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.

There are certain areas in my home that I revisit to declutter over and over again as I get more ruthless and am willing to part with more things. Some of these areas require periodic decluttering because they house perishable items that end up past their used by dates and need decluttering. So this week’s mini missions are going to consist of decluttering areas in your homes that match areas I keep revisiting in mine.

Monday – Declutter something from the kitchen ~ One day I will finally get to the point where there is nothing left to declutter from my kitchen but for now I keep plugging away at it.

Tuesday – Declutter out of date items from your first aid kit ~ Replace the item if necessary but I find that things that go out of date in my kit are things that never get used so perhaps they just don’t need replacing.

Wednesday – Declutter something from the bookcase again ~ I don’t just keep books in my bookcase so I have several item choices in this area. If that isn’t the case for you I am sure there is one of two books that could be culled.

Thursday – Declutter something from your garage, basement or attic ~ These areas are often holding places for all sorts of things some useful and used some forgotten and unnecessary. Time to clear out a few of those unnecessary items.

Friday – Declutter your socks and underwear drawers ~ I don’t know about you but I tend to wear, wash and put these items back over and over and then when things start to wear out I avoid them and then they just languish in the drawer for months. So every now and again I do a little declutter. Some items I might replace but only if I don’t already have too many.

Saturday – Declutter, from your closet, this season’s clothes that haven’t been worn ~ It’s almost August so if you haven’t used clothing items for this season by now you probably never will.

Sunday – Declutter your craft/hobby area whether your choice of pastime is anything from woodwork to papercraft, sewing, knitting, gardening or even some kind of sport. ~ Even though I have done the bulk of my decluttering in my craft area it is still under constant review.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

This baking dish has rarely been used in twenty five years. It has survived the cut until now for two reasons 1. because it was a wedding gift (lame reason) and 2. because it was hiding in an obscure spot in the bottom of a kitchen cupboard (the more likely reason). It was unearthed during my attempts to update our inventory. There is nothing like having to write a full inventory of what is in your home to encourage you to declutter stuff. The less there is the less you have to list.

Ceramic Baking Dish

Eco Tip For The Day

Utilise those plastic containers in your kitchen cupboards instead of using cling wrap and plastic bags.

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

My husband and I had a garage decluttering session the weekend before last. Let me just say that the garage gets regular attention as we get more and more ruthless with our decluttering. It is also the holding area for the items decluttered from the house ~ prior to trips to the thrift store and ebay auctions and for those procrastination items awaiting decision ~ so the landscape is constantly changing out there.

There are also items that have been stored there for some time that, if we are to be honest with ourselves, are really just “I might need/want it someday” items. Some of those items didn’t make the cut this time like…

• Ikea peanut table that gets used maybe twice a year when we have a neighbourhood get-together. I can always borrow a table for this purpose from one of my neighbours or friends.
• The original boxes for packaging up small electronic items when we move. Small items that aren’t really that fragile don’t need to be packed in their original boxes.
• The folding photo screen that has been in the house for several months that I put aside for my daughter. The reality is that it will probably always be harder to get it to her than it is worth.
• Tools and other equipment that are never used. Unused items that came in sets of which only some items are helpful to us and other items that were useful to us in the past but are no longer.
• Like the picnic rug that hasn’t been used in the five years we have lived here. We really aren’t picnic people and even if we do decide to dine on the grass we can always use a couple of old towels or other more versatile rugs in the house.
• The clothes rack that I would have a use for on ironing day if it fitting in the house but it doesn’t so there isn’t much point it keeping it.

Many of these things are useful items that once served us well and I find these old faithful items harder to part with than most other things including sentimental items. I obviously place a lot of worth in usefulness. But what better way to honour these items but to set them free to be useful to someone else.

At first I held back on the peanut table ~ which I forgot to photograph ~ and the photo screen but my desire to decrease the quantity of stuff in my garage overtook my desire to keep these things. This is usually the case with all of my decluttering. If there is a space that I want cleared my desire to minimise will usurp my desire to keep things just about every time. Items need to have a legitimate and immediate use once they are in my radar or they will most likely be out of here.

