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Sentimental journey

Problem: You assign an emotion or a feeling to an item, and you feel that if you were to throw it out you would lose some part of you.

Solution: Remind yourself that throwing something out does not mean that you are throwing out the memory of that thing or that person.

Delayed decisions

Problem: You know you are not going to read last Sunday's newspaper, now that this Sunday's newspaper has arrived, but you delay throwing it away.

Solution: Acknowledge what you will and won't do and don't let a delayed decision turn into clutter.

Organizing will mess everything up

Problem: You believe that creating intricate organizing methods will upset your ingenious cluttered system.

Solution: You may feel that you know where everything is, but how much time do you spend looking for things you need? Most likely, you spend more time on this than you think. Wouldn't it make more sense to create an easier, quicker way of finding things?
Excerpt from Secrets of Simplicity by Mary Carlomagno, published by Chronicle Books. Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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