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.

I think it is time to take care of some more obligation clutter. That would be those things that you keep not because you want to but because you feel obligated to keep for one reason or another. This is not a good reason to keep anything because these items weigh you down emotionally. I will give you an example of a different kind of obligation clutter each day and you see if you can identify something in your home that matches and declutter it.

Monday – A family heirloom that you don’t appreciate.  Do your best to find someone else in the family to take it on otherwise it may be time to sell or donate it or perhaps loan it to a museum. Just remember heirlooms can be tricky as they may not technically be yours to give away. Do your research first to make sure they don’t actually belong to someone else in the family.

Tuesday – Grown children clutter ~ This is something long ago left behind by your grown child. Your home is not a storage unit, ask them to collect it and let them know you are going to get rid of it otherwise. With a little diplomacy this is possible without alienating them.

Wednesday - A guilt item ~ Don’t feel obliged to keep something just because you shouldn’t have wasted the money on it in the first place. Try to sell it to recoup some money or just find a way to pass it on. Forgive yourself and move on.

Thursday – An unwanted gift ~ No explanation necessary, sell, donate or regift it.

Friday – Anything that was given to you by someone else. If you no longer want or need it offer it back to the person who gave it to you, sell or donate it. You don’t have to keep things just because they came from someone else. I might seem a little repetitive on this advice but that is because people get very stuck on keeping this kind of stuff.

Saturday – Something you keep for another’s benefit. This often happens with grown children. For example Dad has a bunch of useful tools that he no longer uses but his three sons often come over to borrow them ~ In this case divvy them up between the sons and let them borrow from one another. If they don’t want to do that then feel free to sell them or give them to someone who does want them. Once again your home isn’t a storage unit or a free hiring service.

Sunday – An item you keep out of tradition that you never care to use. This might be the usual stuff like the good china and crystal but it could be like my old BBQ ~ It is almost an Aussie tradition to cook lots of BBQ meals but if you don’t you don’t need to have a BBQ just because everyone else in the neighbourhood does. This also goes for a collection of tools when you really aren’t much of an handyman or a sewing machine when you send all your clothes out to be altered or mended. (Personally, judging from the price my friend was recently quoted to have the hem sewn up on an apron, I would suggest you learn to use it and save your money but that is just my opinion.) Some of these items actually seem to double up as aspiration clutter.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

I don’t have any heirloom clutter that I can think of to add here today. Letting go of obligation clutter was one of the first lessons I learned way back at the beginning of my mission. Every now and again something surfaces but not too often these days. So I will document this craft decluttered item that I recently eliminated during the big craft room reshuffle.

Craft Clutter

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I love it when the sun is shining and streams into the living spaces at the back of my home all afternoon, warming it up. I saves me having to put on the heater and therefore saves electricity.

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

The video below may only be an advert for tea but it makes a good point. Why not use those special things you are storing away for good everyday instead of someday. If you are going to have a casual glass of wine before dinner why not use the Waterford crystal. Why not use the best china when it is just you and your partner sitting down to dinner. Wear your best dress any day of the week for no particular reason than to enjoy it and feel good. Who needs a formal lounge room that only gets used when guests come, turn it into a games room for everyday. Use that special fountain pen you bought to sign  the marriage register to write your daily to do list. You get the idea, make everyday a special day.

Weekend Mini Missions

Saturday – How about decluttering an existing bad habit like eating too much sugary food. Get the last of it out of there (preferably not by eating it) so that you can start a fresh without the temptation.

Sunday – Do you have a habit of not putting things away after you use them. This can lead to a mess or an inability to find the things when you need them. Work on changing that bad habit into a good one. It might be putting your car keys on a hook whenever you walk in the door so you know where they are the next time you are rushing out the doore. Or perhaps putting your cell phone in a certain pocket in you handbag when you are out so when it rings you can find it before the call cuts out.

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!

Here is a great comment from Larry who had never commented here before. It seems he has some good wisdom to share so I hope we hear from him more often.

This comment from Deb J is short but says a whole lot about why people buy stuff in the first place. I have also made the mistake of buying stuff because I thought it would make my life easy but often find the opposite. Then there are the pretty things that are hard to resist, I don’t suffer from that problem any more either. All proof that you can change your thinking.

This comment from Kirsty is also short but sweet. I loved her optimism that even though her house wasn’t there yet she wasn’t discouraged. Good for you Kirsty!

