A hideous photo of me ready for my last trip with my uncluttered backpack and day bag.

As promised a while back here is the post about how I pack for travelling ~ the uncluttered way of course. I have a couple of golden rules that are the basis to how I pack.

Rule 1 ~ If you don’t need it don’t bring it.

Rule 2 ~ If you don’t need it don’t bring it.

Rule 3 ~ If you can’t stick to rule 1 & 2 then limit the unnecessary items to only those you “can’t live without”.

With those rules in mind I have made a list below of what I would typically pack keeping in mind that we usually prefer to travel in Spring or Fall. This list is also typical whether we are away for one week or two months or more.

Clothing

In addition to the clothes I am wearing when I leave which for me is ~ Long lightweight comfortable pants, a T-shirt (long or short sleeve depending on the weather at destination), my lightweight travel jacket, bra, panties, a pair of socks and comfortable walking shoes ~ this is typical of what I bring…

• Enough clothes for five days ~ I mix this up a bit with one dress, a skirt, 2 pair of pants, a cardigan or  light sweater (depending on weather expected) 5 tops of various types.
• Enough underwear for a week ~ For me that is 1 extra bra, 8 pair of panties,
• Footwear ~ 2 pair of socks (only 1 if warmer climate) and maybe a pair of sandals.

We scout each location or make sure we know ahead of time where we will have access to laundering so we can wash every five days.

Pack clothes that mix and match and can be layered to suit the weather. This way your are never left out in the cold and no matter how few clean clothes you have left they will match and you will stay looking sharp.

Toiletries

• Deodorant ~ Stick or roll-on (my hubby and I will share a unisex fragrance)
• Toothbrush, floss and a small tube of toothpaste (once again sharing the floss and toothpaste)
• Minimal make-up ~ Powder foundation, a small tube moisturiser, brow pencil, mascara, lipstick.
• Shampoo (maybe) depending on where we are going. Shampoo is usually easily enough acquired on arrival and left behind on departure and sometimes it is supplied so we often don’t bother to bring our own.
• Sunscreen *~ travel size.
• Nail clippers
• Razor

Medications

• Any prescribed medications ~ enough for the entire trip (for us this doesn’t amount to much). I sometimes carry a script for antibiotics due to a recurring issue but there is no guarantee that foreign countries will fill these.
• Pain killers *~ Just what I would normally carry in my handbag. More is easily acquired if necessary in the places we usually travel to.

Other

• Cell phone and charger *~ we acquire a sim card at destination.
• Coin purse *~ for cash and debit/credit card* and drivers licence.*
• Passport
• A written list of emergency phone numbers ~ just in case cell phone dies or is stollen.
• 1 microfibre cloth* in a small Snaplock bag for easy clean up.
• 2 medium vacuum seal bags for dirty laundry.
• A small puzzle book and a pen~ for entertainment on flights and during down time.
• Day bag ~ We have a lightweight Rick Steves Shoulder Bag which we carry while sightseeing most days that contains the items with an * mentioned above.
• A tiny sewing kit ~ You would be surprised that we have made use of this on nearly every trip.

My husband carries a similar amount for clothing plus the following

• Camera gear ~ Camera, lenses, battery charger and spare memory card and batteries.
• iPad and charger
• iPod with all our travel details

That is pretty much the total of what we take on vacation. On our last trip to the USA for three weeks my Rick Steves Backpack weighed a mere 5.5kg or 12lb. My day bag with everything in for the flight weighed 680g or 1.5 lb. As you can appreciate this takes very little effort to lug around. We have no problems fitting the backpacks into the overhead lockers in the plane. Therefore we never check our baggage, so no waiting at  baggage carousels at the other end, we just walk off the plane and head straight to our accommodation.

So there you have it. No wheeling heavy suitcases along ancient cobble stoned streets. No struggling up the aisles of crowded trains. No problems if our accommodation is up three flights of stairs. No chance that we have left something in our checked baggage that we needed on the plane. No lost baggage.

