Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

Several people have recently asked me how to begin decluttering, and someone confessed last week that she thought all of us were running to the thrift store every single day as we decluttered, so I decided that it was time for another review.

Where Colleen and I started from

For those of you who are newer readers, you may not know that Colleen and I started our decluttering journeys from very different places. (And we didn’t know each other then, either.) Colleen’s house was well organized and very tidy, but she realized that she simply had way too much stuff. Her children were in their late teens when she began.

I moved into our current house with a two year old, and I was pregnant with my second child. The house never got fully organized. In addition, we did a lot of work on the house, so some area was always disrupted. When we finished all the work, the house looked fantastic, and I didn’t want the junk that was everywhere to make my beautiful house look ugly and cluttered. The inside of most cabinets were organized, but every surface was covered and there were laundry baskets of miscellaneous all over the house. By this time, I had one child in elementary school and one child in middle school.

What are your decluttering goals?

Different people declutter with a different goal in mind. Colleen thought she had too much stuff. I wanted my house to look nice, to be able to use my furniture and surfaces as intended, and I wanted to not be embarrassed to have guests.

Categories of clutter

Different people will have different sorts of clutter. I’m sure we all have a few toiletries we need to use up, some medicines that have expired, too many gadgets in the kitchen, some clothes we never wear. I think our trouble areas, however, are more specific to our interests, our psychology, and our personalities. Here are the main categories of clutter for all the members of my family:

Me – All sorts of household miscellanies, things I kept putting off making decisions about, craft supplies, office supplies, toys and games, books.

My husband – Books and papers leftover from college, books in his field (computers) that are now hopelessly outdated, hundreds of career-related magazines, electronic this-and-that, accumulated garage items.

The girls – Clothes and toys that they outgrew, art supplies, all sorts of tiny things that girls like to collect, unwanted birthday and Christmas gifts, art.

Some things you might have – Clothes, impulse purchases, decorative collectibles, books, magazines, newspapers, items you inherited, gadgets, excess food in your pantry or freezer, hobby items, crafts supplies, furniture, gardening tools and planters, stationery, incomplete projects, things that might be useful “someday”, love letters and photos that hurt you, souvenirs, things you have identified to declutter but haven’t actually gotten rid of.

How to begin

Beginning is usually easy once you decide to do it. You probably have an area that’s been bothering you. Take one thing from that area, put it in your discard box. Do not get it back out. Hurrah! You’re on your way.

Over time, you’ll find things that you would like to sell or need to give back to a friend, items that are harder for you to discard or need more thought. In the beginning, skip those and go for the low hanging fruit. You’ll make more progress and feel better about your accomplishments that way.

You’re on your way!

Today’s Mini Mission

Do you really need an alarm clock when your cell phone can carry out this task. Consider decluttering it.

Eco Tip for the Day

When packing items you have sold on eBay use recycled packaging materials when possible. I get used product boxes from my local hardware store.

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

Have you ever felt you need to make changes in your life, whether that be adding something healthy in, or stop doing something that isn’t good for you. Have you ever decided those changes are too hard to make and give up before you begin. Well, just like our small steady steps in decluttering you can also utilise this approach with other good habits you would like to implement.

I am using the 365 approach to cut back on the amount of coffee I drink. My goal is to only drink coffee outside of the house which of course isn’t everyday. I started out by not drinking coffee at home after 4pm for a while. Then I stopped imbibing from midday onwards. At this point I don’t have coffee at home unless I have had it by 10:30, the next step will be breakfast only and after that not at all. Much easier than cold turkey don’t you think.

The same method can be used to give up soda drinks (soft-drinks, pop whatever you call it), processed food, fatty foods, sugar laden treats, fast food, simple carbohydrates in general… whatever you feel is not contributing to your good health, the way you feel or the way you feel about how you look.

You can also reduce the portion size of these treats to begin with rather than, or as well as, reducing the number of times a day you usually imbibe. Cutting back is cutting back no matter which way you go about it. By continuing to reduce you will eventually find you no longer feel such strong cravings for these things in your life. And the joy of feeling so much better about yourself is the extra payoff to encourage you to stay strong.

