I have been subscribed to the monthly newsletter from unclutter.com (not to be confused with unclutterer.com) since back in 2010 before I even began to blog about decluttering myself. I always find Donna Smallin’s advice very useful and inspiring. I found an article from her latest newsletter particularly thought provoking and wanted to share it with you all. I emailed Donna for permission to use the article on my blog and her response was so friendly and welcoming and of course she said yes. So without further adieu, here it is…

“Many of us have a tendency to hold on to things long after their usefulness has expired. Have you ever wondered why we do that?

One reason is because of something called “the poverty mindset.” We subconsciously believe that if we let go of something, we will need it later and won’t be able to get it.

I have found the opposite to be true. The more I give, the more I get.

Have you heard of the “Law of Attraction?” Basically, it states that the energy you send out is what you get back. Energy is sent through thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. Deeds include giving your time, money or things.

When you hold on to “stuff” you don’t need or want anymore, you are holding on to negative energy. You are also likely acting, whether you realize it or not, from a belief that you don’t have enough.

The problem with this type of thinking is that our experiences in life are driven by our beliefs. If you believe deep down that you don’t have enough, you will never have enough.

On the other hand, when you clean out your closet, garage or basement and donate unneeded items, you send positive energy into the world.

Act as if you already have everything you need and your life will be filled with abundance in more ways than you ever imagined. This is my wish for you.”

*******

“When you hold on to “stuff” you don’t need or want anymore, you are holding on to negative energy.” How true is that statement. The negative energy behind “guilt clutter” and “aspirational clutter” is monumental on its own without the negative energy of the cluttered space and the desperation behind feeling you need the items to ensure your own security. The silly part is that most of the stuff is not even vital to your survival in the first place. “I might need it some day” is really a case of you never needed it in the first place but have convinced yourself that it is useful so therefore you should keep it. So what if I got rid of it this week and then two years down the track I finally find a use for it. For two years already it has just been one thing among a huge group of clutter crowding your space, making you feel hemmed in, tied down and trapped and for what? That one time in two years you will finally have a use for it.

Do as Donna suggests send those unused items out into the world and reap some positive energy. The positive energy from giving, the positive energy of letting go and the positive energy of not being trapped by stuff. After all, all we really need to survive is food, water, shelter and love. Everything else is a luxury that you can live without.

Today’s Declutter Item

With less clutter to store I no longer have need for this container. Yes I could keep it just in case I find a use for it later on which is unlikely considering I only intend to declutter more. Or I could let it go out into the world to be used now by someone else now who actually has a use for it. Not only does this action create that positive energy Donna was talking about but it gives me more encouragement to remain uncluttered and have no need ever for this container.

Something I Am Grateful For Today

It was rush rush rush today with a little Christmas celebrating in between and I feel satisfied with the result. I even have my to-do list ready for tomorrow and it’s not that long, yet. I hope your pre-Christmas week is going smoothly too.

“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

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.

Thanks to a suggestion in a comment from Lena, this week we are going to tackle a little drawer decluttering. Drawers are all over the house so I am sure we can locate at least one a day to declutter. So if you don’t have the drawer I mention or have recently decluttered it improvise by finding an alternate one. Now lets get started.

Monday – Coffee table drawers are a magnet for all sorts of things such as stray game pieces, magazines, notebooks the odd bottle of nail polish etc. Time to return all the things that belong else where and tidy up the things that do belong there. If you don’t have a coffee table choose another drawer in your living room that serves the same purpose.

Tuesday – Drawers in bathrooms often become jumbled with all sorts of grooming products and things left behind. Use ten minutes today to tidy a drawer such a this.

Wednesday – There are usually several drawers in the kitchen  that could do with a good declutter. Today we will concentrate on the cutlery drawer. Just last week I emptied out mine. I scrubbed all the cutlery that have gotten marked over time from constant washing in the dishwasher, tipped out all the bread crumbs and stuff that has a tendency to accumulate there (don’t ask me how), gave it a good wipe out and put it all back together again.

Thursday – Drawers in your bedroom need periodical thinning. Nickers, sock and jocks ( That’s underpants, socks and boxers/briefs to those who don’t speak my brand of English) start getting tatty after multiple uses and the shabby ones need weeding out. Todays is a good day for that.

Friday – Ah desk drawers, now they can really get crammed full of messy useful stuff and they can also accumulate a lot of rubbish. Give the worst of those a good clean out today. There may not be all that much to dispose of but at least now it will be easy to find what you need when you need it.

