Recently I was let in on a strategy on how to state a case or perhaps even get another person to come around to your way of thinking without their sensibilities being offended. The idea is to get people to think rationally about a subject without them realising that you are leading them in a direction they may not have considered.

The trick is to broach the topic in the form of a question that you quite likely have the same opinion on. Once you are in agreement you steer the conversation, maybe even in the form of another question, in the direction in which you want it to go. Successfully bypassing any undesirable emotional response while leading them hopefully to conforms to your way of thinking.

Making a request to grandparents that they don’t overindulge your children with excessive gifts of toys at Christmas and birthdays is a good example of how this ploy might work. Please see below for the scenario I have created to demonstrate this strategy.

While enjoying a normal conversation you bring up your topic by asking ~ “Did you have many toys to play with when you were growing up?”Hopefully they will say “Oh no!…” And they will regale you with some stories of the toys they do remember and how excited they were to receive them at the time.

Then comes the next question ~ “Did you feel deprived because you didn’t receive many or did you have fun regardless?” In this case you will hope the answer is “No we made out own fun. Children these days have no imagination…”

Then comes the $100 question “Do you think children these days have far too many toys?” I have never encountered an adult of my generation or above who ever answered no to this. They all think the current generation is spoiled rotten.

At this point you go in for the kill or should I say you come to the point of your conversation, while you have the upper hand, by saying “I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Don’t you think it would be a good idea if perhaps instead of giving lots of things to the children we all limit ourselves to giving one material gift and perhaps put some money in a bank account for them….”

What has occurred here is that the parent has extracted a true and logical opinion form the grandparent about how overindulged children are these day. Once they have showed their hand you then play your trump card by suggesting your idea of reducing this overindulgence for your own children (their grandchildren). By this point how could they not think that is a good idea. And even if they do realise that they have been lead to this point what can they do without losing face but agree your idea is sound.

I have to say I have been at the receiving end of this strategy more than once. Lead there by a certain person in particular who shall remain nameless. I nearly always twig as to what he is up to, but by then he has me caught hood line and sinker. I have to tell you that I am usually glad to be caught. Why, you might ask. Because I have a tendency to allow my emotions to rule my head far too much and his logic is much easier to swallow. With his clever manoeuvring I can then justify what for me may otherwise be a difficult emotional decision. I know my weakness well enough to be grateful to him for steering me away from that frightening abyss.

The beauty of this approach is that if the answers to the questions you are posing are not the ones that cement your case you can abort the mission at any time. No one ever need be the wiser that you were attempting to achieve an objective in the first place.

Today’s Mini Mission

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

Today’s Declutter Item

Stage 2 of the great craft declutter is underway at last. I have opened an Etsy store and have made my first sale. What a fun and creative way to declutter. The photo collage below show my handcrafted products purchased in that first sale.

My first Esty sale

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 think it is time again for a roundup of similar items that have somehow ended up all over the house. If you are a very organised person you may be able to take the week off. But if you or your family members tend not to put thing back where they belong then it is time for a little roundup. I will name a certain category of items and you can do a search and gather mission to bring them back together on one place again.

Monday – Roundup all the little tools that are scattered throughout your home. Once together declutter any excess.

Tuesday - Roundup all pens and pencils that are scattered throughout your home. Once together declutter any excess.

Wednesday - Roundup all your kids toys that are scattered throughout your home. Once together declutter any excess.

Thursday - Roundup all reading materials that are scattered throughout your home. Once together declutter any excess.

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

Saturday - Roundup all the electronic cables that are scattered throughout your home. Once together declutter any excess.

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 Photos

Eco Tip for the Day

Grazing animals crate a lot of methane adding to our carbon footprint. When it comes to meals try having a meatless day at least once a week.

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

Remember back in October one of our fellow 365ers needed our advice on getting go of her clutter with eyes. Read about it here. Well this week she sent us and update that she wanted me to share with you all.

Here is what Chrissie had to say…

This is some update on my efforts concerning things with eyes. Feel free to publish if you like to. I am progressing! Not as fast as I wish to but anyway progress is visible – Especially today!

