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Post by ClutterBlind on Apr 10, 2013 12:58:29 GMT -5
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 10, 2013 16:58:15 GMT -5
“You can have a less chaotic, simpler life working with what you already have and transforming it into what you really need.”--Sandy Kreps, Fresh Start: 31 Days to Simplify, Declutter and Rein in the Chaos
“Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”--Isaac Newton
“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”--John Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
"Certain environments, certain modes of life, and certain rules of conduct are more conducive to inner and outer harmony than others. There are, in fact, certain roads that one may follow. Simplification is one of them."--Anne Morrow Lindbergh
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."--Leonardo DaVinci
 Angela, I've read so much about how clutter issues are rooted in some kind of fear, regardless of the person, their past, or the degree of hoarding involved. I think those two quotes really hit home for a lot of people.  ClutterBlind, as always, I love your visual inspiration. I think my favorite today would have to be the one about having a strategic plan (but the one about chocolate isn't far behind).  Di, thank you for the very wise words. (Lioness, I think you should add Di's comments to your library of excellent decluttering quotes by SOoS members.  )
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Post by ClutterBlind on Apr 11, 2013 16:13:58 GMT -5
We have a saying here when we reshuffle the clutter/hoard and simply move it around with out getting rid of much. We call it "Moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic." As this month's theme goes, LESS is more. Get rid of it.  |
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 11, 2013 23:46:02 GMT -5
“The virtue of clutter is how it can teach that owning less stuff puts what's needed in reach. The evil of clutter is how it can steal our time for investing in joys that are real.”--David L. Hatton
“My desire to live a meaningful life was getting forestalled by the petty, day-to-day demands of all my stuff...As I stood in my garage, I realized that it was not just that all the stuff created a mess, requiring valuable time to clean up. That was true, but that wasn't the worst of it. I realized it was not the clutter, the over accumulation of things, but rather the things themselves that were taking my attention away from what mattered in my life. Camping gear was getting my attention, not being outside. Tools were taking up my time, not using them to be creative. Toys were distracting me from the fun of playing. My things were not doing what they were meant to do: serve a greater purpose than possession alone.”--Dave Bruno, The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul
"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end."--Henry David Thoreau
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 12, 2013 16:38:30 GMT -5
"Clearing out your clutter can be cathartic, and it's the first step in organizing your home. Seeing the tops of your counters, desks, and floors of your closets clear will give you a great sense of accomplishment. And getting rid of all types of 'stuff' actually frees up space so that you can do that whole-house deep cleaning to start the spring."--Allen P. Rathey
"Anyone who has ever cleaned out a closet and taken stuff to Goodwill knows how liberating it is. You feel lighter, your mind feels clearer."--Cecile Andrews
“Organization isn't about perfection; it's about efficiency, reducing stress and clutter, saving time and money and improving your overall quality of life.”--Christina Scalise
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 13, 2013 17:49:23 GMT -5
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need."--Tao Te Ching
“When you hang on to your past, you are gripping an anchor that is swiftly moving to the bottom of the ocean. Sure, you have something to hang on to, but you are drowning, too.”--Brooks Palmer, Clutter Busting: Letting Go of What's Holding You Back
“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation...you cannot move forward.”--Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
“Sometimes the hardest part isn't letting go but rather learning to start over.”--Nicole Sobon, Program 13
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Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Apr 14, 2013 7:24:18 GMT -5
I sit with filled frames
And my books and my dogs at my feet
My friends by my side
My past in a heap
Thrown out most of my things
Only kept what I need to carve
Something consistent and notably me
Tattoo on my skin
My teacher's in heart
My house is a home
Something at last I can feel a part of
Alanis morrissette - limbo no more
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 14, 2013 23:13:09 GMT -5
"I am never five minutes into stripping the clutter from my life before I start running into the clutter that 'is' my life."--Robert Brault
“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with--that’s poverty--but how efficiently we can put first things first...When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar.”--Victoria Moran, Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty
"Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves."--Edwin Way Teale
"Life is amazingly good when it's simple and amazingly simple when it's good."--Terri Guillemets Blackswan, thank you so much for posting the great lyrics from Alanis Morrissette! I really like the lines "Only kept what I need to carve/Something consistent and notably me." That's pretty much the essence of getting rid of the clutter and making a home that's truly yours, isn't it?
