Moving from house to house, changing cars, motorbikes and furniture results in the accumulation of redundant keys over time. The time has come again to purge those keys that we recognise but no longer need and some that we have no idea what they belong to. There is always that element of ~ I hope there isn’t a locked box somewhere that I am about to through away the key to ~ but if we haven’t discovered that locked box in the last three years I don’t suppose it is going to miraculously appear next week. And even if it does how important can it be.

Now that’s better! It may just be a few ounces off the weight of my clutter but as every dieter knows, every ounce counts.

Even a major clean up can be fairly easily managed if you don’t try to bite off too much at once. In this case, it was time (way past time) to clean our shed, which had not been attended to in the nine years we’ve lived in our house and which, in fact, contained items left behind by the previous owner. I spent a month working on it, once or twice a week, and never for more than an hour, except for the extremely pleasant afternoon I spent decluttering five bags of mulch and compost and some ground covers on a flower bed I enlarged.

Here’s how I approached this task. Unfortunately, we are in a drought, so there was virtually no chance of rain. As I pulled each item out of the shed, I made a decision about its fate.  Most everything went into these categories: metal recycling, trash, Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (a store that sells used and overstocked building supplies to support the charity Habitat for Humanity), sold on Craigslist, given to our eighth grade for their garage sale, or given to my mother. Before I stopped each day, everything was either in its future home or neatly piled waiting to go to its new home.

The shed had not been cleaned in any way in at least a decade and because it is somewhat poorly constructed, it is open the outside world in several places, so it was dirty and full of leaves, and rats had been using it as a shelter. Frankly, I’m just glad I didn’t find any rat carcasses! I swept the floor and the shelves as I went along and used old mulch bags as trash sacks. I did not put anything back into the shed until I was finished decluttering and cleaning. The reassembly probably only took 30 minutes. As I put things back, I gave them one more appraisal, knowing it might be a long time for the shed is decluttered again, but everything made this second cut. I took the advice of declutterers who recommend not going overboard: although I like things labeled, organized, and lined up in nice, straight rows, I remembered that this is a shed, not my kitchen and certainly not an operating room. It’s still a bit dusty, I didn’t clean behind the shelves (too heavy to move), and everything isn’t in a straight line. But, I have only things I will use, and like is stored with like. That’s good enough for this gal’s shed!

Here’s what I said good-bye to:

1. a metal flint spray gun (recycle)
2. edger  (garage sale)
3. rectangular trash can lid, no trash can (unfortunately not labeled for recycling, trash)
4. 4 mysterious flexible rubber hoses (trash)
5. large metal coupling (Habitat)
6. rusted metal pipe (recycling)
7. length of bent copper tubing (recyling)
8. role of wire (Habitat)
9. very old safety glasses (trash)
10. sheet rock tape (moved to the appropriate bin in the garage)
11. 2 pairs rusted pliers (recycled)
12. 2 screwdrivers (1 recycled, 1 clean up and added to the toolbox)
13. roll of copper (Habitat)
14. roll of plastic covered wire (Habitat)
15. flexible hoses for ?? (trash)
16. rat-chewed shower curtain (trash)
17. 3 stiff gloves (trash)
18. torn up extension cord (trash)
19. rat-chewed cardboard box (recycling)
20. 3′ circular blade (recycling)
21. 8 1′ circular blades (recycling)
22. grass flap for a lawnmower we no longer own (trash)
23. pole saw (garage sale)
24. 2 long electrical cords, no plugs (trash)
25. light fixture (disassembled – trash and recycling)
26. what looked like tiny jumper cables. My husband called them “widow makers” (disassembled – trash and recycling)
27. 2 galvanized pails (Craigslist)
28. worn out scrub brush (trash)
29. garden stakes (my mother)
30. large extra metal parts for a lawn canopy (recycling)
31. small plastic and metal parts for the same canopy (disassembled – trash and recycling)
32. weed wacker (given to neighbor)
33. hooks from a pegboard (a few reused, the rest to thrift store)
34. 2 plant hangers (thrift store)
35. hand-held fertilizer spreader (thrift store)
36. bottle of Safer Soap (the tiny bit left in the bottle was washed down the drain, the bottle was recycled)
37. 2 empty bottles of plant food (recycling)
38. bottle of hardened sunblock (trash)
39. hose-end sprayer (my mother)
40. 14 plant supports ranging from 3 to 7′ tall (my mother)
41. a roll and 4 folded pieces of landscape cloth ( my mother)
42. 2 gas cans and 1/2 quart of oil (put on the curb for free pick up)
43. 2 bags of older bird seed combined with my current bag (used up)
44. large bin that held the bird seed (put on the curb for free pick up)
45. 2 bags of last-year’s compost (used)
46. 3 bags of mulch so old that the bottoms of the bags had rotted and the roots of the ivy had started growing into it (used - These were outside the shed. It wasn’t that filthy inside!)
47. a bird feeder (washed, filled, and hung up)
48. a large box of sheets that I’d saved for wrapping plants, which I virtually never do. This was one time that I changed my mind. The sheets were too ratty (literally, sometimes) to donate to the thrift store, and I know of no fiber recycler in town. I put them in the trash but felt very unhappy about it. My mother encouraged me to get them back out and use them as a weed barrier under the mulch throughout the garden. I thought that was a fine idea and used five of them the day I enlarged the flower garden. The rest will go in the front yard when I next mulch.