From all the comments of your readers I created little tutorial

Helpful actions

• Involve trusted friend or family member (my hubby and my Mom – I don’t like to share this topic with more people…)
• Start with least sentimental value (I started with a sorting and piled those which I definitely cannot let go and worked only on the remaining stuff)
• Give the items to a friend for disposal (good a idea, but as above, I will no involve more people an that embarassing topic)
• Don’t bring item into you house that have eyes (this is what I always sermonize on my on blog – best way to be free of clutter is avoiding new clutter)
• Paint over the faces to get rid of the eyes (no no no I could not make them blind! Ouch!)
• Keep only 1 box and the rest let go (this is exactly what I managed – I had 4 boxes with cuddly toys, no it is only 1!)
• Put them into a box and give them to charity (there are 2 critical boxes waiting for my approaches to charity, but this is not easy in Germany…)
• Check if you can give them to police, firefighter or pedriatic units who may solace children with them (this is as well option for the 2 waiting boxes)
• Give them to animal shelter (will keep that option in case charity will not work)
• Put them face down into kitchen bin and cover with dirt, e.g. tea bags (this I did with items I occasionally decluttered during last time, this very good idea prevents me from digging them out of the bin once again)
• Take photos (digitalization is good idea, but in fact I was surprised that there were almost no feelings towards the items that I did not put on the “must-stay-pile”. I took no photos, appart from what is attached to this little article)
• Do it all at once (different option vs. step-by-step – In fact I faced all the 4 high critical boxes on one day, but finally there left only some 20 items the house that were in too bad condition for anything)
• Put them quickly in the car and bring them away (YES! In fact I brought them to the Textil Container immediately although this is forbidden on Sundays…)

Helpful thoughts

• Beeing sad is ok, it shows that you have feeling which is not bad at all J
• Give them 2^nd chance to be loved
• They have fullfilled their purpose
• They don’t love you back
• They are from material like plastic, fake fur, etc only – it’s not living!

Yes indeed, I started with 4 critical boxes.

I devided all the content into 2 piles.

The must-stay-pile I reduced to the size of 1 box.

The let-go-pile I devided into bad condition and still usable

The bad condition items I put into plastic bags and brought them out of the house immediately

2 more boxes are now waiting for further purpose.

Inbetween I invited as well my Mom to review what I sorted out. She strongly adivsed me to put one more item into the must-stay-box (…) and took 2 other cuddly toys for decoration purpose back to her home.

That’s it so far!

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Find 10 minute to go through one hanging file in your filing cabinet. Just One! Shred and recycle the papers that need not be retained. The idea of doing the whole cabinet is likely to be paralysing in nature but one small section isn’t so daunting. Am I right? Perhaps next week you could do another small section ~ “rinse and repeat” ~ and before you know it the whole thing will be clutter free. I am using this method on my vast collection of photos.

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.

“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 Katharine tells us how she has built up emotional strength for decluttering.

Christine share her progress with us in this comment

Jane understands how her mind works. Read about it in this comment

I loved Wendy B’s explanation of one a day decluttering in this comment. Wendy also had a few good tips on repurposing items as gift wrap in this comment.

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Sanna sent in this link. You may wonder what it has to do with decluttering but you will figure out the connection to this weeks theme as you read through.

And here is a link brought to my notice by Loretta ~ http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/i-dont-want-to-give-or-receive-any-christmas-gifts-20121128-2ade3.html

And this link was shared by Jenny Adamson on 365 Facebook page. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2241152/Girl-3-died-house-worse-piles-clutter-family-home

For those of you who have enjoyed Mohamed Tohami’s blog Midway Simplicity you will be pleased to know his new eBook is out read about it here.

Here is another reader pick sent to me by Clare ~ www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/health/the-hoarder-in-you-a-book-that-can-help-cut-through-the-clutter

And here are a couple from The Minimalists ~ Gift experiences Not stuff and Gift Love: Save 646 on Christmas shopping this year.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an object that has a specific purpose that could easily be performed with another more versatile item. Kitchen gadgets are an easy target for this mission.

Today’s Declutter Item

Tools Barely Used

Eco Tip of the Day

Another workplace eco tip ~ Use the energy saving settings on computers to conserve power and if allowed shut them down at the end of the day.

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

I brought this blog post up from the archives to once again make the point of what need really is as that is the theme for today’s mini mission.

I mentioned many time how little we really do need as opposed to what we “think” we need. We really only need food, water, shelter and love, it is a little more complicated than that but not as complicated as we tend to make it for ourselves.

You only have to look at the photos of all the things I have decluttered from my home to see how much stuff we had that we thought we needed or wanted, only to find that sooner or later we discovered we didn’t need it after all. Somethings took longer to get rid of than others and that was often due to not being quite ready to part with them because we though maybe we still need them. Here are some examples…

• Some we haven’t used for sometime but maybe one day we just might.
• Some had been in use until recently but even though they were useful we really weren’t going to need them.
• At least one was something I thought would be so useful when I acquired it and I used it once in about seven years.
• One just didn’t really fit in the house anywhere anymore.
• One got used once a year to cut leg ham at Christmas.
• Two never did perform the job well that they were designed for.
• Changes of diet, climate and dwelling had a hand in some of them not being used anymore.

