Archive for August, 2014

Mini Mission Monday ~ 11 Aug 2014

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.

Hi readers, it is Sunday night and I am exhausted. I have sent since Friday lunch time help a friend declutter and prepare for a move on Wednesday. We have also been packing up and moving her personal items. I have to say she has been very cooperative with the decluttering and we have donated and thrown away two and a half SUV loads of stuff. Suffice to say this weeks mission will focus on some of the areas of difficulty that she faced. I am hoping most of you are past this phase but such items emerge even well into out declutter missions so I will go ahead anyway.

Monday – Declutter a few sentimental items that you have no use or love for. Giving such items away doesn’t mean you disrespect the sentiment behind the item it just means you have no need for the item itself.

Tuesday – Declutter something a loved one gave you that you don’t need and is just collection dust. This doesn’t mean you don’t love the person just not the item.

Wednesday – Declutter some items that are past their used by date. This could be make-up, lotions, perfume, medications, adhesives that have dried up, food items…

Thursday – Declutter some more of that old paperwork that builds up if you aren’t looking.

Friday – Declutter kitchen gadgets that weren’t so useful.

Saturday – Declutter something you have an overabundance of.

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

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A post from The Minimalists

To cap off this week I just want to share a post from The Minimialist that I read and enjoyed a while back. I agree wholeheartedly with what they had to say. I won’t add any extra to it from myself as I think I says it all. So without further adieu here is the link.

The Minimalists ~ Prison

Enjoy!

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter five books from that over full bookcase.

Eco Tip for the Day

Give consumable gifts. Preferably one from sustainable sources.

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

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Sanna’s final 20 thing a day challenge update

Hi there!

Friday was the last day of July and so my 20 things a day challenge ended. While the first three weeks could be labeled “random decluttering of random clutter”, after about 500 items or so, my assorted little junk items were almost all gone and it was time to change the method a bit. Inspired by a window shopping tour (of all things!) that led us to a interior store, my boyfriend let me know that he would like to get rid of a lot more of what we owned and would actually like a fresh start without the old stuff and, while buying new furniture big style is out of the question moneywise at the moment, we could well get rid of a lot more of what we owned. As I had wondered ever since our guest with “hardly any belongings” that filled 5 big moving boxes nonetheless moved in with us, how much stuff we actually own, I decided on sunday to completely empty out our worst remaining clutter hot-spot: a cabinet in the living room that holds everything from craft supplies, cables and stationery to photos and documents. I packed everything in there along with all the other items that could logically be put there as well, if there was more room in the cabinet, in moving boxes (we happened to have 5! 😉 ). The shocking news is that I needed all five boxes for that! However, the cabinet and it’s surroundings got thoroughly cleaned and we decluttered again when putting things back in there. The task that remains is for each of us to sort through their documents and other paperwork. To see however, how much volume of stuff was there in a relatively small space in our home showed me again, much like the past month’s challenge, that we own still huge amounts of things and that a move would still be quite a task. (We are fantasizing about a long-distance move in the end of next year or the year after, so every box counts! 😉 )

I decided to sell at a flea-market with a friend this week-end, went through the apartment and pulled out some china, books and all kinds of other stuff that I’ll be taking there. It’s all stuff I like, but we just have too much of it in general and it’s not my very favourite of its kind. We’ll see how that goes, I haven’t tried selling at a flea-market since I’ve been a child. 😀

So, I think, in August there will be a lot decluttered, even though my challenge ended. However, a new challenge has come up: those documents and other papers I still have to go through. I’ll do a little bit each day for August and so they should be all neat by September!

Thank you everyone who took part in my challenge, whether as a fellow declutterer or through cheering me on! And thank you, Colleen, for posting my request and my updates!

I had a blast with this challenge and some new motivation for decluttering!

Sanna

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter five magazines that you had saved to reference later but so have never have.

Eco Tip for the Day

Buy local when possible or affordable. It is a good habit to break into even if only a little at a time. Because as I always say here at 365 Less Things “Every little bit counts.”

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

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Have faith that you won’t need it one day

As the saying goes ~ “Believe and the Universe will provide.” Whether you are religious, spiritual or neither there is a good chance that this saying is true for you. It sure has been true for me, and that is why I never worry about letting go of the things that I don’t use. I hold on to very little in the way of things that I only think I might need some day because I have no doubt that…

  1. …I probably won’t and never did “need” it in the first place and…
  2. …and anything I do need want can be easily replaced at a later date.

One of the reasons I believe these this is that I am very good at improvising so can often do without things by coming up with ingenious ways to make do. And that so often, for me, when I “need” something it has a habit of “miraculously” falling into my hands. I’ll give you some examples.

