Now that I am back to my daily decluttering I decided to take yet another look through the storage cupboard in my laundry. This cupboard is quite useless in a way because it is not deep enough to store certain things I would like to keep in it but on the flip side it isn’t deep enough for things to get shuffled to and lost in the back of it. And yet there are still things in there that haven’t seen the light of day since we moved into this house three years ago.

I am giving myself the excuse that due to my blog I am only decluttering one thing a day and I just haven’t gotten around to these items yet but in reality I have gone through this cupboard more than once already and have been clinging on to these items for who knows what reason. I am going to list the items below and will analyse the reason I think they are still there and you can use that as an example of “This is what you should not do so let that be a lesson to you!”.

1. Three round quilted pot holders – these come under the “MAYBE ONE DAY” category as they have been kept because they are still useful and may get used one day. I was given two other very nice new pot holders with scenes of Seattle as a leaving gift by a friend and those are the ones we choose to use regularly. We only use this style of pot holder to hold hot dishes when we eat in front of the television so they are unlikely to wear out any time soon. If I am being realistic these other three are likely to linger unused for a decade while wasting space in my house so for that reason they are going in the charity box.
2. An apron – This comes under the “SENTIMENTAL” category. When I lived in Seattle one of the jobs I had required me to wear an apron and I was given permission to take it as a memento of my time there when I left. Needless to say it has also sat in that cupboard unused for three years and been passed over each time because of the personal attachment I had to it. I will never forget those times and the lovely people I worked with and I don’t need this sentimental clutter to help me to remember.  So that’s another item for the charity box.
3. A “so called” recyclable shopping bag – This item comes under the “FREE SO COULDN’T SAY NO” category. I am sure you can all relate to this one. Here is how the story goes. I went to a craft fair and as I  entered the venue they were handing out free recyclable shopping bags, all pink and pretty and like a Bower Bird to a blue object I couldn’t resist. Against the better judgement going throw my head at the time I weakened and accepted the bag.  I was already at about day 40 of my 365 less things challenge and should have known better but maybe I hadn’t really learned the art of resistance as well as I should of at that point. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. I have more than enough of these bags already so this one will go in the charity bin with the other items.
4. A hand towel – Here we have one for the “SOMEONE MADE IT FOR ME” category, my mother-in-law in fact. (Barb if you are reading this please forgive me!) It was one of those things that seemed like it would suit my needs at the time so I accepted it graciously, used it a couple of times and then it seemed to work its way to the bottom of the pile. Usually one seeks things out that they find the most useful and use them over and over again so the fact that when I found this I thought “Oh, I forgot I had that” generally means it didn’t really work for me. So I will be good and put it in the charity bin even though I have pangs of guilt because Barb made it for me and she is a kind and generous person. (I thought I had better throw in a little extra groveling there just in case she is reading this.)
5. One T-shirt – Unfortunately this one falls into the “WE SPENT GOOD MONEY ON THIS” category but with a twist. It wasn’t one of those impulse buys that you regret later on and wish you hadn’t wasted the money. It was more of a laundry accident situation. The t-shirt was a Manchester United jersey that probably cost my husband more money than I want know about. One would think that when a manufacturer makes a red shirt it would sensible to make all the white components of that shirt out of materials that won’t turn pink when you put the shirt in the red wash load where it belongs but alas they didn’t. So you can guess where I am going with this. My husband wouldn’t wear it as it was and after several unsuccessful attempts to turn the pink writing back to white again all I managed to succeed in doing was to fade the black stripe to grey while the writing was still pink. So it has sat in the cupboard  for the last three years out of sheer guilt and the hope that I would come up with a solution. Now I think it is time I shed the burden by getting rid of it and the bad feeling along with it. I will put it in the charity bin and maybe someone else might not mind its imperfections.

So we have just about covered every weakness that causes clutter here in one 10 minute session of cleaning out a single cupboard. About the only category we didn’t touch on was “SHEER LAZINESS” and I would like to think that there isn’t anything in my home that is there purely because I am too lazy to carry it to the garbage can. That is something I couldn’t live with.

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As it is supposed to be one item a day, even though I found 5 items, I will post them one at a time or a risk running out of things before the 365 days are up. Stay tuned for the others over the next week. This is the hand towel mentioned in today’s post.

5 Things I am Grateful for Today

1. Leftover roast chicken dinner – Nothing like not having to cook when your husband is out of town, especially when the leftovers taste so good. (Homemade of course)
2. Friends to have coffee and a chat with – today was spent catching up with the friends I missed while I was away.
3. A warm house on a cool evening – spring may be here but the last couple of nights have been a little cool but the house warms up quite nicely during the day. (Not heaters required)
4. Time – I have had plenty of that since I have been home so I have been able to settle in quite nicely.
5. Encouragement – Thank you to all my wonderful blogger friends who have sent words of encouragement for my quest to find out what I want to be when I grow up. Now all I need is to do something about it.

