Our Coat of Armor & Non-judgment Zones

August 22, 2017 By Deirdre Dolan Nesline

Non Judgment Zone
DeClutter By Deirdre operates in a non-judgment work zone which means, we don’t judge you or your environs and you don’t judge you. We are very familiar with life’s ups and downs and how they affect the way we live in our homes. Sometimes, it becomes impossible to live in a beautifully decluttered home: illness, death, despair, loneliness, or divorce sadness takes over, shows up and manifests as clutter in our lives. We can’t see beyond today and lack energy to put items away or clean or discard items that no longer serve us. It’s not the person you were and it’s not the person you are, it’s temporary.

I like to call this temporary state “Putting on Our Armor”. Visualize putting on a knight’s coat of armor, protecting us from evil and sad sources. I relate the clutter that piles up to this coat of armor, when the sadness goes away so does the coat of armor. Sometimes, we need help getting rid of that protective “armor” and subsequent clutter. You only need to ask and we will work beside you every step of the way, supporting and encouraging and never judging.

DeCluttering

Indulgent Purchases vs. Making Memories

March 11, 2017 By Deirdre Dolan Nesline

(How does that indulgent purchase feel compared to experiences you’ve spent money on?)
Clutter is baggage and can underscore indulgent purchases. What is an indulgent purchase? I’m willing to bet you had an immediate answer, not a second wasted in thought, on the tip of your tongue, before you finished reading that sentence. Is it a three-quarter length chocolate brown leather coat that you charged and paid off in three installments plus interest, hanging in the closet that hasn’t seen the light of day for several years because it doesn’t fit the same as when you first bought it and it’s no longer in style? Perhaps the fountain pen you paid $500 for is sitting in your desk still waiting for the day when you will sit and write long letters to friends and family? For a moment, stop and think, “What is my most indulgent purchase?”
Often times indulgent purchases may require justification because they were an impulsive decision. Indulgent purchases can be the choice that feeds your vices. Retail therapy, lethargy and/or denial of a difficult situation or period of life are the perfect combination for spending on, and justifying, an indulgent purchase. Right behind the feeling of immediate gratification comes the feelings of regret and perhaps irresponsibility. And, thanks to clutter, a visual reminder of the physical baggage.
The good news is a study shows that buying “experiences” is good for you. (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/to-buy-happiness-purchase-an-experience) The “happiness magic” is all in what, how and where you spend your money. Aside from the excitement of the initial purchase “high” of a material indulgence, the experience of the purchase can be short-lived and generally does not hold long interesting. When you spend less money on “stuff”, you spend less on maintenance of the “stuff”, rewarding you with more discretionary income.
More discretionary income means there’s more opportunity to buy experiences. Having fun, exciting experiences and making memories is something we look forward to and we get to re-live those experiences when sharing them with others over the course of a lifetime. The positive feelings we get from experiences is satisfying and lives longer in our hearts and emotions. The memories from the experience last a lifetime. And isn’t it more exciting and engaging to share about something you’ve done rather than something you own?
As you declutter your living space, you create space, the breathing room for clarity to uncover what you really want, what makes you truly happy and how you want to feel. The next time you find yourself about to make an impulsive, indulgent, or debt producing purchase, ask yourself these questions: 1) Am I buying for immediate gratification? 2) Am I buying because of the status it represents? 3) Am I buying to “fit in” because everyone else has it? or 4) Am I buying an experience?

Enjoy a fun experience: Boy George and Cyndi Lauper singing Karma Chameleon

May your next purchase be a happy memory.

DeCluttering

Spring Time is Clean-Up Time

March 6, 2017 By Deirdre Dolan Nesline

Living Among the Paper Clutter and Dead Trees

It’s real! The dining room table is buried beneath heaps of paper because the kitchen island has morphed from a rolling land of hills into a mountain ready to break an avalanche. In the living room, there’s a mound of magazines and newspapers multiplying on the ottoman, with some spill over on the coffee table or chair awaiting for someone with spare time to read, sort through, clip and save, and maybe even restack. The file cabinet is chock-full. There could possibly be a box filled with paper in an attempt to deal with this issue at a more convenient time. Better yet, there could even be a designated room housing the clutter of paper. In any way, shape or form, there is acute knowledge of the accumulation of paper as it permeates throughout the house with ultimate plans for a takeover.