I’m completely satisfied with my efforts. I would like to get some sturdy hooks to hang my garden tools, and I probably could have been more ruthless in a few cases, but it’s my shed, it’s clean, accessible, and organized, and that’s good enough for me.

The before shots of my Shed

(Brace yourselves it aint pretty)

The after shots of the shed

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

What is landscape clutter? Well, I’m a big gardener, but I’m not referring to anything you might see in the yard. No, landscape clutter is clutter that you are so accustom to seeing out-of-place that you no longer recognize that it’s out of place. It’s become a part of the landscape of your home.

Here are some examples of things that have been landscape clutter in my house:

• A cocktail dress that hung in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room for 3 or 4 months
• A piece of furniture that we moved out of Clara’s room with the intention of moving it into the attic. It got as far as the hallway, where we left it. It’s not where it belongs, but it’s not in anyone’s way, and there it sits. (At least it hasn’t become a black hole as well as being landscape clutter. Don’t know what a clutter black hole is? Check it out here.)
• The laundry basket and empty 5 gallon paint bucket that the girls used outside in their playhouse and then dumped on the ground. (Ok, this landscape clutter might actually qualify as being part of the landscape.)
• Countless number of things that I put by the front door with the intention of taking to a friend’s house, the thrift store, or work that seemed to grow roots once they were left there.
• A can in the back of my pantry that had only been there “a little while.” When I decided yesterday that it was time to eat those canned plums, I discovered that the “best if used by date” was 2007!

The trouble with landscape clutter is that you’re so used to overlooking it, that it’s hard to notice.

I’ve written about this topic before. (As I was writing, I knew some of it sounded familiar to me), but the solutions haven’t changed. If you can’t see it, you can’t recognize it, and you need some other way of noticing the clutter. You can become aware of misplaced items by touching each thing and saying the name aloud, asking a friend what they see that’s out of place, developing a need for the item, creating a new strategy for dealing with a category of clutter, or by taking a picture or video and examining the photograph. I’m always stunned by what I see on my counters and such when I look at a photo that I somehow can’t see when I am looking right at them.

Here’s how I got rid of the clutter I mentioned:

• A friend said to me, “You know this dress has been here a while. I thought you might not be seeing it any more.” Well, of course I knew it was there, but that motivated me to actually do something with it.
• I’m embarrassed to admit that the furniture is still sitting right there in the hallway. It’s made of solid wood and is remarkably heavy. I vow to get Dan to help me move it to the attic this weekend, so my strategy is that by admitting publicly that something’s out of place, I am motivated to deal with it.
• The bucket and laundry basket were put away when I needed a laundry basket. While thinking, “What can I use to contain these items?” I noticed the basket sitting on the ground outside, and when I fetched it, I put away the bucket too.
• Items by the front door that get stuck get “unstuck” in a variety of ways but in general, I think the best solution for me is to put things directly into the van, rather than letting them rest by the door. That way, they’re with me when I drive past the thrift store or when I stop by a friend’s house.
• The old canned plums, which went into the compost pile, were spotted when I was a little desperate for lunch ideas on Sunday.  I have a can riser, like stair steps to keep the cans organized and visible. The plums were on the top shelf, far corner. Since they’d worked their way from a lower position to the far back corner (just like clothes you never wear!), that’s a reliable indication that they’d been there a while.

