Archive for March, 2011

In case you missed it

Raesha left this comment on Friday in response to ~Don’t let it linger – Donate~ and I just had to make sure everyone had a chance to see it. I know you don’t all have time to read the comments so please enjoy her story if you missed it…

Thank you for this great post today. I wanted to share a story with you that perfectly illustrates this point. My grandpa passed away a little over two years ago and one of the things I inherited from him was his organ – a big old beast of a thing – that required us to haul it from California to New Mexico (After it had been hauled to California from Washington by my uncle). That organ was huge – it took up almost one whole wall in our living room. But it was VERY sentimental to me – I had played that organ everytime I visited my grandparents when I was a child and my grandpa loved to listen to me play. I treasured that organ and the memories associated with it. But the room it was taking up just got to be too much…..after much thought my husband lovingly suggested I try to sell it. I listed it on Craigslist for $250 – the day after I listed it I was contacted by a pastor of a small church in Santa Fe that his parish really needed an organ and would I take $200 for it. I decided to donate the organ to this church…..I felt in my heart it was the right thing to do and what an even more beautiful memory I will now have of my grandpa and the organ. The legacy of that organ will carry on…..and I received a beautiful thank you letter from the church that I will keep forever. I took a picture of the organ and will scrapbook it along with the letter – so now my beautiful memory will live on in a single scrapbook page instead of taking up a whole wall in my living room.
Kind of a lot to share – especially for my first comment – but thought you would enjoy reading it.

Here is a link to the comment and the responses it in received.

 

Comments (17)

Simple Saturday – Another Before & After

The following pictures are before and after shots of my living room that once again show that even in an uncluttered room things can end up out of place. Can you spot the 12 differences between the two photos

Living Room BeforeLiving Room After

If you want to see a the solution to this SPOT THE DIFFERENCE puzzle here is a link

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Friday’s favourite five 18MAR2011

This week I have decided to feature five recent comments from five readers that are new to commenting here at 365lessthings

Virginia in response to Natural Progression Decluttering~ I try to use everything until its gone… Read more

Katie in response to Moving Fantasies ~ I think it depends with furniture as willow pointed out … Read more

Holly in response to Day 273 Why am I still clinging ~ I’ve only just recently found your blog… Read more

Debra F in response to Moving Fantasies ~ I love this post. We just moved 7 weeks ago… Read more

Happy Clam in response to Don’t let it linger-Donate ~ I had a second adidas running jacket that I bought… Read more

This is my five favourite links for this week.

Not Easy To Be Green – Can-good-intentions-save-the-planet

The Cat’s Meow – Room-for-living

Elegant Simple Life – Breathe-in-beauty

Realsimple – How to recycle or reuse anything

Becoming Minimalist – The-domino-effect-of-simple-living

Today’s Declutter Item

This binder is one of those rare object that went in the garbage bin. What I don’t understand is why I kept using it when I had several other perfectly good binders sitting unused in a drawer.

Things that made me happy, made me laugh, made me feel grateful, fascinated me or I thought were just plain awesome.

  • Avocado on toast for lunch with a cup of tea. The simple things in life are often the best.
  • A pleasantly cool overcast day.
  • When walking along the shore of Lake Burley Griffin on Tuesday I spotted no less than 18 different bird varieties – Black Swans, Galahs, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Wood Ducks, Magpies, Pee Wees, Willie Wagtails, Crested (top knot) Pigeon, Superb Fairy-wrens, Rosellas , Plovers, just to name a few.
  • Ignoring my desire to avoid an unpleasant task and just getting it over and done with. I am talking about the ironing.
  • That my country is not on the edge of a tectonic plate and we have only one nuclear reactor (Used for medical science).
  • It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.


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Don’t let it linger – Donate

Inspired by Tuesday’s post responses I thought I would like to just give a little more encouragement for people to donate items that are lingering in their homes. We all have items that were given to us as gifts that we feel guilty about giving away. Just as we have heirloom items that we feel the same way about. We keep them out of obligation rather than for the love of the item. There are also those guilt items that we spent good money on but never really used as much as we thought we would.