Saturday – Back to the kitchen today. Choose another drawer, perhaps one containing tupperware lids or utensils or maybe even that third drawer down that I believe is usually full of miscellaneous stuff. Empty out the contents, clean it out and only put back the stuff you actually use.

Sunday – If you still have a junk drawer or another third drawer down somewhere in the house why not take care if it today. If you have followed my previous posts about this drawer and no longer have one then you can take the day off.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is a pile of clutter from a drawer in the work bench in our garage. Heaven only knows how long they have been stored there unused. I took them to the thrift store and the next time I returned they were gone so I hope they made someone very happy. It does prove that the thrift store sells all sorts of stuff.

Clutter from a garage drawer

Something I Am Grateful For Today

We have had a nice relaxed yet productive weekend. We have put three terrariums together using glass containers from around the house that weren’t being used often for anything else. We tried out a new café in our neighbourhood ~Fernleigh Cafe~ that we found out uses and supplies local, organic dairy products and free-range eggs which we will be purchasing off them in the future. Hubby and I also had some good discussions on what else we could be doing environmentally wise.

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

The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer by Juliet B. Schor was published in 1998, but the information seems as relevant today as it did more than a decade ago. The book is geared toward middle and upper-income families, who seem to be caught up in a never-ending cycle of keeping up with the Joneses, no matter who the Joneses are.

“The Joneses” are our first error, according to Dr. Schor. In the past, our Joneses (or reference group) would be our neighbors, who all lived in houses about like ours, drove cars similar to ours, and likely had two adults and only one income. However, Dr. Schor asserts that today, our reference group is no longer our neighbors, many of whom we do not even know. For many people, the new reference groups are our colleagues and coworkers, who may hold financially very dissimilar jobs to our own, and our media “friends” that is, the fictional people we see on TV and relate to. It’s not uncommon for someone making $50,000 to compare their financial prowess to someone making well over half a million.

Dr. Schor also discusses the brands and types of items we buy as a way that we identify ourselves and show our “place” in the complex world. In my peer group, nearly all my friends have iPhones (“regular” cell phones are no longer good enough for us) despite the fact that they cost a minimum of $70 per phone per month, in addition to the purchase price. Everyone has a laptop, including the kids, many of whom have their own iPhones, as well. (Often the model that their parents have already upgraded from.) Plenty of our friends go on overseas vacations regularly. Frankly, it’s a lot to think about keeping up with. I’ve had several conversations with my daughters reminding them that because they attend a private school, they are automatically surrounded by people with more money than is typical, and that a trip to Africa or Denmark is not something that most families take on an annual basis. (In fact, I dismissed one expensive private school, which really was out of my financial league, in part because a European school trip is mandatory for all high school students. I didn’t go to Europe until I was 33, and I’ve only been a two overseas trips total. I don’t want my child going to school where it’s thought that such an experience is a must for teens.)

Finally, Dr. Schor talks about “The Downshifter Next Door.” This chapter focuses on telling the stories of various individuals who have moved away fromconstant pressures to spend – from people are embracing voluntary simplicity to people who have made commitments to stop buying so many material goods and services. I think this is the group that most 365 Less Things readers are trying to become a member of.

The last chapter contains nine points to help turn this financial, emotional, and environmental quagmire around. They are:

1. Controlling Desire – Stay away from places where you’ll spend.
2. Creating a New Consumer Symbolism: Making Exclusivity Uncool
3. Controlling Ourselves: Voluntary Restraints on Competitive Consumption
4. Learning to Share: Both a Borrower and a Lender Be – Love this one and definitely practice it.
5. Deconstruct the Commercial System: Becoming an Educated Consumer
6. Avoid “Retail Therapy”: Spending is Addictive
7. Decommercialize the Rituals – Christmas is a religious and family holiday. Don’t let the mall tell you how it should be.
8. Making Time: Is Work and Spend Working? Cut back on your spending and maybe you can change how and where you work.
9. The Need for a Coordinated Intervention

Lastly, I’ll leave you with this discouraging thought - which to me especially embodies the politics of the state that I live in – although remember that knowledge is power:

“The intensification of competitive spending has affected more than family finances. There is also a boomerang effect on the public purse and collective consumption. As the pressures on private spending  have escalated, support for public goods, and for paying taxes, has eroded. Education, social services, public safety, recreation, and culture are being squeezed. The deterioration of public goods then adds even more pressure to spend privately. People respond to inadequate public services by enrolling their children in private schools, buying security systems, and spending their time at Discovery Zone rather than the local playgrounds. ” (p. 21)

By Cindy

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!

