*WARNING*

Perfectionism is a trap.

I received a comment from Jo a couple of weeks ago which underlined the connection between perfectionist tendencies and uncontrolled clutter. Here is what Jo wrote…

Being a perfectionist, oddly enough, can also contribute to not starting. I spent years waiting for a block of time to tackle some jobs (so I could do a good job, by which I meant a thorough job from start to finish in one go), but now I find breaking the job up into smaller parts – and being willing to do a good rather than perfect job – is the only way I ever accomplish anything – whether it’s decluttering, housecleaning, reading – just about anything. Having blocks of time is a luxury not often found if you’re working long hours/have kids/have aging parents/have health problems.

Jo is so right, the idea that you need to tackle the entire task all at once plus the need to do it perfectly can certainly make a person hesitant to even think about beginning their declutter mission. The prospect of not organising perfectly or there being no perfect decision as to what to keep and what to part with can paralise a person from even attempting the task. The fear of getting rid of something that “May be useful one day” can create such fear of loss of control that it can make the situation worse rather than better.

The fact of the matter is there is no perfect decision and yes sometimes we might regret having decluttered something but in reality those regrets are only as big as we build them up to be in our minds. I am sure we have all discovered something that we could have used after removing it from our homes. If it was being used that infrequently it makes more sense to borrow one occasionally from a neighbour or friend or find an alternate way around the situation.

As for being perfectly organised — I have said it before and I say it again — once you declutter your home, the organising almost takes care of itself. If something is being used on a regular basis you will naturally store it in the most convenient location. However, even that isn’t an exact science but since you will now have less stuff and more space, moving things around will be so easy who cares if you have to do a little tweaking every now and again.

Considering the method of decluttering that I promote here at 365lessthings I don’t think I need share my thoughts on how disruptive it can be to attempt a large scale — drag it all out at once — declutter. I have done plenty of these in the past and cleanly I learned nothing from it otherwise I wouldn’t have needed to start my current declutter mission. This time I believe that my slow and deliberate approach has taught me so many lessons about conscious consumption, pointless attachment and the freedom or living with less that in future I should l only need a little maintenance occasionally. I hope never to have to conduct a big purge ever again.

I googled the words hoarding and perfectionism together is found a couple of links you might be interested in checking out…

Understanding O.C.HOARDING.D *  A Perfectionist who lives with clutter *  Squalor Survivors

Today’s Declutter Item

I am sure this isn’t the last you will see of the baseball souvenir clutter. Slowly but surely we are breaking the ties with this kind of clutter.

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

• Ignoring my perfectionist tendencies and delivering some of my handmade craft samples to a local store for consideration.
• Having the car for a change.
• My ability to improvise.
• Sharing creative ideas with my son.
• Finally making a decision on what stick blender to buy to replace my broken one- Another perfectionist tendency I have is trying to make the perfect choice when buying things. Though it is admirable to be a conscious consumer it almost paralises my decision making process.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

I was in church one Sunday, sitting behind K. When I stood and bowed my head to pray, I could see right into K’s large, open purse, and what I saw in there shocked me. K had six items in her purse. It was as clean as a whistle besides those six items. Her bag contained a pen, wallet, glasses case, full size tape measure, box of mints, and a folded piece of paper. There was one pocket on the side of the bag with looked like it had her keys zipped into it. That’s it. K has three children in elementary and middle school and a husband. How does she do it?

I think that I have a tidy and organized purse, but here’s what I have in it: cell phone, iPod touch, 2 pens, a nail file, keys, reading glasses, sun glasses, a package of baby wipes, my file of coupons (you can read about my system here), wallet, package of gum, glucogan (for diabetic emergencies), glucose tabs (same), and a reusable bag for trips to the store. In addition, I have a zippered pocket in the middle of my purse that contains lip gloss, lip balm, a pocket knife, a miniature tape measure and a small bag with medicines and personal items.

