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 I am going to give you some ideas on things to declutter based on the items I have admitted to myself that I rarely use and see no point in kidding myself they are worth the space they are taking up in my home. If you don’t have similar items chose some things you rarely use in your home to get rid of.
Monday – One set of crockery, my “good” set that is rarely used and not that good anyway. If my everyday set is good enough for me I guess it is good enough for those I invite to dine with me.
Tuesday – Some vases that are rarely used.
Wednesday – Shoes that I rarely wear that are too uncomfortable.
Thursday – Jewellery. Now that I don’t work and rarely dress up I don’t see any point in keeping so many of the pieces I made myself. The thrift store will benefit from the sale of these.
Friday – More craft items, also rarely used
Saturday – Â Now declutter unused sports gear. In my case the ski clothes we no longer use. It is a good time to put it all on eBay here in Australia as we are going into winter. We kept these in case we had the need for heavy coats but we haven’t done so in five years. If we do have a need in the future we will pick some up cheaply at the thrift store.
Sunday – Clothes that although I still like the style of and feel good in rarely get used because they don’t fit in with my lifestyle these days. There is no point in taking up space in my closet if they aren’t being used.
Good luck and happy decluttering
Today’s Declutter Item
Well, just about everyone guessed almost correctly for the “What an I” quiz on Saturday. It was a New York Yankees sun visor. This was a pile of baseball items my kids were willing to part with that I have since sold to a friend I work with at the thrift shop.
- More Baseball Items
Something I Am Grateful For Today
The wonderful three weeks we just spent in the USA. It was a special treat to meet both Cindy, my wonderful Wednesday contributor (and her family) and Willow, one of my long time readers/commenters.
The irony is that on Friday night I decided to do a quick 15 min declutter of a kitchen drawer or two while dinner was cooking, and Sunday evening I stopped and included most of the items for this week.
Over the weekend I looked back thru the archives for freezers – I always seem to have dozens of quarter full frozen vege bags. Obviously a meal this week is going to feature a lot of mis-matched veges thrown in together. Does anyone have a clever system for their frozen vegies?
My project tonight will be to list more items on trademe and freecycle, but I also think our filing cabinet could do with a good declutter.
Hi Moni,
after many years of consideration I have found that storing frozen veggies in the bags they came in really is the only way to go. Simply because as they get used the amount of space they take up also reduces. I bought Tupperware freezer containers once because the visual of all those neat containers looked so much better than the bags but soon realised I didn’t have the space for half empty containers in my fridge especially the contents go really low and the replacement new bag had to fit somewhere. That being said what I find helpful is to keep a basket in the freezer to hold all these bags together so they don’t get lost amount the clutter causing you to end up with part empty bags doubling up all over the place. Just like any organising, if you keep like together they will be easy to find and maintain.
Moni,
I make ‘left over soup’. I start with a soup base–whatever I might have on hand–veggie broth, chicken broth, left over tomato sauce. Then I add onion and garlic, meat if I’m using it, and then throw in the veggies. Season to taste. My family loves these unique soups–they were never the same twice.
Willow, we call it dump soup and we do the same thing. You never know how it is going to turn out but it has always been good.
My sis-in-law suggested I make a frittata, I don’t know what one of those is (she’s a very enthuisiastic cook) – soup might be easier.
I forgot to mention I make vegetable curries. You can add just about any vegetable to that and can beens (kidney beens etc) as well. That happens once a week in our house.
Hi Colleen – thanks, tupperware freezer containers was one option that had been suggested to me, sort of a pantry look freezer, but you are right about half empty containers.
Hubby and I have decided that when the side by side fridge + freezer in the garage ‘die’ we won’t replace them. It will be a little bit tricky especially for the freezer while we still have teens at home but we do live within 3-4 mins of two supermarkets. We have realised that there can be hundreds of dollars sitting in a freezer, and with that in mind we are really only using 2-3 of the drawers this year.
A trick I was told by a friend – we are told that freezers run more effeciently if they are full. And we are told to have 2-3 litres of water per person stored in the case of a civil defence emergency so we can get by until services are restored. She fills empty coke 1.5 litre bottles and packs out her deep freeze with those, so she doesn’t have to create a storage area for her stored water and she doesn’t have an ineffecient freezer.
