I happened upon a situation the other day that was disappointing in more ways that one. And although I am sure all my readers are more responsible than the perpetrators of this, what I consider to be a crime, I wanted to point out how wrong it is. Take a look at the photos below.

I noticed the donations piling up around these bins on my way past the area the previous night. At that stage the donations were still packed in bags and boxes. I decided I would come down and get some photos the next morning for my blog with the intension of also notifying the charity of the situation and that was when I was confronted with this mess.

This is wrong on three levels

1. People should keep their donations at home or take them to the nearest thrift store if the bins are full. There is no need for this to happen. Someone or perhaps even a number of someones decided that they wanted to be rid of their stuff and didn’t care about the likely outcome of dumping their unwanted stuff next to full bins. Their clutter had built up over time but regardless of the fact that these donation even in bags were susceptible to weather, the owners just wanted it out of their house and ignore the likely outcome of their ignorance. Also, as clearly stated on the bins it  is against the litter laws to dump stuff beside the bins.
2. To make matters worse some greedy person has decided that there might be something worth finding in those bags and has now ripped them apart and strewn the contents all over the place. Or perhaps worse still, this was done just for the fun of it. Leaving the items even more susceptible to the weather, soiled and quite frankly what is left has now effectively become trash that the charity will have to clean up and pay for the disposal off. We are talking charity here, in this case an organisation who provides phone counselling for emotionally vulnerable people. It costs this charity and others like it thousands of dollars a year to dispose of these kinds of thoughtless donations.
3. This is an eyesore for the residents that live in the area which reflects on the charity in a bad way. While I was taking these photos a lady across the street called me over and asked what I was doing. So I told her I was documenting the mess and would be calling the charity and alerting them in the hope that they will come quickly to clean it up. She was most distressed and in her broken English told me that she had a beautiful apartment that is marred by this mess and wished the charity would take the bins away so this would not happen. I can only assume this isn’t the first time this has occurred. I would like to point out that this is not the fault of the charity, they are offering two services here, one, to make it easy for people to leave donations without going far out of their way and two,the important service they provide to the community with their counselling service.

The problem above was exacerbated by the fact that these donation were left here over the Christmas period while many businesses and organisations including charities have shut down or slowed their operations so their staff can take time to celebrate with family. That being said this type of dumping goes on year round, I have witnessed the fall out many times. It is simply careless and thoughtless. I have seen mattresses and sofas piled up next to these bins as well. Most charities I know of will pick up furniture that is in reasonable condition so there is no need to leave large items  near bins. As I see it people do that because they know what they have is just garbage but they don’t have a means of hauling it away or want to pay tip fees to leave it at the landfill site. Shame on them. WE even have a twice yearly council bulk waste pick-up in our area so there is absolutely no need for this.

Without trying to sound like a broken record here I would like to point out that there are many charities just like this one that provide important services to the community. Usually the section of the community that needs help the most. It takes an army of volunteers, some dedicated employees and kind donations from the public to make these services possible. Donations that are just trash or likely to become trash cost these charities a lot of money each year to dispose off. I am sure some people don’t realise that what they give may not be in good enough condition to sell but there are also others who are just using these charities as their dumping ground.

So please only donate clean usable items in reasonable condition and never leave your donations where they are susceptible to the weather or this kind of vandalism.

I am happy to say that the charity that owned the above bins were already on their way to clean up the mess before I even made my phone call.

Today’s Declutter Item

I am not sure why we ever needed an extension cord this long but I know one thing for sure, we don’t need it now so off to the thrfit with you.

Extension Cord

“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

I’m sure that some of you have all your recipes on-line and (could it be?) don’t have a cookbook of any sort in your house. Most of you, I know, have from some to many cookbooks plus a personal recipe file or binder. As I wrote last week, I have a couple of cookbooks, and I have a rather large recipe binder, which I use almost exclusively.