Moni brought up an interesting declutter subject in this comment. I responded with my ideas on the topic. If anyone out there has some expertise of an opinion please feel free to share.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Di reminded me of this video I once linked to and I enjoyed it so much again the second time around that I thought I would share the joy and link to it again today. http://youtu.be/MvgN5gCuLac . Enjoy!

I loved this post from Joshua Becker from Becoming Minimalist.

I have had a busy week and haven’t had time to read much in cyber space. I did find this post and I have to confess I haven’t read right through it but I feel sure it is full of great tips for going paperless. bemorewithless.com ~ The-possibility-of-paperless

Although I don’t agree with this entire article because I don’t subscribe to the idea that everyone is capable of giving up all their bad habits in one fell swoop there are still many good points made.

That is all I have for you today. Sorry.

Today’s Mini Mission

What about decluttering the remnants of a unhealthy habit you once had like smoking ~  have you kept a couple of ashtrays just in case a smoker comes to visit. Why not make you home a smoke free zone it is your right to after all.

Today’s Declutter Item

This item kind of fits with today’s mini mission. In fact just about everything that I have decluttered does. They are mostly examples of my previous habit of buying things I didn’t need or worse still, like this framing kit, things I didn’t even end up using. That is one big chunk of guilt come aspirational clutter gone from my life.

More of my decluttered craft supplies

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My husband ~ for earning all the money in our household while I dedicate my time to running the home and volunteering my time to help others. What a privileged life I lead.

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

Change can be difficult, especially for people who have behaved in a certain way for years. Changing your mindset is what is needed before you even try to change anything else. So what can you do about that when it comes to decluttering.

First forgive yourself for the mistakes of the past. If you continue with the mindset of beating yourself up about past mistakes  you will likely try to soothe that pain in some way. This is where you could find yourself at the store buying something to make you feel better, sabotaging your intentions. Instead of beating yourself up pat yourself on the back for making the decision to embrace a new way of living. Start a fresh from this day onwards with the attitude of “I can do this, one thing at a time.”

Seek advice and inspiration to help you achieve your goal.  You can make the decision to change behaviour in an instant but a little knowledge will make putting your intentions into action easier. No matter what task a person takes on in life there are lessons to be learned in order to do the task well. I know myself that I find it difficult to step out of my comfort zone into a new experience unless I have some idea of how to go about doing the task I am taking on. Once a little knowledge is gained it can be applied and experience will be gained making it easier and easier as time goes on.

Be satisfied with your efforts no matter how big or small. Change your thinking from “only the big things count” to “everything counts”. You will have days where you declutter big items and days where you declutter small items. Every item is one more thing out of your home no matter how big or small. So long as it is a step in the right direction you have achieved something so why not celebrate that. Sometimes I get more excited about the small things because it may have taken more effort to find the right home for them or I might have sold them on ebay for a good sum of money. It isn’t always about the size of the space you are freeing up. Small items can carry burdensome obligation or aspiration so to be rid of them can make a big different.

Turn the negatives into a positives. This will come in handy when it comes to stopping the clutter coming in. Instead of seeking the old high of acquiring things get your thrills from seeing stuff leave your home. The novelty of getting new things wears of much faster than the good feeling you achieve when you take another step towards your decluttering goal. This is especially so when you start to notice how pleasant your once cluttered surroundings are becoming. And the freedom you feel when you realise you no longer have the craving to acquire stuff anymore is an added bonus.

Question your decision making. At first it is easy to slip into default mode when making decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.  If you feel you are doing that ~ the obvious signs of this is when you find yourself choosing to keep too many things ~ stop and question your thinking. Ask yourself again why am I keeping this. Don’t let those old feeling of obligation, half hearted sentiment ,guilt or fear make you keep things you know you have no use for and /or don’t particularly love. Remind yourself of your goal and reconsider. You may end up keeping the item, and that is Ok but at least you will know you have made a rational decision.

If you keep reminding yourself of your conviction to free your life of unnecessary, unloved items you will soon find your new way of thinking has become the norm and decluttering will become second nature.

