I’ve read a book I’ll review this week in the reviews forum: Unstuff Your Life.

It’s about developing organizing systems that you can rely on to make order out of chaos.

I write about this because it’s critical not to live in a mess of papers, half-full coffee mugs staining the coffee table, abandoned junk mail on counter tops, and so on.

Two secrets to organizing exist: get rid of things you don’t use instead of storing them in closets or cabinets or drawers. And for every new thing you bring in one thing has to go out.

A lot of us get attached to our stuff because we equate what we own with who we are.

It’s healthier for those of us with challenges to understand that we are not our stuff. We don’t have to “keep up with the joneses” to prove our worth. Living on limited incomes could be the cure-all for spending-itis.

Better to have on display only a few items you cherish than to clutter your spaces with numerous tiny knick-knacks that make it hard to dust. That alone is a compelling reason to pare down.

All this comes to mind because it’s the fall and what better way to bring in the new in this harvest season than to clear out and make room for new things and people in our lives.

One thing in, one thing out. Get rid of what you don’t use.

Lastly: I recommend the Feng Shui book Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life and Buy Your Home Smarter with Feng Shui, two books that will help you find and create healthy living spaces. Buy Your Home Smarter will help you not make a mistake in renting an apartment or buying a house or apartment.