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.
Stuff is made of all sorts of stuff. This weeks mini missions challenges you to find clutter made of different substances. You can really use your imagination for these. I’ll name the substance and you find some clutter made from it to declutter.
Monday – Declutter something constructed with wood. Perhaps a photo frame, a piece of furniture, a pencil…
Tuesday – Declutter something made from fabric. An item of clothing, lines, raggedy or napkins, handkerchieves…
Wednesday – Declutter something made from glass or china. Crockery, figurines, eye glasses, glass beaded necklace…
Thursday – Declutter  something that has wiring in it. An old lamp, excess cables, jewellery, computer gear, a small appliance…
Friday – Declutter something made from plastic. Toys, Tupperware, pens…
Saturday – Declutter something metallic. Cutlery, tools, utensils, hardware…
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
Take care of the thing you own. The longer they last the less often they need replacing. Which means less manufacturing.
It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow
Oh my, Colleen!! I can think of several things for each category. These are great.
Great Deb J, have at it.
Deb J – I’m not 100% sure it was you, but I commented once on how I had two crock pots (slow cookers) one that has a larger capacity and wide long base and one that is smaller but has a deeper pot. I use the larger one for roasts, meals which need space and possibly a shallower level plus the occasional pudding, I use the smaller one for casseroles. I’m not sure if it was you who added that they also owned two. I was wondering if you’d gotten any closer to deciding on one over the other. I easily have room for two. If there was an inbetween size it would be perfect but I don’t want a third crock pot. Both still work well although they are getting up in years, but I know it would be Murphy’s Law that if I decided to give one up that the other one would conk out soon after.
Moni, yes it was me. We ended up getting rid of the small 2-quart one. We hardly ever used it and realized we could do the same thing with a regular sauce pan. We found that anything we use a crock pot for is something we make that we want to be able to have leftovers and freeze them. We sold it to a friend. I have found they last so long it is not worth having a spare.
A wonderful way to stretch our thinking!
And I love your spy guy 🙂
Hi Jo H, yes, I am sure I can stretch my thinking to find one of each of these. In fact we will be getting rid of a set of metal shelves from our garage cage on Wednesday. We have reduced the stuff down there enough to give one to our son.
These are such great ideas – and I just realized that I have already filled 3 boxes with several items that match the missions. Yesterday morning my sons both left to return to their universities and my husband went with one of them as it is a rather complicated journey, so I was suddenly alone in a very quiet and empty house. A few tears shed and then I decided to deep clean the kitchen and in the process decluttered lots of things that I can’t believe I still had – a Thomas the Tank Engine cake pan from when the boys were 4, an old electric kettle, various decorative objects sitting above the cabinets and to my shame rather more dusty than they should have been. I still need to go through the drawers and I know I will find things that are no longer necessary, but I already feel so much better about that room.
One of Colleen’s comments earlier has also been playing in my mind, about how even a very small thing can drag us down, and I think I still have many such objects sitting around the house. One has been bothering me for ages, a decorative basket that a friend brought me from one of her vacations. I am normally a big fan of baskets but this one has never quite done it for me so yesterday it joined the kitchen items in the donation box and I was so relieved to have finally made this decision. It will probably delight someone who finds it in the thrift store and who will know how to make much better use of it than I have done.
Hi Christine, well done with your kitchen decluttering and for letting go of that basket. Don’t things get grimy sitting on top of kitchen cupboards. I am glad to say the, unlike the last house, the kitchen cupboards go all the way to the ceiling in this apartment so no more papering the tops to stop the kitchen grease from sticking to them and certainly no more adorning them with stuff.
Stuff of stuff. Yep that sums it up. I took four boxes off to Goodwill on the weekend, it felt good to finally have those out of the house as they have been sitting in the garage for some weeks but unfortunately I hadn’t been able to get them as there was furniture stacked around them while we were painting.
We have two storage cupboards in the garage that I also want to give some attention to. We have only a few more rooms left to paint in the house (work has started on mine) and the garage will be the last room, so if I could get rid of even just one, that is one less heavy item to work around.
I have a lot of stuff that came from rooms that were painted that hasn’t been returned to the room afterwards, this stuff needs to be either re-housed, donated, freecycled or put on trademe. There is also a pile of car parts and old skate boards that need to go with my son when he moves into his flat this weekend.
I can do this.
Can I just say that I am fed up with toys produced in China which are ugly, useless, and easily breakable? I will not be a ‘conduit’ on the stuff and junk freeway from China to the landfill. (Rant caused by cleaning out broken toys from a grandchild’s room)
Great missions this week, really inspiring. When I say “tossed”, if it is usable in goes in the donation bag/box.
Monday I tossed a nice photo frame (unwanted gift).
Tuesday I bagged up 6 quilts I specifically made for donation, and actually binned some really skinny strips (!!)
Wednesday I attacked the china cabinet and tossed 8 knickknacks/fancy glasses (mostly gifts).
Thursday (today) I have binned an old iron with dodgy wiring that I kept for “spare”, and an old lamp from 1979 that has been in the garage for fixing for at least 10 years. Gone!
I did Friday and Saturday already this week too – I binned some frozen (unrecognisable) foods, including the plastic containers that they were in. Decluttered and scrubbed out the kitchen (cutlery) drawer tossing spare dessert spoons, and binning some yukky old things.
Also binned 8 old cane paper plate holders which were up high and, as I discovered, falling apart.
What is it with the top of the kitchen cupboards? Old grease hides up there and dies! Eww.
I never thought of papering the tops, what a great idea.