I implore of each and everyone of you that if you buy something, which for one reason or another, does not meet expectation and is eligible for return, please do just that. RETURN IT! As soon as possible after purchase or when it becomes apparent that there is a problem.

There a several legitimate reasons why you might return goods to a store and I will attempt to list them below. However not only are you entitled to return them, whether for store credit or a full refund, in some cases you are doing the rest of the world a favour in doing so. Some products are just a sheer waste of resources. They aren’t made well and they don’t live up to their promise of functionality.

There a several reasons that you might return goods due to your own fault. However depending on how lenient retailers are in your area they do have a right to refuse refunds on items returned for these reasons.  From experience, I know that the rules in the USA are much more lenient for the buyer than they are here in Australia. There are time limits imposed on all returns, but usually, when the customer is a fault, that limit is its shortest. It is an expectation of the retailer that the items return through your fault should be unused at the time of return. Some of the reasons for returning under these circumstances would be…

• Bought the wrong size.
• Want to swap the item for a different colour.
• Bought too many of an item and want to return excess.
• Simply changed your mind and don’t want the item.
• Your circumstance changed and you didn’t need the item after all.

There are also several reasons, through no fault of your own, why you might and should return goods. It is expected that these items will have been used first before returning. How would you know if they were faulty or did not live up to expectation if you hadn’t.

• The item is faulty in some way ~ whether at the moment of unpacking or breaks soon after when used as directed.
• When, within a reasonable period after purchasing, clothing items shrink, fade, fall out of shape or come apart when washed correctly using manufacturers guidelines.
• When an item does not live up to the functionality promised in its advertising or by the sales person.
• You asked a sales person for assistance when purchasing but the item does not do what you specifically asked for.
• If you order an item but when it is delivered it does not match the sample or demo in store.

So often I hear of people who just don’t want to deal with the returns process, don’t like confrontation or just don’t get around to returning goods until it is too late. This is such a shame because there are potentially numerous circumstances that can arise from this lack of action.

• The most obvious is that if the item doesn’t get used it will become clutter in your home and have been a waste of your money. 
• That waste of money can give you feelings of guilt every time you encounter the item.
• If you force yourself to “make do” with the item, every time you use it that nasty feeling of dissatisfaction arises which makes you unhappy and resentful.
• A recall by the manufacturing will not be enforced if not enough people come forward to make it obvious the product has a genuine fault.
• Misleading advertising will not be ceased if enough people do not complain.
• Misleading sales people will continue to get away with ripping people off.

So in future do yourself, your fellow consumers and the environment a favour by making the effort to return unsatisfactory items before it is too late.

Tip: Keep all receipts for items that are eligible to be return until you are sure you are satisfied or until the warranty expires. I keep random receipts for items such as clothes and other smaller goods together in one place. While the receipts and other relevant paperwork for more expensive items that carry a warranty are filed with other important papers.

Have you ever been sorry you didn’t return something, sorry you bought something in the first place or sorry that the guilt of wasted money has held you back from decluttering something?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some paperwork that is no longer relevant to your current circumstances ~ old tax papers, irrelevant manuals and warranties, settled insurance claims…

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t hesitate to return goods that don’t live up to expectation or don’t last as they should. World resources are wasted in the manufacturing of these items.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

Yes I am still finding things to declutter, usually odd bits here and there, but then when did I ever declutter any other way. Perhaps my examples of clutter clearing might inspire you to let go of something similar. So this week’s mini missions will reflect what I have been getting rid of over the last week or two.

Monday – We have slowly been getting rid of old photo prints.  Photos that aren’t so good, duplicates, ones that don’t lend any insight to the history of our lives ~ such as zoo animals ~ and excess shots from the same event. As a result and with a little shuffling I have been about to empty and throw away two old photo albums.

Your Mission: If you have any old photos like I mentioned above, perhaps it is time to do a little culling of photos and condensing them into fewer albums.

Tuesday – I have also been doing a little bit of paper decluttering. I went through a couple of files that belong to our son. Old school stuff and health records. With his help we condensed down the old school papers to just what he felt it necessary to keep and let go of the rest. Then I went through the paperwork file from his accident claims and decluttered what I felt wasn’t important to his medical history or for future reference.

Your Mission: This week declutter paperwork that is no longer relevant to your current circumstances ~ old tax papers, irrelevant manuals and warranties, settled insurance claims…

Wednesday – We also have a little eWaste set aside to be dropped off at the appropriate site. Our old DVD player bit the dust and has been wasting space in the entertainment unit for a few months.

