What is it about the New Year that makes us want to throw out, clean up, and organize our lives? Whatever the reason, let’s take some tips from Marie Kondo’s best-selling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” (with a realistic spin) to declutter your home.

Maybe it’s putting away all of the holiday décor that makes us want to refresh our space. Or finding places to store our newly acquired stuff that leaves us with a deep desire to purge.

Did you make a resolution this year to declutter your home? If your decluttering tactics started strong only to fall flat time and again, it may be time to employ some new strategies. Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” holds several nuggets of wisdom to help make tidying a way of life. If you’ve read the book and were left feeling overwhelmed, you are normal, and may just need to tailor her tips to work for you.

Unless you are an extreme organizer, in which case you most likely don’t need this book, Kondo’s tactics will seem, um, borderline ridiculous. I consider myself an organized person and love a clean house, but Kondo is far more committed to tidiness than I will ever want to be.

That doesn’t mean you can’t take what you want from the book, make it your own, and leave the rest. While Kondo firmly states that varying from her tidying plan will only lead to sure failure (reverting back to your old ways and ending up with a cluttered existence), those of us who are a bit less neurotic about our organization can likely find a balance.

7 Tips from “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” (and some totally doable counterpoints)

1. A tidying marathon doesn’t cause rebound: Marie poo-poos those articles you read on doing a little decluttering at a time, and recommends going whole hog and doing the whole job at once. She feels that taking a do-some-everyday approach leads to never getting ahead of the clutter.

Doable idea: What if you tackled one small area at a time and got that whole (smallish) task finished to completion? You’d feel accomplished without the sinking feeling of taking on a tidying marathon.

2. Tidying is just a tool, not the final destination: Are you uncomfortable living in an ultra decluttered environment? Most of us probably are not. In her book, Kondo stresses the importance of getting to the root of your inner clutter and anxiety so you can learn to dwell happily in a tidy space.

Doable idea: Live in the level of tidiness that feels right to you. How much does it suck to feel like your home has to be as completely flawless as your friend with the perfect-at-all-times house? Can you live up to these standards? Probably, yes. Will you feel fulfilled and happy doing so? If the answer is no, shoot for what makes you feel at home.

3. Putting things away creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved: Marie feels that if you are sticking items away somewhere, you will eventually have another mess you need to clear out.

Doable idea: For someone with slightly above average storage skills, this doesn’t sound all that bad. Isn’t having a storage room/closet/cupboard for this very purpose? To store the stuff you don’t use every day? Hit that baby up with a good purging once a year and be thankful you have it the rest of the time.

4. Tidying up by location is a fatal mistake: Fatal? Yikes! Kondo admits she is ashamed that it took her three whole years to realize this huge error in judgement. Rather than tackle one area at a time, she advocates decluttering by category – books, clothes, dishes, etc. This is because we tend to store the same items in a variety of places in our home and we all tend to have way too much stuff.

Doable idea: I actually like this idea of sorting by category. After having recently moved, I can definitely cop to the having waaaay too much stuff deal. Still, do you really want all of your books in one place? It may be easier to handle and make more sense to sort by category per area (see #1).

5. Don’t change the method to suit your personality: Oops. That is exactly what this whole article is about. Marie says if you stick to her method, you can’t go wrong with decluttering and will be a lifelong tidy person. Sounds great, but after a month of folding our clothes into little sausage shaped logs (which does make for a lot more storage space, actually), we couldn’t keep up the maintenance and reverted back to the regular way.

Doable idea: If it stresses you out, takes up too much of your time or doesn’t fit into your lifestyle, you are going to hate it and probably won’t do it. Read the book. It’s short and sweet. You are sure to come away with tidbits that do work for you. One I love is to not let your family see items you are throwing away. Old stuff no one needs does not need to make its way back into anyone’s closet.

6. Clearly define separate storage spaces for each family member: Enough said. Love this!

Doable idea: The pitfall? You know there are going to be things (probably lots of them) that fall into the “everyone” category. Adding a communal storage area is inevitable when dealing with family stuff.

7. Empty your bag every day: Seriously? I should clean out my purse every day? Don’t know about you, but cleaning out my purse is an event all its own. One I try to avoid until absolutely necessary and certainly do not have time for every day.

Doable idea: Unless you have loads of time on your hands or a seriously empty purse or backpack, clear that thing out on your commute or while waiting to pick up the kids.

Which approach do you see in your future? Marie’s all or nothing clear out, or a gentler approach to declutter your home?

Have you read the book? Those of you who stick to Marie’s method, we’d love to hear from you. Chime in with a comment.