Today’s Mini Mission

Take a load of items you have decluttered to the thrift store. I do this once a week when I go to my thrift store to do my volunteer shift. I haven’t been able to drive there for the last four weeks so there was a bit of a backlog.

Today’s Declutter Item

This is one of the things I took to the thrift store last week for decluttering. Over time it had been emptied of its contents and is no longer needed. My plan is to have nothing under beds eventually so I have sent this on its way tout suite so the temptation to use it again is futile.

Iris Split Lid Under Bed Storage Box

Something I Am Grateful For Today

A wonderful lunch celebrating a friends birthday. She was so grateful just to have friends who would want to  celebrate with her. It brought home to me once again what the important things are in life.

“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 weeks mini missions reflect the decluttering missions I was working on last week. I was a bit all over the house so they will be varied if nothing else. As usual if you don’t have anything similar to declutter then make up your own substitute mini missions.

Monday – Advertise something for sale ~ I use ebay mostly but I also offer things to friends and post  For Sale  ads to a Facebook group I am involved in.

Tuesday – Take a load of items you have decluttered to the thrift store. I do this once a week when I go to my thrift store to do my volunteer shift. I haven’t been able to drive there for the last four weeks so there was a bit of a backlog.

Wednesday – Declutter something you have been undecided about for a while. I sometimes put items aside that I am procrastinating about but after a while I get tired of seeing them in the “maybe” pile and just bite the bullet and get rid of them. These are often the kinds of things I sell on ebay. Selling them makes me feel better about my decision.

Thursday – Declutter something you have an alternate for. I am finally getting rid of that artificial ivy I have mentioned here before. I own a glass fish bowl that I now fill with pruned greenery from the garden. With Spring on the way there will be no shortage of options to display in it. Thank you to whichever 365er gave me this idea.

Friday – Declutter storage containers that you no longer need due to your decluttering efforts. These are another thing that I move to the garage when emptied. Once I am sure that I don’t have a use for them I make the final decision to declutter them permanently. The more useful or versatile the container the longer it takes for me to come to this decision.

Saturday – Declutter excess gift wrapping supplies. Last week I took the bulk of what I had left ~ gift bags, ribbons and bows ~  to the thrift store. As I have adhered almost religiously to my “no material gifts” pledge I decided it was time to purge these “just in case” items. The bag of bows was sold before I finished my shift.

Sunday – Declutter excess serving bowls. I probably have too many nice serving bowls but one thing is for sure, I don’t need to keep the cheap plastic one. It tends to be the everyday use option while the good ones are saved for when I have guests but you know my opinion on that tactic so out it goes.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Here are some items I listed and sold on ebay last week. I had got very little use out of them but there is aways the temptation to keep them “just in case”. Instead I removed the temptation and turned “just in case” into cash in my paypal account and that is something I will use for sure.

Sizzix Cutting Dies

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My success on ebay over the weekend. 9 out of 10 auctions items sold and the one that didn’t I am going to give as a bonus to one buying who bought several items. Share the joy I say!

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

Come join me

I’m going to be spending a couple of days in Sydney (Australia) next month and since my time is mine to do with what I like I thought I would see if any of my Sydney readers would like to join me for a cuppa and a chat.

Date: 14th August 2012

Time: 10am to whenever

Where: The inner city somewhere.

I was hoping someone might have some suggestions for a place where they serve good coffee, maybe cake, perhaps even lunch and wine depending on how chatty and hungry we get. Just leave a comment below if you are interested in joining me and sometime before the event we will decide on the location.

The Weekend Mini Missions

Saturday – Household cleaners ~ I keep kitchen cleaners and the all-purpose spray that gets used most days in the kitchen but all other cleaners are kept in the laundry cupboard. It may seem convenient to have toilet cleaners next to every toilet and a bottle of all purpose cleaner in every bathroom cabinet but what this really is is clutter. Don’t just round these up reduce them to one of each. After all the extra exercise to collect them from a central position when you need them will do you a world of good. I do keep a microfibre cloth in the upstairs bathroom because in reality microfibre will wipe up any mess and eliminate 99% of germs so there really is no need for chemical cleaners anyway.

