BELIEFS – We Hold the Power to Change our Lives

March 22, 2021/in Reviews/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Years ago, I was interested in a Florida-based program called The Avatar Course, from Star’s Edge International. Although I never took a course, I read with vigor each monthly magazine and the books. The ideas resonated with me.

Recently, I picked up Harry Palmer’s 1994 book for the fourth time. This is notable considering that I read books once (twice, at most) and then give them away. Titled, Living Deliberately, I have notes from each time I’ve read the book. This time, I took notes again and Chapter Nine, about belief systems hit the target.

Palmer’s work guides us into a deeper look into our beliefs. He writes about “transparent beliefs.” These are beliefs we hold without realizing they still influence our current actions even though they may no longer serve us. For example, when you were a child, a cat jumped from the counter onto your shoulder. It scared you. You screamed. You grew up hating cats. Yet, if you choose, you can use your adult mind to consider how cats behave and understand why you reacted as you did as a child. You may even choose to discover how loveable cats are (on their own terms, of course).

Palmer offers exercises called Resurfacing to help us explore our inner selves. I learned that it’s up to me to create and discreate my beliefs, which affect how I view the world.

What a POWERFUL statement. After all, what is real? Only what we think is real. What do we think? We think based on what we see. What do we see, or rather, how do we see? We see through the lens of our beliefs.

We could have applied these lessons during this past year’s elections and during the COVID quarantine.

Applying the information in Living Deliberately helps us to regain control over our lives, if we choose to do what makes sense for us now.

Palmer writes about four levels of Beliefs. The fourth level gives us the greatest flexibility over how we experience our surroundings. Each of us has the power to change how we see our world and get rid of the mental clutter. Again, what is real? Each of us will see something different.

It’s hard opening up to other ways of seeing. Yet, it’s doable. With practice, it becomes easier to let go of the beliefs we believe reflect the world when so many different points of view are possible.

We can begin by questioning what we believe. For example, in trying to declutter your material things or your thoughts, ask yourself, “Why am I holding onto these _______?” “Why do I believe that _______ people who voted for _______ are _______?” We may find that there are other reasons for our beliefs, such as things our parents taught us based on their own experiences. It’s likely, their experiences do not apply to our lives, today.

When we honestly look at and let go of our beliefs that don’t serve us any more, we grow empowered.

Discreating these beliefs helps us to feel lighter and move more freely in the world.

STUFFology 101 Featured on Redfin!

March 15, 2021/in News 'n Views/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Don’t miss the recent Redfin article STUFFology 101 was featured in:

“11 Ways to Declutter and Organize Your Home Office to Promote Productivity”

Since the start of March 2020, many of us that made the daily commute into work were forced to transition to working from home. If you’re still working from home a year later chances are your workspace has become messy and cluttered with paperwork, bills, and mail. It’s next to impossible to be productive in an office taken over by clutter. Not only do you feel distracted and stressed, but sometimes you can’t even find paperwork when you really need it. But with a little guidance, you can transform your cluttered nightmare of an office into a functional workspace.

Redfin asked us (STUFFologists Brenda Avadian and Eric Riddle), along with other experts from New York, NY to Sacramento, CA, to share our best tips and tricks on how to declutter and organize your home office so you can be back to feeling productive in no time. Check out what we had to say!

11 Ways to Declutter and Organize Your Home Office to Promote Productivity

Nature's beauty - Cottonwood Lake #3 Sierra Mountains

LETTING GO of PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

March 8, 2021/in Cluttergories/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Losing Physical Ability Makes Way for Healing

Late last year, the orthopedic surgeon said, “Let’s talk about your activities.” Usually, this means, the patient is not moving enough. In my case, he was concerned. I was too active, like a hyperactive teenager.

So? What’s the problem, Doc?

This.

Heck, I’m 61, but my mental age hovers around 16; especially, in nature. I love hiking in the Sierras. I fell playing basketball with youngsters and injured my left foot, right wrist, and thumb. I injured my knee and shoulder after falling off a bike when the brakes malfunctioned. I’ve pushed through pain while running. I even considered popping a wheelie or two after seeing my 11-year-old homie do it!

aye, Aye, AYE!

I wanted to train for one more marathon. During an earlier visit, the 69-year-old orthopedic surgeon advised that I should train sooner than later. He said training is harder on our aging bodies than running the actual marathon. I even bought a decent pair of Nike running shoes after running the last marathon in Teva sandals.