Your Mission: Do you have any electronic equipment that no longer works or you just don’t use anymore. Perhaps it is time to sell it off or dispose of it appropriately.

Thursday – There has been a cookie jar that belonged to my son sitting on the top of my kitchen cupboards for years. When he left I asked if he wanted it and the answer was no. Last week I asked his sister if she wanted it and I got the same response. So this week it is off to the thrift store.

Your Mission: Do you have any things hanging around your home that your kids no longer want. Seek out one or two and send them on their way.

Friday – Last week I was determined to do a little more reshuffling in my craft area. As a result I decided to part with some items that hadn’t been used in quite a long while, or at all in the case of some. I figured if I haven’t found a use for them yet then I probably never will.

Your Mission: Do you have craft or hobby items that you haven’t used in a long time. Perhaps they just don’t appeal to you anymore so let them go.

Saturday – This mission isn’t so much about items in particular but about being determined to reduce the contents of a certain area in order to bring everything of a certain category into the same space. In my case I was determined to get rid of enough items from my craft area in order to bring my ten or so craft books out of the linen closet and into the craft storage furniture.

Your Mission: If you have certain items that belong together but are scattered do to overabundance, identify this category of items and begin to reduce them so they can all be stored in the same space.

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

Resist the urge to replace perfectly good items just because you would like something new. Wear out or use up the old ones first.

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

On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.

Favourite Comments. Enjoy!

Lucinda shares her experience with collecting packaging in this comment.

Calico Ginger shares her take on Feng Shui, or at least positive energy, when it comes to her home in this comment.

In this comment Wendy B also gives us an example of the negative energy she once felt in her kitchen and how she solved that.

Dizzy gives us an update on how she is feeling about her stuff at this point in time.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

This link is a guest post by Tony, author of the We Do This Only Once blog which was published at the blog Great Jolly Hoombah ~ How-to-bring-others-on-board-with-change/ . It is good advice to keep in mind when trying to convert people you know to a more minimalist lifestyle.

Here is a short little post from the Minimalists which gives a quick insight as to how decluttering continues even when you think you are done. I know I’m not done yet.

I liked the idea of Task Bankruptcy in this link from David at Raptitude. We can do the equivalent with our possessions. When we realise we just aren’t going to use them we could just get rid of them. Both Wendy F and Edna recommended this article. I just hope no-one interprets it as dropping any of their decluttering tasks. 😉

“It’s a paradox that the more we let go, the more control we gain.” This quote alone makes this next post worth the read but it has a lot of other useful advice. www.houzz.com ~ 4-Obstacles-to-Decluttering—–and-How-to-Beat-Them

And last but not least here is a little post from one of your fellow 365ers Lucinda at her blog Lucinda Sans. Her post was inspired by a post by a guest post by Andréia. Well done Andréia for inspiring others in their decluttering mission.

Today’s Mini Mission

I used to own more mending items than were ever going to be used in a reasonable amount of time. As a result many elastic items perished, many reals of cotton sat unused, fabric remnants awaited their call up to patch items, and those unique spare buttons that come with new garments were stored in the sewing kit long after the garment has worn out or been passed on. Granted, back in the days when the children were young, I used to sew more but now I don’t. Now I buy just what I need when I need it, I have reduced the cottons and buttons to more generic colours and styles, and the fabric remnants have long been decluttered. If your mending kits has more stocked than need be, give it a good declutter keeping only what really will come in handy in an emergency. Any other repairs can wait.

Eco Tip For The Day

Watch less television. Find something to do for amusement that doesn’t require electricity in place of at least one session of your weekly television viewing. This of course will only work if the television gets turned off and not watched by someone else in the family. Perhaps you could instigate an old fashioned games night.

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

Deb J

It has been almost 5 years since we moved to Arizona. I have been putting off the hassle of updating all the legal paperwork like the wills, etc. I know I should have done it sooner but can admit that what we have would work in a pinch. I also have to admit that it would be more of a hassle for those left to deal with it if I had left things as they were.

I have been updating everything and creating a set of instructions for those who will be our executors if both of us go together or at such time as the other is gone when one dies. It’s much more of a hassle than any of us want to deal with but deal with it we must.