Sunday – Electrical cables ~ Create and area where these items are returned to when not in use. Cables such as phone chargers, USB cables, small extension cords and reusable battery chargers end up scattered all over the house when the various family member use then leave them where they had them when done. Designate a drawer or storage container to keep these things in and make a rule that they be returned there when not in use.

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 are some wise words from Spendwisemom

Cat’s Meow’s thoughts on skimming the surface of clutter.

Kimberley believes in quality over quantity.

Gotta love this comment from Jane she said it the way I think it. Sadly I feel inclined to be slightly more diplomatic at times ~although I can get a little cheeky ~ but God bless you Jane you just said it how it is.

Cindy particularly like this comment for Ideealistin in response to her post “Don’t let “Value” Fool You”

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Here is some more simple yet helpful advice from Mohamed at Midway Simplicity.

Just for the fun of it I am adding a link this week to the auctions I have going on ebay. You can amuse yourself by checking there progress occasionally and keep your fingers crossed that I sell everything at higher than the starting price. Please, if you live in Australia, don’t be tempted to buy any of it. 😉

It is good to see I am not the only blogger repeating the same message over and over again. This message is worth being reminded of over and over again.

Here is a great article with tips on how to get rid of your stuff including getting it valued before selling.

Today’s Mini Mission

Round up all your hair accessories ~ These tend to end up scattered all over the place making them impossible to find when you need them. They end up in school bags, handbags, bathroom drawers, bedside cabinets, in the little nooks and crannies in the car, sports/gym bags, coat pockets and even under the sofa cushions. I own four hair clips but at the moment I only know where two of them are and they aren’t my favourite two.

Today’s Declutter Item

This little storage container was no longer needed. It is roughly  9″ x 5″ x 2″ (230 x 130 x 50mm) and was full to capacity with pens. How many pens does one household need. The bulk of the pens were decluttered long ago and this container moved down into the pantry. It wasn’t getting used so off to the thrift store it went.

One more storage item I don’t need

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My little boy turned 21 today (now yesterday). That is almost two more years than we thought we would have him  to love and cherish after his terrible accident in 2010. Words can not describe how grateful I am to be able to celebrate this day.

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

Cindy’s article yesterday brought up the problem of clinging on to things in the hope of recouping what they are worth. As the value of things is very subjective it isn’t always easy to put a price on such items causing a dilemma that can paralyse ones ability to get things out of the house. Regardless of the vastness of the internet it isn’t always possible to find the answers to all such questions.

At the moment I am in possession of a vintage fountain pen for which someone has made me an offer of $50 sight unseen. This quick offer ~ without even any photos to get some idea of it’s condition ~ sent off warning bells in my head. Could this thing be worth significantly more than that and would I be doing myself a disservice by accepted this hasty offer. The item is very small and not taking up much space so what does it matter that it is still in my possession while I procrastinate over it. The trouble is, it is taking up more space in my head than it is in my house. Not that I think about it often but when I do I don’t like that I am so hesitant over such a silly thing. After all it didn’t cost me anything in the first place so I would be making an easy $50.

My second experience of worth or value is my desire, at times to recoup some of the cost of items I either…

• a) … didn’t use enough to get my money’s worth out of. AKA guilt clutter.
• b) … was expensive and even though I used it a lot would still fetch a reasonable some of money.
• or c) … am not sure whether I want to keep them or not and making some money on them would tip the scales on the decision.

