With all the world’s tragedies weighing heavily on me lately, I’ve been doing my best to seek out as much positivity as possible.

I’ve had an amazing summer volunteering, and so far my only regret is that there isn’t enough time to do more. There are some truly unique and life-changing community volunteer opportunities that many don’t know about — and there are countless rewards for donating our time! So I decided to create my own positivity by spreading the word:

Find (or Create) Your Ideal Volunteer Opportunity

15 Ways to Help Homeless Dogs

How to Volunteer with Your Kids

Your Go-To Guide for Volunteering with Seniors: Offering Time, Talents, and Good Conversation

The Community Advocate’s Guide to Feeding the Hungry

Volunteering as a College Student: How Helping Others Helps You

50 Community Service Ideas for Teen Volunteers

Volunteering While Coping with Recovery: 12 Ways to be Active in Your Community

The Health Benefits of Volunteering

I hope you’ll consider sharing these with your audience. I’ve had such a rewarding experience that I’d love to help others do the same!

Best,

Jennifer

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.

Mini Mission Monday — A greeting card for every (decluttering) occasion

By Nicole V

I was delighted to hear Colleen’s news about the order that was placed for one hundred of her handmade cards! I can only imagine how busy she must have been in fulfilling that order and using up her craft supplies. On that note, this week’s decluttering missions are all about different types of greeting cards, so let’s see what you come up with — but before we begin, do take a few minutes to check out just how creative Colleen can be on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fancythatartistcollective?ref=hl.

Monday — Birthday: Declutter a gift that you don’t really like or that you might have grown tired of or no longer use. Or you might have a large supply of gift-wrapping paraphernalia that could use some trimming. You could also declutter party supplies, cards, candles, and anything related to celebrations.

Tuesday — Graduation: Have any university textbooks or lecture notes lying around the house? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many people still hang on to them, together with term papers, assignments and projects that they aced. If you’ve been really good in this area, then take a look at any high school yearbooks that might still be occupants in your home, and decide whether you can do without one of them. Photos, awards, sweatshirts or anything from your school days are all fair game, as well as anything from work, courses you have taken, and seminars or conferences you have attended.

Wednesday — New home: Still have an unopened box or two sitting around from your last move? If the answer’s a red-faced “Yes”, you know what you need to do. If you don’t, however, don’t rejoice too soon — you’re not off the hook yet! Walk around your home and look — and I mean really look — at everything you own, from the furniture and the decorative items to the things you use daily or that you might not even have used at all. Can you find something that you know you will not bring with you if you move to a new place?

Thursday — Get well: It’s time to go through your medicine cabinet and first-aid box and declutter any expired items in there. Perhaps you have some other items — clothes, shoes, accessories, lotions, perfumes or cosmetics that you have grown sick of using. Take a look in your fridge and pantry as well, for anything that no longer tempts your jaded palate.

Friday — Bon voyage: Is there a huge stack of vacation photos lying around somewhere or stuffed into boxes, waiting to be sorted? Or do you have a box of once-treasured holiday mementoes that you no longer even bother looking at? You might have even returned from a trip in the past week or so and have yet to tackle that pile of stuff you unceremoniously dumped on the nearest flat surface you could find, while promising yourself that you’d put everything away once the jet lag wore off. Do you have an item languishing somewhere around the home, that you know you should have said sayonara or adios to a long time ago, but for some reason or other, you never got around to doing so?

Saturday — New baby: Have your children all flown the nest and are you still hanging on to every single childhood item of theirs? Or do you have young children who just have too much of everything — too many toys, clothes and books? Are you hanging on to all your childhood treasures on the assumption that your future children will want them?

Sunday — Retirement: Is there any item in your home that’s on its last legs? Maybe it should have been retired ages ago because it no longer works the way it used to, and you can do without it, or you find yourself picking up the new and improved version that you recently bought, because, you know, the old one’s already taken its last breath. If you are retired, or have made a mid-career change, are you still holding on to unnecessary stuff from your previous career?

Good luck and happy decluttering

I talk a lot about freeing up space in cupboards, closets, shelves and floors. No one ever seems to have questioned me as to what all this space is being freed up for. What is the point in having empty spaces on shelves or floor space that could hold furniture to store or organise all your stuff.

Given that you don’t need to declutter anything if you don’t want to then I could understand why this would come into question. However you wouldn’t even be entertaining the thought of decluttering if being cluttered was working for you.

One thing for sure, that I have mentioned before, is that everything we own requires some sort of maintenance. So the more we own the more effort we have to put in to caring it. If we aren’t doing that our homes would be a pigsty and some of our stuff will perish prematurely from lack of care. This explains why less stuff is less bother, but it still doesn’t answer the question ~ Why free up space when it is there to be used?.

I have two answers to that question.

Firstly. Like the stuff itself, the spaces where we keep it require maintenance. The dust, grime and wear and tear of everyday life needs to be kept in check in order to retain a clean and functional environment to live in. So the less stuff cluttering up these spaces the easier it is to remove it in order to clean and maintain the hardworking surfaces underneath. And also, the less punishment those surfaces endure, due to a lighter load, the less maintenance they will require. The end result being ~ less labour and or less expense.

And my second, but no less important, reason for freeing up space is that the less stuff crammed into a space the easier it is to find and retrieve what you need from it. Once again this saves time and energy. It is so much easier to organise, and maintain organisation, in a space that isn’t jam packed with stuff. The minute you start piling things high and deep, that aren’t exactly the same, time is added to the retrieval process. And likewise, the difficulty returning items will add to the likelihood of messiness taking hold.

