A Friend Stopped By | 12/03/2008 5:00 am

3 Steps to Living Well in a Dismal Economy, by Julie Morgenstern

By Julie Morgenstern

Next, study the pile of brand new, never-used products, and:

Toss anything that is expired.
Cherry pick any products that would make great gifts for the holidays (there — some of your shopping is already done).
Display the remaining goodies on one or two dedicated shelves in your linen or storage closet — and consider that your “In-Home Shopping” zone. Group and display the products by category as you’d look for them at a store (hair care, skin care, foundation, blush, lipstick). Next time you run out of your current shampoo, soap or body lotion, go first to your In-home Shopping Zone, and pull something from there. If it’s not there, you get to shop. This system not only prevents unnecessary purchases, it also leverages the time and money you invested shopping for those items in the first place.

3. Kitchen and Pantry: An obvious arena to save money in this economy is in our food budgets — which means cutting back on restaurant meals and takeout, and getting back to home cooking. Chances are your kitchen cabinets have been used more for storage than retrieval over the past few years. If your kitchen is disorganized, the prospect of cooking can be overwhelming. Get your kitchen ready for simple and easy home-cooked meals by clearing out the clutter.

Clean out your pantry and then your fridge of all ancient, scary condiments (including every $8.93 bottle of gourmet marinade you bought and never used, along with the guilt over the money wasted).
Recycle all but the most uniform, matching set of plastic containers you’ve accumulated over the years (how many do you need?!) to keep leftovers fresh.
Weed through your utensil drawer, tossing every rusty, bent or useless utensil that’s in your way when you’re hunting for your best spatula.
Part with scratched, rusty pots and pans; keeping a sensible set and the few old heirloom pots that you use constantly (cast-iron fry pan, etc.).
Choose up to six cookbooks that offer the best promise of quick, simple home-cooked meals, and take a couple of hours to tag a handful of easy recipes as your start-up list for your new home-cooking operation.

Yes, the economy is scary. But it can feel good to get back to the essentials.

Getting organized in these three areas will help you uncover lost treasures, put the excess to good use and create a more-functional space and life. It’s one easy way to take command in a world that’s lately been feeling a little out of control.

30 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Wonderful Ideas…………..now If I could just make myself do them. I have a spare bedroom I made into a huge closet…………..it’s full. Looks more like a dress shop. I have stuff hanging on hangers I’ve never worn. I love clothes and can’t bare to part with them. I’m going to try. I’m going to remodel my kitchen in Feb…………..so I’ll have to empty all the cupboards, that will be a good time to throw a lot of stuff away or make a donation to the Goodwill. I also love Perfume………….I just discovered tonight that I have an extra 20 brand new bottles. I think I will give most of them away as Chritmas gifts this year.

By Dona Howlett on 12/03/2008 6:14 am

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Oh Dona, Had I not decided to be a personal trainer in my next life I’d have been a professional organizer. I LOVE to organize and have always led a very “stuff free” life. Your closet and house are the kind I literally itch to get into and start getting rid of things lol. the problem if i’d have decided to be a professional organizer is that i’d have probably done it for free all the time! Ironically my youngest daughter is just like me. give her a chance to come to your house and get rid of stuff and she’s happy. True story… when i sold the house i’d raised my kids in… it had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a family room. My youngest and I moved into a 600 square foot apartment with two tiny bedrooms and two tiny baths. I could fit everything I wanted in that apartment. I didn’t even have to get a storage unit! I purged some things and got rid of furniture. but not that much. My husband and i downsized into a condo two years ago. it’s 1400 square feet. Two bedrooms, an office, no laundry room (washer and dryer in closet) and I have empty cupoards in this house. The only thing that ever bums me out is that I have no wall space for art or pictures and no place to keep books. so I give all the books away after i read them and I don’t buy art!

