There is one thing or actually a big group of things in my home that are looking down the barrel of being decluttered before the 365 days are up. The group in question are my old sports trophies. I have mentioned these before and still haven’t done anything about them but the day of reckoning is coming.

Trophies come under the same banner as souvenirs and little trinkets that serve no other purpose but to remind you of days gone by. They scream “look what I did”, “look where I’ve been” and maybe even the sad cry of  “I’m living in the past”. Personally unless your future appears dull and you aren’t likely to create any new achievements or live any new adventures do you really need to live in the past.

No matter what your age or circumstance you always have the ability to make new memories, achieve something new and possibly visit new places. My bad shoulder may have put an end to my softball and indoor cricket days but there are plenty of interesting things to do with my time like reaching out to a world of people with my blog to name just one.

Sure these old adventures and  achievements are worth remembering but they weren’t so dull that you need clutter to constantly remind you of those days. I know I don’t need my trophies to remind me of the good times I had with old friends and the individual set of talents I had that contributed to our sporting achievements. I will always remember those days and the great lessons learned from some wonderful coaches and mentors. I just don’t need to dust those memories every week.

I will however get my husband to photograph the trophies and I may even save the little plaques from the front of each of them but even then I expect I will rarely look back at those photos but they will be there just in case.

ITEM 243 OF 365 LESS THINGS

More of my husbands clothes that have gone to charity

A guest post by – My Husband

During a recent overseas business trip I read about an experiment to choose six clothing items and only use those items for a month. You could have multiple copies of each item, even a different colour counted as a separate item but underwear, sleepwear, shoes and jackets etc did not count. I looked at my standard travel wardrobe, and found two pairs of Columbia pants, four sweat-wicking golf shirts (three colours) and two pairs of shorts. Five items to which I could add a more formal shirt for those dressier occasions, and still meet the Six Items or Less challenge. I lived with these five items for three weeks, and as you read this I am using them again for a month in Italy. No one ever comments on my limited wardrobe, and my daily choices are limited to picking the colour of my shirt for the day. Could I live like this for longer periods, or is six items too few to cover every contingency?

I decided that with some minor modifications, the experiment could be applied to my every day life and significantly reduce the size of my wardrobe. The first adaptation was to allow different colours of the same items so my four golf shirts would become one item. I also allowed myself some latitude items that get regular use in rotation with other similar items. For example, I had many long-sleeve shirts of different brands from which I selected the ones I use regularly and counted them as one item. As these items wear out I will look at following my plan to find an item I like that will replace all the differing brands. Using these adaptations, I have reduced my wardrobe to seven items plus work uniforms that are supplied and required by my employer.

I feel liberated from the fashion cycle, and yet have retained the best of my clothes while ridding myself of clothes that are functional but never made it into my rotation. For most of us, we keep returning to the same old favourites until they fall apart, so why clutter our closets with clothes that are never going to be worn? With a smaller clothing footprint, the clothes are not jammed into the hanging space, come off the hanger ready to wear and I can see my entire wardrobe in one place.

The Six Items or Less challenge looks daunting at first but a worthwhile experiment for anyone seeking to simplify their life. The original experimenters had a variety of experiences, and you can read their stories here. Now it is your turn.

ITEM 242 OF 365 LESS THINGS

The first of the clothes that were decluttered from my hubbies closet

On July 21st Kelly was kind enough to point out to me that I had the same item decluttered on Day 152 and Day 183 and I thought today was a good day to explain how this  happened. I chose to explain this now because my husband I are flying out to Italy today for a month long vacation of exploring and soaking up the culture.

“So what does my vacation have to do with this duplication” you say, well I will tell you. From day 64 of my 365 less things challenge I have been trying to get ahead of myself by a month so that when this time came I would still have something to blog each day. I knew when I started blogging about my challenge on Day 64 that I would be going on vacation and wanted to continue during that month without a hitch. So I have to admit that for the last 177 days I have sometimes decluttered more than one thing a day to be able to achieve my goal.

