A guest post by Cindy Bogard

What motivates you to declutter? Why are you doing it? I was thinking about this questions for myself and came up with these reasons, immediate and far-reaching.

1. I want a clean house. I want to not feel ashamed or embarrassed, both of which I have felt in large measure in the past.
2. I want to continue in my role of stay-at-home parent. Now while the parent part of that job is the most important, the cookin’ and cleanin’ come along with it. While my cooking’s good; my housekeeping makes me eligible for firing. I don’t want that.
3. I have a beautiful home. I want people, including people in my family, to see and appreciate the home and to be able to use the rooms and furnishing in the way intended. (No more sofa = storage bench or formal living room = closet.)
4. I want to decide at 2:00 on a Saturday that it would be fun to have friends come over and not have to scramble like a crazy women, yell at my family like a nut job, and make us all miserable.
5. I want neighbors to drop by and me never to have to say, “Excuse the mess.”
6. I want to find what I am looking for. Now. Without looking in more than one place.
7. I want to know what I own, and I want to avoid buying duplicates because I can’t find things.
8. I want my children to put away their belongings because they know where they go and where they can find them again.
9. I want to be able to park my car in my garage
10. I don’t know if this one’s possible, especially given number 9, but I want to take everything in my ugly outdoor shed, sort it, and store the “keep” pile neatly in the garage. Then I want to tear down my shed and use the foundation as the base for a large pond. Ahhh, doesn’t that sound nicer than a ugly shed full of a jumble of junk?

What’s motivating you to declutter?

ITEM 315 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I bought this album for a project about 7 years ago but never got around to doing that project and I don’t think I would ever use it so out it goes.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. A lovely parting gift from my old work friends – they know I don’t like clutter so they gave me a gift certificate for a whole body massage. I can really do with that at the moment after the tension of the last few weeks.
2. Lunch out with friends.
3. Hubby decluttering in the garage again.
4. A cool evening breeze – I think a storm is on its way.
5. A fridge clean out dinner – Anything left over in there tonight is going on our plates for dinner.

As you all know I advocate decluttering with the slow and steady approach. I often say even if you do just 10 minutes a day it will make a difference. Here are a list of ways that you squeeze in ten minutes of decluttering each day…

1. While waiting for the kettle to boil and the tea to brew.
2. When having done nothing useful for a while and feel the need to feel better about yourself.
3. During the commercials while watching a show on television.
4. Between dinner preparation steps.
5. When putting the laundry away check the cupboards for unused items.
6. While dusting on cleaning day think why do I really want this thing I keep cleaning every week.
7. When ready to go out with a friend but they haven’t arrived yet.
8. When  finished showering and you grab the deodorant, give the cabinet the once over.
9. When putting away the dishes pick one cabinet or drawer and do a little decluttering.
10. After driving into the garage stop for 10 minutes before going inside and find a couple of unused items that can go in the donation/eBay/garage sale pile.
11. When searching for a DVD to watch go through your collection as see if there are any you don’t really want.
12. When putting the children’s toys away pull out the broken and outgrown toys.
13. When folding the laundry check for items with holes or faded or outgrown by the children.
14. Before putting the recycling bin on the street have a look around the house for anything that should go in it like old boxes, magazines that you no longer read, newspapers etc.
15. Enlist the children to go through a drawer in their bedrooms and discard items they no longer want.
16. When in need of a band-aid declutter the out of date items from the first-aid kit.
17. When grabbing a pair of shoes before leaving the house give the shoe box/cupboard the once over and discard any holey or outgrown shoes and ones that just never get worn any more.
18. When choosing a book from your bookcase pick a shelf and do a little check to see if there are any book you no longer have a need for or can live without. Popular fiction titles are always available at the library to borrow if you ever feel the need you re-read them while the information in some non-fiction book can become out of date.
19. When you finish working on a craft/hobby project pick one area of you work space to declutter.
20. Any drawer in the house usually only takes about 10 minutes to clean out.

That list should keep you busy for a while or at least for ten minutes a day for the rest of this month so hop to it. I would love to hear your 10 minute declutter tips so leave a comment on the post so we can all take advantage of our collective knowledge.