These bits of clutter came to my attention for a variety of reasons, but the key is that because they’d become part of the landscape of my home, I had to have some other stimulus to bring them to my attention. I was so used to just scanning over them with my eyes that just a quick glance around was not going to being them to my attention.

What are you seeing today that you’d been overlooking?

Today’s Declutter Item

A sweater once worn by Liam but has reached the unused in the back of the closet stage. Off to the thrift store with you.

Things that made me happy, made me laugh, made me feel grateful, fascinated me or I thought were just plain awesome.

• Having a lovely morning-tea with my neighbours.
• I thought I was so behind time getting everything ready for the morning tea this morning but then I was finished with ten minutes to spare.
• Finding out by accident that I can actually buy milk at a reasonable price at my local paper shop (Newagency).~ Usually I would choose to go without rather than pay the price the local grocery store charges so this is good to know for future reference.
• Mini caramel tarts ~ I should share this recipe with you all, they are delicious.
• My mum and dad are coming to visit tomorrow.

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

Recently I received a pair of photos from Willow which demonstrated her frustration with items cluttering up her kitchen bench. Even though this is a launch area for stuff coming in and out of  Willows home there wasn’t a lot of items out of place once she removed the things that had just accumulate during the course of a day. The problem was the items that had landed there and not been shifted for some weeks. I will let you read her email so you get the full picture.

Willow wrote :- This counter is higher than the kitchen counter and would normally be used as an eating bar, but my husband’s desk is where the chairs would normally be placed. In interests of being transparent here, in one photo I showed the stacks of CDs that are my husband’s. He has gone through them once but then put them back up on the counter. Oh well. It’s just not a battle I want to fight right now. I did discover this week though that I am usually the person in the family who drops stuff on that counter and since I’m working at keeping it cleared off, it hasn’t gotten messy until today.

My first thought when I read this was, does Willow’s dear husband understand her frustration with the CD’s cluttering up this space so I replied as follows…

I have come up with an angle for a post using your photos. First though could you do one thing for me? Could you ask your husband — if you haven’t already done so — what is his plan for that pile of CDs. I ask this because I had a similar problem recently. We have a staging area for potential ebay sales which was becoming quite cluttered and annoying. It suddenly occurred to me to just ask my hubby what his plans were for some of the stuff he had put there. His answer was, “Nothing, I left them there for you to declutter”. Sometimes clutter is just the result of a lack of communication.

Willow replied :- Here’s an update on my husband’s stacks of CDs/DVDs on the counter. I asked him. “What are you planning to do with the CDs/DVDs in that stack?” He had already moved one of the stacks of music CDs to his car and when I asked him about the Christmas CD from The Canadian Tenors, he stated it was for me. 🙂 The stack that was left was empty CDs/DVDs and one clip on flasher for his bike riding at night. He picked them up and put them all on his desk. Clean counter!

As it turns out all Willow had to do was ask and now her counter (right) only has the two bowls of healthy colourful fruit and vegetable that she wants to see there every day. The next mission is to get her husband to work on his messy desk and bookshelf. Make no mistake though her husband makes up for his little bit of clutter in so many ways. Willow informed me – He cooks dinner, he does laundry, he gives me the better car, he grocery shops. He even takes me clothes shopping (cuz I hate it) and bribes/rewards me with coffee. The messy desk and messy book shelf are a small price to pay.

I have since had an update from Willow — The bench is staying clear aside from the usual in transit items that we all have in our launching areas. Hubby has cleared the clutter off his desk and it is staying clear. Just the bookcase to work on now. All and all a pretty good effort I’d say. Well done Willow and hubby!

Just remember sometimes all you have to do is ask. Good communication can be an important key to decluttering.

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

According to my mother, a successful and busy real estate agent for 28 years who has looked in thousands of closets, my husband and I are an anomaly: he has far, far more clothes than I do. He’s not a clothes horse; he’s gentle with his clothes (unlike me, I’m sorry to say), so they last and last. He wears a standard American working guy wardrobe: khakis, Dockers, button down shirts, polos, and t-shirts on Friday and the weekends.  He gets a couple new dress shirts a year and a ridiculous number of new t-shirts (his work, conferences, and other people’s vacations [never our own]), so the clothes really build up.

