Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Perhaps if you’re like my mother – always organized, always together, the focused Energizer Bunny – you won’t understand this post, this post about why my house fell into complete disarray and stayed there for about 8 years. Well, perhaps not why it fell into disarray, but why it stayed that way, year after hateful year. Our house was almost literally always under construction, with my husband and I as the main worker bees. I had two young children. I find housework boring. All those reasons are true. But plenty of people offered to dig me out of my hole, and … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2011
Space Solution – Kitchen Counter Office
Last week in response to Cindy's The Black Hole post Jo responded with this comment... This is my black hole and so this might be a good place to ask my nagging question: if you don’t have an office or a desk, just a kitchen counter, how would you go about setting up an area of that counter for paperwork (bill-paying, notes, to-do list, business and personal correspondence, etc)? The telephone is accessible at the location I have in mind. I have yet to come up with a way to have an in-box, an out-box, and still store the mail, cheque book, and pile of papers that I have in … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday 14FEB2011
Here I am again sharing the decluttering love on Valentines Day. We all love a clean house, space and less housework right and the more you declutter the easier all these goals become. Cleaning your home is only a matter of dusting, wiping and mopping when you don't have to dig out the floors, benches and shelves every time cleaning day comes around. That alone makes decluttering worth the effort because the less stuff you have the less mess you can make with it. So once again I have set out a list of tasks for the week that will bring you closer to a decluttered home and easy maintenance. Who … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday – Bedroom declutter make-over
These are pictures from Audra's room (7 years old then). Her room had gotten so bad, that I felt overwhelmed by the sight of it. I'm sure she did to. The room was decluttered and cleaned in 3 hours by myself and a decluttering professional. (Yes, I was so afraid, I had to call in the big guns.) Since then, Audra and I have decluttered much, much more; it's a lot easier when everything can be seen. The Before Shots of Audra's Room The After Shots of Audra's Room It is easy to see from these shots the advantages to decluttering. It is now much easier for Audra and Cindy to … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourite Five – 11FEB2011
Jo in response to Friday's Favourite Five - ...I love reading the grateful lists. I started making my own lists... Read more Gail in response to The Black Hole - What has helped me the most in eliminating (nearly) “black holes†is a superficial study of feng shui... Read more. Patricia - Dear Colleen, This blog came into my life at the perfect time... Read more Deb J in response to Too Much Clutter, Too Little Time - One thing I am learning is that I have too many things on my list of things to do so... Read more Anne in response to Creating Enthusiasm by Changing your Thinking … [Read more...]
Creating Enthusiasm by Changing your Thinking
For those of you overwhelmed by the decluttering task ahead of you I would like to give you hope. I am going to ask you to do five simple things, and I want you to focus on the effect those things have on your mood. It is important that you carry out these tasks in one short period of time in the order given. Please do not read ahead to the next task until you have completed the previous step. First Task If you haven't completed all the mini missions for this week I would like you to choose two but only carry out one of them for now. If you have completed all the mini missions I set for … [Read more...]
Too Much Clutter, Too Little Time?
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom Today’s column is an answer to an email I received from my friend Jennifer: As I look around and see stuff just overwhelming me, I am working on paring down what I own. My question is that much of the stuff becomes clutter because I am interrupted and do not get to complete a project (or I under estimate how long it will take me to complete said project). How are you managing not to continue to have things out of place? I have gone through and organized things only to find 6 months or a year later that they are disorganized again. Although Jennifer has posed … [Read more...]
Organising outside the box – Or inside the box as the case may be.
As you know I don't talk much about organising here at 365lessthings. I have said before that once you declutter your home, the organising almost takes care of itself. However, a little imagination can make things more organised than you expected. Over the last few years of decluttering and especially over the last 13 months there have been a lot of storage containers that have become redundant because there is nothing left to store in them. Or is there? :idea:Â I have since discovered that if you look "outside the box" it is amazing what you can put inside the box. The images above show … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday 7FEB2011
manic monday @ Yahoo! Video I hope you enjoyed that catchy little tune and that it had you bopping along. I just know that you guys don't share the sentiment in this song because with a list of mini missions to brighten up your day you are ready and raring to go., right! Your Mondays are like her Sundays - It's my fun day, my I don't have to run day... So with that thought in mind grab a coffee, sit back and read my post and then when your done you can accomplish today's mission at your leisure. Monday - If you have a pantry full of open packets of food and at the same time a … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday – Nature’s Beauty
As you know one of the benefits of living a life with less is the reduced impact on supply and demand which in turn has a positive effect on the environment. In light of that I received the following email yesterday which I decided to share with you on the chance that you may wish to participate. It is worth taking a look at the link just to appreciate the beauty of nature captured by the amazing talent of the photographers featured. Here is the email... From now until noon on Monday, February 7th, you and your readers have a great opportunity to choose the winner of The Nature … [Read more...]