Yesterday I received an email from Denise which raised some interesting decluttering questions. I have edited and reworded the email as I did not have time to contact Denise to get her approval to quote it verbatim but I am sure she will know it was her and this is what she asked… (more or less)

What happens when you have gone through the house once and think you have decluttered significantly. I am sure I could do better but I wish I could see items around the house with “new eyes”. If you reach an impasse, do you try again or try another project and come back to decluttering in a few days? Does leaving the house help?

I have never really “gone through the house”. I am very much in tune to what is in my home probably due to the fact that I have moved so many times over the years. Since the last move I have added very little  but removed a lot therefore I know what is where and what I really don’t need/want/use.

Most days either my husband or I think of something that needs to go. Some days we do put aside more than one thing while on others we may be dealing with the removal of one item or another either selling, dismantling for recycling, putting in the garage for the next donation drop off not to mention photographing for the blog. We have even been trying to get ahead a little because we have a vacation planned soon. (Stay tuned for more info on that)

In the end there is an average on one item a day to be decluttered and added to the blog.

As for seeing things with new eyes, that happens all the time. The more I write and read on the subject of decluttering and minimalism the more ruthless I become about the “useless to me” items around my home. I would never call these items totally useless as they have potential to be useful to someone else. That is why so many things have either been donated or sold. I may pass over an area time and time again and find something else I realise doesn’t mean that much to me after all. That is the beauty of 365lessthings I learn and change as I go. There are so many things that at the start of this journey I would have had difficulty parting with but my attitude and belief systems have matured as time has passed.

That is not to say that I never have burn out days. They are usually days where other things are getting me down which can cause my enthusiasm to become a bit stagnant. Life goes on outside of my decluttering and blogging world that can stress me out and make me want to curl up in a ball just like anyone else. I wouldn’t want to let my readers down so a drag my sorry butt to my computer and troll though other sites to give me inspiration. Sometimes a comment from my wonderful readers will get me inspired. I know there are so many things still in my home that need to go so I just shake off my doldrums and get to it and I usually feel better for the effort.

Denise asked if getting out of the house helps. I like to take a long walk each day which isn’t always possible but a walk sure does raise the spirits and gives me time to think about what I am willing to tackle that day. Unfortunately lately the lousy weather we have been having and the extra hours I have been putting in at work have certainly put a damper on my mood and restrictions on my time. Denise works from home so I can imagine getting out would be essential to put her in a better frame of mind to see things with a fresh eye.

Who knows maybe Denise has done all that needs doing for now. Everyone’s journey is different. We all have different needs and are at varying stages in our lives. One persons idea of being decluttered may be vastly different to another. I suggest take a second look at your feelings and not so much at the items themselves. I find it is a natural progression and I really just make it up as I go along. If I felt like I was done now I would stop.

So good luck Denise, I hope this was helpful to you and to my other readers as well.

ITEM 215 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Another item just like yesterday’s only this one made more money, $36.00 in fact.

My little girl (who is 21) is changing direction in her life and is deferring her studies to go into full time work. She is also planning on moving out into her own apartment for the first time. With this in mind I have decided to put a few items aside for her so there will be less for her to buy when all this takes place.

So instead of actual decluttering they are just being moved into a holding pattern in a box in the garage for when she needs them. I don’t really consider this decluttered until they have actually left my house but at least they aren’t staring at me unused from the shelf where they have sat for the last 3 years.

Rather than try to sell some of these items it will be a lot easier for me to just hand them over to her as I know she will need all the help she can get. Some time back we started a collection of household items for her which are already cluttering up the garage so when the time comes that she does move out there will be some nice open space on the garage shelves.

ITEM 211 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This is another of those items I am nut sure why my husband decluttered but mine is not to reason why. It sold for $20 on ebay.

Well who’d have thought that my little rant on Day 203 would get such a reaction. Luckily that means we have had some very helpful readers comment with some useful information on how we can combat the waste of unwanted phone books. Some had the details we need to cancel delivery so we avoid receiving them in the future and others had some novel approaches on other uses for them. Di in particular was being very resourceful and cheeky at the same time.

I know quite of lot of my readers also read the comments so have probably already read this information but I know I don’t always follow through that well with the blogs I read (simply because I don’t have the time) so I have put it to the front as today’s post in case anyone missed it.

Here are some reader responses

Rachel

For Canceling phone book delivery in the US……(copied from the Yellow Pages website)

visit http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org to opt out of unsolicited phone book deliveries.
YellowPagesGoesGreen.org hopes to have 1 million people signed up to opt out of unsolicited phone book delivery by the end of the year. You can help them reach that goal by encouraging your friends and family to sign up.