As you know I take a photo of every item I declutter but that doesn’t mean that I use that photo on the day the item is decluttered. Usually I will put things aside for several days before I get the camera out and take several photos at once. Then I upload them to my husbands Flickr Page and use them sometimes to match with the post I am writing other times just randomly. As I use the photos I then add a description on Flickr noting the day the photo was used.

That is how I managed to use the same photo twice.  I obviously forgot to add the description when I used the photo the first time. I have since added a different photo to Day 183.

All that being said. I have tried to put in place enough posts to keep you reading until I get home. Three lovely ladies have been kind enough to write guest posts for me so I hope you enjoy their contribution. Two of these ladies have blogs of their own and all three often leave thought provoking comments that inspire subject matter  for subsequent posts and I felt they had something to offer you. I have had to do a lot of shuffling to get everything in place so please forgive me if sometimes things don’t flow the way they should. It has been a hard slog trying to get this all organised before I leave.

I will be checking in at internet cafés and on my husband’s iPod Touch as often as possible so please keep sending in your comments I will answer them as often as I can. I will miss not talking to you all everyday but I know I am going to have a wonderful time “alone” with my husband for the next four weeks. It is our first long vacation without the kids so we are going to live it up. So arrivederci i miei amici I will talk to you soon.

ITEM 241 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These curtain rod end aren’t much use to us anymore because we don’t hang curtains

I took a quick look around in the garage today and there is still a lot to go before I am finished with my decluttering mission. The garage has become a bit of a holding area for stuff that I haven’t dealt with yet. There are things out there that will go and things out there I would like to go but are not mine to decide on.

• A box of snoopy toys – these are going but I’m not sure how. They belong to my son and I would love to be able to sell them on ebay and make a few dollars for him but I am not sure that this is a likelihood.
• A box of wooden coat hangers – we don’t have enough hanging space for them now but I am saving them for when my daughter moves into her own place.
• 2 boxes of household items – also for my daughter.
• The box of my son’s t-shirts I’ve mentioned before – I hope one day he will get over those and let me get rid of them.
• 2 boxes of baseball souvenirs – I’m not even going to go there.
• A box of photo frames – bargains I just couldn’t resist when I was working in the craft store back in America.
• A box of sentimental stuff of my husbands – Clearly I have no say on this but I think he mentioned going through that just recently so there is hope.
• 3 boxes of Christmas decorations – that is about half as much as what we used to have but I still need to pare that down to about half again.

As you can see 365 days was never a stretch when it came to how much time I would need to complete my decluttering mission. It is now day 240 and I still have a long way to go. The beauty of it is I still have 125 days left to continue to slowly and deliberately work towards my goal. The lessons I have learned over the last eight months have been so valuable that I am not concerned whether I will be fully decluttered at the end of the year or not. I am just looking forward to whatever wisdom there still is to gain from the experience.

So far I have learned not to re-clutter by becoming very aware of only buying things I need and not being tempted by retail pressure. That alone is worth the effort. I have had plenty of time to become accustomed to knowing what is important to me and what isn’t when it comes to my possessions.  I have no regrets about the things I have let go because I have afforded myself the time to make educated choice on what to let go. And to top it off I believe I have been a help to others on the same journey as me. A win win situation I’d say.

So if you are getting impatient with your efforts, stop and think about how far you have come and the benefits of what you have achieved and be happy.

ITEM 240 OF 365 LESS THINGS

A little more electronic gear that is no longer used

This weeks favourite five comments

• My daughter on Day 232 – It would be quite difficult for her to declutter our things secretly. Both my brother and I have way too much stuff in our possession but you can bet your bottom dollar that we’d notice… Read More
• All the responses from Day 234 – Link to these comments here
• Cindy in response to Donna’s comment on Day 237 – Donna, As you allude to, those people aren’t living without wordly goods; they’re just living without… Read More
• Deb J on Day 237 – I think we can all get carried away at times so that it helps to have someone to hold us accountable. But I also think that there are those who go way over the edge… Read More
• Anna on Day 238 – Hi Coleen – will be interested in hearing others responses to this as this is something I struggle with… Read More

My favourite five post links this week

• Minimalist Cook – Gourmet ratatouille minimalist cooking approach
• Rowdy Kittens – Love life, Not Stuff
• The halfway point – Wisdom from a hay bale maze
• Minimalism Woman – Monday morning bloggin in the happy chair
• Becoming Minimalist – Living in the land of enough

ITEM 239 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This seive was another one of those extra things due to my husband living away for 11 months due to his job so it can go in the donation box.

