Have you ever heard the expression ~ Can’t see the forest for the trees. Here is an explanation of this expression according to About.com…

Definition: overly concerned with detail; not understanding the whole situation

Explanation: Used when expressing that a person is focusing too much on specific problems and is missing the point.

When it comes to clutter though this expression manifests in reverse. That is, people can’t see the trees for the forest. Or explained simply in clutter terms ~ Can’t distinguish the individual items of clutter from the sheer bulk of their possessions. Or more to the point they are paralysed by the magnitude of the task of decluttering and can’t see that all they have to do is pick out one item here and one item there until they can begin to see the progress they are making.

This paralysis if mostly caused by one, more or all of the following restraints…

Emotional Attachment ~ When things have been acquired over a lifetime, either personally or given by a loved one, emotional attachments are often forged. Once all these items have amassed it is easy to think we are attached equally to it all of them and not realise that among the bulk (the forest) there are things (individual trees) that are of less importance to us than others. We therefore can’t bring ourselves to “rape” the forest when in fact all we are doing to thinning out the excess trees to allow the light to illuminate the remaining ones so they can thrive and the forest is better and healthier for it. Or in terms of possessions ~ remove the less loved stuff to allow you to see and enjoy the items you really love and have a tidier, cleaner, happier and therefore healthier environment to live in.

Worth ~ We often squander our money accumulating items that we ultimately don’t get the true value out of. As a result we tend to find them difficult to declutter without feeling we need to redeem some of that wasted cash. This is all very well and good if you get on and do something about it. But more often than not this is a real stumbling blocks for people when it comes to decluttering. They look at the sheer bulk of the task of selling these items and it adds a “too hard” factor to the equation and avoidance is the result. We also kid ourselves that all the items  in our possession are of value because we might need them someday or they might increase in value given more time.

The question to ask yourself is what is the value of your peace of mind. How much are you willing to pay for the serenity of having the task behind you and just being rid of the stuff. Wouldn’t it be better to donate it all or sell it off cheaply and quickly and get on with your life.

If you are willing to make the effort once again ignore the forest (bulk of the stuff) and start weeding out the scrawny trees (the items of less value). Donate them to charity and sell the rest. Or If you are able why not have a yard/garage sale where you can sell off the lesser stuff cheaply and only accept good offers for the better stuff. Should the better stuff not sell find another avenue for selling where you will redeem a better price. Auctions, ebay, CraigsList, advertise in the newspaper etc. This is a compromise that will earn you some extra cash but actually make progress on reducing the clutter.

Laziness ~ So often I hear the excuse of ~ “I really need to declutter but I am just too busy.” ~ only to later discover that the person proclaiming this is an avid reader, movie or television watcher, crafter or the like that spends hours consumed by their pastime and not so much their duties. This is all very well and good, everybody needs something to unwind by or enjoy doing but leisure time is just that leisure time should not be an all consuming monopoliser of your time or an avoidance tactic.

Once again the thought of all that decluttering (the forest) is unappealing so we retreat into our other pastimes whether deliberately or unconsciously. We delude ourselves that we are spending our time productively when really we are just avoiding the task and fooling ourselves that we are being productive.  Just ten minutes a day to put aside one item (the trees) is all it takes to get the job under way. That isn’t a lot of time to subtract from the other activities you enjoy doing. Use those activities as a reward once the task is done rather than a retreat.

So the moral of this story is to not focus on the entirety of the task at hand. Just find that one thing a day starting with the easy things first and before you know it you will able to appreciate the joys of living with less.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a lazy clutter item ~ Something you have no real attachment to, you just haven’t got around to getting rid of it.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is one of the things in my home whose removal was delayed due to wanting to redeem some of the money wasted on it. The time span between deciding to declutter it and actually selling it on ebay really didn’t bother me. I am simply satisfied that I did redeem some of my lost cash. The difference between this situation and the one I described above is that once I decided it was to go I put it aside to sell. The decision was made and the process begun and during the time between owning and selling it I am still busy decluttering other things.