I had just managed to find this site myself when Rachels response came through. Thank you Rachel this is particularly helpful.

Loretta (from Australia)

I just cancelled my Yellow and White Pages this week!
Call 1800 008 292, and they will do it, no problems.
This is an Australian 1800 number and won’t work anywhere else.

This one was particularly useful to me because I also live in Australia

Reggie

Hey Colleen… Hm, maybe you can use old phone books to feed your fire place if you have one? I also know some people who use the pages in the phone book to put into their mulch. I don’t know too much about landscaping but it’s just an option! If I think of any other ideas, I’ll let you know.

I suggested to Reggie that the pages could also be used under mulch to act as a weed mat. I know I could use a little help with weeds. To bad clover and dandelion aren’t good in a salad otherwise I could start a cottage garden business at the moment.

Di

We recently returned from a trip through South Dakota and on a very beautiful country road with no people or cars in sight for miles around was a small rest area under some trees with an outhouse. It contained a roll of very soft TP and also a large phone book that showed obvious use hanging from a chain. Just an alternative to sending it out for recycling. lol

Di you are such a funny one. I am all for protecting the environment but I am not sure I am prepared to go that far.

Rebecca the Greeniac

I canceled ours about a year ago. There was some little hidden link on the Qwest Dex website that let me do it online. Now we just get a little door hanger saying “are you SURE you don’t want phone books?” that goes on and on about how they’re made from recycled paper yada yada yada…

It was this hint from Rebecca that had me searching for the information that Rachel also came up with.

What would I do without my wonderful readers and the helpful information they have to share with us all. Thank you again everyone who contributed. We have all learned a new way to pre-empt the necessity to recycle phone books. One less thing to declutter every year.

ITEM 205 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This was one of those impulse buys of my daughter that has sat unused in a drawer for years. It going to the thrift store with a bunch of other stuff next week. Hopefully someone will find it useful.

On Day 186 I asked for your help with examples of friends helping friends declutter. I received several emails from some very helpful people how had some wonderful experiences to share with you all.

Here is what our friends had to say…

Cindy

I have quite a bit of experience with this. My friend Holly and I have done it five times, in segments of about three hours each. The first time, the kids were playing together and I did not want to just sit around, so I asked if there was anything she needed help doing, and we went through her whole wardrobe. She tried on, and I “yeahed” and “nayed”, hung the clothes back up, and folded the items for the thrift store.

When we work together, the person who’s house it is usually does the sorting while the other person tidies the area, gets everything out, puts like things together, puts it away (with instruction), and offers encouragement.

I’ve also worked with professional organizers. It’s a similar, but faster, process.

It’s a lot more fun and more productive then going it on your own, and often I feel so excited afterwards that I get another couple of hours done by myself.

Valentina

At my place we regularly have declutter parties. That means that everybody still declutters on their own, but we bring everything to my place to make a fashion show out of it (for clothing) and an antique market for all other stuff. Everything that does not find a new owner then goes to local charity. And usually that’s more than half of the stuff.

We do this around every 4-5 months and it has become some kind of tradition, people are keen to bring stuff along, so they declutter to be able to participate.

Willow

I have a friend with whom I dejunk  with on a regular basis. We have similar attitudes although she has more stuff than I do because she still has three sons living at home. We schedule days and the ‘hostess’ has her plan in place for where and what we’ll declutter.

When my friend is at my house, she will load up anything I’m not keeping and take it directly to the goodwill on her way home. And I do the same thing for her. That way there is no way we can rummage in the bags and pull an item back out again.

I’ve helped other people in their homes and I have only one rule…”You may not get mad at me.” If I overstep my place, just tell me when an item is off limits. Setting parameters ahead of time keeps people from getting upset.

Meg

I’ve been doing my kitchen uncluttering pretty much all on my own, but I get “help” by having my daughter-in-law choose what she likes from everything before I move it on out. She and my son have recently bought their first house and they can now use a few things. My mom has taken a couple things to replace her more worn items, and I’m giving away many things to friends who own food-based businesses. Nobody can really afford to buy anything in this crazy economy.

Deb J

I have helped friends with decluttering several times. As an organizer I have a way that I set this up when there is more than one person there. I have the home owner(s) decide ahead what things need to be gone through so there is some order to the process. When everyone is there I have them divide into teams and assign them a particular room. They are to go through everything that has been designated to be sorted in that one room. They are to make 3 piles…keep, give and toss. Once that is done the home owner goes in and looks through the piles and decided if she agrees with the piles or not. If there is something in the give or toss pile she wants to keep then she needs to defend her decision.

