Category: Commentaries (Page 2 of 6)

Storage Resting Places Before Final Burial

storage area

Put it in the garage, they say. There’s some room in there, they say. Yeah sure, there’s maybe some space for it, but for how long and how much can the area take as more and more accumulates?

The plan for storage spaces has gone afoul. With storage facilities, we have the high cost of storing the things we can’t fit in your house. With garage storage, it’s all the unwanted items that no longer have a place in our house. With attic storage, it keeps all the stuff that we thought we should hang onto but don’t really need anymore.

All storage spaces are the same when it comes to a place to store a lot of our unused or unwanted things. And all of these places soon become the forgotten land of storage.

With the exception of document archives and some boxed keepsakes, most everything else is just resting in storage before we decide to bury it. That burial would be in terms of throwing out or donating.

I’ve been guilty of this. I want to get something out of the house but am not quite ready to get rid of it so that it’s 100% gone. Then after awhile, when I end up going through stuff in storage, I feel fine about getting rid of it. After all, I haven’t missed it after all the the passed time has gone by.

If I haven’t missed it, I won’t mourn over it when it’s gone, see?

The one thing I’ve noticed about people storing furniture that they’ve inherited from a family member is that they don’t want it in their house, but can’t let it go for sentimental reasons. So it sits in storage, unappreciated, not admired, and forgotten.

What value does that have?

I’ll tell you. The value of inherited furniture sitting in storage has completely lost its value. It has no value to you, and it might be depriving someone else who could value it for themselves if they had it.

I’ve known of people storing miscellaneous stuff in storage facilities for years without ever having looked at it or even know what’s in there. Since the monthly storage costs average $100/month or more, the math on storing those unknown things adds up to $1200/year. And after say, 5 years, you’ve just paid out $6000 to keep items that are probably not even worth a couple hundred.

That’s a lot of money to store unknown, forgotten and self inflicted over-valued stuff!

Storage spaces can be compared to the theme of the movie, Field of Dreams, quoting the famous line, “If you build it, he will come.” Because, similar to storage areas, we can say, “If it’s there, it will be be filled.”

To quote another famous line from the movie Jaws, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” that’s what you’ll need as more and more stuff accumulates.

After reading this, try to take a moment to re-evaluate the value of the things you have in storage. Save yourself more years of clinging onto things that you don’t even know exist anymore.

After giving closure to those items you can start arranging their funeral and finally say your good-byes.

I’m A Dollar Store Junkie

dollar store storage containers

God bless the day the 99 Cents Only stores opened their doors. And yes, following the marvelous success of dollar-priced items, countless other dollar stores sprung up in what seemed like an overnight awakening.

Aside from the killer price on items, it’s been the promised land to professional organizers and others seeking inexpensive organizing solutions and the like. And if it wasn’t classified as an organizing product, it soon became a tool to organize our stuff into.

From this also ascended DIY (do it yourself) videos on using dollar store items and turning them into something uniquely awesome for our storage needs. Heck, even I got into doing those! I made DIY lazy-susan turntables from round cake pans and marbles. I made stacking serving trays for various uses out of plates and candle holders. I had my fun.

Now I see some very creative ideas from people who are, what I consider “Dollar Store Specialists”, making all sorts of cool things from dollar stores for around the house. Quite inspiring.

One can’t have enough of those plastic shoe-box containers either. These are good for, oh so many things. I especially like them as dresser drawer organizers for my undergarments. And I use them in food cabinets as well. The list goes on how I use those!

I group as many like-items together as I can in storage containers from dollar stores. Nothing remains un-grouped in my house!

Don’t get me started on the dollar store specialty stuff because these are a godsend and inspiration to further organize my junk … I mean, stuff. I’ve got those wall hanging framed noteboards, chalkboards, and anything else to goodies on.

I do try not to overdue it. I regulate what I should and shouldn’t buy now. But in the beginning, no holds barred. The thing is, there always seems to be something new and inspiring to do something with!

Now I walk into a dollar store (most regularly, to this day) and discover “a find” for whatever reasons I think it can be used for. It’s not funny. I literally can’t walk into one of these stores and not find a doodad that seems worthwhile (or at least a bargain that can’t be ignored).

Who’s relating with me here? Anyone?

