Here's Another 10 Things to Toss Today!!

If you missed my last post, I gave you a list of 10 things you could toss today to help you begin your journey to a less cluttered life. As promised, here's another 10 items you can look for in your home to toss or donate to continue on your journey.

Today's list is more focused on paper items. We all still have too much paper coming at us even in this "paper-less" society. If you can get rid of some of it a little at a time, you'll be less "paper-full" than you were before.

1.  Tourist Brochures - This includes that map you picked up in Disneyland, (you know how it's been folded and unfolded so many times it's lost its print in places!), the brochure your sibling gave you about the fabulous cruise they took that they didn't ask you to go on and any other brochure of someplace that you're dreaming of going. GOOGLE those places and get the information delivered to your inbox. If you think you might forget about that wonderful little villa in Italy, make a folder on your computer labeled "Places we want to go" and file all information electronically.

2.  Difficult, time consuming or expensive recipes - Unless you're an expert chef and you really, really enjoy cooking your family dinner from scratch every single night, chances are you're not ever going to make Beef Bourginon and by letting that recipe go, you're releasing that expectation. Remember, you can always google recipes, check on FB for some of those TASTY! videos we all drool over.

 

3.  Invitations from past events - The wedding's over (you attended and had a blast), the baby's been born (super cute and cuddly), and it's now summertime so you can let the Memorial Day picnic invite be recycled. This is such an easy fix, and you can now make room on your frig for the 4th of July BBQ invite your neighbor sent.

4.  Expired coupons - Pizza coupons, drugstore discounts, grocery store clipped coupons, all of them. Check their expiration dates and if they're old, let them go. Oh except for the Bed, Bath & Beyond 20% off coupons. Those suckers never really expire and you can sometimes double them up!!


5.  Store receipts - Unless you need a receipt for a return, tax purposes or for a business deduction or if it's a big ticket item you want to recall, it's okay to throw them away. Check your credit card statement or keep it until you reconcile your bank statement, then let it go. It's just that easy!


6.  Expired warranties and contracts - We've all found them. The warranty for our digital camera, now long gone. The contract for the pest control professional that we don't use anymore, etc. Why are you keeping these? Recycle them and move on........

7.  Business cards that don't matter anymore - Are you really ever going to call that plumber you met at Home Depot in the bath fixture department? Probably not. Cull through all your business cards and either toss the ones that don't matter anymore or add the ones you do care about to your contact list on your phone. Here's the app I use to track my business cards that I want to retain. ABBYY Business Card Reader

8.  Unsolicited charity solicitations - If you already give to selected charities, then you're well aware that some charities sell their mailing lists to the highest bidder and unbeknownst to you, you are about to start receiving a lot of unsolicited charity solicitations. Now, some people I know try to be proactive by tearing off the return to them section and sending it back in their pre-paid envelope stating to please remove me from your mailing list. That might work, sometimes. You can also simply shred the envelope without opening it. You can also try to be removed from mailing lists by utilizing this option that I posted about awhile ago. 

No More Junk Mail

9.  Bad photos - This is something I will be addressing in a future post as Photo Organizing is going to be a service I will be adding in the near future....stay tuned!  If you're into photos, either prints or digital, this is an area that is groan worthy for many of my clients. Fear not!!!!  It can be conquered with a little persistence and patience.

And now for the only non paper related list item:

10.  Cans of dried up paint - If you've ever painted or have had someone else paint any walls in your home, apartment, whatever, you've got at least one can of paint in your garage or storage area. I'm not saying that you have to get rid of the extra paint that you just used in your guest bath remodel, I'm talking about 10+ year old paint that's NEVER going to be used again. If it's truly old and dried up, you can dispose of it in your normal trash receptacle. If it's in any sort of liquid form, you need to dispose of it responsibly. Most counties or waste management company have information available for paint disposal in your area. Here's some info on disposing of old paint.    Old Paint Disposal

I'd love to hear from you about something you decided to let go of and how it felt to do so. You can comment below. Plus, I'd like to know if anyone's reading this thing!! Give me some love!!