Also, you may think you need to add a little exercise into your daily routine. You are reminded every time you are confronted with a set of stairs that your fitness could stand some improvement. The mistake a lot of people make is to think they have to do at least an hour of exercise three times a week for it to be of any benefit. They also think this requires expensive equipment or gym fees to accomplish. Approaching it in this fashion is fine if you think you can manage it but if the thought of that is keeping you immobile then once again the small steady steps approach might be the best to get you started. If you can manage to find ten minutes a day at first to go for a brisk walk then that is better than nothing.

You can also choose to take the stairs instead of the lift. Take the parking spot the furthest from the shopping centre entrance (quite often this is actually quicker and saves gas in your car). If it is a rainy day I will often climb my internal stairs twice per trip. That is if I am going up for some reason, I go up, I come down, and then I go up again, do what I have to do and then do the same in reverse on the return trip. It is great exercise and because it is done in short bursts and although I raise my heart rate, which is good, I don’t raise a sweat, therefore not needing a shower at the end of my exercise. Do this a few more times and I have added quite a bit of aerobic exercise to my day. It may not sound like much but the idea is to build on this as you start to feel fitter and keener.

Even things that are, in moderation, fine for you can actually become bad when overindulged in. You have found this out through how your shopping habits contributed to your clutter issues which in turn affected your peace of mind. So imagine how bad for you things are that weren’t even good for you in the first place. It is in your best interest to at least try to improve personal habits whether for health reasons, energy levels, for your own mental well being or perhaps to improve an external appearance that you aren’t happy with about yourself.

We have discussed before that resistance to old habits can be well established by 21 days so why not give it a try. What have you got to lose except maybe potential heart disease, insomnia, gout, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, skin problems, bowel issues, tooth decay… and even a few pounds if that is your goal.

Today’s Mini Mission

Consider decluttering your second television or the third one if you have that many. Let’s face it how much time do we really need to waste sitting around watching TV or videos.

Eco Tip for the Day

Taking care of yourself can mean consuming less, consuming fresh and consuming natural all of these things are better for the environment as well as you.

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.

This week’s mini missions address items that you may not have considered decluttering in the past. You may not even consider the idea when you see what they are, but I thought I would make the suggestion anyway and allow you to give them some thought. I have to say that the only one I could consider is Thursday’s mission because I no longer have any of the other items mentioned. With all of these items you could instigate a trial separation where you don’t use them for a month and see how you cope.

Monday – Consider decluttering your home phone. Do you really need a static phone as well as a mobile for each person in the household?

Tuesday – Consider decluttering your second television or the third one if you have that many. Let’s face it how much time do we really need to waste sitting around watching TV or videos.

Wednesday – Do you really need an alarm clock when your cell phone can carry out this task. Consider decluttering it.

Thursday – Declutter a piece of furniture, especially if its only purpose is to hold items that need dusting.  Hopefully your previous decluttering efforts might have freed up such a piece by now.

Friday – Declutter a filing cabinet. Once you have decluttered your accumulated paperwork and have become realistic about what you really need to retain in the future, perhaps decluttering your filing cabinet, or at least downsizing to one with less drawers, would make sense. The lack of excess filing space may encourage you to stay on top of the paper clutter in the future, having no place to store it out of sight out of mind.

Saturday – I have mentioned this next item before but not often. Consider decluttering your second fridge or freezer. I know that some people use theirs for economic purchasing reasons but if that is not the case do you really need it. Many second fridges in Australia are used almost purely for storing beer and soft-drinks (soda), neither of which are good for you when consumed in large quantities and/or too frequently.

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

Tips on avoiding false eco friendly labelling from www.greenbeings.com.au/

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

I have made some great progress with my decluttering, but a lovely chat I had with Colleen recently prompted a decision by which I want to improve my decluttering and help me evaluate better the real value of my objects and why I keep them.