I have several avenues for doing this but ebay is my most common method. The way ebay is structured here in Australia crrently is that there is a higher than previous selling commission but no insertion fees. This means I can list items and if they don’t sell I have not lost any money. I would rather pay a higher commission on a successful auction than pay an insertion fee on something I have made no money on. The beauty of this is that I can list the same item over and over again at no charge until it does sell. I use the three strike rule in these cases, that is if the item doesn’t sell after three attempts I admit defeat and donate it. I am nothing if not determined when it comes to recouping money. And I have to say I am OK with this

However the worst case I can think of when it comes to the value of clutter is related to a subject that is often discussed her at 365 Less Things. The subject is the clutter left behind after a loved one passes away. Especially a loved one who has more than their fair share of clutter. The sort of clutter handed down to them in the same situation plus stuff they have acquired over the years through gifts, from garage sales, flea markets and the like.  What worries me is the possibility that there may be some treasures among the endless clutter that are worth a lot of money. Treasures that could end up being sold for a couple of dollars at an estate sale or donated to charity in the haste of clearing the clutter in your time of mourning.

This scenario is bought into stark reality when one watches TV shows like Antiques Roadshow when, occasionally, people have an item valued at thousands if not ten’s of thousands of dollars that they had purchased for next to nothing from some poor unknowledgable fool’s garage sale. One would think these items are clearly worth a lot of money and you would recognise them for what they were worth at first glance but some of the oddest and sometimes ugliest things can be worth a lot of money ~ baldy old Steiff bears, ugly old damaged celluloid dolls, paintings you wouldn’t want to hang on your wall, battered old circus posters, battered old furniture etc etc. One would have to possess a vast knowledge of antiques to know what was valuable and what wasn’t.

Can you imagine seeing something you remember parting with in this situation suddenly pop up on your television screens months later valued at several thousand dollars. Personally I would rather let someone else in the family have and deal with these possession while I live in blissful ignorance of what came and went. And this is why it is important to get your clutter under control now so the loved ones you leave behind aren’t burdened with this situation. Make sure they know that of the items you chose to keep which ones are worth real monetary value so they aren’t left guessing in their time of grief.

I guess the best way to simplify all of these scenarios is to either not care or take what you can get at the time and be satisfied with that. Let what is left go to charity and don’t look back. Your piece of mind in the present is worth more than any riches, be they real or imagined.

Today’s Mini Mission

Round up all your small kitchen appliances ~ Choose one cupboard or shelf in in the kitchen for all of these appliances. I have done this in my kitchen with the exception of the toaster and kettle which are located on the bench top because they are used very regularly.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is an item that belonged to my son that didn’t get much use. I listed it on Gum Tree once and ebay twice before it finally sold for $30. I mailed it out on Monday. I am glad that I recouped some cash for it but it sure did linger around the house for a long time from when the decision was made to declutter it until it finally sold.

Flying V Ukulele

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Two other items selling on ebay and several others with lots of watchers.

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

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

My mother, as I have mentioned before, is VERY decluttered. She was a minimalist before I had any idea that there even was such a decorating style. (I thought is was called “bare.”)

Very recently, my parents moved back into their house after having it extensively remodeled. Before moving to Austin, Texas, my parents had lived in a very stylish, although not very large, custom-built house. The plain ranch that they purchased in order to live next door t me and my family never fit my mother’s idea of stylish.

Every remodel produces its share of furniture and accessories that no long work, no longer have a home, are no longer wanted, and my Mom’s remodel is certainly no exception. As a result, I have taught her how to use Craigslist, and she has had quite good luck selling her items. Her first round of selling were items that she sold during the remodel, knowing that they would not work with her new scheme. (My mother, interestingly, found a decorator who shops widely at thrift and consignment stores. Almost all my mother’s accessories were already second hand when they came to her.) Those items that hadn’t sold in a couple of months were painlessly donated to the garage sale at my daughters’ school.