Sizzix Cutting Die Organiser

Eco tip for the day

Hang your clothes to dry when possible rather than wasting power using a tumble dryer. A clothes line isn’t required, I mostly hang my wet washing on an airer either inside or out depending on the weather.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Clutter and birthday parties, especially children’s birthday parties, fit together like a hand and glove, don’t they? They don’t have to. My youngest, Audra, turned 10 last week. Her birthday party cost less than $31 (less because there were food leftovers), generated virtually no trash, and was a great success.

First, let’s think about the things that create trash at a child’s birthday party.

• Disposable table cloth (cheap paper or plastic)
• Paper plates
• Paper napkins
• Paper cups
• Cheap themed decorations
• (Often all of the above are purchased at the same time from Wal-Mart, Target, or a party store on an aisle that’s designed to encourage you to buy all the matching this and that they’re selling)
• Plastic forks
• Juice Boxes
• Disposable water bottles
• Plastic cake decorations
• Ribbons, bows and package decorations
• Wrapping paper
• Junky little toys that are often given as prizes for games; they may not be trash today, but they will be soon
• More junky little toys given as party favors, often in throw-away bags
• Gifts that are quickly forgotten about or discarded

Audra had an Olympic-themed birthday party with just six guests. They girls did gymnastics routines (very small routines), the long jump, triple jump, shot put (bean bag throw), swimming races, and diving. (The last two activities took place in an accommodating neighbor’s pool.) None of these activities produced clutter. We also served a nutritious lunch of hummus, pita triangles, carrots, cherries, celery, and cucumbers followed by homemade cupcakes. We watched the some of the Olympics while we ate our lunches. Gift opening was last.

We avoided creating clutter by:

• Using all non-disposable cutlery, plates, and glasses from my kitchen
• Using cloth napkins
• Not using a table cloth (although if we had, it would have been one I already own)
• Getting ice and water from the refrigerator and not offering water bottles or juice boxes (again, if I had offered juice or milk, it would have been poured from a larger bottle, not offered individually)
• No prizes were given for success in the various games
• Decorations were kept to a minimum, which was Audra’s choice. Using some art supplies and the back of a foam core board that I brought home from work, she made an Olympic sign that she hung on the mailbox. She put up a few signs that she printed on the computer using paper that had already been used on one side that said things like “Olympians only after this point” and “Long jump starts here.”
• One friend gave her a sewing book, one friend gave her gift cards to a local ice cream shop (yum yum), and one friend gave her a gift card to a huge accessory store. Audra likes fashion and dressing up, and she will get twice the thrill first getting the gift certificate and then shopping for her item.
• At the end of the party, Audra gave each guest two Japanese erasers. These are hot items among her peers and have been for several years. (Rarely do they actually get used as erasers, although they can be.) What’s interesting is that Audra loves Japanese erasers, but she only wants animals ones. The first thing she did was sort through her own erasers and pulled out the non-animal ones. Right there, we almost had enough for party favors, and only a few more needed to be purchased. Next, she made little boxes from paper for each of the guests. They were only paper and tape and 100% recyclable.
• No gifts were wrapped in wrapping paper. The envelopes were recycled, and the bow and gift bag were put away to be reused.
• The last thing we did was remind our guests of anything that could be recycled. Audra pointed out that she recently went to a party where the hostess provided recyclable cups, but since she didn’t tell or remind anyone that they were recyclable, most of the cups got tossed in the trash.

It is 100% possible to have a fun, inexpensive, and clutter-free party. Do you belong to a circle of friends from whom even over-the-top is not enough? If you don’t want to get new friends, then throw your own decluttered party your own way. You don’t have to be a follower; you can be a leader. Just don’t act shocked when two of three of your friends express envy at the simplicity of your child’s party.

I am on vacation with the birthday girl and her older sister for two weeks, and will likely not be reading comments, let alone answering them. Until I am back in Austin, have a great two weeks.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one of those once favourite outfits that you never wear any more. Chances are it is now out of fashion.

Today’s Declutter Item

Yet more of the craft items recently sold on ebay.

Foam Craft Stamps

Eco Tip For The Day

Don’t leave you car idling for unnecessary periods of time such as when you pull over to use your cell phone. 10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting your car.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

A Book Review of The Power of Habit

by Charles Duhigg 

Cindy

What a fantastic book: so well researched, so easy to understand, so very interesting. Duhigg shows over and over again that most of what we do is habitual and that habits can be changed and manipulated – by ourselves and by others.