You purse goes with you everywhere, every day.  It’s your portable life! Take a look at it. Does it look nice? Is it clean on the outside? What about the inside? Is your wallet clear of receipts, unnecessary credit cards, and frequent shopper cards to stores you do not frequent? Do you have duplicates of useful items? Two lip balms is one too many; four pens is surely an excess. Are there things in your bag that aren’t even yours? Legos and your husband’s sunglasses need to be stored elsewhere. And what about trash? Are there candy or gun wrappers, phone number to who knows what, and long-lost dry cleaner receipts? Get rid of them too.  If you load it up for an extended day out with the kids, unload it when you come home. Clean out the receipts when you get home, just like you put away your purchases.

Your purse should be an attractive and functional item.  It’s not a moving van, and it’s not a trash receptacle. It’s an extension of your fabulously decluttered life. If it’s not, I have a mini-mission for you!

Today’s Declutter Item

At one point we were running to screens from the one computer. A little excessive I know. We have gotten past that craziness so we no longer need this support arm.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• I found out today that my mum and dad are coming to visit me next week.
• Taste.com.au – now that I have found this site I don’t need recipe books.
• Cindy’s weekly wisdom – It is nice to hand the reins to someone else for one day a week.
• Hearing the children having fun in the pool over my back fence – even though they can be loud and obnoxious at times it is good to hear their joy. Sometimes back yard pools can become useless clutter but not this one they use it from the first warm day of the year to the last.
• Being left alone to watch a nature show on TV – Like my dad I love nature shows.

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

Taking into consideration the theme of yesterday’s mini missions I thought that I would write a post today about defining sentimental clutter. One would be forgiven for thinking that if the item has sentimental value then it isn’t clutter and on the face of it I would agree. When I refer to sentimental clutter though I am really talking about items with a personal history element to them that we keep even though we don’t like them enough to use them or even go out of our way to look at them. In some cases we may have lost all interest in these items some time ago but keep them because we feel it is the done thing to preserve that history. Worse still sometimes we keep them because we feel duty bound to do so simply because someone else gave them to us.

There is no limit to the type of items that can fit into this category people keep all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. Locks of hair, books, clothes, furniture, trinkets, jewellery, tools, toys, china, cutlery, shoes, kidney stone yes that’s right I said kidney stone. Check out this post from Day 341 and especially take time to read the comments and you will find out what truly bazaar stuff some of my reader have lurking in their homes.

Quite often the longer we hang on to this stuff the harder it is to part with afraid of some future regret of wishing we had it back. Even more often we wish we had never kept it in the first place because now we feel we are stuck with it.  I kid you not I have come across plenty of people wanting to declutter their homes who wish the place would just catch fire when the family is out so they don’t have to deal with making the decision to divorce themselves from these “sentimental” items.

The thing to remember is that you will always have your memories and stuff really doesn’t matter. Sometimes we place far too much importance on stuff. We tie our memories, our achievements and  our losses to this stuff and that makes it very hard to part with. The stuff merely jogs our memories it doesn’t contain them. It is not disrespectful to anyone to pass on items that you no longer want. It is your home and you and only you should decide how you want to live in it. If your desire to live a life with less is stronger than your desire to keep things you no longer need, want or use then you are free to do what you want with those things. And if our memories do fade the stuff won’t mean anything to us anyway.

Today’s Declutter Item

Sentimental clutter can exist in the form of vacation souvenirs. This cute little Harrods bear really lends no special meaning to our lives so we have no need to keep it. It would be easy to cling on to this for years to come as a reminder of a wonderful holiday but we have plenty of memories without the clutter so out it goes.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy.

• Finding the enthusiasm to do a couple of odd jobs about the house that I have been ignoring.
• Having coffee with my friend Amber – This has become a Monday ritual.
• Knowing what I am cooking for dinner – having all the ingredients in the pantry to make it with. I love being organised for dinner.
• A early morning phone call from my girl – It is nice to just chat sometimes without any reason.
• Good Friends that help me out when I need it.

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

Hi folks, this week’s mini missions are going to center around keepsake items. You might be surprised at how many places in your home these little blighters are hiding. You may also be surprised to realize how many you keep just for the sake of it but don’t really care that much about. So, we are going to do a bit of a “don’t care enough to keep you” keepsake round-up. When contemplating each item, your first thoughts may go to the occasion/person/place that they remind you of and get you all sentimental. Don’t stop at your first thought! Take five deep breaths and channel your rational side for a few minutes and ask yourself…

• Do I want to continue dusting/cleaning/polishing this item?
• Is this item taking up valuable space in my home?
• Will not having this item affect the memories I have of this person, place or event?
• Does it mean more to me to have a decluttered home or to keep this item?