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 16, 2013 0:14:28 GMT -5
"In our rich consumers' civilization, we spin cocoons around ourselves and get possessed by our possessions."--Max Lerner
"In the marketing society, we seek fulfillment but settle for abundance. Prisoners of plenty, we have the freedom to consume instead of our freedom to find our place in the world.”--Clive Hamilton, Growth Fetish
"I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.”--Henry David Thoreau, Walden
"Many wealthy people are little more than the janitors of their possessions."--Frank Lloyd Wright
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 16, 2013 18:53:55 GMT -5
"I've been getting rid of some clutter--anything that doesn't serve a positive purpose in my life--and making room for things that feel happy to me. Because I get to make my life whatever I want it to be. I get to make the room feel however I want it to feel. I get to make the closet as full or as spacious as I want it. And, if I have more clutter to get rid of after Christmas, I'm not going to wait a year, or two or three to do it."--Jan Denise
"Many possessions, if they do not make a man better, are at least expected to make his children happier; and this pathetic hope is behind many exertions."--George Santayana
“In the never-ending battle between order and chaos, clutter sides with chaos every time. Anything that you possess that does not add to your life or your happiness eventually becomes a burden.”--John Robbins, The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less
"Now I know what I own. You love your home more after clutter is gone."--Stephen Bennett
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Post by messymimi on Apr 17, 2013 19:17:12 GMT -5
“It's interesting to see that people had so much clutter even thousands of years ago. The only way to get rid of it all was to bury it, and then some archaeologist went and dug it all up.” ~ Karl Pilkington, An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington
Yep, Sweetie is an archaeologist, and he loves to bring home stuff he "rescued" from the trash, and has taught the kids to do the same.
messymimi
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 18, 2013 0:52:05 GMT -5
"Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest."--Peace Pilgrim
"The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go."--Steve Maraboli
"The goal of life: simple, but not empty."--Terri Guillemets
"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."--Hans Hofmann, Introduction to the Bootstrap
"Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough."--Charles Warner
 Mimi, don't you love that Pilkington quote? It's probably one of my favorites of all the ones I've posted this month. It's so funny, yet so true. (If my bedroom was suddenly buried for some reason and dug up a thousand years from now, archaeologists could open an entire museum with its contents alone. Of course, I don't know how well an exhibit called "Dirty Clothes and Used Beauty Products of the 21st Century" would do a thousand years from now, but they'd certainly have plenty of material to work with. )
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Post by disorganizeddragon on Apr 18, 2013 23:16:38 GMT -5
“Buying things is only sometimes about owning the things. Buying often is simply about...being able to buy. Having less means hearing, 'No, you cannot have that,' and we loathe being told what we can and cannot do.”--Harry Beckwith, Unthinking: The Surprising Forces Behind What We Buy
"An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit."–Pliny the Younger
“A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.”--Lionel Shriver, Checker and the Derailleurs
"Possession diminshes perception of value, immediately."--John Updike
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Post by messymimi on Apr 19, 2013 6:38:47 GMT -5
“...that once were urgent and necessary for an orderly world and now were buried away, gathering dust and of no use to anyone.”
? Patricia A. McKillip, Alphabet of Thorn
Dragon, i try to read through them all and not repeat too much, unless, like the archaeologist quote, it fits my family completely. If you've done this one, well, it spoke to me. So often something that was thought to be "essential" turns into just another piece of junk.
messymimi
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Post by Di on Apr 19, 2013 12:19:48 GMT -5
I have found that I take great pleasure in tossing. However I still struggle to get started tossing. It's still hard to make decisions. I am enjoying these motivational quotes. Maybe they don't encourage me to "get to it -- right now" but they always make me think about the stuff I own which helps me to eliminate items in my mind. When I have "mentally eliminated" something, it keeps me from having to make a decision when I get to the actual item.
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