Ideealistin has been at it again, generating interesting blog topics that is. This time she posed the question below and I am going to do my best to come up with some kind of solution or at least opinion on the subject. Wish me luck.

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Question to all the procrastinators out there:
Do you have a trick that works? I manage to get myself to action with a fixed date (e. g. I painted my living room 3 days before christmas when overnight guests were going to sleep there so I just had to get it done – and it actually took surprisingly little time). But the thing with the date usually only works for the visible things and the things I have to do (okay, I would not have needed to paint the room for guests but I sure needed to finish it and put everything in its’ right place again). For all the things I want to do e. g. decluttering and organizing paperwork which seems to be my arch enemy and no matter how much I try to convince myself that it is not so hard to get these things straight I find myself procrastinating over and over again. And – but this is probably a totally different topic – how do I get myself to finish, to go all the way, once I was smart enough to get started and to maybe break the task down in single steps? Though I probably got through some steps okay and realized they were easy or at least not too hard, I remain convinced the horrible thing is still to come. (Wow, now I sound mental  ) Any tipps and tricks on that are welcome!

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Well Ideealistin this is how I see it. This may sound a little crazy but I think the best way to combat chronic procrastination is to go cold turkey. Like alcoholism, the only way to give it up is to avoid the temptation altogether. We make a conscious choice every time we decide to avoid a situation we don’t want to deal with, no different to when an alcoholic chooses to drink rather than face his demons. We know the consequences because we have played this game many times over and yet we handle the situation the same way every time. There is no cure for this problem only sheer determination to behave differently will keep you on the wagon. So in light of the similarities to addiction I have come up with a twelve step plan to keep us on the straight and narrow.

The Twelve Steps of Procrastinators Anonymous

1. Recognise you have a habit of putting things off.
2. When you find yourself procrastinating stop and analyse the situation.
3. Try to pin point the unpleasant element/s of the task you are avoiding that is/are paralysing your will to execute.
4. Formulate a plan of attack in order to minimise the unpleasant elements of the task.
5. Do not change your focus to another task to avoid the one you are procrastinating over.
6. Just get started, once the ball is rolling it may gather enough momentum of its own to keep going.
7. Continue to take personal inventory and when you know you have strayed, promptly admitted it and get back on track.
8. Seek guidance from another responsible person who may be able to help keep you on task.
9. Do not make excuses for your behavior.
10. Understand that the resulting quality of a task will suffer if crammed into the last fraction of time before a deadline.
11. Made a list of a tasks that have suffered due to you not having enough time left to give them the attention to detail they deserved.
12. Also remember the tasks of the past that weren’t nearly as bad as you had built them up to be in your head.

Ignorance is not bliss ~ Ignoring tasks will not make them go away and they will play on your mind until they are done. So the sooner you deal with them the sooner you can enjoy the freedom of having them over and done with.

Today’s Declutter Item

These pieces of poster board were still hanging around after the end of the children’s school days. They came back from America with us four years ago. I sent them to the thrift shop, I am sure they could either sell them or use them for their own purposes.

Poster board

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me laugh ~ My friend Liz and I flitting from one subject to another and forgetting the train of the conversations because we had so much to say after not seeing each other for a few weeks.
• Something Awesome ~ Knowing I don’t have to cook at the end of a busy day because there are leftovers in the fridge.
• Something to be grateful for ~ I got all my scrapbook sale items together and price for my sale day today.
• Something that made me happy ~ Sitting outside in the sun while I had my lunch yesterday.
• Something I found fascinating ~ That I always find that every peanut M&M packet has one stale nut and one exceptionally good tasting nut among all the other ordinarily delicious ones.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Words of Wisdom

Like last week, a comment by Ideealistin’s is the inspiration for this week’s blog. In reponse to Eliminate Clutter Without Even Trying, she spurred me to think of another category of clutter that should be eliminated – excess project purchases. I know this is a pitfall of a lot of 365 Less things readers.