 “Most change is temporary unless there is an emotional shifting that occurs.” ~ Dr. Georgianna Donadio

Today’s Mini Mission

Thursday – Do you also have enough pots, pans, trays, baking dishes etc to cater for that family of six that have long since flown the coop. Investigate what you use regularly and get rid of the rest.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is an item I have been considering decluttering for a while. It is useful? ~ Occasionally. Do I love it? ~ No. Do I mind if my guests eat off my everyday crockery? ~ It is good enough for me. Is it one less thing to fit into the smaller home I intend to live in one day ~ Yes. Do I need the space right now ~ No. Even after all those questions I was a little undecided so what I did was I declutter half of it. I had been a little unconventional when I bought it in the first place, buying one half maroon and the other green to match the decor of our  dining/formal lounge area. So I have kept the maroon half ~ for now.

Half of my "good" dinner set

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Good friends. I have been so fortunate in this life with the good friends I have made in every new place I have lived. For that I am truly grateful.

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

May 30th marked the end of my second year of decluttering and the end of the second year of reporting daily on Facebook what I have decluttered. (Possibly I’ve missed a few days, but not many.) In the past 731 days (Leap Year), I have decluttered 3690 items and made $2471.20 plus $1000 barter for repair work on my van in exchange for our car, which we did not replace. Yes, that’s a heck of a lot of stuff, but let’s remember that the average house today is almost twice as big as it was in the 1950s, while families are closer to half the size. The concept of the long-term storage unit barely existed in the 1970s. “Shopping” is many people’s favorite past time and their favorite vice. I had (and still have) plenty of things I can get rid of, and you do too.

For your viewing pleasure and my embarrassment, I have selected a few before and after pictures for you to look at, laugh at, and be inspired by. You’ll probably recall me saying, more than once, that we have extensively remodeled our house in the past 10 years (and, yes, it pretty much took the whole ten years). The house was so ugly and so cluttered when we first bought it and when the children were young that I never took photos of the house itself. You’ll have to look around the girls to see to the YUCK! behind it. The second photo in each set is a photo I’ve taken today, so you can see the vast changes.

During remodeling and a good reminder that a magnet-filled refrigerator is not a things of beauty.

A clean refrigerator is a beautiful refrigerator.

Look at all the stuff on the counters and floors. Wow!!

7' of kitchen island and not a bit of junk in sight

Dan and baby Clara and a whole lot of clutter.

Dan's desk. No cute little girl but no junk either.

I found this photo after I wrote the post, but it's too clutter-y to leave out. No "after" photo, though.

Today’s Mini Mission

Are you in the habit of still owning enough of some items to cater for that larger family than you once were before the kids left home. Time to declutter a few. Some suggestions ~ towels, sheets, blankets.

Today’s Declutter Item

I didn’t have any sheets, towels or blankets to get rid of but I did find a bunch of container lids that I no longer have the containers for. I find this a little strange because when I donate items I make sure all their parts are together. I can only assume that some of the containers broke and I forget to get rid of the lids. If I remember correctly a few of them belonged to ceramic and enamel dishes that I did donate to the thrift store. I must have forgot they had lids because I never used them, they didn’t need them in order to be useful anyway so who cares.

Plastic container lids

Something to be grateful for today

I cleaned the oven today, not my favourite job. The fairies didn’t do it for me and yes it was hard work but I am just grateful it is out of the way and I won’t have to deal with in again for a month or two or three depending how long I can ignore it for. 😆

“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 received an email from Di last week which contained this passage…

I’ve got to the deeper layers – it’s not just about clothes… and it’s quite hard. Jewellery (gifted and pretty – just too much – have managed to donate quite a bit), photos (out of 6 albums and a box and now ready to go and be scanned but have discovered loads of digital ones on a hard drive), digital clutter (hard cos it’s not so tangible and takes ages – currently doing a ‘folder’ a day), my christening shawl (beautiful and knitted by my gran but now going to a friend’s daughter who is having a baby), unwanted ‘inherited stuff’ that ‘should’ be worth money (all off to the auction house) and you’ll laugh at this one – concert tickets from the late 80s early 90’s – hard to part with simply cos I’d kept them in the first place and keeping them became a habit, doh!

…which is what inspired this weeks set of mini missions. It got me thinking about things I still have or do out of habit, habits passed down through the generations and habits followed just because they are the norm. Some of these habits are quite futile when you start to dissect them.

Have you noticed that keeping things becomes a habit, like Di and her concert tickets. Once started, collecting habits can be hard to break, even though you might have lost the interest to continue you feel you should. Then when you do, so much history and sentiment is attached to these items yet, not so deep down, you really want to be rid of them and still you just can’t bring yourself to do it. At that point they have become clutter and you have two choices keep them or liberate the space and purge them. It is that simple, and that difficult, and the only person who can make the choice is you. The question is ~ what do you want more?