*Disclaimer: Help support EcoSalon! Our site is dedicated to helping people live a conscious lifestyle. We’ve provided some affiliate links above in case you wish to purchase any of these products.

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Make New Year’s resolutions that matter because you only live once.

With the new year approaching, you may be tempted to give into making lame New Year’s resolutions. Don’t do it. Losing weight, becoming more organized, and saving more money are just overrated. These are the kind of resolutions that we all are doomed to fail at because they are super boring and just don’t capture the imagination. Instead, choose alternative resolutions that are outside your comfort zone and inspire you to try something new. While there is value in saving money and getting healthier, the start of a new year is time for bigger stuff.

7 Alternative New Year’s Resolutions

1. Become an expert. Commit to beginning the journey of becoming an expert this year. It’s said it takes 10 years of practice and study to become an expert. Whether it’s gardening, playing chess, or beekeeping, take up something with the goal of making it to expert status in 10 years.
2. Literary travel. Follow the protagonist of your favorite book and make a pilgrimage to the setting featured in the book. Whether it’s Northern California from “Sideways” or Savannah, GA from “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” travel to the place from your favorite book.
   
3. Learn to say “yes” more often. As a person who used to say no to plans and opportunities, I started saying yes more, and it’s changed my life. Learning to say yes can take lead you down unexpected paths. Give it a try this year and see if it works for you.
4. Reskill. Reskilling is about becoming a more resilient and self-reliant person, helping to create a more sustainable future and learning to appreciate “lost” skills, like home canning, gardening, beekeeping, home brewing, and more. Give it a try this year.
5. Give into your desire to become a crazy cat lady, within reason of course. If you have a living situation that allows you to have cats, why not add 1 or 2 more, as long you can afford to care for them. Be proud of your cat lady status. Own it.
6. Get involved. Whether you decide to fight City Hall or Congress, stop being an armchair activist, take up a cause, and get actively engaged in making a difference in your community or the world.
7. Try something new–every week. Whether it’s trying a new food, finally taking up yoga, reading a new genre, or volunteering at the local food bank, commit to giving something new a try each week in the new year.

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Image: Silhoutte 2016 via Shutterstock

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Column New years resolutions to keep you eating well in 2015.

A new year, a new chance, right? With a blank slate, the world is your oyster. You could completely change your diet overnight if you really felt like. You could go from meat loving, bacon drooler to hardcore raw vegan overnight if you felt like it. Yes, the birth of a new year always gives us the opportunity for change.

Now normally, I am not big on new year’s resolutions, mostly because so often we set ourselves up for failure. We’ll do this, we’ll avoid that. New years resolutions are for the most part very black and white, with no room for the gray area. But life is all about the gray area.

Food related new years resolutions however don’t have to be black and white. Sure, you could commit to cutting out sugar, but you could also come up with a more sustainable option like “learn how to bake a cake without refined sugar.” Food allows us to experiment, and in the new year, what better way to live healthier than to get creative with what we eat?

With that in mind, here are ten new years resolutions that are all about eating and eating well.

1. Incorporate new foods – how about one a week?

If we’re not careful, routines can quickly turn into ruts. Take inspiration from the #52newfoods challenge and incorporate a new food – or a new way of preparing a food – every single week. It will keep you out of your culinary rut.

2. Find local replacements whenever possible

How about a little olive oil instead of coconut oil? Or blueberries instead of goji berries? There are plenty of things in our everyday diets that have alternatives that can be sourced from closer to home.

3. Learn how to bake a cake without refined sugar

You didn’t think I’d leave this off the list did you? You’d be surprised how many alternatives there are to sugar, and it doesn’t have to mean that your end product tastes like hippy sawdust.

4. Cut out meat for a certain number of meals, or days, every week

The world would be better off if we all ate less meat. However, not everyone is ready to go vegetarian. That’s ok. But what you can do is committing to eating less. If you already have one meat-free day in the week, why not make it two? Set a goal.

5. Stop using coffee pods

If you already ditched that nasty habit in 2014, good for you (and the planet). For the rest of you, please oh please don’t buy into this expensive, wasteful trend.

6. Cook a meal from a country whose cuisine you don’t know anything about

Certain ethnic cuisines get a lot of exposure – Mexican, Thai, Italian – but there is an entire world of food out there waiting to be explored. Don’t limit yourself. Pick a country and learn a few dishes. All I have to say is this: Indonesian satay sauce.

7. Grow something edible

I don’t care if you only have a tiny balcony space with room for one planter, you can at least grow some herbs. Get those hands dirty.