Hobby and craft shops like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby would probably see their receipts decrease by half if it weren’t for Aspirational Clutter. That’s largely what hobby shops sell!  The dream of how beautifully this yarn, that fabric, these beads, or those scrapbook papers will look when used by our talented and creative selves is the drive behind nearly all craft purchases. The trouble comes when we buy far more than we can possibly use – today or even this year. It’s easy to buy in an hour what will take a year to use. If you go to one of these stores even four times a year, you’re probably way overstocked.

The problem is further compounded when you have a big stash, because you don’t really know what’s in there. And the stores offer so many lovely things, that each trip you just have to buy more for fear it won’t be available next trip. In the meantime, the craft supplies you had to have last trip are sitting in the cabinet, still awaiting use.

Besides an excess of craft supplies, a busy crafter can end up with an excess of finished goods too. One of our readers confessed to having 40 photo albums (good for you for putting them together and not just letting the photos and supplies sit around!); another likes to work with wool but lives in a moderate climate. A busy knitter or quilter can easily produce far more scarves and baby blankets than she could possibly use. It breaks my heart when I go to the thrift store and I see a beautifully made, hand crafted item, but even the most lovingly made gift can end up with a $5.00 tag on it.

I recently made the decision to let Audra use a gift baby blanket, a handsome quilt. Frankly, she didn’t use it as a baby: too big and too stiff to wrap around her. It’s just the right size now. The first time I saw it on the ground about to be stepped on, I cringed, but decided that if it wasn’t used, it really wasn’t of any use to anyone. Truthfully, though, if I had been the one to lovingly craft that quilt, I don’t think I’d be quite so quick to let it be used in a day-to-day life and probably many crafters feel this way about their goods.

What’s a declutterer to do? Well, I try very hard to only buy for the project I am going to work on next and will start within the next few weeks. If I don’t get started on the project in what seems like a reasonable amount of time, I return the materials. Also, I try to use what I have. My friend Allison, a scrapbooker, lived for two years in Macedonia. Macedonia doesn’t have craft stores, and she had to make due with what she had. She told me that if she were still here in the US, she would have made numerous trips to the store, but since she didn’t have that option, she cleverly used up what she did have. If Allison can do it, so can we. Be a creator, not a collector.

Today’s Declutter Item

The baseball clutter just keeps coming. It may seem like it will never end but it is a good thing that slowly but surely we are letting go of more and more of this stuff and I am satisfied with that. Freecycle has been wonderful at finding new homes for these items.

Yes, more baseball stuff and this won't be the end of it either!

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me laugh ~ In light of my craft supply sale I had to laugh when I say what Cindy was writing about today. Talk about hitting below the belt. Ow!
• Something Awesome ~ The beautiful weather we have been having this week. It has gotten suddenly colder but the sun is shining and warming up the house.
• Something to be grateful for ~ Finding time amidst my busy week to have a coffee with friends.
• Something that made me happy ~ All the great responses to yesterdays post ~ lots of food for thought.
• Something I found fascinating ~ The strange stuff that appears on television.

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

In response to ~ Five questions for you and for me ~ Andréia sent these words of wisdom…

Question ~  What is something that you have realised recently that had never occurred to you before about your clutter?

Andréia ~ It is time consuming. It always gives you the illusion that you are busy, when, in actual truth you are overwhelmed. It makes a five minute job turn into a five hour crusade, with no good results. It makes your house horrible. And, last but not least, it makes you want have a magic wand to make the house look lovely.

I particularly liked this sentence in Andréia’s answers ~ It always gives you the illusion that you are busy, when, in actual truth you are overwhelmed. That pretty much says it all. I think sometimes that half of our exhaustion when it comes to unpleasant task is mental exhaustion generated by the mind games we play with ourselves. In the end we think we have been hard at the task but in actually fact all we have been doing is emotionally wrestling with it.

Wrestling with where to start, wrestling with what is the best way to go about it and taking on other tasks in order to avoid the one we don’t want to do. In the end we are exhausted with our efforts and we haven’t actually done anything.

The problem here is two fold, over-thinking it and focusing too much on the whole task instead of breaking it down into mangeable chunks. The more we can simply the task and tackle one simple element at a time the less effort we will expend avoiding it.

