FOUR MAGIC WORDS CUT CLUTTER?

What if dealing with our stuff is as simple as doing two things?

Start something

Finish something

Of course, joining a gym so you can lift Fred's junk out of the hall isn't the type of Start I had in mind.

 I don't want you to quit your job so you have time to Finish tearing everything out of the garage in search of the tax records from 2001.

I've seen the lists.  I've made the lists.  Lists like:

Finished coloring my hair

Finished my mani/pedi. 

Finished washing the bedding.

But my stuff was still all over the place.

As I've mentioned before, a wise and talented man (who got very prosperous, by the way) told me to make my bed.  Just make my bed. No explanation.  Years later I heard the reason:  Making my bed is finishing something.  It reminds me how simple it can be to finish something. Something like opening the box marked T, discovering the tax files, chucking them in a file cabinet.

My latest list looked like:

Start buying and using pants and skirt hangers that actually work

Start looking for some hangers that don't dump things on the floor

Start putting books to return in a small bag so they won't be everywhere

Made me much happier about my clothes, the car interior, and getting dressed.  BUT: 

We only have to start one (1) thing: Just one thing off a start list.

We only have to mark off a tiny section of the cabinets and start removing junk.   

Great habits start with one Start.

CLOSET BREAKTHRU or, hanging solution for difficult clothes

Went to WalMart to return the exercise mat with the "carcinogens" label.

Found my dream footstool (read Rubbermaid plastic stepstool.)  Note to self:  sometimes you have to go to a store where women work.  Guys don't understand concepts like: No, not a step ladder.)

But on to the other solutions:  first a little dish that clamps on the side of the round bin in my top drawer.  This little thing will corral all the ear plugs, miniature bottles of calendula cream, and lip balm.  Or the earrings, when I'm too sleepy to walk over to the little jewelry box.

Big finish:

They have the hangers I've always dreamed of and didn't have the sense to invent.  There is a rubber (okay, it's probably just non-slip plastic, work with me here.)  line across the top edge so the necks of my knit tops don't stretch out every few minutes.  The have (oh, this is too wonderful)  a tiny line of rubber between shoulders so a scarf will stay anchored there.  And more!  There is also rubber along the bottom that I think will keep my long, black knit skirt from rolling into a ball in the corner of the hanger or on the floor.

They look feminine enough and the price, my friends, is right.