Clutter drives me crazy almost any time, but it seems like it gets worse during the holidays. We’re working with the charity Boat Angel, which accepts boat and car donations, to offer what we think are the 6 easiest ways to declutter before the holidays hit.

They’ll help reduce the stress of trying to deal with all your anxiety-causing, space-wasting “stuff”  by helping you focus on what you can get rid of (the first secret to decluttering), while organizing what you want to keep.

1) Start With Your Clothes – Keep What You Love and Wear; Donate the Rest

Clothing is one of the biggest sources of clutter in my home and maybe yours, too. We have a tendency to hold on to clothes we’ve outgrown or whose styles have outgrown us. Little wonder that all those shoes, dresses, shirts, pants, sweaters, scarves, coats and jackets end up in big piles at the back of our closets, or falling off hangers, or stuffing up drawers.

Here’s how I keep my clothes clutter under control.

At the beginning of every season, I make a big pile of the past season’s clothes that no longer fit, that are no longer stylish, or that I just don’t like any more.

For example, with winter arriving, I’ve put the fall season sweatshirts, sweatpants, jeans, flannel shirts, blouses, skirts and dresses I never or barely wore into a pile. That created room in my closet and drawers for the winter clothes I think I want to wear.

Next, as I put my winter clothes away, I’m looking at them critically and trying on some things before they automatically go into a drawer or get hung up.

From that lot, I also put aside the apparel I just don’t think I’m going to wear anymore.

It probably takes two hours to go through my closet and all my drawers.

I make the time go faster by playing some music and having a cup of tea on hand to sip as I sort. When all is said and done, I have more room, my clothes are better organized, and I have a bag full of garments to donate to Goodwill or the local thrift store.

Since Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and Purple Heart all do pick-ups, I simply call them to say the goods are ready, then put them on my porch and voilá, they’re gone before I know it.

2) Work Room by Room, One Room at a Time

The same sorting process works well in every room in the house. In the kitchen, pull out items from the pantry you no longer use. Donate old housewares to a community kitchen or half-way house. Donate unopened food to a food pantry.

In the garage, collect excess tools and sporting gear, and consider whether now is the time to donate your car, boat, trailer or motorcycle.

A quick internet search will provide you a list of groups that are always looking for these types of goods and will allow you to even donate a boat without title.

3) BOGO – Buy One, Give One

Once I’ve made room in closets, cupboards and drawers, the trick is to keep them from filling up again. I make a practice of trying to give away the old version of something when I replace it with the new. It helps to keep a “donation bag” handy to put the old items into, rather than stuff them in some out-of-the-way place.

4) Recycle electronics

Among the biggest sources of household clutter are old electronics. Smart phones, computers, lap tops, tablets, printers, fax machines, cables, chargers – who doesn’t have a drawerful of electronic clutter they’d love to see emptied? Fortunately, electronics are as easy as clothes to unload, since pretty much every big box store that sells them also takes them back. Staples, OfficeMax, and BestBuy all make it easy by having drop-off boxes so you can just walk in and leave your old gear. Just make sure to swipe the data drives and remove the sim cards before you do.

Here’s our post on 15 Things You Can Recycle to Ease Christmas Clutter Clean-Up

5) Cancel Catalogs

Retail catalogs are a constant source of clutter in my home. They’re also a scourge on the planet because they want so much paper! You can cut that way back by refusing to provide your address or phone number when you shop in person (of course, if you buy online, you’ll have to provide your address). Another option is to call the 1-800 number provided in the catalog and ask the operator to remove your name from the company’s mailing lists. This will only take a couple of minutes. You can also sign up with CatalogChoice, and they’ll help you cancel the catalogs you no longer want to receive.

6) Give Everything a Place

Once you’ve gone through your home and removed the unnecessary and unused bits and pieces, you can organize what’s left.

But don’t be random about it. Put shoes in an over-the-door hanging shoe rack. String ties on hangers or tie racks. Use shelves so you can see what you have where.

