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 weeks mini missions are broad ranging. Each mission gives you a wide variety of items to choose from. I will be very surprised if you can’t find something for each category this week. And don’t tell me you decluttered something of the sort last week. Last week was last week and doesn’t count this week. 😉 Good luck and happy decluttering.

Monday – Declutter something food related. Whether that be for serving, preparing or eating.

Tuesday – Declutter a fashion item. Be that clothing, accessories, shoes or maybe just a magazine.

Wednesday РDeclutter a d̩cor item. Anything from curtaining to floral arrangements to cushions or figurines.

Thursday – Declutter something in the beauty, body pampering or toiletry range.

Friday – Declutter a hardware item. Anything form a power tool to a nail or a large as a plank of wood.

Saturday – Declutter something outdoorsy. Camping, sporting, gardening etc.

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

Don’t switch on lights to do something in a dimly lit room unless it requires fine motor skills.

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

I have been receiving and reading some good post by other bloggers lately that I feel the need to share with you. Here is a great one that Cindy sent through to me…

www.inc.com ~Want to be truly productive? End each day like this. By Kevin Daum

Please read it before reading on.

I particularly liked his first suggestion…

“1. Finish one “organizing” project. Busy people always have some organizing project they have yet to get accomplished. It might be cleaning out an old file drawer or clearing your email. Whatever it is, schedule 20 minutes at the end of the day and tackle it.  Even if you get partway done you’ll feel like you started to accomplish something.  Within a week at most the task will be done and you’ll feel lighter inside.”

Why not consider what you want to declutter during the day then take those 10 minutes at the end of the day to physically remove it to your transition point. This idea is in line with yesterdays post of separating deciding from doing. Take your time to make the decision during the day then do the task and enjoy the satisfaction right before relaxing and turning in for the night.

Quite often, even if you have no decluttering item in mind when the day starts out, you will encounter objects during the day that will come under scrutiny. Give yourself the rest of the day to make the decision as to whether an item can stay or go.

Also, as Kevin suggests, doing a small portion of a large task will give you satisfaction and inspiration to continue, if only in increments. Doing a big task in small chunks can be far less gruelling than trying to tackle it all at once.

You can then rest well in the satisfaction that you have accomplished another step in your decluttering journey.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter old videos, DVDs, records or CDs you no longer watch or listen to.

Eco Tip for the Day

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

Here is a guest post from July 2013 by Linda Bailey from housekeeping.org that I thought was worth repeating for the lessons it contains. Enjoy!

So I tend to bite off more than I can chew. A few months ago the opportunity to have everyone out of the house for a weekend seemed like the perfect time to do some major cleaning up. I had high hopes. I was going to tackle the worst room in the house. It was filled floor to ceiling with boxes from the move and just had enough floor space to walk a thin path around it. Since the move had taken place some five years before I had the brilliant idea that it would be no sweat to clear out that area.

But where to start? I mean of course you wanted to start near the door so you could make sure you had room to actually get things in and out but What then? Well, I started out at the door. To the right of the door was a large bookshelf filled with odds and ends and stacked on top of the shelf were old boxes. I managed to get a step ladder and started from the top. The boxes were very heavy and I barely made it safely to the floor with them. I imagined they were books or something equally as hefty. As I opened them I discovered they were VHS tapes. Boxes and boxes of VHS tapes.

The hoarder in me wanted to save them as I had invested a lot of money completing my collection but I was reminded of my vow to stop collecting things. Things are not important. People and memories are. If I really wanted to remember a particular video I could just take a photo of it and remind myself to look it up later. I did, however, go through the boxes and take out the recordings of my family. I did not want to toss out memories, just junk. That took me some time and I hauled the boxes down the stairs and out to the street.

Moving on, I went through the rest of the bookshelf. I had three boxes with me. One was marked Goodwill, one was Trash and the last, smallest box was Keep. I went through those shelves ruthlessly tossing almost all of the junk into the goodwill pile. Broken dishes, bits of paper and so on went into the trash. That went quickly and I was relieved. Beyond the bookshelf was a walk in closet. It wasn’t the biggest closet, about the size of a twin bed. However it was packed with old clothes and more boxes, big ones.