I know, I know, I talk about having less is better. And, in most circumstances this is true. But we’re talking organizing ideas here, so that’s an exception, is it not?

I stand by this so it’s okay, go out and discover your own dollar store organization “finds.”

There’s No Place Like Home

cyndi seidler at home

We cannot fail to remember the line from Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” It’s embedded in our memories because home, to most of us, is where our heart is. It’s where we come to be in our element and feel the comforts of what’s domestically familiar.

To me, it’s that plus a lot more. And, if it doesn’t embellish my life, I know I need to work on it to give me that little slice of heaven I want to come home to.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that, while on the end of their dream vacation, they couldn’t wait to get home. Or, after arriving home from a nice vacation say that they are so happy to get back home. Why do you think that is? What does home have that their dream vacation spot didn’t have?

Well, it has everything else that a vacation spot doesn’t have, that’s why. It has what we’ve endowed it to have to make us feel settled. It’s been cultivated to make our surroundings that to which we’re accustomed to.

Beautiful surroundings outside the home are indeed a pleasurable and gratifying experience, but that enrichment should also be waiting for us at home. If it isn’t, we need to make it so.

The surroundings we create at home should be the atmosphere of our Shangri-la, our Nirvana. It should be adorned to make us feel happy and give us joy.

Anything unfavorable in our place of home can be fixed. We just need to put our heart in it because that’s where we want our hearts to be when we’re away from it.

Most things at home that are negative to our well being is redeemable, or fixable. If it’s unsuited to our personality or opposed to our serenity of being, than home becomes a place we’d rather not be, even with all its familiarity.

The elements of home is something that it gives us a vibe and reflects how we feel. A bad or unseemly space in the home is antagonistic. A good or cheerful space in the home is upbeat and happy. So space resonates our mood.

To feel the delight of coming home, or being at home, is so important to our well-being. That’s why it’s imperative that we take measures to make it engaging and exceptional for us.

My home welcomes me every time I come home. It’s captivated my sense of pleasure and gratification with its charm and alluring ambience. I love coming home. No matter where it happens to be located, it’s always “home.”

If you don’t have that feeling, “There’s no place like home,” then just make it so.

Designing Some Structure In Our Lives

cyndi seidler

I love all the words associated with the word “structure” – like system, method, composition, arrangement, format, order, organization. These are related words that each have their own meaning, yet similar to their concept.

Blueprint is another word relating to structure. In looking at the blueprints of a home, we see its structure, its framework of the building as a whole.

Same thing can be applied with understanding structure for our own life. We incorporate work, family, friends, personal dynamics and activities within the “building” of our life. We assimilate our groups, hobbies, interests, and goals into this building. And we also integrate animals, plants and spiritual importances within the foundation of our building.

To be really good at balancing and harmonizing all those things within our building, we need a good infrastructure. When we fail to have that, the structure begins to collapse in some way or another.

So, like designing a building, we want to know what we want in it, what we want it to look like, what we wish it to be like, and figure out what aspects of it are most important to being the driving force and motivations of our structure.

All right, now we get into the layout or groundwork of your building’s interior – designing how big you want each of the areas to be. Do you want more space for family? Do you want to expand or cut down the space for your career? Do you want a big or small area for personal interests? And so forth.

Once all those sizable components are broken down into things of most importance, then you can fill the areas (or rooms) with the pieces that go into them. Done well, each room should have enough space for what you want in it.

If you haven’t been able to follow me thus far, then let me explain it another way. In your life you have family. If you work all the time, like that of a workaholic, then the structure in your life is off balance and you would need to do something to give space for family and other important matters in your life.

If you neglect space for your friends and you want that space, then you need to make a space for them a bit bigger than it’s been.

If you are not allocating space for personal interests, then you need to build a room for that space so you can do those other things that enhance your life.

For instance, if you like to go hiking or go to the movies then you need to make space for that too. I make sure I go to the movies once a week, and get together with friends every as well (with the exception during the Covid-19 virus quarantine).

If you want to become an artist, then create a space to do that. If you have to adjust your space by lessening another space to fit in a space for something else, then you can renovate your structure for that.

It’s not up to me or anyone else to tell you how much space you need for building the structure of your life. Only you can determine the necessity and importance of those things for it to be the catalyst to change it.

