Each of us has a different day when we clean up all the decorations from the holidays.  One thing we all do though is repack and stash away everything.  This is a great time to declutter.  We have a great opportunity to look at each item and decide:

1. Did we use it this time?
2. Does it need repair or a toss into the trash?
3. Do we like it?
4. Do we want to change our style/color? 
5. Has our life changed in a way that requires our decorating to change?

Now is the time to declutter all of those holiday items you no longer need taking up space in your home.  Things like decorations, ornaments, decorative paper plates or napkins, towels, tablecloths, and duplicates of salt and pepper shakers or serving pieces.  I’m sure there are more items you can think of.  How about holiday books or magazines for: cooking, decorating, or crafts. 

This year we are going to be decluttering many things because we will be moving.  We will have two households but fewer places to display items.  Mom is not even sure she wants to decorate other than maybe a wreath on her door.  I will probably keep the small tree we have but not many other things.  If I could find a metal tree I really like I may get one to put the ornaments on because they are what I treasure.

Share with us your stories of decluttering as you clear away after the holiday season.

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.

And so it is Christmas and what have we done ~ a whole lot of decluttering this year, that’s what. So I think it is time for a break and this weeks missions are based on that. You can either do Part A of each mission or Part B, it is entirely up to you. I will be focusing on Part A. Have a very happy holiday everyone, no matter which, if any, you are celebrating. And we’ll chat again in the New Year.

Monday – Declutter  A. Something chocolate, or B. Something that begins with the letter C.

Tuesday – Declutter A. Something edible with mixed fruit in it, or B. something that begins with the letter F.

Wednesday - Declutter A. Some wine or other alcoholic beverage, or B. something that begins with the letter W.

Thursday – Declutter A. Some gingerbread, or B. Declutters something beginning with the letter G.

Friday - Declutter A. Declutter some Turkey or other edible cooked bird (Tofurky roast for the vegetarians among us) or B. Declutter something that begins with the letter T.

Saturday - Declutter A. Something cluttering up your fridge, such as that carton of eggnog (For extra decluttering effort my daughter-in-law suggests adding a shot of spiced rum to that), or B. Declutter something that begins with the letter E.

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

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

Looking for some last minute gift ideas?  Ideas which won’t clutter your friend’s and family’s home and will be happily received?  Here are a few consumable gift ideas from myself, Deb J and Idgy of the North.

Moni’s Lemon Honey (also known as Lemon Curd)
3 eggs
1 Teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 Cup Sugar
½ Cup Lemon Juice
50 grams butter

 Melt butter in a 2 litre microwave proof container.  Add rest of the ingredients and stir.  Microwave on high for 8 minutes.  Allow to cool then pour into hot dry jars.  Seal when cool.  Note: this recipe won’t work if doubled.

 Idgy’s Whipped Shortbread

1 cup butter (do not use margaine)
½ cup icing sugar
1½ cups flour

Cream butter and sugar.  Add flour and beat for 10 minutes.  Drop from small spoon onto cookie sheet.  Decorate with maraschino cherry pieces if you wish.  Bake at 350 F for about 10-12 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned.  Makes about 3 dozen small cookies.  Note:  This recipe doubles well.

Deb J’s Mocha Truffles    (Yield: about 5 ½ dozen)

 3 ½ cups semi sweet or dark chocolate chips
1 package (8 ounces) softened cream cheese
3 tablespoons of instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons water
1 pound of dark chocolate confectionery coating
 IN a microwave-safe bowl melt chocolate chips.  Add cream cheese, coffee and water; mix well.  Chill until firm enough to shape.  Shape into 1-in balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.  Chill for 1-2 hours or until firm.  Melt chocolate coating in microwave-safe bowl or double boiler.  Dip balls and place on waxed paper to harden.  Note 1: When shaping the balls, take only small amounts out of the refrigerator at a time so they will be easy to shape and not becoming warm and sticky.  Note 2: We melt small amounts of coating at a time because it hardens quickly.  We also take out a few of the mocha balls at a time because they are harder to cover with the coating when a little warm.  Note 3: Truffles can be frozen for several months before dipping in chocolate.  Thaw in the refrigerator before dipping.  They can also be frozen after dipping and thawed in the refrigerator.

