Step Three: Declutter Your Stuff

Welcome back!

Are you ready for Step Three?

You've moved out the stuff that doesn't belong in your garage, and you've sorted the stuff that's left over into groups. Now let's take a hard look at what's in those piles so that we can move it out permanently! 

What's Worth Keeping

A perfectly useful object becomes clutter when it no longer serves a purpose in your life, whether that's a practical purpose or an aesthetic one. For some people, a little clutter is fine--even comfortable. For others (like me, for example), having things around that I don't need or want can be stressful. I'm a lot happier when I can keep clutter to a minimum. 

Today, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I use this object enough to justify owning it?
• Do I use this object for a special purpose or keep it because it means something special to me?
• Do I have more than one of these objects? Do I really need extras?
• Do I have a convenient way to store this object?
• Do I have the time, energy, and knowledge to maintain this object?

Creepy lifelike plastic rabbit = clutter.

Pack It Up, Move It Out

When you've decided what you no longer want to keep, sort that stuff into containers for delivery (that's our next step). Here are some possible destinations for garage clutter:

Tools and Materials Related to Construction or Landscaping

Habitat for Humanity ReStores
School building and construction trade programs
4-H programs
Community or school gardens


Recreational Equipment, Games, Toys, Hobbies
Scouting programs

Day cares, schools, after-school programs
YMCAs/YWCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other nonprofit community outreach programs

Appliances (Like that old beer fridge, maybe?)

Local utility collection programs

Recycling centers

Charities or nonprofits

For more ideas on resources, visit my resources page. 

How about you? What objects in your garage are going to stay, and what are going to go? Do you have stuff that reflects your aspirations rather than your reality? What charities or organizations will benefit from your donations? Leave your comments below and you'll be automatically registered to win a free Kindle! I look forward to hearing from you!

Step One: Remove the Odds and Ends

Thanks for visiting today on Day One of my ebook launch! I'm excited to share some ideas with you this week. Feel free to share some of your own garage-cleaning ideas as well. 

Before You Begin: Inventory

Look around your space and consider your goals. Take just a few minutes to do this--much longer than that, and you could end up procrastinating. Not this week! 

Ask these questions:

• Can you currently fit your vehicle(s) into your garage?
• If your garage is for storage as well as parking, what exactly do you want or need to store there? Do you want to have room for your hobbies or recreation, as well as other equipment for lawn care and home maintenance? 

We built our garage last year--the original garage (around 80 years old) was leaning southwest on a crumbling foundation. Since my husband is a triathlete and I'm a gardener, we designed a room to accommodate those activities. One of my goals is organizing my Ironman!

Don't judge me. It's a work in progress. I've got a week, right?

Remove the Odds and Ends

Time to get to work. Keeping your goals in mind, scoop up the odds and ends that clearly belong somewhere else. This could include shoes, outerwear, toys, household cleaners or chemicals you've used for projects, or hobby and craft materials. You may not have a place for them and that's why they've ended up in the garage. That's okay -- that could be your next project. Let's focus on the garage first.Use a laundry basket or bin to contain this stuff temporarily for transport elsewhere.

While you're at it, get rid of any trash you see and fill up your recycling bin, too. Be ruthless. If it truly is something broken, dangerous, disgusting, incomplete, or generally useless, it's time for it to go. If you need help figuring out how to dispose of an item, check out Earth 911's helpful resources or my own blog post on the topic. 

How do you declutter your garage? Leave me a comment and you'll be registered for a free Kindle and a bundle of great decluttering books (including mine)!

Good luck! See you tomorrow for Step Two!

The Nirvana of Turf Grass

Grow! Grow!

Glimpsing the tiny sprouts of new grass in the backyard, I was strangely exhilarated. After years of growing perennials, annuals, trees, and shrubs, I had arrived at the Nirvana of Midwestern gardeners: I had grown Kentucky bluegrass.

