Doodle

We have a total of four choices of seating in the entire house: an armchair each (one purple, one red) and the 2 seater sofa. The sofa doesn’t get sat on much; unless we need to share a takeaway or we have visitors. We rarely have visitors, but it seems reasonable to be able to offer them a seat if we do 🙂

The sofa’s other main function is by default “the temporary dumping ground”.  This was fine as I was in the habit of clearing it, if it needed it, every night before I went to bed.

However, two months ago my husband had a bit of a clearout and put a large pile of papers/magazines on the left hand seat. He didn’t want to get rid of them but couldn’t think were to home them (much of it is magazine subscriptions for past interests.)

He’d done so well to get rid of other stuff, I hadn’t the heart to challenge these homeless strays.  But what happened?

This is a picture of what our sofa has looked like for the past 2 months:

They have stayed on the sofa for over two months,
that’s what happened!

And by the laws of attraction, it also resulted in me dumping my stuff next to his pile and failing to clear it…because I couldn’t achieve that nice clear look for the whole sofa so I think a kind of ‘why bother’ attitude snuck in without me realising. And we both stopped seeing it.

Yesterday however, we were due a visitor while my husband was at work. This event has made me realise how visitors can be a very good thing for keeping on top of clutter and seeing things with fresh eyes! Suddenly, the state of the sofa really bothered me.

I went through all of my stuff, re-homing or shredding and moved his pile to our bedroom until the visitor had gone.  Once gone, I didn’t put it back on the sofa but on top of a old storage truck we have in our living room this was still a temporary home but had  the positive effect of we were both able to  ‘see it’ again: the pile had become invisible to us.

30 hrs later and they have now been properly re-homed on a bookshelf with a little juggling of poorly used space on there. I am currently lounging in the sun on the sofa writing this 😀

This is our sofa now:

I shall be reverting to my ‘nothing stays on the sofa overnight’ rule. Is there any clutter in your home that has become invisible to you?

Today’s Mini Mission

Today’s area is as Cindy dubbed it The Black Hole. This is that area in your home where you dump things when you walk in the door and or need dealing with but not right now. Hall tables, kitchen benches, dining tables seem to often fall into this category. Read Cindy’s post that I linked to above, determine your black hole, deal with what is lingering there and try to come up with a better or organised system so the black home can be eliminated once and for all

Eco Tip for the Day

Using electricity off-peak doesn’t save electricity but it can lessen the strain at peak times which can result in a reduced necessity to  increase infrastructure.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Have you ever enjoyed one of those TV series where the two main characters have a love interest in each other that takes episode after episode to come to climactic fruition. The build up is intoxicating. It is almost a shame when they finally succumb to their lust for each other. In fact that is often when the series also comes to its finality and if it doesn’t the show is never really as appealing from that moment on. It is like fairytales where the endings are “…and they lived happily ever after. Clearly the teller these stories know that the buildup is more interesting and tantalising than the actually partnership beyond that point.

Well your decluttering can be like this. I revelled in the joy of each item I sent on its way rather than lamenting daily not being at the end of my decluttering journey. Even now that I am almost fully decluttered I still look for items on a regular basis to send on their way because I know, from experience, that the less stuff I have the easier it is to keep in order, the less time I waste choosing between items and the more breathing space I have in my home. It still gives me a thrill to flirt with the idea of living with even less. 😉

So don’t look at decluttering as a chore, think of it as a thrilling adventure that will lead to a satisfying climax.

And for those of you who are thinking “Does this mean that the end of our decluttering journey will be an anticlimax?”, the answer is no. I means that once you make the conquest you can settle down into a very comfortable, happy and loving relationship with you stuff, not wanting to ever return to your past lifestyle.

So enjoy the journey and reap the rewards.

Today’s Mini Mission

Another obvious clutter magnet is the junk drawer. I am pleased to say I don’t have one of these.  “Why do junk drawers exist anyway?” Surely all the things we put in there have a home elsewhere but we are just not putting them away properly. Maybe once it is emptied you should remover the drawer for a week and attempt to learn to live without it. 