As I was talking to Colleen she started to ask about things I don’t even want to talk about decluttering, let alone actually declutter them. They are in my bedroom in the lovely box. It is a 31 square centimetre box, covered in fabric with a lid.

I made a mistake with my decluttering. Instead of focusing on all the “easy” stuff I want to and am willing to declutter I kept focusing on the box. Talking to Colleen made me realize that I was willing to declutter a lot more, except that box.

Every time I thought of my overall decluttering I thought how painful it will be when I have to declutter this box. This line of thinking  literally puts a stop to the happy decluttering I have been doing (apart from the odd whining on the blog). I now realise what thinking about decluttering this box and its contents is doing to me emotionally. So I have decided to establish the untouchable box. This one box, in full sight, is small enough as to not constitute a burden in my bedroom or my life. It is nice looking and I am allowing myself the luxury of keeping it and never having to contemplating decluttering it if I don’t want to. No decluttering that box.

However, such a big compensation warrants some big sacrifice. So, as I have nominated that box and its contents “untouchable”, that means that everything else in my house can be contemplated for decluttering. If an item is not in use or if it does not agree with our lifestyles it is now fair game. So I set myself a rigid rule: no more keeping for sentimental reasons unless it fits in “the box”. If I want to fit it in “the box” because I feel it has emotional value, and there isn’t enough room, something else in “the box” will have to go. If it is too big and doesn’t fit in “the box” then it is too big to be kept only for sentimental reasons. Also, I can’t buy other boxes and I can’t cram things in there a mile high to keep them. The box must be able to close.

I can tell that my decision has already made me feel a lot better. My treasures are all safe, no one is going to touch them and I can declutter anything I want, because if I ever ran out of things to declutter I don’t have to touch my box. With this thought I feel like I freed myself from a burden. By allowing myself the freedom to keep my one small treasure box I gave myself a lot more freedom to declutter other stuff that I do not see as treasures, but are just there and I will look at them a lot more rationally. I can be more purposeful when I look at objects and with that, be more efficient when decluttering.

What I tried to say here is that we can allow ourselves to have our little treasures, but they have to be that, little. We have to be able to enjoy them when we want and, as it happens to me, keep them in sight and feel good having them there. I don’t know if I will ever declutter that box, I might, but for now. I have a 100 square meter house to declutter and only a 31 square centimeter of it that I am not touching.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Clear the clutter from your kitchen workspace and keep it that way. Cooking is a big enough job without having to clear away before you can get started.

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!

Thank you to Jane for her personal story of how she decluttered a career that had become dissatisfying, 60 pounds and a whole pile of clutter. And how she believes that there was most certainly a connection between all three situations. She elaborates further in this comment.

I loved this comment from Moni on how although the modern day housewife has all those mod cons to make life easier it isn’t necessarily so.

I received this comment from Jane at 365’s Facebook page. Great way to enjoy reading without the clutter Jane, thank you for sharing.

I also enjoyed this comment where Michelle tells us how she has come around to the way of the French. C’est la belle vie pour toi Michelle. 😉

Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!

Here is a Huffington Post link with advice from Peter Walsh on decluttering, brought to my attention by Andréia to share with you.

My husband found this link from Lifehacker with advice on how to sell your unwanted crap (their words not mine).

This guest post by Dana White for Home Your Way is more proof of my opinion that organising will take care of itself once you get rid of the clutter causing the disorganisation. Sanna was kind enough to send me this link.

Wendy F brought my attention to this funny little story. I am not sure I believe it but it is humorous none the less.

If you have any doubt about the benefits of recycling then this link from National Geographic sent to me by Cindy ought to put them to rest.

This link is not directly linked to decluttering but some of the lessons in it could easily be applied. I just thought it was a great article for anyone to read. Having the good grace to be able to take a close look at oneself and see ones own short coming is essential to being able to do something about it instead of continually blaming the world and everyone else around us.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a kitchen cupboard that is so full it is too much bother to retrieve what you need from it.

