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.

People collect all sorts of things from beetles & baby teeth to Cars and everything in between. I used to have an elephant collection once, but the thought of moving that around the country, while married to a service man, didn’t appeal to me and I let it go. But the one thing we all involuntarily collect, some more so than others, is dust. And the more stuff we own sitting on furniture, open shelves and sometimes even the floor, the more dust we are collecting. The good news is that there is a simple solution. Horizontal surfaces still collect dust however they are much easier to remove dust from than surfaces covered with trinkets and whatnots. So the simple solution is to minimise the clutter. I could come up with enough missions for a month on this topic alone but here are six for you to be getting on with.

Monday – I have given the bookworms a bit of a reprieve for a while, however, books are big dust collectors and also can become quite musty when kept in damp places without good ventilation. So this week how about decluttering ten books from your collection that you are least likely to read again.

Tuesday – Declutter excess plush toys and then wash and air out the ones you keep. This is probably more than a mini mission but it is a job that needs doing occasionally.

Wednesday – Declutter a couple of trinkets, knick knacks, whatnots or whatever you like to call them.

Thursday – Declutter at least one fabric item that just sits on or drapes over furniture or hangs on a wall. Cushions, throw rugs, curtains, embroideries etc fall into this category. If they aren’t being used chances are they are collecting dust and slowly perishing.

Friday – Declutter a dusty old box of stuff that hasn’t been opened for years. If it has had so little attention then you don’t need or love the contents enough to keep it.

Saturday – Declutter a piece of exercise equipment that you probably ought to be using but aren’t. If you can’t bring yourself to do that then start using it.

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

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 I want you to choose a room in your home that has a clutter issue, and this room is going to be the focus of your mini missions this week. Make a vow to yourself that you are not going to add any extra clutter to this room. Anything you use from or in it during the week you are going to put away immediately after use. Choose departure points for your decluttered items, some will go in the trash some will end up in the recycling bin while others will be donated. Make sure your donation departure point is in an out of the way place away from your target room. If you have the opportunity to dispose of them as you go along that is all the better because then you won’t be tempted to keep them. Lets get started.

Monday – Tidy off and declutter one elevated surface in your focus room putting everything away in its proper home.

Tuesday – Go back to your chosen room again and pick another elevated surface to clear off and declutter. Once again put everything away in its proper home and move any unwanted clutter to your clutter departure points. 

Wednesday – Today you are going to clear off and declutter the floor in your chosen room. Pick up anything that doesn’t belong on the floor and find a home for it. Once again move any unwanted clutter to its departure point.

Thursday – Choose a drawer in this room and declutter it. If you have no drawers choose a small area that is out of sight. A box under a bed, a shelf or a small cabinet.

Friday – Repeat the same task as Thursday.

Saturday – Declutter an area of your own choosing in the room today. By now the room should be in pretty good shape.

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.

Today I have brought this little gem out of the archives to share with you. It may be an oldie but it is still a goodie.

The departure point, the staging area, the sorting space… whatever you want to call it, having one certainly makes decluttering more organised. This is the space where your chosen ones, that is the items you want to get rid of are moved to prior to their final departure from your home. This makes the initial decision making precess easier without the complication of dealing with an immediate removal. The system works like this…

1. Chose an item you no longer which to have cluttering up your home.
2. Remove it from the space where it usually lingers.
3. Place it in the departure point until you are ready to do whatever it takes to rid it from your home.
4. At the appropriate time you move these items on to their next destination. Which might be a car boot sale, a thrift shop, to the post office for mailing to its ebay highest bidder, to a friends house etc etc.

Choosing your departure point

I try to limit my departure point to one particular area, which for me is a shelf in the garage. I have a spacious two car garage but not everyone is that fortunate. If you live in an apartment or small home you may want to use a shelf in a cupboard, a box by the front door, a space in your laundry or even the trunk of your car. Due to space restraints or convenience it may be wiser for you to have one place for donations and a different place for items you wish to sell and another for items you are handing on the a friend or relative. Perhaps you’ll even want a place to store items you have separated from the herd, so to speak, in order to decide whether you are really ready to part with them. It is entirely up to you but I really think it is helpful to choose your space or spaces and stick to it/them for the sake of good organisation.

The area your departure point takes up will vary depending on..

• How much space you have to begin with.
• How large or numerous your declutter items usually are.
• How many categories you wish to separate them into. This might be sell, donate, return or give to family or friend, for consideration.
• Whether you share your space with other people that may or may not be family members.
• How often you can get to your donation point.
• If you bother to sell items or just give them away.

My garage shelf has two boxes and some extra space for larger items that don’t fit in the boxes. One box is for donations, one is for items I plan to sell. Naturally things that are past being useful bypass the departure point and go straight into their respective bins, either garbage or recycling.

The items I am considering decluttering but haven’t fully committed to yet get put in either the sell or donate box depending on what I am likely to do with them if I decide to declutter them permanently.

My designated clutter departure point

To be honest though, due to me performing a little reshuffle in my craft room while around the same time my husband and son both did a some decluttering of their own my departure points have spread all over the place at the moment. My situation is complicated by the fact that I photograph everything for my blog. This a an example of why slow decluttering is much less messy.

Decluttering gone wild

In a nut shell. Decide on an area to store your clutter prior to its ultimate departure. This keeps your rejected items neatly rounded up and away from your keepers until you donate, sell or rehouse them. Then when the time is convenient send them on to their final destination out of your house. Then revel in the joy of living with less while you continue to divide and conquer.