There is no better way that I can think of to rid yourself of this guilt or obligation than to donate the item to your favourite charity thrift store. Not only will you be releasing the item with the hope that someone will find it and love it a whole lot more than you did but the charity will gain the funds raised from the sale which will in turn help others.

In the unlikely event that a friend or relative should ask where a gift has gone that they gave you, you will have a very admirable excuse for its absence. You can be honest with them and say that you donated it to charity because you felt it was an indulgence that you didn’t really need while the funds it raised went to help someone in need.

It is a win win win win win situation. You win because the item is gone as is your guilt/obligation and you feel like you have made a worthy donation. The charity wins because they now have more funds to help the needy. The person who bought the item from the charity store wins because they have something they love that they may unlikely have been able to afford new. The people that the charity helps certainly win. And the original giver of the item wins because they have in a round about fashion also helped someone in need.

In times where you have made all the cash donations you are prepared to make what a wonderful way to be able to keep giving without being disadvantaged yourself. Every little bit helps.

Today’s Declutter Item

This jacket will be going to the thrift store. It has hardly been worn so it should sell for a few dollars at least.  I did buy it on a whim so there is certainly quilt involved but I found it too uncomfortable on my neck and shoulders. So bye bye guilt clutter hello donation satisfaction.


Things that made me happy, made me laugh, made me feel grateful, fascinated me or I thought were just plain awesome.

  • Sleeping most of the five hours it took to get home today – And getting home safe and sound.
  • Hot chocolate affogato at Koko Black Chocolate Salon.
  • The sounds of a storm coming – I can hear it now as I type this.
  • Trying a new curry recipe for dinner that turned out to be quite delicious.
  • A warm shower at the end of the day to wash away the grime and easy your weary mind just before turning in for the night. – Clean running water is one of those precious things we often take for granted.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.


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Moving Fantasies

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

My husband surprised me this morning by telling me that a recruiter from Microsoft had contacted him about a job. I think I surprised him even more by saying, “In Washington State? Go for it.” Truth be told, I surprised myself. I have lived in Austin, Texas for almost 30 years, virtually all of my adult life. I like my life here, but the summers are brutal, my husband is terribly allergic to pecan trees for six weeks every spring, and the statewide politics make me grind my teeth in frustration.  Washington is cool and rainy with no pecans, and the politics are much more to my liking. I happily whiled away my chore time fantasizing about how different life would be if we moved from the Southern Central United States 2200 miles (35oo Km) to the Pacific Northwest. (Believe me, I only imaged the good stuff and ignored all the negatives.)

It wasn’t long at all before I started dreaming about the packing, and you’ll be happy to know that these thoughts didn’t terrify me. (Thanks to decluttering, of course.) What I started thinking of was how much more stuff I would unload if the alternative was to haul it across the country. I imagined sorting through everything, considering everything. Frayed underwear – out. The plastic pitcher with the almost cracked handle – out. The living room sofas and on the one on the screen porch – definitely out.  So then I started thinking, “If these things aren’t valuable enough for me to take across the country, are they valuable enough for me to hang onto right now?” I’m not a minimalist by any means, but stuff that you don’t value is stuff that you don’t need, right? I wondered: In a perfectly decluttered house, would you be able to move without decluttering more as you packed?

I talked to Dan about this. His conclusion was that moving is an extreme event and that requires more scrutiny than day-to-day life.  I think he’s right, but I also think that if you’re stuck on something, asking yourself, “Would I be happy to move this across the country?” is a helpful criterion.

I want to know what you think: Is the ideally decluttered house ready to be packed and moved at any moment, or does moving realistically necessitate a deeper level of decluttering?

Today’s Declutter Item

As insane as this may sound this is an empty box. At some point we decluttered the broken amplifier but the box was still wasting space in the garage.


Things that made me happy, made me laugh, made me feel grateful, fascinated me or I thought were just plain awesome.