ITEM 314 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I am putting together a bunch of craft supplies and having a little sale at a local craft group and these tags will be part of the sale.

5 things I am grateful for today

1. Getting my post written early.
2. Knowing I have a great post from Cindy to share with you tomorrow.
3. Understanding friends – Especially when you forget to text them and let them know you can’t make an arranged outing.
4. The pie shop down the street – There aren’t many places in this country where you can buy lunch for three people for $4.50.
5. Liam scored a 12 out of 12 on his PTA testing again today – Lets hope he can do it again tomorrow and the next day and then he can start on the brain injury rehabilitation. Also we may be able to bring him home for a couple of hours on the weekend.

I love to browse the antique shops just for the nostalgia that it evokes. I often see things there that remind me of my grandmother or things that bring back fond memories from my childhood. The beauty of these occasional visits is that I can enjoy the sensations for free and come home empty handed. I don’t need to own the stuff to enjoy it every now and again.

How many of us actually bring this stuff home or even make a hobby of it. There are a lot of collectors out there and an endless variety of things that can be collected. Some people do this because they enjoy the novelty/beauty/rarity of the items while others collect for the monetary value or more importantly the potential monetary value. Much as I love the idea of preserving these items for history’s sake, it does seem a shame when they are hidden away in private collections where very few people will ever view them.

We have a couple of collections in our home that serve to remind us of our shared enjoyment of baseball and art. Both collections have items we enjoy to look at and also considered to be investments. The trouble with investing in collectables is that sometimes you miss the window of opportunity to sell at it’s best price in your lifetime. Case in point are four Ichiro bobble head dolls that when released sold for up to a couple of hundred dollars each on ebay.  Granted we paid nothing for these dolls but now they are worth much less and taking up space in our garage along with a bunch of next to useless baseball cards and other ball park freebies.

Now I know you are thinking why not just get rid of them but to add to the problem they also hold a certain amount of sentimental value for some family members. There are also a box of band T-shirts belonging to my son and various other souvenir clothing items belonging to my husband that may or may not have monetary value but certainly have sentimental value. All these things are cluttering up space in the garage but they aren’t out of site and soon enough they will be dealt with during the 365 days.

I personally will never collect anything ever again, I have learned my lesson. Baseball card collecting is akin to gambling in my opinion and so too really is investing in collectables with the hope that they will appreciate in value. If you want to gamble like this buy shares and try your luck on the stock market at least this doesn’t clutter up your home.

Before I finished writing this post my husband pulled the boxes of baseball collectables out of the garage and at least condensed it down to a much small hoard. One more step taken to a minimal household and more garage space. I will be posting the photos as soon as he works out what he is doing with the rejects.

ITEM 313 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These paint cans were left over from Liam’s art class in high school. Graffiti really isn’t what a parent wants their teenage sons to learn in art class. Once used up he then kept the cans to make some sort of art installation but never got around to it. He gave me permission to get rid of them before he had his accident so out they go to be recycled.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Another fine day so we were able to take our morning walk.
2. Coffee with a friend.
3. Memories of reading to my children when they were young – My daughter and I were sorting through some old children’s books in order to declutter the ones that have no sentimental value.
4. My husband and daughter doing their part in the decluttering today.
5. Bridget doing a grocery run for me so I didn’t have to go myself.
   

“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” -John Burroughs

How many days do you start out with good intentions to do something useful with your day. A little decluttering here, some tidying up, finishing a craft project, getting some exercise etc. Unfortunately, good intentions don’t mean anything unless you actually follow through with action. Unfulfilled good intentions aren’t that different to procrastinating and neither help you feel good about yourself.

