Key #4 Don’t reclutter while you declutter
Decluttering is a complete waste of time if there is as much stuff entering your house as there is going out. Limit your purchases to the things you really have put a lot of thought into whether you will get good use out of it or if it really suits your needs. Don’t wonder aimlessly through the stores looking for stuff you didn’t know you wanted. And try to convince your friends and family not to buy you gifts unless they are consumable in some way.- Fresh flowers, chocolates, beauty treatments and the like.
Item 360 of 365 less things
My mother-in-law probably will think I have gone too far now but as cute as this bear is Liam gave it to me to declutter. It was a nice thought at the time but he is all better now.
5 Reflections of gratitude from the most frightening time of this year
- All the family and friends that kept in touch when Liam was hurt.
- Modern medicine- Something we often take for granted but makes a big difference to a lot of lives.
- All the health professionals who cared for Liam, aided and are still assisting in his full recovery.
- All of the prayers and well wishes of my readers and their families, friends and church groups during that awful time.
- Both my husband and I being able to give Liam our full attention during his entire recovery time – that is truly a privilege in this day and age. Planning for a rainy day really is a good idea.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow.
Merry Christmas!! So glad that Laim is doing so well. Praying that God will give you abundant blessings in 2011 and keep you all safe and well.
Thanks Deb J,
all the very best to you too. Staying safe, I think that will be key for a good year this year.
Merry Christmas Colleen and all my 365 Day friends. May God bless you abundantly – but not with a lot of stuff!
Hi Cindy,
I have been off-line for a few days so a belated merry Christmas to you too. And I didn’t get much stuff so yay me.
Hope you had a great Christmas Colleen, I am just back from NZ so I am reading all the posts I missed. It’s great to see so many new commenters on the blog – I know they will find a lot of inspiration here. Can I share one de-cluttering decision that has made a BIG difference for me in the last few weeks? I have a 4 year old PC with 2 teenagers who use it a lot as well as me and it had become very slow and was developing lots of software glitches. I did all the easy stuff to improve performance, but it didn’t really help so I took a deep breath, downloaded some instructions from the web and completely reinstalled Windows. I am not very techy but it was all really rather easy and now I feel I have a brand new PC performance wise for absolutely nothing AND I have saved the beast from going to landfill.
Hi Calico ginger,
good for you saving your PC. My little laptop gets the declutter treatment every so often too and it just keeps on keeping on. I will stick with it for a while yet and keep it out of landfill too.
There’s something about decluttering that makes you allergic to shopping. In the past, during the post Christmas sales I would have “gone shopping”, ie gone to a mall, gone into most shops and just bought whatever took my fancy and worried about the money spent later (“everything’s on sale – therefore I’m saving money”).
This year I looked through the catalogues for what I knew I needed – found two things (a fan at one store and a steamer set at another) went to each shop, walked in, walked straight over to what I wanted, grabbed it, paid for it and got out. All quick and easy and I feel good because I know I have actually saved money by buying things I needed at a price I wouldn’t have got them for at a different time of year.
Hi Isabella,
I am glad that the allergy to shopping is catching on. I haven’t bought a thing although I would like a hand held vacuum (dustbuster) but I am not the slightest bit interested in tussling with those after Christmas sales crowds. Quite frankly I would rather pay more than deal with that besides I have worked retail and they will be more than happy to be bargained with when it is quiet and they aren’t reaching budget once the craziness has died down. I’ll just hit them up for a deal at a time that suits me.
Isabella, you’re absolutely right when you say there’s something about decluttering that makes you allergic to shopping!
Years ago I went from a recreational shopper who spent tons of time and money at the mall, and had a very cluttered and disorganized house, to someone who now hates shopping, never shops “recreationally”, and whose house is generally neat, decluttered, and organized.
I love it this way, and couldn’t imagine ever going back to enjoying shopping as a sport. 😉
Hi Becky,
I am glad you have caught the shopping allergy too. I am totally allergic to the point of annoying all my family and friends with my preaching I think. Oh well there are worse things I could be preachy about I suppose.