With that said there are still a few items in the garage that won’t be there for long. There is a corner display stand that is just waiting for a friend to scrutinise and possibly claim, two organising container that I am awaiting possible first dibs by friends, a box of books that I am going to double check to see if my daughter still wants and two bags that belong to my husband that may or may not also finally succumb to our decluttering efforts. I am also still looking forward to the day my daughter can finally collect her stuff which also resides on my garage shelves. My current goal is to reduce the garage storage to one set of shelves plus the under-stair cupboard that is in the back righthand corner. I am not far from that actually.

All I can say is it is an ongoing process. I am working at it at a speed that I am content with. The progress is evident from the photos below. And taking into consideration that there may not be a garage as such in the next home we live in I had better hope I can get it down to a least my current goal and perhaps even a  little further. Actually I have no doubt that I can achieve this and more. Already as I look at the last photo in the group I can see more things that I am confident will not be there this time next year.

The progress made over that last two plus years.

Today’s Mini Mission

What is on your walls? Is there something hanging there simply out of habit that you don’t really want or even particularly like? Now is the time to declutter it.

Today’s Declutter Items

Below are the items removed from the garage last week. They were all donated to the thrift store. What is not shown in the pictures ~ because I forgot to photograph them ~ was the recycling bin full of cardboard that was eliminated from the under-stair cupboard.

The items removed from the garage last week.

Eco Tip For The Day

Buy local produce where possible as this cuts down on fuel required to transport products from further away.

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“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

We live in a world ruled by excessive consumerism.

Everyday we receive hundreds of messages that try to make us feel incomplete. They try to sell us the idea that we don’t have enough stuff, so that we go buy more stuff to fill the void and be happy.

These messages use the influence of scarcity to trigger your pains and fears.

The question is: how can you protect yourself from the negative influence of the scarcity mentality.

The answer lies in your ability to sacrifice.

When you make a small sacrifice by getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter, by eliminating the unnecessary and by decluttering your environment, only then simplicity will take over and you’ll experience a major difference in your life.

When you let go of the clutter, you realize that you already have enough and that your soul enjoys more and breathes freely in the new open space you’ve created.

The belief that you already have enough is the essence of minimalism.

“Minimalism is realizing that what I already have is enough, and that adding clutter to the pile won’t make it any better. And chasing a dream of more minimalism is, ironically, not what I’m after either.” – Sarah Peck

When you sacrifice the things you think you need, but never actually use, you will discover and connect with what you truly need, use and like.

There is a very interesting experiment that I’m currently doing and would like to invite you to do it with me. I call it The One Week Closet Experiment. I learned about the idea from Dave Bruno’s book The 100 Thing Challenge.

Here’s how to do this experiment:

1. Open your closet and pick up enough clothes for one week.
2. Store these one week clothes in a separate section in your closet.
3. Over the next week or two, only wear from the items in this section.
4. Share your conclusions in the comments below.

I promise you’ll be hugely surprised by what you’re going to do with the rest of your clothes!

If you’re joining this experiment, please leave a comment now to let me know you’re in.

“I think we have to be not so afraid of scarcity. We have to be willing to give away all things.” – Sharon Stone

Bio: In his blog,  Midway Simplicity, Mohamed Tohami shares mainstream simple living ideas that are not too harsh for your lifestyle.Visit his blog now to grab your free copy of “The 30-Day Simplicity Challenge” ebook.

Today’s Mini Mission

There is usually at least one make-up item among the others that we once thought suited our pearticular kind of beauty but now wonder where we got that idea. If you have such an item but haven’t had the sense to throw it away yet, today is the day.

Today’s Declutter Item

One more kitchen item that wasn’t much loved or much used.

Cane Basket

Eco Tip Of The Day

If you have take-away coffee on a daily or regular basis take your own reusable cup.

“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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Clutter and birthday parties, especially children’s birthday parties, fit together like a hand and glove, don’t they? They don’t have to. My youngest, Audra, turned 10 last week. Her birthday party cost less than $31 (less because there were food leftovers), generated virtually no trash, and was a great success.

First, let’s think about the things that create trash at a child’s birthday party.