Hi Moni,
We have a chest freezer and we do this (not because of an emergency, but just to keep it filled up). We buy meat in large amounts – half a bison takes up a lot of freezer space! – so as it diminishes I have to fill the space until next time. Juice bottles filled with water go in the bottom as the food supply moves up. Pretty soon we’ll be looking for a lamb (wanna send me one from NZ?) and then the water bottles will be recycled and I will use new ones as my freezer empties again.
Hi Wendy B – a Bison? Are you for real? People eat them? Wow. 🙂 Lamb, yep plenty of them over here. But my youngest put an embargo on eating lamb after she spent a weekend helping to bottle feed orphan lambs.
Hi Moni, we make either Curries or cut Potatoes in quarters or slices (depending on size), throw them with all the vegetables on a baking tray and cover with a little oil and mostly mediterranean spices (actually, we’re mixing veggies and oil in a bowl before putting them on the baking tray – just about one tablespoon of oil will do). Just bake them at a high temperature and you’ll mostly get a tasty mix which goes well with almost any sauce that is used for grilled or fried food. (e.g. ketchup, BBQ sauce, Japanese okonomiyaki-sauce or whatever is to your taste)
Yup. Look at those monsters in pictures of Yellowstone National Park and that’s what we eat. Except ours come from farms, not Yellowstone! Veryveryvery low fat.
Hi Wendy B – LOL I just assumed Bison hung arond on the prairies and were protected species. But I guess a cow is a cow right?
My stepfather is Australian and he says that with my accent when I say “basin” it sounds like “bison”. Of course, he has the accent, not me.
Hahahaha love it, so Bonnie, how often do you empty the Chully Bun in the Bison???? I love the NZ accent, my hubby has quite a few guys from NZ on his crews and they are the best, they always ask him to say certain things. New South Welshmen have accents too and say some of the weirdest things, I love ‘Dint’ for ‘Dent’, he has a slew of words that after 28yrs still make me giggle, ‘Skunned Rabbit’ is another! Maybe it’s just him!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I can be chatting with someone and as soon as I say ‘One’ (Comes out ‘WON’) straight away I get asked if I’m English or Canadian. I love Irish, Scots and Welsh, whenever my hub hears these he always asks me to translate, I always say they are talking fine you are just listening wrong!!!
Isn’t the world fabulous 🙂 🙂 🙂
When we lived in and traveled around Europe, people would ask us if we were from England. It always made me laugh that our solid American accent was mis-taken for being British!!!! I still LOL at that. I was honored that they thought I was from another place, cause this world is so filled with amazing people from all over!!! 🙂 I think we’d all have fun chating live together (Colleen and Cindy’s bloggers) because we’d all have a hoot figuring out where we are all from in this world!
Perhaps I should set up a Skype conference. Cindy and I are Shypeing for the first time tomorrow. We will see how that goes before I get too adventurous.
sounds yummy!!!! I’ve heard it is healthier and leaner than other types of meats…that is awesome! 🙂
We had a great time meeting you and chatting the afternoon away!
It was lovely and I was wearing my cowl scarf at home already today. I will dig out the last of the scarves I had that gave me allergies and keep yours instead. The fabric in it is nice and soft with no fluffy bits to get up my nose.
I think I am going to see if I can get my mother to join me in checking each room and seeing what there is that we can get rid of this week. She seems to be in the mood.
Hi Deb J – has your mum been reluctant to take up decluttering?
Oh my, Yes! She hangs on to everything either because it is from family or because we may need it some day. We have rid ourselves of a lot of items over the years but have long way to go when it comes to her stuff. Lately she has been more on board. She is suddenly realizing that there are things we no longer do and won’t be doing–like fancy entertaining. I think she is finally in the mood to declutter some of those things we have that haven’t been used in many years. I sure hope so anyway.
Hi Deb J – Better late than never! I wish my parents would take up decluttering.
You go for it Deb J. Strike while the iron is hot as they say.
Hi again. Also on the weekend I cleared out my plastics cupboard. I did have the foresight some years ago to buy one brand so they’d be stackable, these serve as everything from lunch boxes to left overs – if I ask my hubby to make a salad for dinner, he likes to make it in a click-clack container so he can just put the lid back on at the end of the meal and store in the fridge and save him dishes.
(A click-clack container is a cheap line of plastic food containers, an economy version of tupperware, bought from the supermarket.)
Anyway, our plastics cupboard was an avalanche zone. This happened because a few years back my son rather than bring out his click-clack that held his lunch to be washed……he shoved them under his bed. I couldn’t figure out why I had no click-clacks left and so bought more each time I was at the supermarket. As I have three kids and they take care of making their own lunches I couldn’t really pinpoint it and assumed they were lost at school. Several weeks later…….it was a pretty feral discovery.
