De-clutter update 2

I took a walk to Staples to get my binder clips with the $3 coupon (expire on 8/31/2009) I received from recycling my HP ink cartridge. We find the medium binder clips and sometimes the small binder clips very useful at home. Besides using the binder clips to clip papers, we use them to clip onto the chip bags and cereal bags. They work wonders. My husband loves them. There is no need to buy special clips for bags. We find the small binder clips are useful for receipts & letters.

I noticed there were a lot of people in Staples on a Tuesday morning at 9:30am. I was thinking to myself. Shouldn’t they be at work at this time of the hour? Then I realized people are shopping for going back to school supplies. The 3 holes ruled papers are a penny per pack and each customer is limited to 5 packs per day. And a lot of other school items are on sale as well. Normally I would buy some just because they are on SALE. I did take a glance at what is on sale but didn’t even touch anything at all. I’m very proud of myself. From cleaning up (still in progress) our apt, we have total of 5 boxes (4 banker’s boxes and 1 plastic container) of supplies. It’s ridiculous. We have different types of paper, different sizes of binders, different types of folders, pens, pencils, leads, sticky pads, rulers, 1 subject notebooks, college ruled 3-holes papers, index cards and etc… I have so much supplies that they will last a few years. Since I recycle our printed papers (if there are no personal information) for shopping list, I believe our paper supply and notebooks will last more than just a few years. I normally cut the 8x10 printed papers into quarters or halves and use the back (blank side) for shopping list.

I am now realizing I was somewhat addicted to buying office supplies just because they were on SALE (big discounts like a penny for something or a dime for a pencil case). My logic was, we always need supplies, why not buy them and store them for when we need them. I know now that office supplies will always go on sale before school starts. And there is no need to stock up all the supplies at home. We definitely need to keep some extras but it’s not necessary to have excess taking up space at home.

I believe there are a lot of people who have the BUYING JUST BECAUSE IT’S ON SALE addiction. In order to control your clutter at home, you have to find out what it is/they are that you are addicted to buying. Then stop buying just because it’s on SALE and start dumping / giving away / donating the excess.

This is just the beginning of a de clutter mind set.