Day 70: Pens, Pencils, Crayons, Oh My!

What: Pens, Pencils, and Crayons

Why: Do you have drawers and boxes full of markers, pens, pencils, and crayons? Do you store these items randomly around your home? Are you frustrated when you need to find a pencil or pen, knowing you have 100, but cannot seem to locate even one? Why do you we hang onto so many of one thing? Pens, pencils, etc. we often receive for free – but do we REALLY need them? Will you ever use the stash of pens and pencils you have? Or should you consider getting rid of the ones you don’t need? Maybe this is not an issue for you – if not, great! If it is for you, read on:

How:
1. Find all (yes, all) of the pens, pencils, crayons, markers, colored pencils, and writing utensil you own. Are they laying all over your house? Find them all

2. Decide:

• Do you have them laying around the house in useless spots?
• Do you have more than you will ever use in a lifetime?
• Why are you hanging onto what you will never use?

3. Trash, donate, recycle whatever you will not use. This may mean over 80% of your pens, pencils, crayons, etc. Get rid of them knowing that the next day, you will have the opportunity to get a free pen SOMEWHERE if needed.

4. Keep the useless writing utensils out of your house – even if it’s FREE! Free is not always best!

Confession of the Day: I found a ziplock bag and a crayon box full of markers, pencils, and pens that I had never touched. I did not know why I was hanging onto them, but all I knew was that it was time to get rid of them. In fact, half of them did not even work! Now all of our pens/pencils fit in one holder and they are in ONE location. Yes, ONE. When we need one, we know exactly where to go and I know I don’t have random writing utensils laying all over the place. I went through ALL of our markers and pitched the ones that barely worked and combined the ones I had left, to make complete boxes/sets. I even had multiple colored pencil boxes – got rid of all the sets I did not need and kept one. Living with less means getting rid of the smallest of items and the smallest of details – don’t look past the little things because they end up cluttering and become “bigger” issues in the end!

What does your collection of writing utensils look like?