Last week I found myself worrying too much about other people’s clutter. I am not referring to my readers here of course but to people in my own personal scope of friends and acquaintances. In the end I decided that ~ as the old saying goes ~ “God helps those who help themselves.”  Which for me meant all I can do is offer my help and advice but in the end if people aren’t willing or able to make changes then I shouldn’t concern myself over it.

Below are a list of the thoughts that came to mind through my frustrations last week that I feel compelled to get off my chest.

1. It is not necessary to own the “correct” household item for every occasion. No need for every shaped piece of cutlery, crockery, glassware, vase etc etc etc to suit every possible situation.
2. When buying things, do so to please yourself not other people. A sure fire way of having a house full of stuff never used, rarely if ever worn, overlook etc  is to buy stuff to impress or please others.
3. Stuff is no substitute for companionship or self worth. These things are acquired through socialising and  being involved in meaningful pursuits. Volunteering, being joyfully employed or local community involvement are just a few thing that can provide both.
4. Don’t keep falling into the trap of buying stuff just because it’s a bargain. Any item is a waste of money and is potential clutter if it isn’t needed. If the most alluring characteristic of a possible purchase is its low price then just walk away.
5. Sometimes long after one has quit physically involving themselves in certain pastimes the eye is still attracted to the material objects involved. It is very easy to fall under the spell and purchase these objects simply because you can see their potential. Be wary of such temptations.
6. Following on from #5 ~ Don’t buy items that have you thinking you might do something creative with them someday unless you know you actually will. Potential projects stacked up on benches, in closets and against the walls is oppressive not just because of the mess but for the aspiration attached.
7. A wise old Jedi once said “Do or do not there is no try.” I say “Do or do not, take it as slow or as fast as you like but don’t keep talking about it and doing nothing.” And if you decide to do nothing accept yourself and your home for who and what they are and no longer feel you need to make excuses for that. We are all entitled to be ourselves and be happy with that. If it turns out that you aren’t happy with that then “Do or do not there is no try.”
8. I think I make the mistake of thinking that just because other peoples’ homes are cluttered that they aren’t happy with that. They may make excuses for it but that might just be because they know what my feelings are about clutter. In future I will only give advice if it is genuinely solicited.

Thank you  for listening I feel much better now.

If any of the above thoughts reflect an issue you have with clutter perhaps it would be a good thing to mull over for your Sunday mini mission this week. That being said if you feel you need some advice or encouragement please feel free to ask. My readers and myself are always keen to do what we can to help.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from your bathroom.

Today’s Declutter Item

Much as I love Bubbles (as my daughter affectionately calls him) I really am just not a DVD watcher. So I gave him to my daughter to enjoy.

Michael Bublé DVD

Eco Tip for the Day

Consider getting together with your neighbours to pool your food growing resources. Share space, supplies & tools. If you have limited space each neighbour could grow something different to the other and then share between you.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

What better time than November to hone your tidy up skills. With all the hustle and bustle that goes on around the holiday season it is always best to stay ahead of the game. So what I am proposing is that you all join me for a month of The Keep Tidy Challenge for the duration of November.

Remember last week when Mark Adam Douglass (@MADouglass) mentioned in a comment a concept he refers to as Reset. When working on a project or task he and his wife make a point of putting everything away and “reset” the space for the next task. This is not a new concept by any means, Mark has just put his own name to it. That being said it is a concept that many people neglect to follow even though is makes far more sense the the alternative.

The idea is to not walk away without tidying up after you have completed a task. For example, once you are finished eating a meal clean up after it. Don’t leave things on the table and dishes in the sink for hours or Heaven forbid days. If you pull items out of your wardrobe while trying to decide on the days attire make sure you put everything you don’t chose to wear back neatly in the closet. When you get out of bed in the morning make the bed there and then. If you go to the beach or to a child’s sporting fixture make sure you remove all the items required for the task from the car on your return and place them back where they belong.

