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 we are going to do some digital decluttering. Some purely digital some in a more tangible form. You will understand what I mean as you read the daily missions.
Monday – Today declutter any DVDs that you no long enjoy to watch or really don’t watch enough to warrant keeping. Perhaps also ones your children have grown out of. This would be an example of tangible digital clutter.
Tuesday – Today declutter some purely digital clutter. Perhaps clean out your email inbox, sent box and/or your email trash folder.
Wednesday – Declutter CDs that you no longer listen to and perhaps are even embarrassed you ever owned.
Thursday – Take a look at your photo folders and delete poor quality pics or multiples of the same thing. One of them must be the best and there is not need to keep the rest.
Friday – Declutter old computer games that you or your children have tired of or grown too old for.
Saturday – Have a look through the folders on your computer that hold text documents. I bet there are many that are no longer relevant.
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
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
Calla says
We must be on the same track! I mailed 50 Dvds to dvds4 Vets last week. I gave away all my cds away several years ago after loading them on my iPod. Last night I deleted about 100 unused files off my computer. It was easy to do, they were work files & I haven’t worked for 3 years! Lol
Good mini missions Colleen.
Colleen Madsen says
Well done Calla. Although I must say, it never ceases to amaze me the number of people who download all their music from CDs and then declutter them. I wish I felt game enough to do that but the reality is that the if the CDs are your only proof of purchase for that music. You could technically be charge with theft should your ownership ever be questioned. There is only a very slim chance that that would ever happen of course but we kept ours nonetheless. We threw away all the cases though to minimise the amount of space they take up.
Calla says
I do have a back up service I pay for, or I would be leary of th getting rid of cds. I had to use the restore function last year & it worked like a charm. Legal issues are another story….I guess I’m willing to take the risk rebel that I am. Lol
Moni says
colleen – I was wondering if having Spotify, Pandora or Apple Music subscription will negate the legal situation of uploaded CDs.
Colleen Madsen says
Hi Moni, I am not sure about that. The CDs you upload could belong to someone else. However if a subscription entitles you to listen to any music all the time then you certainly don’t need the CDs as the music is being paid for through the subscription. It is up to them to pass the royalties on to whoever is up the chain from there.
Deb J says
Ah yes, these are good Colleen. I’m trying to get everything off my laptop then convert it all so it can be totally on my tablet. I just no longer want to deal with the laptop anymore.
Colleen Madsen says
I can’t see me ever doing that Deb. I find tablets such a pain to type on. However I do like the minimal size of them.
Ann in Boston says
Dear Colleen,
My youngest son was laughing just now as I read the mini missions to him. He just finished helping me sort through hundreds of photos we had collected over the past 29 years. They were in albums that are not “photo- safe” and I’ve been concerned about them. I realized that I was really saving them for my sons, more than for myself. Therefore, I should have him help me figure out quality over quantity. We took all the photos out of the old albums. He sorted them out and we kept 400 of the 2000 we had taken. I am SO happy. Now we have them sorted by date in a photo safe box that is the size of a shoe box. A whole shelf in the family room is empty.
On a funny note, we had breakfast this week with other family members. When I told them about our photo project, they were horrified that I had done that. But, I feel a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. My sons are quite happy that we did that project. Thank you Colleen for your support and your great mini missions.
Colleen Madsen says
I applaud you for doing this Ann. It is a job that I have meant to do from the very start of my decluttering mission. My husband did a bit of it but as yet I haven’t been inspired to continue the project. Given all the other stuff that I’d rather work on decluttering the photos aren’t that important to me. I’m sure I’ll get around to it one day.
Moni says
Good theme for this week. Just last week I was cleaning up my inbox – I do my e-mail by remote-login in so that it doesn’t clog up the hard drive and makes me stay on top of clearing my e-mails. I went into my sent folder looking for something and realised that I had sent mail going back to 2008! So I had a big cull.
I also need to have another go-round of DVD’s.
I also want to tidy up our external hard drive.
CD’s we’re looking good as we had a big clear out last year and early this year as a local charity was calling for books, DVD’s, CD’s for a Book Fair to raise money.
Photos – I made a big start on those earlier this year but got distracted with other things. However, two of my friends were so impressed that we are talking about starting a regular photo club so that we can work on our albums together. All three families grew up together and so a lot of photos overlap. Its probably an excuse for us to get together and have a gossip but if we eventually get them done its got to be a good thing.
Colleen Madsen says
That photo club thing sounds like a great way to work on, what could be, an otherwise tedious task. Throw in a bottle of wine or two and I am sure a whole lot of culling could get done.
Nicole V says
Hi, Colleen. These are good reminders, as it can be easy to forget about digital spring-cleaning. We only have one DVD (which I want to keep), as we prefer to borrow them from the library. We have no computer games. I also prune my Internet bookmarks on a regular basis, and I love an uncluttered desktop, with minimal icons.
The Other Christine says
I have been doing a lot of digital decluttering. I hit a point with my physical things where I’d gotten rid of everything that I was currently willing to let go. I was looking around for something else to do and came up with my computer. It had lots of clutter. Very organized, but still clutter.
I had a hard drive crash and lost a lot of things and now when it comes to computer files I’m in the mindset of trying to make sure I preserve my digital stuff. That is useful/necessary/valuable for the important or special files, but just like the physical world there’s plenty that doesn’t need to be kept.