What is Space Clearing?| Subscribe to Newsletters |
| About Karen Kingston |
| Calendar of Events |
| Readers' Letters |
| Affiliate disclosure |
 |
 New updated edition, 2008 |
| All website content © Karen Kingston 2000 - 2010 |
Latest Blog Entries
Clutter Clearing
Clutter Clearing photos
Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 19 April 2010 21:45
I always encourage people who come to my Clear Your Clutter workshops to take 'before' and 'after' photos of the rooms they clutter clear. I find it gives them much more motivation to get started and a greater sense of achievement when it's done.
A man who recently took part in a 4-week series of Clear Your Clutter classes taught by Annette Kurtz in Tokyo heard this advice and went for it in a big way. Starting with his home and then moving to outside storage areas such as the one pictured here, he took 'before' and 'after' shots of everything he did.
If you'd like to do the same, send your photos to me with permission to publish and I'll create a new section on my website for the best ones I receive. Seeing what someone else is able to achieve is sometimes just the motivation a person needs to help them get started themselves.
The important thing to remember when taking the photos is to stand in exactly the same position for both shots. It would also be interesting to hear how long the 'before' situation existed, and how long it took you to achieve the 'after'.
Happy Clutter Clearing!
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2010
New Swedish edition of 'Clear Your Clutter'
Written by Karen Kingston Friday, 19 February 2010 06:39
A bit like London buses that you wait for and wait for and then three of them arrive all at once, I just heard that another new edition of my Clear Your Clutter book was published last month.
It's the Swedish translation, Rensa i röran med feng shui, available at bookstores in Sweden or at Bokia and other online stores. The ISBN No. of this new edition is 978 9174240627.
And before you ask - sorry, I don't have any free copies of the book to give away as I did recently with the new German, Dutch and Danish editions.
Free copies of the new German edition of 'Clear Your Clutter'
Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 15 February 2010 20:15
Following my offer to send free signed copies of the new Dutch and Danish editions of Clear Your Clutter to the first four people to ask, some people have been emailing me to see if I have free copies of the book in other languages too. Well, I had a look and yes, I do. I also have 4 copies of the revised German edition.
So I'll be happy to send a free signed copy of it to the first four people to email me before Feb 28, 2010 to ask for one. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number (required for shipments from Bali).
And please don't email to ask about any other languages. I absolutely don't have any more books to give away. My house is now so empty it's starting to echo!
More information about the new book
Update Feb 16, 2010: Yikes, they went fast! All four copies were claimed in just 5 hours.
Update Feb 21, 2010: Thank you for all the emails but I have no more copies of this book to give away. I only had four copies and they went to the first four people to request them.
Free copies of the new Dutch edition of 'Clear Your Clutter'
Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 15 February 2010 07:17
The first ever Dutch translation of my Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui book has now been published, and I will send a free signed copy to the first four people to email to ask for one. Just send your full name, address and phone number (required for shipping from Bali).
You'll need to be quick, though. I'm leaving Bali at the beginning of March to move to the USA. I'm travelling light so won't be taking them with me. This offer ends 28 Feb 2010.
More information about the new book
Update Feb 19, 2010: All four free copies have now been claimed.
Update Feb 21, 2010: Thank you for all the emails but I have no more copies of this book to give away. I only had four copies and they went to the first four people to request them.
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2010
Free copies of the new Danish edition of 'Clear Your Clutter'
Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 15 February 2010 05:16
Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui book has just been published in Danish under the title Ryd Op I Dit Rod: Og Bo Bendre med Feng Shui.
The publisher is Bogans Forlag, it's available from www.bogan.dk and from bookstores in Denmark, and the ISBN number (to make sure you don't accidentally order the original 1998 edition) is 978-87-7070-505-2.
I'm told the Danish translation of the first edition was excellent so I'm hoping this new edition will be good too. The only bit I can understand is the quote from Elle on the front cover that says, "En perle af en bog", which I'm pretty certain means "A pearl of a book".
I have four copies of the book here, which have arrived in slightly battered condition (just the edges of the cover). If you're OK with that, I'll be happy to send a free copy to the first four people to email me to request it. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number (required for the shipping form). This offer ends Feb 28, 2010.
Update Feb 16, 2010: It took just 8 hours for all four free copies to be claimed. They will all be sent out tomorrow.
Update Feb 21, 2010: Thank you for all the emails but I have no more copies of this book to give away. I only had four copies and they went to the first four people to request them.
20,961 reasons to clear your desk
Written by Karen Kingston Wednesday, 10 February 2010 14:31
I came across some interesting information a while ago about why it's a good idea to keep your desk clear of clutter. So that you can clean it!
Dr Charles Gerba of Arizona University conducted a study analyzing 7,000 samples from offices around the USA. He found that the average desks harbours 20,961 germs per square inch.
Top of the list is phones. Bottom of the list - amazingly - is toilet seats. He found that the average desktop has 400 times more bacteria than the average office toilet seat!
Here are his findings, calculated in microbes per square inch:
Phone - 25,127
Desktop - 20,961
Keyboard - 3,295
Computer mouse - 1,676
Toilet seat - 49
The solution to this problem: Clean surfaces regularly with alcohol wipes.
The study was funded by Clorox, who of course manufacture alcohol wipes, but still, the statistics do get your attention!
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2010
Clutter clearing childhood memorabelia
Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 01 February 2010 10:51
People sometimes ask me, "What can I do with all the crayoned masterpieces made by my children when they were young? I want to let the pictures go but they have sentimental value."
Many parents have boxes full of their children's creations, which they never look at but somehow feel obliged to keep long after the child has grown up. Maybe these works of art were once proudly displayed on walls as examples of their children's creative abilities, but decades later they are just stacked somewhere collecting dust and stagnant energy around them. Their time and usefulness has passed.