Well it had to happen. I had managed to get far enough ahead with the decluttering to carry me through my vacation and a couple of days out the other side. Alas, now I have run out of my pre-decluttered items and I have to declutter for real again. It wasn’t hard to find something considering I had lived without it all for a month and have long since come to the realization that we probably don’t need/want half of the stuff around here anyway.

While getting my jewellery box out of my bedside cupboard, I came across a pile of Rick Steves travel guides we had used on our last trip to Europe three years ago. I had kept them with the intention of using them to help make a scrapbook. In that three years, I don’t think I have even looked through all the photos we took let alone start making a scrapbook. At this point I am fairly sure that it isn’t going to happen so this pile of pages can go in the recycling.

If you are wondering why the book is torn apart there is a good reason for that. As you know travel light. We also carry a day bag with us when we go out sightseeing. In the day bag we carry a face cloth (micro-fibre), sunscreen, some ibuprofin, two water bottles and a few other incidentals. Because the travel books are heavy we separate out the sections of the countries we are going to visit and only carry those with us on the trip. When we are in a particular city, we only carry the section we need for that city and maybe a more comprehensive map if necessary. Since we usually buy the travel guides several months before a trip for planning purposes, by the time we have finished with them they are out of date so there is no point in keeping them in tact to pass on to anyone else. We got even smarter at light travelling on this trip and discarded the used parts as we went along to lighten our load. Some of the places we stayed had an area set aside where you could leave books to share so we left our guide book section relating to that city, maybe someone would find it useful.

It is amazing the useless stuff you find lurking in cupboards when you take the time to look. These books have been wasting space in that cupboard for years when I could have used that space for something more appropriate. Stuff can be such a waste of space. Think of a space in your house that you feel contains stuff inappropriate for the location. First of all declutter that space and then see if you can find a more appropriate space for the items that you  wish to  keep but seem out of place.

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The object of today’s post

5 Things I am Grateful For Today

1. Spring – I took my first walk around the neighbourhood today since being back and spring has sprung in my absence. I will take my camera with me tomorrow and snap some pictures of the lovely flowers and post them here for you soon.
2. Salt & vinegar chips – MMMMMMMMMMM I love their salty, vinegary goodness. I think the pantry is calling me.
3. Cameras – Where would my blog be without a camera. I would have to draw a picture of the item each day and wouldn’t that be hilarious. Actually I am not that bad at drawing so it may actually be OK but time consuming.
4. Fresh Produce – I am making homemade pizza for dinner tonight. So many yummy ingredients, potato, basil, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, egg plant, mushrooms, red bell peppers (capsicum to us Aussies), feta & Parmesan cheese, garlic, rosemary out of my garden and much more.
5. Bread Making Machine – I use this to make the dough for the pizzas.

We stayed at a very eco-friendly hostel in Rome called The Beehive. They only wash towels and sheets every three days if you are staying four days or more. They encourage you to turn off all electricity in your rooms when you are out. They have a little cafe that provides organic home made snacks and breakfast. And they have a community area where you can access the Internet on the computer provided and there are free magazines to read and a small collection on books (travel and otherwise) that have been shared by passing travellers who have no use for them anymore. There is also a recycling collection area for all guests to use for responsible disposal of plastic, paper and glass.

Among the magazines was a great little publication from Canada called Ode Magazine (for intelligent optimists). You can check it out on line @ www.odemagazine.com. There was one particular article that caught my eye about the different ways our brains work. The article is called Your Brain is a Rainforest and I would love you all to read it. This article has nothing to do with cluttering but as our brains’ “wiring” has a lot to do with our individual behaviour maybe there is a connection there for you to find for yourself. Too often people feel alienated just because they don’t fit into society’s general rule of what makes a person “valuable”. We are all special in our own way and we should embrace that and find our own purpose in life that is fulfilling for us. Whether this choice makes us rich or not should not be the motivation, happiness and satisfaction should be the ultimate goal. In fact I believe that there should be a little more equality in what society deems is the monetary value of different occupations but that is just my opinion.

Just to prove that I practise what I preach I am handing in my resignation at my current job and I am going to spend some time experimenting with options so I can hopefully find what I want to do when I grow up. It is never too late to learn, thank goodness, because I have certainly left it late enough. Now that I have learnt not to waste money on unnecessary items I can afford to sacrifice my small wage in the pursuit of happiness.

ITEM 271 OF 365 LESS THINGS

I had all good intentions to use these pastry horns when I bought them but to be honest I have never used them so that one more thing for the donation box.

