minimalism

Decluttering Duplicates and the Top Third

April 6, 2020 by Amy Slenker-Smith 4 Comments

Years ago, I heard an organizer talk about how we only use the "Top Third". What he meant was, we own a stack of t-shirts, but rarely wear items beyond the top third of the pile. You can apply this every category in your closet, blouses, shorts, t-shirts, jeans, and sweaters. But what about other belongings? Do you have a favorite pair of sunglasses or gloves? Maybe you prefer one umbrella. So, why keep the rest? Here's the case for owning one or at very least, for owning a lot less. WHY JUST ONE My items are of high quality and fair trade. Are they more expensive? Yes. Are they high quality and made to last? Yes! And they are made with labor that pays a living wage. The average person loses 9 items per day. Have you ever re-purchased something because you could not find it? Minimalism spares this cost because it’s easier to locate items with less. Consider setting up a landing spot to corral your keys, phone, and wallet. Practices like this mean fewer …

9 Easy Ways to More Organized Spices

March 9, 2020 by Amy Slenker-Smith Leave a Comment

Recently, I went through our spices. By this I mean, I removed them from the cabinet and asked the following questions about each one: What recipe calls for this spice? Approximately when did I purchase this spice? How much of this spice is measured for a typical recipe? Surprisingly, most of my spices support my everyday cooking. And I had very few containers older than 12 months. But when I considered the question about quantity, I found several mistakes as a result of bulk buying. I own large containers of cayenne, parsley, cumin, and minced onion. Although they are used in our cooking, the volume was excessive for the typical amount needed in a recipe. But my neighbor was delighted when I refilled a few of her spice containers. Pictured below are the rest of my spices and some easy ways to organize yours. 9 Easy Ways to Organize Remove from the cabinets. Designate one cabinet for spices. (We prefer near the stove.) Review each container and ask the …

3 Reasons Why Storage Bins Do Not Make You More Organized

March 6, 2020 by Amy Slenker-Smith 2 Comments

Baskets and bins will NOT make you more organized. In fact, they have the opposite effect. Here are three reasons why. #1 Bins Collect Clutter Over the years, I acquired a lot of things. And then I organized a lot of things. Finally, I stored all the things. At one point, I contributed heavily to this statistic, "The average American home has 300,000 items." Moreover, my weekends were spent purchasing, organizing and cleaning things. If storage bins had worked, I would have gotten organized very quickly. But my storage containers perpetuated the clutter. I had to get rid of the stuff in order to get organized. #2 Bins Hide Clutter Bins, boxes, and baskets are clutter attractors. Ever notice how hard it is to keep an empty basket sitting around the house? Once you start eliminating the baskets and bins, stuff can't hide. It forces hard decisions about, do I really need all this stuff? #3 Bins ARE Clutter Recently, I worked with a client who decluttered her entire house. She …

What If We Owned Just One At A Time

January 29, 2019 by Amy Slenker-Smith 2 Comments

I was chatting with a friend about the number of items I own such as towels, shoes, and books. She asked. So I offered guidelines to help her get started. Not rules or mandates, just successful practices that help me live better with less. She stared at me in amazement but pressed for more answers. She appreciated the logic of my decisions and realized how overwhelmed she was by her own excess. I don't profess to know the perfect number of items. Minimalism isn't about that. While people have certain possessions in common, like cups and plates, our circumstances dictate the appropriate number to own. But in my experience, duplicates always lead to more missing items. I could never find a pair of scissors when I needed them! Minimalism challenges me to question every category from housewares to hours on the calendar. And when I say I own one pair of gloves, it really means that I own One At A Time. This is true of many items in my home. Owning one does …

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