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!
Deb J shares some advice on how she got her mom on board with the decluttering in this comment.
Donna B had a couple of good comments this week. Here and here.
And here is Jen’s take on ~ You are not your stuff.
Jean doesn’t comment often but when she does it is usually a good one.
Rebecca J shares with us how she is progressing with her decluttering.
Favourite Web Finds. Happy reading!
In this post from Mark Adam Douglas he doesn’t talk about decluttering but the principle he talks about certainly applies.
This one, also from Mark, reminds me of the great conversations that go on between everyone here at 365. Â
It has been a while since I shared with you a uni-tasker post from over at Unclutterer and these two just blew my mind. Egg holder & iPotty.
Here is an interesting strategy for decluttering from Robert @ Untitled Minimalist.
Today’s Mini Mission
Tidy and declutter your CD or DVD storage area.
Eco Tip For The Day
Line up all your errands so you only have to go out once in the car once and not several times in a day.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
Thank you for all the encouragement!
Our kitchen sink leaked this week, getting the stuff stored in the sink cabinet wet. In annoyance, I figured out the bare minimum that I want to keep there (all waterproof) and rehoused the other things. I think I’ll go around and imagine various potential water leaks this weekend and re-organize accordingly. This will force me to free up space in safer places. Moni mentioned playing different games with herself to keep decluttering momentum – I think this is a spur I’ve needed.
Rebecca J, while I’m sorry to hear about the leak I thinks it’s great that it spurred you on in the great declutter game. I like your idea of Looking for “leaks.”
Every strategy is a good strategy Rebecca J. Good luck with your mission.
Rebecca J – Moni suspects she might be a little bit crazy! 🙂 But if it gets the job done, does it really matter?
Right – so its the Waterproof method this weekend. Sounds good, I’m in.
Colleen, I really do like Friday’s Favorites. I look forward to them. You always have such interesting things for us to look at. Mark’s two articles were really good. Mark, I like your take on things and the way you express them. the Uni-tasker posts are a hoot. I have seen both on Pinterest and can’t help but wonder WHY?? the iPotty has to be one of the stupidist ideas I have even seen. I shudder at the idea of the germs for one thing. The Untitled Minimalist does get to the point of it all. Thanks for another good Friday.
Tomorrow starts our community’s two-day rummage sale at the clubhouse. Today you can drop off or have collected the things you want to contribute. It’s one of two sales in the year. I call them major declutter weekends. The amount and type of items that show up is phenomenal. Still, most of it seems to travel out the doors and off to a new home.
Hi Deb J, I guess this means you will have a fairly empty back shed by the time the weekend is over. Good for you.
Is there ever a Friday Fave post that doesn’t have a comment of yours I wonder. And yes that iPotty was ridiculous. The first thing that struck me is surely a child ought to be potty trained before it is taught to use an iPad.
Our back shed has a couple of things if needed for repairing the house and the old (1960) artificial Christmas tree. That’s all. The front shed (attached to the carport) has our Christmas stuff (all nicely boxed and on a set of shelves in one corner, the freezer, my disability scooter, a few boxes with seasonal stuff on some high shelves and some tools. It looks so nice and uncrowded and mostly empty. When we moved here both sheds were stuffed. I’ve a guy coming over to work on our weeds next week and he is going to take our old paint to the toxic drop. I’m trying to convince my mother to let me get rid of the old tree and maybe some of the other stuff. We will see. We do need a few tools and other little repair things for repairs I can still do.
I didn’t realise that the shed was now devoid of clutter. That must have happened after the last jumble sale. My apologies for suggesting otherwise. I remember your shed being your transit area.
No worries. I might have forgotten to mention it. We sort of took things out of there one at a time and it didn’t register how clean it was until the other day. I think I am going to list the old tree on CraigsList and see what we can get for it.
so in reading your post links today, my son saw the Ipotty and he wanted to have that. He has just started toilet training this past week. I quickly shut down the site. Just what I need, a child that thinks they need a game to use the toilet 🙂 He thought it looked great 🙂 I have so enjoyed your blog. I follow several organizing blogs but yours(along with cleanmama.net) are the ones I turn to the most if I don’t have much time to read through emails. It has just been what I need to keep motivated but not overwhelmed. Thanks for all the encouragement from everyone.
Hi Angel, I have seen some ridiculous uni-taskers before but that iPotty takes the cake. I am sorry your son managed to see it at all. I apologise for that. If he is already keen on the iPad perhaps a better strategy would be to use your iPad as an incentive, only allowing him to play with it when he has had a success with the potty. I am sure that would accelerate the learning process.
I am glad that you are finding 365 to be inspiration for your decluttering mission. I sincerely hope you are as successful with it as I have been and eventually revel in the joys of living with less and especially wanting less.
What I love best about the Friday Favorites is that it gets to my Texas email on Thursday. Reminding me that the always hectic week is almost over and the weekend playing outdoors with my husband is almost here! Since I made a decision several years ago to make my life uncomplicated, I have all the time God allows to spend with my beloved husband and lover and best friend. Together over 30 years and closer and more in love than ever because of the choices I have made to put him and his interests first.
Way to go Molly. Sounds like you have your priorities right.
Colleen – I agree that your blog is one of the most chatty I’ve encountered, it reminds me of a tv programme back in the day (70’s or 80’s) called “Beauty & The Beast” hosted by Selwyn Toogood (a veteran tv presenter) and he had a panel of “beauties” an assortment of women from different walks of life, skills and generally quite smart and he would read out a question from a viewer and between them they would nut out the best solution.
