De-Clutter Club to Go in a New Direction

We had another meeting of our De-Clutter Club last night and discussed the future of the club. The interest in the club the way it has been running seems to have run it's course. I am going to be changing the nature of this club to include other ways to simplify your life and put dollars in your pocket. A patron has offered to run an Extreme Couponing Club. We discussed this last night at the meeting and it seems that this would be a popular diversion for the group.

I will have a changeover type meeting the first Thursday in March, on March 1, where we will discuss the future of the group. We can brainstorm about the direction it will go by adding in the extreme couponing component and discuss if there are other topics we want to explore.

I hope our regulars will come, that we will see some old friends back again and some new members will join us in planning what will be the best way to use our time.

A reminder from last evening - Jamie Novak, who has been to the South Brunswick library several times in the past few years, will be giving a "Spring De-Cluttering in 3 Simple Steps" program at the Monroe Township Library on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. The program is free and available to non-residents but you must get a ticket from the Welcome Desk at the library before March 10. The Monroe Township library is located at 4 Municipal Plaza, Monroe Township, NJ 08831. There is a map and directions on their website at http://monroetwplibrary.org/location.

We also discussed a few more online resources for de-cluttering that take a little different approach from most of the others. On the OnlineOrganizing.com website, Organizer Kim Woodland writes about "Organizing for Creativity." She has her own website at www.extraorganized.com where she "writes about using organization in the service of relationships and adventurous experiences. She takes a fresh approach, blending organizing with mindfulness, simple living, and minimalism for a highly focused approach that anyone can use to shape a life that is meaningful to them." Her article can be found at www.onlineorganizing.com. Check out these websites; I think they make a nice segue into the new focus of our group.

Hope to see you all, and some new faces, at the next meeting on March 1, 2012

The Magic of Thought Logic Program Highlights

We had a great presentation from Sangita Patel on November 1st about getting your thoughts focused so that you can declutter your life forever. Sangita Patel is a local Organizer and Coach based in West Windsor who serves as the treasurer of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and is a member of the International Coach Academy and Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) Her company Kalakar Interiors has a website at www.kalakarinteiors.com.

I have read several books that touch of the very thing that Sagita talked about. It is important to do some self-analysis to find out why you hang on to things that clutter your life and learn to let go of those thoughts and actions to clear your house and your life which will allow you to do things that you really want to do. Part of this process is goal setting - imagine your life and what you could accomplish for yourself if you were not bogged down by the minutiae of everyday life. You need to set a goal for yourself that is more appealing and more promising than the idea of wallowing in your memorabilia or worrying about where to file your bank statements.

Sangita stressed the need to take care of yourself by clearing the cluttering thoughts in your mind and creating a clean and clear environment where you can learn to "fall in love with yourself."

Sangita suggests the following: "1) Make a list for day-to-day, weekly, monthly and yearly goals and prioritize them; 2) For your daily to-do list: Start with a 3" by 3" sticky note and jot down what is most important just for today. Take one thing at a time and stay focused until it is complete." Using a small piece of paper insures that your list will not be unmanageable to complete in one day. "3) Take frequent breaks in between work/activities and do some stretches or meditation. 4) Thank yourself, Reward yourself and Appreciate your efforts. 5) Focus on your accomplishments, not on what you have not done." Sangita suggests that you should use the SMART method of setting goals - make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Based. You can read more about setting SMART goals at http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html and other sites that discuss good management and leadership skills.

"De-cluttering and letting go helps you to trust yourself and others" and realize that you can make sound decisions that benefit you. Learn to delegate what can be delegated and choose the things you want to do yourself that will satisfy you and give you happiness.

Don't forget to come to the library on Thursday, December 1st for the De-Clutter Club's next monthly meeting. Clear out your pantries and bring your unwanted food to donate to the South Brunswick Food Pantry. We will have some refreshments to celebrate our accomplishments this year and discuss realistic resolutions for next year.

