If you are looking for a

new year’s resolution

consider pledging to

declutter

an item a day from your home everyday

during 2012.

That’s 365 less things you will have cluttering up your home by 2013. Whether you think you are fairly organised and decluttered or you haven’t even begun decluttering yet this pledge is not difficult to adhere to. At the start of 2010 I know I was organised and thought I was reasonably decluttered but I set the challenge to decluttered a thing a day thinking I might run out of things before the year ended. Not only did I not run out but in 2011 I have declutter one thing five days a week and am still finding things to get rid of. So why not make the pledge, you have nothing to lose but a whole lot of space to gain. You may even recoup some money in the process.

But remember and this is very important don’t reclutter while you declutter.

* Happy New Year Banner credit ~ http://manysoft.in

As I mentioned on Monday it was Lena who inadvertently chose four of the five archived post I have been sharing with you this week. She had conveniently even chosen a Friday’s Favourite Five amount those four. I will point out that I was away on vacation during the period that this post was published so there are only three favourite comments.

Day 253 Friday’s Favourite Five 10 Sep 2010

This week’s favourite comments

• All comment from Day 245… Read More
• Jo on Day 247- All of us could use this wonderful perspective…  Read More
• Deb J on Day 250 – Yes, yes, yes!! I so agree. Right now I use a carryon roller case but I am looking for what you have… Read More

Five great posts I dug up in blog archives before my vacation

• Unclutterer – Saying farewell to a family home
• Zen Habits – Get off your butt 16 ways to get motivated when youre in a slump
• Becoming Minimalist – Eliminating the little rocks
• mnmlist – Finding contentedness
• The sound of my own wheels – Source of inspiration

Today’s Declutter Item

I know what you are all thinking “Colleen, I think you really need to keep this book because your grammar is often painful.” But never fear should I need help, and I often do, there is nothing I can’t find about grammar using google. My biggest problem is I don’t see the mistakes until it is already too late. My mistakes are often the source of great amusement for you all and who am I to spoil your fun anyway. I’ll take my chances with google, you, my readers, can help with the bloopers that slip through and this book can go to the thrift store.

One more book that sat unused

This post from the archives was the first in a series of five about disassociating from you clutter. I have added links at the botton for the other four post in case you would like to read them all.

Disassociation Part 1 ~ Guilt Clutter

I was intending to write a post today about disassociating with your clutter emotionally but once I started to think about this issue I decided it deserved a whole series of posts. So I have divided this subject into catergories such as Sentimental, Guilt, Obligational, Aspirational and Security clutter as each one affects people in different ways.

Decluttering isn’t just a physical activity, in fact the metal strain of letting go of certain items is where the real challenge comes in for many people. For others letting go can be quite easy, in fact too easy in some cases, learning not to reclutter is their biggest challenge but that is a whole other post topic. For now we will concentrate of finding the will to let go.

Today we will start with guilt Clutter and I will do my best to describe this kind of clutter, explain our attachment to it and to help you find a way to disassociate from not only the items but whatever it is that binds you to it.

Guilt clutter are items you regret having acquiring in the first place but now feel you should keep in order to justify their purchase and/or get your money’s worth out of them. Just about anything can fall into this category but they are usually items that you…

• Spent a lot of money on and haven’t used much.
• Spend money on you couldn’t afford to waste.
• Really didn’t need in the first place.
• Or a combination of the above.

Some of these purchases are aspirational in character such as that fishing boat that sits in the back yard out in the weather unused week in week out, decreasing in resale value everyday. You had good intensions when you bought it but really didn’t put enough thought into it. Your wife doesn’t like fishing that much and the kids aren’t as keen as you thought they would be because they have their own intests. You soon discovered that fishing isn’t that much fun alone and launching the boat can be a challenge on your own also. Fishing really was more fun that odd weekend that your mate Bill would take you out in his boat.