My binder is not a thing of beauty; however, it suits me perfectly. I made it from a 4″ binder, plastic sleeves, dividers, and colored paper, all of which I had in our office supply cupboard. My divisions are

1. Poultry
   

   My Recipe File

2. Beef
3. Pork
4. Vegetarian Entrees
5. Fish
6. Soup
7. Pizza, Tacos, Sandwiches
8. Hot Pasta
9. Cold Pasta, Salads
10. Veggie Sides, Grains, Beans
11. Breakfast
12. Cookies
13. Other Desserts
14. Appetizers, Sauces, Beverages

The recipes I have tried and want to make again are at the front of each section. Recipes I hope to make are stored behind these. I try to be brutal in deciding if a recipe is worthy of being added to the book. I hope to make any recipe that I clip from a magazine or newspaper within the next month, preferably within the next week; otherwise, it’s in danger of becoming aspirational clutter. In addition, I try to be honest about what I really will make. I am a successful and functional family cook. I am not a gourmand (or as we like to call them in the United States, I am not a “foodie.”)  While Chicken with Garbonzo Beans and Fennel may sound delightful, the truth is that in the last 48 years, I have never to my knowledge eaten fennel, and I am not likely to start now. To store the recipe would be to add aspirational clutter to my cookbook.

I use the on-line source allrecipes.com for the majority of my explorations into new recipes. I occasionally see a recipe on-line that I’d like to make and store it in the “recipe box” that All Recipes provides, but most of the time I make the recipe by reading it right off the computer. If I like it, it gets printed and stored in the binder. If not, I just shut down the computer.

It’s easy to pull recipes out of the newspaper and magazines, especially if you have a subscription to a cooking magazine such as Vegetarian Times or Cooking Light. Try to be realistic. Clipping more recipes that you can or will ever make adds clutter to your life and makes it harder, not easier, to make decisions about what to have for dinner. Most of us only make a handful of recipes over and over again. That’s okay. And if the occasion ever arises where you really are going to make Lobster Nurenberg or Châteaubriand, there are plenty of on-line guides, as well as the library, to help you get that special meal just right.

In addition, to my recipe binder, I have a separate list of a few meals that I can pull together very quickly, and I keep all the ingredients for these dishes on hand at all times. Being prepared in this way prevents a mad rush to the store or the take-away place when my afternoon doesn’t seem to allow for cooking (or when I just can’t get off my hind end). These foods are:

1.  I have a package of cooked chicken that has been diced or shredded in the freezer, as well as meal-size packages of ham. I also have a wide variety of frozen vegetables.
2.  Six can soup. I use frozen chicken, rather than canned, and add cumin and oregano to this basic recipe.
3. Tortillas with canned beans, cheese, and the frozen chicken.
4. Red beans and rice mix from the pantry cooked with sausage links from the freezer.
5. Canned chili accompanied by cornbread from a mix
6. Spaghetti Carbonara
7. Chicken a la King

Paper clutter is one that really bogs people down, and dealing with a bunch of unnecessary paper clutter at the same time that you’re trying to make a meal is just unnecessary. I challenge you to go to your recipe box right now and recycle 10 recipes that you know you’re never going to make. It’s okay. Let them go. There are millions and millions of delicious foods in this world. Ten recipes fewer aren’t going to keep you from a delicious life, but they could keep you from finding that recipe that you really do want.

Today’s Declutter Item

One of these cables belongs to something we don’t even own any more and the other has a US plug. So neither are of much use to us. These two will go in the trash as I think they will be of very limited demand or use here in Australia.

Unnecessary Power Cables

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Correct postage calculations on ebay sales. I love to go to the post office to mail off completed ebay actions and find the postage is exactly what I am expecting. Couple that with the fact that more stuff has left my house and I am a very happy lady.

“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

I think we all know by now that thrift stores are a great place to donate our unwanted stuff. If you have one nearby it sure makes it easy to get the stuff out of your home quickly. But Thrift stores aren’t only handy for getting rid of stuff they are also handy for acquiring stuff inexpensively.