It’s amazing how well it seems to work. In most cases very little is taken out of the give or toss piles and many times more is taken from the keep pile and put in the other two. I think it sometimes helps to have someone who is unattached to the things help with the sorting.

Each example has a different approach and if you combined all the useful strategies from each  I am sure you will have a fun and very effective time decluttering with your friends. On Behalf of everyone reading today’s blog I would like to thank the wonderful ladies who contributed their stories with the selfless intention of helping others.

ITEM 210 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This sleeping bag probably hasn’t been used in 15 years so it is time to pass it on to someone who might have a use for it.

Willow 

I have 1 (ONE!) friend with whom I dejunk on a regular basis. We have similar attitudes although she has ALOT more stuff than I do. In her defense, she still has three sons living at home. We schedule days and the 'hostess' has her plan in place for where and what we'll declutter.

 

One other little tip I have for you is when my friend is at my house, she will load up anything I'm not keeping and take it directly to the goodwill on her way home.  And I do the same thing for her.  That way there is no way we can rummage in the bags and pull an item back out again :)

 

I've helped other people in their homes and I have only one rule. "You may not get mad at me." If I overstep my place, just tell me that item is off limits. Setting parameters ahead of time keeps people from getting upset. 

 

 

Meg

 

I've been doing my kitchen uncluttering pretty much all on my own, but I get "help" by having my daughter-in-law choose what she likes from everything before I move it on out. She and my son have recently bought their first house and they can now use a few things. My mom has taken a couple things to replace her more worn items, and I'm giving away many things to friends who own food-based businesses. Nobody can really afford to buy anything in this stupid economy.

 

 

Deb J

 

I have helped friends with decluttering several times. As an organizer I have a way that I set this up when there is more than one person there. I have home owner(s)decide ahead what things need to be gone through so there is some order to the process. When everyone is there I have them divide into teams and assign them a particular room. They are to go through everything that has been designated to be sorted in that one room. They are to make 3 piles--keep, give, toss. Once that is done the home owner goes in and looks through the piles and decided if she agrees with the piles or not. If there is something in the give or toss pile she wants to keep then she needs to defend her decision.

It's amazing how well it seems to work. In most cases very little is taken out of the give or toss piles and many times more is taken from the keep pile and put in the other two. I think it sometimes helps to have someone who is unattached to the things help with the sorting.

Below I have listed some alternatives to clutter gifts. By clutter gifts I mean anything that is not consumable or an act of service that will remain in your home after it is has been used.

Edible Treats

• Chocolate/Candy
• Cake (provide a cake for someones happy occasion)
• Fruit basket (what could be more colorful or healthy than that)
• Bottle of wine / 6 pack of Boutique Beer…
• A home cooked meal is always a treat for a special occasion
• A cookie basket
• Take them out to dinner/lunch/ breakfast etc

Gift Certificate

• Dining Out
• Hardware
• Groceries
• Spa Treatments
• Travel Vouchers
• Personal promise to do some household chores

Donations

• Give a donation to your favourite charity in the name of the gift recipient
• Donate your time to help out a charity on their behalf

Time

• Spend quality time together
• Do a favour that will save someone precious time
• Take care to someones children so they can have quality time with their significant other
• Recharge a prepaid cell phone for more communication time

Garden

• Plants/cuttings/seedlings/flowers
• Doing some gardening for them
• Mowing their lawn
• Prune bushes

Friends

• Arrange a get together with a group of friends
• Bring two old friend together

Entertainment

• Buy tickets to a show/event
• Take them out to a show/event
• Ipod downloads

If you have some ideas, and I am sure there are many I haved listed here, please leave a comment and I will add your suggestions to the Uncluttered Gifts Page I have created so that we can all refer back to easily in the future.

ITEM 199 OF 365 LESS THINGS

If you do take someone to an event as a gift please discourage this souvenir clutter

I was on my way to the thrift store with yet another load of donations yesterday and I was naturally thinking about the amount of stuff that has left my home over the last three years. I have lost count of the number of times I have loaded up my car with the same crates full of odds and ends and driven across town to the Lifeline shop on Hubbard Street.

During the drive I got to wondering what it will be like the next time we pack up our household to move to a new location. Due to the nature of our removal contract we have to do a complete inventory of our belongings for insurance reasons should anything go missing or get damaged during the move. Everything on this inventory is allotted an estimated value. I am looking forward to seeing if the overall value of our belongings has dropped considerably since the last time me packed up. I am also looking forward to the cubic metre estimation for the shipping container.

All this lead to another thought:-  wouldn’t it be nice if the value of our belongs has dropped so much that we will be able to reduce the value of our home contents insurance. That will be a saving that I will be more than happy accept. There are so many unexpected advantages to reducing ones belongings that I don’t understand why more people don’t jump on board with this lifestyle.