I got the boxes down one by one. The first few largest ones were filled with blankets. Twin, King, Queen, quilts and throws and everything in between. Some I recognized as belonging to my great-grandmother and I set them aside. Others were down and were perfect for winter. The rest I threw in the Goodwill box. Although it is good to have extra blankets on hand I though three large boxes full was going a bit overboard. Especially when we had not used them in five years. Throw pillows, stuffed animals and other small soft things were in the next box. Then I got to the hard part. Boxes of photos and papers.

The photos had to be kept, of course, although I was not going to volunteer to sort through them and create an album. The papers were old enough that they could be tossed safely and I tossed as quickly as I could. A box of my old things from college was next and I couldn’t help but hold on to a relic or two. A small box of old comics went into a pile for eBay along with a few collectable toys.

All the dust was really starting to make my eyes water and I dragged some things downstairs for a break. Gathering a mask and washing my hands I ventured back into the never ending closet. The clothes were next on my list. I brought up trash bags and just started to go through the clothes one by one. Easter dresses, graduation gowns, old sweaters, Halloween costumes and anything else you probably would not miss packed the closet. The packed bags filled the floor of the closet and I was forced to drag everything out to my car before continuing. Exhausted and only halfway through with the closet I called it a night.

The next day I started up again. I finished the clothing leaving only a few outfits to decorate the bare walls. Before I could move on however I had to address the growing pile of bags and boxes in my living room. Far more than could fit in the trunk of my car I had to figure out a way to get them to Goodwill. I finally got my neighbor to drive a load up in the back of his pickup and we managed to get the whole thing done in one go.

When I returned to finish up the room I felt defeated. I had barely scratched the surface in a day and a half of steady work. On top of that the break from the family had been cut short and they were due back any minute. I forced myself to straighten up and make sure the walking path was navigable again. Thoroughly disgusted I felt like I had wasted my time. But then I thought about how much I had gotten rid of. Hundreds of pounds of junk was no longer in my house. Even though it might not look like much, it was that much less I would have to deal with in the future.

The experience also inspired me to tackle my own closet. It was much smaller and less daunting then the one I had already done. With only an hour or two of work I was able to get my closet in great shape and feel like I had accomplished something.

Beyond just cleaning up that closet I also learned a valuable lesson. Even good stuff that is stored away becomes bad stuff eventually. There is no sense in keeping things you are not going to use. It only makes it that much harder on you later. Now I have started to just throw/give away things that do not have to be kept. I try to get at least one bag a week in my trunk and off to Goodwill. This helps me to keep the clutter from building up again. Hopefully one day I can get the clutter in my home under control, but until that point I will try my best to not add to it.

I have started to think of clutter like the chains in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Every day we build a new link in the chains that bind us when we continue to let junk build up in our lives. The only way to break free is to stop building the chains and start working to undo them.

Author Bio:

This post is contributed by Linda Bailey from housekeeping.org. She is a Texas-based writer who loves to write on the topics of housekeeping, green living, home décor, and more. She welcomes your comments which can be sent to b.lindahousekeeping @ gmail.com.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item of costume jewellery.

Eco Tip for the Day

Take a few lesson on sewing and/or simple handyman tasks. This way you can repair things rather than throwing them out and buying a new one. My local hardware store give free lessons or repairing and repurposing, maybe yours does too.

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 want you all to read this post by David @ Raptitude.com before going on.

Take from it what you will but this is how I applied the concept to decluttering.

Before doing any decluttering decide on your options for disposing of your clutter.

• Do some investigating and make a decision on where you can donate your clutter so you have this option in place prior to choosing which items are to go.
• Decide if eBay is an option for where you can do your selling.
• Check if Freecycle is available in your area and decide if that is another good option for you.
• Decide if putting your stuff aside for a yard sale would work for you and arrange the space required to store it before doing any decluttering of sellable items.
• Test the curb side decluttering method and decide whether that is also an option for you.
• Decide if a garbage skip is required to clear junk clutter and make the arrangements for one before you begin doing the dirty work.
• Decide on a staging area for storing your decluttered items prior to doing the selling, donating or giving them away. This way you can make your decisions then remove the items from their wasted space in your home until the next step is taken. You will feel like you are making progress even before they are totally gone.

Making the decisions on how and where you can offload your clutter will make the doing so much easier. With these arrangements made  you are left with plenty of mind space to make your choices of what you are prepared to let go. And if making those decisions still proves a little hard you can simplify your choices further by just following my mini missions.