Cindy’s post reminded me of the wonderful years we spend in Seattle and I have dedicated this gratitude list the that experience.

  • The opportunity to get to know the real Americans – Who were quite different from the stupid prejudice opinions we had been lead to believe.
  • Living in a different country and all that has to offer – Like driving on the other side of the road.
  • Enjoying our first winter Christmas.
  • Cinnabon, garlic fries, Taco Bell, soft pretzels, brownie mix (Ghirardelli of course), toaster strudels, the endless variety of ice-cream … – Not Hershies though because they have no business calling the chocolate.
  • Baseball

This list could go on and on these are just a few of the things that came very quickly to mind.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.


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What Really Matters in your Life

Often someone else will turn on the television while I am in the room but I am not really watching it. It is however hard to ignore news broadcasts about all the natural disasters that keep happening this year. The latest disaster in Japan is horrifying to behold and conjures up a lot of feelings and deep thought.

I don’t know about you but my first reaction was ‘Oh my god, all those people dead, injured and missing!’ Watching the tsunami destroy everything in its path, lives, buildings, cars, ships… The sadness and misery felt by those left behind trying to come to terms with the loss of loved ones while having to deal with their homes being destroyed. Nowhere to go, no place of comfort except hopefully in the arms of other loved ones who survived.

When we witness disasters like these the last thing we think of, if at all, is the trivial stuff in those peoples lives. Stop and think for a minute. If this happened to you, would you really be thinking ‘Oh my God, what has happened to that  unused silver tea set Aunt Maud gave us as a wedding gift.’ No! So why do we have such a hard time parting with such things when times are good? Next time you are having trouble parting with items like this or any such trivial stuff stop and think for a minute how important this item would be in a disaster situation and be realistic about its importance in your life.

Maybe sell off these items and donate the money to someone less fortunate than you. This option would certainly alleviate any guilt you feel about Aunt Maud’s feelings. We really are lucky when we have the time and energy to concern ourselves with such things. Why not share that good fortune with someone else instead of hoarding it in the back of a cupboard somewhere in the comforting home that you share with the people you love.

Now before you get all up in arms about me being cruel, uncaring and insensitive about the fact that we all have crosses to bare in this world. I didn’t write this post to make you feel ashamed, I wrote it to help you let go of those items that you keep clinging on to even though you really don’t want them in your life. If you have items in your home that will never realise their worth, there is always someone out there who may enjoy them more or benefit from the funds they generated. I sincerely hope that this post will help you let go and I am prepared to stick my neck out in order to help you achieve that.

Today’s Declutter Item

Just another item of clothing that wasn’t being used. (Donated to the thrift store)


Things that made me  feel grateful today.

  • How privileged I am.
  • The joy I get from donating the things I don’t use to others who may use them.
  • Feeling safe even though I know anything can happen when you least expect it.
  • That in my life I have only ever lost two people close to me from anything other than old age.
  • That learning to let go of stuff gets easier the more I realise how little it matters.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.


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Mini Mission Monday – Too much of a good thing

I am sure we all have multiples of certain items cluttering up our home. Items that a certain number of would suffice but we have several more than necessary. It occurred to me last week that I have a set of everyday glasses in my kitchen cabinet. This set has four sizes one of which never gets used. So why am I keeping them? What amazed me also was – that they have been staring me in the face for the last 14 months and I hadn’t even noticed this excess. That got me thinking about what else is lurking around my home that has escaped my notice. I am sure you also have items like this and my mission this week is to help you find them. So lets get started.