Now I know you are all thinking ~ Has Colleen gone mad. Now she is suggesting we acquire stuff instead of forever telling us to get rid of it. Well never fear folks, I haven’t suddenly lost the plot, actually I am not sure I ever followed the plot but that is another story. What I am suggesting here is that trying your local thrift store first when you “need” something is a good idea. Below is a list of circumstances in which the thrift store may be able to help you out in your time of need.

• When you need something for a short period of time on a rare occasion   but don’t want to stock it in your home 365 days of the year. 

Perhaps you are about to receive more visitors than you can cater for and need an extra mattress, linen, cutlery and crockery. Your friends and family may not always be able to lend you these items but you could pick them up cheaply from the thrift store. Then donate them back when you are done with them.

• When something breaks and although it seems like it would be inexpensive to replace you find out otherwise when you start shopping around for that replacement.

Have you ever broken the glass plate in your microwave or had to replace a power cord for a cell phone or item that needs a voltage converter. Well these things can be more expensive to replace than you would think. I know my local thrift shop has lots of unusual items like these in the store. They may not have just the right one I need but I would check there first before buying new.

• When you move interstate or overseas and transporting everything you own just isn’t viable.

When we moved to America our removal was paid for by my husbands work. However one of the stipulations was, if an item didn’t fit into a packing case we weren’t allowed to take it. The only things that I left behind that I knew I would need at the other end was an airer and an ironing board. Luckily for me, one of the first things we discovered when we arrived in Seattle was a big thrift store. So I replaced my ironing board and my airer at a very affordable price then donated it back when we left.

• When you need an item of clothing for a special occasion or for short periods of time and it seems like a waste of money to buy new.

You might be surprised to know how many formal gowns and men’s suits arrive at the thrift store in as new condition because they have only been worn once or twice to a wedding or similar function. Now think about how many such outfits are in you closet or have past through it at one time or another. Why not check the thrift store first when you need one of these outfits chances are you will find something suitable. And once again donate it back if you have no further need for it.

Perhaps you live in a warmer climate but are going to visit another country in the winter. Why buy a new expensive jacket that you only need for a couple of weeks when you could buy secondhand.

Also why buy new for all your baby clothing. For all the time they actually fit into a certain size you may as well save your money and purchase at least some of them from the thrift store.

These are but a few reasons to shop at your local thrift store but I am sure there are plenty more. Why pay new prices and waste resources when secondhand will do. And when you are done with them you can always donate them back.

Today’s Declutter Item

You can tell from these items that we are travellers. And even though we make a habit of traveling light we have gotten better at it over time. Plus we no long travel with teenagers either that “need” all their electronic bits and bobs with them to stop them from getting bored or to make themselves beautiful. Now the only item that requires power that we usually travel with is the battery charger for the camera so one for Europe, one for Britain and one for America is all we are likely to need. All these extras are off to the thrift store. See, didn’t I tell you they sell all sorts of stuff at the thrift store.

Overseas Adaptors

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Well like I said yesterday my boy is home and yes he is up to his usual tricks. While trying to get my housework done he must have called me to his room to tell or show me something “important” about six time. He shut me in the pantry and held the door closed and he used my pony tail like reins and tried to make me gallop through the house. I could wish that he would be like a normal person and give me a hug or a kiss but instead I will just be grateful for the strange forms of affection he is willing to share with me.

“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.

Today we are going to do some decluttering in hidden places that sometimes get ignored or worse, added to and neglected. So for each of the places I mention below I would like you to declutter one item. Should you choose to do more good for you.

Monday – Your handbag

Tuesday – A keepsake box

Wednesday – The linen closet

Thursday – The glove compartment of your car

Friday – The third drawer down. Any room will do, there is usually one that is a catch all.

Saturday – Your gym bag or if you don’t exercise the bottom of your closet. You are bound to get some exercise down there.

Sunday – The attic or basement if you have one, if not, the garage will suffice.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

I designed these redwork patterns for a friend’s quilt shop but since I don’t quilt there is no need for me to keep a copy of them. That’s one less thing cluttering up my craft area.