My mother should be happy. This book validates her often-said phrase “When you do things outside the norm, that’s when they go wrong.” My Mom’s not a pessimist or a stick in the mud; what she’s saying is that when you lock your keys in the car, forget your purse, leave the burner turned on, or drive to the store without your grocery list, it’s probably because you approached these routine events outside of the format of your usual routine. Without your habits in place to guide you, you actually have to think about actions you usually don’t think about, and they can go terribly wrong. My Mom and Duhigg are in agreement! In fact, Duhigg claims that 40% of what we do daily is habitual.

One of the chapters that I found most enlightening - and disturbing – reported research using brain scanning to test the lingering power of habits. What researchers found was that even if you have overcome a bad habit (say cluttering the coffee table when you arrive home from work or overeating), the neural pathways for cluttering that table never go away. They are always present in the brain, and that’s why it’s so easy – with the right (wrong!) cues – to fall away from our good habits back to our bad. However, I consoled myself that the opposite must also be true:  Somewhere inside my brain there’s still a neural pathway for running 3 or 4 times a week. I just haven’t seen that pathway in a decade or so!

The first part of the book, the section on personal habit development, is the most relevant to our decluttering efforts. What Duhigg explains repeatedly is that habits consist of three parts: The cue (time of day, arrival into the house, presence of certain people, etc.), the routine (which is the habit), and the reward. Duhigg says the reward the most important part of the cycle because habits form when we like the reward. Habits can only be changed, he says, by changing one of these three inputs – usually the routine. I highly recommend that you watch his video here. It’s only about 3 minutes long and explains how he analyzed and changed his habit of eating a cookies every afternoon and lost a dozen pounds as a result of his success.

The other two portions of the book talk about the habits of organizations and the habits of society. There’s some very interesting stuff here, and if you don’t start using cash at Target after reading about their focused marketing, I’ll be mighty surprised. Target knows that during life disruptions (birth of a child, divorce or marriage, move), people change their shopping habits, often without realizing it, and Target does their very best to know – as soon as you do – if any of these life changes are taking place in your household.

Changing from a lifestyle where you continually buy too much, where you never purge, or where you leave things out all over the place are all habits. They’re habits that need changing, and especially if you’re having trouble making changes, this book and some experimentation might really benefit you.

Highly recommended reading.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter objects accumulating in the third drawer down in any room ~ kitchen, office desk, bathroom cabinet… It is a strange phenomenon that the third drawer is often the receptacle for clutter.

Today’s Declutter Item

These little plastic lidded cups and storage box used to contain beads in my craft area. They gravitated to the third drawer down when I reduced my stocks and were no longer needed. During the great craft room declutter of June 2012 they were relegated to the donation box. They have since been sold at the thrift store.

Ex Craft Storage Items

Something to be grateful for today

Soaking up the sun on my back patio while being visited by the neighbours cat.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

One of the areas of my home that I have been working on regularly since the very beginning of my declutter mission is my craft room. At the beginning all I knew was that I had too much stuff and I didn’t really have an ultimate goal aside from to keep working at it until I was satisfied I had gone far enough. As I have slowly gotten closer and closer to that point my goal started to become clear. I wanted what I owned to fit into the craft organising cubes that I had long ago purchased for the task. No overflow  into other rooms in the house, no stuff in other items of furniture, no stuff in other storage containers…

It occurred to me while working at this task last week that I have used this goal of decluttering in other areas of my house. Long ago I achieved the goal of fitting everything that was in my china cabinet into my kitchen cupboards. At another point it had become my goal to fit all my linen on two shelves in my linen closet. All my spare blankets had to fit into my camphor wood chest. All our books on one shelf in the book case and all my shoes in the cupboard near the from door.