The Hard Truth

After all these successive injuries, the doctor painted a shocking picture. I had to let go of training for the Los Angeles Marathon.

Welcome to mental clutter of the mind lamenting our physical (dis)abilities.

I’ll show him. I’m patient. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to run one more marathon… if not this year, the next, or in five years.

My body is no longer marathon material. Heck, after my 13-mile Sierra hike last summer, my body wants me to limit hikes to within 10 miles. My knees are breaking down. If I want to be able to walk and hike, I’d better let go of my running and daylong 13- to 20-mile hikes in the wilderness.

But first, my chiropractor knew how much I wanted to do this hike to the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, so he taped my knee. Two days later, I was getting an MRI on that knee.

Letting Go of Physical Activity

Like others my age (and older), I’m dealing with enough aches and pains to need help carrying heavy things, like a case of sparkling water. I use assistive devices to open bottles as my arthritic fingers can’t grip tight enough.

We keep going. As my eighty-something aunt asked, “What are we going to do, die?”

I am thankful for what I am able to do. To think a friend I visited looked at how I hobbled around her home and struggled to lift things with my sore shoulder, and exclaimed, “You’re worse than I am!” (And she’s on disability!)

The Stream of Life Flows

Life is about letting go of stuff (physical, mental, emotional) to enjoy what’s left. I have a choice.

If I want to enjoy the fresh flow of water in the river of life and the ever-changing scenery along the banks, I need to let go of the limitations of my physical corpus clutter. To remain a fairly active youthful-spirited 61-year-old, I need to let go of parts of my 16-year-old self.

Rest to Recover and Enjoy Nature

I am resting more. My knees are getting stronger. While I can’t walk as far yet, physical therapy is helping me with greater range of motion and less pain. Recently, with enough NSAIDs and lots of sitting, I enjoyed a half-day outing at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert.

I want to keep going. I will LET GO of the mental clutter that accompanies the pain that comes with running. I will not play another game of basketball. What was I thinking? Before this recent stint, I hadn’t played since high school!

Besides, the Sierra Mountains are calling me to hike among pristine lakes this summer.

For a slightly different take on the cluttergories of the mind, read Down the Alice-in-Wonderland Rabbit Hole of Cluttergories and while we’re on the topic of nature, here’s a take on a weed-filled mind What’s on Your Mind?

Technology Helps Locate Keys Amidst the Clutter

March 1, 2021/in Reviews/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Have you ever lost or at least misplaced your keys? A lost & found survey asked people which items they misplace at least one a week. Keys were one of the most common items at 28%!

Clutter compounds such annoyances as misplaced keys because there is more STUFF to search through as one looks for them, or other missing item.

Fortunately, technology can help find those misplaced items. Since I am one of those people gifted with the ability to misplace my keys with annoying frequency, my daughter gifted me a product called Tile.

It is essentially a small square key fob you attach to your key chain. It functions through an app that you download to your smartphone, allowing you to search for the key fob via Bluetooth.

The Tile key fob makes an audible sound that helps you locate your misplaced keys. Surprisingly quick and easy to set up, I have not misplaced my keys again. Tile even offers helpful tips on how to find lost keys. Bonus, the button on the Tile key fob can be pressed to help you locate your phone if it gets misplaced.

Tile has some additional products and features to help you find other items large and small.

Pretty cool way to locate misplaced items with ease amidst your clutter.

Brenda Avadian 2021

Letting GO of Temporal and Mental Clutter to Let IN

February 22, 2021/in Cluttergories/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Something will always fill the void
IF we let it.
We choose whether or not
We will leave the time and space open.

The Importance of Time

The older we grow; the more important time becomes.

At age 61, I find less of it. Even though, the actuaries say I’ll live another 30 years, painful arthritis is my annoying companion.

I’d better go on all my fun physical adventures now. Once my knees and shoulders get stronger (unless I need surgery), the Sierra Mountains will beckon me. By the next decade, who knows.

If there’s a silver lining in the COVID cloud it just may be the forced reflection and observation of how we’re passing each day.

Letting GO to Let IN

Letting Go to Let In has been a thread throughout quite a few of our STUFFology 101 posts.

It’s an important theme. Like eating, we can only ingest so much before we need to let go. Constipation is painful and dangerous.

