Losers Weepers

One outcome of leading a C.R.U.D.-laden existence is that it’s really hard to find things when you need them. Even when you have conducted exhaustive searches of your entire premises, some missing items elude detection.  Consequently, often  you’ll head to the store to find a duplicate of what you already own.  It makes you wonder if organized people are not only neater, but wealthier to boot.  While much has been documented on the downside of clutter with respect to self-esteem and emotional health, the economic aspects have attracted less attention.

In this instalment, our intention is to acquaint you with seven of most often replaced household possessions. Those on this list share some common characteristics. First of all, they are generally commonplace in nature. Many of them have a tendency to move, meaning they live in one part of the house, but get used in another and rarely return to where they belong. Thirdly, they are relatively inexpensive to re-stock. One does not mourn the loss in the way one would if she lost a piece of fine jewellery or a video camera.

Replacements do not conform to our orthodox definition of C.R.U.D. (Completely Ridiculous Useless Debris) because they really are functional and essential.  They are simply lost in an unruly sea of possessions, their whereabouts impenetrable. Replacing any of the following will not exactly put you in the poorhouse. However, making frequent emergency duplication purchases squander both your precious time and hard-earned cash:

1. Scotch tape – Often travels from the office or kitchen drawers to multiple locations: quick fix for sticking kids’ art on the walls or wrapping gifts on the way out to a party. Tape dispensers are rarely returned to home base.

2. Screwdrivers - You never know when you will be called upon to tighten a screw or even pick a lock.  Screwdrivers come in multiple varieties and sizes, so invariably you won’t have the right one for the job.

3 Reading glasses - The problem with these should be obvious.  If you cannot find your glasses, it is that much more difficult to locate anything else.  Since reading puts people to sleep, reading glasses are liable to land wherever you nodded off – couch, recliner, bed, or bathroom.

4. Corkscrews -Pulling a cork out with your teeth is not really an option, particularly now that they make corks out of hard plastic. Corkscrews can get lost due to excessive alcohol consumption.

5. Staplers -Like scotch tape, staplers are usually kept in desks. They too go out on missions when a paper clip will simply not do.  Closely related is the subject of staples themselves. They often wind up in a different location from the mother ship, rendering the stapling machine useless.

6. Flashlights – On how many occasions have you had to face the darkness without the benefit of the trusted flashlight?  Power failures, suspected intruders and reading comic books in a room where someone else is sleeping, are all justifications for making multiple purchases of this lifesaver.

7. Postage stamps - Say what you will about the demise of snail mail, but from time to time, it becomes necessary to actually mail a letter, card or document.  That is when you search in vain for the little sticky roll that stands between you and disappointing your mother on her birthday.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

Is this all too recognizable to you?  Would you prefer to spend your money on things you really want as opposed to serial duplication? The aforementioned items are but a minute-sample of a universe encompassing hundreds of products that people buy again and again. For you, the problem could be calamine lotion or picture hooks.   Our advice is to become mindful about maintaining the permanent homes you have created for these essentials. Put them back. Pay attention and you’ll improve your retention

Toy Story 4

Do not mistake this for a review of the latest sequel in the amazingly successful film franchise; you might have to wait a little longer for that.  Think instead of a reality show, taped in your home, depicting your perpetual losing battle against the menacing onslaught of toys encroaching on your adult living space.  With the holidays just around the corner, if you are a parent, you are no doubt girding your loins in preparation for a hefty invasion of action figures, games, and hot rods with miles of tracks.  Even if you are bound and determined not to cave when your offspring throws a tantrum in the mall regarding the must-have toy of the moment, other well-meaning friends and relatives can be counted on to supplement the vast collection that leave no single room un-spared.

Our clients cite children’s toys among the most difficult clutter issues they face on an on-going basis.  It is easy to understand how they come to be an accepted feature of interior landscape. We purchase various toys to support our children’s development or because of pressure both from our children as well as marketers. We even buy toys from time to time to assuage our guilt for not giving them as much time or attention.  Some parents go on toy buying sprees to make up for their deprived childhoods.