Monday – Take a look in a kitchen cabinet and see what you can find. The kitchen is a classic place where we stock more than we need of many items, like my glasses.
Tuesday -Do you have more pairs of reading glasses and Sunglasses than you need or even wear. Perhaps you still have reading glasses that are not even strong enough for your eyes and more.
Wednesday – We all know the bathroom cabinet is a collection point for excess toiletry products. Pick one product that you have too many varieties of and concentrate on using up one bottle/jar at a time until you reduce the quantity. These products do deteriorate over time so best not to let them sit there going off.
Thursday – Do you have any recipe books that you haven’t looked in for some time. With the endless availability of recipes on the Internet there is no need to have these cluttering up your kitchen cupboards or bookcases.
Friday – One of the first places I decluttered was my utensils drawer. How often do we buy a new utensil because the old one really isn’t performing optimally any more. We keep the old one “just in case” but only ever use the new one. It’s time to get rid of that old one. Let’s face it we can manage without any so we really don’t need a back up.
Saturday – The linen closet is another place where we tend to have more of some items that we could possibly need. I remember a time when I had about fifty facecloths (the result of my grandma-in-law being an avid crocheter). Personally I prefer to approach this from a natural declutter angle because things wear out and these items will get used eventually. However you may have a linen closet bulging at the seem and really need to free up some space.
Sunday – We can’t do a “too much of a good thing” mini mission without out including the Tupperware collection. I know I have sent you to this area over and over again but I know I keep finding more and more of these to declutter and I imagine you can too. So have another look, you may be surprised.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

This mini skateboard park was a toy once enjoyed by my son.

Things that made me happy, made me laugh, made me feel grateful, fascinated me or I thought were just plain awesome.

  • Sitting writing my blog while my foot is resting against my husbands foot in a silent natural embrace.
  • Swinging open the doors in the morning and letting the fresh air into the house.
  • Shutting the doors and turning on the air-con when the temperature passes 35ºC – What can I say I’m adaptable.
  • Having a BBQ at the neighbours – I love socialising and I love it when someone else cooks for me. Win Win!
  • The new Club chocolate with cashews and cherries.

It was very remiss of me to forget to put a link the The Cat’s Meow blog on Saturday. I have since rectified that but because it was a bit after the event I would like to add it here again today. I hope you will go and check out her blog. Just click on the banner below.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.


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One Reader’s declutter story – by Cat’s Meow

The first decluttering I remember doing when I was perhaps ten or eleven years old. I wanted a more “grown-up” room with more aesthetic appeal. I always liked the “less but something I really love”-approach. I remember it being very hard because I felt guilty for tossing away anything. It was mostly broken pencils and some random plastic junk or a freebie sticker. A tiny bag, and I still felt bad about not wanting to keep that stuff anymore. Most stuff I couldn’t even have gotten rid of without asking my parents anyway.

This same feeling followed me around – I actually could not get rid of my first boyfriend because I somehow felt that when I started something or got something, it was mine to take care of forever. After a long time agonizing, I finally did dump the boyfriend, and I was single for a few years. I wanted to make sure he was a keeper next time so I was very picky! During this time in my early twenties I lived alone and got into my first truly minimalist kick. After losing the boyfriend it got easier to dump stuff too, though I still felt incredibly guilty, and I just didn’t really know what to do with the things.

I lived with quite little, yet I spent too much money on clothes and such. I had a fragile self-esteem and I used stuff to try and make myself more confident, make people like me and think I was cool, and trying to define to myself who I was. It is not uncommon for young people trying to find themselves to go through this, and some people are stuck in the cycle for a lifetime. When I met my now-husband and we moved in together, I lost the control of my living surroundings. Suddenly it wasn’t just my stuff, it was his stuff too and our stuff and I could not make decisions about keeping or not keeping it.And I am an all-or-nothing type of person. So if I didn’t have complete control, I didn’t even try to control our stuff at all. Not even my own – why would I have minimal personal stuff if I still had to live with all my husband’s stuff?

Early on living together, my husband would say that he hated cleaning, because it always made me mad. It made me mad because all the cleaning never made it look like I wanted. There was simply too much stuff. Yet it never occurred to me to talk about it and decide how we could make things better together. Until it did. I read Karen Kingston’s “Clear your clutter with feng shui”, and gave it my husband to read. It was an epiphany for both of us. I got my husband on board decluttering and it was great, but it was just the start of our journey a few years ago.