What does this have to do with decluttering? Believe it or not decluttering really makes a difference. Here are some of those differences:

1. The less you have left the less the survivor(s) has to deal with.
2. If more than one person inherits you have to indicate what each is to receive.
3. The majority of your estate may go to one survivor but there may be individual items or small groups of things you want to go to a special friend or group.
4. If there are no survivors, your executor will have to know how to distribute your estate.

As you all know, Mom and I have been slowly decluttering. Something that really opened Mom’s eyes to a good reason for decluttering was my delving into updating all of the legal paperwork. She suddenly began to look at all of those things we had stashed away in the cupboards and closets and sheds with a new outlook. If we were gone, did this item mean enough to pass along? If so, who should get it? What did my only sibling really want and what would just be a burden to him? Did any of the items have real worth as far as selling them? If so, did we want the money to use now or should we let the item sit so the survivor would have it? Did we have anything that other relatives would want if my brother didn’t? There were many questions we asked.

We went through my late father’s items that had been in a box for these 20 years since he passed on and just mailed my brother two small boxes of items. Now we are waiting to hear if there is anything he wants of my mother’s when she is gone.

Maybe you are young and you think you don’t need to really consider these questions. Yesterday a 26 year old man we know had a massive heart attack and is in a coma. Two weeks ago a 32 year old man we know was killed in a car accident. We never know when we will be gone. Everyone not only needs a will but we need to have only those things that are important and needful in our home because we never know when someone else will have to clean up after us.

When I talked to two people about being Executors for our wills I showed them what I have as instructions for them. They were shocked I had covered everything so well. They were also excited that there was not much for them to do because we had it all done for them, especially after I explained all the decluttering we had done.

Today’s Mini Mission

Like kitchen utensils I found that baking pans and trays were another thing that accumulated over the years. Cookie trays, loaf pans, muffin pans, cupcake pans, square tins, round tins, spring form pans… you name it I had usually more than one of them. These things came in much more handy when the kids were still at home but even then a cake tastes much the same whether it was round, square or made in a spring form pan. Yes, if you bake a lot or are particular about these things the thought of living with less of them would be unthinkable. However I am not Martha Stewart and at my age the less cake, cookies and tarts that are around my house the better. We tend to only indulge when we go out for a coffee. That is not to say I have gotten rid of them all but there are certainly fewer now than there once was. Do you have a greater quantity or more variety in the way of baking pans than you truly have aspirations to use? Then perhaps it is time to let go of a few.

Eco Tip for the Day

Use the stairs rather than the elevator. This of course has the added bonus of a little impromptu exercise.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

I shudder at the idea of going back to my old ways of having stuff, more stuff, stored stuff, collected stuff and yet more stuff…..and then being very surprised that the house is full of stuff!

But in spite of all that, I still keep the strangest of things. I don’t know why, there is no logic to it, but I have difficulties getting rid of empty cardboard boxes and shopping bags, especially if they are from particularly nice clothes store or from a surf wear shop.

There is a wee corner of my brain that insists cardboard boxes are useful. Maybe they are, maybe they’re not, but I can get as many as I want any time that I want from my local Pak’n’Save. I have no plans to store anything and no need to carry anything in the foreseeable future but I faithfully stack a small pile of them in the garage until finally the rational part of my brain turns up a few days later and breaks them down for recycling.

Shopping bags. I’m not talking about supermarket bags or ones from the mainstream stores, but the rather nice looking ones. I carefully fold them and place them inside a bag in my craft cupboard. There is only ever 5-10 sitting there and every so often I decide that today is the day I will declutter them, but it just doesn’t happen. The only reason I can think of is that when I was a girl my mum used to do the same thing.

At the time the economy was suffering under high inflation, extreme interest rates and a government introduced compulsary car-less day once a week to combat fuel costs. Our town was small and this was before the era of cheap ‘Made In China’ clothing, so mum sewed what she could of our clothing and we accepted and donated hand-me-down clothes, it didn’t bother us and was widely acceptable in our community.

So a pretty shopping bag represented luxury and they were probably still a new thing as I recall a drawer full of folded up paper bags used for everything from lining baking tins to art projects to lighting the fire to holding rubbish. Wherever possible, we passed on our hand-me-down clothes in a nice plastic carrier bag with a shop logo on it. Why I don’t know, as it was only being carried from house to car and car to house and wouldn’t actually be seen by the greater public, but it seemed to be the tradition.