Toys are among our children’s most prized possessions.  The problems related to too many toys fall into several categories. They can constitute a major expense and increase your debt load. Experts warn us that an overabundance of toys becomes a replacement for more imaginative forms of play.  Toys left unattended on stairs are accidents waiting to happen. Yet, from what we are exposed to as organizers, the twin issues of storage and attrition, particularly with respect to toys and games that have small parts that disappear, are the thorniest.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

This is your wake-up call. Get a handle on this before the next big wave hits your beachhead. Ideally, try and get your kids involved in this project, which may be easier said than done.  If not, don your warrior gear and go in solo. First, gather up the parts – doll clothes, Lego, game pieces, glitter sticks, etc. to try to restore order. Missing pieces make some games and craft sets unusable, so you need to take appropriate action.  Toys that are still capable of maintaining your child’s attention require a different approach. Rather than keep everything available all of the time, you can implement a rotation system. Simply remove access to a percentage of the playthings and store them in a place that is hidden from view. This way you have a ready supply of “new again” distractions that you can introduce at those times when they are bored or you are coping with a migraine. If all of your toy storage is maximized, you still may have to purge deeper. Do you need guidance on which toys need to go?  Topping our list of toy C.R.U.D. from the standpoint of sheer annoyance is anything that talks, barks or sounds like a siren.  Do not despair, their batteries do expire eventually.

Plug and Play

Aren’t drawers wonderful?  They slide into their own crypts, creating homes for just about anything you want to keep, but don’t need to see all of the time. What an ingenious use of space! Almost every room in the house has drawers. Kitchens probably have the most, followed by offices and bedrooms. Even bathrooms hold two or three. Let’s not omit closets; their drawers have replaced what was formerly hanging space for ball gowns or granny dresses.  The point here is if you counted up all the drawers in your china cabinet, night tables, dressers, workbenches and buffet, and added that number to the aforementioned, you would be counting in at least the double digit range.  I counted 46 in my apartment.

Our question for today is this:  How many of those drawers have extension cords living in them?  If you estimate a minimum of a half dozen or so, you would not be far off.  We like to see ourselves as “household archeologists” detecting the patterns of accumulation that apply to a broad swath of the general population. Extension cords are among the most ubiquitous species of C.R.U.D. that find their way into practically every area of the home.  What’s the reason for that?

No double socket wall outlet is capable of handling today’s demands for power without the help of extension cords. They are like little godsends. Cord too short to reach the source?  Plug in an extension cord and place the lamp where you want it?  Getting a new home theater system for the holidays? Pick up a power bar and add all the components you need? What about your computer? You also need to plug in your printer, speakers, scanner, and external hard drive. Consider all the outlets you need just for charging –your tablet PC, smart phones and MP3 players for openers.  Even your kitchen counter probably has four or five small appliances competing for the available outlets.  Then there are Christmas lights. If you live in an older dwelling you may find the single outlet per room woefully inadequate. If you reside in newer construction there is typically a more generous supply of outlets.

Thus far we have established there is a considerable demand, but it does not explain the entire surplus of un-used cords around the house.  Like many other examples of C.R.U.D., extension cords fit under the twin umbrellas of “I might need that someday” and “too good to throw away.”  Imagine you have replaced cords with either power bars or outlets that triple the number of available sockets.  There is nothing wrong with the old cord, so you keep it for some future undetermined use. Other cords may have been upgraded to comply with the necessary power rating – maximum current, wire gauge, and length. There are additional cords, for example, the type used to connect your land line from the phone to the jack in the wall. You keep them all, just in case.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

This should not be too hard to remedy.  You merely have to look in the drawers, plastic bags, cabinets and shelves in all of the spaces where cords may be cowering. It is not necessary to discard each and everyone, but you need to apply some objective criteria to your weeding.  Safety should be of primary concern. Thinner gauge older extension cords can overheat and cause fires or cause shocks.  Examine your collection for wear and tear on the insulation. Get rid of cords that may have belonged to a power tool or device you no longer own, like those really thick printer cables that pre-dated the era of the USB.  You can certainly donate excess cords if you have too many of any single type or length. There is probably not too much need for the variety that only handle a two-pronged plug.  Your other option is to unplug from everything, but that would be too much of a challenge.

It’s incontrovertible

My suburban New York childhood included its share of time well wasted in
front of the T.V.  Memories have faded regarding many of the actual programs,
but some of the commercials have burned an indelible image in my brain.  One
such ineradicable icon was a little girl who single-handedly converted a
sofa into a double bed.  When she completed her feat, she proceeded to jump
up and down on the mattress. Her name was Bernadette.

When you actually think about it, not that much has really changed with
hide-a-beds since the heyday of the Castro Convertible. Hide-a-beds fulfill
a definite need. They are versatile pieces of furniture designed for
double duty seating by day and instant guest room by night. Ingenious,
right? The answer is yes, but with qualifications.  We acknowledge the value
of dual purpose furniture.  It offers a solution to those whose living space
would otherwise be overwhelmed by a surfeit of furniture.

