I was at my son’s house on Sunday to pick up some packaging he wanted us to put in our recycling and trash as he had bought a new sofa and his bins were full. He also had several items to give me to take to the thrift shop.

As I was sitting enjoying a little time chatting with my step-granddaughter my husband and son were packing up the car. She suddenly noticed what looked like some sort of plush toy jutting a little from one of the bags destined for the car. She asked if she could see what was in it and my son said no that we needed to get the stuff to the car. She began to get upset thinking that he was decluttering something that may be hers.

I am not sure what the item was but he insisted it was just some old toy of his that he no longer wanted, but she was not convinced. As my son left the room with the bag her bottom lip dropped and I thought this was the perfect time to have a little conversation with her about why it wasn’t important as to what was in the bag.

I said, “Did you recognise the thing in the bag as one of your loved toys?”, and she said no. As I know her pretty well by now I then asked, “Don’t you think that whatever that toy was, if you loved it so much, wouldn’t you recognise it even from the little you could see?” And she said yes. I explained to her how she can sometimes get a little too attached to some of her things but if that was something that she loved her Mum and Liam wouldn’t dream of decluttering it. And she seemed satisfied with that.

I then went on to explain what happened to the old toys and clothes that she had grown out of and were decluttered. I explain how some of them where bought at the thrift shop for little kids who’s parents couldn’t afford new toys, and if it wasn’t for her kind donations those kids would have no toys. I also explained how, no matter who bought the items, that the money went to a charity who used the money for a good cause. Sometimes to help people in need. Sometimes to help starving people overseas. Sometimes to fund research to find cures for things that made people sick. And even other to help save endangered animals like the pandas she loved so much.

By now she was no longer upset and said wait here and she ran off into her bedroom. I thought for one incredible moment that she was going to her room to find something else of hers to give me to take to the thrift shop. Alas she went to get her iPad mini to play games with me. My husband later said she probably got it to distract me so she didn’t have to listen to my raving on anymore. But I prefer to think that I succeeded in making her realise that giving was living and she was now ready to move on to something fun we could do together.

But seriously, it is never too early to include your children in the act of decluttering. I don’t know what that toy was in the bag, but I do hope if it was some old thing of Liam’s or something of hers that  she had chosen to give away a while back. As you know I don’t think it is a good idea to declutter anyones stuff without their agreement. And having a discussion with your kids about how what they donate can help others is a great way to encourage them to let go of things they don’t really use. Like adults they can tend to cling on to stuff otherwise, just in case.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that is brown.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown

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.

I received a comment from Amelia last week saying how much she enjoys the mini missions, particularly the ones that focus on what things are made of.  I am sure we all have our favourites when it comes to the missions. I know that some of you like me to be exact about the items so you don’t have to put much thought into it. Well this week I am going to honour (honor) Amelia’s request and make the missions about the colour of things. I put it to the test by picking a colour and looking around the room and it is amazing how the colour stands out when you are searching for it. So this week you can all wonder around your houses with you colour radar on and see what you can find to declutter. Have fun with it.

Monday – Declutter something that is red.

Tuesday - Declutter something that is green.

Wednesday - Declutter something that is brown.

Thursday - Declutter something that is blue.

Friday - Declutter something that is white.

Saturday - Declutter something that is silver.

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

There is no miracle cleaner the will make cleaning your home anything but work. Just like miracle diet pills can’t replace healthy eating and regular exercise to maintain healthy weight. What you need in both cases is a good attitude to put in the effort that is required to achieve good results.

So if you have a large space in your home dedicated to bottles and jars full of specialised cleaners for every surface then you are most likely deluding yourself. Not to mention wasting a lot of space and money.

I encountered just such a situation recently and it left me shaking my head in amazement. I am not going to go into more detail than that but it sure got me thinking. And yes, I have written about this subject in the past, with a list of the limited number of cleaners I have in my home along with convoluted details on where and how I use these items. So I am not going to go into the details again here today but I do suggest that you take a look at what you are using. How many of those items are just multiples of the same thing and multiple brands of those same things. How toxic are they ~ these are usually ones that “require no scrubbing” but a hell of a lot of rinsing. And trust me proper “thorough rinsing” can turn out to be more complicated than scrubbing.

When it comes to the surface cleaning of my home, sinks, counter tops, showers, baths, windows, hard floors and even spot cleaning the carpet, I use a solution of white vinegar, water and a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid. And I have a bottle of toilet cleaner with a bleach element that I use very sparingly. I can assure you that I have tried all those other “fancy” cleaners and they have all been a disappointment. The only miracle ingredient that I know of is effort. And anyone who knows me will vouch that I have a lovely clean home.

