• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Productivity
  • Technology
  • Development
  • Organize
  • Money
  • Time
  • Misc

Productivity501

Pieces of the productivity puzzle.

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
    • Archives
  • Newsletter
  • Products
    • Courses
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Organize / Simple Stuff Reduction Tips

Simple Stuff Reduction Tips

By Mark Shead 8 Comments

The more stuff you have, the more time you have to dedicate to managing and hunting for things. Here are several simple ways you can reduce the amount of stuff in your life to help make it easier to find things that are important.

pennies-main

  1. Keyring Cleanup – Get rid of any extra keys. If you are like most people, you probably have several keys that you can’t even remember what they go to. Sometimes it helps to keep a separate keychain at home for those odd little keys that you don’t want to lose, but don’t need to carry with you.
  2. Card Shuffle – Go through your credit cards, ID cards, supermarket cards and get rid of the ones you won’t use. I keep about 4 cards with me and the rest stay at home in a safe place in case I need them. I put my frequent flyer/hotel rewards cards in my computer bag because it keeps them out of my wallet but insures that they are with me when I travel.
  3. Glove Compartment – You probably have a bunch of junk in your glove compartment. Get rid of the expired proof of insurance cards and other random items that you no longer need. If you ever get pulled over, it is much easier to find the required information when you aren’t having to dig through 5 years of expired papers.
  4. Medicine Cabinet – Get rid of any expired medicine. It is safer to throw it out then keeping it around. Make note of anything that you are out of like aspirin and add it to your shopping list.
  5. Purge Your Paper – Your files will continue to grow unless you do something about it. While you need to take care to keep your important papers, you don’t need to keep every piece of paper forever. Taking 30 minutes to shred papers you no longer need can help put your file cabinet on a diet and make it easier to find things.
  6. Books – I love books. When I hit 800 books, I had to go on a major book cleaning binge. There are some books that you will simply never use again. This is particularly true of technology related books that become outdated very quickly. Some books are still worth something now, but you’ll be lucky to sell them for $0.10 in 9 months. Amazon makes a great place to sell books that you don’t need anymore.
  7. Software – Most people accumulate various pieces of software that they don’t really need any more. Even if you can’t bring yourself to throw away that Windows 95 CD, consider throwing away the box and simply keeping the keycode and the disk in a CD case. You can easily reduce several shelves worth of boxes to a small zippered pouch.
  8. Coins – I have a box full of coins. Since I bank online, I can’t take it in and have them counted and deposited. Instead, I keep it in the car where I can use it for tips at Sonic or toll roads. If you frequently travel toll roads, consider using plastic zip locks to pre-count the toll amount so you don’t have to fumble with a bunch of small coins while cars build up behind you. Chicago toll machines take pennies. There is something incredibly satisfying about dumping 80 pennies into the machine in order to lift the toll gate.

Originally published April 09, 2008.

Filed Under: Organize Tagged With: cleaning, clutter, Organize

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Welmoed says

    October 11, 2007 at 7:38 am

    Regarding #2 (membership cards and such): I used to have a stack of these too. Now I have a single card with all my membership barcodes on it. You can generate it for free at http://www.justoneclubcard.com. Enter up to eight membership numbers, generate the card, print it out, laminate it, and you will always have the number with you. I do this with nearly everything that requires a membership number or barcode.

    Reply
  2. Mark Shead says

    October 19, 2007 at 9:19 am

    @Welmoed – Wow. That is a nice tool. Thanks for pointing it out.

    Reply
  3. Positively Present says

    May 18, 2009 at 1:27 pm

    Really great tips here. I love how you’re bringing up things that we use/do every day but don’t think much about (like the keyring!). I really enjoyed reading this and I think A LOT of people will benefit from these tips. Thanks for posting them!

    Reply
  4. John says

    May 18, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    Great pointers here. I think most of these I can relate to using. It’s amazing how fast things can accumulate. =)

    Reply
  5. Kathryn says

    May 18, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    I like to keep my excess club cards, gift cards, insurance cards, etc., in my car, because 9 times out of 10 I’m going to have my car with me when I find myself someplace where it’s necessary or convenient to use them.

    Reply
  6. Andrew says

    May 19, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    I’ve got a large container that I use to collect coins. Periodically I take it to a Coinstar (http://www.coinstar.com) machine and use it to load up a Starbucks card.

    Reply
  7. Toby Doncaster says

    May 20, 2009 at 4:03 am

    Maybe I’m over paranoid here, but I never leave anything with my personal details on them in my car. The last thing I want is a double-whammy, whereby the car-jacker now knows where I live, and can ring me to make sure no-one’s at home too!

    In fact, police in the UK will give you a 7-Day Producer, which requires you to take all insurance, MOT, etc. documentation to your nearest (self-nominated) Police Station, which, given the rising concerns over ID theft, I think is a great idea.

    For the time being, all my “live” documentation sits in a separate folder I can find within…found it!

    Reply
  8. Clare says

    May 20, 2009 at 6:45 am

    How right you are. My (cheapo) filing cabinet has just collapsed under the weight of mostly redundant paper files it contains. I’m going to start purging it this very minute – then I’ll have to buy another!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Featured Posts

The $500,000 Solution to a $12 Problem

College Degree And Income Potential

Photo Sharing Christmas Gift Ideas for Family

Minimal Minimalism

See Your Mail Before It Arrives

Finishing vs. Starting

Best Bluetooth Headset I’ve Owned

What Is Your Current Work Zone?

Social Glass Ceilings

How Much Time Do You Actually Have

Return to top of page

Copyright 2018 Xeric Corporation