I was in art school and it meant A LOT of stuff. I was a prolific painter all through school and they made us students work hard. I have since got a separate studio (a separate headache!) so that stuff stopped spilling into our everyday living. There were other obstacles though. I’m mildly bi-polar (how fitting for an artist..) and after losing my mother and getting pregnant with my daughter, I just went a bit nuts with decorating our home, and buying baby clothes, and starting large scale craft endeavors, you know, things like that :). Soon after those patterned wallpapers were up I was regretting them, and my enthusiasm for the new craft hobby / business faded in a few months leaving we with bags and piles of materials.. And I realized I’d spent tons of money on clothes for a baby AND that now I had to figure out where to store all those clothes! Needless to say a lot of it was stuff we never ended up using anyway. Turns out I am not a mom who will dress her baby in cute outfits, little dresses and tights and such. Go figure.

The thing is I KNOW my taste, I have pretty much had the same aesthetic ideal for a home since I was seven years old. It was my aunt’s spare, bohemian flat in an old building with some old furniture and hardly any color at all and I remember being very impressed and the images from that apartment followed me as an example of how I wanted my home to look like. But this hasn’t stopped me from derailing from that knowledge. I used to read fashion magazines and decoration magazines and I’d let them influence me, or some weird mood would strike me. I didn’t realize that I could admire colorful, maximalist interiors but it didn’t mean that they were right for me. I will always, ALWAYS end up hating visual noise, be it clutter or patterns or loud colors.

When I was pregnant those things actually made me nauseous. My daughter is now two years old and the last year has been the most important year in my journey towards a minimalist lifestyle. I had to really look at myself, face some demons, and admit things about myself. One HUGE realization (simple as it may seem!) was that the clutter would never stop if I kept bringing in more. I had to get rid of the clutter AND STOP BRINGING IN MORE, whether it was through my own careless shopping to alleviate anxiety, or through gifted items, or through starting another craft project. I had to stop using STUFF to try to heal myself, to express myself. It only ever managed to make me feel worse in the end, and then I’d feel doubly guilty for getting rid of it.

We have donated a lot, but I have also made it my penance to sell some of the stuff. I hate selling so it helps when I consider buying something, to think about having to sell this thing later or dragging it to the charity shop. What a hassle! So now when I buy something it better be a keeper.

I also had to finally come to terms with what I truly liked to live like, not what seemed like a cool way to live. I am a highly visual person and I get very agitated and restless in a cluttered home (though other people’s maximalist homes don’t bother me and I even like them!). I do not like to own a lot of things, only what is actually used and loved. Things are not in short supply in this world, on the contrary, there is an excess of stuff and I will always be able to get more, so there is no need to keep reserves of stuff like craft supplies or clothes. More than likely it’ll end up unused because I’ve moved on! I have also realized that I dislike recognizable designer furniture and decorations and clothing with labels.

I have to ease up on my perfectionist tendencies. I’m very thankful for my husband being into minimalism too, so it’s actually pretty easy, though I’d rather not look into his desk drawers because he is so disorganized it makes my head spin! But I am sharing a home with two other people who have a right to have their important things too, even if I can’t always see the value in them. We recently up-sized from 600 square feet to 1000 sq ft because I thought I wanted more space. Three months later we are back in the same 600 sq ft apartment. I missed the friendly neighborhood, living right next to a beach and a community playground and just being in the middle of an active community, very important to me now as a stay-at-home-mom. I felt so at home coming back to our 50’s one-bedroom that is a bit rough around the edges.

I feel at peace when there is no thinking and planning of buying stuff, going shopping and buying stuff, and finding space for it and maintaining it and cleaning around it, to distract me from simply being there, doing nothing, playing with my daughter, hanging out as a family.

For this last move I had a friend to help me pack and we did the whole thing in three hours. With furniture, it took three trips with a small van (with some bits left over). After it was all here, my husband said half jokingly: ” Let’s reduce our stuff to one-third of this!” And so we actually started another round of decluttering, just when I thought we were surely done. The goal is, when we move the next time, to fit all our things in two trips with a small van, so more like reducing another 30%.

