Idea: Wastebasket Umbrella Holder

After weeks of searching for a good umbrella holder to place next to my entry, I found this gem hidden in my broom closet.

For my wedding, I decided to do the floral arrangements myself, so my mother-in-law bought a bunch of these small purple wastebaskets from Target to transport the flowers to the wedding site.  Since we had an August wedding, dorm gear sales were in full swing, so the wastebaskets ended up costing only $2 each.  After the wedding, we didn't really have a place for the wastebaskets, so they ended up in a closet.

Most umbrella holders I found were pretty pricey...at least $15.  This one does a great job for a fraction of what I would have paid for a new umbrella holder at a store.  If you are in the market for an umbrella holder, consider looking into similarly shaped objects, such as wastebaskets, to expand your style and price options.  (Or take a look at what's in your broom closet!)

Inspiration: A Prayer by Sarah Teasdale

                 
A Prayer

When I am dying, let me know
That I loved the blowing snow
Although it stung like whips;
That I loved all lovely things

And I tried to take their stings
With gay unembittered lips;
That I loved with all my strength,
To my soul's full depth and length,

Careless if my heart must break,
That I sang as children sing
Fitting tunes to everything,
Loving life for its own sake.

                                                     
-Sarah Teasdale

What a great way to live...enjoying life for what it is.  To experience life's best, we often must endure life's worst.  Loving deeply is one of life's greatest joys, but it comes with the risk of losing love, one of life's most deeply painful experiences.  It's so easy to hold back on investing oneself wholeheartedly for fear of danger or loss or factors we cannot control.  Let us not hold back on living deeply simply because we are afraid.  A full life, complete with sincere love, is worth the risk.

Idea: Use a Dresser as a TV Stand

Instead of using a short, flimsy tv stand to hold your television, consider placing your tv on top of a dresser.  The storage of a long but not-too-tall dresser cannot be beat!  You can use the space to hide video games, board games, dvds, and more.  If your living room is in close proximity to your kitchen, you can use the dresser to store extra table linens, centerpieces, candles, or dishes.  The cords of electronic equipment can be hidden behind the dresser, far from view.  A used dresser is often cheaper than a new tv stand, though the former is much more useful than the latter.  Plus, many tv stands are so low to the ground that the full screen cannot be seen from the perspective of someone laying on a couch.  A tv placed on top of a short dresser cannot be missed.  If you already have an unused dresser, great.  If not, do know that you can find one at an affordable price.  I found this dresser on Craigslist for just $45, but even the cheapest tv stands tend to be at least twice, usually three times that price.  After searching for several weeks, I was able to identify a dresser at the right price in a wood tone that matches my coffee table.  This is just one of many cases in which using a basic item in an unconventional way yields great results!

Inspiration: When Death Comes by Mary Oliver

"When Death Comes"

- Mary Oliver 

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

This is one of my favorite poems. While the title may not sound inspiring at first (who wants to think of death?!?), the last bit of the poem encourages us to fully embrace the lives we have. If we do this, we will not be afraid of death or unready to go because we have failed to make the most of what we have been given. Don't just be a visitor to this world. Explore it, experience it, embrace it.

Idea: Use Hanging Shoe Holder to Organize Winter Accessories

Consider using a hanging shoe holder to organize scarves and gloves. The pockets are just the right size to hold a scarf, some matching gloves, and a hat (if it's soft and pliable). Since all the items are easy to spy, you won't have to spend valuable time searching for the right set to match a particular outfit--just grab and go! Before, I used shallow totes to hold my winter accessories. I found that these bins took up more space than necessary, and many items (particularly gloves) would get lost in the mass of fabric. With separate organizers for each set, I no longer waste time searching for items that aren't there.  If it's not in its space, I can use the process of elimination to determine where it is (the car, the wash, etc.). Standard shoe organizers hold 8-10 pairs of shoes each, so you'll only need a few to capture all your winter gear.

When winter is over, consider using the shoe organizers to hold your rainbow of summer flip-flops!

The best part?  Shoe organizers can be very affordable.  I found mine at Big Lots for $3 each.  IKEA's SKUBB Organizer, just $4.99, has breathable netting behind each of its 9 sections, perfect for airing out items that are still a little damp.