Now that she and my father have been back in the house for a couple of months, more things are not making the cut – items that she’s thought might work, but didn’t. One of those was a sofa and loveseat set. These are the couches my parents have owned almost as long as I can remember. I know from photos that we had one sofa when I was quite little. I remember another when we lived in Houston for almost 10 years. Then my parents bought this set. It has been reupholstered twice, and it is a classic, well built piece of furniture. My own sofas were really worn out and tatty, so Mother’s sofas came over to my house for a trial. We didn’t really like the way they worked in our house, so I told my mother I would sell them on Craigslist for her. (Better than dragging them back to her house.) She kind of poo-pooed me and said that she didn’t think they were worth more than about $50, which I thought was completely absurd. We moved the loveseat into my husband’s office (he decluttered a whole desk to have room), and I listed the sofa for $200.

Two weeks passed, and the sofa hadn’t sold. I was having a party and having an extra sofa to maneuver around was starting to set my teeth on edge, so I contacted my favorite furniture consignment store, sent them a photo, and arranged to take the sofa to them to sell. They told me that they would like it from $100 to $300; my mother would receive 60% of the sale. Mom found out that I was taking it away, and insisted that I return the sofa to her. She would list it on Craigslist. When I asked her why in the world she would do that, she said that I had said that the value was $200 and “that figure was stuck in her mind.”

For my mother, this is just a quirky moment. For some people, this perhaps false idea about value could be a true stumbling block toward decluttering.

Things like Lego kits, Madame Alexander Dolls, books, James Avery jewelry, and automobiles have a fairly fixed, easily discernible resale value. There are plenty of identical items on the market and enough buyers to have established a fairly uniform price. Things like accessories, furniture, clothing (unless, perhaps it is a popular name brand), jewelry, and antiques have a more variable value – and often much, much less than their original purchase price. Don’t let the idea – possibly a false idea – of something’s value prevent you from decluttering it in a timely manner. 

Today’s Mini Mission

Round up all your stationery items ~ Keep a pen in each room of the house if that makes your life easy but the bulk of your stationary items will be more easily found if they are all stored together. If you don’t have a desk or set of drawers for this task why not use that spare shelf you have cleared in the linen closet during your last towel and sheet declutter.

Today’s Declutter Item

Some more bits and pieces decluttered out of my craft area. Aside from some items I have recently or am about to list on ebay I think  I may have finally come to the end of the craft items decluttered during the big craft area minimisation. That’s not to say that these will be the last craft items ever decluttered, there are still plenty of supplies left, but they are certainly greatly reduced from the quantity I used to own.

Craft Odds and Ends

Something to be grateful for today

The variation of the waves that break on the beach. I love it that every time I go down to the ocean where I live that it is different in some way from the time before. Different tides, different weather, different waves for the surfers to enjoy. Today was a surfers delight even though it was overcast the waves very ridable and so constant that the surfers had no sooner paddled out from the last ride and then were riding their way back in again.

“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 have often included statements or advice in my post such as…

• Decluttering will get you nowhere if you reclutter while you declutter.
• Declutter excess __(insert item here)___.
• Not desiring stuff is a wonderful freedom.
• Reducing supply and demand of products is good for the environment.
• Keeping items “just in case” is futile if the items were never really necessary in the first place.

…and the list goes on. I make these statements and give this advice because most people declutter by skimming the surface of their belongings only removing the obvious things that are no longer wanted. This creates enough space for them to continue on with the same habit of replacing that clutter with the next thing that takes their fancy in the stores or through clever advertising and the cycle begins again. Clutter, declutter, reclutter, declutter, reclutter… I know this because I have been there and done that.

I have always prided myself on the fact that my home has always been a clean and tidy environment. On a regular basis as the children grew and my husband and I ungraded items in our home or fell out of like with clothing, decor, hobbies etc I would do a declutter. I would either have a garage sale, a flea market stall or donate items to charity and feel good about myself because I redeemed a few dollars, helped a charity and lightened the load of belongings in our home. But this was a temporary status.

