Last week I found myself worrying too much about other people's clutter. I am not referring to my readers here of course but to people in my own personal scope of friends and acquaintances. In the end I decided that ~ as the old saying goes ~ "God helps those who help themselves."  Which for me meant all I can do is offer my help and advice but in the end if people aren't willing or able to make changes then I shouldn't concern myself over it. Below are a list of the thoughts that came to mind through my frustrations last week that I feel compelled to get off my chest. It is not … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2012
Spend a minute save five
What better time than November to hone your tidy up skills. With all the hustle and bustle that goes on around the holiday season it is always best to stay ahead of the game. So what I am proposing is that you all join me for a month of The Keep Tidy Challenge for the duration of November. Remember last week when Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass) mentioned in a comment a concept he refers to as Reset. When working on a project or task he and his wife make a point of putting everything away and "reset" the space for the next task. This is not a new concept by any means, Mark has just put … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ A room a day
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's mini missions should be easy. All you have to do is fine one item per room per day. If you have a small apartment maybe that will be one item per space per day. I will name the room/space and all you have to do is find one item in that area to declutter. It can be anything. How simple … [Read more...]
Moni’s mammoth declutter update – DVD or not to be
As part of my Mammoth Mission I sold my Balinese Dresser and found myself with a heap of DVD's sitting in boxes on my garage floor. I should back up and explain that the majority of the DVD's dated back to my children's earlier years and at that time in our suburb we had the choice of driving 10 minutes each way to rent a DVD for $15 overnight or buying one from TWH two minutes up the road for $21. Whatever Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks put out, made its way into our home under what seemed like good economics but ultimately ended up jam packed into the Balinese dresser. Now I'm not saying we … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourites ~ 26Oct2012
On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. Favourite Comments. Enjoy! Jane tells us about how she isn't all that comfortable describing herself as minimalist in this comment. I don't use that title to describe myself either as I don't believe it is true for me. I am working on a new title. Like me Megan has become immune to advertising. Read her comment here. I was amused by Jane's term Relocation Sorcery. Read what she means by that in … [Read more...]
Using your smart phone as a declutter tool
I am not one for promoting gadgets or any kind but I have discovered in the last year or so that a smart phone can come in quite handy when it comes to finding new homes for clutter. Here are three ways I have found smart phones assist me with my decluttering efforts. Sending photos via messages ~Â Every now and again I make a decision to declutter something that I think one or another of my friends might find useful. So I snap a photos of the item and send it via my smart phone to theirs with a message asking if they would like the item. I am always careful to let them know that they … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Perfectionism
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Perfectionism. Can you be too perfect? Oh yeah. Ironically, many cluttered people are perfectionists. Certainly perfectionism was one of the anchors that used to hold me back. Wanting everything to be perfect can keep you from making progress in a number of ways: You don't have the perfect organization system, so you have no system. You can't get rid of something because you need to determine the perfect person / perfect place for that item to go next. You know the perfect person - the exact perfect person - and the fact that you only see them once every two … [Read more...]
Focus on the space
There is a tip I have heard many times from many sources that I don't think I have ever mentioned on my blog before now. That tip is ~ Focus on the space not the clutter. That is to visualise how you want the space that you are about to declutter to look instead of focusing on the task itself. Having a clear picture in your mind of what you want the space to look and feel like should give you the incentive to strive towards that vision. Stay focused on the vision, which is the positive outcome, rather than focus on the negative, which is the work involved in achieving that vision. When you … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Brands, spin, visual appeal & the latest and greatest.
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 Monday I think we will work on identifying and removing clutter from our homes that are the result of us falling for marketing hype, branding,  visual appeal or "upgrading". Oh how misleading these enticements can be. I watch advertisements on TV these days with a smug look on my face … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday ~ Clutter with eyes – Chrissie would like your advice
This week I received an email from Chrissie who has a unique decluttering issue that she would like her fellow 365ers and myself to give her advice on. Below is the message she sent explaining her issue. "Although I'm quite successful in decluttering and drive my own project online ~einfach-weniger.blogspot (Simply Fewer in English) I'm lost as soon as things have eyes. No matter if cuddly toys from the childhood (they can be ugly as hell!), knick knacks, useless promo gifts, ... as soon as they have eyes they are begging me to stay in my house. All available declutter strategies did not work … [Read more...]