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 weeks missions reflect the kinds of thing that I have decluttered in the last week. Lets see if you can find some similar items to declutter.
Monday – Declutter a small piece of furniture or a storage container. I decluttered two bedside tables that had been storing DVDs.
Tuesday – Declutter some digital media, CDs, DVDs, CDRoms, old VHS tapes… . Due to the bedside table declutter some DVDs also were decluttered.
Wednesday – Declutter and item of clothing. I decluttered a dress, not because I wanted to it simply worn out. Split down the back worn out and not worth repairing because the fabric had worn so thin.
Thursday – Declutter an item of jewellery. I decluttered a necklace that I had put aside to deconstruct for craft purposes but never have.
Friday – Declutter a kitchen utensil or two. I decluttered two utensil holders that had served me well in the past. I’d kept them in the back of a cupboard for a while “just in case” but am now satisfied that I have no further need for them.
Saturday – Declutter a couple of toys. I let go of two largish plastic animals, once again kept for craft purposes. Due to the reshuffle that inspired the decluttering of the bedside tables some things had to be fitted in elsewhere. The obvious choice to look and use was my craft storage area, so some things had to go.
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
Go digital for as many paper items as you can ~ Bills, reading material, recipes, communication…
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
Great missions as usual. Monday’s mission is almost out the door – it’s storage shelves with 4 fabric bins plus a small Rubbermaid bin. We used it hold the kids toys, but they are transitioning out of the toy phase so time for the storage to go. Tuesday – previously decluttered along with the devices that play them. Wednesday- clothing item selected and ready to go out. Will have to think about the other days.
Hi Idgy… , you are ahead of the game this weeks for sure. I am sure you will come up with those other three things.
Last week I was uploading family movies (originally on video) in preparation for editing – that project is still on the go. This week I need to take advantage of the back to school timing to get some things onto Trademe.
They sound like two good missions to be getting on with Moni. I am waiting for Steve to list some stuff of his on ebay or anywhere. He only brought them back from his mother’s recently and I am already over seeing them cluttering up the place.
Excellent list Colleen.
Hi Cindy, I am sure you can find something on that list that you can declutter. 😉
Great list and already all taken care of! 😀 I was on a roll yesterday and brought 3 bags of stuff to the donation box.
Gone:
1 brown storage box
1 set of Star Wars dvds (missing episode 1). I have the complete bluray set which I kept.
Gave two bracelets back to my mom, she brought them from Cuba for me but I never wore them.
One bag of geeky toys that I had bought during a couple of Comic Cons that were just gathering dust.
One laptop bag that I never used.
I’m sure I will find more stuff during the week.
Hi Julie, you must have been reading my mind, well done. And good luck finding more stuff during the week.
These are good Colleen. I hope to get some of them done this week if things don’t blow up and go whacky again.
You have had a bit of a spell of the whacky stuff lately Deb. I hope you have a nice quiet week and get some stuff done you want to do. Even if that is just to put your feet up for a while.
Well, I know I have something tomorrow morning, Tuesday Morning, all day Wewdnesday and all morning Friday. Maybe somewhere in there I will be able to work something in.
Yesterday afternoon we finally installed our under-cabinet lighting so everything had to be removed from the bottom shelves of the cupboards. One of the cabinets holds all our spices. I realized that I have two containers of cinnamon, so those got combined and the empty container put in recycling. Some baking cups that I didn’t like using went into the donation pile along with a small battery-operated hand mixer. The cocoa mix that came with the little mixer went into the trash as it’s about five years old and I am sure no longer any good.
Well done Michelle. There is nothing like a forced clear out to help you find some stuff to declutter. I am in a real decluttering frame of mind at the moment so I think I will reshuffle a few more spaces just to force my hand on letting go of some stuff. Probably more craft supplies will end up being the target. I am over the aspirational clutter situation. I have enough to keep me busy without finding new things to do anyway.
Colleen, I like the angle of this post with you offering up your latest items you decluttered. I took down a fabric shoe organizer that hangs on the back of the door today and added to my little donate pile. I put two books I recently read and will likely never reread into my ebay book-sell box (our book consignment here is really disappointing, and they look like new so they will sell just fine). Not much but it already looks brighter in that closet, I use it so much as it’s a linen closet and where I store the pet food containers. I also recycled a small stack of papers, old grocery ads, a few unwanted catalogs I stashed for some reason, and some shredded bill stubs. I pay online but I forget too easily when I have gone paperless with the actual bill. Oh, and my husband and I decluttered the horrid micro suede corner section of a couch my bro and sis-in-law dropped off here that I mentioned a few weeks ago. That’s a huge piece of real estate here.