I mentioned this story to a friend over the weekend and she got a smile on her face and told me that she keeps the paper flour sacks, to line baking tins for making fruit cake. The thing is that she has never made a fruit cake. Her mother and grandmother were fruit cake legends but the baking gene completely skipped her, but she still feels a need to keep these paper flour sacks.

Another friend religiously saves seeds from pumpkins and dries them on the kitchen window sill as her mother used to dry hers for planting, but my friend lives in an apartment block and has never had a garden.

So why do we carry on these little traditions from yester year? Who knows? Strangely I feel more of an attachment to these pretty plastic carrier bags than I do towards many other items that I haven’t thought twice about getting rid of.

So what is my strategy to deal with this? Well, the first step is to make sure that no more come into the house, although this is fairly easy as I am not the shopping fiend that I used to be but also to politely decline a plastic carrier bag or if on a shopping trip to utilise one bag for all purchases. Colleen will also advocate that this is good for the environment. I actually had to decline one yesterday – shopping for a school bag – yes, a bag for the bag!

And as for the existing bags? Well, I have a number of items on trademe (like ebay) at the moment, and I will honour my mum’s tradition of passing on clothes and use these for packaging rather than buying postal bags. Ironically this isn’t a cheaper option but it will save me from buying another plastic bag, while these hide in the cupboard.

So does anyone else out there find themselves keeping the strangest of things and if so do you know why?

Today’s Mini Mission

Stationery was another category that I once had a weakness for. I had cute paper, cute paper clips, cute pens, cute erasers, cute push pins and a selection of ordinary stuff so I could save the cute stuff for good.  When the children are in school one does need much more of this stuff but I found that I had so much that three years after they left I gave the excess away because it just wasn’t getting used up like I thought it would. Also as the tech age took over even a little bit of this was too much because we digitised most of our bills etc. Evaluate your stationery and your need for them and declutter the items you have too many of or have no use for at all.

Eco Tip for the Day

Decide what you need from the refrigerator before opening the door. Standing there with the door open while you think about what you want to eat just lets the cold air out. Then the fridge has to work harder and waste electricity to regain its optimal temperature level.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

This comment by Jo H and the mention of Feng Shui last week got me thinking about the aesthetics of a home. We all have our own tastes when it comes to the kinds of things we like, fabric choices, art works, furniture styles, knick knacks etc etc. However as Jo pointed out in her comment the beauty of these objects have a better chance of shining out when they aren’t so plentiful that they get lost in the clutter.

Although I only have a vague understanding of Feng Shui, and  am sure some people think it is a lot of hocus pocus, I would suggest that it is worth investigating. I feel that some of the basic principals such as de-clutter every room, position furniture correctly, keep work and rest areas separate and make repairs promptly, will make any home more pleasant to live in. Homes have a feel about them whether you believe in chi (the flow of positive energy) or not. Have you ever had an area of your home that just doesn’t feel right to you and can’t put your finger on why. To another person the problem may be obvious but, because you have emotional attachment to the stuff in the room, your ability to see the problem is obscured.

I happened to visit a local antique shop this last weekend. This shop is large and jam packed with all manner of old and interesting things. So jam packed that you couldn’t possibly see even one tenth of what it has to offer in a single visit. I had come to show my husband one particular item which was right at the front door and took seconds to accomplish, however these places are so intriguing that it is fun to have a look around. The decision then had to be made whether to glance over the entire store or choose a couple of areas to look through closely. No matter what choice one makes in this situation one is always left with the feeling of missing out on something. What treasures could be hiding amongst all the clutter. Where do I look first, what might I be missing if I make the wrong choice of where to look. Even though I didn’t even wish to purchase anything I find this feeling oppressive.

Now imagine living in your home with a similar feeling every day. You believe you love and need every item in it, you wouldn’t want to part with anything because you might miss it or need it someday. However you know something about your home is making you feel on edge and you can’t put your finger on it. My guess is your need and love for all your stuff has your eyes closed to the fact that you can’t deal with it all. You spend so much time maintaining it. Or you feel guilty if you don’t. You encounter inconveniences everyday manoeuvring around and through your stuff. Be open to the idea convenience might just be worth parting with some stuff.

As always I would suggest you start decluttering the items, among the multitudes, that you love the least. But if you would like to immediately experience what it would be like with less stuff, why not do a trial separation. A practice run so to speak. You can test how much you really would miss some items when they are gone. At the same time experience how much easier maintenance can be with less stuff. Then weigh up what is really more important to you.