The argument for including convertible sofas in our cavalcade of C.R.U.D. is
composed of several threads.  As practical as they may seem, when was the
last time you actually slept on a hide-a-bed? Or, have you simply reached
the stage where you require your own hotel room as opposed to staying with
friends or distant relatives?  If you enjoy a night of tossing and turning
in the futile search for a comfortable position where you are not being
probed by wire coils, then a hide-a-bed will fill the bill.  When you wake
up exhausted in the morning, you can re-live the entire night’s discomfort by
examining the mattress’s imprint on your skin. There are expensive and newer
models today that have successfully addressed the torture rack issue. Yet,
the majority of sofa beds that make our acquaintance in our
organizing/downsizing practice would be better described as vintage.

We believe that sofa beds hang around way too long because they are
difficult to move.  Once a hide-a-bed enters the home, it remains as a
fixture until the next move or the house catches on fire. When the décor
changes, sofa beds are either banished to unimportant rooms or are swathed
in sheets and slipcovers to hide the wear and stains. They weigh a ton.
They are unforgiving. Even manoeuvring one of them out the door could result
in unanticipated repairs. You will want to insure that your disability policy
is up to date before foolishly attempting to move your sofa bed.  You will
be seeing a lot of your chiropractor and physio. So you see, finding a
recipient for a used sofa bed is not without its nearly insurmountable
challenges.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

We are afraid there are no straightforward solutions for unloading
unwanted sofa beds.  Most organizations that specialize in distributing
second-hand goods through sale and donation will not accept them for health
reasons.  Private placement through friends and family may be your only
recourse. Keep the number for a junk remover handy.  Remember this
experience and buy a blow-up bed for your own occasional overnight guests.

A Full Deck

We recently read the iPod has reached its tenth birthday.  This tiny device created a sea change in the personalized manner in which entertainment is delivered, and inextricably sealed the fortunes of the music business to the power of the Web. But it was not so many years before that the phonograph record, unchallenged for decades, gave way to an equally revolutionary technological breakthrough – the audio cassette.  Unlike the bulky 8-track tapes that ushered your favourite recording artists into your vehicle, the cassette possessed attributes previously unimagined in the marketplace.  You could play them in your car, broadcast them from your boom-box and jog to Joe Cocker using the headphones through your Walkman.  Furthermore, recording was a snap. Convert your albums, copy another tape, or tape from the radio. A great leap forward for piracy?

Moral dilemmas aside, if you are in possession of your faculties, why in the world are you still storing so many audio cassettes in your house? Audio cassettes are major heap of C.R.U.D. (Completely Ridiculous Useless Debris) that you have probably not laid eyes on for at least twenty years.  Are you even aware of their current coordinates?  They probably don’t have lodgings in your media area.

Flat screen TVs have rendered older, chunkier models as about as welcome as a visit from a door-to-door missionary when you are nursing a hangover. Due to their popularity, entertainment wall units have either shrunk or altogether disappeared.  Entertainment units evolved along with their home electronic counterparts to house multiple components and storage media.  Many were designed to cover entire walls.  No problem keeping CDs, cassettes, VHS tapes and even records in all of those drawers and empty cabinets.  Today, the TV is likely to hang on a wall or balance delicately on a low console that has enough space for a PVR and DVD player.  Best bet is to check your basement or storage locker for these pint-sized long-playing reels of magnetic tape providing up to 120 minutes of uninterrupted tunes.

Even if you did manage to locate your cassettes, we very much doubt you would be able to pair them with their plastic cases. By now the handwritten labels would be barely legible. Such are the ravages of time. Do you think it’s time to cut your cassette collection down to size?

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

We’ve already established you have no room to store them and probably nothing on which to play them.  Unless you are still driving a car you purchased in the 1990s or before, the cassette deck has been replaced by a CD player. So, how do you decide what to ditch? Begin tossing the ones that look more like spaghetti than a recording medium.  Those are the cassettes that became mangled in the machine you probably had to rip out.  Give strong consideration to losing audio cassettes you recorded yourself as opposed to the pre-recorded variety.  The sound quality of the latter weighs in their favour. Recycling may prove challenging as the magnetic tape is a problem.  If broken up, you can recycle the plastic. One final suggestion.  Check out the inside of any portable cassette decks that are still hanging around. You are bound to find a couple more to take to the thrift store.   Just think, once those old boxes of cassettes have departed, you will have a whole new area for storing the CDs you no longer listen to, since all your music has been converted to digital formats.

