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

I love to throw in a good old clutter category set of  missions on a regular basis to get you thinking about what sort of clutter you have. So this week we will declutter something from each of the clutter categories I refer to on a regular. Declutter at least one item per category.

Monday – A Sentimental item. This is self explanatory really it is an item you feel personally attached to or at least once did.

Tuesday – A Guilt item. Something you feel guilty about acquiring in the first place.

Wednesday – An Aspirational item. Something you aspire to getting around to using or trying one day.

Thursday – An Obligation item ~ Something you only keep because you feel you should. Often something someone else gave you.

Friday – A Lazy clutter item ~ No attachment you just haven’t got around to getting rid of it.

Saturday – A Natural Progression item ~ Something that no longer fits, physically or intelectually or has simply been used up or worn out.

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

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

Deb J

I know we have talked about the subject of books many times. I told you before how one time I sold enough books to pay for a year’s tuition at college. I have told you about how we have given away book after book until I am down to only books by my three favorite authors. So why am I bringing this subject up again?

How many of you have some type of eReader? I have a Kindle. Did you know that there are many places where you can obtain free books for eReaders? Did you know there are three email lists you can receive each day listing free and low cost books for these devices? Well I found that out quickly and began to use these emails to the hilt.  I love to read and I read very fast. I read one or two books an evening. Does that give you an idea of the amount of books I go through? Guess what? I looked at my Amazon account one day and saw that I had over 1000 books in my “cloud.” WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!

Here we go again. Yes, it’s me having to declutter books again. Let me tell you it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Amazon has not made it easy to remove books from my list. First I have to find the book I want to remove. Then I remove it. I had 40+ pages of books and had to start over with page one after deleting each book or know the name of it and type it in. I have made it about half way through the books I HAVE READ which means I have about ¾ of the full list to go. Argh!!

The moral of the story? Don’t think you can’t get back into a clutter rut if you aren’t careful. After all, these are FREE books!! I have to remind myself that I didn’t like them all, that they in fact are not all even ones I would recommend, and that the library has them all on their ebook checkout list. Sheesh! I need to spank myself.

Be careful to not do the same thing I did. Keep that declutter bug close at hand.

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

Cindy

I was making my semi-monthly trip through Costco and what did I spy everywhere I looked? Christmas items! Christmas foods, Christmas wrap, Christmas decorations, Christmas gifts, even Christmas Kleenex. (Okay, let’s be honest, what do you think is going to happen to Christmas candy that you bring home in September? Uh huh, that’s what I thought.)

Well I’m here to tell you – it’s too early to shop for Christmas. I am convinced that the earlier you start shopping, the more things you buy – both for yourself and for others. You buy a book for your child and by the time Christmas rolls around, that little genius has already outgrown that reading level or has checked it out from the library or borrowed it from a friend.  I can’t tell you how many years I planned and purchased in advance only to have my efforts thwarted.

In addition, you shouldn’t be buying so much that you need three months leading up to The Big Day. Now if you’re making homemade gifts, maybe you should start now. But I’m talking about purchased (impulsively purchased) gifts. Don’t waste your time and money and build clutter in your own house or someone else’s by purchasing too much, too soon. It can wait. I promise.

Today’s Mini Mission

Eco Tip For The Day

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

I looked in my closet one day last week trying to decide what to wear for the day. I wasn’t doing anything special or going anywhere in particular but was a little tired of the same old jeans and long sleeve T combination. (My default outfit in the cooler months of the year.) Then I spied the lovely velvety olive green jacket that I usually reserve for special occasions. After dismissing the initial thought of “But that jacket is only for good.” I decided, why not! That is just what I needed to spruce up an otherwise ordinary day.

This is exactly what we should do with all our good stuff. Use it just because it is nice and for no reason but to brighten up our day or any regular activity. Use your good china for an ordinary meal just for fun, use that silver plated antique fountain pen for writing your grocery list, spray on a little Channel perfume before going to bed at night, drink that $10 bottle of Chardonnay out of your best crystal glass. Why not!

If you aren’t comfortable about doing this all the time just do it on a regular basis. Once in a blue moon is not enough.

“When a tree falls in the forrest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?”

“If your beautiful items are never used or seen, are they still beautiful?”

Items such as the good china, the expensive hand cut crystal, the precious heirloom jewellery and the like are rendered useless simply by the fact that they are viewed as too expensive to risk being damaged. And what a waste that is. All these beautiful treasures locked away in their ivory towers.