For anyone who has been reading my blog for a long time or have been keen enough to read back through the archives you will know I have been intending to declutter my trophy collection for some time now. I have avoided the task simply because it seemed like such a bother. Is wasn’t a simple case of tossing them in the bin there were steps I wanted to carry out before decluttering them and I wanted to dispose of them responsibly. Below are the steps that I wanted to follow

• Find a way to recycle them so they didn’t go to waste.
• Document their existence before getting rid of them which entailed…
  • Organising a staging area for photographing.
  • Enlisting Hubbies help with the photography.
  • Dusting them before taking the photos.
  • Take individual photos of them.
  • Prettying myself up a bit so I could have my photo taken with the trophies.
  • Take the photo of me with the trophies.
• Removing the plaques from them to retain as keepsakes.
• Box up the trophies for disposal.
• Taking them to the trophy shop

When I thought about all those steps as one big task it all seemed like too much bother, hence why months and months later I still hadn’t done have the trophies. We did make the odd effort every now and again. My hubby took the individual photos some months ago, this took about twenty minutes. Then a while back it took one five minute phone call to determine that my local trophy shop would take the old trophies to use as parts for trophy donations they sometimes make. Having made it this far you would think that I would have realised this wasn’t such a difficult task after all but still it was stagnating.

The last steps of the process seemed like a lot of bother and anyway I had other easier things I could declutter while I procrastinated about finishing this one “big” task. Finally on Sunday I decided enough is enough I had to get this out of the way. It took five minutes to set a small table from the garage and a cloth from upstairs to use as the staging area. It took another five minutes to put on a little make-up and change my shirt. Another five minutes took care of dusting the trophies off while in the meantime Hubby was getting the camera set up. Fifteen minutes later the photography was out of the way and all that was left was to remove the plaques and box them up which took about fifteen minutes.

So what took months and months deal with in my mind took about one hour and ten minutes of real time to actually achieve. Give or take the ten minutes it will take to drop them off when I have the car next. Talk about mind games!

Today’s Declutter Item

My trophies that are now sitting in a box in the garage waiting to be delivered to the trophy shop. That is a whole lot of dusting I will no longer have to do.

(Too bad I didn’t spend a little more time on my hair!) 😕

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me laugh ~ Honesty is the best policy – check this link at Failblog.org
• Something Awesome ~ I have made arrangements to have a craft supplies sale at the end of the week. Finally I will reduce my craft clutter. I hope the ladies buy up big!
• Something to be grateful for ~ That the library stays open until 5pm. When I realised I hadn’t gone and it was already 4:10pm I thought I would have to wait until Wednesday but a quick check on the trusty internet proved me wrong and I made a quick dash up the street.
• Something that made me happy ~ That I got all the jobs I wanted to get done today done and then some.
• Something I found fascinating ~ How much we can learn from ancient indigenous knowledge and customs.

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

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.

This week we are not going to make a lot of space when completing our mimi missions but we won’t be doing any heavy lifting either. We are going to work on some little things what we might otherwise overlook. Some of these areas have been visited in previous mini missions but they are areas that need periodical decluttering so it never hurts to have another sweep though.

Monday – We will start off with one of those categories we have worked on before ~ Little stationary items, pens, pencils, paperclips, rubberbands, thumb tacks…

Tuesday – Check out your spare button collection for ones that are no longer relevant. I know I have plenty of spare buttons that I no longer have the items they came with. I know it pays to keep a few spares of the obvious colours but not a whole jar of them. Of course there may be an exception if you dress-make on a regular basis, I don’t. These excess buttons can be donated to your local thrift shop.

Wednesday – Hair clips and bands are also items that are regularly used and sometimes get broken then work their way to the bottom of the collection. There are also those ones you avoid because they don’t perform as well as others. Now is a good time to weed them out and throw them away.

Thursday – Those old socks and undies that work their way to the bottom of the heap also need weeding out every now and again. Today is the day to take care of this task.

Friday – There are items in the kitchen that sometimes get lost in the heap because they don’t perform as well as others. Potato peelers, odd cutlery, corn cob holders, cake icing tools etc would fall into this category.

Saturday – For those with littlies the change of seasons is a good time to declutter their baby clothes that will no longer be used because unlike adults they aren’t going to fit into them next year.

