Category — General

My mom still has packs of paper doilies in her kitchen. She’s the queen of table presentation with her fabulous hors d’oeuvres, pastries, and cakes. Doilies always added that extra elegant touch to her table. Here are modern doilies with a twist, from online site Modern Twist. “How’d you like that line?” I particularly like the one that looks like caramel drizzled in a looped design. Reminds me of when I order molten lava chocolate cakes with ice cream and drizzled in caramel. Yum! Anyway, so these are great not only because they create great presentation, but they are durable, washable, and reusable.

DOILEEZ are available on modern-twist.com. Also use them for non-food decorating, see below.

With all the coffee I drink and how often I drink coffee in my car, you’d think I would have thought of this fabulous little gizmo. A very nice co-worker brought me a Starbucks the other day at the end of an almost 13 hour day and when he set it on my desk I was amazed by the little gadget that was plugged into the opening on the cup’s lid. It will keep the inevitable little spills in your car from running down the side of your console and staining your carpet, keep your coffee a bit warmer, and you can use it kind of like a stir rod depending on the size of your Starbucks. Someone was seriously thinking and is probably a millionaire right now. What a simple and great idea! I remember a few years back my local Starbucks had stickers to cover the opening, but this little gizmo works ten times better and it’s reusable.

I discovered the “29 Day Giving Challenge” recently on Unclutterer and thought I’d give it a go. The project is to give something away for 29 days in a row - donate a thing, offer your time, money, a smile, etc. The site idea was created by Cami Walker with the goal:

“Inspire at least 2,000 people to commit to the 29-Day Giving Challenge by 7/29/08.”

Read all the details on the left side her site page. Sign up as a member and contribute daily or if you prefer not to register (not another online membership, I know!), just submit your story at the end of the 29 days to story@29gifts.org. I put a permanent badge/link to the Giving Challenge site on the left side of my page. Check in frequently for inspiration.

(Cami’s main site - 29gifts.org)

(Challenge page - givingchalleng.ning.com)

In a previous post I referenced an article that categorizes clutter into 4 groups. The first category is emotional clutter.

“Emotional clutter has sentimental meaning but little financial value. It could include children’s toys or drawings, unused or unwanted gifts, school or university notes, or the personal possessions of absent loved ones.”

This is the toughest category of “stuff” within which to make decisions. I’ve focused lately on emotional clutter because of my recent move across country to the west coast. It’s hard to decide what to finally get rid of, what to leave at my mother’s house, and what to bring with me to LA. I have to admit that I still have ALL my dance costumes from when I was a kid saved in my mom’s basement and she definitely doesn’t need the clutter. But I do have them neatly packed into two same-size boxes and labeled nicely in bold marker!

Some examples of emotional or memory clutter are:

• Old toys, stuffed animals, board games, sports equipment
• Old letters, cards, notes, ticket stubs, ids, swag, party favors
• School projects, notebooks, textbooks, papers
• For the girls mostly - Barbies, stickerbooks, scrapbooks, dance costumes, dance shoes, ice skates
• Many more more! Basically any item taking up space that has no real use but has a memory attached to it.

So what tips can I give you to help with this category of stuff…

[Read more →]

Discovering the link to this article on Unclutterer this week drew my attention.

So…what kind of clutter are you?

Emotional clutter

“Emotional clutter has sentimental meaning but little financial value. It could include children’s toys or drawings, unused or unwanted gifts, school or university notes, or the personal possessions of absent loved ones.”

Just-in-case clutter

“Just-in-case clutter has little or no sentimental value but since it “might come in handy one day” it is kept for some time. Examples include old bills or bank statements, tools or stationery.”

Bargain clutter

“Bargain clutter is free or very cheap items acquired at sales, from friends or family or ‘by the side of the road’. Certain personality types tend to be especially attracted to bargain clutter.”

Bought clutter

“Bought clutter consists of impulse purchases that never end up being used. It commonly includes clothes, fashion accessories and electronic items and is strongly linked to wasteful consumption.”

I thought these categories were a good starting point for defining physical clutter. While reading the article I realized where I had made my own improvements over the years and I thought I’d devote a post to each category in the upcoming days. I came up with my own rules to stop me from doing exactly some of these things. Of course, nobody’s perfect, but making small changes WILL make a big difference.