The Magic Lantern

In our book, Good Riddance: Showing Clutter the Door, we chronicled the myriad ways photography has contributed to the rising tide of household C.R.U.D.  Almost everyone can relate to the dread of tackling decades of unsorted photos desperately awaiting either the protection of an album or the ignominy of the trash can.  But those of  us, who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, may be supplying sanctuary to an even more insidious strain of photographic media; slides.

A mere couple of decades ago, inviting friends over to see slides of your two-week European vacation constituted an evening’s entertainment.  You were no longer constrained by the limitations of a 2 by 3 inch photograph.  The 35mm slide show offered an experience not previously experienced in the family room.  All you needed was a screen or a wall to project your photos where colours actually appeared as they existed in nature.  Slides, in their time, represented a major technological advance.  The only drawbacks were the incredibly annoying click that accompanied the advance to the next slide and the occasional bulb burnout when you forgot to cool the machine down before turning it off.  Slides even contained their own storage system in the carousels that could be organized by subject or trip. How could they possibly be considered C.R.U.D.?

Time marches on.  We live in an era where ten year olds send pictures instantaneously to each other through mobile phones.  Tablet PC’s are the preferred vehicle for storing and organizing photos.  Today, very few people have the time, patience or room to drag out all the equipment necessary to view old slides. It’s simply too much trouble. So, like many other victims of planned obsolescence, these collections of family history and travels wallow in the nether reaches of the abode, forgotten until a cataclysmic event like a move, announces their presence.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

Figuring out what to do with your old slides requires significant effort.  You will need to set aside both time to review them individually, transfer the ones you want to keep to digital media, and find a way to dispose of the remainder.  This is a task well suited to those of you who live in the Northern Hemisphere where the winters are characterized by 21 hours of darkness for months on end.  Don’t be too quick to trot the projector down to the local thrift establishment. You’ll have to keep it for one last picture show. Or, you could simply skip the formalities and proceed immediately to burning or some other method to eradicate images of you or your family, if paranoia is a major motivator.  For the crafty among you, we suggest using slides to create a colourful, personal lampshade or privacy screen.  The carousel trays present a different challenge altogether. Best to donate them along with the slide projector.

Refrigerator Blindness

You’ve heard the term “refrigerator blindness” before;  it’s a condition that afflicts a household member who is gazing into an open refrigerator and asks where the jar of pickles is. The pickles most certainly are in there, but may not be visible.  This is a fairly common occurrence that can be attributed to a single source – too much uneaten food in the icebox. We are not suggesting food equals C.R.U.D., but some of it is.

So what’s making your refrigerator impenetrable with the naked eye?  There are several categories of the unconsumed that come to mind. Whether you make your meals at home or eat out a great deal, you are likely to be storing leftovers.  If your leftovers are the result of a restaurant meal you simply could not manage in one sitting, chances are the leftovers are ensconced in an opaque Styrofoam container.  Your extra portion is hidden from view and will be likely to be forgotten.  If the leftovers come from your own kitchen, unless you place them in a see-through container, they are apt to succumb to the same fate.  The ability to grow mold is in direct relation to how far back into the recesses of the fridge your unfinished food resides.

Now take a look at the inside of the door.  This is where most people store sauces and liquids.  Sauces, salad dressings and juices are available in an infinite number of varieties.  If you are not diligent, these items can transmogrify into C.R.U.D. in a matter of weeks.  Let’s say you are hosting a dinner party that requires you try out a new recipe.  You purchase all the necessary and sometimes exotic ingredients.  The meal turns out beautifully. In your regular cooking regimen you never have the opportunity to make that recipe again.  The bottles of sauce remain.  By the time you get around to making that gourmet dish again, the sauce is no longer fit for consumption.

Even fresh ingredients like vegetables and populating crisper drawers, can expire before you have the time to use them.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

This is a good project to undertake when you don’t have a lot of time to devote to de-cluttering.  To prepare, you may want to don a pair of rubber gloves. Have heavy duty garbage bags on hand.  Make sure your recycling receptacles are close at hand.  You will have to haul everything out for inspection and decision-making. Clear the countertops before you start so you have enough room to place the various candidates for removal.