Redwork Patterns

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My boy will be home tonight after a week away. I missing his verbal sparring but not so much his rib poking and his sticky fingers on my reading glasses. The little rat! I mean that in the nicest possible way of course. 😉

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

Today I wanted to share this video with you there is no need to watch the whole thing although I would if I were you, it is a great story. The part I wanted you to see is from 4:10 to 6:00

Why you should have a party everyday

And before you go, below is a photo of all the papercrafting supplies the our reader Deb J has been decluttering this week. Well done Deb!

Deb J's Papercraft Decluttering Effort

Have a great weekend everyone and happy decluttering!

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!

Sabine reminds us of how removing clutter can make a space more tranquil in this comment.

Spendwisemom lives up to her title with this comment and I agree all the way.

Sabrina from Italy needs a little help with selling options in her City of Roma (Italy) if anyone out these is from the same area could you please give her some suggestions. Read her comment here.

I wanted to bring this comment for rds to your attention. It is a shame her thrift store wasn’t a bit more courteous in the process of accepting donations. I am going to write a post soon on donating to thrift stores so stay tuned. But please even if you have a bad experience don’t let it deter you for making these donations. The money really does go to a good cause even if sometimes the people on the front line don’t behave as they should.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

becomingminimalist.com ~ dont-just-declutter-de-own

Cindy sent me this link and it sure made me laugh. I’m sure you will enjoy it too. ~ www.smithsonianmag.com ~ The Hoarding Instinct

Here is a new blog from one of our readers Delona. Take a look and give her some encouragement. I love the title ~ Recovering Dabbler.

“The secret to overcoming clutter in in the mind, your mind to be precise.” That is the lead into this website’s content and never a truer word has been spoken. I chose the following post to share with you because I think they are on to something. www.mindoverclutter.com ~ Does the clutter drive you crazy enough

For my Australian readers I found this little gem when trying to find thrift stores in a certain area of Sydney for one of my readers http://opshop.org/search/ It is a valuable resource for anyone looking for a thrift store in their area.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is one of those aspirational clutter items that I have to say I am glad to see the back of. It has been hiding in my book shelf for years and that is about how long it is since I last wrote in it. Most of the pages were still blank and I have no desire to fill them in. It went in the recycling bin.

Aspiration clutter be gone!

Something I Am Grateful For Today

It’s the middle of Summer and a beautiful fine day and yet the temperature is only 25°c outside. I love this kind of weather.

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

Household Tiny Stuff

I received the following comment from Coonie on Tuesday and since this is the theme for this week’s mini missions I thought I should slip in a post about it before the week is up.

Coonie’s Comment

Hello! “Tiny stuff de-cluttering” is just what I needed. I am very organized and reduce clutter all the time, but “tiny” things elude me! All my tiny things are labeled and in containers (lol) I would love it if you could focus on this a while…name all the tiny things and what do you ask/tell yourself to reduce “the stash.” Help me know how many is too many and why not keep and store them if I have the space? I think my view definitely comes from raised in scarcity—but things aren’t scarce now. Thanks for your blog.

Firstly Coonie, well done containerising and labelling your tiny things. Working in the thrift store we often receive donations of kids games many of which have all parts missing. These toys are next to useless to us in this condition. My kids toys never had parts missing because all the small pieces were kept in ziplock bags or plastic containers and the kids were taught to take care of them.

As for “why not keep and store them if I have the space?” I would suggest that if your tiny stuff is of no consequence to you clutter wise then leave it well enough alone. Personally though I find every inch of ground gamed from something that isn’t being used or is overstocked in my home is a small victory in the war on clutter. Back on May 21st last year I wrote a Simple Saturday post about my stationery drawer declutter which just goes to prove how little things can add up to a lot of wasted space. When writing that post I was attempting to reduce yet again the amount of stuff cluttering up my craft space. And now after several more sessions of removing tiny items, small items and some bigger stuff from that area I have managed to declutter two sets of plastic drawers which took up about five square feet of space.