In general setting an allowance of space for certain items is a great way to inspire you to declutter the things you just have too many off. It is as simple as realising you have far more of a certain category of item than you need and setting a realistic allowance of space for them to take up. Here are some suggestions…

1. Allow one small cupboard space for cleaning supplies.
2. Only keep enough clothes to fit in your closet. No spreading them into the closet in the guest room.
3. One bookcase for all your books, the rest must be sold, donated or given to friends or family.
4. Only keep your favourite DVDs that must fit into your entertainment cabinet. Not piled two deep into a full size bookcase elsewhere in the house.
5. Cookbooks must fit on one small shelf in the kitchen.
6. Kids indoor toys should fit in their bedrooms not taking over the family living space.
7. Utensils could be limited to one kitchen drawer, the same for cutlery.
8. Personal paper work might be limited to a two drawer filing cabinet or maybe even one drawer if you are clever enough to digitise and minimise the non-essentials.
9. Shoes might be contained to what can fit on your closet floor not piled on shelves, in baskets by the door, or hiding under beds.
10. If you have a large home you might even consider making your overall goal to fit everything you own within the closets, cupboards and storage shelves throughout you house and not have items hidden in boxes in the basement, attic or taking over the car space in the garage.

So consider a space goal in your house this week whether that be a big or small goal. It might be the inspiration you need to set a final limit on a category of items you have been slowly reducing for a long while.

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you have too many glass items ~ vases, plates, bowls, drinking glasses…? If so now is the time to weed out a few.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is way more than one item but they were all decluttered in one effort so why not group them together. Although some time back I decluttered enough items form both my kitchen and my long gone china cabinet to fit what was left into my kitchen cabinets I am not stopping there.

Glass Items

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Some days are just special in an ordinary kind of way. A good breakfast, a chat with a neighbour, doing more than just the weekly housework chores, leftovers for dinner, the sun shining long enough to dry the sheets…

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Today I thought I might bring you along with me during my decision making process. I have chosen several items that up until now have escaped decluttering but that I have had my eye on for a while. I will share with you my thoughts relating to each item and what my final decision is.

Before I get to individual items my first consideration in the decision making process is whether or not I am satisfied that I have gone far enough with my decluttering. Whether I am happy to keep everything that is left in my home. At this point in time I don’t have to waste much thought on this because I know for sure that I am not done yet.

The next step is to take a look around during my daily routine to spot items that are still up for consideration. This also doesn’t take much effort because, with the gradual process that I use to declutter by, there are always items in the back of my mind that have a tenuous grasp on their position in my home. If they aren’t very useful or much loved they are a candidate for elimination.

Then comes step three the individual decision making process which I will run through with a selection of items I chose to consider last week. As I mentioned above they are all items that have escaped the declutter process over the last few years but the time has come to bring them to the fore. So without further adieu here they are.

Glass Vase

Item No. 1  ~ A Glass Vase

The reason this vase has escaped decluttering so far is simply because I happen to like the look of it. That isn’t however enough to warrant keeping it when the object of this exercise is to declutter under utilised items from my home. I guess it would come under the heading of quilt clutter because I wasted money buying it on a whim. So I ask myself ~ How often has it been used since it was bought and the answer is probably twice in five years. Then other issues come to mind like the fact that none of the shelf spaces in my kitchen are tall enough to house it so it has been collecting dust on the top of  those cupboards. It also stands too high to look right no matter where I have attempted to display it and I rarely have a flower to display in it. So the verdict was that it can go to the thrift store.

Fruit Bowl

Item no. 2 ~ A handcrafted Fruit Bowl

This fruit bowl was a wedding gift from two very good friends who have  passed away in recent years. That is the only reason I believe it has stayed this long. How many times have I used this bowl in twenty five years of marriage? ~ I would hazard a guess at twice and that really says it all. Do I particularly like it? ~ No. I loved the people who gave it to me but I don’t need it to remind me of them. It has spend most of its twenty five years in the bottom of one china cabinet or another and has recently adorned the top of my kitchen cupboards with the vase mentioned above. I think it is time to let it go to someone who will appreciate it. It will also go to the thrift store.

Artificial Plant

Item no. 3 ~ An Artificial Plant

I don’t particularly like artificial plants and this one is no exception. You might wonder then why I bought it, well I didn’t my husband did. It adorns my lovely glass dining table. I have tried various other decor items from around the house on the table but have never been happy with the result. I am not happy with the plant either but the table looks too bare without something so for now the plant will survive the cut and stay on my table. This just goes to prove that not everything ones keeps is ideal. Mind you this item has a very tenuous hold on its existence in my home.