Many of these tidy up tasks will take just a minute but may in the long run save you a lot more time. Take the wardrobe task for instance. Lets say you are in a hurry to get dressed because you are running late for work. Tossing clothes all over the place while trying to decide may cause greater delays the next day when not only are you late again but the clothes you want to wear are now scrunched up somewhere on the floor. The few minutes it would have taken yesterday to put things away could well have saved you ten or more today because now the clothes will require ironing to be acceptable to wear to work. *

Same goes for the sports or beach gear. If everything is returned to its rightful place after the previous use it will be easy to locate the next time you need it. This is mighty handy should you be running on a tight schedule.

When we are stressed, tired or in a hurry it is too easy to neglect to follow this concept but trust me you will be sorrier in the end when you can’t find what you need, have to replace an items when it can’t be found or allow the mess to build and instead of taking one or two minutes here and there you will find yourself with a task that now will take hours to put right.

So who would like to challenge themselves to adhere to the rule of putting things to rights before moving on to the next task? I am only proposing you attempt this for one month. In reality though my hope is that over that time this behaviour will stick and become a new good habit for you and your life will be changed for the better.

Always remember that continuing with the same unproductive behaviour will only ever yield the same result. That is disappointment and unnecessary stress.

For those who are adept at tidying as you go perhaps your challenge could be to throw in a ten minute challenge everyday to fine tune your already neat home. Such as clean and reorganise a pantry shelf, tidy up your utensils drawer, make sure the car is free of trash, pull the sofa away from the wall and clean behind and under it. I am sure you can find many a little task to keep you busy.

* Note ~ When it comes having mornings run smoothly it can also pay to arrange your clothes the night before. Also going to bed and setting the morning alarm a half hour earlier would do a lot to remove stress from your life.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from your kitchen.

Today’s Declutter Item

This corroded shower rose is an example of my post ~The insanity of putting up with the status quo. We went all through winter with less than wonderful water pressure in our en-suite shower. I finally decided to pull the shower arm off and check if there was a problem. As it turned out one of the joints was corroded and pretty much fell apart in my hand. This corrosion had been blocking the water supply. Needless to say the whole thing needed replacing. I have included it as a declutter item because we did in fact have a spare one in the garage. So with this one gone that is one less thing in the house.

Corroded Shower Arm

Eco Tip for the Day

Consider doing some things by hand rather than using an electrical appliance. Mix that cake by hand, tighten that screw with an old fashioned screw driver rather than and electric drill, sweep the floor rather than vacuum…

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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’s mini missions should be easy. All you have to do is fine one item per room per day. If you have a small apartment maybe that will be one item per space per day. I will name the room/space and all you have to do is find one item in that area to declutter. It can be anything. How simple is that? If I mention an area you don’t have in your home then choose an alternative of your own.

Monday – Declutter something from a bedroom.

Tuesday - Declutter something from your kitchen.

Wednesday - Declutter something from your bathroom.

Thursday - Declutter something from your living room.

Friday - Declutter something from your dining area.

Saturday - Declutter something from your basement, attic or garage.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

I hadn’t used this muffin pan for a while and was surprised to find it all rusty. The combo of rust and rare use made it an easy decision to let it go. I have another option should I decide to make another batch of choc chip muffins.

Rusty Old Muffin Pan

Eco Tip for the Day

 Watch less television. Find something to do for amusement that doesn’t require electricity in place of at least one session of your weekly television viewing. This of course will only work if the television gets turned off and not watched by someone else in the family. Perhaps you could instigate an old fashioned games night.

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

As part of my Mammoth Mission I sold my Balinese Dresser and found myself with a heap of DVD’s sitting in boxes on my garage floor.

I should back up and explain that the majority of the DVD’s dated back to my children’s earlier years and at that time in our suburb we had the choice of driving 10 minutes each way to rent a DVD for $15 overnight or buying one from TWH two minutes up the road for $21. Whatever Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks put out, made its way into our home under what seemed like good economics but ultimately ended up jam packed into the Balinese dresser. Now I’m not saying we didn’t get excellent value out of most of the DVD’s – I can recite Lion King ad verbatim – but at the time it never occured to me that one day I was going to want them gone.