Science projects should go without question.  Where a “best before” date is not legible, err on the side of caution – particularly with dairy products.  Dried up rinds of cheese have no business taking up room in such a limited space.  Pay attention to duplicates. Two or three open mayonnaise containers do not bode well.  Parsley that’s gone to liquid in its own plastic bag is not deserving of a second look. How long has that flat bottle of tonic water been there?

Once you have thinned out the food C.R.U.D., take the opportunity to clean the drawers and shelves before returning the edible contents to their slots.  After you have eliminated the causes of refrigerator blindness, you can move to another kitchen blind spot – perhaps under the sink.

Full Puffy Jacket

Clients often grumble about their lack of closet space.  It’s among the most common of complaints we organizers are apt to hear.  This is not surprising.  Closets are well documented hotbeds of C.R.U.D. infestation.  No matter how much an individual is willing to fork over in installing custom organizers, she will never have the wardrobe repository of her dreams unless she is willing to let go.  When it comes to garment reduction, not all clothing is created equal.

Some items hang on for eternity, in significant volume.  In this case, we refer to the category known as outerwear. Outerwear includes coats, raingear, vests and jackets. Have you taken an inventory of your own family’s collection lately?  If you live in a part of the world where there are four distinct seasons, you are well aware of the percentage of closet real estate devoted to stocking jackets.  In the winter you need outerwear capable of repelling the elements.  You have medium-weight ones to take you through spring and autumn temperatures.  The summer requires the occasional windbreaker or lightweight jacket for those early ‘Tee’ times.  Now factor in the team sportswear, leather jackets for riding motorcycles and those you wear for winter sports like skiing and snow-shoeing. Who among us does not possess a jean jacket? Or two? Or three? Have you counted in the trench coats and Gortex creations you rely upon for walking the dog in a downpour?

Keep that calculator handy because you are not finished.  Jackets can be in any room in the house.  They hang in triplicate over the backs of chairs.  Hooks in the garage furnish a home for jackets that get too dirty to bring inside the house.  Fur coats, jackets and stoles remain holed up inside ancient quilted garment bags in the basement, emanating a resignation associated with death row inmates awaiting the inevitable.  For our purposes, we won’t even look at your blazers, hoodies and suit jackets.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

Come on, you say.  You need all of those jackets. Hardly. Employ a modicum of objectivity here. Go back to your hall closet.  That is where the lion’s share resides.  Haul everything out and toss any of the following: anything that would catapult you to stardom on a makeover show; any jacket or coat that has been handed down so many times the original color is completely undetectable; jackets with broken zippers, large bloodstains, pockets with holes, missing buttons, belts or ripped linings.  You should also include any jacket still hanging in the closet in a size you cannot remember wearing since your freshman year in college.

There is another compelling reason for sorting through this category.  Before you throw or give anyone away be sure to check the pockets. Sure, there will be lots of wadded up tissues, dry cleaning slips and expired bus passes, but you are bound to make major discoveries as well.  Maybe the long lost key to your safety deposit box is tucked in a pocket of that old pea coat.  These are great places to find loose change, cheques that were never deposited and punch cards from your favorite coffee house entitling you to a free cup of java.  This activity will be well worth the effort.

Don’t Do Me Any Favors

We were clearing out a client’s china cabinet the other day in preparation for her putting her house on the market.  We were making the usual divisions – what was getting moved, and what was getting purged, either through sale donation or recycling. Once we’d gone through the good dishes, crystal, serving pieces, candles and linens, we were left with a few oddball items that included two demitasse cups filled with aged candy, topped off with cellophane and embossed with the names of the brides and grooms.  The client simply threw up her hands and asked what she was going to do with them. It was unanimous.  They were not going with her to the next house.

Thanks to the growing legions of event planners and the industriousness of bridesmaids, no one need fear leaving a wedding empty handed. It is the very least the happy couple can do to show their gratitude. After you have spent a king’s ransom on your outfit, the plane tickets, the hotels and the present, you have the right to expect a token of remembrance to take home after the nuptials and festivities.  A wedding meal is not like eating in a restaurant. You cannot request a doggy bag from your waiter for whatever you were unable to consume on your plate.

