Each time an email arrives with clutter-free info, Aunty’s antennae perk up, and then wilts because most of the time it is the same tip – sort by Keep, Toss, Donate. Sounds easy and makes sense, but it is not simple enough to get Aunty moving in the neatness direction.
A recent email from Trulia.com/blog (good for home search/info, and has evolved into something like Better Homes and Gardens) was about the “Reverse Hanger Trick and 9 more de-cluttering tricks”. Aunty checked it out.
These were pretty good tricks! The reverse hanger trick involves turning the hangers of ALL your hanging clothes backwards, with the open end facing forward. During the ensuing 6 months, if you use a piece or outfit from the hanger, when it is returned to the closet rack, switch the hanger to face in the usual way (open end of hanger towards the back). The theory of this is that the clothes that you haven’t worn in 6 months will probably never be worn, so get rid of the ones that still are hanging on backwards hangers. Okay, that is rather harsh for Aunty, but since it won’t be hard to reverse hangers, it is worth a try.
A tip from Martha Stewart was actually quite brilliant. After folding a set of sheets, tuck the top and bottom sheet into its matching pillowcase so you have the entire set neat and together. Beats Aunty’s system of finding the bottom sheet from a pile of bottom sheets and then giving up on finding matching top sheets and/or pillow cases that are in their own separate piles.
A mobile office cart may be too big, but having a mobile office unit might keep Aunty’s many jumbles of pens, staples, scissors, paper clips, etc. under control. Currently, it is like there are many areas that have these supplies that constantly get lost resulting in a birth explosion of more areas of supplies that get lost. Hmmm. Maybe Aunty will tackle this one today by gathering each mini explosion of office items together in one big box and then figure out the mobile unit configuration.
Marie Kondo’s clothes folding tips were shown with short videos. Aunty did fold her undies this way and it has been amazing and inspiring to see all panties smashed and folded together in half the space it took before! Aunty first learned this folding tip from Kay of Musings, who is now my blog buddy. Socks are next!
Please refer to the article for the other 5 tips which are also pretty cool.
Aunty is also SLOWLY reading Marie Kondo’s “the life-changing magic of tidying up” which is a perfect little (it really is a little book) guide for people that never learned how to tidy up. Aunty will do a book report on it sometime soon.
Well, Aunty is now going to tackle her office supplies armed with new determination and a simple start to making life simpler. I wonder who would want the excess office supplies. Suggestions are welcome.
Aunty, I have Marie Kondo’s books! Magic of tidying -up 1 and 2. I was so excited when I read those books, I was ready to jump into action…then my daughter needed my help in Hawaii in April then again in August. Took trip to Japan in May and September, we started some remodeling between the Japan trips…my house is in chaotic stage and our handy man took his family to 3 weeks Europe trip. We’re now anxiously waiting for his return…so you see, my De-cluttering is on hold…
Clutter is so very nice in the way it waits patiently and never goes away until tackled. However, I wish it wasn’t so nice and would make like a tree and leaf!
Thank you for the kind mention!
I’m intrigued by the reverse hanger trick. I am going to have to try it.
Kay, you and Jalna are blogsite treats for me.
Regarding the reverse hangers, I already can tell that there are far too many hangers that won’t even be turned so there may soon be a huge overhaul happening in our closet.
Me and my family are embarrassingly untidy. Once in awhile I try to straighten things up, but it’s usually so short lived that I’m afraid we are a lost cause.
I know what you mean. Our house used have piles of stuff and nowhere to sit so nobody was invited to come over. People who decided to pop in without calling first caused us a lot of embarrassment so I used to pretend that we were under construction, lol.
However, it is not a lost cause. Just needs to be a joint effort or a joint agreement that being untidy is okay. I am in the tidying up and de-accessing mode just in case I move to smaller quarters in the near or far future.