One of the saddest stories I've heard in my role as Person Who Talks About Decluttering On The Internet was told to me by a life-long friend. I was about two years into my blogging journey, and she was one of the few people in my real life who knew I was telling my deslobification story to the world as Nony (short for aNONYmous). She shares …
decluttering
Decluttering (and Cleaning) In the Midst of Illness
I regularly hear this question: How do you manage decluttering (or cleaning) when you're sick? Or even more difficult: How do you make decluttering progress when you suffer from a chronic illness? There are two reasons why I haven't given an in-depth answer before. First, I don't suffer from chronic illness and I try to stick to sharing …
I Don’t Think That Means What You Think It Means (Anymore)
If you've been here since the beginning, or even the beginningish, you might remember that I used to have young kids. My oldest was 7 when I started this deslobification journey. Now, instead of reminding him to pick up his toys, I remind him to shave. And we're deciding which colleges to visit. And figuring out when to visit …
Decluttering In the Midst of Remodeling
Over the summer, after a very long pause due to writing my last book, we finally got going on the unfunness of remodeling. We had our popcorn ceilings scraped and repainted, our floors replaced, and most of our rooms repainted. It's not even what I consider "real" remodeling (knocking down walls and such), but it was stressful. The biggest …
Decluttering Strategy: Use it (Up)
Over the summer, something terrible happened. It happened slowly, and the slowness made the pain so much worse. My beloved comforter, the one I'd pretended still looked fine for the past decade . . . started (quite literally) falling apart. I wasn't surprised. That thing was 21 years old. Yes. Really. To be clear, I hadn't kept it …
Decluttering Frames (But Not the Photos)
Over the past few weeks, we've removed things from walls so they could be painted, and moved every last item from one room to another while floors were replaced. It's not the least bit fun, y'all. But it's revealing. Things that once seemed perfectly fine become unfine. I'll take something out of a space because I have to. But if I don't like …
Decluttering or Tidying or Cleaning the Kitchen (Or Whatever YOU Want to Call It)
Some words are kinda sorta interchangeable. Or not. Depending on the person using them. If you want to get super technical, I suppose you could define decluttering, tidying, and cleaning like this: Decluttering - removing clutter from a space Tidying - moving things back into place and improving the general appearance of an …
One Thing that’s WAY Over My Clutter Threshold
My Clutter Threshold is the point at which I have more stuff than I can handle. Or I have specific things I personally can't handle. Everyone has a Clutter Threshold and each person's threshold is different. I had a great idea recently. An idea with the noble goal of saving my still-newish couch from the teenage boys who sit on it. I bought a …
Real World Fact: More Things = Less Value
If you're a high-end collectibles dealer who buys and sells with skill, I'm not talking to you here. I'm talking to those of us with collections of stuff that give off a vague aura of value. Our family has recently been living the experience every family goes through, but no one looks forward to. We've been cleaning out my husband's parents' …