There is no right or wrong response to any of these questions. If the item truly is meaningful to you by all means put it back where you found it and keep enjoying it for years to come. If, however, you are on the fence as to whether to keep it or not consider other ways to preserve the memories without the clutter. You could photograph each item and preserve the memories in the form of…

• A scrapbook if you are a paper crafter.
• A photo picture book which you can put together and have printed via an on-line publishers such as Blurb.
• You could make a framed collage of the items and hang it on your wall.
• Save the photos to your computer for future reference.
• Print and place the photos in a simple photo album that you can pull out of the bookshelf and look at as often as you like.

Now on with this weeks mini missions.

• Monday – Today we are looking at any area in your living room where you display this kind of thing. It may be a display cabinet, TV unit, wall shelf etc. See what you can find.
• Tuesday – Today we are looking for an item of clothing that is kept for sentimental reasons but never worn. You know the kind, old band T-shirts, sports uniforms and maybe even a wedding or formal gown. Give some thought to whether you really want this item to perish unused in your closet.
• Wednesday – The bookcase is another place that we keep sentimental items. Do you have any books that you aren’t likely to read again but keep regardless. Now is the time to reconsider your hold on these books and possibly pass them on to someone else to enjoy.
• Thursday – The most obvious place for sentimental items is the keepsake box. I know I have at least one of these maybe you do too. Now is the time to review the items in this box and make sure you really want to keep them all.
• Friday – Sometimes when items are very small we overlook them as clutter so today we are going to take a look where we store our jewellery and see if there are some “sentimental” pieces in there that we might be willing to declutter.
• Saturday – Do your photo albums or digital photo files have pictures in that are such poor quality that they are not worth keeping. Photos that are similar to other better quality ones but you leave them there just because you are too sentimental to delete or throw them away. Now is the time to take a look and see which shots really are simply wasting space. Just one album or one photo file is enough for now.
• Sunday – Your task for today is to find a sentimental item anywhere in your home that you think is clutter but that belongs to someone else in the household. Ask them if they still want this item. It is OK if they do, the challenge here is just to ask.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

These pens and just a few of the many many things that will be weeded out of my craft clutter over the months to come.

Pens

Things I am grateful for today

• Quickly finding an angle for today’s mini mission list.
• All the happy blogiversary messages I received yesterday.
• The weather finally seems to have realised it is Autumn.
• A good night sleep – No wacked out dreams to disturb me in the middle of the night
• Steve is going declutter crazy on the bookcase – Yeh!

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

I didn’t realise until today that yesterday the 5th of March was the anniversary of the first post I ever sent out from 365lessthings. My quest to rid myself of 365 items was already 64 days old at that point but better to start late than never.

Below is a link to my very first post…

Starting at Day 64 of the 365 Less Things Challenge

Thanks to all my readers for making this a fun project for me. Even thought the official challenge is over the decluttering continues as does my will to help others find their way through the maze of clutter and the mind barriers we put up that prevent us from moving forward.

So happy blogiversary to me and happy decluttering to you my faithful readers.

Recently I received a pair of photos from Willow which demonstrated her frustration with items cluttering up her kitchen bench. Even though this is a launch area for stuff coming in and out of  Willows home there wasn’t a lot of items out of place once she removed the things that had just accumulate during the course of a day. The problem was the items that had landed there and not been shifted for some weeks. I will let you read her email so you get the full picture.

Willow wrote :- This counter is higher than the kitchen counter and would normally be used as an eating bar, but my husband’s desk is where the chairs would normally be placed. In interests of being transparent here, in one photo I showed the stacks of CDs that are my husband’s. He has gone through them once but then put them back up on the counter. Oh well. It’s just not a battle I want to fight right now. I did discover this week though that I am usually the person in the family who drops stuff on that counter and since I’m working at keeping it cleared off, it hasn’t gotten messy until today.

