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 a piece of memorabilia. Something that doesn’t mean as much to you now as it once did.
Tuesday – Declutter a tool of some sort. Be it craft, kitchen or garage.
Wednesday – Declutter anything with words on. Book, magazine, T-shirt, old bill…
Thursday – Declutter a use-it-up item that you just aren’t using up regardless of good intentions to do so.
Friday – Trim back something, either by quantity or size, that is taking up more room than you’d like. Yesterday I tripped down some wallpaper samples that I intend to use for card making. They were large and awkward but now they fit in with the rest of my papers.
Saturday – Do a task that will result in something leaving your house. Last week I finished edging some material for a friend which I will give back when I see her next. I also sold one of the items I listed on ebay. And I finally delivered an old broken sewing machine to a man who refurbishes them.
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
Monday’s mission is calling to me. I have a small wicker chest on the landing which contains greetings cards I have kept over the years. Anniversary, special birthdays, Valentine etc. The lid will not shut. We have NZ visitors arriving on Thursday so your Mini admission is timely. I must try to weed out some tomorrow!
Hi Linda, there is nothing like visitors to inspire a little decluttering of cleaning. My sister is visiting in a couple of weeks and there are some things in the spare bedroom that need to be decided on. There is still some reshuffling going on in our new home and things keep coming to the surface that are labelled as possible clutter. These items are usually moved to the spare room for consideration.
I am also working on Thursday’s mission. The best way to achieve this, I think, is to not replace the preferred options until the avoided alternate option is used up.
Well, I bit the bullet and took everything out of the wicker chest. Ashamed of all the dust in there as well as accumulated memorabilia. I was resolved to be ruthless and I was. Two black sacks taken to the tip, one of newspapers( about Princess Diana’s death, Queen Mother’s funeral etc etc), old brochures, school magazines, theatre programmes and so on; the other of greetings cards. Several play scripts and odds and ends going to the Charity Shop tomorrow. So, from a chest with the lid unable to close, to a chest less than half full. Marvellous! Thank you for prodding me into action. Look out all the other drawers and cupboards needing a sort out!
What a great effort, good for you Linda. I hope it spurs you on to more decluttering. And don’t forget to go back and gloat over that tidy wicker chest at least a couple of times a day for the next week. There is nothing like seeing the fabulous results of previous decluttering to inspire you to do more.
I already have! Couldn’t resist the urge to lift the lid and peer inside on my way to bed last night!
Only once Linda. You mustn’t be nearly as big a gloater as me. 😉
Colleen, some good items here to delutter. I am going to spend my declutter time this week decluttering my Kindle. I need to keep only those books that are really worth reading again.
Hi Deb J, I decluttered some digital clutter last week but I need to do some more. There are a lot of photos on my cell phone that don’t need to be there.
Colleen, I going to be doing some pictures too. In fact, I am looking at all my digital files with decluttering in mind. It’s amazing how we hang on to things then later wonder why. I’m in the Why stage. I moved a bunch of photos to CD’s and now I’m thinking I may just want to ditch most of those too as they are in scrapbooks.
Hi Deb I started reading your comment and went straight over to my photo files and declutter about 50 more before I finished reading. If I do this everyday I should free up some nice space on my hard drive. When I am done writing here I will do the same on my cell phone. And yes, there is no point having multiple physical copies all over the place. I prefer to keep the digital files than anything else. Although I would never part with my scrapbooks.
So, Colleen, I was the spark that ignited another little decluttering session. I like how that works. I decided that I was hanging on to many pictures that I have not only put in a scrapbook but that I had sent digital copies of to my brother. I think that takes care of any need I would have for them. So out they go. Feels good.
We just returned from a week-long vacation in my old home state of Idaho. Had a great time. Interestingly, as far as buying things, we didn’t really. I did buy a lot of huckleberry products (jam, ice cream topping, honey) because I love huckleberries and we don’t have any in Colorado. I also didn’t go crazy taking a bunch of pictures. I took some, but mostly I just wanted to enjoy being there. I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit of printing and organizing photos anyway.
