Keeping Clutter at Bay

Greetings from the top of the rubble pile! I've been busy moving ouf of my office and out of the apartment  and though I doubted I'd live at times during each process I can confirm that I have survived!

It's amazing how much stuff was in either location - even after purging a majority of it. The process reminded me that decluttering is a daily mindset that requires daily decisions in order for it to work-- just like diet or exercise -- and though the process of reviewing stuff and deciding its fate can be angst-ridden at times-- it does get easier with practice, and the results are so refreshing and rewarding it's worth it.

While I unpack belongings in the new locales, I'll make sure not to keep things I packed in haste or packed fearing waste-- because I only want what I need and nothing more. Until very recently, I thought that minimalists were snobs with no personality or interests. Now, I'm realizing they're just more realistic. How many file folders will I need at this job in a given week? Seriously. 25? 50? 100? 200? 300? From the looks of what I brought to my new office, I'll have to work about 60 more years to use them all.    

Folders? Going. . .   

Good Housekeeping with 52 Clutter Busting Tips


52 Clutter Busting Tips from Good Housekeeping
   

It's Time to De-Clutter If This Drawer Is Not the Junk Drawer

Welcome to my kitchen:

This is not the junk drawer.  

====================================================

Now, have a look. 

Same old drawer with less! 

Almost new, yes?

Yay! We put everything on the table and donated a kitchen's worth of duplicative and rarely-used utensils to charity*. One notable rarely/never used item: melon baller. Now, a melon baller can be united with a melon by a melon ball lover instead of wasting its time at our house crammed in a drawer collecting dust and dirty looks from more popular items.

I kept the "I love you" toast tattoo maker for practical reasons. The tattoo doesn't show up that well on whole wheat but is probably super decent on Wonder white. Will advise.

* The Salvation Army now comes to you! They'll happily collect the items you've set aside for donation; simply call 1-800-SATRUCK to schedule a pickup, and everyone wins: more space for you, more help for others in need!

Where Did All This Crap Come From? Check Your Email

• EMAIL-only SALE - LAST DAY 40% OFF COUPON!
• TWO DAYS ONLY 25% off - act now! 48-Hour Sale!
• Last Chance to Save - These Sales End Tongiht
• Factory BLOWOUT + Last Day FREE Shipping Coupon
• Grab Our Value of the Day Before It's Gone

Don't buy into the lies and hollow threats. There's always another coupon, sale, bargain, blowout. Always.

20 Things to Toss Today

20 Simple Ways to Say Good Riddance to Unwanted Stuff by Valerie Rains

Sometimes You Need a Reason

Back in the day, I didn't care too much if my floors were clear enough to crawl around on or sparkling clean enough eat off of. For what it's worth, Doodle never complained. Having clean floors just wasn't that important to me. To psychoanalyze, we could even suggest I didn't think I was important enough for clean floors. Who knows. Besides, isn't every floor clear enough to crawl around on after a couple martinis? Bonus if you broke your fall in a pile of fries: breakfast is served!  The Hoff knows what I'm talking about.

But sometimes you need a reason--a reason bigger than yourself--to make a change in your life. Sure, deep down you really have to want it for yourself in order for the change to stick, but to get started and see a difference, doing it for someone else can be the kick in the pants you need.

My reason for wanting floors clean enough to crawl on and clean enough to eat off of? This guy, pictured this morning:

Because despite what I think I deserve, he deserves no less. When John was born, clean became  priority. Then came the eventual "shoes off policy" we adapted when he started to crawl. We started  "shoes off" for his benefit, but ended up keeping it for everyone based on nothing other than logic: In NYC, our feet is our transportation, our sidewalks are our highways, and dog poop is our road kill. If you drove over a skunk, why would you then park your car in your living room?

It's been a clean space for a long time, but it wasn't always a clear space. I didn't see the importance of that until later when John was learning to walk. Once when he was toddling around, I never noticed the bag of crap I had put there for no other reason than I didn't have a place for it. The big bag of crap had probably been there for days, weeks or even a month before I noticed it at all, let alone that it was in the way, everyone's way, until I was taking pictures. Pictures of my beloved son, learning to walk, with this huge bag of crap in his path.

Yep, a big bag of crap, not important enough to have a place or purpose in my life, but somehow too imporant to discard. I moved the crap out of the way because it was ruining the shot. After I took the picture, I put it back.

What?
Staging pictures in my own house? I care less that the bag of crap is impeding my child than the fact that the bag of crap is impeding the picture? What's wrong with that picture? Time with my family is more important to me than my stuff, and this stuff is costing me time? I toss the bag of crap in the middle of this floor only to find that I miss it, can't I always buy another one? I can't buy more time.

Bye, bag of crap.

Spaces clear of things are more open, brighter and easier to clean. Less time cleaning means more time playing!

What's your reason?

Now, can I interest anyone in a fresh floor Cheerio? Floor grape?


Feng Shui and the Energy of Your Home: How Clutter Stunts Your Energy and Your Life

They Want You To Want It

"We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much we needs to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it." ~ Donald Horban



                                                           

Moving: Bummer and Blessing

In one week, I have to pack up my office for a move downtown, and my family for a move while our kitchen is demolished.  Each move on it's own is annoying, physically and mentally exhausting, requring an intimate inventory of years of crap and requisite decisions made on the destiny of each item down to the tiniest, lousiest paperclip. What lives. What dies. What is recycled.

