Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Clutter and birthday parties, especially children’s birthday parties, fit together like a hand and glove, don’t they? They don’t have to. My youngest, Audra, turned 10 last week. Her birthday party cost less than $31 (less because there were food leftovers), generated virtually no trash, and was a great success.

First, let’s think about the things that create trash at a child’s birthday party.

• Disposable table cloth (cheap paper or plastic)
• Paper plates
• Paper napkins
• Paper cups
• Cheap themed decorations
• (Often all of the above are purchased at the same time from Wal-Mart, Target, or a party store on an aisle that’s designed to encourage you to buy all the matching this and that they’re selling)
• Plastic forks
• Juice Boxes
• Disposable water bottles
• Plastic cake decorations
• Ribbons, bows and package decorations
• Wrapping paper
• Junky little toys that are often given as prizes for games; they may not be trash today, but they will be soon
• More junky little toys given as party favors, often in throw-away bags
• Gifts that are quickly forgotten about or discarded

Audra had an Olympic-themed birthday party with just six guests. They girls did gymnastics routines (very small routines), the long jump, triple jump, shot put (bean bag throw), swimming races, and diving. (The last two activities took place in an accommodating neighbor’s pool.) None of these activities produced clutter. We also served a nutritious lunch of hummus, pita triangles, carrots, cherries, celery, and cucumbers followed by homemade cupcakes. We watched the some of the Olympics while we ate our lunches. Gift opening was last.

We avoided creating clutter by:

• Using all non-disposable cutlery, plates, and glasses from my kitchen
• Using cloth napkins
• Not using a table cloth (although if we had, it would have been one I already own)
• Getting ice and water from the refrigerator and not offering water bottles or juice boxes (again, if I had offered juice or milk, it would have been poured from a larger bottle, not offered individually)
• No prizes were given for success in the various games
• Decorations were kept to a minimum, which was Audra’s choice. Using some art supplies and the back of a foam core board that I brought home from work, she made an Olympic sign that she hung on the mailbox. She put up a few signs that she printed on the computer using paper that had already been used on one side that said things like “Olympians only after this point” and “Long jump starts here.”
• One friend gave her a sewing book, one friend gave her gift cards to a local ice cream shop (yum yum), and one friend gave her a gift card to a huge accessory store. Audra likes fashion and dressing up, and she will get twice the thrill first getting the gift certificate and then shopping for her item.
• At the end of the party, Audra gave each guest two Japanese erasers. These are hot items among her peers and have been for several years. (Rarely do they actually get used as erasers, although they can be.) What’s interesting is that Audra loves Japanese erasers, but she only wants animals ones. The first thing she did was sort through her own erasers and pulled out the non-animal ones. Right there, we almost had enough for party favors, and only a few more needed to be purchased. Next, she made little boxes from paper for each of the guests. They were only paper and tape and 100% recyclable.
• No gifts were wrapped in wrapping paper. The envelopes were recycled, and the bow and gift bag were put away to be reused.
• The last thing we did was remind our guests of anything that could be recycled. Audra pointed out that she recently went to a party where the hostess provided recyclable cups, but since she didn’t tell or remind anyone that they were recyclable, most of the cups got tossed in the trash.

It is 100% possible to have a fun, inexpensive, and clutter-free party. Do you belong to a circle of friends from whom even over-the-top is not enough? If you don’t want to get new friends, then throw your own decluttered party your own way. You don’t have to be a follower; you can be a leader. Just don’t act shocked when two of three of your friends express envy at the simplicity of your child’s party.

I am on vacation with the birthday girl and her older sister for two weeks, and will likely not be reading comments, let alone answering them. Until I am back in Austin, have a great two weeks.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter one of those once favourite outfits that you never wear any more. Chances are it is now out of fashion.

Today’s Declutter Item

Yet more of the craft items recently sold on ebay.

Foam Craft Stamps

Eco Tip For The Day

Don’t leave you car idling for unnecessary periods of time such as when you pull over to use your cell phone. 10 seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting your car.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

I love lists. I used to love them more. And you know what? I used to be a lot more organized and a lot more efficient. Coincidence? I think not.

I cannot stress enough that you need a list – probably several of them. I don’t care if you keep them on paper or electronically. I do both, but for me nothing beats the satisfaction of crossing off a to-do item with paper and pen. (Great repurposing of half-used spiral notebooks that come home at the end of the school year every August.)

