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By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist
Guest Blogger

As a consumer journalist and blogger, I’ve written about how to organize clutter a number of times.

Why?

As an avid researcher, I save more articles than I enjoy filing. As a result, the articles stack up.

However, over the years, I’ve made progress. Every time I write about clutter, I learn new tips.

Recently I met Rita Rosenkranz, one of the authors of the book “Put Your House on a Diet: Declutter Your Home and Reclaim Your Life,” at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference. I decided to write about what Rosenkranz and her co-authors Ed Morrow and Sheree Bykofsky had to say to help boomers with their cultter. See my post, “Is Your Household Too Fat and Bursting at the Seams With Clutter? These Clutter Tips Help Put Your House On a Diet,” on my blog The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.

Here are the best ideas I’ve learned from writing about clutter over the years:

My friend, the planner. My daughter suggested I use a planner because I was having problems keeping track information from phone calls. It works. With the details of your life written in a planner, you’re better organized.

Instant sorting. When the mail comes, I decide right away what to do with it. If it’s a meeting, I write the date, time, and phone number in my planner. I recycle the meeting notice. Then I don’t have to worry about getting it filed. Bills to be paid go in a special file. Junk mail and most catalogs are immediately recycled. The few catalogs I keep go in a file.

Nix on garage sales. I seldom buy anything at garage sales these days. More stuff makes the clutter problem worse.

Photo opportunities. I’ve purchased archival sleeves of various sizes for my photos and have assembled more than four-dozen photo notebooks. With supplies on hand, I’m able to organize photos as I get them.

Kitchen fun. My kitchen now gets prompt attention. I work on it throughout the day, putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher as I go along.

Less helps. I subscribe to fewer magazines and keep the remaining ones a shorter period of time. I keep fewer manila envelopes and cardboard boxes for items I’ll be mailing.

Knickknacks absent. When I moved into my new home, I didn’t unpack my knickknacks. I don’t miss them. Dusting is much easier now.

Clothes therapy. I’m sorting my clothes and giving away those I don’t wear anymore.

Books, books, books. I’ve cleared out a space for new books in my bookshelf. That way new books don’t stack up on my dining room table, on my desk, and in the living room, waiting to be read.

My biggest breakthrough with clutter is realizing that I must work on it often, at least several times a week. It takes constant vigil to keep things organized.

Clutter is a hot topic these days. Clutter adds to stress to people’s lives, the experts say. They’ve got books for you.

Check local bookstores and libraries for topics such as:

• “Clutter’s Last Stand: It’s Time to De-junk Your Life” by Don Aslett.

• “Organizing From the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office, and Your Life” by Julie Morgenstern.

• “1001 Timely Tips for Clutter Control: Knowing What to Keep, When to Toss, and How to Store Your Stuff” by Frank W. Cawood.

You can also hire a professional organizer to come to your home and help you. The National Association of Professional Organizers offers listings of professional organizers throughout the United States.

Or check the yellow pages of phone books under Organizing. Hourly rates range from $35 to $80 for help in the home. Some firms charge an initial assessment fee.

People who have chronic problems with clutter can contact Messies Anonymous for ideas and resources.

For more information for boomer consumers, see my blog The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.

Relationships are one of the prickly issues many times, especially when things are tough. Even more tricky are the issues related to our emotions, our moods. In most cases our moods and emotions are automatically triggered and we may not even be aware of them. But yet, they drive our every action and determine whether we succeed in life or not. But facing and controlling our emotions is not a task for the faint-hearted. It takes a lot of courage and will power to face up to our own weaknesses. But with good help, one can tide over these issues. The price one pays is big as it requires a lot of commitment, willpower and discipline. But the rewards are very huge.

To give an anology, consider you are trying to control weeds in your garden and you only cut the top part of the weed, leaving the roots intact in the ground because pulling the roots out takes more effort and time. In time, the weeds grow back again. Now imagine you took the time to pull out the weeds with the roots and now the weeds do not grow back that quickly. The rewards are a longer lasting healthy, green garden.

This is common sense in gardening. But when it comes to handling our emotions, moods and relationships, most times we blindly act in ways similar to cutting the visible, top portion of the weed. But we never the less expect the results to be a near permanent fix to our problems.

Here are some quick, short videos that help us start on a more holistic approach to addressing these issues. Each video is approximately 15 minutes long, but is packed with valuable insights. Try watching one video every morning. It will hopefully make your day more peaceful, more productive. Some of the topics addressed are ‘Is Anger worth it?’, ‘Dealing with stress’, ‘Improving our relationships with others’, etc.

Forbes.com recently published their annual Best Places for Retirees list. This time the list contains some surprise additions. For example, Fort Worth, Texas came in second place behind Tampa, Florida. Washington D.C. beat Miami, Portland, Oregon drew more retirees than Orlando, Florida and Houston, Texas came in the fifth place, etc.

Want to know why?

As the mindset of the retirees is changing to the new reality of working in retirement, active retirement, Forbes editors aptly thought it fit to modify their criteria to include factors concerning retiree-friendly job markets to their list in addition to a few other new criteria. Plus they also looked at migration patters of people in the age group of 55 - 65 years. This gave an indication of where people are moving to. The result, is the all new list of Best Cities for Retirees.

This past weekend as I was driving I tuned into a local radio station and the radio show host was just sharing with her listeners the following story/advice. It caught my attention and I thought this is a beautiful way to look at our relationships. So I would like to share it with you. Here it is (as best as I could remember and understand it)…

“People come into our lives for one of three causes. Some people come into our lives for a reason; some people come into our lives for a season; and some people come into our lives for a lifetime.”

“When someone comes into our lives for a reason, it is because we have a need for this person. May be there is a lesson to be learned, may be there is a task to be completed for which we need help and so on. Once the reason this person came into our lives is complete, either this person or ourselves will do or say something to end the relationship or it ends naturally. The important thing to remember is not to focus too much on the ending or fuss about it; but to realize that this person came into our lives for a reason and now that reason is fulfilled or accomplished and be thankful for it.”

“When someone comes into our lives for a season, it means we have a bigger need for this person in our lives that goes beyond a mere transaction or a reason. This person is in a relationship with us for a bit longer period of time, such as a season or a few seasons. But again once that time nears the end, this relationship also comes to an end. Again it is because that need was met and our paths are now diverging”

“Then there are some people that come into our lives and stay in a relationship for a lifetime. These are the relationships in which we grow and thrive. These can be our life partner or our family or friends. It is said that Love is blind. But friendships can be chosen.”

So choose your friends carefully so that you can grow together and live a life you can be proud of, because everyone you come in contact with influences you in someway or the other.

While we are talking about relationships, here is an article on ‘7 Power Skills that build Strong Relationships’ from AtPrime. If every one of us learns these basic skills and practices them, wouldn’t this world be a better place to live in? You probably have your own pet set of skills to building strong relationships, if so, what are they?