While on my journey towards a minimalist life, and since the life-altering events of losing my mom and becoming a mom, I have also shed my ambitions like an old skin. I used to dream of being a successful artist and all that jazz, but now I simply want to be. There is no career in the world that would be more important than taking care of my daughter. I also used to dream of a big house. Now I don’t ever want a big house. Small and cozy yet ascetic is the way for us. The ascetic part comes from having little stuff, and the coziness comes from natural materials and colors, a slightly worn look. I like my old stripy rag rugs that I can throw in the washer, and the small and light but very comfortable 50’s arm chairs, our simple set of dishes, plain linen sheets, only paper blinds on the windows, walls of unfinished cement that are simply painted over, and almost complete lack of decoration throughout. Our “decoration” comes from beautiful everyday objects, like a vintage enamel bowl full of fruit and a pot of kitchen utensils in the kitchen, handmade soap and organic cotton shower curtain in the bathroom and our daughters colorful toys in the living room. This home is for us, for living and laughing and loving. For making milk shakes and sleeping late and reading books. It’s not a place to display our good taste, or money, or artistry, or knowledge of what’s hip. In the end there is no reward for the one who finishes with the most money and possessions, biggest house, travels around the world, three doctorates, acclaim and fame. It’s just us and our creator and like my grandpa used to say: “There are no pockets in the last shirt”. ~~Thank you Colleen for asking me to write a guest post for you, and thank you to anyone who read it :)~~

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Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

I would like to take this opportunity to send my thoughts and prayers to those affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan this afternoon. I also hope that the people in areas in the path of the tsunami have a chance to evacuate and avert further tragedy. My heart goes out to all those involved.

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Favourite Five for Friday 11MAR2011

Wow! It was difficult this week to condense down to only five comments because there were so many good ones and a lot of AH HA moment for our readers and for me too. I would like to feature much more than five but these are the five I have chosen…

Laura in response to Adam and Eve and rampant consumerism – …Colleen’s essential point is correct… Read more I was particularly please with Nurchamiels response to this comment. Learning these lessons when you are young is so important.

Anne in response to Friday’s favourite five – …I injured my foot this week and was ordered to stay off from my feet. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I… Read more.

Katharine in response to Defining Sentimental Clutter- Ah, “the fear of the regret in the future”… Read more

Andreia in response to The Perfectionist Trap - Yesterday, when I was clearing our living room, my husband said… Read more

Liz Mylar in response to The Perfectionist Trap - I just came to the same kind of conclusions and have been decluttering… Read more

This week I have had to cram at the last minute to find my favourite five links because I have been ignoring my RSS feeds and had a digital sabbatical. I think I have come up with some last minute gems though. Enjoy!

Be more with less – 25-reasons-you-might-be-a-minimalist

Small NotebookAre-you-making-your-to-do-list-too-hard-find-out-why

RaptitudeWhy-your-fears-wont-come-true

Work Happy Now4-tips-to-help-you-stay-happy-present-and-productive-at-work

The Change BlogPositive-habits-to-cultivate

Today’s Declutter Item

Pokemon cards, I hate these things and am glad to see the back of them at last. Products that are designed to prey on little kids in this manner are a blight on society. I know these are strong words but that is what I think. To me they are a form of underage gambling and that is just wrong.

Things that made me happy, made me laugh, made me feel grateful, fascinated me or I thought were just plain awesome.

  • Hearing the magpies warbling when I woke up this morning not to mention my husband standing there with a cup of tea in his had for me.
  • One motorbike has finally finished its overhaul at the mechanics and I can have my car back at last.
  • Even though my mum and dad had to postpone their visit there is an upside – I get to go the Canberra with my husband for a couple of days next week.
  • Anthony Bourdain – No reservations – love that show.
  • I recorded an interview about 365lessthings for an Australian radio show called Future Tense today – I must admit I am glad it is over but I think I did alright.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.


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