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.
Monday – Declutter something in a pile somewhere that it ought not be.
Tuesday – Declutter something that has overflowed the area designated to the likes of it.
Wednesday – Declutter something that you’ve been keeping but really belongs in the trash.
Thursday – Declutter something that is wasting space, making it difficult to store more useful items.
Friday – Declutter something that hasn’t been used in a long time. After all, if you don’t have a use for it then your home is not the right place for it.
Saturday – Declutter receipts and other fiddly bits from your handbag. Clutter in your bag makes it hard to find the things you do need from in there.
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
Share and borrow between friends and family rather than everyone owning/buying everything.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
Great mini missions!
The receipts will be easy.
For Friday, something that hasn’t been used for a long….an iron, which I haven’t used since I got a steamer a couple of years ago. Also a swifter, pads & cleaner. Since I had new flooring put in I use a different cleaning system.
Will have to explore the other missions.
Good choices Calla.
Thursday/Friday – we are trying to sell a large canoe that has been taking up a large amount of our garden. We are also declutteing our camping gear. While we still camp, our needs/wants have changed over time.
Idgy, I wish you success at getting rid of all those items. It sounds like that would free up a considerable amount of space.
Hi Colleen,
Thanks – the canoe is over 5m long and over 1 m wide. We had a build a rack to store it. The rack needed to be rebuilt as it was falling apart. While we love canoing, we don’t do a canoe trip every year – more like once every 3-4 years. In the end, it is much more cost effective for us to rent a canoe when we need it vs. storing/transporting/insuring this one.
Hi Idgy, at least you have the common sense to realise that. Many people don’t. I see so rarely unused recreational fishing boats here in Australia.
I’m selling our kayaks, too, for the same reason. We don’t kayak very often. It will be easier to just rent one or two when we feel like it.
Oh these are good. I have to think about this but I think we will have some things we can get rid of easily in all of these categories except the handbag as I don’t carry one and Mom’s is small and the one thing she keeps decluttered (grin). Can’t wait to get at these.
Hi, Deb J. Do you carry anything that you might need on your person, since you don’t carry a handbag?
Nicole V, I do have a small purse I can carry if I need to. Most of the time I carry a small “change purse” in my pocket with my driver’s license, debit card and health insurance card and any cash. I carry my keys in the other pocket. That’s it.
Deb J, I have always envied people who can do this!!!! Although I only carry a small Baggalini purse, it has lots of small items I seem to always need if I don’t have them along. If I don’t have lip balm, my lips drive me crazy. I have a problem neck that does make me keep my shoulder purse lightweight, though. However, it never seems to be as light as I’d like!
Brenda, I have made it a habit to have the little things in my car and in my briefcase and desk drawer when I worked. If I have to be out all day I wall take my small purse along.
Nice system, Deb J!
Thanks Nicole
Good luck Deb I hope you find some things that your mother is willing to let go.
We have/had a small bin of electronic things that we weren’t using. I was able to part with a land line phone and extra hand set, a car charger for travel, a regular travel charger set, a roll of film, and several user manuals. I kept the emergency hand crank radio, CO2 alarm, and NOAA weather radio. Those still seemed prudent to keep! Oh, and I got rid of the three old undershirts that were on top of all the devices so that our cats could curl up on the bin. They were a little confused at the new arrangement but have adjusted. 🙂
Just remembered that I don’t need any photo paper because I got rid of my printer a few weeks ago. Put 3 packages of new photo paper in the donate pile!
Hi Claire, we had hand crank flashlights once. Only problem with them, as with any rechargeable item, the battery would no longer hold a charge when we finally needed them for something. All the cranking in the world would not convince them to light up.
We had a hand crank flashlight too. I donated it a few years ago. It was the kind that you have to continually grip/pump to keep the light on. After about 10 times your hand would be exhausted.
I just double checked the crank radio and it still works! It also has a flashlight and strobe built in as well as a siren function. ?? Kind of a doomsday prepper gadget I guess! I didn’t buy it, it was a gift from my parents, of course!
Good mini missions – I have visitors coming later in the week, so usually I go into overdrive in the days leading up to arrival, so expecting great things of myself this week!
Does anyone else have one of those Magic Bullet blenders (also known as Nutri Bullet etc) ours gets used a lot, the kids make smoothies in the cups, very dishwasher friendly etc. We’re actually on our second unit. The question I was wanting to ask……if you have one also, do you ever use the blender attachment or just the individual cups?
Hi Moni,
I have the Magic Bullet and use it all the time! I’ve only ever used the individual cups – I didn’t know there was a way to attach a blender or maybe I’m misunderstanding?
I have the feeling I’m going to burn mine out any day, I use it so much!
I have never owned one.
Hi, Colleen. I usually remove unwanted items from my handbag each time I get home. If it’s really late, I do it the next day. I pass any receipts to my husband and replenish any items that might have been used up while I was out.
Well done you Nicole. I have to admit I am not that organised or at least don’t care enough to keep up that habit. I guess because I don’t buy much I don’t end up with a lot of receipts anyway.
I have a small pocket on the outside of my bag and all receipts go there so it’s a simple matter to locate them. We do our shoppping on a trip to town once a week and I unload all the receipts and other paperwork immediately on arriving home. It’s so much easier than trying to track down receipts a week or a month later especially as someone in our family has a tendency to stuff receipts in bags or boxes or on shelves or in the door of the truck!
The amount of paperstuffs I still have has been really bugging me. I think I could apply paper to all of your mini missions this week. It is always such a pain to have to go through it all, so I’m going to try to stick to one type of paperstuff each day: eg yesterday I managed to let go of 6 books. My other categories: reference clippings etc (non-recipes), reference (recipes), letters and cards, papercrafts, new/incoming items. Sigh. If only I could conquer this once and for all!
Saturday is easy, because I don’t carry a purse. On the rare occasion that I do use one, I clean it out at the end of the day. My husband and I put receipts by my laptop every day, and I log them.
Monday through Friday’s missions are pretty much my entire house (we’re moving). It has turned into one big pile. LOL. I’m going to rotate through each room and find at least one item to get rid of.
Re: Rechargeable batteries – The brand Eneloop is supposed to hold their charge for years. I haven’t put them to that test, but that is their claim. I like them so far.