Especially is you tend to dilly-dally and procrastinate, you need a list. If you tend to wander the world of blogs, get hung up on Facebook, read your latest book all the way through in one sitting, or watch all 20 hours of the televised Olympic events – each day, you need a list.

Why? Because a list keeps you going. It keeps you focused. It reminds you of what you’ve done and what needs to be done. A list frees up part of your brain space – once it’s on the list, you don’t have to remember to do it, the list remembers for you. And if you do something productive that’s not on your list, be sure to add it so you can have the thrill of crossing it off.

Here are some lists you may need.

• A daily to-do
• Dreams and goals
• Areas that need to be decluttered
• Items that you have decided to sell (especially important as a reminder if you want to sell something seasonal or holiday-themed at the ideal time)
• Tasks that need to be done around the house – quick projects and the big ones
• Items that need to be returned to a certain person or a specific location (keeps your front or back door area from becoming a storage facility)
• Things that need research, including whether or not something is worth selling
• Books or movies you want to read / watch.
• Ares that need to be decluttered

I mentioned the last one already? Well let me mention it again. Even a person as decluttered as I am has areas that need a first, second, or even third swing. My areas include my desk, the art closet (which is becoming my personal nemesis), the shelves in Clara’s closet, the shelves in Audra’s closet, linen closet, storage area under the stairs (Dan’s domain, but it still needs decluttering so it’s on my list), and numerous areas in the garage.

Even though I declutter almost daily and have for more than two years, there are areas that need (or need again) concentrated attention. Some, like the linen closet, I may discover need more of a tidying than an actual decluttering. Other areas, like the cupboard under the stairs, need some serious attention. (Will we find Harry Potter in there?)

And I will get to them, all of them, one item at a time, because my list will make sure of it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter unnecessary items on bedside cabinets, chests of drawers or dressing tables.

Today’s Declutter Item

Choosing which craft items to declutter was one thing actually getting them out of the house is a whole other ball game. I am working on it though. The best thing about these is I now have a little extra money in my paypal account.

Sizzix cutting dies sold on ebay

Something to be grateful for today

Getting more things done yesterday than I expected. I was exhausted but pleased.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

A few weeks ago, this short article from The Change Blog was a Friday reading, and I’ve been thinking about it on and off ever since. The point of the article was that you might be more successful setting firm, absolute rules for yourself, rather than “trying.”

How can we apply these rules to leading a more decluttered life?

I will ALWAYS put my keys in their proper place when I enter the house.

At the end of each day, I will ALWAYS put the newspaper in the recycling bin.

Each day, I will ALWAYS declutter one item. (Perhaps even, each day immediately after dinner, I will ALWAYS declutter one item.)

Before I check out at the store (any store), I will ALWAYS check my cart to be sure that I am not buying unnecessary, extraneous, or duplicate items.

I will NEVER buy nonconsumable items on impulse, no matter how much of a bargain I think it is.

I will ALWAYS put away the items I get out.

I will NEVER let the potential value of something stop me from decluttering it.

I will NEVER keep something I hate in order to please someone else.

I will NEVER purchase duplicate or triplicates of items I have at home, just in case.

I will ALWAYS consider the environmental impact of my purchases.

What will you ALWAYS or NEVER do? Mine is: I will NEVER start a load of laundry without committing to folding it as soon as it’s dry. Backed up laundry can be a real clutter in the laundry room, and my husband hates it when his clothes are wrinkly.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something you have been undecided about for a while. I sometimes put items aside that I am procrastinating about but after a while I get tired of seeing them in the “maybe” pile and just bite the bullet and get rid of them. These are often the kinds of things I sell on ebay. Selling them makes me feel better about my decision.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here are some procrastination items I finally decided to send to the thrift store last week. Actually I send two of them to the thrift store some months ago but I thought the last four might come in useful in my guest room when we had visitors. In reality the chest of drawers in that room are all but empty anyway so if visitors wish to unpack items from their luggage they can pack them into there. The last four of these have just been wasting space in the garage.

More Storage Solutions

Something to be grateful for today

A good report at my six week post-op doctors check up today. Two more weeks and life can return to normal for me. Yay!

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

My mother, as I have mentioned before, is VERY decluttered. She was a minimalist before I had any idea that there even was such a decorating style. (I thought is was called “bare.”)

