Attacking the Clutter ~ Life draining e-mail subscriptions

Does your e-mail inbox look like this?  This is an actual picture of mine.  Every day I open it with about 100 unread messages all from different stores, newsletters, etc.  Well, if you have been reading my blog then you know I am attempting to "attack the clutter" in my life step by step.  So, next phase, massive e-mail abolishment.

This picture above is actually my e-mail account that I ditched as my default b/c I am always searching through a billion e-mails to get to one that I actually NEED to read.  I check it almost every day, but mainly to delete e-mails.  The excuse I gave myself as to why I keep it so cluttered is because one day I will NEED to know that some store is having the exact sale or coupon I need.

Then I realized:
1.  I waste a lot of time sifting through and deleting e-mails that I mostly don't even read
2.  These stores are hoping that I see their e-mail and buy something that I don't need and don't have the money for
3.  If I really need a particular item I can search the ads until I find it for the price I need (patience, right?)  Or I can buy a discounted gift card to the particular store prior to buying the item (more on that in another post).

The bottom line is:  I don't NEED all of these e-mails.  They are eating up my precious free time.  So I have begun a process of attacking the clutter of my e-mail inbox to lead a simpler life :)  It is a slow process of unsubscribing to every unnecessary e-mail I get when I see a new one I have not attacked.  It has been great and now I can focus on more important e-mails that come through.

photo source

I have left subscriptions to 2 of my favorite blogs that give me a list of ongoing coupons and great sales so I don't feel like I am missing out.  They do all of the work for me and don't clutter up my e-mail (2 e-mails as opposed to 65 - right?).  These blogs are:

Kansas City Mamas - great for anyone local here in KC that wants store ads, etc.
The Frugal Girls - more of a nationwide discount, coupon blog

Both of these blogs help keep my life simple and my budget on track.  I promise I will post soon about budgeting and financial peace :)  So far this e-mail attack has been so liberating and I have been able to revive my old e-mail account again.

How have you attacked clutter in your life?  Any other great ideas about e-mails, coupons/sales, etc?  I would love to hear them!  E-mail me or comment below!

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Attacking the Clutter...the Boys' closet and clothes

So, one of the ways that I am trying to move towards a simpler life is getting rid of all of the clutter in my life.  There are lots of things that can be considered clutter (physical stuff, negative people, an overwhelming schedule, life stress, etc.).  And I will probably focus on all of these at some point in different posts.  But I have decided to attack all of this clutter one step at a time.  So the first area of attack for me has been the excess amount of STUFF we own and get it down to a manageable size.  I am trying to keep what we truly need AND use and then sell, donate, or throw out the rest.  I am kind of going room by room in my house to accomplish this.

One of the first STUFF purges I am doing is in the closets going through the massive amounts of clothes we have.  This is the typical picture I see when I go into my boys' room to get the laundry.  An overflowing hamper full of clothes.



It may not look like much in that cute little puppy dog but it amounts to about 3 loads worth of laundry (and that isn't even all of their clothes - see where I am going here).  Now, you might be thinking.....why do 2 tiny little boys need so many clothes?  I don't know!!!  And it gets really overwhelming to do so much laundry b/c of course I wait until the hamper is full to do it b/c I don't have alot of free time as it is.  This is precious time I want to actually spend doing fun stuff with my family.  I know little boys get dirty alot but this is overkill....



So I decided as part of my clutter attack I was going to drastically reduce the amounts of clothes that each of my boys has for any given season (spring/summer or fall/winter).  So I first washed everything that was dirty so I could get a good look at the total number of clothes (it was pretty frightening). 

On a side note:  I have started to make my own laundry detergent to save boat loads of money and it is awesome.  I got the recipe from here.



I decided to limit it to enough clothes to get through 2 weeks (theoretically) before they would be going to school naked :) I also kept 2 "nice" outfits for each that was not to play in. I attempted to not have multiple of the same thing (except jeans).  For instance, if I had 2 pairs of solid black sweatpants then I picked my favorite one.  Then I sold a few pairs of clothes, gave most of them to my sister who is also going to have a little baby boy soon, threw a few things away, and saved a few "special" or memorable items to make some shadow boxes out of (more to come on that later).

So now the closet is simple.  It fits all of the boy's clothes.  I have a tub for the opposite seasons clothes and a tub for clothes that are too small.  I don't feel so overwhelmed and it makes picking out clothes for them to wear super simple due to less choices.

Boys's closet clutter - ATTACKED!

Do you have any ideas for attacking clutter and organizing clothing or closets?  I would love more ideas as I go through our house!!