I received the following question from Nicole V in Monday's comments... Hi, Colleen. I have not read Marie Kondo’s book but have seen the ‘sparking joy’ catchphrase all over the place. What does she say about mundane items that might not necessarily ‘spark joy’, but are needed in a home? Does she ‘re-Kondonize’ them under a separate category? Well Nicole and your fellow 365ers, I am going to give you my take on what I believe to be that "spark of joy". I have written about a similar thing some time back here at 365 Less Things. There are so many blog posts in my archives that … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2015
Mini Mission Monday ~ Spark of joy
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. Over the last couple of weeks I have been slowly reading Marie Kondo's book ~ The life-changing magic of tidying up. So I thought I would base this weeks missions on decluttering things that don't give you that "spark of joy" that Ms Kondo uses as the deciding factor as whether to keep or … [Read more...]
Digitising User Manuals
Today I thought I might bore you all with how to digitise your user manuals rather than allow them to take up space in your home. Feel free to disagree about the sense of digitising if you like, I have no problem with how you choose to use the space in your home. I live in a two bedroom apartment so space is at a premium and not to be wasted. There are so many manuals available online in PDF form that you can download to your computer. Today, as an example, I googled for the PDF of my Brother P-Touch PT65 label maker. It must be at least 12 years old. I found the PDF in one try, downloaded … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Digitise
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 some items that we could digitise rather than keep the tangible form of. This should free up some space without actually getting rid of the item altogether. Monday - Declutter some household appliance manuals. Choose a couple and google the item to see if … [Read more...]
Clutter Maintenance
Every time I have moved house I have had a reasonable length of notice. Although, sometimes the definite ~ "Yes we are moving." ~ may have come a little last minute but the maybe had been on the cards for long enough to have me get the preparation ball rolling. Â And by that I don't only mean decluttering but also... ...rounding up of like items throughout the home. ...bagging up tiny like items that might get lost if not secured together. ...cleaning items that may have become soiled either by constant or lack of use. ...running down of consumable items such as, toiletries, food … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Accumulation
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 spent a few days, yet again, last week helping someone move house. As a result I am once again writing a set of missions that reflect the various groups of items in homes that tend to accumulate and expand over time. It is often the same kinds of items in every home that are the objects … [Read more...]
One readers clutter nemesis
I received an email from Christie this week asking for some advice. I'll launch right in with her email, followed by my advice, and then I would love you all to add your thoughts on the subject. Hopefully somewhere among all that advice there will be the spark to help ignite a flame of determination in her to let go of these items standing in the way of a beautiful uncluttered life. Christie's email Hi Colleen. I am a single mother with a long list of things to do...always. Life is a process I know and I can't tackle everything at one time. I try to heed my own advice I give my … [Read more...]
Of pachyderms and clutter: The (white) elephant in the room
A guest post by Nicole V “Garages are the elephant burial ground of the 21st century,†according to decluttering guru Peter Walsh. “Stuff goes in. Stuff never comes out.†Well, I don’t know about garages, but we certainly had a period of time when stuff definitely went into our storeroom, seldom to appear again. This was way before we began to declutter, in fact way before decluttering was even a twinkle in my eye. And looking back now, I realize that I’ve encountered a few elephants while decluttering, figuratively speaking, of course. Our storeroom had way too much stuff, stuff … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Elephants Grave Yard
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. On Wednesday this week 365 features yet another of the wonderful Nicole V's guess posts. This one has a various pachyderm theme to it. White elephants, elephants in the room, how to eat an elephant... I am going to latch on to the elephant graveyard theme and have you clearing out the areas in … [Read more...]
Following my own advice
As the title suggests I have been taking my own advice and finding ten minutes daily this week to declutter some stuff around my house. And although the difference is small I feel a whole lot better for having done it. The first area I decluttered was a drawer in my side-table next to my spot on the sofa. It wasn't cluttered as such, as there was plenty of vacant space in it. However it still had things that had arrived there over time that either didn't belong there, was rubbish or useless to me. I decluttered a small flashlight to the donate pile, a plastic bag to the bin and I little … [Read more...]