How to Declutter Books and Still Raise Readers

Declutter / Minimalism
how to declutter books for families

Inside: Decluttering books when you have kids gets complicated fast, mostly due to six common concerns parents have about how fewer books will impact their kids. I’ll show you how to declutter books without fear or guilt.

Oh, books. How hard it is to get rid of thee! Next to decluttering sentimental items, I think decluttering books is the most difficult decluttering category ever. Because it is so difficult to declutter books, many people put it off to the very end of their decluttering process.

Not only is it hard to decide what books to keep and what books to give away, the sheer amount of time it takes to go through every single book in your library can be quite extensive! (Most people who struggle with decluttering books are book lovers and have A LOT of books.)

That difficulty multiplies about a hundred times when you have kids. But it’s not impossible!

If I can do it as a homeschooling mom of four (homeschoolers are notorious book hoarders), so can you. I’ll put all your [very normal] parenting fears to rest and give you the questions you need to declutter books with confidence.

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Can You REALLY Make Money Selling Your Clutter?

Declutter / Minimalism
can you earn money selling clutter

Inside: Can you really make money selling your clutter? Perhaps, but probably not the people who could use that extra money the most.

“How to Turn Your Clutter into Cash.”

“7 Surefire Ways to Sell Your Clutter.”

“Easy Ways to Sell Clutter that actually Make Money.”

Each headline is better than the last. Decluttering is now not just stress-relieving and soul-freeing, but it’s profitable.

And maybe it is, if you start from a place of financial independence and excess…or a whole lot of credit cards.

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8 Tips for Decluttering on a Low Income (from a mom who’s been there)

Declutter / Minimalism
decluttering ideas and tips for your home

Inside: Decluttering on a low income has its challenges, but it CAN be done. You just need to do it differently.

Here’s the thing about decluttering on a low income: it’s just different. Every single decluttering post I’ve read is written from a place of excess, and nice excess at that (not the run-down excess that was our clutter).

No one is writing about how to declutter differently when you start from a place of less.

When you aren’t sure you will have enough money for groceries this month, you are going to approach decluttering differently.

I know because I’ve been there.

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How to Build Your Spring Capsule Wardrobe for Less

Minimalism / The Frugal Capsule Wardrobe
spring capsule wardrobe for less

Spring is coming quickly, at least where I live (sorry, New Englanders! May is a loooong way off, I know). Our new city has the craziest weather: one week it’s FREEZING with six inches of snow, and the next week it’s almost 60 degrees.

Those 60 degree weeks got me thinking about my spring clothes sitting in deep storage downstairs. While steady warm weather won’t be here for a while, now is a great time to start thinking about getting out those pieces to prep for your spring capsule wardrobe.

You need to see exactly what you have, so you know what you need to look for now in order to be ready once that steady nice weather hits! Looking early can help you find the best deals to stick to your budget.

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The Thing About Minimalism that You Just Don’t Get

Declutter / Minimalism

“I mean, he’s o.k. with the kitchen counters being clear and stuff, but he is NOT o.k. with us giving all this stuff away. Some of it we only use once a year, but we really need it when we need it, you know?”

I nodded with understanding as my friend shared her recent struggles with decluttering. She’s not the first to struggle with getting rid of items that her family only uses occasionally.

I wrestled with the same questions for a long time:

What about the things we only use occasionally?

Should I get rid of them?

What if we end up needing them later?

Thankfully, a book I read this summer gave me the clarity I needed to answer my friend’s question with confidence.

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Everything You Need to Start Your Paperless Kitchen

Cleaning / Finances / Home / Minimalism / Paperless Kitchen
paperless kitchen products, unpaper towels, going paperless
Inside: What paperless kitchen products do you actually need? This master list of paperless kitchen products will help you get started on the right foot!

Now that you know why a paperless kitchen makes your mom life easier, and the best tips to start your paperless kitchen, it’s time to talk products.

What paperless kitchen products do you actually need?

The only thing on my mind last summer when I got this crazy idea was paper towels. We needed to ditch the paper towels, or at least cut down significantly on the quantity we ripped through every week.

But once I entered the whole new world of green living, I realized that a paperless kitchen was SO MUCH MORE than just unpaper towels. 

