A New Year's Pledge

I got this from Simple. Organized. Life. Perfect little mantra for the upcoming new year...and beyond.

Addicted to Decluttering

I was planning on spending a good part of my Thanksgiving holiday doing some more decluttering and organizing, but just realized that I'm down to nearly nothing. I've sold, given away and thrown out nearly everything I can and I have not been buying anything new for some time. I was a little flustered. What was I supposed to do next? I now have all this free time!

It seemed a little silly, but I realized that you can get so wrapped up in decluttering, organizing and simplifying your life that you can become addicted to the chore. It's thrilling to make headway and to create a well ordered life, and when that's gone, you seem a little lost. What next? Well, I don't think you are ever really done. You still need to make sure that you keep unwanted items out of your life and with daily bombardments of advertising and holiday gift giving coming up, that's a chore in itself. So the best thing to do is find additional things to do with your time: read, write, take a walk, laugh and love...or enjoy a little dolce far niente.You deserve it.

Photo courtesy of rick/Flickr

"Storage Wars" on A&E

I recently saw a preview for a new show on A&E called "Storage Wars". Teams of professional treasure hunters and buyers are profiled as they bid on repossessed storage units. The teams have five minutes to scan a recently opened storage unit and place their bids on sight-unseen items. Several teams even use devious tactics in attempt to walk away with whatever might be in the unit. Some of the teams dismiss a unit because the items look like junk.

It looks like it could be a fascinating show with the same typical dramatic music and exaggerated pressure used in "Ice Road Truckers". I will watch just to see what objects people are willing to pay to store...and then forget about. It is a little sad that people will feel their stuff is so important, that they are willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars a year to store it, just to drop the payments and have their precious items walk away in the hands of others. This show is another example of the effects of this economy, overbuying and too much stuff.