By Chrome Toe on 12/03/2008 8:38 am

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Kelly, I wish you lived close to me………..I’d hire you or your daughter to come right over and straighten me out. On occasion when one of my daughter in laws is visiting for a few days she tries to organize some of my stuff. She is never here long enough to make much of a dent. My worst issue is paper stuff. Now that I’m so darn crippled I can’t do the things myself. I’m going to have to try to get someone to come in and do the physical work with me saying………yes, no, give away. I need to take photo’s of stuff I hate to part with………..a photo doesn’t take much room. I have lots of wall space. My entrance hall is a Photo gallery. I love it, so does everyone else. Even strangers like to look at the photo’s I spent about $11,000 on art to put on my walls………….so I enjoy those also. I just need to clean out drawers and cupboard, linen closets. I hope I get it done before I die…………..I’d hate to leave all this stuff for my kids to deal with. It took my sister and I almost 2 years to get my parents house in order to be able to sell… They were really pack rats………….I’m not that bad. Most people who lived during the 30’s depression seemed to be pack rats……….always afraid they would’nt have anything.

By Dona Howlett on 12/03/2008 12:41 pm

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my mom wasn’t a pack rat but she was a child of the depression and had starved. so she kept everything she needed. when she died she was still using the second hand pots and pans she’d used when i was a kid at home. She had the same ten knick knacks she’d always owned. the same living room furniture we’d had when i was in highschool. if it could be used she kept it. the big thing she hated as she aged was that she couldn’t cook as much so a lot of her food came out of things like yogurt containers, cottage cheese containers. she wouldn’t throw them away as she saw it as wasteful. i didn’t have to get rid of a lot of stuff when she died but when we moved her to be near us I had to throw away about 100 containers! and she was mad at me because they could be “useful”! The key to organization really is not a lot of sentiment. I hate to say it but it is. I am not overly sentimental. i don’t keep cards people send me. just a few. I don’t keep paper at all. I keep only what i know the IRS would require me to have if I got audited and that’s it. and that’s in boxes and files organized. Pictures I keep but in boxes and picture books. And i’m really really good at getting rid of clothes. I have a few things i’ve owned 25 years. but those are things i wear. I give away books after i read them. donate magazines every week. read news online. i go through the “junk drawers” every year and it turns out… there’s a reason they call them “junk drawers”. most of them are filled iwth junk! lucky for me though… my kids are 19-26. If they don’t need it they know someone who does.

By Chrome Toe on 12/03/2008 12:57 pm

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Kelly, You are so right………….sentimentality will get you every time. unfortunatly, I’m sentimental. Your kids are just beginning life……….how nice. My two sons are 57 and 54…………I teach them and tell them they also are Senior Citizens. I do appreciate the encouragment………….I’m going to try to take about a 1/2 hour a day and start in one room at a time and de-clutter. I don’t make any promises…………just hope I’ll do it! LOL

By Dona Howlett on 12/03/2008 5:05 pm

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Kelly - on your way to Dona’s house, could you please stop by mine and give me some help? My extra room (formerly my office) is filled to the brim with boxes of paper, paints, canvases, scrapbooks, games, and books. I need some serious downsizing therapy.

By Maurine H on 12/03/2008 7:35 pm

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Dona, Is that a childhood picture of you in the avatar? I got rid of a car load of clothes and shoes last year, and now I’m diligently trying to keep my closet under control. As for the kitchen, my daughter died laughing when I told her I had cleaned out the spice cabinets and found some of those jars so old they still had hand price tags instead of the barcodes. My big dilemma is what to do with the cooking magazines in my basement as well as boxes of books. I have Gourmet, BonAppetit and Food&Wine going all the way back into the 70’s. No one wants them, and I know I’m not going to cook like that again. Good luck on your de-clutter. As a Realtor, I find that a cluttered home is so much more difficult to sell, and always have to convince folks to either get rid of their stuff or have it stored off premises somewhere.

By Diana T on 12/03/2008 1:15 pm

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Diana, Yes, me when I was 22 months old. I know what you mean about clutter when selling property. I had my rental property Staged when I sold it a few years ago. It was worth the money. It sold the first day on the market.