Turf grass serves important purposes in a garden. It gives the eye a place to rest, highlighting the other ornamental plants. It serves as an open space for picnics and badminton. It provides a nice place for a hammock, especially if you have the shade of a spreading tree overhead.

I can appreciate grass if it serves those functions. I'm definitely not a fan of grass for grass's sake, however. Too many landscapes are just grass, often heavily fertilized with nitrogen and other chemicals. While they look appealing to some, those landscapes offer nothing of nutritional value to the birds and the insects that make up our ecosystem. A recent article in Farm Futures, a publication for the agriculture industry, noted that "approximately 55% of the nation's rivers and streams are in poor condition for aquatic life, an Environmental Protection Agency survey released Tuesday found, citing pressure from nitrogen or phosphorus runoff, rising bacteria levels or diminishing surrounding vegetation." 

Yikes.

Considering that fact, my husband and I strategized that our back yard would contain a central circle of grass, surrounded by beneficial shrubs and plants for wildlife. Growing grass from seed was a new gardening adventure for me, but I figured it couldn't be that hard, right? 

I knew we couldn't just throw grass seed down on the backyard's compacted soil. With help from a friend with a Kubota, we removed the remaining dead grass and old shrubs from the planting area, tilling to about six inches. Then we raked the surface smooth, pulling out roots, rocks, and grass clumps.

I laid a hose around the area I wanted to seed, defining my space. Then I spread grass seed evenly in the space and raked it in gently. Thanks to last year's straw bale garden, we had plenty of rotted straw to spread lightly over the seed for mulch--good for protection from birds and wind and for retaining moisture. A good soaking with the hose followed: the challenge of growing grass is keeping it constantly moist.

During a cold snap when the seeds seemed unresponsive, I ran into a certain former Purdue Extension educator and told him of my project. "Fall's the best season to grow grass, right?" he said. I vaguely remembered this from my master gardener training--I think I may have dozed off during the turf grass lecture, actually. I felt a moment's doubt. Was I really going to screw up grass? How could I hold my head up as a certified master gardener if I couldn't do grass?


Lots of people swear by clean fresh straw for new grass, but I had wondered if rotted straw would be just as effective, and apparently it was. After several weeks of frequent, light watering, despite cold weather, grass began to sprout. My daily cajoling probably helped, too. "Grow, grow! C'mon, little seeds!" I said, every time I walked from the garage to the patio. My youngest teen would just shake her head and scurry into the house ahead of me before anyone saw her.

Grass and flower beds - a nice combo!

Now from my upstairs office window, I can see a well-defined circle of bright green, patchy and fragile, like the hair on a new baby. I'm hoping it will be filled in enough for the graduation party in June. 

Yeah, I can do grass.

Garden Like a Mother

This Mother's Day, forget about breakfast in bed. 

A big bouquet? Meh. 

Here's what a gardening mother really wants on her special day:

P. Allen Smith, garden guru and Nice Guy.

1. This guy. 

Okay, okay. I know kidnapping garden lifestyle guru P. Allen Smith is frowned upon. What if you asked him nicely to come and live with you? I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

Hori hori. Scary scary.

2. A hori-hori. Find one here. 

I cannot tell you how much I love my hori hori. This baby does it all -- dig hard soil, slice through stems, rip open bagged potting soil, plant bulbs to a precise 6 inches, insert tender seedlings into a window box. Every gardening mother needs at least two of these babies. Just remember not to make Mom angry when she's wielding it.

3. Awesome garden boots. These are perfect!

Forget last year's running shoes or your husband's battered Crocs. Slip into a pair of these boots for watering, mucking out the compost bin (or horse stall or whatever), or spring garden planting. They are so comfy!

4. A handy garden cart, like this one. 

I don't have a big yard, so I got rid of my old wobbly wheelbarrow and bought this little workhorse at Lowe's. Notice that it has two wheels, so no tipping! It also has a handy slot to toss my tools in as I'm pulling it around in the yard. No more squatting with my hori hori in my back pocket (ouchy ouchy!). It's not large, but hey, am I hauling full-sized trees around? Not on your life. That's Dad's job.

