In a bid to empty my inbox the other day I came upon this post from over at The Change Blog. It is titled ~ Why I stopped chasing happiness. I wanted to share it with you because the principle behind it is something that we should apply to our decluttering efforts. Take a read of it now if you like before you read what I have to say on the subject.

The problem that Isis was dealing with in her life is similar to when people just like you or me decide that the clutter in our homes has become overwhelming and we need to do something about it. Immediately most people get a vision in mind of what they want their homes to look like at the end of the process. They focus on how happy they are going to be when they meet that goal. The “reality”, however, quickly sets in when they start to think about what it will take to achieve this goal. They become focused on how much work will be involved, get confused as to where to begin, get frustrated over what their plan of attack should be and agonise pessimistically over complications they may encounter along the way.

The good news is that this doesn’t have to be the “reality”. This is just the reality that we conjure up in our minds because of the instant gratification society that we live in in this modern age. It has become apparent to me that instant gratification is not all it is cracked up to be. Ultimately it only teaches us to take everything for granted and not appreciate how lucky we really are all of the time not just when we accomplish the big end goal. But I digress…

Instead of being frustrated, impatient and miserable with the process of decluttering we can actually choose to enjoy it. Get your mind around the following ideas rather than the self defeating ones that may be going on in your mind.

• Be joyful each time you identify the next thing you choose to declutter.
• Be happy that every little thing that you remove from your home leaves it slightly less cluttered.
• Feel strong and free when resisting the temptation to bring something new into the home.
• Gloat a little on the space you have freed up with every item you remove, no matter how small.
• Let “Take that clutter!” to be your new war cry.
• Revel in the fact that not rushing the process gives you time to cement this new habit of living with less as a new way of life rather than just an occasional nasty chore.
• Feel generous when donating your items to a charity where they will become useful to someone else and the funds raised will help others.

It is possible to enjoy the process if you can believe it is so. I have to say the I have thoroughly enjoyed my declutter process. Yes there are elements of it that I find less appealing than others but in the end even they feel like great individual little achievements once done. S

o enjoy the process by thinking positive and being happy with every little successes every single day.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a gadget that you no longer use. Maybe something from the kitchen that you thought would make foodpreparation easier but fell short of your expectations.

Plastic String Bag

Eco Tip for the Day

Reuse all plastic that comes into your home. Little mesh bags like the one in the photo are great to reuse for bagging little grocery items like snap peas or mushrooms.

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

 

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

Hi everyone, happy new year to you all. Welcome to any new readers who has found their way here because they have made a resolution to get decluttered this year. When it comes to getting started on a decluttering mission the key to success is to begin with the easy stuff. Easy stuff to part with and easy stuff to find new homes for or dispose of. For those who have been decluttering for a while what started out seeming hard has usually by now become the easy stuff. So for the missions this week the theme is simplicity.

Monday – Declutter an item of clothing that no longer fits, you no longer like or you bought for a special occasion years ago and is now out of fashion.

Tuesday – Declutter a gadget that you no longer use. Maybe something from the kitchen that you thought would make food preparation easier but fell short of your expectations.

Wednesday – Declutter something that you have way to many of than you really need. This could be cutlery, crockery, glassware, craft supplies, stationery items etc.

Thursday – Declutter a pair of shoes that you no longer wear. Perhaps ones that are pretty but a torture to wear. Ones that are old favourites but are really so shabby you never, or shouldn’t, choose to wear them anymore. Or maybe a pair that are so ugly you wonder why you ever bought them in the first place.

Friday – Declutter something that your children or grandchildren have grown out of. This could be clothes, toys, shoes, eating utensils, books, games etc.

Who loves to dust? Not me!

Saturday – Declutter some trinkets that you don’t care much about, that are just collecting dust and causing you unnecessary work. This was one of my priorities when I first began decluttering. I wanted my home to be easier to maintain and one of the most arduous tasks is dusting nicknacks.

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 accept free promotional products that you have no use for. Accepting these just encourages the continuation of this practice while the environment would be healthier without the manufacture of cheap throwaway or needless items like these usually are.