They all look useful enough right? It could be very easy to hang on to all of these things with the idea that our circumstances might change and we will “need” them again. Circumstances such as lifestyle, living arrangements, interests, returning to old habits and the like. But please take another look at all of that stuff. What among it is necessary to survival. None, thats how much. And there is still plenty more where that lot came from like the crutches in the garage cupboard that have come in handy three times in five years, the spice chest that only half the drawers hold items that could easily be stored elsewhere, the wine glasses we really have too many of, lots of craft supplies etc etc.

How many items such as this do you hold on to because you think you might “need” them some day. As Lena said in a comment once “Everyone chooses their own games.” The beauty is you can change the game rules if you want to or even the game itself if you like. Take a chance and play the declutter game instead of the clinging to things of limited use

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something of little value that you think you might have a use for some day. If you haven’t used it for some time the chances are you never will have a need for it and if you do you could either borrow or buy one. Hint ~ Be realistic about the difference between need and want.

Today’s Decluttered Item 

Earring I no longer wear

Eco Tip for the Day

Another workplace eco tip ~ Instigate a recycling bin in the lunch room for cans etc. Even if you have to bring the contents home and dispose of them in your own recycling bin, at least you will know they aren’t going to landfill.

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

Declutter the easy stuff first. I can’t stress this point enough. When I say easy stuff I mean the stuff you find the easiest to part with. The things you care the least about. The things that are easy to offload. The things that you can get at easily. The things you know you have too many of. The things that are rusting in the back garden. The broken, never to be repaired things. The outgrown things.

Not…

• …the things that hold lots of sentimental value.
• …the things that you think you might like to post on ebay but don’t think you can get your mind around that just yet.
• …the things that you feel guilty about letting go because someone else gave them to you or they have been in the family for generations.
• …the things that belong to someone else in the household who isn’t ready to let go.
• …the things that that are full of other things that you have to get rid of first. Like furniture that you know you don’t want but is still full of grandma’s old china.

There are three reasons why I say this.

1. Because there is no hesitation to get rid of these things you care little or nothing about therefore you will make quick painless progress. Quick progress at getting things out the door. With this method you may find that you aren’t seeing much change for your efforts at first because you are plucking things from all over the house but in order to start reshuffling and making order of the choas one first needs to create some breathing room.
2. Many people take a long time to get to the point of realising that they are getting overwhelmed by their stuff. At this point they are already feeling stressed. So what they don’t need is to then get overwhelmed by making difficult choices. They will soon decide that they were less stressed with the stuff than they are getting rid of it so they give up. They feel they only have two choice, stress or worse stress. Better to settle for just stressed right. No, better to work at it slowly chipping away at the easy stuff and feeling like you are making progress. It is important of course that one allows themselves to be satisfied with this progress and not expect the problem that took years to accumulate to go away over night.
3. My experience tells me that there is always easy stuff. The more you flex your declutter muscle the easier the job becomes. What at first you thought were things you would never get rid of eventually become the next easy thing to send out the door. So why stress over detaching yourself from these items now when it will be much easier later on.

Focusing our decluttering efforts on one specific space may sound orderly but it can force us to have to make decisions on things we aren’t ready to let go of yet. Way back in my declutter mission I had a goal to make space in your living room by getting rid of a big china cabinet that dominated the space. Luckily for me there was a lot of things in there I was happy to get rid of. But in order to be able to make the remainder fit elsewhere in the house I needed to make space. By decluttering a few thing in the bathroom I freed up space in the laundry. By freeing up space in the laundry I freed up space in the kitchen. I also decluttered lots of stuff from the kitchen and also books from the bookcase. With all that done, without stress because it was all stuff I was happy to part with, I not only managed to empty the china cabinet but I also had room to spare in the kitchen.

You might think that patience was the key with my china cabinet declutter but in fact I was so content to declutter my one thing a day that I rarely experience impatience. It was the same with my craft area declutter. Slowly slowly giving myself permission, without stress, to let things go lead to are marked difference over time.

Lately I have been working on a task that I have happily managed to mostly avoid since the beginning of my declutter mission ~ decluttering photographs. I have done a little here and a little there but I have never felt inclined to really get into in because there has always been plenty of other tasks I have been happier to work on. To be honest I think I am almost running out of other things to declutter for now so the photos will get lots of attention.

