Space in your home – To Keep or Not To Keep

Why Give

October 28, 2020August 27, 2020Clutter Mangement, Consumerism, decluttering, Donations, Giving, Space in your homeLeave a Comment

After the mighty purchasing season that is Christmas, many gifts now can replace our older belongings. In 2018 many charity stores have reported that they will receive between 75,000 and 100,000 kilograms of donations in January alone post the Christmas season. During this time their volunteers can barely keep up with the sorting process. It’s no wonder our charity stores are brimming with second-hand treasure. These organisations help to reduce items that would end up in landfill and assist the most vulnerable in our communities. Giving to charity makes us feel empowered by knowing we are helping others. Brain activity is heightened when we give and registers more pleasure than actually receiving.

A study conducted by William Harbaugh, a Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon, calls this a ‘warm glow’. When we have a strong social conscience we feel compelled to help others where we can. By giving we are able to reflect our personal values through charitable acts which can help to increase our self-esteem and self-perception. Setting a positive example of giving will have a positive impact on others as generosity has the power to be contagious. Particularly with our children when they experience the act of giving at a younger age they will be natural givers as adults. Inspiring others to give can help to strengthen community bonds and even the smallest acts can make a big difference. One of the almost always positive human behaviours is altruism. When we behave in an altruistic way we are seeking to bring benefit to others by assisting them without requiring anything in return. By helping others in this way we seek no apparent gain or potential cost to ourselves.

Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘Unselfish acts are the real miracles out of which all the reported miracles grow.’ Somebody who donates time volunteering with an organisation or at an institution,gives blood or rescues somebody are all displaying acts of altruism. We often take many forms of altruism for granted in our daily lives. Chivalrous acts of opening doors, giving somebody on the street directions, or even making someone feel comfortable in a social situation can all be considered as altruistic behaviours. Australians are big givers, according to a study done by the Giving Australia project. They found that in 2006 13.4 million adults, which is around eighty-seven percent of all adults, gave $5.7 billion dollars to not- for-profit and private organisations in one year. This was more than given by adults in the United Kingdom and Canada but less than half given by adults in the United States.

Being altruistic can fill us with positive emotions and a feeling of empowerment. When we help without expecting anything in return we can, however, receive intangible pro-social rewards. When others in our social groups acknowledge our good deeds we are treated to a self-esteem boost and have others view us in a favourable light. This alone can be enough motivation to lend a helping hand. A positive way to assist our friends, family and local community members may be to offer to share our particular set of skills. Offer to assist someone with something you are good at, like gardening, cooking or setting up a social media page. We all have something to offer, no matter how small. Offer to collect friends’ children from school or take your neighbour’s dog for a walk. Share your Rightsizing experience with another person. Random acts of kindness in our communities restore our hope for humanity and can make you feel a part of something bigger than our own lives. This type of behaviour has the magical power of being reciprocated and repeated. Giving is a powerful act that can benefit all that are involved. Offer your assistance when you can, donate your time, your excess and your experiences with others to create a life of enrichment that is intentional and full of meaningful connections.

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

Keep

October 21, 2020August 27, 2020Donate, Happiness, Home, Keep, Motivation, Recycle, Rightsizing, Sell, Space in your home, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

Our KEEP items are our belongings that we identify with and they will stay in our homes and lives. Marie Kondo, the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and more recent host of her Netflix show Tidying Up, uses the term ‘Spark Joy’ to describe objects to be kept. Her simple method recommends that you should only keep the items that give you the ‘spark joy’ feeling. Things that we love, find useful and use often will be a part of our keep items.

My first Rightsizing project started in December 1998 and took till June 2000 to complete so we could sell the property. My husband said to me, ‘You can keep anything you like.’ This is how I started by separating all the items that I wanted to KEEP. This project took eighteen months to Rightsize his belongings and is an ongoing curation process. As we minimised these belongings we felt stronger within ourselves but also within our own relationship. Together we had the courage to face this epic task one day at a time, box by box, carload by carload. Every little bit contributed to the solving of this wicked problem. We still believe today that if we survived emptying that shed we could just about survive anything! So far so good, still happily married after fifteen years and yes, we still own a lot less than at this time in our lives! When we KEEP items that we identify with and that provide us with the most happiness, joy, usefulness and value we will quickly be able to determine those items that do not align with these statements of acceptance.