365 Less Things

My acceptance email

Thank you so much Tohami I am honoured. Maybe what I should have won was ~ Most Loyal Readers award. I will wear my badge with pride. My husband is redesigning my blog at the moment while I take a two week break. In the meantime I will post the badge with a thank you to all my wonderful loyal readers for their votes. Thanks you again.

A special thanks again to all of you, my wonderful loyal readers for your votes. I couldn’t have done it without you as I was certainly in good company among some blogs with much higher subscription counts and greater reputations than mine. The award really goes to the whole 365 Less Things community for making the blog a warm and fuzzy place to be.  Way to go 365ers!

A heartfelt thanks to all of you who have read and commented here at 365 Less Things over the year. Thank you also to those who have contributed by writing guest posts and of course to Cindy for her Weekly Wisdom. Together you have turned this blog into a community. May you all have a joyous holiday season and I hope 2013 will be a wonderful, happy and decluttered year for you all.

Sincerely Colleen

Taking a Christmas Break

Hi 365ers. For the first time ever I have decided to actually take a real break over the Holiday Season. The good news is that this means you get a break from me also. I know you have been craving this day that would happen for a long long time.

Instead of writing posts in advance during the holiday season and trying to find time to check in to comment I am going to cease posting from today until the 7th of January. This time of the year is meant for loving, cherishing and celebrating so my intention is to do just that, and only that. No posting, no commenting, no writing in advance for next year, no googling simplicity blogs not even any decluttering. That last one might be the biggest challenge. But considering how few gifts there are under the tree it shouldn’t be too hard.

So have a wonderful festive season and I look forward to chatting with you all again in the new year.

The Blue Print for 2013

There will be a couple of changes here at 365 in the new year.

• I will no longer be including a decluttered item of the day in each post. I may write my post about what it is I am decluttering at the time but the excess is now dwindling so to keep up the one a day pace may prove difficult so as of now it will cease. This is good new for sure. It doesn’t mean I am done decluttering of course as there are still some things that have to be reduce, photos for instance, but they are much fewer now.
• I will only be posting Monday to Friday unless I have a guest post to publish or something extra pops up for Saturday.
• Steve is working on a whole new look for the blog. Yay!
• I may include some sort of monthly challenge to help fire up your decluttering efforts.
• And the best news is that our long time reader, commenter and occasional guest writer, Deb J has agreed to contribute a post every forth Thursday of the month. Welcome aboard Deb.

I am lo0king forward to all the changes and it will be lovely to have a fresh new start in 2013. See you then.

For the last several years I knew that something was really wrong. I always felt overwhelmed. I developed a real dread of cleaning my house, although I always kept it clean and neat. But there was always that unsettling feeling inside of me because of the constant – move it here, put it there, dust it, pack it away, get it back out. Also – what am I going to do with these knickknacks, all these extra mixing bowls, all these extra pans (bundt pans, muffin pans, pie pans, bread pans), ornamental baskets, electric wok, blender, food processor, etc., etc., etc. Then, I came to the conclusion I HAD TOO MUCH STUFF!!! DUH!!!

So, I began to read about minimalism. I have read several e-books, some of which include…

•  The Minimalist Woman;
• Living in the Land of Enough;
• Basics of Minimalism: Living with Less;
• Miss Minimalist:Inspiration to Downsize, Declutter, and Simplify;
• Time to Simplify: Practical Minimalism for Living with Less; The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize and Simplify Your Life;

…and many, many more. The most recent was Dr. Robin Zasio’s book, The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life.

Two years ago this month (November) I put myself on a diet, began a program of exercise, and lost 45 pounds. It seemed like as soon as the weight began coming off I was also able to shed stuff. Along with boxes and boxes of clothing that was too large (I went from size 16 to size 8), I have given away boxes and boxes of stuff – kitchen items that I never used, shelves of books that I had read and would, no doubt, never read again, those dust-catching knickknacks and baskets, plastic garbage bags full of yarn that people gave me because they knew that I would take it. (I make prayer shawls, but prefer to buy my own yarn.), boxes of Christmas decorations, and JUST STUFF.

SometimesI wish I had kept a log of everything that went out the door, but I didn’t. And that’s probably good because keeping a log would have been a form of clutter. When I let it go, I let it go.

I found your web site approximately a year ago and have been a regular reader. Last week, I subscribed and now receive daily e-mails.

