An important awareness post by Cindy Today's post has nothing to do with declutter and everything to do with another subject dear to my heart. As many of you know, my daughter Clara is one of the approximately 3 million people in the United States with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. She was diagnosed at her 10th birthday check up. We had no idea that there was anything to be concerned about. Clara had gained weight during third grade until she had become worrisomely plump. In the months leading up to her 10th birthday, she had slimmed down and shot up in height, just like a healthy girl … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2011
Simple Saturday ~ A little creativity & all jokes aside a little stark reality
Today for Simple Saturday I want to share two things with you. Firstly I have been creative and come up with my new Christmas tree design. I thought I would run it past you to see what you think. It is minimal, inexpensive (I picked it up off the side of the road) and fits better in my home than the the big 6½ ft fake pine tree. If I decide I will continue with this tree tradition I will throw away the branches at the end of the season and pick up some new ones the next year. That way I don't have to store it and each year it will be that little bit different to the last. I could put this … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourite Five ~ 18 Nov 2011
On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my five favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my five favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. Fave Five Comments. Enjoy! Ideealistin makes a good point here in a follow up comment to a question posted by Lynn who had asked for some helpful ideas on toy storage. Everyone congratulate Felicity on a job well done. She shares her garage sale success story in this comment from Saturday. Here is a great refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle story shared by Ann in this comment. Well done Ann you have … [Read more...]
Ten ways to make the holidays season simpler
If you feel inclined to minimise holiday/Christmas décor, declutter to a point where you are comfortable with the quantity, the effort involved and the storage space required after the event. Try to get as many people on board with the no gift giving rule as possible. Give gifts of experience not clutter to those with whom you can't avoid gift sharing. This includes children. Try doing a secret Santa when there is going to be a large crowd together for Christmas, everyone buys and gets only one gift. The environment and your bank account will thank you for it. Do as much pre-holiday … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ You Can’t Push a String
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom You can't push a string... Different people have different styles, styles of gift giving being no exception. In my family, specific (extremely specific) gift requests aren't considered out of line. In my husband's family, many gifts, all surprises, are the norm. Well, we all know what happens when people you rarely see or talk to give you "surprise" gifts, right? It took me years of interacting with my in-laws before I realized that I could not control them, I could only control myself. (Some very obvious lessons are nonetheless hard to learn.)Â I started announcing in … [Read more...]
Oh Christmas tree Oh Christmas tree…
Last Thursday I got started on the Christmas decorating and I've got to tell you my heart wasn't in it. Just the thought of cluttering up my living room sent chills up my spine. Mind you those chills didn't last unfortunately because it was 7:30am and already 26ËšC  (79ËšF) outside. I was however determined to get this done so I could share my experience with you today in advance of those who will be performing the same task soon. I have one large box of tree and table decorations, a large nativity scene and a 2m (6½ ft) tree. Not much in the big scheme of things but more than enough in my … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Pre Christmas prep
Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and "fun" for you to achieve some quick decluttering. This week at 365 Less Things we are launching a preemptive strike on the Christmas/holiday season. Time to do some pre-holiday decluttering and organising so when you break out those decorations, the guests arrive and the presents are opened, there is enough room to accommodate them. The more … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday ~ Another funny declutter story
My husband had a hair brush when we were first married, he used no other. Around about the 12th year of our marriage the brush started to fall apart with age. I was searching for a brush to replace it that had the same characteristics without success. Somehow a friend and I got talking about hair and the story of this brush came up in the conversation. I described the brush to her and she said she thought she might have the exact same brush at her home that wasn't being used. She checked and amazingly she was correct it was the exact same brush in almost new condition and she generously gave … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourite Five ~ 11 Nov 2011
On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my five favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my five favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. Fave Five Comments. Enjoy! Actually I couldn't stop at five so there are six this week. Hee hee, it's my blog and I'll break the rules if I want to. This comment from Amy in NY holds a number of good points when it come to clutter. Here is a comment with some good advice about keepsake clutter form Minhus. I loved this comment from Jane, it so nails what hobbies are for a lot of people. The key … [Read more...]
Crash diet or lifestyle change.
Have you ever got to a point where you think I really must go on a diet, my weight is getting out of control. So you follow the latest trendy crash diet for a month and the pounds are falling off. By week five you are pretty happy with your appearance and figure you don't need to be so hard on yourself. The odd treat starts sneaking its way back in but what harm does that do, right? A few more months down the track you have returned to all your old habits and have regained the pounds that you lost and are back to square one. After repeating this cycle a couple of times it … [Read more...]