OPTED Magazine

Part of the decluttering process will leave you with items to get rid of that contain materials that can be responsibly recycled in an environmentally friendly way.   Only 12.5% of American electronics are recycled each year and you should help increase that number. Many home electronics contain harmful toxins that can disperse through ground water and air pollution and …

Material possessions mean something different at all stages of our lives.  Some possessions evoke a memory and others a perceived necessity.  But at many of our life stages the concepts of “need” and “want” take on different meanings as we begin to evaluate the growing volume of material objects that we collect.
Clutter in our homes is a direct result of …

Paper might be thin, but the sheer volume of it entering our homes is bound to create clutter and unnecessary piles in numerous places.   One of the best habits you can form is committing to address incoming paper the moment it comes through your front door.  Here are some examples and how to take action:

Mail — as soon as …

We may think of clutter as nothing more than an annoyance and a disruption of a calm, serene environment, but clutter can also be a barrier to selling a house.  The Ashville Citizen-Times published an article on this very question.  Since I’m currently in the process of purchasing a home and have visited dozens of them in the hopes of …

If you are attempting to declutter your home, the constant flood of items coming in may make it seem impossible to make progress.  Imagine building a sand castle with a moat at the beach, and then the tide comes in and even as you rebuild the castle and bail out the water as fast as you can, the water keeps …

We all have particular items that tend to pile up and clutter up our space.  For me, it’s wine corks (from my recent love of wine tasting), coasters (from restaurants I visit), and magazines (prior to my transition to reading almost everything digitally).
One day these pesky piles of items triggered my artistic side and the light bulb in my head …

Did you know that “National Clean Out Your Garage Day” is the first Saturday after Labor Day?  That means tomorrow people across the country will be taking the opportunity to clean out clutter that has accumulated in the garage.
And there are some great reasons to clean out your garage.
A survey by the Lehigh Group stated that:
According to the survey of …

“The things you own end up owning you  (Tyler Derden, Fight Club)
In the last week I’ve read three articles that all contained a common theme: possessions defining our lives.
One article discussed the fun question we’ve all asked ourselves “if you were sent to a desert island, what 5 objects would you bring with you?”  Another article referenced in our moving …