I loved this comment from Sanna, I knew straight away it belonged in my favourites. Sanna is doing her best to bring back the good old habit of sharing rather than owning and sharing what you do own. Good on you Sanna!

This comment from Eileen isn’t from this last week, I just happened upon it in the archives while checking something on Monday. I thought it was worth bringing to your attention again as it was a lovely example of decluttering together with loved ones.

Snosie had a good way of divesting herself of items she no needed at the end of and extended overseas stay in this comment. I have used this method myself while on vacation.

Lena tells us about the progress she is making when it comes to letting go a little when it comes to books in this comment.

And Hazel sure had some fine examples of the Pitfall 2 in her response to Cindy’s weekly wisdom post this week. I am sure we can all relate to this situation through experience.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

I liked this simple blog post from The Everyday Minimalist the message was simply put and uncomplicated.

While having a little browse around The Everyday Minimalist blog I found this little gem that I though was fabulous. The visuals made it all the more entertaining and real for me. Minimalist Comic ~ Stuff no one told me: The weight of things.

Here is a great but scary web link for those with children. It was brought to my attention by Kim Cameron_Webb through my 365 Facebook page. momshomeroom.msn.com ~ Is my kid entitled? How to tell.

Please take a look at this link and even sign up for the challenge if you think you are up for it. Even in this modern age women are often still the main caregivers and homemakers of the world. Maybe it is up to us to set the ground rules for responsible consumption and eco-friendly behaviours and I think we are up to the challenge. Lets see what you can do.  1 Million Women

I went over to The 7th Rock to wish Rakhee a happy blogiversary the other day and found this little gem while I was having a read there.~ George Carlins comedic routine on stuff. It’s hilarious and all too true.

Here is a fun little link sent to me by NatalieinCA that I couldn’t resists sharing with you. Keep scrolling down when you get there because there are all sorts of fun Christmas decorating ideas. And also click on OLDER at the bottom of the page to see even more. unconsumption.tumblr.com/tagged/Christmas+tree

Today’s Declutter Item

This pile of clutter is the result of a little bit of an odds and ends declutter in my spice chest. No I don’t keep spices in there in case you were wondering. I keep batteries, bens, clips, eyeglasses and their accessories, candles for if the power goes out, blah blah blah. It is my version of a junk drawer only mostly it isn’t junk and it is organised. 

Miscellaneous Thingies

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Discovering that making my our pizza dough isn’t so hard without a bread maker. I still cheated and used my electric mixer with the dough hooks but it all worked out just fine. I think maybe next time I should get a little more eco-friendly and do it by hand.

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

I usually reserve book reviews for Simple Saturday posts but I have made an exception for this one simply because I really enjoyed it. After reading several self help books about clutter recently it was refreshing to read the real life story of someone who has been there and risen above the lows of hoarding. The fact that the author Corinne Grant is a comedian adds a lightness to the story even though her frustration clearly shows through.

Although I have never been where Corinne was when it comes to clutter, the frustation I felt at times just reading about her struggle to get out certainly gave me a small taste. The joy I felt for her when life’s little slaps in the face turned into her passage out was most satisfying. Her story would give anyone hope that has found themselves in this situation and are struggling to grasp the concept that life doesn’t revolve around stuff. That memories are still safe without saving every little “sentimental” item you have ever attached yourself to.

Some quotes from the book…

“Irrespective of how it may look to an outsider, hoarders don’t just pop out of the ground fully formed. Hoarding isn’t something anyone is aware of until it’s too late. Hoarding sneaks up on you in the middle of the night wearing dark glasses and a false mousache and weasils its way in when you’re not looking.”

“It struck me that the difference between a hoarder and a non-hoarder was not how much of their lives they had failed at, but how many reminders they kept of those failures.”

On TV hoarding shows ~ “If all of this stuff had been wretched from me before I had sorted myself out mentally, you would now be looking for a psychiatric hospital for me.”

“…it didn’t matter that I still had some stuff that was probably worthless to other people, what mattered was that for the first time ever, I controlled the stuff instead of the stuff controlling me.”

The books ends with Twenty-Two Lessons in Letting Go and they are a great set of lessons learned by Corinne during her experience. Many of these lessons sound very similar to what I have been saying here at 365 Less Things for the last two years. You don’t have to be an actual hoarder to enjoy this book it is a good deterrent for clutter in general.