With this, I’ve decided to let go of one of my long-standing organizational memberships.

While many are getting rid of their physical stuff there’s also all that non-physical stuff that fills our minds with mental clutter and steals away our limited time.

I have thought about why I need to let go in order to let in something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

Reduce the Clutter in Our Lives

When we reduce our temporal clutter, we open time for what’s important in our lives. When we reduce our physical clutter, we make space and clear some of our mental clutter. We need to take a serious look at the cluttergories we tolerate that needlessly fill our lives.

For two and a half years, I’ve postponed moving on in one area of my life. Being a loyalist, I’ve remained. Yet, the clock keeps ticking and I know I’d rather do the things that align with the direction I’m headed in, now.

Let in What Matters

For about a decade (maybe more), I’ve wanted to host a salon. Among the varying French traditions, these are meetings where self-proclaimed intellectuals discuss a topic in depth.

This intellectual pursuit re-energizes my passion for deeply thoughtful discussions about diverse topics.

The other activity I’ve wanted to re-engage in is serving my community with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

We must decide what to let go to leave space and enough time in order to do what matters in our lives.

For more, click to read:

Less TV for More of What Matters

Treasured Books to Declutter

Letting go and Letting IN the World with Professor Dumpster

Constant Clutter Conspiring to Constrict Your Life?

What HAPPENED? Too much Time STUFF!

Decluttering for Relaxation on Presidents’ Day

February 15, 2021/in De-Clutter/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Taking time to declutter on your day off can help you relax. I realize this may seem counterintuitive but think about how much better you feel after clearing the clutter from even one small space.

Today is Presidents’ Day in the United States and many people have the day off since it is a Federal Holiday. If you have the day off, consider taking time to declutter.

I take time to dust, clean, and consolidate items (mostly books, but other select stuff as well) on my bookshelves on such days. This has the dual benefit of keeping things tidy and rediscovering books I may have forgotten. For example, The Arrow Book of Presidents by Sturges F. Cary

is a book I have owned since grade school. I keep it because it sparked my lifelong interest in history. For me it is NOT clutter. Processing these items as I go through my bookshelves is a simple way for me to relax.

If I find items that have become clutter to me as I clean, I set them aside to donate or pass along to a friend. This does not have to take huge amounts of time. Do not overthink it, take some small action to declutter today!

Interested in history like me? Just click on the links for additional information about George Washington’s Birthday and how we (in the USA) came to celebrate Presidents’ Day. Bonus: Famous quotations from George Washington.

Brenda Avadian 2021

Sometimes, It’s Just A Matter of Removing ONE Item

February 8, 2021/in S.T.U.F.F./by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

There are times when I’m feeling distracted and can’t focus on what I’m working on.

Sometimes, it’s because there are things on my desk that creep into my focused attention on what needs to be done. Take the bubblegum wrapper that I always save but rarely use to wrap my chewed gum in before throwing it in the trash. Or the description of how to use the flexible phone stand I received as a gift.

The reality is these are minor items that crowd our focus and grow into major excuses for why we are not able to finish our work in less time.

All I need to do is file away the instructions in my Products Information folder, which is in the file cabinet four feet from my office chair.

The bubblegum wrapper? I almost always wrap my chewed gum in a used facial tissue instead.

The yellow pouch holds my Bluetooth earpiece, which belongs in my purse. I mainly use it in the car to reduce the many distracting background car noises for whomever I am talking with.

The 2009 article about IRA to Roth conversions came to the surface when I was going through an old investment folder. I saved it to gain hindsight as to how laws change over the years. After all, by the time I’m ready to tap my Roth IRA for living expenses, the tax laws may change once more.

As Eric Riddle noted in his procrastination article last week, “big or small action… kills procrastination.”

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of removing ONE item. Other times, we’re on a roll and remove more.

Tomorrow is Too Late to Deal with Procrastination

February 1, 2021/in News 'n Views/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Now that February 2021 is here have your New Year’s resolutions fallen by the wayside?

Has procrastination reared its ugly head?

Perhaps your goal of simplifying your life in 2021 has instead filled with continuing clutter. You are ‘too busy’ with work, family, and life to declutter.

