clutter Archives - SOS: Simple Organized Solutions LLC

It Always Feels Good When You’ve Eliminated Excess

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2023-11-08T12:53:49-06:00November 8th, 2023|Categories: Purging, Reduce Stress|Tags: clutter, coping mechanisms, digital clutter, excess, stress|

You know that feeling in the morning that you get after you’ve eliminated, meaning after you poop, which is excess. Yep, I said it, poop! Like the commercial says, everyone does it. Although not everyone has eliminated the excess of the things that cause them discomfort, if they did that regularly, they would probably have that same feeling mentioned above every time. There are many things in your life that can cause excess, it comes in tangible and intangible items. The tangible items are physical items that you can touch that turn into clutter when you don’t have a home [...]

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Pros and Cons of Subscription Services and Products

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2023-09-11T11:04:22-05:00September 13th, 2023|Categories: Efficiency|Tags: auto-ship, clutter, convenience, digital, medications, paper, saves time|

I’ve often wondered how subscription services and products affect us in the long term. I’m not a big fan but I do have a couple of subscription services that I enjoy. There are so many different types of services and products that fall into this category. Of course, there were always magazine subscriptions, where a new paper magazine would magically appear in our mailbox every month or so. That still happens today, but there is now another option in terms of digital magazine subscriptions that a lot of people prefer. A newer subscription service that has become popular is for [...]

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How Organization & Productivity Correlates to Your Health

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2023-07-26T12:30:26-05:00July 26th, 2023|Categories: Health Benefits|Tags: clutter, organization, proactive, productivity, scheduling tasks, stress|

In other posts I have consistently wrote about how clutter causes stress, and that is just one way that organization correlates to your health. Chronic stress can wreak havoc on your health and what we are all trying to manage, or should be. Eliminating, or better yet, avoiding clutter build up is a great way to manage stress. A good time management skillset allows us to be productive which falls into the category of organization. Getting a lot done is productive and the definition of productive according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is, ‘yielding results, benefits, or profits’. An example [...]

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4 Actions to Take to Eliminate Clutter Blindness

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2023-03-08T13:08:44-06:00March 8th, 2023|Categories: Clutter|Tags: clutter, declutter, mindfulness, organizing process, routines, stress|

To those with clutter blindness, it doesn’t look like anything, they don’t notice it. They don’t see the clutter because they’ve adapted to it, to seeing it all the time, it becomes part of the furniture, home décor, etc. Clutter blindness can happen to anyone, however, it seems that it’s more prevalent among those with health issues, physically and mentally. It makes sense. If you’re not feeling well, you’re less likely to put things away, so the clutter starts to grow and before you realize it, it’s everywhere and you stop noticing it. It’s a known fact that clutter [...]

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Consumable Gift Ideas Just in Time For The Holidays

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2022-11-14T10:24:30-06:00November 16th, 2022|Categories: Holidays|Tags: clutter, consume, experiences, gifts|

What do I mean by consumable? The definition of consume as defined by Merriam Webster dictionary is ‘to use up’. The reason this is important is that something consumable will be used up and will not end up as clutter. The only caveat to that idea is that it needs to be consumed. Gifting can be a tricky situation at best. Understanding the needs and wants of the recipients is not always easy. We want to show our appreciation of the person with a well thought out gift. It needs to be tailored to each individual. One thing to consider [...]

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Commit to a Weekly Discard Session

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2022-09-13T14:43:39-05:00September 14th, 2022|Categories: Decluttering|Tags: categories, clutter, commit, donate, mindful, recycle, strategy|

In order to keep clutter from piling up, try this strategy – commit to a weekly discard session. The thought is to keep your belongings proportionate to your living spaces. Discarding can mean trash, recycle, or donate, which is a type of recycling. A weekly discard session doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. This strategy can be tailored to the amount of time you have available, being mindful that the amount of effort you put into this strategy determines the results. The idea is to choose a room, area or category each week and focus your available time on [...]

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Tangible Memories That Won’t Create Clutter

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2022-04-22T12:06:06-05:00April 27th, 2022|Categories: Clutter, Grief|Tags: clutter, gifts, grief, inheritance, loss, memories|

Some of my friends have lost loved ones recently, including beloved pets. We discuss intangible as well as tangible memories of them. They speak of nuggets of memories and happy or funny stories they remember about them. They hold tight to those memories as they grieve. My friends and I honor the loss of their loved ones by gathering together to enjoy each other’s company, laugh and cry with them and lift a glass to their loved one. We also give them gifts in the form of tangible memories, something that won’t create clutter. Some time ago, I wrote a [...]

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How to Create a System to Manage Your Mail…Snail Mail That is

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2022-03-30T18:19:20-05:00March 30th, 2022|Categories: Paper Management, Routines|Tags: clutter, junk mail, magazines, online bill pay, paper, processes, routines|

Paper is still probably the biggest challenge for most of us in terms of clutter in our homes. Even though the digital age has eliminated a lot of papers that come our way, if you have a physical mailbox, you are still receiving some paper in the form of mail via the US Postal Service. If you don’t have a system to manage the barrage of paper that your letter carrier delivers, you can become overwhelmed very quickly. To avoid the overwhelm, I encourage you to create a daily routine to manage incoming mail. The process shown below is the [...]

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How to Manage a Paperwork Backlog

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2021-12-15T14:24:49-06:00December 15th, 2021|Categories: Paper Management|Tags: category, clutter, discard, file system, information, recycle, shredding|

I see this so much with my older clients. Most, if not all of them have a huge paperwork backlog. I get it, I really do. As I was growing up, even though I didn’t notice at the time, my parents were collecting paperwork. There were invoices, utility bills, cancelled checks - yes, our cancelled checks were actually returned to us in our monthly bank statements, investment statements, all types of insurance bills/statements, medical bills/statements, etc. The incoming flow of paper was relentless! Pretty much anything paper-related came to us via the US Postal Service, business and personal. Not only [...]

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The Importance of Creating Boundaries For Your Things

By SOS Simple Organized Solutions|2021-12-08T13:24:59-06:00December 15th, 2021|Categories: Rightsizing|Tags: category, clutter, discard, organized spaces, stress|

Many years ago, I wrote an article titled ‘Establishing Boundaries’. The gist of the article was to establish boundaries for storage, use of yours, and other members of your family’s belongings, out of respect for one another. This post is related, but in a different way. Creating boundaries for your things has another important reason. Creating boundaries for your things lets you know when you have enough of the category of items contained in that space, or boundary. This concept is an important aspect to avoid clutter. The concept of creating boundaries for your things, brings me back to a [...]

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