Sunday – And last but not least there is always little bits of jewellery that are broken or not so loved that could be cleared out of your collection. Some times you can sell off the precious metal from jewellery that you no longer want. Do your homework on this before deciding to sell because some companies offer much less then your items are worth.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

This old hoody has seen better days and my son is ready to admit it is time to let it go.

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me laugh ~ When my darling husband saw the title for this post he wanted to know if I was decluttering my bras today. Luckily for him I have a good sense of humour. I gave him a slap upside the head for good measure though.
• Something Awesome ~ Getting rid of a pile of junk in the garage. (More about this later in the week)
• Something to be grateful for ~ A nice tender rib eye roast for dinner.
• Something that made me happy ~ Taking an afternoon walk with my hubby, it is always a good opportunity to talk.
• Something I found fascinating ~ The endless possibilities where art is concerned, although I must admit I would pay for some of it.

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

No matter how organised I am the good old handbag always ends up with bits and pieces, mostly receipts, building up to outrageous proportions. This week it was time for a clean out and here is the result. There wasn’t that much removed aside from those receipts I mentioned, but a good tidy up certainly put things back into order

Handbag contents BEFORE

Handbag Contents AFTER

The items decluttered

This week’s favorite five have been chosen by Cindy because Colleen is away on vacation

Favorite Five comments

From Cat’s Meow in response to Do You Shop to Fill a Void? She shares the control she’d taken over her money and her spending. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1208#comment-7633

Also from the same post, Delores talks about feeling out of synch with friends who still want to shop, shop, shop. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1208#comment-7624

Ornela loved my post on honesty, and encouraged me to let the girls go wild on my remaining scrapbook supplies. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1241#comment-7658

Deb J reflected on honesty and decided that she would change the way she manages her scrapbook materials. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1241#comment-7672

In response to He’s At It Again, Loretta praised Liam’s decluttering and told of a clever trade her husband made, exchanging what he did not value for things that he did. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1288#comment-7675

Favorite five blog post or  web sites I found this week : Many of you probably know that I don’t follow any blogs but this one, so Friday’s Favorite Five is an adventure on the Internet for me.

My first lucky winner is from Tanja at The Minimalist Packrat, who has written a lengthy and deeply honest history of her pack rat lifestyle, her motivation for reducing her belongings, and the painful process of letting go.

Next, I went to The Happiness Project to see what Gretchen Rubin had to say about decluttering myths. (Tip number 1: purchasing containers is not the first step to decluttering.)

I found this primer on Zen Habits. I think it’s particularly valuable for beginning declutterers or those who are stalled.

This guest post from Becoming Minimalist inspired me to think about the larger rewards of decluttering and simplifying. What will you do with your money, your free time? Author Richard Dahlstrom won me over when he suggested getting to know your neighbors better. I can name everyone on my (long) block except the renters, and I regularly host neighborhood pot lucks at my house: Neighborhood food for the soul.

The book Your Money or Your Life was important to me, and I am glad to see that it’s still in print and was interested that two commenters mentioned it this week after I had selected it to be a Friday Favorite. I love it when ideas converge. The books talks about trading your life for money and suggests how you can reduce your expenses based on your own values in order to increase your life satisfaction.

Today’s Declutter Item

I was keeping these in a futile attempt to use them up but I am making little headway so I am donating them to the school down the street instead. I dare say they will use them up much faster than I will.

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ Watching a little of piglets squabbling for the best feeding position.
• Something Awesome ~ Fresh baked crusty bread still warm out of the oven.
• Something to be grateful for ~ Aeroplanes ~ I would happily never drive a car again in order to save the fuel for flight if I had to. Every other country is a long boat ride from Australia.
• Something that makes me happy ~ See how much my children love each other. It is obvious.
• Something I find fascinating ~ I watched a children’s educational program once abouts who seeds are spread. Some explode out of their pods, some act like helicopters, some attach them selves to animals, some are eaten by animals and them pooped somewhere else… Now if that isn’t fascinating I don’t know what is.