Other purchases come in the form of bandaids to mask disappointment, insecurities or other feeling of dissatisfaction that occur in life. Like that new handbag you bought to compensate for the fact that you hate your job ~ That new dress you bought so you could feel better about yourself even though what you really want is to loose 20lbs ~ The diamond ring you treated yourself to because you husband doesn’t pay enough attention to you any more. Once the novelty wears off these items you are back at the store looking for another hit because you still have that crappy job, the excess weight and the unappreciative husband and now also some very unhealthy credit card debt and a cluttered home.

Sometimes purchases can just be an honest mistake. Say for instance you need a new appliance in the home and you make what you think is a considered purchase and it turns out not to be what really suits your needs. You though you had all the information you needed to make a good choice but six months down the track you are sorry you ever laid eyes on this thing. You couldn’t live with your choice any longer and bought a replacement and now that other reject is sitting in your garage taunting you every time you see it.

There are many more stories behind why we purchase these items of guilt but the fact is that is does no good to keep them in our homes if they aren’t being used. They are never going to realise their worth and it is best to cut your losses now and try to sell them on to someone who may appreciate them more. You may only get back a fraction that you paid for them but that is better than wallowing in regret. The grief they are giving you far outweighs the joy they every gave you and it is time to move on.

What is important here is to learn from your mistake/s. Should you make a habit of this vicious cycle then you are really in trouble but if you realise the error of your ways and address the issues that inspire these kinds of purchases instead of running away from them then you will be on your way to recovery.

So if you have any items in your home that you feel may fall under the category of Guilt Clutter it is time to disassociate from them. Take a long hard look at these items and …

• Recognise why you think you bought these objects in the first place.
• Understand the mistakes you made.
• Promise yourself to make more considered choices if you find yourself in a similar position in the future.
• Forgive yourself.

Now use whatever method suits you to remove this object from you life, whether that be to recoup some of you losses or donate it to charity as penance for your transgressions but either way let it go.

*******

Also in the series

Disassociation Part 2 ~ Obligation Clutter

Disassociation Part 3 ~ Aspirational Clutter

Disassociation Part 4 ~ Security Clutter

Disassociation Part 5 ~ Sentimental Clutter

Declutter Item of the Day

This baseball mitt no longer fits my son and even if it did he no longer plays baseball so I sold it on ebay.

Baseball Mitt

This little gem was written by Cindy before she had even started writing her weekly post. Any wonder I asked her to join me. She has come a long way with her own decluttering as well.

Recluttering

A Guest Post by Cindy Bogard

It’s bound to happen sometime; you’re going to have to break down and buy something. Before you do, consider these factors:

1. Do I need it?
2. Do I want it?
3. Did I come into the store looking for this item, or did it just catch my eye?
4. Would I be criticized if my spouse or family members knew that I had purchased this?
5. Can I afford it? If I cannot pay for it now, should I buy it?
6. Can I wait a week and see if I still believe I need to buy this?
7. I am buying it “just to try it”? If I am, is there some other way that I could try it first?
8. Can I borrow it or rent it instead?
9. Can I buy it used?
10. Can I share the purchase of this item with someone else? (Lawn tools, exercise equipment, a bicycle, or magazine subscriptions all fall into this category.)
11. Have I researched this purchase? Is this item durable and does it do the things I want?
12. Will this item be easy use, maintain, and keep organized? Does this item perform more than one function?
13. Do I have something at home that will perform the same function? Will it replace one or more other things that I already have? Am I willing to move those other things along? Do I truly need to replace those things?
14. Do I have a place to store this item? Do I know that it fits?
15. Is it in a color or style that I will continue to enjoy? Does it fit with my décor or the other things in my wardrobe?
16. What is it made of? Where was it made? Are the components healthy for me and the environment? Is it labeled for recycling? Is it made of recycled parts?
17. Can I sell it when I no longer want it?

Today’s Declutter Item

More aspiration clutter out of the way. These were samples I dropped into a local handmade goods store for her consideration to add me as one of her suppliers. She didn’t even have the decency to send me an email to say she wasn’t interested. Perhaps she lost my contact details but I wasn’t inclined to go in there with the possibility of being humiliated to my face which was why I left them for her to mull over in the first place. Perhaps this says more about my lack of confidence than her possible lack of manners.