Well the lady at the thrift store was thankful for my donations and I made it known to her that I was just as thankful that she was taking then off my hands. That will not be the last she sees of me.

ITEM 198 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Here are some books that took a ride with me to the thrift store yesterday

I think I mentioned some time back that one of the areas of doom when it comes to decluttering my house is my daughters bedroom. It is mostly awkward because for now she is living elsewhere while going to university so that adds a degree of difficulty I didn’t really want to deal with. It is not for me to decide what she wants to keep and I cannot be bothered sending long convoluted emails or wasting precious phone minutes to have her decide long distance.

Luckily for me she came to visit the week before last and I warned her ahead of time that she was going to have to help me do some decluttering in her bedroom while she was here. She actually took it all with good grace and complied willingly if not too enthusiastically. That is she just did it and didn’t complain. We didn’t get through everything but I was happy with the progress we made and the rest can wait until her next visit.

She had fun reminiscing over some of the items we found but willingly let them go. Others she kept and we put back where we found them for now. I must admit I just dumped all the stuff out in the garage and had not been out there to sort through the piles until yesterday. All the extra hours I have been doing at work have left me a little short on time since she left.  Some of the items went into the recycling bin and the rest will be donated to charity.

ITEM 191 OF 365 LESS THINGS

A pile of old papers and Rolling Stone magazines that she would not part with previously have finally found their way to the recycling bin. Hooray this was the stuff I really wanted to see go.

Imagine my surprise today when I went to put some clean laundry away in my son’s room and discovered he had decluttered one of his drawers. There was a big wad of shoe laces and other items in his trash can. I retrieved it of course and sorted it into donate and throw away piles but WOW!

If that isn’t amazing enough you will be surprised to know he had done this once before. I had just mentioned it today in a reply to a comment Loretta left on my Half way there post. At the end of high school last year he decluttered all the old school papers he no longer needed. There was no prompting from me he just did it. I think the inspiration was just to expel any evidence of a period of his life he would rather forget but that is another story.

I must remember to make a fuss about it and try to encourage him to start on another area of his room. I am sure there must be a number of clothing items hanging in the wardrobe that he no longer wears.

ITEM 185 OF 365 LESS THINGS

These are the items  my son decluttered that are going in the donation box (actually it is more of a donation pile at the moment I haven’t been to drop items off for a while). If you are wondering why so many shoe laces, he is a skateboarder and they go through a lot of shoes and the manufacturer usually supply more there one pair of laces with each pair.

The item that is being donated today is a sentimental item that is kind of sad to see go.  As you know our mission at the moment is to declutter any items in our home that are not being used and are unlikely to be used in the future. The fact that this item has been unused and hidden away in my camphor wood chest for several years deems it clutter.

It is the last hand crocheted item left in our home that was made by my husbands grandma. Our linen closet used to overflow with all the crocheted hand towels and face clothes that she made for us throughout our  married life. She has been gone for several years now and we have  plenty of fond memories of her. She was a lovely lady who had it pretty tough for much of her life and we will never forget her.

You may wonder why we would give away this last physical reminder of someone so loved. My answer to that is because it is only that a physical reminder. Whenever I see any hand crocheted item I always think of her so there are constant reminders everywhere. We will always remember her and she will always be near in our hearts. We do not need to keep items that may be more useful to someone else in order to remind us of the good time we had together.

ITEM 180 OF 365 LESS THINGS

Today’s word is…

C O N S I D E R A T E

Show respect for yourself, your fellow human beings and the environment…

Be CONSIDERATE when shopping

• Constantly buying items you do not need puts a strain on the world’s resources.

Be CONSIDERATE to the environment

• To process resources to produce the items we buy puts a strain on the environment. Also the more we own the more space we need to store these items the bigger the footprint we leave on this planet.

Be CONSIDERATE to family

• In order to purchase un-necessary items requires money that has to be earned. The more you buy the harder you have to work to provide the money for those excesses. That time working is time not spent with your family.

Be CONSIDERATE to those left behind

• Nobody lives for ever and there is always someone who has to take care of  the things left behind when we leave this world. This passing is sad enough on our loved ones without the added stress of sorting through excess possessions.

Be CONSIDERATE to those less fortunate than you

• Donate your excess items to a charity so they can help others who are less fortunate than you. Better still instead of buying un-necessary items make a cash donation to a charity it will help others and you will feel good about yourself as well.

I know I have been guilty in the past of not being considerate of all of these things but I vow to be better than this now and in the future.

ITEM 178 OF 365 LESS THINGS

My husband used this sheep skin on his motorbike seat but that was years ago