ccrat's Profile

Clothes you do not wear for six months are probably seasonal. Are you actually telling people to dump 50 percent of their wardrobes every six months? Dumb.

Five months? Does this idiot buy a new winter coat every year? Draconian. Makes as much a fetish of decluttering as some hoarders do of accumulating in the first place. Let's give de-cluttering a five-month break.

I keep books at home to read, to lend and to look at. Also, in a small apartment with a long shared wall, I use them as soundproofing.

1. Use the dishwasher for dirty dishes, and not just when guests are on the way. Put all the dirty ones in there immediately after use! That is what it's for! The oven is silly if you have a dw.
2. Put out clean towels. In fact, keep guest towels out at all times.
3. Use clumping litter and lots of it and your cat box will never smell bad.
4. I like the removable pet-hair throw idea, but my cat likes to sleep on pillows, so I just remove the pillows.
5. And if you have time, I really like the idea of cleaning the tabletop/toilet. (My TV is in another room.) You should also swipe off the bathroom sink. Just concentrate on the surfaces a guest might actually see/touch.
Confession: In 1994, I had to call a rubbish removal service to clean out my spare room. It held virtually nothing but stacks of paper and magazines I had swept off the table every time company came! For two decades!

Does anybody actually make old-fashioned glass-front secretary desks anymore? With the slanting cover that folded out into a writing surface and a couple of drawers underneath? Suppose you could rewire for a computer. Where else can you display your family pictures? The piano that used to hold them
is already gone.

It is incredible to me how expensive "simplification" is. I think I will keep my old, inefficient, drawer-filled desk.

too prissy and precious, and a hiding place for dirt, hair and germs. also breakable. what is the point? two thumbs down.

I am definitely old media and I check only about three blogs on a regular basis. Apartment Therapy is one of them, but I am beginning to find it too full of suggestions to declutter and pare down. Now I am thinking maybe the reason I don't need 60 blogs is that I like real, tangible stuff, like books, flowers, furniture and newspapers. Would hate to be living the virtual life that some readers seem to be trapped in.

This is really important: Make sure not to leave string around your cat after you finish playing! Swallowed string is a big, big cause of major, major intestinal surgery in cats -- if you are lucky. Also rubber bands are not good. If you love your cat (and I am sure you do) be careful about string.

This is true: famous cook in our family dies at 99. She was a caterer, a beloved college dining hall chief, made famous wedding cakes with recipes from her native Denmark, like that. So her daughter says each of us can have a recipe card to remember her by. I picked "Oatmeal cookies, the boys' favorite." You guessed it: Quaker Oats recipe, plus or minus a half teaspoon of baking soda!