Very recently, my parents moved back into their house after having it extensively remodeled. Before moving to Austin, Texas, my parents had lived in a very stylish, although not very large, custom-built house. The plain ranch that they purchased in order to live next door t me and my family never fit my mother’s idea of stylish.

Every remodel produces its share of furniture and accessories that no long work, no longer have a home, are no longer wanted, and my Mom’s remodel is certainly no exception. As a result, I have taught her how to use Craigslist, and she has had quite good luck selling her items. Her first round of selling were items that she sold during the remodel, knowing that they would not work with her new scheme. (My mother, interestingly, found a decorator who shops widely at thrift and consignment stores. Almost all my mother’s accessories were already second hand when they came to her.) Those items that hadn’t sold in a couple of months were painlessly donated to the garage sale at my daughters’ school.

Now that she and my father have been back in the house for a couple of months, more things are not making the cut – items that she’s thought might work, but didn’t. One of those was a sofa and loveseat set. These are the couches my parents have owned almost as long as I can remember. I know from photos that we had one sofa when I was quite little. I remember another when we lived in Houston for almost 10 years. Then my parents bought this set. It has been reupholstered twice, and it is a classic, well built piece of furniture. My own sofas were really worn out and tatty, so Mother’s sofas came over to my house for a trial. We didn’t really like the way they worked in our house, so I told my mother I would sell them on Craigslist for her. (Better than dragging them back to her house.) She kind of poo-pooed me and said that she didn’t think they were worth more than about $50, which I thought was completely absurd. We moved the loveseat into my husband’s office (he decluttered a whole desk to have room), and I listed the sofa for $200.

Two weeks passed, and the sofa hadn’t sold. I was having a party and having an extra sofa to maneuver around was starting to set my teeth on edge, so I contacted my favorite furniture consignment store, sent them a photo, and arranged to take the sofa to them to sell. They told me that they would like it from $100 to $300; my mother would receive 60% of the sale. Mom found out that I was taking it away, and insisted that I return the sofa to her. She would list it on Craigslist. When I asked her why in the world she would do that, she said that I had said that the value was $200 and “that figure was stuck in her mind.”

For my mother, this is just a quirky moment. For some people, this perhaps false idea about value could be a true stumbling block toward decluttering.

Things like Lego kits, Madame Alexander Dolls, books, James Avery jewelry, and automobiles have a fairly fixed, easily discernible resale value. There are plenty of identical items on the market and enough buyers to have established a fairly uniform price. Things like accessories, furniture, clothing (unless, perhaps it is a popular name brand), jewelry, and antiques have a more variable value – and often much, much less than their original purchase price. Don’t let the idea – possibly a false idea – of something’s value prevent you from decluttering it in a timely manner. 

Today’s Mini Mission

Round up all your stationery items ~ Keep a pen in each room of the house if that makes your life easy but the bulk of your stationary items will be more easily found if they are all stored together. If you don’t have a desk or set of drawers for this task why not use that spare shelf you have cleared in the linen closet during your last towel and sheet declutter.

Today’s Declutter Item

Some more bits and pieces decluttered out of my craft area. Aside from some items I have recently or am about to list on ebay I think  I may have finally come to the end of the craft items decluttered during the big craft area minimisation. That’s not to say that these will be the last craft items ever decluttered, there are still plenty of supplies left, but they are certainly greatly reduced from the quantity I used to own.

Craft Odds and Ends

Something to be grateful for today

The variation of the waves that break on the beach. I love it that every time I go down to the ocean where I live that it is different in some way from the time before. Different tides, different weather, different waves for the surfers to enjoy. Today was a surfers delight even though it was overcast the waves very ridable and so constant that the surfers had no sooner paddled out from the last ride and then were riding their way back in again.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

While we have plenty of old pros here at 365 Less Things, we have plenty of drop-by readers and lurkers, some of whom are probably in denial about their need to declutter. So here’s my checklist, roughly arranged from the most obvious to the most subtle clues that you should use if you think that maybe you don’t really need to declutter.