The other reason is that click-clacks were also used to organise things around the house in cupboards everywhere (this was pre and early decluttering), as stuff was getting heaved out, the click-clacks (its really a dumb name for a container isn’t it?) were returned to mothership aka plastics cupboard. So as the rest of the house became more and more streamline, that cupboard became worse and worse.
Anyway I waded in, pulled everything out and only returned half of it and the cupboard looks great, hubby is very happy because he’d been grumbling about it for sometime.
The other half is sitting on the dining room table, I’m going to find somewhere to store them as they do have a limited life span and these will probably keep me going another few years.
Does anyone else have an out of control plastics cupboard?
Hahaha used too but not anymore, I realised my cupboard was out of control, so was my freezer, after reading some archives here I noted that Colleen and other 365’ers had solved their container problem. I jumped at the chance to learn ‘Brain Change’. Being an ex-Tupperware dealer left me with loads and loads and loads of plastic. When we had the Freezer challenge, I not only got rid of all the frozen food, but loads of containers and the FREEZER! I think I’ve gotten so busy I don’t have time to take care of so much food. I have been striving for the ‘Colleen Freezer’. I too tie my vege/other food bags and I have employed a basket to help keep it all together. I also make sure I use up everything before I buy more, makes for some weird dinners at times but hey it’s food and to quote another highly organised lady “You get what you get and you don’t chuck a fit about it!”
As for your left over bits and bobs of veges I find that throwing the lot in a hot pan with some chilly sauce makes a great ‘stirfry’ quick easy and healthy ‘ish’.
When you first spoke of ‘Click Clacks’ I first thought of that old kids toy of torture, it was two snooker type balls on string that you got the momentum going and they went ‘click clack’ as they smacked each other, mind you there was a lot of smacks and cracks on body parts that went with them but it was fun for a while. 🙂 🙂 🙂
I remember those click clack toys. I had many a fun time playing with them and many a sore wrist as well.
Hahaha I gave my brother a black eye with them, well I did warn him to stop messing about, he stupidly got really close and got ‘clacked’ LOL I still laugh about this, probably the only time I felt good about someone getting ‘smacked’ oohhh how wicked for a 7 yr old!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I bet he didn’t mess with you again for a while.
My 8 yr old son is sitting here reading this with me, and he asked me how the black eye related to ‘decluttering’. Well, that was a trickey one to explain!!!! 🙂 It’s fun how ‘off the beaten subject’ we all tend to get!
Some more so than others. 😆
If you have many identical plastic containers you can save a lot of space by stacking them. However, you then end up with a pile of loose lids. Mine drove me nuts until I used a metal rack (similar to the middle section of a dish drying rack) so I could store the lids standing on end. Saved room and made finding the right lid easier. However, it wasn’t quite the right size for my use so I took it to the Seniors Centre to store serving trays standing on end. My clever spouse will build me a rack. From time to time I empty the drawer, match lids and bottoms and dispose of anything that doesn’t fit.
My plastics cupboard is well and truly under control. I am at a stage where my containers are perishing and getting tossed into the recycling bin. As this happens I don’t replace them because I don’t really need as many now as I used to. You might say they have been subject to Natural Progression Decluttering.
Hi Colleen – there is a real word for it: Natural attrition! Often used in employment and membership situations, but actually means something wore out so we got rid of it. Cool aye!
Well I’m happy cause my plastics cupboard is looking smart. Now onto the filing cabinet!
Real words aren’t any fun Moni I would rather make up my own. I am glad you have that plastics cupboard under control and I look forward to hearing about the file cabinet. We solved the file cabinet problem by eliminating it. Gotta love electronic billing. We do have a couple of file boxes but their contents are minimal and easy to sort on a regular basis.
Not any more !! – Mine was out of control for most of the time that the children were home and still out of control after they left . It was only when I finally realised it was totally ok to get rid of three quarters of it that it became manageable and is now a pleasure to behold!! Lots of space and easy to see what’s in there .I think it can almost be a little scary to get rid of so much but honestly how many mixing bowls does one house hold need?
