I was travelling on a train last week when two middle aged men boarded and sat down quite near to me. They began chatting to each other in a familiar way and as the conversation progressed one man asked the other about the status of his fishing boat. In reply the other man said that his boat had barely been used since his children had come along. Its lack of use and position in his front yard had caused it to be the target of break-and-enter more than once and was being ravaged by the elements of sun and weather. For all these reasons he had come to a sensible decision and sold the boat before … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2013
Mini Mission Monday ~ Another Round-Up
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. It's about time for another round-up. That is rounding up like items in your home so they are all corralled in the same place making them easier to find when you need them. Sometimes two places is appropriate but multiple places is a recipe for clutter if ever there was one. So I will name an … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourites ~ 12Apr2013
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! Deb J shares some advice on how she got her mom on board with the decluttering in this comment. Donna B had a couple of good comments this week. Here and here. And here is Jen's take on ~ You are not your stuff. Jean doesn't comment often but when she does it is usually a good one. Rebecca J shares with us how she is progressing with her decluttering. Favourite … [Read more...]
Master Your Space
As anyone who has been reading my blog for a while would know, my decluttering style is usually slow, steady and haphazard. That is, I declutter random items from all over the house, rarely concentrating on one particular area. This method, however, Â doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone of course. If that is the case for you then it is best to concentrate on one area at a time or the task would probably drive you crazy. With that being said here is a strategy to use when decluttering space by space. If the idea of letting go of things disturbs you but the annoyance of keeping them is … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Something is Better Than Nothing
"If you're going to do something, do it right." vs. "Something is better than nothing." Isn't it amazing how, for every piece of folk wisdom, there is an opposite piece of wisdom? I think for decluttering, "something is better than nothing" should rule the day. This weekend, I wanted to take the box of Easter decorations up to the attic and bring down the boxes of camping equipment. I didn't do those things - any of them. Even though all the Easter stuff wasn't together (the girls are still eating treats out of their baskets), I could have brought the camping equipment down. I don't have to … [Read more...]
You are not your stuff
The biggest cause of clutter in one's home is believing that giving away one's stuff is giving away a piece of oneself. Thoughts like that will leave you paralysed from ever getting rid of anything or at the very least make it a very unpleasant experience. Repeat after me… I AM NOT MY STUFF * I AM NOT MY STUFF * I AM NOT MY STUFF Consider this idea instead... With every new day my life becomes a little different to the day before. I get older, my loved ones get older and we all alter to suit those changes. Looking back brings wonderful memories and some sadness at times while looking … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Little Places
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. For this week's mini missions we are going to address a small area each day. Just little decluttering tasks that won't take long but you will really notice the difference. I love going back to take a peak at and area that has been decluttered and organised and I bet you do to so lets give it a … [Read more...]
Saturday Extra ~ Trash to Treasure
Some weeks back Michelle, one of our fellow 365ers, declared that she was going to finish or ditch a craft project that had turned into aspirational clutter. She gave herself a deadline of two weeks to achieve this. However life got in the way and it took a little longer than promised but she has managed to complete the task and has transformed some lovely old pieces of carved wood into some very functional book ends. She was determines to achieve this goal which did present some difficulty of its own. Michelle said in her email ~Even though I stripped 8 layers of paint from them and cleaned … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourites ~ 5Apr2013
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! This was a nice way for Donna B to introduce herself to 365. Read her comment here. Here is Sanna's thoughts of gift giving and receiving. And Deb J has something to say in this subject too. I loved that Angela did not live Deb J's method of decluttering and wanted to share that with others who also might feel the same. Read her comment here. Here are three great responses to … [Read more...]
Never Satisfied
Have you ever been in a relationship with a person who was just too hard to please. Someone that no matter what you gave them it was never enough. Your time, your effort and your hard earned money all wasted in vain, that person were never satisfied. You even went into debt buying the things they wanted and they would to be happy for a short while but then it was back to wanting something else. The stuff you gave them accumulated leaving you with the task of taking care of it or cleaning around it, a constant reminder of your foolishness. Was this relationship worth the effort? Was it … [Read more...]