Last time I was blogging regularly I had a lot of flux happening in my life. I had built a tiny house with my partner and we were trying to make a go of cohabiting the same patch of land as my mother-in-law. In the long run we decided it [...]
Pathways in Your Home
I used to block pathways in my home. It wasn’t a consciously decided intention, it was an accidental reoccurrence. A continuous dropping of loads of crap right inside my front door, by the entrance to the living room, at the base of the stairs, on the stairs…. ahem, at the [...]
A Minimalist Take on Collections: Incense Edition
Incense used to be a small part of my life. I loved it, but if I’d made a list of the top ten most important things in my life incense wouldn’t have made the list. Despite incense being a relatively small component of my world, I had a robust and [...]
A Minimalist Take on Papers
For Olivia who asked for a post on paper clutter: Many of us find ourselves inundated with paper. It’s almost as though on some primitive Jungian level we still know that paper is precious, the written word is precious. We save and amass paper. We create personal libraries in books, [...]
A Minimalist Take on Clothing
wash day. photo by me. taken last week. Lorna recently asked me how many items of clothing I own now. She saw my tiny house closet shot and felt compelled to ask. I don’t like to get number-bound, but I’ll share my clothing number with you (but I won’t count my [...]
How to Get Rid of Stuff When it Terrifies You
backyard mushroom by patrick. photo taken this week. happy summer! I frequently get asked if I miss things after I’ve decluttered them. I think it’s a pretty common fear, and potentially the root cause of why we keep so much stuff in our lives. There’s a nervous apprehension that can [...]
5 Simple Ways to Downsize Your Book Collection
Here are 5 simple ways to downsize your book collection: Donate to a Library: Anything you think you might want to read again, donate it to your local library. You’ll be able to rent it if you need to read it again. I do this all the time. Get Some [...]
Joyously Releasing the Dream
* Four very small serpentine crystal beads sitting on a bird of paradise leaf. These beads have been decluttered along with hundreds of their friends. I can feel how calm my life has become since minimizing. The lure of shopping is a faded siren song. I shape my [...]
Our Tiny House Closet
A few months ago I toured some vintage homes at Heritage Village in Largo, Florida. These were circa 1820′s to 1890′s. I was amazed that only one of the homes (out of around a dozen) had a closet. Yep! Those crazy, zany settler folks evidently didn’t know about the lure [...]
4 Steps To A Decluttered Home And A Deepened Relationship
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Caroline McGraw of A Wish Come Clear. Last night, a Youtube video had me in tears. It’s a commencement speech given by 14-year-old Olivia Halvorson…and it’s all about her 11-year-old brother, Ben, who has Down Syndrome. Go here to see an interview with [...]
A Guide to Instant Simplifying
Just for today make one less phone call, schedule one less thing, watch one less show...
Help! What to do With Grown-up Children’s Clutter
I got this million dollar clutter question recently in an email. I thought it was an issue that many other people may be facing, so I asked Claire for permission to turn it into a post. Note: I have changed her name to protect the family’s privacy! I know there’s lots of [...]
Kids Don’t Want Stuff
I’m going to challenge some assumptions here and maybe get some flack. But I believe kids don’t want stuff. They’re trained to “think” they want stuff. That training comes from their observations at home and of an out-of-control consumerist society. They see advertising campaigns that appear on television, in movies, [...]
Helping Kids Declutter Their Stuff
If you’re just joining us, this is part two of the kids clutter series. Check out part one here: Setting Healthy Limits with Packrat Kids. In that post we talked about healthy limits. We talked about how parents are in control of the amount of inflowing stuff, and how taking [...]
Setting Healthy Limits With Packrat Kids
Response post to a question I received from Jenny of Ex-Consumer. Hi Tanja. I’m so glad I found you through Marianne! Your site is incredible. Really, really beautiful design. What a great story. I used to be quite the packrat too. In fact, I felt like I had things pretty [...]
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