Craft Robo Cutter

Item no. 4 ~ Craft Robo Cutter

I have included this item because it is an item that at present doesn’t get much use. I is however a very clever little gadget and has served me well in my crafting endeavours in the past. As anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows there have been a lot of craft items decluttered over the duration of my mission and I dare say there will be more before I am done. But this gadget is safe for now and I can’t see me ever decluttering it. What I do envision is finding more time for crafting in the future. I have always been a crafter and dare say I always will be.

Craft Items

Item no. 5 ~ Knitting Tools

While we are on the subject of crafting items here is another example that came under scrutiny last week. I have passed over these knitting tools time and time again because although I have not done any knitting for about 6 years I have tended to return to the craft over and over again throughout the years. That being so I figured that these didn’t take up much room so why not keep them in the event that I would need them some day. Well my desire to reduce my craft has overtaken my desire to keep these items. I bundled up the better metal needles and stored them with my other sewing equipment but this lot can go to the thrift store along with the other sewing tools you see in the picture. If I need any of this size needles in the future I will check the thrift shop first because we usually have a good selection there.

So I hope that sheds a little light on how I go about choosing what stays and what goes.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item that fits with this question ~ What was the person thinking when they gifted me this?

Today’s Declutter Item

In keeping with today’s mini mission I will add one more item to declutter today and let you in on the decision making process involved. This large floral canister was a gift from a friend. It wasn’t a gift I was expecting because the person and I were not close friends. If I remember correctly it was full of different kinds of dried pasta. It was an interesting choice for a gift but I kind of liked its cheery design and its large proportions. It has decorated my kitchen for about 6 years now but it has no other real function for me. Like the knitting needles I have a greater desire to liberate the space than I do to keep the item so it will go to the thrift shop with the other items. That is one more thing not collecting dust and cooking grease on the top of my kitchen cupboards.

Floral Canister

Something I Am Grateful For Today

When the skin on a port roast cooks to a light and crunchy crackle. Mmmmm yum.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

I received the following comment from Whisper last week which I think holds an important lesson when it comes to decluttering. Whisper wrote…

“A month or so before my move, I tried a half-cull of my jewelry (suggested in The Minimalist Packrat) – getting rid of a piece for every piece I was keeping. I don’t think I managed to be completely 50/50, but it really helped me reduce to a more manageable level. This was after 3 or more less than productive culls where I just looked for things I didn’t want. It took the irritation of my unproductive attempts to try a new way. Another example of frustration ending up helping.”

…and here is my response…

“What you are saying about culling your jewellery by half rather than just choosing the pieces you really didn’t want makes sense to me too. I use a similar approach with many things in my home. Instead of considering what I don’t want I think about how much less I do want. The desire to minimise usually usurps the desire to keep certain things I still feel slightly attached to.”

Instead of focusing on the things you think you want to keep or don’t want to keep focus on what you want the ultimate outcome of your decluttering to be. Like Whisper, if you want to reduce a certain category by half focus on reducing by half and don’t allow half hearted interest in certain items to convince you to keep them.

Take my kitchen for example. I have revisited the decluttering task in my kitchen over and over again. My kitchen items probably take up only two thirds of the space they used to. I have chosen to keep several things in the past just because they are aesthetically pleasing, suit my tactile nature or just in case I need them one day. But what I really want is to reduce the items to at least half of the original quantity.

I don’t need three different sets of bowls that can perform the same task just because they are all lovely in there own special way. I also don’t need four casserole dishes that haven’t been used in twelve months. I could keep two just in case and declutter the rest. I know that I can always replace them guilt free by picking up secondhand ones at the thrift store in the unlikely event that I might someday have a need for them. Not that I think this will ever be necessary. Now that I think about it I believe most of the items I have mentioned came to me secondhand in the first place.

So to put this plan in a nut shell ~ Just choose your goal and only keep the items that you want, need or like the most to fit with that goal. If your desire to declutter is strong enough this really won’t be a challenge.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that you keep in case of an emergency that never arises. Perhaps your first aid box needs decluttering or maybe you kept that pair of crutches from a previous injury like I have. Granted, I have used my pair on three separate occasions, but three times in seven years doesn’t justify keeping them.