Craft Samples

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

Todays post from the Archives is also a guest post from one of my readers Donna Tressler. I hope you enjoy it. I have included a link to this post because Lena said in her email to me that she found the comment heartbreaking and I wanted to make it easy for you get to the comments should you wish to read them for yourself.  Lena said ~ “I didnt know that so many people are having chronic pain/illness. I am sooooo grateful, I never had serious health issues…“

What Illness Taught Me About Decluttering

Guest Post by – Donna Tressler The Sound Of My Own Wheels

Recently I watched the 2010 Messiest Home in the Country episode of Clean House, which featured a family of four living in a home filled with an incomprehensible amount of clutter. There was a lot of finger pointing in the episode – particularly at the father who “guilt shopped” while he traveled for work, but the thing that struck me as interesting was how illness (the mom was a thyroid cancer survivor) had played a roll in the accumulation of the family’s clutter. Serious illness has a profound affect on people and we all react differently. For this family buying more stuff was the answer to their pain. For me, it was just the opposite.

In 2001 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Initially I was euphoric to have an answer to all the health issues that had plagued me for months, then the reality of living with an incurable (but manageable) illness set in, and I went into denial. I didn’t take care of myself as well as I should, and eventually I went into a flair up of the disease that lasted 16 months.

It was a horrible time in my life and by the time I came out of the flair up, I was physically and mentally exhausted from trying to maintain my job, my house, my marriage, and my relationships with family and friends. It took nearly two years to completely regain my former self, and during that time I began looking for way to improve the quality of my life. In addition to taking better care of myself and managing stress (which is a huge factor in my illness), I looked for ways to simplify my life in the event that I suffered another flair up.

Eventually I realized that the less stuff I have, the less I would have to maintain if I did get that sick again. I’d like to say I had an epiphany and instantly went on a decluttering mission that got rid of every unnecessary item in one fell swoop, but life is rarely that way. Instead it has been a continuous journey of looking at each area of my life with fresh eyes. I began by getting rid of things I didn’t use, clothes I didn’t wear, books I would never read again, and have continued on from there. I’m constantly revisiting a cabinet, a closet, a shelf, and asking what can go from this area?

As I have pared down, I have found that there are several methods that have been most effective for me in getting on, and more importantly staying on, the declutter path. My methods work for existing items in my house and items that I contemplate buying.

• I ask myself if I got “that sick” again, would I want to deal with this item
• I ask myself the questions on the Declutter Decision Making Guide here on 365lessthings
• I ask myself how many hours of working/commuting it would take to pay for the item

Someone once said “life is what happens while you are making other plans.” For me that’s a whole other blog post, but by sticking with my trifecta of clutter busting methods, I have managed to mostly stick to the trail and continue on the decluttering path, which in turn simplifies my life, helps manage my stress and thereby my overall health. It’s a win-win situation.

Click here for the link to the post so you can read the comments if you wish.

Today’s Declutter Item

I used this old album to store card craft samples. I have now used up or recycled those samples because I never really refer back to them preferring to design new stuff  each time. The album went to the thrift store.

Old Photo Album

I think I deserve a break during the holiday season and if I don’t I am having one anyway. So for your entertainment, I have set up five posts for this week with articles from the archives. That is I am going to share with you some old post that you may not have seen for some time that you might find interesting and helpful all over again while I take my break.

I received some unexpected help this week with choosing which articles to use from Lena who has been reading through the archives since she discovered my blog not so long ago. Got to love her dedication, especially since it has assisted me to be lazy for a week. Thanks Lena your timing was perfect.

One more thing. I may or may not be replying to comments it just depends on whether I have the time. A break is meant to be a break after all. I am sure though that I will not be able to resist checking what you folks are up to while I am not looking. Please feel free to chat among yourselves if I am not here. Equally please take a break from me and my incessant declutter nagger for the week yourselves. I will not feel deserted if you don’t drop by. So without further adieu here is the first of this weeks archive posts…

Day 250 ~ Reducing your Travel Clutter

A guest post by my husband

You’ll never meet a traveller who, after five trips, brags: “Every year I pack heavier.” ~ Rick Steves – Travel Writer

These words echo in my head every time I pack for trip, whether business or pleasure, reducing the amount of stuff I carry always makes for a more enjoyable time. Whenever I travel with colleagues, they are amazed by my small bag and unable to imagine how they could do it. Packing light is easier than they think and anyone can reduce their luggage to a manageable size with some planning and preparation.

