Search Results for: blog what to do with de cluttered books

Donate and Get a Tax Break

Count up those donations and get a tax break! With the Fiscal Cliff looming in 2013, families much do as much as we can to cut our taxes in 2012. Donations and charitable contributions are one way to do just that. Make sure that you make your donations the right way, or you may lose out on valuable deductions. I know December is busy, but if you can take a few hours out of the afternoon for a day or two to collect and deliver donations, you’ll start the new year off with a little financial kickstart, and chances are … Continue reading →

Three Hidden Benefits of an Organized Home

If you need more motivation to stay organized and put in some extra effort to have an organized home, just review the following. There are at least three hidden benefits to having an organized home. More Time with Friends and Family When your home is organized it takes less maintenance not more, believe it or not. A home where everything has its place and quick cleaning routines are established leaves plenty of extra time that might otherwise be spent looking for items or doing frantic marathon cleaning sessions. Also, organized homes will have less clutter to deal with. Fewer possessions … Continue reading →

Time to Clean the Bookshelves

If you raise a cloud of dust every time you pull a book off of your bookshelves, or if the shelves are sagging under the weight of the books that are overstuffed and piled out of place, then it might be time for you to clean the bookshelves. I’m taking on this project myself at home, mostly because I want to eliminate at least one of our existing bookshelves in the name of more space and a less cluttered office. I also want to eliminate the dust that tends to hide behind both the books and the bookcases. Because we … Continue reading →

Time To Do A House Scrub

Is your home ready for the holidays? Mine certainly isn’t. I’ve been trying to get ready, slowly, but sadly, I’ve not accomplished much. I really need to get ready for company. We usually host Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, sometimes a Christmas party as well. We don’t always do those on the designated day because we want our friends to be able to celebrate the holidays with us without having to choose between us and their families. Before the stream of people, I need to get the house ready. For me, that means lots of decluttering. I try to keep the … Continue reading →

Too Many Books!

For those that know me personally or have followed my blogs for a while, it might surprise you to know that over the last ten years, I’ve decluttered tons and tons of books. It is very rare for me to meet a book that I didn’t like, from old, dusty books from the turn of the century (1800s to 1900s, not 1900s to 2000s, although I’ll take those too), to shiny new children’s books for my kids. Books are definitely my weakness, although I have been better through the years, as our home has filled up with children and their … Continue reading →

How to Save on Magazines, Books and Newspapers

While going through our monthly budget, my husband and I filled out responses to standard budget categories, such as food, clothing, etc. One of the entries was for magazine subscriptions. Anyone looking around our house would think that we pay a fortune for magazines (and books). I’m continually working on paring down the number of magazines that come and stay in our house. Most of us are great readers and will resort to reading toothpaste tubes if we must, so this isn’t easy (but that is a subject for the Home blog). We also tend to have at least one … Continue reading →

Organizing From the Inside Out – Julie Morgenstern

I first read Organizing from the Inside Out about eight years ago. As a mother of three little boys, I was desperate to find a system that would help me keep our house in order. And I will say that except for the toys, the areas I organized with her plan are still fairly organized eight years later. I think it’s because we really thought out what we wanted and needed in those spaces, and we labeled them. Morgenstern believes that clutter can be caused by technical errors, external realities, and psychological obstacles. Technical errors are things like items having … Continue reading →

Selling Versus Donating

What do you do with all of your extra stuff? We seem to accumulate a lot of items, even when we are frugal and try to spend less. One example is baby and children’s clothing. We will gladly take any clothing in the sizes we need or may need in the future. We often get clothing as hand me downs, at clearance sales and at thrift stores and garage sales. Sometimes it is a better bargain to offer someone a flat price for that box of clothing (or books, or electronics) that they have been trying to sell all day, … Continue reading →

How to deal With Clutter in a Day

Is your life cluttered with things that take up chunks of time but have no eternal value? How much of your time should be devoted to things like hobbies, household chores etc and how much of us spent on those things that have eternal value? Sure we’ve all heard about the person who is so heavenly minded they are no earthly use. So how much time should we devote to each? Yesterday we looked at habits and sins that clutter our lives and how to deal with them. Are their activities that clutter your life that you need to get … Continue reading →

Do You Have an Office Supplies Closet?

Having an office supplies closet, pantry or set of shelves at home can help you stay organized and prevent all of that last minute running around. Back in our old home, we had a pantry down in our basement that was kept stocked with office supplies. There was everything in there from printer paper and ink cartridges, to reporter notebooks and expense ledgers, to extra boxes of crayons and craft supplies for the kids. Keeping that pantry well stocked really helped keep the household running. If my son needs something for school or I need something for work, we could … Continue reading →