Fab Find: Brothers-All-Natural Fruit Crisps

Yesterday I discovered the tastiest low-calorie snack--Fruit Crisps by Brothers-All-Natural!  These tasty treats pack two servings of fruit into each half-cup bag of freeze-dried crisps.  With no added sugar and around 40 calories per bag, these snacks satisfy a sweet tooth without packing calories.  At my local Walmart, I found a 6-pk. with 2 packs each of Asian Pear, Fuji Apple and Strawberry and Banana for $4.48.  I also picked up individual packs of Apple and Cinnamon and Pineapple for .77 per pack.  Other flavors include Peach, Strawberry, Banana, Mixed Fruit and Mandarin Orange.

Many freeze-dried fruits are sold as "space food," so prices tend to be marked up quite a bit due to the novelty label.  I was pleased to finally find some at a reasonable price.

Inspiration: A Philosophy Concerning Stuff

"Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful."
- William Morris

This is a quote I think of often as I work to make my house a home. Having graduated from college and entered married life with little more than a few boxes of memories, a bunch of threadbare fabrics and some cheaply framed pictures, I find myself collecting the pieces of my home slowly but surely.

For the bones of our home, the basic pieces of furniture we plan to use for a very long time, my husband and I try to choose well-made items that are also a good value.

Right before we got married, we selected a beautiful, sturdy bedroom set, one that we will probably use for the rest of our lives. We were living in separate cities at the time. He visited the local furniture store to make the purchase, while I went to the store's website and identified a few favorites from which to choose. We are happy with the purchase, and look forward to using this set for many years to come. (If I could do it again, though, I would have tried to find a suitable set on Craigslist or in the local classifieds, both of which often feature bedroom sets for less than half of the original cost--even those that are only a year or two old!)

Since then, we have added to our home:

• a floor model butterfly-leaf dining table (which can seat up to eight when its center leaf is in place)
• a gently used couch and loveseat set from Craigslist 
• a full-size guest bed and a coffee table from a used furniture store 
• two desks, a coffee table and a chair from Ikea 
• a twin bed and a roll-top desk from my husband's childhood home 
• bedside tables from a local discount store
• decorator tables from Walmart

I tend to analyze (my husband would say overanalyze) purchases for our home because I like to buy for the long haul. Because I am practical above all, I try to make purchases that:

• will last as long as I do (although we still have a few flimsy holdovers from our college and apartment days) 
• are not too "of the moment" (ie. lacking versatility) 
• will be functional and safe even as our family grows
• are a good value (not just a low price or a high-quality piece)
• are a pleasure to use (ergonomically and aesthetically appealing)

What factors are most important to you as you choose items for your home?

Less is More

One of the current trends in home decorating is less-is-more minimalism.  This school of thought suggests that committing ourselves to less cluttered homes can help us achieve less cluttered lives.  The theory makes sense.

Think about it.  In a cluttered home, needed items are hard to find.  Truly treasured objects are difficult to spot amid all the junk we've collected out of guilt (the hideous, two-sizes-too-big sweater from Aunt Nell) or hope (the jeans you haven't been able to wear since high school but might be able to wear if you drop some--read: more than a few-- pounds) or thrift (the Santa suit you found at the after-Christmas sale, which your husband will never wear) or shopping frenzy (the angel statuettes that looked so cute in the store but have yet to find a place in your home).  Half of our belongings are stored in boxes, rarely seeing the light of day.

A cluttered home can make our lives feel so disorganized.  We are late for work because we spend half an hour searching for the keys that are hiding beneath a half-read newspaper.  We pay unnecessary late fees because we forget to pay bills that are hiding unnoticed in a pile of junk mail.  Our eyes find no rest because there are haphazard piles and jam-packed displays everywhere we look.

Why are our homes cluttered?  For many of us, it's because we hold on to all things indiscriminately (though we don't like to see it that way), thinking we may use them one day.

Nothing illustrates this more clearly for me than the many totes my husband, Jake, brought with him when moving from a college dorm room to the apartment we shared together in our first months of marriage.  After I went through all the totes I brought, paring down and reorganizing my belongings, I decided to tackle his totes (with his permission, of course).  In them, I found many relics of our college romance...notes I delivered to his campus mailbox, long letters sent during our summer apart, tickets to movies, playbills from our trips to the city.  I was touched.  He had kept everything I had ever given him, along with the entire paper trail of our relationship!

Then, reality set in.  While he had held onto treasured mementos from our dating days, he had tossed them in huge tote boxes along with sloppy piles of class notes, textbooks, articles of clothing, and even trash.  Yes, you read right--trash.  My carefully worded, handwritten notes overflowing with mushy sentiments were being stored alongside candy wrappers, paper wads and crumpled plastic grocery store bags.