What is blocking you from following through. Some of the reasons may be…

• Inertia caused by sadness due to heartbreak or bereavement – I can relate to this one after sitting in ICU and Neurology wards for the last two weeks. It can be very hard to dust yourself off and try to think of anything else except your sorrow when your world comes crashing down around you. I found that getting busy with a task helped take my mind off my troubles for a while or at least made me feel useful. I told myself that I am not the first person to be in this position and won’t be the last, so giving up wasn’t going to make the situation better.
• Health problems that cause mobility issues – This is a very real problem for some people and it is very easy to give up trying. I think the best thing to do is to tackle the tasks that you know you are capable of and let someone else help with the physical stuff that are just to difficult. So long as you are having input rather than feeling useless it has to be good for your piece of mind.
• Low self esteem due to weight issues or feelings of failure – There are always times when we just feel down about ourselves. Times when we haven’t been as successful as we feel we should have been at one thing or another. Just remember tomorrow is another day and you can start again with a new mind set. Set the bar a little lower and once reached you can go to the next level instead of setting goals that are too lofty. Reaching your goals are possible if you don’t set yourself up for failure but making each step to great.
• Just not knowing where to start doing what it is you want to do – This is not a sign of weakness, it is just a fact that if you aren’t taught something you can’t expect to know what to do. I don’t know how to change the spark plugs in my car but if someone showed me the steps involved I would know how to go about it the next time I needed it done. It is the same with most things that you want to do. If you don’t know how, take a lesson or get some professional help then in future you will know where to begin and possibly adapt the method to suit your particular needs.
• You are focusing on the big picture instead of breaking the job down into small pieces – Sometimes it doesn’t pay to look at the enormity of the task but better to break it down into bite size chunks that you can deal with easily. Decluttering is a perfect example of a project that this method can be adapted to. You can take a look around your home and think “Oh my God! There is so much work to be done.”  Or you can think “OK, today I will clean out this room or this cupboard or even just this draw” and you will feel you have achieved your set task, made a good start and move on to the next task tomorrow.
• Just feeling to lazy to be bothered – This is OK if it is a temporary thing but if it pervades your every waking moment then you need to do some serious soul searching. If you are reading this post then I would say you are at a point where you feel you need to do something about this problem and that is good.  My advice is just get started by weaning yourself off your laziness by making an effort to do a small task each day. Slowly build that task up to a bigger and bigger undertaking and before you know it you will be proud of yourself again and feel like a worthwhile human being.

Turn your good intentions into a small deed today and see how much better it feels to follow through rather than just have the thought.

ITEM 312 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Tool storage grid that we used for another purpose for many years but has sat in storage and in the garage for the last 13 years. The less stuff we have to store the less stuff we need to organise it with so out this goes.

5 things I am grateful for today

1. A feeling of peacefulness – although Liam may only make slow progress from now I am at peace with that because he is so much better than he was a week ago.
2. Laughter – One of the things my mother taught me to do well and it really is the best medicine.
3. Family – In times of need they sure rally around.
4. Lamb – We are having roast lamb leg and vegetables with gravy and mint sauce for dinner tonight. I will likely lick my plate. Mmmm Mmmm!
5. My new blog look – Hubby has been busy redecorating my blog and he did a good job don’t you think.

I have decide to make Sundays a day for short and simple posts that is quick to read and simple to follow. I will call them Simply Sunday I hope you enjoy the concept.

This post poses a series of simple questions for you to ponder but the solution is up to you.

1. Do you like dusting?
2. Which room in your home requires the most dusting?
3. What is it about this room the creates the necessity to dust so much?
4. What would you rather 1.) that this room needs less dusting or 2.) to keep all the things in this room that require dusting?

At this point I would suggest you go to this room and carefully scrutinise the items  collecting dust and decide should they stay of should they go.

This room in my house is the lounge room. It is slowly improving on the dusting scale but there is a ways to go yet to get it to the point where I will be satisfied with it’s level of simplicity.

ITEM 311 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This bag is a duplicate due to poor organisation when can happen it you don’t plan ahead when moving house.

5 things I am grateful for today

1. Sleeping in.
2. Enough of a break in the rain to take a morning walk.
3. Catching up with friends even if only briefly.
4. Getting to the end of the day and realising that I had been more useful that I thought – I went for a long walk, baked a cake, did a load of washing, made lunch and dinner, did some grocery shopping, tidied up, did some ironing and visited Liam twice.
5. My little girl is coming tonight and will be able to spend the week visiting her little brother.