In my last update the mission went topsy turvey with my husband wanted the dresser, the bookcase and some other bits and pieces out of the lounge that night. In the weeks that followed my focus had to switch from the contents of the dresser and bookcase to the pile of furniture that had relocated to my garage.

As I found a place for the bookcase, I decided to focus on the DVD’s as they were sitting in boxes, whereas the contents of the bookcase could remain in the bookcase. The dresser couldn’t easily be shifted to my garage so it took up temporary residence in my dining room while it was listed on trademe.

If you read my initial post on this mission, my youngest daughter was quite adamant that we were not going to part with our collection of DVD’s and put up some good arguments to support her stand. Recently I stumbled onto an article about breaking the sentimental attachment to books and although I initially read it with a view to my bookcase, I ended up applying the wisdom to our DVD collection.

Collection is the key word. Rather than viewing our DVD’s as a collection ie. one mass item to defend, we needed to look at them as individual items and decide if we wanted that particular one item or not. Seems obvious? Apparently many collectors trip on this issue. In the first sitting 40-odd DVD’s were boxed to be sent to the upcoming Lionesses Charity Sale, as nobody in the family had enjoyed these particular movies or were of a documentary nature that no one wanted to watch again.

A week or two later (so as not to make my daughter feel too pressured) I asked both of my daughters were there any DVD’s that they’d like to ‘long term borrow’ to their young cousins. We went through the collection one by one and many of the classics such as Bambi, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty were put on the pile to go to my sis-in-laws (I had asked them beforehand). My younger daughter is free to borrow them back individually if she wants, though I doubt very much that will happen.

The remaining DVD’s are currently being stored into a cupboard and we are debating using rip software to copy onto an external hard drive or to use a filing box and sleeves to condence the remaining collection into something that can easily sit in the TV cabinet.

The rule of thumb for the last couple of years is that we rent movies. We have several rental stores in the area now and the prices are more reasonable, however occasionally there is a movie that you just know you want to watch again and again – a go-to movie for girls night in – or something to entertain a gathering of teens – then we opt to buy it via iTunes. Unfortunately in NZ we can’t purchase TV series via iTunes, so I do have to buy a new season’s DVD each year if there is something we particularly enjoy. Why there is the licensing restriction on TV shows here is beyond me but hopefully that will change in the future.

I will also apply the article by Robyn Devine that I mentioned above it to my book collection. I had a tendency in the past that if I liked a particular author I would collect all their books, even their books I didn’t particularly like, in some sort of honour to the author but its not how I roll these days.

Do any of the 365’ers have a collection of ??? which is your personal weakness?

Does anyone have any thoughts on Robyn’s article?

Can anyone guess what my favourite current TV series is? And what is the family’s favourite TV series is? Hint: Its a ’90’s show.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter something you rarely or never use these days because it has been superseded by the “latest and greatest(for now)” version.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

This Week’s Gratitude List

It is Friday afternoon as I write this and my day has been a bit of a shambles so I am really going to have to focus on the positive in order to remember what I am grateful for this week. It was only a couple of days ago that I was telling my volunteer workmates how fortunate in am in life so it shouldn’t take too much effort to recall why I felt that way.

1. Having fresh healthy food on my table every day. This good fortune isn’t affordable or even available to everyone on the world.
2. I am really enjoying the yoga classes that I began a month ago. Having my friend Jenny as company makes it all the more enjoyable.
3. I am fortunate to have had some good reading material over the last couple of weeks. Mostly on the topic of meditating and mindful awareness which are both good practices.
4. I am also grateful for daylight savings. It gives my husband and I  that extra daylight in the evening to get out and get some exercise together.
5. And last but by no means the least, I am continually grateful for how well my son recovered from the brain injury he received two years ago. Just this week I was told that his recovery from such a serious injury is remarkable ~ A very small percentage of people recover to this extent. For this and all those who prayed for him and sent well wishes at the time, I am truly grateful.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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!

