Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Today’s Declutter Item

Plastic Tray

Something I Am Grateful For Today

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

Friday’s Favorites, but Not Five

Once again I am delving into the cyberworld to ferret out interesting and useful blogs for your enjoyment. Because this week was lower than usual on comments, and higher than usual on blog suggestions, I decided to change it up a bit. Hopefully I won’t be in trouble with you or with Colleen!

1. Since so many readers have lots of scrapbooking materials, I love this guide to holiday gift making. It’s July – time to start, right? (Warning, at least one of the links doesn’t work any more.)  http://smallnotebook.org/2008/11/11/holiday-gifts-handmade-with-paper/

2. Blogger Barbara Crafton says good-bye to her old (inanimate) friends at a yard sale. http://geraniumfarm.org/dailyemo.cfm?Emo=1309

3. Katie at Making This Home gives some nice guidelines for dealing with heirlooms. http://www.makingthishome.com/2010/06/28/the-decluttering-project-heirlooms-sentimental-items/

4. Is it cheating to pick two posts from the same blog? Here Katie talks about resisting the lure of shopping. I found the tidbit that the average American woman buys 60 new clothing items a year shocking. My family of four might buy 60 items for everyone, including school uniforms. http://www.makingthishome.com/2011/06/13/is-the-no-new-clothes-challenge-worth-it/

5. The Minimalist Packrat shares ideas on helping your kids to declutter. http://minimalistpackrat.com/2011/03/02/helping-kids-declutter-their-stuff/

And, for your additional reading enjoyment, two links that I especially liked from this week’s interviews.

6. From Bea at The Zero Waste Home, who thinks that our love of cleaning products is out of control.  http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com/2010/05/cleanliness-standards-revised.html

7. And Dave at The 100 Things Challenge muses on dealing with the disappointment of things not going according to plan. http://guynameddave.com/2011/06/never-quite-according-to-plan/

Today’s Declutter Item (from Colleen)

I believe this is the last of the travel toiletries. I do solemnly swear that these will be the last ever to clutter up my bathroom cabinet as I believe that the purge is now complete and I plan for it to stay that way.

The last of the travel toiletries

Something I Am Grateful For Today

All the love that we have experienced in life whether fleeting, lost, long term or form those who have passed on. Look at all these experiences in a positive light no matter if the experience ended in sadness because that fact that someone loved you

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

More than a dozen years ago, when I was working, a email like the one that follows circulated. It’s probably the only chain email that I’ve found to be truly valuable. I hope you find it meaningful too.

A time management expert stood in front of the group of high-powered achievers. He said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”

Everyone in the class said, “Yes.”

“Really ?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to fill in around the big rocks. Then he asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?”

By this time the class was onto him. “Probably not,” one of them answered.

“Good!” he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Now is the jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted.

Once again he said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it.”

“Maybe that’s true,” the speaker replied, “but that’s not my point. What I want you to see is this: If you don’t put your big rocks in first, you won’t get them in at all.”

What are the “big rocks” in your life? Family? Health? Friends? Volunteer time? I bet it’s not reading home fashion magazines for two hours a day, searching endlessly on YouTube for something that makes you laugh, or hitting the “refresh” button on your Facebook page 6 or 7 times an hour. Yet somehow we find ourselves sucked in by the little things - the gravel (or worse, the water) - while the big rocks sit outside the jar neglected.

Ask yourself, “What are my big rocks?” and remember to put them first, or they won’t get in at all.

Today’s Declutter Item

Way back at the beginning of 365 Less Things I decluttered and repurposed some of my gift wrapping items because I made a pledge to treat friends to outings rather than buy them gift on special occasions and I have convinced my family not to exchange gifts with me anymore. So now I feel confident to declutter most of the remaining portion of my gift wrap stash as they are still sitting there unused after all this time. I will send this lot to the thrift store. In future I will keep a roll of brown paper, which I use to wrap eBay sales, that, with  a little artistic flare, I can decorate up in the event that I do find myself actually giving a physical gift item to someone near and dear.

Something I Am Grateful For Today

I am forever grateful for the cooperation and understanding of those near and dear to me when it comes to the lifestyle change I have adopted over the last eighteen months. My husband and my son are not only willing but independent declutterers and my friends and family have not only respected but in some cases embraced the changes that I have made to my gift giving/receiving ways.