Eco Tip for the Day

If you do iron clothes don’t turn on the iron to do one thing. Designate a regular iron session so you aren’t wasting electricity reheating the iron over and over again.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

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.

For this week’s mini missions we are going to concentrait on the obvious clutter collection points in our homes. These are areas that seem to attract clutter like iron filings to a magnet. I bet there are several running through your mind as you read these words. We aren’t going to clear one or two things from these areas, the idea is to recognise these areas for what they are, tidy them up completely and vow to try to keep them tidy in the future. The clutter you will find is not likely be the “get rid of” type just a lot of junk and stuff in the wrong place,visual clutter if you like. This areas will be a lot tidier So let’s get started.

Monday – I just cleaned this area out so it is fresh in my mind, the dreaded handbag. My only problem with my handbag is receipts. Thankfully many establishments ask if a receipt is required these days so I avoid them when possible.

Tuesday – Another obvious clutter magnet is the junk drawer. I am pleased to say I don’t have one of these.  “Why do junk drawers exist anyway?” Surely all the things we put in there have a home elsewhere but we are just to lazy to put them away properly. Maybe once it is emptied you should remover the drawer for a week and attempt to learn to live without it.

Wednesday – Today’s area is as Cindy dubbed it The Black Hole. This is that area in your home where you dump things when you walk in the door and or need dealing with but not right now. Hall tables, kitchen benches, dining tables seem to often fall into this category. Read Cindy’s post that I linked to above, determine your black hole, deal with what is lingering there and try to come up with a better or organised system so the black home can be eliminated once and for all.

Thursday – This one may be more than a mini mission but that would depend entirely on how out of control you allow this area to become. The area for today is the desk top.

Friday – The car is today’s area of clutter caos especially if you have little children. Things that can be found collecting here are ~ parking tickets, half eaten cookies, toys, candy wrappers, spare change, sports equipment, shoes, sunglasses, hats, shopping bags and much much more!!! My advice is to go to the car pull everything out whether it belongs there or not, sort through it, replace neatly what does belong and rehouse or trash everything that doesn’t.

Saturday – Coffee table drawers can also be an attracter of all sorts of interesting bits and bobs, pens, hair ties, old magazine, dead batteries, DS games etc. If you don’t have a coffee table maybe you have a small table beside you sofa that serves the same purpose.

Sunday – Pick an area of your choosing, one that may be unique to your own clutter habits maybe it is the back veranda, the pet toy box, the kids school bags or the like and give that area a good clean out.

Eco Tip for the Day

Every time you go to turn on a light think twice, and act on that thought, as to whether you can manage the task without the light. I have been doing this a lot lately and I am constantly surprised at how many things I would turn a light on to do when I don’t really need it. This makes me think about a blind person getting through their day without seeing anything. This inspires me to wast less electricity.

Good luck and happy decluttering

 

It seems that these days I do a lot of talking about the benefits of decluttering but very little on ways to go about it. This is probably because I know I have a lot of readers who are well seasoned declutterers by now, and they know this stuff. But the fact also is that new readers find my blog all the time and may not be so informed about such things. So today I am going to mentions my favourite and most successful ways that I have managed to give away my stuff.

I am not going to write about selling stuff today only about giving it away, because quite frankly that is usually the quickest way to go about it. So here goes…