I checked and the book is available on Kindle so no need to purchase the physical book if you can’t borrow it from the library. Read and enjoy.

Today’s Declutter Item

This batch of snoopy items didn’t sell after two attempts on ebay but I am finally rid of them. I sent them to the thrift store.

More Snoopy items gone to the thrift store.

Something I Am Grateful For Today

It was nice to have a sunny day today for a change. The temperature was very pleasant as well, so win win.

“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

Perhaps you’re rushing about, buying some last minute gifts and stretching your brain to figure out what to purchase. Beware! There are gift buying pitfalls that you should avoid. They’re the route to clutter for the recipient and likely a waste of money for you. Read before you buy!

Trap One: Here Comes Another One, Just Like the Other One

Susie enjoys her subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, so she’d surely enjoy a subscription to Good Housekeeping as well. Leslie has a life-figures drawing book that she really enjoys. Surely she’ll enjoy another book and maybe an additional set of pens to go with it. The girls enjoy their set of wooden “paper” dolls, so I’ll get them another set, as well – maybe two because Look! How cute!

We are so easily swayed by this idea that if one is good, two is better, and three is best of all. Really? How about one is enough, two is too many, and three is way too many? I have a piece of garden art made by two local women that I absolutely love. I can see how it would be tempting to get me another piece – it seems like an easy way to a successful gift. But I love my piece. I think another would dilute the pleasure I regularly get from looking at this piece.

This is an especially easy trap to fall into if someone is a “collector.” How easy it is to buy yet another shot glass, Hummel figurine, or character salt and pepper shaker? Does the recipient really love these items, or has everyone gotten so used to giving them as gifts that it’s just become the thing to do?

Think twice before you purchase duplicate items.

Pitfall Two: The Thematic Gift

A theme-related gift can be the biggest mistake of them all. A girlfriend of mine is an avid gardener, and her sister gave her what must have been one the ugliest lamps ever with a garden scene as the base to commemorate her love of the out-of-doors. The sister was so pleased and excited, and my friend was so horrified that she lied and said that, sadly, the cat had knocked it over and broken it rather than confess that she’d returned the lamp as quick as she could.

A love of dogs does not equal the desire for a dog figurine. An enjoyment of travel does not equal an enjoyment of a souvenir t-shirt, especially one commemorating someone else’s travel.

Be careful when you follow the path of a theme; it’s easy to lose your way.

Pitfall Three: She loved it when she saw it at Franny’s house!

I love having fancy coffee drinks made by my friend Steve. But if Steve bought me a snazzy coffee maker like he has, I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I do the once-a-month coffee he makes for me. In fact, it’s the companionship of him making coffee for me that makes the coffee twice as good. Clearly, I couldn’t duplicate the experience at my house, yet how easy would it be to buy me this gift?

I think parents especially have a hard time avoiding this trap. I know I fell into it many times. Precious so loves playing with the fancy wooden dollhouse at the doctor’s office, that we buy her one for home. She loves the 10,000 Legos her friend has or the mini-trampoline, and we buy, buy, buy. But these toys are not nearly so enjoyed once they get to our house. Anyone else seen this movie?

It took me a long time to learn that it’s okay, even desirable, for there to be something you enjoy and not own it. That’s not part of our US culture, which tells us that if we like something, we should own it. But, really, it’s OK.

So, still have shopping to do? I may have just made your shopping trip more complicated, but I hope I’ve made your decision-making process a more successful one as well.

Today’s Declutter Item

These cards were all handmade samples from a card swap I used to participate in at one of the craft stores I worked in in America. They kept getting passed over in preference for other more suitable cards. I finally decided that they were never going to get used so I packaged them up and sent them off to the thrift store.

Craft Clutter Be Gone

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Jamie Oliver’s ~ My Favourite Curry Sauce.  C’est très bon.

“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

Back on the 18th Nov Sabine left a comment about how her friend Debbie had helped her with an emotionally difficult declutter job on memorabilia that was cluttering up her garage. I asked her if she would be kind enough to write a blog post to share with us all. She gladly accepted the challenge and the post below is the result of her effort. I am sure you will all enjoy it and feel free to leave comments and questions for Sabine because she would love your feedback.

Let me also say thank you to her friend Debbie for being there for her when the going got tough. Decluttering isn’t always easy but the hard part can be a lot less daunting with a friend there to back you up.

So without further adieu here is Sabine’s story.

The back wall of my garage is lined with shelves, the shelves stacked with plastic tubs. Until recently (pre-365), a lot of other stuff was jammed onto the shelves. And in front of them. All over the floor, really.