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

Colleen is on vacation visiting her daughter and other family, so I’m exploring the blog world this week and picking the Friday’s Favorite Five. As a reminder, I rarely read blogs, so picking 5 favorites is always an experiment for me.

And my favorite comments from the past week:

1. Jo praises Colleen for her systematic way of dealing with a trouble clutter spot and finds a solution to a long-term problem. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1510#comment-8959

2. Di praises Colleen the inspiration she provides after listening to Colleen’s interview. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1489#comment-8932

3. Natalie shares her great plan to motivate her children to get rid of their no-longer-needed items and to save for future wants and needs. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1243#comment-8991

4. Chelle reflects on her decluttering journey. http://www.365lessthings.com/?p=1243&cpage=1#comment-8980

Today’s Declutter Item

Books of Love

Something to be Grateful For

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

• having more space
• ease of finding things
• freedom from the shame of a messy environment
• freedom from buying duplicates (or triplicates!) of an item because you can’t locate it
• feeling of accomplishment for achieving something that was difficult for you
• pride in reselling your goods (I have started sending every penny I make reselling to my mortgage company, and each item out of the house gives me an extra feeling of satisfaction now.)
• knowing that you are donating your goods to charity where both the charity and the next owner will benefit from your generosity
• realizing that you are learning new habits that will help you manage your money more successfully in the future
• realizing that you are learning new habits that are beneficial to the environment
• freeing yourself of the uncomfortable feeling that having too many projects that you’ll “get to some day”
• learning new shopping habits
• spending less time cleaning will allow you to spend more time on more valuable pursuits
• having the encouragement of a team of fellow declutterers here at 365 Less Things

Thermos Flask

Something I Am Grateful For Today

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Do you feel rich in your possessions or poor? Feeling poor makes it difficult to get rid of things that are no longer needed, wanted or valued. It induces hoarding and the suspicion that you really might need that someday.

Might you really?

Feeling rich in your possessions allows you to let things go. It allows you to feel sure that there’s no lack of items in the world, and there’s certainly not, at least not in the world of anyone who’s reading this blog. Certainly our fortunes may change, but it’s unlikely that anything you may declutter today would mean the difference between salvation and poverty in the future.

My husband told a joke about engineers who like to tinker. The punchline is that none of them ever uses the stuff they collect, and when they get rid of it, they pass it to another engineer to store in their garage.

He went on to tell me what I already believe: That there are few items so unique and so precious that they cannot be replaced if you find you really cannot live without them. While that exact item may be difficult to find, something very similar will surely be available, perhaps at the thrift store, perhaps on Ebay, perhaps in your friend’s garage.

I’m sure most of you read my post commemorating my 365th day of decluttering. I said that the only thing I regretted getting rid of was the cracking lid to a 13×9 metal pan. Amazingly enough, in the Lost and Found cleaned up, there was a perfect 13×9 pan with a lid. My friend Jennifer has one just like it, and she takes delicious mint brownies to all the school functions in it, so I called her to confirm it wasn’t hers. It wasn’t, and now it’s mine. All I needed was 1) to want something and 2) to wait. Everything you need is available to you, and you just have to wait for it to appear.

Jennifer’s Delicious Mint Brownies

Brownies

• 4 squares of unsweetened bakers chocolate
• 1 C butter
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 C sugar
• 1/2 t mint extract
• 1 C flour, sifted
• 1/4 t of salt

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Cool and add remaining ingredients. Pour batter into a well greased 13×9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Let your brownies cool.

Frosting

• 2 T butter
• 2 C powdered sugar
• 2 T milk
• 1 t mint extract
• green food coloring (optional)

Cream the butter, gradually add the powdered sugar. Add the milk, mint and food coloring. Frost the brownies and refrigerate.

Glaze

• 2 square unsweetened baker’s chocolate
• 2 T butter

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Mix well and pour over frosting, spreading until the brownies are completely covered. Cool and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

(For my diabetic friends, I figured these have 775 carbohydrates for the entire pan.)

Today’s Declutter Item

I used to use this file/book all of the time but in reality it is another one of those poor designs that are inflicted on the unsuspecting public. It has a pocket for each month in which you place birthday cards etc for upcoming occasions in order to be ready in advance. The problem is that the spine of the book isn’t large enough to allow for the expansion of the book when the cards are in place. As a result up until about October this file/book is a very awkward shape. After doing a little reshuffling and repurposing I have found a new home for my stock of pre-made handmade greeting cards so this can go to the thrift shop.