• Thrift Shops ~ This is by far the method I have used most to reduce my clutter while at the same time helping others. Even before I started my “One thing a day” mission I had already been frequenting the thrift shop that I currently volunteer at. I did a little investigating to find a store near my home that would take a wide variety of stuff and it is the store that I gave and still give most of what I declutter. A simple lookup in the Yellow Pages online was how I found the store and it has been a God send to me. Prior to my volunteering there, I would put my daily decluttered item  in my transition point in the garage and when I had a car load to donate I would load it into my little hatchback and take it to the store. It was a joy to see it go and also to know I was helping both the charity, their shoppers who found these bargains, and also, through the charity, the trouble souls who without their suicide hotline might not be alive today. These days I just drop off the things I am decluttering on the day I go to do my shift. I have also made some lovely friends as a result. Thrift shops will often also pick up larger items such as furniture, mattresses etc.
• Freecycle.org ~ This is another great method for giving away your stuff. It is an online sharing site where people, with stuff to give away, list their items with a short description and location. People looking for these items can then send you and email to say they would like to be the recipient and you can then decide who to give the item/s to. You them give them your address to pick the item up from. You don’t even have to be there, just put the item on the stoop for them to collect when it is convenient.  It was rare that I didn’t get at least six people wishing to take the stuff I was giving away. One of the beauties of this site is that you can give away items that are broken. Simply describe the item and its condition and there are usually people out there who have the skill to repair and reuse these things. I gave away several broken items as well as perfectly good ones that for one reason or another I didn’t think suitable for the thrift shop. There are Freecycle groups all over the world. Perhaps there is one near you.
• Curb Side  or the Feebie Box~  This method has also been very successful for me. In fact I used it just this week to give away some mini fluorescent light globes. (I have been switching to LEDs because they are better for the environment.) In this case it was a freebie box in the foyer but curb side is the same principle. You take the item you wish to give away and put it at the curb in front of your home. Or, as in my situation, in the foyer or other communal area of an apartment block, with a FREE sign on it. You could also take these items to your work place or community group. I have found that these items are claimed in very short time. I love to check on them just to see how fast they disappear. I put my light globes in the foyer at about 8am, when I knew there would be plenty of foot traffic down there, and they were gone when I went back down at around 10am. I am guessing they had been gone for a while at that point.
• Friends or Family ~ There was a mass exodus of stuff from my home when my kids moved out. Even stuff I wasn’t really planning on giving away. They would tell me if there was something they wanted and, if it didn’t matter much to me or I wasn’t using it all the much, I would allow them to take it.  Also, most of my friends knew I was decluttering and if they had a need for something they would often ask ~ “You aren’t getting rid of INSERT ITEM HERE by any chance are you? And quite often I had just such and item I was happy to part with. Also I would ask friends and family if they wanted things if I thought they might be interested. *Vicki K has reminded me to tell you about utilising your cell phone camera to send photos, to family and friends, of items you are giving away. This is a quick and easy way to get a response to your enquiries. If people aren’t interested then you know you can swiftly dispatch the items to the thrift shop.
• Targeting Specific Recipients ~ There are some items that you just know would be greatly appreciated by certain groups, for example ~ Schools can’t get enough free stationary or craft supplies. Animal shelters appreciate blankets, pillows and towels. Painters make great use of your old sheets. Playgroups will happily take your kids old toys. We even have a Bicycle Ecology Centre here in my city that takes old bikes and bike parts. They recondition bikes and either give them to those in need or sell them to fund the project. I think you get the idea. There a many places who have a specific need for you stuff and with a little imagination I am sure you can come up with some in your local area.

I think that covers my favourite ways to give away stuff. If you have a method other than these that have worked for you please tell us about it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter or put away an item from your car, even it it is just a trash that is lying around in there.

Eco Tip for the Day

Food takes a lot of resources to produce so never let it go to waste. Have a few recipes handy that are great for using up left over bits and pieces, like curry, quiche or bubble & squeak.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

One thing that came through in the comments to yesterday’s post was…

“A place for everything and everything in its place.”

The thing is that there is always a logical place for everything within a household but if those places are jam packed with stuff, putting everything in its place can become a nightmare.

Who hasn’t, at some stage in life, had the plastics cupboard avalanche. Or the overstuffed linen closet where every time you pull out a towel you end up with three or more at your feet. Or the utensils drawer that you have to rustle everything around in order to get it shut. I know I have. Although it never stopped me from putting everything it its place it sure made it harder to do so.

People tend to love variety, resulting in them continually buying new stuff whether they need it or not. What many don’t realise is the how much time can be wasted in the choosing and in the difficulty housing them. When housing the stuff gets too difficult the mess begins to spill out into the living areas of the house. Baskets full of washing while the closet is still stuffed to overflowing. Stuff cluttering up kitchen benches making it difficult to prepare food, tops of desks without an inch of the surface showing. Books, magazines and newspapers, intended to be read, heaped into piles on the floor rather than neatly stored on shelves. Expensive cars parked in the street because the garage is full of stuff… I think you get the picture. There is no longer room for everything and the excess is in places it ought not to be.