Find a place in your home where you can store some boxes of stuff for a while. Choose an area of your home that feels the most cluttered. Box up the items you least use and/or love and take a break from them. Leave the items in the boxes for at least a month, two or three would really give a good indication of whether you really miss them or not. At the end of the time you can either sort through the boxes to retrieve what you have decided you want or just send them as is straight to the thrift shop. If you do decide to go through the boxes don’t allow the novelty of seeing your items again cloud your judgement and have you forget the benefits of having less stuff to maintain and live with.

Today’s Mini Mission

If you have a bunch of fancy, rarely used utensils getting in the way of  the useful stuff why not pare down a little.

Eco Tip for the Day

Just like yesterdays eco tip on saving fuel not idling the car, you can also practice this with your vacuum cleaner. When you are vacuuming and get sidetracked by another task turn off the vacuum, even if the other task takes little more than a few seconds. Every little bit of electricity you save is good for the environment and your energy costs.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

I am basing today’s mini missions around one of my old clutter weaknesses and that is ~ useful items that make my life easier, more convenient or just added variety of choice.  While some of these items did simplify my workload many did more towards cluttering up my home than making it more functional. So below I will give you a list of the ones that have long since been decluttered and you can give some thought to the necessity of these items in your home, if you indeed even own such things.

Monday – At one point I owned four types of vacuum cleaners. Each one of them were used on a regular basis. A big upright vacuum for heavy cleaning, a stick vac for quick once overs on in-between days, a hand vacuum for small spills and my iRobot vacuum because who doesn’t love an appliance that does all the work for you. Although all these vacuums made clean up tasks slightly easier in their own way they also required storage space and were frankly a little in the way of overkill. I now have two, the heavy duty one and a hand vac, and the jury is still out on whether the hand vac is really useful enough to justify the amount of power it must use sitting on standby 24/7. If you have several vacuum cleaners, brooms or mops analyse what you really need and declutter what you don’t.

Tuesday – Kitchen utensils are another thing I had more of than was convenient to search through when I needed the everyday items. One would think the useful items would remain on top because they get used often but like keys in a handbag they had a habit of working their way to the bottom. Do you really need a melon baller, a garlic press, an apple corer, a julienne grater, a crinkle cutter… These are all items I used to own and amazingly enough the food I make without them now tastes just as good. So if you have a bunch of fancy utensils getting in the way of  the useful stuff why not pare down a little.

Wednesday – Stationery was another category that I once had a weakness for. I had cute paper, cute paper clips, cute pens, cute erasers, cute push pins and a selection of ordinary stuff so I could save the cute stuff for good. 🙄 When the children are in school one does need much more of this stuff but I found that I had so much that three years after they left I gave the excess away because it just wasn’t getting used up like I thought it would. Also as the tech age took over even a little bit of this was too much because we digitised most of our bills etc. Evaluate your stationery and your need for them and declutter the items you have too many of or have no use for at all.

Thursday - Like kitchen utensils I found that baking pans and trays were another thing that accumulated over the years. Cookie trays, loaf pans, muffin pans, cupcake pans, square tins, round tins, spring form pans… you name it I had usually more than one of them. These things came in much more handy when the kids were still at home but even then a cake tastes much the same whether it was round, square or made in a spring form pan. Yes, if you bake a lot or are particular about these things the thought of living with less of them would be unthinkable. However I am not Martha Stewart and at my age the less cake, cookies and tarts that are around my house the better. We tend to only indulge when we go out for a coffee. That is not to say I have gotten rid of them all but there are certainly fewer now than there once was. Do you have a greater quantity or more variety in the way of baking pans than you truly have aspirations to use? Then perhaps it is time to let go of a few.

Friday – I also used to own more mending items than were ever going to be used in a reasonable amount of time. As a result many elastic items perished, many reals of cotton sat unused, fabric remnants awaited their call up to patch items, and those unique spare buttons that come with new garments were stored in the sewing kit long after the garment has worn out or been passed on. Granted, back in the days when the children were young, I used to sew more but now I don’t. Now I buy just what I need when I need it, I have reduced the cottons and buttons to more generic colours and styles, and the fabric remnants have long been decluttered. If your mending kits has more stocked than it need be then give it a good declutter keeping only what really will come in handy in an emergency. Any other repairs can wait.