When I began decluttering, he had 100 t-shirts and a generous number of shirts for work. I got him to give up six t-shirts at once. Then my daughter got 10 out of him for a project. I was sure that he could do with even less, started Operation No Brainer. I turned all the hangers in his closet around the wrong way, and then I waited.

Where we live, we pretty much only have two seasons: cool and various degrees of hot.  I waited through the end of the hot season and the whole cool season before I went back into his closet.  Not surprisingly, the clothes that were turned around had been moved to the outside. We looked at them together and turned three around: a red shirt that he wears once a year to church on Pentecost, and two concert t-shirts from his younger days.  There were only ten  things to take out! I have to say, I was surprised by how much of his wardrobe he wore. I was also surprised at how much of his wardrobe had disappeared because of this exercise, not at the end, but along the way. Having the hangers backwards made him more aware of what was in his closet. Some of the things he decided to unload before the end.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! I learned that most of Dan’s clothes are in rotation. Dan liked the ease of not having to make any real decisions, and he didn’t have to defend himself against  me trying to get rid of things he wanted to keep. Almost imperceptibly, his t-shirt wardrobe decreased by about 40 shirts and his dress shirts by about a dozen. We also eliminated a number of pairs of pants that no longer fit. (One was visibly dusty where it folded over the hanger!) Without a doubt, this was the easiest decluttering ever… you might even call it a No-Brainer!

Today’s Declutter Item

This box of tarot cards was another item decluttered from Liam’s room. Maybe he decided that he had a better chance of becoming an artist than a fortune teller.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• My baby (19 year old Liam) went off to his first day of his second year of university today – It kind of felt like driving him to his first day of school when he was little because four months ago we had our doubts he would ever come home never mind be back at university so soon. I think we will celebrate with donuts at the mall after I pick him up.
• Catching a fleeting glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye and having a giggle about what I thought it looked like – Needless to say there was not a kiwi bird on the footpath in Australia.
• Discovering the nectarines taste almost as good as figs do when you heat them up in the microwave with honey and they eat them with a dollop of thickened cream.
• Hot cinnamon donuts
• Finding out that I can do just a spin cycle with my front loading washer- If in doubt read the instructions

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

A guest post by – Nurchamiel – a regular reader and commenter

A clean, tidy and declutter house is very important for asthmatics and people who suffers from hay fever. Unfortunately, sometimes clutter enters our home and it is time to clean it up. I would like to give some tips about decluttering as an allergy sufferer. To some, the tips may sound a bit extreme, but I have noticed that if I follow these tips, my outbreaks are less severe and less frequent than if I don’t.

• If you have an extreme sensitivity to dust and dust mites (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus) hire a professional or declutter a little at a time to reduce exposure. Get help with your closet because clothing items are notorious for attracting dust and dust mites. Make sure that when you have enlisted professional help that you don’t go into the room, while the dust is being disturbed. Alternatively, there are dust masks available at  local DIY-shops if you would prefer to be involved.
• Choose a day for decluttering. Cool days, when it freezes or when it has rained are the best. The concentration of pollen in the air is as low as possible.
• Dust and vacuum before decluttering, to get the dust bunnies before more dust is added so the build up will be minimal. If possible, open the windows and close the air-conditioning off as the air-conditioning moves the dust around.
• Start with decluttering. Tackle one closet, shelve or other area. As usual, empty the area and immediately dust with a moist cloth, as it will trap the dust rather than spread it around. Dust moisture sensitive items with a dry cloth (Microfibre is best) to prevent damage and return to it’s place if keeping.
• During decluttering, ask yourself two questions ~ Do I want to pack/unpack you during moving?” also “Am I allergic to you?” If you are allergic to it, don’t keep it, give it away to somebody else (or charity, etc.) who isn’t allergic to it. Clothing and plush toys but also body lotions and perfumes will likely be the kinds of items that cause allergy issues.
• Also, check your medication to make sure nothing is out of date and that you have what you need on hand before starting your declutter task. Take any out of date items back to the pharmacy, they know how to correctly dispose of them so that they don’t end up in landfill or in the hands of someone they shouldn’t.
• When you are done, immediately relocate the items that you are decluttering to their new homes (Thrift shop, donation bin, recycling, trash bin etc). If you are not able to do so, put them in a shed or a garage so that the dust still in the clutter (for instance, plush toys) is no longer polluting your living space and can no longer cause you allergic reactions.
• Once the clutter is removed thoroughly vacuum the area as most of the dust that was disturbed has now settled on the floor. It would probably be wise to vacuum any upholstered furniture, launder  bed coverings and curtaining in the space at this time.