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.

Since Nicole is so good at coming up with amusing and inspiring mini mission I am dedicating this week’s missions to her in the way of an acrostic poem. I have to say that although I was a little cheeky with one mission it was very hard not to use a lot of funny adjectives to describe Nicole. However I don’t know her all that well, except the side she shows to us here through he post, but all but one of the words seem to fit. Enjoy everyone and especially you Nicole.

Monday – NICE ~ Declutter something you don’t love, need or use even though it is nice.

Tuesday – INCREDIBLE ~ Declutter something that was incredibly difficult to part with in the past but that you now have the strength to let go.

Wednesday – COLOURFUL – Declutter something colourful.

Thursday – ODD (Ha ha, just had to throw that one in for fun) ~ Declutter something left over from a set. For example – An odd sock, the last of a set of broken glasses or crockery… Or just something in your house you think is odd. Perhaps you have a hideous sweater that someone “generously” knitted for you.

Friday – LOVELY – Declutter something that a lovely person gave you but you never really wanted.

Saturday – ENTERTAINING ~ Declutter something used for entertaining. This could be anything for CDs and DVDs to a serving platter you no longer use.

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

I have written about this before but it is an important skill when it comes to living with less stuff. But don’t be deterred by the word improvise. Even though some people may have more skills at this than others, when it comes to everyday improvising I am sure everyone can do it without much thought.

The reason I even bring up the subject is that much of the tools, or gadget if you like, that we have around out homes perform the same tasks as one another. So at least half of them aren’t even necessary to the smooth running of our homes.

A simple knife for example can, with a little practice, perform the same task as so many other gadgets in the kitchen. “But…”, I hear you say, my gadget does it so much faster. But that might only be because you haven’t performed the task often enough to improve you skills. Which begs the question “If you aren’t needing the gadget often then why do you need it at all. And another thing you aren’t taking into account is that gadgets usually take much more effort to clean, cost a lot more to buy, are prone to break down and usually take up much more space.

I’ll give you another example. Do you own a mixing bowl a colander and a salad spinner. Well you don’t need the salad spinner.  Put the colander in the mixing bowl with the salad leaves in it, fill with water, shake and then drain. Then shake the colander over the sink. Voila clean drip dried salad fixings. And only half the space wasted in your cupboard.

At the moment I am living in a studio apartment in Berlin. Needless to say there is the bare minimum, in the way of gadgets, in the small kitchen, however, I have not found that to be a drawback. In fact I am being more adventurous than usual with my cooking, trying new recipes and adapting others, that I regularly use, to what is on hand. I find the challenge, if you could even call it that, entertaining and am more than satisfied with the results. The satisfaction of these small achievements is mentally rewarding.

I have also had to improvise when it comes to doing the laundry, darning a sock, acquiring some foreign language skills and getting around. And am happy with all the results.

If you insist on keeping certain gadgets at least get the most out of them. I use my coffee grinder to also grind nuts and spices, make small quantities of bread crumbs from stale bread, whip small quantities of cream etc. I use my panini press to cook pancakes, bacon, eggs, french toast (both sides at the same time), roti bread when having curries etc. Well, I did use it for all those things until it broke down, and I am not going to bother replacing it unless I can pick one up secondhand.

So my challenge to you is to find a gadget in your home that is, for the most part, just wasting space. Now devise another method of performing the same task this gadget is meant for, and hone those skills. Do a Google search for a video on how to best achieve this if necessary. I did so when I wanted to learn how best to peal, chop and mince garlic and eliminated the need for a garlic press or buying jars of minced garlic. Fresh is best and presses can be a pain to clean.

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

A guest post by Andréia

So, there is Christmas just around the corner and the dreaded shopping season is on its way again. Some will start shopping now and not stop until Christmas day. Some will not shop at all. Some will spend way more than they can and have a January and other months filled with angst at unpaid debts and regrets at impulse shopping.

One way to celebrate Christmas, for those of us who celebrate it, is to not buy gifts at all. But we want to celebrate the season and gifting one another seems a very warm way to do it. But the gifting has to have meaning and be useful. Otherwise we end up cluttering up the homes others we love and taking clutter home in return. And by clutter I don’t mean bad stuff, or ugly stuff, but stuff that will lay unused and forgotten in our house, thus being…clutter.