By creating a better structure for your life, you will be able to integrate all the things that elevate it to be more balanced and fulfilling.

You’re the architect of your life. Build it the way you want.

The Plight Over Out of Control Spaces

Cyndi Seidler on quarantine organizing

I won’t be giving a lecture about clutter being a hindrance in our lives because we already know this. What I do want to say about it is that it wrecks havoc in so many other ways besides being a nuisance to us.

When house clutter becomes “normal”, there’s a crummy downside to that. We no longer see it. It’s like it becomes almost invisible to us as we maneuver around it. If I didn’t know better, I’d say we put an invisible cloaking device over it just so it doesn’t bother us.

The downside of having it exist can be anything from depression, anxiety, apathy, to having brutal circumstances happen.

This morning I watched a short video that hit the nail on the head in regards to making a difference in your life and, as a result, to those around you as well. His first advice was to to get up and make your bed every morning. Make it pristine. Then go on to do the next task and the next and so on.

Pretty soon, as you begin to accomplish more and more tasks around the house, you feel better and better about yourself and your environment.

This started off with a man whose home had gotten out of control and all he watched was bad news about the quarantine. He was depressed and getting nothing done. He seemed apathetic.

But then, he made his bed and almost immediately lifted himself out of his funk. He then went into the kitchen and started clearing out all the junk and washed up.

By the end of the day, he looked happier and, after continuing to do daily tasks that improved his life, he became a better man. What a difference he made in his life by just taking control of his areas and himself.

With that, I leave you with this link to the video from GoalCast that is bound to inspire:

Thinking About It Tomorrow Doesn’t Make It Happen Then Either

Cyndi Seidler on procrastination

Most of us know that famous phrase from the movie “Gone With The Wind” of Scarlett O’Hara saying, “I’ll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day.” That about sums up the thought pattern a lot of us adopt when we don’t want to deal with something presently.

We hear the word procrastination so often that I think the word is tuned out of our heads. What I mean is, it becomes something we hear so much of that we don’t even hear it anymore and can’t even absorb the thought of it.

It may seem to help us take our minds off something for now, yet the situation is still going to be there the next day and the day after, as so on. And shifting our attention off of that situation could lead to unsatisfactory circumstances.

Actually, if the situation is dire enough, putting something important off a day or more may lead to something a little more severe than unsatisfactory. It could turn out disastrous.

But, you already knew this.

So why am I bothering to write an article about a topic a lot of us will just skip over and not bother reading about? Well, I don’t know however I felt inclined to put the topic in your face again.

I will say this though, not everything is an emergency that we need to handle right away. Some things are important that do not have dire circumstances attached to it if we don’t do it right now, today.

During times like this when our economy has crashed because of the Corona virus lock-down, I felt that it was important to take all the opportunities we can to improve things in our lives.

If those life improvements are related to health or diet or fitness or spiritual goals or making our home spaces better, now is the time to do it. When I say “now” I mean presently, possibly today.

And when our economy is restarted and we go back to our busy lives, we should still recognize the importance of continuing to take time for ourselves to improve our lives.

There, I’ve said what I’ve come here to say. Thumbs up for reading this!

Spring Organizing To Make Your House Bloom

Cyndi Seidler on Spring organizing

Just like Spring cleaning, Spring organizing can be a seasonal plan to get in there and organize or reorganize areas of your home that you haven’t got around to doing for some time.

And like clearing out the cobwebs, getting into spaces that haven’t had your attention for awhile may need some some, yes …. attention.

This would be the time to open up those drawers that you haven’t opened in ages because gawd-knows-what is stored in there that you hardly ever need or use. Buffet cabinets with drawers, for example, are commonly forgotten places where you’ve kept stuff that you forgot you had.

Linen closet spaces are another area that gets neglected over time, accumulating more and more stuff, especially if you’ve bought new bed sheets and kept all the old, unused sheets in there as well.

Kitchen cabinets are one more thing that accumulates more stuff over time. You might have more glassware than you need, extra sets of dishware and mixing bowls, and maybe even several more pots and pans than you need. And let’s not forget the kitchen drawers that are a little fuller than last year.

Oh, did I not mention clothes closets? There, I just did.

There are probably numerous other places in our home that need attention after a time. And when we can allocate our time every now and then to these areas, we can keep our home in better order.

