the little things

I am feeling so much better about my clutter problem, my apartment, and my life in general. I think it’s all related. For the first time in a while I feel like the sky’s the limit. I don’t want to get into psycho babble on you…but I think it’s directly related to me curing my apartment. I mean it’s common sense; if you feel better about your living space you are going to feel better about your life. The same thing goes with personal makeovers. It’s not the makeover that changes your life it’s your attitude.

This clutter removal process is addictive. The more useless crap I get rid of the better I feel.  Of course it feels good to get rid of a large piece of unused furniture. What I have noticed, however, is that it’s the little things that are making a big difference for me. Here are some small changes that have yielded big results:

1) I’ve thrown away the cases for all my dvds and cds and put them into cd books. This doesn’t sound like much, but I fit my entire dvd and cd collection into two books. What I got rid of filled two garbage bags.

2) I put pictures in photo boxes (or better yet scan them on your computer) and got rid of photo albums. I have a 30 inch wide book shelf that is filled with picture albums. I’m keeping the three that are done with a more scrapbook style. (Most of these are from when I’ve visited other countries and include all sorts of mementos from those trips) I put the rest of the photos in one shoe box sized photo box and am giving away the remainder of my photo albums. Almost that entire shelf fits into the one photo box.

3) I’m getting rid of all mis-matched dishes, glassware, and flatware. I’m going to keep one everyday set and one fancy set. I’m keeping one white set of dishes and one green set (which will match my new kitchen 🙂 ). I’m getting rid of everything else…and with me that’s a lot. I’m going to buy a full set of tumblers and a full set of wine glasses and get rid of the rest. The same with flatware. Not only does this get rid of a lot of kitchen clutter, but if you have a limited amount of dishes you will have to wash them frequently and they won’t pile up in the kitchen.

4) I’ve gotten rid of all of my magazines save two discontinued LivingRoom magazines that I treasure. I’ve also made a pact with myself not to buy anymore magazines…unless I’m getting on a plane or something. What I’ve found is a lot of magazines now have pretty extensive websites. You get to see most of the features of the magazine and you don’t have to flip past dozens of pages of ads.

5) (This probably won’t apply to many people) I have binders and binders FULL of sheet music and scripts…probably at least 25. I can’t stand having that many binders. I am going to keep one audition binder, one cabaret binder, one extra binder (for whatever current show I’m in) and organize the rest of the loose sheet music in alphabetical hanging files. Then I will get rid of ALL of the other binders.

Other things that have helped me:

-Get rid of all duplicates. This includes kitchen items (seriously who needs five can openers?), books (I had four copies of Hamlet), cds, dvds, vhs’, whatever.

-I put my tv away. I know that may not be something most people want to do, but for me it made sense. I rarely use it. I don’t have cable and I can watch any movies I want on my computer.

-I put my printer away and all the computers are wireless (less cords). I still have a printer in the closet if I need it, but it isn’t a permanent fixture in my apt….and honestly I only use it to print out resumes anyway.

Anyway…just some tips. I still have a lot to do, but my to do list is getting smaller and smaller. 🙂