Tiny stuff tends to come in four categories. 1. Stuff that your actually use but is a little overstocked and can be used up in a reasonable amount of time if you put your mind to it. For example travel size shampoo, motel soaps etc. 2. Stuff that is rarely used but so numerous that it would take years to use up. Like the hundred or more paperclips, thumb tacks and rubber bands I decluttered last year. 3. Items that grown in number due to replacing them because you couldn’t find them when you needed them, such as Allen keys, and nail clippers. And 4. Items that you just keep buying more of because you want to. Like little trinkets, jewellery, fashion accessories etc

My guide when it comes to tiny stuff is if you aren’t using it it’s clutter. For example if you have a box of 100 paperclips and you use about six in a year then keep about a dozen (and that is probably too many) and get rid of the rest. The same goes for most of the little things you will find on the list below. Observe for a while how often you use these things and adjust how many you have in proportion to how many you will use over perhaps one year. As for the small items that accumulate due to being misplaced the best method to keep track of them is to always put them back in the same place. I know that rule sounds fundamental but it isn’t a rule always observed. Once you have this down pat you can safely declutter the excess. As for the “I just want them” things, declutter the ones you no long want or are useless due to damage on a regular basis. If you still want them they aren’t clutter.

Don’t buy tiny items in bulk just because it appears to make economic sense unless you share the cost and the quantity with a friend or family member. Such as make-up sponges, Post-it note pads, boxes of staples, pens etc. If the shared quantity is still too many give the rest away to other loved ones. It is so tempting to buy 1000 of something when it only cost one and a half times as much as 100 but then you are stuck with them for what seems like an eternity and they take up four times as much space as the smaller quantity would have. Keep in mind some items perish and become useless if left unused for an extended period of time.

Tiny Things

• Jewellery ~ Necklaces, earrings, brooches, pins, tie pins, cufflinks, bracelets, bangles, watches…
• Stationery ~ pens, pencils, markers, paperclips, rubber bands, post-it notes pads, bookmarks…
• Toileties ~ Samples, travel size, make-up items, nail clippers, nail files, cotton balls, make-up sponges…
• Hardware ~ Nails, screws, nuts, bolts, rivets, washers, picture hooks, Allen keys…
• Kitchenware ~ corn holders, skewers, muffin/cupcake papers, cutlery, twist ties…
• Sewing equipment ~ Pins, needles, buttons, clips, cotton reals, machine bobbins, safety pins…
• Household items other ~ Keys, key rings, zip ties, …
• Craft ~ Beads, findings, embellishments, stamps, buttons, tacks, picture clippings, off cuts of wood and paper…

Ways to dispose of

• Jewellery ~ Give to friends or loved ones, donate or sell, Freecycle.
• Stationary ~ Donate to a local school, thrift shop or take into your work place to be used up.
• Toiletries ~ Most of these can be used up and not repurchased. Make-up should be thrown away if out of date. I would not advise giving it to someone else. Excess clippers, files and applicators could be shared among friends, preferably unused.
• Hardware ~ Donate, offer to a neighbour, friend or family member, give to your handman the next time he calls to repair something, Freecycle in batches.
• Kitchenware ~ Donate, offer to friends or family, freecycle, sell on ebay if worth the effort.
• Sewing equipment ~ Put together in a kit and donate to the thrift store or to your local highschool or a local craft group.
• Household items ~ In the case of old keys they can probably be recycled. Another useful stuff could be donated or Freecycled.
• Craft Items ~ Schools, craft groups, thrift store, local craft shop who runs classes, sell on ebay.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is an example of decluttering little things. It may not look like much but just because it isn’t being used by us doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be useful to someone else. For every little thing hiding away in your home unused someone else is having to buy new. Send them out there where they can be useful. And all the little things add up to a much bigger waste of space in your home than you would think.

Decluttering Little Things

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Getting rid of a batch if things to the thrift store and the craft store up the street. It is one thing to decide and divide but the clutter disappearing act is the best part. “Hey Presto!”