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

The night time declutter has been at it again. I woke up last Sunday to find seven magazines, pictured above, in the recycling bin. My immediate reaction was to retrive them and take a photo and include it as a daily decluttered item but then I noticed something. The dates on the magazines were all within the date range from when I started my decluttering mission. This ment that they were not part of my mission because they were just a maintenance clean up of things bought in the last 16 months. As you can see I took the photo anyway because they held a more important significance.

The thing that makes these magazine special is that my nineteen year old son has obviously been cleaning up in his bedroom again without me nagging him. He does this periodically, usually when he gets frustrated with the build up of things on his desk making it impossible to work there or find what he is looking for. I asked him what inspired this mini declutter and he said ~ The magazines were cluttering up the shelf in my cupboard and it was annoying me. Also my keepsake box was getting full and it had some stuff in it that I really didn’t care about so I tossed them. The box beside my bed was also overflowing so I cleaned some stuff out of it as well.

I have to say my boy is a bit of a sentimental collector but he obviously is prepared to keep a limit on it. Once it outgrows its confines it is time to thin out the not so special items. Perhaps the decluttering gene runs in the family or maybe he is learning from example, either way I am happy.

Today’s Declutter Item

I have been saving this photo for a day just like this. Some time back I asked Liam if he wanted this snare drum kit any more and he didn’t. I advertised to sell it on an online local selling site and waited. It took about a month to sell but sell it did. Liam had $130 to spend on another educational item should such a time arise that he needed something. He has since bought a SLR film camera for his photography class it takes up a whole lot less space than the drum kit.

Snare drum sold on eBay

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ When my family get together and rehash old family jokes.
• Something Awesome ~ Salt and vinegar chips ~ I don’t know whose idea dear that was, probably the Brits God bless them.
• Something to be grateful for ~ That my mother taught me how to cook when I was growing up.
• Something that makes me happy ~ Mostly just the little things in life after all they are often the best.
• Something I find fascinating ~ Once my mother and I found a dead toad in the garden that had one end of a small dead snake in its mouth and the other end coming out its other end. I think the toad bit off more than it could chew.

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

Today’s Declutter Item

Computer Game

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ When you know what mischief is going on in your loved one’s head and you beat them to the punch line. My poor husband is starting to think I can read his mind.
• Something Awesome ~ The pretty dove or pigeon I that suns itself on the roof of my neighbours shed. I has a lovely speckled stripe around it’s neck.
• Something to be grateful for ~ Living in a position that is so handy to a lot of things especially since I don’t have the car most days.
• Something that makes me happy ~ Meeting people and learning about their lives.
• Something I find fascinating ~ How little we need when it all boils down to it.

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

When we get to a point where we are shopping to fill a void in our lives then it is time to stop and think ~

• What is happening here? ~ Instead of facing reality and doing something to improve whatever unsatisfactory situation you find yourself in, you turn to your drug of choice, shopping, to give you that little pick-me-up that you are craving for.
• Why do I do this? ~ In this day and age we behave this way because we are conditioned to it. In the modern consumer society we have become accustomed to the idea that shopping is a feel good activity and if we want to feel good what simpler thing is there to do.
• Is that what I am doing? ~ Quite often we don’t realise that we are shopping to fill a void we just think we like shopping but even if you aren’t aware of it doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist.
• How did it come to this? Self preservation  is a natural instinct whether that be physical or emotional nobody wants to feel pain, so we do what we can to drown it out. Emotional pain manifests itself in many ways, loneliness, boredom, helplessness, frustration, weariness, sadness… and who wouldn’t want to avoid those things even just for a little while.

Then there are the counterarguments…

• What harm is it doing? ~ Environmentally alone, it is doing more harm than you could possibly even think of. If you have children it is setting a bad example for them, not just because of the lack of concern for the environment but it teaches them the same bad habits.
• It’s my money why can’t I spend it how I like? Sure it is your money although in some cases it is the banks money and people rack up credit card debt that only makes their situation worse. Lets say it is your money and you are shopping within your budget. Do you find yourself surrounded by clutter that you are reluctant to get rid of because you wasted good money on it. Could the money go to better use like your children future education, paying down the home load, eating healthier food…