A guest post by Cindy Bogard

The three Rs, reduce, reuse, recycle. In decluttering, sometimes it’s easy to overlook the three Rs, especially if you’re going quickly. There are a lot of reasons to like a-thing-a-day decluttering and proper consideration of the three Rs is one of them.

Notice that the first R is reduce. It’s the most important one of all, starting with only buying what you really need and using it completely. Or buy it used; then you’re not creating demand for another of the same. Consider the packaging of your purchases. Don’t buy single-serving items and buy in bulk – even better if you take your own baggie to fill in the bulk aisle. Say no to bags at the store and bring your own. Use durable items rather than disposables (cloth napkins instead of paper, etc.). Take your own mug into the coffee shop – some even give you a small discount. Bring your own totes to the store. I even bring home plastic forks and spoons from restaurants; a bit ironic since I hardly ever use plastic wear. Typically it gets donated to the school or church, and at least it gets used twice, rather than once.

Use your durable goods longer. All of my furniture was purchased used, and all has been reupholstered. My mother’s living room set has been upholstered three times. Good job Mom! Repair items rather than replacing them. It makes me crazy when someone says, “I can buy a new one for $100 more than it costs to fix this one.” Yes, but you already own this one, and it can be fixed, for $100 less than new.

Do something with your food waste other than throwing it away – compost, feed a pet, or simply throw it to the back fence like I used to. It either breaks down or the possums who were already visiting my yard have a treat. (No, I never noticed an increase in furry visitors when I did this, probably because my food waste is limited.) I take a container to restaurants for my leftovers, rather than accepting their throw away package, and I mark my leftovers clearly with a piece of masking tape that says what’s inside and what day it went in. Everyone eats lunches from home, and that minimizes food waste, too.

“Use it up and wear it out,” we’ve all heard that. Reuse is the next R. Don’t buy something just because it’s new, different, or cute. Drive your car until it goes its last mile and replace it with a used vehicle. I wash out the plastic baggies I use and reuse them many times, but I try to use them infrequently. I have plenty of containers for my family’s sack lunches. This is the third year that my children have used the same school backpacks. The PDA that I use used to be my husband’s; he got a fancier one, and I got his. Most children love hand-me-downs. I suppose their enthusiasm may wane at some point, but it hasn’t yet. We take anything that’s too soiled to be handed down and toss it into a fiber pile. The girls are free to pull out and cut up anything in this pile, which is used to make doll clothes, cat toys, baby blankets, and 100 other things that their clever minds can devise.

There is virtually nothing that you can’t buy used and that you can’t get rid of used. Try  Freecycle, Craigslist, eBay, Goodwill, Salvation Army, Replacements (china and dish ware), your church clothing closet, or literally thousands of other places that will take used goods off your hands. I think it’s important, too, to shop at these places. We all need to help close the circle of supply and demand.

Just about anything in your home can be Recycled. It seems to be the R that’s talked about the most, but I think sometimes the phrase “it can be recycled” leads to wasteful use. For example, I was shopping with someone, and she put every bit of her produce – even one grapefruit – into separate plastic sacks because “they can be recycled!” Yes, but by that time that truck comes through your neighborhood and hauls things to the recycling center, where they’re separated and trucked to a number of other facilities and that’s just the beginning, it’s not environmentally “free”.

Nonetheless, here is a list of things you should always recycle

My friends at The Clutter Consultants here in Austin, Texas tell me that sometimes the urge to recycle or reuse stymies people in their pursuit of less clutter and more organization. Decluttering nice and slow allows you to take proper consideration of each item and allows you to make the best choice about what should become of that item.

What did you declutter today, and how did you Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle?

Thanks to National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for help with this article.

Today’s decluttered item from Cindy’s house: a dozen cans of V8, given to my parents, and two bottles of sparkling cider (too “carbalicious” for Clara), given to a friend who frequently entertains.

ITEM 310 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I have two other craft hammers and this one is not well weighted to do the job it is supposed to day maybe it will be more useful to someone else.