Colleen and I are committed to only take as much stuff as can be carried onto the flight; a 9″ x 22″ x 14″ bag weighing no more than 7 Kilos (15 lbs) plus a smaller bag for personal items like a camera. We use a convertible backpack/suitcase with zip-away shoulder straps that is lighter than your average roller bag, and easy to tote across town to our hotel. How do we do it? Well, my bag contains the following items:

• 

  Rick Steves ~ Classic Back Door Bag

  2 collared shirts

• 2 t-shirts
• 1 pair of pants
• 1 pair of shorts/swimmers
• 4 sets of underwear
• 4 pair of socks
• 1 jacket
• Vibram Five Fingers
• small toiletries kit
• first aid kit
• 1 small towel
• journal/pens
• sewing kit
• guide book/maps
• phrase book (if needed)

In my camera bag:

• DSLR plus 28-135mm zoom
• 50mm lens
• iPod Touch
• battery charger
• spare battery/compact flash drives
• Archos 604WIFI (used for photo storage and charging the iPod)

I used to carry a laptop but an iPod touch provides me all the computing power I need except for an ability to upload photos from my camera so I carry the Archos 604 *. Despite carrying two devices, I still save more than half the weight of your average 12-13 inch laptop or netbook.

The main advantage of this small uncluttered travel bag is mobility. While most people are waiting for their bags, we are heading to the hotel. We can easily change planes, trains or buses when a delay occurs because everything is with us. Sure we have to do some washing along the way but it is often no more expensive to use a fluff and fold service than to do the laundry yourself. We also use lightweight wash and wear clothes that can be washed in a sink if necessary, and air dried over night.

Virtually nothing in our bag is there because we might need it, we will use every item continuously throughout our travels and when those one-off occasions arise we just buy what we need at that time. Plan for the best and be prepared to spend a little money if needed, why ruin a vacation lugging a huge bag of stuff you never use to save a few dollars. Travelling light is an awakening that can open your eyes to how little you need in your life, try it on your next vacation.

For those who cannot imagine travelling with one small bag, check out Rolf Potts’ No Baggage trip.

* We no longer carry the Archos 604 as we now have two 8gig Compact Flash cards which hold and awful lot of photos, so there is no need to upload photos as we go.

Today’s Declutter Item

Somethings accumulate and because you use them all the time you don’t think to deduce the number you have. These two trays are just that sort of clutter item. Yes they get used but while they are used two others remain idle. They can’t all fit in the oven at once so there is no need to keep them all. One was so old and worn that I sent it to the recycling while the other is off to the thrift shop.

Two Baking Pans

Image credit www.myfuncards.com

On behalf of Cindy and myself I would like to wish you, our wonderful readers, a very happy holiday season. May you all have a safe and wonderful celebration whatever that may be for you and your families.

You have all been great company over the last year and we look forward to sharing lots of decluttering wisdom again in 2012.

Best wishes Colleen

On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.

Favourite Comments. Enjoy!

Well done to Dizzy, she and her family have finally eaten through a freezer full of food clutter. Read here for the full details.

I love it when our posts here at 365 evoke ah ha moments for readers. Shirls tells us in this comment about how Tuesday’s post provided her with the ah ha moment she needed to move forward with some closet clutter she had been hanging on to.

I received this comment from Melissa, on Thursday and was amused by her label for single use gadgets. Check it out. This was Melissa’s first comment, the first of many I hope.

I know there were probably lots more great comments this week but my week has been derailed by a small family crisis so I haven’t been as attentive to my blog as I would have liked. Thank you everyone who has shared there opinions, tips and stories with us. I always appreciate them even when I can’t get to respond. If my darling son would stop getting involved in accidents my life would run more smoothly. He is fine, no major injury this time except he managed to break just the wrong bone in his wrist which required surgery.