Saturday – This last item doesn’t really fit with the theme of the day although they are useful in there own way. They are also still plentiful in my home and I have devised a plan to declutter them as the current plan of wear them out throw them out isn’t working quickly enough. The item in question is socks. Some get worn a lot, some not so often. So here is my plan. I am going to put them all in a box in my closet, when they get used they will be laundered and put back in the drawer where they usually reside. Any that are still in the box at the end of the season will be either thrown out or donated depending on condition. If you have too many socks or perhaps scarves, ties or other clothing accessory now is as good a time as any to declutter the ones you don’t use or like so much.

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

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.

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

Finding Colleen’s web site really was an eye-opener for me as I did feel overwhelmed by stuff at the time but didn’t really know where to start. I just moved in with my boyfriend and we both had lived in shared flats before, so we had a mixed jumble of furniture and household goods and got help and cast-offs from many relatives as well. So I was in that new apartment surrounded by lots of stuff that didn’t really match and didn’t really fit either. Moreover as he liked his stuff and I liked mine, of course we didn’t want to give away our own stuff but would have preferred the other’s to be sold, donated or trashed. You know how it’s always easier to point out other people’s trash, as you have no sentimental feelings about it and it might also not suit your taste as well as things chosen by you. As there was not much money to spend on this project and we both have a “no-waste”-mentality, so trashing wouldn’t have come easy anyway, I was so glad to find Colleen’s website and her slow-and-steady approach. From the first day, I stuck to it and it really wasn’t hard to find one thing a day to give away or recycle. I also tried to implement the “one place for everything”- strategy soon, which meant that we joined all our office supplies, tools etc. and started using them up instead of bringing new things in due to not knowing that we already owned something like that.

However over the time, mostly happily hauling small or big bags of stuff to the thrift store every other week, I hit frustration a couple of times. Even after months our apartment wasn’t near to a minimalistic state, we still own quite a lot which isn’t really necessary, just because we or one of us doesn’t want to let it go.

We didn’t drastically reduce our space or furniture and it still seems to be rather well filled. So I asked myself more than once: What did I do all this time? Is there progress at all?

Last september I took a few photos of parts of our apartment, namely shelving units etc.

Here you see our bookcase in the living room then and now. Can you spot the difference? (I can’t help that the after picture is darker, this is due to our winter weather)

Before and After

Oh yes, it is still full, but note that all that left this bookcase, left for good, while many other things that cluttered other parts of the apartment have found their way in: This suitcase (which holds our yarn stash and knitting needles) had no home before – it was somewhere underneath the sofa or somewhere else on the floor. Same goes for the basket which is now next to my sewing machine – it holds sewing/mending work in progress and was underneath the sofa as well. Also, our bookcase now holds the wrapping paper, my clarinet and three unused canvases that had no real home either.

Mostly books and CDs have been decluttered, but also a few other things, like two vases that went to the thrift store, the little black laquer tray I gave to a friend or the pin cushion which now fits in my sewing kit.

So, yes, although we still have a full bookcase, although there are still many purely sentimental items in it, I can spot a difference in the before and after photos and I know that this means one less moving box for books, which shows to me that I am, after all, making progress, as slow as it may be.

Since Sanna first sent me this post she has decluttered even more. Proof that, over time, one is prepared to relinquish more and more items that once they thought they never would. A job well done I’d say. Below is a very current photo of the decluttered shelves and below that a collage of the Before After and Now shots just so you can compare the difference. As Sanna said when she sent me the new photo this week….

“I just looked at the “before” picture myself for the first time in a couple of months. Wow. I’m amazed by the difference! Taking pictures really does help to see the progress. I wouldn’t have remembered how cluttered it was.”

The shelving unit now

Before                                                                                   After                                                                              Now

Today’s Mini Missions

 Last but not least I am once again going to harp on about those tchotchkes collecting dust around the home. They have to be cleaned, they have to be housed and they take up valuable space that could be used for something useful. I am not saying get rid of them all, I certainly won’t be. Just do yourself a favour and lighten your space and your work load. Declutter a few more this week.

“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

On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.

Favourite Comments. Enjoy!

In this comment Wendy B demonstrates that all kinds of circumstances initiate decluttering. Well done Ian and Wendy.

Wise words form Ideealistin in regards to buying to resell. I have encountered more than one person in my life who bought to resell then stopped reselling. There homes ended up full of clutter. The buying became like any other addiction.

Yesterday we had four previously silent readers come forward to make their first comments. I felt inclined to share them with you. Enjoy! I appreciate every reader contribution to the blog and encourage you all to join the conversation. So welcome to Katy, Nanette, Leah and Purplej. I hope I haven’t missed anyone.