Hi Jean, you have been doing very well with your decluttering I’d say by the sound of that list. Well done, especially getting rid of that corner section.
I got rid of some storage containers (two large, one medium, and one small), and it’s not even Monday here! That barely puts a dent in my container hoard, BUT I filled the two large containers halfway already with miscellaneous items. A few cookbooks, an old weather radio that doesn’t get the signal where I live, some dishes, two kitchen gadgets that I don’t use, a candle that was gathering dust, two beach towels, and a few items that I mentioned last week.
I have a busy week, so I’ll probably only 365 one item a day this week. But hey, that’s the beauty of 365-ing! You can always find one thing! Have a great week, everyone.
Well done Melanie. Getting rid of storage containers is a very good sign that minimising has become a lifestyle choice. Otherwise you would hang on to those containers. And yes one thing a day is 365-ing at its core, no need to do more than that.
Thanks, Colleen! In all honesty, my container supply is still huge. But they are all in a spare room not bothering anyone, and will be dealt with one by one. The rest of my house, however, is getting pretty sparse. So I’m confident that I won’t need the majority of those containers.
Congratulations on getting rid of those end tables! My next project is to re-do my files. I don’t have all that many, but I want to see if I can reduce them further by scanning some like you and others have suggested.
Hi Melanie, as I mentioned to Moni below, I kept my containers for quite a while when I began my declutter mission. Eventually they became so useless to me I let them go.
Storage bins is something I should address. I assumed that these would be the last things to go, because if there’s nothing significant to declutter then there isn’t any chance of needing them again, right? Then I realised there was a ‘just in case’ tone to that line of thinking. Ok, now and then one or two get put back into active duty as I work thru my decluttering projects, but a cardboard banana box would do the same job and wouldn’t seem so permanent.
So I have two friends I am helping with decluttering and each mentioned they were going to buy some plastic storage bins, I loaded all the storage bins into my car and told them both to take as many as they wanted. (Yes I did make sure that they weren’t planning to store clutter). Alas I still have some left but I will either find someone else to help or I will offer them to Goodwill.
Hi Moni, I kept quite a few storage containers for a long while after I started decluttering. They stacked well together and came in handy to take car loads of stuff to the thrift shop. I wasn’t concerned that I would return to my old ways I just wasn’t in any hurry to get rid of them altogether. Then I started giving them to friends and family so the extras soon disappeared. Any that I still have store stuff in the cage in the garage and my winter clothes in the top of my wardrobe. So keep a couple if you find them useful as I am sure you aren’t about to change back to the old you.
Hey, this matches my planning for the week! (And I have a half day off work to go drop stuff at various charities since they aren’t open Sundays or evenings, which makes them hard to otherwise get to).
I have a DVD to ship out tomorrow.
I’m going to the toy consignment store tomorrow with a box
Husband proposed getting rid of some of what had been my favorite mixing spoons, but we’ve found non-plastic equivalents, so yes, they can go into the donation box.
Bag of clothing also going tomorrow.
I was thinking furniture would be hard because we haven’t really settled what we are using where yet, but I really should put the old high chair up for sale. We aren’t planning another one, and even if we do, we’ve learned and would want a different high chair because that one was a bit awkward in ways. It’s about the last thing in the area I’ve been cleaning up also….
Hi Kayote, you do have this weeks decluttering well planned out. Good for you. And I think you are right about that highchair.
Mini Mission Tuesday it is! Gotta love time zones… Can’t do Monday anyway, as I’ve been waiting for weeks for mum to call and organise a charity shop to collect somebof her furniture she doesn’t want, but I have one CD rack and two electrical clutters waiting to go… Kitchen utensils I can’t touch and I’m not ready to declutter the few toys I have. I have, I believe, 23 items in my wardrobe, underwear, socks and leggings- there’s a couple of summer tops I’ve got my eye on but it’s Winter here, so they get a stay of execution, and I have little jewellery (and I went through it recently). I have my eye on a few DVDs though, so that’s something! I’ll see if I can’t find a few other bits around…
It sounds like you have plenty for be getting on with NÃriel. Your wardrobe sounds very sparse, I am not sure I could get by with quite so few clothes but it does get me thinking that I might try not replacing things for a while when they wear out and see how I manage. I like to have enough clothes that I only need to wash when there is a full load for the sake of saving water and electricity.
Oh, I do have full washes – sheets, towels and the like, I put my clothes in with those. I was stunned at how few items I had too, to be honest, lots of the bits layer together so there’s plenty of outfits.