Today’s Declutter Item

As per today’s mini mission here are the crutches I am decluttering today. Hopefully my optimistic attitude of not needing them again in the future will hold true to reality.

My Crutches

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I wasn’t looking forward to housecleaning yesterday but it feels so good now that it is done. I am grateful that the task is made easy by the fact that there is so much less to dust and shift after all my decluttering. I find time to deviate off the usual tasks to accomplish a  few extras because if this.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

First of all, this story has a happy ending, although it sure didn’t look like it would when it all began.

A few months ago, a dear friend of mine was in a very dark place and disappeared. Literally gone. You can image what my husband and I feared. My friend has no close relatives and no spouse; I am the executor of his estate. I felt a lot of emotions during this time, and one of them was outrage: “How DARE you go off and leave me with all this sh*t to take care of! How dare you not clean up your own mess before you dumped it in my lap!” You see, my friend is a bit of a collector (perhaps even a bit of a hoarder) and his mother, who hung onto to everything she ever purchased, large and small, had died the previous year. He had all of his stuff and all of hers too, all undealt with. I couldn’t believe that in addition to dumping a giant emotional burden on me and my family, he’d also left me with a huge mess: a house that couldn’t be sold because of unfinished remodeling projects; an oversized garage was full of his and his mother’s stuff; a bedrooms serving as a storage room. I was furious (and heartbroken, and scared, and determined to find him, and a mash of every other emotion you can image).

The best news is: We found him and in the subsequent several months, he’s doing so much better. It’s truly a gift from God.

What lessons did I learn from this dreadful experience, and how does it relate to decluttering?

1. Organize your personal papers. What if, God forbid, the worst occurs and you die unexpectedly? Do your loved ones, who are already shaken by your death, know how to access your accounts? Do they even know where you bank? Can they access your email account? Could they cancel your movie rental subscription, magazines, and price club membership? Or are they going to be stuck guessing?

2. Make sure the you have a current will, power of attorney, and medical directive. (At least in the U.S.) I am not kin to my friend, and it clearly could have created a problem for me. This is so important for everyone, but especially, especially important to those who are single. There are will maker programs available, which I cannot endorse, but the power of attorney and medical directive are simply fill-in forms. They vary slightly from state to state, so search for them on the computer.

3. Finish one project before you start two more. People aren’t nearly as good as multitasking as they thing they are, and multitasking your life – in a big way – isn’t any more successful. Finish one project before you begin another. Don’t start painting the living room and removing the trim in the bedroom at the same time. Don’t have two quilting projects going at once. Finish one thing then move onto the next, or you may leave behind a troublesome trail of partially completed projects.

4. Clean up your own mess. We’ve all read comments on this site about people who were thrown into a giant mess left behind at the death of a relative. Sometimes no one knew Aunt Bessie was a hoarder, and the family has one weekend to clean out the house and put it up for sale. One of my employees told me about leaving her mothers’ dishes boxed up and in the trash pile because she wasn’t able to cart them away during the mad cleaning weekend. If you don’t want to deal with your junk, just think how much someone else doesn’t want to deal with it either. If you’re keeping your belongings because you really want to make sure they go to just the right owner, let me tell you, when you’re gone, they’re going wherever they land, so if it’s really important to you, take care of it now, while you can. Don’t feel overwhelmed. You can do this, one day at a time, 365 days a year.

5. If you’re struggling with poor mental health, don’t be afraid to tell others. God put us here to help one other.

Today’s Mini Mission

Perhaps what is stuck on the front of your fridge also spills over to the sides. Time to clear that off as well.

Today’s Declutter Item

We have no use for these chains, not that I can remember a time that we did. They have been loitering in the garage since out return from America and we in storage for 7 years while we were there. If we haven’t used them yet I dare say we never will so they will be donated like so many other things.