5 things I am grateful for today

1. The thrift shop for taking so many of my rejects – I took a much needed trip over there this morning and dropped off a load of stuff.
2. A roof over my head – I can’t imagine what it would be like living on the street in this rainy weather.
3. Liam scored a 12 out or 12 for his post traumatic Amnesia testing today which is great. If he scores 12 three days in a row he will be able to start his brain injury therapy. He is walking and talking better and I saw a lot of glimpses of the old Liam today. His sister will be pleased. He had also been doing some artwork (not on his sheets this time) and seems to be able to focus better and for longer periods on activities.
4. A hearty dinner – another of those things we so often take for granted that others in the world go without too often.
5. A good end to the day

Five comments from my readers I didn’t want you to miss

Sally on Day 302 – Love your blog. It got me to start decluttering and also chronicle my progress… Read more

Janet on Day 306 – That seals it, Cindy. We ARE the same person… Read More

Bronwyn on Day 306 – Yes, yes, yes… this is how many days seem to pan out for me… Read more I particularly liked the bit about defragging.

Sally on Day 307 – What an amazing post. I’ve been thinking the same thing lately… Read more

Cat’s meow on Day 308 – I’ve done it -hiding my head in the sand because I am completely overwhelmed… Read More

Five posts that really spoke to me this week

Sustainably Creative – The importance of chocolate spread It is important to keep that carrot dangling on the end of the stick at times to encourage you to keep at it.

The Minimalist Path – How I Gave Up Books I liked this post because I know it is a struggle that a lot of declutterers deal with.

Becoming Minimalist – Your life is too valuable to waste chasing possessions

Minimalist Woman – Tale from the cluttered crypt 13 realizations This post tells the story that once we acknowledge clutter for what it is the next step of getting rid of it is easy.

Tiny Buddha – Tiny wisdom on choosing

ITEM 309 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I don’t think this dirty old camp mat has been used for 20 years and I don’t think anyone else would want it either.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. All the wonderful staff at the hospital who looked after Liam for the last two weeks.
2. Liam was moved to rehab today which was sooner than we expected.
3. Success with making black sticky rice for dessert tonight.
4. Keeping up with my decluttering
   
5. Waking up everyday to the wonderful support from my wonderful readers. You have all helped keep me going over the last couple of weeks. Your prayers and positive thoughts have been a blessing to Liam and our family. We have a long road ahead of us yet but I am feeling positive and I am sure your good wishes have a lot to do with that. Thank you all.

Sometimes we can find it hard to just get up and go. Things happen in life that we would rather just hide away from and instead of getting on with it, we fall in a heap and feel sorry for ourselves. Sometimes the catalyst for this behaviour seems quite trivial to some but can be a big deal to you when you are living it from your perspective.

Trust me though, curling up in a ball in front of the television isn’t the solution to anything and it certainly doesn’t make you feel better about yourself. Giving up only adds to your woes and makes life even more unbearable. What you have to do is push yourself out of the doom and gloom and find a purpose.

How does this relate to decluttering? It is very easy to see the mess around you and think it’s such a huge undertaking that you don’t know where to start. But like every situation in life it starts with one step. Push yourself to do ten minutes a day then wallow in your achievement and be glad of the progress you have made no matter how small. You may be so pleased that you will do twenty minutes a day next week. There is no limit as to how big or small the steps have to be so long as you are taking them. Immerse yourself in the task at hand and that will give you some temporary relief from your woes.

Since last Friday I have made the effort to start posting to my blog again and catching up on the decluttering I missed while my son was in ICU and it makes me feel human again. Liam’s progress is slow and even seems like it is going backwards at times but I feel better when I push myself to achieve regardless of what sort of day we have had. If I can make that sort of effort under these trying circumstances, I am sure you can join with me and soldier on with your decluttering.