After all the Spring cleaning and organizing, you might want to spiff things up a little more. Bring in some fresh cut flowers, do a bit of decorating, add a touch more of your personality around the place.

With the nice Spring weather making us feel good and boosting our mood, it feels like the right time to get us doing what we can to do things that make us feel even better.

I think I’ll go outside and get my mood into the right head-space to tackle the world!

Seasons In Your Closet

Cyndi seidler organizing closet

The seasons come and go, much like our clothing. What we wear depends on the weather, so it’s either cold or hot weather to dress for.

When the temperature is warm or cool, that’s the in-between time when we can throw on a sweater or jacket, whatever is appropriate.

During the Summer, I hardly ever look at my Winter long-sleeved clothing hanging in one area of my closet. So it’s easy to focus on just the short-sleeved and sleeveless clothes area. And visa-versa when Winter hits.

Now, organizing a clothes closet by season is a nice plan if you have the space, yet some of us have to use other measures to store seasonal clothing.

Some solutions include under-the-bed storage containers for a season of clothes or in unused luggage cases. Some people have enclosed (zip up) portable wardrobe closets in their garage. And there are people who just pack up in storage bins and store until the next season arrives.

But if your clothes closet is large enough to hold all your seasonal clothing, you should organize them by season – short sleeved and sleeveless shirts and blouses grouped together in one area, long-sleeves in another area.

And, of course, a spot for slacks, suits, skirts and dresses. But even my dresses are thrown into the designated season.

By the end of a season, you’ll be so tired of your season’s clothing, that you’ll welcome a new look for yourself in the new season. It’s like a whole new wardrobe!

You Got Mail

Cyndi Seidler mail clutter

Love that line from the title of the movie, “You Got Mail.” I was actually going to title this “You Got Accumulated Mail” but the other one has more pizzazz.

Accumulated mail is a real clutter-beast. It’s a monster of all villains. It haunts us when we look at the piles of it and it attacks us when we find out we missed paying our bills.

I get it, we don’t all have time to deal with everyday mail. However, it will end up dealing with us eventually. There is going to be that day of “reckoning” when we have to sit down and open it.

Mail is one type of beast that you shouldn’t hide from. It’s the thing that we need to conquer so we can get on with the rest of our life. Tackle it head on and without mercy!

Throw away those solicitor’s junk mail lurking among your mail pile. Open up those bills and get them put someplace to pay when you sit down to pay bills. Get everything you need to do something with OUT OF ENVELOPES and placed in an ACTION place (a tray basket or desktop file holder, for instance).

And, for goodness sake, have a PLACE FOR YOUR MAIL other than throwing it on some surface where it doesn’t belong. If you don’t have a place to contain and hold the monster, create some containment place.

The Mail Monster can only defeat us when we ignore it. It cannot harm us when we attack it head on, so it’s a winning battle for us.

Let your battle begin.

Why You Should Keep Household Essential Goods In One Area

Cyndi Seidler - organized household essentials

The experience of keeping your household essentials in various places around the house can be a not-so-fun experience. I know this because I’ve experienced it.

My thought pattern thinks better when I know I only have one place to go for most all my household essentials. I don’t have to wonder (or wander) which place they’re located because I only have to remember ONE PLACE.

I tend to pick a place that will hold all the essentials for the household. A linen closet with drawers in a hallway has proven to be a good spot for me. Sometimes it’s a reach-in hall closet with shelves. Sometimes it’s conveniently put on shelves inside the garage near the door.

Wherever you have a good spot, utilize containers or whatevers to hold a group of like items, like batteries. This way it won’t clutter up the storage area for your household goods.

Let’s take a look at what I mean by some “household essentials” …

  • Batteries
  • Light bulbs
  • Electrical cords and plugs
  • Toilet paper, paper towels, kleenix
  • Tee candles and/or candles
  • Vacuum bags
  • First-aid kit

If you have the space, you can even include cleaning supplies, however often we tend to keep those elsewhere.

Now, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Some people don’t have the kind of storage space to accommodate all their household essentials in one place. I get that, and it’s okay.

I’m just throwing out the idea of keeping it all together in one space, if possible. But, wherever you do keep these things, at least try to keep them together in a convenient location.

What’s “convenient” is another topic.

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