A little garage clutter

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Cindy

Do you own anything that’s “too good to use”? I bet you do. I started this post by asking my mother. The first thing she said was, “Yes, and do you know what a mistake that was?” What I think is really interesting about this story is that it took my Mom less than a second to think of an answer and that the item in question was given to her as a wedding gift 49 years ago. You’ll be surprised what it was. Here’s what she said:

“Yes, and you know what a mistake that was? When we were first married, we were given a twin blanket that was ‘too good to use.’ We were sharing a twin bed then and could have used it from day one, but we didn’t. Then we got a queen bed, and since the blanket was a twin, it didn’t fit and was still ‘too good to use.’ I think about 10 years ago, it was the junk blanket that Ken (my father) used in the back of the truck.”

Wow! From “too good to use” to junky blanket in the back of a truck. What a waste of a perfectly “too good” blanket.

One of us grandkids gave my grandmother a sort of wine goblet with a half dozen rose-shaped soaps in it. The whole thing was wrapped in plastic. Those rose-shaped soaps never got used, and when my Grandmother died, the soaps were still sitting there, wrapped in now-dusty plastic. Why? I know she wanted to enjoy looking at them, but it would have made more sense to enjoy looking at them for a year and then enjoy using them for another year. Why were rose-shaped soaps ‘too good to use’?

Perhaps you have a beautiful necklace that you think is ‘too good to use’ except on very special occasions. If you really love it, and if it’s not so special that the guards from the insurance company are following you around when it’s on your neck, then why not wear it to work or church? Are you really going to enjoy it more if you only wear it once a year versus once a month? Or even everyday? I have a beautiful and expensive necklace, and it’s rare that I don’t wear it. It amazes me that after five years of almost daily wearing, I still get regular compliments on it.

When you have something that you treasure and you don’t use it, you’re not honoring that item, nor are you honoring yourself. It’s not too good to be used; that’s why it was made, and you certainly deserve to use something “too good.” What do you own that’s creating clutter by being “too good to use”?

Today’s Declutter Item

Still on a roll when it comes to decluttering with my daughter. Today we have some 3rd birthday cards who we can’t identify the giver of (gone to recycling), an old jazz ballet costume (thrift shop), 2 baseball sun visors (surprised she was willing to part with the Yankees one),  these will go to a baseball fan helper at the thrift shop, her baby music toy which has perished and broken from old age and one crazy looking rag doll she made some time ago (both binned).

More of my Daughter's Stuff

Something I Am Grateful For Today

 Having a nice dinner with a friend and to make it even better my daughter cooked for us. A great little girls night in. Hubby is out of town and Liam was out with friends.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

I think I deserve a break during the holiday season and if I don’t I am having one anyway. So for your entertainment, I have set up five posts for this week with articles from the archives. That is I am going to share with you some old post that you may not have seen for some time that you might find interesting and helpful all over again while I take my break.

I received some unexpected help this week with choosing which articles to use from Lena who has been reading through the archives since she discovered my blog not so long ago. Got to love her dedication, especially since it has assisted me to be lazy for a week. Thanks Lena your timing was perfect.

One more thing. I may or may not be replying to comments it just depends on whether I have the time. A break is meant to be a break after all. I am sure though that I will not be able to resist checking what you folks are up to while I am not looking. Please feel free to chat among yourselves if I am not here. Equally please take a break from me and my incessant declutter nagger for the week yourselves. I will not feel deserted if you don’t drop by. So without further adieu here is the first of this weeks archive posts…

Day 250 ~ Reducing your Travel Clutter

A guest post by my husband

You’ll never meet a traveller who, after five trips, brags: “Every year I pack heavier.” ~ Rick Steves – Travel Writer

These words echo in my head every time I pack for trip, whether business or pleasure, reducing the amount of stuff I carry always makes for a more enjoyable time. Whenever I travel with colleagues, they are amazed by my small bag and unable to imagine how they could do it. Packing light is easier than they think and anyone can reduce their luggage to a manageable size with some planning and preparation.