8. Don’t buy food based on looks

Good looking food doesn’t always mean better food, so remember that appearance shouldn’t trump quality. Support those ugly vegetables!

9. Decide on a few staples that you can make yourself

There are so many grocery store products that we could easily be making ourselves. Almond butter? Yup, you can do that at home. Nutella? No point in getting store-bought ever again. Rice milk? Cut that off the shopping bill.

10. Stay informed

To keep voting with your fork, you have to know what’s going on in the world of food. Want to keep up with what’s happening in food politics? A few great resources include Civil Eats, Marion Nestle’s Food Politics and Food Tank.

Now, here’s to a healthy and delicious 2015!

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Are your New Year’s resolutions realistic?

As 2013 comes to an end there’s one question at hand: are you going to make a list of resolutions?

While New Year’s resolutions are admirable – making an effort to make positive changes in our lives is certainly a good thing – often we make ones we can’t keep. “Eat better” or “be healthier” aren’t realistic resolutions as they don’t have any parameters. How do you measure your success? Set up a resolution that you can’t keep and you won’t get the benefit of succeeding.

About 45 percent of Americans make resolutions, but only about 8 percent actually keep them. Looking to make some resolutions for the new year? Here are some that are good for you, the environment and the community, and that you can adapt according to your own needs to ensure that you are successful in the new year.

1. I will take one evening a week to unplug

I mean no iPhone, no iPad, no social media, not TV. Nothing. Read a book. Write a letter. Draw a picture. Sit and think.

2. I will go one month without buying anything new

Try to not buy anything new during the month of January. Groceries don’t count of course! If you succeed in January, try again in February. The goal is to reconnect to your consumption habits; we all could do with buying less, and when we do feel the need to buy something, why not buy something second hand? It’s more economical and environmentally friendly.

3. I will eat one, two, three or even more, additional vegetarian meals a week

We all know that we should be eating less meat, so in 2014 if you’re not a strict vegetarian, commit to it! Choose a number of meals per week that you can realistically go 100 percent meatless and to make things easier, plan out those meals in advance.

4. I will look at hangtags and have that guide my shopping decisions

Want to do something to change the world of fast fashion? Look at your hangtags and think about the purchases you are making. If it helps, make a list of places you don’t want to be buying from.

5. I will not eat at fast food restaurants

It’s 2014, people, you should have stopped doing this a long time ago anyway.

6. I will incorporate a daily morning routine of meditation/breathing/yoga/stretching

No one is asking you to run a marathon (although if you want to do that this year, that’s a great goal), just plan out a short morning routine to get you going. After a few weeks of a daily practice, you’ll be surprised at how much your body craves it.

7. I will explore one new place a month

You don’t have to travel across the world to have an adventure. Commit to exploring in your own neighborhood, be it a new park, restaurant or even just a street you have never walked down.

8. I will smile more

It is proven to make you happier after all. Try one smile at a stranger per day and just see how much better you feel.

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The Japanese consider it inauspicious to drag old business – including clutter and dust – into a new year. You should, too.

“Just one last cigarette,” you inhaled on New Year’s Eve. “And I’m through,” you exhaled, blowing your promise in the wee hours of New Year’s Day. Sorry, 3 a.m. is technically tomorrow.

With the New Year comes the same old promises either made in the throws of drunkenness or the penance of a hangover. You promise to save money, get fit, lose weight, gain weight, get laid, go celibate, sober up, de-clutter. As far as the cigarettes are concerned, seriously, it’s 2012, quit already!

The rest of it – the money, love, body, and (especially) clutter woes – just might resolve themselves on their own if you start the year off by observing Oosouji.

“Big Cleaning”

Oosouji literally translates as, “ooo” (big) + “souji” (cleaning). It’s how the Japanese ring in the New Year. It’s a tradition that’s on par with the spring cleaning westerners reserve for cherry-blossom season – long past the expiration date of one of the top fifteen resolutions Americans make (and break) year after year: getting organized. Also at the top of that should’a, could’a, ah f*ck it list: finishing home improvement projects.

Japanese homes get a top-to-bottom scrub at this time of year as well as business offices and lots of school desks. The concept is that by eliminating the dirt from the old year, it creates a clean emotional slate with which to plan ahead for the next year.

The Japanese also plunge into the Big O as a way of showing the gods that they care, that they wouldn’t be embarrassed to have Toshigami over for a cup of tea come January. Gods don’t like clutter. They find it sloppy and lowly; humans tend to view it as a distracting and pretty major productivity killer.