Eco Tip For The Day

 Recycle your old joggers with Nike Reuse a Shoe

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

Close your eyes and imagine for a moment your dream home. When I say dream home I don’t mean a different house to the one you are living in. I mean the home you would like your current house to be. Containing just the amount of stuff that you would feel comfortable with, only items you love or truly have a use for in your life.

Don’t try to envision a minimalist home if that is not your goal, just the home in which you would be the most content. Visualise each space with just the amount of stuff that matches this vision. One which you would be proud to be the caretaker of.

Imagine these spaces being orderly and inviting should unexpected or invited guess come to stay. This opens your life up to being more social.

Imagine being able to find what you need when you need it, quickly and easily. So that all the tasks you must perform can be done so efficiently.

Imagine the restful, peaceful calm pervading these spaces. Even when you are busy you will have the joy of knowing that there is an oasis awaiting you should you choose to give yourself a break.

Back to reality now. Keep these thoughts of the perfect home for you in your head and use them as your guide when decluttering each space. Stay true to your vision and don’t allow the individual objects to distract you from your goal. Let go of anything that is not necessary to your vision. You might be surprised how far you will go.

Today’s Mini Mission

Find a home for something that seems to have made the floor its permanent resting place. Perhaps a pile of magazines, a large pot, someone’s shoes… It is much easier to clean the floor when you can get to it easily.

Eco Tip for the Day

If you peg your clothes outside to dry don’t leave the pegs to perish on the line between wash days. Bring them in and store them in your laundry, they will last longer this way.

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Cindy

There are two boxes that I need to keep me organized and decluttered. Just two boxes. It’s a simple system, and it might help keep you on the right path too.

Box #1, which lives in the bottom of our least-used closet, is not actually one box, but an ever changing parade of boxes and paper bags, and is the Thrift Store Bag. Anything not needed, not wanted, etc. goes into this bag. I never make a sweep of the house looking for things to take to the thrift store; they just accumulate day after day, week after week. When the bag / box is full, I take it to my van. The next time I pass by the thrift store, I make a quick stop.

Box #2 lives in the back of my van. I know that a lot of us struggle to find place to stash items that need to be returned to the store or given back to a friend or dropped off at an out-of-the-way recycling place. This box is my solution. Instead of storing this sort of thing like a runway by my front door, or worse, cluttering my desk further,  I immediately take items that need to be go elsewhere to the box in the van. I look in the box often enough that I have a mental picture of what’s in there and where it ultimately belongs. The wonderfulness of this system is how easy it makes returning things to their rightful homes. What I need is always with me. I never pull into the parking lot of a store and then slap my forehead because I forgot an item I need to return; it’s always with me.

Two cardboard boxes make my life so much smoother. Do you have a simple technique for keeping yourself organized?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some items from a closet that is over full, making it difficult to keep organised.

Eco Tip for the Day

Consider ways use to your car less, such as planning ahead, forgoing unnecessary trips, walking more and ride sharing. My car is in the shop for repairs this week and I am managing just fine without it.

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

Once clutter has built up in ones home there is no doubt that it is going to take some effort to expel it all. This task can appear  monstrous, frighteningly so,  which is likely to set off the fight or flight reflex in our minds.

Most people have either one tendency or the other, fight or flight. If their natural reflex is to fight then they will likely just knuckle down and get on with the task. The most distasteful outcome facing these kinds of people is being beaten, so watch out clutter, here they come. However, there is a chance that, approaching this task in an easy come easy go manner will not be very thought provoking and it is likely that, these brave folks may be back to square one soon enough. So don’t feel bad if you are not the fighting kind. I used to fight my clutter but it always used to return for a rematch.

Then their are the people who tend mostly towards the flight reflex. In this case they can’t very well run from the clutter so instead decide to just try to ignore it rather than confront it. Naturally this option will be totally unproductive unlike the attack mode which at least for a while will yield the desired result. It is also highly possible that the clutter situation will only get worse while these folk drown their sorrows by buying more stuff, only making the situation worse.