I am of the opinion of ~ Sell it if its monetary value is worth more to you than its beauty, its sentimental value or its functionality. And I especially believe that if an item has sentimental value why not take it out and enjoy it to the fullest. Honour the item and perhaps the person who gave it to you.

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.

Our declutter missions don’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 – Round up and declutter 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 – Round up and declutter 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 – Round up and declutter 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 – Round up and declutter 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 – Round up and declutter 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 – Round up and declutter 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 - 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.

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

Deb J

In the year 2000 I created my first scrapbook project ever. I had no supplies so I went to the store and bought a few sheets of paper and some embellishments in order to create a small, soft bound encouragement album for my boss who was going through chemo. I made the pages, decorated two as the intro and my page and then passed it among our co-workers so they could decorate a page according to their tastes. When it was done I had nothing left of the supplies. That was good.

Not long after that I was invited to a scrapbook supply selling party. It was fun. I enjoyed what we made. My boss showed me some of her scrapbook pages she had made and I was given the gift of a scrapbook magazine. Suddenly this became a new hobby. Looking back I realize that the shopping for and buying of supplies was more the hobby than making the pages. I was hooked. I took lots of classes online, subscribed to four magazines, and bought hundreds of dollars worth of supplies. They piled up and piled up. I bought things to organize them in and furniture to put the organizing containers in. Even when money was tight I was easily swayed by the sight of new products. It had become an obsession.

I did make a number of albums and many, many cards. I gave away scrapbooked style items to friends and enjoyed it all. Yet I still had this plethora of supplies. Stickers for every occasion. Brads, eyelets, buttons, punches, embossing plates, stamps and ink pads, special scissors, and on and on. Some things I never used. Some things that came in packages saw a few things used and then the rest stored for the duration. I didn’t want the things I did to become too much the same. I liked variety. But I didn’t have that much variety in my life, was single with no children, and came from a small family.

One day, thanks to 365 Less Things, I realized that I had way more than I needed. In fact, I realized that I was actually OVER scrapbooking. So began the decluttering of hundreds of scrapbooking supplies. I sold some but soon came to realize that I just wanted rid of them. I gave them away—to a new mother who didn’t have the money to buy a lot but wanted to scrapbook her baby son’s life. To a friend who scrapbooks what has happened in the life of her huge extended family. To the friend who makes greeting cards and sells them for spending money. Now the supplies are gone and so is much of the furniture needed to store them. Do you have a hobby/craft that is out of control and you need to re-examine?

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

Cindy

I went to high school with a girl named Helen, who was extremely petite and wore a very tiny shoe size, 5 I believe. In college, Helen and I lived in the same dorm. Her room was remarkable because it contained the largest shoe collection in the dorm, probably in the entire school. Why did Helen own so many shoes? Because she wore a tiny shoe, many stores would only get one in her size when they ordered a style. Helen was constantly afraid that she wouldn’t be able to find shoes that fit. As a result, she bought every shoe she found in her size. Clearly, the idea that there was a shortage of size 5 shoes was all in Helen’s mind, since she had several dozen pairs stored in their boxes in her very space restricted dorm room.

Years later, I was girlfriends with a very tall, long-limbed woman named Lanette. Her husband was even taller and even longer limbed. Lanette was an every weekend, very systematic garage saler. Now because they had such long arms and legs, Lanette and her husband understandably disliked wearing too short shirts and pants. As a result, Lanette bought every shirt and every pair of pants that she found every Saturday morning that were long enough. The result? A wardrobe stuffed full of clothing. There was no real shortage of long-enough clothing, except in Lanette’s mind.

Are you guilty of creating a shortage that exists only in your mind? Do you have an excess of toiletries, food in your pantry, clothing, collectibles, or great deal you bought on sale because, you believe, there may not be enough, so you better grab some now, over and over again? I challenge you to declutter at least one of these “rare” items today and to start talking to yourself about how there is, in fact, no shortage of material goods. The store can store your extra food and toiletries; a person can only wear so many items of clothing; with the Internet, there is no material good that cannot be found. Don’t panic, don’t buy. The shortage is only in your mind.

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

I received a comment from Denise recently from which I have included an excerpt below.

Denise ~ Thank you Colleen, yes I did and it feels so good to get rid of the stuff. Its amazing no matter how many times you do it you still find more.

