365 Less Things

Reducing our stuff one day at a time.

Friday’s Favourite Five ~ 22APR2011

by

Once again there were plenty of great comments to choose from this week I could easily have chosen ten or more but five it is…

okgirl in response to Repeating the same action… ~ Thanks for the kick in the pants! I love *reading* about decluttering…Read more

Di in response to The Mysterious Case of the Tottering Stalagmites ~ Katherine, what a great and timely post… Read more

Liina in reaponse to Mini Mission Monday – Give yourself permission ~ Great stuff this week! I had a lot of success last week… Read more

okgirl in response to Mini Mission Monday… ~ Overcast and cool here in Oklahoma, USA :) Thanks so much for this… Read more

Andréia in response to The one minute rule ~ Hi Cindy! I am doing the one minute rule without noticing it… Read more

Wow! I had to cram in some serious blog reading over the last couple of days to come up with these five. It has been a busy week and I didn’t have much time for reading but here they are…

Zen Habits ~ How-to-simplify-your-filing-system-or-why-stacking-just-doesnt-work

A guy named dave ~ A-goal-of-simple-living

Life should be the cats meow ~ Tiny-homes

Defrag my life ~ Point-for-the-kid

Not easy to be green ~ The-impact-of-freebies-an-earth-day-post

I hope you enjoy today’s selection and have a great weekend

Today’s Declutter Item

Today’s mini mission was a gift item but the one I have in mind is also an ebay item I haven’t listed yet so that will have to wait for another day. Saturday’s item is make-up and I have that well under control to so instead I have Sunday’s item this old bra that sits weird on the edges. It has had its day and I have got my money’s worth out of it so in the bin it goes.


My Gratitude List

  • Something that made be smile ~ Watching adults let their guards down an get excited like little children.
  • Something Awesome ~ Easter comes with a five day long weekend for my husband so we can relax and enjoy having the family around.
  • Something to be grateful for ~ My life in general, I sometimes forget how good I have it or at least am oblivious to how tough others’ lives are. Even when my son was so ill last year things turned out better than we could possibly have dared hoped.
  • Something that made me happy ~ The constant appearance of new commenters here at 365lessthings and also the faithful that keep coming back.
  • Something I found fascinating ~ Sitting having a coffee and watching the world go by. There are so many folks of all sorts of ethnicity out there, the world surely is a melting pot these day and that is a good thing in my book. Maybe the more we mix the more we will start to get along.

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

Comments

  2. Thank you, Colleen! I’m honored. And I love the ‘Tiny Homes’ post on Cat’s Meow — the idea you can live anywhere if you have a very small home just opened a new door in my head. I’m beginning to think I would be quite happy living on less money and stuff; it’s just a matter of saving up enough to buy the land now and figuring out a way to have some income without the office job.

    • Hi jennifer,
      I have read quite a few posts and there are some great web sites about Small Homes that really make you think why we in Western Society think we need so much space around us. I know I don’t any more which is why my husband and I keep holding of on a decision about where or how we want to live when he retires and the kids leave home. Even buying furniture to replace to “too big” stuff we have now is on the back burner because we may want even small stuff that what we first thought we did. We will stick with the status quo for the time being and leave the decisions to when we have a better idea of what we need/want. The fact that he is thinking of retiring before he reaches 55 goes to show that we have come to terms with the idea the we can live happily on half the wages he brings in now.

      • Hi. When we retire, I want to have a small two bedroom house, with enough space for my books and for my dogs (outside). The extra bedroom will be for the grandchildren to sleep over. Not too much to clean either on the inside or on the outside. I guess that would be it. What do you think?

        • Hi Andréia,
          that sounds pretty good to me. A small kitchen, a nice bathroom and maybe a nice view would a good part of that package. I think if the home is in the right location like CatsMeow where you do a lot of your living in the surrounding neighbourhood then the home itself doesn’t have to be big. Nice walks, fresh air, friendly people, a café or two and not need for a car would be super in my book.

