Less is More

Recently, due to the economic situation and various other scary things happening out in the world I am seeing a lot of momentum building towards stockpiling. As a clutterbug, I admit that it is comforting to have my security blanket of excess to snuggle up in. But what is that excess protecting me from? And better yet, what is it costing me?

In general normal non-clutterbugs stockpile to prevent fluctuations in cost from negatively affecting them. They buy extra stuff when the prices are low to last them through when prices are high. If you are a clutterbug, you probably think you are good at this. You are probably an expert at finding really good deals on things. You can probably list off a hundred times where you saved at least 50% off retail. But there is a difference between a stockpiler and a clutterbug. Stockpilers Save What They Use, and Use What They Save. They don't just buy things because they are a really great price. They also require that spectacular deal to be on something they actually will use. They can walk away from Buy 3, Get 3 Free because the product is not something they would ever eat 1 of, let alone 6.

There is a cute commercial for Discover cards that asks a bunch of people if they know how much they spent of coffee that day, and of course nearly everyone raises their hand. But when they are asked how many of them know how much they've spent on coffee all year, not that many hands stay up. How much money have we all spent on products we aren't using because they were good prices? How much money have we all spent on things that were donated or sold at a garage sale in practically brand new condition, if not actually in the original packaging?

When stockpilers buy extra things, it is like buying a high interest CD. It's a safe investment. They know it's going to pay off for them. When clutterbugs buy extra things, we're at best gambling, at worst diminishing our ability to aquire the things we really need when we really need them. You can't transform cans of off brand tuna fish into money when one of your car windows gets broken by a rock on the freeway. Yes, we can eat that off brand tuna fish. And if things get bad enough we'd think about it. But being honest with ourselves, would we eat the tuna or put the new window on our credit card and buy even more groceriers?

In 2009, I am working on getting my excess stuff down to reasonable, usable levels. I'm using what I have, and if something is really not ever going to be used, I am donating/selling/trashing it to get it out of here. When I'm out shopping, I work from a list that I make from things I need or plan to use right away. If something is a good price, I aks myself a few questions:

1. Do I have room for this?
2. Do I have a plan for using this in the next week, month, year?
3. If this takes the place of something at home, am I ready to get rid of the one I have at home?

To be honest sometimes things go for a ride in my shopping cart, or for a walk with me around the store with me while I work those 3 questions out. But if the answer to even one of the questions is "no" then the item, no matter how fabulous of a deal it is has to stay in the store. Because money I spend on 75% off shoes is money I don't have anymore. It's money that can't become food, or mortgage payments, or gas, or even something really fun that comes up suddenly.

I am not 100% on this. I bought new underwear becuase I was on a work trip near outlet malls and there was a really awesome sale going on. I justified it as at least it was underwear which has joined my rotation. As far as unnecessary purchases go, it could be worse. But I think if I can win against that compuslion to buy an an unnecessary bargain most or even some of the time, then I'm on the right track.

Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to take out my money in cash so I could stuff it into mason jars and put it in the pantry. Then I could visually see all the saved money accumulating. Hehe, I could hoard money like Scrooge McDuck.

What does clean mean anyway?

So, I kind of fizzled out with doing the baby steps... BUT I'm still on the mission to get control of my clutter. So I'm doing my own baby step project now, and I'm calling it What Does Clean Mean Anyway?

What I'm Doing:
I'm going through each room in the house and finding one small thing that I can do easily on a routine basis that will make the room cleaner, tidier, or more organized

Bathroom:
Squeegee Shower Doors (Daily)

Bedroom:
Put Laundry all the way into the hamper (Daily)

Living Room:
Put all video game stuff in the basket (Daily)

Kitchen:
Dishes (Daily)

Entry Way:
Shoe Area (Daily)

Dining Room:
Put away Coats (Daily)

The Long Term Goal:
To build incrementally a routine for each part of the house that has daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc tasks. I want to be on a steady maintenance system instead of my binge and purge cycle that is so exhausting.

I am even going to put this in my control journal. Which is in a Red Binder. I really wanted to buy a fancy binder. But I didn't. I exercised control. :)

Getting into the Groove

On yesterday's topic of laundry, this is something that I've been working on for a long time, so I have worked out some of the kinks already. We are lucky enough to have our own washer and dryer, and we have for a long time. But for some reason it took me forever to really re-vamp my laundry routine.

Old routine

1. Smash clothes into hamper until it is ready to burst.
2. Realize there are only 1-2 more days worth of clean socks and underwear.
   
3. Dump hamper full of clothes out on living room floor.
4. Sort laundry in to piles.
5. Kick dog off piles because she has decided that if a big nest of clothes has been out on the floor for 2 days it must be for her to sleep on.
6. Wash and Dry clothes.
7. Pile clean clothes on couch.
8. Fold clothes and put into His and Hers piles on the couch.
   
9. Go to bed.
10. Have people over, so take stacks of clothes and put on the bed.
11. Go to bed, and find stacks of clothes there.
12. Move stacks of clothes to top of the dresser.

New Routine

1. Sort laundry into appropriate hamper.
2. Check hampers, see which hamper is full enough to have a full load.
3. Put laundry into washer with powder soap.
4. Go to bed.
5. Wake up, do morning stuff, start washer.
6. Go to work.
7. Come home do evening routine, put wet clothes in dryer.
8. Make dinner.
9. Eat dinner.
10. Fold clothes.
11. Put away clothes.
12. Go to bed.

Stuff I needed to start the new routine:

1. 2 Two compartment hampers
   
2. Powder laundry soap.

I still don't always stay on top of the laundry. Especially the remembering to start the machine in the morning part. But life is a lot better when the hampers aren't overflowing.

Day 14

Today, we are learning the importance of having an up to date calendar.

I am not good with keeping up calendars. Well I am good at keeping up my work calendar, but it is with me like 99% of the time. I use an Outlook calendar and I update all my work stuff right on my computer, and then it automatically syncs up with my work phone. So anything work related gets loaded into my work phone and then it sends me little reminders so I go to my meetings. I do not want to keep my personal calendar together with my work calendar, so I keep a regular wall calendar on my fridge. It never gets updated.

I have started carrying a notebook in my purse, and I put big things in it for each month, but that is not the same thing as carrying a calendar. I think I really want an electronic pocket organizer, but I am not sure if that's in the cards for me. I do have a personal cell phone though, and considering how few things I actually need to load onto a personal calendar, today sat down and put in all the birthdays into my phone's calendar. It's a pretty basic cell phone so it doesn't do all the fancy things that I'd like it to, but this combined with my notebook probably accomplishes the same thing as the iPod Touch that I want.