So stop wasting your time, space and money trying new cleaners. They are usually just a lot of advertising hype. And some of that hype borders on false advertising. Start a use it up challenge on all those extra bottles and jars and in future simplify your cleaning supplies.

Allow me to make one little extra remark. Cleaning is not such hard work when you have less clutter. So clearing the clutter is much more effective than wasting your hard earned cash of mythical miracle workers.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter shabby linens that have hung around too long waiting to be used as rags.

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

Sometimes when it comes to clutter it takes a major event to force you to deal with it. Sometimes we chip away at the clutter slower even than a thing a day, letting go of an item here and an item there. As we all know at that pace there is often just as much stuff coming in and all you are doing is marking time. Then something happens or you make a decision that finally forces your hand.

We have at least two long time readers and their spouses who have found themselves in the position where they decided to downsize their homes. In both cases these couples have been reading and decluttering along with us here for some time. I dare say they even thought that they had done a pretty good job of letting go of their excess stuff. But the prospect of trying to fit into a smaller dwelling with what they have left is not at all desirable or probably even a possibility. My brother and sister-in-law also put themselves in this position and did a remarkable job to prepare themselves, over twelve months, for a move from what had been their family home for many many years to a new city and a new two bedroom apartment.

I am sure that each of these couples learned to become far more ruthless with their declutter decision making when the stakes were this high. There are so many things that we all find sentimental and vaguely useful enough to cling on to until such an event occurs. In fact in some cases I wouldn’t even be surprised if people sometimes make these big potentially life changing decisions intentionally to force their hand. I guess I was just fortunate enough that, both my husband and I, had the foresight to glance further into the future than most and decided to get on with the task well ahead of time.

It is my experience that many people, when they learn that I write a blog about decluttering, express a desire to also declutter. They want this, they may even need it, but for some reason just can’t bring themselves to do it. I am sure many of you can relate to that. Even I had thought about the idea and chipped away at it for a couple of years prior to actually getting started in earnest. Then the thought struck me to take it easy and declutter slowly but consistently, rather than having to do it in a big scary rush some day in the future. This epiphany literally happened for me in the blink of an eye and I never looked back.

I have encountered several people who procrastinated over starting their decluttering journey, then one day just found their trigger to get started. Fortunately, for them, this meant that the task was done ahead of any big life change that would have found them floundering with a monumental task with a deadline. And that trigger can be the strangest of things. Observing someone else who was forced to undergo a downsize under pressure is just such inspiration. In at least one case the person simply found an easy way to make some money out of their stuff and that was inspiration enough. For others it was just getting to the point that enough was enough and things had to change.

Sadly I also know more than a few people who ignored the desire to declutter, then found themselves in the very stressful situation of trying to make fast painful decisions of what to keep and what to let go.

For those who have found this blog and are still procrastinating please don’t be that last person I mentioned above. Begin now with the easy stuff, find a variety of good ways to send your clutter on to be useful to someone else, recycle what you can and throw away that which is not useful to anyone. The decisions do get easier over time. Get your home in order now before your hand is forced. Because you just never know what life has in store for you just around the corner.

Today’s Mini Mission

Sometimes we buy a new item of clothing without letting go of the items that it replaced. Items that are a little shabby. So now is a good day to let go of some of those items.

Eco Tip for the Day

Recycle all that you can.  Don’t make excuses, don’t be lazy, just do it.

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’s set of mini missions is all about those things that build up until you can’t help but notice. You generally notice when you feel like the clutter is closing in on you again but you don’t understand how that happened. So I have listed some areas for you to check on and declutter if necessary.

Monday – Declutter a couple of items you have just lost interest in. Don’t be concerned about what they cost or how little they were used. Just get them out of your life if you have no use for them.

Tuesday – If you are like me and keep the odd, seemingly useful, container and then later on find they are building up and not being used then declutter a few today. Jars, plastic containers, cans, folders, plastic sleeves…

Wednesday – Sometimes we buy a new item of clothing without letting go of the items that it replaced. Items that are a little shabby. So now is a good day to let go of some of those items.

Thursday – If you have children declutter some items they have grown out of.

Friday – Declutter some entertainment items that you no longer care to enjoy. Board games, digital games, outdoor fun equipment etc

Saturday – Declutter shabby linens that have hung around too long waiting to be used as rags.