Lets face it, if we have come to the point where we are shopping as an activity for fulfillment then there has to be something lacking in our lives. If we don’t know what the thing is then we haven’t got anything to lose by taking the opportunity to try new things. Sometimes we dismiss activities without even giving them a go because we don’t think we will enjoy them. This can be a big mistake because when we do this we can be closing ourselves off to great possibilities. Below I have listed some activities to try to give yourself something fullfilling in your life…

• Try a new sport ~ Not only enjoyable but healthy as well.
• Volunteer in your community ~ this can be amazingly rewarding for both you and the recipient of your time and skills.
• Increase activities with friends and family ~ go walking, cycling, hiking, dining out, fishing, visit the art gallery…
• Do something educational ~ cooking or art classes, learn a language, take a computer class…
• Explore your community ~ visit your local information centre and get to know the area around where you live. This knowledge comes in handy when you get visitors from out of town or maybe you could become so proficient you could become a local tour guide. Who knows!!
• Take up a new hobby ~ just don’t get carried away buying supplies.
• Gardening ~ grow your own herbs and vegetables, this can very rewarding, therapeutically and monetarily.

This are just a few ways to fill in your time , give you a boost and keep away from the shops. I am sure you can think of many more. Like anything sometimes the hardest part is getting started but can be so rewarding once you find that one thing that floats your boat.

Just remember that if all else fails don’t dismiss the idea of seeking counselling. If we live in denial that there is a problem these situations can escalate out of control. Not admitting there is a problem doesn’t make it go away so please be kind to yourself and seek help when needed.

Today’s Declutter Item

This drawer divider used to hold all sorts of stationary goodies but now they are all decluttered and what is left doesn’t require such a large storage container. So it’s off to the thrift store with this item.

Drawer Oganiser

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ Tickling babies and making them laugh.
• Something Awesome ~ Checking your lottery ticket and finding you won something.
• Something to be grateful for ~ That fact that no matter where I have lived I have had no shortage of friends.
• Something that makes me happy ~ Going to breakfast every Saturday with my husband ~ sometimes Liam comes along too.
• Something I find fascinating ~ That if you try hard enough you can find a good side to almost anything.

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

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

This week for our mini missions we are going to concentrate on removing some old, shabby, broken, beyond repair, neglected and maybe even old faithful but worn out items from our homes. Now that you know what we are looking for I will give you a list of where to look and the rest is up to you. Find one item in all of these places and retire it from service.

Monday – I know I still have a couple of shabby items in my wardrobe (closet) that fall into the shabby category so we will start there.

Tuesday – The yard is a place where all manner of half rotted things can be found. Old tools, well chewed balls the dog has been playing with, broken pots, sun umbrellas that have seen too much sun. You get the idea now see what you can find out there.

Wednesday – The kids toy box. Now if you can’t find something broken in there then you just aren’t trying.

Thursday – Be courageous ladies and scout the garage for something that has seen better days. I know some may have to get their husbands permission to remove anything from there but be a devil and give it a try. You never know your luck.

Friday – The kitchen is often a hive of well worn objets that have been faithful helpers and for that reason alone sometimes we hang on to them for longer than necessary. It is time to let go of one of these items.

Saturday – The linen closet can also be home to a few shabby objects like sheets with the odd hole here and there, towels with frayed edges or old pillows that you wouldn’t want your guests to see with out a pillowcase (sham) on. If it seems like a waste to through these items away you may be able to donate those towels and pillows to the local animal shelter.

Sunday – The basement. I have never had one of these so I can only imagine what one keeps in one of these dungeons. From what I hear there are often all sorts of scary things down there so it shouldn’t be too hard to find some sort of once loved now neglected item down there.

Today’s Declutter Item

A little more space freed up in the bookcase. Sometimes books become trophies rather than likely sources of future entertainment or information.

More books decluttered

My Gratitude List

• Something that makes me laugh ~ When all is quiet in the house and then I hear my children laughing together. They may be 1000km appart but in that moment they sound like they are in the room together.
• Something Awesome ~ Going upstairs after your morning coffee to find the bed has been made.
• Something to be grateful for ~ The I never took up smoking. Not only is it bad for you but it is soooo expensive.
• Something that makes me happy ~ Harmony in the home.
• Something I find fascinating ~ The way two people can hear the same thing but read something different into it.

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