Today I received an email from Barb who had a question about children’s’ art projects. Here is what she wrote…

How have you handled children’s art projects, etc. I have a whole box of them and just not sure what to do!!!!

My response was this…

I have made of point of revisiting my stash several times and been more ruthless with each visit. I am now considering digitising what is left and making a disc for each child. My son was quite prolific with writing “wild” stories when he first started school and they are a classic to read over and over again so I would never part with them but I don’t feel it is really necessary to have the original hard copy. I will ask their opinion on that before I destroy anything though.

This was a simple answer to the question and there is probably a lot more thought that could go into the subject. For instance, with all of the great on-line printing services we have access to these days wouldn’t it be nice to put together a book with their art work and school work samples. Even 3D objects could be photographed and added to the content. You could put it all in chronological order including their school photos from the corresponding years. Maybe even include sports photos and pictures of trophies or awards that they won along the way. You could choose to compile your own scrapbook rather than having it printed on-line if that is a craft you enjoy.

This is starting to sound like fun. If anyone has some more suggestions please send them in through the comments section and we will compile it all in a more comprehensive post for another day.

ITEM 238 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Braiding purchased for a special project that never happened.

I know I still have a lot of stuff in my home to go through and get rid of. Stuff I have been avoiding to be quite honest because of the degree of difficulty. Now that I am almost into the last third of my year long quest I really am going to have to start to tackle these items but that is not what today’s post is about.

Does anyone think that along the journey of decluttering they started to get a little too intent on just purging and forget to be objective about it. You know, started getting rid of stuff that was really quite functional to them but they had gotten so obsessed with decluttering that they weren’t making rational decisions any more.

If there can be hoarders then there can also be those who get a little obsessive compulsive in the other direction once set on the path. Now I suppose I am getting a little carried away with the degree here but it could easily happen that we do get caught up in the process of decluttering and we become a little too ruthless in our approach.

I know that there has been the odd thing I considered decluttering but my husband said “don’t get too carried away” and I have done the same for him. So it is possible to get caught up in the momentum and get a little reckless. I suppose this falls in the category of  “Decluttering Regrets” that we have discussed before but from a different angle.

I would love to hear if any of you have had any experience with this or know of any such stories from others.

ITEM 237 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This old tattered and torn cloths bag had been hanging over my ball gowns in my closet. When I went through my camphor wood chest recently I found three perfectly good bags going to waste and one was long enough to replace this one. So in the bin it goes and the other has taken its place protecting my (I must admit) only occasionally worn dresses.

I have noticed an influx of new readers recently and I would like to take this chance to welcome you all to my blog. I would also like to say thank you to all my loyal readers who have been with me for a while now.

Since I am now at Day 236 and I started my blog on Day 64 there has been quite a lot of water under the bridge since I first started my blog. That is a lot of days to read if you are knew and want to read some more tips and advice and it is a lot of days that may be forgotten if you have been reading from right back at the start. So today I thought I might bring forward a few posts that I thought are worth a second look at or I wouldn’t want you to miss if you are new. So here they are…

• Day 99 Photo Deterrent :- A little trick to make you think twice about buying stuff you don’t really need
• Day 101 Finding time to find things :- Some of the methods I use to find time to declutter without actually taking up too much time.
• Day 102 Garage sale tips :- This post give tips for preparing and holding a garage sale as a way to make some spare cash out of your clutter.
• Day 113 Too much pressure :- about taking it easy on yourself, pace yourself and you will get there in the end.
• Day 169 Forgive yourself :- This post is about letting go of the guilt involved in the objects that you wish you hadn’t wasted your hard earned money on in the first place.

I hope you find these worth a second look or as the case maybe enjoy them as a first read.