So go easy on yourself. Allow yourself to mature into this declutter process by simply focusing on the easy stuff. I have been at this mission for almost three years now and the biggest effort I have made in that time is blogging about it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that you bought for yourself which no longer suites your style. (An accessory item, a trinket, scatter cushions, clothing item…)

Today’s Declutter Item

Another 100 Photos

Eco Tip for the Day

Where possible use less of things. You might be surprised how regularly you use more of some things than you need. Here are some products you could probably stand to use less of ~ less shampoo, less conditioner, less laundry detergent, less dishwashing liquid, less toothpaste, hand cleanser, car wash… Quite often advertisements and manufacturers instructions suggest more than what we really need use. So using even more than that is a fools game, wasting product, your hard earned cash and increasing supply due to demand.

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.

The main guiding principal behind 365 less things is to let go slowly, starting with the easy stuff. It can be daunting enough to get started on this journey so why scare yourself off by trying to get rid of the difficult things first. This principal applies even if you’re a long way into your journey. My experience is that the further you go the more things you find that you never considered parting with before. Therefore at every point along the way there are things you are more willing to let go of than others. So the mini missions this week are designed to help you refocus on weeding out the easy stuff to part with so decluttering doesn’t seem so difficult.

Monday – Declutter something that you no longer use and really never needed in the first place. (Gadgets of any kind, tools, Things you have too many of…)

Tuesday – Declutter something that you bought for yourself which no longer suites your style. (An accessory item, a trinket, scatter cushions, clothing item…)

Wednesday – Declutter something that can be recycled or repurposed by someone else. (Newspapers, magazines, old sheets, old pillows, old towels, bicycle parts, pieces of timber or metal…)

Thursday – Declutter something of little value that you think you might have a use for some day. If you haven’t used it for some time the chances are you never will have a need for it and if you do you could either borrow or buy one. Hint ~ Be realistic about the difference between need and want.

Friday – Declutter an object that has a specific purpose that could easily be performed with another more versatile item. Kitchen gadgets are an easy target for this mission.

Saturday – Find 10 minute to go through one hanging file in your filing cabinet. Just One! Shred and recycle the papers that need not be retained. The idea of doing the whole cabinet is likely to be paralysing in nature but one small section isn’t so daunting. Am I right? Perhaps next week you could do another small section ~ “rinse and repeat” ~ and before you know it the whole thing will be clutter free. I am using this method on my vast collection of photos.

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

I know what you are all thinking ~ ‘What more baseball stuff!!!!?’. There was a lot of it at the start and I am sure you will be seeing more but there is a lot less now than there used to be. I am satisfied with that.

Yet More Baseball Collectables

Eco Tip for the Day

Why not engage your eco friendly habits in your work place. Scout around to find ways to save water and electricity while at work. Suggest changes to you boss and coworkers. Don’t be deterred if your ideas are met with rejection just do what you can do and hopefully others might follow suit in their own time.

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!

In this comment Rachel W. tells us about some unintentional decluttering she has done at times. Funny how it all seems so tragic to us when this happens but later we realise the stuff didn’t really matter at all.

This comment from Jen has examples of problems turned into opportunity to me.

Here is a great tip from Dagmara on allowing “Natural Progression decluttering” to take care of the constant influx of kids art projects.

Dagmara also left this comment telling us how she get her husband on board with the decluttering. How clever is she?

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

It is nice to finally see an article out there that takes on the subject of the prospect of a green economy in out future. Not too distant future I hope. http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/10/green-economy-future/

This link, kindly sent through to me by Nana, tackles the subject of how we are coerced into parting with our hard earned cash in the stores. Fortunately it comes with tips on how to avoid the con.   http://www.savings.com/blog/post/Why-We-Buy-The-Science-of-Shopping.html

What kind of clutterer are you? Read this post which outlines five types of clutterer according to Peter Walsh (Aussie Clutter Guru) Shared with us by Andréia.  http://www.oprah.com/home/Whats-Your-Clutter-Style-Peter-Walsh-Declutter-Tips/1

In an attempt to locate an article whose link was not working I found this article about compulsive hoarding.

Today’s Mini Mission

If, like me, you are decluttering your craft supplies now is the time to make your holiday/Christmas cards if you haven’t done so already.

Today’s Declutter Item

Oil Painting

Eco Tip for the Day

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

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

A place for everything and everything in it’s place!

• If you always know where everything is you won’t need to replace it because you can’t find it.

Know the difference between need and want

• It is easy to convince yourself that something you want is something you need. Don’t be fooled by this.

Only shop for what you need

• This one speaks for itself, if you aren’t bringing anything you don’t need into your home it will stay uncluttered.

Make it clear you don’t want clutter gifts

• It is possible to convince most people not to buy you gift or at least insist that people only give you consumable gifts or gifts of experience such as movie tickets etc.