Since I became the “Master of my own House” (aka. I am the one who does ALL the Christmas shopping, lol) I have designed strategies and ways to get what me and my family needs and come January, be debt free.

Here are my strategies:

1. First, foremost and always: Have a budget! That means, set aside money to spend and don’t go over it, with no excuses.

2. Select who you are gifting: Most of us have a network of contacts, that being at work, at your children’s school, at church or whatever other activity you are involved throughout the year. There is not enough money to gift every one of those people. If you want to gift those who are not close to you, but deserve some recognition, make a list of relevance (this list can include your child’s teacher, a monitor, a church member who made a difference to you…) and gift them with small, consumable things. Sometimes a small consumable item is more appreciated. Set aside a small amount of money (around 15% of your budget should be enough) to buy a bunch of nice little consumable for some people you appreciate, but are not close. A nice soap, a different sweet, something small, cheap, but nice, will show appreciation and not make you sink in debt. If you can buy local handcrafted consumables, it helps your local community and the prices are often modest.

3. Make a list of people you exchange gifts with: We have family members that gift us and to which we gift in return. Listing then is a good way to keep track of how many gifts you are buying and to allocate how much money you are spending on each person, within the budget you set aside. I suggest you only gift those people who are really important to you, and with whom you have a tradition of spending Christmas with.

4. Ask what the person wants to get at Christmas: Now that you have established a budget (how much you have and how much you are going to spend on each person), ask the person what he or she is needing, WITHIN THE BUDDGET YOU SET ASIDE TO SPEND ON HIM/HER. If you are gifting a child, it is always great to ask the parent what the child needs/wants, rather than buy a larger than life toy (believe me, I know…. “sigh”…). It may sound crude to say “look, my budget for you is “x” dollars, what would you like for that?”, but it does save some grief and money, and you might be very surprised with the answer. Some of you might say that takes all the joy of Christmas giving, because there is no “surprise”. Once I wrote this on a comment in this blog and was criticized by another reader. Well, let me tell you, I rather someone I love spends their money on something I need or want, than on something they want to “surprise” me with and I might or might not like, or is useless, or whatever other reason makes it…clutter. Seems a waste of money to me. Only time I did like the surprise was when I got my Star Wars box of movies. But my husband was sure I would love it. And he was right.

5. Do a Secret Santa, or suggest it to the family: According to the amount of Family members you have, it might be impossible to gift everyone nicely. If you have a Christmas party for 30 people, plus your family, it gets heavy on the budget… A secret Santa will allow you to buy less gifts but nicer ones. Again, it is important to set a minimum amount spent and a maximum amount. The difference should be no more than 15% from the minimal and maximal amount. And encourage everyone to a little sleuth work to find out what their recipient would really like. You could even create a closed FB page, so everyone can list what they want, WITHIN THE BUDGET, SO THERE ARE NO FRUSTRATED GIFT GETTERS or givers for that matter. And tell the avaricious relatives that should they gift below the minimal they will have to reimburse the aggrieved party (well, maybe not, but it is a good suggestion nonetheless…LOL).

6. And last but by no means least ~ Buy in cash or debit card: This is the best way to not over spend. No credit cards, just hard cash. By paying with money you have, not only will you be more aware of what you are spending, but you also follow the budget because once the money is gone, it is gone. If you are already in debt, consider downsizing your Christmas gift list and budget and instead gift yourself with a debt free Christmas this year, and maybe there might even be money left over to pay of some of your debt as well.

Hope my suggestions help and enjoy your Christmas!

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.

These mini missions are brought to you by the ever amusing ~ Nicole V.

“Once upon a time, a beautiful queen had a baby girl. The baby’s skin was as white as snow, and she had beautiful black hair.”

From the title and opening lines, you must have guessed that the fairy tale of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” will be the inspiration for decluttering this week. We’ll focus on the seven dwarfs, in particular, for the mini missions. Some suggestions follow below, but you are, of course, free to creatively interpret the missions as they relate to you.

Monday – Doc: Declutter any expired medications, anything past its use-by date from your medicine cabinet or first-aid kit, medical bills or receipts that you no longer need.