ITEM 236 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These vacuum seal bags are a great concept but I have found that they always seem to spring a leak. Also I don’t have the clutter to fill them up with any more so they can go. I guess they haven’t been used since we came back to Australia so that is 3 years to add to the declutter year tally bring it to 92.5 years.

In response to yesterdays post I received this comment from Deb J…

I don’t recommend white lies and they are still lies and can often come back to bite you. What I have done to take care of this is to say up front with people who are gift givers that I love receiving gifts but I am not sentimental about them. So if some point comes along when I no longer feel they suit my taste or have a purpose I may give them away of sell them. I think that most people who know me now know this about me. I don’t have to worry about being asked about something. I also try to make it clear to those I give to that I feel the same way as far as something I give them. I try to make sure that anything I give is something they want at the time but I also tell them that I know that over time we change and they don’t have to keep it forever and put it out when I come visit. It’s so freeing.

…that really got me thinking. I know Deb J is right that little white lies can come back to bite you but that in itself raises more questions about this topic.

• How often have we accepted these gifts politely when we really didn’t want them in the first place. That is a little white lie in itself?
• How often do we get so enamoured with the crafts that we do that we don’t even really consider whether those we are gifting will appreciate it. Are we just looking for an outlet for our creativity?
• How often does someone show proudly what they have created and we politely say that is lovely whether we mean it or not (another little white lie) and then find ourselves being gifted a similar item soon after? I am sure if my friend Liz reads this she will probably be thinking “Like all the jewellery you keep making for me”.

Some people are very aware of their intentions and happily give and receive these kinds of gifts making it known that there are no strings attached. Unfortunately not everyone foresees the dilemma they are creating for someone else by giving these gifts. That being said, I am not sure I can ever remember a time when someone flat out asked me “where is that such and such I gave you, I never see you use it?” So maybe we are just being over sensitive about this situation and really are better off just taking our chances that we will never find ourselves in that embarrassing position.

Please read all the comments from yesterday and today (if we get more) if you want to get the most out of this topic. I seem to have a lot of crafty readers who have some interesting opinions on this.

ITEM 235 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These old suit bags have been stored away in my camphor wood chest for about 10 years unused so out they go. Add those years to the tally and now we have 89.5 years in total.

I know this is going to be one of those posts that may evoke some interesting responses but I am going to have a go at it anyway. I think I have actually touched on this subject before and I am not sure exactly where I am going with it but today’s give away bought it to mind.

Some of the hardest and most guilt ridden things to declutter are items that were handmade with love just for you. Now these items are always given with the best of intentions but with the perceived added obligation of appreciating the time taken to make it for you in the first place.

I recently came across one of these items when decluttering my camphor wood chest. It is today’s declutter item so you can scroll down and take a look now if you wish. I made this for my husband about 20 years ago when he was really into motorbikes. Now I don’t think it has been on a wall in our home for at least 10 years but probably longer. In this case there was an easy solution to this problem because I was the one who made it for him and I was also the one to ask him if he was willing to let it go. This freed him of any obligation of being polite and trying not the hurt my feeling.

Unfortunately it isn’t always this easy. I know I have at least two other item lying idle in my home that fall into this category. One was made for me by my mother and one by my father. They were great at the time that I received them but I soon found they didn’t really suit my needs well. So I am just going to have to practice what I preach and add them to the donation box. If I am ever asked what happened to them I am either going to make up a story of some unfortunate event that caused their demise or admit I wasn’t using them and got rid of them. I am pretty sure which option I will go with because I really have no problem with using little white lies to protect peoples feelings.

Even this option is not too hard for me because lets face it my parents live 1000km away and rarely visit. So all I can say to anyone with this category of declutter item is be true to yourself and do what you must. Always remember though (I am speaking from personal experience here) that the person who made the gift got as much satisfaction out of accomplishing the task of making it as they did at giving it so their satisfaction has already been half fulfilled before your part was played.

Back on days 180 and 182 was when we touched on this subject.

ITEM 234 OF 365 LESS THINGS

With the decluttering of this item we can add 10 more years to our decluttered years tally making it 79.5 in total.