It makes me wonder sometime why cupboards, particularly in the kitchen, are build so deep. Pantries are often poorly designed for their function. Designed for maximum storage yes but functionality no.

Could I cram more stuff into the cupboards in my house? Sure I could. Do I want to do that and make life difficult for myself? No, absolutely not. And I especially don’t want to do it with a whole pile of stuff that would get used very seldom. The funny twist to this story is that a lot of what was cluttering up my home in the past was stuff supposedly designed to make my work load lighter. But in actual fact it was adding to the problem not solving it.

Life is much simpler for me now and it can be for you too.

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.

The theme for this weeks mini missions is what the items are used for. That should make it nice broad categories for you to find clutter among. So lets get on with it.

Monday – Declutter something for wearing.

Tuesday – Declutter something for cooking.

Wednesday – Declutter something for adorning the home with.

Thursday – Declutter something for adorning yourself with. Jewellery and the like.

Friday – Declutter something used to maintain things. Tools, cleaners and other utilitarian objects.

Saturday – Declutter something meant to entertain you. Books, CDs DVDs, magazines etc

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

Going through and decluttering your filing cabinet can be a nightmare when it has been neglected for a long time. So I have written a set of guidelines below that I use to declutter my files and to avoid paperwork buildup in the first place.

1. Don’t file anything you don’t need to keep. By “need” I mean absolutely should keep. Don’t allow anxiety to force you to keep documents that aren’t really important. Only keep tax papers for the government prescribed length of time then declutter them.
2. Switch to as many digital documents (bills, newsletters, school notes etc) as possible so the paper has less chance to invade your home and to build up.
3. Once a bill is paid, and the next statement comes through that confirms that, declutter the previous statement.
4. Pay bills by cheque or bank deposit so you have a permanent digital bank record of the transaction. This way you can be secure in decluttering paper statements.
5. Scan documents you declutter if you feel the need, rather than being worrying that you shouldn’t have parted with them.
6. Every time you file a paper under it’s specific label check that file to see if there is an older document that could be decluttered.
7. Use the smallest document/file holder necessary for your needs. This way you are forced to declutter it regularly or there won’t be room to add to it.

I hope you find this list of guidelines useful and that you will end up with a big reduction of paper in your file drawers and ultimately reduce the number of drawers you need.

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 search for some clutter that shouldn’t be too hard to find because it is out in the open right under your nose. The worse part about clutter that is out in the open is that it collects dust. The beauty of decluttering it is that the less you have the less dusting is required to keep your home clean and fresh. So lets see what we can find to get rid of. I will name a surface and you can check there for clutter.

Monday – Around the bathroom basins.

Tuesday – On the fridge ~ both vertical and horizontal surfaces.

Wednesday – On bedside cabinets, chest of drawers or dressing table.

Thursday – On and in TV cabinet or entertainment unit.

Friday – On kitchen benches.

Saturday –On the coffee or lamp tables in your living room.

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.

Today’s mini missions concentrate on what, experience tells me, are usually the most cluttered areas of peoples homes. I visit these areas a lot in our weekly mini missions but lumping them all together in one week brings our focus to them. Especially if they resinate to you as the most cluttered areas in your home. Maybe due to your decluttering these areas are no longer so cluttered but they are likely to be the areas to remain vigilant about. So lets get started.

Monday – Declutter a couple of items from your kitchen. Gadgets, utensils, crockery, glassware… In my experience this is usually the most cluttered room in homes. The more cluttered a kitchen is the more dysfunctional they become while efficiency in the kitchen is very important to a smooth running daily home routine.

Tuesday – Declutter a few clothing items. Wardrobes and clothing drawers are another common clutter problem area.

Wednesday – Declutter something from the bathroom cabinets. Focus on using up less preferred toiletry items or throwing them out if they are old and possibly no longer suitable for use.

Thursday – Declutter some items from the garage or shed. These places are often well stocked with usual items but also can be catchment areas for items rejected from the living spaces of your home. If there are items there that have been lingering too long, or there are unnecessary multiples of things, now is a good day to declutter a few.

Friday – If you still have a junk drawer in your home where miscellaneous random items get stashed, then it might be time to check out what has accumulated there and declutter what isn’t useful.

Saturday – If you have kids, declutter some outgrown clothes and/or toys. If not, declutter some of you own toys such as hobby items, electronic gadgets, DVD’s, CDs etc.

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

Random Acts of Miscellaneous Kindness

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

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 my lovely 365ers, and what kind of decluttering are you up to this week. Well here I am again to help you along on that task. This week we are going to unclutter and declutter at the same time. That is each day we are going to seek out something in our homes that need putting away ~ that’s the unclutter part ~ then where we put it away we are going to see if we can find something to declutter completely. So every day the instructions will be the same but the state of your home will determine where and what will be unclutter and declutters. So here goes.

Monday – Put away an item out of place in your home then declutter an item in the place that you just rehoused the other item.

Tuesday – Put away an item out of place in your home then declutter an item in the place that you just rehoused the other item.

Wednesday – Put away an item out of place in your home then declutter an item in the place that you just rehoused the other item.

Thursday – Put away an item out of place in your home then declutter an item in the place that you just rehoused the other item.

Friday – Put away an item out of place in your home then declutter an item in the place that you just rehoused the other item.

Saturday – Put away an item out of place in your home then declutter an item in the place that you just rehoused the other item.

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