ITEM 308 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Poor old Ted he has seen better days and I have finally got the OK from my daughter to let him go. Bye Ted and thanks Old Grandma for the good times that were had with this bear you made so many years ago. We will always remember you both.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. A new day and all the possibilities it brings.
2. Sunshine to get the sheets dry.
3. Coffee – I am just about to have one, I wish you could all join me we could have such a wonderful chat together.
4. Whistling – I found myself doing it along with the I Dream Of Genie theme today. It is such a cheerful thing to do.
5. A lovely evening with good friends
   

A friend and I were having one of our philosophical chats while walking a couple of weeks ago. At some point, the subject changed to the psychological benefits of my decluttering process.  Having known me before I started on this mission and being that we often discuss it she has noticed the changes it has had on me.

We discussed how my blog has added purpose to what seemed at first to be just a household chore. We talked about the side effects and lessons I have learned along the way. How I now receive so much satisfaction out of helping others with their clutter issues and that shopping no longer holds any appeal to me these days.

I have even had a positive impact on my friend, encouraging her to ease off on the spending and get her credit card debt under control.  We walk together often, which is good for our health and keeps us occupied as we all know how easy it is to get bored and restless when we have nothing worthwhile to do.

When this friend went home she happened to check out her meditation passage for the day and was surprised to find that it reflected the difference she felt she saw in me.  Here is that meditation passage for you to read and ponder…

To Believe

Having learned to transcend purely self-directed concern, fully alive people discover meaning” in their lives. This meaning is found in what Viktor Frankl calls “a specific vocation or mission in life.” It is a matter of commitment to a person or cause in which one can believe and to which one can be dedicated. This faith commitment shapes the lives of fully alive individuals making all of their efforts seem significant and worthwhile. Devotion to this life task raises them above the pettiness and paltriness that necessarily devour meaningless lives. When there is no such meaning in a human life, one is left almost entirely to the pursuit of sensations. One can only experiment, looking for new “kicks,” new ways to break the monotony and boredom of a stagnant life. A person without meaning usually gets lost in the forest of chemically induced delusions, the alcoholic fog, the prolonged orgy, the restless eagerness to scratch without even having an itch. Human nature abhors a vacuum. We must find a cause to believe in or spend the rest of our lives compensating ourselves for failure. From Fully Human, Fully Alive

I know that passage is a bit heavy but the message I took from it is this: If we have lost touch with all worthwhile focus in our lives, we will rely on external stimuli to give us the pleasure we require for happiness, such as shopping, drinking, gambling, drugs etc, to fill the emptiness. Decluttering has given me more purpose than I expected. Not only has it taught me I can be “more with less” but has rewarded me with the joy of helping others.

My friend also found this passage that she wanted me to share with you. It says a lot about the way we chose to live in the Western world….

You’ve never seen a people with as little time as Westerners. Yet we have kitchens filled with time – and work saving objects. Go to the poor Third World countries and ask, “Do you have a little time to talk?” “the rest of my life,.” they’ll say and sit down and share themselves with you for the afternoon.

We should have more time than anybody, but we don’t have any time at all. We’ve defined freedom falsely as an outer thing, in terms of time, space and options. Letting Go – The spirituality of subtraction.

ITEM 307 OF 365 LESS THINGS

The photo on the left shows the declutter item for today while on the right is the coffee plunger hybrid I made from the combined unbroken parts of the two pots. One pot had a broken glass carafe while the plunger had broken in the other. A lot of good the Bonjour brand pot with the unbreakable carafe was when its plunger only lasted a couple of months.

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. Finding time to do some decluttering and organising.
2. Giants won the world series – That is a bit of news Liam is really going to enjoy.
3. A nice night out last night with my old work friends.
4. Having a good laugh with Liam today even though I shouldn’t have been laughing because he was misbehaving but I couldn’t help myself. It is the first time he has smiled and laughed with us since the accident so I just let go and enjoyed it.
5. Making progress with decluttering the fridge and pantry.