Multiply that by two?

Nothing makes you wish you were a minimalist or a hobo quite like moving does.

Get Rid of Clutter By Pretending You're Moving

Hi, I'm Anne, and I Have Too Much Crap in My House

Hi, I'm Anne, and I have too much crap in my house.

Hi, Anne. 

Hi.

Anne, when did you realize you had too much crap in your house?

I'm almost 80 years old and it still takes me 3 hours to pack.

"I won't need a fleece, right? I'm not bringing the fleece."

I always need the fleece.







How Do You Know You Need To Declutter? by Cindy, 365 Less Things

Step 1: Start Small. But Start. Now.

Perfection is the enemy of getting things done.

Welcome to my new blog!

TWO CAN ANNE BREAKING NEWS: Osama Bin Laden Reportedly Dead

Oh, and there's something else I wanted to share:

This Post is Brought to You By the Piece of Food on My Tooth

That I'd been sporting for 45 minutes after several chats on several floors with several people...awesome! Just want to remind folks that I'm human, and I eat food with my mouth where my teeth live.

Greetings!

I'd Like a Trampoline, Please

Preferably a mini trampoline. Thank you.

3 Days of Winter as Witnessed from a Conference Room in Paradise

Lower Manhattan Facing South ~ January  7, 2011

Lower Manhattan Facing South ~ January  10, 2011

Lower Manhattan Facing South ~ January 18, 2011

Visible points of interest (particularly in photo #2): Lower Manhattan, entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel,  Staten Island Ferry, Ellis Island

Yeah, So I'm Probably Going to Order These Checks with Shrek on Them

I guess there's no point in you trying to talk me out of it.

The Friends, Family and Recent Ex-Girlfriend Plan

The Friends, Family and Recent Ex-Girlfriend Plan

If You Like Pretty Pictures

Then you'll like my friend John-Paul. He takes beautiful pictures. Of people, places, things. Name a noun, and he can take a beautiful picture of it. For example, here's a series of shots he took of gnocchi recently. Anyone who can make a lump of potato dough look beautiful is seriously talented. Wonder if I should have him take my picture. Ark ark ark. Get it? I made a joke about myself resembling a lump of potato dough. I'm also seriously talented.

www.jpteutonico.com

IMMUNIZE YOUR BABIES!

If for some reason you're still unsure about vaccinations because an idiot in Hollywood did an excellent job of promoting seriously dangerous fraudulent information from some quack, let me and The New York Times tell you the truth: There is no link between autism and MMR vaccines. Immunize your babies! Vaccinations are at an all time low and the highly contagious and lethal virus of measles is at an all time high because of this jerk. You're protecting not just your child, but the world's children when you immunize them against disease. We are the world, we are the children. Right?

G.L.O.C.'s Typing With One Hand: Anne Altman

It takes a gorgeous lady of comedy to know one, and Glennis McMurray knows plenty.

She's just launched a brand-new blog called just that--G.L.O.C: Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy which celebrates and profiles funny women. I was flattered when she thought of me, of course (someone who had a baby almost ten months ago and still lives in Spanx), and I was more than happy to oblige her with answers to her questions about comedy--and life--after motherhood! Does it exist? This is to be determined. Read the G.L.O.C. interview with me here. And when you're done, check out details for Glennis's solo show, "DISCO BALLS: INTO THE LIGHT--the quest to be fabulousballs" which debuts this month as part of the Charleston Comedy Festival. I haven't seen previews of the show and I'm so square I wouldn't know fabulousballs if they hit me in the face, but i think it's clear that the gorgeous Ms. McMurray has achieved her quest already!

photo by ari scott

Happy 2011!

May this new year bring positive change for everyone. Is something in your life annoying you? Maybe a big thing like your husband? Or a small thing like the paint job in your bathroom? Perhaps this is the year to fix it. Life is short indeed. We should try to improve the tangibles--or at least our outlook--so we can enjoy it more, right? Carpe diem! 100 years goes by in a blip! And four years? Forget about it. Remember when I said 2007 was going to be my year? I don't think it was. Or maybe it was? 2010 was pretty good. What year is it again? Where are we? What's going on? Does anyone love the Bee Gees like I do? I just saw their CD downstairs for sale at Starbucks. Price reduced to $9.99 from $12.99. I tell you what, if I had $9.99 left on the gift card my mother gave me for Christmas after the sandwich I bought with it, I might have "carpe diem-ed" in the form of a new Bee Gees CD. But I do have a ton of crap in the apartment cluttering my life, so perhaps it's best I didn't. Gosh. 2011 is starting out so complicated. Happy New Year, everyone.

Look Familiar?

"Christmas Day 1984. Or Recovery Day, after last night's big Christmas Eve dinner with my sister and her kids (well, the youngest was 19) and presents. Now it's time to relax, at least for my father and brother. Mother's probably in the kitchen preparing a dinner of yummy leftovers; this year it was prime rib. Meanwhile, there are various goodies to munch and otherwise imbibe on. I've got seasonal music playing on my system down at the other end of the room. Knowing me, it's The Nutcracker. Despite the modern lights, our tree is full of vintage ornaments, some dating back to my mother's childhood. There are also my home-made Peanuts ornaments I'd done over 20 years before. I also see that Mother still hadn't given up on African violets; as a special Christmas offering, they even seem to be blooming. Available light Kodacolor 1000 negative. View full size." From shorpy.com submitted by TTerrace.