Need Help? Barter For It!
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I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not! Here, have an absolutely adorable baby bunny to look at:
Photo by greefus groinks
I finally managed to plan a big step in my fight to get my house (and stuff!) move-ready! Unfortunately it can’t happen until the end of May, but the time has just been flying by so far this year so I’m sure it’ll come up in no time.
I’m swapping some work with my relatives! My Mother in Law and my Aunt are coming up to help me sort through my stuff and help me be ruthless in getting rid of it! Yay!
In exchange, I’ll be helping my Aunt sort through her basement, though I’m not sure what we’re doing for my Mother in Law. Ahhh, bartering! What fun!
I’m swapping decluttering for decluttering, but at least the job will get done. If that’s not your thing, trade something else you are good at. If you enjoy baking, make a friend a few pies, or some nice homemade breads in exchange for them helping you with your decluttering. If you’re handy, offer to fix their broken lawnmower or repaint their peeling fence. Not only is this cheaper than paying someone to help you, it gives you a working buddy you already like, so the task should go quicker! 
Trading labour for labour is a great way to get some decluttering help if you need it! After all, it’s much easier to toss something out if it doesn’t mean anything to you, so a helper’s point of view may be just what you need to show yourself that you really don’t need to keep all those egg cartons “just in case” you need them for a craft. I do this sort of thing much better on a team rather than by myself. It’s too easy to let myself keep something in case I need it later.
Jennifer at Declutter it! hit the nail on the head the other day. She points out how difficult it can be to get rid of those things we’re keeping “to do later”. We all have some things that we bought with the best intentions, but we find ourselves just too busy to do them, so the supplies sit there, unused. Often, we find it extremely difficult to get rid of this sort of thing. It is especially painful if you bought them at full price and they are completely untouched (you feel as though you didn’t get your money’s worth - because you didn’t!).
Why is this step so hard? Because it forces you to look at what really matters. It means you have to be sickeningly honest with yourself and admit who you are.
It might feel a little sad to get rid of that gardening stuff, because that really does prove that you aren’t going to be a gardener, no matter how cool it sounded. It’s depressing to get rid of the jeans that you wish you still fit into, but maybe once you clear out the clutter of your life, you’ll have time to workout, and then, guess what, you can buy new skinny jeans.
Her challenge for this week is to get rid of 5 “maybe” items, as she calls them.
Try it out. Trust me, you’ll find at least 5 to get rid of. It won’t be easy, but I know you can do it. I’ll do it too, and post what I’m getting rid of!
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Happy Spring!
Welcome Spring!
Photo by Steve
Supposedly. It’s still snowing here in Southern Ontario today. 
I have just heard about a new holiday (thanks BusyMe!) that I really should celebrate!
It’s happening right now; March 19th 2008 to April 5th 2008. What is it, you may ask?
Discardia, of course!
Discardia is a made-up holiday, created by Dinah Sanders.
The purpose of Discardia is to simply let things go. Stuff. Bad habits. Emotional baggage.
Discardia is celebrated by getting rid of stuff and ideas you no longer need. It’s about letting go, abdicating from obligation and guilt, being true to the self you are now. Discardia is the time to get rid of things that no longer add value to your life, shed bad habits, let go of emotional baggage and generally lighten your load.
Discardia is a quarterly holiday, so it happens 4 times a year in conjunction with the Solstices and the Equinoxes.
It takes place in the time between the Solstices & Equinoxes and their following new moons. Discardia is celebrated by getting rid of stuff and ideas and habits you no longer need. On the Discardian new moon you don’t buy anything or bring anything into your home and enjoy the fact that you have enough.
Sounds like a great concept to me! It suits Clutter Cubed to a tee! It’s not just about getting rid of “things” here, it’s about getting rid of anything that clutters up your life, physically, mentally, or emotionally. Get rid of things you don’t need, and try not to being anything you don’t need into your life either.
Seth has made a Discardian Calculator, so you can see when the next sets of dates are. As he says, mixing solar and lunar events like that makes the schedule a little wonky, but that’s ok!