Favourite Links

Betty Jo of Living Real shares her tips on Christmas gift wrapping the sustainable way in this blog post ~ bjlivingreal – Thats a wrap

In case you missed it on my 365 Facebook page last week here is a wonderful link I just had to share with you. ~ http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxSF-Louie-Schwartzberg-Gratitude 

I discovered this site via my twitter account and, although it isn’t the usual kind of site I link to, I felt compelled to share it with you all. It isn’t so much the limited information within the body of the site but, oddly enough, the ads in the margins that is imporatant. All these ads point you to organisations who recycle computers or resell refurbished computers. Therefore, for its sustainability function I have linked to it here. ~ www.recycle-computers.com

Cindy sent me this link to share with you this week. It is an interesting and thought provoking read, enjoy! ~ www.guardian.co.uk ~ The path to happiness: it is better to give than receive

This next link is to an online store that specialises in reusable products to reduce waste. I don’t usually link to retail sites but this one had some interesting products. Thank you Snosie for suggesting it. She bought some of the produce bags to help her avoid plastic bags at the supermarket. I believe Ann uses the same bags and has made her own version. I also altered some bags I already had at home made of thin gauzy material to make my own bags. Here is the link ~ www.reuseit.com

Today’s Declutter Item

This is another of those things I had too many off. I have kept a few in case the power goes out but this one didn’t make the cut.

Tea-light candle holder

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I finally got to eat two of my homegrown strawberries today. It’s not that I haven’t grown more but the slugs usually get to them before I do. I really only planted them as a ground cover so I don’t begrudge the slugs for having a feed. I am just grateful they finally left me a couple. Yes I could put slug pellets down but I don’t like stuff like that in my garden.

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

It was a comment for Sabine that inspired this post. She had no desire to do the writing that she usually enjoys because of  all the stuff she “needs” cluttering up her desk. “Maybe it is time to reassess what ‘need’ is.” she said. Then in Tuesday’s post I mentioned how little we really do need as opposed to what we “think” we need. I know I stated in that post that we really only need food, water, shelter and love, it is a little more complicated than that but not as complicated as we tend to make it for ourselves.

You only have to look at the photos all the things I have decluttered from my home to see how much stuff we had that we thought we needed or wanted, only to find that sooner or later we discovered we didn’t need it after all. Somethings took longer to get rid of than others and that was often due to not being quite ready to part with them because we though maybe we still need them. Here are some examples…

• Some we haven’t used for sometime but maybe one day we just might.
• Some had been in use until recently but even though they were useful we really weren’t going to need them.
• At least one was something I thought would be so useful when I acquired it and I used it once in about seven years.
• One just didn’t really fit in the house anywhere anymore.
• One got used once a year to cut leg ham at Christmas.
• Two never did perform the job well that they were designed for.
• Changes of diet, climate and dwelling had a hand in some of them not being used anymore.

They all look useful enough right? It could be very easy to hang on to all of these things with the idea that our circumstances might change and we will “need” them again. Circumstances such as lifestyle, living arrangements, interests, returning to old habits and the like. But please take another look at all of that stuff. What among it is necessary to survival. None, thats how much. And there is still plenty more where that lot came from like the crutches in the garage cupboard that have come in handy three times in five years, the spice chest that only half the drawers hold items that could easily be stored elsewhere, the wine glasses we really have too many of, lots of craft supplies etc etc.

How many items such as this do you hold on to because you think you might “need” them some day. As Lena said in a comment yesterday “Everyone chooses their own games.” The beauty is you can change the game rules if you want to or even the game itself if you like. Take a chance and play the declutter game instead of the clinging to things of limited use

Today’s Declutter Item

This was one too many bicycle pumps and two locks that I couldn’t remember the combinations for.

Bicycle pump & locks

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

I love New year’s resolutions, don’t you? Ok, most people really don’t love them, but I do. Because of them, I have (finally!) learned how to use chopsticks, and I (finally!) had a charity party that I’d been intending to have for 4 or 5 years.

And I have one for you this year: Less trash.

