Why bother to declutter? What is it really going to do for me? How is it going to make my life better? I am sure these are the first questions people ask when they begin on the journey of decluttering and/or minimalism. I know we have discussed this topic many times before but we can always do with a refresher course especially if we have lost momentum. So today I will share with you this chapter from my free ebook as it covers some great benefits of living a decluttered life. The Joys Of Clutter Reduction I would like to point out the joy that can be found in reducing the clutter in … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2011
Landscape Clutter
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom What is landscape clutter? Well, I’m a big gardener, but I’m not referring to anything you might see in the yard. No, landscape clutter is clutter that you are so accustom to seeing out-of-place that you no longer recognize that it’s out of place. It’s become a part of the landscape of your home. Here are some examples of things that have been landscape clutter in my house: A cocktail dress that hung in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room for 3 or 4 months A piece of furniture that we moved out of Clara’s room with the intention of … [Read more...]
How many is too much?
Sounds like a simple question doesn't it ~ How many is too much? Angelina asked me this question yesterday about children's toys and my response was ~ There is no definite answer, but for me their indoor toys should be able to be tucked away neatly in their own bedrooms when they aren’t being played with. If they are overflowing into all the living spaces as well then there is just too much. You will notice among the words in my response were two small words ~ for me. Although I feel you can spoil your children by giving them too much or anything it is not up to anyone else to decide what … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ A room a day
Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and "fun" for you to achieve some quick decluttering We are going to do a declutter tour of our houses this week and visit one room a day. While you are in each room do a little visual declutter. What I mean by that is, aside from the mini mission item you are removing you might spy an area or two that needs more attention later on. Make a list of … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday
This week I have another example of how a ten minute tidy up can make a big difference to how an area of a home can improve in appearance. My craft room is a perfect example of how working with reckless abandon can cause things to get a little messy not to mention the fact that it is the most cluttered area of my house. A couple of weeks ago I photo documented this tidy up of my collection of craft ribbon and unlike last weeks "Spot the difference" you don't need to look closely to see the improvement here. Quite the jumbled mess don't you think but ten minutes later it looked … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourite Five 25MAR2011
Wow, it was a busy comment week but I narrowed it down to five for you. I hope you enjoy them. Hanoush in response to Don't let it linger-Donate ~ ...Oh, and totally agree with donating... Read more Cindy in response to Annabelle ~ Annabelle, I agree with Colleen that it’s best if you stay away... Read more Debra F in response to Excess Abundance ~ Sometimes the hardest lessons to learn and the simplest... Read more Loretta in response to Declutter Update ~ While I don’t think most of us can live with 100 items... Read more Liina in response to Declutter Update ~ This is … [Read more...]
Ahhh, the good old days.
I received an email from my sister today and then Cindy wrote something similar in a comment that gave me inspiration for today's blog post. It is more about simplicity than decluttering but there is a strong link between the two topics and I felt like having a little fun. I hope you enjoy this little diversion from the norm. Remember the good old day when... Milk used to come in glass bottles with foil caps. The caps were decorated during the holiday season. And the milk was delivered right to your door step. I even remember my Grandmother leaving out enamelled cans and the milkman … [Read more...]
Excess of Abundance
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom At the height of my cluttery mess, a friend and I went to the home of one of her friends. There was not an inch of surface uncovered; the toy bins were bursting; there was stuff on the ground. I was appalled. After we left, I said to my friend, “Tell me my house is not that messy.†There was a long pause before she answered, “They’re about the same.†Ouch! Fast forward to a month ago. I took my eldest daughter to a pediatric eye doctor. Apparently Dr. Nice was very concerned that patients feel completely at ease because I had never seen so many toys in one … [Read more...]
Declutter Update
It isn't often that I give you an update on how the decluttering is going in my home. You would be forgiven for thinking that by now I have run out of things to declutter and spend my spare time nagging at you, my lovely readers, to get your clutter under control. Well that just isn't the case unfortunately. Recently I participated in a radio phone interview. I had to move to the patio to record the interview because my living room had a slight echo which didn't sound good during the sound check. Nevertheless there are still things in the living room that I want to declutter. Yes those … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ 21MAR2011
This week I thought I would like to highlight different kinds of clutter for our mini mission challenge. Each day this week we will be decluttering a piece of clutter from one of Seven categories. I am not even going to elaborate on these categories because I think they speak for themselves. Have fun with this and I am eager to hear what sort of things you all came up with. So please send me some comments with your lists of decluttered items. Monday -Â Outgrown Tuesday - Guilt Wednesday - Sentimental Thursday - Unwanted Gift Friday - Purchase regret Saturday - Lifestyle change Sunday - … [Read more...]