My first thought when I read this was, does Willow’s dear husband understand her frustration with the CD’s cluttering up this space so I replied as follows…

I have come up with an angle for a post using your photos. First though could you do one thing for me? Could you ask your husband — if you haven’t already done so — what is his plan for that pile of CDs. I ask this because I had a similar problem recently. We have a staging area for potential ebay sales which was becoming quite cluttered and annoying. It suddenly occurred to me to just ask my hubby what his plans were for some of the stuff he had put there. His answer was, “Nothing, I left them there for you to declutter”. Sometimes clutter is just the result of a lack of communication.

Willow replied :- Here’s an update on my husband’s stacks of CDs/DVDs on the counter. I asked him. “What are you planning to do with the CDs/DVDs in that stack?” He had already moved one of the stacks of music CDs to his car and when I asked him about the Christmas CD from The Canadian Tenors, he stated it was for me. 🙂 The stack that was left was empty CDs/DVDs and one clip on flasher for his bike riding at night. He picked them up and put them all on his desk. Clean counter!

As it turns out all Willow had to do was ask and now her counter (right) only has the two bowls of healthy colourful fruit and vegetable that she wants to see there every day. The next mission is to get her husband to work on his messy desk and bookshelf. Make no mistake though her husband makes up for his little bit of clutter in so many ways. Willow informed me – He cooks dinner, he does laundry, he gives me the better car, he grocery shops. He even takes me clothes shopping (cuz I hate it) and bribes/rewards me with coffee. The messy desk and messy book shelf are a small price to pay.

I have since had an update from Willow — The bench is staying clear aside from the usual in transit items that we all have in our launching areas. Hubby has cleared the clutter off his desk and it is staying clear. Just the bookcase to work on now. All and all a pretty good effort I’d say. Well done Willow and hubby!

Just remember sometimes all you have to do is ask. Good communication can be an important key to decluttering.

Just so you all know, I appreciate each and every comment I receive and I hope no-one ever feels left out from my favourite five. I chose them for all sorts of reasons but mostly because I feel we all have something to learn from them.  I hope you enjoy the five I have spotlighted for this week.

Andreia in response to Day 91 Stocking up of obsessing - I used to paint. Not canvas, but plaster figures… Read more

Andreia in response to Mini Mission Monday - Hi Colleen! I did the same with our tools… Read More

Katherine – I wanted to feature three comments that Katherine has posted this week. Once you read them all you will have to appreciate the difficulties she faces with how little space she has. I feel she deserves to be applauded for her can do attitude and her positive outlook – Comment 1 ***  Comment 2 ***  Comment 3

It has been a good week for great down to earth minimalist post. I had this roundup of five chosen by Wednesday. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Raptitude – Everything-in-its-place-finally-and-forever

A Guy Name Dave – American-style-consumerism-will-seal-your-fate

Not easy to be green – Reusing-the-gateway-to-hoarding

Om Freely – On-Creating-New-Habits

Small Notebook – 10-ways-to-simplify-without-becoming-a-minimalist

Today’s Declutter Item

These rose scented rosary beads were a souvenir from our first visit to Rome. Liam decluttered these from his room recently. I am sure someone will be happy to find them at the thrift store.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy since my last post.

• The lessons I have learned – Some lessons can be harsher that others but so long as we learn something from them we have gained from the experience.
• Trying a new cafe.
• Multi-tasking – Watching video lessons on the computer and ironing at the same time got two unpleasant tasks out of the way at once.
• Leftovers
• Hubby and I went out to see a comedy act at the local entertainment centre – A night out and a good laugh what more could you ask for.

I am sure you are wondering how does Adam and Eve figure into the clutter equation. Well of course I am going to tell you even though I can’t recall why this even popped into my head while I was cleaning the toilet yesterday.

Most of us would know the story of Adam and Eve and the strife they have caused the rest of the human race over the course of history. For those who don’t know here is the abridged version. God created man it only took God a short while to realise man needed company so God created woman. These first two humans are called Adam and Eve. Next God told these folk that they can have whatever they want in their beautiful garden of Eden except for one thing – an Apple. Now why an apple I don’t know but I suspect it wasn’t really an apple but that the apple is just a symbol for something else. You can use your own imagination there but either way the gist is that they had everything they could possible want or need in creation except this “apple”. So what happens, yes you guessed it the wily miss Eve entices Adam to take the apple and God was less than please and banished then and in turn the rest of us lowly humans from the garden for all of eternity.