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.

This week it is time again to go through those memorabilia items. We all have memorabilia items that we wouldn’t want to part with and that is perfectly fine. But most of us also have similar items that we only keep out of habit because tradition dictates that we should view these things as important. But the truth is if they mean little to us why burden ourselves with them.

Monday – Declutter those old greeting cards from people who no longer mean anything to you or celebrate occasions that hold little significance.

Tuesday –  Declutter a family heirloom you possibly never really liked. Give it to another member of the family who enjoys preserving the family history.

Wednesday –Declutter a souvenir.

Thursday –Declutter a childhood or baby item of you or your children that doesn’t hold as much significance to you as it once did.

Friday –Declutter a diary or journal that is so embarrassing that you wouldn’t want it to become part of your family history.

Saturday –Declutter a memento that is boxed away somewhere where you rarely see it and don’t care enough to visit it often.

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.

Random Acts of Miscellaneous Kindness

(Little thoughtful acts for no reason but to make a complete strangers life a little easier.)

If you have an act that you think would be kind please share it with me via my contact page so I can share it with your fellow readers. Here is an idea for an act of kindness from a reader name Jean.

People enjoy finding money, it is sweet to drop a coin where children might walk and find it, or even a dollar for older folks. Everyone feels lucky when they find money, even a very small amount.

How much space is taken up in your home with clutter from the person you once were. Do you still have…

1. Sports equipment the will never be used again.
2. Clothes that no longer fit.
3. Musical instruments that you never really learned to play.
4. College papers that are long out of date.
5. Supplies for a hobby that you lost interest in some time ago.
6. Music that you are embarrassed to say you once loved.
7. Love letters from a faded romance.
8. Books you read once and will never read again.
9. Enough linen, crockery, cutlery etc to cater for your family of five when now it is just the two of you.
10. Shelves of bric-a-brac that you no longer have the energy to dust. Or haven’t got the time to waste maintaining because you have more rewarding and enjoyable things to do.
11. Tools in the garage that you no longer have the dexterity to use.
12. Eyeglasses from when your vision was much closer to 20 20.
13. Business suits from the job you retired from years ago.
14. Supplies to put on those elaborate dinner parties you no longer could be bothered catering for. A simple meal with friends is now more your style.
15. Gardening tools from a era gone by when you had the time to garden.

Like most lists of clutter this one could go on and on but I think you get the picture.

I know I will never play softball again, my shoulder is already damaged enough from that previous life. I have let go of items of clothing that are not really suited to me now that I am in my mid forties. I have let go of my cross-stitch fabrics because there is little chance that I will go back to that craft. I prefer sensible shoes to high heals that kill my feet (Give me comfort over vanity any day) so I only keep a few pairs for special occasions. I have downsized my dining suite because 90% of the year there are only two of us eating at it. The ski equipment is long gone because we no longer live near ski fields.  Even the storage containers I once had an abundance of have dwindled to only a few because I refuse to go back to the level of clutter I once owned. And there are many more things that I have let go of that no longer fit with my current life.

There is no shame in moving on to the next phase of your life, as life is more fun when it is varied and interesting. So there is no point desperately clinging on the the past or it’s accoutrements . Be happy with the person you are now, embrace the new you. Let go of the items from your past that, if you are realistic, you know you no longer need. They are just cluttering up your life and holding you back. And also don’t over cater to the next phase that comes along because that is how our home become all cluttered in the first place.

I am still occasionally shedding things I no longer need and, given how life changes, this will go on until my last breath. Just this week I sent off numerous old Tupperware containers to my daughter. I no longer need them because, when catering to only two people for meals, I no longer find a use for so many containers. Recently I had two pair of high heal shoes fall apart on me. I threw them away and didn’t bother to replace them as I wear heals so little these days. On the other hand I sent a pair of flats to the cobbler for repair. And at the moment I am, once again, going through my craft supplies in a bid to purge them once again of items that haven’t been used in a long time. And clothes will be the next thing on the agenda, although some of them are just shabby and will need replacing.

So take a look around your home and see what you have that you no longer use from your previous life, and as Marie Kondo suggests, thank it for its services and send it on its way.

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.

Everyone enjoyed it the last time I had a set of mini missions based on colour, so I thought I would do that again this week. I have chosen a colour for each day and all you have to do is find something to declutter that is that colour. This is a very visual set of missions so that makes it quite easy to spot things to match. So good luck and happy decluttering.

Monday – Declutter something that is yellow

Tuesday - Declutter something that is brown

Wednesday - Declutter something that is white

Thursday - Declutter something that is red

Friday - Declutter something that is black

Saturday - Declutter something that is green

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.

Random Acts of Miscellaneous Kindness

(Little thoughtful acts for no reason but to make a complete strangers life a little easier.)

If you see someone looking a little lost, when out and about in your town, stop and see if you can help them find what they are looking for.

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, for our mini missions, we are going to visit little nooks and crannies around the house which may have, up until now, remained untouched by human hands, or the vacuum cleaner for that matter, during our previous decluttering efforts. I will list seven places I have thought of below, but if you have already taken care of these areas or you don’t have them in your home make some up for yourself. Don’t just declutter these areas give them a clean up as well.

Monday – The bottom of your linen closet.

Tuesday – A corner of your garage, attic or basement.

Wednesday – The cupboard under the stairs.

Thursday – Under your bed or any other bed in the house.

Friday – The cupboard/space under your laundry or kitchen sink.

Saturday – The top or bottom shelf of the pantry.

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