Tuesday – Grumpy: Declutter anything that might be annoying to use, clean or maintain. It could also be something that puts you in a bad mood, for whatever reason or something that gets in your way each time you need to access a useful item.

Wednesday – Happy: This could be something that no longer brings you joy like it used to or something that would make someone else happy if you gave it to them or donated it.

Thursday – Sleepy: This could be anything from your main or guest bedroom or anything sleep-related or something that makes you yawn or feel drowsy (a really boring book, for instance).

Friday – Bashful: This could be a cheesy CD or DVD that you might be embarrassed to admit you have in your collection, an item of clothing that is so frayed and faded that you’d be too shy to be seen in it outside the home or even something from your past that might seem cheesy now (neon legwarmers from the 80s, anyone?) or anything associated with a fad that you are now embarrassed to ever have embraced.

Saturday – Sneezy: Declutter anything that exists solely to attract dust, ineffective or expired allergy medications, or even anything related to sunshine, exercising and plucking your eyebrows. Yes, you read that right – sunshine, exercising and eyebrow-plucking can induce sneezing in some people. If this has never happened to you before, who woulda thunk, right?

So that leaves us with Dopey. You can either declutter with Dopey for extra credit or use him as a replacement for any of the earlier mini missions that you might have had difficulty with. Dopey: This could be an item that has you dazed, confused or bewildered as to why it is even in your home or a thingamajig that has no apparent function, with nobody knowing what it is or what it is used for. It could even be a key that doesn’t fit any locks in your home or office.

And now, all that’s left is for me to say:

“And the friendly, creative and supportive decluttering community of 365ers lived happily ever after.

The End.”

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 is that time of the year again. Christmas is approaching and with it comes the shopping season. But I am not getting too deep into that in this post. I want to talk about children and their gifts. I have three young children and a host of well-intentioned extended family. That being said, it means that my children get tons of toys, every single year.

I can´t seem to put a hold on my relatives, but I have developed strategies not to be sunk deep in new toys. Mind you, I might seem ungrateful, but one child can have enough toys. And sometimes a interesting and or fun experience, or something a child really needs, can be way better.

How do we go about reducing the toy gifts and converting them to something more useful? If you have a large extended family, maybe Christmas is the time of the year to ask for clothes or a good pair of shoes for your little ones. Or you could suggest a special outing. If you have to pay for school books, a good idea is to ask a portion of the money that would be spend on toys to be designated to buy school books, or even go to a college fund.

However, you will meet with plenty of resistance. The older generations were the ones that had one new toy every year, if they where lucky, or none at all. Sometimes they are not thinking only about this child they are gifting now, but remembering their own disappointments of never getting that special toy or game, so they tend to overcompensate. With that in mind, approach them with calm, way before Christmas shopping gets underway, and gently suggest that your child is not deprived of toys, and that an experience would be greatly appreciated, such as tickets to a child’s favourite cartoon character movie, a fun sporting activity like roller skating or wall climbing, a visit to a zoo, theme park or museum etc. 

On the other hand sometimes we, as parents, are very pressed for cash, and a few good clothing items and new pair of shoes would be a help, because children need lots of clothes! I would like to explain that a little better. When we are grown ups, we don’t “lose” clothes so much. We gain weight, we lose weight, clothes tear from too much use so we need to buy new items occasionally. Children on the other hand “lose” clothes all the time. Sometimes an entire wardrobe becomes obsolete from one winter to the next. That lovely pair of trainers you kept for outings, suddenly is not fitting anymore, in a short space of one month. Thankfully I get lots of hand me downs, but I am equally passing on a lot of things that my children have grown out of, so bigger clothes are always needed.

So, now the silly season is coming, think about what your children really need or would enjoy rather than toys and conveying that to those well intention relatives who would probably appreciate your suggestions. I am sure children would enjoy something other than just another toy to add to the pile.  I remember going on outings with my grandmother and other experiences we had together a lot more than any material gifts I ever received. On the other had I also fondly remember a real nice doll I got one Christmas. I certainly wouldn’t remember that one special gift  had I received a dozen similar year after year. Our children will enjoy the season all the more when not being swarmed by it.

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