Greeting Card File

Something I Am Grateful For Today

Oddly enough I am grateful for the rare but interesting readers comments that have a vehemently opposing opinion to mine. After the initial shock of the passionate attack, for want of a better word, on what I wrote and in some circumstances on my character as well, I find it an interesting challenge to 1. Not be offended and 2. Use it as an exercise in character building.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

I love a label. Love. Love. Love.

• My grocery store bags, children’s lunch boxes, our water bottles, coolers, and flashlights are labeled with our last name.
• All of my girls’ uniforms, sweaters and coats have their names in them.
• When they were littler and their feet closer to the same size, all of Audra’s socks were labeled on the bottom with a letter A to distinguish them from Clara’s socks.
• My canisters of food staples are labeled with their contents, even though you can easily see into the canisters.
• The girls and Dan and I have matching hairbrushes and matching nail clippers; matching, that is, except for the big “Mom and Dad” on the items that belong in my bathroom.
• All the leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer are labeled with the name and date.
• I label packages of food with the carbohydrate counts in large letters so they’re easier to find and read.
• My ipod, laptop, cell phone, and Clara’s insulin pump and supply bag are all clearly labeled with contact information on the outside.
• When I loan out a book, I slap a return address label on the inside cover.
• One lip balm is labeled “desk.” Another is labeled “bed.” Scissors are labeled “Mom,” “Dad,” and “Kitchen.”
• All of my garden tools are labeled on the handles – some so long ago that they bare my maiden name.
• All of my animals have name tags on their collars, the cats as well as the dogs.

These labels help keep me and the family organized, help items to come back to us if they’re lost or misplaced, cut down on waste, and prevent clutter.

Obviously, when many things are labeled, it makes it easier for everyone to find what they’re looking for and to put things back where they belong. Labels help to keep like with like. They help you to find what you want and prevent duplicate purchasing due to “I know it’s here…somewhere.”

Labels also help your lost or misplaced items to be returned to you. Recently Clara and I left her diabetes kit on the floor of a shoe store. (Dummy us!) Fortunately, Clara realized within a few minutes. We hurried back to the store, and the sales clerk was literally calling me as we arrived because the bag is plainly labeled “Diabetic Supplies” with my name and phone numbers.

Several times a year, we take many of our gardening tools to the girls’ school for big grounds clean up, and it is used by many different folks. Having everything labeled allows it all to get back to us, eliminating the need for replacement purchasing.

All these things are true, but I have to tell you what motivated this post. First a quote from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (or Philosopher’s) Stone by J.K. Rowling. Harry is looking over his school supplies list. First up are the required uniforms:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name labels.

“Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name labels.” Oh if reality only mimicked fiction.

I volunteered to take home all the lost and found from my daughters’ school. Not the uniforms that had made their way into the Lost and Found but everything else. I was flabbergasted by what awaited me. First off, let me add that the girls had sorted everything as an end-of-school clean-up chore and had already returned everything that was labeled with a name. I brought home more than 100 items that I had to check over, sort, clean, and donate. 100 items for a school of 120 girls and about a dozen teachers and staff. Currently in my house are a couple of seemingly brand-new swimsuits, a couple of beach towels, a dozen tote bags, at least fifteen refillable water bottles, a dozen books, five or six lunchboxes (one still complete with lunch and full water bottle), a whole host of non-uniform jackets and sweaters, and someone’s special stuffed dog along with her nice hairbrush.

All these items have to be looked for and replaced by their owners (owners’ parents). How much simpler would everyone’s day have been if the items had been labeled to begin with and could have been returned before it was too late?

Is there anything you could label at your house that would make your life easier, more organized, and less likely to create clutter?

* * * * * * *

Today’s Declutter Item

This camera case is no longer useful to us because we sold the damaged camera for parts on ebay.

Camera Case

Something I Am Grateful For Today

My son Liam handed in his last uni assignment in for the semester and all of last semesters unfinished work is also complete and handed in.. Now he can have a nice break for four weeks and return with a normal work load next semester. At last life post accident can return to normal. It is amazing how that time (9 months)has flown and how well he has recovered. Thanks again everyone for your well wishes during that frightening period in our lives, your support was a Godsend.

