is enough?

One, three, five, seven?
Jeans, coffee cups, pairs of shoes, unread magazines, old tee shirts…
Only you know the answer to that math story  problem.

More isn’t better.  It is just more. 
Anything more than enough is merely excess and can quickly become clutter.

Remember that ten of something isn’t ten times better than one.  It is one, ten times over.
And that having one item of high quality is better than having four cheap ones.  

Decide the number that makes you feel comfortable.  The number you need and can use.
The number that fills your need for sentiment around a particular event.
Pare what you have down to the best, most meaningful, the ones that look fabulous on you, the number that you can reasonably store and access.

Once you’re at the perfect number then it’s time to practice the One In, One Out rule.
If you bring something new into the house, one thing that’s there has to go.

Enough really is enough already!

If you make it easy and keep it simple you exponentially improve you chances for success.

Every step you add to the process, every decision you have to make to complete the task decreases the chances of you following through successfully.

LIfe is rarely black or white, however, many decisions and actions can be reduced to yes or no, this or that, keep or toss.

By making the mechanics of daily living as routine and simple as possible your home is less cluttered, you can manage the constant stream of papers entering your home, laundry doesn’t pile up, you stop buying duplicates of items you already own, and things are where you need them when you want them.

Deal with the mail when you bring it in to the house, down’t put things down-put them away, fold the clothes as you take them out of the dryer, put things away when you’re done using them.

Simple routines, good habits, and making small efforts repeatedly will create an easier life.
Life is complicated enough, make what you can as simple and easy as possible.

spent so much time laughing, being with friends and making memories,” said NO dying person ever.

Life isn’t about our stuff.  
It’s about our relationships.

Spend time with the people you care about and love.
Create some memories.
Laugh until you can’t breathe, your mouth is open but no sound is coming out, and tears are running down your face.

Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Beneath the bathroom sink, that is.

Oh, come on it won’t be that bad.  Really.
Think of it as an excavation.  An archaeological dig of sorts.  Down through layers and other eras.
Each half empty bottle, tried once and abandoned container a relic of some past life or moment of retail weakness.

Take everything out.  Yes, everything.  Have your garbage and recycle cans at the ready.
Toss the dried up, the gloppy, the not quite right color, the expired, the left over and the enviromentally incorrect.

Sort the keepers like with like.
Decide how many kinds of hair product do you really need.  
How many half bags of cotton balls are enough?
Do you travel enough to warrant keeping ten travel size bottles of shampoo?  (that you don’t even really like?)
Is under the sink the best place to store your ___________?

Whew.  That wasn’t so horrible and the amount of things you’ve kept will actually fit back under there, without piling it four high or six deep.

If you want to use containers to help keep like things together, or some stacking baskets to take advantage of the vertical space or maybe fill a small caddy with cleaning supplies, here’s your chance.
If you don’t have things around the house you can repurpose and you decide to purchase some helpful containers-measure what you’re hoping to store as well as the space you want the container to fit. Armed with that information you can shop knowing that what you buy will help, not add frustration.

Under the sink is valuable real estate in your bathroom.  
Don’t let it become a burial ground for stuff you don’t need, products you don’t use or supplies that should live some where else.

Oh, and I will be checking under there next time I’m at your house….
(No. I won’t.)

Life is short.  
Live accordingly.          
                               Patti Digh

Not just one day of independence, but how about a week, month, or life time of freedom from unnecessary stuff?

How about celebrating letting go of clothes that don’t fit, VHS tapes, the pile of six month old magazines, an unused crock pot, toys and games your children find boring, yarn you will never knit, or the ugly rug you’ve never liked?

Box up the unused, let someone else get value from your mistaken impulse buys, decide how many ________ is enough and let go of the rest.

Celebrate your relationships’
Ohh and ahh over all the open space in your drawers and cupboards.
Make your home the land of the free from clutter and the home of the brave enough to make choices that reflect what you truly love and value.

Live your life to ignite the fireworks in your heart.

Motivation gets you started.
Habits keep you going.

Face it, there are certain mechanics of daily living that need to be done on a regular basis or life becomes chaotic, messy and overwhelming.
Bills need to be paid, laundry needs to be done, the floors need sweeping.
Decide for yourself how often these items need your attention and create some habits to address them.

Make Monday evening your time to sit down and pay your bills for that week.
Do a load of laundry every morning while  you’re in the shower.
Grab the broom and sweep while the pasta water heats for dinner.

We often spend more time avoiding and dreading a task than it takes to complete it!

The thing about habits is you do them without much thought (which can be the good news/bad news).
Consciously scheduling time into your week to take care of chores frees up time and energy. 
Come Friday you don’t have to worry or wonder  if you paid the bills, or if you have any clean socks, or if the dust bunnies have taken over the living room.

This week get motivated to make one new habit.

“There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”     Rumer Godden

Because our physical space is the one we’re most aware of, we are  most conscious of the clutter in that room.

Take time this week to peek into the other rooms and see if you can do a bit of decluttering in them.

Is your mental room stuffed with To Do’s you forget to do?
Write them down.
Is your emotional room cluttered with past hurts, grievances, anger or fears?  
See if you could do a bit of forgiving, of others and most importantly-of  yourself.
Does your spiritual space have ideas laying about that no longer resonate with who you are now? Are there voices and stories that someone gave  a younger you that now weigh heavy on your heart?
Spend a few moments in silent reflection, connect to Spirit-however you define that experience.

Not all the ‘stuff’ is our lives is visible.
Do a little house tour and take the time to declutter each of the rooms.
Open up to all that’s possible and relax your spacious new home.

“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.”  Margaret Shepard

We don’t always know how we’re going to get from Here to There.
Knowing we want things to change doesn’t necessarily mean we know how to make it so.
Often many of us are waiting for conditions to be different/perfect before we’re willing to commit and change our actions.

What’s true is we never know what is going to happen or how things may turn out.
We can’t guarantee outcomes or know that we’ve made the absolute best choice.
What we do know is that a change in outcome is a result of  a change in behavior.
The trick is to go ahead and take a tiny step forward.  (Which may feel like a leap!)

Small changes and  little leaps can move us great distances…….

Take a step back and give yourself some applause and credit for how far you’ve come.  
We are often so busy looking ahead, focusing on what isn’t done, what we haven’t perfected, how much more there is to do, that we forget to acknowledge all we have already accomplished.

I’m not just talking about getting your life less cluttered and more organized…

Change is challenging.  Whether it is putting your keys in the same place every day, learning to say No, or passing on the second cookie, but you’ve done it!  Once choice at a time.  

Remind yourself that it is a process and a journey, not a race to a destination. 

Every time you put your dirty dish into the dishwasher, every time you hang up your coat instead of tossing it on the chair, every time you make space and time for what has meaning in your life; your actions reinforce the choices that create change.

Trust me, you’re doing a great job.  Your life looks and feels differently than it did before you committed to pay attention in new ways to old situations.

Sometimes it is perfectly okay to look back-just to see how far you’ve come!

I applaud you.