If you notice that after a few minutes of decluttering, that your body can’t take it any longer (allergic reactions), stop immediately and vacuum (yes, I love to vacuum, :P), wait a week, and try it then. If it doesn’t stop, hire a professional declutterer.

If you have a (young) child with allergies, clean up their area yourself, without your child being there. Do the decluttering for them but let the child decide afterwards what he doesn’t want to keep (make sure you have removed most dust from the decluttered items before the child sorts through them). Once the task is complete allow the child to return to the decluttered room for about ten minutes. If the child shows any sign of an allergic reaction, let them sleep somewhere else for the night and vacuum again the day after, when the dust has settled on the floor. Once again it would probably be wise to also launder the bed cover and curtaining at this time.

I hope this might be useful for other people with allergies. These tips might be time consuming, but it works for me.

Today’s Declutter Item

Sometime the generic version of things don’t work as good as the real one. This remote control never did work well so Liam has decided to declutter it.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• The start of a new day – Yesterday really went to hell in a handbasket so it is great to wake up today and start afresh.
• The speed with which my new computer processes things – Yes I finally submitted to temptation and bought a new computer. Although the transition hasn’t gone as smoothly as it could but I am loving the fact that everything happens so much quicker.
• Getting another eBay auction item posted on its way.
• Being told I would be able to have the car tomorrow – This has been a rare event lately as the motorbikes are still at the mechanics. Why motorcycle mechanics take so long to fix anything I don’t know.
• The smell in the air when rain is on its way – I know it is just dust stirred up but I love it anyway.

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

For those of you overwhelmed by the decluttering task ahead of you I would like to give you hope. I am going to ask you to do five simple things, and I want you to focus on the effect those things have on your mood. It is important that you carry out these tasks in one short period of time in the order given. Please do not read ahead to the next task until you have completed the previous step.

First Task

If you haven’t completed all the mini missions for this week I would like you to choose two but only carry out one of them for now. If you have completed all the mini missions I set for this week please devise two of your own and carry out  one now. Make sure this mission only takes about ten minutes or so.

Second Task

Now that you have completed your mini mission I just want you to  take one or two minutes to think quietly about how good it feels to get that one small task accomplished. It only took a short length of time but you are one step closer to a decluttered home. This is one less area that you need to work on in the future. I bet you feel enthusiastic to start on your next decluttering task.

Third Task

Now I want you to think about the entirety of the decluttering mission you have ahead of you. Consider how immense the task seems when you focus on it’s entirety. Think of the size of your home, and all the little nooks and crannies where stuff could be hiding. Dwell on those thoughts for a minute of two. I bet you aren’t feeling so smug now, right!

Forth Task

Now I want you to take five deep breaths and clear your mind of the nasty thoughts you were just thinking. I want you  to forget about the big picture and simply focus on the next task I ask you to do. Now that you are calm I want you to carry out the second mini mission you chose in step one. Once again stick to something simple that will only take about ten minutes

Fifth Task

Your final task is much the same as the second. Focus on the task you just completed. How quick and easy was it to accomplish, and how satisfying it felt to be finished yet another decluttering mission? That is one small step towards your decluttering goal. It feels good doesn’t it? The task was simple but you feel you have achieved something. What could be more satisfying than that?

The point of this exercise

I am sure by now you understand the what I was trying to help you see here. Decluttering your home doesn’t have to be a scary prospect that you don’t think you want to deal with, it is simply a series of small tasks that are easy to accomplish with little effort. All you have to do is change your way of thinking and create a little enthusiasm for each task. Everyday find one little area to declutter, spend ten minutes or even a half an hour on it if you have the time. Before you know it the weight of your clutter will start to lift off your mind. That is where it is sitting at the moment – on your mind. It has quietly multiplied over the years without you giving it much thought. So what if it takes a while to physically remove it. So long as you chip away at it one small task at a time and do not add to it, you will get there in the end with minimal effort.