As with all who are trying to live a clutter-free life, I am a work in progress. I’m so glad that I found your web site. It has been an inspiration for me to not necessarily be a “minimalist” — I don’t like labels — but to just try one day at a time, one item at a time to keep clutter and over-consumption under control.

Thanks to you and all your wonderful readers who post comments. You are an inspiration, and I’m happy to be a part of your community.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Get rid of something sentimental especially if you have a lot of it. Seriously you don’t have to own something to remind you of every event or period in your life. If it wasn’t significant enough to remember without a prompt then it probably isn’t worth remembering. And if you never look at these items anyway then what is the point. If you feel you need a visual prompt then take a digital photo of it and store that on your hard-drive.

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.

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!

Jen tells us a little about where she is at with her decluttering in this comment. Thanks Jen.

In this comment Jane shares how her target of being decluttering by her self-imposed deadline of the end of the year. 

Moni and her daughter Dayna had occasion to consider how much easier it would be to move house when one doesn’t own copious amounts of stuff. Read about their insights here.  But don’t stop there continue reading through this comment strand for more on the subject.

I also loved this comment from Moni on how she reserected her husband’s BBQ rather than buying a new one. Well done Moni!

Deb J‘s post certainly generated lots of comments. I found this one for Dez C particularly interesting. Although as she said, some may not like what she had to say, she does make some interesting points on how we complicate something that is really very simple in its raw form. One thing that struck me as I read along was that these days one can simply this even further in this digital world by not even printing photos but storing them digitally.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Here is a link to the simplicity blog ANNIENYGMA giving us some good reasons to rent rather than buy.

This link from Mens Health News gives us some tips on saving on household cleaners.

Here are a couple of links from Daily Lime. One about environmentally friendly gift ideas and this one with some really cute alternative gift wrapping ideas.

Loved this article from Mind Over Matter on the fear of letting go of clutter.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter old VHS tapes. If you haven’t already converted them to a modern digital form then the chances are you never will. Especially if you don’t watch them anyway or even own a VCR.

Today’s Declutter Item

Wet Weather Poncho

Eco Tip for the Today

 Fix leaky toilets. Those constantly running toilets aren’t just annoying they are a huge waste of water.

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

Deb J

On September 26^th I began helping my friend, S, declutter her home. Her first goal was to get everything out of the room she wanted to turn into her craft room. When we started the room was so full of bags and boxes and drawers of STUFF that you couldn’t get into the room and she had no idea what it contained. The first picture below shows the room after half of the mess had been cleaned out. The second picture is of the bed before it was uncovered. I didn’t even know there was a bed in there until we began to unload.

The Spare Room

As we began to carry out the bags and boxes we uncovered 6000 books, 40 bags of scrapbook supplies bought over the last 4 years and never taken out of the bags, Christmas decorations she forgot she had, 125 items of clothing, 20 throw pillows, 3 bedspreads/quilts, 4 old lamps (2 broken), a puffed valance, 2 pair of drapes, 3 baskets, 2 wreaths, and hoards of other items too numerous to count and describe. There were 7 plastic, wheeled storage units and over 100 containers collected over time to use to store scrapbook supplies in. There were also about 10,000 photos and 15 years worth of memorabilia all in grocery bags. Not included in this room was all of the paper and other scrapbook items that filled her dining room.

The first thing we did was move everything but the bed and dresser out of the new craft room. All scrapbook/craft supplies and storage containers were taken out into the family room to be sorted and placed into storage. Everything else was divided up into the two guest rooms. All the books went into one and all the other items into the other. Gradually S is going through all of these items in the two guest rooms to get them prepared for taking to the Women’s Shelter thrift store or Goodwill.

A picture of the dining room before we cleaned it up and the family room with all of the containers.

It took many days of working on all of this to be able to get it to where it all looks good and is organized and decluttered. We have taken 300 items of clothing, 2000 books, and numerous decorative items to the shelter thrift store and Goodwill. She gave 54 boxes to a friend who was moving. We put 200 bags in the recycle bin along with 25 plastic containers. What containers she has kept are for her to possibly use as we continue to declutter and organize the house.