Being Busy Does Not Equal Being Productive

In STUFFology 101: Get Your mind Out of the Clutter

we discuss how procrastination leads to Mental and/or Temporal Clutter. We all have the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month, and a year. How do you spend your time each day? Are you busy? Or are you productive?

Since February is a new month, take a moment to look at your resolutions or goals for this year. Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

While it is true that tomorrow is another day, putting things off usually only makes them worse. Painter Pablo Picasso offered perhaps an extreme perspective when he said, “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” Wow.

Everyday things may not be as intense as life or death, but procrastination can still lead to unwanted stress.

Action Kills Procrastination

Big or small, action builds momentum. As Nike says, “Just Do It.”

ICYMI: Define Your Clutter in 2021

Less TV for More of What Matters

January 25, 2021/in Digital Stuff/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Being a mindful user of the abundant digital offerings, including the vast choices of streaming TV, enables us to reduce the digital clutter in our lives.

These days, while we wait for the vaccine to take effect via lower-reported numbers of COVID-infected people, we remain homebound. TV is the go-to escape to fill our hours yearning for outside activities.

If we choose consciously, we can find things that matter more than spending hours binge-watching Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Roku, and more.

If we take time to consider how we fill the hours of our lives, we will find other activities that provide more meaning. We can start doing those things we always wanted to do but never had time for. In focusing our attention on these other activities, we will rid ourselves of the mental clutter crowding our minds and make space for the things that matter.

Consider the books you want to read. Spend more time talking with family members without being distracted by TV or your smartphone. If family and friends are not near, take time to call them or have a ZOOM chat.

It will be almost six years since I gave up my DIRECTTV television subscription. Netflix would have gone the way of Blockbuster with customers like me.

Times Change

How do I feel today about what I wrote in Letting Go to Welcome In, six years ago?

With travel plans cancelled during COVID, I spend more time at home doing the things I had planned to do… later.

Beyond reading and writing a LOT, I watch some TV.

When someone recommends a movie, I’ll watch the trailer and ask myself: Is two hours of my life worth giving up for this? What will the message be? What will I gain?

Sometimes, I enjoy a couple hours of laugh-aloud escape watching an animated film for children. Other times, I’m interested in more mature offerings that are closer to my life story.

A friend introduced me to a Netflix series that I began watching. Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, two women, now in their 80s. They were filming these 25-minute episodes while in their mid-70s. Hurray for aging women and their male co-stars, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. They inspire us to age gracefully and if not, with humble humor. I am not a binge watcher; so, I’ll usually view two episodes at a time.

The older we grow the faster time passes. We have less time to do all the things we want to. By being conscious of how we spend our time with digital temptations we can fill our lives with meaning.

What digital habit can you let go for an activity that better serves you?

ICYMI: “When I get rid of this stuff, then I will…”

What’s in Stor(age) for You This Year?

January 18, 2021/in De-Clutter/by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Storage bins are a great way to keep our treasured items from being damaged over time but often sit in a closet or garage or basement forgotten and eventually may turn into hidden clutter.

Since our life needs evolve with time, so too does our need to keep certain items in storage. STUFF you have stored away for later use should be reviewed periodically.

Consider a few examples from my own life so far this year.

My oldest daughter has been saving baby clothes, baby toys, and other baby items as her daughter grows out of them. Some she gives away to friends, others she keeps for future use. As you can imagine, such things accumulate rapidly.

The clothes have been stored in boxes, bags, and bins and have become quite disorganized. She recently started to reorganize them and purchased new storage bins for that task. Unfortunately, the bins she purchased are too small for what she had in mind. Pro tip, double check the measurements of storage items you buy online to be sure they suit your needs. She will likely return that purchase in exchange for larger bins.

I have toys packed away neatly in clear plastic bins that I am not quite ready to give up. For me, I do not yet consider them clutter because I rotate some of them to display in the house. Others I am saving to give to the grandchildren when they are older.

We have a sizable collection of board games that are now in the realm of clutter for me. I have kept them in boxes I obtained years ago which are slowly falling apart. I purchased new flip top plastic storage bins to declutter the boxes and better protect the games.

This tends to be a family project and brings back fond memories of where a given game came from and usually inspires us to play several of the games as we process through them. Reviewing your stored STUFF can be fun!

If something is stored away neatly in a storage bin is it clutter? Ask yourself that question today and you might be surprised at what is in stor(age).

What have you bin waiting for?

Archive for year: 2021