If you find yourself at a blog like mine then you have come to the realisation that something has to give. You either resign yourself to live amongst the stuff, but clearly you aren’t happy to do that or you wouldn’t be here. Or alternatively you do something about it. The first thing is to resist the temptation to acquire. Meanwhile you can begin to reduce what you already have.

When they say money can’t by happiness, they mean the stuff you buy with money won’t give you sustainable joy. Having a comfortable,  healthy, inviting, easy to maintain home to be proud of also won’t guarantee happiness but it sure seems more likely to lead you in that direction. Having a place for everything and everything easily put in its place is a nice way to live. So why not give it a go.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter a couple of things from a category that you have too many of. Something that might take years to ever need replacing. Too many towels, too many shoes, too many sheets, to many crockery items…

Eco Tip for the Day

Save electricity by not turning on electrical appliances, like irons, hair straighteners etc, too long before you use them and by not leaving them on while you decide to take a break during the task.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

I thought this was a good comment from Sanna last week regarding how being decluttered makes life simpler.

Sanna wrote ~ “I’d add that it’s simpler to have a “cleaning day” as well. My home still gets messy, especially when bf and I are both very busy at work. Dishes and laundry still tend to pile, I have to admit. However, a few years back it would take hours – or even days – to get everything back into shape after some busy weeks and even then there would be piles left, stuffed in cupboards, under sofas or in the bedroom, just because we would be too exhausted to manage getting through all at once. Now, the mess is just superficial, which means that even if we feel we drown in chaos, we usually can achieve a tidy and clean home in just about two hours (including laundry and dishes), without hidden clutter left.”

Part of my response was this… “By the way I am curious. I often wonder how, when people are busy at work, they still manage to get their homes in a mess. It always seems to me that they aren’t there most of the time so why does the mess happen. You prove that having too much of everything could be a big part of the problem because when the excess is eliminated suddenly the biggest part of the mess is eliminated as well.”

I have found that, when you have a limited amount of things that you use regularly, you have to stay on top of the cleaning in order to have what you need when you need it. Therefore the laundry needs to stay up to date as does cleaning the dishes…

Many people resort to buying more items when keeping up isn’t working, but they are generally only digging themselves into a deeper hole. Avoiding work doesn’t make it go away it just makes it pile up so it gets even harder to deal with later. Not only that, things get lost in the mess which wastes even more time. And then there is the constant misery of knowing the mess is there waiting for you to deal with.

There is also the panic in the early morning because you can’t find that shirt you need for work, you then discover it crushed on the floor, unwearable. Hanging clothes when they can be worn again makes them easy to find and keeps them wearable. And arranging what you are going to wear the next day prior to going to bed makes for a less stressful start to the day. Have you ever noticed how when the day starts out bad it usually follows along in the same vein. So any wonder when you get home you are completely drained and just want to flop down and do nothing. Then dinner needs to be cooked you can barely move in the kitchen for dirty dishes piled up all over the place.

Just thinking about it makes me frustrated.

Like Sanna, have you noticed it has become easier to keep your home in order because you now have less stuff? Tell us about it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something that you aren’t using that could be helpful to someone else. Old eye glasses to be used for charity, children’s and baby clothes, a pair of runners, craft supplies to your local school or perhaps a tool or two to a Men’s Shed in your community.

Eco Tip for the Day

This eco tip was sent in my Cheryl. I’ve been trying to have less in my freezer so to fill up the space and save energy I’ve been filling milk jugs with water (not to full) and putting on the bottom and putting some boards on top. Fills up the air space and also makes it easier to get things out of the freezer.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

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 – Choose a nook in your home where you would like more space. Perhaps a kitchen shelf or a drawer somewhere. Declutter a thing or two from that nook to achieve your space goal.

Tuesday – Declutter something that you aren’t using that could be helpful to someone else. Old eye glasses to be used for charity, children’s and baby clothes, a pair of runners, craft supplies to your local school or perhaps a tool or two to a Men’s Shed in your community.

