Today I returned the Windows-8 laptop to Sam’s Club.  I purchased the identical computer–with Windows-7–at BJ’s for $170. less than Sam’s!!  (BJ’s is a “big box” membership chain of stores in my part of the United States.)  It is 5:50 PM and this computer has been out of the box less than one hour.  I feel like I am in absolute control!!  I haven’t had a single second of problems moving around on this computer.  Praise the Lord!!  Expect more blog messages.

Declutter Fast Newsletter
…How To Get Your Home In Order
Hello and welcome back to your Declutter Fast newsletter!

Clutter reminds me of that line from the wonderful movie “Hoosiers” which is one of the most popular sports movie of all time, for good reason:

“Look, Mister, there’s two kinds of “dumb”… a guy that gets naked and runs out in the snow and barks at the moon, and a guy who does the same thing IN MY LIVING ROOM… The first one don’t matter… the second one, you’re kind of forced to DEAL with.”

When the clutter is in YOUR living spaces, you’re forced to deal with it. You’re either looking at it, thinking about it, walking around it – or whittling it down. You are aware of the state of your home all the time, either consciously or subconsciously.

You’ve got clutter when things are piled on the horizontal surfaces of your home – that are not supposed to be there.

You’ve got clutter when things are piled on the floor, too! (That’s just one more horizontal surface – and a big one!)

It’s oh-so-tempting to pile things on those horizontal surfaces – tables, countertops, desk tops, tops of furniture!

Things can get piled there and stay there for literally months – sometimes even years.

Horizontal surfaces are your own personal clutter horror show. The good news is that there is only so much that you can actually put on any one table or desk or chair.

When you finally start venturing through your horizontal horror show, it can be a real trip down memory lane.

“Oh, so HERE are those keys I’ve been looking for!!”

But don’t get sidetracked by photographs or even that long overdue library book you have finally located…

Take each item and put it where it belongs. You don’t need to rush this job. Lots of things will get tossed out – and that means fewer things in your home!

Even if you take more than one day working on one horizontal surface, you are making significant progress.

It feels good! And remember to clean the item also – if it’s a wood surface, give it a wonderful polishing so it will shine.

You can even accomplish ALL your decluttering with this one project – because MOST of the clutter will be found on horizontal surfaces!

A few minutes a day really goes a long way. Remember, as long as you keep working toward the goal of decluttering, you WILL get there – it’s a “mathematical certainty.”

Every effort we make adds up.

Here’s to order in our lives!

With love,
Mimi Tanner
Author of Declutter Fast – How to Get Your Home In Order Almost Immediately!

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Check my blog titled Two Thousand Minus Four!!

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Postscript: This message prepared on the computer while at my volunteer assignment.  If prepared, at home, on my new laptop–with Windows 8–it would have required hours of struggle and frustration!!

A tiny exaggeration **BUT ** it took almost as long to prepare this blog as time to construct the “shoe boxes” and fill with items I’ve collected all year.  There are school supplies, tooth paste & brush, bar of soap, comb, thongs, caps, jump ropes, jacks, balls, yo-yo, cars and stuffed toys.  ~~~  (I am very very frustrated with Windows-8!!!!!!!!!)

Earlier pictures of (1) the fourteen bags of purchases during my trip last month, and (2) the total collection.  ~~~  Visit the web site for Operation Christmas Child.

I’ve been busy all day Friday, and Saturday, and just “took a break.”  Trying to accomplish anything and everything–on this laptop with Windows-8–is a major frustration!!  ~~  Yesterday (Friday) I moved seventeen boxes of health and nutrition books from the “storeroom” to the front porch.  My chiropractor stated (several months ago) he would take my library of holistic health books BUT can’t seem to fit me into his after-hours schedule.  (I’m beginning to think there is something wrong with this arrangement: I spend $5,000. plus time and gas but he can’t spend an hour [or two] to acquire the library that cost me several hundred dollars [or over a thousand dollars].)  ~~  I hadn’t wanted to lift those heavy boxes!!!!!   ~~  Now they are on the front porch (and an adjustment–or massage–would have felt good).  ~~~~  More info and pictures tomorrow?!  It took two hours to do this short blog!!