Now you don’t have to believe in God to understand where I am going with this because even if this story is totally fictitious  it was recorded a very very long time ago. So how long have we had this obsession to have things we don’t need just because they are there to have. Adam and Even had everything that they needed but they screwed the rest of mankind by wanting what they didn’t already have. Whether they were born in the year dot or this story was invented some time later to discourage people from doing wrong, succumbing to temptation or for wanting more than they need it really doesn’t matter. The fact is that we as humans have obviously been weak to temptation and greed for a very long time and it seems now we are worse than ever.

In the modern era we sacrifice time with out families, our health and general well being to work endless hours to acquire enough money to buy all this stuff we don’t even need. When are we ever going to learn that enough is enough.

See what happens when you leave me alone with some paper towel and toilet cleaner all sorts of ideas pop into my head. I may have something to do with the fumes but it was a rather interesting thought and I hoped you might give it some thought as well.

Today’s Declutter Item

My son wishes he could fit into this flying jacket of his fathers but alas he is too small so it will have to go since he isn’t likely to grow much more than he already has.

Flying Jacket

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• Coming up with lots of declutter ideas while doing the cleaning.
• Free bread from the green grocer.
• I love it when I disinclined to do the cleaning but just throw myself into it anyway and actually start to enjoy it.
• When Steven (my husband) cracked one of his “funny” lines and it was actually funny. Quite often he is the only one laughing.
• When I are expecting something to cost about $5 and the sales person said that will be $1.75.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

According to my mother, a successful and busy real estate agent for 28 years who has looked in thousands of closets, my husband and I are an anomaly: he has far, far more clothes than I do. He’s not a clothes horse; he’s gentle with his clothes (unlike me, I’m sorry to say), so they last and last. He wears a standard American working guy wardrobe: khakis, Dockers, button down shirts, polos, and t-shirts on Friday and the weekends.  He gets a couple new dress shirts a year and a ridiculous number of new t-shirts (his work, conferences, and other people’s vacations [never our own]), so the clothes really build up.

When I began decluttering, he had 100 t-shirts and a generous number of shirts for work. I got him to give up six t-shirts at once. Then my daughter got 10 out of him for a project. I was sure that he could do with even less, started Operation No Brainer. I turned all the hangers in his closet around the wrong way, and then I waited.

Where we live, we pretty much only have two seasons: cool and various degrees of hot.  I waited through the end of the hot season and the whole cool season before I went back into his closet.  Not surprisingly, the clothes that were turned around had been moved to the outside. We looked at them together and turned three around: a red shirt that he wears once a year to church on Pentecost, and two concert t-shirts from his younger days.  There were only ten  things to take out! I have to say, I was surprised by how much of his wardrobe he wore. I was also surprised at how much of his wardrobe had disappeared because of this exercise, not at the end, but along the way. Having the hangers backwards made him more aware of what was in his closet. Some of the things he decided to unload before the end.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! I learned that most of Dan’s clothes are in rotation. Dan liked the ease of not having to make any real decisions, and he didn’t have to defend himself against  me trying to get rid of things he wanted to keep. Almost imperceptibly, his t-shirt wardrobe decreased by about 40 shirts and his dress shirts by about a dozen. We also eliminated a number of pairs of pants that no longer fit. (One was visibly dusty where it folded over the hanger!) Without a doubt, this was the easiest decluttering ever… you might even call it a No-Brainer!