In this comment Marianne gives her advice on how to enjoy books and magazines without the clutter.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

This link for Becoming Minimalist gives good advice on why fewer toys are better for your kids.

I enjoyed this link also from Becoming Minimalist. It matches so well with the theme of my mini missions this week.

Andréia sent me this link to an article about decluttering books After reading it I was a bit reluctant to share it here as the writer still had a vast collection. As it turned out she was a book reviewer. However I found the first few paragraphs too interesting to keep them to myself. And here is another one about making a household inventory.

Here is another great article about including kids in the chores and decluttering from The Other Side Of Complexity.

Today’s Mini Mission

Having too many items of clothing to choose from can lead to baskets of unwashed and/or unfolded washing laying around. This can also cause wasted time making choices on what to wear. Declutter some excess clothing. Think about whether the number of clothing items you own represents the amount you really need or how often you can be bothered washing and ironing them. I DO NOT mean for you to consider washing small loads more frequently (that would be bad for the environment). What I am saying is do you still have several weeks worth of this seasons clothes in your wardrobe at the time you are doing a full load of laundry. If that is the case perhaps you are overstocked.

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

I mostly talk about clutter in the form of items that are unused and unloved that could be permanently removed from our homes.  However the detritus of unfinished tasks also mounds up over a very short period of time when a short attention span, lack of planning or sheer laziness has us making a half hearted effort.

Below are some reasons why this sort of clutter accumulates and the possible consequences…

• Mail is opened but not attended too. ~ At the very least there should be a designated place for mail to be filed when needing later attention. Not doing this can end up in late fees for unpaid bills. Any mail that is just plain junk deposit it straight in the recycling bin. Do what you can to digitise bills and cease junk mail to make this task easier in the future.
• Dishes unwashed or washed but not put away. ~ This makes a kitchen look dirty, untidy and ,in the case of small kitchens, far less functional. Then there is the time wasted looking for, and possibly having to clean on the run, items you need for the task at hand. And also there is the possibility of attracting germ carrying bugs.
• Getting dressed but leaving discarded clothes left lying on the floor. ~ This is bad enough when the clothes are dirty and simply need the little effort it takes to put them in the dirty clothes basket. But should they be clean, nicely ironed clothes that have been tossed aside in an attempt to find just the right outfit for the occasion then you have not only left a mess but you have wasted all the time and effort that you used to launder these items in the first place. Once they are crinkled in a pile with all the other dirty discarded clothes then they are no longer clean and wearable.
• Performing ablutions and then leaving your toiletries everywhere. ~ Toothpaste and brush left open or not rinsed on the sink,  make-up everywhere on the vanity, shampoo in the floor of the shower with lids off…  What and eyesore and a mess for the next unfortunate bather to have to deal with.
• Mending started but not completed. ~ Now not only the item that requires mending is hanging around out of place but also the equipment needed is out of place with it.
• Random items used and left discarded all over the house. ~ Right now as I look to my right I can see on my living room side table a hair comb, a used and empty coffee cup, a bottle of nasal spray and a used tissue. That last items is particularly gross. Everyone of those items has a place and none of them are in it. The cup belongs in the dishwasher, the comb in the bathroom cabinet drawer, along with the nasal spray and the tissue in the bin. I have been past the kitchen several times since I finished the coffee, the bin also resides in the kitchen and I have also gone upstairs and into my bathroom more than once. I could easily have taken care of all of these items during anyone of those trips without it taking me but a few extra seconds. Ignore enough things during the day and ones house can become an awful mess. Especially if neglected in this way for days on end.

If you are guilty of any of these clutter producing habits why not try to change your ways. With a little extra attention to detail and putting in place new strategies I am sure you can turn things around. Maybe you will save yourself some time, stress or even money in the long run.

Today’s Mini Mission

Décor items can certainly warm up a room and make it feel homely but too many can have a detrimental effect. They can clutter the space, make it appear untidy and harbour dust mite among other things. Declutter one or two dust collecting décor items this week. Scatter cushions, rugs, throw rugs, wall hangings, drapes…

Eco Tip for the Day

Don’t leave tasks linger for so long that you have to redo them such as drying the washing or folding it. This can cause you to have to waste more electricity rewashing and ironing. Need I also mention your wasted time and wear and tear on your appliances.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

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