“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

You may love to cook or you may hate it. No matter how you feel about cooking, I bet you have at least 6 cookbooks, and I’m certain that someone reading this blog today has at least sixty cookbooks. They’re fun to look at, fun to collect, fun to page through and dream with. But let’s be realistic: they’re also expensive, easy to ignore, and hard to declutter.

Prior to December 2009, I probably had two dozen cookbooks, and I don’t think I’d ever gotten rid of one that I owned. I just added to the pile; I loved them. When we remodeled our kitchen, I had a special bookshelf made just for them; it took up the majority of the storage space at my kitchen desk. Then my daughter was diagnosed with diabetes, and I knew our diets had to change. There were foods I was probably never going to make again, and I decide to get rid of cookbooks without mercy. I thought I would be heartbroken; I thought I might cry.

Prior to purging them, I decided that I would look through each one and photocopy those recipes that I could not live without. In the end, I had paged through all those books - all those treasures - and I copied fewer than 10 recipes. Ten! What an insight! The books that I loved and cherished were, in truth, almost worthless to me!

After the purge, I still owned a Cooking Light Slow Cooker book (because the recipes are good and because it contains the nutritional information I need), a Better Homes and Garden plaid cookbook (because I thought it would be wise to hang onto a basic book) and my own recipe binder. Later, I realized that I truly missed Horn of the Moon Cookbook, and I “borrowed” it back. (Thanks Lisa!)

Now I had far fewer cookbooks, but still there was a special shelf dedicated to them, taking up precious space at my kitchen (only) desk.  What a waste of space! I was trying to carry on the majority of the family business at a desk with just one shallow drawer, and here was a big gaping hole below. And, of course, it was getting junked up. Although not everyone has the same luxury I did in this situation, my kitchen cabinets were custom made, so I had drawers made. Two beautiful, spacious, useful drawers, which improved my desk situation 100%. I moved a couple of rarely-used oils into the pantry and put the cookbooks in the narrow cabinet between the vent hood and the wall.

Photo on Left: The hole where the cookbooks were stored has now been replaced with two useful drawers, so new that they still need paint. This space was 24 inches deep, 30 inches wide, and 18 inches high (12,960 square inches). Photo on Right: Cindy's cookbook collection can now be stored in a narrow cabinet, 13 inches deep, 9 inches wide, and 15 inches high (1,755 square inches). Now that is a whole lot of reclaimed space.

Next week I’ll discuss how I manage to be a from scratch cook without a storepile of cookbooks, but in the meantime, I want you to consider what you could do with the extra space you’d gain if you purged your cookbooks.

Today’s Declutter Item

I do have one or two cookbooks still to declutter but they need to be processed first. So today I offer this Art School book instead. I have already taken it to the thrift shop and it was already sold by the end of my shift.

One more book gone

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am grateful in advance for the weather holding out until my sheets are dry. I am hoping that my powers of positive thinking will make this a reality.

“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

The departure point, the staging area, the sorting space… whatever you want to call it, having one certainly makes decluttering more organised. This is the space where your chosen ones, that is the items you want to get rid of are moved to prior to their final departure from your home. This makes the initial decision making precess easier without the complication of dealing with an immediate removal. The system works like this…

1. Chose an item you no longer which to have cluttering up your home.
2. Remove it from the space where it usually lingers.
3. Place it in the departure point until you are ready to do whatever it takes to rid it from your home.
4. At the appropriate time you move these items on to their next destination. Which might be a car boot sale, a thrift shop, to the post office for mailing to its ebay highest bidder, to a friends house etc etc.

Choosing your departure point

I try to limit my departure point to one particular area, which for me is a shelf in the garage. I have a spacious two car garage but not everyone is that fortunate. If you live in an apartment or small home you may want to use a shelf in a cupboard, a box by the front door, a space in your laundry or even the trunk of your car. Due to space restraints or convenience it may be wiser for you to have one place for donations and a different place for items you wish to sell and another for items you are handing on the a friend or relative. Perhaps you’ll even want a place to store items you have separated from the herd, so to speak, in order to decide whether you are really ready to part with them. It is entirely up to you but I really think it is helpful to choose your space or spaces and stick to it/them for the sake of good organisation.

