30 Quotes by Peter Walsh

If you choose a craft or hobby, then make sure it’s something you really enjoy. Do it because you want to, not because others expect it of you or because it’s something you once liked or because you don’t want those materials you bought to go to waste. just as you should choose the life you want, it’s also your choice how you spend your free time.

If a gift has come to you wrapped in obligations and tied tightly with a ribbon of guilt, then it’s not really a gift at all. It’s a manipulation. A gift should be something freely given that enhances your life and reminds you lovingly of the giver. If it’s not, you simply should not give it a place in your home.

Your home is within your control. It should be the place where you escape all negative forces in the world. Your home should be the antidote to stress, not the cause.

When clutter is sentimental, you need to figure out two things: first, how to separate the memory from the item, and second, how to preserve the memory in a way that honors and respects it. This process takes the power away from the object in a way that is really liberating and enables you to live your life without the sense of fear and worry of future loss.

Don’t let your stuff be a battlefield for your relationships. Instead of focusing on whose mess it is, think of it as a group problem that you’re going to solve together. Don’t use words like “yours” and “mine.” Talk about the clutter and challenges surrounding it as “ours.

Keeping flat surfaces clear is perhaps the single most important thing to keep in mind for your kitchen – as it is for any room in the house. A clear countertop makes any kitchen look more organized. Once the flat surfaces start to disappear under clutter, you lose your motivation to keep the area organized and you open the area to attracting more dust and dirt, further compounding the clutter problem. Consider flat surfaces your preparation area – not your storage area!

Not sure what you use and what you don’t? Here is a tried and true way to find out. Empty the contents of your kitchen utensil drawers into a cardboard box. For one month, only put a utensil back into the drawer if you take it out of the box to use it. At the end of the month seriously consider discarding everything that’s still in the cardboard box. Face it: If it’s still in the box after four weeks, you don’t need it!

More than a marketplace to sell used goods, eBay is one of the best reality checks out there when you’re having trouble letting go of something because you think it’s worth a lot of money. Going on to eBay tells you exactly what your possessions are worth on the open market. If that “valuable” figurine you inherited from your grandmother is selling for $9.99 on eBay, then it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Lots of kitchens have a “catch-all” drawer. What’s in here? It’s always a surprise. Soy sauce packets from carryout, rubber bands, pennies, matches, pushpins, a stray refrigerator magnet. I’m only going to say this once: No. Junk. Drawer. Do I make myself clear?