Here are pictures of the new craft room—1. Shelving unit with albums and tools, 2. Closet with storage units, (18 of the “drawers” contain stickers) 3. Memorabilia in plastic envelope bags, 4. Some of the photos in photo boxes by year.

I will tell you that we are not completely done. Once we have been able to declutter more of the house there will be things that will be moved out of the closet and a few things reorganized to make finding items easier. There will be 3 shelves built to reduce piling some items.

While it has been a challenge, we are both pleased with what we have accomplished. We will move on to other areas of the house after the first of the year.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some items of clothing that no longer suit the climate you live in or just don’t fit anymore.

Today’s Declutter Item

There was a case of some natural progression decluttering that went on in my house this week. When I was about to take one of queen bed fitted sheets of the clothesline I discovered a big hole in it. Being as I already have one set too many I decided to use the damaged sheet as a weed mat in my garden and sent the remainder of the set to the thrift store. I could have keep these for spares but I had enough spares already.

1 Sheet & 2 Pillowcases

Eco Tip for the Day

When cooking on your stove top match your saucepan size to your hob size. A small saucepan on a large hob will waste gas or electricity.

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.

In light of all the items that are laying in piles on my living room floor at the moment ~ clutter items that my husband has been collecting up over the weekend ~ I have decided this week’s mini missions will centre on the thoughts going through my head right now as I look at these items individually.

Monday – Declutter something that is intended to be on display but hasn’t seen the light of day in years. In our case this is a Chinese ink drawing of a tiger. My husband asked if we are ever likely to display it in the house. I said “We haven’t in the last 25 years so what are the chances that is going to change any time soon!”.

Tuesday – Declutter something you got for free. From my vantage point on the sofa I can see a baseball park giveaway, a coffee mug from an aeroplane manufacturer, various toiletry items from a recent international flight and a souvenir from a foreign military establishment. Some of these have been around for quite a some time while others have infiltrated my clutter defences just recently. Hmmmmmm!!!

Wednesday – Declutter an old piece of equipment, possibly work related from days gone by.

Thursday – Declutter some items of clothing that no longer suit the climate you live in or just don’t fit anymore.

Friday – Declutter old VHS tapes. If you haven’t already converted them to a modern digital form then the chances are you never will. Especially if you don’t watch them anyway or even own a VCR.

Saturday – Get rid of something sentimental especially if you have a lot of it. Seriously you don’t have to own something to remind you of every event or period in your life. If it wasn’t significant enough to remember without a prompt then it probably isn’t worth remembering. And if you never look at these items anyway then what is the point. If you feel you need a visual prompt then take a digital photo of it and store that on your hard-drive.

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

Today’s Declutter Item

More craft materials out the door in the form on another Etsy sale.

Eco Tip for the Day

Switch from using throwaway batteries to rechargeable ones. When purchasing battery operated items take the size and quantity of batteries into account when deciding which item to buy.

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!

Decluttering doesn’t always come naturally and easily. But knowing we really would like to get rid of things usually wins out in the end. Andréia tells us how she is starting to enjoy the benefits of a decluttering space in this comment.

In this first comment from Sassy she tells us about her clever parents giving gifts that will be very helpful in the long term to the grandchildren.

Low Income Lady has had some space making declutter success recently. Read about it here.

Choosing not to exchange gifts can be a serious relief for some people doing it tough. Read an example of this shared with us by Jen.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

This link share on 365’s Facebook page by Jenny Anderson just goes to show how much our sentimental clutter means to us ~ Wedding gown mix-up

Here is a great link that my hubby sent. If financial freedom is a good reason to stop buying stuff you don’t need then I don’t know what is.

Here is a link with a green/tech flavour ~ www.smh.com.au ~ Sustain a green lifestyle with these apps

Here is a link to Organised Home with some Decluttering 101 advice.

And hot off the press ~ Mohamed Tohami is running a Simplicity Blog of the Year Award and 365 has been nominated. Click on this link to cast your vote for your favourite nominee.

Today’s Mini Mission

Roundup all the grooming product and tools that are scattered throughout your home. Once together declutter any excess.

Today’s Declutter Item

Vintage Rhinestone Brooch

Eco Tip for the Day

 Digitise your bills and pay them online. This not only saves paper but also the delivery method is better on the environment also.

Have a great weekend everyone!