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

Cindy's Laundry Cabinet "BEFORE"

Yikes! It looks pretty bad, doesn’t it? But really, the cabinet needed a tidy even more than it needed a declutter. Here’s what I did:

• removed two towels, which I mentioned in my post The First Fruits
• removed the package of sponges, which I donated to local food pantry
• transferred the Socks Looking For Their One True Love from the crumpled bag on the top shelf into a plastic bin. (Freed up from other decluttering, of course!)
• took down the cardboard box on the top shelf, which has light bulbs in it. I cleaned out the box itself and removed 9 light bulbs (one of which I used right away) and 7 packages of mantles for a gas outdoor lamp, which we no longer have.
• refolded the towels and sorted them by rag bath towels and rag hand towels

All together, I spent 30 minutes, including changing the light bulb, matching a couple of socks, breaking down some packaging for recycling, and posting a free listing on my neighborhood listserve for the mantles, which quickly found a new home. (It used to be that everyone in the neighborhood had a gas lamp on a pole in their front yard, but many of them have been removed over the past 45 years.)

The AFTER shot

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

I was holding two pitchers: One was a really nice Tupperware in great shape with a tight, functioning lid. The other was a yellow, stained pitcher with no lid and handle that threatened to crack down the seam but was still holding. Which to declutter? The phrase “the first fruits” popped into my head. I knew the reference, but I had to look up the quote from the Bible. It is from Psalms 3:9: “Honor the LORD with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase.”

This quote is referring to tithing (giving money to the church). What did it have to decluttering? I realized that most people would probably keep the nicer pitcher and give the shabbier one to the thrift store. But I’m not afraid of the stained yellow pitcher, and it sure would look tacky and undesirable at the thrift store. The other pitcher would feel like a real find. I decided that since I would continue to use the cruddy pitcher, and I only needed one pitcher, I would give the better one, the first fruit, to the thrift store.

I used this same thinking when I was looking at our junk towels, which we use by the front door when it rains or to towel off the dogs after a bath. I have too many of these. Our church has a ministry where the women provide toiletries and the use of towels for homeless women to shower once a week. Some of my junky towels are really junky, and some are just not my current bathroom towels. I decided to donate the better towels, the first fruits, to the shower ministry. After all, these are already downtrodden women; they don’t need a threadbare towel with a tear in it to make them feel even worse about their circumstances. The dogs, on the other hand, couldn’t care less what I towel them off with. (In fact, they’d prefer never to have a bath again.)

I know that decluttering one item a day allows us to think through what we’re getting rid of, where it should go, etc. Here’s another way to look at the picture: If you have two similar items, should you give or keep the first fruit?

Today’s Declutter Item

Some of the items that I donated to the school up the street or recycled when I decluttered my  stationery drawers recently.

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me glad ~ Liam is riding off to university right now with the all but one of the last work that needs handing in for the end of semester. Hooray!
• Something Awesome ~ Friends you do favours for and then they do them in return.
• Something to be grateful for ~ All the wonderful applications available for free on the internet.
• Something that made me happy ~ Chatting with my mum and dad on the phone today. I can’t imagine them ever getting old even though they are 72 & 76 this year.
• Something I found fascinating ~ How some flavours work together and some just don’t. God bless the people who thought to put dates and caramel together that tart I had yesterday was scrumptious.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

If you live in the US, you’re reading this on May 31, the last day of my 365 challenge. Ah, let’s all say that together, “365 Days of decluttering.” Sounds nice, doesn’t it? How did I get to this point? What have I gotten rid of? What have I learned?

The Journey

In 2002, my family of a 2 1/2 year old daughter, husband and I bought a well used house in a very nice neighborhood. An 86 year old widower lived in the house, which hadn’t been remodelled or updated in dozens of years. You can use your imagination! Within 3 months, we had another daughter. With these two ever-changing beings scampering around underfoot, we took on two major remodels with Dan and I providing a lot, but certainly not all, of the labor. In addition, Dan worked full time, and I had the kids home with me.

The house was always in flux. Many, many objects had homes and the insides of the cabinets and closets were fairly clean and tidy, but every surface was covered in … everything. Dan would pick something up and ask, “Where does this go?” to which I would respond, “I don’t know. Just leave it there.” It was an embarrassment, and I hated having people stop by. (The Fly Lady calls the situation I was in C.H.A.O.S. for “Cant’ Have Anyone Over Syndrome.”)