But never fear there is a third alternative. It is kind of like the one a stage performer might deploy to alleviate stage fright. In this case though we aren’t going to pretend our clutter is naked, that won’t work. 😉 But we can convince ourselves that it isn’t as scary as it might originally appear. Lets face it, you are the one who fed that big scary clutter monster so you can slowly starve it to death as well. Firstly you stop feeding it and then you quit looking at it as one big scary thing but instead as small individual battles that you can fight and win. Then one day you will realise that the big scary clutter monster has shrunk in size to something not quite so foreboding. No longer appearing that it might swallow you whole.

A similar defence can be used against those occasional frightening individual items that the thought of dealing with fills you with dread. Items like that thing your mother gave you that you don’t want, you never liked, but you are afraid to get rid of for the fear of upsetting her. Don’t beat the object up to be something it isn’t. It is just an object. You don’t like it, you don’t want it, it now instills fear in you. Is that the sort of object that any sane person would allow to linger in what should be their tranquil living space? No of course it isn’t. In this case the monster is either your mother or your own mind playing tricks on you. Either way the goal is a tranquil home and this object is not contributing to that. Worse still it is having the opposite effect. Take your chances and let it go.

So as you can see clutter doesn’t have to be scary. A tweak of your mindset can make all the difference. I am not going to pretend this is as simple as I make it sound. Perhaps a revolt against ones default setting would be more accurate, but if that’s what it takes then it is worth the fight.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter and reshuffle a drawer that is such a shambles you can never find what you need in it. Junk drawers are not a necessity, in fact they can be a nuisance.

Eco Tip for the Day

Today I will share a recipe for a friendly all-purpose spray. I put this together using two recipes/ideas from a great web site called One Good Thing by Jillee. You will need…

• A 500ml Glass Jar
• Skins of a least 3 lemons (collected from previous cooking sessions)
• 250ml (1 cup) white vinegar
• The 600ml trigger spray bottle from your last all-purpose spray.
• a good squirt of dishwashing liquid (environmentally friendly of course)
• 1 cup of water

1. Put the lemon skins in the 500ml jar and top it off with the cup of vinegar.
2. Leave this to steep for a few days. This softens the vinegar smell to a nice lemon fragrance and I dare say the lemon also adds grease cutting power and more.
3. Strain the vinegar from the lemon skins and pour into the spay bottle.
4. At this point prepare your next batch of lemon vinegar reusing the same skins. I have been using the same skins for months now.
5. Add the dishwashing liquid to the the spray bottle and top off with the cup of water.
6.  Put the lid on and give it a little shake. Now it is ready to use.

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.

This Monday’s mini missions are centred around the idea of making your home more user friendly. Or more to the point easier for you to clean and work in. You might be surprised how a few tweaks here and there can make tasks less painful. The target is to have less to dust, drawers and cupboards that are easier to access and find things in, and horizontal surfaces easy to clean.

Monday – Declutter a knick knack or two from around your home. Housework is easier with less to dust.

Tuesday – Declutter and reshuffle a drawer that is such a shambles you can never find what you need in it. Junk drawers are not a necessity, in fact they can be a nuisance.

Wednesday – Declutter some items from a closet that is over full, making it difficult to keep organised.

Thursday – Find a home for something that seems to have made the floor its permanent resting place. Perhaps a pile of magazines, a large pot, someone’s shoes… It is much easier to clean the floor when you can get to it easily.

Friday – Declutter a kitchen cupboard that is so full it is too much bother to retrieve what you need from it.

Saturday – Clear the clutter from your kitchen workspace and keep it that way. Cooking is a big enough job without having to clear away before you can get started.

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

Rather than encourage your older children to do their own washing, choose a day each week for each of them to do a load of the  family’s washing. A load of towels here, a dark load there and load of whites another day.