Visit the Container Store to get ideas for the best way to organize your belongings, and pick up some baskets, shelves, or boxes if you need them. Clear boxes and bins are best for seeing what’s inside, but you can also label them on the side or top to keep track of their contents.

By the way, if you have kids at home, make sure you teach them to keep their clutter to a minimum, too. Even when they’re still quite young, kids can be taught to place dirty clothes in hampers, hang their back packs in a mud room, put their toys in the toy box, and place art supplies in a container when they’re finished using them. Setting aside 15 minutes before bedtime for everyone to put away their things is a good way to get the entire family involved.

Don’t forget to ask the kids to recycle and donate the toys, books, and gear they no longer use.

NOTE: Our partners helps us bring you the expert content you need to live the greener life you want. Our editorial opinions remain our own.

The post The 6 Easiest Ways You’ll Want to Declutter Before the Holidays Hit appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Plus, when you swap stuff free, in addition to getting rid of clutter and reducing trash, you free up your budget to afford other items that you need to buy. Some greener products can be a bit more expensive than their conventional counterparts, but when you swap stuff for free, you create more room in your budget for the green essentials you want.

Of course, another way to increase your budget for green goods is to use cash back credit cards when you do make a purchase, and to use that free cash back money to supplement your overall green living budget. That’s why we’ve teamed up with CreditLoan.com on this post. Swapping for what you want, and using cash back to help you afford what you need, is a pretty good way to help pay for your greener lifestyle.

5 Ways to Swap Stuff Free

Books – Put up a Little Free Library

Little Free Libraries are just about the easiest way to swap books I know of. Here’s how they work: You build or put up a water-proof box where it can be accessed any time of the day or night (many people put them on their front lawns). The box isn’t too big – maybe 24 inches wide and 30 inches high. It closes with a latch, but doesn’t lock, so anyone can put a book in or take one out. It might have 2 shelves in it so it can accommodate 20 or so books. Anyone walking buy is welcome to take a book out for free. You can also put one of your own books in for free – in fact, that’s the idea. Take a book out, put a book in. If you don’t want to build an actual box, you can get creative by using a water-proof trunk, an old refrigerator, a small furniture chest, or anything else that helps to hold the books.

Of course, you can always donate books to a school or a library. But for a true swap? Consider putting up a Little Free Library on your block, and encourage neighbors to do the same. You can also put up free libraries in apartment buildings and condo and townhome complexes.

Clothes – Set up a clothing exchange with friends and neighbors

Moms are masters when it comes to swapping their kids clothes. It’s easy to swap clothes an older kid has outgrown with a mom who has a toddler. Teenage girls are great at swapping, too. It extends their budgets  and keeps them up on the latest fashions without having to lay out too much cash. But what if you need to clear out your own closet and would like to change up your wardrobe a bit? Try organizing a clothing swap with friends and family, or colleagues at work. Here are the basic “rules” to help make it a success. Essentially, host a fun coffee or happy hour. Invite a group as large or small as you want. Ask everyone to bring clothing that is clean and in good condition. Have a place where all the clothes can be set out by size and/or style. Then let the swapping begin. Donate any leftover clothes to a local charity. GetRichSlowly.org lays out more precise guidelines for a successful swap here.

Garden Plants – Swap seeds, seedlings, and the plants themselves

Swapping garden plants is a no brainer for a lot of reasons. Plants can be expensive, and there’s no guarantee they’ll thrive in your garden. When you swap, you get plants for free, keep plants out of the trash if you don’t compost, and can get access to plants from gardens that get the same amount of rainfall, sunlight, or pests as yours. Swap plants informally via a neighborhood list serv, or join your local garden club and start an annual spring plant swap. By the way you can also swap the vegetables and herbs you grow for ones you don’t.

Don’t Miss: Don’t Buy Plants. Swap! (I did, and saved $50.)

Kids’ Stuff – Swap Toys, Games and Sporting Equipment

Kids usually outgrow their toys and games long before those things break. This is the kind of stuff that has a tendency to pile up and create a lot of clutter, so why not keep putting it to use by setting up a swap? You can organize it the same way you organize a clothes swap, but with an added bonus: get your kids involved, and teach them from an early age to swap and share rather than always think the first they should do is buy news.