Here is the first list of donations we will be collecting at the December De-Clutter Club Meeting, December 1, 2011, Program Room 1A/1B

Clear out your pantry and your cupboards for The South Brunswick Food Pantry. This is their list of items they need for the holidays:

•Jelly or Jam
•Parmalot Milk
•Canned Meats (Chili, Beef Stew, Canned Chicken, etc.)
•Snack Foods (granola bars, crackers, cookies, snack packs, etc.)
•Coffee
•Oatmeal/Cereal
•canned tomatoes
•canned beans
•canned vegetables
•boxed macaroni and cheese
•cereal/oatmeal/pancake mix and syrup
•boxed potatoes and boxed rice
•stuffing
•canned yams
•canned chicken broth
•soups
•Super Market Gift Cards

The Food Pantry collects food all year long, so they will take any other canned or boxed items from your pantry that you may want to move along to others.

Upcoming Events

Since we have a program about De-Cluttering on Tuesday, November 1, 2011, I have decided that having our regular Thursday evening De-Clutter Club meeting might be too much in one week. I have cancelled the Thursday night meeting in November but will address the group that attends on Tuesday meeting about our December meeting and beyond. Members and those who are interested in joining this group are encouraged to attend the presentation to learn about us and give us your input.

As a holiday project to help us clear out some stuff from our lives and at the same time help others, I am compiling a list of things that the South Brunswick Food Pantry and other local social assistance organizations need that we might have just “lying around” our houses. I know that most of these places want new and nearly new items, but if you are anything like me, you have a few of those new and nearly new items lying around as well as your well loved and over used “stuff.”

I will make the list available and have boxes and bags at our December meeting to gather the items and then arrange to get them delivered before the holidays.

If any of you have a contact with a charity that you know that needs “stuff,” contact me and let me know if you would be willing to deliver those designated donations after the meeting. I will let you know as soon as I can what items are needed that we might be able to contribute.

Also, at the December meeting, we can discuss our successes this year, start to set reasonable resolutions for 2012 and discuss ways to have a stress-free holiday season by letting go of the clutter in your life and mind. We can make it an early holiday celebration! I will have coffee and cookies and maybe some other surprises.
Please come to the presentation on Tuesday, November 1 with Sangita Patel of Kalakar Interiors on The Magic of Thought Logic: Clearing and Connecting Your Mind-Space and Home-Space and then join us as we wrap up 2011 on December 1 in the other side of the room in which we usually meet; we are sharing the space that evening with a Girl Scout Troop.

More from a Therapist and Organizer

I wrote about Cindy Glovinsky's One Thing at a Time a few weeks ago. I visited her website and saw that she has written several other books which I acquired through an Interlibrary Loan. These books are a complimentary pair. Both her second book, Making Peace with the Things in Your Life (New York: St. Martin's Griffen, 2002) and her third book, Making Peace with Your Office Life (New York: St. Martin's Griffen, 2010) are owned by the South River Public Library. According to the biographies in her books, Cindy Glovinsky is a licensed psychotherapist and an expert on organizing and mental health. Her books are more than de-clutter books; these are really self-help books based on psychotheraputic research and observations. Like several others we have discussed, these books are definitely designed to get the the root of the mental conditions that result in living a cluttered, disorganized life. If we can get to the root issues, it is hoped that the task of de-cluttering won't be so overwhelming and the sufferer will achieve that peaceful, ordered life that seems to always be just beyond reach. That is, of course, if we believe in being helped by psychotherapy.

She starts Making Peace with the Things in Your Life with this famous couplet by Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child's Garden of Verses, "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." We all know that things don't make us (or kings) necessarily happy! Most of the de-clutter books preach that the only way to truly be happy is to break our attachment with things so that we can truly be free to do what we want and to enjoy life. This is the premise of these two books.

Making Peace with the Things of Your Life covers subjects like Rethinking Things, Taking Inventory, Why Things Keep Overwhelming You and What to Do About Things, which are the headings for each of the four parts of the book. Part I is a kind of overview of the psychology of possessions and material objects. Part II starts to personalize the issue, giving you ways to access your thoughts and actions that have brought you to this point. Part III looks at particularly how you think about these issues and what your relationship is with the objects in your life and the power they hold over you. The last part is where the psychotherapy comes into play in getting you to confront these thoughts and try to rethink where you have been and where you are heading in life. There is a certain amount of practical information contained in these pages, but primarily, it is a plan to help you clear your thinking about things so that you can take control of your life.