Today’s Declutter Item

This box of tarot cards was another item decluttered from Liam’s room. Maybe he decided that he had a better chance of becoming an artist than a fortune teller.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• My baby (19 year old Liam) went off to his first day of his second year of university today – It kind of felt like driving him to his first day of school when he was little because four months ago we had our doubts he would ever come home never mind be back at university so soon. I think we will celebrate with donuts at the mall after I pick him up.
• Catching a fleeting glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye and having a giggle about what I thought it looked like – Needless to say there was not a kiwi bird on the footpath in Australia.
• Discovering the nectarines taste almost as good as figs do when you heat them up in the microwave with honey and they eat them with a dollop of thickened cream.
• Hot cinnamon donuts
• Finding out that I can do just a spin cycle with my front loading washer- If in doubt read the instructions

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

A guest post by – Nurchamiel – a regular reader and commenter

A clean, tidy and declutter house is very important for asthmatics and people who suffers from hay fever. Unfortunately, sometimes clutter enters our home and it is time to clean it up. I would like to give some tips about decluttering as an allergy sufferer. To some, the tips may sound a bit extreme, but I have noticed that if I follow these tips, my outbreaks are less severe and less frequent than if I don’t.

• If you have an extreme sensitivity to dust and dust mites (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus) hire a professional or declutter a little at a time to reduce exposure. Get help with your closet because clothing items are notorious for attracting dust and dust mites. Make sure that when you have enlisted professional help that you don’t go into the room, while the dust is being disturbed. Alternatively, there are dust masks available at  local DIY-shops if you would prefer to be involved.
• Choose a day for decluttering. Cool days, when it freezes or when it has rained are the best. The concentration of pollen in the air is as low as possible.
• Dust and vacuum before decluttering, to get the dust bunnies before more dust is added so the build up will be minimal. If possible, open the windows and close the air-conditioning off as the air-conditioning moves the dust around.
• Start with decluttering. Tackle one closet, shelve or other area. As usual, empty the area and immediately dust with a moist cloth, as it will trap the dust rather than spread it around. Dust moisture sensitive items with a dry cloth (Microfibre is best) to prevent damage and return to it’s place if keeping.
• During decluttering, ask yourself two questions ~ Do I want to pack/unpack you during moving?” also “Am I allergic to you?” If you are allergic to it, don’t keep it, give it away to somebody else (or charity, etc.) who isn’t allergic to it. Clothing and plush toys but also body lotions and perfumes will likely be the kinds of items that cause allergy issues.
• Also, check your medication to make sure nothing is out of date and that you have what you need on hand before starting your declutter task. Take any out of date items back to the pharmacy, they know how to correctly dispose of them so that they don’t end up in landfill or in the hands of someone they shouldn’t.
• When you are done, immediately relocate the items that you are decluttering to their new homes (Thrift shop, donation bin, recycling, trash bin etc). If you are not able to do so, put them in a shed or a garage so that the dust still in the clutter (for instance, plush toys) is no longer polluting your living space and can no longer cause you allergic reactions.
• Once the clutter is removed thoroughly vacuum the area as most of the dust that was disturbed has now settled on the floor. It would probably be wise to vacuum any upholstered furniture, launder  bed coverings and curtaining in the space at this time.

If you notice that after a few minutes of decluttering, that your body can’t take it any longer (allergic reactions), stop immediately and vacuum (yes, I love to vacuum, :P), wait a week, and try it then. If it doesn’t stop, hire a professional declutterer.

If you have a (young) child with allergies, clean up their area yourself, without your child being there. Do the decluttering for them but let the child decide afterwards what he doesn’t want to keep (make sure you have removed most dust from the decluttered items before the child sorts through them). Once the task is complete allow the child to return to the decluttered room for about ten minutes. If the child shows any sign of an allergic reaction, let them sleep somewhere else for the night and vacuum again the day after, when the dust has settled on the floor. Once again it would probably be wise to also launder the bed cover and curtaining at this time.

I hope this might be useful for other people with allergies. These tips might be time consuming, but it works for me.

Today’s Declutter Item

Sometime the generic version of things don’t work as good as the real one. This remote control never did work well so Liam has decided to declutter it.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• The start of a new day – Yesterday really went to hell in a handbasket so it is great to wake up today and start afresh.
• The speed with which my new computer processes things – Yes I finally submitted to temptation and bought a new computer. Although the transition hasn’t gone as smoothly as it could but I am loving the fact that everything happens so much quicker.
• Getting another eBay auction item posted on its way.
• Being told I would be able to have the car tomorrow – This has been a rare event lately as the motorbikes are still at the mechanics. Why motorcycle mechanics take so long to fix anything I don’t know.
• The smell in the air when rain is on its way – I know it is just dust stirred up but I love it anyway.

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