5 Things I am Grateful for Today

1. My Dyson vacuum cleaner – the house needed a good once over today and having a good vacuum cleaner sure makes that easy work.
2. Micro-fibre cloths – I don’t know how anyone cleans without these things.
3. Sleeping in – I slept until 8:30 today so I am feeling much brighter than I have the last two days.
4. Racial Diversity – I am making Red Thai Curry for dinner tonight. Wouldn’t life be boring without great food from different cultures.
5. Hot showers – can you just imagine what it was like before indoor plumbing and hot water systems were invented. It doesn’t even bare thinking about.

Today I sit here in my not so big house and thinking WOW there is so much space in here. After living in mostly small hotel/pensione rooms for four weeks, what seemed like a relatively small home now seems so spacious. I cannot help but think there is an awful lot of floor to be vacuumed and mopped, and a lot of bench tops and sinks to wipe. The tiny two bedroom town houses they have just build around the corner are looking pretty attractive at the moment.

My husband is all the way up stairs at his computer which feels weird because he has hardly left my side in a month. Although I am not a needy person, it was rather nice to spend all that time together. He looked after me very well during our time away. He arranged the whole vacation and kept the ball rolling throughout  making sure we were on time for trains, planes and hotels, arranged all the sightseeing outings, took care of all the finances, ordered most of our meals with his less than perfect Italian, did the laundry with me, sat with me for two hours at a hospital in Venice when I had a bit of a health issue…

Now it is back to reality, a house to clean, clothes to wash, food to prepare, vehicles to maintain,  jobs to return to and just being surrounded by stuff, whether being used or not will need dusting, storing, charging, cleaning yadda yadda yadda… Well it shouldn’t be a challenge to continue with my decluttering because I was very happy to live without all this stuff for four weeks so how much do I need most of it anyway. That gives me an idea.

Go on a virtual vacation from your stuff. Pick an area of your home and pretend it doesn’t exist for a week. Don’t go near it or use anything from it even if you think you need to, improvise instead  Then after the week is up ,declutter that area and just see how much easier it is to be realistic about what you care about or need in that area. Stop and think about the sentimental items and what they represent to you. Was there any loved one you had forgotten about in that week just because you had not been in contact with the sentimental items that relate to this person. Even if so did that have a negative effect on you life for the week. While you are working on the decluttering of this section of your home, segregate another area in the same way and work on that next.

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Being that I haven’t used this food colouring for at least 3 years it would have to be either not fit for human consumption or just not needed so out it goes

5 Things I am grateful for today

1. The ceiling fan – the day is getting a little warm as it wears on.
2. An afternoon nap – that jet lag is still hanging around
3. Yoghurt – I need to get my stomach back into balance after too many antibiotics
4. My laptop – even if it has a few weird quirks
5. Pillows – Nothing like a little comfort

Yes I am back at last but suffering from a good dose of jet lag after 43 hours of travel, so don’t expect too much from me today.

I would like to take your memories back to Day 250 to a post my husband wrote called Reducing Your Travel Clutter. In that post he shared this quote with you from Rick Steves (Travel Writer)

You’ll never meet a traveller who, after five trips, brags: “Every year I pack heavier.”

Well boy did he repeatedly whisper that quote in my ear with sarcastic humour over and over again during our vacation. Especially in the narrow alley-ways of Venezia (Venice) and while watching people trying to drag large hard shell suitcases down narrow train isles.

I remember one particular man who scrambled last minute onto a packed train with just this type of suitcase and a backpack stuffed to bursting point and saying to his wife while trying to tug the thing down the isle while juggling the other “this is impossible”. I got the feeling he thought the problem was with the train and not with all the unnecessary luggage they were carrying. My husband and I just looked at each other with smug satisfaction and patted our faithful Rick Steves’ backpacks and rejoiced in our minimalist travel skills.

I weighed my backpack just now to see what I was carrying and it weighed in at a mere 11lb (5kg). We did off load and use up a few items as we went along but at most I would say it would have weighted only a couple of pound more. We never once had to check our baggage which saved us untold time in airports and there was always enough space in the overhead locker on the planes as our two bags packed into the same size space as one normal carry-on bag.

We also only had to wash every 5 days which didn’t pose any problems as our Rick Steves’ guide book usually tells us where to find laundromats in all the places we stayed. A little pre planning helps with this as some places have less facilities for this than others. We actually find it relaxing to spend a couple of hours every now and again sitting chatting and reading while the laundry is taking place. We were amused when one laundromat had a drinks dispenser that you could get a beer from.

I will elaborate more on this subject in the future but between the jet lag and the three phone calls from my daughter who has been suffering from not being able to talk to her mummy everyday for the last month, I just haven’t enough brain power left to put the words together.

Catch you tomorrow.

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Gone as far as I can go with these puzzle books so it’s time for the trash. I actually had a 2nd copy of the blue one that I took on vacation with me and it is now used up on in the recycling in Italy somewhere.