• You rent a storage unit.
• Your garage, basement, or attic looks like a storage unit.
• You have a whole room devoted to storage.
• You have a door in your home that you cannot open.
• You have a door in your home that you cannot open safely or without throwing your body in front of the opening as you pull on the door.
• You wish you had a room that you could devote to storage.
• Or worse, you are considering moving or adding on to your home, just for storage.
• You sometimes wish that your house would just burn down so you wouldn’t have to deal with it any more.
• Your friends offer to come over and help you get organized.
• You are surrounded by possessions that you do not like or enjoy.
• You are surrounded by possessions that were given to you by someone who is dead, and you do not like and enjoy them.
• You believe that more storage is the solution to your problems.
• You do not have friends or family over.
• When friends and family do come over, you need at least a week’s notice, and it’s a stressful week.
• You cannot use the furniture as it is intended to be used because it is used as storage.
• You have make-shift storage (i.e. overflowing baskets, laundry baskets, a bunch of stuff bundled up into a table cloth and hidden in the garage, etc.)
• You got remarried, moved in with parents, etc., and now you have two (at least!) of everything.
• Anyone has ever said the words “fire hazard” while looking around you home.
• Anyone has ever said the words “estate sale” while looking around your home.
• Your closets are so full that you have to use your body as a wedge to get something in or out.
• You shop and hide the evidence.
• You shop for non-consumables more than once a month.
• Shopping is your favorite hobby – or one of them.
• You buy things because they are a bargain.
• You buy things because you “might” need it and aren’t sure if you already own one.
• You buy duplicates because you don’t know what you have or where it is.
• You buy for a current hobby at a rate that outpaces your ability to do that hobby.  (You buy dozens of books at a time, dozens of yarns skeins , dozens of patterns, hundreds of Legos, etc.)
• You don’t overbuy on yourself, but on your children or grandchildren…well that’s another matter.
• Your living room looks like a preschool classroom.
• Your children don’t play with half their toys. They don’t even know what half their toys are!
• You pulled a bunch of stuff out of a closet to organize it, and it’s been sitting outside the closet for more than two weeks, with no progress being made.
• The phrases “I might need it some day” “I’ve never used/opened that” “But I spent so much money on it” and “I intend to do XX project with that some day” have come of out your mouth sometime in the past 6 months.
• You don’t know what’s in the boxes in your attic, basement, garage, storage unit, etc.
• If the IRS (or your country’s taxing agency) called you for an audit, you could not lay your hands on the proper paperwork in less than 5 minutes.
• You pay bills late because you don’t know where they are.
• Your pantry looks like it is the store.
• You regularly throw foods away because they’re expired, you bought too much, or you do not like what you purchased.
• You have supplies for crafts or hobbies that you no longer do/enjoy.
• You cannot find everything in your house in less than 5 minutes.
• You have ever uttered the phrase “It’s in one of five places.”
• You own duplicates of useful items, but you really only need one.
• In the past year, you have not given away, sold, or donated any goods to charity.
• You have to step around anything on your floors, except furniture.
• You love to save little goodies from your travels, but you never look back on them.
• You take dozens of pictures at every conceivable event.
• You never delete an email.
• You save articles on decluttering and organization, but that’s as far as it goes.
• You have a sofa or bed side table that’s actually a stack of reading material.
• You have clothes in more than two sizes.
• You think that if you just had a $1000 gift card to The Container Store, everything would be all right.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter under the bed ~ One young reader (not mentioning any names) was decluttering under her bed last week due to Moni’s blog post. I don’t need to tell you how much easier it is to keep this area dust and lint free when there is nothing to clean around or move.

Today’s Declutter Item

Here is something that was being stored in a drawer under the end of my bed until they were sold on ebay recently.

Bib and Brace Ski Pants

Something to be grateful for today

I have been making progress on our household inventory. It has been a good opportunity to do some declutter fine tuning in the kitchen. It should be plain sailing after the kitchen is out of the way because that is where most of the small individual items are.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Last month the family and I went to a monthly event, The City-Wide Garage Sale. Ever since one of my staff members bought a really cool old stove at the sale, I’d been curious. (And since that was literally more than 15 years ago, it seemed like it was about time.)

Wow! Was that eye opening! The garage sale is really an indoor flea market, and you could buy just about anything there – the smaller it was, the more likely they were to have it. The sellers are pickers and traders who endlessly loop throughout the country attending these events. Nothing’s terribly expensive; I don’t know how they actually make money doing this. One friend even suggested that it was just a socially acceptable form of hoarding: The vendors just keep buying and accumulating, selling and accumulating.