In the summer of 2009, we finished our second major remodel, which included the kitchen, all the living/eating areas, and the addition of a room and bath on the second floor. When the workers finished, they left behind a beautiful, mostly completed home. It needed paint everywhere, inside and out, plus clean up in the yard, but it was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I looked around at all our junk spread everywhere in the house and knew I could no longer use “I don’t know where it goes” as an excuse. The remodelling was done; everything had to have a home.

I started working on it on my own. I got my friend Holly to help me out a couple of times. I hired Susan and Amy from The Clutter Consultants to help me a couple of times. But it was slow going because I was also painting when I had a block of free time. Then at the very end of May 2010, my friend Janet sent me a link to Unclutterer. From there I found 365 Less Things. I said, “I can take that challenge,” and I started the next day, not only decluttering but holding myself accountable by noting what I had decluttered everyday as one of my Facebook posts.

It took a couple of months before others could really see a difference, but the successes kept building on themselves. As the months progressed, I heard from friends that they were inspired by me, and once I read on Facebook, “Inspired by my friend Cindy today I decluttered…” People asked me for tips on how to get rid of things and wondered how to sell on Ebay.

In August 2010, Colleen planned a month-long trip to Italy with Steve, and she began looking for people who would write guest columns to help fill up the space. I wrote six, and I think two other people wrote one each. (Can you imagine that she prepared the rest of the 30 days by herself?) You can read my first post here. The at the end of October when Colleen’s son Liam was hospitalized after a serious accident, I got an email from Colleen: Could I please try to keep the blog running while she was at the hospital? Well, of course I could. When Liam was healed and home, I continued to write once a week what is now called Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom.

The Numbers

In the past year, I have decluttered 2316 items and have made $2635.70 (1868 Euros, 2493 Australian dollars).

The largest thing I decluttered was a car, which was worth $1500 but needed $3000 worth of work. I traded it to Joe, who maintains my cars, for $1000 credit on maintenance of my other vehicle. That was in February, and we have found that having one car works just fine for us and have not replaced it. (My husband rides his bicycle the 3 miles to work each day.)

The smallest things I have decluttered have been all the little scraps of art junk generated by my children.

None of the items I decluttered were especially wrenching for me, and my only regret was the cracking (but not yet broken) lid for a 13 x 9 pan. I wish I’d saved until until it did completely break.

The Lessons

My house was a constant mess. If I can get control of mine, you can get control of yours.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Purchasing decisions take much longer because everything has to be examined through the lens of “How long until I declutter you?”

Selling is worthwhile. (An area of controversy here on 365 Less Things, but this is my list.)

If you declutter, your friends, relatives, children and spouse will follow, but at their own pace and in their own time.

Letting go of something, or lots of somethings, probably won’t be as wrenching as you anticipate.

Your house will practically self-clean when you reach a certain mass of decluttered items.

Decluttering is never completely done. It’s a form of housekeeping, and it has to be maintained.

Words of wisdom from my husband ~ “Just because you have room for something doesn’t mean you need to keep it. Usually people think that clutter is anything you don’t have storage for, but clutter is a whole host of things you no longer need, want, or value.”

Words or wisdom from my 11 year old ~ “It’s OK to get rid of one more thing . . . two more things.”

And My Final Conclusion

I decided that 365 days felt rather anticlimactic for me. It represents a completion of an assigned number of days, but I am not through. I decided to extend my challenge to the end of the year, another 6 months. I’ll re-evaluate if I can go into maintenance mode then, but for now, there’s still plenty of work to be done.

* * * * * * *

Today’s Declutter Item

Cindy wrote about freebies the other day and how they often just end up as clutter. This toiletries bag is one of those free clutter items and it was full of free product as well. It seemed like such a novelty at the time but it didn’t take long to figure out that mostly it was just a blight on the environment. All those tiny products in little plastic bottles with no recycling code on them what a waste. i have learned my lesson.

A toiletries Bag

My Gratitude List

• Something that made me laugh ~ My friend Amber and I discussing the idea of starting a café critic blog together. We were just joking of course but we had fun discussing the details or our imagined escapades trying out all the different cafés in town and giving our “expert” opinion on their offerings.
• Something Awesome ~ That just cleaned look when you have finished vacuuming and wiping out the interior of your car. Tip:- never by a car with a dark interior.
• Something to be grateful for ~ Having the car for a few days in a row. I am getting so much stuff done, including cleaning it.
• Something that made me happy ~ The joy of helping out a friend in need.
• Something that felt good ~ Crossing things off my to-do list.

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