I’ve never had that many plastic containers – at most I had 12, I think. Then we got four metal food containers with a plastic lid. The truth is, though 12 or so containers (from salad bowl to miniature bowls) doesn’t sound many, I don’t need them. I just recently decluttered another load. We now have the metal ones left plus two plastic ones (lock & lock, because they really keep closed, even if you throw them around like a madman). The tin bowls are used as salad bowls and for making dough or if we’re going to a potlock, BBQ or else, the smallish plastic ones are supposed to be used for bike tours, hiking or similar (though they are watched suspiciously, they have to earn their place this summer)
For storage only, I don’t need either: I store in mason jars, that you get when buying pickles or honey, and I just keep as many as I really need of and recycle them, if unnecessary. I also use tins for storing self-made (or bought) cookies. In the fridge, I just use the bowl the food is already in, covered with a plate, like my granny did. All the tins and plastic containers are stored in the same place with the casseroles and the sieve and it’s really not that chaotic anymore. I’m keeping the lids either underneath the bowl or on top of it.
Sanna, I cover things with plate too, if its possible. My biggest problem is that I am a one-pot-cooker. so I make a lot of soups and stews. Or I make a curry with rice which can stay in the pan until the next day. Only sometimes when I can see that I wont finish the food, I need a plastic container. mostly tupperware from mothers house.
I do use a lot of plastic containers for stuff like cheese, already cut veggies (like a lunchbox) or for self made hummus. I also freeze a lot of my soups.
for all those lids I take a big plastic container and shove them in there standing, sorted by height. the containers I try to stack if possible. That way you always have the lids together, but same as Wendy B, once in a while you check if there is something missing/not closing anymore and sort out accordingly
I see. I don’t have that many leftovers to freeze. So far we’re doing fine without plastic storage containers – and I think, if I ever want to freeze soup or something, I can also just use an old empty ice cream or yoghurt container, as this is a rare occasion in this house.
hehe. I get my joghurt in a 500 gr glass, so there are no containers. and although I have icecream right now (my friends get the hang of giving me good presents nowadays), I am sure I wont keep the container because its too big and I wont use it…
Hi Colleen, I was particularly inspired by your comment about passing along clothes that still fit and look good, but that no longer work with your lifestyle. I did this several years ago with business-type work wear. Although I still work in paid employment, the style of employment has changed (research instead of business), and my look is also now a lot “softer”. It took a long time for me to realise this, and to let my practical work clothes go, but I wasn’t wearing them, and they made me feel anxious every time I passed over them in favour of wearing something else. I love that my wardrobe now truly reflects the me I am now, and that someone else has the benefit of wearing the clothes I let go of.
Hi Kim,
sometimes it is hard to let go of items that have served you well and were part of your life so a long time. At some point though one has to come to the realisation that those days are gone or at least gone for now and the items are best passed on to someone who will get the use out of them. Some items can perish from lack of use so best not to let them languish. If life reverses it is often possible to pick up similar items secondhand just like the ones you gave away. If not, replacing them with new isn’t a crime.
I am glad you feel more comfortable with your wardrobe and that someone else is getting use out of your old clothes.
Oh, how I empathise with the Plastics Cupboard. Mine is a small single wall cabinet which stores the containers which I use for pack-ups, leftovers, the freezer etc (I sometimes batch cook). I’m allowing natural attrition to take care of them. I stack them by type (I have only a few types), and have the lids stacked in a small basket like plates so they can be grabbed in a second. I have a very small counter-top freezer – 50 litre capacity- and cannot waste an inch. I keep the veggies, inc the home-grown and home-frozen veggies, in plastic bags and to stop them leaping out at me, have them corralled in a small plastic basket which takes up about a quarter of the space. I got the idea from a website where I saw a picture of the inside of someone’s freezer with one in. Thank you, whoever you were, for that tip.
I think you may be referring to ‘Colleen’s Freezer’ if not hers then I owe thanks to someone else but it is a simple and effective way to stop the baggies flying around. I love it. I especcially love it when I open peas. Has anyone ever tried sweeping up a 1kg bag of peas that decided to commit suicide! It aint pretty!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hi Dezzy – I prefer fush and chips! At least we have the All Blicks to play rugby. And over here we darnce not dance. 🙂
haha. you remind me to watch “flight of the conchords” again. there you get the difference of language between NZ and NY with a lot of really strange humour…
Hi Lena – I think I know the episode you mean. I especially enjoy Rhys Darby (he plays the guy from the embassy) in his stand up comic show “Imagine That”. I have it from itunes and then later got the dvd.
Its hard to believe we’re all speaking English some times.
oi I must be Kiwi then cos I pronounce it Darnce too !!! LOL I love Flight of the Conchords and hold me back when Cal Wilson is on hahaha love love love it!