It makes me crazy to drive through my neighborhood and see people’s trash cans literally bursting out the top with trash. The City of Austin provides a choice of 3 cart sizes: 32 gallons, 64 gallons, and 96 gallons; each is more expensive than the size before it, although even the largest can is only $30 a month. Trash pick up is weekly. Most people have the middle size can. This is the one I often see stuffed to the top and more.

(For full disclosure: Everyone also has a 96 gallon recycling bin, which is picked up every two weeks. Any amount of yard waste can be put out weekly as long as it is in large paper sacks or trash cans that can be dumped. Yard waste may not be set out in plastic bags. The city has a fantastic program for recycling solid sewage waste and yard trimmings to produce compost, which is used at city-own buildings and parks and is also sold to the public.)

My family of four people and five animals produces a single bag of trash a week. One. Even when the children were little and wore disposable diapers, we only had two bags of trash a week.

How do we do this when others are brimming over? Frankly, I often ask myself how they could possibly have that much trash. It seems impossible to me, although obviously it’s not.

Here’s how I mange it: a place for everything and everything in its place.

I have a trash can in the kitchen, plus a little one in Dan’s office, each girls’ room, and in all four bathrooms. Except for the kitchen trash, the other ones only need to be emptied once a month or so. I have two recycling bins in the kitchen, one in Dan’s office, and one at the end of the hallway by all our bedrooms. I have a tiny compost bucket in the kitchen. I have a plastic bag recycling area in the pantry; metal recycling tub (small) under the kitchen sink; and a box for Styrofoam in the garage.

Yes, that’s a lot of containers, and yes, I do live in a fairly large house, but I did the same when I lived in smaller places.

All the food cans and bottles go into one of the bins in the kitchen. Paper recycling goes into the bin in the office. The basket at the end of the hall is for miscellaneous recycling generated in the bathrooms and bedrooms. The metal bin under the sink is for aluminum foil or any recyclable but non-can metal. Food scraps are dealt with in a number of ways: the compost bin is that last option. I feed leftovers from our plate to the dogs. The guinea pig gets vegetable and fruit trimmings. Fruit that the guinea pig doesn’t eat goes outside to feed the squirrels. (My 9 year old especially loves squirrels, so ours are well cared for.) In the end, only things like egg shells, banana peels, and tea bags end up in the compost bin. Even the cats’ litter is composted: I buy compressed pine pellets for their box and put the used litter in with the yard waste when it needs to be emptied. Since I know this waste will be mixed with sewage and yard trimmings, I don’t worry that there may be some cat feces remaining. The guinea pig’s pine shavings are dumped directly into the garden as mulch.

In addition, things you’re decluttering need a place to go so that they launch into their new life in the best way possible – a gift to a friend, a trip to the thrift store, sold on Ebay. One of the advantages of thing-a-day decluttering is that you have time to make wise choices. Reader Annabelle just packed up from Germany to come back to the US and said it was a breeze due to decluttering in advance, even though the movers came early. Like her, you don’t want to be in a panic at the last minute. That’s when waste occurs.

And remember, I’ve only talked about ways of diminimishing your trash by recycling. There’s a whole other side to this coin: Bringing less into your home. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

With anything you want to succeed with, you have to 1) have a plan and 2) a way of executing that plan. If you don’t have a convenient place to put your recycling, then it won’t get recycled. If you’ve got some recycling that has to be taken to the recycling center and can’t be put in your curb-side bin, then you need a place to store it. This is my New Year’s challenge to you: Can you cut down on your trash by 1/3? By 1/2? I bet you can. Let’s all take a deep breath and say our 2012 mantra together: Less.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is a classic example of if you keep stretchy things for too long unused they will perish. This piece of elastic tubing was something I had to exercise with when I was having back spasms which in turned caused me neck problems. Fortunately I haven’t suffered from that problem for some time now so it is now only good for the trash.

Elastic tubing for physiotherapy

Something I Am Grateful For Today

The pest man has been, the car is serviced, dinner dates are sorted, towels are washed. Things are coming together nicely around here. Hopefully that means that by Sunday all I will have to do is cook, eat, drink and be merry.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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