Here are some photos I took that day

I was struck by the fact that the vendors didn’t have one of something; they had 100. All alike. One woman had a huge display case of Bakelite bangle bracelets – a whole row of red, a whole row of yellow, a whole row of green, etc. Another man had several hundred little skulls. A pair of sellers must have had four hundred silver native American-style bracelets with a chunk of turquoise in them. The volume was just eye popping. The photos above are all things that people might save for sentimental reasons or to sell in the future. There were dozens of brass letters, hundreds of watches and cufflinks, thousands of baseball cards complete with bubble gum (just $1.50 to $3.50 per pack).

What I took away from this day was this message: Your stuff is a lot less precious and a lot less rare than you think it is. There is virtually nothing that can’t be replaced a dozen times over. Especially if it’s not of a deeply sentimental nature, you don’t need it. And if you do need it again later, it’s out there. In triplicate…or more.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that you are keeping “just in case” you eventually find a use for it.

Today’s Declutter Item

This declutter item is related to another I got rid of a little while back. Remember the candle with the pink design on it, it rested on these stones in a glass bowl. I still have the glass bowl but the rocks can go. I barely walked into the thrift store with them when one of the other volunteers said “I’ll have those!”. So as usual one man’s clutter is another man’s clutter, I mean treasure.

Aquarium Stones

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

A Book Review of The Power of Habit

by Charles Duhigg 

Cindy

What a fantastic book: so well researched, so easy to understand, so very interesting. Duhigg shows over and over again that most of what we do is habitual and that habits can be changed and manipulated – by ourselves and by others.

My mother should be happy. This book validates her often-said phrase “When you do things outside the norm, that’s when they go wrong.” My Mom’s not a pessimist or a stick in the mud; what she’s saying is that when you lock your keys in the car, forget your purse, leave the burner turned on, or drive to the store without your grocery list, it’s probably because you approached these routine events outside of the format of your usual routine. Without your habits in place to guide you, you actually have to think about actions you usually don’t think about, and they can go terribly wrong. My Mom and Duhigg are in agreement! In fact, Duhigg claims that 40% of what we do daily is habitual.

One of the chapters that I found most enlightening - and disturbing – reported research using brain scanning to test the lingering power of habits. What researchers found was that even if you have overcome a bad habit (say cluttering the coffee table when you arrive home from work or overeating), the neural pathways for cluttering that table never go away. They are always present in the brain, and that’s why it’s so easy – with the right (wrong!) cues – to fall away from our good habits back to our bad. However, I consoled myself that the opposite must also be true:  Somewhere inside my brain there’s still a neural pathway for running 3 or 4 times a week. I just haven’t seen that pathway in a decade or so!

The first part of the book, the section on personal habit development, is the most relevant to our decluttering efforts. What Duhigg explains repeatedly is that habits consist of three parts: The cue (time of day, arrival into the house, presence of certain people, etc.), the routine (which is the habit), and the reward. Duhigg says the reward the most important part of the cycle because habits form when we like the reward. Habits can only be changed, he says, by changing one of these three inputs – usually the routine. I highly recommend that you watch his video here. It’s only about 3 minutes long and explains how he analyzed and changed his habit of eating a cookies every afternoon and lost a dozen pounds as a result of his success.

The other two portions of the book talk about the habits of organizations and the habits of society. There’s some very interesting stuff here, and if you don’t start using cash at Target after reading about their focused marketing, I’ll be mighty surprised. Target knows that during life disruptions (birth of a child, divorce or marriage, move), people change their shopping habits, often without realizing it, and Target does their very best to know – as soon as you do – if any of these life changes are taking place in your household.

Changing from a lifestyle where you continually buy too much, where you never purge, or where you leave things out all over the place are all habits. They’re habits that need changing, and especially if you’re having trouble making changes, this book and some experimentation might really benefit you.

Highly recommended reading.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter objects accumulating in the third drawer down in any room ~ kitchen, office desk, bathroom cabinet… It is a strange phenomenon that the third drawer is often the receptacle for clutter.

Today’s Declutter Item

These little plastic lidded cups and storage box used to contain beads in my craft area. They gravitated to the third drawer down when I reduced my stocks and were no longer needed. During the great craft room declutter of June 2012 they were relegated to the donation box. They have since been sold at the thrift store.

Ex Craft Storage Items

Something to be grateful for today

Soaking up the sun on my back patio while being visited by the neighbours cat.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Early last year, I wrote a post about The Black Hole. You probably have one in your house. It’s the place where all clutter tends to accumulate . . . and never leave. Like the black hole in astronomy, it has such a strong gravitational force that even light cannot escape it.

I confess, I too have a Black Hole in my house: my gigantic kitchen island.