Sounds like a curious show Moni. It must have been a NX show because I have never heard of it.
Yep had that show aired in WA as well although the ‘Beast’ was Stan Zamanicks (think that is how you spell/pronounce it) I used to have a good laugh at that show because he used to get shouted at hahaha.
Great comments (thank you for including mine), and great links this week. I had seen the ipotty chair. Wow, I don’t think so. The egg holder reminded me of the refrigerator that I bought years ago that came with a storage container for eggs. I don’t raise chickens, so I get my eggs prepackaged at the market. I thought it was such a waste to have the egg holder and it just got in the way. Needless to say, it did not stay in the fridge. The last link was something that I could relate to. Only difference is, I am really good, most of the time, about putting my phone and keys into my purse once I am home and do not need them readily available. Problem is, I cannot locate them in my purse when I need them. My purse is not big, it is a small bag (maybe toward the bigger end of the small range). Who can’t find these items in a small purse? It is not like they are lost in the house somewhere. Guess I need to be more diligent of minimalizing the contents of my purse :).
I have One of those fridge egg inserts, too. Resides in the basement along with a Surplus shelf from the fridge. It really is a stupid Thing – especially As it houses 8 eggs while eggs here usuelle are Sold As either 6 or 10 …
Please excuse all the typos! with the Little one on One arm I only get to use the phone These days and it warps up my english Quite a Bit especially with all the Capital letters it throws in … But I can’t erase all the Auto spelling mistakes in a reasonable time and I rather comment a Bit ugly than not at all. Believe me, it hurts my eyes, too.
Congratulations on the birth of your baby, Ideealistin! 🙂
I know exactly what you mean. I wonder why they make those things with all kinds of inserts and racks that usually never get used. Of course, I think the newer styles are made a little more efficiently these days.
Hi Jen, I have found that the veggie crisper my new Fridge (only 2nd one in 26 years of marriage) keeps the vegetable much fresher for longer than my old one. And I actually do take the eggs out of the cardboard carton and put them in the egg rack. That way people can get to the quicker so the fridge doesn’t have to be open for too long.
Woohoo Congrats on your new baby have fun xxx
Thanks everyone. I am enjoying every Minute with her (well almost ;-)). She’s demanding though and Doesn’t Leave me much time for Anything – which Makes me want to declutter in highspeed now. I Really Need to get rid of more aspirational stuff and make my Life As easy As possible. First Thing to Attack will Be the unread Books. I have been through the bookshelves numerous Times over the past few years and condensed a lot but now I would Love to only have one
I wold love to Only have One shelf of Books instead Of Two (sorry for hitting the post it Button Too early). So that One shelf could go to the kid’s room (that is to Be created – a Lot of decluttering and rearranging will Need to Be Done though to make the office into her Room. Won’t Be Done over night but I aim at Summer/Early fall. It’s good to have auch an incentive – and it is super good to have such a supportive and Kind (Abs Smart and Funny) peer group here on 365!
This would be one of those huge life changing events that makes you reassess lots of things in your life including what you own.
congratulations! good to hear that you are doing fine. I bet that having kids requires reconsidering “space” in a totally new way. keeping my fingers crossed that you will deal with books (I am on the same task) and then your daughters room all easy and smooth.
I often do get my eggs loose at the farmer’s market to save packaging, so theoretically I could use that – only it’s much easier to use one of the cardboard boxes several times – it’s not as if they rip so easily.
We have an egg-holder in the fridge, too. I don’t really get it either.
Hi Jen my purse is very small but it has several pouches. Each item I put in there goes in the same pouches every time. It is easy to find things that way.
Once this one wears out, I will have to find one with pouches like you mentioned. That would help my frustration level :).
It was the war on misplaced keys that kick-started my decluttering a few years ago. Now I am in a war against black. Get yourself brightly colored key fobs, pens, pencils, eyeglass cases…. and you will find it easier to locate necessities in your purse, glove box, suitcase, backpack. I now spend a lot less time rooting around for stuff that’s right under my nose but invisible.
Great idea!
Purses have magical hidden compartments sometimes!
I agree Rebecca J!
Thanks for all the links again this week, always food for thought.
This was a strange week for me in that several of my friends suffered all kinds of difficulties. A friend’s husband suddenly taken to the ER today, another friend had a bad fall down the stairs (and she was already suffering from a fall a couple of weeks earlier), a friend with vertigo which suddenly came on who has needed help with shopping, cooking and taking to the doctor, and another whose house burned to the ground, and she has now lost all her possessions. A whole set of abrupt reminders that life is fragile and uncertain, and when our health is affected the last thing we want to think about are inanimate pieces of clutter. I’ve been glad to be able to drop everything and help my friends this week, or just spend time with them, the stuff just doesn’t matter.
That is so true, Christine – when health issues arise or basic necessities of life are taken away, it sharply divides what is important from what is not. I hope your friends recover from their troubles soon.
My sympathies and well wishes go to your friends. Be all you can be for them now in there troubled times.
Take care of yourself and special prayers to all your friends, here’s hoping they can carry on from their troubles. What a blessing for them to have a friend around like you. Take care 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you all for your kind thoughts and words.
Wow. Some particularly thoughtful, insightful and heartwarming comments this week. Also some great links.
Thanks for the links to my site. I am glad my thoughts can help with the conversation on this great site.
Dan went to the Consumer Electronics Show for work this year. While he did not see the iPotty, it was featured in our local newspaper as a “must have” device seen at the show. I’m sure there’s something more idiotic out there; I just can’t think of what it is right now.
What can I say Cindy, it’s a strange old world that we live in.