use it, LOSE IT!

I really appreciate the gift of living in a country where everything we need (not to mention, a lot we want) is available to us, but I also believe that our lives have become more and more complicated over the years. We need to examine ourselves to understand our need to retain so much “stuff” and then start a program to help us eliminate those things that are not necessary for our daily lives. By returning to a simpler, more organized lifestyle, we bring balance and freedom to our lives and decrease the stress and added cost of finding extra storage!