The tipping point–Liberty in the balance.

After days of frustration (in December 2011) with Google’s Blogspot, I was forced to search the Internet for another venue.  I had  a lot to learn because WordPress appeared new and different–and “yours truly” is “three quarters and counting.” ~~ Two years of earlier blog information can be found at TabTeardropTravels. ~~  Now I have a brand-new laptop computer–with Windows-8–and I’m being challenged again to learn how to prepare and publish blog messages.  (In my humble opinion, Windows-8 will turn my brown hair gray!!)

FYI: “Old Faithful” (laptop computer) died last Thursday (sudden and no warning).  I’ve been without computer and Internet until this hour (6:00 PM). Monday is my day to go to the chiropractor and do my grocery shopping.  I bought a new laptop at Sam’s Club.  This… has Windows-8 so I have a lot to learn.  An enormous change !!  ~~  More info later.

Postscript, Wednesday, October 31, 2012: Windows-8 is radically different from everything I’ve previously experienced (over 30 years working with computers).  Any project I undertake requires minutes–or hours!!  I’ll be working on e-mail (example) and the page suddenly disappears (and it takes time to “find” it again).  Bottom line: I may not tackle another blog message very soon.  (This postscript added from the computer while I am/was at work.)

Conservatively, I have two thousand items that need a new home!!  Today I sent a box–via FedEx–to the buyer of four of my collector’s plates.  Hallelujah!!   Only one hundred (or more) collector’s plates that need a new home.  ~~  It will be a “landmark” day when the buyer picks up thirteen large boxes of health and nutrition books (over two hundred).  Then I will have some “wiggle space” in the room that has wall-to-wall boxes of memorabilia.  ~~  Within the next month, the many bags and several boxes of items for Operation Christmas Child should be at the Processing Center.  ~~  Truthfully, my depression may subside when I’m able to tackle those (wall-to-wall) boxes currently beyond arm’s reach?!?!  I’m so weary of all the clutter!!  I feel I can’t invite anyone to the apartment because I don’t want them to see the volumes of “stuff” I have retained (and judge accordingly).

Perhaps you can sympathize with me and appreciate why I choose to spend so much time in my backyard garden?!?!  I really need to “downsize” but not a week goes by that I am not buying something for the yard.  This past week, I shopped two Goodwill stores and bought planters and plant stands.  (How could I pass up a large planter for $2.00??)  Recently I got an exceptionally good buy, at Tuesday Morning, on attractive large planters.  I had looked at them–for months–priced at $26.00 each.  On my recent trip, I found them at the Mooresville store, marked down plus another 70% off.  I bought the four available planters for less than one at the original price!!  Hallelujah!!  This week (at Tuesday Morning) I bought more garden items with “70% off ticketed price.”  ~~  Because I wanted to shop the second Goodwill store, I drove to Lancaster, South Carolina (something I rarely do).  I discovered the K-Mart is closing (“going out of business”) so stopped and headed for the garden department.  I bought four bags of organic planter soil, and several bags of bird seed.  I’m already so anxious for Spring so I can arrange planters, fill with soil, and plant flowers and Topsy-Turvy upside-down tomato plants!!  ~~  After reading ideas in a book about “container gardens,” I’m eager to do something “unique” with the planters and plant stands.  ~~  Chide me about this acquisition: At Goodwill, next to their dumpster, I saw a disassembled, broken baby crib.  I instantly recognized the rectangular metal springs would make a perfect trellis.  In my mind’s-eye, I see Scarlet Runner Bean vines twining around links (and far more attractive than the macrame rope used for a trellis earlier this year).  ~~  Yes, I’m anxious for Spring!!

Another outside project: Attract deer to water, salt lick, and feeder.