Wednesday – Declutter a couple of things from a category that you have too many of. Something that might take years to ever need replacing. Too many towels, too many shoes, too many sheets, to many crockery items…

Thursday – Declutter or put away an item from your car, even it it is just a trash that is lying around in there.

Friday – Declutter some old paperwork, receipts or prescriptions lying around in drawers or on desk tops.

Saturday – Start a use it up challenge on a product or food item you don’t like so much but it would be a shame to waste.

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

Put the right things in your recycling bins. Living in an apartment I find so many things in the communal recycling bins that don’t belong there. This makes sorting labour intensive and the wrong plastics can spoil a batch.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Doodles blog post yesterday got me thinking about how out of character my decluttering method is to my usual behaviour. Of the seven sabotaging behaviours Doodle mentioned in the post, I am not guilty of any of them when it comes to my decluttering over the last four years. Although there certainly are a few that I would previously have thought I was susceptible to.  Lets go over them.

1. Do you focus on how much there is left to do rather than how much you have achieved?

This is something I would most certainly have done in the past. I would be constantly looking at the volume of the task and lamenting what is left to be done. Wishing that I was doing just about anything else.

2. Do you find your self apologising a lot to others and calling yourself lazy and other derogatory names rather than defining yourself in more positive language and a ‘work in progress’.

This I would be unlikely to have done regarding keeping house. I have been good about keeping a tidy home throughout my entire married life (I lived at home prior to that). As an adult I have always been a hard worker, thanks to a good upbringing. “A job worth doing is worth doing well!” was one of my father’s favourite sayings.

3. Do you throw away essential things that then prove how risky decluttering is?

This is also not something I would ever do. I am too tight fisted to waste anything so getting rid of useful stuff would never happen unless I definitely didn’t feel the need to keep it.

4. Do you create such a mess when decluttering that you give up half way through a task and have made everything worse.

I would be unlikely to have done this either. I am a finisher once I start a task.

5. Does being a perfectionist stop you from doing small 15 minute tasks; one drawer or one shelf at a time. Is it all or nothing; an entire room or it’s not worth it…but you can never bring yourself to face a whole room?

I am a perfectionist that is for sure which is why I am also usually an organised person. Therefore I would have set a goal and stuck to it because failing would be out of the question. Being organised also meant that my task oriented internal time clock helps me to know how much I can get done in a day and be tidy again at the end of it, ready to begin again the next day until the task is done.

6. Are you easily distracted, starting off one task in the kitchen, wondering off to the bedroom to put something away and start sorting the  laundry on your floor  which leads you to the bathroom to put dirty clothes in the laundry bin when you spot the sink needs a clean…

I am prone to do this during my usual daily meandering through the house doing things. But when there is a major task to get through I can be ruthlessly single minded.

7. Over complex or unrealistic plans of where or how  you might get rid of stuff.

Here is where my perfectionism comes in again. I do like things to go to the best home possible which can complicate the task. However previous experience put me in a position to carry this off quite easily. And then as time went by I learned of a few extra outlets to utilise when it came to rehousing my stuff. So although in other peoples view I would seem to complicate this task, to me it was a case of just sticking to a plan.

All that being said, it was a shock to me when I came up with the idea to declutter a thing a day. I suppose it was my previous experience of doing it all at once that put me off going through that again. I was determined to make it easy on myself. And lo and behold I embraced the method from the get go. Never looking back.

Anyone who knows me personally will vouch for the fact that I am like the Energizer Bunny. Flat out is the only speed I know. So for me to decide to reduce a household of stuff for four people to the amount that would fit into a two bedroom apartment, at the pace of one item a day, was ludicrously out of character. So if you think you don’t have the staying power to declutter your home at such a slow pace, think again. If I can change my mindset in an instant you can too. The desire to make it easy on myself usurped any of my other personality traits that said get it done in a hurry.

My father had another saying ~ ” There is smart lazy and there is just plain lazy.” Smart Lazy is being clever enough to find and easy way to complete a task effectively. And that is always more admirable than being just plain lazy and not achieving anything.