  3. Hi Colleen!
    First of all, thanks for metioning my comment. I especially liked the link about simple living. When we go into the inumerous blogs that float around in teh internet, it is kind of hard to understand what is living in a simple way. Is it to have just 100 things? Is it never to buy anything anymore? I enjoyed the blog because he stated what we have been long talking about in this very blog: let’s declutter what is in excess in our lives and use our stuff, not criticize one another, or try to find who is “right” or “wrong”, in how or when we declutter. The five posts on the blogs posted here are very much interconnected, because if you read carefully each one you will see that to live simply, you have to consider not what you want, but what you need. Thanks for bringing those links to us and for being so supportive of everyone who needs to declutter and make their lifes simpler. Especially me. You know every time I am cleaning, decluttering, organizing, I think that when I finish, and have my time in the computer I will go and tell YOU all about it. And you will cheer me, say that I did a good job, and every time I use that nice place that I decluttered/cleaned I wish I had taken a picture to show you, because you encouraged me to do it. And with every Friday’s links we get to know more and more of other people thoughts and we can aplly them to our lifes, if that is what we need at the momment. So thanks again 😀

    • Hi Andréia,
      as you already know, it is absolutely my pleasure both to write my blog each day and to read the great helpful and sometimes heartwarming comments left by great people like yourself. Knowing we all have our own imperfections and sharing them with each other in an attempt be helpful and encouraging is so special.

      Now get that camera out and take some before and after shots for me the next time you are decluttering. If Cindy can air her dirty laundry for all to see so can you. Tomorrow she is showing us what her shed looked like before and after and she is not ashamed to do so. Just think you will be able to bookmark your Simple Saturday before and after post and go back to it for a little pat on the back whenever you want to then.

  4. I really enjoyed your lovely comment Andreia!
    Do you know – I haven’t missed anything I have got rid of since Christmas. And I love the idea of living in a small space. If I was on my own, I know I would happily live in a bedsit. This is the biggest space of my own I have lived in and it is only a 2 bed place ( and we rent out the sitting room).

    Does anyone know, when people talk about how much sq footage they live in, do they count the hall/stairs or just add up all the individual rooms sq footage? It’s not something that is used in the uk, giving the total squar footage that is.People are more interested in individual room size in length and width.

      • LOL Colleen: I’m a bit of a numbers and precision geek I think. And I am never more than a few feet away from my measuring rule: got a mini one as a key ring:O)

        • Hi Katharine,
          I am a curious person and inclined towards precision also and better at math than English. I just find that people who care to know how big their houses are (for bragging purposes) are usually people who have big ones that are more of a status symbol rather than appropriate in size for their lifestyle. That certainly isn’t me. You on the other had are more likely to be inclined to know how amazingly small of an area you are content to live in. Your measuring system of knowing the dimensions of a room would be important for you to figure out exactly what you can fit in there for practical purposes. i find that far more admirable. And I bet you are a happier person overall.

    • Hi Katharine, your question piqued my interest and when I googled it I found this link:
      http://homebuying.about.com/od/realestatecareers/ss/square_footage.htm

      It appears it’s somewhat of a science! But in general terms, it’s computed using the external dimensions of the building, so hallways and stairs would indeed be included.
      The square footage also must be only finished, heated, “liveable” areas which are accessed from other finished areas. For example, if you had a room that was finished but the access was through an unfinished area, it would not be included. Interesting stuff! I’m assuming these are fairly standard rules, not just for the US where the article comes from, although it might be worthwhile checking the UK websites.

        • Hijack away Jo we are all equal parts to this community. I sometimes think I should start a forum here at 365 less things because we all have so much fun interacting and we get so many great ideas from each other.

          • Colleen, I’ve had the thought before that your blog is very like a forum, because you get so many comments and there are so many “back and forth” exchanges. People kind of get to know each other.

            • Hi Deanna ar USA and welcome to 365 Less Things. You are right my blog is very much like a forum, it just happened to evolve that way. Sometimes I just have to let the conversation go on without me because there aren’t enough hours in the day to spend replaying to all the comments. But that is ok because the conversation goes on just fine without me. I hope you enjoy both the posts and the comments and find them helpful to inspire lots of decluttering for you.

      • Hi Jo,
        I think the basis of those measuring term sounds about right except that the heating part is probably location specific. I don’t think you would find one house in the Northern Territory in Australia has heating of any kind. They would however have cooling. 😉

  5. Brilliant, thank you Jo! I got interested after reading quite a few minimalist/declutter blogs and noticed the USA sites often refered to the sq footage they used to live in and have now downsized to. You just don’t really see that info bandied around in the UK, more its the number of bedrooms and the individual length and width of each room.