Meals – You Make Two, She Makes Two

Swapping meals is great when you want to eat delicious home-cooked food but don’t have time to do all the cooking and shopping every week. One year, a neighbor and I who both worked outside the home and had two little kids to feed decided to swap meals during the week. She made enough for my family two nights a week, and I made enough for her family two weeks a night. It was a great way to have delicious suppers without having to worry about them every night. Plus, it introduced us to recipes that the other was unfamiliar with. If you do this, set it up for a trial for a month. Agree on ingredients and make sure you know if anyone has any food allergies. Then, figure out the best delivery time. (This is not a potluck, so people aren’t going to each others’ homes for dinner, though they could.)

What are your favorite ways to swap stuff free? Please share!

The post 5 Ways to Swap Stuff Free appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Do you know you should pay bills online, but just can’t bring yourself to make the switch?

I’m not making fun of any of these reasons (well, not much). But I do want to encourage you to get over them. Here’s why, courtesy of ecoPayz, our sponsors for this post.

THE GREEN BENEFITS OF PAYING BILLS ONLINE

√ Better for the Planet – Paying your bills online requires zero paper, zero ink, and you won’t use any energy posting a bill that needs to be physically delivered. PayItGreen calculates that in just one year, by switching from paper to electronic billing, statements, and payments, the average American household would:

Save 6 pounds of paper

Save 23 pounds of wood

Prevent the production of 29 pounds of greenhouse gases.

That’s like not driving 30 miles, or burning 2 gallons of gasoline, or planting one ree seedling and letting it grow for 25 years.

 √ Efficiency – Paying bills online takes less time than putting a bill stub in an envelope, writing a check, addressing and stamping the envelope, and mailing it.

√ Less Clutter – This is a big one for me. I hate it when paper piles up all over the place. Every bill comes in an envelope, with a paper bill, probably a few promotional fliers, and a mailing envelope. Paying bills online helps keep paper clutter to a minimum.

√ Safety – Despite the stories of identity theft, it’s much easier to steal a paper check in an envelope than an electronic bill payment.

√ Community – I’m not saying you’ll make more friends if you pay your bills online. But won’t you feel better knowing that you’re part of a community of green-minded consumers who are doing the right thing?

Many banks make it easy to set up direct online payment transactions. Credit card companies often offer bonuses for signing up, like air miles or some period of delayed interest payment play.

Alternatively, you can use an electronic wallet system like ecoPayz. In this approach, you can fund your ewallet from your bank account, then use ecoPayz on your computer or phone to shop online or send money or receive funds from around the world in any of 45 currencies.

You can use it for online shopping as well as bill paying. If you’ve had a tough time establishing credit, no worries: unlike a bank account, you do not need to go through a credit check to open this account.

The next time a company asks you to set up online bill paying, give it a try. You have nothing to lose – if you don’t like it, you can always go back to paper bills. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll probably wonder what took you so long.

The post Which of These 5 Silly Reasons is Keeping You From Paying Your Bills Online? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Do you hate clutter? I sure do! 

In my house, clutter is a “five letter word” that actually means “paper – and too much of it.” Yes, that’s a picture of my office, above, before I got clutter under control.

Where does it all come from? Too much junk mail I won’t read. Too many newspaper advertising supplements I don’t use. Too many coupons I don’t clip. Too many business cards from people I don’t know. Too many receipts I don’t need. Too many empty cardboard boxes I can’t fill. Too much throwaway packaging I can’t use. (Yes, this is what my desk looks like every now and then…cluttered!)

Maybe all this papery nonsense served a purpose at one time, but it becomes clutter in my eyes when it physically gets in my way. It’s especially annoying when it covers my desk or makes a mess of my coffee table. Then, it can take me HOURS to go through it, sorting, shredding, tossing, WASTING precious time. To add insult to injury, all this wasted clutter weighs down the recycling bin I have to lug out to the street every week.