The second book, Making Peace with Your Office Life is, I believe, the first whole book I have encountered that is dedicated to organizing your work life and improving your happiness at work. I find this to be the one that I am drawn to first since most of us spend far more of our waking day in an office of some kind. It would be interesting to know if the behaviors that incline us to gather things is universally brought to the workplace. Does anyone know of someone who lives a cluttered home life but has an ordered work space? Of vise versa? Because your work life is more than the things on and around your desk, this book gets much more into the task of decluttering and organizing your thoughts, actions and relationships at work.

I would say that these are both books that you would need to sit down with in some quiet place over a period of time to truly absorb the message that Cindy Glovinsky is imparting and remember, psychotherapy is not a short term process but for some, it can be life changing.

Missed Tonight's Meeting?

I missed seeing everyone this evening for our De-Clutter Club. I had hoped to get a volunteer to run the meeting on October 6, but since no one attended tonight's meeting, I have decided to cancel the meeting on October 6 so that I can attend the Library's Author Dinner.

I had hoped to hear some summer success stories and to give you some information out of a book I found today, Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life by Gail Blanke (New York: Springboard Press, 2009.) This book presents a slightly different message than other de-clutter books. It is far more instructive and encouraging and simplifies the entire process down to four steps: 1) If the item you are considering (or the belief, conviction, memory, thought, friend, job - whatever) weighs you down or make you feel bad about yourself - throw it out, give it away, sell it, let go and move on! 2) If it just sits there taking up space and contributes nothing positive to your life - throw it out, give it away, sell it, let go and move on! If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward. Getting rid of the negative helps you focus on the positive. 3) Don't make the decision about keeping versus getting rid of something a difficult one. If you have to delibrate too long on something - throw it out! and finally 4) Don't be afraid. You have only one life and you should be living this life to the fullest. You don't have the time, energy or room for physical or psychic waste.

Like the title says, Throw Away Fifty Things and you will be well on your way to making a clutter free life a habit - forever!

Our first De-Clutter Club meeting of the fall will be on Thursday night September 1, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. in Program Room 1A. I hope you all had enjoyable and productive summers and that you managed to conquer some clutter or that you have had enough time to rest so that you can dive into a few projects this fall.

We have another de-clutter expert coming to the library this fall to talk to us about de-cluttering our lives and maintaining a clutter free life once we have succeeded. The presenter’s name is Sangita Patel and she will be here on Tuesday evening, November 1 at 7:00 in the large meeting room. Sangita Patel calls herself the Chief Value Creator of her business, Kalakar Interiors, LLC based in West Windsor. She is the Treasurer of the Northern New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (www.NAPONNJ.org) and a member of the National Institute for Challenging Disorganization (www.challengingdisorganization.org). She calls herself a “facilitator of self-awareness” and ends her emails with this statement: “Organize, Plan and Decorate with Awareness by Inspiring your Inner Explorer.” The presentation will be about “Thoughts – ‘The Magic of Thought Logic’ - Clearing and Connecting Mind space and Home space and for self awareness - how to regain inner calmness and to inspire in awakening our inner wisdom.” You can read more about her mission and her services on her website at www.kalakarinteriors.com.

I have contacted some other organizers whose names I got from some of our club members and from the referral service on the NAPO website. I don’t have any other dates set, but I will be looking for some time in the upcoming library schedule. We can talk about the availability of our club members at our first meeting and see if our current meeting date and time are still convenient to our members.

The night of our second meeting in the fall, October 6, is the date for the annual Library Foundation Author Dinner at Sir John’s Restaurant in North Brunswick. This event is always a lot of fun and this year’s author, Chris Grabenstein, mystery writer and former improve comedian looks to be very interesting and entertaining. I would like to discuss changing the date for our October meeting or asking if anyone in the club would be able to run the meeting on that evening.

Let me know your thoughts on these topics and let me know your availability if you are unable to attend our meetings on the first Thursday evening of each month. I look forward to seeing you all, and some new faces, on September 1. Be safe in the storm. I will write again before the first meeting about packing light to save money on checked luggage.

Have a clutter free day!