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

The Rightsizing Ratio

October 7, 2020August 27, 2020Clutter Mangement, Find Your Why, Goal setting, Planning, Project Mangement, Space in your home, The Rightsize Approach, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

When Rightsizing your life the concept of clutter management has traditionally been one of randomness and in some cases chaotic in its approach. We use the Rightsizing Ratio to anchor our thinking into segments that will assist in creating order to this process. The Rightsizing Ratio encases our project in a three-tier structure, where each of these segments are in proportion to the amount of effort needed to support each action. When Rightsizing our WHY is at the centre of all we do. Although its segment is smaller it is the core of our intention. Adopting this decision-making technique enables us to proceed to the next layer, our HOW. Exploring the HOW will enable us to implement our actions and will reduce the stress of our WHAT. This is WHAT we will keep and WHAT objects we will let go, which is the vastest segment of the Rightsizing Ratio.

Copyright © 2017 A.Balmer To Keep Or Not To Keep All Rights Reserved

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

Planning

September 30, 2020August 27, 2020Clutter Mangement, decluttering, Planning, Rightsizing, Space in your home, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

Planning is an important component when beginning any project. Creating specific, clearly defined goals will guarantee that you will heighten your momentum, motivation and focus. By visualising your best outcome, you will be able to physically recreate this goal in your home. Be ‘action’ focused and proud of the commitment you have made to address the clutter in your life. When we PLAN for obstacles that may cause distraction we will be able to anticipate and prevent these from extinguishing our attentiveness. Rightsizing is outcome-focused. Most of all believe you CAN and success will follow. Henry Ford said this about self-belief: ‘Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right’. When Rightsizing, projecting this self- belief means you are already halfway there to reclaiming your space!

**2020 Special Book Pricing** Click here to order your copy for $20.00 plus $5.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia http://bit.ly/2020RightsizeYourLife

Sustainable You

August 14, 2019June 12, 2019Clutter Mangement, Division of Objects Framework, Recycle, Rightsize Your Life! The Balanced Approach to Living Better With Your Belongings, Space in your homeLeave a Comment

To Recycle Or Not To Recycle

We all know we should RECYCLE; it is the smartest thing we can all do as individuals to increase the health of our planet. When we RECYCLE our household waste properly we are helping to save our planet’s precious resources. The fundamental benefits of our recycling choices can impact on pollution, landfill, wildlife and our energy consumption. When raw materials are made the way in which they are collected and processed it contributes to both air and water pollution. When we RECYCLE these materials, such as paper, plastics and metals, we are assisting to decrease the process of the production of new raw materials. This reduction reduces the amount of pollution that is produced to make these materials, thus reducing the overall amount of pollution that impacts upon the environment.

By recycling and reusing items that would otherwise end up in landfill, we are able to reduce the amount of items that end up in these spaces. Raw materials that are extracted from the environment destroy and threaten the habitats of many species. By recycling these we can help to assist our native wildlife in keeping their homes. We can also lower the energy used to extract, refine and transport many of the raw materials used for producing our everyday items, products and equipment. Recycling your plastic can help to counteract the impact the production this material has on our planet. In the production of new plastics the raw materials that are used are oil and coal. These two are the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases that are responsible for our Earth’s climate changes. Plastic is found in our waterways; around eight million tonnes is estimated to be floating around, which is responsible for the death of over one million sea creatures every year. The energy we can save from recycling just one plastic bottle is enough to power your computer for twenty-five minutes!

Today, paper is still the world’s most commonly used consumer product. In our digital world we are striving to become paperless in our homes and at workplaces, we are still consuming around two hundred and thirty kilograms per person per year in unrecycled paper. Here in Australia, we are world leaders in our paper recycling with around eighty-seven percent of all our cardboard and paper products being recycled. According to the website of Waster.com.au recycling one tonne of paper saves thirteen trees, two and half barrels of oil, four thousand one hundred kilowatts of electricity, four square metres of landfill and almost thirty-two thousand litres of water. With statistics like these how can we afford to not RECYCLE our paper and cardboard products? Thinking sustainably and introducing ourselves to mindful acquisition of the consumer goods sold with excess packaging will benefit our ethical responsibility, allowing us to do our bit in the conservation of our planet’s valuable resources.