Trying to decide, choose and do at the same time can be very frustrating and ultimately defeating. I had success with my decluttering process because I already had a donation site chosen, had sold the odd thing or two on eBay, was experienced at curb side decluttering and had a large garage for my staging area. And although I had plenty of successful garage sale experience I knew that, at one thing a day, I did not want to store things for months until I had enough for such a sale. So the decisions were made which just left me with the task of choosing what to part with. Disposing of them was a cinch making the process go smoothly. This gave me the confidence to stick to my task and achieve my goal.

So if you are in a pickle trying to decide, choose and dispose of things all at once. STOP. Then…

• Decide ~ (where and how to get rid of your clutter so you have a simple system in place to follow, then…
• Divide ~ choose, at your own pace, what no longer fits in your life and then…
• Conquer the clutter for good, by sending it on its way.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter an item of clothing that you no longer wear.

Eco Tip for the Day

Save a tree ~Stop junk mail. It mostly contains advertisements for stuff you don’t need anyway.

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.

This weeks mini mission are based on the kinds of items that I notice were donated at the thrift store last week. Specifically items that we seem to receive an copious and endless supplies of.

Monday – Declutter at least one glassware item.

Tuesday – Declutter an item of clothing that you no longer wear.

Wednesday – Declutter an item of costume jewellery.

Thursday – Declutter old videos, DVDs, records or CDs you no longer watch or listen to.

Friday – Declutter some items of crockery.

Saturday – Declutter at least one book it is doubtful you will ever read again.

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

Consider secondhand when making purchases.

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

I was chatting with my mum yesterday and we were discussing the imminent arrival of my niece’s baby who will be my mother’s second great granddaughter. We were both hoping that she would be born yesterday (12th of February here in Australia). Then my mother would have a daughter, a granddaughter and a great granddaughter all born on the 12th of February. (She also has a niece born on that date as well). She said “I must look up the family history book and see if there are any other relatives born on that date.”  To which I replied  “It would be better if you had the family tree on-line because then you could just do a document search for the date which would save you hours of scouring the book.” Which brings me to my decluttering point for today.

Before my decluttering mission began in earnest I used to own folders and folders full of scrapbook/papercraft magazines. I often used to pour through them for hours trying to find examples of certain occasions that I was planning to document. The thing is, it was much more effective to google for such examples on the internet. The search engine would take me immediately to numerous examples in the blink of an eye.

It is the same for just about any subject that one would be inclined to save magazines for. It is much easier to just do an internet search for what you want. So why keep all those shelves full of dusty paper versions of something that takes up no more space than a laptop and saves you time and possibly a dose of hay fever to boot.

So let those magazines go and cancel your subscriptions. It will save you space, time and money.

Today’s Mini Mission

Reposition or relocate something that has become unused due to inconvenient placement.

Eco Tip for the Day

Cancel those magazine subscriptions. The internet is a far more efficient tool for keep up with any subject matter.

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 received the following statement in a comment from Michelle yesterday…

“This blog is just awesome. I feel better in my surroundings, things are easier to clean and keep organized. I think I’m saving money because I’ve been trying to use up what we already have. Thanks so much, Colleen, for your encouragement and support.”

I get messages like this quite often, sometimes from people who were sceptical that they could reach their goals and it is very satisfying. Not just for myself, that my blog is helping others, but more so, I get to share in the joy of their success and realisation of the positive effect it has on their lives.

Many people start out just wanting to reduce the amount of stuff in their homes. Others want to be able to receive guests at short notice without feeling embarrassed about the state of their homes. Some really are bogged down deeply in clutter while others like myself want to be able to downsize to a more minimalist existence. But one thing is for sure that nearly everyone of them are pleasantly surprised at how freeing it is, and how much easier it is to maintain their homes with less stuff.

And quite often, like Michelle has mentioned, people also realise that this new uncluttered, less materialistic lifestyle has a positive effect on their finances.

One of the most unexpected effect on my life is the appearance of my grocery cart when I go food shopping. The fact that my son has also moved out in that time made a big difference but now my cart is mostly full of fresh meat and vegetables. This is the eco friendly behaviour my decluttering quickly turned me on to. I buy so few cleaners, very little processed food, fewer paper products etc.  Just one more reason to to praise the effects decluttering can have on life.

So if you have any doubt that the effort is worth it then doubt no more.