For those of you who may not have read this comment by Amy last week I thought it was so great I wanted to bring it to the attention of you all.

Hey Amy I am glad you are OK and I hope you are inspired to declutter even more for the experience.

Here is what Amy wrote…

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Things just keep coming out of the woodwork so to speak. I found these old reading glasses in my sewing cabinet. They aren’t strong enough for my eyes anymore so they have to go.

I must apologise if I haven’t managed to get to fill the comments section of this page while on vacation. Things will be back to normal on the 26th of September.

Five great link to the archives of great bloggers

• Tiny Buddha – On Letting Go
• Renouncement – Sometimes you just get what you need
• Less is fabulous – On Borrowed Time
• Far Beyond The Stars – The true purpose of simplicity
• Miss Minimalist – Minimalist beauty- 11 ways to look gorgeous without chemicals

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More of the clothes from my son’s closet

I must apologise if I haven’t managed to fill this page before or during my vacation. I will be home on the 26th of September.

A little recycling tip

Office supply stores usually have recycling bins for old cell phones and printer cartridges if you have been wondering how you can recycle these items. The cartridges are refilled I believe and the cell phones are often donated to women at risk of abuse as an emergency lifeline.

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Some of the clothes that were decluttered from my son’s closet

The day before going on vacation I read a post from Gip @ So Much More Life about another blogger turning of comment to his blog. Here is a link to that post – Comments matter…

This is the comment I left in response to Gip’s post and I mean it from the bottom of my heart

Hi Gip,
I’m with you. I know my regular commenters feel that they are part of a community at my blog and I like it that way. When I welcome a new commenter I always refer to the welcome coming from US and how WE appreciate their input. It is only me writing my blog but the WE & US are a reference to my readers and I as a community.
I even have a favourite five comments each week because there is so much useful information that can be found among the comments which give me and my readers a more rounded view of the topic of my posts. I fact if I didn’t get the great comments and questions I get from my readers some days I wouldn’t have anything to write about. They give me so much fodder for post topics and since I write every day I would run out of things to write without their help.
Ah well! We are just the little guys I suppose who still think our readers have something to contribute.

Thank you to all of you who leave comments whether regularly or just every now and again. Thank you also the those that just read and don’t feel inclined to comment. I appreciate you all for taking the time to show and interest in my blog. I hope I have been a help to you all in some way.

Please forgive me if it seems I have been neglecting you all while I have been away but my access to the Internet has been sporadic at best and I look forward to getting back to normal when I get home.

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A couple more craft tools that don’t get used are off to the thrift shop

For those of you who don’t read the comments on my blog I thought I would share this one with you. Back on Day 232 I received this comment from Eve…

I’m loving your blog and look forward to checking it each day (I only found it yesterday). Something about your posts makes me want to dig in and de-clutter stuff. Already I’ve de-cluttered dozens of little things: kitchen gadgets, fabric trimmings I thought I’d use but clearly haven’t, school applications for my son that are no longer necessary to keep, IKEA Allen wrenches, etc. Each item I throw away or put into the Goodwill bag makes me feel like I’m losing weight! I have one question: what is your attitude about secretly decluttering other family members’ junk?

My response was this…

Hi Eve,
I don’t secretly declutter anything for other members of my family. My children are old enough to make their own decisions so all I can do is encourage them or help them but outside of that it’s their stuff and I just have to live with that. My husband is totally on board with the decluttering so I just leave him to take care of his own stuff so no problem there. If I find something that belongs to someone else while I am decluttering I always ask the owner if they want it or not.
You are doing so well with your own stuff by the sounds of it and maybe if your family see the benefit of that they might just start to participate of their own free will.

Just to elaborate on this topic. I don’t think it is a good idea ever to give away something of someone else. Once a person is at an age where they are aware of what is theirs it is their choice whether to keep it or not. I have always encouraged my children to declutter their toys and things once they had grown out of them. It made it easier if we had a garage sale because then they have the bonus of making a little money that they can spend on something else. Then I would even gave them the choice to keep it or give it to charity if it didn’t sell and I think they were always happy to give it to someone who would appreciate it.

I know it is difficult if the other adult member of’ the family isn’t willing to part with their clutter but aside from trying to encourage them there really is nothing else you can do.

My daughter actually read the Eva’s comment and this was her response…

Eve,
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 if something (even a small something) were to go missing and she’d be hearing about it!! Haha, she does do a pretty good job getting us to declutter though. Whenever I visit I usually get thrown a pile of things while watching TV and am told to go through it. It always seems like such a chore but some of the old things I find in my cluttered mess is quite amusing and it ends up being a fun little activity (but shhh, don’t tell the declutter queen that I said that!).

She’s a cheeky little rat, I can’t imagine where she gets it from.

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I attempted to sell this on ebay without success