Some good mini missions this week. Got some things to work on!
Hi Michelle, that sounds like a nice trip. Not seeing it through the eye of a camera can be a real treat. Sometimes I really feel the photography can spoil the enjoyment of many situations by missing the true beauty and feel.
Good luck finding items for the missions.
Colleen and Michelle,
Love your thoughts on pictures. Decades ago, a very dear friend told me that she only keeps a maximum of 6 photos per event and all must contribute to the story of the event. I completed a photo declutter years ago, and not once have I ever regretted tossing extra’s, duplicates etc. I was at a craft fair awhile back and one seller was actually selling old and discarded photo’s with a sign that said, “Instant Relatives”. HaHa!
I have a prom dress sold on trademe leaving this week. I thought it had sold at reserve but turns out there was a bidding war and I havent lost on the original purchase price of the dress – thats a first!
We are prepping to paint the garage interior this week (its an internal access garage that also houses the laundry) and so we have a small pile of stuff on the floor that we need to sort thru and re-house.
Well done with the prom dress Moni, that was a real bonus. And a great liberation of space in someone’s wardrobe. I have one ball gown and my wedding dress (yes still) in my wardrobe and they do take up a lot of space. I must ask my husband about the wedding dress again this week.
Colleen – I still have my wedding dress and it’s one of those things I wish would just disappear, it’s too old fashioned to sell or donate and it seems awful to dump it. One of those magic wands that makes things just disappear would be nice.
Moni, my Mom’s wedding dress was like that. We gave it to a local acting group. They were really happy to have it. You might try something like that.
Congratulations on the prom dress sale, Moni!
I have been doing a little reading on Marie Kondo, the Japanese declutter guru that you and Sanna (I believe) were commenting about. Mahalo ( thank you) for mentioning her. It’s always inspiring to read about the techniques others use. Do you think her “konmari” method is a name she created using the first three letters of her last name and first four of her first name combined?
Kimberly – I wouldn’t have made the connection but you’re probably right.
I read so. Apparently it is her nickname.
Mahalo for the confirmation, Sanna.
I didn’t get to finish earlier as I was writing from my smart phone in a waiting room. Yesterday while prepping for painting Adrian removed shelves that were above the laundry area, boards that were on a sort of bracket arrangement. He wants to replace it all with a cupboards, I’m not so sure. As I only have only so many cleaning products these days they’d all comfortably sit in the cupboard beneath the tub next to the washing machine. Cupboards above the washing would (like the shelves that have just been taken down) mostly sit empty. The only thing which would be a hassle with keeping everything in the under-the-tub cupboard is getting to the laundry powder so often. On the world scheme of things, it isn’t a biggie though, just my personal preference.
I think Adrian is considering re-sale and I guess if he really wants to build a cupboard I won’t stop a man on a home improvement mission, but I would like to trial the new arrangement and take my time to see if there is a better idea out for utilising this laundry nook. I’d love to get one of those new Robin Hood tubs which have pull out drawers instead of a cupboards, I think that would dazzle potential buyers more than a shelf.
(ironically the more we prep the house to eventually be put on the market, the more we are starting to enjoy living there. At this stage it would be 18 months at the very earliest but several other things would have to slide into place first)
I would suggest that if you don’t need the cupboards then don’t waste money on them. The next owners may well have other needs and require a different set up. I understand you thinking that the more clever the place looks the more likely it will sell, but I would stick to the basics.
It is funny how we cheap out and not do improvements for ourselves and wonder why we don’t like the home we live in. Since moving into our new home we have fixed many things that didn’t work for us and it is slowly coming together. More than anything though we love the location and we don’t need to change a thing for that.
Colleen – apart from one of the shelves which got damaged by a leaking bottle – and it’s easily replaced from Bunnings – we could easily put these shelves back up if the real estate agent felt it was a problem. Although it means storing them I think that might be the best plan until I come up with a better plan. In the mean time I will take my time and see what other fabulous ideas are out .
I’ve had intentions to declutter my boxes (yes, multiple boxes) of memorabilia for a while now. I will try to get started with that this week!