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.

Now what can we declutter this week. I have mostly been decluttering craft materials but not everyone would be into that. So I’ll have to come up with something else. I know, we’ll have a verb loaded decluttering week. Each mission will be about what you do with stuff. Confused? Well you’ll soon figure it out.

Monday – Declutter something you eat from.

Tuesday – Declutter something that is played with.

Wednesday – Declutter something you wear.

Thursday – Declutter something the decorates your home.

Friday – Declutter something used for entertaining. Books, CDs, DVDs…

Saturday – Declutter something for grooming.

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

Be economical with your grooming products. Using more than necessary doesn’t give a better result. Any wastefulness is not good for the environment.

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

I thought I would give you links to some interesting websites. Most of these sites help digitally organise your life without need for clutter. In fact in some cases they can eliminate some paper clutter at the very least.

The first one is actually to an article on a funding site by a 19-year old woman who learned early from her mom about decluttering and living minimally.  This link is to one of her first posts as she tells about her philosophy and reasons for living this way.  Click on www.gofundme.com/dkzs18 then scroll down to Update #1.

www.Mint.com  This is an app for those who want an accounting/checkbook type program on their phone or tablet.  It is by Intuit the company that produces the Quicken program for computers.  Moni told me about this one and I am planning to put it on my tablet once I find the time.

www.dropbox.com  A cloud based storage site for documents, spreadsheets, photos, etc.  I use this and have had no problems with it.  I wanted more storage than they offer free so I pay a small monthly fee for more space. 

www.flickr.com   A place to create albums of photos that you can keep private, share with a few or open to the public.  One of many such websites.

www.Snapfish.com  and   www.shutterfly.com    Two of many websites where you can create a digital scrapbook of memories that can then be printed. 

www.igrocerypal.com   lets you digitally create your grocery list and it will automatically organize your selections by the type of food and aisle. The app also syncs up with local stores to help you find the best deals while making your list and shopping. 

www.mealboard.com   MealBoard combines recipe management, meal planning, groceries and pantry management into a single app. It is fully customizable. You can manage your recipes, ingredients, food categories, meal types, stores, store aisles, grocery items and many more with its clean, uncluttered interface.

www.shoeboxed.com  Lets you scan & organize receipts and business cards, create expense reports, track mileage and more.

www.clothapp.com   an app for iPhone that makes it easy to save, categorize, and share your favorite outfits. The app also uses real-time weather data to help you pick your best outfits for current conditions. If you have iOS 8, you can even wake up to an alert with the weather, and your best looks for the day.

Some of these I have used.  Some I have just read about and scanned their website.  I’m sure some of you may have other apps you like that you find enhance your productivity and provide you with more time to do things you prefer rather than keeping track of various aspects of your life.   Please share those.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that is located on the floor.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown

Sometimes, when it comes to the stuff around our homes, we continue to own things just because we always have. To have them has literally become a habit. Fortunately any habit that has been created can also be broken.

There are two ways that you can experiment with breaking the ownership habit. The first, which we have spoken of in the past, is to have a trial separation from a selection of your stuff. Choose things that you are on the fence about decluttering, then put them away somewhere out of sight for a selected period of time. If you haven’t had the need for these objects during the trial period, or perhaps learned to improvise in order not to need them, then you are safe to send them permanently on their way, if you so choose.

The other way is more suited to less permanent objects, items that come, are used up and then usually replaced. Products like toiletries, cleaners, paper products, cooking ingredients, wrapping materials etc. You’d be surprised how many of these items inhabit your home, and how much you really don’t need many of them.

The experiment to declutter such items is to use up your current supply and choose a trial period of time during which you do not replace it. If, at the end of that period, you have happily survived without said product you just don’t ever replace it. If living without it was unpleasant then you have lost nothing and can go back to purchasing it again.

There are many of the second example above that I have decluttered over my years of slowing purging my home of unneeded stuff. Plastic wrap, cleaners, makeup items, stationery items, craft supplies, cooking ingredients, toiletries… Some I have gone without altogether while others I just keep less variety of. Either way I am wasting a lot less space storing them. And I dare say I am also having less impact on the environment.

I am still slowly eliminating more and more of these products as time goes on, and I feel better for it. I am continually discovering that there are so many things, that are of little value to me, that I can happily live without.

What items in your home have you experimented with doing without? Please share your stories with us. They are all successes whether you decided you could or couldn’t live without them, because at least you were brave enough to give it a go.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from outside.

Eco Tip for the Day

Eliminate as many chemicals as you can from your home. There are many natural products that can perform the same tasks with a lot less impact on the environment.

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