Cultivate Minimalism

There’s a reason the Japanese are revered for their minimalism. It’s reflected in their architecture and design. Considering it in the cultural context of Oosouji, though, minimalism is something that is culled and cultivated, an art borne out of self-discipline.

Get 1, Toss 2

Follow the Zen Habits method of managing your stuff.

“The rule: whenever you bring in an item, you have to throw away two other items. First you cheat, by throwing out two pieces of paper, but soon you will have to move to big stuff.”

Welcome to self-discipline 101.

Take the Holiday Box Challenge

Care of the clutter experts at Organized Home, challenge yourself to: “Fill every seasonal mailing box [you received] with items suitable for donation to Goodwill…and deliver them to charity before year’s end.”

Except don’t wait until then. Do it now.

Turn Trash into Cash

Hold a stoop sale or, if your front door greets grass instead of concrete, a yard sale following the same tenets of New York’s finest.

Coming Out of the Closet

We store our past, present and future selves in our closets. Unless you’re in possession of a Bravo-scale closet, you only have enough room in there for the here and now. Even if you do have more shelf space than Oprah, a dress that you barely fit into then, kind of aren’t sure about now, and might possibly wear at some point down the line does not belong in there. It’s just not healthy to cling to that size zero past. You’ve got hips now. Move on.

Another juicy tidbit from Home Organizing:

“Behind the hangers and shelves and boxes lies a second reality. To declutter a clothing closet, you can’t stop with the clothes. You have to move on to the clutter of the psyche that lies behind the possessions.”

Therein lies the lesson, grasshopper.

The fastest way to sabotage a weight-loss, money-saving, or otherwise-self-improving plan is dragging all that dust and dirt and grime and mess with you from the year before. Start by chasing the dust bunnies out from underneath the bed and then deal with the personality crisis in your closet. After that, you can resolve to do just about anything.

Images: And Done; Tonomagokoro; Kibogaoka; K. Barker; Noukka Signe

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At this time of year, I used to line up all my New Year’s Resolutions. But these days, it’s easy. I’ve only got one, and it goes as follows:

I am never going to try to stick to a New Year’s Resolution ever again. (Except this one).

On December 31st, New Year’s Resolutions seem like such a terrific idea. It’s a 2,000 year old tradition to take this time to look backwards and forwards (not simultaneously, you’ll do yourself an injury), and it seems to have arisen from Janus, a mythological early Roman king that became the double-faced god of transition and lent his name to the first month of the Roman year, Januarius. At the beginning of this month, citizens exchanged gifts, reflected on their lives thus far, and resolved to be a better member of the Empire next year. (Easy as I-II-III). Today, we’re still doing something similar.

The theory is fine. The problem is how.

The statistics don’t paint a rosy picture. A recent study by the University of Hertfordshire found that of the roughly 1,500 people in a sample of 3,000 who believed they would keep to their Resolutions, less than 400 managed to do so. The study concluded that it was vital to set specific, achievable goals (and to not leave it until New Year’s Eve to decide what those Resolutions would be).

Personal journey time. It’s 1993, and thanks to a slovenly lifestyle and a diet I’m too ashamed to list here, I’m very unhealthy and somewhat overweight. I dread New Year, because it follows the festival of Yuletide self-indulgence when the “rules” (whatever they were) don’t apply. People rarely see my face at Christmas, because it’s obscured by food. As the New Year approaches, faced with the annual ceremony of whittling a new hole on my leather belt and a mirror that was telling me what I already knew…I’m aware that I need to change my habits, fast.

So each New Year’s Eve I put together a list of physical and mental standards a Mensa-qualified Green Beret would raise an eyebrow at – and usually managed to stick to them for a truly painful week, before abandoning the New Me with a weary shrug of self-disgust.

For many people, their New Year’s Resolutions are whoppingly ambitious revolutions. That’s part of the excitement – a New You – but they fail so often by trying to build Rome in a day (a feat beyond even Janus). The goals of the top ten American resolutions aren’t achievable by flicking a switch in your brain. Human beings are analog, not binary. In every sense, we don’t suddenly change…we evolve.

Twenty years ago, I somehow twigged this. From that point onwards, I stopped trying to reform my habits in one huge stride. Instead, I inched my way to good health in lots of small, sometimes laughably tiny ways. Sometimes I lapsed, and felt bad. But instead of overcompensating to try to catch up, I kept with the small steps. After a while, they because habits, and then second nature – part of me. I didn’t need to apply any effort because they were what I did naturally – which meant I had the time to work on some other aspect of my lifestyle that irked me.

If New Year Resolutions never work for you – try New Year Evolutions instead.

(Image: *SallyM*)

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