You will notice I mentioned the words “grew, upgraded and fell out of like” all of which suggest that the clutter removed was being or had already been replaced with something else. So essentially all we were doing was making room for the next round of clutter and decluttering was just a cycle not a realisation that we had too much, were always wanting more stuff and were constantly wasting our money on stuff. Polluting the environment along the way. Granted I bought a lot of stuff secondhand at flea markets and garage sales but stuff is stuff and acquiring it is like a drug no matter how little one pays for it.

This time around for us decluttering is a lifestyle choice. Wrapped up in that is a newfound higher respect for the environment, a newfound freedom from the desire to always want new stuff, a freeing up of finances that can be better used on more worthwhile pursuits and permanent way to reduce and simplify household chores.

I feel like a rebel at times and I love it. Take that companies who manufacture endless products of no real worth or necessity. Take that advertising agencies who get paid to convince people to buy crap they don’t need. Take that credit card interest rates. Take that high cost and high rental on houses bigger than I need. Take that plastic organising tubs I will never need again. Take that storage unit companies whose services I have never and will never need to store my excess stuff…

The message here is if you like decluttering over and over again, wasting your hard earned money, maintaining stuff you rarely use, need a larger home for your stuff not your family to fit in, enjoy paying credit card interest on stuff you never needed in the first place or don’t care about the state of the environment, then by all means stay on the hamster wheel that is consumerism and ignore everything I write about here at 365 Less Things.

However if you don’t like the sound of that then effective long term decluttering requires the following list of changes

1. Get rid of your excesses. Not just the things you don’t use but things you have a greater variety of than you really need.
2. Know the difference between need and want. This is important when confronting those “I might need it one day” items. Ask yourself did I ever really “need” them in the first place.
3. Cut back on shopping for things you don’t need, won’t get good use out of and especially thing that are just novelty items.
4. Upgrading only needs to happen when the item you are replacing no longer performs to your needs (not your wants) or when the item breaks down. When upgrading does happen don’t keep the old item “just in case”.
5. Be thoughtful of the environment with every purchase you make.

So are you happy to stay on the hamster wheel or are you weaning yourself off it or are you like me and have left it behind some time ago?

Today’s Mini Mission

Round up your shoes ~ Do you have shoes in the car, shoes in your bedroom, shoes at both the front and back doors? Why not find a simple solution to keep the bulk of them in one area.

Today’s Declutter Item

Over the two and a half years of my decluttering mission my son has managed to do a little “natural progression decluttering” of some old motorbike gear that had been unused for many years. First he slid out in the rain one day and tore up one of my husbands old bike jackets from the 80’s. Luckily he didn’t injure himself or do much damage to the bike. He is now wearing one of his dad’s other 1980’s bike jackets. Then he had an accident at Christmas that wasn’t his fault in which he broke his arm and damaged his gloves. He then started wearing the old pair of gloves below but due to age and frequent use one of the fingers has worn through. So now he is wearing yet another old pair of gloves.

Motorbike Gloves

Something I Am Grateful For Today

An ebay parcel I posted cost $5 less than I expected.

“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.

Something one of my readers mentioned last week got me thinking that our declutter missions doesn’t always have to be about decluttering. Sometimes clutter forms due to poor organising causing you to purchase a duplicate item simply because you can’t find it when it is needed. So this week we are going to do a little organising. To be more specific it is about rounding up like items in your home so they are all corralled in the same place making them easier to find when you need them. Sometimes two places is appropriate but multiple places is a recipe for clutter if ever there was one. So I will name an item category and you can check that these items are all accounted for and only stored in one or at the most two places in your home. Of course you might as well declutter the excess while you are at it. And naturally this exercise is only useful if you and your family commit to putting these items back in there rightful place every time they are used.

Monday – Small tools ~ Most of our tools are kept in the garage with the exception of one small tool kit with holds a few often used items that saves me having to go out to the garage to retrieve them when needed.