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

When I began helping my friend, S, declutter, there were decades of paper archives: phone bills, utility bills, bank statements, medical papers, taxes papers, magazine clippings, newspaper clippings, catalogs, travel memorabilia, recipes, greeting cards, letters, and hundreds of photos (organized by year). Much of this was stacked in boxes in the garage or office with various other locations for smaller boxes or bags. It was a nightmare of unorganized, mostly unneeded paper.

Looking over the mess, it was apparent that this was going to be a huge undertaking. How did this happen? Why would someone let things get this bad? It all comes down to priorities, understanding and dreams. Too many times we feel we don’t have time to deal with something at a specific point in time. Once we put it off, things tend to pile up and become something we really don’t have time for. Other times we may not know what we need to keep and what is no longer important. We often cut out an article or copy down a recipe with thoughts of using it soon only to find that months or years later it is still in a pile of to-do’s. Referencing saved articles, magazines, newspapers, and recipes seldom happens.

The first step in decluttering my friends mountain of paper was to open all the boxes just to see what was in them. It turned out that in this case most of the boxes were all a jumble with no organization whatsoever. Ugh! This represented more hard work. What needed to be done was to deal with one box at a time and sort all of the paper into piles of like topics. All of those piles then needed to be sorted to decide what to keep for tax or other official purposes. Once all this was done the shredding started. Hour after hour of shredding at intervals produced over 14 big trash bags.

When it came to the photos, while sorted into years, nothing else had been done to them. Tossing all the photos that were blurred, too dark, too light, duplicates or with poor composition was the first task followed by sorting according to event. Since S is a scrapbooker, she now has her photos ready to be placed in layouts.

S has no children that would have inherited this mess but here would still be someone who had to deal with it all. Paper is now one thing that will cause fewer issues for the person who is left with the job. Having been through the death of my father and dealing with all that entails, I am glad I was able to guide S to declutter the paper.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some wall art or empty picture frames you have never use. Another thing my son let go of last week.

I received the following message some weeks ago. I am not sure now who the author was but please feel free to identify yourself if you recognise it.

“I just read an interesting book called the KonMari method of Tidying Up. Her take is that for lasting change you have to do  the whole declutter in one  go, although her “go” can be 6 months. I don’t necessarily agree with her but it was an interesting read. I’d love to hear your opinion if you have read the book.”

I personally have never read any of Marie Kondo’s books but several of my readers have mentioned them in the past. One concept that my readers mentioned, that appealed to me, was the idea of being grateful for the  service of each and every item that is being decluttered, and then happily let it go. That is regardless of how much or little of a service they have been. I like this idea. It is positive and I dare say uplifting. Which is a far better attitude to approach decluttering with than negativity.

Lets face it being negative gets you nowhere. Right? From the very beginning I approached my decluttering process as a positive move. A move towards a new way of living and consuming. I focused on the positive change rather than the scale of the task. After all, how hard can it be to set aside one thing a day. Sometimes in the first year I had to restrain myself from decluttering more than just that one thing. A thing a day was the challenge after all and I wanted to stick to the guidelines.

There have been so many things that have passed through my hands over the years as I slowly reduced my belongings. For many of them I was truly grateful for their service. Others, not so much, but that is OK because I am still grateful for whatever joy I received from them. From these items I learned the purchasing pitfalls to avoid in the future. I also learned a lot about what kinds of things I had a hard time resisting in the past. Once these things are identified it is easy not to make similar mistakes.

Through this blog there are so many ways that I have tried to nurture a positive attitude towards embarking on the task of decluttering your home. If you still need some more inspiration I would recommend reading one of Marie Kondo’s books. And if my local library ever stocks any I will also read them. Here are a few on-line articles about this Japanese decluttering expert for you to get an idea of her methods and philosophies.

• Konmari method declutters homes and changes lives
• Konmari method closet cleaning
• tidyingup.com

So be grateful and happy decluttering.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some items of jewellery you don’t like so much. My mother-in-law was doing this.

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.

Just for something different, as I have never done this before, this week’s mini missions are based on what me and my family have been decluttering. This includes children and in-laws. It is always exciting to see those you love embracing int the idea of living with less. So here goes.

Monday – Declutter of CDs or DVDs. My son was doing this last week.

Tuesday – Declutter some craft supplies. Easy to guess who was doing this, me of course.