Quite often readers write in saying that they are surprised that they are still managing to find things to declutter. The readers that say this have usually been at their decluttering mission for quite a while and are expecting it to finally come to an end, or at least to the maintenance phase. However they continue to find things to declutter that have been there all along.

Like I said in my response to Denise ~ “I don’t really consider it still finding more. I consider it becoming more enlightened about what I need, what I want and what I don’t.”

Instead of being amazed, disappointed or perhaps even a little horrified ~ like some readers seem to be ~ I simply feel pleased that I have come to a point where I am ready to let go of yet more items. Admittedly I do find the odd thing that I have just overlooked but for the most part they are things that up until that point I still wanted them around.

So am I disappointed to still be finding things three and a half years into my mission? Heck no! I am just glad that the grasp that possessions have on me is lessening more and more each day.

As I become more enlightened, the burden of my possessions lightens.

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

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

Today there is no gimmick to the mini missions just plain old simple decluttering. Just find one item to match the  description provided in the daily missions below. It you don’t have such a thing just declutter something else that suits you.

Monday – A home decor item.

Tuesday – A pair of shoes.

Wednesday – A book or two.

Thursday – A worn out or outgrown clothing item.

Friday – A wad of papers ~ out of date bills, tax papers, manuals or warranties…

Saturday – Something from the kitchen

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

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

Cindy

I messed up my posting this week. Sorry! So I’m trying again on Saturday / Sunday as a surprise.

As you know, I just got back from a 2 week family vacation in Colorado, and I’ve been thinking about souvenirs, possibly the most unnecessary yet expensive part of many people’s vacations, both in terms of money and the time spent seeking the objects. What motivates us to spend hours combing often tacky, crowded gift stores looking at mass produced and likely Made in China shot glasses, key chains, and t-shirts for something to take home, either for ourselves or as a gift for someone who did not make the trip with us?

According to Wikipedia, “A souvenir (from French, for a remembrance or memory), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. The term souvenir brings to mind the mass-produced kitsch that is the main commodity of souvenir and gift shops in many tourist attractions around the world. But a souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler. The object itself has no real significance other than the psychological connection the possessor has with the object as a symbol of past experience. Without the owner’s input, the object’s meaning is invisible and cannot be articulated.”

I love the elegance of this definition about objects that I consider to typically be the opposite of elegant. I think the last sentence especially explains why I at least so undervalue, even resent, when someone gives me a souvenir from a trip (which hasn’t happened for years, by the way). The object has no meaning to me, and therefore I see it exactly at face value – it’s a cheap t-shirt or a unwanted bit of kitsch.

Photographs are the most common souvenir, and I do enjoy taking photos, but I try not to go overboard. One at the top of Pike’s Peak is plenty. I don’t need 45 shots, like the lady standing next to me. I also like postcards, but I buy them and send them. I don’t hang onto them as a memento.

So in honesty, what did we return from our trip toting that we did not leave with?

3 t-shirts (me, Clara, and Audra). My t-shirt was an intentional replacement for a college t-shirt that I’ve had for years and need to make into a rag. I picked it carefully, and I like it. In fact, I’m wearing it right now. Both girls have also worn their shirts again. Clara’s references Colorado, but Audra’s is a graphic of horses.

copper ring – Audra

small matted photograph – Clara

3 bars of chocolate purchased at the Celestial Seasonings gift shop (a really fun tour if you happen to pass through Boulder, Colorado) – These were given to Clara’s boyfriend, and I’m sure they are not collecting dust on his shelf!

4 boxes of tea, also purchased at Celestial Seasonings. These are being consumed.

postcards – I believe that all we purchased were mailed while we were gone. (A travel tip – buy postcard stamps before you leave and take them with you. While it’s easy to buy postcards; it’s a lot harder to find a post office while you’re traveling.)

Are you a sucker for souvenirs? A person whose heart beats faster when you learn that the tour ends with a mandatory trip through the gift shop? Do you spontaneously buy things while traveling because they’re “cute” or “fun” or “a must have”? Do you have mouse ears from Disney, a t-shirt from the Grand Canyon, drilled playing cards from Vegas, and a snow globe with the Eiffel Tower inside. Do you need these things? Do you want them? Do you feel obligated to keep them now that they’re in your house? (“But it came all the way from (far away location) Cindy!”)

Prevention is the best cure, so I challenge you to not only move along a souvenir in your home, but also to resist next time you’re vacationing, and especially to teach your children that purchasing is not an obligatory part of every vacation, trip to the zoo, or visit to Grandma’s house.

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