Jane tells us about how she isn’t all that comfortable describing herself as minimalist in this comment. I don’t use that title to describe myself either as I don’t believe it is true for me. I am working on a new title.

Like me Megan has become immune to advertising. Read her comment here.

I was amused by Jane’s term Relocation Sorcery. Read what she means by that in this comment

Bergen has some good uses for a smart phone that could potentially help avoid clutter and to save paper. Read about it here.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Here is a great article from www.investopedia.com that Wendy F sent through about the cost of your clutter. You might be shocked at how many dollars you are constantly wasting on unused stuff. Before you even take into account the money you may have wasted on it in the first place.

Here is some more great decluttering advice that Wendy F dug up from the archives of Becoming Minimalist

Here is a Ted Talk I though you might enjoy ~ The Post Crisis Consumer 

Here is a link my husband suggested I share with you all. It is a new challenge happening over at www.bemorewithless.com

Here is another great article on changing your mind.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a item whose most obvious external feature is self advertising. For example T-shirts with the makers name blazoned across them unless of course the maker is paying you to advertise for them.

Today’s Declutter Item

This decluttering effort reduced the wasted space in my house by 2 x 17litres (18qts) plastic storage containers of stuff. These Star Wars toys were much enjoyed back  in the day but have not been used in at least 6 years. When my son said “I don’t know why you insist on keeping them!” that was my cue to get them out of here. I sold them on ebay for him, which reminds me I had better transfer him the money they fetched along with the money for the skateboard deck.

My son’s old Star Wars collection

Eco Tip for the Day

I am sad to say that eating less meat is better for the environment. So if you can try to replace at least a couple of meat meals a week with plant based offerings. I must admit more and more meat has slipped into my diet again lately but for he sake of the environment I will attempt to back off somewhat.

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

I am not one for promoting gadgets or any kind but I have discovered in the last year or so that a smart phone can come in quite handy when it comes to finding new homes for clutter. Here are three ways I have found smart phones assist me with my decluttering efforts.

Sending photos via messages ~ Every now and again I make a decision to declutter something that I think one or another of my friends might find useful. So I snap a photos of the item and send it via my smart phone to theirs with a message asking if they would like the item. I am always careful to let them know that they shouldn’t feel obliged. A quick yes or no is all the is required in response and then we usually set up a day to have coffee together and hand over the item/s. So not only am I happy to get rid of something and my friend happy to receive it but we get to enjoy a coffee and a chat together as well.

Social Media ~ Aside from personal friends there is also a local social group that I am a member of who communicates via Facebook. It is perfectly acceptable to post For Sale ads on this Facebook Group site and I have found this to be a very effective way to sell certain items. Being as many of the group members are stay at home mums I find that toys and craft items are particularly popular sale items. It is so easy to take a photo, hit the share tab, choose Facebook, add a short message and send using just my smart phone anywhere, anytime. This is much simpler that using my camera, finding the cable to uploading the photo to my computer and then going through all the rigmarole of finding and attaching the photo and typing the message. With my smartphone I can even speak the message and allow the text converter to type the text for me. Too easy.

Online Storage and Sharing services ~ I have set up a free online storage and sharing service, to sync my smart phone to my computer. It automatically transfers the photos I take using my smart phone to my computer. This eliminated the need for me to upload photos manually for my standard camera. This one small simplification makes a big difference as I use photos for advertising purposes on ebay, to send photos of items to friends who aren’t set up to receive photos with their phones and for adding photos to my Freecycle.org album when advertising to give away items.

Enlighten me more if you have other clever uses for your smart phone when it comes to decluttering.

Today’s Mini Mission

Remove those silly stick figure decals from the back window of your car or that thing hanging from your rear vision mirror. They serve no purpose except to have wasted your money in the first place and obstruct your vision potentially causing a safety hazard.

Today’s Declutter Item

This television cable is both broken and not needed so out it goes.