This may be a bit extreme, but the barrage of written and printed information we receive every day surrounds us. Even though we live in an electronic age, the regular mail gets delivered just about everyday. That’s almost 365 days of some form of paper delivered in one year. And this doesn’t’ include the myriad of other avenues paper seeps into our space. We reach for sticky notes to jot reminders, we send and receive printed-on-paper invites, receive subscriptions to newspapers, magazines and the insurmountable obstacle of brochures, flyers and promotion postcards, and more. School artwork, your business and possibly parent’s personal business paperwork comes home, too. Our spouse brings home paper from work. We collect receipts for various reasons, some with very valid reason, and some…well, it’s a mystery as to why.

At the end of the day we walk in with the daily mail, just wanting to relax, and so we drop it on a counter, or a table thinking we’ll get to it “in a moment” or “later”. Later doesn’t come. That moment was long gone, perhaps several days ago. But the paper…it’s still coming. And it’s accumulating. Whatever attempt we made or didn’t make is a conditioned response. A habit.

Like tending to the garden or the yard cleanup every season removing weeds and debris, we need to tend to our “inner yard” – the landscape within our homes and with the same fervor and commitment. We need cleaned up space, free from clutter and debris in order to grow, thrive, feel good, be our best and be profitable. Surely, looking at the accumulation of paper reveals the high amount of usage that is occupying valuable real estate – the inside of your home. As the mounds of paper continue to take up space, the daily process of recycling is halted. And recycling is critical because about one third of new paper comes from recycled paper; therefore saving living and thriving trees. Recycling the accumulated piles of paper is helping to conserve the trees in our natural landscape. Those stagnant mounds of paper are dead trees in your home, like the weeds and debris in a yard prior to clean-up. In order for you to grow and thrive those piles of paper need to be cleared and brought to recycling. Agree to designate a limited intake through change of habits, and possibly an intervention to end the accumulation of paper.

Ruthlessly, survey the interior of your home. Where are the piles? Look everywhere, the closets, the office file cabinet, the basket in the corner of the room, under the beds, the bottom shelf, that stuffed drawer, everywhere. Tackle each section, one at a time, with the goals of organizing, sorting, shredding and recycling. Spring clean-up starts today!

Aging in Place, DeCluttering

The Neglected Medicine Cabinet

January 13, 2017 By Deirdre Dolan Nesline

(Expiration Dates on Meds / Out of Sight, Out of Mind)

The smallest room in your home needs attention…

Even in design, the bathroom is too often neglected. It’s the smallest room in your home, and contains so many and important things. For sure, there’s most likely the medicine cabinet, and the average person spends 30 minutes a day in the bathroom. If this statistic is true, then what’s behind the closed door of the medicine cabinet is ever-present and inevitably neglected until the moment calls to use something hidden from every day view. Medications have a way of accumulating and are contributory to the “unseen clutter”. And by taking the steps to declutter your medicine cabinet it is also a best way to prevent misuse or accidental use of medications.

When you open up the medicine cabinet, what do you see? Assuredly, what you see isn’t comforting. Besides the half-empty bottles of aspirin, bits and pieces of first aid solutions and personal care products, there is a collection of old prescription bottles from a previous illness. And those prescription bottles contain meds that are long past the expiration dates. There may even be medications that are not in the original container.

Of course, the first step is to throw out all that has expired. It’s a telltale sign if you can’t remember when you bought it or if the medicines have changed color – it needs to be disposed of properly. (Doubly telltale if you can’t remember what color the original medicine should be). But there is a protocol for the proper disposal of unused and expired medications that is important for health and safety reasons.

There are precautions, environmental, and safety concerns for proper disposal of drugs and inhalers. When disposing of medications it is important to remember that the illegal use of prescription medications is a concern as well. Medicines are classified into categories because not all medicines can be immediately disposed into regular house-hold trash. Community take-back programs provide options for disposal, and require preparation for the expired meds for disposal or call your local Police Department, they might be part of a federal program that allows you to drop bagged medication into a receptacle at any time. Recycle the plastic bottles or boil and take to your local Humane Society or Pet Adoption Center.

Cleaning out your medicine cabinet and exposing of expired medications should be done two times a year. Assigning this task to an important date like daylight savings time and changing the battery in your smoke detector, or New Year’s Day and July 4^th can serve as an important reminder and keep your medicine cabinet free and clear of the accumulation of expired medications.

DeClutter By Deirdre is committed to assisting people & their families who struggle with where to start and complete de-cluttering their homes so they can de-stress and enjoy a full life without extra burdens they could not previously tackle on their own. People who are ready to take control of all they can in their lives and develop solid systems that allow them to step away from items and stresses that no longer serve them and to enjoy the company of others and have the leisure time to pursue family time, interests and hobbies. Remodeled/organized spaces reduce the mental burden of clutter, allow easier movement about the house when physical challenges present themselves or changes to the home have to be made to allow those individuals who will be aging in place to stay in their own home.