7′ of kitchen island and not a bit of junk in sight

It doesn’t look like a Black Hole, you may be thinking. You’re right. It doesn’t anymore. Anymore being the key word here. The half in the foreground seemed to always have a stray napkin, maybe a glass or two, and a book or purse (or both) from my eldest daughter. The far half had, well . . . everything that A Black Hole of the Flat Surfaces accumulates: random school papers, lone art projects, hair do-dads, some pens and pencils, the cord to the laptop (and maybe the laptop) – all sorts of random junk.

I tried to enforce the rule that the island had to be completely cleared off twice a week, but I wasn’t a very good enforcer. Besides, half the stuff was probably mine. Then I struck upon a completely different approach: We went cold turkey.

For those of you not familiar with this term, Wikipedia defines cold turkey as  “the actions of a person who abruptly gives up a habit or addiction rather than gradually easing the process through gradual reduction.” It is often used to described abruptly giving up drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.  But in my case, it meant abruptly giving up cluttering a spot that had always been a favorite clutter attractor.

We cleared everything off the island, even the useful and island-appropriate things such as the fruit bowl and the salt and pepper. It was kept completely bare, except when being used, for weeks. Seeing it completely clean, day after day, began to be the right mental picture. After a couple of weeks, we put the fruit, salt and pepper, and butter dish back on the table. I was a little nervous that this might be an invitation for these items, like crazy teenagers, to have a big party and invite all their friends over, but it wasn’t. (Probably because unlike the party in my mind, Mom was supervising.)

The island has stayed clean now for a month. When someone does leave miscellaneous this-and-that on it, it’s obvious who it belongs to, and it doesn’t stay there for long.

Do you have an area in your house that needs to go cold turkey?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a book or two.

Today’s Declutter Item

This magazine is the closest thing to a book that I have to declutter at the moment.

Rolling Stone Magazine

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

As I’ve told you (probably countless times), we remodeled our house, and the last of the workmen pulled away two years ago in July. There were a lot of smaller jobs and some very large painting jobs that needed to be completed, but the house itself was done. Two years have passed, and I still have a half dozen paintings, including a couple of pieces of expensively framed limited edition pieces, that have not been hung. About every three months, I get into the closet where they’re stored and vow that today is the day that I’ll finish figuring it out. And every time I end up feeling anxious, itchy, uncertain, overwhelmed, unsure, and I shove it all back in the closet and gratefully slam the door behind me.

What’s behind this great difficulty? It’s hard to say exactly, but I attribute it to several causes:

• Sentimentality, part 1 – I’ve always hung this piece, so I should hang it again.
• Sentimentality, part 2 - Some of it is the children’s art that’s framed and won’t their feelings be hurt if I don’t hang it again (or worse, get rid of it)?
• Gift – A couple of pieces were gifts. (Do not give gifts of art, unless you’re the artist. Even then, it’s questionable.) Will the gift-givers, my in-laws, or my husband be offended or hurt if one of them disappears?
• Expense – Once the cost of framing is included, I probably have a thousand dollars worth of art that’s unhung. I must get my money’s worth by hanging it again.
• Uncertainty about what else to do with it – There some good stuff here and some expensive stuff. How should I sell it / give it away / donate it? I paid good money for it and want someone else to appreciate it.
• Maybe I can make it work – A different frame? A different mat? Maybe I can make it work.
• Certainty that I still like the piece – Self-explanatory, I guess.

But here are my counter-arguments:

• Sentimentality, part 1 – Just because I’ve done it before doesn’t mean I have to do it again.
• Sentimentality, part 2 – One child is sentimental; the other one is not at all. Offer it to her for her room, or take it out of the frame, recycle the frame, and keep the art with her other pieces.
• Gift – Often a tricky area. I no longer think my in-laws would notice. Frankly, my husband probably wouldn’t either because he probably doesn’t really notice what’s on the walls. I could ask him. Or not. Something to ponder further.
• Expense – We’ve all had this hang up. We paid a lot of money, and even though we no longer value the item, we hate to waste our money and perversely feel that someone else should value something as much as we no longer do. (That thought is so twisted that it’s hard to write it in a sentence that makes sense.) Personalized art is a lot like a 10 year old computer. It may still be very nice, but it doesn’t have the same value on the open market.
• Uncertainty about what else to do with it – I know all the local resources, but if I feel stuck, I can seek help from others.
• Maybe I can make it work – This is like valuing a broken vacuum cleaner that you just know will be fantastic – and such a bargain – once you fix it up, but you never have. But it’s also like that saying, “Throwing good money after bad.” If I’ve lost my attachment to the art, a costly new frame probably isn’t going to solve the problem.
• Certainty that I still like the piece – Clearly this is self-deception. If I really liked the piece, it would be up on the wall. After all, I have a lot of hanging art. My walls are not bare, and these pieces repeatedly have not made the cut.