Remove clutter receptacles in your home

• Adding clutter is difficult if you have no where to store it. Things such as bookcases, display cabinets, baskets, shelves and storage containers are clutter receptacles. Get rid of them as soon as you get rid of the clutter that was in them or you may just fill them up again.

Don’t sacrifice your principals for the desires of others

• Don’t accept other peoples clutter just so you don’t hurt their feelings. Your feelings matter too and you shouldn’t be expected to sabotage your lifestyle in this way.

Remove any items that become useless immediately

• Lifestyle changes are inevitable as time goes by. Once an item become of no further use to you remove it from your home or once again clutter will start to develop. Just because something wasn’t clutter once doesn’t mean it won’t become clutter in the future.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter the kids toy area to make room for the inevitable influx of new fun things. Regardless of how much you manage to contain the influx you will still need room. Kid will be kids and it is there job to have fun.

Today’s Decluttered Item

 It is amazing how little stationary one needs when most all data, correspondence or bills that comes into your home comes in digital form. Needless to say these folders and filing supplies are no longer needed.

Stationary

Eco Tip for the Day

When entertaining, rather than resort to disposable crockery and cutlery, use all the non-disposable items you have on hand, if necessary borrow more from family, neighbours or friends or get the guests to bring their own. I put on the occasional neighbourhood get together and all guests are instructed to bring their own cups, plates, and cutlery. They never turn down the invitations so I guess they don’t mind.

Below are ten guidelines I follow to simplify my Christmas. They don’t guarantee a stress free Christmas but they sure do help. Neither do they eliminate outside pressures to conform to the rest of society but we can make changes to better suit our princles.  I hope you find them helpful as it is possible to have a very merry Christmas without all the expense, over indulgence, stress and clutter.

1. Get organised ahead of time. Whether you have big plans or small the more you have sorted ahead of time the smoother everything will run and the more relaxed you will be when the festivities begin.
2. Declutter ahead of time. For me, nowadays, this is easy. However if you have kids pass on the toys they no longer play with or are broken. If you are having visitors get rid of all the excess stuff out of the guest room. Have the kitchen decluttered so the cooking tools you need are all close at hand.  Clear away space wasting items in other areas of the home to make room for the festivities…
3. Keep decorating to a minimum and/or recruit helpers. A home can look festive without being over cluttered with decorations. It may even look more tasteful. There is no need to take on this task alone, get the whole family in on decking the halls. As they say, the more the merrier and what better way to prime the whole family for the holiday season.
4. Keep gift giving to a minimum ~ Don’t be overindulgent with children and consider convincing other friends and family memebers to reduce the gift giving. Both sides of my family do a secret Santa these days. When I suggested it they were only too keen to comply. It was as if they were waiting for someone to get the ball rolling on that idea.
5. Be prepared for guests ~ Whether they are staying overnight or just dropping in for a drink make preparations way ahead so that there is no last minute rushing about, tidying, cleaning, decluttering or shopping.
6. Minimise travel ~ In Australia where we celebrate a summer Christmas there is a lot of outdoor activity. Trips to the beach and road trips to visit family are the norm. Unfortunately rushing, alcohol, fatigue and traffic volumes can result in tragic accidents. Also travelling via other means is expensive at this time of year. For me any time is a good time to see family so I try not to travel too often at Christmas.
7. Don’t over cater ~ Peoples stomachs do not increase in capacity over the holiday season. It is possible to enjoy all those wonderful holiday treats without overindulging. Resisting the temptation to do so is aided by not oversupplying in the first place.
8. Don’t be a control freak and insist on doing everything yourself because you think this is the only way it will be done “right”.   If you are the only one who cares how the tree is decorated, the menu is set, the gifts are wrapped … then perhaps it really doesn’t matter. In fact perhaps someone else might really enjoy being involved in their own special way.
9. Don’t feel obliged to follow traditions you don’t necessarily enjoy. Christmas is a time to rejoice and be glad not suffer in silence letting everyone else have their way. With family consultation, begin new traditions that make you all happy, that fit with your simplicity goals. It is possible that everyone would be happy to make some changes and are waiting for someone to lead the way.
10. No matter what happens, as I am sure there will be some things you just can’t change, make the most of it and have a wonderful holiday season.

Today’s Mini Mission

Study my uncluttered gift giving guides here and here to help you find uncluttering gift for your loved ones and to make suggestion of uncluttering gifts for yourself should anyone ask.

Today’s Declutter Item

Yay there have been more baseball collectables relinquished.

More Baseball Collectables

Eco Tip for the Day

 Keep your motor vehicles well maintained not only so they last well but also so they run efficiently, and cause minimal emissions.

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