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 for our mini missions we are going to re every day. Yes I did mean re and you will understand what I mean when you read the missions below. If you can’t think of a task to suit each day just repeat Monday over and over. Good luck
Monday – Relinquish something. Anything will do. Send it to a new home just get it our of yours.
Tuesday – Recycle something. Perhaps some old greeting cards like I did last week, maybe some magazines or even plastic containers you thought might find useful one day.
Wednesday – Refurbish something. Maybe something has become clutter because it needs a lick of paint to bring it back to life. Â Even if you end up not using it after all at least if it will now be in better condition for whoever finds it at the thrift store or if you decide to sell it.
Thursday – Repurpose something. Yesterday I constructed a dolly (a small platform with wheels) out of a piece of chipboard and some spare casters in the garage. It is now making the compressor easier to move around. Maybe you have something in your home that would be good to use for a purpose it may not have been intended for.
Friday – Reinstate something. This might be a bottle of shampoo that has been relegated to second best. Bring it to the fore and use it up because it is always going to be second best and wasting space. Or perhaps an old pair of shoes you love but never use. If you find that even after reinstating them they are not used then perhaps it is time to let them go.
Saturday – Regift something. We all have received gifts in our lives that we never really had a need or want for. Why not pass one of them on to someone else who might get the enjoyment out of it that you never did. It doesn’t have to be an occasion just pass it on for the fun of it. Make sure the recipient knows there are no strings attached.
Sunday – Refuse ~ Interpret this one to suit yourself. If you go shopping today refuse a plastic bag, take your own carry bag instead. If you are offered a free sample of something that isn’t instantly consumable politely refuse it. Refuse to buy yourself that thing you think you need and give yourself time to think more responsibly about the transaction.
Good luck and happy decluttering
Today’s Declutter Item
These little pie tins came from my grandparents bakery shop from back in the 1930’s. I rarely if ever use them so I have relinquished them to someone who will. I took them to the thrift store and they were sold before I finished my shift.
Individual Pie Tins
Eco Tip For The Day
Only put enough water in your kettle for the reason you are boiling it. More water takes longer to heat using more electricity. What isn’t used just goes cold again.
It’s always good to be reminded of the 7 Re’s. I need to do some work this week on some of them.
Hi – today I added a ‘Re’ – return. I returned a hand brace to the chemist today that I bought last week for my son’s broken hand but its not quite right. The old me would have just chucked it in the cupboard and said someone will use it eventually.
And I ‘REturned’ a book that had someone else’s name in it. Yay, one more down!
I think a good portion of this week for me will be REplenish REvitalize and REst. Boyfriend and I took the two pairs of shorts to REturn to his dad, as well as the two shirts and pair of jeans that we were going to RElocate to his parents house. Upon opening his closet there, turns out he failed to mention that in high school he was a packrat. Over the course of 3 hours we got rid of half a cubic meter of clothing, as well as a filebox of paper. It was an emotional cleanse as well, because he hates who he was in high school, so we were digging up memories. Overall we left a couple pairs of pants and about a dozen shirts to look at next time (and more socks than we know what to do with – they’re all worn, but not nearly worn out, and they all fit), but other than that completely decimated the clothing, which his mom is taking to Goodwill today (he was completely broken up over some of the memories. I made sure to tell him it was ok to keep things for now if he wanted (didn’t want to force him into anything) but he wanted the things gone) After finalizing what could be gotten rid of, we all realized he wouldn’t be able to pack it into bags, let alone take it to the store.
After all that, plus getting a few new shirts to get him up to two weeks of clothing (normal laundry schedule for us), I’m beat. I did manage to pull out a few of my things to get rid of, and we did splurge a little (bought a couple things at dollar tree), but overall the weekend resulted in a LOT of things gone. While the things gone are mostly from his parents house, and overall I think more things are inside our house than used to be, we’re still in pretty good shape. I’ll try to do a few things this week, but I’m going through some burnout. I am doing a good job on the use-it-up declutter of lotions and stuff. This Wednesday is my annual state fair trip, so that day will probably result in some clutter accumulation, but hopefully it’ll go away shortly after. I’m still building a Goodwill pile here, so I’ve got a place to put anything I don’t want.
Oh, the ‘re’s’. PERFECT! PERFEKT!
No matter how it is spelled, now delightful! A ‘re’turn to the ‘re’s’! Lovely. So the other half told me we can give a bunch of stuff away (to the church garage sale). This ‘stuff’ has been sitting in our basement just waiting for something to strike the flame and get it gone. Yahoo. That takes care of Monday’s mission. Now for the ‘re’st of the ‘re’week!
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
“Tuesday – Recycle something. Perhaps some old greeting cards”
I have always had a problem getting rid of greeting cards. I don’t know why…I just have a hard time letting go. This past weekend I was continuing my “parsing” phase of removing the excess from my life, by going through the boxes in the basement. I came across a stack of greeting cards and finally made the choice to let go.
But instead of just recycling them, I decided I don’t totally have to let go. I took pictures with my digital camera and now have them saved in a folder on my computer. I have been doing this with other items as of recently that I don’t need but still want to remember!
Thanks for the great post!
~Brian
We are RE-using. My son is in a size larger (waist) pants so brought the old ones over for me to include in my donation box. Instead, I am having them hemmed for my husband. He has some old ones that are ready for the trash heap/recycling bin but we have not gotten rid of them because we didn’t have any to replace them and he HATES to shop. The pants my son gave us were ones he wore to work so are in great shape. RE use and REcycle. So glad we can share. I really miss my mom because we always traded clothes and what we didn’t like this season might work the next one. Plus we were always adding or subtracting lbs so the trades were a big help. No family close physically or distance so just have to keep my weight down to fit what I have. 🙂
Also, REcycling books. Have read them or cleaned some out of my bookcase and will donate them to the library for them to sell. Love the RE’s.
I think it’s ingenious that you expanded the 3R’s to 7 – and your readers took it even further! All of these are helpful in keeping on track.