Not sure whether to be pleased that my husband had kept these mementos or upset about how they were being stored, I set about organizing the mounds of stuff that had piled up in our living room.  When I was done, I had piles of bills, clothes, books, and more.  When I proudly showed my husband all the work I had done in his absence and asked him to go through my organized stacks, I found that he preferred to leave things as they had been.  Though I offered to organize his messy piles of class notes in binders according to class, he wished to leave them in tote boxes.

"What's the use of that?" I thought.  "He's keeping all this stuff because he thinks he might use it one day, but how will he ever find what he's looking for in those disorganized heaps of rubbish?"  His storage philosophy was nonsensical and inefficient.  I had already organized the papers into a piles.  A few short hours of sorting and hole punching would have provided an effective storage and retrieval system, but Jake wouldn't allow it.

Flash forward to the present time.  Jake has only opened those tote boxes one time in the year since they were filled.  He had to search for days to find what he needed--an old chemistry exam.  My proposed filing system would have revealed the paper in minutes.

Sadly, most of us take the store-and-explore approach to stuff.  We hang on to mementos, but instead of organizing them into scrapbooks and binders that can be neatly shelved and easily reviewed, we toss them in totes, never to be seen again.  I speak from experience.  I still have a box full of awards and trophies from elementary school through high school.  I keep thinking, "Well, maybe when I have kids, they'll want to see this stuff."  Maybe.  But by then, this box will be trapped beneath totes full of holiday decorations, out-of-commission electronics, and pants that I'll be able to wear if I just lose the fifteen pounds I've been saying I'd like to lose for the past five years.

For years, I've had the habit of going through my totes once or twice annually.  Every time, I pare down my collection a bit (finally getting rid of the slam book from middle school or the love letters sent by a long-forgotten boyfriend), but since I'm always adding things, my pile of stuff never gets smaller.  This year, I am committing to paring down the piles of stuff and finding creative ways of highlighting the things I love and use while getting rid of the things that don't fit that bill.

Here are some helpful tips I've found along the way.  I plan to incorporate some of these in the next few weeks.  Hopefully you'll find them helpful, too.

• Keep a picture album filled with photos of items you'd like to remember (as opposed to boxes filled with stuff).  When I first heard this tip, I thought it sounded silly, but now I get it.  Think about it.  Most objects are special, not in themselves, but because of the memories they help us recall.  My fuzzy slippers labeled "Goody 2 Shoes," a gag gift from former coworkers, remind me of all the fun I had at my first real job.  It's not about the stuff at all, the feel of the objects or their value or usefulness--it's about the memories associated with them.  Clearing out all this useless stuff would help me highlight the objects that really mean something to me, like framed pictures of loved ones, the ship painting created by my artsy sister-in-law for my Navy Reserve officer husband, and the scented candles that remind me of Christmas every time they are lit.
• Create organized online photo books filled with favorite pictures.  (This one is inspired by a conversation with my friend Lindsey.)  Sites like Snapfish allow you to create memory books online and order hard copies of your creations.  The style and price options are plentiful, so there's something for everyone.  I plan to make ones for college years, our wedding, and one for every year of married life. Handmade scrapbooks are pretty, but I generally find that I don't have the time or patience they require.  I know some people like to make albums for every vacation or birthday, but for me, that's just not a realistic goal.  Year-in-review albums suit me better.  Plus, paring down the photos will mean I that I am guaranteed to look fabulous in every single picture that makes the cut!
• Sell the good stuff online or at a local consignment shop.  I've already listed some unwanted books on Amazon, but I still need to set aside time to list non-literary items and make a consignment appointment.
• Give away unneeded items that are still in good condition.  My husband and I know several families that are in the process of adopting, and many of them have hosted or plan to host garage sale fundraisers.  Helping parents and children be united while getting rid of clutter?  Sounds like a great plan to me!  Goodwill and Salvation Army stores also accept gently used items and usually offer convenient drop-off points.  Last time I was at Goodwill, a gentleman working there actually helped me unload the items from my vehicle, making for a quick and easy delivery.  
• Have old t-shirts from organizations and events made into t-shirt blankets (or make one yourself, if you have the skills or are willing to learn).  For those who do not have the time, desire or ability to undertake such a project, consider hiring someone else to do the work for you.  Rachel Rogers of Little Spinney creates high-quality t-shirt quilts using sets of 12 or 15 shirts.  These durable treasures are full of memories and are suitable for everyday use.  If you're up for a challenge, though, you may wish to pull out the Singer and craft something on your own.  I'm hoping to make a few blankets myself this year--that is, if I can just figure out which tote is housing my sewing machine...

How are you planning to clear the clutter?