I suppose I could have called today’s post..

How to make a mole hill out of a mountain

Today’s Declutter Item

This was an unneeded gift that fetched $30.00 on eBay.

I am grateful from anything that brings me joy. Below are five things that gave me joy today.

• Finding hanging space for two pieces of framed art that I didn’t want to declutter but also didn’t have a home.
• My friend Liz – Every conversation with her is fresh and interesting. We connect on so many levels and yet we are both so different.
• Remembering the other grocery item I needed before I gave up and went home.
• That first cup of tea in the morning.
• Manipulating and decluttering enough craft supplies to clear one drawer in my craft area – Now a little fine tuning is in order I feel.
  

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

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

Black hole – In astronomy- an object so massive that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravitation.  In modern usage – a place where things get lost; a place or thing into which objects disappear and are not expected to be seen again.

Do you have a black hole in your house? I bet you do. Maybe it’s the kitchen or dining room table, the chair in your bedroom, your desk, or the bench by the front door. It’s the place in your home that attracts everything that comes into your house and once there is difficult, if not impossible, to re-home.

I have a friend who believes that every single counter or shelf in a house is a black hole, waiting to happen. His ideal house (so he thinks) includes no horizontal surfaces. I guess he’s going to store his underwear in a pile on the floor. For the rest of us, we have counters and shelves and probably appreciate their utility, even if we don’t always appreciate their tendency to attract clutter.

We have a bench by the front door that is the first line of defence against clutter. It stays remarkably clear, holding only the girls’ backpacks and string instruments. I think it doesn’t get cluttered because once the backpacks and instruments are on the bench, there’s not even room for a dust bunny to hide.

But what makes it past the bench to the island in the kitchen, well cue the scary music. We have a big island, a beautiful island, a cluttered island. When I wrote this post it contained the following items, only a few of which actually belong on it: folder, ball of yarn, small pile of papers, clean wine glass that belongs to my Mom, jar of cat treats, watch with broken wrist band, bowl of fruit, bowl of decorative little pumpkins, spray bottle of water (neatly labeled “hair drawer”), two bags of Halloween candy, hair brush, diabetes kit, laptop and power cord (in use), 3 prizes from Halloween party, 4 pieces of mail received today, a bracelet. Yikes! (Note: This column was written in October. The Halloween stuff isn’t still there in February; there’s new clutter instead.)

At our house, we combat the black hole that is the kitchen island by re-homing objects once or twice a week. I quickly pile everything up according to owner and in a scramble, it’s all whisked away, although I would prefer it didn’t land on the island in the first place.

How can we avoid black holes? The bench seems to offer one clue. If the surface is just the right size for our purposes, then extra doesn’t have a place to hide. But since our goals and desires change frequently, and we can’t buy a new piece of furniture to exactly accommodate each change, right-sizing is probably not a realistic solution to most clutter problems. However, if a new furniture purchase is in your future, consider your needs when selecting the new table or shelf. Bigger may not be better.

My friend Julia suggests putting a large plant or other object on the problematic surface. I think this would only work if the black hole was small enough to be mostly covered by the plant; otherwise, I fear you’d just be adding a plant to all your other clutter. But if your black hole is a small one, a large decorative item might help.

I think the solution with the greatest likelihood of success is this one: A place for everything and everything in its place. You walk in and drop the mail, your purse, keys, and sunglasses on the table because that’s their home, even if you don’t want it to be. Find another home. Get a key hook for the door, reassign your purse to your bedroom and put your sunglasses inside. The mail needs a place on your desk. When you shop, put your purchases away, promptly. If they don’t have a home, should you have bought them? If yes, then make a home. Now, before the table becomes their home.

Still feeling the pull of the black hole? Desperate times call for desperate measures: Can you cover the table with a cloth or crumpled newspapers – anything to remind yourself “Danger! Black Hole Ahead!” Perhaps you could lay the table on its side until the gravitational force dies out? If the black hole is a chair, can you get rid of it or move it to another room until your break your black hole habit? And if the black hole is a table in the dining room that you don’t use except to store clutter, is this the best use for this room? Maybe you should get rid of the table all together and add something to the room that you really will use and enjoy. It’s your house. Just because the real estate brochure said it was a dining room doesn’t mean you have to use it that way.

Where is your black hole, and how will you be fixing it?