Tuesday – Shoes ~ Do you have shoes in the car, shoes in your bedroom, shoes at both the front and back doors? Why not find a simple solution to keep the bulk of them in one area.

Wednesday – Stationery ~ Keep a pen in each room of the house if that makes your life easy but the bulk of your stationary items will be more easily found if they are all stored together. If you don’t have a desk or set of drawers for this task why not use that spare shelf you have cleared in the linen closet during your last towel and sheet declutter.

Thursday – Small kitchen appliances ~ Choose one cupboard or shelf in in the kitchen for all of these appliances. I have done this in my kitchen with the exception of the toaster and kettle which are located on the bench top because they are used very regularly.

Friday – Hair accessories ~ These tend to end up scattered all over the place making them impossible to find when you need them. They end up in school bags, handbags, bathroom drawers, bedside cabinets, in the little nooks and crannies in the car, sports/gym bags, coat pockets and even under the sofa cushions. I own four hair clips but at the moment I only know where two of them are and they aren’t my favourite two.

Saturday – Household cleaners ~ I keep kitchen cleaners and the all-purpose spray that gets used most days in the kitchen but all other cleaners are kept in the laundry cupboard. It may seem convenient to have toilet cleaners next to every toilet and a bottle of all purpose cleaner in every bathroom cabinet but what this really is is clutter. Don’t just round these up reduce them to one of each. After all the extra exercise to collect them from a central position when you need them will do you a world of good. I do keep a microfibre cloth in the upstairs bathroom because in reality microfibre will wipe up any mess and eliminate 99% of germs so there really is no need for chemical cleaners anyway.

Sunday – Electrical cables ~ Create and area where these items are returned to when not in use. Cables such as phone chargers, USB cables, small extension cords and reusable battery chargers end up scattered all over the house when the various family member use then leave them where they had them when done. Designate a drawer or storage container to keep these things in and make a rule that they be returned there when not in use.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is another item that I usually have rounded up in one area of the house along with spare keys and a few key rings. These two below however miraculously appeared on my donation box one day. The phantom garage decluttering must have been silently at work as I can’t imagine where else they might have come from.

Padlocks

Something I Am Grateful For Today

 Sleeping in followed by a lazy day, a hot chocolate at Estabar and the smell of chicken roasting for dinner.

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

Meet my bookcase. It looks messy and cluttered – hardly the poster piece for 365 Less Things but this is the “before” photo.. There isn’t an “after” photo. Not yet anyway. It is pretty obvious that I have quite a bit of work ahead of me as my goal is to have it eliminated by December.

The Bookcase

The next photo is a Balinese dresser that lives in our main lounge and it houses our DVD collection – all 150+ of them. My hubby would like the dresser out of the lounge so his beloved big screen can be centred along the wall. To do so means reducing and rehousing our DVDs before selling this dresser. Ideally this also needs to be done by December, in time for holiday guests.

But here’s the thing, both these projects are a little more tricky than they appear on the surface. The bookcase is the last of three identical ones we had in the house and has become a holding pen for not just the last of the books, but also cd’s, video cassettes, camcorder cassettes, photos all needing to be digitised, data disks to be sorted thru, reference books etc. So this isn’t a case of just donating books and selling a bookcase because sitting on these shelves are projects within projects that each must be done carefully. At this stage I don’t have a master plan and I’ve never not owned a bookcase so I’m not sure entirely how this is going to turn out.

The Dresser

The DVD’s are a whole different can of worms. Housed neatly within the dresser, my family have assumed that the DVD’s have escaped my notice. They have taken everything else in their stride – wardrobes rifled through, underneath their beds examined, sorted through boxes together, helped me cart loads off to goodwill, etc – but if they notice me looking through the DVD cupboard they go on high alert placing me under surveillance until I leave the room again. I suspect they would cheerfully commit mutiny if The Lion King ever disappears.