The best solution I know for this problem is to take photos of the best pieces and then throw all the originals away. They are never going to come in useful some day. And if you ever feel a compelling urge to look through them again, digital images will do the job just as well and take up no physical storage space in your attic at all.
The same can be done with children's clothing and other childhood items being kept by parents (or the adult child themselves) for sentimental reasons. Just take a photo of each item and then let the original go.
Having said all this, I personally don't own a single piece of artwork, clothing or anything else from my childhood, and I don't feel my life lacks anything because of it. In fact, I'm sure that being unencumbered in this way has brought me greater freedom to change and grow. And moving house is certainly a whole lot easier, not having to drag mounds of memorabilia from one place to the next!
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2010
Why wearing red gives you the edge
Written by Karen Kingston Thursday, 19 November 2009 13:15
One of the tips I often give people to help them get going with clutter clearing is to wear something red.
In the new edition of my Clear Your Clutter book I explain, "Just as red dancing shoes make your feet feel like moving, so wearing red clothes make you feel like taking action. If you don't have anything red, then wear colours from the warm end of the spectrum (orange, yellow, etc) rather than cool colours such as blue. Many people keep clutter as a way of comforting themselves, so if you wear warm, comforting colours rather than cool ones while sorting through your stuff, you'll find it easier to let things go."
I've also noticed that wearing the colour red generally makes people feel more able to get a job done and keep at it until it's finished. The fiery quality of the colour has the effect of boosting confidence, self-esteem, stamina and staying power.
I arrived at this conclusion after many years of working with clients and now researchers are starting to gather evidence that wearing red in certain situations does give people a leading edge to success. For example, a study led by Martin Attrill at the University of Plymouth in the UK has found that English soccer teams Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal between them won 38 out of 63 league titles during the 56-year period from 1947 to 2003, and were ranked in first, second and fourth places respectively in home wins. What do they all have in common? They all wear red.
Another study (by Hill and Barton) showed that teams wearing red in the Euro 2004 soccer finals in Portugal won more games and scored more goals than teams wearing other colours. I don't have the faintest interest in football myself but find these studies very interesting and not at all surprising.
For clutter clearing you don't have to dress from head to foot in red but it really does work well to wear a red top of some kind. I think this is because the process predominantly involves handling things with the upper part of the body. So if you're having difficulty getting started or keeping at clutter clearing, feel free to give this a go.
And if you're experimentally inclined, here's something else you can try. Since the hands are the most involved in clutter clearing, I have a hunch that wearing red gloves could help even more. There are no shops here in tropical Bali where I can buy a pair of gloves to test this out but I bet it would add extra oomph. At the very least, it would make clutter clearing more fun!
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2009
Clutter clearing antidote to chaos
Written by Karen Kingston Sunday, 08 November 2009 14:58
Clutter clearing some books recently in preparation for leaving Bali, I came across a passage I had marked in one written by an Australian news & current affairs journalist who happened to be on vacation in Bali in 2002 when the night club bomb blast happened. As he witnessed first-hand the aftermath of the bombing in Bali's hopelessly inadequate hospitals, he took some time out to write about the effect the carnage was having on him personally.
"I've noticed some changes in my behavior in the past week. I've become quite obsessive about tidiness. Back in Adelaide I'm normally pretty organized at work, due to the pressure of deadlines, but less so at home. I've noticed that for the past few nights, while flicking between the ABC Pacific news service, BBC World and CNN... I've got into tidying my room. I don't like food left on the room service dinner plate after I've eaten. I go and wash it. I can't bear for my clothes to be in a mess. I tidy up my notebooks and pens... I realize my newfound tidiness is probably a direct result of all the chaos I've seen" (from Tragedy in Bali by Alan Atkinson, published by The Works, Indonesia, 2003)
Something I have often observed is that what's inside a person is not always on the outside, but what's on the outside is always on the inside. Usually I relate this insight to the clutter a person has around themselves, to point out that the mess around them is indicative of something on the inside. It's not so often I come across examples the other way round, of a person deliberately creating order around themselves to still the chaos on the inside, but this is one of them and it certainly seems to have worked for him.
If you ever find your life in chaos, this is a very useful tip to remember.
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2009
German edition of 'Clear Your Clutter'
Written by Karen Kingston Saturday, 07 November 2009 05:49
The new updated and revised edition of my Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui book has just been published in German by Rororo under the title Feng Shui gegen das Gerümpel des Alltags.
It's available at www.amazon.de, and from bookstores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I'm hoping the translation of this new edition is as good as the translation of the original edition. If you happen to read it, please feel free to post here to let me know what you think :-)
Dutch edition of 'Clear Your Clutter'
Written by Karen Kingston Monday, 02 November 2009 05:49
Just heard from my publisher that the first ever Dutch translation of my Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui book is nearing completion and will be available in the Netherlands from January 2010.
They have given it the title, Weg met de warboel, which Google Translate tells me means 'Away with the Clutter', but when I run the subtitle (ontdek de kracht van een opgeruimd leven) through the same translation engine, it rather worrying comes up with 'discover the power of a life destroyed'. Happily, when I put 'opgeruimd' through the translator as a single word, it comes up with 'tidy', so I'm hoping the true meaning of the subtitle is 'discover the power of a tidy life'. It's still not really what the book is about, but tidiness is infinitely preferable to devastation.
I've no idea why it has taken so long for my book to get published in the Netherlands, but it's a place I'd certainly like to teach in future because it's just a hop away from the UK and most Dutch people speak English. I have fond memories from my teenage years of sailing to Amsterdam via Calais on a tiny houseboat with three friends, braving high seas and dodging ocean going liners. The gods were certainly looking after us on that trip. It's a small miracle that we survived.
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2009
More Articles...
Page 1 of 3