Written by:- Cindy Bogard

Today’s decluttered Item

And the items just keep on coming. This socket set is excess to our needs and was sold on ebay for $10.50.

5 Things I am grateful for today

• Google Calendar – Life can get very organised with this little internet tool.
• I am finally getting ahead with my blog posts – hopefully I will need to scramble less in future and not make so many typos etc.
• That none of my readers point out my bad spelling, typos, grammar, and bad sentence structure – Thank you lovely readers.
• That I am not employed outdoors – The temperature reached 43°C today that is 109.4°F my friends. Youch!
• T-Bone roast for dinner – This is a T-Bone  steak cut at about 2 inches thick and roasted for one hour on 200°C with potatoes, sweat potato, pumpkin, carrot and onion in the same pan. Yum! How outrageous Sunday dinner on Tuesday night. 😆

Saturday Quick Post – by Cindy

I fought the art closet, and I won. What was removed…

• A velvet art book
• 2 Idea books
• Some origami paper & instruction book
• 2 Set of glitter glue pens
• A package of horse stencils.

All these were donated. I also gathered a bunch of little tidbits for the craft corner of the 2nd grade classroom and threw away a huge number of little bits of dry, dusty and yarn-wrapped junk.

Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom

In Honor of Tuesday’s Mini Mission

Imagine your freezer, nice and tidy, not too empty and not too full. Now imagine dumping it all out on the floor, scrambling it around, and shoving the frozen food back in willy-nilly. Whew! That’s a mess. Now double the amount of food and really cram it in there. That’s what my freezer looked like last year.

I decided to do something about it. Just like with any other major decluttering and organizing project, before I began, I got boxes and my label maker. I was ready. I did this cleaning in winter in the garage, so there was no worry about defrosting. I started removing the food and sorting it by category: vegetables, chicken, ice cream, beef, and leftovers all went into separate boxes. Not surprisingly, I unearthed a Ziploc bag of soup that was 2 years old and some frozen tidbits that I couldn’t identify, but the thing that did surprise me was the broccoli. I buy broccoli in four pound bags from Costco. There were two full bags and one half bag jammed into the freezer. Nine pounds of broccoli!

While all the food was out, I wiped down the freezer and cleaned up all the sticky blobs. Then I reloaded, keeping like with like. Certain shelves were dedicated to certain things. I left the meat and bags of veggies (except my truck load of broccoli) in low-sided boxes and labelled the outside of the boxes: chicken, pork, beef, veggies, potatoes. Of course, I had to juggle things around until I could find a pattern that worked best. Once everything was back in, I labelled the shelves, as well.

Before I ran out of steam, I hit the refrigerator freezer, too. I removed everything that wasn’t used frequently and sorted it into the big freezer. (Quick to do, since I’d just finished out there.) Leaving in the house only the items that are frequently used, I organized what remained and labelled the shelves.

We ate and ate, and I did see a lowering of my grocery bill for the first two months. I had my own grocery store in my garage and hadn’t even realized it! This system has been in place for months now, and it works wonderfully for me. I buy less; I can find everything. Your freezer and its contents represent a major investment; shouldn’t it be as organized, useful and free of UFOs (Unidentified Frozen Objects) as any other space in your home?

Today’s Declutter Item

Reams of binder paper that I should have donated in America before we left. It has been lingering here for over three years and I am over it. I sent it to the thrift store in the hope that it might be immediately useful to someone else. I still have enough scratch paper to keep me going for a very long time. It is amazing how little paper one really uses in this age of computer technology.

Things I am grateful for today

• A cooler overcast day – It has been very hot here lately and I could do with the reprieve.
• Being reminded how lucky I am – Thanks Amber
• Fresh Juicy Apples – One of these at lunch after a big fat scone with jam and cream for morning-tea is a balanced diet, right?
  
• No more visits for Liam to the Maxillofacial Specialist – His jaw is in good shape all things considered and he doesn’t need any more check ups. That’s one down now just the 6 month dental, the physiotherapy, the speech therapist, the neuropsychologist and the clearance from the neurologist to go. Hopefully the last  4 will be done in the next week. Then that will just leave the dentist. Yay!
• My darling husband– Who goes to work five days a week to keep me in the manner to which I have become accustomed. Lets face it he is good at it and I deserve it!
  

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