Then there are habits of the generations. In my parents, grandparents, great grandparents… eras it was the norm to pass down items like crystal, the good china, furniture and other items from one generation to the next. It is still happening to this day but what I have noticed among my readers here is that many of our generation don’t want these items that are usually “kept for good”. This creates a problem in itself ~ you feel obliged to accept these items because it is the custom (habit) to accept what is handed down. Well guess what you once again have choices, you can either conform either wilfully or against your will, you can accept and  use the items anytime not “just for good” or you can just say no, politely of course. Trust me, it is possible, I have done it.

Then there are the habits we have developed through childhood to adulthood simply from the world around us. Habits we don’t think twice about following until such I time comes that we begin for one reason or another to change the way we do things. Take today’s mini mission for example. My entire adult life I have always stocked white sugar, caster (baker’s) sugar, brown sugar and icing sugar in my pantry as did my mother before me. As one gets older too much of a good thing can end up on your waste line so for some time now I have been using low GI sugar in my tea, I also don’t bake sweets much any more, and recently I have started using maple syrup on my porridge (natural sugars, although still naughty, are better for you). It occurred to me last week that I have had the same canisters of white sugar and caster sugar in the pantry for a long time. The last time I bought it was purely out of habit. I have decided to free up a little space in the pantry by using up the white sugar and not restocking it. If a visitor wants white sugar they can use the caster sugar. Perhaps you keep stocking something out of habit that you really could live without.

One of the other things we do out of habit is own certain things simply because everyone else does. The idea of owning few or none of these things just seem weird somehow. Televisions are one of them, even having only one television in a household these days is unusual. As an Australian it is almost unheard of not to own a barbeque. And I know people think I am odd because my dining suite  seats fewer than six people.The fact that I only own one handbag disturbs many of my female friend, and Heaven forbid that it may not match the shoes or belt I am wearing. I think you understand by now what I am trying to say here. Society is broken so why bother trying to keep up with it anyway. Do the environment a favour and march to your own drum.

These are just a few of the things we do out of habit that clutter up space in our homes. Why not spend your week questioning some of your habits, perhaps there is a better way of doing things. It is never too late to change especially when it is for the better.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a consumable item that you don’t use much where an alternate product you also keep will suffice.  Good places to find these items is in your pantry, among your cleaning supplies or your bathroom cabinet.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is a consumable product I had too much of and the silly things is I don’t usually get lazy and do hemming the cheats way anyway. I either sew them by machine or use good old needle and thread. So why did I have so much of this, because it was cheap and I could. That simple and that foolish.

Hemming Tape

Something I Am Grateful For Today

It was another of those days today when I was grateful for my mother and the things she taught 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.

I suppose you are wondering what I mean by habit clutter and of course I am going to tell you. Habit clutter is any clutter that you either keep out of habit, you collected out of habit in the first place, items relating to former bad habits, or a habit of not putting things away causing mess or causing you to have trouble finding them. So lets see if you can find something to declutter from each of the following scenarios.

Monday – A collection of something you lost interest long ago but keep out of habit.

Tuesday – Do you keep stocking a certain item in your pantry because you always have even though you find it rarely gets use these day. Like I have white sugar and caster (bakers) sugar even though I use low GI or raw sugar in my tea these days therefore I don’t need to keep two kinds of white sugar.

Wednesday – Storing enough towels or sheets or blankets or whatever to accommodate a family of six even though there are only the two of you living there these days.

Thursday – Same goes for pots, pans, trays, baking dishes etc that were necessary for that family of six mentioned above that have long since flown the coop.

Friday – What about the remnants of a unhealthy habit you once had like smoking ~ you have kept a couple of ashtrays just in case a smoker comes to visit. Why not make you home a smoke free zone it is your right to after all.

Saturday – How about decluttering an existing bad habit like eating too much sugary food. Get the last of it out of there (preferably not by eating it) so that you can start a fresh without the temptation sitting right under your nose.

Sunday – Do you have a habit of not putting things away after you use them. This can lead to a mess and/or an inability to find the things when you need them. Work on changing that bad habit into a good one. It might be putting your car keys on a hook whenever you walk in the door so you know where they are the next time you are rushing out the doore. Or perhaps putting your cell phone in a certain pocket in you handbag when you are out so when it rings you can find it before the call cuts out.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Here are a collection of old badges that my husband was keeping out of habit. He kept passing over them while decluttering the keepsake box. I think he finally realised he didn’t need them to remind him of his early travels.