So why am I writing about this? Well, these are the last two major decluttering projects on my list that have yet to be started. Now I’m not saying my home is clutter free, definately not ~ there are other areas which are still works in progress but have reached an acceptable level and I’m happy to keep chipping away at them in the background. The difference is that this bookcase and this dvd cabinet are the last completely untouched territories in my home.

The bookcase stands out like a sore thumb in the small lounge off my kitchen as we have decluttered the rest of this room. We have cleared all the excess off my computer desk, streamlined the drawers contents, eliminated a filing cabinet plus the student desk the kids used as a dumping spot. The DVD cupboard isn’t such an eyesore but I’m sure we don’t need 150 DVDs and one less piece of furniture to dust sounds good to me.

So I have volunteered to 365 Less Things to undertake this mission right here for all of you to watch my progress each month, hold me to my deadline and to share the decisions and the dilemnas along the way.

So if you were me, where would you begin?

The Dress / Media Centre Space

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Kitchen gadgets ~ Moni had an amusing story about possibly decluttering a couple of these last week. My advice is that if you have gadgets that aren’t being use just get rid of them. Nine times out of ten the same task can be performed with a more versatile item in your house should you find the need.

Sunday – Gift wrapping supplies ~ one reader mentioned that they are decluttering the last of their gift wrapping supplies while another was saying how ~ due to 365 example ~ she was now only giving non-cluttering gifts to her friends and family. I had saved a token supply of gift bags when I decluttered the bulk of them two years ago. I have discovered the ones I saved don’t seem to have diminished since then so it is time to declutter them also.

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 Ingrid’s success story . Her advice to stop shopping is the best I can give anyone if they want to get and stay uncluttered. Well done Ingrid.

Valerie has just begun her declutter journey please give her some encouragement. The past is in the past Valerie, it is onwards and upwards from here.

Here is a wonderful comment from Stephanie who is in the middle of decluttering things passed down to her from lost loved ones. She has such a wonderful attitude to letting go which has turned full circle from her days of hanging on. Decluttering is all about the attitude and only you can determine that.

Here is a comment from Gen who is reading through the 365 archives. She tells us how she is letting go of sentimental clutter in the form or cards, letters and the like.  She has found a good way to preserve the items that mean the most while letting go of the ones only kept out of habit.

I enjoyed the two stories Maggie shared with us in this comment. One of the good old days when the simple things in life were the norm. And the other of her recent trip to the beach where 365 advice was in her head when it came to souvenirs.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Here is a link that is more about financial smarts than about  clutter but if we were all this smart with money clutter would be out of the question. Oh to be so financially switched on at such a young age.

This post has a write up about the NY Times article I linked to last week but it is the video ~  Clear the clutter to sell your house ~ that I wanted to share with you. The videos I am referring to is the first one to appear.  Some of the other videos are interesting. There are also some other links includes in the article that are worth a look.

I love the lead-in to this article about the miscellaneous kitchen drawer. The points made are great too of course, especially number 3) Be decisive – most clutter is unmade decisions.

Here is a decluttering post written by Jane Harries, one of our fellow 365ers. Take a read and leave her some encouragement. Also take a look at this little cartoon she found on Facebook. I thought it was amusing yet makes a good point.

I stumbled upon this article while looking for something else but how ingenious, resourceful yet simple is this solution to a problem.

Declutter your need for instant knowledge is the advice in this blog post from mnmlist.com

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some books ~ I know I mention this one often but it was bought to my attention again this week when I received an email from one of my readers that has been with me form way back. She has managed to declutter one third of her sizeable book collection over the last twelve months. Rachel has been slowing decluttering in preparation for a downsize move. She has finally made the move and is now decluttering more as she settles in to her new home.

Today’s Declutter Item

I didn’t have any books to declutter as per today’s mini mission but I do have something in the paper product category. These photo mats were excess to my needs so I packaged them up and sent them off to the thrift store.

Photos Mats

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Just another uneventful yet pleasant day with the anticipation of a lovely dinner with friends to finish it off with.

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