My daughter has always wanted a Magic Bullet Blender  (Too much exposure to infomercials on television in America). I have often thought of buying her one as a gift but never did for various reasons. Last week my friend Wendy was about to take one to the thrift shop but when she found out Bridget would like one she gave it to me to give to her.

A while back I was in want of some double sided scrapbook paper to make pinwheels for my handmade cards. One day I went to a yearly huge car boot sale (flea market) and, lo and behold, one stall had some offcuts for sale which were reduced to half price. I have since used it all up and made some nice pocket money in the endeavour.

Some months back my son mentioned that he would like a handheld vacuum (dustbuster, whatever you like to call it). The very next time I did a shift at the thrift store one was donated which I bought for him for a mere $5. My daughter also mentioned she wanted one of those plastic kids sandpits to use as a dog pool. The very next day I picked one up for nothing from a bulk rubbish pile on the side of the road. The same thing happened when she mentioned she wanted a clothes airer.

This kind of thing happens to me all the time and sometimes with the strangest things. But even if it didn’t I am confident that I would either, never again need an item I have decluttered or I will be able to afford to replace something should it be necessary. Luckily that has rarely happened. I don’t know if this is because the Universe truly does provide if you believe it will but either way I am content to believe that there is nothing I need be afraid to let go of if I am not using it.

It always intrigues me that among a community of people with an abundance of items, that we are all endeavouring to declutter, that any of us could possibly believe that one day life is going to come to a standstill because we might have to go without items we never really needed in the first place. So please don’t hang on to trivial unnecessary stuff in the fear that you might need it someday. Have faith in yourself that you will always be able to provide, even if you don’t believe that the universe will, and just let go of things you haven’t used in a long time and probably never will.

Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter five food items that have been in your pantry for a while by making meals out of them this week.

Eco Tip for the Day

If you see things going to waste, rescue them and find them a new home. I do with from the recycling bins at our apartment all the time. It is amazing when perfectly good items people through in the bins. I take them to the thrift shop where they are sold on.

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

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Mini Mission Monday ~ Five

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.

Hello, it’s Monday again and we all know what that means. And what can we take care of with our mini missions this week. I think we might put a number on this weeks missions, and that number is five. Of course you can go over or under five if you discover you find you have fewer or more of an item when you check. But the more the better I always say. So go in search of the items I have mentioned below and see if you can come up with any. My husband took care of the cables on the weekend. We have no magazines, very few books and no excess of any of the other things listed. So it looks like I am going to have an easy week. How will you fare.

Monday – Declutter five electrical cables that seem to multiply when you aren’t looking.

Tuesday – Declutter five food items that have been in your pantry for a while by making meals out of them this week.

Wednesday – Declutter five magazines that you had saved to reference later but so have never have.

Thursday – Declutter five grooming items. Excess razor handles, unused hair brushes, worn out nail files, products…

Friday – Declutter five books from that over full bookcase.

Saturday – Declutter five dust collectors that you aren’t in love with.

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

Eco Tip for the Day

Share and borrow between friends and family rather than everyone owning/buying everything.

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

Comments (46)

Follow up on my “stocktake”

So, going through my house to remove any clutter build up didn’t take long. As you can imagine with only two bedroomz, tow bathrooms, the kitchen/dining/living area and the balcony, it wasn’t a difficult task. Just to be up front though, I didn’t spend too much time on the craft area as it was a case of ~ found some items then immediately began crafting to use them up. It is my intention to base the crafting I do over the next weeks on using up items that I feel have lingered too long. I had a good sales week at the art space and need to restock so I’ll certainly be doing plenty crafting over the next week or two. And then father’s Day will be almost on us so I had better keep that in mind while I am at it.

Anyway, I have put together a little collage of what I found to rid my home of. So without further adieu here it is.

Camera Uploads7

All and all it isn’t very much but I am sure that I will find more the next time a do a declutter sweep through the house. I know there is plenty of craft stuff to continue using up. There are also a couple of other unfinished projects that will clear away some scrap wood, unneeded recycled parts and then, as a result, a small piece of furniture. Then there will also be some long sleeve Tshirts with small holes that I will be cutting up, for crafting with, once the warmer whether arrives.

I have made a drop off at the thrift shop, paper is shredded, a few items went in the bin, some taken by my daughter, some in the recycling and the craft to the art space. I am still to drop off the batteries and the ink cartridges and the unused, out of date drugs were dropped off at the pharmacy for careful disposal. I am glad they are all out the door because they were mounting up in transition areas all over the house.

So as you can see I am keeping up with my maintenance decluttering plus seeing ahead to future maintenance tasks, while I am ever vigilant. One thing that didn’t go unnoticed by me was how easy the task was due to all the minimising I have done. My experience is proof that a decluttered home is a home that is easy to maintain.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some outdoor sports equipment that is no longer in use.

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

Comments (28)