My dear heart pen pal is Bajan (might be wrong spelling) Barbados born and bred and we love each others way of speaking ‘ENGLISH’ we have a great laugh. A smile has always had the power to break the language barrier aye!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Have a beautiful day 🙂
well, for someone who is not native english speaker, I get still surprised at the different versions of english. I speak a lot english, I have several friendships in english and I watch most of films and series in original sound. But – if someone from rural texas starts talking, I am lost. same goes for irish, australian, new zealandish (haha – I bet that was wrong), etc. and if you start putting the carribean creole language into the picture, you get what I mean. funny is, that whoever I am talking to, my english gets the influence immediatly. Everytime I watch Harry Potter, I am back at my original british english. And then I talk to an american friend and I can hear myself say suddenly Dance instead of Darnce.
here we learn in school “english”, where teachers have troubles to get around the difference between american english and british english (I was way too old to admit, when I learn that America and England are actually 2 completely different countries on two different conitinents).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT5AQIlmM0I. thats the moment I was thinking of. Brit? Brit. Brit? Brit. Brit? like in Brittany? uhh, like B-r-e-t. Oooooh Bret. Brit…
Lena, I loved your reply!!! When I lived in your country, try as I might to speak German, everyone I came in contact with wanted to practice their English!
Du und einen spreakst und scribben Deustch? Ja? Das ist gut! 🙂
haha annabelle, I know, how that feels. I went to denmark and they wanted to practise their german, so I never really put a huge effort into danish for me. but hey you know. that goes for any language: as long as you know the basics/keywords, you get along perfectly.
Any language except French that is. The French tend to be like me. They (and I) don’t like to embarrass themselves by sounding silly. They will usually speak English though when they realise how bad my French is.
Hi Colleen – How fabulous that you got to meet Cindy and also Willow! I must say I am impressed by your commitment to your wonderful blog -something every day- and great guests to carry on if you are away – its brilliant! But if you ever need to take a “sickie ” I’m sure we would all understand !
I am going to declutter all the” odd” and “used once ” items in my pantry so I have been reading everyones ideas about soups and frittatas etc. BUT my big idea for the week is to commit to NOT buying unusual ingredients for recipes that are made once and never repeated .e.g Orange Flower Water- big bottle -used once in a Morroccan salad and never used again but sat there taking up limited space in the pantry cupboard. This idea led to another plan- I have made a master grocery shopping list listing only the things that we use regularly .(the ones provided by the stores contain way too much stuff and are consequently too lengthy to be user friendly). My husband does a weekly shop and this will make it easy for him too. I will hi light what we need and cross out what we don’t and hi-lite during the week as we run out of things .There is also a blank column for things we need which aren’t on the master list.I’m also going to try (again) to plan the weeks meals in advance. But my main point is that I don’t need to cook recipes with unusual ingredients and end up with stuff sitting on shelves that will never be used again. There is still plenty of opportunity for tasty healthy meals using everyday ingredients (and I will save money too).
You know, you could make Lebanese “white coffee” (café blanc) out of that orange blossom water. Just add a splash of the orange blossom water in a cup of boiling water and sweeten with sugar or honey. (cardamom adds a nice taste as well, but isn’t necessary)
No coffee or caffeine involved, it’s just called that way, as it is drunk at similar occasions as real coffee in Lebanon.
Thanks Sanna (the addition of the cardamon sounds intersting) but I threw it out after I checked its expiry date. Actually first of all I moved it into the laundry thinking I might make an air freshener spray out of it but I didnt really do that either.There are probably a hundred uses for orange blossom water but in the end I just wanted it to go!
Haha. I understand.
Hi Judith,
being experimental in the kitchen can sure lead the pantry to be full of once used things. Some people really love experimenting though but like you I tend to not vary much from my usual menu and when I do the new recipes usually contains similar ingredients. My solution to trying something with an unusual ingredient is to borrow. Ask your neighbours friends or family if they have the ingredient you need. That way you can try the recipe without the problem of being left with odd ingredients if the recipe turns out not to be a keeper.
I like your grocery list plan. Once upon a time I used to, each time we moved, investigate the grocery store I intended to use and actually taylor my list to be arranged in isle order as I would do my shop. Those were the days when the stores didn’t provide lists in order. I would create this list together in a data base file on the computer and print it out each time I would shop and, like you, check of what I needed as the week progressed.