The next ten Discardia “celebrations” are as follows:
- 19 Mar 2008 - 5 Apr 2008
- 20 Jun 2008 - 2 Jul 2008
- 20 Jun 2008 - 2 Jul 2008
- 21 Dec 2008 - 27 Dec 2008
- 20 Mar 2009 - 26 Mar 2009
- 20 Jun 2009 - 22 Jun 2009
- 22 Sep 2009 - 17 Oct 2009
- 21 Dec 2009 - 14 Jan 2010
- 20 Mar 2010 - 14 Apr 2010
- 21 Jun 2010 - 11 Jul 2010
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Reader Challenge: Closet Clutter
I have a little challenge for all my readers!
Photo by Anne Norman
Go to your closet. Yes, as soon as you finish reading this. Don’t wait!
Turn all your hangers backwards (over the back of the rod, instead of over the front of the rod). Every last one.
In a month, I’ll post again and remind you to look back in your closet and see exactly how many hangers are still facing the wrong way!
~Thank you all for your patience with my lack of posts during this difficult time. ~
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My love affair with the label maker
This is a guest post by Catherine Beringer from Solsida.
Photo by Julie K.
I had thought of my jewelry studio as my own personal space, so who would care if it was a little messy? Well, I did, but I was pretending it didn’t bother me, because in reality I had no idea where to start to get it cleaned up. I did worry that it was a fire hazard, but I just tried not to think about it. However, when some unexpected visitors began to drop by, the state of my studio was fairly humiliating. So, with the beautiful pages of Real Simple in mind, I trucked it on over to Joann’s Fabric to pick up some storage containers. Now this is really silly, but the blue lids of the storage containers match the blue handles on most of my pliers. Something about the unintended color scheme was really motivating. I loved the matching rows of storage containers with their pearlized blue lids. It was almost like the magazine pictures. But, how would I remember what was in those things? Sure they’re translucent, but you really can’t see inside. That’s when I remembered my husband’s label maker.
What is the big deal about a label maker you ask? I’m not sure, but I got so excited about labeling everything that I had to go back to Joann’s for more containers. I loved watching the tape spit out, with whatever words I needed. The little hum it made. I adored those crisp, large, letters. Yes, because of those beautiful labels I can find things now and keep them out of my way. But, what I really love is the uniformity. Those letters march across their space of white like miniature soldiers. And I love every one of them.
So when I ran out of things to label, I stowed the label maker on a bottom shelf. I was sure that I could come up with more things to label and would need it again soon. Until my husband saw it there. “That’s mine, you know. Hey, are you HIDING it?” Hmmm. Well, not on purpose. I told him I wasn’t done with it. I was sure I had more things to label. Although in all honesty, I still can’t think of anything else to label. And then, one day, I realized it was gone. And my husband’s office was suddenly tidy…
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Be sure to check out Catherine’s nifty eco-friendly silver jewelry.
Your regularly scheduled Clutter Cubed posting returns on Monday!
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Clean & Reorganized Work Space!
This is a guest post by Lilie Wells from Asian Buzz Blog.
Here is the before. This was after moving this table from the other wall (where the closet is). You can find how it all look before getting to this picture here. This has been working well for me but I got some plastic little containers after reading this post. The problem was that they didn’t stack very well so I decide to move things up with shelves. Thanks to my husband for putting them up!
Here is the after. We got the shelves from Lowe’s and some wooden dowels. Now I have a place to hang my ribbon, black rubber cord, black silk cord and tools.
Since the tools are over the right side, I need to shift my work space to the middle so I could get to my tools. I use this self healing mat to work on. It’s nice because it has both inches & centimeter. I work with both. I can’t make sense of 1/16 of a inch so when its small I go with centimeters. Remember I’m Canadian! The metal tray holds my business cards, gift tags, tape, hole punch and stickers for my shipping needs.
Here is a close up of the left side shelf. I have some of my jewelry at the left in the back (its a pretty wide shelf). I put my items that I don’t use as much and the bigger plastic container. The black drawer holds my cards that I hand write with each order. Underneath is the black rubber cord, black silk cord and the ribbon I used with each jewelry box.
Here is the right side shelf. I decided to put my extra business cards here. I really need to order more. That is what is left out of the 5,000 I order!! My collection of glue, a special thank you card from Shari and my small plastic containers. Mostly my jump rings, clasp & etc. I had to put the second row on some of my empty boxes so I could easily read the label and know what’s in them. Underneath is my pliers, cutters and hole punches.
I had to take pictures because my work space never stays clean for more then 10 minutes!
To read more by Lilie, head over to Asian Buzz, or check out her awesome goodies at A Planet 4 Creation - worldly delights, naturally inspired!
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