I have discovered that uncluttering is the cure for resorting to retail therapy. How often do we use retail therapy to make up for times when we feel down, disappointed, bored and other conditions of the mind. What does this kind of therapy do to improve the situation? Usually it just adds more problems like credit card debt, guilt and regret. It has amazed me how quickly I formed a dislike to shopping once I committed myself to my 365 day resolution to de-clutter my home. Now when I get spare time I don't get bored, I use that time to find the next thing I am going to get rid of or try to … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2010
Day 89 Just because everyone else has one
I am Australian and my give-away for today is a barbecue. If you are from another country you may wonder what is unusual about being Australian and giving away a BBQ, so I will explain. Just about every household in Australia has a BBQ, because of our climate we are a very outdoorsy kind of people. When friends come around for a meal the normal procedure is to "chuck a steak on the barby". Personally though I would rather cook a nice roast dinner, a spicy curry or maybe make gourmet pizza and as a result our BBQ has not been used for the last three years since we took it our of storage … [Read more...]
Day 88 Greeting Card Stockpile
As I have mentioned before I do a bit of paper-craft. For one reason or another over time I have accumulated a stockpile of handmade and shop bought greeting cards which take up valuable space in my craft area, an area that I really do need to downsize in. With fear of continuing my scrooge reputation that I established in my Day 86 blog I am now going to tell you how I intend to minimise this greeting cards situation. First of all I am not going to buy any new cards no matter what. If I don't have an appropriate card for the situation I will adapt a card I already have. I will … [Read more...]
Day 87 Replace old habits
I heard somewhere recently that it only take two weeks to start breaking out of old habits. The idea being, if you can persevere and ignore the cravings to continue in your old habit for two weeks, you will start to notice physically and mentally the change in your behaviour at this point and start to realise you can cope with the changes. Hoarding is a bad habit that most of us have an addiction to to some degree. A bad habit that for the sake of a neat and clutter free environment we need to break. According to the two week rule mentioned above once we set our mind to de-cluttering instead … [Read more...]
Day 86 Recycle & Reshuffle
While looking in the linen closet to determine whether there were any old towels I could throw away my attention was drawn to some rolls of gift wrap and a box of gift bags. Which got me thinking about the chest full of other gift wrap paraphernalia in the closet down stairs Now you may think what I am about to suggest is strange but I will explain my thinking as we go along. I rarely buy gifts (This is strange to most people). I live a long way from most of my family, postage costs are ridiculous and they all can pretty much afford to buy anything they would want anyway, as can I. Not to … [Read more...]
Day 85 Magazines by the pile
I bet there isn't one of you out there that doesn't have a pile or two of magazines somewhere in your home that have some really interesting articles, pictures, recipes... so you are reluctant to part with them. I know I do. I was an avid scrapbooker for some time while living in the Untied States and as magazines subscription are so cheap over there I didn't hesitate to have a few. As these are reference material they never really go out of date and I have often looked back through them when trying to came up with ideas when creating my scrapbook pages. Needless to say they do tend to pile … [Read more...]
Day 84 Read posts and blogs
It can be very helpful to read about other peoples experiences with de-cluttering their homes. There are so many helpful tips out there on the big Wide World Web and I will explore more of them and add some more links on my page as I find time. I have noticed while reading a few over the last couple of days that the biggest mistake for most people is setting to0 high goals. I believe, one day at a time, one room at a time, one drawer at a time are often goals easier reached and less daunting to consider. Do what works for you and if something looks too much to handle move to another area … [Read more...]
Day 83 Product Reviews
We have all seen advertisements for product that enticed us into believing that "I just can't do without that!" and "I must have one!"Â We have fallen in love with the idea that the advertisement is selling. I say idea because even though the idea is great that doesn't mean that the product is going to live up to the expectation that you have drawn up in your head. The tip today to save you money and wasted space is to get on your computer and look for product reviews for these "must have" items before you rush out to buy them. Granted you can't always believe the reviews either but if there … [Read more...]
Day 82 Those pesky inherited items
I have a part-time job selling furniture and quite often I encounter people who are wanting to buy chairs to go with an old table that great aunt so and so left to them. They are looking for chairs because even though the table is going strong the chairs that go with it are no longer safe to sit on. Now more often than not these people admit that this is a beautiful well crafted piece of furniture that should be appreciated for what it is but the fact of the matter is that they would prefer that is was being appreciated by someone else. They have kept it purely because it is a heirloom and … [Read more...]
Day 81 Every little thing counts
On January 15th my give-away for the day was wedding invitations that I made for a friend's daughter's wedding. My husband said that was a cop out and not really purging anything yet I thought this was one of my best donations yet. You see I have a lot of papercrafting items such as tools, cardstock , paper, adhesive, embelishments.... but I really haven't been doing a lot of papercrafting lately. I have previously made the invitations for the engagement party and when I was asked to do the wedding invitations I thought what a great oportunity to contribute to their special event and purge … [Read more...]