5. Garden gloves that rock!

These gloves by Womans Work are the best! "Made by women for women." Need I say more? And they come in bright colors, so they are easily spotted in the grass where I dropped them yesterday ...

6. A jaunty hat. 

Let's face it. Moms are so over this tanning business. It's all about preservation now. But no seed caps for us--why not wear something more flattering, like a wide-brimmed straw hat? Keep off the rays, look fab. 

7. This book. 

One of the best all-purpose reference books on my shelf. This book answers questions you didn't know you had, and most (if not all) of the ones you do have!

So there you have it -- some suggestions for your shopping pleasure. There's still time to order. Get cracking, family--and I don't mean eggs for a Mother's Day omelet, either. 

Podcasting and Selling the Car

I'm so excited about this movement in a state known more
for its coal-fired power plants than its environmental activism.

Last month, the shoe was on the other foot for this green journalist. Kathy Sipple of Sustainable Indiana 2016 interviewed me about my family's experience downsizing and decluttering. You can hear the podcast here. (Kudos to all the people I've ever interviewed ... it's much easier to ask the questions!)

I'm talking about decluttering again tonight at Earthworks Market in Plymouth. Every time I share about my family's experience, I'm reminded that we are not the only people searching for a "right-sized" life. Every Monday I get an email from Miss Minimalist with another story of a "Real Life Minimalist." Though my family released 3/4ths of our possessions and moved to a house in town that was half the size of our suburban dream house, our adventure was not as radical as some have undertaken. I'm humbled when I read about people who gave up even more than we did, but who would never go back to a life of unconscious consumerism.

I keep finding ways to downsize, even now that we've downsized. It's fun to find ways to live a simpler, yet richer, life. My husband's been doing it, too. He's contemplating selling his 2008 Mustang GT (a gift from his parents for his 40th birthday) to fund a family trip to London before our oldest goes off to college. I can't make that decision for him, but it's another amazing demonstration of how our values have changed from people who own to people who would rather live.

Incidentally, my ebook Declutter for Good: Share Your Stuff and Reclaim Your Life will be out at the end of the month, God willing.

Starting From Scratch

I thought about titling this post "Total Disaster Gardening," but that sounded a trifle hysterical.

The yard needs work. That's an understatement. After demolishing one garage, building a new one, demolishing an old stone wall and rebuilding it (stone by stone), taking down an old misshapen silver maple and planting a new "Red Jewel" crab apple, our tiny backyard looks like a bomb went off. The iron fence is in pieces. The lawn is compacted in places and non-existent in others. The pavers used for bordering the old flower beds are laying around like shrapnel. And without the canopy of the old tree, everything feel exposed, like a new scab.

Last summer's straw bale garden, plus rubbish.

Ick.

Since the weather was fine yesterday, I decided to go out and sweep. Which led to shoveling the rotted straw bale garden into a pile. Which led to stacking pavers for a new compost area. 

Ironman (husband Tim) came home after a ride around Lake Max with his training buddies. He looked over the renovations and said, "Are you trying to shame me?"

"Yes," I said, rubbing my left hip. (Bursitis. Fantastic.)

The new compost pile. Note the tilting fence section and
sad-looking viburnum. Both will be replaced, someday ...

This morning, looking over my work from yesterday though, I'm pleased. We recently tossed our garbage disposal, which did nothing except fund the plumber's son's college fund, so I'm thrilled to start this new pile after a winter of guiltily tossing my scraps in the trash. I'm also thrilled to find a use for the pavers, which always seemed too big for such a diminutive space anyway.

And I saw two earthworms and a centipede yesterday, very much alive and wiggling despite the frigid winter of 2014. Time to get to work, fellows.