Month: September 2026

It’s okay to keep your stuff

I read an article telling me it was okay to keep my stuff. That made me happy. My philosophy of No Guilt is right on target again. We’ve been told that we should do a “Swedish death cleaning” so that our kids don’t have all that stuff to go through. The author of this article said bush-wah to that. If you enjoy every knick-knack on your shelves, keep them. If you enjoy all the hundreds of socks in your drawers, there’s nothing wrong with that. It really is okay to keep your stuff.

Don’t let others lay a guilt trip on you

Don’t let anyone else guilt you into getting rid of your things. If they bring you joy, keep them.

I don’t know why we sometimes feel the urge to collect things. I have some dolphin figurines. Some are glass. Some are ceramic. Some are metal. Some are more realistic than others. Some are better than others. I love them all. I enjoy looking at them. I’m keeping them.

I’m the one that has to dust them. And when I feel the urge to do that, I enjoy picking each one up and putting it back once the shelf is dusted. Even if I hired someone to do the dusting for me (wouldn’t that be nice!), I would still enjoy looking at my little collection.

If your things bring you joy, keep them!

They bring back wonderful memories that make me happy. And happiness adds to our resilience and promotes healthy aging. I’m all for happy!

If you enjoy decluttering, go for it. If you no longer enjoy the things on your shelf, then by all means weed them out. Get rid of the clutter that is in the way of your life. If you stack magazines by a table and you’re constantly knocking the pile over. Find a different place for your magazine. If you don’t read them and if the most recent one is three years old, recycle them.

And if you have clutter blocking your pathways through your house, that’s a hazard. Definitely get rid of that. I spoke with an aging expert a number of years ago, and she told me that clutter is a major cause of falls in folks our age. We should do everything we can to reduce our risk of falling, like improving our balance or getting rid of clutter. Especially in our own homes.

But we can’t let others dictate what we do with things that make us happy. It’s okay to keep your stuff.

See success on the horizon

If you’re retired, yay! I used to daydream of lazy mornings with coffee and the newspaper when I thought of retirement back when I had a real job. Getting up when I woke up. Doing what I wanted with my days. But reality is far different. No lazy mornings when you have dogs. They’re up with me as the sun rises. And who wants to look at the news now anyway? While we may not have an actual job to go to every day, there are things we still want to get done. Some days it seems like there are too many things we want to do and not enough hours in the day, even without a job. So, we have to figure out what things need to be actual goals. What do we really want to do with the rest of our lives? How can you see success?

Create a framework for success

We need to create a framework – a blueprint – a plan – to be able to do the things we want to. Here’s how to create that framework.

Think about what’s most important to you. For me, it’s my family and my dogs. I have to be present for them every day. And try to be positive and upbeat. How can I achieve that?

First I need to be able to physically provide what they need. So I have to be fit – mentally and physically. What’s lacking for me? 

You get the picture – think about the various aspects of your life. What’s needed, what’s lacking. How can I bridge that gap? How can I lay the foundation of that bridge? Do I have the ability to plan that bridge? Do I need help with it? What do I need for the cement or the bricks? Create goals that are right for you.

But aren’t we at the stage of life where we don’t need goals? No – everyone needs goals. No matter how young or old you are. Having a purpose keeps us going. It grows our resilience. And a purpose keeps us healthy. It helps take us out of ourselves – so we live longer, have a healthier heart, reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s, and reduces inflammation and the risk of other disease. Proper goals boost your motivation, too – you’ll want to take action to accomplish them.

Print it out so you can see it

When you’re ready to create your framework, lay it all out on paper, because it’s easy to see everything that way. Write in ink. One piece of paper for each aspect of your life that you want to address. Think about pie in the sky now. Dream big. For me? One dream is to compete in obedience with my younger dog. I wasn’t giving him the best training, trying to address his needs on the nights I taught others. I talked about that with an expert and she recommended that I stop bringing him, and figure out a way to give him my undivided attention. So far, it’s working. I can see success on the horizon.

Don’t wait forever

What do cat videos and chaos have in common? I watched a short video this morning from a guy I follow on Facebook and something struck me. He said, “If you wait for life to calm down before you laugh, you’ll be waiting a long time.” Here’s a secret: life does not calm down. There’s always something that seems to come first. Let’s all adopt a new philosophy: Don’t wait forever to laugh and be happy.

Don’t let the stuff get in the way

There are always things to do. Things that don’t take a back seat to anything. There will always be chaos in the world. But you’ll always have five minutes to watch a silly cat video and laugh. Take a minute for joy. You’ll feel better about the rest of your day. You’ll even increase your resilience, and your overall health.

There are a few things you can do every day to boost your happiness that don’t take much time as well. We’ve talked about many of these things before, but they bear repeating. Because you can never have too much happiness or joy. Real Simple magazine recently listed 12 of them! 

Think of others

Do something nice for someone. Pick up the phone and call a friend or relative. They’ll enjoy hearing from you. Or even send a text and let them know you’re thinking about them.

Take a walk outside. Breathe some fresh air.

Notice humorous moments throughout your day. They happen – we just have to pay attention.

Turn it around

Turn a situation around and find a more positive aspect. If something goes wrong, and something inevitably goes wrong, you can usually find a way to get something positive out of it. Shift your perspective. Find a lesson in the bad stuff. Or at least acknowledge your part and move on.

Yes, sometimes we do have to look for the joy in life. Some days it’s definitely harder than others. But joy and happiness are there. Don’t wait forever to find them.

Procrastinating increases stress

Did you ever start thinking about all the things you have to do – all the things on your list that didn’t get done last week. And all the things people are expecting you to do this week. Then all the things that you want to do to try to push just a little bit further toward whatever goal you want to achieve? And you don’t feel like doing any of it? Don’t wait. Start now. Procrastinating will only increase your stress. Life is stressful enough as it is without adding additional stress to it. 

I was sitting at my desk the other day, looking at my to-do list. It never gets any shorter. And not doing any of the things listed on it. I was feeling more and more anxious, and more and more stressed. Why? By not starting a task? 

So, instead of actually starting a task, I did a little research. It turns out that procrastinating really does increase your stress. I was not imagining it. A review in the National Institutes for Health indicates that procrastination is a low-resource means of avoiding aversive and difficult task-related emotions. 

Yes. Instead of beginning a task on my list, I procrastinated and added more stress by researching procrastination and stress.

We know that stress is bad for our health. It tends to compromise our immunity. And as we age our immunity decreases. Not what we need.

Here’s the deal. If you’ve got something on your list that you think is too challenging, you’ll try to avoid doing it. Or if you said something to your best friend that you probably shouldn’t have, you’re going to put off calling them to apologize. On the other hand, if your dog threw up, you’re going to grab the paper towels and cleaner and do something about it. There are few immediate adverse consequences to not jumping into a challenging task. Your friend will still accept your apology a few days later. After you’ve worked yourself up about it and finally called. 

So even though you know you might pay some consequences later, it’s worth it to you to put off taking the action. That action is hard. It might be worthwhile in the end (making progress on a challenging task or strengthening your friendship), but right now you’ll procrastinate. You know that the carpet will stain, though, or someone will walk through the mess, so you clean it up right away. That’s easy. And, as it turned out, my research into procrastination actually did tick an item off of my list: this article!

Procrastinating increases stress. So get to it. Start small. Take one little action. Chances are, you’ll be motivated to do more.