• Disposable table cloth (cheap paper or plastic)
• Paper plates
• Paper napkins
• Paper cups
• Cheap themed decorations
• (Often all of the above are purchased at the same time from Wal-Mart, Target, or a party store on an aisle that’s designed to encourage you to buy all the matching this and that they’re selling)
• Plastic forks
• Juice Boxes
• Disposable water bottles
• Plastic cake decorations
• Ribbons, bows and package decorations
• Wrapping paper
• Junky little toys that are often given as prizes for games; they may not be trash today, but they will be soon
• More junky little toys given as party favors, often in throw-away bags
• Gifts that are quickly forgotten about or discarded

Audra had an Olympic-themed birthday party with just six guests. They girls did gymnastics routines (very small routines), the long jump, triple jump, shot put (bean bag throw), swimming races, and diving. (The last two activities took place in an accommodating neighbor’s pool.) None of these activities produced clutter. We also served a nutritious lunch of hummus, pita triangles, carrots, cherries, celery, and cucumbers followed by homemade cupcakes. We watched the some of the Olympics while we ate our lunches. Gift opening was last.

We avoided creating clutter by:

• Using all non-disposable cutlery, plates, and glasses from my kitchen
• Using cloth napkins
• Not using a table cloth (although if we had, it would have been one I already own)
• Getting ice and water from the refrigerator and not offering water bottles or juice boxes (again, if I had offered juice or milk, it would have been poured from a larger bottle, not offered individually)
• No prizes were given for success in the various games
• Decorations were kept to a minimum, which was Audra’s choice. Using some art supplies and the back of a foam core board that I brought home from work, she made an Olympic sign that she hung on the mailbox. She put up a few signs that she printed on the computer using paper that had already been used on one side that said things like “Olympians only after this point” and “Long jump starts here.”
• One friend gave her a sewing book, one friend gave her gift cards to a local ice cream shop (yum yum), and one friend gave her a gift card to a huge accessory store. Audra likes fashion and dressing up, and she will get twice the thrill first getting the gift certificate and then shopping for her item.
• At the end of the party, Audra gave each guest two Japanese erasers. These are hot items among her peers and have been for several years. (Rarely do they actually get used as erasers, although they can be.) What’s interesting is that Audra loves Japanese erasers, but she only wants animals ones. The first thing she did was sort through her own erasers and pulled out the non-animal ones. Right there, we almost had enough for party favors, and only a few more needed to be purchased. Next, she made little boxes from paper for each of the guests. They were only paper and tape and 100% recyclable.
• No gifts were wrapped in wrapping paper. The envelopes were recycled, and the bow and gift bag were put away to be reused.
• The last thing we did was remind our guests of anything that could be recycled. Audra pointed out that she recently went to a party where the hostess provided recyclable cups, but since she didn’t tell or remind anyone that they were recyclable, most of the cups got tossed in the trash.

It is 100% possible to have a fun, inexpensive, and clutter-free party. Do you belong to a circle of friends from whom even over-the-top is not enough? If you don’t want to get new friends, then throw your own decluttered party your own way. You don’t have to be a follower; you can be a leader. Just don’t act shocked when two of three of your friends express envy at the simplicity of your child’s party.

I am on vacation with the birthday girl and her older sister for two weeks, and will likely not be reading comments, let alone answering them. Until I am back in Austin, have a great two weeks.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one of those once favourite outfits that you never wear any more. Chances are it is now out of fashion.

Today’s Declutter Item

Yet more of the craft items recently sold on ebay.

Foam Craft Stamps

Eco Tip For The Day

Don’t leave you car idling for unnecessary periods of time such as when you pull over to use your cell phone. 10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting your car.

“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

Last week I dubbed one of my decluttering efforts “Chain Reaction Decluttering” and Jennifer suggested I write a post about it. The basis of chain reaction decluttering is that you declutter one thing or an small area and by so doing effect a chain reaction of more decluttering. For example…

• I decluttered some of my craft supplies which allowed the opportunity to rearrange my craft space in so doing I freed up some storage containers which in turn were able to be decluttered.
• I decluttered towels, sheets and duvet covers from my linen closet with freed up a shelf which allowed me to transfer the few still useful to me items that were under my bed which assisted in my under-bed decluttering efforts.
• I sold all our ski clothing on ebay with left very few items in a huge under-bed storage box. Those remaining items could then easily fit elsewhere in the house. This left the floor under my bed finally clear of clutter.
• I slowly decluttered china and other items from my buffet and hutch while at the same time I decluttered excess items from my kitchen. Eventually there were so few items left in the hutch that I could move most the remainder to the space I had freed up in the kitchen. This allowed me to give away the hatch which freed up the buffet section to become our TV unit. The TV unit had been temporarily positioned on an old coffee table which then was of no use to us and could also be decluttered.