Today’s Mini Mission

Pull out some old hobby equipment and test your desire to rekindle the interest in that pastime. If the desire is strong enough you will find the time and effort, if not let it go.

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.

Do you have items that with a little thought or effort could be transform from “I might use it if…” to actually using it. Or items that you might use if life changes so that you have the time or inclination. How about putting these mights into action or finally let the item go.

Monday – Alter an item so it better suits your needs that you might actually use it. Eg. Shorten a hem, cut off long sleeves, replace a handle…

Tuesday – Pull out some old hobby equipment and test your desire to rekindle the interest in that pastime. If the desire is strong enough you will find the time and effort, if not let it go.

Wednesday – Some items become clutter due to disrepair. Repair such an item that it may be used again.

Thursday – Reposition or relocate something that has become unused due to inconvenient placement.

Friday – Rejuvenate an item so that you might use it rather than hide it away somewhere. Maybe a good clean, a lick of paint or some other sprucing up would inspire you to use it.

Saturday – Chose an item that can’t be altered, relocated, repairs or rejuvenated to make it appealing and declutter it.

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

Quit smoking. Imagine how much water is wasted on crops, energy on manufacturing & fuel on transport of tobacco products. Not to mention the effects of indoor pollution and health repercussions.

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

We all make mistakes and it is unpleasant to admit them to ourselves. We have to remember that we are not perfect and trying to be so is a mission in futility. So don’t expect perfection and most of all forgive yourself when mistakes are made.

Some clutter items are simply errors in judgement when acquiring the object in the first place. Who hasn’t done that? I know I have. I still make these mistakes from time to time even though I buy very few things these days and put a lot of thought into purchasing. Such items can seem like good purchases at the time and even get used to begin with, but then the faults begin to show.

I bought a pair of capris in a travel clothing store a couple of years ago. They are light weight, dry fast and don’t crease, which is great, but at times I feel a little dowdy in them. Not to mention the fact that they don’t have a decent pocket and that can be a nuisance. I am on the fence as to whether to keep them or not. I wonder why I thought they were so right when I bought them.

One can’t allow the error or guilt of a purchase, that doesn’t work out so well, to influence their choice to keep the item. If it has truly become just clutter then it needs to be set free. And more to the point, you need to be set free from it and the any guilt you might feel at wasting money on it.

Today’s Mini Mission

Concentrate on using up left over beauty products and don’t replace them if you have a similar alternative product.

Eco Tip for the Day

Investigate product reviews before making purchases in an attempt to get it right the first time and not find yourself back at the store buying a similar, but hopefully better, alternative soon after. This isn’t foolproof of course but the more armed with information you are the better choice you are likely to make.

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

Yesterday I received the following comment from Stephanie ~

“I just finished a use-it-up project on some leftover baby yarns that my late mum used part of, to do test work on a “masterpiece” crochet blanket for my son when he was born (he is 32!) 

My blanket, which used 23 asst small balls/ball ends, is a non-masterpiece giant granny square LOL. It will be given away tomorrow, and I have started on a second use-it-up blanket. Pretty sure there will end up being 4 use-it-up blankets by the time that box is empty. 

This is a good mindless TV project for me, and far better for me than snacking.”

What a fine example of tripling the pleasure of decluttering. First Stephanie has an outlet for her much enjoyed craft of crocheting, second she gets to use up a stash of wool that is otherwise cluttering up her home and third the finished product is donated to someone in need. How wonderful is that.

Like Stephanie I also love to do crafts. However one needs to have an outlet to move the craft on once it is completed, because there is only so much use and space for it in ones home. I recently saw a sign in a local art space window asking for volunteers to do shifts manning the space in return for having the opportunity to display ones art or craft for sale in the space. I jumped at the chance and now each Thursday I will be doing a four hour shift in return for displaying and hopefully selling my handmade cards. I get to enjoy my craft, possibly make a little money on the side, help out other artist by manning the space and decluttering some of my craft supplies that have featured so many time here at the blog.

What collateral pleasure to you receive from your decluttering efforts.

Today’s Mini Mission

Declutter some items left behind from a previous relationship. Items you can remember the good time without or that only serve to remind you of the bad times.

Eco Tip for the Day

Be familiar with all of the recycling possibilities in your area. Local government websites usually have lots of information on this. Also word of mouth your computer are other good ways of gaining this information.

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