The area your departure point takes up will vary depending on..

• How much space you have to begin with.
• How large or numerous your declutter items usually are.
• How many categories you wish to separate them into. This might be sell, donate, return or give to family or friend, for consideration.
• Whether you share your space with other people that may or may not be family members.
• How often you can get to your donation point.
• If you bother to sell items or just give them away.

My garage shelf has two boxes and some extra space for larger items that don’t fit in the boxes. One box is for donations, one is for items I plan to sell. Naturally things that are past being useful bypass the departure point and go straight into their respective bins, either garbage or recycling.

The items I am considering decluttering but haven’t fully committed to yet get put in either the sell or donate box depending on what I am likely to do with them if I decide to declutter them permanently.

My designated clutter departure point

To be honest though, due to me performing a little reshuffle in my craft room while around the same time my husband and son both did a some decluttering of their own my departure points have spread all over the place at the moment. My situation is complicated by the fact that I photograph everything for my blog. This a an example of why slow decluttering is much less messy.

Decluttering gone wild

In a nut shell. Decide on an area to store your clutter prior to its ultimate departure. This keeps your rejected items neatly rounded up and away from your keepers until you donate, sell or rehouse them. Then when the time is convenient send them on to their final destination out of your house. Then revel in the joy of living with less while you continue to divide and conquer.

Today’s Declutter Item

Once you learn to digitise most of your paperwork you find you don’t need all the stationary that goes with it. So this three hole punch is off to the thrift shop.

Three Hole Punch

“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.

Sometimes we overlook the tiny stuff when decluttering because it isn’t going to have a big and immediate impact on reclaiming space, but every little thing counts. So this week we are going to declutter some tiny stuff.

Monday – Do you have more stationery than you are likely to need in a lifetime. I did once, until I saw sense and whittled it down. Today declutter excess pens, paperclips, drawing pins, staples or the like. Donate them to a local school, everything they don’t have to pay for is a bonus to them.

Tuesday – I have a lot of pairs of earrings because I can make them myself. I am going to sort through them today and find some I don’t really wear and donate them to charity. Why don’t you do the same.

Wednesday – Nuts, bolts, screws and other small hardware items tend to build up around our house so we declutter them periodically. Why not check your supplies today and declutter the excess.

Thursday – Hair clips and hairbands have a habit of wearing out but then just get picked past instead of discarded. How about going through your hair grooming items today and sort the wheat from the chaff.

Friday – The children’s toy box often has tiny bits and pieces left behind when bigger items have been declutter or broken little toys that are overlooked. Declutter those today.

Saturday – Do you have a place where you amass recipe clippings that you quite often never get around to using. Purge them to the recycling bin today. Scan them first if it makes you feel better. There is an endless supply of this type of aspirational clutter out there so if what you collect hasn’t been used in a couple of months just declutter it.

Sunday – There is often a drawer or basket in homes that accumulate tiny misplaced items that belong elsewhere in the house. Hairbands, lego parts, rubberbands, twist ties, displaced buttons and pretty much anything mentioned above. If you have such a collection point now would be a good day to relocate and declutter the contents.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Now here is an example of little clutter that has a tendency to build up over time. We keep them “just in case” but really how many of the same thing does one need, even just in case. Hubby has purged these after reading that article about $20 or 20 minutes from The Minimalist blog last week. Even though I don’t believe in purging stuff with the intent to replace it if necessary I also see no point in being over cautious with supplies. Especially since I see lots of these particular items coming through he thrift store all the time.

Small Clutter

Something I Am Grateful For Today

We had a nice night out last night with friends. What could be better than spending time with people whose company you enjoy combined with a meal you didn’t have to cook or clean up after.

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