And so you go home with your little memento whether it is a deck of heart shaped playing cards, a matching set of bride and groom keyboard dusters, matrimonial martini mini olive candles, or a lovebird shaped ceramic dish filled with chocolate kisses and immediately forget about them.  They get tucked away in desk drawers or released to remain unseen on top of the fridge.  When one of these under-appreciated party favors makes an infrequent appearance, it provides you with pause for reflection.  At some level, you’d just like to chuck out the C.R.U.D. that it is and be done with it.  But your guild-ridden psyche reminds you some dedicated friend of the bride probably stayed up all night glue-gunning sprays of tiny lily-of-the-valley to that glass flower holder you about to toss. Alas, it stays.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

Getting rid of party favors, especially the personalized kind, can be a thorny problem. If you don’t want it why would anybody else? Who is likely to buy, or even want, a book of matches commemorating Mitch and Teri’s vows from 1974?  Who could possibly wish to drink his morning coffee out of a mug decorated with a photo of two strangers gazing into each other’s eyes by the names of Ted and Cynthia?  You compound the difficulty by stressing over the disrespect you are showing to your family by parting so easily with the scented tea lights from your cousin’s wedding.

Thus, a little strategic thinking is required. Start by rounding up your collection. This may take some time, as wedding favors are likely to found anywhere you have been in the last twenty years.  When you corral them, dump out all the candy and cookie crumbs.  Do not consider eating any of it.  Separate the favors from the couples that are still married from the ones that are divorced. You won’t have to feel disloyal by pitching wineglasses form the latter groups’ weddings. Donate as many  as possible to anyone you know is having a garage sale in the foreseeable future or to a thrift shop in your area  that lacks a discerning clientele.  You may still be stuck with a few favors with names on them.  We leave those up to your discretion.

As far as the future goes, perhaps when you leave your next affair, consider conveniently leaving your little trinket behind.  If the party favor is of the edible variety, by all means, do indulge.

Something’s Gotta Give

There is a quote that goes ”If you continually give, you will continually have.” It sounds profound in the spiritual sense. Yet, we tend to view these words through the lens of the work we do as organizers. We have worked with many clients who have diligently culled their wardrobes, eviscerated their kitchen cabinetry and dared to penetrate the netherworld behind the washing machine in the basement, on a mission to track down and eradicate household clutter.  These efforts deserve plaudits indeed. Yet there is a critical step, if missed, which renders these activities null and void.  Even though their donations get packed for departure, often they never make it out the door.  These clients continually give, but they continually have.

We have been vexed for years by this phenomenon.  With so many outlets and organizations more than willing to take what you no longer want off your hands, it is a wonder how many bags of clothing and boxes of office supplies never see the other side of the garage door.  You would think the decision making process of what to keep versus what to relinquish would be the hard part. But for many, making the final exit with the discards is even more formidable.  This is the reason we include “donations in limbo” to our C.R.U.D. hit list.

If you have the un-donated still hanging around your house, there are a few locations where they are likely to be detected:

1. Your Vehicle.  If you open your trunk or look in the backseat, do not be surprised if you find cartons of books you meant to drop off for the library’s annual book sale fundraiser, magazines that were supposed to go to the pre-school for fodder for art projects, and several bags of clothes that refuse to show you off at your best.  These and other donations can ride around for months totally undetected. I recently rented a car that had a bag of clothing donations in the back.

2. Your Closet.  We always recommend placing a donations receptacle in your clothes closet for those moments when reality strikes and you realize your infatuation with a particular garment is over.  The plan is to remove the bag when it gets filled to take to consignment or a clothing drop. But, here is where the plan backfires.  The donation bag situates itself in the rear of the closet and over time gets covered up with shoes, bags, other clothes that have slipped off hangers and shopping bags.  Therefore, it never leaves.

3. Your Entranceway.  Some people only have one way in or out of where they live.  Others have access through garages, mudrooms and side doors.  The idea is to put the donations in a location where you can grab them on the way out to your bridge game, soccer match or taking the kids to school.  The intention is noble, but often the follow-through goes awry. The boxes and bags sit, poised for transport to the new recipients, the victims of neglect.  Even worse, some get dragged back into the house for re-evaluation.

C.R.U.D. CHALLENGE:

The solution to this problem is very simple.  Pick up the phone and arrange for a pick-up from a local charity. Your only responsibility is to put the donations outside with the appropriate labels.

You don’t even have to witness their leave-taking.  If you are stockpiling donations to give to friends and family, call to give them a near-term deadline for pick-up and inform them that you will donate them to charity if your deadline cannot be met.  Make liberal use of the Internet, particularly the on-line classifieds that feature sections for donations as well as for sale. Put the onus on the person who is the recipient to take something away and save your time and money for the gas.  Stop the cycle now.  Make sure your donations got to a good home, just not your home.