In reality all decluttering has the potential to cause  chain reactions. But if you are only decluttering enough to alleviate the pressure on a space there will be no chain reaction.  If however  you are willing to continue your decluttering to its full potential chain reactions will undoubtedly occur and your home will become a tidier, easier to clean, comfortable and serene space to live in. So what do you want from your decluttering? Do you simply want to relieve the pressure only to, more than likely, end up back at square one soon enough? Or do you want to follow though causing wonderful chain reactions that not only have the potential to free up lots of space in your home but to possibly free you of the desire to acquire stuff in the first place?

Today’s Mini Mission

How many handbags do you have and how many of them do you actually use. Declutter one that that you haven’t used in a long time because you don’t love it like you once did.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here are some more of the crafting supplies that I decluttered which played a part in the chain reaction decluttering of several storage containers from my craft area. I recently sold these books on ebay.

Craft magazine special editions

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Meeting up with some of my long time readers in Sydney.

* * * * * * *

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

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

This week we are going to declutter things we thought we loved. Well let’s face it all clutter could fall into that category. In this case though I am talking about things we acquired because we thought they were great or kept for sentimental reasons but have since become emotionally detached from.

Monday – There is usually at least one make-up item among the others that we once thought suited our pearticular kind of beauty but now wonder where we got that idea. If you have such an item but haven’t had the sense to throw it away yet, today is the day.

Tuesday – How many handbags do you have and how many of them do you actually use. Declutter one that that you haven’t used in a long time because you don’t love it like you once did.

Wednesday – Declutter one of those once favourite outfits that you never wear any more. Chances are it is now way out of fashion.

Thursday – Check your keepsake box for something you kept but now wonder why. Declutter anything that you feel this way about.

Friday - What is on your walls? Is there something hanging there simply out of habit that you don’t really want or even particularly like? Now is the time to declutter it.

Saturday - Have a look in your display cabinet there is bound to be something lingering in there that you long ago lost interest in. Time to send it to the thrift shop.

Sunday- Look in your jewellery box – Are you really going to wear all of those earrings again or that ring your old boyfriend gave you? Time to cull a few things in there don’t you think?style=”text-align: center;”>Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

When I decluttered all my other sports trophies I kept these two glasses. Since then I have decided I don’t love them enough to keep them so they are heading off to the thrift store.

Old Softball Trophies

Eco Tip For The Day

The only thing you need to clean your car is a bucket of water a hose and a selection of microfibre clothes. One outdoor mitt for cleaning the car, one glass cloth for the windows and a multi purpose cloth for drying the rest of the car if desired. Here is a wikiHow article on the subject.

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

I received a post request from Jane some time ago and was hoping you, her fellow 365ers, might share with her  your personal experience with this issue.

Here is Jane’s subject for you…

Resisting temptation. How others handle trying not to drag home more stuff like knick-knacks & clothing, etc. What are their proven methods for curbing the buying urge?

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter your patio, deck or porch.

Sunday – Declutter items that have accumulated on your coffee or lamp tables in your living room.

“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

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!

Deb J is sadly only too correct in this comment and we are no different here in Australia.

I appreciated this honest and to the point comment from Klyla.

Lena gives a good example in this comment of a previous point I was making in response to Ideealistin.

I liked  Kimberley’s take on lists. Her primary reason for making them really met with my approval.

Here is another good post from The Minimalists

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

How does this post from Lindy Asimus relate to clutter. That is simple to explain. Focus you mind on each decluttering task as you carry it out. Don’t concern yourself with what has gone before ~ the mistakes that brought you to this point ~  or how much work there is still to be done. Instead be mindful and grateful of the item/s you are relieving yourself of in this moment. 

Decluttering can sometimes be about repurposing things you love and would like to keep by using them differently than intended. For instants if you need a planter pot for a cute natural decorative display why not utilise something already in the home rather than go out and buy something new to perform the task. Check out this post from the clever people at Apartment Therapy.

Here is another link from Apartment Therapy that my book loving 365ers are going to love.

Here is a nice story that I found over at bemorewithless.

Today’s Mini Mission

Remove excess items from kitchen benches.

Today’s Declutter Item

Nothing much to tell about these items. They just aren’t used enough to waste space on so out they go.

Microwave Dishes

Something I Am Grateful For Today

The good life I have.

