Pens, Morven, Really?

I can hear you screeching now: "A two-part blog on PENS?!!"

Yes. A two-part blog on pens. Sort of. The blog posts were about more than that. They were about how little bits help, how sometimes things get messier when you're decluttering (pen traps all over the house), how you can make it a family/household project -- and that's just a few of the obvious themes!

Those blog posts were also about finding out why you're so cluttered to begin with. Is it that you buy too much Stuff? (Did your search yield multiple boxes of 50 pens that you purchased at the warehouse store?)

Why did you buy too much stuff?

• You watch the Home Shopping Network.
• You like to go to the Mall.
• You love eBay, Amazon Prime, and Overstock.com.
• You subscribe to too many e-newsletters and go for the sales.
• You buy birthday, anniversary, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Hannukah, and Easter gifts for everyone you know. You have gifts, wrapping, and cards stashed away

Is it because you can't find the stuff you already have? ("Gee, I didn't know I had two 24-roll packs of toilet paper! What's this doing in the kitchen cabinet anyway?")

• You can't find it because there's no place to put it.
• You keep misplacing things because you're too scattered.
• You keep misplacing things because you don't have a system.
• You just can't throw things away.

So now, at the end of the Pen Phase, think about why things are cluttered. Write down what you noticed. If you did this as a family/group exercise, get input from the other participants. They might have noticed something you didn't, and, best of all, they might become aware of the problems your household has and how to solve them.

That's enough for now. You have your homework. Get to it! And if you come up with other reasons, let me know. I'd love your input.