Colleen and I are committed to only take as much stuff as can be carried onto the flight; a 9″ x 22″ x 14″ bag weighing no more than 7 Kilos (15 lbs) plus a smaller bag for personal items like a camera. We use a convertible backpack/suitcase with zip-away shoulder straps that is lighter than your average roller bag, and easy to tote across town to our hotel. How do we do it? Well, my bag contains the following items:

• 

  Rick Steves ~ Classic Back Door Bag

  2 collared shirts

• 2 t-shirts
• 1 pair of pants
• 1 pair of shorts/swimmers
• 4 sets of underwear
• 4 pair of socks
• 1 jacket
• Vibram Five Fingers
• small toiletries kit
• first aid kit
• 1 small towel
• journal/pens
• sewing kit
• guide book/maps
• phrase book (if needed)

In my camera bag:

• DSLR plus 28-135mm zoom
• 50mm lens
• iPod Touch
• battery charger
• spare battery/compact flash drives
• Archos 604WIFI (used for photo storage and charging the iPod)

I used to carry a laptop but an iPod touch provides me all the computing power I need except for an ability to upload photos from my camera so I carry the Archos 604 *. Despite carrying two devices, I still save more than half the weight of your average 12-13 inch laptop or netbook.

The main advantage of this small uncluttered travel bag is mobility. While most people are waiting for their bags, we are heading to the hotel. We can easily change planes, trains or buses when a delay occurs because everything is with us. Sure we have to do some washing along the way but it is often no more expensive to use a fluff and fold service than to do the laundry yourself. We also use lightweight wash and wear clothes that can be washed in a sink if necessary, and air dried over night.

Virtually nothing in our bag is there because we might need it, we will use every item continuously throughout our travels and when those one-off occasions arise we just buy what we need at that time. Plan for the best and be prepared to spend a little money if needed, why ruin a vacation lugging a huge bag of stuff you never use to save a few dollars. Travelling light is an awakening that can open your eyes to how little you need in your life, try it on your next vacation.

For those who cannot imagine travelling with one small bag, check out Rolf Potts’ No Baggage trip.

* We no longer carry the Archos 604 as we now have two 8gig Compact Flash cards which hold and awful lot of photos, so there is no need to upload photos as we go.

Today’s Declutter Item

Somethings accumulate and because you use them all the time you don’t think to deduce the number you have. These two trays are just that sort of clutter item. Yes they get used but while they are used two others remain idle. They can’t all fit in the oven at once so there is no need to keep them all. One was so old and worn that I sent it to the recycling while the other is off to the thrift shop.

Two Baking Pans

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

More than a dozen years ago, when I was working, a email like the one that follows circulated. It’s probably the only chain email that I’ve found to be truly valuable. I hope you find it meaningful too.

A time management expert stood in front of the group of high-powered achievers. He said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”

Everyone in the class said, “Yes.”

“Really ?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to fill in around the big rocks. Then he asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?”

By this time the class was onto him. “Probably not,” one of them answered.

“Good!” he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Now is the jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted.

Once again he said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it.”

“Maybe that’s true,” the speaker replied, “but that’s not my point. What I want you to see is this: If you don’t put your big rocks in first, you won’t get them in at all.”

What are the “big rocks” in your life? Family? Health? Friends? Volunteer time? I bet it’s not reading home fashion magazines for two hours a day, searching endlessly on YouTube for something that makes you laugh, or hitting the “refresh” button on your Facebook page 6 or 7 times an hour. Yet somehow we find ourselves sucked in by the little things - the gravel (or worse, the water) - while the big rocks sit outside the jar neglected.

Ask yourself, “What are my big rocks?” and remember to put them first, or they won’t get in at all.

Today’s Declutter Item

Way back at the beginning of 365 Less Things I decluttered and repurposed some of my gift wrapping items because I made a pledge to treat friends to outings rather than buy them gift on special occasions and I have convinced my family not to exchange gifts with me anymore. So now I feel confident to declutter most of the remaining portion of my gift wrap stash as they are still sitting there unused after all this time. I will send this lot to the thrift store. In future I will keep a roll of brown paper, which I use to wrap eBay sales, that, with  a little artistic flare, I can decorate up in the event that I do find myself actually giving a physical gift item to someone near and dear.

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am forever grateful for the cooperation and understanding of those near and dear to me when it comes to the lifestyle change I have adopted over the last eighteen months. My husband and my son are not only willing but independent declutterers and my friends and family have not only respected but in some cases embraced the changes that I have made to my gift giving/receiving ways.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow