There is a lot of focus on the negative stuff in our lives when we discuss clutter and decluttering so today I thought for once I might focus on a few items in our household that have been in our lives for many years and have been in use all that time (or at least all the time that they haven't been in storage due to location choices) A White Plastic Laundry Hamper - in my bathroom I think has been in use (off and on) for 23 years. My Camphor Wood Chest -Â has stored different items for me since I was a teenager - I plan to reduce enough clutter in our home so that I won't need it … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2010
Day 130 Reuse and recycle
Think about it for a minute, all the stuff in your home that you thought you needed at one point or another and never used to its potential (AKA Clutter) is likely to become landfill prematurely if you don't pass it on now to a good home where it will no doubt at least fulfill another person's needs for a period of time before either being used to it's true potential or get passed on again until it does. I was so please with all my eBay sales last week not only because they put a little bit of cash back into my pocket but also the items I sold are now being used by someone else. There … [Read more...]
Day 129 Learn to love the process of decluttering
I no longer look at the decluttering process as a chore in fact I really enjoy it. I look for the positive in in every little effort I make. I no longer focus on the enormity of the task and just revel in the good feelings I get every time a piece of clutter leaves my house. There is such a feeling of accomplishment and freedom associated with ridding myself of objects that bring me stress rather than the joy I thought they represented when I brought them into my life. I have almost forgotten what the feeling is like that is evoked by retail therapy. I think I was pretty much over … [Read more...]
Day 128 Step it up a notch to minimalism
When I first started this adventure of decluttering at the beginning of the year that was all it was to me, decluttering. As I go along on this journey and discover the freedom that unburdening our lives of things that only bring stress on us I am starting to embrace the idea of taking it to the next level. It really is a natural progression because the fundamentals of minimalism have been a constant topic of conversation in our home for some years mostly without me even realising it. My husband has been reading up and considering the options available to us for some time now and I have … [Read more...]
Day 127 Snow gear eBay sale
Previously I mentioned how a change of location and or lifestyle can have an impact on the necessity for certain items around your home. Our move from Seattle in the USA back to Australia has rendered our ski gear mostly useless to us as we are now 700km from the closest ski fields. Sure we might like to take a winter holiday to the snow some time but in Australia you can hire both ski clothes and equipment should that ever happen. We also have some items that no longer fit our children anyway. So I decided to sell it all on eBay. Now I did my homework first and checked similar … [Read more...]
Day 126 Applying my uncluttering approach to housework
Today I applied my 365lessthings approach to my housework. I have had my sister visiting for a six days and we had a lovely weekend away in the middle of that. I hate to waste time doing housework when I have visitors because I would rather spend time with them than doing chores. Needless to say this neglect had taken its toll on how my house was looking by this morning and I was feeling quite tired and lazy after all the activities of the last few days and wasn't feeling up to a hard day of cleaning. I decided to take the one step at a time and don't focus on the enormity of the task … [Read more...]
Day 125 Ah ha moment
I often check the discussions taking place on Unclutter Forums and sometimes even start a new topic myself. Recently I began a topic called The Neil Armstrong Approach to Uncluttering. This topic has attracted a reasonable amount of interest mostly due to the curiosity about the title but one comment really struck a cord with me. Pol wrote - I've been decluttering regularly and it simply gets easier and easier the more I do it! "Sentimental" clutter has always been the worst with me...   Each small step has opened my eyes to the damage I was causing myself, the stuff owned … [Read more...]
Day 124 Revisit the gift wrap stash
Remember my blog way back on Day 86 when I decided to find a way to use up all my gift wrap items that seemed to be multiplying rather than diminishing in the linen closet. Well this weekend I attended a lovely get-together in the wine region of the Hunter Valley to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday. The weekend which included wine and cheese tastings, a lovely lunch, a bus to take us to all our destinations and overnight accommodation, cost us all $270 each. I felt inclined to provide a gift even though I was sure one wasn't expected due to the financial outlay for the event. So I … [Read more...]
Day 123 Manuals on-line
On day 119 I spoke briefly about sorting through my warranties and manuals. I received a comment from Jen who suggested using Manuals on-line to source the manuals on line and saving them to a file on your computer for when and if you need them. You could also just access them online when you need them saving room on your hard drive but you relying on the fact that they will be available indefinitely. Steph said:-I spent the afternoon tossing old manuals and finding the rest online. Now I have a Google Docs folder with PDFs of everything I still own. I found most of them on the … [Read more...]
Day 122 Novel clothing declutter Story
While having coffee with a friend- lets call this friend Amber - she told me about a conversation she had had with one of her friends who had an interesting method she was intending to deploy in order to declutter her wardrobe. As I have mentioned before I live in Australia, Amber's friend -lets call her Leanne- is about to go on a vacation to the United States where the shopping is great. I haven't talked to Leanne personally about this situation but I believe her intention is to only pack clothes that she no longer likes or are starting to wear out and when she get to the USA she will … [Read more...]