Wednesday – Declutter some items of jewellery you don’t like so much. My mother-in-law was doing this.

Thursday – Declutter some clutter in your home that once was someone else’s clutter. The jewellery mentioned above was just such clutter.

Friday – Declutter some wall art or empty picture frames you have never use. Another thing my son let go of last week.

Saturday – Declutter something you have been unsuccessfully been trying to sell. I did this with some items that have lingered too long in the art space where I sell my handmade cards.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

Good luck and happy decluttering

Eco Tip for the Day

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

I had a reader back in the early days of my blog who seemed to have trouble letting go of her clutter. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep the stuff, or found it difficult to make the choices as to what to let go however she balked at getting on with the task. To me it was obvious that her problem was that she didn’t like seeing anything go to waste.

You see she was very eco friendly, to the point where it was a mission to throw nothing in the trash. And I think this noble goal interfered with her goal to rid her home of clutter. As you all know I am not a lover of waste myself and do what I can to refuse, reuse, reduce and recycle.  In a way I am pleased to say that 99.9% of what I have decluttered has been rehoused, reused, recycled or repurposed. Pleased, because I didn’t just have a house full of trash but sorry that I had so much useful-to-someone-else stuff sitting around unused for long periods of time.

And just because some things don’t work as they should doesn’t mean they aren’t useful to someone. Below are my suggestions on how to deal with such items.

The best way I found to pass on items that have faults is to list them on freecycle or local buy-swap-&-sell or similar web sites, utilise the curb side giveaway method or word of mouth. Explain the fault/s clearly and allow people to decide for themselves if they care or even possibly have the ability to repair them. Through the avenues mentioned above I decluttered all of the following items.

1. All the parts to my malfunctioning Kenwood mixer, then gave the mixer to the last guy who came along who was keen to dabble with it to see if he could get it working or use the parts.
2. The hutch section of a buffet and hutch to a guy who did cabinet making as a hobby. He had a use for the parts and wood while I had a use for the buffet. Everyone was happy. He even asked to let me know if I ever wanted to part with the matching coffee table. I eventually did and he paid me $40 for it.
3. I advertised a lamp, which was unwired, on freecycle and a lady took it with the hope that her electrician son would rewire it for her.
4. I put a trampoline on the street with a FREE sign on it. It needed some restitching but everything else about it was great. It disappeared quickly.
5. I gave an old vacuum cleaner, whose insulation was degrading and blowing out through the air vent, to a lady who was sure she could either clean it up or use the parts.
6. I sole an iRobot vacuum cleaner for parts on ebay.

And these were just the items I could remember in a hurry.

There is usually someone out there who can find a use for things, working or not. Should it not work out for them you will be non the wiser and be happy that you did your best to find a new home for the item. And the stuff that no one wants may just have to end up in the bin. Just remember it is just stuff after all and possibly not wise purchases in the first place. Let it go and learn from the experience. You will hopefully just be a bit more discerning about what to purchase in the future.  Some, on the other hand, are well used items that might just have come to the end of their usefulness and there is certainly no shame in throwing them away.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter your handbag so it is easy to find what you need in there when you need it.

“If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think we’d be happy with more?” — Unknown

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.

Why work harder than you have to for the sake of keep items you don’t need. This week’s mission are designed to have you getting rid of items that you may or may not realise are adding to your work load. Perhaps doing these mission will help you identify other areas of clutter causing your workload to be heavier that it need be.

Monday – Declutter some things that collect dust.

Tuesday – Declutter excess items in a cupboard that make it had to get at what you need.

Wednesday – Declutter items from counter tops that require moving in order to clean the space properly. This may require decluttering some less useful items in cupboards to make room for a little reshuffling.

Thursday – Declutter some things piled on floor making it difficult to vacuum or sweep easily and efficiently.

Friday – Declutter your handbag so it is easy to find what you need in there when you need it.

Saturday – Declutter excess clothes in your closet so it is easy to organise what you do use.

Sunday - Sunday is reserved for contemplating one particular item, of your choice that is proving difficult for you to declutter. Whether that be for sentimental reasons, practical reasons, because the task is laborious or simply unpleasant, or because the items removal requires the cooperation of another person. That last category may mean that the item belongs to someone else who has to give their approval, it could also mean there is a joint decision to be made or it could mean that the task of removing it requires assistance from someone else. There is no need to act on this contemplation immediately, it is more about formulating a plan to act upon or simply making a decision one way or another.

Good luck and happy decluttering