By Dona Howlett on 12/03/2008 5:01 pm

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Diana, I had tons of those same magazines…as well as Cooking Light and some shelter rags. My daughter (who had scrap booking magazines) and I were having a garage sale, so we put all the magazines in a box marked 5 for $1. They sold like hotcakes. We got rid of every single magazine in very short order.

By Lee Harrison on 12/03/2008 8:55 pm

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In the Chicago area, personal stylist and wardrobe consultant Marian Rothschild can help with closet editing, organization, and putting together outfits that are in your closet that you never even knew you had! Clients can also have a style assessment, make-up lesson, and personal shopping. Please visit www.marianrothschild.com for lots of free ideas, advise, tips, and information on style, beauty, fashion, and health. The blog is especially helpful and the before & after pictures are amazing!

By marian rothschild on 12/08/2008 11:22 am

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For a very long time at our house, we have been in a recession. Clothes buying has occurred at second hand stores, and I think my clothes look just as good as my stuck-up high faluting neighbor who spends thousands on her clothes. I imagine there are many women who contribute to this site who have been faced with some very real economic situations during the last several years. Although I’m still not rich, at least things have eased a bit for us. It’s just hard imaging one of the wow head women contributers going through what some of us have been through or are still going through. I look for the cheapest toiletries and found some great ones at discount stores which work even better than the ones which used to cost me a fortune. I cook cheaply instead of extravagantly as I used to do. I give all of my unwanted household items and clothes items to the thrift shops so that someone else can benefit. Also, I found a place in my area which is called “Give An Item and Take An Item. Although I don’t ever take anything, I give them a lot as everything is free for anyone who needs it. What a way to assure people have access to the necessities. I agee….clean out and “give away” to help others!

By Rainbow Power on 12/03/2008 6:33 am

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Learn to hem your pants, darn your socks, clean your shoes, take your shoes to the cobbler when the soles or heels need repair - in other words, take CARE of your stuff. That’s what we used to do when clothes weren’t viewed as disposable. My mother knitted sweaters and, when we outgrew them, she unraveled them and knitted bigger ones (with one color as trim). Never put your clothes in the dryer - it shortens the life of anything with spandex or elastic (bras, underpants etc.) - and, with care, you can save on dry cleaning bills if you wash fragile clothes with woolite in cold water.

By Sam Mirando on 12/03/2008 7:19 am

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Sam, I just read an article that said the Shoe Repair business was booming. There used to be over 100,000 repair shops in the USA………now only 8,000. One one said it’s at least a months wait when a new customer comes in.

By Dona Howlett on 12/03/2008 4:55 pm

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The following comes from a source at the Treasury Department. Something to think about when we are doing our Christmas shopping: You may want to share this with people that you know of who intend to give gift cards around the holidays. They need to be sure the cards will be honored afterwards. They should deal with cards on hand and any other business they have with these stores and others. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankruptcy Planning’. Below is a partial list of stores to be cautious about. Circuit City (filed Chapter 11) Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January Cache will close all stores Talbots closing down specialty stores J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots) Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots) GAP closing 85 stores Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January Wickes Furniture closing down Levitz closing down remaining stores Bombay closing remaining stores Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January Whitehall closing all stores Piercing Pagoda closing all stores Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January. Home Depot closing some stores Macys to close 9 stores after January Linens and Things closing all stores Movie Galley Closing all stores Pep Boys Closing 33 stores Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores JC Penney closing a number of stores after January Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores. Wilson Leather closing down all stores Sharper Image closing down all stores K B Toys closing 356 stores Lowes to close down some stores Dillard’s to close some stores

By Josie Sullivan on 12/03/2008 7:54 am

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Geeze! Based on this list, my nearby mall is going to be a ghost town soon! I knew it was bad, but this list is a reality check for all of us. But, we really don’t need all that stuff, anyway, right? Clean out your closets! I found a pair of perfectly good, barely-worn jeans THAT FIT hanging up in the back of mine the other day … it was like a gift!

By Susan B on 12/03/2008 1:09 pm