Calling all Catalogs! Stopping mail order madness!
This Saturday finds me addressing what has been a serious problem: Mail Clutter!! I have a nice little desk built into the kitchen but it was hidden beneath piles of catalogs, bills, statements, flyers, and magazines. It also housed the microwave and toaster. Because I would pass it as I entered the house each day, it had also become the drop spot for keys, purses and gloves. Ugh. Not a nice way to treat a desk, is it?
Well it's been quite a lengthy process of getting it to a workable state but I am really liking the results. I moved the microwave to the shelf above the recycling station, hoping that the distance will help discourage its use as well. I did splurge on a beautiful stainless steel tea-kettle so I would stop nuking my tea each morning. (Although it is a little aggressive on the whistle, like steam engine rolling through the mountains aggressive...Oh well. I'd never sleep through it!)
A tea kettle seemed to be such a grown and sexy purchase that I promptly ran over to the tea aisle in Target and bought Tazo Zen, Green Ginger, Refresh, China Green Tips, Cucumber White, and Rest. (I know, I know...save to spend, spend to save? But its all for the Kitchen Apothecary...but THAT's another story!)
BTW, if you are a Sleepytime fan, Chamomile groupie, or new to liquid herbal wind downs at the end of stressful days, you have to try Tazo Rest! It gets the job done, good and cozy in 30 min.
"A lulling blend of rose petals, valerian root & citrusy herbs.
Tazo lists ingredients as: Lemon balm, rose petals, honeybush, orange peel, lemon myrtle, lemon verbena, licorice root, lavender, valerian root, natural flavors, ginger, orange essence oil and Chinese geranium oil."
I then put the toaster in the give-away pile, for as much I a make toast, I can use the oven. This cleared so much space and I was giving in to what the desk wanted to be: A DESK! I am still working on the aesthetics of it, but I moved my computer to the desk and its all happy too now that its no longer on the dining room table!! So, I'll post some photos when I really get it together, but the main thing I did today was to call all these catalog folks and stop the mailing of all these catalogs!!
I can run back and forth to the recycling center all I want, but why not reduce the amount of paper coming in???
With about 20 1-800 calls, I have probably single-handedly saved quite a swath of forest somewhere. I have to be content knowing that all of the items can be found on-line and are there whenever I need them. Plus this is a reminder of the clothes buying sabbatical I am on (until I lose about 20-30 lbs...but THAT's another story!!)
In the meantime, I leave you with some loving links to handle your own mail clutter and/or obsession with mail order catalogs, plus overall organizing, simplifying, and most importantly, developing new (good) habits:
Zen Habits: Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life
from
Peace~