And scariest of all were the tubs labelled ‘memorabilia’. I left them for last while I was working through the garage, five in all. These were supposedly things I had kept for the good memories, but just looking at the tubs made me anxious. In the last five years I had never opened them to enjoy the contents, only to stuff more things in.

Part of my dread, I realized, was not knowing exactly what was in there. If I went through them, would there be unpleasant surprises? I had appeared to have kept just about everything that had passed through my life in my garage, why wouldn’t it be the same with memorabilia? Like many people. I’ve got some unhappy things in my past. What if going through the tubs made me think about that stuff? I didn’t want to. 

Nor did I want to keep looking at those tubs. Five 20-gallon tubs. That’s 100 gallons of memories! But tackling the garage bit by bit built up my tolerance, I guess. I had thrown away so much worthless stuff (and half my bras and underwear, by accident- oops!) and it felt SO good.

When all that was left between me and a garage I would be happy to enter, were those five tubs, I worked up the courage to face them. Sort of. I asked a friend to help.

Deb has been decluttering her home at the same time I have (and reading 365). We commiserate, and egg each other on, and she really understands the emotional component of decluttering.

She came over, we had a nice lunch, and lined up the tubs. We started with the one I thought would be easiest: my kids’ old clothes. And it WAS the easiest, both in terms of the memories all being good, and how easy it was to let items go. The surprise was there was quite a bit of stuff where I was thinking, “Why did I ever keep this?” They were easy to toss, and it gave me confidence.

I ended up with three items to keep out of about 40, and about 12 items I photographed. The pictures will go into our album, with a note about the memories they evoke. Two pages, instead of twenty gallons.

Well, it was good I started with the easy one. When I opened the next tub, I actually had to put the lid back on and take some breaths, before opening it for real. It was filled with kids’ school papers and jumble. Just the sight was a mental overload. I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Deb was a big help. She kept saying, “It’s okay. One thing at a time.”

I took out a handful and went through it piece by piece. Once I had begun, the stomach tension went away, but each new handful brought a separate flare of anxiety. Once she saw what my criteria for going through it was(I was sorting first), Deb asked if she could help, making sure I knew it was fine with her if I just wanted her to back off. The perfect helper! She did a rough sort for me, and we winnowed the two tubs of kids’ stuff in less than an hour.

At this point Deb started giving me deadlines, ’cause she could see I was bogging down in the sheer volume. “Twenty minutes to get through this tub!” I flipped out a little, but it got me going, and made me remember I wasn’t doing this to save everything, but to choose the best. And at the bottom of the tub, I realized she let me go over the twenty minutes: it just made me focus. Good ploy, Deb!

Then I went through child by child, and chose what to keep. That part was fun. I chose items that were indicative of each child, found some great stuff to frame and enjoy on our walls. We took a break and moved the piles of keepers, recycling, shredding, etc. It made a good mental as well as physical space, and I could see I was making progress.

The fourth tub was a surprise. More than half of it was just junk (legos, bobbypins, flashlights) that had gotten stuffed in there by mistake during one of my panicked clearouts. Super easy to deal with.

Then the biggie. Memories of my childhood, my father who raised me (now dead), my mother (with whom I have a difficult relationship). This is where the tears came. But I looked at everything. I found items to toss (a perfect attendance plaque from my father’s work-what?!?) and items to keep (a letter he wrote to his boss, turning down a prestigious promotion, because he needed to stay in his current job for the sake of his children’s stability). Items to offer my children (my grandmother’s jewelery which had no meaning for me, but they thought was retro-awesome).

I found funny things. Thank you notes for wedding presents I had forgotten to mail (22 years ago!). I tossed the ones to people who were dead, or divorced, and mailed the rest. They all enjoyed receiving them, with my note on the back, explaining.

I asked my sister if she wanted anything, and then…it was done.

My goal had been to get down to two tubs. It was down to one.

All but one item provokes good memories (working on letting go of that last item, but I’m just not ready yet). When I want to revisit memories, I know it will be a good, and easy, experience. I don’t need to let dread stop me.

Deb and I put everything away, and had dessert.

I felt wonderful. Amazed that I had done it. Writing this post three weeks later, I can only remember a few of the things I tossed (old spelling tests for one). I let this junk clog up my life, my spirit, and my garage for years, and it was such trivial stuff I can hardly remember it now. It kept me from enjoying the things worth keeping. What a waste. I don’t feel guilty. I do feel like a valuable lesson was learned.