Collection of badges

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Two friends joining me for my usual Sunday roast dinner. I wouldn’t have bothered were I left to cook it just for myself (Liam doesn’t like roast dinner). Instead I had some wonderful company.

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

A long time friend of mine phoned me the other day with the exciting news that she had decluttered a bunch of scrapbooking supplies. She had given them away to a person from where she works. I agreed how great that was and said how I had been paring down my craft supplies again lately and have finally reduced them to the amount I was happy with. She said. I didn’t realise that you still did papercraft or I would have given my supplies to you. My response was “Thank the heavens you didn’t!”

The topic changed to some other items she had set aside to take to the thrift shop and she asked if I would be kind enough to take them for her as she works all week. I told her it would be my please as I was going there the very next day. She did me the return favour of taking me to collect my car from the mechanics. Below is the photo of my car stacked up with both her and my donations. Lo and behold two days later another friend and neighbour asked me to take a load of donations to the thrift store for her as well. I was going past that way to drop my son of at university so it was no bother.

It feels good to do favours for friends and it is also good to know that the thrift store that I volunteer at is benefiting from all these generous donations.

My car load of thrift store donations

This Weekends Mini Missions

Saturday – Do you have too many Gadgets ~ Kitchen gadgets, grooming gadgets, garage gadgets, electronics… If so now is the time to weed out a few.

Sunday – Do you have too many Digital media ~ Cd’s, DVD’s, computer games, downloads…  If so now is the time to weed out a few.

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 like Spendwisemom’s outlook in this short comment.

It always warms my heart when I hear of a young person seeing the error of there ways, in relation to materialism and consumerism, at such a early age like Amanda in this comment. I sincerely hope some of her friends follow her example.

I loved this comment from Mary about how she has gently encouraged her husband to declutter boxes of books he has been hanging on to. Well done Mary and to your husband too.

Sanna has a good approach to decluttering in this comment. I also like her attitude to donating stuff to the thrift shop, I feel the same way myself.

I had to share this comment, it’s from my baby girl. She will be 23 in a weeks time but she is still my baby girl.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Loved this post from Leo Babauta at Zen Habits

Here is a link sent to me by Cindy that she thought we might enjoy.

Here is a link to Rick Steves’ ~ Pack Smart and Travel Light article. Rick is the Guru on travelling in Europe and knows a trick or two on travelling light. I taught us all we needed to know.

Found this summary at The Simplicity Collective quite interesting and am looking forward to reading the full paper on the subject.

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you have too many publications ~ novels, magazines, cookbooks, newspapers, non-fiction books…? If so now is the time to weed out a few.

Today’s Declutter Item

These are a batch of craft magazines that didn’t make the cut during my latest flurry of getting my craft room declutter completed. There are more craft decluttered items that will come up soon. I have been decluttering in advance of being physically out of action for a month from the 21st. Don’t worry I will still be blogging, I’m not letting you off that easily. No rest for the wicked as they say.

Craft Magazines

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Lots of errands complete and dinner with a group of friends. A pretty great day all round really.

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

Like the title says ~ A picture paints a thousand words ~ so I will keep the text brief on this post and let the photos tell the story. This series of photos show the transformation of my craft space. It has been years in the making but I think I am finally at the point where I am happy to just let natural progression decluttering take over from here. That is, things will now leave as I use them up and not be replaced. So without further adieu please enjoy the photos.

These photos show, more or less, the original state of my craft area

These photos show my craft area after some amount of decluttering

These photos show some decluttering in action. I usually don't make this kind of mess while decluttering but the area needed some serious reshuffling so that is what is happening here.

And this is the end result of years of progressive decluttering. What do you think of that?

And here is a side by side comparison of the before and after of the same space. Even I am stunned at the difference and I have lived through the changes.

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you have too many accessories ~ Belts, bags, scarves, hats, hair adornments…? If so now is the time to weed out a few.

Today’s Declutter Item

Today I am decluttering a bunch of scarves. Quite often one doesn’t know how items will suit until they are worn for a while. These scarves, some made by my loving, caring mother, made me itch and/or sneeze or moulted all over my jackets so they are off to the thrift shop. I will know better next time.

A bunch of scarves

Something I Am Grateful For Today

 Hot cups of tea on cold days. Actually I love hot cups on tea any day but especially on cold ones.

“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