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This post includes a decluttering checklist with over 100 ideas of what you can get rid of as a minimalist. You’ll have a starting point for figuring out what to cut in each area of your life, from your wardrobe to your digital data. I’ve also created a free printable PDF version of the minimalism checklist for you to use — which you can find at the end of this article. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so I won’t be going into specific details about how to discard these items responsibly. I suggest you read my guide on...

Do you ever feel like a tulip in the middle of the mass of bluebells?  I know I do.  But I can tell you one thing.  I stick out, that could be good and that could be bad, it's up to you to decide.It is turning to a lovely spring here and I wish I could spend more time outside. I get out in the morning to feed and water the chickens and then water plants and I just want to stay out.  Instead, I am back in the house and sewing up a storm.  The last few days while hubs...

Everyone has things in their closets that they haven’t worn in years. But something you don’t love anymore could be another person’s new favorite outfit! To avoid throwing clothes away or having them clutter up your house, donate them to charities. Pick the right spot to drop off your clothes, decide what to donate, and ready your clothing for donation to make sure your items are put to good use for years to come. [Edit]Steps [Edit]Finding a Donation Center Do an online search to check your area’s options. Unless you plan to mail off your clothes to an online-only donation...

Editor’s Note: For the first several months of 2022, we’ll be celebrating some of our favorite work from the last fourteen years in a series of “From the Archives” posts. In today’s feature, poet Debra Allbery examines the influence of Sherwood Anderson on her writing, and on her understanding of her own history and place. This essay was originally published on December 14, 2011. Somewhere in my files is an abandoned poem called “The Three Stories My Mother Told Me about Herself.” My mother not being a storyteller by nature, nor one given to confidences, these were cautionary tales—lessons learned,...

How many times have I read my novel manuscript? I know that I had eight official rewrites so do these last two read-throughs count as one each or can I lump them together. I'm lumping them because I changed verb tenses, added commas, and changed a few words each time but made no major changes except for renumbering the chapters. One of these days I'll decide that it's done done and get the thing published on Amazon Kindle. Eek, that's scary.The daily art page for today showed four empty hangers and invited you to draw clothes on them. So I...