Television Cable

Eco Tip for the Day

Install water flow regulators to all of your faucets. This will not only reduce the amount of water you use but may also help avoid those nuisance moments when you turn the water on to hard and it splashes all over the place.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Perfectionism. Can you be too perfect? Oh yeah. Ironically, many cluttered people are perfectionists. Certainly perfectionism was one of the anchors that used to hold me back.

Wanting everything to be perfect can keep you from making progress in a number of ways:

• You don’t have the perfect organization system, so you have no system.
• You can’t get rid of something because you need to determine the perfect person / perfect place for that item to go next.
• You know the perfect person – the exact perfect person – and the fact that you only see them once every two years is not going to budge you from hanging onto the item until that day comes around again.
• You’re afraid that you don’t have the perfect amount of time necessary to tackle a decluttering job as perfectly as it deserves, so you don’t start…ever.
• You fear that your efforts will get messed up – they won’t remain perfect, so why get started at all?

Good enough is good enough! Are your ideas about perfection – both its desirability and your ability to achieve it – holding you back from making progress? One day at a time, one thing at a time will get you where you want to go. No perfection necessary.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one electronic gadget that really only added to your ways to waste precious time while not really improving or simplifying your life as promised.

Today’s Declutter Item

This fuel can is yet another item that has managed to escape my notice for a long time. Being as we no longer have a lawn mower and we have two other plastic fuel containers (one of those will be going to if I have my way) I am pretty sure we don’t need this one. Someone else will be glad to take it off my hands though I am sure.

Fuel Can

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t ignore dripping taps. Replace the washers as soon as possible.

“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

There is a tip I have heard many times from many sources that I don’t think I have ever mentioned on my blog before now. That tip is ~ Focus on the space not the clutter. That is to visualise how you want the space that you are about to declutter to look instead of focusing on the task itself. Having a clear picture in your mind of what you want the space to look and feel like should give you the incentive to strive towards that vision.

Stay focused on the vision, which is the positive outcome, rather than focus on the negative, which is the work involved in achieving that vision.

When you are about to embark on a vacation to places exotic such as a week of lazing by the beach drinking mojitos in Hawaii your focus is clearly on the vacation itself not the less enjoyable 5, 6 or 12 hour flight to your destination. This positive vision can also help motivate you to work hard for months to earn the money required to pay for it even though the payoff is short lived in comparison. The same can be done for decluttering your home although in this case the payoff can, with a little maintenance, last permanently while the task itself only lasts for a relatively short length of time.

It may be easier to work on one space or room at a time using this method or if your visualisation skills are good enough you can let your imagination go wild on visualising the entire house looking and feeling unclutttered, spacious, relaxing, tranquil and easy to maintain.

Not only can this method get you motivated to begin your decluttering but it can also help sustain your enthusiasm during the process. With every item that I move to the garage for removal I feel the joy of knowing that it is one more thing that gets me a step closer to my clutter-free goal. In fact the vision in my mind of moving to a small abode is all it takes to motivate me to go searching for the next thing to declutter.

Now if thinking this way doesn’t get you motivated then I don’t know what will.

Today’s Mini Mission

Get rid of one uncomfortable pair of shoes that sure are cute but could be used by the enemy as an effective torture treatment.

Today’s Declutter Item

This skateboard deck was sold on ebay. It was a gift to my son but was not the size he uses. Skateboarders are particular about the width of the decks they use.

Skateboard Deck

Eco Tip for the Day

Let your fingers do the walking. When there is something you need to shop for phone ahead to make sure the store has what you are after rather than making a wasted trip. Every small amount of petroleum product saved is a good thing.

For a full list of my eco tips click here

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 Monday I think we will work on identifying and removing clutter from our homes that are the result of us falling for marketing hype, branding,  visual appeal  or “upgrading”. Oh how misleading these enticements can be. I watch advertisements on TV these days with a smug look on my face feeling satisfied that I no longer fall for their hype. Sometimes my self-satisfaction is mixed with sheer horror at the rubbish they spin in order to sell people stuff they don’t need. Stuff that doesn’t usually even come close to living up to the promises advertised. Do you still fall for this hype or have you become wise?