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

Today’s Declutter Item ~ Make-up Mirror Cord

The inspiration for this week’s mini missions is today’s declutter item (see photo at left). This electrical cord from my magnifying make-up mirror has been a source of annoyance for some time. It gets in the way when I dust the space the mirror occupies and when I move the  mirror to use it elsewhere. It is a fine example of the kind of clutter that is right under your nose yet you do nothing about it and perhaps don’t even recognise it as such.

The mirror was bought when I lived in America so is made for use with 120v power supply not 240v like we have here in Australia. The thing is I never use the light feature of this mirror anyway, not now nor in the US because I don’t like the brightness of it for applying make-up.

So the question is why did it not occur to me years ago to just cut the cord off it and save myself a lot of bother. This sudden spark of brilliance only came to me a week or two ago at which time I immediately fetched  the wire cutters from the garage and took care of the situation.

One would think I’d have had this brain wave some time back when I read this post from Cindy about her reluctance to separating items that belong together as a set. I remember thinking at the time how I had no qualms about separating such things, like the extra attachments I was trying to find a home for that came with my new immersion blender. And the top section of a buffet and hutch set that I gave away on freecycle (I kept the bottom section to use as our TV unit. But separating a segment of one single object just didn’t enter my mind.

The point of this post is that not all clutter is obvious even though it is right under your nose. Also adapting something to better suit your needs regardless of how unorthodox that may be is not only acceptable but sensible. It never occurred to me that this small yet annoying part of an otherwise useful functioning object was clutter I could easily remove to improve its suitability to me.

So what do you have hiding right under your nose that could do with decluttering or, like my item, separating from it’s whole and decluttering the unnecessary piece.

Today’s Mini Mission

Remove any clutter on and in your TV cabinet or entertainment unit.

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Getting a visit from one of my Newcastle readers yesterday. Thanks Wendy F it was a pleasure to meet you.

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

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

I love lists. I used to love them more. And you know what? I used to be a lot more organized and a lot more efficient. Coincidence? I think not.

I cannot stress enough that you need a list – probably several of them. I don’t care if you keep them on paper or electronically. I do both, but for me nothing beats the satisfaction of crossing off a to-do item with paper and pen. (Great repurposing of half-used spiral notebooks that come home at the end of the school year every August.)

Especially is you tend to dilly-dally and procrastinate, you need a list. If you tend to wander the world of blogs, get hung up on Facebook, read your latest book all the way through in one sitting, or watch all 20 hours of the televised Olympic events – each day, you need a list.

Why? Because a list keeps you going. It keeps you focused. It reminds you of what you’ve done and what needs to be done. A list frees up part of your brain space – once it’s on the list, you don’t have to remember to do it, the list remembers for you. And if you do something productive that’s not on your list, be sure to add it so you can have the thrill of crossing it off.

Here are some lists you may need.

• A daily to-do
• Dreams and goals
• Areas that need to be decluttered
• Items that you have decided to sell (especially important as a reminder if you want to sell something seasonal or holiday-themed at the ideal time)
• Tasks that need to be done around the house – quick projects and the big ones
• Items that need to be returned to a certain person or a specific location (keeps your front or back door area from becoming a storage facility)
• Things that need research, including whether or not something is worth selling
• Books or movies you want to read / watch.
• Ares that need to be decluttered

I mentioned the last one already? Well let me mention it again. Even a person as decluttered as I am has areas that need a first, second, or even third swing. My areas include my desk, the art closet (which is becoming my personal nemesis), the shelves in Clara’s closet, the shelves in Audra’s closet, linen closet, storage area under the stairs (Dan’s domain, but it still needs decluttering so it’s on my list), and numerous areas in the garage.

Even though I declutter almost daily and have for more than two years, there are areas that need (or need again) concentrated attention. Some, like the linen closet, I may discover need more of a tidying than an actual decluttering. Other areas, like the cupboard under the stairs, need some serious attention. (Will we find Harry Potter in there?)

And I will get to them, all of them, one item at a time, because my list will make sure of it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter unnecessary items on bedside cabinets, chests of drawers or dressing tables.

Today’s Declutter Item

Choosing which craft items to declutter was one thing actually getting them out of the house is a whole other ball game. I am working on it though. The best thing about these is I now have a little extra money in my paypal account.

Sizzix cutting dies sold on ebay

Something to be grateful for today

Getting more things done yesterday than I expected. I was exhausted but pleased.

“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