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How Minimalism Can HURT Your Budget

Downsides / Finances / Home / Minimalism
a downside to minimalism, minimalist consumer
Inside: Minimalism promises freedom from consumerism. But what should you do if instead of setting you free, minimalism makes it worse?

The kitchen displayed so perfectly in the photos was divine. The clutter-free marble countertops (granite, maybe?), called to me.

I couldn’t help but glance around my own kitchen with dismay. 

The blogger mentioned the few items surrounding her sink, one of which was a simple human soap dispenser. The second I saw it and read what she loved about it, I knew.

I wanted that soap dispenser – two of them, actually: one for dish soap and one for hand soap. They looked both functional and beautiful, something I look for specifically in anything I buy for our home, new or second-hand.

I hopped over to Amazon right away and was SOOOO close to clicking “add to cart”…until I stopped to do the math.

I realized that together, they would cost $30.

Thirty dollars. Not that big a deal, you say.

Well, it is a big deal when that thirty dollars is about half the wiggle room you have in your budget every month.

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5 Essential Tips to Starting Your Paperless Kitchen

Cleaning / Home / Minimalism / Paperless Kitchen
how to start a paperless kitchen, unpaper towels, zero waste, minimalism
Inside: If you’re trying to start a paperless kitchen and you have a young family, you NEED these tips to help you get started – especially tip #5!

When I started our paperless kitchen five months ago, I was a total paperless newbie. I also had a serious paper towel habit that needed to be broken ASAP.

These tips come from a mom who is not all that green and just decided on a whim that a paperless kitchen would be a fun challenge (ha! like I don’t have enough going on between homeschooling and working from home).

Prior to starting this experiment, we were going through a roll of paper towels every 3-4 days and at least one sponge a month, if not more.

If you are feeling nervous about switching to a paperless kitchen, these tips will help that apprehension dissipate! I didn’t think I’d last a week when I first started, and here I am five months later helping you start yours.

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Why Every Mom NEEDS to Try the Paperless Kitchen

Cleaning / Home / Minimalism / Paperless Kitchen

Inside: Do you wonder why on earth any mom would want to switch to a paperless kitchen, especially with messy kids? Learn four compelling reasons from a mom who felt the same way – and now LOVES it!

This summer I got this crazy idea in my head to try a paperless kitchen. With four small kids who make A LOT of messes every day, I wasn’t entirely sure my paperless kitchen experiment was going to be a success.

So why, then? I think I needed a tangible, finished achievement – something so rare in motherhood. I wanted to check a box that didn’t need to be checked again. Oh, and we were out of paper towels <sheepish grin>.

It seemed like as good a time as any to go paperless!

Turns out, a paperless kitchen (even with kids) is much easier than I anticipated!

If you’re a paperless newbie, this series of three posts will give you everything you need to start your paperless kitchen

If you still need persuading that a paperless kitchen is worth doing, in this first post I’m going to let you in on the surprising benefits of a paperless kitchen that I discovered only after I jumped in with both feet!

And they have nothing to do with saving money.

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The Best Place to Start Decluttering (When You’re Too Overwhelmed to Start)

Cleaning / Declutter / Home / Minimalism
how to start decluttering
Inside: Are you wondering how to start decluttering? Learn why this room is the BEST place to start decluttering, and exactly how to declutter it with super simple steps.

You finally turn the last page of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. You slam that cover shut and jump up off the couch. Look out, House: you are about to get a complete and total makeover!

…but then you get up off the couch.

You look around at your real, live, so NOT-Marie-Kondo house – the one with a husband and kids and SO MUCH STUFF, so much clutter! You immediately shut down.

Marie made it sound so simple, but she didn’t have to declutter this house, with these people. She was single when she wrote the book for heaven’s sake!  (That’s why I now recommend Freed from Clutter: Whole House Decluttering Guide – it’s written by someone who has little kids! She KNOWS.)

You’re so overwhelmed that all that information you just read goes straight out of your head.

You want to give up before you even start decluttering a single thing. Just forget it.

If that’s you, stop. Breathe. Block out the rest of your crazy house, and make a beeline to the bathroom.

Why? Because the bathroom is hands-down the best place to start decluttering, especially when you’re too overwhelmed to start.

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