Monday – Start a “use it up” challenge on a beauty treatment that really isn’t making any difference to the way you look or feel.

Tuesday – Get rid of one uncomfortable pair of shoes that sure are cute but could be used by the enemy as an effective torture treatment.

Wednesday – Declutter one electronic gadget that really only added to your ways to waste precious time while not really improving or simplifying your life as promised.

Thursday – Remove those silly stick figure decals from the back window of your car or that thing hanging from your rear vision mirror. They serve no purpose except to decrease your bank balance and obstruct your vision potentially causing a safety hazard.

Friday – Declutter a item whose most obvious external feature is self advertising. For example T-shirts with the makers name blazoned across them unless of course the maker is paying you to advertise for them.

Saturday – Declutter something you rarely or never use these days because it has been superseded by the “latest and greatest(for now)” version.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Today’s Declutter Item

This Disney lithographs have been hanging about while I procrastinated about them for months. I have decided that if they are in fact worth anything then the some thrift store customer will be very happy when they find them on the shelf next week. They certainly aren’t worth more than my sanity so I am letting them go the easiest way possible. Now I will go back and read my own posts from Tuesday and Thursday last week.

Disney Lithographs

Eco Tip for the Day

Be wary of being enticed into buying anything referred to as “collectable” they are generally kitschy crap that only serve to clutter up your home, collect dust and are a waste of resources which is a blight on the environment. We are fooled into believing that some of these things will appreciate in value over time but the fact is that they are made by the thousands if not millions and there is little chance that they will do anything but become clutter in your home.

Some examples ~ McDonald Restaurant Toys, 99.9% of baseball cards (this is just a form of gambling), popular brand items like Coca Cola, sporting club paraphernalia…

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

This week I received an email from Chrissie who has a unique decluttering issue that she would like her fellow 365ers and myself to give her advice on. Below is the message she sent explaining her issue.

“Although I’m quite successful in decluttering and drive my own project online ~einfach-weniger.blogspot (Simply Fewer in English) I’m lost as soon as things have eyes. No matter if cuddly toys from the childhood (they can be ugly as hell!), knick knacks, useless promo gifts, … as soon as they have eyes they are begging me to stay in my house. All available declutter strategies did not work so far. And please note that only small portion represent items that can be sold or given to charity. Most of items are old, ugly, used. I caught myself picking them out of the garbage once I managed to throw them away.” ~ Chrissie

So Chrissie here is my advice. I think you should get a trusted friend or family member to help you with this. Get together and choose maybe 5 of these items, the ones that you care for the least. Ones with the least sentimental value. Those promo items would be a good place to start. Give them to your friend to dispose of. She is not to put them aside at her house just in case you want them back, she is to dispose of them permanently as appropriate somewhere that you can’t retrieve them. With this method you not only have support, encouragement and rational assistance, there also is not turning back. No taking the items back out of the trash.

If you find you have dealt with this first attempt quite well do another batch. Hopefully over time you will desensitise yourself to this weakness when you realise that once the items are out of your home that you don’t give them much ,if any, thought.

Also, in future, just don’t bring items into your home that have eyes. It is possible to refuse promo gifts. Just explain politely that you are environmentally responsible and don’t accept items that you have no need for. This can apply to things without eyes as well.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Declutter a gadget ~ Gadgets are so alluring but once acquired they often fall short of expectations. Get rid of one of those that has fallen short.

Sunday – On a trial basis ~ for now ~ Sunday will be reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

This Week’s Gratitude List

1. Some lovely fine days.
2. Outings with friends including one of my readers Wendy F. Thanks for coming Wendy it was fun chatting with you.
3. Happening upon just the right box at the shop up the street to pack a skateboard deck in. It was so perfect for the job that there had to be some sort of divine intervention that lead me to it.
4. The opportunity to be creative. I have been making Christmas cards this week with the added bonus of using up papercrafting supplies.
5. My beautiful daughter passed her fitness test this week and will soon be a member of the Royal Australian Air Force. Congratulations baby girl you make us proud.

“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