Plus, it pains me to think about the environmental impact paper clutter has. According to 41pounds.org, a group that works to reduce unwanted junk mail, more than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail. Just creating and shipping junk mail produces more greenhouse gas emissions than 9 million cars.

What to do? Reduce, Reorganize, Recycle

My anti-clutter crusade is based on these three strategies. I am reducing the amount of waste paper coming into my house as much as possible. I’ve re-organized my filing systems slightly so I can keep track of the minimum amount of paper I need to hold on to. And I’m recycling the rest.

Here are My 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Cut Clutter Now!

1) Pay bills and bank online. Many banks now actually charge their customers a monthly fee to send them a paper statement (my Bank of America outlet charges $8.95/month for this “service.”). So not only does online banking reduce the clutter in my house; it saves me money, too. Plus, paying bills online gives me longer access to my capital, since I can pay bills the same day instead of having to send a check a week ahead of time. In addition, I’m saving money on postage – not a lot in a month, but dollars that will add up over time.

2) Read newspapers and magazines electronically. Why? To avoid all the ads. The news part of the paper is actually rather thin; the advertising supplements are huge. If I bought what they’re selling it might make a difference, but I don’t.  When I want to know what a store has on sale, I check out their website before I go shopping, or pick up their sales paper when I enter the store. If I want the coupons, I can usually find them online: there are all kinds of mobile phone coupon apps so you can skip the print-out completely. (You can find coupons for green products here. ) Meanwhile, I read the paper on my laptop or my phone. I don’t have an e-reader, but you could certainly read newspapers and magazines there, too.

3) Share or go to the library. Sharing works especially well for for magazines. I share a variety of magazines with my neighbors, and drop in at my local library for others.

4) Stop junk mail and unwanted catalogs. You can use a service like 41pounds.org who will contact junk mailers on your behalf. What I’ve found, however, is that the most effective solution is to call the contact number directly on the mail or magazines I don’t want and ask them to remove me from their lists. You can also put a “No Solicitations, Please” sign on your door or mailbox so people won’t leave their sales fliers at your home.

5) Skip paper receipts. I don’t take receipts at the ATM, the gas pump, or the grocery store. I’ve discovered that grocery stores will usually take back a product they sell without a receipt; but honestly, I almost never take anything back to the grocery store, so why bother with the receipt? I only take receipts when I buy hard goods, like clothing or some kind of equipment. I keep all receipts in a file, just one file per year, so they’re not on my desk. NOTE: Whole Foods market gives its customers the option to receive receipts online, though I don’t want this clutter in my e-mail box, either.

6) Limit business cards. I recently threw away a shopping bag half-full of business cards I’d accumulated over the last couple of years because they were just cluttering up my office. I couldn’t remember who most of those people were, anyway – and I’m sure they don’t remember me. Now, I only give out business cards to people whom I really should be networking with, and I only take business cards so I can follow up with people I really want to be connected to.

7) Carry reusable bags. In addition to grocery bags, you can use small mesh bags for produce or grains you buy in bulk. I have a couple of snazzy shopping bags I use when I go clothes shopping, too. Plus, I just say “not” to the extra tissue paper some stores like to wrap around the items I buy.

8) Use a blackboard. Note pads and stickies are supposed to keep people organized, but they’re a big source of clutter for me, given how easily they stack up. A clutter-free alternative? Blackboards. Put one in the kitchen where you can leave “notes” for family members, put one in your office or workroom so you can write notes to yourself.

9) Consolidate.  Right now, I’m in the process of consolidating the contents of five different notebooks into just one. It will make my life sooooo much simpler. I’m also consolidating paper files into fewer folders that have only the essential papers in them. Everything else is headed to the recycling bin. Speaking of which…

10) Make recycling easy. Keep a recycling bin nearest to where the most paper comes into your house or where it creates the most clutter. Some options: 1)Near the front door, so you can deep-six unwanted mail before it makes it to the dining room table. 2)In the kitchen, so you can easily recycle packaging. 3)In your office, so you can keep paper from piling up on your desk.