A guest post by Cindy Bogard

I’ve often seen this bumper sticker: “Not all who wander are lost.” I think when it comes to household chores, that’s just not true. While writing a blog every day allows you to crow about your successes, it equally allows you to reveal your foibles. Today is a foible day. Here is what I did after returning home from lunch with a friend. I was wandering, and I was lost:

1. Walk into the office, put down my purse, turn on the computer.
2. Walk to the bathroom at the other end of the house to get an OTC medicine that I promise to give to a friend; I’ll be seeing her later. I feel smart that I remembered.
3. While I’m in the bathroom, see the piles of laundry I’d divided earlier in the day. I had started one load and know it is finished washing. Carry a load to the laundry room. I have the medicine in my pocket. Still feel smart.
4. Drop the laundry on the floor, start to unload the dryer. Almost the first thing out is a rug that goes in the screen porch. Take it directly there.
5. While on the screen porch, look outside and notice that the bird feeder’s empty. Fill.
6. As I walk back through the screen porch, I notice Audra’s rug, which has been drying outside. Take it to Audra’s room.
7. Put the rug on the floor. The guinea pig squeaks eagerly at me. Decide to feed him.
8. Notice that his food is strangely clumpy. Inspect his food more carefully. Yuck – it’s got worms in it.
9. Walk to the kitchen and clean his bowl.
10. Load a few (but not all) dishes into the dishwasher.
11. Carrying the clean guinea bowl, swing into the office. Drop the medicine into my purse. Enter my password on the computer. This is the end of feeling smart.
12. Stop by Clara’s room and look at her guinea pig’s food. Yuck – it’s got worms too.
13. Pick up Clara’s guinea’s bowl and both bags of food.
14. Leave the second bowl in the kitchen and carry the bags of food to the office.
15. Sit down at my desk to call the pet food company. Start checking email.
16. Realize I’m checking email when I’m supposed to be calling the pet food company. Mental head slap. Call.
17. Transaction successfully completed, I carry the food to the front yard and pour it on the sidewalk. I figure the ground feeding birds will be happy to sample both the guinea’s food and the worms.
18. Come back into the house, through the garage. See the extra rolls of toilet paper sitting on a shelf. Remember that the office bathroom needs toilet paper. Grab it.
19. Stop by the office bath and leave the toilet paper.
20. Go into the kitchen, throw the empty food bags away.
21. Return to the office. Sit down at my computer.
22. Remember that I never started the laundry.
23. Return to the laundry room. Spend 20 seconds trying to remember why the dryer is open. Are these the wet or dry clothes? Another mental head slap.
24. Figure it out, start laundry.

While all this is embarrassing to admit, I know I am far from alone in my zig-zagged pursuit of cleanliness. One of my friends says that this is how she always cleans – haphazardly meandering from one room to the next.

How much time and energy do we waste bouncing from chore to chore, room to room, idea to idea? When I’m aware of being aimless, I say to myself. “Focus. One thing at a time. Finish what you’ve started.” How much more could we accomplish if we attended to each thing in turn? At a minimum, I’m sure we could declutter 10 things in 1 day, rather than 1 thing in 10 days.

Today’s decluttered item from Cindy: an ice shaver and 3 bottles of snow cone syrup.

ITEM 306 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This oven cleaner doesn’t have what it takes to clean my “oven from hell”. I have persisted long enough in the hope that the situation will miraculously change but of course it hasn’t. I have thrown it in the trash because if it doesn’t work for me I can’t imagine it would work for someone else.

5 things I am grateful for today

1. Clean floors – I made the effort today to vacuum and mop and my tiles are all shiny and clean. Luckily the house was impeccably clean and ready for a rental inspection when Liam had his accident so I haven’t needed to do much.
2. Air-conditioning – I don’t like to waste to electricity but it would have been unbearably hot in our bedroom last night if we didn’t have this luxury. We need to get a good night sleep especially at the moment.
3. Still so grateful for automatic washing machines – Liam breaks out in sweats quite often and goes through several shirts in a day. All part of the healing process.
4. Liam is having his best day since his accident today – one good one, one bad one seems to be the pattern. The little wretch has pulled off all the braces from this teeth that are supposed to hold his jaw in line but he seems pretty happy about it. I am happy if he’s happy even if he is naughty with it.
5. A rainy day to cool things off – we won’t need that air-con on tonight I don’t think.