Hi Colleen,
Probably a stupid question but with regard to you and your husband having worked in the US, do you still have to hang on to any taxation goodies for IRS? From everything I ever read or see Americans seem to have to hang onto tax things indefinitely incase the Taxman comes a knocking! My niece lives in Canada at the moment and she was recently remarking about taxes and such. I just wondered if having been in the US and Canada, will she have to make sure she hangs on to all her papers? Any info would be appreciated.
Glad to hear you both had a lovely time on your holiday 🙂 🙂 🙂
Individuals in the US only need to hang onto their tax records from 3 to 7 years. I shred a year every time I finish our taxes. It cracks me up that the IRS says that you must keep your records indefinitely is you have committed fraud. Um….if you’ve committed fraud, why would you keep your records. That seems Unclear of the Concept. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p552/ar02.html#en_US_publink10008614
Hi Cindy I agree with your take on keeping tax records. The last two years I have caught onto digital record keeping as we are self employed and have to keep every invoice, receipt, cheque butt, eft pos slip etc etc. The majority of our creditors bills arrive via e-mail so they are easy to save to hard drive (I have it all set up like a filing cabinet) – the majority of our banking is done via internet banking so we write very few cheques and the majority of payments are direct credited in so we don’t have much in the way of banking slips these days. We have to keep for 7 years here – but a years work now just sits on a flash drive that I chuck in the drawer.
It is very satisfying throwing away something from 7 years ago, in fact I have this tendancy to have it downstairs waiting to get hiffed in January waiting for 31 March. It goes against the grain having something from 7 years ago hanging around.
Thanks Cindy 🙂
My husband was paid through the Australian government so he didn’t have to do an American Tax Return. I however did work and was paid in America. I usually leave my husband to clear out the files so I don’t know if we still have any of the paperwork from those days. I imagine as a personal tax filer I would only have to keep the paperwork for five years and that time has already elapsed.
Hi Dizzy,
It’s a very complicated issue. I’d advise your niece to check with the IRS and CRA (Canadian tax people) and the tax folks where she normally resides. The Americans can be particularly tricky and you can get stuck paying tax on the same income twice. If she ever intends to return to the States, she should be especially careful. It doesn’t help that the US government is trying to catch people avoiding tax by hiding money outside the country. They’ve enacted legislation which wasn’t very well thought out, making my friend who hasn’t lived or worked in the US for 30 years a criminal for not having filed US tax returns for 30 years. They’re sorting it out but I would be on the safe side. (If we volunteer in the States we refuse any kind of payment, even an honorarium, so we don’t end up with an unintended tax nightmare.)
Thanks Wendy B 🙂
Thanks Colleen 🙂
You’re an international celebrity Colleen!
International celebrity, that might be going a bit far? 😆 I was called a simplicity legend by another blogger recently. He will be guest posting for me this Saturday. Here is the link to his post at midwaysimplicity.com 27 simplicity legends reveal tips to simplify your life
WOW you’re a Legend alright, I liked your little write-up well done 🙂
Plastics!! We have way too many. Mom has a hard time getting rid of any of them. She uses them to store in the fridge and freezer. I’d like to get rid of at least half of them. We will see what happens this week. GRIN!!
Thanks to all for the Taxation info help. I was wondering about it because it looks like my niece will be going back to the States to work for a while and I just made the suggestion to get lots of info about the tax and such.
I have a friend who is back in WA but they lived and worked in the States for a good while and they have actually held onto everything just so they have it on hand. I suppose the Taxman will find them if he has too!! To be honest, since we moved on from our business I don’t really give it much thought anymore except that come June we need to see our accountant and we pay them to do it all Whew!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Monday was crockery (did you mean plates? or pots/pans?). I’ve a nice set of plates that we use everyday. We also have plastic plates that we use for entertaining large gatherings and for kids. I don’t want to get rid of any of that because it is stuff we use. We have been trying to pair down the drinking (water) glasses and the collection of mis-matched mugs.
Tuesday: vases. Well, since I only have one, and it gets used, I’ll hang onto it. However, I’ve a ton of extra candle holders, so those got purged and decluttered as appropriate.
Wednesday: shoes. It was helpful to go through and reorganize my shoes/boots. I did put winter boots/shoes away till next fall; but there was nothing really to declutter.
Great week so far. Along the way with the daily mini-missions I found other stuff that wasn’t being utilized and it went to an appropriate new home!
Plates, Annabelle. Well done with your substituting.