The post Hate Clutter? 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Cut Clutter Now! appeared first on Big Green Purse.

During the post-holiday season, retail catalogs begin swamping mailboxes as the stores where you shopped add your address to their mailing lists.  The huge amount of paper and ink used to produce catalogs is an environmental no-no. Producing all these catalogs is a big waste of energy and resources, especially because most of the products and information can be found on the retailers’ websites.

Put a stop to the catalog deluge before it begins by refusing to provide your address or phone number when you shop.  If you place your order by phone, tell the operator to keep your name off the company’s mailed catalog lists. (image source)

If catalogs are still piling up at your house, here’s how you can stem the paper tide:

1) Call the 1-800 number provided in the catalog and ask the operator to remove your name from the company’s lists.

2) Sign up for free with Catalogchoice.org and cancel catalogs you no longer wish to receive.

3) Pay $19.95 and Stopthejunkmail.com will let you choose which catalogs you wish to keep; the group will contact the others repeatedly until they have removed you from their lists.

4) Stop 85-90% of all unwanted catalogs and junk mail for 5 years for $41 at 41pounds.org.

For more ways to reduce catalog clutter, see all ten tips here.

Forest Ethics calls junk mail an ‘environmental crisis.‘ You can sign their petition to end junk mail here.

The post Ten Ways to Control Catalog Clutter appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Your effort is worthwhile. Clothes and shoes take up more space than any other nondurable goods in the solid waste stream because, says the U.S. EPA, only 16% of discarded clothes and shoes are recycled. Despite the best efforts of charities and thrift stores, millions of tons of clothing are wasted every year.

My rule of thumb? “Never throw clothes away unless they’ve been reduced to rags” (though that’s when I use them to dust the furniture). Charities like Salvation Army, Good Will and Purple Heart will gladly pick up your clothes on your doorstep and take them to their distribution centers, keeping them in circulation for perhaps many years more. Patagonia’s Common Threads Garment Recycling Program accepts worn out fleece, cotton t-shirts and some polyester, and transforms the old fibers into new fashions, like the fleece vest pictured above.

Other options?

Dress for Success – This international not-for-profit organization promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire along with job counseling. Each woman “dressed for success” receives one suit when she lands a job inerview; she can receive a second suit or outfit when she finds work. Since 1997, Dress for Success has served almost 300,000 women around the world. You can donate suits, blouses, pants, shoes, jewelry, briefcases, black tote bags, and other appropriate business apparel.

Soles4Souls – Providing free footwear to people in need around the world, this nonprofit organization startede after the Asian tsunami in December 2004, continued in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and today distributes shoes worldwide. It also partners with Dress for Success to provide career footwear.

One World Running – This Colorado-based non-profit organization ships donated running shoes, soccer gear, and baseball equipment to athletes in Central America, Haiti, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe – The program grinds up and recycles discarded shoe material to build playground mats, basketball courts, and running tracks. (BTW, don’t miss the great video!)

DIY Jeans Recycling – Here are 25 ways you can recycle your jeans.

It should go without saying that the other half of the recycling coin is to buy clothes made from recycled fabrcis. Find some fashions at Clothes Made From Scrap.

Want more ways to recycle just about everything? Check out this month’s Green Moms Carnival posts, hosted by RecycleYourDay.

The post Recycle Your Clothes? It’s Easier Than You Think. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

  The brainchild of Annie Leonard, an “activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats,” the story tackles “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.”

Listen closely, because Annie barely catches her breath as she reviews the life cycle costs of the products we use. From the extraction of natural resources to their production into iPods, shoes, dishwashers and cars, to their distribution, consumption and disposal, Annie examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” —and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

Her three-fold message resonates completely with what you find time after time on Big Green Purse: you don’t need as much stuff as you may think you do; don’t buy stuff you don’t need; and make the stuff you buy matter.

The post The Story of Stuff appeared first on Big Green Purse.