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

Mohamed Tohami over at Midway Simplicity has begun another interview project ~The Midway Decluttering Show. His most recent guess was a wonderful lady with a shining personality and very wise on the subject of decluttering. OK you caught me  blowing my own trumpet again. 😉 Here is the link to the interview so you can judge for yourself.

The Lazy Person’s Way To Declutter Your Home

Tohami has also recently released his new book Midway Simplicity ~ Easy solutions to simplify your time, health, things, finances and relationships. This book contains excerpts of all the interviews from the Midway Simplicity Show. Below is the excerpt of the interview he did with yours truly.

Simplify Your Time

“Fill your time with something you enjoy”

I think with time, the key is it has to be filled with something, unlike closets that don’t have to be full all the time. With time, you’ve got to be doing something in that space. It might as well be something you enjoy and something you get satisfaction out of. My journey to de-clutter has freed up a lot of my time to do just that.

I had a dead-end, awful job when I first started de-cluttering. I feel I was able to really give that up because I wasn’t wasting money on things I didn’t need and didn’t particularly want anymore. So I just gave that away and spend my time blogging and helping other people and that’s certainly very satisfying.

Simplify Your Health

“Decrease the things you’re doing wrong”

I think when it comes to health, the easiest way to improve is to give up the things that are just not good for you – smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, overeating and all those things. They’re not hard to give up. Like my approach to de-cluttering, you don’t have to go cold turkey. You can give them up slowly. Just decrease the things you are doing wrong a little at a time. That makes it a little more doable, I think. Giving up over several months has to be better than not giving up at all.

Simplify Your Things

“Make it easy”

I think the easiest thing, the thing that for some reason came to me out of the blue, is don’t make it difficult on yourself. You don’t have to do it in a month. You don’t have to do it in a week. You don’t have to do it in a year. Just do it as you feel comfortable. My plan to begin with was just to make it easy. It wasn’t until I started moving further into reading about minimalism and that sort of thing that I realized I had moved into a whole new area of growth where I let go of more and more things.

I think if you use the slow, simple approach, you’ll learn a lot more from it, and you’ll get a lot more out of it. You won’t just find out you’re back to square one in six month’s time.

There are always things in your house that stand out which you don’t want anymore – things you just haven’t got around to removing. Start on the easy things you can part with, not the sentimental things, not the tasks that do take more time. Start on the easy stuff. Then the further down the track you go, the more ruthless you get, and the more you’re prepared to part with.

Simplify Your Finances

“Only use credit cards in case of emergency”

The simplest thing I think you can do when it comes to finances is not use credit. If you can avoid credit cards especially for things you don’t need, don’t use them. When we were first married, we didn’t have a lot of money. We had a credit card, but we only ever used it in case of emergency – if the car broke down or that sort of thing.

Don’t buying things you don’t need unless you can afford to pay cash for them. Like I said, just save credit cards for emergencies. If you’re paying interest, then you’re using it more than what you should. A credit card, to me, is something that I use so that I can pay bills online or use for emergencies, but not to be used willy-nilly buying a pretty dress and a pair of nice shoes. That’s where the problem starts. Suddenly, you need some cash and you have maxed that credit card, and then you’re paying big interests. The problem just snowballs.

Also, if you can fix things yourself, don’t pay someone to do that for you. Take some classes, even in learning to sew or whatever, so that you can do stuff yourself. The less money you’re throwing away, the more you have to spend on the things you enjoy in the long run.

Simplify Your Relationships

“Avoid people you don’t like”

I must admit I don’t have a lot of problems with relationships. I seem to attract people to me who are good to be around, for some unknown reason. But maybe that’s because I unconsciously keep it simple. If I don’t like people, I just avoid them.

Of course, you cannot avoid everyone in your life, but it doesn’t mean you’ve got to waste your time socializing with them. They are there for a reason; stick to that reason and don’t let anything they say get you down.

The Weekend’s Mini Missions

Saturday – Do a quick declutter of your children’s toys. There are often broken ones, ones they no longer enjoy to play with or ones they have simply grown to old for.

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