And the aftermath! After Deb left, I couldn’t stop. I was so charged up, I tackled my photographs. I now have twenty years of negatives on CDs and the rest lined up to do bit by bit.

I am glad I waited until I had done quite a bit of decluttering. I had developed the skills to assess the stuff, and ask myself questions about what was worth keeping. And I don’t know if I would have had the courage to start, without Deb. Guess I’ve also learned which jobs are just too much to tackle alone.

Lesson learned? Yes. This week I came home with a theater program, looked at it, remembered the enjoyment of the performance, then tossed the paper. Yay!

Today’s Declutter Item

In keeping with today’s post theme my declutter item for today is a bunch of old birthday cards I had kept from my 40th birthday. It was a lovely day, my hubby sent me off to the spa for a facial, a manicure and a full body massage while he prepared dinner for our guests. I don’t need these cards to remind me of that. The tattoo however will be there for life.

More of my own memorabilia declutter

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Finally I felt well enough to tackle the housework today. It feels so good to know everything is clean. My son wanted to cook pizza but there was no way I was going to let him mess up my kitchen. He can cook pizza tomorrow, today is for enjoying seeing everything sparkle.

“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

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 will concentrate on information clutter. You know, all those many mediums of information that we store because they might come in useful some time in the future. Well guess what, in the future they will probably be easily accessible on the internet or just plain out of date.

Monday – Excess magazines. Craft, fashion and home decore are just a few categories that soon become out of fashion.

Tuesday – Old newspapers.

Wednesday – Non-fiction books whose information is way out of date.

Thursday – School/University/College papers. By all means keep the ones that are still useful but that’s unlikely to be all of them.

Friday – Old computer files that you no longer need but haven’t got around to deleting.

Saturday – Old warranty and or user manuals that you no longer have the item for.

Sunday – Phone books and street directories.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

It is amazing how old papers accumulate over time. It seemed important to keep all this once but really it just isn’t. I have kept a few special pieces and recycled the rest.

Old school papers of my son

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Once again I am grateful that my parents taught me to be resourceful. I rescued my son’s backpack from the garbage for the three time this year with yet another running repair. Not having to replace it was good for the environment and my bank balance.

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

Cindy’s simple solution to cords and chargers out of control and either tangled on the desk top or snarled in the drawer. A great use for the over-abundance of plastic containers wasting space in your kitchen.

Cindy's Cord Control

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.

You may have noticed a little change to the title of todays post. If not, the difference is that the five has gone. Some weeks I struggle to choose five favourites while others I struggle to keep it at five, particularly comments because my readers are such good contributors. So to make life easy for me I have decided to change this weekly post to Friday’s Favourites, with no numerical boundary. Hope you like the new format.

Oh, and don’t forget if you ever come across a web link you think my readers will enjoy please send me the link so I can add it here. You will get the credit and I will get it easy. I like easy. 😉 That goes for comments too, if you think a reader has contributed a particularly good comment please feel free to nominate them as Friday Favourite.

Favourite Comments. Enjoy!

I enjoyed this short comment from Spendwisemom. I sincerely hope she is right and that we are on the right track.

Gail C has been reading my blog for a while now but stepped up to introduce herself in this message this week. Great to have you on board Gail!

Ideealistin gives us a wrap up of here give-away-get-together in this comment. What a great idea and what a great success it was. Well done Ideealistin.

Lena has been reading through the archives and sent me this response to day 221. I don’t know if I have influenced her or she has been encouraged by other sources but it got me thinking about the contributions in Lynn Fangs new ebook about inspiring change. I know I am constantly being inspired to act more environmentally responsibly in new ways by the examples of others and I hope you all are too.

I really enjoyed this comment from Bec mostly because she agreed with me but then she topped it off with saying how much she loved my blog. One is allowed to indulge themselves occasionally when choosing favourites. 😆 Welcome to my blog Bec.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Cindy sent me this great link and I love it. www.wired.com/geekdad ~ The 5 best toys of all time 

Thanks again to Cindy for this link. ideas.time.com ~ Why we can’t spend our way back to normal

Once again Cindy has sent me this link on ten uses for non-organic packing peanuts from thisoldhouse.com. I love a good recycling idea.

Give yourself some credit for the things you are already doing for the environment this Christmas ~ Mother Nature Network ~ 7 green things you’re already doing this christmas

Today’s Declutter Item

These Snoopy items didn’t sell on ebay so they were donated to the thrift store.

More Snoopy items

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