I was lucky enough to grow up in a very uncluttered home, which was simultaneously a blessing/curse situation. If there was anything in that house that wasn’t necessary—little picture frames and maybe a few Hummel figurines aside—it was dispatched with extreme prejudice. Mom was such a firm believer in ridding ourselves of what’s called “memory clutter,” that if the fingerpaintings that I brought home from Kindergarten were anything less than Renoir quality, out they went. I was OK with that, but if tomorrow’s homework was mistaken for yesterday’s, I was doing it all over again sometime between dinner and bedtime. Ouch.

I learned quickly that bare surfaces, wide-open basements, and garages with cars in them were good. I also learned that if I wanted to spend my evenings watching the Carol Burnett Show instead of rummaging through the garbage for the homework I had left laying around, I had better keep my poop grouped, to re-word a certain, less G-rated phrase.

On the flip side, my dad and I were never allowed to help around the house, for fear that we would mess everything up. Mom was afraid that we would do everything wrong, and so she did it all. The shame in all that was not that I ended up watching too many old movies instead of doing chores, but that I grew up convinced that adulthood was going to gag me with a spoon, so to Valley-speak. I would have to do my own housework just right, all the time, or the sky would fall. What a conundrum.

So imagine my delight upon discovering Marla Cilley, or as she’s known among the Internets, FlyLady. Marla has spent a good chunk of her life learning to declutter her life and take control of her family, home, and self care routines, and now she teaches others. One of FlyLady’s tenets is that any effort towards making your home a nicer place is a good one, and that we don’t have to do it all right now; in fact, all we have to do is a little, each day. “Don’t worry about catching up,” she writes. “Just jump in where we are.”

To take a page out of Zwaggle history, Marla joined Zwaggle on BlogTalk Radio to discuss the magic that happens when we pass along our things as we declutter, whatever those things may be. And that’s what hooked me; if I’ve been lucky enough to receive something useful, someone else can ride that lucky streak too, all by way of Zwaggle. (I wonder if donating my Zoints to charity counts double.)

We’re all in this together, and life may be short, but the life cycle of our things can go on and on. We can bless others with the things we part with, and there’s no way to get it wrong, which I think is another way of saying that Zwaggle is for people who love to be right. No wonder I’m a fan.

What the younger generation has been saying all this time is really true: It’s all good. Don’t worry, though. Now that I’m 400 years old, I’m not going to start uttering youthful catch phrases out loud. (In fact, the image I have in my mind of my dad attempting the sentence, “That freaks me out!” still gives me hives.) As long as we keep at circulating our own fortune and goodness, progress is inevitable, and so on and so on.

One of my most notable achievements is what’s in my basement: A box collection that is the envy of everyone who has ever moved. So if you’re in the military, or a part of a witness protection program that relocates you every time you blow your cover, I’m happy to give you a tour. The strange truth is that we’ve moved so much in the past two years that my husband has actually become attached to one box in particular. It’s his favorite, the one I’m never allowed to toss, and it’s so torn and crumpled that it’s not really so much a box as it is a testament to the powers of clear strapping tape. Thank you, 3M Corp.

I’ll confess that I have my own special box in the basement. It’s the one with the big “Z” on it written in black Sharpie. It’s my Zwaggle box, and it’s full of stuff right now that I found in, you guessed it, the basement. There are some of my daughter’s summer clothes from last year that she’ll outgrow before the next. I’ve got toys and electronics that we never unpacked from our last move, so we obviously don’t need them as much as we were convinced we did when we packed them almost a year ago. There are some videos that we’ll never watch again, not because they aren’t good, but because Baby Einstein just isn’t cool anymore. The basement has been my Zwaggle mine. Until today, when I made a rookie mistake upon returning to my car from my bi-monthly pilgrimage to COSTCO.

While I was cruising the aisles of barrels of tomatoes and vats of sour cream, I had forgotten something that wasn’t on my shopping list. It never occurred to me that, after filling my cart with toilet paper, paper towels, and dog food, I was going to have to actually take it all home with me. Oops. While I wouldn’t say that I’ve got a lot of junk in my trunk, I will say that I realized there in the parking lot that I needed desperately to Zwaggle my ride.

After some re-arranging and stuffing, and understanding for a moment why some people choose minivans and SUVs, I took my things home, where I promptly dragged a new box out of the basement. I made like Zoro with a Sharpie by pasting a big black “Z” on it, and went to work on what was going on in my car. I placed a ban on all books, bears, and ball caps that hadn’t been touched since the Clinton administration. While it’s nice to keep an umbrella in the car for those rare occasions I get caught in the middle of a drizzle, I don’t really need five of them. I had spare, “just in case” outfits that my daughter had outgrown ages ago. And, dare I say, there were no gloves in the glove box; just some CDs that we hadn’t touched since long before Greg had even considered leaving The Wiggles. (We’re pulling for you, Greg.) Into the box they went. Inspired, I drew from my collection a few more times, claiming “Z” boxes for the kitchen, garage, and play spaces. As the immortal James Brown once said, “I feel good!”

Next I’m going to consider what I do need. Summer’s coming, and I’m totally unprepared for the outdoor life that we’ll be enjoying more of now that my little one’s going on 4. Considering that, maybe I’ll even—no kidding—post my boxes, except for my husband’s fave, on Zwaggle. Mafia rats and military brass, that’s your cue to register and log in.

Almost all of us have donated items to a charity at one time or another. Its great to get the stuff out of your house and let’s face it, its nice to get that tax deduction too. However, its a less than perfect system. You never know where the items are going or even if anyone wants them and its often times a real hassle to donate. Of course as a charity you have very little control over the process as you’re generally forced to accept whatever people have, rather than just what you need.

Well not anymore. With Zwaggle’s new charity feature, its easier than ever for families who have, to share with families in need. And like everything else on Zwaggle, we’ve worked hard to make it as easy as possible.

Here’s how it works:

• You post an item to Zwaggle and designate it as a charity item
• Then you share it with another Zwaggle family (same as before)
• Of course if you choose “Buyer Picks Up” then you don’t even have to leave your house
• But now a charity of your choosing gets your Zoints
• That charity can then use those Zoints to acquire items they need for their families.
• And wait, there’s more; you get a tax deduction.
• Everyone wins, again!

This great new feature just went live, but the response from both Zwaggle parents and charities, including the Family to Family Network and The Junior League, has been overwhelming. Keep it coming because the more families and charities involved the more everyone benefits.
To learn more about this exciting new feature, sign up your charity today or post an item to benefit a charity, click here.