In this case I think I have done a great job of being smart lazy. Wouldn’t you like to be smart lazy too?

Today’s Mini Mission

 Declutter something from a bedroom.

Eco Tip for the Day

If you grind and percolate fresh coffee why not use the grounds as fertiliser rather than using not so environmentally friendly alternatives. The coffee than also serves two purposed reducing its carbon footprint.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Doodle

Are there things you do to sabotage your de-cluttering goals?

I got the idea for this post after reading “No More Clutter” by Sue Kay. She suggests the following as ways we undermine our decluttering efforts:

1. Do you focus on how much there is left to do rather than how much you have achieved?
2. Do you find your self apologising a lot to others and calling yourself lazy and other derogatory names rather than defining yourself in more positive language and a ‘work in progress’.
3. Do you throw away essential things that then prove how risky decluttering is?
4. Do you create such a mess when decluttering that you give up half way through a task and have made everything worse.
5. Does being a perfectionist stop you from doing small 15 minute tasks; one drawer or one shelf at a time. Is it all or nothing; an entire room or it’s not worth it…but you can never bring yourself to face a whole room?
6. Are you easily distracted, starting off one task in the kitchen, wondering off to the bedroom to put something away and start sorting the  laundry on your floor  which leads you to the bathroom to put dirty clothes in the laundry bin when you spot the sink needs a clean…
7. Over complex or unrealistic plans of where or how  you might get rid of stuff

I have definitely at some point done all of these except for 3) The good news is,from my experience, that once you bring these behaviours from your unconscious to conscious level, all these traits you can train out of yourself and create new habits.

When working on my own stuff, I now consciously choose to tackle decluttering in small bite size chunks. If I am in the mood for a few hours sorting, I finish one bit before starting the next session, because I know how my energy for the task can suddenly go.

Of course, when working with clients, I work differently because we know we are going to be keeping going for 3-4 hours per session: I’m there as the energiser and motivator, attuning to each clients individual needs, so we won’t be giving up after 20 minutes. This does mean I can empty whole wardrobes and larders at the start rather than doing small chunks. In this instance, it is down to me to ensure the pace we work at balances with the time I allow at the end to leave the area we are working in   a far better state than when we started.

We create piles on the floor for things that need to be put away elsewhere in the house. Then we do that all at the end, rather than lots of too-ing and fro-ing distracting us from the task in hand.

A significant proportion of my clients apologise a lot and feel bad about themselves with regard to their clutter. I always gently challenge that view of themselves, because there are always life reasons why things have become too much and now they are taking steps to change: they deserve to praise themselves and believe this is the start of change.

In my own home, I find it very helpful to set an alarm/kitchen timer for 15 minutes to tackle an area I just can’t face: it means I make a little breakthrough and am then rewarded by being allowed to stop. Occasionally of course, it gets me going and I keep going long past the 15 minutes. But it is ok to stop at 15 minutes. It’s a technique I pass on to clients too.

Do you recognise yourself in any of the above 1-7 list? If you recognise any of them as the way you used to do things, how have you changed?

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter something from a bathroom in your home.

Eco Tip for the Day

Here’s one way to save paper. Write your grocery list on the fridge with a whiteboard marker and then photograph it with your cell phone and take that with you when you go shopping.

For a full list of my eco tips so far click here

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow

Related articles across the web

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.

We are going to spread our mini missions throughout the house this week. Choose whatever you’d like to declutter from the rooms /spaces that I mention below. I might even try this myself this week. It could be a challenge but when it comes to clutter I never cease to be amazed where it appears and that it seems to be endless. Lets see what you can come up with also.

Monday – Declutter something from your living room, lounge, family room or whatever you would like to call it.

Tuesday – Declutter something from your kitchen.

Wednesday – Declutter something from a bathroom in your home.

Thursday – Declutter something from a bedroom.

Friday – Declutter something from your study or craft area.

Saturday – Declutter something from the garage, attic or basement.

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

Try to replace at least a couple of meat meals a week with plant based offerings.

It matters not how fast I go, I hurry faster when I’m slow