So what did I do? I contacted a woman I know who works for a charity that has an annual garage sale – by far the biggest and best garage sale held in the city. There was a tickle in the back of my mind, which she confirmed, that they have a “designer” section, and they’re grateful to know the original purchase price of more unique items. The three most expensive pieces went with her, my mother was interested in two (she just remodeled her house so they may or may not work, but she put them in her mix to try), and three of the more generic (also known as “having wide appeal”) pieces were listed on Craigslist, which come to think about it, is where they came from to begin with. Anything that doesn’t sell on Craigslist will also go to the garage sale charity. Eight pieces finally dealt with. I cannot tell you how good that feels!

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a guilt item ~ Don’t feel obliged to keep something just because you shouldn’t have wasted the money on it in the first place. Try to sell it to recoup some money or just find a way to pass it on. Forgive yourself and move on.

Today’s Declutter Item

I don’t have a guilt item to declutter today in fact I don’t think I have any guilt items left. I hope so anyway. I have however finally decluttered all the cookbooks I am willing to let go of. The only ones left are my self made one with all my mum’s old recipes and the favourites I have discovered over the years and a Jamie Oliver one that has several favourites in it. My daughter bought it for my birthday one year so if I decide to decluttering it I will offer it back to her.

More Cookbooks

Something to be grateful for today

 The third fine day in a row, just when I really needed to get the washing done. Yay!

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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

Cindy

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

May 30th marked the end of my second year of decluttering and the end of the second year of reporting daily on Facebook what I have decluttered. (Possibly I’ve missed a few days, but not many.) In the past 731 days (Leap Year), I have decluttered 3690 items and made $2471.20 plus $1000 barter for repair work on my van in exchange for our car, which we did not replace. Yes, that’s a heck of a lot of stuff, but let’s remember that the average house today is almost twice as big as it was in the 1950s, while families are closer to half the size. The concept of the long-term storage unit barely existed in the 1970s. “Shopping” is many people’s favorite past time and their favorite vice. I had (and still have) plenty of things I can get rid of, and you do too.

For your viewing pleasure and my embarrassment, I have selected a few before and after pictures for you to look at, laugh at, and be inspired by. You’ll probably recall me saying, more than once, that we have extensively remodeled our house in the past 10 years (and, yes, it pretty much took the whole ten years). The house was so ugly and so cluttered when we first bought it and when the children were young that I never took photos of the house itself. You’ll have to look around the girls to see to the YUCK! behind it. The second photo in each set is a photo I’ve taken today, so you can see the vast changes.

During remodeling and a good reminder that a magnet-filled refrigerator is not a things of beauty.

A clean refrigerator is a beautiful refrigerator.

Look at all the stuff on the counters and floors. Wow!!

7' of kitchen island and not a bit of junk in sight

Dan and baby Clara and a whole lot of clutter.

Dan's desk. No cute little girl but no junk either.

I found this photo after I wrote the post, but it's too clutter-y to leave out. No "after" photo, though.

Today’s Mini Mission

Are you in the habit of still owning enough of some items to cater for that larger family than you once were before the kids left home. Time to declutter a few. Some suggestions ~ towels, sheets, blankets.

Today’s Declutter Item

I didn’t have any sheets, towels or blankets to get rid of but I did find a bunch of container lids that I no longer have the containers for. I find this a little strange because when I donate items I make sure all their parts are together. I can only assume that some of the containers broke and I forget to get rid of the lids. If I remember correctly a few of them belonged to ceramic and enamel dishes that I did donate to the thrift store. I must have forgot they had lids because I never used them, they didn’t need them in order to be useful anyway so who cares.

Plastic container lids

Something to be grateful for today

I cleaned the oven today, not my favourite job. The fairies didn’t do it for me and yes it was hard work but I am just grateful it is out of the way and I won’t have to deal with in again for a month or two or three depending how long I can ignore it for. 😆

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” Brother David Steindl-Rast

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